Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/169

 ii s. i. FEB. 26, mo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

161

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1910.

CONTENTS. No. 9.

NOTES : Bulwer Lytton's House in Hertford Street, 161 Shakespeariana, 164 Inscriptions at Gibraltar, 165 "Acclamation," Unopposed Parliamentary Return Theatricals in Margate' Alonzo the Brave 'Last of the Sedan-Chair Carriers New South Wales in America, 167.

QUERIES : Elizabethan Heraldic MSS. Gargoyles York Minster Monuments Comparative Value of Money "No such word as Fail," 168 Authors Wanted Hammersmith Terrace " Rosamonda's lake" Pete rsfie Id Inns Deanery of Wolverhampton Col. Francis Godfrey "Squash" Ashby Fallows, 169 "Taborer's Inn," St. Martin's-le-Grand Mrs. Sarah Trimmer Pope and Irish Bishops, 170.

REPLIES :-Chelsea Old Church, 170-Landor Anecdotes- Sir Henry Dudley, 171 Charles I. Medallion "Tally- ho": "Yoicks,"172 Scotchmen In France Jacob Cole, 173 Vermont: Dr. Peters, 174 Architect of Henry VII. 's Chapel Nelson among his Intimates, 175 Aristotle and the Golden Rule Pronunciation of "oo" William Shippen Marriage Contracts, 176 H6teL Moras, Paris- Battle of Mohacs "Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" Hafiz in Oriental Editions Sir Robert Geffery, 177 "Disgruntled," 178.

NOTES ON BOOKS: Col. Rivett-Carnac's 'Many Memories ' ' Dudley Hardy.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

BULWER LYTTON'S HOUSE IN HERTFORD STREET.

IT has often been stated that Lord Lytton, the famous novelist, purchased in his early manhood (when he was simply Mr. Bulwer) No. 36, Hertford Street, Mayfair ; but it is not generally known that no fewer than three houses in the street have been num- bered 36 at different times, and that mistakes have been made with regard to the identity of the house that was bought by the rising novelist. Thus in the Lytton centenary number of an illustrated magazine there was an illustration purporting to show the house ; but though described underneath as 36, Hert- ford Street, it was clearly the house at the \\vstern corner of Hertford Street and Little Stanhope Street, which is now and has been for many years numbered 35A, whilst 36 is at the opposite or eastern corner.

As the illustration was said to be from the " Rischgitz Collection, 11 I recently inquired of Mr. Augustin Rischgitz what authority there was for calling 35A Bulwer's house ;

upon which he kindly showed me a copy of Wilmot Harrison's ' Memorable London Houses,' in which it is asserted that 3oA was formerly 36, and that it was .the house which Bulwer took about the time he entered Parliament in 1835 ; also that Chorley walked home with him from the Countess of Blessington's in 1836, and the implication is that it was to this house, although Chorley in his diary does not say so.

Now I already knew from Lord Lytton's unfinished biography by his son that the novelist entered Parliament in 1831, and that he took his house in Hertford Street in 1829, whilst from other sources I knew that he left it in 1835, so that I did not feel at all confident that the right house had been shown in the illustration. I had, in fact, already ascertained from Robson's ' Court Guide/ which commenced in 1832, that there were two houses in Hertford Street numbered respectively 36A and 36s, and that it was the latter which Bulwer occupied, though there was nothing to show on which side of Little Stanhope Street it stood.

I determined, therefore, to search further into the matter to find out, that is, which was the house in which those famous novels w r ere written which were composed between 1829 and 1835, and in which the first Earl of Lytton was born in 1831. Before Bulwer lived in Hertford Street he had published 'Falkland 1 (1827), ' Pelham ' (1828), 'The Disowned l (1828), and ' Devereux ' (1829). After his removal there towards the end of 1829 he published ' Paul Clifford l (1830), ' Eugene Aram,* which he dedicated to Sir Walter Scott (1831), * Godolphin l (1833), ' Pilgrims of the Rhine ' (1834), ' Last Days of Pompeii* (1834), and 'The Student, 1 a collection of short stories and essays (1835). Probably most, if not all, of ' Rienzi l was also written at Hertford Street, though it was not published till towards the end of the year, when Bulwer had removed.

I felt thus keenly interested in the ques- tion of the identity of the house where these fascinating works of fiction were com- posed, and by the courtesy of Messrs. Drivers, Jonas & Co., of Pall Mall, the agents of the estate, I was permitted to see an old ground-plan of the north side of Hertford Street, when, to my surprise, I found the western corner of Little Stanhope Street was numbered 35, the eastern corner was 1, Little Stanhope Street, and the next house 36 (now 37).

As the plan did not show two houses to be numbered 36A and 36s, I felt pretty certain that it must represent a state of things