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1829.]

Sir Thomas More's House, Chelsea.

SIR THOMAS MORE'S HOUSE,

THE

CHELSEA.

HERE are few houses in this kingdom which have excited more general interest, or the site of which has been more disputed that the residence of that distinguished statesman, lawyer, and scholar, Sir Thomas More. The following particulars are abstracted from a MS. Supplement to the Life of Sir Thomas More, written by Dr. King, one of the Rectors of Chelsea; of which document Mr. Faulkner (to whom we are indebted for the annexed views) has judiciously availed himself in his new History of Chelsea.

The place (says Dr. King) where Sir Thomas More fixed his family was Chelsea, in Middlesex, where he lived several years; which place he chose for its vicinity to London, for the salubrity of the air, for the pleasantness of the situation, and for the incomparably sweet, delightful, and noble river Thames, gently gliding by it; where he kept always, while he was a great minister, a barge for his conveniency or recreation. At Chelsea he built a house, with gardens, orchards, and all conveniences about it. At a good distance from his mansion house, he erected a pile called the New Building, which contained a chapel, a library, and a gallery, which he used for devotion, study, and retirement. He also built a chapel, or chancel, in the parish church of Chelsea, which still remains, having his coat of arms in the glass of the east window thereof. He hired a house for aged people in the parish, and was a very charitable and liberal person; and from his example, his son-in-law Roper, having lived in his family sixteen years, took his pat tern, bestowing yearly in alms to the value of 500l.; a vast sum in that age. But for all these shining virtues and endowments he was, by the permission of God, and the impetuous humour of a merciless prince, tried for his life, and executed as a traitor.

On Sir Thomas's death, all his lands were seized by the King, by virtue of two Acts of Parliament. By the first Act was resumed what the King had granted him; viz. Dunkington, Trenk, ford, and Barley Park in Oxfordshire. By the second Act a settlement was frustrated, and his lady turned out of her house at Chelsea, the King allowGENT. MAG. June, 1829.

497

ing her 201. per annum. His daughter Roper was imprisoned for keeping her father's head as a relic, and purposing to print his books.

Dr. King, writing in 1717, says, that no less than four houses have contended for the honour of Sir Thomas More's residence, viz. 1. Beaufort House; 2. that which was late Sir William Powell's, then divided into several tenements; 3. that which was formerly Sir John Danvers's, then the site of Danvers-street; and, 4. that which was lately Sir Joseph Alstone's.

"Now of all these," says Dr. King, "Beaufort House bids fairest to be the place where Sir Thomas More's stood; for the following_reasons-First, his grandson, Mr. Thomas More, who wrote his life, and was born in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and may well be supposed to know where the most eminent person of his ancestors lived, says, that Sir Thomas More's house in Chelsea was the same which my Lord of Lincoln bought of Sir Robert Cecil. Now it appears pretty plainly that Sir Robert Cecil's house was the same which is now the Duke of Beaufort's; for in divers places are these letters, R.C., and also R. C E. with the date of the year, viz. 1597; which letters were the initials of his name and his lady's; and the year 1597 was when he newbuilt or at least new-fronted it. From the Earl of Lincoln, that house was conveyed to Sir Arthur Gorges; from him to Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex; from him to King Charles the First; from the King to the Duke of Buckingham; from his son, since the Restoration, to Plummer, a citizen, for debt; from the said Plummer to the Earl of Bristol; and from his heirs to the Duke of Beaufort."

"Beaufort House," adds Lysons, "after having stood empty for several years, was purchased by Sir Hans Sloane, in the year 1738, and was taken down in 1740. The gate, which was built by Inigo Jones for the Lord. Treasurer Middlesex, Sir Hans Sloane gave to the Earl of Burlington; who removed it to his gardens at Chiswick, The old mansion stood at the northend of Beaufort-row, extending westward, at the distance of about 100 yards from the water-side."

Supplement to Life of Sir T. More.

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498

Shrewsbury, or Alston House, Chelsea.

SHREWSBURY, OR ALSTON HOUSE.

This splendid mansión, built about the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII. was situate in Cheyne-walk, adjoining the gardens of Winchester Palace, on the west. For a long time it was considered to have been the residence of Sir Thomas More; but Dr. King has shown that it never had any just pretensions to that honour. It was an irregular brick building, forming three sides of a quadrangle. The principal room was one hundred and twenty feet in length, and was originally wainscotted with carved oak. One of the rooms was painted in imitation of marble, and appeared to have been originally an oratory. Certain curious portraits on pannel, which had ornamented the large rooms, were destroyed some few years since. Leading from the premises, towards the King's Road, there is a subterranean passage, which has been explored for a short distance. It is said, traditionally, to have communicated with a cave or dungeon, situated at a considerable distance from the house; but for what purpose made, no one now in its vicinity confidently presumes to

guess.

Alston House was for many years the residence of the Shrewsbury family. Francis, son and heir of George Earl of Shrewsbury, is mentioned among the freeholders in the court rolls of the manor of Chelsea, 35 Hen. VIII. He died Sept. 21, 1560.

George Earl of Shrewsbury, son of the preceding, died Nov. 18, 1590, possessed of a capital messuage in Chelsea, which he probably bequeathed to his second wife, Elizabeth, as it appears to have descended to her son William, first Earl of Devonshire. This Elizabeth, who survived him, was much celebrated for her beauty and accomplishments, and still more for her extraordinary fortune in the world. She was four times a creditable and happy wife, and rose by every husband to greater wealth and higher honours; and, after all, lived seventeen years a widow in absolute power and plenty. She built three of the most elegant seats that were ever raised by one hand in the same countyChatsworth, Hardwick, and Oldcoates; all transmitted entire to the first Duke of Devonshire. The Countess died in

1607, aged eighty-seven. She be

[June,

queathed all her estates to her son William, Earl of Devonshire; and we find this nobleman to have been in possession of this mansion at Chelsea, soon after her death.

William Earl of Devonshire married, to his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Boughton, of the county of Warwick, and widow of Sir Richard Wortley. Dying in 1625, this lady survived him, and continued to reside at Chelsea till her death, which happened in 1643.

was

After the death of the Countess of Devonshire, this ancient house became the property of Sir Joseph Alston, who was created a Baronet by Charles II. in 1682. Mrs. Mary Alston, the wife of this gentleman, died here in 1671; and her funeral sermon preached by Dr. Littleton, who published it shortly after, in 4to. Sir Joseph was in possession of this house in 1664, at the time of Hamilton's survey; it afterwards came into the possession of Mr. Tate, and was occupied as a stained paper manufactory.

In 1813 this venerable mansion, which had adorned the village of palaces' for several ages, was pulled down, and the materials sold piece-meal by a speculating builder, who had obtained possession; and now not a stone remains to show where it once stood.

The annexed view was taken some few years previous to its final demolition, when time and dilapidations had, however, destroyed much of its pristine

form.

SPECULATIONS ON LITERARY
PLEASURES.-No. XV.
(Continued from p. 404.)
OHNSON was a luminary of the first

the course of the Eighteenth century; but others existed perhaps equally high in pretension. And here, in throwing our views generally over the state and aspect of genius in the Eighteenth century, it may possibly be allowed us to glance at another luminary, who, during the same epoch, enlightened the British possessions in the New World.

Born on the Western Continent, Dr. Franklin may yet be almost said to have been matured on our own soil, as at one period of his life he lived much in England, and, it is reasonable to imagine, profited much from the privileges of a literary nature he here

1829.] Speculations on Literary Pleasures—Johnson and Franklin. 499

enjoyed. And if in our process of speculative analysis we view him as an integral portion of British genius, nurtured and matured, to a certain extent, on these soils, much exception, perhaps, will not hence be taken.

It has often been made a question, which most fulfils the end of his being, the contemplative philosopher or the active benefactor of mankind. Hierocles, the commentator on Pythagoras, a sage well qualified to form an estimate, observes that practical philosophy is the mother of virtue, and contemplative virtue is the mother of truth. Without entering on this particular examination, it may be observed generally, that no two contemporary individuals ever rose to higher and more distinguished eminence than that which marked the characters of Johnson and Franklin in their several departments; but each pursued a different walk to fame; and as in the character of one who would rear his slender testimonial to the worth of literary pursuits and their attendant pleasures, I may not perhaps inappropriately bestow a glance on these several walks. "For my part," says that child of pathos and philosophy, St. Pierre," I who am not a Newton, am determined not to quit the banks of my rivulet; I will remain in my humble valley engaged in collecting herbs and flowers,-happy if I am able to form with them some garlands to decorate the vestibule of the rustic temple which my feeble hands have presumed to rear to the majesty of Nature." The present speculations, like those of St. Pierre, are rather a tribute offered at the foot of Parnassus, than a bold flight from its top; and for the rest, the two celebrated individuals here spoken of are still perhaps unhack nied subjects.

Johnson and Franklin, then, are names to which, all will ever admit, attaches genius of a giant growth. Strangers to each other in the communications of social intercourse, they were equally removed from each other in their views and speculations on literature, and in their scientific pursuits. Of opposite political creeds, they of course, in their sentiments connected with the government of nations, and in many points bearing on man's social happiness, materially differed. Franklin may be termed, above most others, the benefactor of mankind. Labouring with gigantic efforts for the

emancipation and independence of his own country, against the folly, cupidity, and wickedness, which sought to blow up the flames of war, and perpetuate rancour and hatred amongst Great Britain and her colonies, he may, like a second Hampden, be said to have made a noble stand in the cause of freedom and of patriotism. The eyes of all Europe were intently fixed upon the important issue of this contest; and if, by the wisdom of his councils, and the skill of his negociations, as a diplomatist, universal suffrage has awarded to him the honour and the humanity of endeavouring, though in vain, to avert what, in the history of nations, must ever be deprecated as its worst calamity,-his apotheosis will ever be woven by the wise and the good. But if it is not only in the hearts and the admiring gaze of millions of his own countrymen, but in the matured estimation of all mankind, that this extraordinary man must continue to hold a foremost place, Dr. Franklin, perhaps, will occupy a still higher niche in the temple of Fame amongst posterity, on account of his philosophical writings.

"The eulogy of Des Cartes," says his celebrated commentator M. Thomas, "whose devotion to his hero we excuse, while reading him, should be pronounced at the foot of Newton's statue, or rather Newton himself should be the panegyrist." Franklin must be also said to inerit his eulogy from the most distinguished philosophers of the Nineteenth century, inasmuch as his hints in practical and speculative philosophy, no less than his maxims in political economy, engaged the notice of all the professors in Europe who had any pretensions to high eminence. Of an acute and original mind, all his thinking and his efforts were directed to such an enlargement of experimental philosophy as should increase man's POSITIVE knowledge, and consequently his power. A memorable example to those who, like Kant and some others, are fond of mystifying truth in clouds of their own creation,-his aim was rather to draw light from profundity than to throw around it the vapours of darkness. His philosophy was not of the ambiguous kind, his sagacity and penetration were constantly exerted to smooth the ascent, rather than render it more difficult and forbidding, and

500 Speculations on Literary Pleasures-Johnson and Franklin. [June,

the intelligence with which he applied it to the investigation of every thing connected with man's knowledge or his comfort, showed at once the restless curiosity of a gifted intelligence, and a mind labouring with ardour for the good of his species. At one time exploring the path of comets, and expatiating amidst lightnings and "all the dread artillery of heaven," he was equally ready to analyse with philosophical minuteness the most trivial things connected with human comfort and the domestic economy of life. A worthy contemporary of Washington, if he was not entirely the legislator and deliverer of his country, he discharged offices so nearly approximating those which belong to such high titles, that his own countrymen, in admiration of those abilities which could execute what the purest benevolence dictated, have registered his fame in the most sacred records of a nation's tributary offering.

In the catalogue of memorable services performed in behalf of a nation's glory, Johnson had nothing in common with Franklin. His fame may be said to be built on rather a different basis, that of forensic and philological learning. He traversed the devious and flowery paths of literature with a copious and excursive imagination, and speculated upon these subjects with an understanding at once profound and accurate. "There have yet existed," says Joseph Warton (who it may be presumed was, in the year 1756, when he wrote his famous Essay on Pope, regardless of the merit of his contemporary Johnson,) "but a few transcendant geniuses who have at once enjoyed in full vigour sublime and splendid imagination, an exact and tenacious memory, and a solid and profound understanding. All that I can at present recollect are Herodotus, Plato, Livy, Tully, Tacitus, Gallileo, Bacon, Des Cartes, Malebranche, Milton, Dr. Thomas Burnet, Berkeley, and Montesquieu." To most of these, in the galaxy of bright names here mentioned, belong brightness and solidity of parts; but Johnson perhaps has his equally high pretensions, as all will admit who have read-and where is the man who has not read them?his "Rambler," his Prefaces, and his "Lives of the Poets."

Johnson, after all the " whips and scorns" and "contumely" which have

often been liberally bestowed upon his prejudices, had a great and enlarged mind; his dicta in literature were generally the result of independent feeling, however occasionally pointed from the Cynic school of Antisthenes and Menippus. His views of man, the shortness of the period of human life, and of human frailty and vicissitude, were founded on a deliberate inspection, prompted by the energies of a classical mind. His pictures often in ethical disquisitions may indeed be thought of a character not much unlike those of the classical and imaginative Jeremy Taylor, when he penned the following passage: "We must not think that the life of a man begins when he can feed himself, or walk alone; but he is first a man when he comes to a certain steady use of reason, and when that is, all the world of men cannot tell precisely. Some are called at age at fourteen, some at one and twenty, some never; but all men late enough; for the life of a man comes upon him slowly and insensibly. But as when the Sun approaches towards the gates of the morning, he first opens a little eye of heaven, he sends away the spirits of darkness, and gives light to a cock, and calls up the lark to matins, and bye and bye gilds the fringes of a cloud, and peeps over the eastern hills, thrusting out his golden horns like those which decked the brows of Moses, when he was forced to wear a veil, because himself had seen the face of God;-and still, while a man tells the story, the Sun gets up higher till he shows a fair face and a full light, and then he shines one whole day, under a cloud often, and sometimes weeping great and little showers, and sets quickly. So is a man's reason and his life."-Partaking copiously of the same imagery and beauty which is exemplified in this striking passage, and in unison with the associations of thought which often animated the pictures of this distinguished prelate, the speculations of Johnson upon the various allotments and the vicissitudes of human life, and the sum of human happiness, commonly please and elevate by metaphors drawn from the objects of nature. An observer in the world of physics, he illustrated the sentiments and positions which grew out of an elevated survey of mankind, their passions and propensities. Although his habits and

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