Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/880

 850 LONDON and other parts of the town were more largely built upon. The inhabitants used coaches and chairs more than boats, and the banks of the river were neglected. London could no longer be seen as a whole, and it grew into a mere collection of houses. In spite of all this the 18th century produced some of the most devoted of Londoners, men who considered a day lived out of London as one lost out of their lives. Of this class Dr Johnson and Hogarth are striking examples. The exhibitions of vice and cruelty that were constantly to be seen in the capital have been reproduced by Hogarth, and had they not been set down by so truthful an observer it would have been almost impossible to believe that such enormities could have been committed in the streets of a great city. A few days after his accession George I. addressed the representatives of the city in these words &quot;I have lately been made sensible of what consequence the city of London is, and therefore shall be sure to take all their privileges and interests into my particular protec tion.&quot; On the following lord mayor s day the king witnessed the show in Cheapside and attended the banquet at Guildhall. Queen Anne and the first three Georges were all accommodated, on the occasions of their visits to the City to see the show, at the same house opposite Bow church. In the time of Queen Anne and George I. David Barclay (the son of the famous apologist for the Quakers) was an apprentice in the house, but he subsequently became master, and had the honour of receiving George II. and George III. as his guests. There was a large balcony extending along the front of the house which was fitted with a canopy and hangings of crimson damask silk. The building, then numbered 108 Cheapside, was pulled down in 1861. In September 1720 the bursting of the South Sea Bubble created the most fearful panic that London has ever seen. Trade was at a standstill, and many of the chief merchants, goldsmiths, and bankers stopped payment, thus causing ruin to numberless families. Early in the 18th century there was a considerable extension of building operations in the West End. About the year 1716 the earl of Burlington commenced building on the Ten Acres Field at the back of the gardens of Burlington House, and shortly after wards the City authorities, who were proprietors of the Conduit Mead (containing 27 acres), followed his example. On June 1, 1717, the Weekly Journal announced that &quot; the new buildings between Bond Street and Mary-le-Bone go on with all possible diligence, and the houses even let and sell before they are built.&quot; The parish of St George s, Hanover Square, was constituted in 1725. In 1715 Cavendish Square and the neighbouring streets had been planned out, but it was several years before the plan was completed. The foundation stone of Harcourt House (duke of Portland s) on the west side of the square, which is now about to be destroyed, was laid in 1722 ; and the north side, which was originally intended to be occupied by the mansion of the duke of Chandos, was still unfinished in 1761. St Peter s chapel in Vere Street, originally Oxford chapel, was built by Gibbs about 1724. Still, however, the north of London remained unbuilt upon, and the open character of this part is well shown in the map given above. In 1756 and for some years subsequently the land behind Montague House (now the British Museum) was occupied as a farm, and when in that year a proposal was made to plan out a new road the tenant and the duke of Bedford strongly opposed it. In 1772 all beyond Portland Chapel in Great Port land Street was country. Portman Square was laid out about 1764, but it was nearly twenty years before the whole was finished. It was built on high ground with an open prospect to the north, which gave it a name as a peculiarly healthy part of London. Mrs Montagu called it the Montpellier of England, and said she &quot;never enjoyed such health as since she came to live in it.&quot; In a map of London dated 1773 the villages of Hackney, Stepney, Islington, Hoxton, Pancras, Marylebone, Paddington, Knightsbridge, and Chelsea are all shown as country outskirts of the town. Bedford House in Bloomsbury Square had its full view of Hampstead and Highgate from the back, and Queen s Square was built open to the north in order that the inhabitants might obtain the same prospect. Dr Heberden recommended South Lambeth as a health resort on account of its situation on the banks of a tidal river with the south-west wind blowing fresh from the country and the north-east softened by blowing over the town. In 1737 the Fleet ditch between Holborn Bridge and Fleet Bridge was covered over, and Stocks market was removed from the site of the Mansion House to the present Farringdon Street, and called Fleet market. On October 25, 1739, the first stone of the Mansion House was laid. Previously the first magistrates lived in several different houses. In 1750 Westminster Bridge was opened for passengers, and London Bridge ceased to be the only means of cross ing the Thames at London. Blackfriars Bridge followed in 1769. A frost almost as severe as the memorable one of 1683-84 occurred in the winter of 1739-40, and the Thames was again the scene of a busy fair. In 1758 the houses on London Bridge were cleared away, and in 1760-62 several of the city gates were taken down and sold. Moorgate is said to have fetched 166, Aldersgate 91, Aldgate177, Cripplegate 90, and Ludgate 148. The statue of Queen Elizabeth which stood on the west side of Ludgate was purchased by Alder man Gosling and set up against the east end of St Dunstan s church in Fleet Street, where it still remains. The need of improving and opening out many of the streets of London was felt in the 18th century, but little or nothing was done, and the work was left to be accomplished in the present century. John Gwynn, a friend of Dr Johnson, paid considerable attention to this subject, and published in 1766 a work entitled London and Westminster Improved, Illustrated by Plans. Many of the author s suggestions have not been carried out, although they would often have been improvements upon what has been since attempted. Of such alterations as have subsequently been executed we may note here the widening of Swallow Street, a much-needed improvement, which was not carried out until the beginning of the present cen tury, a square where Trafalgar Square now stands and some straight streets on the site of Durham House now the Adelphi, and a bridge where Waterloo Bridge was afterwards built. Robert Adam and his brothers, Scotsmen who came to London under the protection of the earl of Bute, made a considerable im provement in the appearance of certain parts of London during the second half of the 18th century by the adoption of a combined system of architecture, in which several separate houses were grouped together to give the appearance of a continuous building. The Adelphi and Portland Place still remain good examples of their system. The brothers Adam were leaders in the revival of taste, and the interiors of their buildings are executed with much elegant detail. We have now come to a period when London outside the City may be considered as more important in many points than London within the liberties. &quot;Why sir,&quot; said Dr Johnson to Bos- well, &quot;Fleet Street has a very animated appearance, but I think the tide of human existence is at Charing Cross.&quot; This speech was made in 1775, and in spite of the vast increase of London in every direction Charing Cross still retains this pre-eminent position. The latter years of the 18th century were somewhat troublous ones for London, but it is only necessary here to barely mention the divisions between the court and the City relating to the election of Wilkes, and the Gordon riots of 1780, when the gates of Newgate were thrown open, and much property was destroyed by the mob. NINETEENTH CENTURY. It is impossible to give here anything like a full account of the history of London during the 19th century. Since 1800 the City itself has been almost entirely re built, and the suburbs on all sides have been vastly extended. Russell Square was built about 1804, and the district north of Bloomsbury was laid out at the same time. Bloomsbury Square had been built in 1665, and Bedford Square at the end of the 18th century. Alexander Gibson Hunter, in a letter to Constable the publisher written in March 1807, says, &quot;Young Faulder and I walked over all the duke of Bedford s new feuing grounds, Russell Square, Tavistock Place, Brunswick Square, &c. The extent of them, and the rapidity of the buildings, is beyond all comprehen sion. &quot; Bedford and Russell Squares were for some years the favoured place of residence for the judges. To show how late has been the growth north of the New Road we may mention that at the beginning of the century grapes were ripened by the sun in the open air in gardens in Gower Street, and twenty five dozen of nee tarines were gathered in 1800 from three completely exposed trees in a garden in Upper Gower Street. Still later the richest flavoured celery was gathered in abundance in the same place. When duel ling was in fashion the duellists naturally chose out the most un frequented places, and we thus obtain an idea where these places were situated. Chalk Farm for some years rivalled in popularity Wimbledon Common, where the duke of York fought Colonel Lennox in 1789, Battersea Fields, where the duke of Wellington fought the earl of Winchelsea in 1829, and Putney Heath, where Pitt met Tierney in 1798, and Castlereagh and Canning fought in 1809. As late as 1 843 a duel was fought at Chalk Farm between Lieutenant Monro and Colonel Fawcett, when the latter was killed. In 1806 London saw the public funerals of three of England s greatest men. On the 8th February the body of Nelson was borne with great pomp from the Admiralty to St Paul s Cathedral, where it was interred in the presence of the prince of Wales and the royal dukes. Pitt was buried on 22d February, and Fox on the 10th October, both in Westminster Abbey. The first exhibition of Winsor s system of lighting the streets with gas took place on the king s birthday (June 4) 1807, and was made in a row of lamps in front of the colonnade before Carlton House. Fins- bury Square was the first public place in which gas lighting was actually adopted, and Grosvenor Square the last. On October 11, 1811, the first stone of Waterloo Bridge was laid, and on June 18, 1817, it was publicly opened. Southwark Bridge was opened in April 1819, and new London Bridge, the first stone of which had been laid on June 15, 1825, on August 1, 1831. West minster and Blackfriars Bridges have been rebuilt within the last few years, and thus not one of the London bridges dates back farther than the present century. One of the greatest improve ments in the West End Was the formation of Regent Street, intended as a communication between Carlton House and the Regent s Park,