Chapter 10 No.10

Item, paid towards the repaire of Brentford Bridge, and of Knights-bridge, and for charge of the sute to defend ourselves from the same, and other expences touching the same, as by the particulars appeareth

￡24

7s.

10d.

The Westbourn.-The Westbourn, for such was the ancient name of the rivulet which ran through Knightsbridge, was one of the numerous streams which flowed from the range of Hampstead and Highgate to the Thames. Its name is derived from its being most westerly of those streams in or by the metropolis. Rising at West End, Hampstead, and running towards Bayswater, it passed through it, behind St. James's Church; here it crossed the Uxbridge-road, and entering Kensington-gardens, passed through them and Hyde-park, where its silver thread ran along the centre of the Serpentine, into which it entered, and by the addition of several ponds, it was widened in 1731. Leaving the park, it crossed the Great Western-road at Albert-gate, thence it passed in an oblique line behind the east side of William-street and Lowndes-square, behind Lowndes-street and Chesham-street, and bending to the right, passed under Grosvenor-bridge, where it divided and emptied itself into old Father Thames by two mouths. The eastern course was stopped up when the Grosvenor Canal was formed, but the mouth may still be distinctly traced at the back of Westmoreland-street. The western mouth is the entrance to the Ranelagh sewer, to which the stream has for many years degenerated. By an under current, formed in 1834, its course was diverted at Bayswater, to prevent drainage passing into the Serpentine; and when the Five Fields were intended to be built on, a new sewer, for which Smeaton had previously made surveys, was constructed. The whole of its course is now covered in, although part of it was open so late as 1854.

The Westbourn was occasionally a source of annoyance to the inhabitants of Knightsbridge. After heavy rains it overflowed; on September 1st, 1768, it did so, and caused great damage, almost undermining some of the neighbouring houses; and in January, 1809, it overflowed again, and covered the neighbouring fields so deeply, that they bore the appearance of a lake, and passengers were for several days rowed from Chelsea to Westminster by Thames boatmen.

The Olden Time.-It would appear from the warning of the chronicler, "not to walk too late without good guard," that our locality bore formerly rather a bad name. And I fear I must admit that it did so, though, perhaps, not more dangerous than any other of the chief highways to the metropolis. The Great Western Road ran through the hamlet, which bore a good proportion of inns, the proprietors of which would appear to have rather connived at the iniquities practised, and thus rendered the action of the law more difficult.

In 1380, Richard II., by his letters patent, dated March 2nd, granted to John Croucher, of Knightsbridge, towards the repairing of the king's highway from London to Brentford, customs of the several vendible commodities therein mentioned (those of ecclesiastical men, and their proper goods bought for their use, excepted), to be taken at Knightsbridge and elsewhere, as he shall think expedient, for three years next ensuing. In 1382 this was renewed, and in 1386 was granted to John Croucher and Lawrence Newport. [24] But, notwithstanding this early care of the road, it does not appear to have been always followed up, for Wyatt's men entered London, in 1554, by this road; its state materially aided in their discomfiture, and so great was the delay occasioned that the Queen's party were able to make every preparation; and when ultimately they reached London their jaded appearance gained them the name of "draggletails." It would appear from the extracts quoted from the St. Margaret's accounts that the law was applied to the parish for its neglect in this respect, and in 1724 a petition was presented to the House of Commons, praying for an Act to remedy the evil. Twelve years later, when the Court had resided at Kensington for nearly fifty years, we find Lord Hervey writing to his mother that, "the road between this place (Kensington) and London is grown so infamously bad, that we live here in the same solitude as we should do if cast on a rock in the middle of the ocean, and all the Londoners tell us there is between them and us a great impassable gulf of mud. There are two roads through the park, but the new one is so convex, and the old one so concave, that by this extreme of faults they agree in the common one of being, like the high road, impassable." [25]

Mud and dust did not, however, form the greatest unpleasantnesses of the road. In the Kensington register of burials there is an entry telling of its terrible condition:-

25th November, 1687. Thomas Ridge, of Portsmouth, who was killed by thieves, almost at Knightsbridge.

And Lady Cowper, in her diary quoted by Lord Campbell, [26] writes, in October, 1715, "I was at Kensington, where I intended to stay as long as the camp was in Hyde-park, the roads being so secure by it, that we might come from London at any time of the night without danger, which I did very often."

It is difficult to understand the cool audacity of some of the attacks on this road. The Gentleman's Magazine, April, 1740, records that "the Bristol mail from London was robbed a little beyond Knightsbridge by a man on foot, who took the Bath and Bristol bags, and, mounting the post-boy's horse, rode off toward London." On the 1st of July, 1774, William Hawke was executed for a highway robbery here, and two men were executed on the 30th of the ensuing November for a similar offence. [27a] Even so late as 1799, it was necessary to order a party of light horse to patrol every night from Hyde Park Corner to Kensington; [27b] and it is within the memory of many when pedestrians walked to and from Kensington in bands sufficient to ensure mutual protection, starting at known intervals, of which a bell gave due warning.

Respecting the innkeepers, the well-known Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in his Memoirs, tells the following curious story:-"I was informed that the Earl of Rochester, the wit, had said something of me which, according to his custom, was very malicious; I therefore sent Colonel Aston, a very mettled friend of mine, to call him to account for it. He denied the words, and, indeed, I was soon convinced he had never said them; but the mere report, though I found it to be false, obliged me (as I then foolishly thought) to go on with the quarrel; and the next day was appointed for us to fight on horseback, a way in England a little unusual, but it was his part to choose. Accordingly I and my second lay the night before at Knightsbridge privately, to avoid the being secured at London upon any suspicion; which yet we found ourselves more in danger of there, because we had all the appearance of highwaymen, that had a mind to be skulking in an old inn for one night; but this, I suppose, the people of the house were used to, and so took no notice of us, but liked us the better." And in the "Rehearsal," written in ridicule of Dryden, we also have an allusion to the innkeepers' habits and characters:-"Smith: But pray, Mr. Bayes, is not this a little difficult, that you were saying e'en now, to keep an army thus conceal'd in Knights-Bridge?-Bayes: In Knights-Bridge? Stay.-Johnson: No, not if the inn-keepers be his friends."

Until the age of railways set in, these inns did a brisk trade with the numerous travellers from the western parts. One of the occurrences of the day was to watch the mails set off for their destinations; there were above twenty at one time, besides stage-coaches. Now there is but one of the latter kind, which still, every other day, goes to Brighton. Moore mentions in his Diary waiting at Knightsbridge for his Bessie, coming to town by the Bath coach. All now is altered-highwaymen, patrols, and mails are all gone-and the road is the best entrance into the capital. An Act, passed June 19th, 1829, placed the Great Western Road, from Knightsbridge to Brentford Bridge, under the charge of the Commissioners of Metropolitan Roads.

It was a long time before our hamlet became part and parcel of the metropolis. A letter in my possession, written by an intelligent mechanic, fresh from Gloucester, and dated August, 1783, describes it as "quite out of London, for which," says he, "I like it the better." And so it was; the stream then ran open, the streets were unpaved and unlighted, and a maypole was still on the village green. It is not ten years since the hawthorn hedge has entirely disappeared at the Gore, and the blackbird and starling might still be heard. We have seen the references to game in Elizabeth's time, but few persons imagine, perhaps, that within the recollection of some who have not passed long from us, snipe and woodcocks might occasionally be lowered; now, however, we are limited to our saucy friend the sparrow, for even the very swallows have quitted us.

Forty years since, there was neither draper's nor butcher's shop between Hyde Park Corner and Sloane Street, and only one in the whole locality where a newspaper could be had, or writing paper purchased. There was no conveyance to London but by a kind of stagecoach; the roads were dimly lighted by oil, [30] and the modern paving only to be seen along Knightsbridge Terrace.

Till about 1835, a watch-house and pound remained at the east end of Middle Row; and the stocks were to be seen at the end of Park-side, almost opposite the Conduit, as late as 1805. A magistrate sat once a week at the Fox and Bull, and a market was held every Thursday.

The water supply was anciently by means of springs and wells, which were very pure, numerous, and valuable. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Park-side was leased from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster by the Birkheads, and the few houses then there were supplied by a conduit they were permitted by the Crown to use, within Hyde Park. There was a row of conduits in the fields each side of Rotten Row, whose waters were received by the one at the end of Park-side, known as St. James's, or the Receiving Conduit; and which supplied the royal residences and the Abbey with water. [31] There were several excellent springs also in the hamlet, one of which appears to have been public property, from a story told by Malcolm, to the effect that in 1727, there being an excessive drought, the supply of water was rendered very precarious, and disputes arose between the inhabitants of Knightsbridge as to whom it belonged. The women appear to have taken an unusual share in this quarrel, which was so fiercely carried on, that requisition was had to a magistrate to hinder the tongue giving way to the hands and nails. The magistrate decided that the water belonged to the St. Margaret's part of the hamlet.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS.

-"Thus I entertain

The antiquarian humour, and am pleased

To skim along the surfaces of things,

Beguiling harmlessly the listless hours."

Wordsworth.

So small a place as our hamlet formerly was, it could not have many historical associations of which to boast, and this chapter must, therefore, be brief. Too small and unimportant to be the scene of great contests, or of political intrigues, few notices of it in connection with history occur, but those few are far from being uninteresting.

In the year 1361, a dreadful plague broke out in France, and fears were entertained that it might ravage London. To prevent this, great precautions were taken, and the King promptly issued an order, in which, reciting the evils which were occasioned by the offal and refuse being thrown by the city butchers into the Thames, he ordered, on February 25, with the consent of Parliament then assembled, that to provide "for the honesty of the said city, and the safety of the people," all "bulls, oxen, hogs, and other gross creatures," to be slain for the citizens, should be led either to Stratford on the one side, or Knightsbridge on the other, and be there slain and dressed ready for sale. And any butcher offending by killing within these places should be imprisoned one year: a piece of legislative wisdom our own times should imitate.

When the Kentish insurrection under Wyatt broke out against the marriage of Mary and Philip of Spain, Wyatt having vainly endeavoured to enter London by the bridge, was compelled to march to Kingston, in order to cross the Thames; arriving at Knightsbridge, he there rested his men "untyll daye," they "being very weary with travel of that night and the daye before." In London, the quaint old chronicler tells us, "there was no small adowe," and by nine o'clock on the morning of February 7, 1556, Wyatt set his men in motion, and "planting his ordenance upon the hill, almost over agaynst the park corner," left it there under a guard, and marched towards Charing Cross. The Earl of Pembroke, who commanded Mary's troops, hovered about "untyll all was passed by, saving the tayle," which he cut off from the main body. This misfortune ruined Wyatt, who soon after was captured, and ultimately executed; his head being set up on Hay Hill, not far from the spot where he had left his cannon.

During the contest between Charles I. and his people, many skirmishes are traditionally said to have occurred here. Although in the numerous works of all kinds I have referred to, no mention could be found of such; yet that they did take place, many remains of that period, since brought to light, testify. Mr. Faulkner records the discovery of a helmet, breastplate, and some swords, on the site of Lowndes Square. In 1840, many human remains, coins of Charles' time, some curious horse-shoes, and trappings, were dug up when the Albert Gate improvements were made. In Grosvenor Place, and various spots in the Five Fields, similar remains have also been discovered.

The infamous Lord Howard of Escrick, on whose perjured evidence Algernon Sidney was beheaded, had a house at Knightsbridge, and it was the resort of all the desperate and unprincipled adventurers [35] who are sure to be found attached to the ranks even of the noble and high-minded in such contests as were then going on between Charles II. and the Whigs. He wrought himself into their consultations, and pretended entire devotion to their cause; but it was only to ruin their plans and consign the leaders to the scaffold.

Roger North, in his "Examen," states that when the Rye House Plot became known, the King commanded Howard's apprehension, and accordingly the Serjeant-at-Arms proceeded to Knightsbridge, beset his house, and going in to search for him, "though he found the bed warm where he lay," yet could not find him, till at last they discovered him hidden behind a chimney, on which "he came out in his shirt and yielded himself." He saved himself, as is well known, by despicably witnessing against others: the ballads and satires of the day contain many allusions to him, and his promised deeds, of which the following may serve as a specimen:-

"Was it not a damn'd thing,

That Russell and Hampden,

Should serve all the projects of hot-headed Tory?

But much more untoward

To appoint my Lord Howard

Of his own purse and credit, to raise men and money,

Who at Knightsbridge did hide

Those brisk boys unspy'd,

That at Shaftsbury's whistle were ready to follow,

But when aid he should bring,

Like a true Brentford king,

He was here with a whoop, and there with a hollo."

Lord Howard died in 1683, and was succeeded by his son Charles, at whose death, in 1715, the sullied title became extinct.

Our hamlet has one more association with Stuart plots; but this time the Stuarts' partisans were the plotters. In 1694 Sir William Barclay and Sir William Perkins, two staunch Jacobites, formed a plot for the assassination of William III.; the plan being to waylay the King on his return to Kensington from some hunting excursion, and shoot him. The plan required a number of conspirators to render it successful, and herein lay the monarch's safety. Captain Porter, one of the first to join, gave notice to the ministers, and several engaged in the crime were apprehended. Porter, on the trial, stated that he had been with two others to survey the ground, lying at the Swan at Knightsbridge one night, and there talking over their plans. Finally, it was agreed to commit the foul deed in a lane near to Turnham Green. Perkins and others were found guilty on most clear evidence, and suffered death at Tyburn accordingly.

The Knightsbridge Volunteers.-Notwithstanding the declaration of our brave tars on the threatened invasion of our shores, by Napoleon in 1803, that he should not come by water, great excitement prevailed, and volunteers were enrolled from one end of the country to the other, and a deadlier contest never cursed the earth than such would have been, had the Emperor dared to put his project into execution. Among those earnest men who at this crisis rendered genuine service to the country by their energies in this particular, was Major Robert Eyre, an officer who had seen much and real service in the American War of Independence, and elsewhere, but who had now settled down at Knightsbridge, where for years he resided, one of the most respected of its inhabitants. He offered to raise a corps in the hamlet, although it had already furnished a number of men to the regiments of the surrounding locality. His offer was accepted in the following terms:-

London, August 14th, 1803.

Sir,-Lord Hobart has acquainted me, that the King has derived great satisfaction from the zeal and public spirit which have been manifested by the offer lately communicated to me by you, which his Majesty has most graciously been pleased to approve and accept. You will be pleased to name your officers.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

Scott Titchfield.

To Major Robert Eyre.

The regiment was raised at the Major's expense, numbering 146 men, and he brought them to a high state of efficiency. Major Eyre presented them with a pair of colours, one of which, a blue flag, has on it a painted rebus device, of a knight in armour riding over a bridge, emblematical of the name of the hamlet. [39]

On the 26th and 28th October, 1803, King George III. in great state and formality reviewed the volunteers of the metropolis in Hyde Park. The Knightsbridge regiment appeared on the latter day, and the vast body acquitted themselves with great satisfaction to the authorities. In the United Service Institution Library is preserved a paper confidentially communicated to the commander of every regiment, describing the position each corps was to take up in case alarm should occur, and from it I find that the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Royal Volunteer Infantry, Col. Hobart, were to patrol along Grosvenor Place and Pimlico, to the Palace, and along Piccadilly, to communicate with the 2nd Battalion of the same regiment, and the St. Margaret's and St. George's Regiments. This 2nd Battalion were to patrol Sloane Street, leaving one company in Chelsea Waterworks, and to communicate with the Knightsbridge corps, who were to remain in reserve at the north end of Sloane Street.

Riots at Knightsbridge.-In those good old electioneering times, "the days when George III. was king," our hamlet was many a time the scene of riot. Such scenes, of course, will not be here detailed; but two of them were too serious to be passed over entirely, viz., on March 28th, 1768, and October 4th, 1803. On the former occasion, Wilkes and Cooke were elected for Middlesex; it was customary for a London mob to meet the Brentford one in and about Knightsbridge; and as Wilkes' opponent was riding through with a body of his supporters, one of them hoisted a flag, on which was inscribed, "No Blasphemer," and terrible violence instantly ensued. At the latter election, Burdett was the popular candidate, and the excitement, which had been very great throughout, culminated with the junction of the mobs at Knightsbridge, causing much confusion and damage.

The last riot in Knightsbridge was on the occasion of the funeral of Honey and Francis (who were shot in the rioting on the occasion of the funeral of Caroline of Brunswick) on August 26th, 1821. It occasioned a correspondence between the Sheriff and the Government; and being fully described therein, I insert it here.

Mr. Sheriff Waithman to Earl Bathurst.

My Lord,-I consider it my duty to apprise his Majesty's Government, through your Lordship, of a violent outrage on the public peace, committed by some individuals of the Life Guards, at Knightsbridge, yesterday, and of an attempt at assassination upon me personally, while in the execution of my duty as Sheriff of Middlesex, as the head of the civil power of the county.

Your Lordship thought proper to direct the Lord Mayor on Saturday to take the necessary measures to preserve the peace of the city, during the intended funeral of Honey and Francis; and, although no such caution was addressed to the Sheriff, as conservator of the public peace of the county, I felt it my duty to direct the deputy-sheriffs of the city and county to order out the constables of the divisions nearest to, and through which the funeral was expected to pass; and also to attend in person, with proper officers, to prevent or quell any tumult or disorder.

Conceiving that under the existing irritation of the people, and the circumstances for which they had assembled, some insult might be offered to the Life Guards in their barracks, I disposed of the constables chiefly in that vicinity, and actually ranged a body of them in front of the barracks, with instructions to apprehend every person who should attempt to commit any outrage or disorder.

The funeral, in consequence of these precautions, passed the barracks in an orderly and quiet manner, marked by no other peculiar circumstance than that of a brick being thrown from the barracks, which fell near my horse, and wounded, as I am informed, a young girl. My admonitions, and the presence of the constables, succeeded, however, in repressing the irritation this wanton act was calculated to excite.

When the procession had passed, and while the road continued to be crowded with people, the gates of the barracks were thrown open, and the avenue filled with soldiers. The people, as might have been foreseen, gathered round the spot, and expressed their displeasure.

A tumult seemed inevitable. I requested to speak to the officer on duty, but without effect; and, at length, by repeated expostulations with the soldiers, I succeeded in prevailing on them to retire and close the gates.

Some time after, upon returning to the same spot, I saw a number of soldiers running from the wicker gate, and pursuing the people on the causeway. Finding an affray actually commenced, I sprung my horse upon the causeway, interposed between the parties, and succeeded in separating them. While thus engaged, a soldier, with whom I had before been expostulating, and who was, therefore, acquainted with my official situation, started forward at a man, and knocked him down. At the same time, while using my utmost endeavours to prevail on the soldiers to retire into the barracks, and the people to desist and keep the peace, the bridle of my horse was violently seized, on the one side by a young officer in undress, and on the other by the soldier whose violence I had just noticed, and who, together, endeavoured to throw my horse over the causeway; and I only succeeded in extricating myself by striking the soldier with my stick, and making my horse plunge. Immediately several of the soldiers rushed at me with their swords drawn, and one actually loaded his carbine, and directed it towards me, but was, I am informed, knocked down by one of the constables. Further mischief was prevented by the interposition of some military officers of higher authority, and the soldiers at length retired into their barracks.

My Lord, these circumstances require no comment. At a critical juncture the soldiers were left to their own exasperated feeling, and manifested a lawless spirit. The civil power under my direction was fully adequate for the preservation of the peace among the people, but not to encounter an armed soldiery. I had no communication from his Majesty's Government, nor could I obtain an interview with any of the officers of the regiment. . . . I feel assured that had I not interposed with the civil power and even risked my own life, a frightful slaughter must have ensued. Of subordination to civil authority the soldiers appeared to be wholly unconscious, and that authority, in my person, was repeatedly insulted, and grossly outraged.

It would, my Lord, be as needless as presumptuous in me to attempt to instruct your Lordship and his Majesty's Government in the nature of the constitutional authority under which I attended yesterday, or the right I possessed in my official character to have claimed the aid and assistance of these very military to suppress tumult, who have, upon this occasion, in open defiance of the civil authority, been the promoters of it; nor need I add one word in aggravation of the enormity of the offences committed: the offenders can some of them be identified, and I trust your Lordship will cause immediate and effectual means to be adopted to bring them to justice, as a salutary example to others.

I have the honour to be, my Lord, &c.,

R. Waithman.

Bridge Street, August, 27th, 1821.

To this letter Earl Bathurst replied as follows:-

Whitehall, August 28th, 1821.

Sir,-I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th inst., relative to a riot which took place at Knightsbridge on Sunday last. I had, before the receipt of your letter, given directions for an inquiry to be made into the circumstances of this transaction, in consequence of representations made to me, which, I am bound to say, differ in many essential particulars from the statement I have received from you.

I cannot refrain from expressing my regret and surprise, that when the civil power under your direction was fully adequate (as you state) for the preservation of the peace among the people, a mob should have been permitted to remain in a continued state of riot, after the soldiers had been withdrawn within their barracks, until the Riot Act was read by Mr. Conant, and the rioters dispersed by the peace officers under his immediate orders; and I do not understand that in the execution of this duty he received any assistance from you.

I am, Sir, &c.

Bathurst.

Mr. Sheriff Waithman.

CHAPTER III.

MODERN PAROCHIAL DIVISIONS: THE STREETS, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ETC. THEIR ASSOCIATIONS, EMINENT INHABITANTS, ETC.

"I pray you let us satisfy our eyes

With the memorials, and the things of fame

That do renown this city."

Shakspeare.

The parish church of St. Margaret, Westminster, is the mother church of this locality. Although the Decree of 1222, before referred to, limited the western boundary of that parish to the Tyburn stream, it declared that beyond that stream lay the town of Knightsbridge, which belonged to it. In what parish the manor of Eia was situated is not stated, but it is most likely that the higher portion of it was a forest, and the lower, it is certain, was partly a marsh, and consequently altogether unnoticed by the assessors; for the growth of parishes was very gradual, and their proper boundaries for ages undefined. St. Martin's-in-the-Fields is mentioned as early as 1225, but did not become a regular parish till after 1337, and not independent of St. Margaret's till 1535. In St. Martin's the whole of the manor of Eia was then included; it consequently reached as far as the Westbourne, and included a part of Knightsbridge; this arrangement continued till the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, in 1724, was formed out of St. Martin's, and then this distant part was included, absurdly enough, within the new parish.

On the west of the rivulet, which here divides St. George's parish from St. Margaret's and Chelsea, the hamlet stands partly in those and partly in Kensington parish. St. Margaret's stretches from William Street, behind Lowndes Terrace, across the top of Sloane Street, behind Brompton Road, continuing the line behind Arthur Street to the bottom of Ennismore Mews, where, abutting on the north wall of Brompton Churchyard, it strikes off in a north-west direction and crosses the Kensington Road just below Hyde Park Terrace, whence it runs along the road into the town, and, including a few houses on the north side of High Street, it enters the Royal Gardens, including a considerable portion thereof, and the whole of the palace, within its boundary; it joins Paddington at a point on the Uxbridge Road, and thence returns through the Serpentine to Knightsbridge.

The parish officers of St. Margaret alone beat the bounds now, and they appear always to have been strict in this duty, which, from some entries in their books, one would consider to have been a little festive occasionally:-