Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/459

 ii s. v. MAY 11, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

379

on Stocks.

London Son/ft of the Thames. By Sir Walter Besant. (A. & C. Black.)

THIS is the third volume of the topographical section of the work organized by Sir Walter Besant before 'his death, and to our mind it is the most interesting of the three. The two previous volumes appeared to us to be a r6sum of Sir Walter Besant's old books on London, sandwiched between considerable surveys of rather dull streets. The book before us seems to come from the pen of one author, and has, therefore, an advantage over its predecessors.

It is interesting to think that the greater part of South London was in Queen Anne's time a mere swamp. There was a small inhabited area at the south end of London Bridge, but mud and water, with rank vegetation, held almost undis- puted sway from the river to Battersea Rise and the adjoining high ground. This great area, extending from Woolwich and Greenwich on one side to Sheen and Richmond on the other, and from the river to Eltham and Blackheath, was country and forest land, the swamp separating it from the City of London. Development appears to have been on the usual lines first, country gentlemen built houses, and a road was made sufficient for them to ride into London and do their business ; then, when the swamp was drained, there were public, carriages and the old- time omnibuses which brought the poorer folk to town ; and, ultimately, houses grew up even on top of the drained swamp, and sent their folk to the City of London. When railways first began, they added to the influx of dwellers, and increased the residents in the neighbourhood.

The book divides itself into many districts, and we propose to say a few words on some of the features of these.

In Bermondsey there is a note of the ancient Abbey of "Barmsie" and its Fair. In Lambeth there is an account of the Palace now held by the Archbishop of Canterbury and its history, and also a sufficient note of the origin and progress of St. Thomas's Hospital.

At Kennington, in the time of King John and the earlier Plantagenets, there was a royal palace, and the absolute disappearance of this is some- what remarkable.

At Newington we find the Vauxhall Gardens, but records of these do not offer much to attract modern readers.

In Walworth, Camberwell, and Rotherhithe there is little of interest for the archaeological student, except certain legends of Tooley Street and St. Olaf Street. The Rotherhithe property appears to have been anciently held by Battle Abbey, owner also of Guy's Hospital, about which information is rather sparse.

Battersea provides nothing of particular note, and the same remark applies to Putney, except that some details are given as regards enamel works which were started there at an early date with good results. Putney contains, however, a note of the Ranelagh Club and its predecessors, and Putney Heath has some history of its own.

Brixton and Peckham do not require much criticism, affording little more than an enuiriem- tion of streets and houses. These districts have grown enormously, but not attained to the dignity of history.

Then we come to Charlton, which contains the Cherry Orchard, the residence of Inigo Jones the great architect, and Charlton House, which is reputed to have been subsequently built by him- Greenwich Hospital, with its painted hall, for- merly a palace of the Crown, is an item of interest. Sir John Thornhill is said to have taken nineteen years in painting the hall, at a cost of 6.885Z.

In Dulwich there is an account of the founda- tion of Alleyn's College of God's Gift, now repre- sented by Dulwich College and adjacent buildings ? and in Eltham we come across yet another royal palace, the history of which is pleasantly recorded. The volume is well and amply illustrated.

The Burlington Magazine opens with a continua- tion of Mr. O. M. Dalton's ' Byzantine Enamels in the Collection of Mr. Pierpont Morgan,' an instalment, if possible, even more interesting than the last, and offering us to start with a plate of four medallions from the Swenigorodskoi Collec- tion of quite extraordinary delightfulness. In the next number we are promised more of these. From among the Early Venetians lately exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club the editor this time treats of Carpaccio. The ' Christ and Four Saints ' here discussed is, to students, practically a new picture, and the reproduction the first yet made is striking, if only for the contrast between the liveliness and charm of the four saints they may possibly, Mr. Roger Fry thinks, represent the four evangelists and the curiously wooden and inexpressive ' Christ.' The paper on ' Central African Embroidery,' by Mr. T. A. Joyce, describes minutely the methods and materials- of cloths made and embroidered by those Bu- shongo who live by the Sankuru and the Kasai. Embroidery is not common in primitive Africa ;, but these specimens are interesting for their bold design and clever execution, as well as for their rarity. Mr. A. M. Hind has an article on Jacques Callot, in which the illustrations of Callot's studies, especially one for ' Les Supplices,' struck us as particularly instructive.

IN The Nineteenth Century the articles of literary interest are on Browning, Milton, and ' Recent German Fiction.' Mr Francis Gribble's- paper is divided, roughly speaking, between Browning's optimism and his marriage. Bishop Welldon's paper deals with the theology of Milton its development from what may fairly be called orthodoxy to a peculiar form of Arianism. We notice that he says the Christian world owes to- Milton both the generally accepted belief that the forbidden fruit was the apple and the con- ception of the angelic hosts as arrayed for and against God. It seems t6 us that some further recollection of the literature and the art which preceded Milton would have caused at least a qualification of those statements. The German authors with whom Madame Longard de Long- garde deals are Rudolf Bartsch, Rudolf Stratz, Walter Bloem, and Peter Rosegger. The first three serve to illustrate the variety of patriotism at present prevailing in Germany. Lady Grant Duff, writing on ' The Action of Women in the