Twickenham.]

He brought out, with notes, an edition of "Izaak Walton's Complete Angler," and also "The History of Music " and a "Life of Dr. Johnson." Hawkins was one of the original members of the Literary Club, and in the gardens of Twickenham House, as we learn from Mr. Cobbett's "Memorials," there is a building which was used for the meetings of the club. Attached to the house is a circular room with a domed roof, now used as a drawingroom; this, Mr. Cobbett tells us, was originally Sir John's concert-room. The grounds contain a curious relic, consisting of a garden-fence, curiously wrought with sword-blades brought from the field of Culloden. Twickenham House has been long the residence of Dr. Hugh Diamond.

Nearer the town of Twickenham, on the site of what is now Heath Lane Lodge, stood in former times a house which was the seat of more than one Earl Ferrers. Mr. Cobbett, in his work above mentioned, states that "tradition asserts that Laurence, the 'mad' Earl Ferrers, who shot Mr. Johnson, his steward, was taken from this house to execution." This statement, however, is very doubtful. There was in the original house a portrait of one of Lord Ferrers' daughters-the lovely Lady Frances Shirley, who was one of Pope's personal friends, and who was sung by Chesterfield as "Fanny, blooming fair."

It will not be forgotten that Pope commemorates the residence of Fielding in this place in his "Parish Register of Twickenham" :—

"When Feilding met his bunter muse,
And as they quaffed the fiery juice,
Droll Nature stamped each lucky hit
With unimaginable wit."

The aristocratic owner of Strawberry Hill has not failed, as Scott observes in his "Lives of the Novelists," to stigmatise the lowness of Fielding's habits, and of the society which he kept.

Fielding, though sprung from a collateral branch of the Feildings, Earls of Denbigh, did not care to follow the latter mode of spelling his name. On being asked why his father had departed from the accepted orthography, he replied, somewhat cynically, that "he supposed it was because he was the first of his race who knew how to spell."

Another resident here was Paul Whitehead, notorious as a venal politician and a second-rate satirist. Dr. Doran, in his "Habits and Men," speaks of him as "one of the fine gentlemen of his day, who associated only with the finest of that class. At Twickenham he had not only his country house, but a coruscant circle of wits around him, whose brilliancy was not considered as tarnished by the most mouldy blasphemy."

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Dr. Donne, the poet, was also an inhabitant of this place. He died in 1631, and has been immortalised by Isaac Walton. Here, too, lived Mrs. Margaret Godolphin, perhaps the only virtuous lady of the vicious Court of Charles II., the story of whose "saintly life" has been told so well by her friend and correspondent, John Evelyn.

Robert Boyle, the celebrated philosopher, at one period of his life lived at Twickenham. His name occurs in the parish register, but the exact locality where he resided is unknown. He was the fifth son of the great Earl of Cork, and died in 1691. Mr. Boyle founded the lectures which bear his name.

Edward Stillingfleet, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's, and afterwards Bishop of Worcester, may also be numbered among the former residents of Twickenham; and so was the Rev. Dr. Waterland, the author of many learned works, and sometime vicar of the parish, who died in 1748. Another celebrated vicar was the Rev. George Costard, who wrote and published several works on astronomy, and contributed to the "Transactions of the Royal Society," of which he was a member.

Andrew Stone, at one time preceptor to George III., lived here in style, occupying a large oldfashioned brick house near the river-side. He was a brother of the founder of the bank of Martin, Stone, and Co., at the sign of the "Grasshopper," Lombard Street. He was a friend of Horace Walpole, who mentions him in one of his works. He is buried in the north aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey.

Twickenham Common was till recent times an open space, doubtless available as a playground for the children of the poor, and as pasturage for their donkeys and geese.

"But times are altered, trade's unfeeling train
Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain."

Here may be seen the house formerly occupied by General Gunning, brother to those celebrated beauties the Duchesses of Hamilton and Argyll and Lady Coventry. The Marchioness of Tweeddale resided in it before General Gunning.

In Ailsa Park Villas lived Lord Beaconsfield's sister Sarah. She was betrothed to a Mr. Meredith, a gentleman of wealth, and of literary repute as the patron of Thomas Taylor, the translator of Aristotle. She died in December, 1859, and is buried in the Willesden Cemetery.

Coming down to more recent times, we find that here "Boz," in the first flush of prosperity caused by the success of "Pickwick," took a cottage for part of the summer of 1838. Here Talfourd, Thackeray, Jerrold, Maclise, Landseer, Stanfield, Cattermole,

and Harrison Ainsworth, were among his visitors, as narrated by Forster, in his "Life of Dickens ;" and here he indulged to the full in "the grand enjoyment of idleness," abandoning himself to what must at that time have been an inexperienced delight-the luxury of laziness.

Montpelier Row was the last residence of Mr. Augustus Mayhew, one of the "Brothers Mayhew," the author of "Paved with Gold," "The Greatest Plague of Life," &c., who died at the close of 1875.

its builder and first occupant, Sir Godfrey Kneller, who called it in his lifetime "Whitton House.” It was built in 1710. The hall and staircase were painted by La Guerre, under the direction and with the occasional assistance of Sir Godfrey. The house was made the artist's summer residence.

Sir Godfrey Kneller lives in the verses of half the poets of his age; few, however, paid him a higher compliment than Matt Prior :

We must not omit to mention amongst the celebrated persons who have resided at Twickenham the Lady Augusta Murray, the unhappy wife of the late Duke of Sussex, and the mother of his two accomplished children.

Mr. W. Andrews, in his "Book of Oddities," records a curious devise of property here as lately as 1862, when Mr. Henry Budd left an estate, called Pepper Park, to his son, on condition of his not wearing a moustache; in event of his doing so, the property to pass to a brother.

On the north-eastern side of the parish, and just within the boundary of the hamlet of Whitton, stands a building of some interest and importance, namely, Kneller Hall, so called after

"When Kneller's works of various grace
Were to fair Venus shown,
The goddess spied in every face
Some features of her own.

"But viewing Myra placed apart,
'I fear,' says she, 'I fear,
Apelles, that Sir Godfrey's art
Has far surpassed thine here.""

Again, Dryden thus sings the praises of Sir Godfrey :

"At least thy pictures look a voice; and we
Imagine sounds, deceiv'd to that degree,
We think 'tis somewhat more than just to see."

Sir Godfrey Kneller was a native of Lubeck, in

Twickenham.]

Germany, and was born in 1648. Having evinced at an early age talents of no mean order, he became a pupil of Ferdinand Bol and of Rembrandt. He subsequently visited Italy, studied at Rome under Carlo Maratti, and came to England in 1674. He was shortly after commissioned by the Duke of Monmouth to paint a portrait of the king, and his success as a portrait painter was at once established. Sir Godfrey received the appointment of portrait painter successively to Charles II., James II., William and Mary, Anne, and George I. It was not only royalty, however, that sat to Kneller; indeed, there was hardly a person of note or distinction in his day whom he had not painted. Bishop Burnet, John Evelyn, the "Court beauties" of his day, the Admirals at Hampton Court, and the members of the Kit-Cat Club, are amongst Sir Godfrey's most noted works. He was knighted by King William, and created a baronet by George I.

Among the anecdotes told of Sir Godfrey Kneller is one to the effect that he painted so fine a full-length picture of Lady Kneller, that, leaving the door of his studio open, Lady Kneller's favourite spaniel got access to it, and seeing, as he thought, his beloved mistress, he jumped up at her likeness

95 and injured the picture, which had been taken from the easel and placed against the wall.

Sir Godfrey's vanity displayed itself in his last moments. Pope, who came over to visit him two days before his death, observes that he had never seen in his life such a scene. He was sitting up in bed, and contemplating the plans which he was making for his own monument !

Sir Godfrey died in 1723, and is said, but falsely, to have been buried in the garden of Kneller Hall, but of the place of his interment there is no trace there, for he lies in Twickenham church. There is a monument to his memory, with an inscription by Pope, in Westminster Abbey.

Some time after the death of Sir Godfrey Kneller the mansion became the residence of Sir Samuel Prime; and in 1847 it was purchased by the Committee of the Council of Education, to be used as a normal training school, and Dr. Temple, now Bishop of Exeter, received the appointment of Principal. In 1856 the establishment passed into the hands of the War Department, and in the following year a school of military music was opened here. What with alterations and enlargements at different periods, the house may be said to have been almost entirely rebuilt since Kneller's time.

APART from the name of Horace Walpole, there is none that is more closely associated with Twickenham than that of Alexander Pope; and it is mainly owing to the memory of these two men that Twickenham has been so long "the favourite retreat of scholars, poets, and statesmen."

Alexander Pope was born in London in the month of May, 1688. His parents were members of the Roman Catholic Church; his father, according to the poet's own account, was "of a noble family;" but according to some of his biographers, he kept a linendraper's shop in the city; others state that he was a mechanic, a hatter, and even a farmer. In a foot-note in his "Moral Essays," it is stated that Mr. Pope's father was of "a gentle

man's family in Oxfordshire, the head of which was the Earl of Downe, whose sole heiress married the Earl of Lindsey." His mother was the daughter of William Turner, Esq., of York. She had three brothers, one of whom was killed; another died in the service of King Charles; the eldest, following his fortunes, and becoming a general officer in Spain, left her what estate remained after the sequestrations and forfeitures of her family. Be this, however, true or not, Pope's father left London during the childhood of his son, and retired first to Kensington, and then to Binfield, on the borders of Windsor Forest, and there, in his twelfth year, the youthful poet joined him. Young as he was, Pope here formed his first plans of study, and in the

seclusion of the country set himself vigorously to read, and occasionally to write. He had received the rudiments of his education in Latin and Greek from the family priest, and he was for a short time at a Roman Catholic school at Twyford, and also at a school near Hyde Park Corner, in London. His poetic abilities displayed themselves even at that early age, for he is credited with having written a play, based on certain events in the "Iliad," and made up of the speeches in Ogilby's translation, which was acted by the elder boys in the school, the part of Ajax being sustained by the master's gardener. Whilst he was living at Binfield Dryden became the subject of his greatest admiration; and it was to Wills' Coffee-house, in Russell Street, Covent Garden, that Pope, when a mere child, induced his friends to carry himn, in order that he might gaze on the great poet whose mantle he was destined in after life so worthily to wear. # "Who does not wish," writes Dr. Johnson, "that Dryden could have known the value of the homage that was paid him, and foreseen the greatness of his young admirer ?" In later years Pope became a constant frequenter of "Wills'," though not till after the illustrious Dryden's death. "Pope had now," again writes Dr. Johnson, "declared himself a poet, and thinking himself entitled to poetical conversation, began at seventeen to frequent 'Wills'' where the wits of that time used to assemble, and where Dryden had, when he lived, been accustomed to preside."

At the age of twelve Pope wrote his "Ode to Solitude," which was followed soon after by a translation of the first book of the "Thebais" of Statius, and Ovid's "Epistle of Sappho to Phaon." Whilst living at Binfield young Pope formed the acquaintanceship of Sir William Trumbull, by whom he was introduced to Wycherley the dramatist; but his friendship with the latter was but of short duration, owing, it is said, to Pope's somewhat too free strictures on a volume of poems which Wycherley was preparing for publication, and had submitted to Pope for his revision. It was about this time that the intimacy sprang up between Pope and Mr. and the Misses Blount, who were living at Mapledurham, near Reading. Pope was strongly suspected by some of his friends in after life-among others by Lepel, Lady Hervey of being privately married to his friend and correspondent, Miss Martha Blount, the elder of the two sisters.

"There can be little doubt," observed a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, "that one of the most faithful friendships of Pope's life was that

See "Old and New London," Vol. III., p. 276.

It was an

with the fair-haired Martha Blount. early friendship, with a dash of sentiment about it, that might, under happier circumstances, have ripened into love. And it was a perfectly intelligible friendship. There may be, as Mrs. Oliphant has well said, a love between man and woman which does not point to matrimony, and there seems no ground for the scandal that assailed the life-long intimacy of Martha and the poet. In his early days Pope seems to have felt an equal affection for Teresa, the elder sister; but at a later period, from some doubtful cause, there was a complete estrangement between them. . . Both sisters, by the way, were considered beautiful in their youth, but neither of them married. Martha Blount returned Swift's affection, and was, as Pope told the dean, 'as constant to old friendships as any man'; and in another letter Swift is told that she speaks of him constantly, and 'is one of the most considerate and mindful of women in the world towards others, the least so in regard to herself."'

At the age of sixteen Pope composed his "Pastorals," but they were not printed till some five years later (1709), when they appeared in "Tonson's Miscellany." He next wrote his "Essay on Criticism," which was followed shortly after by "The Rape of the Lock" and the "Temple of Fame"; "Windsor Forest and "The Ode on St. Cecilia's Day" were published in 1713. In a letter to Addison, written in this year, Pope speaks of his passion for the art of painting, which he had studied under Jervas, but the pursuit of which he was prevented from following up by the weakness of his eyesight.

The want of money led Pope about this time to issue proposals for a subscription to a translation of the "Iliad." The whole work was completed between his twenty-fifth and thirtieth year. Concerning the writing of this work, an amusing story is told by Pope himself in his correspondence. He writes:-"When I had finished the first two or three books of my translation of the 'Iliad,' Lord Halifax desired to have the pleasure of hearing them read at his house. Addison, Congreve, and Garth, were there at the read. In four or five places his lordship stopped me very civilly, and with a speech each time, much of the same kind. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Pope; but there is something in that passage that does not quite please me. Be so good as to mark the place, and consider it a little at your leisure. I'm sure you can give it a little turn.' I returned from Lord Halifax's (continues Pope) with Dr. Garth, in his chariot; and as we were going along, was saying to the doctor that my

Twickenham.]

lord had laid me under a good deal of difficulty by such loose and general observations; that I had been thinking over the passages ever since, and could not guess at what it was that offended his lordship in either of them. Garth laughed heartily at my embarrassment, and said I had not been long enough acquainted with Lord Halifax to know his way yet; that I need not puzzle myself about looking those places over and over when I got home. All you need do,' says he, 'is to leave them just as they are; call on Lord Halifax two or three months hence, thank him for his kind observations on those passages, and then read them to him as altered. I have known him much longer than you have, and will be answerable for the event.' I followed his advice; waited on Lord Halifax some time after; said, I hoped he would. find his objections to those passages removed; read them to him exactly as they were at first, and his lordship was extremely pleased with them, and cried out, 'Ay, now they are perfectly right; nothing can be better!'"

By the subscription list for his translation of Homer Pope's circumstances were so materially improved that he persuaded his father to re

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of his day. In 1726 Pope published a translation of the "Odyssey," in which he had the assistance of Broome and Fenton. Pope translated twelve books, Broome eight, and Fenton four.

About this time an incident occurred-trifling, perhaps, as it happened, but which might have ended Pope's earthly career. It is recorded by Carruthers, in his "Life of Pope," as follows:"The poet had been dining with Bolingbroke at Dawley, and late at night the peer sent his friend home in a stately fashion in a coach and six. A small bridge about a mile from Pope's residence

move from Binfield, and take up his residence nearer London; and, accordingly, we soon after find the family settled in Mawson's Buildings, Chiswick.* Here Pope continued the "Iliad," and wrote the Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard." Pope subsequently took a long lease of a house and five acres of ground at Twickenham, and at once set about the work of improvement, as we shall presently see.

From this time may be dated the most important portion of the poet's career. "He was," writes Mr. Cobbett, in his "Memorials of Twickenham," "one of the very few literary men who in his own or any previous time acquired a competence through their dealings with the booksellers." Happily he escaped from the meshes of the Curlls and Stocks

* See ante, p. 5.

was broken down, and the postillion taking the water, the coach came in contact with the trunk of a tree,and was overturned. Before the coachman could get to Pope's assistance the water had reached the knots of his periwig. The glass was broken, and he was rescued, but not until he had received a severe wound in his right hand, which for some time disqualified him from writing. Voltaire, who was on a visit to Dawley, sent his condolences in an English epistle, stating that the water into which Pope fell was 'not Hippocrene's water, otherwise it would have respected him.' 'Is it possible,' he added,

'that those fingers which have written the "Rape of the Lock" and the "Criticism," which have dressed Homer so becomingly in an English coat, should have been so barbarously treated?'"

The accident here referred to probably occurred either at the north end of the village, near where is the railway station now, or else in the little river Cran, which sweeps round to the east near the Hounslow powder-mills, and runs parallel with the road from Twickenham to Hanworth. In one place on the road to Hanworth it is dammed up so as to form a broad lake.

In 1827 were published two volumes of "Miscellanies" by Pope and Swift, to which Gay and Arbuthnot contributed, and in these "Miscellanies" was printed the piece of satire entitled "Martinus Scriblerus"; this was followed up in 1729 by the publication of the first three books of the "Dunciad,"