Chapter I: Introduction

"The Literary History of the Adelphi" has journeyed from one side of the neighbourhood to the other, from west to east. That is to say, its publication has been acquired by Mr. Fisher Unwin, hence the removal of the book from York Buildings to Adelphi--originally called "Royal," and still so marked on the old plans--Terrace. This peregrination gives me the opportunity of supplementing the original work with some interesting particulars which have just come into my possession. Who would think that within a short distance of the Strand, if not actually within the proverbial stone's throw, there are "cottages," and cottages, too, with trees and flowers and lawns, and a mighty river, for prospect? Yet such is the case, although it is no wonder that the rate collector who is new to this part of London has much ado to find "Adelphi cottages." They belong to that mysterious region which lies underneath the Strand level of the Adelphi and is vaguely known as the "arches." If the reader will glance at the illustration which faces page 32--"The Buildings called the Adelphi"--he will see, at the top of the arches and under the terrace, some fifteen semi-circular recesses. These are really capacious rooms, and from the windows thereof the view of the Embankment Gardens and the Thames is considerable compensation for the tediousness and deviousness of the approach. The "cottages" were originally attached to the houses on the terrace above, and, until recent years, they were inhabited. Now, however, the majority of them are let separately and are used as stores or workshops. One of them, however, is still occupied as a dwelling-place, and, whatever else it may be, this habitation is certainly unique.

Underneath the "Adelphi cottages," and extending below the houses of the terrace, and John, Robert, and Adam Streets, are the famous arches, which few people, either Londoners, who know nothing of their own city, or Americans, who are versed in the lore of our ancient streets, have ever visited. Truth to tell, the expedition to the Adelphi arches is not to be undertaken with too light a heart. The gloomy recesses do not conduce to joy, and, although the foot-pad has scant opportunity for indulging in his nefarious practices, he would be a venturesome person, a stranger to these parts, who would wander alone in this underground world after the sun, which never enters these passages, had ceased to illumine the earth above. This very darkness and dismalness has its advantages at times. When Messrs. Coutts, for instance, moved from their old premises in the Strand, there was much speculation as to the manner in which they transferred their immense stock of securities, deeds, and other valuables from one side of the road to the other. There was great talk at the time of armies of detectives and the use of the early hours of Sundays, and other vague suggestions were allowed to be promulgated. It was assumed that the transference would take place from one side of the road to the other, and it was thought that there might be some audacious attempts at robbery. In reality, the matter was quite simple and there was not the slightest danger of any attack upon the priceless possessions. Far removed from the noisy Strand--in regard to atmosphere and surroundings--there is an arch, dark indeed, and shut off from the outer world by huge gates, which are some distance away. Here, many feet below the surface of the streets, is a secret entrance to the premises of the old bank. And here, in absolute security, never dreamt of by the enterprising thief, the carts were loaded with their treasures.

The actual removal of these valuables was effected with great ease. The carts wended their innocent way through the dreary arches, in front of the "cottages," and passed out by a "right of way" underneath the Hotel Cecil, towards Blackfriars. Thus, the would-be thief was deluded of his prey. This "right of way" marks the bottom of Ivy Lane, which is still in existence. It runs from the Strand and denotes the boundary of the Duchy of Lancaster and the City of Westminster. Formerly, it was an open thoroughfare, but there is now, at the Strand entrance as well as at the bottom, a gate. At the river end, there was, in olden times, a bridge, or pier, called Ivy Bridge. But I think that there must have been, not only a bridge in the Strand, but that there was a stream which ran hence into the Thames. John Stow, in his "Survey of London," first published in 1598, speaks of "Ivy Bridge, in the High Street, which had a way under it leading to the Thames, the like as sometime had the Strand Bridge." Now, the Strand Bridge was over the stream of St. Clement's Well, and Strand Lane, like Ivy Lane, ran down to the river, and, like it, there was a pier at the end. I am the more certain that there must have been a river of sorts at the junction of Ivy Lane and the Strand, because to this day, as I found in the course of a recent investigation, a stream trickles under John Street and renders useless a large cellar. Nothing can stop it. It percolates now, just as it has done ever since the excavations made by the Brothers Adam in 1768. It is drained away, but it is just sufficient to create a damp atmosphere which is detrimental to the storing of wine.

Hundreds of thousands of bottles of wine--chiefly port, claret, and burgundy--are in bins here, and a most admirable place for the purpose it is. The underground Adelphi is absolutely dry--save for the one spot mentioned--and the temperature does not vary five degrees in the course of a year. Here, also, are many hundreds of cases of champagne, and here the jaded Londoner--if he be sufficiently favoured--might come and feast his eyes on some few dozens of bottles of "white port"--a wine which is not in fashion in these degenerate days, but which, I rejoiced to learn, is still sent hence to a certain royal household. Strange as it may seem, there is a strong air of royalty about these dimly-lit vaults. What between the secret entrance to the old premises of the great bankers--Messrs. Coutts are the bankers for his Majesty and for the Queen[1]--and the "white port" which gives its benefit to illustrious persons of royal lineage, there is a distinct feeling that one is moving on an exalted plane when, paradoxical as it may seem, we are in this subterranean place. The distinctly regal air which pervades these caves of silence may have given rise to a certain statement that hereabouts--half a dozen yards from the royal stock of "white port"--Lady Jane Grey was cast into a dungeon deep and carried thence to the dreaded Tower, there to be beheaded. But the "Nine Days' Queen" knew only her gardens and her flowers when she lived in Durham House--the predecessor of the Adelphi. Here, in May, 1553, the Duke of Northumberland married his son, Lord Guildford Dudley, to Lady Jane, in pursuance of his design for altering the succession from the Tudor to the Dudley family. The unfortunate girl of scarce seventeen summers certainly left Durham House for the Tower--but it was with great pomp and circumstance, in order to be proclaimed Queen. Her execution followed hard upon, but she knew not imprisonment in what is now the Adelphi. On the other hand, the haunt of a wretched woman is still to be seen in this gloomy spot. "Jenny's Holes" figure on the plan to this day, and are not likely to be obliterated therefrom. Into one or other of these places--recesses by the main arches--the outcast came to sleep and, finally, to die; some say, indeed, that she was murdered here. "Jenny" has no history, but the vague tradition of her misery still haunts these "dark arches." Nor is the story at all improbable. The "dark arches" are forbidding enough now, and, even in the day-time, the sparse gas jets only serve to make darkness visible. So recently as the early seventies, when Mr. George Drummond came into the property, cows were kept in the underground passages of the Adelphi.

Adelphi Terrace, Adam Street to the east, and John Street, which is parallel with the terrace and the Strand, and in between, still retain much of their old-world appearance. But at the western side of the Adelphi changes are afoot. There is a new building, facing the river, but stunted and barred from its proper height by that bugbear of the modern builder, "ancient lights." Then, again, the Caledonian Hotel, in Robert Street, has taken to itself a new storey, and has been transmogrified into modern flats with--oh, shade of Adam!--bath-rooms. The searcher after the picturesque in London architecture might do worse than descend from the Strand, past the Tivoli. He will then be on the site of one of the gateways of Old Durham House, and, turning to the right, he will see a bridge of beautiful design. It was built, in order to connect the Strand and Adelphi premises of the bank, by Thomas Coutts, who procured a special Act of Parliament for the purpose.

The entire Adelphi estate occupies a little over three acres and a quarter, divided as follows:--

Superficial
feet.
Houses (only) 78,400
Roadways, terrace, and areas 45,400
Foreground 19,200
--------
143,000

The names of two more noted inhabitants of the Adelphi have to be included in this "History." The learned Vicesimus Knox (1752-1821), who is best known to fame as the compiler of "Elegant Extracts" (1789), lived at No. 1, Adam Street. The first floor of the same house was the place of retirement, for a score of years, of George Blamire, barrister-at-law, "of very eccentric habits, but sound mind." John Timbs, in his "Curiosities of London," states that "no person was allowed to enter his chamber, his meals and all communications being left by his housekeeper at the door of his ante-room. He was found dead in an arm-chair, in which he had been accustomed to sleep for twenty years. He died of exhaustion, from low fever and neglect; at which time his rooms were filled with furniture, books, plate, paintings, and other valuable property." The eccentric habits are evident; but the "sound mind" is a little doubtful.

Finally, I may state that I have followed the fortunes of my book, and, after a brief excursion into the noisy part of the world on the other side of Charing Cross, have returned to the quiet and comparative solitude of the Adelphi, where tubes do not trouble and motor buses do not annoy. "Sir," said Dr. Johnson, "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." And I think that there is no part of London of which a man can be in less apprehension of tiring than the Adelphi. It is of London, yet away from it; in the heart of the world, yet secluded. To know it is to love it.

Austin Brereton.

_September, 1908._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: See page 212.]

Contents

CHAPTER I

PAGES

Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham--The Papal Legate and the Oxford
Clergy--Henry III. and the Earl of Leicester--Prince Henry--The
Author of _Philobiblon_--Edward III.--Thomas Hatfield--Henry
VIII.--Cuthbert Tunstall--Cranmer at Durham House--Anne
Boleyn--Henry VIII. and Anne of Cleves feast at Durham House--Dudley,
Duke of Northumberland--Lady Jane Grey--Queen Mary--Queen
Elizabeth--Philip Sidney--Sir Walter Raleigh--Elizabeth
Throgmorton--Glanville _v._ Courtney--Thomas Egerton--Fire at
Durham House--Raleigh and his Pipe 1-20

CHAPTER II

The New Exchange--The Earl of Salisbury proprietor--Opened by
James I.--Popular Allusions--The First Edition of _Othello_ published
Here--Samuel Pepys a Frequent Visitor--Henry Herringman--Otway
--Etherege--Wycherley--Dryden--Addison--Durham House
in Decay--Acquired by the Earl of Pembroke--Various Public
Offices in Durham Yard--Charles II. helps to extinguish a Fire
Here--Archbishop Le Tellier--Godfrey Kneller--David Garrick,
wine merchant--Dr Johnson--Voltaire--Murder in the New
Exchange 21-48

CHAPTER III

The Romantic Story of the White Milliner, otherwise the Beautiful Frances
Jennings, Duchess of Tyrconnel--Her Youthful Escapade--Her
Connection with the New Exchange the subject of a Play by Douglas
Jerrold--Its Failure and the Author's Disappointment--"Nan"
Clarges, afterwards Duchess of Albemarle, sells Wash-balls in the
New Exchange--Her Burial in Westminster Abbey--Sir William
Read, the Quack, cures "Wry Necks" in Durham Yard--Demolition
of the New Exchange--A Noted Book-shop--Ambassadors
reside Here 49-74

CHAPTER IV

Enter the Brothers Adam--Their Marvellous Transformation of the Ruins
of Durham House and Yard into the Present Adelphi--The Magnitude
of the Project--Opposition of the City--Defeated by Special
Act of Parliament--The Adelphi Buildings only completed by Aid
of a Lottery--The Adams explain their Position--Robert Adam:
His History--His Death--James Adam--Some Poor Wit, including
Walpole's, at the Expense of the Architects 75-99

CHAPTER V

The Society of Arts--Its Foundation--Its Removal to the Adelphi in
1774--James Barry and his Famous Paintings--Visited in John Street
by Burke and Johnson--The Latter's opinion of his Genius--Description
of his Pictures for the Society--The Work of the Society--"Spot"
Ward, the Inventor of "Friar's Balsam"--Johnson speaks
in the Great Room--Forsaken by his "Flowers of Oratory" 100-122

CHAPTER VI

David Garrick--His Residence in the Adelphi--Founds the Drury Lane
Fund--His Last Appearance on the Stage--Honoured by Parliament--The
Friendship of Mr and Mrs Garrick for Hannah More--Their
Correspondence--Garrick helps the Production of _Percy_--Presents
his Buckles to Hannah More--The Production of _Percy_--Garrick's
Prologue gives Offence--Garrick brings Hannah More's Dinner from
the Adelphi to the "Turk's Head"--The Literary Club--His Last
Illness and Death 123-144

CHAPTER VII

Garrick's Funeral from the Adelphi--Johnson's Opinion of Garrick: "A
Liberal Man"--His Death "Eclipsed the Gaiety of Nations"--Topham
Beauclerk and Johnson--Mrs Garrick's famous Dinner
Party--Johnson and other Celebrities Present--Described by Hannah
More and Boswell--Johnson's Morning Visit to Adelphi Terrace--Hannah
More's Life Here--Another Dinner Party--Death of Mrs
Garrick--Shakespeare's Gloves sent to Mrs Siddons from the
Adelphi--Goldsmith writes from a Sponging-House to Garrick in
the Adelphi--Becket, the Bookseller 145-171

CHAPTER VIII

The celebrated Quack, Dr Graham--His Temple of Health in the
Adelphi--Satirised by Colman and Bannister--"Vestina, the Rosy
Goddess of Health"--Emma Lyon, Lady Hamilton--Osborn's Hotel--The
King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands--Their Death in the
Adelphi--Isaac d'Israeli--The Earl of Beaconsfield--Thomas Hill,
the Original of Paul Pry--Thomas Hood and Charles Dickens--_David
Copperfield_ and _Pickwick_--Ivy Lane--The Fox-under-the-Hill--The
Adelphi "Dark Arches" 172-191

CHAPTER IX

The First Bankers--Middleton & Campbell, predecessors of Coutts & Co.,
"at The Three Crowns in the Strand"--Patrick and John Coutts--Patrick
and Thomas Coutts in London--Death of James Coutts--Enter
Thomas Coutts--Letter by Him--His Stern Character--Married
to Harriot Mellon--Susan Starkie and "The Three Graces"--Sir
Francis Burdett--Angela Georgina Burdett--The Duchess of
St Albans--Anecdotes of Thomas Coutts--His Personal Appearance--Interior
of the Bank--The Chinese Wall-Paper--The Adelphi
Chapel--Illustrious Customers of Messrs Coutts--Partners in the
Firm--The Wills of Thomas Coutts and the Duchess of St Albans--The
Savage Club--Thomas Hardy--E.L. Blanchard 192-217

CHAPTER X

York House--Francis Bacon--The Great Seal taken from Him--Lord
Keeper Egerton--The Duke of Buckingham, King James' "Steenie"
--Magnificence of his Entertainments--Contemporary Descriptions--Bishop
Goodman's Praise--The Second Duke--Dryden's Revenge--The
"Superstitious Pictures" of York House--Buckingham's Marriage--Spanish,
Russian, and French Ambassadors Here--Visits by Pepys
and Evelyn--Duke of Buckingham sells York House--His Curious
Condition of Sale--The Duke's _Litany_ 218-234

CHAPTER XI

The York Water-Gate--Inigo Jones' Beautiful Work--Built for the Duke
of Buckingham--The Proposal for its Removal--Satires on the
Subject--The Gate Neglected--Its Restoration--The Water Tower--The
West-end supplied with Water from Here--The Steam
Engine--Samuel Pepys resides in Buckingham Street--William
Etty and Clarkson Stanfield--Peter the Great Lodges Here--His
Love of Strong Drink--The Witty Earl of Dorset--David Hume and
Jean Jacques Rousseau--Moore writes to his Publisher Here--The
Father of Modern Geology--A Great Actor dies Here--The Original
of Smollett's Hugh Strap--David Copperfield's Chambers--Evelyn
lives in Villiers Street--Sir Richard Steele--Zara acted Here--Mrs
Cibber--Misstatement by "Anthony Pasquin" 235-248

CHAPTER XII

The Strand in 1353--St Mary Rounceval--Northampton House--Earl of
Surrey, the Poet--Suffolk House--Suckling's _Ballade upon a
Wedding_--Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland--The Restoration
planned at Northumberland House--Lady Elizabeth Percy--Her
Romantic Marriages--Murder of "Tom of Ten Thousand"--The
"Proud" Duke of Somerset--_Edwin and Angelina_--Goldsmith at
Northumberland House--Fire Here--Dr Percy's Library saved--The
Famous Lion--Demolition of the House--The Duke's Lament--Northumberland
Avenue--Craven Street--Benjamin Franklin--Sir
Joshua Reynolds--Heinrich Heine--The Author of _Rejected
Addresses_--J.S. Clarke 249-272