“_Here lies Sam Johnson. Reader, have a care;
Tread lightly, lest you wake a sleeping bear.
Religious, moral, generous, and humane
He was; but self-sufficient, proud and vain;
Fond of, and overbearing in, dispute;
A Christian and a scholar--but a brute!_”
What would Miss Jenkins and Miss Pinkerton have said?
[Sidenote: GREAT STANHOPE STREET.]
At least two Prime Ministers have lived in Great Stanhope Street--Lord
Palmerston, from 1814 to 1843, before he went to Piccadilly; and Sir
Robert Peel, for five years from 1820; while Lord Brougham is given as
residing at No. 4, in 1834, in occupancy of which house he had been
preceded, respectively, by Lords Mansfield and Exeter.
To these may be added the names of two military veterans. Lord Raglan,
in 1853, and Viscount Hardinge, who died at No. 15, three years later;
as well as Colonel Barré, who lived at No. 12, where he died, in 1802.
Before proceeding into Curzon Street, let us return by way of South
Audley Street, and turn into Waverton Street, which forms the west side
of a species of gridiron of thoroughfares, of which Farm Street is the
north side and Charles Street the south.
[Sidenote: FARM STREET.]
Farm Street is one of the thoroughfares that took their names from
their association with those agricultural pursuits which we have
nowadays such difficulty in associating with this fashionable
neighbourhood. This “common pasturage” and the “milk maids” formerly
connected with it, have been recently brought vividly to mind by the
action of the “milk ladies” of St. James’s Park, the lineal descendants
of those of Mayfair, who successfully resisted an attempt to deprive
them of their rights.
A Jesuit Church stands in Farm Street, that of the Immaculate
Conception, which, it is interesting to remember, was the first regular
church possessed by the Jesuits in London after their expulsion from
Somerset House and St. James’s under Charles I.
[Sidenote: JOHN STREET.]
John Street, laid out about 1730, running at right angles, connects
Farm Street with Hill Street, and also possesses a church; in this
case the well-known Berkeley Chapel, built about 1750, of which
Sydney Smith and, later, Cary, the translator of Dante, were former
incumbents. The chapel has been twice redecorated, in 1874 and 1895;
and, apart from its associations, is worth a visit, if only to see the
memorial window placed there to the memory of the late Duke of Clarence.
[Sidenote: HILL STREET.]
Hill Street, formed about 1742, probably takes its name from some
inequality of the ground, more pronounced when all this part was fields
than now when building development has been responsible for a generally
levelling process.
Mrs. Montagu lived in Hill Street, while she was building for herself
the fine mansion in Portman Square, where she covered the walls with
birds’ feathers and “wanton Cupids,” and once a year entertained the
chimney-sweeps of the district.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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