CHAPTER IV.

THE HOUSES AND THEIR RESIDENTS.

Highgate an attractive place of residence-Perambulation of the parish-Notes of some of the houses and their residents-Winchester Hall-Lauderdale House-Sir John Pennethorne-Andrew Marvell Fairseat House-Cromwell House-Arundel House-Betchworth House-Channing House-Sir John Wollaston-Sir Thomas Abney-Dr. Watts-Charles Knight-Bisham House-Sir John Hawkins-General Harcourt-Dr. Coysch-Sir E. Gould-The Old HallThe Mansion House-Dr. Sacheverell-Leigh Hunt-Holly Terrace-Holly Lodge-The Hermitage-Fern Lodge-Charles Mathews-West Hill-West Hill Place-Joseph PayneMerton Lodge-Highgate Lodge-West Hill Lodge-H. T. Buckle-N. T. Wetherell-Professor Tomlinson-T. T. Tatham-Dr. Moxon-Dr. Henry Kingsley-Marshal Wade-HillsideSouthwood Lawn-Oak Lodge-The Priory (Highgate)-Park House-The Bull Inn and George Morland-Green the Aeronaut-Thomas Challis-Joseph Clarke-Grimestone (eye snuff)McDowall-Toulmin Smith-Brettles Hill-Alderman Rowe-Bath House-The Grove-Grove Lodge-Mr. Clay-Rookfield-Lalla Rookh-The Priory (Hornsey) Mr. CollingridgeHaringey House-Ferne Park Manor House-Crouch Hall-Crouch Hill-Stroud GreenStapleton Hall-Hornsey Wood House-Finsbury Park-Hornsey Lane-Charles WesleyMichael Faraday-Farquhar House-Dr. Grainger-Linden House.

LD NORDEN," speaking of Middlesex, says :-" This shire is plentifully stored, and as it seemeth beautified, with manne faire and comely buildings, especially of merchants of London, who have planted their houses of recreation, not in the meanest places, which also they have cunningly contrived and curiously beautified with divers devices, neatly decked with rare invencions, invironed with orchards of sundrie delicate fruites, gardens with delectable walks, arbers, allees, and great variety of pleasing danties."

Norden further alludes to Highgate as being "most pleasant dwelling," and its position crowning with its woody uplands the long and gentle rising ground from the Thames, must have marked it at a very early date as one of the most beautiful and commanding residential sites within a reasonable distance of the City.

From the long list of its aristocratic and influential residents it is clear that its attractions were fully recognised, and there are doubtless very many names of families once resident in it, of equal importance to those the records of whose residence have by some fortuitous circumstance been preserved. Amongst its old residents were members of

the historic families of Arundel, Cholmeley, Dorchester, Lauderdale, St. Albans, Argyle, Bute, Hobart, Mansfield, Southampton, Russell, Cornwallis, Huntingdon, etc., etc., besides many persons of literary and social distinction, such as Sir Edmund Gould, Sir Alan Chambré, Sir William Ashurst, Sir John Hawkins, Sir John Wollaston, General Ireton, Andrew Marvell, Sir Richard Baker, Sir Thomas Abney, Sir James Harrington, Sir Francis Pemberton, Sir William Bond, Nicholas Rowe, Mrs. Barbauld, Sir Robert Chester, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dr. Sacheverell, Leigh Hunt, and many others.

In alluding to these and other names of interest, it will be desirable to deal with them in connection with the old houses, but references to names that cannot be identified with any distinct residence will be found. in a few biographical notes in another chapter. It will further be convenient to extend these remarks to houses and their residents beyond the limits of Highgate proper, taking the wider area of the parish of Hornsey.

In the perambulation of the parish, we propose commencing at the corner of Hornsey Lane, proceeding northwards through Highgate, and, by way of Muswell Hill, through Hornsey and Crouch End, returning to the point from which we start, making brief remarks on such of the houses as have known associations of any interest.

WINCHESTER HALL, formerly De la Pole House. This fine old redbrick mansion, dating from about the time of George I., stood on the northern side of the entrance to Hornsey Lane; it had an imposing elevation, and being surrounded by some very fine old elm trees, it gave considerable character to the entrance of the village of Highgate proper. It stood in well-cultivated grounds of some fifteen acres, covering the slopes to the western side of the Archway Road. garden was a well-known grotto formed of shells and minerals.

In the

Sir William Poland resided here; afterwards John Hurst, the wellknown publisher, who ended his days a pensioner in the Charterhouse. Amongst other occupiers was Mr. Redmayne, the first treasurer of the Literary Institution (1837); its last tenant was Colonel Jeakes, J.P., brother of the present rector of Hornsey, a popular and public-spirited man, whose sudden death was much lamented by his neighbours. At his decease the property was sold by auction to the Imperial Property Investment Co. in July 1881, and the whole site is now covered by the houses of the Cromwell Avenue estate.

LAUDERDALE HOUSE, opposite Cromwell House, is supposed to have been built about 1600, and was for a time the residence of the Duke of Lauderdale. It has no pretensions to architectural style, probably having undergone very considerable alterations during the occupation of its numerous successive residents,

The most interesting aspect of the house is the one overlooking the quaint old garden, the frontage to the main road being very insignificant. The Duke of Lauderdale who is best known in connection with the old house was John the second Earl and first Duke, and Earl of Guilford in England, sole Secretary of State for Scotland A.D. 1661, an active and detested minister of Charles II. He seems to have been a Covenanter in the reign of Charles I., and figures as one of the negotiators for the sale of his king. He ratted under Charles II., and with the notorious. Archbishop Sharp became the diabolical persecutor of his old coadjutors, and as Lord Deputy of Scotland, "nothing," it is said, "could surpass his cruelty but his rapacity." Macaulay thus draws him :

Lauderdale, the tyrant Deputy of Scotland at this period, loud and coarse both in mirth and anger, was perhaps, under the outward show of boisterous frankness, the most dishonest man in the whole cabal! He was accused of being deeply concerned in the sale of Charles. I. to the English Parliament, and was therefore, in the estimation of good Cavaliers, a traitor of a worse description than those who sat in the High Court of Justice. He often talked with noisy jocularity of the days

when he was a canter and a rebel. He was now the chief instrument employed by the Court in the work of forcing episcopacy on his reluctant countrymen; nor did he in that cause shrink from the unsparing use of the sword, the halter, and the boot. Yet those who knew him, knew that thirty years had made no change in his real sentiment; that he still hated the memory of Charles I., and that he still preferred the Presbyterian form of government to any other."

If to this picture we add Carlyle's touch "of his big red head," we have a sufficient portrait of this red-handed scoundrel, whose doings with his renegade comrade, Archbishop Sharp, are so vividly set forth, with all their fearful accompaniments of the rack, thumbscrews, fire and slaughter, by Scott in Old Mortality and the Tales of a Grandfather. Whilst Lauderdale was in Scotland on this devil's business, it is surmised that his house at Highgate was borrowed by his royal master and "most Christian. king" for one of his troop of mistresses. It is but tradition that associates Nell Gwynne with Lauderdale House, but it is a very general and persistent one, and a good bit of evidence is the reference made by Andrew Marvell, whose house was next door, and here as they walked in the garden he describes the king as

and Nelly as

"Of a tall stature and of sable hue,

Much like the son of Kish that lofty grew;"

"That wench of orange and of oyster."

This was an allusion to her early employment as vendor of oysters in

the streets and oranges at the theatres. It was like the grim humour of the king, to flourish Nell off under the very eyes of the indignant patriot, and the fact that Marvell resided in the next house might have been the special inducement which influenced the king to borrow the Duke's

residence.

Mistress Gwynne seems to have been of a kindly disposition, and although often insulted, she not only freely forgave, but induced the king to show a magnanimity, in some cases, which was certainly foreign to his nature. Howitt quotes the following incident, and remarks that "had it happened to any one of the other royal mistresses, the result would have been very different."

"On a visit to Winchester, Charles wished one of the clergy, Rev. Thomas Ken, to allow Nell to lodge at his house, but Ken positively refused, however much it might offend the king. His friends considered all preferment at an end; but some time after, on the death of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Charles asked, 'What was the name of that little man at Winchester who would not let Nell lodge at his house?' and on being told, to the astonishment of the whole Court conferred on him the bishopric."

A tradition which connects her residence at Lauderdale House is the title bestowed on her eldest son. The king delayed to give him the expected title; his mother, seeing the king in the garden, brought the infant to the upper window, and cried out, "Unless you do something for him, here he goes!" On which the king replied, "Save the Earl of Burford!" Whether the tale is true or not, the boy was created Earl of Burford, and ultimately Duke of St. Albans. It is a curious coincidence that Highgate should in after times be associated with the fortunes of the wife of one of the duke's descendants, viz., the Duchess of St. Albans-formerly Miss Mellon, the stepgrandmother of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, she having become the second wife of Thomas Coutts, of Holly Lodge, grandfather of the Baroness, at whose death she married the Duke of St. Albans.

"We are much indebted to the memory of Barbara Duchess of Cleveland, Louisa Duchess of Portsmouth, and Mrs. Eleanor Gwynne. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Mays, Killigrews, the Chiffinches, and the Grammonts. They played a serviceable part in ridding the kingdom of its besotted loyalty. They saved our forefathers from the Star Chamber and the High Commission Court; they laboured in their vocation against standing armies and corruption; they pressed forward the great ultimate security of English freedom, the expulsion of the House of Stuart."1

The king never endowed Nell with the wealth he lavished upon

1 Hallam.