Part 10 (1/2)
PURSER'S CROSS, 7TH AUGUST, 1738.
This date has reference to an occurrence which the monthly chronologer in the 'London Magazine' thus relates:-
”An highwayman having committed several robberies on Finchley Common, was pursued to London, when he thought himself safe, but was, in a little time, discovered at a public-house in Burlington Gardens, refres.h.i.+ng himself and his horse; however, he had time to remount, and rode through Hyde Park, in which there were several gentlemen's servants airing their horses, who, taking the alarm, pursued him closely as far as Fulham Fields, where, finding no probability of escaping, he threw money among some country people who were at work in the field, and told them they would soon see the end of an unfortunate man. He had no sooner spoke these words but he pulled out a pistol, clapped it to his ear, and shot himself directly, before his pursuers could prevent him. The coroner's inquest brought in their verdict, and he was buried in a cross road, with a stake drove through him; but 'twas not known who he was.” {155a}
In the 'Beauties of England and Wales,' ”Purser's Cross” is said to have been corrupted from ”Parson's Cross,” and the vicinity of Parson's Green is mentioned in support of the conjecture. However, that Purser, and not Percy Cross, has been for many years the usual mode of writing the name of this locality is established by the 'Annual Register' for 1781, where the following remarkable coincidence is mentioned:-
”Died, 30th December, 1780, at Purser's Cross, Fulham, Mrs. Elizabeth and Mrs. Frances Turberville, in the seventy-seventh year of their ages, of ancient and respectable west country family; they were twin sisters, and both died unmarried. What adds to the singularity of this circ.u.mstance, they were both born the same day, never were known to live separate, died within a few days of each other, and were interred on the same day.”
Park House presents a fac-simile of an old mansion which stood precisely on the same site, and was known as Quibus Hall, a name, as is conjectured, bestowed upon it in consequence of some dispute respecting possession between the coheirs of Sir Michael Wharton, who died about 1725. {155b} When rebuilt by Mr. Holland for the late Mr. Powell, it was called High Elms House, and was for some time occupied as a school, conducted by the Rev. Thomas Bowen, who published in 1798 'Thoughts on the Necessity of Moral Discipline in Prisons.' After Mr. Bowen's death in the following year, his widow, with the a.s.sistance of the Rev. Joshua Ruddock, carried on the establishment until 1825, since which time Park House became the occasional residence of Mr. Powell, of Quex, in the Isle of Thanet, until his death in 1849. A cottage opposite (formerly ”Brunswick Cottage”) was called ”Rosamond's Bower,” during the time the late Mr. Crofton Croker lived in it (183746).
In a privately printed description of this cottage, when the residence of Mr. Croker, of which but a very few copies were distributed to his friends, Mr. Croker himself writes:-
”In what, it may be asked, originates the romantic name of 'Rosamond's Bower?' A question I shall endeavour to answer. The curious reader will find from Lysons' 'Environs of London' (II. 359), that the manor of Rosamonds is an estate near Parson's Green, in the [Picture: Old Rosamond's Bower and Park House, from a Sketch made about 1750] parish of Fulham. Lysons adds, 'the site of the mansion belonging to this estate, now (1795) rented by a gardener, is said, by tradition, to have been a palace of Fair Rosamond.' There seems to be, however, no foundation beyond the name for this tradition, and it is unnoticed by Faulkner in his 'History of Fulham,' published in 1813. He merely mentions, adjoining High Elms, or Park House, an old dwelling, which 'ancient house,' continues Faulkner, 'appears to be of the age of Elizabeth, and is commonly called Rosamond's Bower.'
This 'ancient house' was taken down by Mr. Powell, in the year 1826, and the present stables of Park House are built upon the site. But I have recently learned that the name of 'Rosamond's Dairy' is still attached to an old house probably built between two and three hundred years, which stands a little way back from the high-road at the north-west corner of Parson's Green.
”I have always felt with Dr. Johnson that relics are venerable things, and are only _not_ to be wors.h.i.+pped. When, therefore, I took my cottage, in 1837, and was told that the oak staircase in it had belonged to the veritable 'Rosamond's Bower,' and was the only relic of it that existed; and when I found that the name had no longer a precise 'local habitation' in Fulham, I ventured, purely from motives of respect for the memory of the past, and not from any affectation of romance, to revive an ancient parochial name which had been suffered to die out, 'like the snuff of a candle.' In changing its precise situation, in transferring it from one side of Parson's Green Lane to the other, a distance, however, not fifty yards from the original site, I trust when called upon to show cause for the transfer, to be reasonably supported by the history of the old oak staircase. Indeed I may here venture to a.s.sert that the change of name from 'Brunswick Cottage,'-so was 'Rosamond's Bower' called when I took it,-and the a.s.sumption of that name, if contrasted with the name changing and name travelling fas.h.i.+on of the district, is a proceeding in which I am fully borne out by numerous precedents.
”Miss Edgeworth, in her reply, dated 31st January, 1840, to the letter of a juvenile correspondent (then nine years of age) inquires, 'Is Rosamond's Bower a real name?' And I well remember the gestures and even some of the jests which the omnibus pa.s.sengers made when 'Rosamond's Bower' was first painted upon the stone caps of the gate piers, such as Father Prout's '_Rosy_-man's Bower near the _White_ Sheaf' (Wheatsheaf). But the novelty wore off in a week or two, and the name has long since ceased to be an object of speculation to any but the inquisitive. For their information I may state, that in the time of Elizabeth all the gardeners' cottages in this neighbourhood were called bowers. It was the Saxon term for a room, and, therefore, applied to the dwelling occupied by the labouring cla.s.s.
And Rosamond, or Rosaman, is said to have been the name of a family of gardeners bestowed upon the district which they had long cultivated-possibly a sobriquet derived from the fame of their roses in times when that flower was a badge of party distinction. . . . It only remains for me to add, that 'Rosamond's Bower' stands 22 feet back from the high road, and has a small garden or court before it, measuring, exclusive of the stable-yard, 63 feet. The garden behind the house is of that form called a gore, gradually narrowing from 63 to 22 feet, in a distance of 550 feet or 183 yards-five turns up and down which 'long walk' may be reckoned, by exercise meters, 'a full mile,' it being 73 yards over and above the distance, an ample allowance for ten short turnings. Of the old 'Rosamond's Bower'
three representations have been preserved; two of these are pen-and-ink sketches by Mr. Doherty, made about the middle of the last century, one of which is an authority for the name of Pershouse Cross. The third view appears in a well-executed aquatint plate of 'Fulham Park School taken from the Play Ground.'
”The foundation of the present 'Rosamond's Bower,' judging from the brickwork on the south side, and the thickness of the walls, is probably as old as the time of Elizabeth-I mean the original building which consisted of two rooms, one above the other, 12 feet square, and 7 feet in height. On the north side of this primitive dwelling was a deep draw-well. Subsequently two similar rooms were attached, one of which (the present hall) was built over the well, and two attics were raised upon this very simple structure, thus increasing the number of rooms from two to six. Then a kitchen was built (the present dining-room), and another room over it (the present drawing-room), at the back of the original building, which thus from a labourer's hut a.s.sumed the air of an eight-roomed cottage. It was then discovered that the rooms were of very small dimensions, and it was considered necessary to enlarge four of them by the additional s.p.a.ce to be gained from bay windows in the dining-room, drawing-room, blue bedchamber, and dressing-room. But the spirit of improvement seldom rests content, and when it was found that the kitchen, which looked upon the garden, was a more agreeable sitting-room, both as to aspect and quiet, than the more ancient and smaller room which looked upon the road, it was determined to create another attachment on the north side, by building a kitchen of still larger dimensions, with a scullery and storeroom behind, to replace the old scullery and out-offices by a s.p.a.cious staircase, and over this new kitchen to place a room of corresponding size, or equal to that of the two bedrooms upon the same line of building. Thus in 1826 did 'Rosamond's Bower' become a cottage of ten rooms; and as it was soon afterwards presumed from the march of luxury that no one could live in a decade cottage without requiring a coachhouse and stable, an excellent one was built not far from the north side, making the third, though not the last, addition in that direction.
”Parva domus! nemorosa quies, Sis tu quoque nostris hospitium laribus Subsidium diu: postes tuas Flora ornet Pomonaque mensas.”
THE GARDEN.
”It is much more difficult to describe the garden of Rosamond's Bower than its shape. I may, however, mention that by means of a sunk fence {159} and a wen-like excrescence upon the original gore, made in the Spring of 1842, the extensive meadow of Park House, with the piece of water which adorns it, appear to belong to my residence so completely, that so far as the eye questions the matter, 'I am monarch of all I survey.' [Picture: Distant View of 'Rosamond's Bower' from the adjoining Meadow] The first lawn of the garden rejoices in two very remarkable trees, one a standard Ayrs.h.i.+re rose, rising ten feet in height from a stem ten inches in circ.u.mference, and from which, during sunny June, 'every breeze, of red rose leaves brings down a crimson rain.' {160} The other a weeping ash of singularly beautiful proportions. It has been trained, or rather restrained, to the measurement of fifty-six feet in circ.u.mference, the stem being two feet round, and the branches shooting out at the height of five feet with incredible luxuriance. Under its branches I had the pleasure of seeing no less than thirty-eight friends sit down to breakfast on the 22nd June, 1842; and Gunter, who laid covers for forty-four, a.s.sured me, that another arrangement with circular tables, made for the purpose, would have comfortably accommodated sixty. A miniature shrubbery, not in height, but in breadth, intervenes between the first lawn and the flower garden, where, in the centre of beds, stands the 'Baylis Vase'-a memorial, I sincerely trust, of a more enduring friends.h.i.+p. Miss Aikin's question-but a very long acquaintance with that lady's fame warrants me here writing 'Lucy Aikin's question-to me, one evening while walking down the garden, whether that urn had been placed over the remains of any favourite, was the occasion of the following lines being painted on it:-
Think not that here was placed this urn To mark a spot o'er which to mourn.
Should tender thoughts awake a tear For fading flowers or waning year, Remember that another spring, Fresh flowers and brighter hopes will bring.
Two elevated strawberry beds, facetiously termed 'twin strawberry hills,' rear themselves between the vase and the back lawn, the further corners of which are respectively protected from wheelbarrow intrusion by an Irish Quern and a Capsular Stone, venerated in Irish tradition-the former a remarkably perfect, the latter an exceedingly compact specimen, having on one side a double, and on the other a single hollow. . . . The remaining points of interest in my garden may be noticed in a very few words. It gradually decreases in breadth, and is fenced off on one side from the garden of a very kind neighbour (which contains two of the finest walnut trees in the parish) by an oak paling partially covered with broad, or Irish, and embellished by the picturesque narrow-leaved ivy.
”On the other side a trim hedge, kept breast high, which runs beside 'the long walk,' separates it from the extensive meadow of Park House, and at the termination the following inscription from one of Herrick's poems has been placed-
Thine own dear grounds, Not envying others larger bounds, For well thou knowest 'tis not the extent Of land makes life, but sweet content.
”The garden produces plenty of strawberries, an abundance of raspberries, and generally a good crop of apples and pears, but few vegetables; the cultivation, except of asparagus (of which there are two excellent beds), having been abandoned, as the bird monopoly of peas, caused every s.h.i.+lling's worth that came to table to cost five, and the ingenuity of the slugs and snails having completely baffled all amateur gardening schemes of defence against their slimy invasions. [Picture: Rustic bench] Among many experiments I may mention one. Some vegetables were protected by a circ.u.mvallum of salt; but, notwithstanding, the slugs and snails contrived to pa.s.s this supposed deadly line of demarcation by fixing themselves on dry leaves which they could easily lift, and thus they wriggled safely over it. My greatest enjoyment in the garden has been derived from a rustic bench at the north side of the shrubbery, through the back and arms of which a honeysuckle has luxuriantly interlaced itself; there, particularly when recovering from illness, I have sat, and have found, or fancied, that pain was soothed, and depressed spirits greatly elevated, by the monotonous tone of the bees around me.”
The pamphlet from which the above has been taken then enters into a minute description of the curiosities, pictures, &c., collected by Mr.
Croker at 'Rosamond's Bower,' which it is unnecessary further to refer to; indeed, although intended for private circulation only, it was not completed, as Mr. Croker was led to believe it might appear but an egotistical description of an unimportant house.
The following particulars, connected with Thomas Moore's visit to 'Rosamond's Bower,' may prove interesting:-
On the 6th October, 1838, Moore wrote to Mr. Crofton Croker as follows:-
”Many thanks for your wish to have me at Rosamond's Bower, even though I was unlucky enough not to profit by that wish-some other time, however, you must, for _my_ sake, try again; and I shall then be most ready for a rummage of your Irish treasures. Already, indeed, I have been drawing a little upon your 'Researches in the South of Ireland;' and should be very glad to have more books of yours to pilfer.