Acton.j THE COUNTESS OF DERWENTWATER. Hale had given of me stood me in some stead, and every one of the four judges did not only acquit me, but said more for me than my counsel." But his imprisonment, he afterwards relates, "brought me the great loss of converse with Judge Hale, for the Parliament in the next Act against conventicles put into it divers clauses suited to my case, by which I was obliged to go dwell in another county, and to forsake both London and my former habitation, and yet the justices of another county were partly enabled to pursue me." With this ends the 13 physician to Charles II.; and Charles Fox, who gave a house and ground on the Steyne, on the north of the church, as a site for the almshouses still existing there. Besides those already noticed, Acton can show a good list of names of people more or less celebrated in their day. Philip Thicknesse, the eccentric author of "Memoirs and Anecdotes," "The New Prose Bath Guide," &c. who died in 1792, lived here. The Countess of Derwentwater was living in the large house connection of Baxter with Acton and Sir Matthew Hale. From this time the local history of Acton is little more than a list of distinguished persons who have been resident within its bounds. Notably, Lord Chief-Justice Vaughan, who died here in 1673; and, soon afterwards, Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, one of the seven bishops who were tried in Westminster Hall for refusing to accept King James's "Indulgence in Matters of Religion"; Sir Charles Scarborough, opposite the church at the time of her husband's execution for his share in the abortive Scottish rising in 1715. It is said that the iron gates at the end of the garden have never been opened since the day when her lord last passed through them on his way to the Tower. Alderman and Lord Mayor Gascoigne lived at Acton; so did Mrs. Barry, an actress under Sir William Davenant at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, who gained some celebrity in her day as excelling in the part of Roxana. Her last appearance was in "Love for Love," performed for Betterton's benefit, when she spoke the epilogue (1709). She died in 1713. In 1700 William, Marquis of Hali. fax, died at the Priory, which then passed into the hands of the Duke of Kingston, whose crest is still to be seen in one of the rooms. He was often The High Street, nearly half a mile in length, is visited here by George II. and his Court. Quite quaint and irregular, large and small houses being in our own day, the Priory was tenanted by Sir strangely intermixed. Many of the old red tiles Edward Bulwer Lytton, who wrote within it one remain on the roofs. New streets have sprung up at least of his many works. Whether the notorious between the railway station and the town; these Judge Jeffreys ever lived at Acton is not quite are irregularly built, and in many of them trees are certain; but at all events, Pennant tells us that he planted. Altogether, from the quiet, out-of-the-way saw at Acton House an original portrait of that village of half a century ago, Acton has now become Judge, taken in 1690, when he was 82 years of age. a very populous place, owing to the building of Acton may be said to have been in some way villas, consequent on the opening of the railways. connected with Sir Walter Raleigh and tobacco. It now possesses two or three churches; it has Aubrey implies that on its first introduction tobacco Congregational, Baptist, Wesleyan, and other was regarded as a forbidden thing. He writes:-chapels, a lecture hall, and also its Local Board "Sir Walter Raleigh, standing in a stand at Sir R. of Health, public library, and reading-room. Poyntz's park at Acton, took a pipe of tobacco, which made the ladies quit it till he had done." "Within these few years," he adds, "it was scandalous for a divine to take tobacco." It is stated in the MS. additions to Norden's "Speculum Britannia" that King Henry III. had a mansion-house, and lay often at Acton. But no traces of its site are known, and the tradition is not confirmed. Still, Acton in its time has possessed a good many old mansions, though these are gradually passing away. Mr. Brewer tells us, in the "Beauties of England and Wales," that at the beginning of the present century there were " vestiges of several moated houses" here; but some have disappeared. Lysons writes in 1795:-" About half a mile to the north, in a field still called the 'Moated Meadow,' is a deep trench, enclosing a parallelogram about 100 yards in length and 40 in breadth, supposed by some to have been a Roman camp, but the name of the meadow seems to imply no greater antiquity than that of a moated farm-house or grange." Near the Great Western Railway Station is an old moated house, with part of the moat remaining, called Friar's Place Farm. Another house, hard by, is said to have once had Oliver Cromwell for its occupant for a time, but the tradition cannot be verified. In the parish of Acton there are two manors, one of which has belonged from time immemorial (as already stated) to the see of London, the other once belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, but was seized upon by Henry VIII., who alienated it. It has passed through various families: the Russells, Somersets, Lethuelliers, Fetherstonhaughs, &c. One day in 1760 Acton was astonished by the arrival of a coach and six-it was the same in which Lord Ferrers had driven to be executed at Tyburn, and he had ordered it to be sent onward. The carriage was kept in a shed at Acton till it literally fell to pieces. In 1749 the new Clergy Orphan Schools, since removed to St. John's Wood, were erected here. Its "At the entrance of the village from London," writes Mr. Brewer in 1815, "is a public conduit, built by Thomas Thorney in 1612, and maintained by a small endowment left by him for repairs. use having been perverted, the right to its use was recovered in the last century by a lawsuit, and it has been superseded by a modern pump, erected by a Mr. Antrobus in 1819." The pump is now chained up and walled in, a notice being added that "the water is not fit for drinking purposes," probably in consequence of the opening of a new cemetery in its rear. Why does no charitable person revive the Acton pump, in the shape of a metropolitan drinking fountain, obtaining a supply from a fresh source? The parish church, dedicated to St. Mary, as usual marks the centre of the original village, for cottages always sprang up round the manor-house and the house of prayer which was its adjunct. Brewer describes it in his day as of little interest—rebuilt of brick in a homely manner. The present edifice is built of red brick, with stone dressings. In 1766 the church tower was re-cased with brick; the oldest of the bells has the date 1583, the last was hung in 1810. In 1837 the church was enlarged, and became, in the opinion of Bishop Blomfield, the ugliest in the diocese. In 1865 the nave, chancel, &c., were pulled down, and a handsome Decorated building erected in its place, the old tower, which had been "new cased with brick" in 1766, being suffered to remain. This, however, was pulled down in 1877, and an elegant new tower erected in its place, as a memorial to two members of the Ouvry family. The bells were re-cast at the same time. It will be seen, therefore, that there have been three churches in succession since Her Majesty's accession; for the very plain structure of the last century was pulled down in 1838, and rebuilt in a still more hideous style, and that was pulled down in 1865, when the present handsome structure was built. It consists of a Acton.] ACTON WELLS. 15 nave, chancel, and aisles, and many of its windows small brass commemorating John Byrde, who died are already filled with stained glass. The registers commence in 1539. Skippon's titles have been scratched out in the register, and over the name of Sir John Thorogood, who officiated at the marriage of Skippon's daughter, is written the word "knave," the word "traytor" being also twice written over the Major-General's name. Cromwell created Skippon a peer, but it is only fair to add that he refused to sit as one of the king's judges. The Protectorate titles, too, have been obliterated from the registers of "Lord" and "Lady" Rous. The former was buried at Eton College. In spite of being an author, Rous is mentioned by Lord Clarendon as "a person of very mean understanding"; and A'Wood tells us, in his "Athenæ Oxoniensis," that he was called "the illiterate Jew of Eton." His foundation of three fellowships at Pembroke College, Oxford, is perhaps his best memorial. Rous's house was styled in 1795 "The Bank House." Bruno Ryves, who was appointed vicar by Charles II., was a contributor to our national history. He deserves to be remembered as the author of the "Mercurius Rusticus," a narrative of the sufferings of the Royalists in different parts of England. Lady Dudley, whom we have mentioned in our account of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields* was a great benefactor to the parish and church, to which she gave (as stated above) a carpet and the communion plate. The ancient font is now all that remains of the original church. All the ancient monuments have been carefully preserved, though those in the interior of the building have been mostly removed to the west end and to the entrance under the tower. Among them is one to Anne, Lady Southwell. On each side of this monument hangs a wooden tablet inscribed with panegyric verses, in the quaint and conceited style of the period (1636):— "The South wind blew upon a springing well, Whose waters flowed, and the sweet stream did swell There are also monuments to Catharine, Lady Conway, who was a great benefactor to the parish; to Mrs. Elizabeth Barry, the actress already mentioned in connection with Betterton and Lincoln's Inn Theatre; and to Mr. Robert Adair, inspector-general of hospitals, and his wife, Lady Caroline Adair, daughter of the Earl of Albemarle. Inside the communion rails was a • See "Old and New London," Vol. III., p. 198. in 1542, having been fifty-three years vicar of Acton. Among the charitable bequests is that of a Mr. Edward Dickinson, who left a third part of the interest of £5,000 to be distributed annually among three poor and industrious couples who had been married at Acton in the preceding year. It is satisfactory to the statistician to learn that this charity has never lapsed for want of claimants. Lady Conway's dole of bread, and loaves left by other charitable persons, are still disbursed on Sundays after service, at the west end of the nave, where they are set out in a row, between two gilt figures of wheatsheaves. It is to be presumed that Acton is a healthy parish; at all events, it can boast it had at least one "veritable centenarian" among its residents. In the churchyard is buried William Aldridge, wheelwright, who died in 1698, in the 115th year of his age. A portrait of him when aged 112 may be seen in Lysons' " Environs," and a copy of it hangs in the vestry. Other centenarians' names appear in the register. The living is a good one in point of emolument, and is still in the gift of the Bishop of London. The rectory house, a solid and substantial building north of the church, was built about 1725. The then rector, Mr. Hall, died soon after, and his successor, the witty Dr. Cobden, recorded the fact in some Latin lines, which he scratched with a diamond on a window-pane. To the north of the church is a nearly square piece of ground, about two or three acres, called the Steyne. It appears as if it had been a village green, and to have been dug out for gravel, or, if that is not so, then terraces have been raised round two sides of it. It is covered with modern cottages, and fringed with some almshouses and schools. Near the churchyard stood a house built by Sir Henry Garway in 1638, and which was, for a time, the residence of Skippon, the Parliamentary general mentioned above. It was afterwards used as a convent by the ladies of a religious order, who fled from the Continent during the first French Revolution. It was pulled down early in the present century. Its successor is now called Derwentwater House; it is probable that Sir Matthew Hale was tenant here. South Acton has been cut off, and formed into a new ecclesiastical district, and a new church, of florid Gothic style, and built of red brick, was consecrated in 1872. It is dedicated to All Saints, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, tower, and a lofty spire. One part of South Acton, having been largely occupied by artisans' dwellings, is now known as Mill Hill, after a windmill which once stood on it; it has its own church, chapel, and schools, and bids fair ere long to become a separate ecclesiastical district. over one of the fashionable resorts of the reign of George III. No print of the wells here is known to exist, and the place seems to have escaped notice in the comedies and satires of the day. Here is now a stud-farm, close to the old place where fashionable dames disported themselves. Not far off here, the "People's Garden," a place of Sunday amusement for the middle classes, was opened under German auspices in 1870. It is said to have the largest dancing platform in the country, but it never attracted any of the upper classes. Between West and East Acton, on the north side of the London Road, are the Goldsmiths' Almshouses for ten poor men and ten poor women, who receive each a pension and an allowance for coals. They were founded in 1656-7 by John Perryn, of East Acton, and the houses were rebuilt in 1811 or 1812, at the cost of £12,000. They form three sides of a quadrangle. In 1878 a church and parsonage-house were built by the Goldsmiths' Company on their estate in the rear of their almshouses. In spite of its chalybeate attractions, East Acton is described in the "Beauties of England and Wales" (1815) simply as "a small hamlet or assemblage of houses to the north of the London road." We must now make a slight detour of a mile eastwards to visit Acton Wells, before we take up our pilgrim's staff en route for Ealing. We are, however, rudely woke up from any dreams of the beauty and fashion of the reign of the Georges by finding ourselves within a 66 measurable distance" of the new military prison erected on Wormwood Scrubs, and soon after reach the line of the Great Western Railway. A "spa" which was discovered here in the early part of the last century became very fashionable as a place of resort about the year 1750, and its waters are mentioned along with those of Hampstead, Cheltenham, Bath, &c., as on sale at Mr. Owen's original mineral water warehouse in Fleet Street." There were, in fact, three There were, in fact, three wells of mineral water here, which once possessed a fashionable name, and attracted to the neighbourhood many of the sick and gay. In Lysons' "Environs" we find a minute description of the waters, which were saline, and "supposed to be more strongly cathartic than any other in the kingdom of the same quality, except those of Cheltenham." We have already seen at Hampstead* the transitory nature of the celebrity obtained by Leaving Acton, and retracing our steps for a medicinal springs. "Acton," writes Mr. Brewer, mile southwards across Acton Green to Grove Park, "had its share in the day of fashion. An assembly- already mentioned, we find ourselves at a quaint room was built, and for a few years East Acton | little old-fashioned waterside settlement, known as and Friar's Place, a small adjacent hamlet, were Strand-on-the-Green. It is almost wholly inhabited thronged with valetudinarian and idle inmates, al- by fishermen, but partly occupied by malt-houses lured by the hope of remedy or tempted by the love and hostelries. The place is as little changed as of dissipation. Both classes have long" (he writes any spot within ten miles of London. in 1815) “abandoned the spot; and the assembly- small mansions and red-bricked river-side cottages room has for many years been converted into a form a picturesque scene. private dwelling." Dr. Macpherson says that these wells were popular from the year 1750 down to about 1790, and that races were run for the amusement of the company. The discovery of these medicinal waters, and the consequent resort of people to drink them, caused many pleasant houses with gardens to spring up around Friar's, or Prior's, Place, so called from having once belonged to the Prior of St. Bartholomew at Smithfield. The "season" here was in the summer. The wells went to decay before the end of the last century, but their site is still to be made out in the kitchen garden of a farmhouse near the Great Western Railway, and close to "Old Oak Common." How few of those who travel by the Great Western Railway at this point are aware that they are passing * See "Old and New London,' Vol. V., p. 468. Its low Down to the early part of the last century the hamlet of Strand-on-the-Green was inhabited almost wholly by fishermen, or by men whose daily avocations were carried on by the river-side. On the springing up of some better class of houses, however, the place for a time became more popular, and numbered among its residents one or two individuals whose names have become famous. Here, for instance, dwelt David Mallet, the poet; his first wife, who died in 1742, is buried in the churchyard of Chiswick. Here, too, lived for many years the facetious Joe Miller, whose tombstone is in King's College Hospital. 1738. Zoffany, the painter, lived at Strand-on-theGreen, and several of his fishermen neighbours sat as models for his pictures; he died here on the 11th of November, 1810, and his remains were interred in the neighbouring churchyard of Kew, on the He died here in August, Ealing.] PRINCESS AMELIA AT GUNNERSBURY. other side of the Thames. The house which Zoffany inhabited is still shown. It faced the river, in about the middle of the little terrace. We shall hear of him again at Brentford. 17 Railway here crosses the Thames by a handsome latticed iron bridge, which was built in 1869. Opposite Strand-on-the-Green is an ait, or eyot, used by the Thames Conservancy Board for manuSome almshouses were built at Strand-on-the-facturing and repairing purposes, and this forms Green in 1725, but they have been demolished. a pleasing foreground to the river-side view of Kew The Kensington branch of the South-Western Bridge from the east. CHAPTER II. GUNNERSBURY, EALING, AND HANWELL. "Regumque palatia villis Interfusa nitent." Gunnersbury-Descent of the Manor-The Princess Amelia a Resident here-Horace Walpole a frequent Guest-The Property bought by the Rothschilds-The Gardens and Grounds-Gunnersbury House-Ealing-Extent and Nature of the Soil-The Manor--The Parish ChurchSir John Maynard-John Horne Tooke-John Oldmixon-Christ Church-St. John's Church-Seats and Mansions-Dr. John Owen--Dr William King and other Eminent Residents-Ford Hall-Castle Bar Hill-Princess Helena College-The Old Cross House-The Town Hall-Ealing Great School-Ealing Common- Mrs. Lawrence's Gardens-Fordhook House, and Henry Fielding the Novelist-The "Old Hat" Tavern-Hanwell-The Grand Junction Canal-The Parish Church-Jonas Hanway-The Town of Hanwell-The Central London District Schools-Charitable Institutions-Hanwell Lunatic Asylum-The Cemeteries-Electric Telegraphy in its Infancy. HAVING arrived at the foot of Kew Bridge, where the loop-line of the South Western Railway converges with that of the North London, we will step aside from our westward path, and retracing our way for a few yards towards West Acton, we will pass up a lane to the left, which takes us to Gunnersbury Park, in the parish of Ealing, though on the borders of Turnham Green. A century ago it was the residence of the Princess Amelia, daughter of George II., and aunt to George III. Here, while the young king lived at Kew, she gave fashionable parties to the be-wigged gentlemen and be-hooped ladies of "quality," and, indeed, kept up a sort of rival Court. She seems to have entertained very generously and hospitably, and to have been very popular with her friends, and at one time to have exercised some personal influence with members of the Cabinet. But sometimes her good-nature led her to do foolish things. For instance, Lord Brougham tells us, in his "Lives of Statesmen," that when Lord Bute had fallen from the favour of the king, the princess invited him and her nephew, the king, on the same afternoon, and caused them-quite accidentally, of course to meet in one of the shady walks of her garden. Her stratagem, however, did not succeed; and the king was so offended and angry at the liberty which she had taken, that he desired such a trick might never be played on him again. "His word was law," even with his aunt; and the ruse was never repeated. It is dangerous to trifle with kings. Gunnersbury stands on ground which may be called high in comparison with the flat market gardens which lie between it and the Bath road. The name of Gunnersbury is probably derived from Gunilda, or Gunylda, the niece of King Canute, who resided here. It was a manor in the parish of Ealing, but its manorial rights have largely fallen into neglect and disuse. Little is known of its descent; but in the fifteenth century it belonged to Sir Thomas Frowick, an Alderman of London, and father of Sir Thomas Frowick, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. The property was afterwards held by the knightly family of the Spelmans, and in the middle of the seventeenth century it passed by purchase into the hands of Sir John Maynard, who was an eminent lawyer under the Stuart kings, and who died here in 1690. Gunnersbury remained for many years in the occupation of his widow, who married Henry, Earl of Suffolk. On the death of the Countess Dowager, in 1721, the estate became the property of Sir John (afterwards Lord) Hobart, by whom it was ultimately sold to a Mr. Furnese. The place figures constantly in Bubb Dodington's "Diary," 1749-50. On the accession of George III., in 1760, the estate was purchased for the Princess Amelia. Horace Walpole was one of the most frequent guests at her parties. He writes to his friend, Sir Horace Mann, in 1761, saying that he has been there once or twice a week ever since the late king's death; and a month later again he writes to Mr. Conway : "I was sent for again to dine at Gunnersbury on Friday, and was forced to send to town for a dress coat and a sword. There were the Prince |