The Strand Magazine, Vol. 01, January 1891: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 01, January 1891: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
The northern side of the Strand is not quite so rich in memories as the
side which faced the river, but its associations with Lord Burleigh,
that calm, sagacious, and untiring statesman, must always make it
memorable. Burleigh House, the site of which is marked by Burleigh and
Exeter-streets, was the house from which he governed England with
conspicuous courage, devotion, and address. There, too, he was visited
by Queen Elizabeth. According to tradition she wore, on that occasion,
the notorious pyramidal head-dress which she made fashionable, and was
besought by an esquire in attendance to stoop as she entered. "For your
master's sake I will stoop, but not for the King of Spain," was the
answer which might have been expected from a daughter of Henry VIII.
Lord Burleigh lived there in considerable state, spending thirty pounds
a week, which in Elizabethan days was enormous. There, broken with work
and anxiety, he died in 1598. When his son was made Earl of Exeter he
called it Exeter House. This historical house was not long in falling
upon evil days. By the beginning of the eighteenth century a part of it
had been demolished, while another part was altered and turned into
shops, the new building being christened "Exeter Change." Nearer to our
own time the "Change" became a kind of arcade, the upper floor being
used as a wild-beast show. When it was "Pidcock's Exhibition of Wild
Beasts" an imitation Beef-eater stood outside, in the Strand, inviting
the cockney and his country cousin to "walk up." The roaring of the
animals is said to have often frightened horses in the Strand. "Exeter
Change" was the home of "Chunee," an elephant as famous in his
generation--it was more than sixty years since--as "Jumbo" in our own.
"Chunee," which weighed five tons, and was eleven feet high, at last
became unmanageable, and was shot by a file of soldiers, who fired 152
bullets into his body before killing him. His skeleton is still in the
Museum of the College of Surgeons, in Lincoln's-inn-fields. It should be
remembered that in Exeter-street Dr. Johnson lodged (at a cost of
4-1/2d. per day) when he began his struggle in London. A little farther
east once stood Wimbledon House, built some three centuries ago by Sir
Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, a cadet of the great house founded by
Lord Burleigh. Stow records that the house was burned down in 1628, the
day after an accidental explosion of gunpowder demolished the owner's
country seat at Wimbledon. Nearly all the land hereabouts still belongs
to the Cecils. Upon a portion of the site of Wimbledon House arose the
once famous "D'Oyley's Warehouse," where a French refugee sold a variety
of silk and woollen fabrics, which were quite new to the English market.
He achieved great success, and a "D'Oyley" is still as much a part of
the language as an "antimacassar"--that abomination of all desolation.
The shop lasted, at 346, Strand, until some thirty years ago. The Lyceum
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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