All About Battersea,

This small volume
IS MOST
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED (by permission)
TO
THE REV. JOHN ERSKINE CLARKE, M.A.,
Honorary Canon of Winchester, Vicar of Battersea;
AND TO THE
INHABITANTS IN GENERAL.

[Pg i]

[Transcriber's Note.—A list of illustrations has been added in below. Some obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have also been silently corrected.]

[Pg iv]

London, after the lapse of centuries, has been compared to an old ship that has been repaired and rebuilt till not one of its original timbers can be found; so marvellous are the changes and transmutations which have come over the "town upon the lake" or, harbour for ships as London was anciently called, that if a Celt, or a Roman, or a Saxon, or a Dane, or a Norman, or a Citizen of Queen Elizabeth's time were to awake from his long slumber of death, he would no more know where he was, and would be as strangely puzzled as an Englishman of the present generation would be, who had never stirred further than the radius of the Metropolis, supposing him to be conveyed by some supernatural agency one night to China, who, on rising the next morning finds himself surrounded by the street-scenery of the city of Pekin. Costumes, manners, language, inhabitants have all changed! Viewed from a geological stand-point, even the soil on which New London stands is not the same as that on which Old London stood. The level of the site of the ancient city was much lower than at present, for there are found indications of Roman highways, and floors of houses, twenty feet below the existing pathways. There are probable grounds for supposing the Surrey side to have been some nineteen hundred years ago a great expanse of water. London so called for several ages past, is a manifest corruption from Tacitus's Londinium which was not however its primitive name this famous place existed before the arrival of Cæsar in the Island, and was the capital of the Trinobantes or Trinouantes, and the seat of their kings. The name of the nation as appears from Baxter's British Glossary, was derived from the three following British words, tri, nou, bant, which signify the 'inhabitants of the new city.' This name it is supposed might have been given them by their neighbours on account of their having newly come from the Continent (Belgium) into Britain and having there founded a city called tri-now or the (new city) the most ancient name of the renowned metropolis of Britain.[1] Some have asserted that a city existed on the spot 1107 years before the birth of Christ, and 354 years before the foundation of Rome. The fables of Geoffrey of Monmouth state that London was founded by Brute (or Brutus) a descendant of the[Pg v] Trojan Æneas the son of Venus and called New Troy, or Troy Novant until the time of Lud, who surrounded it with walls, and gave it the name Caer Lud, or Lud's town etc. Leigh. A certain Lord Mayor when pleading before Henry VI. assumed from this mythological story with a view to establish a claim to London's priority of existence over the city of Rome. The Celts the ancestors of the Britons and modern Welsh were the first inhabitants of Britain. The earliest records of the history of this island are the manuscripts and the poetry of the Cambrians. Britain was called by the Romans Britannia from its Celtic name Prydhain. Camden. We need not tarry to discuss whether Londinium originally was in Cantium or Kent the place fixed by Ptolemy and some other ancient writers of good authority, or whether its original place were Middlesex, or whether situated both north and south of the Tamesis Thames. The Trinobantes occupied Middlesex and Essex, they joined in opposing the invasion of Julius Cæsar 54 B.C.; but were among the first of the British States who submitted to the Romans their new City at that time being too inconsiderable a place for Cæsar to mention. Having revolted from the Roman yoke they joined their beautiful Queen Boadicea and were defeated by Suetonius Paulinus near London A.D. 61. But before reducing the Trinobantes who had the Thames for their southern boundary, it is the opinion of some antiquarians that the Romans probably had a station to secure their conquests on the Surrey side, and the spot fixed upon for the station is St. George's in the Fields a large plot of ground situated between Lambeth and Southwark, where many Roman coins, bricks, chequered pavements and other fragments of antiquity have been found. Three Roman ways from Kent, Surrey and Middlesex intersected each other in this place. It is thought that after the Normans reduced the Trinobantes the place became neglected and that they afterwards settled on the other side of the Thames and the name was transferred to the New City. The author of a work entitled "London in Ancient and Modern times." p.p. 12 and 13 writes.—Let the reader picture to himself the aspect of the place now occupied by the great Metropolis, as the Romans saw it on their first visit. He should imagine the Counties of Kent and Essex, now divided by the Thames, partially overflowed in the vicinity of the river by an arm of the sea, so that a broad estuary comes up as far as Greenwich, and the waters spread on both sides washing the foot of the Kentish uplands to the south, and finding a boundary to the north in the gently rising ground of Essex. The mouth of the river, properly speaking was situated three or four miles from where London Bridge now stands. Instead of being confined between banks as at present, the river[Pg vi] overflowed extensive marshes, which lay both right and left beyond London. Sailing up the broad stream, the voyager would find the waters spreading far on either side of him, as he reached the spots now known as Chelsea and Battersea—a fact of which the record is preserved in their very names. A tract of land rises on the north side of the river. It is bounded to the west by a range of country, subject to inundations, consisting of beds of rushes and osiers and boggy grounds and impenetrable thickets, intersected by streams. It is bounded to the north by a large dense forest, rising on the edge of a waste fen or lake, covering the whole district now called Finsbury and stretching away for miles beyond. This tract of land, rising in a broad knoll, formed the site of London.

An old writer says "it is now certain that the spot, (viz. St. George's in the Fields) on which the city was described to have stood, was an extensive marsh or lake, reaching as far as Camberwell hills, until by drains and embankments, the Romans recovered all the lowlands about the parts now called St. George's Fields, Lambeth etc. London never stood on any other spot than the Peninsular, on the northern banks, formed by the Thames in front; by the river Fleet on the west; and by the stream afterwards named Walbrook on the East. An immense forest originally extended to the river side, and, even as late as the reign of Henry II. covered the northern neighbourhood of the city, and was filled with various species of beasts of chase. It was defended naturally by fosses, one formed by the creek which ran along the Fleet ditch, the other by that of Walbrook. The south side was protected by the river Thames, and the north by the adjacent forest."

In the reign of Nero the first notice of Londinium or, Londinum occurs in Tacitus (Ann xiv. 33.) where it is spoken of, not then as honoured with the name Colonia but for the great conflux of Merchants, its extensive commerce, and as a depôt for merchandise. At a later date London appears to have been Colonia under the name Augusta (Amm. Marcell.; xxvii. 8.) how long it possessed this honourable appellation we do not know but after the establishment of the Saxons we find no mention of Augusta. It has received at various times thirteen different names, but most of them having some similarity to the present one. However as it is not a history of England's Metropolis but All about Battersea[2] we write, we will at once commence at Nine Elms.

[Pg vii]

[Pg 3]

NINE ELMS LANE it is said derived its name from nine Elm Trees which stood in a row facing a small mansion known as "Manor House"—on the site there has recently been erected, partly out of some of the old materials, the offices and premises belonging to Haward Bros. Forty years ago, Londoners wending their way to Battersea fields regarded themselves in the country away from the smoke of town where they could rusticate at pleasure as soon as they entered Nine Elms Lane on their pedestrian excursions. Here were hedgerows, and green lanes, and market gardens, and orchards, meadows, and fields of waving corn, where reapers might have been seen in harvest-time reaping and binding sheaves of golden grain. Dikes and ditches had to be crossed.[1] In the event of high tide, which was of no uncommon occurrence, the district would be partially inundated with water, in some places people might ply in small rowing boats as easily as on the River Thames. On the site where now stands the wharf of John Bryan and Co., the celebrated Contractors for Welsh, Steam, Gas, and household Coals in general, were situated the pleasure grounds and tea gardens belonging to Nine Elms Tavern—the old tavern is still remaining. By the side of the Coal Wharf is the Causeway where watermen used to ply for hire in order to ferry people across the river. Steel has given us a lively description of a boat trip from Richmond on an early summer morning when he fell in "with a fleet of gardeners.... Nothing remarkable happened in our voyage, but I landed with ten sail of Apricot boats at Strand bridge after having put up at Nine Elms to take in melons." Within the immediate vicinity is Thorne's Brewery with its clock turret at its summit which at night is illuminated with gas so that the passers-by looking at the clock might know the hour. On the spot where Southampton Streets are, stood in olden time a large mansion surrounded by extensive grounds, said to have been inhabited by the King's Champion. The Champion of the King, (campio regis) is an ancient officer, whose office is, at the coronation of our Kings, when the King is at dinner[Pg 4] to ride armed cap a pie, into Westminster Hall, and by the proclamation of an herald make a challenge "that if any man shall deny the King's title to the crown, he is there ready to defend it in single combat, etc., which being done," the King drinks to him, and sends him a gilt cup with a cover full of wine, which the Champion drinks, and hath the cup for his fee.

On the north side of Nine Elms Lane, nearly opposite the place where the "Southampton Arms" Tavern is situated was a windmill.

On the site now occupied by Thorne's Brewery there used to be a Tan Yard and Fellmonger's Establishment. When the ground was opened for the purpose of drainage some old tanks were discovered in which the hides were soaked containing remains of lime and hair. In the rear of the Brewery there was a Hop Garden where that bitter plant much used for brewing was cultivated. The only regular vehicle that passed through Nine Elms Lane was the carrier's cart—the few inhabitants of the place used to "turn out" to see it pass—a marked contrast to the present hurried and incessant traffic! Facing the Railway Terminus were two Steamboat Piers for landing and taking up passengers. At race times the excitement between the rival steamboat companies was intense—"touters," men hired expressly by each of these companies to induce passengers to go down their respective piers, became at times so exasperated with each other that they fell to blows, a sight which the baser sort of the crowds assembled on such occasions enjoyed to their hearts' content.

Many things have been said by way of disparagement of Battersea and not at all reflecting credit on certain localities within the parish. Battersea has been called "the Sink Hole of Surrey." Europa Place, Bridge Road, has been designated "Little Hell," and the spot where Trinity Hall has been erected at the end of Stewart's Lane, received the epithet of "Hell Corner." Persons in the habit of receiving stolen property were said to reside in the neighbourhood; moreover, there was a gang called "Battersea Forty Theives!" "Sharpers" are said to have abounded in every direction, so that strangers going to Battersea would be "cut for the simples." But we who know something of London life know that other Metropolitan parishes have their "dens of infamy" and localities of "Blue Skin," "Jack Sheppard," and "Jonathan Wild" notoriety, that beneath the shadow of St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, our Houses of Parliament and Mansions of the Nobility and Aristocracy, squalor and crime, vice and grandeur walk side by side, and oftentimes hand in hand.

Adjoining Thorne's premises and Swonnell's Malt houses, is the London and South Western Railway Company's Goods Station, which, before the extension of that Company's line in 1848 to Waterloo Road, was originally the Metropolitan Terminus. Though this part of the line crosses the most grimy portion of Lambeth, a distance of two miles and fifty yards, yet it cost the Railway Company £800,000. The London and Southampton Railway (as it was first called) was opened on the 11th of May, 1840, which, in connexion with the opposite wharf and warehouses on the banks of the river, at that time occupied an extent of between seven and eight acres. The entrance front of the (then) Metropolitan Terminus at Nine[Pg 5] Elms, erected from designs by William Tite, Esq., Architect to the Company, was not unhandsome though at present it has rather a dingy appearance for want of renovation, and has a central arcade which originally led to the booking office and waiting rooms now used for the manager's and clerks' offices for the goods traffic department. The railroad was commenced under the authority of an Act of Parliament which received the Royal assent on the 5th of July, 1834 (it was opened as far as Woking Common on the 21st of May, 1838). By this Act the Company were empowered to raise £1,000,000 in £50 shares, and a further sum of £330,000 by loan. Since that time several additional Acts have been passed authorizing the Company to extend their line and increase their capital. The Company's capital for the present year (1879) is £17,000,000. Mr. Wood was the Company's first Locomotive Superintendent. When the London and Southampton line was first opened all the workmen in the Company's service had a half holiday and one shilling each given to them. The Richmond Railway—this though an offshoot of the South Western, and worked by that Company, was executed by a private one. It was however sold to the South Western Company in October, 1846. It had been opened on the 27th of July previous. Number of miles open 648. The gross receipts for the year ending December 31, 1873, were £2,195,170. The railroad intersects Battersea parish to the extent of two miles and a half. The Goods Department comprises the hydraulic shed, down goods shed, carriers' shed, egg shed, the old warehouse and granary by the riverside; down office, Wandsworth Road Gate; cartage office, Nine Elms Lane. Officers of the Company.—General Manager, Archibald Scott, Esq.; Locomotive Superintendent, W. Adams, Esq.; Resident Engineer, William Jacomb, Esq.; Treasurer, Alfred Morgan, Esq.; Goods Manager, J. T. Haddow, Esq., Nine Elms; Assistant Goods Manager, Mr. W. B. Mills, Waterloo; Superintendent, R. H. Ming, Esq., Nine Elms; Chief Inspector, Mr. Robert Lingley, Nine Elms; Law Clerk, M. H. Hall, Esq.; Mr. H. B. Terrill, Cashier; Mr. J. E. Hawkins, Chief Clerk; Superintendents of the Line, E. W. Verrinder, Chief Superintendent, Waterloo Station; John Tyler, Western Division, Exeter Station; William Gardiner, Assistant Superintendent, Waterloo Station; W. H. Stratton, Storekeeper, Nine Elms Works.

Soon after the opening of the London and Southampton Railway a collision between two passenger trains occurred at the Nine Elms Terminus resulting in the death of a young woman, a domestic servant, who, with a fellow servant, had been spending the day at Hampton Court. The Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of accidental death a deodand of £300 was levied on the "Eclipse" locomotive engine, the moving cause of death. The Railway Company paid the £300 to Earl Spencer as Lord of the Manor, who most generously divided it amongst the deceased's relatives.

Omnia qua movent ad mortem sunt deodanda:
What moves to death, or kills him dead,
Is deodand, and forfeited.

On the South Western Railway Stone Wharf are the agents' offices of the several depôts for the sale of Portland stone, Bath freestone, etc. Huge blocks of stone direct from the quarries are here deposited and piled block upon block. A single block in some[Pg 6] instances weighing ten tons elevated and removed by means of a steam traveller moving on a gantry.

When the workmen were engaged in "digging out" the ground for the foundation of the goods sheds a human skeleton was discovered, on which Mr. Carter (coroner) held an inquest. Dr. Statham, who made the post mortem examination, stated that the skeleton was that of a male person, that there were three severe cuts upon the head either of which was sufficient to cause death. As no further evidence was procurable a verdict was given in accordance.

About forty years ago, when Mr. Gooch was Locomotive Superintendent, a fire broke out at the London and South Western Railway Works, Nine Elms Lane, which caused great destruction of property, including a very handsome clock tower. Various metals were fused and mingled into shapes fantastic, portions of which were substituted for chimney-piece ornaments in the homes of the workman and kept as mementos of this conflagration! A man of the name of Dover who it is said accidentally set the stores on fire was so frightened that it turned the hair of his head grey in one night!

At Nine Elms Locomotive, Carriage and Stores Departments are fire precautions which the Railway Company insist upon being strictly observed. A fire engine with hose and all necessary appliances is kept in a building set apart for it adjoining Heman's Street Entrance gate. A properly qualified fireman is appointed to look after the whole of the buildings by night, as a precaution against fire. The fireman's name is Thomas Lewin, and his residence is 51, Thorne Street, Wandsworth Road. His hours of duty are from 5.30 p.m. to 6.30 a.m. It is the fireman's duty to perambulate the whole of the works during the night, and to make a daily report of the circumstances in the book provided for that purpose. He is responsible that the fire engine, hose, hydrants, etc., are kept in working order and tried once a week. A statement of the trial is to be made in the fireman's report book with any suggestions or remarks. Positions of Hydrants at Nine Elms Works—There are 120 hydrants (always charged) distributed as follows:—15 in the offices, paint loft and shops beneath; 4 in the general stores; 4 in wheelwrights' and signal shops; 2 in bonnet shop; 5 in waggon shop; 4 in new waggon shop and saw mill; 5 in smiths' and carriage fitting shops; 9 in erecting shops; 2 in turning shop; 3 in tender shop; 4 in new erecting shop; 1 in permanent way shop; 4 in arches under the Viaduct; 52 in running shed; 4 at outlets of water tanks, and 2 on the coal stage. Positions of Tell-tale Clocks:—1 in the office; 1 in general stores; 1 in wheelwrights' shop; 1 in paint shop; 1 in saw mill. It is the fireman's duty to commence to "peg" each of these blocks four times every night at the following hours, viz., 8 p.m., 10.30 p.m., 1 a.m. and 3.30 a.m.

Facing the Goods Station are the Company's Wharves with an extensive river frontage. Here also formerly stood Francis' Cement Works, adjoining is Nine Elms Steamboat Pier. The South Western Railway Locomotive Works and Goods Department occupy a vast area. It is computed that about 2,000 persons are employed in the various departments. Here were formerly orchard-grounds—many[Pg 7] a goodly tree bearing fruit and pleasant to the eye has been felled. "Woodman spare that tree!" though spoken by feminine lips would have no force of appeal in this fast age of iron railways and steam locomotives, when Railway Companies scruple not by virtue of Acts of Parliament to pull down by hundreds the dwellings of the poor, it is not to be supposed for an instant that a few fruit trees however delicious their produce or delightful their shadow should prove a peculiar obstacle in the way of this March of Civilization! On payment of sixpence, children at half-price, persons might enter these orchards with full liberty to eat as much fruit as they liked on condition that they brought none away. The old Spring Well near Nine Elms Lane, Wandsworth Road, is within the recollection of many, who by descending some six or eight steps reached with their hands the iron ladle out of which they often drank cooling draughts of nature's sparkling aquatic refreshment. Ah, everything has a history and its lesson if we did but know. We all exert unconscious influence either for good or evil,—some secret action performed; some deed of kindness done; some public boon conferred with the benefactor's name concealed shall by-and-by be proclaimed upon the house-top. A cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth shall not lose its reward. Some persons wish to be remembered by posterity, even wicked parents would not like after death to be obliterated from the memories of their children. The best of all human monuments is a good character,—Solomon says, "a good name is rather to be chosen than riches."

Our forefathers never dreamed of erecting such drinking fountains[1] as we have in these days with troughs for cattle and smaller ones for mongrel barking curs to slake their thirst; the pond by the way, the wooden horse trough outside the road-side Inn, the long-handled iron pump, in some instances resembling the head and tail of the British Lion having the body of a greyhound, pleased them and suited their purpose. The site now environed by the London Gas Works was formerly a large market ground, here too grew apple, pear, and cherry trees, gooseberry bushes and currants, roses were cultivated and rendered the air fragrant with their sweet perfume. In the ditches and trenches or small channels and streams occasioned by the tidal overflow from the river, juveniles of both sexes might have been seen catching with hand and cap sticklebacks and utilizing a medicine phial or gin bottle for an aquarium. Senior boys and hobbledehoys with jovial facial aspect who had not studied ichthyology or that part of zoology which treats of fishes, attempted to catch larger fry by adopting the Izaak Walton method of angling with rod and line, and thought themselves amply rewarded if after much patient endurance the motion of their floats indicated that their baits had taken, their eyes would glisten at the sight of a few roaches and perches. Youngsters would amuse themselves by watching the newts and tadpoles, the leaping and swimming of that amphibious reptile of the batrachian tribe, wondering perhaps, supposing their biblical knowledge to have extended thus far, whether those were the kind of creatures that crawled out[Pg 8] of the river Nile and crept into the houses of the Egyptians.

Many a dainty dish of stewed eels have the miller's men had at Mill-pond Bridge, who not unfrequently caught alive this precious kind of anguilla as it lay concealed between the stones and mud, without the aid of eel-pot or basket. Mill-Pond Bridge derives its name from the old tidal water flour mill, the only vestige of the mill remaining is the outward carcase, which is in a ruinous condition; beneath its cover are the lock gates, the entrance of the creek where thousands of tons of coal are conveyed in barges to the London Gas Works.

NEW ROAD, as it is designated, leading from Battersea fields to the Wandsworth Road was a lane with a mud bank on both sides. In a line with the centre of the South Western Railway "Running Shed" was formerly Mill-Pond which answered the purpose of a large reservoir of water raised for driving the mill wheel.

Water mills used for grinding corn are said to have been invented by Belisarius, the General of Justinian while besieged in Rome by the Goths, 555. The ancients parched their corn and ground it in mortars. Afterwards mills were invented which were turned by men and beasts with great labour, yet Pliny mentioned wheels turned by water. See Telo-dynamic Transmitter.

The simplest mill for bruising grain was nothing more than two stones between which it was broken. Such was often seen in the country of the Niger by Richard and John Lander on their expedition to Africa. The manna which God gave to the children of Israel in the desert "the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar," Numbers xi. 8.

From mills and mortars thus rudely constructed there must have been obtained at first only a kind of peeled grain which Dr. Eadie says may be compared to the German graupe, the English groats, and the American grits or hominy. Fine flour was laboriously obtained from household mills like our coffee mills. The oldest mention of flour is in Gen. xviii. 6; but bread which is made of flour or meal is named in Gen. iii. 19. In order to reduce the flour to a proper degree of fineness it was necessary sometimes to have it ground over again and cleared by a sieve.

Samson when a prisoner to the Philistines was condemned to the mill-stone to grind with his hand in the prison-house, Judges xvi. 21. In England prisoners are sent to the treadmill as a punishment.

The Talmudists have a story that the Chaldeans made the young men of the captivity carry mill-stones with them to Babylon where there seems to have been a scarcity at that time. They have also a proverbial expression of a man with a mill-stone about his neck which they use to express a man under the severest weight of affliction.

Windmills are of great antiquity and stated to be of Roman or Saracen invention, they are said to have been originally introduced into Europe by the Knights of St. John, who took the hint from what they had seen in the crusades (Baker). Windmills were first known in Spain, France and Germany in 1299 (Anderson). Wind saw-mills were invented by a Dutchman in 1633, when one was erected near the Strand in London.

Acorns was the coarse fare of the old inhabitants of Britain,[Pg 9] when wild Britons painted their skin to make themselves appear more fierce, and native tribes in a still more barbarous condition, half naked or clad in the skins of beasts, not cultivators of the soil, subsisted on the flesh of their cattle or on the precarious produce of the chase. Packs of hungry, growling, cruel wolves[1] prowled in the woods and forests, and Druidical Priests exercised an entire control over the unlettered people they governed, and human captives seized on Britannia's shores were offered as victims in sacrifice, a holocaust to the divinities and false gods which ancient Britons worshipped!

The Accipenser, in ichthyology, a genus of fishes belonging to the Amphibia Nantes of Linnæus. The Accipenser has a single linear nostril; the cirri are below the snout, and before the mouth. There are three species of this genus. The ruthenus has four cirri, and fifteen squamous protuberances; it is a native of Russia. The huso has four cirri; the body is naked, has no prickles or protuberances. The ichthyocollo, or isinglass of the shops, famous as an agglutinant, and used also for the fining of wines, is made from its sound or scales. The Sturio, or Sturgeon with four cirri and eleven squamous protuberances on the back. This fish annually ascends our rivers (it has occasionally been seen in years gone by as high up the river Thames as Wandsworth) but in no great numbers, and is taken by accident in the salmon nets. It seems a spiritless fish making no manner of resistance when entangled, but is drawn out of the water like a lifeless lump. This cartilaginous fish is highly prized for food, not unlike in taste to veal. About thirty-six years ago a Royal Sturgeon was caught in the wheel of the mill at Mill-Pond Bridge then in the occupation of Mr. Hutton the Miller (who was noted as a breeder of game fowls), now the property of the London Gas-Light Company. It appears that a local tradesman named Henry Appleton was going to town and saw a great crowd, some with guns shooting at a great fish, but the Sturgeon's natural armour resisted the force of their small shot such as they were then using. Mr. Appleton upon seeing the state of affairs hastened to procure a bullet or two as a more effectual means of capturing the prize and the first shot or bullet fired was fatal to the poor sturgeon which was then landed and conveyed into the garden of Mr. Hutton's private house upon the exact spot of which at the[Pg 10] present time stands the house (since erected) on the banks of the Creek in the occupation of Mr. Methven. It then became after the usual ceremony of asking the Lord Mayor, the property of Mr. Appleton, and was exhibited by him in York Street (now Savona Street), on premises now in the occupation of Mr. Dulley, Butcher. After being exhibited several weeks great crowds coming from all parts of London to see it, the Sturgeon was sold to a Fishmonger residing in Bond Street, who publicly exhibited it in his shop for some years with a description stating particulars, where it was captured and by whom and its length, being upwards of 9-ft. It is said to have been equal in weight to a sack of flour viz., 280 lbs.

The Sturgeon is more abundant in the Northern Coasts of Europe. It is also found in the more Southern parts. It was esteemed by the ancients as a very great luxury and it was held in high repute for the table by the Greeks and Romans and at their banquets it was introduced with particular ceremonies.

In England when caught in the Thames within the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor of London it is a Royal Fish reserved for the Sovereign. The flesh is white, delicate, firm and nutritious. It is used both fresh, generally stewed. The largest species of Sturgeon is the Bielaga, or Huso. Huso (A. Huso) of the Black and Caspian seas and their rivers. It attains the length of 20 or 25 feet and has been known to weigh nearly 3000 lbs.

Near the site where now stands the Park Tavern at the corner of the New Road, opposite Mr. Featherstonhaugh's Brewery and not far from "The Plough & Harrow," were the flower gardens and beautiful residence of John Patient, Esq., afterwards occupied by Mr. Carne the Barge Builder. The house where Mr. Bennett, Lath-render, resides, and the house adjoining were used as a Private Asylum for the insane and was called "Sleaford House."

The picturesque and retired Country Parsonage, the residence of the Rev. J. G. Weddell, stood a considerable distance from the main road—"The Prince Alfred" tavern situate in Haine Street occupies the site. In this locality was a tenter-ground the entrance to which from the road was through a white gate.

A gateway at the commencement of "Hugman's Lane" which had "no thoroughfare" led to the works belonging to Peter Pariss and Son, Oil of Vitriol Manufacturers and Manufacturing Chemists. Mr. Wallace, who subsequently held these premises had them considerably enlarged to facilitate his project in working up gas liquor for making Sulphate of Ammonia, which is extensively used for agricultural purposes. The sewers in the neighbourhood became impregnated with a deleterious gas and the stench from the drains was intolerable. After considerable litigation with the Board of Works Mr. Wallace became a bankrupt.

By order of the Mortgagees on Wednesday and Thursday, March 3rd and 4th, 1880, Mr. Douglas Young sold by auction the plant and machinery of the above extensive works, including 5 large Cornish steam boilers, tubular boiler, 3 egg boilers, a bottle boiler, a 4000 gallon wrought iron tank, 12 smaller ditto, 4 large circular tanks, 5 steam barrel of various sizes, flange pipes, 3 large iron coils, about 70 tons old metal, several copper and iron boilers of various sizes, furnace fittings, weighing bridge by Hodgson and[Pg 11] Stead, self-feeding boiler and engine, about 150,000 sound bricks, a large quantity of sound timber including balk timber, yellow deals, planks, battens, die-square, floor and lining boards, and 50 tons of breeze, several stacks of firewood, pantiles, drain pipes and other plant materials.

SLEAFORD STREET appears to have obtained an amount of respectability that it had not of yore. Once upon a time one side was nicknamed "Ginbottle Row," and the opposite side was called "Soapsuds Bay!" Mill-Pond Bridge was very narrow, about half its present width, with a low parapet on both sides.

If the following statement could be relied on, it would perhaps allay the fears created by certain alarmists respecting the physical limits to deep coal mining and duration of the coal supply. "There are coal deposits in various parts of Great Britain at all depths down to 10,000 or 12,000 feet. Mining is possible to a depth of 4,000 feet, but beyond this the high temperature is likely to prove a barrier. The temperature of a coal mine at a depth of 4,000 feet will probably be found as high as 120º Fahr.; but there is reason to believe that by the agency of an efficient system of ventilation the temperature may be reduced, at least during the cooler months of the year, as to allow mining operations without unusual danger to health. Adopting a depth of 4,000 feet as the limit to deep mining there is still a quantity of coal in store in Great Britain sufficient to afford the annual supply of twenty-two millions of tons for a thousand years."—Hull.[1]

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," was a motto adopted by our forefathers when the inducements to promenade London streets by night were not so inviting as now.

"Ranelagh and Vauxhall were places of frivolous amusement resorted to even by the higher classes. From those and other haunts of folly, lumbering coaches or sedan chairs conveyed home the ladies through the dimly lighted or pitch dark streets, and the gentlemen picked their way over the ruggedly-paved thoroughfares, glad of the proffered aid of the link boys who crowded round the gates of such places of public entertainment or resort as were open at night, and who, arrived at the door to which they had escorted some fashionable foot-passenger, quenched the blazing torch in the trumpet-looking ornament which one now and then still sees lingering[Pg 12] over the entrance to some house in an antiquated square or court, a characteristic relic of London in the olden time."

Street lighting was not known to the Greeks and Romans, it was therefore necessary for them whenever they went abroad after dark to carry flambeaux. Street lighting was first introduced at Paris about the beginning of the 16th century. An Edict was issued ordering the inhabitants to keep lights burning in their windows after nine at night. In 1558, lamps were exchanged for lanterns, and in 1671 these lanterns were ordered to be lighted from the 20th of October to the beginning of April. This however did not prove a satisfactory arrangement. At length a premium was offered by the Government for a dissertation on the best mode of lighting the streets. The successful competitors were a journeyman glazier, M. M. Bailly, Le Roy and Bourgeois Le Cheteaublanc. To the glazier was awarded a prize of 200 livres, and to the other three jointly 2,000 livres. The result of their suggestions was a general lighting of the streets by oil lamps set upon posts.

In London, lanterns were first used in 1688, and those inhabitants whose houses fronted the streets were ordered to hang out their lanterns and keep them burning from 6 to 11 o'clock at night; the number of lanterns thus used within the boundaries of the City of London was 5,000. Without the City, inclusive of the suburbs, the probability is that the number was 15,000.

In 1874, another act was passed for regulating the lighting of the City still further. Since the lighting of the streets, alleys, courts, etc., of our Metropolis with gas have come many other sanitary and social improvements, and it is not unlikely that under a wise Providence we owe to this invention as much security from the nightly depredations of burglars as much so as from the vigilance of the police.

The existence and inflammability of coal-gas has been known in England for two centuries. In the year 1659, Thomas Shirley correctly attributed the exhalations from the "burning well" at Wigan, in Lancashire, to the coal-beds which lie under that part of the country; and soon after, Dr. Clayton, influenced by Shirley, actually made coal-gas, and detailed the results of his labours in a letter to the Hon. Robert Boyle, who died in 1691. About a century later, 1753, Sir James Lowther communicated to the Royal Society a notice of a spontaneous evolution of gas at a colliery belonging to him at Whitehaven. Bishop Watson made many experiments on coal-gas, which he details in his Chemical Essays. Mr. R. Taylor, on the Coal-fields of China, says, "The Chinese artificially produce illuminating gas from bitumen coal we are certain. But it is a fact that spontaneous jets of gas derived from boring into coal-beds have for centuries been burning, and turned to that and other economical purposes. If the Chinese are not gas manufacturers, they are nevertheless gas consumers and employers on a large scale, and have evidently been so ages before the knowledge of its application was acquired by Europeans." In 1792, Mr. Murdoch, an engineer at Redruth in Cornwall, erected a little gasometer with apparatus which produced gas sufficient to supply his own house and offices, and in 1797, he erected a similar apparatus in Ayrshire. In the following year, he was engaged to put up a gas works at the[Pg 13] Manufactory of Bolton and Watts, at Soho, Birmingham,—this was the first application of gas in a large way. Except among a few scientific men, the manufacture of gas excited but little curiosity until the year 1802, when the front of the great Soho Manufactory was brilliantly illuminated with gas on the occasion of the public rejoicings at the Peace. In 1801, M. Le Bon, at Paris, succeeded in lighting up his own house and gardens with gas from wood and coal, and had it in contemplation to light up the City of Paris.

Only within the present century has gas superseded in London the dim oil lamps. About forty years ago, oil lamps and lighted candles were used in our churches and chapels; in some places of worship evening services were dispensed with altogether. A humorous anecdote is related of Dr. Johnson: it is said, one evening, from the window of his house in Bolt Court, he observed the parish lamplighter ascend a ladder to light one of the small oil lamps. He had scarcely descended the ladder half-way when the flame expired. Quickly returning he lifted the cover of the lamp partially and thrusting the end of his torch beneath it, the flame instantly communicated to the wick by the thick vapour which issued from it. "Ah!" exclaimed the Doctor, "one of these days the streets of London will be lighted by smoke."—Notes and Queries, No. 127. Certain scientific men were incredulous as to the practicability of lighting up the whole of London with gas, and Sir Humphrey Davey asked if it were intended to take the dome of St. Paul's for a gasometer! In 1820 gas meters were patented by John Malan, in 1830 by Samuel Clegg, in 1838 by Nathan Defries and others. Mr. Daniel Pollock, father of the late Chief Baron, was governor of the first "chartered" gas company in 1812. In 1822 St. James' Park was first lighted with gas. In 1825, its safety had not then been established on the part of the Government, a committee of the most eminent scientific men immediately inspected the Gas Works, and reported that the occasional superintendence of all the Works was necessary. However, since then so rapidly has the invention of gas-lighting progressed, that now in the present year of grace, there is neither City nor town in Great Britain of any note but what is illuminated with gas and has works for its manufacture in close proximity to the houses of its inhabitants. Gas supply of London, receipts for the year 1872, £2,133,600, for 1873, £2,544,000. What is coke? Coke is the residual carbon of pit coal after the volatile matters have been expelled by heat, it has a porous texture and a lustre sometimes approaching the metallic. It is a valuable fuel, producing an intense and steady heat and leaving but little residue after combustion. The residual coke in retorts has a quantity of ash, which, besides its earthy base of silicate, usually contains sulphur and other deleterious matter. The breeze can be used in furnaces and in burning bricks. There is a considerable quantity of pure hydrogen produced by the decomposition of water in cooling coke. Attempts have been made to manufacture gas from other substances besides coal—oil, resin, peat, and even water having in their turn commanded capital for a fair trial of their merits of all these; however, coal has alone stood the test of commercial success, those companies formed for other schemes having either been dissolved or become converts to its superior advantages.[Pg 14] No doubt it will be considered Utopian—Mr. Robinson thinks that the electric light might be so modified as to be used in public dwellings! There are exhaustless stores of latent electricity, but the difficulty is to know how to develop and utilise it.

Street gas lit by electricity, by Mr. St. George Lane, Fox's method: trial partially successful, Pall Mall, etc., 13th April, 1878. British Museum Reading Room illuminated by electric light, October, 1879.

Common bituminous coal obtained from the mines of Northumberland, Durham, York, South Wales, and a few other coal districts is the kind from which most of the gas of this country is manufactured. The Cannel or Scotch Parrot coals produce a gas of a much richer quality, which, though expensive, has the advantage of superior illuminating power. Gas companies use to a very great extent coals from the following mines:—Pelaw, Leverson's Wallsend, Pelton, New Pelton, Dean's Primrose, Garesfield, South Peareth, (The London Gas-Light Company use principally Peareth) Urpeth, Washington, Yorkshire, Silkstone, Haswell, West Wear, Wearmouth, Brancepeth, South Brancepeth, and Ravenshaw Pelaw. The resulting products of carbonization of these coals when an exhauster is employed will be found to give about the following average per ton:—

Gas, 9,500 cubic feet; Coke, 13 cwt., or one chaldron; Tar, 10 gallons; Ammoniacal Liquor, 13 gallons. Ammonia, a compound of Nitrogen and Hydrogen, is converted into Sulphate of Ammonia, Sal Ammonia, Carbonate of Ammonia, etc., etc. Tar, which is a Hydro-carbon, after producing Naptha and light oils, becomes useful as Asphalt, or for exterior paint work. Benzole, the base of our newly-discovered dyes, is extracted from the Naptha; which, besides, is either used as a solvent for india-rubber and guttapercha, or yields a brilliant light when burned in a common lamp. Gas, as it issues from the retorts, is chiefly composed of light carburetted and bicarburetted hydrogen or olefiant gas, accompanied by condensable vapours and other gaseous impurities. The condensable vapours are principally hydro-carbon compounds which become deposited in the form of oil, and amongst a variety of deleterious substances may be mentioned as the chief: ammonia, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, and sulphuretted hydrogen, but the value of coal-gas principally depends on the presence of bicarburetted hydrogen, and the greater proportion of this the higher will be its light-giving properties.

The connection of the London Gas-Light Company's Works with Vauxhall takes us out of the parish of Battersea for a moment into the parish of Lambeth. Vauxhall, the early Spring Garden, was named from its site in the Manor of La Sale Fawkes, Fawkeshall, from its possessor, an obscure Norman adventurer, in the reign of King John.[1] The estate was laid out as a garden about 1661, in squares enclosed with hedges of gooseberries, within which were[Pg 15] roses, beans and asparagus. Sir Samuel Morland took a lease of the place in 1665, and added fountains and a sumptuously furnished room for the reception of Charles II. and his court, and a plan dated 1681, shows the gardens planted with trees and laid out in walks and a circle of trees or shrubs. They were frequented by Evelyn and Pepys; and Addison in the Spectator, 1712, takes Sir Roger de Coverley there. In 1728, the gardens were leased to Jonathan Tyers, who converted the house into a tavern. The beauty of its rural scenery rendered it so much frequented that the proprietor in the year 1730, introduced vocal music, the price of admission at that time was 1s., but from the competition of others who opened public places of amusement in the neighbourhood, the proprietor introduced a great variety of amusements and raised the price of admission to 2s. During the season of 1807, the price was constantly 2s., the gardens being open only three nights in the week, and each of these nights was what was termed a gala night. Vauxhall Gardens were extensive, they contained a variety of walks illuminated with beautiful transparent paintings. Opposite the west door was a magnificent Gothic orchestra, illuminated with a profusion of lamps of various colours; and on the left was an elegant rotunda, in which the band performed in the cold or rainy weather. At ten o'clock a bell announced the opening of a cascade, with the representation of a water-mill, a mail coach, etc. Fireworks of the most brilliant description were also introduced among the attractions of the place. In numerous recesses, or pavilions, parties were accommodated with suppers and other refreshments and were charged according to a bill of fare. The ham sandwiches were of such an excellent quality and so thinly sliced that they became proverbial. The respective boxes and apartments were adorned with a vast number of paintings, many of which were executed in the best style of their respective theatres. The labours of Hogarth and Hayman were the most conspicuous. On a pedestal, under the arch of a grand portico of the Doric order, was a fine marble statue of Handel, in the character of Orpheus playing on his lyre, done by the celebrated M. Roubiliac. The number of persons who were employed in the gardens during the season is said to have amounted to 400, 96 of whom were musicians and singers, the rest were waiters and servants of various kinds. The celebrated Lowe and Beard were amongst the first singers who were engaged at Vauxhall. Upwards of 15,000 lamps were said to illuminate the gardens at one time,—the effect of the illumination was peculiarly beautiful in a moonlight night. The band of the Duke of York's regiment of Guards dressed in full uniform added to the attractions of these enchanting gardens; by military harmony, as a place of public entertainment, it became the most famous in Europe. The greatest season was in 1823, when 133,279 persons visited the gardens and the receipts were £29,590. The greatest number of persons in one night was on the 2nd of August, 1833, when 20,137 paid for admission. The carriages outside the gardens were so numerous that they extended in lines as far as Westminster Bridge in one direction and to Kennington Common in an opposite direction. The greatest number on the then supposed last night, 5th September, 1839, was 1089 persons. So fascinating did this place of amusement become that[Pg 16] it acquired the name of the "fairy land of fancy," answering in conception to those enchanted palaces and gardens described in the "Arabian Nights Entertainment."[2] It was in these gardens gas was manufactured by the London Gas-light Company prior to gas being made at the Company's Works in the neighbourhood of Vauxhall Row.

The London Gas-light Company was Incorporated in the year 1833.[1] The Works at Vauxhall were constructed from designs furnished by Mr. Hutchison, the Engineer. The first bed of retorts set on the Company's premises was heated by a man of the name of William Batt, June, 1834. The old man is still living, he is seventy-five years of age, and has been in the London Gas-light Company's service forty-three years. At that time the Company used a small gasometer erected in Vauxhall Gardens. It was with gas from this vessel that Mr. Green, the celebrated æronaut used to fill or inflate his great balloon. The first place lighted up with the Company's gas was Old Lambeth Market, the site now occupied by the Lambeth Baths. In December, 1858, the London Gas-light Company manufactured gas at their New Works, Nine Elms. The following month, January, 1859, an Act of Parliament came into operation to prevent gas companies from erecting other works for the manufacture of gas within ten miles of London; however, it was not until the year 1863 that the London Gas-light Company permanently removed from Vauxhall to Nine Elms.

The London Gas Works are environed with a brick wall, varying in height from ten to twenty feet, bounded on the North by Nine Elms Lane; on the South by the South-Western Railway; on the East by Everett Street; and on the West by Moat Street and Haine Street. The works within this enclosure cover an area of seventeen acres, and at the field Prince of Wales Road, about three acres more. There are five gates to the Works, but the principal entrance is in Haward Street, by the porter's lodge. At the right-hand-corner is a spacious building, on the basement is the Engineer's office, the Light office, and Messenger's lobby, which has in it a small telegraphic apparatus for communicating intelligence between this and the Chief office. The Grand Entrance is from Nine Elms Lane, opened by two pairs of massive folding doors leading into the hall, facing which is a flight of stone steps with ornamental cast-iron balusters mounted by rails on either side of polished mahogany, communicating with a similar staircase right and left which conducts to the Board room and Draughtsmen's offices. The Board room is a beautiful and commodious apartment, 33 feet by 19. It has never[Pg 17] yet been occupied by the Board of Directors, the Board preferring to transact their business at their Chief Office, 26, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C. Secretary, A. J. Dove, Esq.; Engineer, Robert Morton, Esq.; Manager, John Methven, Esq.; Outdoor Superintendent, T. D. Tully, Esq.; Cashier, W. G. Head, Esq., with a staff of Inspectors, Collectors, Clerks, &c.

On the 31st of October, 1865,[1] a terrible gas explosion took place, when ten men were killed and many others injured. At that time the houses in Haward Street being contiguous to the works, had the window frames shattered, and similar calamities occurred elsewhere. These houses were occupied by some of the Company's employés. Lately, partly on account of the recent tidal inundations, sixteen houses belonging to the Company have been pulled down and a wall built so as to keep out the flood, in the event of extraordinary high tides. The open space between the inner and outer gates is used, as well as other open spaces about the works, for heaping up the coke mountains high, which certain youngsters in the neighbourhood would only be too delighted to have the privilege of scrambling and of bearing some of the precious fuel home to their fireless grates. Alas! much of the distress prevalent in the district is caused through the drunkenness and improvident habits of parents.

Passing through the inner gate, over which is mounted the factory bell of 2 cwt.,—its size and tone would not disgrace the belfry of many a church steeple,—on the right is situated the timekeeper's office, the carbonizing foreman's lobby, the meter stores, and the stores. On the left-hand-side of the gate is the coke clerk's office, counting house, and a range of workshops, sheds, etc. for smiths, painters, fitters, and carpenters. Adjoining the coke office is the shop where all the Company's meters are tested before being sent out to the consumers. In different parts of the yard lines of iron rails are laid down, with turning tables to allow for shunting, communicating with the South-Western Railway, so as to admit trucks, which, when loaded with coke from the factory, are then conveyed to their destination. The retort houses are oblong buildings with gable wrought-iron roofs, are strongly built of brick, the walls being of immense thickness; this is necessary, not only on account of the great heat within, but on account of the large[Pg 18] quantity of coals stowed away in the coal stores, the stock on hand being 15,000 tons.

There are seven retort houses, five of these occupy a central position in these works; they have been erected at different periods as the demand for the manufacture of gas increased. Of these retort houses No. 7 is the largest; it is 260 feet long by 80 feet wide (inside measurement), and it is 45 feet to crown of roof. Each retort house has independent shafts, but the tallest shaft faces the east end of retort house No. 2. It is a splendid piece of brick-work, the height of which is 135 feet. When the top stone was laid Mr. B. Gray, the builder, treated the men who were under him with a dinner. On this occasion sixteen persons sat on the summit and partook of this sumptuous repast. Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are ground retort houses, the other four houses are stage retort houses. With respect to the interior of these retort houses, there is plenty of room in front of the retorts for a storage of coal and good space for drawing the retorts. On the whole there is good ventilation in the roofs for allowing the smoke, etc. to escape. The floor of the stage retort houses are paved with grooved cast-iron plates. In these retort houses an open space is allowed between the furnace and the flooring in order that the coke when raked out of the retorts might fall into the coke hole below. The benches of retorts are placed in the middle of the houses. The retorts are built in settings, they are cylindrical tubes made of Stourbridge clay open through and through with mouthpieces at both ends. At the front of each bed of retorts is a furnace for heating up the retorts with the residual coke after the coals have been carbonized. The flame and hot draft of the furnaces are made to circulate thoroughly throughout the setting, traversing as great a space as possible round, under and above the retorts before egress is allowed to the main flue communicating with the chimney. The retorts are charged every six hours. Formerly, for cooling the retort lids, a pulpy mass of lime and mud of the consistence of mortar was used under the cognomen of "blue billy." This has been superseded by Morton's Patent Air-tight Lid, and Holman's Patent Lever. The two mechanical contrivances combined for this purpose are most efficient, and when financially considered must be a great saving to the Company. In the new house there are seven retorts in a bed; these, when heated sufficiently, are simultaneously charged at each end with two scoopfuls of bituminous coal; the upper retorts, on account of their retaining more heat, are charged with three scoops—each scoop contains 1 cwt. 2 qrs. of coal As soon as the lids are closed with the patent lever and cross-bar the process of gas distillation commences. In house No. 7 there are 392 mouths—total number of mouths in all the retort houses 1,793. As clay retorts when heated at first have a tendency to crack, it is necessary that the process of heating should be slow, also to get them up to their proper heat a similar caution is requisite when cooling. Apart from the manufacture of gas, in order to attend to the furnaces with the view of keeping up the heat of retorts, a certain amount of Sunday labour is involved, but it is gratifying to state that at these works labour on the Lord's day is reduced to its lowest minimum. Among several annoyances in the manufacture of gas is the choking or stoppage[Pg 19] of ascension pipes; the person whose employment it is to look after, and if possible prevent this, is called by his fellow-workmen "the pipe jumper." Pipes connected with the mouthpieces called the ascension pipes conduct the gas to the hydraulic main, this is a large pipe at the back of the ascension pipes partly filled with water, when the works are started into which the ends of the pipes from the retorts are made to dip, and by this means forms a seal by which the gas is prevented from finding its way back either by those retorts which the workmen may be re-charging or to other parts of the bench that for the time may be out of action. The hydraulic main and its supports are very strong in order to stand the alternate and unequal heating and cooling of the benches, and the enormous strain occasioned by the large extent of pipage. Wrought iron is used in preference to cast-iron because of its lightness, strength and elasticity.

There are four lobbies for the accommodation of the stokers and seats at either end of the retort houses. The men in the carbonizing department are supplied with lockers in which to keep their provisions and clothes. Each man has a half-pint of the best Scotch oatmeal per diem allowed him to make "skilly" with. A quantity of oatmeal is put into a bucket, water is poured on and then stirred, after the meal has "settled" they dip it out with a mug to drink as often as they feel themselves thirsty. The engineer has no objection to the men having lemonade, etc., but all intoxicating drinks on the works are strictly prohibited. On Sundays, between 9 and 10 a.m., a religious service is conducted in the lobby at No. 6 retort house by the Missionary.

Scene in a retort house on week-day.—The stokers, after having been at work in the retort houses for half an hour, are "off" for nearly an hour, during which they employ their time in various ways; some play at cards, some at draughts, some at dominoes, others read the newspapers,—eight men in a group will club together and subscribe a penny each, this enables them to purchase six dailies and two weeklies, thus a group is furnished with newspaper intelligence for a week. Others of the stokers will seek to bring grist to their mill by employing the time they are off to their own pecuniary advantage either in mending their own boots and shoes or the boots and shoes of their fellow-workmen. At times some of the men may be seen mending their clothes, or washing a pair of trowsers in a bucket of water and using the wooden handle of a shovel as a substitute for a "dolly." Now and then a man will lie on his back at full length on a heap of coals, locked in the arms of Morpheus, presently he awakes out of his dreams, rubs his eyes astonished at what has transpired during the past hour. The foreman's whistle, similar to that used by a railway guard when a train is ready to start, is the signal for the men to resume their work, and to their credit be it said, they go at it manly and rush to their shovels and scoops like British sailors fly to their guns when commanded to salute a Prince or fire at an enemy! A stranger for the first time is startled when the lids or "lips" as they are called are removed from the mouths of the retorts by the bomb! bombing! a kind of percussion or shock occasioned by the gaseous vapours confined in the retorts being liberated by coming into direct contact[Pg 20] with the atmosphere, then commences the belching forth of flame, the issuing of smoke, the raking out of carbonized coal blazing with tar in order to clear the retorts which are again quickly charged with that peculiar fossil of vegetable origin found among the carboniferous strata of the earth. It is interesting to mark the agility with which the stokers perform their duty. Five men constitute a gang,—there are three men to a scoop. Scoops are made of iron. A scoop is 10 feet long, 7½ inches wide, and 5½ inches deep with a T piece for a handle. It is placed on the ground, filled as soon as possible, then raised by two men who put underneath it a wrought iron bar called a "horse" so bent or curved in the middle on which to rest the scoop. These two men, with the aid of the man who holds the T piece, thrust the coals into the retorts as quickly as artillerymen ram cannon, and so work at each bed of retorts stripped to the waist, while the perspiration is oozing from the pores of their skin like melted tallow! Now and again a hissing noise with steam accompanied with clouds of vapour caused by buckets of water thrown on the carbonized coal taken from the retorts. No sooner is the coke thus cooled than it is (in keeping with all the movements preceding) wheeled in iron barrows to a place in the yard, where pyramidically it is piled stage upon stage until purchased by the coal contractor and coke merchants who require it for their customers. Respecting the employés at these important works—beneath the rough exterior of their sooty skin, incidental to their occupation, these sons of toil who forsooth earn their livelihood by the sweat of their brow in common with their brother man, have hearts akin to the finest specimens of humanity, and stand related to our Father in heaven, for we are all His offspring, brothers for whom the Saviour died. Whatever a man's status in social life, whatever part he may take, however humble in the divisions of industrial, honest labour, these men know that as Robert Burns says; "A man's a man for a' that."

From the hydraulic main the gas passes on to a set of condensers or coolers at the south side of the works, through which it is made to circulate until it is reduced to a temperature bearing some approximation to the surrounding atmosphere, also to separate condensable vapours before allowing the gas to pass to the purifiers. The tar well or tank is a receptacle for the overflow of the hydraulic, etc. A branch pipe from the main is inserted and sealed in a stationary lute at the bottom. The tar thus deposited as well as the ammoniacal liquor is valuable. There are five scrubbers, the tops of which are reached by flights of wooden steps with hand-rails and a stage or gallery above communicating from one scrubber to another. Each scrubber is a cylinder 19 feet in diameter and 70 feet high, they are made of cast-iron plates and contain a series of iron trays or gratings on which are spread layers of coke, furze, etc. Water is injected from the top by means of a revolving apparatus connected with vertical and horizontal shafting and driven by a small engine below, thereby keeping up a constant humid spray, the object being to separate the ammonia and acids from the gas.

In front of houses Nos. 4 and 5 (which by the way are the oldest retort houses inside these works) is situated the boiler and engine house. There are three boilers 28 feet by 6 in diameter. In the[Pg 21] engine house four of Beal's exhausters occupy prominent positions, they are used to exhaust or suck the gas from the retorts and afterwards force it through the vessels for purification; two of these driven by engines of 20 horse power work 150,000 cubic feet per hour each. Two driven by engines of 12 horse power work 100,000 per hour each. Attached to the inlet of each exhauster is one of Wright's exhauster governors, it is made on the principle of pressure or suction elevating or depressing a light cylinder working in a water-lute of sufficient depth. When an exhaust is maintained on the water gauge, counter balance weights equal to the exhaust on the area of the cylinder are applied, and the oscillations, as the suction increases or diminishes, regulate to a nicety the exhaust. The whole of the machinery in this department is in excellent order and will bear the minutest inspection. Over the engine house, which is reached outside by a corkscrew or spiral iron staircase, is a workshop fitted up with machinery; it contains a horizontal engine of eight horse power, which drives two lathes, one bolt screwing machine, two drilling machines, and a saw bench. Against the wall of the engine house is one of Tangye's Special Pumps for raising water from the dock to supply the whole of the works with water for cooling purposes. Outside the engine house an apparatus called a jet exhauster has recently been erected composed of a series of vertical iron tubes, a steam boiler, a generator, and jet. A vacuum is created by a blast of steam, thereby compelling the gas to rapidly leave the retorts and at the same time the ammonia is supposed to be entirely removed by means of water which percolates through shavings with which the tubes or pipes are filled.

On the south side of the works, in addition to the coolers, there are thirteen purifiers and fifteen plots or courts including the foreman's lobby. Each purifier is of cast-iron, it is oblong in form, the cover is wrought iron riveted together in sheets, and the seal is made by means of a water-lute round the edge of the purifier. The purifying material, which is sometimes lime but principally oxide of iron, is carefully spread out on trays and these are disposed in tiers or sets in such a manner as to leave a clear open space between each succeeding layer to allow the gas to diffuse itself thoroughly throughout the mass. Lime when once fouled cannot profitably be renewed for gas purifying purposes, but the oxide of iron can be further utilized by spreading out the oxide in an open court when the oxygen of the atmosphere precipitates the sulphur and the oxide is again fit for use.

The gas passes from the purifiers to the station meter house fronting the stores on the north side of the yard, where the quantity of gas made is registered; adjoining which is Mr. Methven's the Sub-Manager's office, and a test room or laboratory where various experiments connected with the manufacture of gas are conducted. Against the north boundary is a small gas house with gas-holder, etc., all complete, occasionally used for experimenting purposes. From the station meters the gas passes to the gas-holders; each of these enormous circular vessels possesses great storage capacity. It is made on the principle that the circle of all geometrical figures is the one that a fixed circumference or outline is capable of enclosing the greatest amount of space. A gas-holder is made by riveting[Pg 22] together light wrought iron sheets upon an angle framing and in shape resembles an inverted cup, the crown being either flat or the segment of a large sphere. It works in a circular water-tank, round which columns are erected that sustain guides at proper intervals by which the gasholder when working is supported, etc. Erected in different parts of the works, including those (two) in the field Prince of Wales' Road, are five immense gasholders with double lifts capable of holding in all 7,000,000 cubic feet of gas. The most imposing view of the Works is from the gate near the entrance of the Creek at Mill-Pond Bridge; in the creek there are sometimes as many as forty barges. On entering at this gate the eye is attracted by two ponderous lifts, which, by an arrangement of rope bands attached to shafting with revolving iron drums and pulleys supported by columns and girders and driven by two horizontal engines of twelve horse-power, are capable of lifting 500 tons of coals every twelve hours. The coals are raised from the barges in iron waggons which hold 1 ton 15 cwt. each, there are two waggons to each lift so that while one waggon is being filled the other on the stage above is being conveyed on iron rails to whatever part of the retort house the coals may be required. Each engine has a powerful brake and is worked with two levers. On the west side of the creek is the manager's residence, and an enormous gasholder with capacity to hold 2,000,000 cubic feet of gas; further on is a hand crane. In front of No. 7 retort house is one of Winshurst and Hollick's engine cranes, which is capable of lifting 200 tons of coals in ten hours by means of a chain and bucket lifted up to the hopper, a distance of nearly sixty feet, and emptied. The bucket holds 15 cwt. of coal. That portion of the Company's premises known as Mill-Pond Yard is used for the storage of pipes, bricks, fire-clay, etc. Here is the carcass of the Old Tidal Mill with lock gates; here too is the Workman's Institute and Band room. Mothers' Meetings are held at the Institute on Wednesdays at 3 p.m., on Sunday afternoons at 3 o'clock for Bible readings by a Missionary in the district.[1]

[Pg 23]

Upon the mains at their exit from the works valves are placed, each valve having a revolving pressure indicator attached, the paper of which is graduated into inches, and tenths, and marked with spaces corresponding to the twenty-four hours of the day. In the meter-house self-regulating governors are used for this purpose. From the gasholders the gas is driven through cast-iron mains or pipes, and from them by wrought iron service pipes to the lamps and burners which help to illuminate our Metropolis. The Company's mains extend about 170 miles, and at any point they supply gas with the same abundance and precision as at Nine Elms. At one time, the Works of the London Gas-Light Company at Vauxhall were considered the most powerful and complete in the world, and even now, in this age of rivalry and sharp competition, under the judicious management of their Board of Directors and their skilled Engineer, Robert Morton, Esq., the London Gas-Light Company maintain an honourable position among other gas-light companies, and are worthy the name they bear. The number of men employed at these works in the Winter season is about 500. There is a Sick Provident Club belonging to the works.[1]

Extracts from a Paper read before the Geologists' Association, March 1st, 1872, by John A. Coombs, Esq.

In Nine Elms Lane resided Mr. Sellar, a respectable tradesman who kept a tea and cheesemonger's establishment, and who for five years discharged his parochial duties as an overseer. Greatly deploring the irreligious condition of the spiritually-benighted poor of the neighbourhood, he had erected at his own expense, a hall at the back of his premises in Everet Street, to be used for religious and secular educational purposes. Subsequently the hall was rented by the Wesleyan Methodists, and was used by them as a preaching station, Mr. Farmer acting as steward and superintendent of the Sunday school which he commenced there. When the Sunday school was opened in 1871, not more than 20 per cent. of the children who presented themselves for admission could read, and their knowledge of the sacred contents of the Holy Scriptures was nil. However, though the task was difficult, for seven years Mr. John Farmer, assisted by his small staff of Christian teachers:—

Plodded hard, and labour'd well
As many in Nine Elms can tell.

The hall is now engaged by the Metropolitan Tabernacle Evangelization Society. A Sunday school is still held in the place and evangelistic services conducted there every Lord's day evening.

In this neighbourhood stood Phillips's Fire Annihilating Machine Factory. The public were frequently invited to come and see the working of the machines. At the time appointed an improvised cottage was set on fire; when fairly alight, the machines were brought to bear upon the flames and with marked success. A man and his wife had charge of the factory. One Sunday morning the man went out into the fields with his gun, leaving his wife to prepare dinner. Soon after the composition in the factory exploded, and immediately the building was enveloped in flames—the man hastened back to save his wife, but failed in his attempt to rescue her—the poor woman perished.

BRAYNE'S POTTERY for Stone-ware manufacture has been pulled down, on the site adjoining is Laver's Portland Cement Works. The Lime Kilns which had stood nearly two centuries have long since disappeared. The Whiting Works which mark the site remain among the oldest structures in this vicinity were established in the year 1666. At the entrance to the Works stood the rib bones of a Whale which the proprietor fancifully had placed there. One of the Whiting sheds formerly stood higher up the river. Mr. Laver is the owner of these works. Where Lloyd and Co's Manufacturing Joinery Works are situated were the house, timber yard and premises, owned by Mr. Robbins, father of Mrs.[Pg 26] Cooper, Dairy, New Road. Near the spot where now stands the Royal Rifleman tavern, was a timber dock. Moored close to the river's bank was a barge house or cabin called "Noah's Ark." In the dock adjoining Noah's Ark was an old steamboat said to have been one of the first that "ran" on the Thames. The river about this part offered great attraction to swimmers and became a famous place for bathing. Hayle Foundry Wharf, Nine Elms, is now occupied by H. Young & Co., Engineers and Contractors, Founders, Smiths, etc. Their Art Works are at Eccleston, Pimlico, and are noted for casting the statues of Lord Derby, opposite the House of Lords; John Bunyan, erected at Bedford; Wellington Memorial in St. Paul's Cathedral, and (part finished) Sir John Burgoyne.

THE SOUTHWARK AND VAUXHALL WATER WORKS.—The Borough Works at St. Mary Overies, in 1820, became the property of one J. Edwards, who in 1822, also purchased from the New River Company the Works on the South side of London Bridge, and combined both concerns under the designation of the "Southwark Water Works." The whole being thus possessed by one opulent individual. In 1805, several persons united to give effect to a scheme for organising the South London Water Works (subsequently called the Vauxhall) and by an Act of Parliament passed in July, 1805, they were incorporated as a Company, with authority to raise capital for attaining their object amounting to £80,000 in 800 shares of £100 each. In June, 1813, another Act was obtained for empowering the Company to raise a further sum of £80,000. The operations of this Company commenced inauspiciously for their interests by reason of their having originally adopted wooden pipes, and having then been compelled to substitute iron in their place. The principal works were on the south side of Kennington Lane, formerly Kennington Common, near to Vauxhall. These companies experienced various vicissitudes in their progress, until in 1845, when an amalgamation took place under an Act of Parliament, to which we owe the creation of the Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company as it now exists. The area of the district supplied extends for about 13 miles E. and W., and 3 miles N. and S., the home district stretching from Rotherhithe to Clapham and the suburban and rural districts from Wandsworth to Richmond. Thus an area of 39 miles south of the Thames receives a supply of water distributed to about 80,000 houses, having a population of 550,000. The Company's property at Battersea consists of one Pumping Station, standing on freehold land of some 50 acres, and six Cornish Engines, erected by Messrs. Harvey and Co., with a total of 1,200 horse power; two Reservoirs of about 10 acres, containing about 46,000,000 gallons of water, and six filter beds, having an area 10¾ acres, with a filtering capacity for 1,300,750 gallons of water per hour. The Filters are to a certain depth filled with sand, through which the water percolates, leaving the impurities on the surface to be removed at pleasure. There are 18 fires or furnaces in the boiler house, the daily consumption of coal is about 22 tons. The water at this station is pumped partly over a stand pipe 186 feet high,[1] and[Pg 27] the remainder through an air vessel to a height of about 380 feet. The Company have considerable property at Hampton and Peckham. The Registrar General's return shews the Company possess about 685 miles of mains and service pipes, 100 miles of which (mains) are perpetually charged, and could be made available for constant supply should circumstances render it desirable. Office, Sumner Street, Southwark; Chief Engineer, Thos. W. Humble, Esq.; Resident Engineer, Mr. John Sampson. Adjacent to the Water Works are premises belonging to Harvey and Co., Machine, Hydraulic, and Mining Engineers of Hayle, Cornwall.

Fitz Stephen (William) a learned Monk of Canterbury, being attached to the Service of Archbishop Becket was present at the time of his murder. In the year 1174 he wrote in Latin the life of St. Thomas, Archbishop and Martyr, in which as Becket was a native of the Metropolis, he introduces a description of the City of London with a miscellaneous detail of the manners and usages of the Citizens; this is deservedly considered a great curiosity, being the earliest professed account of London extant. He describes the springs and water courses which abound in the vicinity of Old London as "sweet, salubrious, and clear," so that all that the inhabitants and water-carriers had to do was to draw water from the wells and springs, or dip their vessels in the pellucid stream of the river which was fit for culinary and all ordinary and domestic purposes. London then though considered a "Great City" was as a small town when compared with its teeming population of nearly 5,000,000 which people its City and environs now.[1] Since that time the Majestic Thames and its tributary streams have been so polluted with sewerage and other deleterious and poisonous matter as to induce some of the most scientific men of the age to consider not only the desirability but the necessity of obtaining for London a pure water supply. It is asserted as a fact that in England and Wales alone upwards of eight hundred persons die every month from typhoid fever; a disease which is now believed to be caused almost entirely through drinking impure water, and Dr. Frankland, the official to whom is entrusted the analysing of such matters reports "The Thames Water" notwithstanding the care that is taken to filter it by certain Water Companies is so much polluted by organic matters as to be quite unfit for dietetic purposes.

The first conduit erected in the City of London (Westcheap now Cheapside) was commenced in the year 1235 but was not completed till 50 years afterwards (1285). The Citizens, who had to fetch their water from the Thames often met with opposition from those who resided in the lanes leading down to the river who monopolized the right of procuring a water supply by stopping and imposing a duty upon others who sought to obtain it. This state of things as might be expected became unbearable and in 1342 an inquisition was made and persons were sworn to inquire into the stoppages and annoyances complained of in the several Wards. In the fifteenth century the authorities of the City had erected New[Pg 28] Conduits and had laid down leaden pipes. "In 1439 the Abbot of Westminster granted to Robert Large, the Lord Mayor, and the Citizens of London, and their successors, one head of water containing twenty-six perches in length and one in breadth, together with all the springs in the Manor of Paddington for an annual payment of two peppercorns." In the sixteenth century owing to the increased population and the drying up of the springs other means of supply were obtained in the neighbourhoods of Hampstead Heath, Hackney, and Muswell Hill. An Act of Parliament applied for by the Corporation was passed in 1544 for the purpose of obtaining from these springs an increased supply for the North Western portions of the City. The scheme however was not carried out until the year 1590 when another important source of supply had been procured. In 1568 a conduit was constructed at Dowgate, for the purpose of obtaining water from the Thames. "In 1580 Peter Morice, an ingenious Dutchman brought his scheme for raising the Thames Water high enough to supply the upper parts of the City, and in order to show its feasibility he threw a jet of water over the steeple of St. Magnus Church, a lease of 500 years of the Thames Water, and the places where his mills stood, and of one of the arches of London Bridge was granted to Morice, and the Water Works founded by him remained until the beginning of the present century." About the same time that Morice propounded his scheme for utilizing the Water of the Thames, Stow informs us that a man of the name of Russel proposed to bring water into London from Isleworth. In 1591 an Italian named Frederick Genebelli said that he could cleanse the filthy ditches about the city such as the Fleet River, Hounsditch, etc., and bring a plentiful supply of pure, wholesome water to the City through them, but his offer does not appear to have been accepted.

"In 1606 nearly £20,000 was expended in scouring the River Fleet, which was kept open for the purpose of navigation as high as Holborn Bridge." An Act was passed in 1609 for bringing water by means of engines from Hackney Marsh, to supply the City of London; the profits arising from the enterprise were to go to the College of Polemical Divines, founded by Dr. Sutcliffe, at Chelsea. At the close of Queen Elizabeth's Reign an Act was passed empowering the Corporation to cut a river for the purpose of conveying water from Middlesex and Hertfordshire to the City, but nothing was done in this direction till after the accession of James I to the throne. In 1605 and 1606 Acts of Parliament were passed empowering the Corporation to bring water from the Springs of Chadwell and Amwell to the northern parts of the City. The Corporation transferred their power in 1609 to Hugh, afterwards (Sir Hugh) Middleton, Citizen, and Goldsmith, who with characteristic energy entered into the vast scheme which was effectually carried out at an immense expense. On Sept. 29th, 1613 the New River was opened, and London from this source received an abundant supply of water. The New River Company was incorporated in 1620. The City was supplied with its water by the conveyance of wooden pipes in the streets, and small leaden ones to the houses.

Among the Records known as the Remembrancia preserved[Pg 29] among the Archives of the City of London. London, 1878. Some curious particulars are mentioned respecting the applications made by various noblemen to be allowed to have pipes, of the size of a goose-quill, attached to the city pipes, for the purpose of supplying their houses with water. "In 1592 Lord Cobham applied to the Lord Mayor for a quill of water from the conduit at Ludgate to his house in Blackfriars, but the consideration of the request was postponed, and in 1594 Lord Burghley wrote to the Lord Mayor and Alderman in support of Lord Cobham's application. Lady Essex and Walsingham asked for a supply of water for Essex-house in 1601, and obtained the Lord Chamberlain's (Earl of Suffolk) influence to further their suit; but on June 8th, 1608, the Lord Mayor wrote to Lord Suffolk that the water in the conduits had become so low, and the poor were so clamorous on account of the dearth, that it became necessary to cut off several of the quills. 'Moreover,' he added, 'complaints had been made of the extraordinary waste of water in Essex-house, it being taken not only for dressing meat, but for the laundry, the stable, and other offices, which might be otherwise served.' As London extended itself westward, and the City came to join Westminster, the drain must have been great upon the water supply, which was originally intended for a considerably smaller area. In 1613 Lord Fenton applied for a quill of water for his house at Charing Cross, but the Lord Mayor refused to grant the request on the ground that the conduits did not supply sufficient water for the City. Sir Francis Bacon (afterwards the great Lord Verulam) asked, in 1617, for a lead pipe to supply York-house, and Alice, Countess of Derby, requested to be allowed a quill of water in the following year. This celebrated lady, afterwards married to Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, lived in St. Martin's-lane, and we learn from the City letter-book (quoted in the index to the Remembrancia) the amount of water supplied to her was at the rate of three gallons an hour. In subsequent years, we notice among the applicants for quills of water the celebrated names of Sir Harry Vane, Denzell Holles, the Dukes of Albemarle and Buckingham, and the Earl of Northumberland." Cavendish and Watt demonstrated that water is composed of 8 parts of Oxygen and 1 part of Hydrogen. In freezing, water contracts till it is reduced to 42° or 40° Fahr. It then begins to expand till it becomes ice at 32°. Water was first conveyed to London by leaden pipes, 21 Henry III. 1237.—Stow.

So late as Queen Anne's time there were water-carriers at Aldgate Pump. The Water Works at Chelsea were completed and the Company incorporated in 1722. London Bridge ancient water works were destroyed by fire, 29th Oct., 1779.

Commissioners for Metropolitan Water Supply appointed 27th April, 1867; Report Signed 9th June, 1869; London supplied by Nine Companies. The New River (the best) East London, Chelsea, Grand Junction, Southwark, and Vauxhall, Kent, West Middlesex, Lambeth, and South Essex; who deliver about 108,000,000 gallons daily, 1867; about 116,250,000 gallons daily, 1877.

In 1880, the Nominal Capital of Eight Water Companies was £12,011,320.

[Pg 30]

THE VILLAGE OF BATTERSEA lies on the south side of the Thames opposite Chelsea, to which it has some historical relationship on account of its having been the seat of our Porcelain manufacture and of Saxon origin. It is situated about four miles South West of St. Paul's Cathedral. Battersea is a polling place for the Mid-divisions of the County in the Wandsworth Division of the West Brixton Hundred. Wandsworth Union and County Court District, Surrey Arch-Deaconry, and late Winchester, but now Rochester Diocese;[1] it is also within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, Metropolitan Board of Works, Metropolitan Police, and Wandsworth Police Court. The Parish is divided into four Wards. Penge[2] lies in Croydon district detached from the main[Pg 31] body seven miles distant. The entire parish comprehends an area of 3183 acres.[3] Acres of the main body, 2177 of land 166 of water.—Wilson's Gazetteer of England and Wales. In 1792, there were two places of worship, viz., the Parish Church and the Old Baptist Meeting House in York Road; the number of houses within the parish at that period was 380. The following tabular statement will give but an inadequate conception of the growth of the parish since then:—

In 1840 the rateable value was about £28,000.
In 1856 the rateable value was about £79,100.
In 1876 the rateable value was about £331,846.
In 1880 the rateable value was about 416,000.

Anno Domini 1658, the Hamlet of Penge, seven miles from the Parish Church, contained twelve families. The Commissioners who were vested with power to unite or separate parishes did nothing in this case, they could not find a convenient place in the Hundred or County to unite it to. The nearest place of public worship was Beckingham in Kent, about a mile distant.

With respect to the true etymology of the name Battersea,[1] it[Pg 32] was anciently written Battries-ey, and in Doom's-day Book Patries-ey, probably a mistake for Patrice-ey and signifying St. Peter's Isle, the termination ey, from the Saxon eze or ize, often occurring in the name of places adjacent to great rivers; as Putney, Molesey, Chertsey, etc. Battersea has a history dating from the time of Harold. At the Norman Conquest it passed into the hands of William the Conqueror, who exchanged it with the Abbey of St. Peter's, at Westminster, for lands at Windsor.

The earliest record we have of Battersea appears in Doomsday Book, where it is written Pattricesy. Some authors have supposed that because Petersham, which belonged to St. Peter's Abbey, Chertsey, is there spelt Patricesham, that the earliest form of Battersea originated its connexion with St. Peter's Abbey, the c they say in both these words was sibilant and therefore did not differ very much in pronunciation from that it is now, though they admit that it is a "curious anomaly that while P in Patricesy has been changed into B the P in Patricesham remains unchanged." What the final syllable represents is less clear as there are now no traces of Battersea having been an island although there may have been once. Chelsea, it is remarked, "was originally Ceale-hythe or Chelc-hythe, and a haven on the Thames, not an island, just as Lambeth was 'Lambe-hithe' or haven, but there is no recorded form of Battersea that would allow us to say that ey or ea represented hithe. There was, however, until about thirty years ago, a Creek, up which tradition reports that Queen Elizabeth rowed. A bright little stream rising in Tooting, and passing by Wandsworth Common, flowed into the Thames at this Creek, which is now a mere sewer, and its better character is only kept in remembrance by the name of Creek Street." The Rev. Daniel Lysons, in a book entitled "The Environs of London," published in 1792, which, through the kindness of Mr. R. J. S. Kentish, Librarian of the Beaufoy Library, we have had the privilege of consulting, says, "the name has undergone several changes. In the Conqueror's Survey, it is called Patricesy, and has since been written Battrichsey, Battersey and Battersea, each variation carrying it still further from its original signification. Of the original signification of the word, I think there can be little doubt. Patricesy in the Saxon is Peter's water or river; and as the same record which calls it Patricesy mentions that it was given to St. Peter, it might then first assume that appellation, but this I own is conjecture. Petersham, which is precisely the same in Doomsday—Patriceham, belonged to St. Peter's Abbey, Chertsey, and retains its original name a little modernised. Aubrey, Vol. I. p. 135, derives the name from St. Patrick; but Aubrey was mistaken by seeing it written Patricesy, instead of Petricesy, in Doomsday; but the Normans were not very accurate spellers. Petersham was written in the same manner with an a."[1] "The Parish of Battersea is bounded on the East by Lambeth, on the South by Camberwell, Streatham and Clapham; on the West by Wandsworth, and on the[Pg 33] North by the River Thames. The greater part of Wandsworth Common, which extends nearly two miles in length towards Streatham, and a considerable part of Clapham Common are in the Parish of Battersea." The boundaries of Clapham Parish, according to the oldest documents of that Parish and Manor, when taken, have usually commenced at the corner of Wix's Lane, formerly called Browmell's corner. The limits of Clapham Parish where it adjoins Battersea in the early part of last century was the subject of a legal contest, that part of Clapham Common extending to Battersea Rise being claimed by both parishes. In 1716 the inhabitants of Battersea inclosed with a ditch and bank the tract of land in question, and the people of Clapham levelled the bank and filled up the ditch; in consequence of which Henry Lord Viscount St. John, the Lord of the Manor of Battersea, brought an action for trespass against those who were engaged in this work, or their employers, which was tried at the Lent Assizes at Kingston, in 1718, when the plaintiff was non-suited. The men of Battersea however were not discouraged but persevered with greater determination than ever in supporting their claim by including when they beat the boundaries of their Parish the disputed ground in their perambulations; and says Mr. Brayley "it would seem to have been eventually successful, a certain portion of the Common being now held on lease of Earl Spencer as Lord of the Manor of Battersea."—Brayley, Surrey Mantel, Vol. III. p. 281.

Last century Clapham Common was little better than a morass; it covers 202 acres. The number and variety of trees both English and exotic with which it is ornamented give it very much the appearance of a park. The Metropolitan Board of Works have purchased the manorial rights over the Common which is now under their supervision. "In the year 1874 (says Mr Walford) the Enclosure Commissioners for England and Wales under the Metropolitan Common Act, 1866, and Metropolitan Commons' Amendment Act, 1869, certified a scheme for placing the Common under the control of the Local Board, the Common was purchased for the sum of £17,000 and it was proposed that it should be dedicated to the use and recreation of the public for ever. By the above mentioned scheme the Board were to drain, plant, and ornament the Common as necessary, no houses were to be built thereon, but eight lodges necessary for its maintenance."

The writer of a work entitled "Clapham with its Common and Environs," says, "The Mount-Pond was originally a gravel pit, excavated principally to form the turnpike road from Tooting to London. The Mount was raised, and a Pagoda Summer House planted on the top, by Henton Brown, Esq., of the firm of Brown and Tritton, Bankers, Lombard Street, member of the Society of Friends. Mr. Brown lived in the house, late in the occupation of J. Thornton, Esq., and was at great expense in forming the Mount and Pond. The Mount was larger than it now is, and planted with choice shrubs as well as trees. A bridge was thrown over the east side to connect it with the Common, and a pleasure boat was kept under it, but which after the failure of Mr. Brown, went rapidly to decay. He fenced it round with posts and rails, and in 1748 the[Pg 34] Parish gave him leave to put down a close fence, which a subsequent Vestry refused to ratify. He was also at the expense of making a conduit from the pond to supply a reservoir in his own grounds." Lavender Hill seems to have been long noted for its nursery gardens. Situated on the Hill was Lavender Villa—at the foot of Lavender Hill was a brook. Now Lavender Hill has the appearance of a busy town. Splendid shops, handsomely decorated and well stocked line both sides of the main thoroughfare, and rows of respectable houses and semi-detached villas forming roads and streets have sprung up in all directions. The same may be said of a great portion of Battersea Rise extending to Bolingbroke Grove. Stately trees have been felled and green slopes that were are now covered with houses, with here and there a place of worship, and all this transformation has taken place within the last twelve years. Clapham Common and its immediate vicinity was in the early years of the present century the seat of the knot of zealous men who, labouring together for what they believed to be the interest of pure religion, the reformation of manners and the suppression of slavery, came to be known as the Clapham sect. One of the most distinguished of them, William Wilberforce, lived at the house known as "Broomfield," (Broomwood) on the south-west side of Clapham Common, and there his no less distinguished son, the late Bishop of Winchester, was born September 7th, 1805. "Conterminous with his fair demesne was that of Henry Thornton, the author and prime mover of the conclave, whose meetings were held, for the most part, in the oval saloon which William Pitt, dismissing for a moment his budgets and his subsidies, planned to be added to Henry Thornton's newly-purchased residence.... It arose at his bidding, and yet remains, perhaps a solitary monument of the architectural skill of that imperial mind. Lofty and symmetrical, it was curiously wainscoted with books on every side except where it opened on a far-extended lawn reposing beneath the giant arms of aged elms and massive tulip trees."—Stephen's Essays, Vol. II. p. 290. "In this saloon, and on the far-extended lawn, after their long years of effort, assembled in joy and thanksgiving and mutual congratulation over the abolition of the slave trade, Wilberforce, Clarkson, Granville, Sharp, Stephen, Zachary Macaulay and their younger associates and disciples. But the Villa-cinctured-Common was also the birthplace or cradle of another and hardly less remarkable and far-reaching religious movement or institution. Just as it was the dwelling place, the home or haunt of every one of the most eminent supporters of the anti-slavery movement, so was it the home or haunt of the founders of the Bible Society, its earliest ministers or secretaries, and above all the first and greatest of its presidents, John Lord Teignmouth."—Handbook to the Environs of London, by James Thorne, F.S.A., Part I. pp. 111, 112. Broomwood was the seat of the late Sir Charles Forbes, contiguous to which and facing the tall poplar tree is situated a spacious villa once the residence of the late Frances Elizabeth Leveson Gower, an estimable Christian maiden-lady who was a subscriber to several benevolent institutions. She used to conduct bible readings not only for the female servants of the gentry of Clapham Common but also for navvies and others of the labouring classes in her own[Pg 35] dining room, where they partook of her generous hospitality after their daily toil in the shape of a hearty meal.

A Good Example of liberality was given by one Mr. Thornton, of Clapham, a noble-hearted Christian merchant. One morning, when he had received news of a failure that involved him in the loss of no less than a hundred thousand pounds, a minister from the country called at his counting-house to ask a subscription for an important object. Hearing that Mr. Thornton had suffered that loss, he apologized for having called. But Mr. Thornton took him kindly by the hand and said: "My dear sir, the wealth I have is not mine, but the Lord's. It may be that He is going to take it out of my hands, and give it to another; and if so, this is a good reason why I should make a good use of what is left." He then doubled the subscription he intended to give.

The recently deceased and much lamented Philip Cazenove was for thirty years a parishioner, residing on Battersea Rise, whose name was a Synonym for kindness and Christian charity concerning whom we feel that we cannot pass a better eulogium than that recorded in St. Mary's, Battersea, Parish Magazine for February, 1880. "He has been a benefactor such as a parish rarely numbers amongst its church folk. The magnificent Girls' School in Green Lane was added to Miss Champion's benefaction, almost at Mr. Cazenove's sole cost. To every church building scheme, to Battersea College, to new schools, to the proposed Hospital, to every good work he was a munificent contributor. And what he did in Battersea, he did in all parts of East and South London, indeed in all parts of the metropolis and in the country. And he sought no thanks for his donations, but with a rare self-forgetfulness he seemed to avoid the acknowledgments of gratitude. His liberality, great as it was, by no means represented all that he did for good works. In our parish he took a personal interest in our Schools of all grades. He always had words of kind encouragement for the teachers. He was always ready to preside at any meeting, or to act on any committee. And as his alms deeds went far beyond his own parish so did his personal service. There was no more familiar face than his in the Board-rooms of the great Church Societies, for some of the chief of which, as the Gospel Propagation Society, he acted as Treasurer. He was an active member of the governing bodies of Guy's Hospital, and other like institutions, and everywhere he freely gave his sunny sympathy and the ripe counsels of his long experience. He was indeed a notable instance of an open-handed, simple-hearted Churchman, some would add 'of the old school,' and we would say, may God of His mercy put it into the hearts of others to perpetuate such a 'school' for truly they are a blessing and a stay to all around them. Our venerated friend was stricken with illness in the beginning of last year, and it seemed as if he would then have succumbed to the physical weakness of the action of that great loving heart. But he rallied somewhat, and during the summer and autumn he was able to sit in his garden or to drive out in his carriage. He was able to be at S. Mark's on S. Michael's Day, 1879, and to receive the Holy Communion there for the last time in the Sanctuary. With the return of winter, his weakness increased, and after a year of[Pg 36] weariness and languor and the depression incident to his illness, he entered into the Rest, for which he had yearned, in the early morning of January 20. Philip Cazenove, born Nov. 23, 1798; died January 20, 1880, aged 81."

Hear what the voice from heaven proclaims
For all the pious dead,
Sweet is the savour of their names,
And soft their sleeping bed.
They die in Jesus, and are bless'd;
How kind their slumbers are!
From sufferings and from sins released,
And freed from every snare.
Far from this world of toil and strife,
They're present with the Lord:
The labours of their mortal life
End in a large reward.—Isaac Watts, 1709.

At a semi-detached villa situated in this part of the Common, resided the late Charles Curling, Esq., whose memory many of the poor inhabitants of Old Battersea cherish with feelings of grateful respect. He relieved the temporal wants of the needy; opened day and night schools in order that the poorest might be educated; under his excellent wife's superintendence maternal meetings were conducted; at his own expense he supported an Evangelist and a Bible Woman to work in the district.

The Villa adjoining that of Mr. Curling's was occupied by the late Misses Sarah Hibbert and Mary Ann Hibbert, who erected Alms Houses in Wandsworth Road, Clapham, for eight aged women, in grateful remembrance of their father, William Hibbert, who was for many years an inhabitant of Clapham. Not least among the benefactresses of the poor might be mentioned the names of Lady George Pollock, Lady Lawrence, Mrs. Sillem, and Mrs. Robert Jones, of this part, (all deceased). The memory of the just is blessed!

When Lysons wrote, Battersea Rise being a salubrious locality was ornamented with several villas, also it was much admired for its pleasant situation and fine prospect. Referring to the Market Gardens, etc., he says, "About 300 acres of land in the Parish of Battersea are occupied by the market gardeners, of whom there are about twenty who rent from five or six to nearly sixty acres each." Fuller, who wrote in the year 1660, speaking of the gardens in Surrey, states, "Gardening was first brought into England for profit, about 70 years ago; before which we fetched most of our cherries from Holland, apples from France, and hardly a mess of rath ripe peas but from Holland; which were dainties for ladies, they come so far and cost so dear. Since gardening hath crept out of Holland to Sandwich, Kent, and thence to Surrey; where, though they have given £6 an acre and upwards, they have made their rent, lived comfortably, and set many people at work. Oh the incredible profit by digging of ground! for though it be confessed, that the plough beats the spade out of distance for speed, (almost as much as the press beats the pen), yet, what the spade wants in the quantity of the ground it manureth, it recompenseth[Pg 37] with the plenty of the good it yieldeth, that which is multiplying an hundred fold more than that which is sown. 'Tis incredible how many poor people in London live thereon, so that in some seasons the gardens feed more people than the field."—Fuller's Worthies, Pt. 3, p. 77. "These gardeners," continues Lysons, "employ in the summer season a considerable number of labourers, though perhaps not so many as is generally supposed—on an average I am informed, not one to an acre. The wages of the men are from ten to twelve, of the women from five to seven shillings by the week. Most of the women travel on foot from Shropshire and North Wales in the spring, and as they live at a very cheap rate, many of them return to their own country richer than they left it. The soil of the ground occupied by the gardeners is sandy and requires a great deal of rain. The vegetables which they raise are in general very fine; their cabbages and asparagus particularly have acquired celebrity." The asparagus first grown in or near London was raised by the Battersea gardeners. Owing to its rich and alluvial soil, Battersea has always been noted for its fine asparagus—110 heads of extraordinary size and fit for the kitchen have been known to weigh 32 lbs.[1] There was no market at Battersea, its vegetable produce was sent to the London market. In Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica Antiquities (British Museum) Vol. II. p. 227, is a brief note on Battersea by Mr. Theobald. This old writer says, "The lands are fruitful beyond most others and this Parish is famous in the London market for its asparagus, hence called Battersea Bundles. It also in the time of a noted man there, one Mr. Cuff, was famous for producing the finest melons. The common field called Battersea Field, is constantly cropped with peas, beans, wheat, etc.... Lands are here let from 50s. down to 16s. an acre.... There are three windmills on the river's brink, one for corn, one grinds colours for the potters, and another serves to grind whitelead. Being in the neighbourhood of London so commodiously[Pg 38] within about four miles of the City and on the banks of the river Thames, where so many conveniences of carriage are constantly to be met, and the merchant can in an hour return to his country house. Several citizens and merchants have both built handsome houses here."

In 1816, Stages set out for Battersea from the following places:—A coach from Pewter Platter, Gracechurch Street, and Black Dog and Camel, Leadenhall Street, daily at 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m., Sunday morning at 11. Red Lion, Strand, daily 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. A cart, Kings and Key, Fleet Street; Bell, Bell Yard, and George and Gate, and Pewter Platter, Gracechurch Street; King's Arms, Bishopgate Within; Ship and Hope, Charing Cross, and Angel and Sun, White Hart, and Spotted Dog, Strand, daily at 2 p.m. Boats, Queenhithe, and Globe, Hungerford Stairs daily. Waterman's rates from London Bridge to Chelsea (Battersea) Bridge—oars, whole fare 2/6, sculls 1/3, with company each person oars or sculls 4d. Not more than eight persons in any passage-boat between Windsor and Greenwich. Over the water directly every person 1d. and sculler's fare 2d. No waterman could be compelled to go below the Pageants, and Ratcliff Cross Stairs, or above Vauxhall and Feathers Stairs after five, from Michaelmas to Lady Day, nor after nine in the evening from Lady Day to Michaelmas.

The annual fair held here in Battersea Square, at Easter, was afterwards suppressed. The houses in Old Battersea were irregularly built; the inhabitants were supplied with water from springs. The County Magistrates held a meeting at Wandsworth, an adjoining village, where also a Court of Request for the recovery of debts under £5 was held, under an Act obtained in the 31st of George II., the power of which was extended by an Act in the 46th of George III. The Court of Requests, which is called a court of conscience, was first instituted in the reign of Henry 7th, 1493, and was remodelled by a statute of Henry 8th, in 1517.—Stowe. Established for the summary recovery of small debts under forty shillings, but in the City of London the jurisdiction extends to debts of £5.—Ashe. There were Courts of Request in the principal corporate towns throughout the kingdom, until 1847, when they were superseded (those of the City of London excepted) by the County Debts Court, whose jurisdiction, extending at first to £20, was enlarged in 1850 to £50. The Lord of the Manor held a Court Leet at Wandsworth, at which the Headborough and constables for Battersea were appointed.

"The Manor of Battersea, which, before the conquest, belonged to Earl Harold, was given by the Conqueror to Westminster Abbey in exchange for Windsor. The Manor was valued in the Confessor's time at £80, it afterwards sunk in value to £30, and at the time of the Survey was estimated at £75. In the taxation of 1291, the possessions of the Abbey of Westminster in Battersea were rated at £15. Thomas Astle, Esq., (says Lysons) has an original deed of Archbishop Theobald, confirming a charter of King Stephen by which he exempts the greater part of the Manor from all taxes and secular payments. Dart mentions several charters relating to Battersea, viz., William the Conqueror's original grant; a charter of privilege; a grant to the Abbot of Westminster of liberty to[Pg 39] hunt in this Manor; a charter of confirmation in Henry the First, and another of King Stephen, besides that of privilege before mentioned."

"After the dissolution of monasteries, the Manor was reserved in the hands of the Crown; a lease of it was granted to Henry Roydon, Esq., by Queen Elizabeth, for twenty-one years, in the eighth year of her reign; it was afterwards granted for the same term to his daughter, then Joan Holcroft; and was assigned amongst others for the maintenance of Prince Henry, A.D. 1610. In the year 1627, it was granted in reversion to Oliver St. John Viscount Grandison. Sir Oliver St. John was the first of the family who settled at Battersea, he married Joan, daughter and heir of Henry Roydon, Esq., of this place, widow of Sir William Holcroft. Lord Grandison died in 1630, and was succeeded in that title and in the Battersea Estate by William Villiers, his great-nephew, who died of a wound received at the siege of Bristol, A.D. 1644. Sir John St. John, Bart., nephew of the first Lord Grandison, inherited Battersea; from him it passed in a regular descent to Sir Walter St. John, Bart., his nephew, to Sir Walter's son, Henry Viscount St. John, and to his grandson, Henry Viscount Bolingbroke, who, by an Act of Parliament passed before his father's death, was enabled to inherit his estate, notwithstanding his attainder. The estate and manor continued in the St. John family till 1763, when it was bought in trust for John Viscount Spencer, and is now property of the present Earl Spencer."[1]—Lysons' Environs.

Battersea has many memorials; its historic interest culminates in its association with the St. Johns. One is stated to have been "eminent for his piety and moral virtues." Henry in 1684 pleaded guilty of the murder of Sir William Estcourt, Bart., in a sudden quarrel arising at a supper party. His case, if Bishop Burnet be correct, could be regarded only as manslaughter, but he was induced to plead guilty by a promise of pardon if he followed that advice or of his being subjected to the utmost rigour of the law on his refusal. No pardon is enrolled but it is stated that the King granted him a reprieve for a long term of years; and in the Rolls Chapel is a restitution of the Estate (Pat 36 Charles II.) for which it would seem and the reprieve conjoined he had to pay £16,000, one half of which Burnet says the King converted to his own use and bestowed the remainder on two ladies then in high favour.—Burnet's History of his own times; fol; 1724. Vol. I. p. 600.

Bolingbroke or Bullingbroke, a town of great antiquity in Lincolnshire, gave the title of Viscount to the St. Johns of Battersea. In 1700, Sir Walter St. John founded and endowed a free school for twenty boys, and both he and his lady afterwards left further sums for apprenticing some of the number. It was re-built in 1859. Over the gateway in the High Street, are carved the Arms of St. John, and underneath them is inscribed the motto, "Rather Deathe than false of Faythe." As we gazed upon the above motto we were reminded of other lines which we have seen and read elsewhere. Sir Walter St. John died 3rd July, 1808, aged 87; his[Pg 40] portrait is in the school. He built a gallery at the west end of the Old Church.

"Dare to be right, dare to be true;
Other men's failures can never save you;
Stand by your conscience, your honour, your faith;
Stand like a hero, and battle till death.

Dare to be right, dare to be true;
Keep the great judgment day always in view,
Look at your work, as you'll look at it then,
Scanned by Jehovah, and Angels and men.

Dare to be right, dare to be true;
God who created you, cares for you too,
Wipe off the tears that His striving ones shed,
Counts and protects every hair of your head.

Dare to be right, dare to be true;
Cannot Omnipotence carry you through?
City, and Mansion, and throne all in view,
Cannot you dare to be right and be true?

Dare to be right, dare to be true;
Prayerfully, lovingly, firmly pursue
The pathway by Saints, and by Seraphim trod
The pathway which leads to the City of God."

Bolingbroke (Henry St. John) Lord Viscount, descended from an ancient and noble family as we have already seen. His Mother was Mary, daughter of Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick. He received a liberal education at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, and when he left the University was considered to possess uncommon qualifications, but with great parts he had strong passions, which as usually happens, hurried him into many follies and indiscretions. Contrary to the inclinations of his family he cultivated Tory connections, and gained such influence in the House of Commons, that in 1704 he was appointed Secretary of War and of the Marines. He was closely united in all political measures with Mr. Harley; when therefore that gentleman was removed from the seals in 1707, Mr. St. John resigned his office; and in 1710, when Mr. Harley was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, the post of Secretary of State was given to Mr. St. John. In 1712, he was created Baron St. John of Lediard Tregose in Wiltshire, and Viscount Bolingbroke. But being overlooked in the bestowal of vacant ribands of the Order of the Garter, it is said he resented the affront and renounced the friendship of Harley, then Earl of Oxford, and made his court to the Whigs; nevertheless, on the accession of George 1st, the seals were taken from him. Having been informed that a resolution was taken to pursue him to the scaffold for his conduct regarding the treaty of Utrecht, Signed 11th of April, 1713, he withdrew into France and joined the Pretender's[1] service and accepted the seals as his Secretary.[Pg 41] But he was as unfortunate in his new connection as those he had renounced, for the year 1715 was scarcely expired, while being attainted of high treason at home, he was accused by the Pretender of neglect, incapacity and treachery, and had the papers and seals of Foreign Secretary's Office taken away. Such a complication of distressful events threw him into a state of reflection that produced by way of relief "a consolatio philosophica," which he wrote the same year under the title of "Reflection upon Exile." The next year he drew up a vindication of his conduct with respect to the Tories in the form of a letter to Sir William Wyndham. In 1718 his first wife died; in 1720 he married a niece of the famous Madam Maintenon and widow of the Marquis de Villette,[2] with whom he had a very large fortune. In 1723, after being in exile seven years, the King was prevailed upon to grant him a free pardon, and he returned in consequence to England. But his spirit was not satisfied within while he remained a mere titular Lord, and excluded from the House of Peers. His recall had been assented to by Sir Robert Walpole, but he cherished a secret dislike to Walpole and regarded him as the cause of his not receiving the full extent of the King's clemency. Walpole invited Bolingbroke to dine with him at Chelsea, but it appeared to Bolingbroke rather to shew his power and prosperity than for any other reason. Horace Walpole, the celebrated son of the Minister, says in his "Reminiscences" "Whether tortured at witnessing Sir Robert's serene frankness and felicity, or suffocated with indignation and confusion at being forced to be obliged to one whom he hated and envied, the first morsel he put into his mouth was near choking him, and he was reduced to rise from the table and leave the room for some minutes. I never heard of their meeting more." He distinguished himself by a multitude of political writings till the year 1735, when being thoroughly convinced that the door was shut against him, he returned once more to France. In this foreign retreat he began his course of letters on the Study and Use of History for Lord Combury, to whom they are addressed. Lord Bolingbroke was born and died in the family Mansion at Battersea.[Pg 42] The house was very large, with forty rooms on a floor; but with the exception of a wing,[3] it has long since been taken down and otherwise appropriated.[4] Dives' Flour Mills cover a portion of the site where once stood this venerable mansion. Upon the death of his father, who lived to be extremely old, Lord Bolingbroke settled at Battersea, where he passed the remaining nine years of his life in philosophical dignity. Pope and Swift, one a great poet, the other a great wit of that time, almost adored him. Arbuthnot, Thompson, Mallet, and other contemporary men of genius were his frequent visitors. Mr. Timbs says "here took place the memorable destruction of one of Bolingbroke's most celebrated works, his 'Essay on a Patriotic King,' of which the noble author had printed only six copies, which he gave to Lord Chesterfield, Sir William Wyndham, Lyttelton, Pope, Lord Marchmont, and Lord Combury, at whose instance Bolingbroke wrote the essay. Pope lent his copy to Mr. Allen, of Bath, who was so delighted with it that he had five hundred copies printed, but locked them up in a warehouse, not to see light until Lord Bolingbroke's permission could be obtained. On the discovery, Lord Marchmont (then living at Lord Bolingbroke's house at Battersea), sent Mr. Gravenkop for the whole cargo, and he had the books carried out on a waggon and burnt on a lawn in the presence of Lord Bolingbroke." Pope, when visiting his friend Lord Bolingbroke, usually selected as his study a parlour (the grate and ornaments were of the age of George 1st) wainscoted with cedar, and overlooking the Thames, in which he is said to have composed some of his celebrated works. It is well known that he received from him the materials for his famous poem the "Essay on Man."

Lord Bolingbroke was born about the year 1672, or as some think, in 1678; he was baptized October 10, 1678; died December 12, 1751, and left the care and benefit of his M.S.S. to Mr. Mallet, who published them together with his former printed works in five vols. 4to.; they are also printed in 8vo.

Lord Bolingbroke sank under a dreadful malady beneath which he had long lingered—a cancer in the face—which he bore with exemplary fortitude. "A fortitude," says Lord Brougham "drawn from the natural resources of his mind, and unhappily not aided by the consolation of any religion; for having cast off the belief in revelation, he had substituted in its stead a dark and gloomy naturalism, which even rejected those glimmerings of hope as to futurity not untasted by the wiser of the heathen." He used to ride out in his chariot every day, and had a black patch on his cheek, with a large wart over one of his eyebrows. He was thought to be essentially selfish; he spent little in the place and gave little away, so that he was not regarded much by the people of Battersea.

A popular writer states that "Bolingbroke's talents were brilliant and versatile; his style of writing was polished and eloquent; but the fatal lack of sincerity and honest purpose which characterised him, and the low and unscrupulous ambition which made him[Pg 43] scramble for power with a selfish indifference to national security hindered him from looking wisely and deeply into any question. His philosophical theories are not profound, nor his conclusions solid, while his criticism of passing history is worthless in the extreme. He was one of those clever unscrupulous men, unhappily too common, who forget that God has something to do with the government of this world as well as themselves, and who in spite of their ability, can never see that swift destruction treads like Nemesis on the heels of those who dare to trifle with the interests and destinies of a great people."

His opposition to revealed religion drew from Johnson this severe remark: "Having loaded a blunderbuss and pointed it against Christianity he had not the courage to discharge it himself, but left a half-crown to a hungry Scotchman to pull the trigger after his death."

Oliver Goldsmith in his life of Lord Bolingbroke says: "In whatever light we view his character, we shall find him an object rather more proper for our wonder than our imitation; more to be feared than esteemed, and gaining our admiration without our love. His ambition ever aimed at the summit of power, and nothing seemed capable of satisfying his immoderate desires but the liberty of governing all things without a rival."

On the site of the demolished part of Bolingbroke House,[1] a horizontal Air Mill was erected in 1790, of a conical form, 140 feet in height, and having a mean diameter of 50 feet; it was 54 feet at the base and 45 at the top. It was originally applied to the grinding of linseed for oil, and subsequently by Messrs. Hodgson, Weller and Allaway, of malt for the Distilleries, which were at that time in extensive operation here. Mr. Thomas Fowler erected this mill, the design was taken from that of another on a smaller scale, constructed at Margate by Capt. Hooper. It consisted of a circular wheel, with large boards or vanes fixed parallel to its axis; and upon the vanes the wind acted as to blow the wheel round, one side of it being sheltered from the action of the wind by its being enclosed in frame work, with doors or shutters to open and admit the wind, or to shut and stop it. If all the shutters on one side were open, whilst all those on the opposite were closed, the wind acting with diminished force on the vanes of one side, whilst the opposite vanes were under shelter, turned the mill round; but whenever the wind changed, the disposition of the blinds had to be altered, to admit the wind to strike upon the vanes of the wheels in the direction of a tangent to the circle in which they moved.—Dr. Paris's Philosophy in Sport. "The Mill," says Mr. Timbs, "resembled a gigantic packing case, which gave rise to an odd story, that when the Emperor of Russia was in England in 1814, he took a fancy to Battersea Church and determined to carry it off to Russia, and had this large packing case made for it; but as the inhabitants refused to let the Church be carried away, so the case remained on the spot where it was deposited." The Mill served as a landmark for miles around, being more conspicuous an object at that time than the lofty square tower of Watney's Distillery a little further westward is now. At length the upper part of the Mill[Pg 44] was taken down; the lower part is still used for grinding corn. Capper, referring to this Mill, says, "it had 96 shutters, which though only 9 inches broad, reached to the height of 80 feet; these by means of a rope, opened and shut in the manner of Venetian blinds. In the inside, the main shaft of the Mill was the centre of a large circle formed by the sails, which consisted of 96 double planks placed perpendicularly, and the same height as the shutters; through these shutters the wind passing turned the Mill with great rapidity, which was increased or diminished by opening or shutting the apertures. In it were six pairs of stones, in which two pair more might be added. Adjacent were Bullock Houses capable of holding 650 bullocks, which were fed with the grains and meal from the Distilleries."

[Pg 45]

ST. MARY'S CHURCH forms an interesting object from the water. It was re-built by Act of Parliament passed 14 Geo. 3. The former church, which was built of brick, was found to be in such a dilapidated state that the Vestry deemed it more than desirable to erect a new church than to enlarge and repair the old one. Their unanimous resolution in this respect met with the sanction of Earl Spencer; his lordship in compliance with a petition generously granted the petitioners in the year 1772 a piece of ground, etc. for the enlargement of the church yard. During the re-building of the church, divine service was conducted in the tabernacle at the Workhouse. The cost of its erection was about £5,000, which sum was raised by a brief by the sale of certain pews for 99 years, by the sale of some estates or docks belonging to the Parish, and by granting annuities on lives; the leases expired Michaelmas, 1876. It was opened for divine service November 17, 1777. The ground given by the Earl Spencer for the enlargement of the church yard was consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Oxford, on Wednesday, the 15th of April, 1778. The Church is built of brick and has a tower with a conical copper spire at the west end, besides a clock and porch.[1] The belfry contains a set of eight bells, which, in addition to their ordinary Sunday chimes, ring out their merry peals on special occasions.

"Ring out the old year's evil,
The world, the flesh, the devil;
Let them go! let them go!
And ring in the Prince of Peace,
Messiah's gentle reign.
And let war and bloodshed cease,
And righteousness obtain.
Ring out the old year's crimes,
And ring in the new year's birth,—
Good words, good deeds, good times;
Oh, were ever sweeter chimes
Rung on this fallen earth
Since creation's virgin anthem rang,
And morning stars together sang?"
"Chime on, ye bells! again begin,
And ring the Sabbath morning in."

Six of the old bells were in the Old Church but re-cast, and two were added to them. Length of church, 88 feet; breadth, 49 feet 3 inches.—Rev. Owen Manning, S.T.B. In digging for the foundation of the present structure was found an ancient coffin lid of stone, on the top of which was a cross fleury. The Rev. Erskine Clarke in an article headed "S. Mary's Church in the Last Century" has furnished his parishioners with some interesting details gathered from the Parish books respecting the re-building of the Parish Church. He says: "It does not appear that our ancestors were more expeditious in carrying on business of this nature than we of the present day, as the first resolution to inquire into the state of the old Church[1] was passed by the Vestry in December,[Pg 46] 1769, whereas the re-building was not finished till November, 1777. The first suggestion was to sell a portion of Penge Common in order to raise the money required, but it was afterwards found that the condition of the church was so bad that the money raised by this means would not be sufficient for the necessary repairs. On March 1st, 1771, it was ordered by the Vestry that an extra estimate be made of the needful repairs, allowing for enlargement of the chancel to the north wall, to elevate the roof and make galleries, and to raise the bottom of the church so high as five inches from the present coming in, and that the Vicar and Churchwardens wait upon Lord Spencer to get his sanction and assistance for this, and to enlarge the church yard. On December 14, 1771, it was resolved this Vestry is unanimously of opinion (there not being one dissenting voice) that a new Church shall be built in this Parish at an expense not exceeding £4,000: the said sum to be raised by annuities at the most advantageous rate; and the interest or annuity thereon to be paid by a rate not exceeding sixpence in the pound. That twelve gentlemen be nominated to be a Committee for carrying the above-named purposes into execution, and that the following gentlemen be the said Committee with such others as choose to attend, all having voices. Viz.:

And that any five of them be a Committee to transact the business. And that the said Committee may adjourn themselves from time to time, to such place as they shall think proper and at their own expense: and that the Vestry Clerk be ordered to attend the said Committee at all times of their meeting. In the following year we find that the petition to Lord Spencer to present an additional piece of ground was granted, for the following resolution is recorded in the Parish Books on April 21st, 1772. 'That the Rev. Mr. Fraigneau, Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Dixon do wait upon the Right Hon. Earl Spencer on behalf of the Parish of Battersea, to return his Lordship their hearty thanks for his noble and generous grant of the houses and ground north and south of the present entrance to the church yard.' In March, 1773, a plan prepared by Mr. Dixon was laid before the Vestry, and it was unanimously resolved that the said plan be carried into execution with all possible expedition, and the expenses not to exceed £3,000. On March 1, 1774, it was reported to the Vestry by the Church Committee that it would be necessary to apply to Parliament for power to sell some estates belonging to the Parish, and also forty pews in the new church in order to procure necessary funds. From this time to the reopening of the Church there is no further reference to the restoration except an order for the payment of £18 for 'alterations to the Tabernacle at the Workhouse which was used for Divine Service during the re-building of the Church.' The entire cost of the Church was £4950 13s. 9½d. The following entry is made in April,[Pg 47] 1778. Entered by order of the Reverend Mr. William Fraigneau (Vicar), Mark Bell and John Camden, Esquires, Churchwardens. The new Church of Battersea Parish was opened for Divine Service on Sunday, the 17th of November, 1777. The additional ground for enlarging the church yard granted by Earl Spencer, was consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Oxford, on Wednesday, the 15th of April, 1778. Towards the end of the year 1778 we find the inhabitants of Battersea developing a musical taste. A faculty was applied for to erect an organ, the petitioners making their request on the ground that an organ would be 'a decent and agreeable addition and ornament to the Church.' The faculty was granted, and an organ was erected at the west end of the gallery where the present one now stands."—St. Mary's Battersea Parish Magazine, Nov. 1876. The organ has been removed to a place under the gallery, adjacent to the choir, and the Church has been re-seated.

The following copy of one of these leases on which the pews in St. Mary's Church were held, will be read with interest.

The window over the Communion table at the east end of the church is decorated with portraits of Henry 7th, his grandmother Margaret Beauchamp and Queen Elizabeth in stained glass which was carefully preserved from the former church, and executed at the expense of the St. Johns.[1] The following will explain why the three portraits were placed at the end of the Church. "The first,[Pg 49] that of Margaret Beauchamp, ancestor (by her first husband, Sir Oliver St. John) of the St. Johns, and (by her second husband, John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset) grandmother to Henry VII.; the second, the portrait of that Monarch; and the third, that of Queen Elizabeth, which is placed here because her grandfather, Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, (father of Queen Ann Boleyn), was great-grandfather of Anne, the daughter of Sir Thomas Leighton, and wife of Sir John St. John, the first baronet of the family."—Oulton.

The epitaph written by Lord Bolingbroke on his wife reads as follows: "In the same vault are interred the remains of Mary Clara des Champs de Marcelly, Marchioness of Villette and Viscountess Bolingbroke, born of noble family, bred in the Court of Lewes 14th. She reflected a lustre on the former by the superior accomplishment of her mind. She was an ornament to the latter by the amiable dignity and grace of her behaviour. She lived the honour of her own sex, the delight and admiration of ours. She died an object of imitation to both with all the firmness that reason, with all the resignation that religion can inspire, aged 74 the 18th of March, 1750."

The interior contains some interesting sepulchral monuments, among which is one of Roubiliac in the reliefs to the memory of Viscount Bolingbroke and his second wife, niece of Madame de Maintenon, both lie in the family vault in St. Mary's Church. The epitaphs on himself and his wife were both written by Bolingbroke. That upon himself is still extant in his own handwriting in the British Museum, and is as follows:—"Here lies Henry St. John, in the reign of Queen Anne, Secretary of War, Secretary of State and Viscount Bolingbroke; in the days of King George I. and King George II. something more and better. His attachment to Queen Anne exposed him to a long and severe persecution; he bore it with firmness of mind, he passed the latter part of his life at home, the enemy of no national party, the friend of no faction, distinguished under the cloud of proscription, which had not been entirely taken off by zeal to maintain the liberty and to restore the ancient prosperity of Great Britain." Another monument commemorates the descent and preferments of Oliver St. John, Viscount Grandison, who was the first of the family that settled at Battersea. When studying the law at one of the Inn Courts, he killed in a duel the Captain of the Guard to Queen Elizabeth and Champion of England. "In 1648, Sir John St. John was buried at Battersea with such unusual pomp that the heralds were fluttered and commenced a prosecution against the Executor for acting contrary to the usage of arms and the laws of heraldry. William Riley, one of the heralds deposed 'that the funeral of the deceased was conducted in a manner so much above his degree that the escutcheons were more than were used at the funeral of a Duke; and that he never saw so many persons but at the funeral of one of the blood royal.' This burial is omitted in the register." In the south gallery is a monument to Sir Edward Wynter, an officer in the service of the East India Company in the reign of Charles 2nd, on which is recorded an account of his having singly and unarmed killed a tiger, and on foot defeated forty Moors on horseback. He[Pg 50] appears to have been a friendless youth but obtained his promotion by virtue of his intelligence, courage and good conduct as the epitaph states:—

"Born to be great in fortune as in mind,
Too great to be within an Isle confin'd,
Young, helpless, friendless seas unknown he tried;
But English courage all those wants supplied.
A pregnant wit, a painful diligence,
Care to provide, a bounty to dispence,
Join'd to a soul sincere, plain, open, just,
Procur'd him friends, and friends procured him trust;
These were his fortune's rise, and thus began
This hardy youth, rais'd to that happy man,
A rare example and unknown to most
Where wealth is gain'd and conscience is not lost.
Not less in martial honour was his name—
Witness his actions of immortal fame!
Alone, unarm'd a tiger[1] he oppress'd
And crush'd to death the monster of a beast;
Twice twenty mounted Moors he overthrew
Singly on foot; some wounded, some he slew,
Dispers'd the rest—what more could Samson do?
True to his friends, a terror to his foes
Here now in peace his honour'd bones repose."
Vita Peregrinatio.

He died March 2nd, 1685-6, aged 64.

Near at hand is a monument—a small statue of a mourning female leaning upon an urn—erected by the benevolent James Neild, in memory of his wife Elizabeth, who died 30th of June, 1791, in her 36th year. The epitaph states:—

Here low in beauteous form decay'd
My faithful wife, my love Eliza's laid;
Graceful with ease, of sentiment refin'd,
Her pleasing form inclos'd the purest mind!
Round her blest peace, thy constant vigils keep
And guard fair innocence her sacred sleep,
'Till the last trump shall wake the exulting day.
To bloom and triumph in eternal day.
Conjux Mærens Posuit.

And of her father, John Camden, Esq., whose son, John Camden Neild, lived in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and bequeathed to Queen Victoria the whole of his property, £500,000.

At the east end of the north gallery is a beautiful marble monument most elaborately sculptured sacred to the memory of Sir John Fleet, Knt., Alderman of the City of London. He was unanimously elected Lord Mayor of the City in 1693. He received Royal favours, and all ranks of the greatest honour and esteem from his fellow citizens, having been one of their representatives in Parliament thirteen years, and constantly interested in their[Pg 51] highest stations, in which offices and honours he was universally applauded. He was a merchant and just magistrate, constant to church, loyal to his Prince, and true to his country. He was fortunate and honest, bountiful in charity a generous benefactor and a faithful friend.—Obit 6 Julii 1712. Ætat: 65.

Another tablet is erected to the memory of Margaret Susanna Pounsett, wife of Henry Pounsett, Esq., of Stockwell, in this County, and eldest daughter of Richard Rothwell, Esq., of this Parish; Alderman of the City of London and High Sheriff of the County of Middlesex: she died on the 22nd day of March, 1820, in the 32nd year of her age, leaving two sons and three daughters. Her numerous amiable and exemplary qualities, endeared her to her family in her life—Her Christian piety and cheerful resignation alone consoled them in her death. Also of Ellen Anne Pounsett, her second daughter, who died the 7th of December, 1834, aged 22.

In the west gallery is a marble tablet sacred to the memory of Richard Rothwell, Esq., Alderman and formerly High Sheriff of the City of London, and County of Middlesex; who departed this life most deeply regretted, July 26th, A.D. 1821, in the 60th year of his age. In the public station which he filled of Magistrate and Sheriff, his strict integrity, his splendid liberality, and his genuine philanthropy, justly merited and procured the highest esteem, and warmest approbation of his fellow citizens. In his private character he was respected for the vigor of his mind, the solidity of his judgment, and the uprightness of his principles, and beloved for the urbanity of his manners, and the benevolence of his heart. In him the perplexed found an able counsellor, and the distressed an active friend. His feelings were tenderly alive to the important truths of religion, and while punctual in the performance of the duties of this life he placed his sole reliance on the merits of his Redeemer for happiness in the life to come.

On the right-hand-side of the pathway leading towards the porch of the Church is a grave stone at the bottom of which is the following inscription:—"Mrs. Sarah Eleanor McFarlane, who fell by the hand of an assassin the 29th of April, 1844, aged 46 years." This poor widow resided in Bridge Road, and obtained a subsistence by keeping a Day and Sunday School. The name of the murderer who deprived the life of his victim by cutting her throat on Old Battersea Bridge, was Augustus Dalmas, a Frenchman. This horrid crime was committed late at night. The woman who had charge of the toll seeing the helpless condition of Mrs. McFarlane conveyed her to the "Swan and Magpie" Tavern at the foot of the Bridge, where she expired exclaiming "Dalmas did it!"

In the north gallery is an upright marble tablet for Sir [George] Wombwell, Bart., of Sherwood Lodge, who died October 28th, 1846, in his 77th year.

At the east end of the south aisle is a tablet to Thomas Astle, Esq., F.S.A., keeper of the records in the Tower, and who wrote on "The Origin and Progress of Writing." He left a valuable collection of manuscripts which were deposited at Stow, the seat of his noble patron the Marquis of Buckingham, to whom he gave by his will the option of purchasing them at a fixed sum.

In the churchyard lies Arthur Collins, author of "The Peerage[Pg 52] and Baronetage of England." His grandson, David Collins, Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales, and author of a History of the English Settlement there. William Curtis a distinguished botanical writer, author of the "Flora Londinensis," was buried here, January 31, 1731.

"While living herbs shall spring profusely wild,
So long thy works shall please dear nature's child,
Or gardens cherish all that's sweet and gay
So long thy memory suffer no decay."

The Countess de Morella, who lived in one of the five mansions which gave its old name of Five House Lane to Bolingbroke Grove, has placed a coped stone with a cross on it over the old grave of her aunt Miss Elizabeth Hofer, in the church yard near the mortuary, and has had the tablets of her family at the west end of the north gallery cleaned.

Mr. Poole, the Curator of the monuments in Westminster Abbey, is now engaged in cleaning some of the mural monuments in the Church which had become grimed with the dust of years.

In the centre of the plot in front of the portico is the family vault of Sir Rupert George, Bart. Mr. Chadwin, one of the oldest parishioners now living in Battersea, relates how Sir Rupert George came to select St. Mary's Church yard as his burying place. "He was on a visit to Lord Cremorne, at Cremorne House, on the opposite side of the Thames, and he came over to Battersea and was so impressed with the beauty of the view across the river that he purchased the vault as a resting place for himself and his family. Several of his sons and daughters are interred there, and Dr. Inglis, Bishop of Nova Scotia, the first Colonial Bishop, was also buried in the vault of Sir Rupert George, to whom he was fondly attached by the strongest ties of friendship and also closely allied by marriage." The Bishop's tablet is on the wall under the north gallery.

Charles Williams of London was an actor of some eminence at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He died in the prime of life. His mortal remains were interred in the church yard. As a tribute of respect his funeral was attended by the whole body of Comedians; the pall was supported by Wilks, Griffin, the two Cibbers, and the two Mills. "There is" says Daniel Lysons, "no memorial of his grave."

It is thought that as the former Church was built of brick that probably it was not very ancient. A church is mentioned in Doomsday, a most ancient record, made in the time of William 1st, surnamed the Conqueror, and containing a survey of all the lands in England. Lysons, from whom we take the liberty of making some liberal quotations, when writing about 85 years ago, says, "The Church of Battersea is dedicated to St. Mary; it is in the Diocese of Winchester, and in the Deanery of Southwark, the benefice is a Vicarage. Lawrence, Abbot of Westminster, first procured the appropriation of the great tithes for that Abbey about the year 1156. The monks of Westminster were to receive out of it two marks, reserving sufficient to the Vicar to support the Episcopal burdens and himself. The Rectory was held by John Bishop of Winchester in the time of Philip and Mary. The[Pg 53] principal profits of the Vicarage accrued from the gardens, which rendered the living one of the most valuable in the neighbourhood of London. The gardeners at Battersea paid 7s. 6d. an acre for tithes to the Vicar. The living of Battersea is dated in the King's Book at £13 15s. 2½d." The present living is estimated at about £1,000 with residence. "In the Valor of 1291, usually termed Pope Nicholas' Taxation, the Rectory is valued at 26 marks and a half: the Vicarage at £4 3s. 4d. In 1658 the Rectory was stated as worth £80 a year, and the Vicarage at £100, and in the King's Book the Vicarage stands at £13 15s. 2½d. Battersea was one of those parishes which in memory of the Abbey dedicated to St. Peter, presented to the Abbot and Convent in early times, the tithes of salmon taken in this portion of the river. The Incumbents however of Chelsea, Battersea, and Wandsworth endeavoured to shake this custom off as long ago as 1231, but failed: the composition entered into upon the occasion may be seen in Dart's History of Westminster Abbey."—Ecclesiastical Topography.

"There are two terriers of Battersea in the register of Winchester fastened together of the dates of 1619 and 1636."—Ducarel's Endowments of Vicarages, (Lambeth Library). "Owen Ridley, who was instituted to the Vicarage of Battersea, A.D. 1570, appears to have been involved in a tedious litigation with his parishioners and to have encountered no small degree of persecution from them. The circumstance would not have been worth recording but for two curious petitions which it produced, the originals of which (date of both 1593) were in the possession of the Rev. John Gardenor, Vicar, by whom, (says Lysons) they have been obligingly communicated. One of these is from certain inhabitants to Dr. Swale, one of Her Majesty's High Commissioners for crimes Ecclesiastical; in which they state many grievances which they suffered from their Vicar during the space of eighteen years. Amongst other crimes alleged against him is that of conversing with a Witch. The object of their petition was, that he might be deprived. It is signed with thirteen names and about thirty marks. The other petition, which is to Lord Burleigh, being the more curious of the two is here given at large. To the Right Honourable the Lord Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer of England. Most humbly sheweth unto your honor, your daiely orators, the inhabitants of Battersey, besechinge you to extend your favor in all just causes to our mynister Mr. Ridley: (so it is right honorable) that some have sought his deprivation, by many trobles many years together, and in divers courts sometymes in the Archdeacon's, sometymes by complayninge to the busshop, sometymes before the highe Commissioners, sometymes before the Archbusshop of Canterbury, his grace: Yea and once he hath ben edicted at the assizes. But God the defender of the innocent, hath so protected him that his cawse beinge tryed and knowene he hath hadd a good issue of all theis trobles; yet the adversarie will not cease, but seeketh to deprive him of his life, for seekinge after Witches, and procuringe the death of a man by Witchcraft. He hath byn our Vicar theis twenty years: he is zealous in the gospell, honest in life, painefull to teache us and to catechise our youth; charitable and liberall to the poore and needy accordinge to his ability, he never sued any of all his parisheoners[Pg 54] for tythes, althoughe he hath hadd cawse gyven by some so to doe. Of our conscience wee take him rather to hate wytches, than to seeke after them; for he hath spoken often very bitterly against them out of the bible, neither doe we thinke or suspect the woman to be a witche which is accused, but hath always lyved honestly, quietly and painefully here, to get a poore lyvinge truly. Therefor the man being such a one, whom for his virtues wee love, his trobles heretofore so greate, so many and so chandgable to the undoings of himself, his wife and children, and now so daingerous for the hope of his life, doth move us to become suitors unto your honour for him, besechinge your honor to take notice, and to make due triall of him and his cawse, so that the truth being fownd owte, justice maie take place; Your honor will defend the innocent in his innocencee, putt an end to his tonge, many wearisome and daingerous trobles and be a patrone unto him in all his good and honest actions; so shall we be bound to thancke God for you, and pray for you for ever. Signed by Robert Cooke Alias Clarencieulx Roy d'Armes, Robert Claye, preacher, and fourteen others."

"Dr. Thomas Temple, brother of Sir John Temple, the Irish Master of the Rolls, was instituted to the Vicarage of Battersea in 1634, and continued there during the civil wars; he was one of the ministers appointed by Cromwell to assist the Committee for displacing ignorant and insufficient School Masters and Ministers. He was likewise one of the Assembly of Divines and a frequent preacher before the long Parliament. Several of his sermons are in print. Mr. Temple was succeeded in the Vicarage of Battersea by the learned Bishop Patrick, who was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, and was domestic Chaplain to Sir Walter St. John, by whom he was presented to this benefice. Several of his tracts were published while he was Vicar of Battersea and are dedicated to his patron. He resigned the Vicarage in 1675. He was a zealous champion of the protestant religion, both by his writings and in conversation, particularly at a conference which he, in conjunction with Dr. Jane, held in the presence of James the Second with two Roman Catholic Priests, in which he had so much the superiority over his opponents in argument, that the King retired in disgust, saying that he never heard a good cause so ill defended or a bad one so well. At the Revolution he was rewarded with the Bishopric of Chichester, and was afterwards translated to Ely. He died 1707, and left behind him a numerous collection of printed works; consisting of sermons, devotional and controversial tracts and paraphrases on the Scriptures, which are held in great estimation and which were continued by William South."

"Dr. Thomas Church, of Brazen Nose College, Oxford, who was instituted to the Vicarage of Battersea in the year 1740, distinguished himself much in the field of controversy in which he engaged against Westley and Whitfield, and Middleton: for his successful attacks on the latter and his defence of the miraculous power during the early years of Christianity. The University of Oxford gave him the degree of D.D. by diploma. He was too zealously attached to his religion to let the opinions of Lord Bolingbroke pass unnoticed notwithstanding he had been his patron. His publication on this subject however was anonymous, it was called[Pg 55] 'An Analysis of the Philosophical Works by the late Lord Bolingbroke,' and came out in 1755. He died in 1756, aged 49."

"The registers of this parish begin in the year 1559, and excepting the former part of the 18th century appear to be accurate. Dr. Church soon after he was instituted to the Vicarage began to transcribe a considerable part of the registers, which for many years preceding had been kept by a very ignorant parish clerk. He proceeded so far as to copy the whole of the baptisms, and with great industry rectified a vast number of mistakes and supplied many deficiencies; the difficulty of transcribing the burials of which indeed for some years there were no notices, discouraged him from proceeding any further in this laudable undertaking."—Lysons.

Cases of longevity in the Parish Register: Goody Harleton, aged 108 years, buried 1703; William Abbot, 101, 1733; Wiat, 100, 1790; and William Douse, 100, 1803. The case of Rebecca, wife of Richard Harding, a waterman, is mentioned. She gave birth to four children, she died in labour of the fourth child, which was still-born. The mother was buried February 8, 1730; her three infant children, Mary, Sarah, and Rebecca were buried the 2nd of March following. Respecting the rate of mortality in London during the plague years, in the year 1603, 30,578 persons died of the plague. At the accession of Charles I. in 1625, another dreadful pestilence raged in London, which carried off 35,417 persons. In the year 1665, about the beginning of May, there broke out in London the most dreadful plague that ever infested this kingdom, which swept away 68,596 persons, which added to the number of those who died of other distempers, raised the bill of mortality in this year to 97,306. And the mortality raged so violently in July, that all houses were shut up, the streets, deserted, and scarce anything to be seen therein but grass growing, innumerable fires for purifying the air, coffins, pest-carts, red crosses upon doors, with the inscription, 'Lord have mercy upon us,' and continual cries of 'pray for us;' or the melancholy call of 'bring out your dead.' The cause of this terrible calamity was ascribed to the importation of infected goods from Holland where the plague had committed great ravages the preceding year. During the whole time of its continuance there was a great calm, for weeks together there was scarcely any wind so that it was with difficulty that the fires in the streets could be kept burning for want of a supply of air, and even the birds panted for breath. The plague as is generally agreed is never bred or propagated in Britain, but always imported from abroad, especially from the Levant, Lesser Asia, Egypt, etc. Sydenham, an old writer, has remarked that it rarely infects this country oftener than once in forty years—thank God we have happily been free from it for a much longer period. There have been various conjectures as to the nature of this dreadful distemper. Some think that insects are the cause of it, in the same way that they are the cause of blights. Mr. Boyle thought that it originated from the effluvia or exhalations breathed into the atmosphere from noxious minerals to which might be added stagnant waters and putrid bodies of every kind. Gibbon, in his Roman History, 4th Edition, Vol. IV, p. 327-332, gives a very particular account of the plague which depopulated the earth in the time of Emperor[Pg 56] Justinian. He thinks that the plague was derived from damp, hot and stagnating air, and the putrifaction of animal substances, especially locusts. The Mahometans believe that the plague proceeds from certain spirits, or goblins, armed with bows and arrows sent by God to punish men for their sins; and that when the wounds are given by spectres of a black colour, they certainly prove fatal, but not so when the arrows are shot by those that appear white. The learned Dr. Chandler, who travelled in Asia Minor, was of the opinion that the disease arose from animalcules which he supposed to be invisible.

The three Plague years.

Average of Births with Burials:—

In 1876 the number of births in Battersea Parish was 3459, and the number of deaths 1751, not including the Hamlet of Penge.

The subjoined is copied from "St. Mary's Battersea Parish Magazine" for November, 1875. "Vicars of Battersea from Olden Times. The following extract from 'A History and Antiquities of Surrey,' begun by the Rev. Owen Manning, enlarged and continued to the year 1814 by William Bray, Esq., printed for White, Cochrane & Co., at Horace's Head, Fleet Street, will be of interest.

The Registers of 1345, 1366, 1415, 1446, 1492, and 1500 are lost."

In the reign of Henry VI. Thomas Lord Stanley held possession of a valuable estate in Battersea, which, in order to prevent its confiscation at that troublesome period, he had conveyed to trustees for the benefit of himself and that of Thomas his son and heir. In December, 1460, the property was transferred by the Trustees to Lawrence Booth, Bishop of Durham, and his heirs, and in the year following the grant was confirmed by the two Stanleys. The futility of this transfer was obvious for before Edward IV. had reigned eleven years the estate had escheated to the Crown "in consequence of the action of John Stanley, who assigned the lands and tenements in trust to the Abbot of Westminster, in contravention of the statute of Mortmain. The Bishop therefore had to apply to the King and on payment of £700 he obtained a grant under Letters Patent dated July 10th, 1472, of the property forfeited by John Stanley."

Lawrence Booth was made Bishop of Durham in 1457, he built[Pg 58] a Mansion Brygge Court at Battersea, and by the King's license enclosed with walls and towers imparked his land there, with the right of warren and free chase therein. In 1476 he was translated to the See of York. He died in 1480 and bequeathed this property to the Dean and Chapter of York as an occasional residence when the Archbishop visited London. The name of York Road perpetuates this ancient occupancy. One of the few prelates who resided here was Archbishop Holgate who was committed to the Tower by Queen Mary in 1553 for being a married man, and lost much property by illegal seizure. Strype, in his life of Cranmer, relates that the officers who were sent to apprehend the Archbishop rifled his house at Battersea and took away from thence £300 worth of gold coin; 1,600 ounces of plate; a mitre of fine gold set with very fine diamonds, sapphires, and balists; other good stones and pearls; some very valuable rings, and the Archbishop's seal in silver; and his signet, an antique in gold. It is contended that Wolsey resided at York House, Battersea, where he was introduced to Anne Boleyne though the interview is more commonly believed to have taken place at York House, Whitehall; but Shakespere in his plays makes the King come by water, and York House, Battersea, was a residence of Wolsey and provided with a creek from the Thames for approach to the house. Sir Edward Wynter is said to have resided at York House, whose exploits surpassed even the heroic achievements of Lord Herbert Cherbury, who, alone in his shirt chased a host of midnight robbers from his house. Sir Edward Wynter's exploits have been already mentioned. The Mansion House was considerably altered by Joseph Benwell, Esq., the occupier who took down many of the old rooms. One of these called the painted chamber had a dome ceiling and is said to have been the room in which Wolsey entertained Henry VIII. with masquerades, and in which he saw Anne Boleyne. When the floor was removed there was found under it a chased gold ring on the side of which was inscribed "Thy virtue is thy honour." This superbly painted room with a dome forms the back ground of an ancient print representing the first interview of Henry VIII. with Anne Boleyne.

There was also another large building in 1818 standing parallel with York House but nearer the river divided into two houses, then in the possession of F. Alver and H. Tritton, Esqrs., and noted for having a very fine terrace in front next the Thames.

The art of transfer-printing produced from copper-plate impressions is said to have been made at Liverpool; but Mr. Binns, F.S.A., in his very interesting History of Worcester ware traces the claim of transfer-printing to the Battersea Enamel Works at York House, (the Archbishop's old palace) where Ravenet and other artists wrought in engraving plates from which impressions were taken on enamel plaques, etc., for snuff-boxes and other articles. The Liverpool claim to the invention dates from 1756. Whereas Horace Walpole writes from Strawberry Hill, six or seven miles from Battersea, to R. Bently, September 18th, 1755; "I shall send you a trifling snuff-box only as a sample of the new manufacture at Battersea which is done with Copper plates." The[Pg 59] Battersea Porcelain[1] Works failed and Alderman Jansen's stock, furniture, etc., were sold by public auction, March 4, 1756. The Battersea and Chelsea wares being rarities are expensive, particularly the former. A writer in the "Athenæum" thinks it probable that some of the Battersea workmen found their way to Worcester and Liverpool.

The public may see some beautiful as well as curious specimens of Battersea enamel exhibited at Kensington Museum, lent by the Hon. W. F. B. Massey-Mainwaring. Also some bought at Mrs. Haliburton's sale. Battersea enamel 1750-60. Blue and gold, pink and gold candle-sticks, snuff-boxes, scent-bottles, needle-cases, handle for a cane, tray (circular) from Dulparry with floral medallions, tazza, Bulton's hunting subjects in brown transfer, thimble cases, etui with implements. Battersea enamel portrait on copper, a gentleman in armour wearing the garter, etc., etc.

Jens Wolfe, Esq., who was Danish Consul to this country, had a seat at Battersea called Sherwood Lodge. He built a gallery 76 feet long by 25, and 30 in height in the most correct style of Doric architecture for the reception of plaster casts purposely taken for this collection from the most celebrated antique statues. The most remarkable of these were those from the Fighting Gladiator and the Niobe, the Barberini Faun, the Dying Gladiator and the Farnese Hercules. The mansion was pleasantly situated and beautifully shaded with poplar, lime, and sycamore trees. It was the residence of Mrs. Fitz Herbert. Sir George Wombwell chose it as his seat and resided in it about fourteen years. Subsequently Sir Edward Hyde East dwelt here. The stable belonging to Sherwood Lodge still remains, also the old wooden-cased pump with leaden spout.

On the site where stood York House, Tudor Lodge, and Sherwood House, stands a great hive of industry known as Belmont Works or Price's Patent Candle Factory. Price's Patent Candle Company (as a private firm) was among the earliest to apply in commercial enterprise the discoveries of Chevreul, and has continued to hold the first place among candle manufacturers in Great Britain; and notwithstanding the manufacture of gas, the importation of American oils and the many competitors for supplying light-giving material this Company makes its way by dexterity between them. At the present time the store room of the Belmont Factory actually contains candles of about 240 different kinds. Until Chevreul had begun his scientific investigations in 1811, oils and fats had been regarded as simple organic substances. On the complete publication of his discoveries in 1823, the complex character of these bodies became extensively known. In 1829 the plan of separating cocoa-nut oil into its solid and liquid components by pressure, was in that year patented by Mr. James Soames of London; this patent was purchased by Mr. William Wilson and his partner, who, trading upon it under the title of E. Price & Co., perfected it as to manufacturing[Pg 60] details. In 1831 the candle manufacture in England was set free from the excise supervision to which it had been previously subjected. From that date then its progress became possible. After a time, in order to carry out successfully certain enterprises which required more capital than the Company had at their command, Mr. Wilson's partner sold his share in the beginning of 1835 to three capitalists. With these gentlemen as sleeping partners and with the aid of two of his sons, Mr. Wilson continued under the name of Edward Price & Co. to carry on the concern until it passed in 1847 into the hands of Price's Patent Candle Company, with a capital of £500,000; of this Company Mr. Wm. Wilson became the first Chairman, and his sons, Mr. James P. Wilson and Mr. George F. Wilson, the two Manufacturing Directors. It is interesting to notice that in the year 1840, while Mr. J. P. Wilson was endeavouring to produce a cheap self-snuffing candle for the coming illumination in honour of the marriage of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, then about to take place, succeeded in making such candles of a mixture of equal parts of stearic acid and cocoa-nut stearine, they gave a brilliant light and required no snuffing. These candles came rapidly into notice, they were named "Composite" because of the mixture in them. Africa supplies the palm-oil which was hitherto used almost entirely[Pg 61] for soap-making. The imports of palm-oil into England, which amounted to about 9,800 tons in 1840, have for many years past exceeded 40,000 tons annually, and averaged 50,000 tons in 1871, 1872, 1873 and 1874. This increase of importation is undoubtedly due in very great part to the use of oil in the manufacture of candles; and it is this trade which presents to the African chiefs and kings along the West Coast the motive that they can best understand for the abandonment of the slave-trade, they learn in fact, that their subjects are of more value to their rulers when collecting palm-oil than by being sold into slavery. The cocoa-nut oil brought from Ceylon is largely used in the factory. The palm-oil from the Coast of Africa being converted by chemical processes into stearine, is freed from oleic acid by enormous pressure, is liquefied by steam, and then conveyed into the moulding machinery, by which 800 miles of wicks are continually being converted into candles. Among the earlier operations of the new Company was the acquirement in 1848 of the Night-Light Patent held by Mr. G. M. Clarke, and in 1849 of the Night-Light business of Mr. Samuel Childs, and the erection of a new factory for the purpose of carrying on this new branch of manufacture on an extensive scale. In 1875 no less than 32½ millions of new lights were sold by the Candle Company. Geology informs us that in the age of the coal formation a great part of the earth's surface was covered by a dense and tangled vegetation composed mainly of flowerless plants growing with wonderful luxuriance in the warm damp atmosphere which must then have prevailed—the masses of vegetable matter—the decay of gigantic ferns sinking into the boggy soil formed peat which as ages rolled on became converted by heat and pressure into coal. The conditions of the earth now are so different to what they were at that geological period that we are unable to state with certainty how long the process must have taken to form the ancient beds of lignite (mineral coal retaining the texture of the wood from which it was formed) and brown coal, and the still more ancient beds or seams of true coal. From these paraffine is extracted by chemical processes—it is the chief material in the Golden Medal Palmitine Candles (the name given to the candles in consequence of the award to the Company at the Paris Exhibition, 1867, and other products—the name "Palmitine" having been given to them because of the presence of a beautifully pure white stearine obtained from palm-oil). The paraffine thus procured by a process of distillation yields at the same time a liquid product affording under the name of coal oil, or petrolium, one of the cheapest of the Company's light-giving materials. Price's Glycerine has obtained a world-wide reputation for its purity—much of it is manufactured from palm-oil. It was in the Company's factory that pure glycerine was first produced. The total of raw materials brought into work by the Company in 1877 amounted to nearly 16,000 tons. The produce in the same year was as follows;—-

The year's produce of candles named above would suffice to give the continuous light of one candle during about 84,000 years. The Night-lights would in like manner give the continuous light of one Night-light during about 25,000 years. In 1853 the Company took a step of much importance. Liverpool being then as now, the place of arrival of the largest importation of palm-oil, it was felt to be desirable that the Company should have in or near it a second factory, prepared to manufacture this material where it could be purchased without cost of land carriage. The capital of the Company was therefore increased and an estate of about 60 acres was purchased at Bromborough Pool, near Liverpool, on which was erected the second factory with cottages. The factory village numbers 97 houses with a population of 530. It has its own place of worship, schools, co-operative stores, rifle corps, and all the organization of a model village. At present this factory employs about 320 operatives. The London Works (Battersea) occupy an area of about 13½ acres, those at Bromborough occupy 7 acres. The buildings are all roofed with corrugated iron so as to reduce inflammable material to a minimum. The area covered by the roofs is a large one, as the buildings again, with a view to safety from fire have generally no upper floor. This area amounts to nine acres for the two factories. The operatives number about 1,300, nearly 1,000 of whom are employed at Battersea. Connected with each factory is a mess-room in which the work-people can either purchase their food from the Co-operative Society established among themselves, or can have their own provisions cooked for them. At each factory a brief devotional service is conducted every morning. Each factory has its reading room and library; each maintains a corps of rifle volunteers (the two establishments together providing about 300 efficient riflemen), and each during the winter has its evening school for boys employed in the Works. Bromborough enjoys an excellent recreation ground and set of allotment gardens, but the growth of buildings about London has precluded the London operatives from having these privileges. During the winter months, lectures and science and art classes offer amusement and instruction to those who desire one or the other. In each factory a medical officer pays a daily visit, and attends to all who may be ailing; a weekly payment of one penny from each man and a half-penny from each boy being required in return for this privilege. On the whole this is one of the best regulated firms in the Metropolis.

Mr. James Pillans Wilson, Consulting Adviser.
Mr. John Calderwood, General Manager.
Mr. W. H. Withall, Secretary.
Mr. Kingston George Woodham, Superintendent.
Mr.  S. J. Roberts, Chief Engineer.
Mr. G. Childs, Superintendent Night-Light Department.
Mr. J. Day, Superintendent Bromborough Pool Works,
near Birkenhead.[1]

[Pg 63]

Though hour-glasses were invented at Alexandria B.C. 149, and water-clocks about the same period, yet it does not appear that hour-glasses and clepsydras or water-clocks were known in England during the reign of Alfred the Great. Sun dials might be, but were of no use from eve to morn and when the days were sunless. In order to allot certain portions of time to particular objects, eight hours to sleep, meals and exercise, eight to the affairs of government, and eight to study and devotion, Alfred contrived the expedient of having wax candles made of equal weight and twelve inches in length, with marks upon them at regular distances. The combustion of one candle lasted four hours, and each intermediate part, an inch in distance, denoted a period of twenty minutes. Six of these candles lasted twenty-four hours. The duty of tending these candles was entrusted to one of Alfred's domestic Chaplains who had to give the Monarch notice of their working. As currents of air rushed through the unglazed windows and chinks in the walls of the Royal residence as to render the combustion irregular and the register inaccurate, the ingenious King surrounded the candles with horn and wooden frames to make them burn steadily in all weathers.

It was a custom in olden time to conduct a sale or auction by inch of candle. A small piece of candle being lighted the bystanders were allowed to bid for the merchandize that was offered for sale—the moment the candle went out the commodity was adjudged to the last bidder.

There was also excommunication by inch of candle, when the sinner was allowed to come to repentance while a candle continued to burn; but after it was consumed he remained excommunicated to all intents and purposes.

CANDLEMAS, a feast of the Romish Church, celebrated on the 2nd of February, in honour of the purification of the Virgin Mary. It is borrowed from the practice of the ancient Christians, who on that day used abundance of lights both in their churches and processions, in memory as is supposed of our Saviour's being on that day declared by Simeon "to be a light to lighten the Gentiles." In imitation of this custom, the Roman Catholics on this day consecrate all the tapers and candles which they use in their churches during the whole year. At Rome, the Pope performs that ceremony himself; and distributes wax candles to the Cardinals and others, who carry them in procession through the Great Halls of the Vatican or Pope's Palace. This ceremony was prohibited in England by an Order of Council in the year 1548.

Some writers affirm that Candlemas was first instituted by Pope Gelasius I. in 492. "The Romans were in the habit of burning candles on this day to the goddess Februa, the mother of Mars; and Pope Sergius seeing it would be useless to prohibit a practice of so long standing turned it to Christian account by enjoining a similar offering of candles to the Virgin. The candles were supposed to have the effect of frightening the devil and all evil spirits away from the persons who carried them, or from the houses in which they were placed." It is evident that the numerous superstitious notions and observances connected with candles and other lights in all countries had a remote origin, and may be considered[Pg 64] as relics of the once universally prevalent worship of the sun and of fire, for mankind had so far forgotten the One living and true God as to worship the creature instead of the Creator who is God over all blessed for evermore.

A bright spark at the candle denotes that the party directly opposite is to receive a letter. Windy weather is prophesied from the waving of the flames without (apparent) cause, and wet weather if the wick does not light readily. There is a tradition in most parts of Europe to the effect that a fine Candlemas portends a severe winter. In Scotland the prognostication is expressed in the following distich:—

"If Candlemas is fair and clear
There'll be twa winters in the year."

It is said that condemned criminals making the amende honorable at the church doors were constrained to bear in their hands a wax taper of six pounds weight. That it is only thirty-two years since a woman convicted of the offence of brawling in church, stood, by sentence of the Ecclesiastical Court, in a white sheet and with a candle in her hand, coram publico, in a church in Devonshire. By the superstitious in olden times in England the rescued parts of Candlemas tapers were supposed to possess supernatural virtues. "Candlemas Bleeze" was until recently, a bonfire festival still observed in sequestered parts of Scotland. A "winding sheet," a "thief" in the candle, etc., were regarded as evil omens, and anxious fears excited if suddenly a hollow cinder were ejected from the fire to know whether it resembled a cradle or a coffin!

About a century ago London was so infested with gangs of highwaymen that it was dangerous to go out after dusk. In 1705 an Act of Common Council was passed for regulating the nightly watch of the City. A number of strong able-bodied men had to be provided by each Ward. Every person occupying any shop, house or warehouse had either to watch in person or pay an able-bodied man to be appointed thereto. Watchmen were provided with lanterns and candles and armed with halberts; to watch from nine in the evening till seven in the morning from Michaelmas to the first of April, and from ten till five from the first of April till Michaelmas. Thus they went their nightly rounds calling "Lantern and a candle! Hang out your Lights!" for during dark nights a certain number of householders in each street had to hang out lanterns with a whole candle, and the Watchman thundered at the door of those delinquents who neglected to do so. The total number of Watchmen appointed by this Act was 583.

Facing Price's Candle Factory was a field which was rented by the Company and used as a cricket ground for their employés. Queen's Terrace and streets adjacent now cover this portion of land.

Among the State Papers is a letter dated August 22, 1580, from Archbishop Sandys to John Wickliffe, keeper of his house at Battersey, in which he directs him to deliver up the house to the Lords of the Council so that it might be turned into a prison for obstinate papists. During the Commonwealth, York House was sold to Sir Allen Apsley and Colonel Hutchinson for the sum of £1,806 3s. 6d., but it was reclaimed by the See after the Restoration.

Brayley in his History of Surrey says, "Besides this Mansion[Pg 65] (near York House) there are several handsome seats fronting the river and various large manufacturing establishments, Chemical works, and melting furnaces, etc. are extensive along its banks, greatly to the annoyance of the market gardeners and florists who complain grievously of the injury they sustain by the smoke and noxious vapours of the numerous steam engines now employed in this hitherto rural district. The establishment here for the preservation of timber from the dry rot, called Kyanizing from the name of its inventor, was destroyed by fire on the 20th of March, 1847; and the conflagration extended to other neighbouring works. The process was carried on by forcing tar through the pores of the wood, and here was a large pond of that fluid, the blaze of which set fire to immense piles of timber which had either undergone the process, or were in a state of preparation for it."—Brayley, Surrey Mantel, Vol. iii. P. 447.

A very useful thing is that dentated instrument called the Saw. Pliny says that the saw was invented by Dædalus. According to Apollodolus Talus invented the saw. Talus it is said having found the jaw-bone of a snake employed it to cut through a piece of wood and then formed an instrument of iron like it. Saw-mills were erected in Madeira in 1420. At Bresdan in 1427. Norway had the first saw-mills in 1530. The Bishop of Ely Ambassador from Mary of England in the escort of Rome describes a saw-mill there 1555. The attempts to introduce saw-mills into England were violently opposed, and one invented by a Dutchman in 1663 was forced to be abandoned. Saw-mills were erected near London about 1770. The excellent saw machinery at Woolwich Dockyard is based upon the invention of the Elder Brunel, 1806-13. Sir Mark Isambard Brunel was the son of a Normandy farmer, and born at Hacqueville, near Rouen, on the 25th of April, 1769. He early shewed an inclination for mechanics, and at school preferred the study of the exact sciences to the classics. In 1786, he became a sailor in the French Navy. In the revolutionary period of 1793, having involved himself by his political opinions he escaped from Paris to the United States. Brunel's career as an engineer began 1794 when he was appointed to survey for the Canal which now connects Lake Champlain with the river Hudson, at Albany. He afterwards acted as an architect in New York. On his return to Europe in 1799, he married the daughter of William Kingdom, Esq., Plymouth, and settled in England. Here he soon established his reputation as a mechanician by the invention of a machine for making block pulleys for the rigging of ships. The erection of steam saw-mills in Chatham Dockyard, a machine for making seamless shoes for the army, machines for making nails and wooden boxes, for rolling paper and twisting cotton hanks, and lastly a machine for producing locomotion by means of Carbonic acid gas, which however though partially successful was afterwards abandoned. "But the great work by which his name will be transmitted to posterity is the Thames Tunnel which, though almost a complete failure as a commercial transaction is nevertheless a wondrous monument of engineering skill and enterprise. It was commenced in March, 1825, and opened to the public in 1843, after a multitude of obstacles and disasters." He held extensive[Pg 66] premises at Battersea on the site now occupied by the Citizen Steam-boat Company, where his celebrated saw and veneer mills were burned down about the year 1814. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1814; was appointed Vice-President in 1832. He was Knighted in 1840. Died Dec. 1849, in his eighty first year, universally respected.

Sir Richard Phillips, who had an opportunity of inspecting Brunel's machinery at Battersea, eulogizes his fame and speaks of his merits and scientific genius thus:—"A few yards from the toll-gate of the Bridge on the western side of the road stand the workshops of that eminent, modest, and persevering mechanic Mr. Brunel, a gentleman of the rarest genius who has effected as much for the mechanic arts as any man of his time. The wonderful apparatus in the Dockyard at Portsmouth with which he sets blocks for the navy, with a precision and expedition that astonish every beholder, secures him a monument of fame and eclipses all rivalry." At Battersea Works Sir Richard witnessed four circular saws, two of them 18-ft. in diameter and two of them 9-ft. in diameter, besides other circular saws much smaller used for the purpose of separating veneers. He saw planks of mahogany and rosewood sawn into veneers the 16th of an inch thick. By the power that turned those tremendous saws he beheld a large sheet of veneer 10-ft. long by 2-ft. broad separated in ten minutes "so even and so uniform that it appeared more like a perfect work of nature than one of human art." In another building Sir Richard was shown Mr. Brunel's manufactory for shoes, where the labour was sub-divided so that each shoe passed by aid of machinery through twenty-five hands complete from the hide as supplied by the currier. By this means a hundred pairs of strong and well-finished shoes were made per day. He remarks, "each man performs but one step in the process, which implies no knowledge of what is done by those who go before or follow him. The persons employed are not shoemakers, but wounded soldiers, who are able to learn their respective duties in a few hours. The contract at which these shoes are delivered to Government is 6s. 6d. per pair, being at least 2s. less than were paid previously for an unequalled and cobbled article." The shoes thus made for the Army were tried for two years but afterwards abandoned from economical views.

Sir Richard Phillips in his "Morning Walk from London to Kew" (page 42) says, "at the distance of a hundred yards from Battersea Bridge an extensive pile of massy brick work for the manufacture of soap has recently been erected, at a cost it is said of sixty thousand pounds. I was told it was inaccessible to strangers and therefore was obliged to content myself with viewing it at a distance." This soap factory stood by the water side, a little to the east of the Bridge, erected by Mr. Cleaver. There were some large turpentine works in this parish, which belonged to Mr. Flocton.

Battersea has three bridges across the Thames communicating with Chelsea.

The history of the Ferry prior to the erection of the OLD WOODEN BRIDGE at Battersea can be traced back some two or three centuries. It was much used as a means of transporting[Pg 67] passengers, goods, etc., over this part of the river. At the commencement of the reign of James I. the Ferry from Battersea to Chelsea or Chelchehith Ferry was in full operation. When James I. ascended the throne "by Letters Patent for the sum of £40, the King gave his dear relations Thomas Earl of Lincoln, and John Eldred and Robert Henley, Esquires, all the ferry across the river Thames called Chelchehith Ferry, or Chelsea Ferry." In addition to which some grants of land were included and the Grantees were empowered to transfer their rights to "our very illustrious subject William Blake." In 1618 the Earl of Lincoln, who owned Sir Thomas More's house in Chelsea which Sir Thomas More had purchased from Sir Robert Cecil, sold the ferry to William Blake. In 1695 it belonged to one Bartholomew Nutt. The ferry appears to have been rated in the parish books in 1710 at £8 per annum. Between the year 1765 and 1771 the ferry produced an average rental of £42 per annum. Sir Walter St. John by virtue of his manorial rights held possession of the ferry, at his death in 1708, the ferry with the rest of the property went to his son Henry, who died in 1742 having left the family estate to his son Henry the famous Viscount Bolingbroke, at whose death in 1751, in consequence of his having no issue or progeny of his own, the estates with the title descended to his nephew Frederick (son of his half-brother, John Viscount St. John) who obtained an Act of Parliament in 1762 to sell his estate, which, as we have already observed, was purchased in 1763 by the Trustees of John, Earl Spencer. Earl Spencer being anxious to replace the ferry with a bridge, in 1766 obtained an Act of Parliament which empowered him to build the present bridge. The bridge is in Battersea and Chelsea Parishes (the marks defining the boundary line of these Parishes meet in the centre) it was not to be rated to the land tax, or any public or parochial rate; nor deemed a County bridge, so as to subject the Counties of Surrey and Middlesex to repair the same. In the event of any casualty occurring to the bridge thereby rendering it "dangerous and impracticable" the Earl had to provide a convenient ferry at the same rate of tolls as the bridge. Some old writers who have written on the Antiquities and History of Surrey, state that the bridge was built at the expense of fifteen proprietors each of whom subscribed £1,500. Mr. Walford says in 1771, "Lord Spencer associated with himself seventeen gentlemen, each of whom was to pay £100 as a consideration for the fifteenth share of the ferry and all the advantages conferred on the Earl by the Act of 1766. They were also made responsible for a future payment of £900 each towards the construction of a bridge. A contract was entered into with Messrs. Phillips and Holland to build the bridge for £10,500. The work was at once commenced, and by the end of 1771 it was opened for foot passengers and in the following year it was available for carriage traffic. Money had to be laid out for the formation of approach roads, so that at the end of 1773 the total amount expended was £15,662. For many years the proprietors realized only a small return upon their capital, repairs and improvements absorbing nearly all the receipts. In the severe winter of 1795 considerable damage was done to the bridge by reason of the accumulated ice becoming attached to the[Pg 68] (timber) piles and drawing them on the rise of the tide, and in the last three years of the eighteenth century no dividends were distributed." The bridge is 726 feet long and 24 feet wide. It originally had 19 openings, the centre opening had a space of 31 feet, and the others decreased in width equally on each side to 16 feet at the ends, but in consequence of the serious hindrances which the structure caused to navigation on the Thames within the last few years the bridge has undergone alterations in order to widen the water-way, four of the openings have been converted into two and strong iron girders have been introduced. The centre opening is now 75 feet wide with a clear head-way of 15 feet at Trinity High Water Mark. In 1799 only one side of the bridge was lighted with oil lamps. "In 1821 the dangerous wooden railing was replaced by a hand rail of iron, and in 1824 the bridge was lighted with gas the pipes being brought over from Chelsea although Battersea remained unlighted for several years afterwards." In the year 1878, the bridge, which had hitherto remained in the hands of the descendants or friends of the original proprietors came into the possession of the Albert Bridge Company under their Act of Incorporation. Its revenues in 1792 were about £1,700. About nine years ago its yearly income was estimated at £5,000.

Battersea Bridge Tolls by Act of Parliament 6° George III. 1766.

On a Notice Board dated 6th October, 1824, are the following words: "Notice is hereby given that no trucks, wheelbarrows or other carriages will be permitted to be drawn upon the foot-paths of this bridge. By order of the Proprietors."

The Bridge though convenient has an unsightly appearance and unworthy its position across a river spanned by some of the finest bridges in the world. At the foot of the Old Bridge is a toll-house with walls twenty inches in thickness, facing which is a painted board with charges for tolls headed "Old Battersea Bridge Tolls by Act of Parliament 6° George III., 1766."

ALBERT SUSPENSION BRIDGE, conceived originally many years ago by the Prince Consort, it was not until 1864 that an Act for its construction was obtained. Although the works were commenced soon after the necessary powers were conferred upon the Company, they were retarded by the action of the Metropolitan[Pg 69] Board of Works. That body proposed to embank the river from Pimlico to Battersea Bridge, Chelsea; the execution of that work would involve questions affecting the bridge level and approaches. Not until 1867 did the Board obtain their Act, and not until the Autumn of 1870 did their engineer determine the open question affecting the approaches and levels of the Albert Bridge. In the mean-time the powers of the Bridge Act expired, but were revived on application to Parliament on condition that the bridge should be constructed on Mr. Ordish's rigid suspension principle. This principle is now generally well known, it having been carried out in practice on several instances, notably in that of the Francis Joseph Bridge at Prague, which is 820 feet long and has a centre span of 492 feet, and two side spans of 164 feet each. The Ordish system consists in suspending the main girders which carry the road-way by straight inclined chains, which are maintained in their proper position by being suspended by vertical rods at intervals of 20 feet from a steel iron cable. The total length of the Albert Bridge is 710 feet and 41 feet in width between the parapets, which are formed of the main girders, which are of wrought iron 8 feet deep and continuous; the upper portion is perforated in order to lighten and improve the structure. The main girders are connected transversely by cross girders placed 8 feet apart, on these the planking is laid for the carriage road-way, which is formed of blocks of wood placed with the grain vertically on the planking. The roadway is 27 feet in width. On either side is a foot-way 7 feet wide, paved with diamond-shaped slabs of Ransome stone 12 inches square and 1½ inches thick, laid on the planking with a layer of tar and asphalted felt interposed. The slabs in the centre of the footpath are of a grey color with an ornamental border. The four towers carrying the main chains of the bridge are placed outside the parapet girders; they are placed in pairs, each pair being connected at a height of 60 feet from the platform level by an ornamental iron work. The towers are of cast-iron and consist each of an inner column 4 feet in external diameter, and surrounded by eight 12-inch octagonal columns placed 12 inches from the central shaft, the whole group being connected together at intervals by disc pieces of collars of cast-iron. The straight chains are composed of rolled iron bars, united end to end by riveted joints and having swelled heads only at the extreme ends. The curved cable from which the straight chains are suspended to preserve their equilibrium is of steel wire and is 6 inches in diameter. It is composed of a series of strands of straight wires, about 900 in number, bound together by a coiled wire of smaller diameter. The bridge is divided into a centre with two side openings, the former a span of 400 feet, and the latter 155 feet each. There is a clear headway of 21 feet at the centre of the bridge from the under side of the platform to Trinity high water mark, the height being reduced to 10 feet at the abutments. The piers carrying the four towers are formed of cast-iron cylinders sunk down to the London clay and filled with concrete. The foundations of the piers consist also of cast-iron cylinders, the bottom or cutting ring being 21 feet in diameter, 4 feet 6 inches high and 1 3/8 inches thick. The next ring above this is 5 feet high and tapers from 21 feet at its junction with the cutting ring to 15[Pg 70] feet at the top, from which point the pier is constructed with cylinders 15 feet in diameter up to the level at which the towers commence. The thickness of the metal in the coned and upper rings is 1¼ inch. The bottom or cutting rings are noticeable as being the largest cylindrical castings ever made in one piece. One of the chief peculiarities in the Albert Bridge is the method introduced by Mr. Ordish in forming the anchorage. The arrangement is perfectly independent of the great mass of masonry generally employed in anchorages the anchorages being contained within an iron structure. It consists of a cast-iron cylinder 20 feet 6 inches deep and 3 feet internal diameter enlarged at the bottom into a chamber 5 feet diameter for anchoring the chains. The cylinder is water-tight, and is provided with a manhole and steps, so that the anchorage can be examined at any time, and cleaned and painted when necessary. This cylinder is set vertically in a surrounding bed of concrete, the bottom being 26 feet below the road-way bed. From this proceeds a vertical anchorage chain, connected to the end of the main girder, to which is also connected the principal back chain and the wire cable. The horizontal strain is thus taken through the main girders and the vertical lift by the mass of concrete in which the cylinder is embedded, and which is about one-tenth the quantity required in ordinary anchorages. The bridge commands an extensive and picturesque prospect, having on the one hand Battersea Park and on the other the Thames Embankment. Messrs. Williamson and Company were the contractors for the bridge and Mr. F. W. Bryant was their engineer. The cylinders for the piers were cast by Messrs. Robinson and Cottam, of Battersea; the cast and wrought iron work for the superstructure was supplied by Messrs. A. Handyside and Company of Derby and London, and the steel wire cables by the Cardigan Iron and Steel Works, Sheffield. There are twenty upright lampposts in keeping with the character of the bridge each bearing a lamp. One rather taller than the rest stands in the middle of the road approaching the bridge, at the base of which toll-bars are swung on iron hinges to obstruct the carriages, the others are placed at certain distances apart opposite each other on either side of the pathways. There are also four small lodges at which to receive carriage and foot tolls. The bridge was opened 31st December, 1872, at 1 p.m.; re-opened the 23rd of August, 1873, at 12.30 p.m. Estimated cost of bridge with approaches, etc., etc., about £90,000. Battersea Old Bridge belongs to the Albert Bridge Company.

Off Park Road, Battersea, is an antique cottage, the birthplace and residence of Mr. Juer, who for several years discharged the duties of Overseer and other Parochial offices in a manner creditable to himself and highly satisfactory to the parishioners. From family records he has been able to trace that his ancestors have occupied this dwelling for the last three centuries. Mr. Juer died Nov. 30, and was interred Dec. 6, 1878, in the family vault in St. Mary's Church-yard, where there had been no burial for 25 years. Canon Clarke read the burial service, and many of the old parishioners were present who respected the memory of the deceased.

CHELSEA SUSPENSION BRIDGE is an elegant structure on the suspension principle, (from the site of Ranelagh to Battersea[Pg 71] Park): it measures 347 feet between the towers and 705 between the abutments. It was made at Edinburgh and erected in 1857 after designs by the late Mr. Thomas Page, the architect of the New Bridge at Westminster, at a cost of £85,319. It was opened on the 28th of March, 1858. The roadway is suspended upon chains, which hang from two massive and ornamental piers in the river, the ends being firmly secured by solid masonry on the shores. On a portion of the iron-work of the beautiful arches connecting the towers of this magnificent bridge, beneath the escutcheon representing the Royal Standard, are emblazoned the following Latin inscriptions in old German characters:—Anno Regni Vicesimo Victoria, Anno Domini, 1857, Gloria Deo in Excelsis. The large globular lamps at the top of the piers are lighted only when the Queen sleeps in London.

Tolls paid for passing over this Bridge were:—

Hackney coaches and licensed cabs without passengers, waggons, carts and drays unladen with two or more horses, to pass over the bridge upon payment of half the above toll. And all post chaise returning without passengers and return post horses, to pass over the bridge free. By virtue of an Act of Parliament 9th and 10th Victoria, cap. 39. By order of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Works and Public Buildings, 1858. Office of Works, 12, Whitehall Place, Westminster.

Londoners may congratulate themselves that they are at last allowed to cross the bridges which connect the opposite banks of the Thames at the western end of this great city without paying toll. The Metropolitan Board of Works have expended £538,847 19s. in freeing these five bridges—viz.: Lambeth Bridge, £36,059; Vauxhall Bridge, £255,230 16s. 8d.; Albert and Battersea Bridges, (including Parliamentary costs), £170,305; Albert Bridge Company (taxed costs of arbitration), £2,253 3s. 1d.; Chelsea Bridge, £75,000. On Saturday, the 24th of May, 1879, Her Majesty Queen Victoria's birthday was appropriately chosen for the occasion and great preparations had been made for giving éclat to the ceremony. The route taken by the Royal Party (which included the Prince and Princess of Wales—two of their children, Prince Albert Victor and Prince George of Wales, attired in naval costume as naval cadets; the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Crown Prince of Denmark) which was gay with Venetian masts, bannerets, streamers and flags. The Circular Engine Shed in Victoria Bridge Road and that portion of the railway bridge which spans the Thames belonging[Pg 72] to the London, Brighton and South-Coast Railway Company were lavishly festooned and decorated with coloured flags most profusely. Shortly after 3 p.m. came three open carriages each drawn by two horses and the well-known scarlet livery of the Court Mews on the hammer-cloths. At the south side of Lambeth Bridge the Prince was received by Sir James M'Garel Hogg, M.P., Chairman of the Board of Works; the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Middleton, Sir Henry Peek, Sir James Lawrence, M.P., Mr. Alderman McArthur, M.P., Mr. Selway, M.P., Mr. Coope, M.P., and other notabilities. The keys having been surrendered with the customary formalities, a Royal salute having been fired from the banks of the river and the bands having played the National Anthem, Mr. J. M. Clabon handed the Prince of Wales an address, folded and tied with green tape, after a moment's parley His Royal Highness with a smile and an approving nod of the head from the Princess, who was by express wish a joint participator with the Heir Apparent in the ceremony of opening the bridge, handed back the address asking that it might be read as he wished to reply, then Sir James M'Garel Hogg untying the tape and unfolding the address read as follows:—

[Pg 73]

The Prince of Wales spoke in reply as follows:

Twenty carriages were devoted to the Members of Parliament, Members of the Metropolitan Board and the Officials the twentieth containing Sir James M'Garel Hogg and some ladies and following this came the three Royal carriages. The route being kept clear of traffic and the spectators massed in lines along side by the police—some 1600 were on duty—the arrangements south side of the bridges being in charge of Captain Braynes, while on the north side Colonel Pearson had the directions. His Royal Highness proceeded by way of the Albert Embankment to Vauxhall Bridge, the approach to which was exceedingly picturesque the banks of the Thames fluttering with flags, and the river crowded with boats that followed the cortège. The procession crossed and re-crossed Chelsea Suspension Bridge. In the London, Brighton and South-Coast Railway West-end Goods Traffic Yard a Royal salute was given on the arrival of the Prince by the crushing weight of a locomotive named Rennes, No. 130, passing over twenty-one fog signals, an arrangement previously made by Mr. J. Richardson, the effect of which gave general satisfaction. The west side of the Victoria Railway Bridge which spans the Thames was elegantly decorated from one end to the other by the London, Brighton and South-Coast Railway Company. Festoons and tri-coloured flags representing the colours used for signals on railways were voluntarily displayed in such profusion by Messrs. J. Richardson and Everest as to render the scene quite imposing. In front of Chelsea Hospital were drawn up two hundred warriors of olden times, pensioners in their beaver cocked hats who knowing more about "Brown Bess than the Martini rifle managed to do a salute with tolerable precision." The people assembled in Battersea Park made a rush for Albert Bridge as the procession approached that graceful structure. The Albert Bridge Company was represented by Mr. Ewing Matheson, the Chairman; Mr. Youngman, Manager; Mr. A. C. Harper, Secretary, and Mr. Frederick Stanley, Solicitor. (The Countess of Cadogan presented the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Edinburgh with handsome bouquets on behalf of the ladies of Chelsea. Button holes of a very choice nature were also[Pg 74] presented to the Prince of Wales and the Duke.) Mr. Kingsbury, Chairman of the Chelsea Vestry, had the honour of presenting a silver medal commemorative of the occasion to the Prince of Wales which was graciously accepted. At the north side of the bridge were drawn up the boys of the Duke of York Asylum; at the south side the children of the local schools, all singing with as much gusto as their little lungs would allow "God bless the Prince of Wales." The Pier Hotel and the houses facing the Albert Bridge were gaily and handsomely decorated with flags of all nations, and the balconies at the corner of Cheyne Walk being filled with ladies arrayed in summer toilets, thus lending an additional charm to the mise en scène. The military display consisted of guards of honour from the 1st Middlesex Engineer Volunteers and the 2nd (South) Middlesex Rifle Volunteers. The keys of the Albert Bridge were handed over on behalf of the Company by Messrs. Matheson and Stanley and a device swung across the bridge denoting that the latter was "free for ever." On the Chelsea side Mr. Stayton was the designer of the festivities. Passing along the Surrey side of the river the Prince made for Old Battersea Bridge the last of the five to be opened. Here the Surrey Volunteers and the Surrey Artillery mustered in force, and a Salvo of Artillery from the Citizen Steamboat Company announced that the bridge was free. At the approach to the Bridge in Bridge Road stands of evergreens were most tastefully arranged by the employés of Messrs. H. and G. Neal the well-known Nurserymen of Wandsworth Common. At no point in the line of route were greater demonstrations of joy expressed and loyalty manifested than by the Battersea people.

The Royal party returned to Marlborough House—-the other carriages then went to Chelsea Vestry Hall where a banquet was served, and at night there was a display of fireworks at Battersea Park supplied by the Crystal Palace Pyrotechnists, T. Brock & Co., the expense being borne by Earl Cadogan to wind up the eventful day's proceedings.

At the foot of Chelsea Suspension Bridge a board is erected on which is written the following: Notice, Metropolitan Board of Works. No Traction Engine, Steam Roller, or any load exceeding 5 tons on each pair of wheels, must be taken over this bridge. By order of J. E. Wakefield, Clerk to the Board, May, 1879.

Shortly after the freeing of the bridges the "bars" were removed, and the old toll house at the foot of Battersea Bridge entirely demolished.

The stupendous Railway Bridge across the Thames at Battersea from Battersea Park Railway Pier to Grosvenor Road Station is said to be the Widest Railway Bridge in the World. It consists of four arches each one hundred and seventy-five feet span in the clear, with a rise of seventeen feet six inches. The immense ribs which support the superstructure are formed throughout of wrought iron, and are firmly attached to massive cast-iron standards which are placed over the piers; the whole of the frame-work is thus made continuous throughout. On each side of the river is a land arch of seventy feet span, making the entire length of the bridge eight hundred and forty feet. The abutments were put in by means of coffer-dams, and the foundations are carried down thirty feet below[Pg 75] Trinity high-water mark. The piers are built upon the same principle as that which was first applied by the late Charles Fox to the building of the Bridge at Rochester, Charing Cross, and Cannon Street, Railway Bridges. The bridge was first erected by Mr. J. Fowler. In 1865-6 it was enlarged by the late Sir Charles Fox.

Some antiquarians have stated that about fifty yards westward of Chelsea Suspension Bridge, Cæsar and his legions crossed the river Thames by a ford when in pursuit of the Britons who were retreating from the Romans. The ford is described at low water as a shoal of gravel not more than three feet deep, sufficient for ten men to walk abreast, except on the Surrey side where it has been deepened by raising ballast, and the causeway from the South bank may yet be traced at low water. Others think that the place of crossing was higher up the river, either at Chertsey or Kingston; the latter was anciently called Moreford, or the Great Ford. However, landing at Deal, it is natural the Romans would cross the river at some ford nearest that point.[1]

We would suggest that the next Monolith brought to this country from the land of the Ptolemys or Cæsars be erected on this spot, similar to that of Cleopatra's Needle on the Victoria Embankment.

Watermen and others who navigate the river have observed how very shallow the water is at this spot. Sir Richard Phillips says "the event was pregnant with such consequences to the fortune of these Islands, that the spot deserves the record of a monument; which ought to be preserved from age to age, as long as the veneration due to antiquity is cherished among us. Who could then have contemplated that the folly of Roman ambition would be the means of introducing arts among the semi-barbarous Britons, which in eighteen hundred and forty years or after the lapse of nearly sixty generations, would qualify Britain to become mistress of Imperial Rome; while one country would become as exalted, and the other be so debased, that the event would excite little attention, and be deemed but of secondary importance? Possibly after another sixty generations, the posterity of the savage tribes near Sierra-Leone, or New Holland may arbitrate the fate of London, or of Britain, as an affair of equal indifference."[1]

We shall not attempt to speculate as to what is within the range[Pg 76] of human possibilities knowing as all history teaches us how transient is the glory of sublunary things. We believe that while England is true to herself and true to God such a state of things concerning Britain as that depicted by Sir Richard will never be realised. The overthrow of dynasties, of nations and of empires is the result of moral degeneracy—the effect of national and individual sins. "Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. By the Almighty who doeth according to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, kings reign and princes decree justice, He putteth down one and setteth up another." However, while reading the fore-mentioned quotation we were forcibly reminded of Macaulay's New Zealander sitting upon a broken arch of London Bridge contemplating o'er the desolation of England's chief city, or some other traveller from the Antipodes who shall stand on the broken arches of Westminster Bridge, and gazing on a horizon of ruin, cry "Here stood the Metropolis of a Mighty Empire!"

Many years ago a person wrote a note to the Rev. John Brand, Secretary to the Antiquarian Society, to say that as he was passing through Battersea Fields he saw some labourers dig up a leaden coffin, in which was a skeleton and near it there were three more human skeletons. There is no date but it is addressed to Mr. Brand, at Northumberland House, which he left about 1795.

About sixty-five years ago there was a house situated in the middle of Battersea Fields which remained for a long time uninhabited on account of the strange and weird stories related and circulated about it. Ignorant and uneducated people said it was "haunted." Nobody would live in it. At midnight "lights" it was said were to be seen "flitting about the rooms," and "dismal groans of one in extremes, at the point to die" were to be heard, and so many believed in "old bogies" and tales of "hobgoblins" so their minds pictured the most frightful and hideous spectres imaginable. At length the house like other old buildings in the neighbourhood was demolished. The Rev. John Kirk, who wrote a Biography of the Mother of the Wesleys, says: "The legendary literature of the world teems with wonderful stories of haunted houses where invisible spirits were believed to utter mysterious sounds, to perform extraordinary pranks, and sometimes communicate revelations of the future, or disclose the dread secrets of the hidden world. These beliefs though strongest and most prevalent where the Gospel is unknown or least influential, are not peculiar to generations 'of old time' or to any particular nation under heaven." Certainly the present generation do not appear to have improved much more than their forefathers in this respect when there is so much nonsensical talk about communicating with the invisible world by means of "spirit rappings," "table turnings," etc. Surely the age when men shall give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons has come!

Battersea Fields, within the Manor along the Thames, were long notable as a marshy tract producing a great variety of indigenous plants; and were the scene on March 21st, 1829, of the duel between the Duke of Wellington and Lord Winchelsea.[1] Battersea Fields[Pg 77] were reputed as a place for duelling and prize-fights but are now partly disposed in a fine Public Park, and partly covered with streets and buildings. A lane from Nine Elms past Tuggy's Mill and Rock's Tea Gardens, by the poplar trees led to the Red House which faced the river near the foot of the South side of Chelsea Suspension Bridge since erected. Here in front was a tall flag-staff with flag waving in the breeze on which were letters denoting the sign of the house. Seats and ale-benches, embowered with clusters of elm trees with wide-spreading branches overhead, were placed for the accommodation of persons who resorted thither for refreshment. The space here embanked and enclosed with an iron palisade formed a kind of jetty, divided in the centre by a flight of steps from the river as well as having a flight of steps at both ends where watermen landed their passengers or took up their fares. There was a ferry here to the "White House" on the opposite side of the Thames. The "Red House" was built of red bricks with white pointings, wide but not high in elevation. It had one story above the basement with slanted slated roof, and contained in all fourteen rooms. Each of the windows on the ground-floor had wooden shutters hung on hinges painted green, which, when closed or folded, fastened inside with bolts. The windows did not project from the general face of the building except the refreshment bar and the upstairs dining room. This apartment and the long room adjoining commanded an extensive and pleasant prospect of the river. A large lamp, supported by means of an iron branch fastened to the wall, projected over the middle door. The Royal Humane Society's drags were always kept here in readiness in case of emergency, and notice was written on a board suspended outside the west end of the house to that effect. The gardens were laid out in small arbours decorated with Flemish and other paintings and fancifully formed flower-beds. In the centre of the garden was a fish-pond; the walks were prettily disposed; at the end of the principal one was a painting, the perspective rendered the walk in appearance much longer than it really was. The shooting ground was about 120 yards square, and inclosed by palings. Beyond the east end of the house was situated a range of "boxes" or alcoves—seven in number—which at night were illuminated with oil-lamps. Each "box" had a table in the centre with seats all round so that twelve persons could sit inside very comfortably. Of a morning several of the Guards were in the habit of arriving here by water from Whitehall stairs to enjoy their "Flounder breakfast" at ten o'clock. And certain noblemen dignified with their presence and patronage the annual "Sucking Pig Dinner," which generally took place in the month of August.

[Pg 78]

Mr. Wright, who at one time was proprietor of the "Red House," had a Raven that he called "Gyp" that used to talk. Sometimes as if hailing a waterman from the river the bird would cry out "boat ahoy!" "What's o'clock? what's o'clock?" it would hurriedly repeat as if anxious to know the hour. At another time "Gyp" would call "Rock! over!" "Over!" as if to intimate that somebody requested to be ferried over to the other side. Many a scull has been deceived by the mimic cries of this black-feathered rascal. One day Rock the ferryman was so irritated, having been twice deceived that day by the call of "Gyp," that he took up a quart pewter pot and threw it at his head. "Gyp" narrowly escaped uninjured. Mr. Wright remonstrated and said he would not have the bird hurt at any price. The raven was deliciously fond of picking bones. On one occasion a gentleman accidentally dropped his spectacles; presently, on looking up, he discovered his lost property in the beak of the raven perched on a bough with all the gravity of a sexton. "Gyp" had an incurable antipathy to dogs. If perchance a dog passed by, in an instant he would pounce upon its back, hold on by his claws and peck at it most unmercifully, while the dog thus attacked ran away yelping and howling. When dislodged, "Gyp's" pinions bore him swiftly away from the reach of the teeth of his canine adversary. "Gyp" was of a jealous disposition and did not like to see other birds petted. He has been known to kill a magpie and a raven. It was dangerous to put money down in the presence of "Gyp" for "Gyp" had the propensity of picking it up and of flying away with it. On one occasion he seized a sovereign which a customer put down. As "Gyp" had several hiding places where he deposited "stolen articles," as spoons, knives, forks, etc., diligent search was made but the valuable coin was never discovered. The last account we heard of "Gyp" was that he was taken down to Shropshire and that the poor bird died. Mr. W. Puttick, to whom we are indebted for some curious pieces of information, says, "One of the notabilities at the Red House beside the Raven whose bites I have often experienced was a half-witted man who went by the name of 'Billy' the nutman. He used to carry a bag of nuts and a dial, people paid a penny and turned a hand and had nuts for their money. I have often seen this man stand in the water and let the pigeon shooters shoot at him for a few pence, his gesticulations and grotesque movements at the same time exciting from the spectators shouts and roars of laughter."

Mr. Wright took the house of Mr. Swaine, but after Mr. Wright left, the house was taken by a man of the name of Ireland.

James Rock, a respectable ferryman and lighterman, whose house was hard by, was accidentally drowned in the river Thames, August, 1874. His son, George Rock, is now Pier-master at Battersea Park Railway Pier.

The "Red House" was famed for aquatic sports. Adjoining the premises were grounds for pigeon and sparrow-shooting, and the performance of athletic feats. Pigeons were there sold to be shot at, at 15s. per dozen; starlings at 4s., and sparrows at 2s. The place attained a notoriety not surpassed by the number of excursionists who in summer visit Rye House. Subsequently the Red House with its shooting ground and[Pg 79] adjacent premises was purchased by the Government for £10,000.

"The Old House at Home" was a small thatched hut, kept by Farmer Hall, where beer was sold direct from the cask, to be drunken on the premises. It answered the six-fold purpose of shop, dormitory, fowl-house, pig-sty, stable and cow-shed. Within this hovel were gathered pigs, fowls, cats, dogs, singing-birds, ducks, cows, horses and donkeys, which, together with the landlord and his customers who regaled themselves here, constituted a "happy family!" This was a famous place for "egg flip," which consisted of new-laid eggs taken from the hens' nests, beat up in hot ale or porter, sweetened with sugar, and sold to persons who preferred roaming about at mid-night or in the small hours of the morning.

On the Lammas land, in the summer months, gipsies pitched their encampments. On Sundays the place presented the aspect of a pleasure fair, lawlessness, Sabbath desecration, immorality, and vice were rampant. At length the place became a scandal and a public disgrace, and even now, notwithstanding the vast improvements in the neighbourhood, Battersea, as a Parish, to a certain extent is ignored, and persons would no more have smiled at Battersea Park being called Lambeth Park than they do now at Clapham Junction being called by that misnomer, and so with other parts of the parish. A great boon was conferred upon the inhabitants of the South-west of London when this infamous locality was converted into a public park. The intolerable nuisance complained of did not take place previously to the year 1835, after Lord Spencer's first sale when the land fell into the hands of small proprietors. Irrespective of social propriety, public decency and order, horse-racing, donkey-riding, fortune-telling, gambling, cock-shying, swings, roundabouts, boxing, and all the paraphernalia of a pleasure fair with its concomitant evils were the constant scenes witnessed here on Sundays. Mr. Thomas Kirk (now Curate of St. George's) who was for many years a Missionary in Battersea, in his report published in the "London City Mission Magazine," September 1, 1870, states, "that which made this part of Battersea Fields so notorious was the gaming, sporting, and pleasure-grounds at the 'Red House' and 'Balloon' public-houses, and Sunday fairs, held throughout the Summer months. These have been the places of resort of hundreds and thousands, from royalty and nobility down to the poorest pauper and the meanest beggar. And surely if ever there was a place out of hell which surpassed Sodom and Gomorrah in ungodliness and abomination this was it. Here the worst men and the vilest of the human race seemed to try to outvie each other in wicked deeds. I have gone to this sad spot on the afternoon and evening of the Lord's day, when there have been from 60 to 120 horses and donkeys racing, foot-racing, walking matches, flying boats, flying horses, roundabouts, theatres, comic actors, shameless dancers, conjurers, fortune-tellers, gamblers of every description, drinking booths, stalls, hawkers, and vendors of all kinds of articles. It would take a more graphic pen than mine to describe the mingled shouts and noises and the unmentionable doings of this pandemonium on earth. I once asked the pierman 'how many people were landed on Sunday from that pier?' He told me that according to the[Pg 80] weather, he had landed from 10,000 to 15,000 people! This influx was besides that by the various land roads by which hundreds of thousands used to come, till the numbers have sometimes been computed at 40,000 and 50,000." Mr. Thomas Cubitt, in 1843, suggested to Her Majesty's Commission for Improving the Metropolis the advisability of laying Battersea Fields out as pleasure-grounds, and this design was subsequently pressed upon their attention by the Hon. and Rev. Robert John Eden. An Act of Parliament passed in 1846 empowered Her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods to form a Royal Park in Battersea Fields. Acts to enlarge their powers were passed in 1848, 1851 and 1853, by which a Commission, incorporated as the Battersea Park Commission was appointed with power to sell, demise or lease lands not required for the park. Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Pennethorne's plan was approved, by which 320 acres were to be enclosed at an estimated cost of £154,250. The fields were entirely overflowed by the river at high water, until about three hundred years ago when an embankment was raised, and the land reclaimed.[1] Brayley referring[Pg 81] to this period says, "The land reclaimed went to the Lord of the Manor, but was subject to some ill-defined rights of inter-commonage exercised by the inhabitants of Battersea at stated periods of the year. From various causes these rights have been nearly extinguished and most of the land is now held by different proprietors, and partly let for building and other uses." Wild flowers grew abundantly in Battersea Fields.[2] A learned botanist in the last[Pg 82] century compiled a flora of Battersea, and many of the plants that luxuriated in these fields were not to be met with elsewhere, except at places much farther from London. Its surface was raised by a million cubic yards of earth from various sources, particularly from the London Docks (Victoria) Extension. The Park comprises 198 acres, was purchased at a cost of £246,517, and laid out in 1852-58 at a further cost of £66,373. In 1857 planting was commenced. Up to this period the works had been executed under Mr. Pennethorne, Architect of the Office of Works, when the late Mr. Farrow was appointed to take charge and complete the unfinished works. The park has a grass surface of nearly 66 acres. About 40 acres are set apart for cricket and croquet. There are two match grounds, which, together, admit of seven matches being played at the same time. On these grounds between 600 and 700 matches are played annually. The spaces are assigned by ballot. There is a practice-ground for organized adult cricket clubs, on which from 70 to 90 cricket clubs practice on different days; and a general practice ground, appropriated to schools and junior clubs, and the public generally. The season for cricket is from 1st May to 30th September. Other large spaces are used for the drill and exercise of troops stationed at Chelsea Barracks. Various volunteer corps as also the district police are drilled here. The park contains one of the richest collections of shrubs and trees in or near London. Its soil is specially suited to the rose, so that visitors who take delight in the queen of the English garden resort to the rosery.

The Sub-tropical Garden opened in August, 1864, is nearly four acres in extent. It is situated at the head of the ornamental water[Pg 83] surrounded by sloping banks, parterres and rolling lawns. In this region flourish palms, tree-ferns, plants with large leaves, gigantic grasses, and the climbers and creepers of Equatorial forests and jungles. India-rubber trees, castor-oil plants, Japanese honeysuckle, Chinese privet, the banana of Abyssinia recalling the expedition to Magdala; the papyrus plant of Egypt, the veritable bulrush of the Nile, the beautiful scarlet foliage of the dragon's blood tree from South America, the large-leaved tobacco plant, the caladium esculentum from the West Indies, the neottopteris australis etc., besides a variety of other vegetable forms from the tropics. Eastward of the Sub-tropical Garden is situated the Peninsula, containing some of the choicest combinations of floral work, resembling in pattern the most exquisite tapestry. The Alpine point gives a miniature representation of the valleys and mountain-peaks of Alpine scenery. Several little hills are so arranged as to show in miniature the ascending zones of vegetation, beginning with the low warm plains with palms, and leading up to snow-clad heights. The snow is represented by gnaphalium tementosum. The lake, rocks, waterfalls and landscapes are truly picturesque, being so arranged as to produce the most pleasing effect.

The ornamental water covers 23 acres of ground, with an average depth of 2½ feet. Ornithological specimens of the web-footed class afford sport for the aged as well as for the young who feed the aquatic birds with cake, biscuit and crumbs of bread. Besides a large colony of Moorhens that have settled down in these friendly waters may be seen Chinese, Egyptian and Barnacle geese, and Carolina and Muscovy ducks; also

"The Swan, with arch'd neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her state with oary feet"

The lark, the linnet, the thrush, the black-bird join in chorus to fill the air with their bird-song. At night passers-by are charmed with the sweet, rich mellow notes of

"The merry nightingale,
That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates,
With fast thick warble his delicious notes,
As if he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love chant."
Coleridge.

It may not be uninteresting for the naturalist to know that larva of the goat moth (cossus ligniperda) inhabits poplars and willows in Battersea Park. This park too is considered famous for the congregation of vast flocks of starlings just before their migration.

Boating here is a safe and enjoyable amusement. Skiffs are one shilling per hour, party boats eighteenpence. In Winter, when the water is frozen over, it is quite an area for skaters.

The lake is an artificial one, and is fed partly from the Thames and partly by a steam engine fixed for the purpose of supplying the park with water for the lodges, drinking-fountains, roads, flower-beds, etc.

The Gymnasium is in the South-western portion of the park. On the adjacent sward Sunday and other schools may hold their[Pg 84] annual treats. In the space thus appropriated preaching is allowed and public meetings are permitted.

Nearly at the centre of the Peninsula there is a reservoir which is excavated below the level of the neighbouring springs. The water from this self-supplied source is as clear as crystal; it is pumped into an elevated tank above the engine house which holds 20,000 gallons, from which are laid service pipes for the supply of the park.

The avenue occupies a central position of the park; the trees are the English elm. This affords an enjoyable and shady promenade.

The horse ride or equestrian road, about forty feet wide, nearly encircles the park and is almost two miles in length. Here is also an excellent carriage drive separate from the latter by a row of young plane trees. There are numerous seats in the park for the accommodation of the public. Situated in the centre of the park is a band-stand. The band plays in the Summer and Autumnal months for the entertainment of those who are fond of instrumental music.

There are two refreshment rooms where light refreshments can be obtained at moderate prices. The lodges too are appropriated to the public and offer refreshments and cloak-rooms.

The advantage of a river frontage possessed by Battersea Park is shown by the fact that upwards of 12,000 persons have landed at the Park Pier on fine Summer days. On Sundays, when Chelsea Bridge is free, in fine weather, 40,000 or 50,000 people have been in the park.

The public owe a tribute of grateful respect to the late Mr. John Gibson, of Surrey Lane, whose acquaintance with horticulture and the science of botany was something considerable, who for about fifteen years was Park Superintendent. That gentleman went on a Botanical Mission to India for and at the expense of the Duke of Devonshire. The manner in which portions of the park are disposed was from designs originally his own. The new rock work is by Mr. Pulham, of Broxbourne. Mr. Alexander Rogers is at present Park Superintendent; Mr. E. W. Partridge, Inspector. There are twelve Park Constables, viz., Mr. J. Cook, South-east Lodge; J. Hawkins, South Lodge; Edwin Ashby, West Lodge; George Weedon, Charles Page, William Jones, James Powell, J. Pointer, George Dicks, W. Sheppard, Isaac Chamberlain, William Withers, Mr. Dowly, Foreman of the Gardeners. On an average about forty gardeners are employed in the park. The park is under the Commissioners of Works, No. 12, Whitehall.[1]

The park was opened March 28th, 1858.

In 1862 the Royal Agricultural Society of England held their Annual Show in Battersea Park.

Recently some beautiful villas in Queen Anne's style have been built in Albert road.

Opposite the Western gate a site has been chosen for the erection of a Chapel-of-Ease to St. Mary's.

[Pg 85]

At the angle facing the South-western gate two stately mansions have recently been erected contiguous to each other, called Lancaster Tower and Strathedon House.

The two Circular Engine sheds, about 90 yards in diameter, belonging to the London, Brighton and South-Coast Railway Company, adjacent to the East-end of the Park, Victoria Road, built about seven years since, show a marked difference to the small wooden shed they erected some eighteen years ago when they had convenience for only four engines. The present sheds are very soundly built, and can accommodate 56 engines which work from the end of the line, there being 63 engines at work when there is no extra traffic, which is not very often the case. The locomotive staff numbers upwards of 300 hands, the major part being drivers, firemen, and cleaners, who muster 200. They have every facility for doing work required in a prompt manner. There is an engine-hoist which will lift an engine of forty or more tons in a very short time. The break-down van stands in one of the sheds ready at a moment's notice for any casualty that might happen. This is fitted up with hydraulic apparatus and every appliance for getting engines and other vehicles on the line quickly. The method of coaling engines is very good. Half-ton trolleys are loaded out of the trucks of coal, which can be moved with ease by one man on the iron-plated coal stage, from which it is shot on the tender of the engine; so that one man can in a few minutes put one or two tons of coal on a tender. Three hundred tons of coal are kept in stock, and the weekly consumption is about five hundred tons. The sheds are remarkably clean, being constantly whitewashed, and the engines, which are kept clean and fresh painted, to use a figurative expression, are perfect pictures. The passenger engines are a light brown color and the goods engines are a dark green. The offices attached to the sheds are at the entrance in one of the railway arches, and suit in every way the requirements of the place, and when inside one would hardly think it was only a railway arch. Other arches have been fitted up as work-shops for the mechanics, and another arch is entirely appropriated for the stores. Also an arch has been utilized so as to form a comfortable mess-room for enginemen and firemen, with cooking apparatus, lockers, and lavatory; adjoining which is a room similarly fitted up for the engine cleaners. Although these works are fraught with many dangers, it is rarely that any serious casualty occurs. District Loco. Superintendent, Albany Richardson, Esq.; Assistant Superintendent, Mr. John Richardson.

There are two gauges known as the Stephenson or narrow gauge, 4-ft. 8½-in., and the broad gauge 7 feet between the rails introduced by the younger Brunel on the Great Western Railway.

The locomotives on the Brighton and South-Coast Railway are constructed for the narrow gauge. The "Kensington," No. 205, belonging to the London, Brighton and South-Coast Railway Company, is a four-wheel coupled engine, designed by W. Stroudley, Esq., Locomotive Engineer. Diameter of cylinders, 17 inches; stroke, 24 inches; diameter of driving and trailing wheels, 6 feet 6 inches; leading wheel, 4 feet 3 inches; wheel base, 16 feet 3 inches; number of tubes, 260; diameter of ditto outside, 1½ inch;[Pg 86] length of ditto, 10 feet 11¾ inches; area of fire-grate, 10.25 square feet; pressure of steam, 140 lbs. per square inch; tube surface, 1,125 square feet; fire-box surface, 112 feet; total surface, 1,237. The total weight of this class of engine and tender when loaded is about 50 tons, and will convey a load of 236 tons at a speed of 40 miles an hour.

This class of engine was constructed for running the express traffic, which in the season is very heavy on this line. Cost of engine about £2500.

"A pint of water is converted into two hundred and sixteen gallons of steam by two ounces of coal, and has sufficient power to lift thirty-seven tons; the steam thus produced has a pressure equal to that of common atmospheric air. By allowing it to expand, by virtue of its elasticity a further mechanical force may be obtained, at least equal in amount to the former. A pint of water therefore, and two ounces of coal are thus rendered capable of raising seventy-four tons a foot high. Two hundred feet of steam can be condensed in one second by four ounces of water, and their expansive power reduced to one-fifth."

The first person who sought to apply the expansive force of steam as a motive power to machinery was an Egyptian, Hero of Alexandria, who lived about 15 years before Christ.

In the year 1543, Basco de Garay, a Spanish captain, astonished the world by asserting that he would propel a vessel without sails or oars. The Emperor Charles V. ordered the experiment to be made, and on the 17th of June a vessel called the "Trinity," of 200 tons burden was moved by wheels turned by steam at the rate of two leagues in three hours. To Spain belongs the honour of having invented the first steam vessel.

In the annals of the steam-engine are enumerated the names of Solomon de Caus, Giovanni Branci (1629). Edward Somerset, (1698). Newcomen, Cawley, Humphrey Potter (an engine boy), and Smeaton. But it is to the master spirit and inventive genius of James Watt the mathematical instrument maker who was born at Greenock in Scotland January 19, 1736, that we are indebted for the high state of efficiency to which our modern steam-engine has been brought. Matthew Bolton of Birmingham undertook the enterprise of introducing Watt's condensing engine into general use as a great working power.

Samuel Smiles says, "Many skilful inventors have from time to time added new power to the steam-engine; and by numerous modifications rendered it capable of being applied to nearly all the purposes of manufacture—driving machinery, impelling ships, grinding corn, printing books, stamping money, hammering, planing, and turning iron; in short of performing every description of mechanical labour where power is required. One of the most useful modifications in the engine was that devised by Trevithick, and eventually perfected by George Stephenson and his Son, in the form of the railway locomotive, by which social changes of immense importance have been brought about of even greater consequence, considered in their results on human progress and civilization than the condensing engine of Watt."

The Stockton and Darlington Railway was one of the first examples[Pg 87] of locomotive power on a railway for passengers. Mr. Murdock was the first Englishman who in the year 1784 constructed a non-condensing steam locomotive of lilliputian dimensions. It is to be seen at South Kensington, in the Patent Museum.

Battersea Wharf, belonging to the Brighton, and South-Coast Railway Company, close to Chelsea Bridge, combines a water frontage affording facility for discharging cargoes of goods for and from all parts of the Brighton, South-Eastern, London, Chatham and Dover Railways. The traffic during the last ten years has very sensibly increased, and the point itself has become an important place and of great convenience to the public.—Manager, Mr. William Everest.

The London and Brighton Railway was opened 21st September, 1841. In 1873, Number of miles open 345; gross receipts for the same year including 31st December, £1,618,461.

Comparative statement of traffic returns for week ending October 6th, 1877, to corresponding week in 1876. Total miles open 379¾.

That part of Battersea known as Long-Hedge Farm which was kept by a Mr. Matson and afterwards by Mr. Graham, is now partially inclosed by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Locomotive Works. The land originally purchased by the Railway Company was about 75 acres, and nearly one-half this space is appropriated to the Locomotive Department and Goods traffic yard.

The Works were built by Messrs. Peto and Betts, from designs furnished by Joseph Cubitt, Esq., engineer, and finished in the year 1863, (two years ago the erecting shop was enlarged). The name, however, is still retained and the Works are called Long-Hedge Works. These Works are surrounded with a wall ten feet high. There are six gates, but the principal entrance to the Works is at the gate by the time-keeper's office; the other five gates are used for shunting purposes. Within this enclosure no person is allowed to go except on business, and this rule is strictly carried out. There are the boiler-shop, the tender-shop, erecting shop, copper-smiths' shop, fitting-shop, brass-finishers' shop, pattern-makers' shop, smiths' shop, boiler-house with three large boilers, which drive the large stationary engine. The whole of these buildings, which consists of a series of ranges, are substantially built of brick, with walls of immense thickness. On the south side is the stores department. At the east-end of the turnery is the Superintendent's office, clerks' offices, etc. The area between each shop has an intersection of rails communicating with the line.

The lower turnery is 250 feet long and 44 wide. It has twenty-five windows on either side; the dimensions of each window is 12 feet by 3, and a third portion of each window can be opened or closed at pleasure for ventilation; also three pairs of double doors of the same height as the windows, and wide enough to admit a truck or carriage. There are lines of rails laid parallel with the building, both on the outside and through the centre. Opposite each of the large doors, both inside and out, are turn tables to connect the shops with any part of the yard. The floor is laid with blocks of wood about five inches square. Around large steam-pipes[Pg 88] are laid on either side of the shop to add to the comfort and convenience of the men. The shaft which gives motion to the machinery passes through the centre of the shop and the machinery on each side. Towards one extremity of this range of building is the engine house, in which are two beautifully-finished high and low pressure horizontal engines of one hundred horse power, which drive all the machinery and fan-blasts for smiths. There are three boilers, each thirty feet long, and six feet in diameter, having pressure of forty pounds upon every square inch. The shaft belonging to the stationary engine is forty-seven yards high.

In the lower turnery there is a double-headed slot-wheel, three large wheel lathes, and two small wheel lathes; the small are for carriage wheels. There are also three fifteen-inch lathes, two crank lathes for turning crank axles, two twelve-inch lathes, two large boring machines—one of these is a radial machine for boring tube plates; one boring machine for cylinders, also one large planing machine for the same purpose, and one hydraulic press for taking off axles. On the same basement with the turnery is the Loco. Manager's office.

Leaving the turnery we ascend a broad and substantial staircase of wood overlaid with sheet-lead, leading to the fitting-shop which is over the turning shop. On the same story is the brass-finishers' and pattern loft. The fitting-shop is light, clean, well ventilated, and comfortable. Here, as in the shop below, the shafting runs through the centre with a continuous branch of counter shafts on one side, extending the entire length of the building. The whole machinery is propelled by the same engine as that below. In this shop there is one large planing machine, nine shaping machines, six drilling machines, three slotting machines, one double-headed slot drill for cutting key-ways in axles, one twelve-inch lathe, four ten-inch lathes, four eight-inch lathes, two six-inch lathes, one ten-inch break lathe, six small planing machines of different sizes, four screwing machines, one nut-cutting machine, two grindstones, one hoist, twenty pairs of vices, etc., etc. In the brass-fitters' shop are four six-inch lathes in use for cocks, plugs, injectors, etc. Length of fitting, brass and pattern shops (inclusive) 406 feet.

The boiler shop is 200 feet in length and 48 feet in width. It has a stationary engine with machines for punching, drilling and bending the boiler-plates; also a powerful travelling crane, arranged for conveying boilers from one end of the shop to the other. The second building on the left-hand-side and facing the turnery is the erecting shop, 380 feet in length and 100 feet wide. This shop has a travelling table which runs from one end to the other, and is worked by a small engine. The use that is made of the table is to convey those engines which need repairing to the different pits. There are 42 pits in this shop with room for 42 engines. There are two travelling cranes above which run on girders; these are worked by the hand and are employed for engines. There is also a small stationary engine for driving drilling machine and grindstone, and each side has a row of vice-benches extending from one end of the shop to the other.

Not an uninteresting department is the smithery. Its length is 306 feet and it is 48 feet wide. On entering one seems to have got[Pg 89] into a region where Vulcan and his Cyclops are at work, not forging thunderbolts for Jupiter, but giving shape and form to bars of half-molten iron, which shall afterwards be used in the structure of steam-engines and for other practical purposes. The scene is grand, and might supply a study for such painters as West, Stothard, Conway and Northcote. In the back ground is a depth of gloom, sombrous and murky which is relieved at intervals by the fierce glare of thirty fires. At as many anvils strong, athletic, Titan-like figures, with uplifted arm and heavy stroke scatter "as from smitten steel," sparks like brilliant stars, in all directions. Here are thirty smiths' forges, and the tools used by the smiths, as tongs, hammers, swages, etc., are arranged in racks against the walls. Here also are two steam-hammers, one fifteen tons, the other five tons. Either can be most scrupulously adjusted by aid of a small lever. Here also are furnaces, a stationary engine with fan, grindstone, and powerful shears for cutting bar-iron. Lines of rails run throughout the shop, so that the coal and iron can be conveyed to any part where it is required.

A Second Shop for Carriages, Waggons, etc., is being erected at an estimated cost of nearly £14,000.

The carriage shop is 370 feet long, 150 feet wide, 30 feet high in the centre, and is capable of containing 80 railway carriages. It is divided longitudinally into three parts by the two rows of iron pillars which support the roof. The central division is forty feet wide and is occupied by the traversing table which is used for shifting the carriages. The two side divisions are the parts for vehicles under repairs, and are also occupied by the workmens' benches, etc. The roof is composed of a light but strong iron framing covered first with deal boards, and with slates over all except the central part, which is composed almost entirely of glass. The floor consists of wood bricks, laid on a solid foundation of concrete, and is intersected by the iron rails for the carriages and traverser. At the south end are the offices, with the trimming shops above them. The shop is well and efficiently ventilated, and is furnished with a system of heating apparatus consisting of a double row of large steam-pipes passing all round under the windows. Water is laid on in ample quantities, and one of the regulations carried out with unvarying rule, is to fix hose pipes in two separate parts of the shops every night with stand pipes ready for instant use in case of fire. There are 130 windows in the shop exclusive of the roof. Most of the carriages are made of teak instead of mahogany, as being more durable as well as economical and not so likely to split when exposed to the heat of the sun.

The saw-mills are used for cutting the timber, with rack and vertical saws. It is then prepared by eleven other different machines, such as general joiner, rabbeting, grooving, tenoning, mortising, boring and moulding machines, of every description. The timber is first cut out with the hand-saw, and then shaped by a large shaping machine 5 feet 4 by 2 feet 10, with two perpendicular spindles performing upwards of 1200 revolutions a minute. The saw-mills are well arranged, the driving wheel and shafting being all underneath. Next to the saw-mills is an engine-house in which is a horizontal engine of forty horse power with two large boilers,[Pg 90] sixty pounds pressure, made by Walter May and Co., Chelsea.

At the west end, and near "Long-Hedge House," is a small building containing the gas-meter; this, like the water-meter in the traffic yard, has its index taken every morning to show the amount of gas that has been consumed in the works.

The stores department consists of a large building, with various offices for the store keeper, clerks, and warehousemen. One half is upstairs which is fitted up with shelves, tables and pigeon-holes for the various articles kept in stock. The lower part is arranged for heavier goods, such as brass, copper, steel, and iron. There is a large yard for goods of different descriptions, and for the purpose of receiving goods brought by carriers, etc. The design of this department is to keep for immediate use almost every article used on a railway, to supply all the departments with materials for the making and keeping of the line in good condition, and to forward the goods as required to their destination on the line, and the quality of the goods is there determined before received for use.

In the running sheds engines are cleaned and running engines kept repaired, etc.[1] There are 82 locomotives, 65 of which are daily running on the line. Since the opening of the Ludgate Station on the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Metropolitan Extension Line a very considerable portion of the Goods traffic is carried on at Blackfriars.—Locomotive Superintendent, W. Kirtley, Esq.; Works Manager, Mr. G. Leavers; Manager of Carriage Department, Inspector, etc., Mr. C. Spencer; Superintendent of Stores Department Mr. John Ward.

[Pg 91]

The number of operatives employed inclusive of drivers and firemen is about 600. The men are intelligent and orderly; they, with myriads of their fellow-countrymen, are assisting in carrying out the great practical issues of civilization. Of such a class of noble-minded, generous-hearted, skilled mechanics and artisans, England may well be proud.

"What says each true workman, where'er he may toil
As bravely he joins in life's busy turmoil,
With each sinew brac'd stoutly by duty and love,
And the gaze of his soul fixed on heaven above.
Oh I'm king of a line of long renown,
And the sweat of my brow is my diamond crown;
I toil unrepining from morn till night,
For I bear in my bosom a heart brave and light,
And my labour no matter how hard it may be,
Brings ever a joy and a blessing to me."

The London Chatham and Dover Railway was opened 29th of September, 1860. Number of miles open 141. Gross Receipts including 31st December, 1873, £904,509.

The first railway train (London, Chatham and Dover) entered the City of London over the new Railway Bridge, Blackfriars, 6th October, 1864.

Adjacent to the Railway Viaduct and facing the south-eastern gate of Battersea Park is Sargent's Carpet Ground. Here during the Summer and Autumnal months a Gospel tent is pitched wherein Special Religious Services for the people are conducted by Messrs. Simmonds, Swindells, Waller, Rigley, Harris, Smith, Hewett, Crosby, Turpin, Twaites, Kirby, Reeve, Thompson, Eveleigh, Lane, and other well-known Christian workers.

Extracted from the Kensington News.—Amidst the various styles of ecclesiastical architecture which our modern amalgamation of various civilizations has produced, none strikes one as so peculiar as that which is called the preaching tent. Associated as this moveable structure is with the wandering life of the Eastern Arab, its consecration to purposes of modern Christian evangelization is a proof of the intense catholicity and energy of our modern religious life. While thousands of our home heathen never enter the sacred precincts of our churches or chapels, it is a blessing to find that they enter by hundreds inside the temporary canvas walls of our consecrated gospel tents. Very often the surroundings of the locality[Pg 92] where these places are erected, the kind of services held in them, and the earnestness, homeliness, humanity, and appropriateness of the illustrations of the preachers who discourse at them, have beyond question, great attractions for the class of our Metropolitan inhabitants just mentioned. It calls for no surprise to find gigantic temporary structures of this kind erected amidst the uncultivated and populous "East" for the purposes of religious worship, but we hardly expect to find their tapering canvas roofs amidst the luxury of the "West."

But in these days of change, and strange things, we are not easily surprised, and consequently we passed by gospel tents at Kilburn and Kentish Town without expressing much wonder. Having a desire to see how the un-church and un-chapel going population of this mighty metropolis spent their Sunday out doors, we strolled to the classic ground of Chelsea and found ourselves on the north side of the bridge. This spot has been for several years the scene of rather unclassical and disorderly debates, and open air preaching. This arena of intellectual life was rather dull on this occasion; there was only the ordinary open air service and a few groups of the usual unintelligent and sceptical wranglers. Seeing nothing worthy in what we witnessed to detain us at this place, we strolled over the bridge, towards the canvas cathedral, which has lately been erected there. Having reached the middle of the bridge, the floating banners in the distance clearly indicate the locality where this place of public worship rears its canvas walls, and as we approach nearer we find the well known words "God is Love" neatly inscribed on one of them. At this portion of the road our attention is arrested by a few of the church-going population outside the entrance to Battersea Park, gathered round some open air preachers. At last we reach the south-eastern gate of Battersea Park, opposite which is the front of the canvas cathedral a substantial tent, capable of holding about 300 people. (The tent will seat 200). We were very much surprised to find at one of the entrances a well-executed and coloured diagram of the famous Babylonish temple of the Seven Spheres. We saw from the crowded nature of the audience that the service on this occasion was a very special one, for not only was the tent full but large groups of people surrounded the entrances. A small bill informed us that Mr. G. M. Turpin, a gentleman in connexion with the Christian Evidence Society, was to preach this evening on Modern Discoveries and the Bible, illustrated with diagrams. As we entered the interior of the cathedral, we noticed hung behind the preacher a number of nicely drawn and strikingly coloured diagrams representing views of Nineveh, Babylon, Nimroud, slabs discovered in their ruined palaces, a page of the annals of an Assyrian monarch, representations of a besieged city, and a copy of the Moabite stone.

The service was very simple in its character. It consisted of a few devout extempore prayers, reading a portion of Scripture, and the singing (accompanied with an harmonium) of some of Sankey's hymns. As may be imagined, our curiosity was excited as to how the preacher could make a sermon containing anything spiritual profitable to his hearers out of the pictures behind him. The portion of Scripture selected for his text only stimulated our curiosity[Pg 93] for it was the beautiful words of our Lord contained in John c. 17 v. 17, "Sanctify them through thy truth; Thy word is truth." One felt inclined to say "Sanctification and pictures; a great deal of sanctification the preacher will get out of them for his audience." No sooner, however, has the preacher got into his introduction than the connection between his diagrams and his text is clearly apparent, for he was evidently going to talk about the truth of God's word as contained in the Bible. The text was divided into two parts; first the assertion that God's word was truth; secondly, the instrument of His people's sanctification. In treating of the first division of his discourse the preacher gave forth some very clear ideas on some of the most difficult topics, for revelation, the instrument through which it ought to come and the form by which it was to be transmitted to humanity in after ages, were all noticed, and men as the media, and the book as the written record, and not oral tradition, were shown to manifest the wisdom and condescension of God. "The Christian Church," said the preacher, claims that in the Bible they have a revelation of God's will, and the sublime idea of God in the possession of the Jews plainly proved that it came from God's own revelation. But objectors exist, and modern doubt cast suspicion on the sacred records. What then is the voice of modern discoveries? Is it for or against the credibility of the sacred record? In favour of reposing trust in its statements, for modern science and discovery and exploration have proved the truth of all the historical and geographical details of the Bible, removed many of its historical difficulties, and by its identification of sites of cities which were the subject of prediction, proved its fulfilment and thus borne testimony to the supernatural in the Bible. These propositions were supported by a vast array of facts drawn from the traditions of mankind, the newly-discovered palaces and libraries of Assyria, and the scholar's translation of its clay and stone records.

When the preacher treated the second portion of his theme, the intensely practical nature of his mind was clearly shewn in the way in which while asserting God's truth to be the instrument of the sanctification, he appealed to all present in a most solemn manner to put the important question—"Were they sanctified?" "If you are not you will never tread the golden streets of the New Jerusalem, but while your friends are passing in you will be shut out." Mr. Turpin evidently had the whole of his audience in his mind, for at the end of his discourse he pressed home on the juvenile portion of his audience the beauty of early piety by a contrast between the dying chimney-sweep and Lord Byron in which the character of the sweep shone to the disadvantage of the celebrated poet. Another hymn and prayer closed the interesting canvas cathedral service. Those present, both old and young, evidently enjoyed the service, for they listened with breathless attention for the 100 minutes which the preacher had occupied in delivering his glowing discourse. A brief prayer meeting closed this instructive Sunday evening, which if we may judge from the expressions of some of the audience, will not soon be forgotten. As we retired we felt that many such canvas cathedrals, with able preachers and hearty singing, would lay hold of large numbers of those who are at present outside ordinary religious influences.

[Pg 94]

The tent was purchased expressly for this object by Basil Wood Smith, Esq., a warm and devoted friend of the working classes and who is a member at present of the Parent Committee of the London City Mission. The tent was originally erected on the triangular piece of ground outside the south-eastern gate of Battersea Park before the roads were completed, with the sanction of Lord John Manners when his Lordship was in office as Chief Commissioner.

Among other respectable firms in the building trade within the Parish may be mentioned the firm of Messrs. Lathey Brothers, Builders, 1, St. George's Road, New Road. Messrs. Lathey Brothers were the builders of St. George's Vicarage House, Christ Church Schools and Residences, Infant School in Orkney Street, St. Saviour's Church, the enlargement of St. George's Church, and the enlargement of St. George's National Schools. Also a Mortuary built in 1876 in the Churchyard of St. Mary's from designs by Mr. W. White, Architect, and the re-interment of all coffins, 1875, in the vaults or crypt under the church 424 in all. Some of these coffins were brought here from St. Bartholomew's Church, Royal Exchange, in the city of London, in 1840. A Record was made of the Inscriptions on all the coffins which were re-interred. This document, which is in the possession of Messrs. Lathey Bros., would form an interesting Obituary if published.

The H.P. Horse Nail Company's (Limited) Factory, New Road, has at present machinery capable of turning out one million nails per day. With the exception of a few mechanics most of the employés are young women. Of late years horse nails have become an important branch of industry and a leading article in trade, the consumption, indeed, being very large; and when it is considered that each horse has in its four hoofs 28 or 30 nails, and that these nails are wearing out all day and all night, and require renewing about every month, and that in Great Britain and Ireland there are at the present time not less than 3,000,000 horses, representing a demand exceeding a thousand million nails per annum the trade is entitled to rank with others in importance and influence. Mr. J. A. Huggett, the inventor of the Patent Machinery employed at this factory for the manufacture of horse nails, has hit the right nail on the head, the quality of the nails having met with the general approval of veterinary surgeons, farriers, and ironmongers. The quality of the iron of which the nails are manufactured has its perfection attributed to three causes:—First, it is the best Swedish charcoal iron; secondly, it is heated in the Siemens furnace; and lastly, which certainly is not the least important, it passes through a rolling-mill worked by steam power, each roller weighs about ten cwt.—Manager, Charles Moser, Esq.

Hugh Wallace's Vitriol Works were situated in the New Road; Schofield and Co.'s Steam Saw-Mills and Stone Works, Stewart's Lane. The saw frames are worked by fly wheels and connecting shafts so constructed that the frame is always level be it ever so high a block sawing; this is done by lengthening or shortening the shaft. By some persons the frames are considered the easiest working ones in London. The moulding machines are by Hunter, Queen's Road, Battersea, specially adapted for string courses and steps. About eighty men and boys are employed at these works.

[Pg 95]

ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, Battersea—The following particulars respecting this Church may not be uninteresting. The living is a vicarage of the yearly value of £240 with residence in the gift of Trustees.

The Chapel-of-Ease, as St. George's was called, in Battersea Fields, was built partly by a rate and partly by grant from the[Pg 96] Parliamentary Commissioners at a cost of £2,819; it is a neat building in the style of English architecture, by Edward Blore, Esq., Architect. Its erection began September 18, 1827. It was consecrated August 5th, 1828, by Dr. Sumner, Lord Bishop of Winchester, and the first church his Lordship consecrated in his diocese. The Rev. J. G. Weddell was the first clergyman appointed. He held the living twenty-five years: died June, 1852. Within this hallowed sanctuary the venerable, esteemed and truly honoured servant of Christ the Rev. John Garwood, late Secretary of the London City Mission, laboured as curate in charge for nine years previous to Mr. Weddell's death. The Rev. H. B. Poer was appointed in 1852. It was made a District Church in 1853. The churchyard was closed as a burial ground in 1858. The Rev. E. S. Goodhart was appointed in 1859: he remained ten months. The Rev. Burman Cassin was appointed in 1860: he resigned and was instituted at St. Paul's, Bolton, 1872: he preached his last (valedictory) sermon December 31, 1872, at a watch-night service.

The Rev. John Callis was appointed January, 1873. During his time the Church underwent alterations. These were begun August 24, 1874, when the side galleries were removed and the church enlarged by the addition of two aisles at the cost of £1,700. The church will accommodate 800. The church was re-opened by the Right Reverend Harold Browne, Lord Bishop of Winchester, November 21st, 1874, at 4 o'clock p.m. The Rev. John Callis left for South Heigham, Norwich, July, 1875.

The Rev. Thomas Lander, M.A., now holds the living, he was appointed August, 1875. The Rev. T. Kirk ordained and appointed Curate to St. George's, September 24th, 1876. Previously to his ordination he had laboured for twenty-six years in connection with the London City Mission, and was much beloved and respected in the district among the people to whom he has been and still is so much blessed.

The population of the Ecclesiastical parish in 1871 was 16,172.[1] The register dates from the year 1858. The area is 443 acres.—John Gwynn, Samuel Lathey, Churchwardens.

[Pg 97]

"I love her gates, I love the road;
The church adorned with grace
Stands like a palace built for God
To show his milder face."—Watts.

At the east end of the interior and south of the pulpit a white marble tablet mounted on a dark marble slab has recently been erected. Within a wreath of virgin marble most artistically executed is the following epitaph engraved. "In memory of Elizabeth Maria Graham, of Clapham Common, died December 14, 1874, aged 79, through whose devoted and indefatigable labours this Church, the Vicarage, and Mission-room were built and the St. George's Schools were founded. 'The love of Christ constraineth us.'—2nd Cor. v. 14. 'The harvest truly is great but the labourers are few, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest.'"—Luke x. 2.

"They that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."—Malachi iii. 16-17.

In St. George's Churchyard the ground has been levelled and the hillocks have disappeared to make it resemble more a garden or field with flat grassy surface studded here and there with shrubberies than a receptacle of the dead, there are however some "sacred memorial," a few grave stones etc., which indicate to the passer-by that this was formerly used as a place of interment. We will just pause to read some of the inscriptions. At the east-end of the churchyard is the vault of the Rev. John Grenside Weddell, twenty-five years pastor of this flock, who died the 23d of July, 1852, aged 75 years.

"I have sinned but Christ hath died."

Also in the same vault are the remains of Caroline the beloved wife of the Rev. J. G. Weddell, who died the 22nd of December 1839, aged 64 years.

"Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."—Hebrews xiii. 7.

A few yards from this spot a head-stone is erected "Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Ann Puttick of Nine Elms, who departed this life Oct. 5th, 1855, aged 64 years. Also of Henry her beloved husband, interred at the Cemetery, Battersea. 'Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight.'"

Here is a vault sacred to the memory of Leonora the wife of John Charles McMullens, Esq., of Lavender Hill, in this parish, who died 24th June, 1813, aged 35 years. The epitaph states,

"Faithful and meek she bore the will
Of Him who to a troubled sea,
In powerful words said 'peace be still,'
My grace sufficient is for thee."

Also that of her husband, J. C. McMullens, Esq., who died 30th September, 1855.

On the west-side of the gravel walk leading to the entrance of the church a stone slab covers the grave of all that was of Louisa,[Pg 98] wife of Mr. J. A. Michell of this parish, who died in child-bed on the 24th November, 1834; aged 23 years.

Far, far remote from objects dear,
A virtuous wife here rests;
Who ever studied while on earth,
To comfort and caress.
Her husband, and her parents dear,
Now mourn departed worth,
Affections was her constant theme,
While she had breath on earth.
In child-birth first her troubles rose,
Her babe on earth abides;
Extreme her grief, extreme her pain,
Delivered, and she died.
Her husband now consoles himself
With hopes not found in vain,
That as her happy soul's at rest,
His loss will be her gain.

Also of Sarah Gywnn, wife of James Gywnn, who died May 28, 1850, aged 67. And also of James Gywnn, who died January 28, 1851, aged 77.

Hard by is another grave-stone sacred to the memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart, widow of the late Lieut. James Stewart, R.N., who departed this life on the 10th of —— aged 60 years. The letters on this slab are so eaten away by the tooth of time that we could not decipher the date.

A head-stone marks the grave of Margaret Young, who died August 13th, 1855, aged 58 years. Added to this inscription are the words:

"For now shall I sleep in the dust;
And thou shalt seek me in the morning,
But I shall not be."—The book of Job vii. 21.

The epitaph on another slab is as follows: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord"—so died on the 24th of May, 1829, aged 56 years—Mary, the beloved wife of B. Jonathan Broad, late Chief Secretary at the Rolls. Also beneath this stone are deposited Barber Jonathan Broad, Esq., many years an inhabitant of this parish, who died the 10th of July, 1831, aged 61 years.

On another grave-stone is an inscription sacred to the memory of Alice Buckney, daughter of Thomas and Charlotte Buckney, of this parish, who died 9th August, 1830, aged 16 days.

Against the west wall in the rear of the houses in Ceylon Street is a head-stone erected sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Dicker, the beloved wife of Job Dicker, who departed this life May 6th, 1858, in the 55th year of her age. At the bottom of this epitaph are inscribed the lines so familiar to us and which all have seen in many a churchyard:

Afflictions sore long time I bore;
Doctors were in vain!
Death and disease—and God did please
To ease me of my pain.
[Pg 99]
Weep not for me, my children dear,
Nor shed for me a single tear:
In heaven I hope we all shall meet,
Then all our joys will be complete.

Here is a stone in memory of Richard, third son of Henry Roston and Amelia Bowker, who died Sept. 18th, 1849, aged 6 years. His dying words were: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." Also Elizabeth, who died Sept. 23rd, 1849, aged 1 year 3 months. Also Alfred, who died Oct. 18, 1849, aged 4 years. Also Mr. Henry Roston Bowker, father of the above children, who died July 23rd, 1852, aged 40 years. Also at the foot of this grave lie the remains of Mr. William Robbins, grandfather to the above children, who departed this life July 1st, 1858, aged 71 years. "Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."

Near the wall at the south-side of the burial ground stands a solitary head-stone sacred to the memory of Sarah Fisher, relict of Jonathan Roundell Fisher, late of Cumberland and Otley, Yorkshire, who departed this life 17th September, 1854, aged 67. The memory of the just is blessed.

Near the entrance to the church at the south-side stands a plain head-stone with no adornment, sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Clunie, during 40 years the beloved friend of Mrs. Graham's family, of Clapham Common. Born at Hull, August 29th, 1793. Died at Clapham Common June 22nd, 1853. Carefully trained by pious parents and by faith engrafted in youth into Christ the living vine. She brought forth throughout her whole life the precious fruits which spring from that all important union, and abiding in Him her end was peace.

Scripture Readers, Mr. F. Vellenoweth, 62, St. George's Road; Mr. C. Brooks, 9, St. George's Road; City Missionary, Mr. H. Langston; London Mission Bible Woman, Miss Hulbert, 1, Ceylon Street.

CHRIST CHURCH is a composition of the early Lancet style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles and north and south transepts, with tower and spire built of Kentish rag and Bath stone, raised by subscriptions at a cost of £5,556, with sittings for 900. Interiorly it has two small galleries. It was designed by Mr. Charles Lee, and repaired, decorated and re-heated under the superintendence of Mr. E. C. Robins. The first stone of this elegant church was laid by the Bishop of Sodor and Man, on May the 27th, 1847. The living is a vicarage in the gift of the Vicar of St. Mary's. The income is derived from the pew rents. The area is 408 acres and the population of the Ecclesiastical parish in 1871 was 18,720. The Rev. Samuel Bardsley was the first Vicar of Christ Church but not the first minister. For some years it was a Chapel-of-Ease and was supplied by the Vicar of the Mother Church. The Rev. Samuel Bardsley was there from 1861 to 1867. The schools, the Vicarage, and the school in Orkney Street were built during his time. He resigned the living to become Rector of Spitalfields, and was succeeded by the Rev. Edward Cumming Ince, M.A., of Jesus College, Cambridge. In May, 1877, Mr. Ince resigned having suffered from enfeebled health, amid the painful[Pg 100] regrets of his beloved flock, who for ten years had listened to his thorough evangelical discourses and had profited so much under his faithful ministry.

The Rev. Stopford Ram, M.A., Secretary of the Church of England Temperance Society, Instituted (Hospital Sunday) June 17th, 1877, left on account of ill health, July, 1880, and died at Bournemouth, May 22nd, 1881, and buried on Ascension day.

"There remaineth, therefore, a rest for the people of God."

He has gone to his rest, like the bright summer sun
As it sinks in the west when its day's work is done,
But only to leave us a little while here,
To shine in another and far distant sphere.

He has gone to his rest—the journey is o'er,
And safely he lands on that bright, blissful shore,
Where banished for ever is sorrow and pain,
'Mid the harps that are tuned to a holier strain.

He has gone to his rest—no longer to roam,
The Master has called His dear labourer home;
Triumphant he enters the mansions of bliss,
And welcomes the change from a world such as this.

He has gone to his rest—the race has been run,
And vict'ry accomplished through Jesus the Son.
Unwearied by conflict, he knew no defeat;
His trophies are laid at our Great Captain's feet.

He has gone to his rest—we shall miss the dear voice
Which so often on earth made our spirits rejoice.
Yet mourn we? Ah, no! If in Jesus we reign
To-morrow we all shall be meeting again.

He has gone to his rest—that sweet Zion to share
With some of his flock awaiting him there;
Like him let us labour, the right to uphold;
Brave, patient, enduring, true-hearted, and bold.
Alfred Sargant.

The Rev. H. Guildford Sprigg, M.A., the present Vicar, commenced his duties, September, 1880.

"Holy, holy, holy: Lord God of Sabaoth.
Heaven and earth are full: Of the majesty of thy glory.
The glorious company of the apostles: Praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the prophets: Praise thee.
The noble army of martyrs: Praise thee.
The holy church throughout all the world: Doth acknowledge thee."
—Te Deum laudamus.

"Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before his presence with singing."—Psalm c. 2.

Mr. Lowres, of Plough Lane, an energetic City Missionary, has laboured in Christ Church district for nearly twelve years, and his local Superintendents were the Rev. S. Bardsley and the Rev. E. C. Ince.

Mr. Warren, in an adjoining district, is another devoted Missionary.

[Pg 101]

[Pg 102]

ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, Usk Road, was completed from the designs of Mr. E. C. Robins, selected in competition. It is a remarkably inexpensive church. It provides accommodation for about 750 persons at a cost of £4 10s. per head. The church received a grant from the Incorporative Society for Building Churches upon one-third of the sittings being made free. It is designed in the early English style, with nave, north and south aisles and apsidal chancel, a small western gallery and two bell turrets. Messrs. Sharpington and Cole were the builders, who executed the work for the sum of £3,300. (St. John's Parsonage was built by the same architect). The foundation stone of St. John's was laid August 6, 1862. The consecration and opening took place May 5th, 1863. The living is a Vicarage in the gift of the Vicar of St. Mary's. The area is 157 acres, and the population of the Ecclesiastical parish in 1871 was 7,839. The district assigned to the church was formed out of the parishes of St. Mary's Battersea, and St. Anne, Wandsworth, by an Order of Council bearing date July 27, 1863—(the register dates from this period). The new parish was legally constituted and named the Consolidated Chapelry of St. John, Battersea. The first Vicar of the new parish was the Rev. Edwin Thompson, D.D., who from beginning his work with services in a room in Price's Candle Factory, afterwards, lived to be instrumental in building the two Churches of St. John and St. Paul, together with the Schools in Usk Road, erected 1866, and Parsonage House, Wandsworth Common; a noble monument of his untiring energy and zeal. He died suddenly February 2nd, 1876, aged 51 years. The present Vicar of St. John's is the Rev. William John Mills Ellison, M.A., Wadham College, Oxford.

The windows in the chancel representing John the Baptist, St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. John; the last supper and the ascension to the glory of God, and in memory of Daniel Watney, departed March 16, 1874, aged 74, are erected by his son John Watney.

On the south side of the church the Memorial Windows representing David and Samuel to the glory of God, and in memory of W. H. Hatcher, at rest August 2nd, 1879, aged 58. Erected by Friends and Sunday Scholars. "Their works do follow them."—Rev. xiv. 13.

On the north side the Memorial Windows representing St. Paul and St. Barnabas, in loving memory of a dear mother, Martha Colden, who died August 25, 1880. Erected by her only child M. A. B. S. Estimated cost of each window £15 15s. Guard and fixing to each £2 2s.

"Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."—Psalm c. 3.

ST. PAUL'S situated on St. John's Hill, is a Chapel-of-Ease to St. Mary's Battersea, designed by Mr. Coe for the late Rev. Dr. Thompson. It is a stone structure consisting of chancel, apsidal, nave, aisles and tower with spire. It was built at a cost of about £6,300.

"Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God."—Psalm xvii. 13.

[Pg 103]

ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH, Queen's Road, is a Gothic stone building consisting of chancel, nave, aisles and transept with tower, built from the designs of Mr. James Knowles, Junr., at a cost of £13,000. A considerable portion of this sum was given by P. W. Flower, Esq., the remainder was raised by public subscriptions. The church will accommodate nearly 1,000 persons. The living is a Vicarage, yearly value £200, in the gift of the Bishop of Winchester, and held by the Rev. John Hall.

A Mission in connection with the Bishop of Winchester's Fund was commenced in the month of June, 1869, in a house lent by the proprietor for the purpose, in Queen's Road, Battersea Fields. Services and Parochial Institutions were then established, which have become the foundation of those now in active operation.

On July 13th, 1870, the New Church of St. Philip was finished, and consecrated by Dr. Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of the diocese, and who also held his Trinity Ordination at the Church of St. Philip the year before he died.[1] On May 16th, 1871, a District formed out of the Parishes of St. Mary, St. George, and Christ Church, Battersea was attached to the Church, and published in the "London Gazette." On the 6th July, 1871, an Endowment of £200 per annum, which had been promised by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, was legally secured to the Cure of St. Philip, and published in the "London Gazette" on the 26th of the same month. The payments were to date from the day on which the District was assigned (viz., May 16th, 1871), and the first payment was to be made on November 1st, 1871. The seats are free and the expenses of the church have to be defrayed by the weekly offertory.

A New Organ has been built by Messrs. Hill and Son and placed in the north chancel aisle; the cost with the platform is £516 1s. 11d. If, when the Church of St. Philip was erected, the original design of having a lofty spire with flying buttresses had been carried out, St. Philip's Church would have been the most magnificent Ecclesiastical structure in Battersea.—Churchwardens, W. G. Baker, A. W. Wilkinson.

"They continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayer."—Acts ii. 42.

"Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors."—Proverbs viii. 34.

We'll crowd Thy gates with thankful songs,
High as the heavens our voices raise;
And earth with her ten thousand tongues
Shall fill Thy courts with sounding praise.
Wide as the world is Thy command,
Vast as eternity Thy love;
Firm as a rock Thy truth must stand,
When rolling years shall cease to move.—Watts.

The construction of Queen's Road, etc., on Park-town, Battersea Estate, cost Mr. Flower about £3,000.—C. Merrett, Clerk of the Works for the Estate.

A New Railway Station has been erected in the Queen's Road, on the South-Western Line.

[Pg 104]

ST. MARK'S, Battersea Rise, is a Gothic building, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, transept with porch, and western vestibule and handsome crypt. The corner-stone was laid by the Right Rev. Dr. Harold Browne, Bishop of Winchester, November 11th, 1873, and it was dedicated by his Lordship September 30th, 1874. The Architect is Mr. William White, F.S.A., and the total cost has been £6,500. It is seated for 600, with backs and kneelers throughout. Mr. T. Gregory, of Battersea, builder. The living is a Vicarage, in the gift of the Vicar of St. Mary's.

"The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all."—-Proverbs xxii. 2.

The dedication festival of this church, in which the late Philip Cazenove took so warm an interest, was agreeably marked by the placing of a stained window of two lights, representing St. Philip and St. James, in the north transept. The name of Mr. Cazenove is inscribed on the tablet of a glass mosaic, set in alabaster, and sunk in the brick-work of the wall beneath the window. The[Pg 105] tablet is a material much used for church purposes by the executants, Messrs. Powell, Whitefriars, and called "opus sectile." The design is simple and chaste, as befitted one whose unostentatiousness was one of his leading characteristics. The window was placed in the transept by his two daughters.—South London Press, May 15th, 1880.

ST. LUKE'S CHAPEL-OF-EASE, Nightingale Lane, is a pretty Iron Church, originally erected on Battersea Rise in 1868, was moved in September, 1873, to the adjacent plot, and used by the congregation while St. Mark's was being built. On November 14, 1874, having been once more removed to its present site it was dedicated anew in the name of St. Luke by the Bishop of Guildford.

"O come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker."—Psalm xcv. 6.

ST. MATTHEW'S, Rush-hill Road, Lavender Hill, is a Chapel of Ease to St. Mary's, it is built in the Early English Style of[Pg 106] Architecture, has vaulted roof and sacristy, seats 550, and cost about £3,000. Mr. W. White, F.S.A., Architect; Mr. W. H. Williams, Builder. The Dedication Service was conducted by the Right Reverend J. S. Utterton, D.D., Bishop Suffragan of Guildford, on Saturday, 28th of April, 1877, at 3 p.m. The Rev. W. B. Buckwell is the Officiating Minister.

"Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they shall be still praising thee."—Psalm lxxxiv. 4.

ST. SAVIOUR'S CHURCH, Lower Wandsworth Road, now called Battersea Park Road, erected by Messrs. Lathey Brothers at a cost of £4,000 from the designs of Mr. E. C. Robins. It accommodates 700 persons and is designed in the early French Gothic style faced with Kentish rag and Bath stone dressings. It consists of a nave with clerestory, north and south aisles and rectangular chancel with small western gallery over the entrance lobby. There is a bell turret at the east end. The chancel has been decorated in color by Messrs. Heaton and Butler. The glazing is of cathedral glass. The living is a vicarage in the gift of the trustees. The population of the district is about 11,500. The foundation stone was laid by H. S. Thornton, Esq., January 4th, 1870. The consecration of the church on the 19th October, 1871, by the late Samuel Wilberforce, D.D., Lord Bishop of Winchester. The offertory amounted to the sum of £40, which was added to the Church Building Fund. The Petition to consecrate was read by the Rev. C. E. Ince, Vicar of Christ Church, Battersea, and the deed of conveyance was presented to the Bishop by W. Evill, Esq., one of the most generous and zealous friends of the undertaking. The litany was read by the[Pg 107] Rev. J. MacCarthy. At the evening service an appropriate sermon was preached by the Rev. E. C. Ince, and at the opening services on Sunday, the 22nd, the morning sermon was preached by the Rev. J. MacCarthy, and that in the evening by the Rev. E. Daniel. The Rev. J. MacCarthy was the first Vicar.

The institution of the present Vicar, the Rev. Samuel Gilbert Scott, M.A., Magdalen College, Oxford, took place on Sunday, April the 29th, 1877. The Bishop of Guildford instituted the Vicar after the Nicene Creed. At the close of the sermon the Bishop celebrated Holy Communion; there were 55 communicants. The offertory on the day amounted to nearly eight pounds. Curate, the Rev. W. J. Harkness, B.A., Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Churchwardens, John Elmslie, John Merry. Lay Readers, with Episcopal sanction, Mr. Hussey, 32, Chatham Street; Mr. Hann, 2, Millgrove Street. Mission Women, Mrs. Wootton, 23, Warsill Street; Mrs. Collins, 5, Chatham Street.

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name for the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."—Psalms c. 4-5.

Mr. Crosby, a Missionary in this district, held Evangelistic Services at a Mission Hall in Arthur Street, Battersea Park Road.

ST. PETER'S CHURCH, Plough Lane, is a beautiful Gothic structure built of red brick, with chancel, nave, aisles, and lofty tower with spire pointing like a finger to the sky as if to remind man that when the Saturday night of this world shall arrive and earth's trials are o'er "there remaineth a rest for the people of God."—Hebrews iv. 9.

In the tower are four illuminated dials, by Messrs. Gillett & Bland of Croydon. The Church has sittings for about 820. The top-stone of the spire of St. Peter's Church was laid about 5 p.m., on the 24th of April, 1876, by Mr. Toone, in the presence of Mr. White the Architect, Mr. Carter the Builder, Mr. Williams the Clerk of the Works, and a few others, with the formula "In the faith of Jesus Christ and to the glory of His Holy Name we lay the top-stone of this spire of St. Peter's Church, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." A crowd of well-wishers below watched the ceremony with interest. The corner-stone of this church was laid by the Bishop of Winchester, on St. Peter's Day of 1875, and on the same festival, June 29th, 1876, it was Consecrated by the same prelate. At the Consecration Service the Bishop of Guildford read the Gospel, the Rev. S. Cooper Scott the Epistle, and the Bishop of the Diocese preached the Sermon from the words of the Gospel "Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church." There were 120 communicants. The Bishop of Guildford preached in the evening to an overflowing congregation.

The interior of St. Peter's Church is spacious. The rich carving of the capitals has been executed by Mr. Harry Hems, of Exeter, as also the pulpit and font. The pulpit is of stone with alabaster figures introduced in the panels representing St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, Isaiah, King Solomon, Moses and Noah. The bowl of the font is also of alabaster supported by angels carved in the same[Pg 108] material. The pavement is beautifully tessellated and has several scriptural illustrations. The seats are fixed—these and all the internal wood-work are varnished. The cost of erection was about £10,500. The belfry at present contains one bell only, a tenor of six, it cost £120, and cast with the words on it, "When I do call, come serve God all!" It was rung on St. Peter's day, 1876. The Register dates from 1876. The living is a Vicarage, in the gift of the Vicar of St. Mary, and held by the Rev. John Toone, B.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge.

"I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces."—Psalm cxxix. 1-7.

St. Peter's Temporary Church and School-room was completed in 1874, at a cost of £1,200. St. Peter's Vicarage was formerly the residence of Mr. Burney.

TEMPORARY CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION, Lavender Hill.—A permanent church adjacent is now in course of erection, and being raised by voluntary contributions. The Rev. J. B. Wilkinson is the Officiating Minister. The foundation stone of this church was laid by the Earl of Glasgow, 1st of June, 1876. This structure is being built of Bath stone and red bricks, and is groined throughout with stone ribs and brick panels. The foundation stone is situated under the "altar." James Brooks, Architect, 35, Wellington Street, Strand; Mr. Chessam, Builder, Shoreditch.

"A day in thy courts is better than a thousand; I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness."—Psalm lxxxiv. 10.

ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, Chatham Road, Bolingbroke Grove, Wandsworth Common—the Memorial to the Rev. H. B. Verdon and Mr. Philip Cazenove, the eminent and successful merchant. The Temporary Iron Mission Church which for the last nine years had been used as a Chapel-of-Ease to the Mother Church of St. Mary, Battersea, and the site on which the present edifice is erected were the gifts of the latter gentleman. Henry Boutflower Verdon was born December 8, 1846. Himself the son of an excellent clergyman was educated at the Clergy Orphan School, Canterbury, from which he went to Jesus College, Cambridge, as Rustat Scholar and took his degree in 1868. After a period of study at Cuddensdon Theological College he began clerical work as a curate under the Rev. Aubrey Price, M.A., Vicar of St. James', Clapham, where the poor speak in affectionate terms of his memory. In the Spring of 1872 he became curate of Battersea, a few weeks after the appointment of the present Vicar. From the first Mr. Verdon took special interest in the district known as Chatham Road, Bolingbroke Grove, and the residents there were very much attached to him. The Sunday evening services and Sunday Schools held in St. Michael's Chapel were objects of his unremitting care. He acted as the Secretary of the Committee during the time St. Mark's Church was being built. He was an active member of the Charitable Organization Committee—he promoted the work of the Royal Society for the Prevention of[Pg 109] Cruelty to Animals and established a mission Branch in Battersea. His marriage in January, 1879, to Miss Wheeler, was the cause of much congratulation; but before the expiration of many months this conjugal relationship was to be severed. Had he lived the Incumbency of St. Mark's Church would have been transferred to him. He died of a rapid consumption October 10, 1879.

The two Memorial Stones were laid in the Chancel of the Church (which is now completed) by the Archbishop of Canterbury. "The Archbishop after tapping them with the mallet saying at each 'In the faith of Jesus Christ we place this stone for a memorial of thy faithful servant whose name is written thereon and in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,' and the choir chanting Amen. The stone on the south side of the chancel bore the inscription carved in antique on a gilt ground, 'Henry Boutflower Verdon, M.A., Æt. 33 obt. X. Oct. A.D. 1879,' and that on the north side, the words, 'In mema. grata Philip Cazenove, Æt. 81 obt. XX. Jan. A.D. 1880.' After laying the stones the Archbishop delivered a short address in the course of which he said that the two servants of God whose names were on the memorial stones worked hand in hand together for good though separated from each other by fifty years of life; one dying almost in his prime and the other living on to a long old age but each dedicated to the service of God, one ministering in the sanctuary and daily officiating in the house of God, the other taking part during a long life in the trade and exchange of this great city, busy with the arrangements by which human industry is promoted. Both different yet wonderfully alike, and both judicious servants bearing the stamp of their heavenly Master and serving Him bravely, faithfully and laboriously. Let them be thankful that this space of fifty made no difference in the two men. As we got old we began to think that wisdom and goodness were with the old only, but he thanked God that in His Church there never had failed and never would fail a succession of faithful servants century after century to carry on the work which the Lord loves and which will make the world at last ready for His second coming. The name on the one stone might be little known beyond his own neighbourhood or the name of the other beyond the city of London, but they were known to their heavenly Master whom they served faithfully, and in His book are the names of both written. The memory of the young man whose name was on the one stone would linger long among those whom he loved and the poor and the sick to whom he had endeared himself and for whom he faithfully laboured, but for the speaker his thoughts and friendship were with the old man whose name was on the other stone. Five and twenty years ago when the speaker entered on the laborious work of the See of London, the first to welcome and assist him was Mr. Cazenove. He belonged to the noble band who helped Bishop Bloomfield from the very first. Those five and twenty years had been as laboriously spent in doing good as the years that had gone before. When those men first entered on the work how different was this suburb of London to what it is now. Great wars had absorbed the attention of men, and a large population had grown up before people knew it, and before men had thought of the duty of meeting the spiritual wants of the[Pg 110] new suburbs. If it had not been for the noble band who gathered round Bishop Bloomfield what a different account would have had to be rendered now. Let us trust and believe that when all of us have passed away it will be found that God has raised up a succession of faithful servants; men of every business and profession who will still regard the profession of Jesus Christ as the most noble of all, for no profession was more noble than the service of the Heavenly King. Let us trust that with dangers around us the spirit of vigorous Christianity may continue to be triumphant as it had been in so many instances already. Let us trust to the good work begun and carried forward during the last fifty years will flourish with God's blessing for many years to come."

"The new church is a plain Gothic structure built of red and stock bricks, and is 90 feet long by 70 feet wide. It consists of a nave, chancel, and two aisles, surmounted with a timber roof of three spans covered with red tiles. There are two entrances, one in Chatham Road and the other in Darley Road; the former surmounted by a figure of St. Michael in conflict with the serpent. There is also a small tower containing a bell weighing 2 cwt. There is a commodious crypt beneath the chancel. The latter contains three rows of stalls for the clergy and choir, and is lighted by six small windows of stained glass, in each of which there is an angel exquisitely executed from the Studio of Messrs. Lavers, Barraud and Westlake. It is also intended to place a reredos of white marble here. The altar is approached from the nave by nine steps. The nave communicates with the aisles by large Gothic arches supported on octagonal pillars of 'granolith'—a material composed of granite chips and Portland cement. The floor is of blocks of wood and the building is 'pewed' with open benches to accommodate about 750 worshippers. The pulpit (a memorial gift by Mr. Verdon's widow) is of carved oak with a base of Caen stone, and is reached by a short flight of stone steps. Behind the pulpit in the south aisle is the organ, which has been brought from St. Luke's church, Derby, and was built by Mr. Abbott of Leeds. At the west end of the church is a font (which is in memory of a loved grandchild of Mr. Cazenove) of veined marble supported by nine columns of polished granite and Caen stone. It is surmounted by a polished oak cover and is a gift 'to the glory of God and the memory of Philip Henry Hessey.' The church is warmed with hot air. It has been erected by Mr. J. D. Hobson, from the designs of Mr. White, F.S.A. The total cost is £4500, which (with the exception of £800 unpaid at the commencement of the dedication services) had all been contributed by the relatives and friends of the late H. B. Verdon and Philip Cazenove. The church is provided with prayer books, hymn books, and kneelers throughout."

The Dedication of St. Michael's Church was on September, 10, 1881, by the Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of Rochester—the service commenced at 11.30 a.m.

Lord of hosts, to thee we raise
Here a house of prayer and praise!
Thou thy people's hearts prepare
Here to meet for praise and prayer.
[Pg 111]
O King of glory come,
And with thy favour crown
This temple as thy dome,
This people as thy own!
Beneath this roof, O deign to show,
How God can dwell with men below.

Here may thine ears attend
Our interceding cries,
And grateful praise ascend,
All fragrant to the skies!
Here may thy word melodious sound,
And spread celestial joys around!

Here may thy future sons
And daughters sound thy praise,
And shine like polish'd stones,
Through long succeeding days!
Here Lord, display thy sov'reign power,
While temples stand, and men adore!

ALL SAINTS' TEMPORARY IRON CHURCH, is situated in Victoria Bridge Road, near the south-eastern gate of Battersea Park. It will accommodate 200 persons. All seats free and unappropriated. It was opened for Divine Service Saturday, Sept. 6th, 1879, at 3.30 p.m. The Rev. Canon Clarke, Vicar of Battersea, and Rural Dean, preached the first sermon. His text was:—"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his."—II. Timothy ii. 19. An income of £200 a year from the Rochester Diocesan Fund has been granted to the clergyman of the district, the Rev. A. E. Bourne, formerly Curate of St. Peter's, Battersea. The new provisional district of "All Saints," Battersea, has been formed out of three parishes, viz., St. Mary's, St. Saviour's and St. George's, to meet the requirements of the rapidly increasing population of the neighbourhood. Roughly speaking the boundaries of the new district are the London, Chatham and Dover Railway from the river to the London and South Western Railway, along the London and South Western Railway to Park Grove; down Park Grove, across the open land to the Park round the north corner. The only exceptions are the streets between Queen's Road and Russell Street which remain part of St. Philip's parish.

"God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of His saints and to be had in reverence by all them that are about Him."

Let us then with gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind;
For His mercies shall endure
Ever faithful, ever sure.

ROCHESTER DIOCESAN MISSION, St. James', Nine Elms. Clergyman in charge, Rev. William George Trousdale, B.A.—The Mission Buildings situated in Woodgate Street and Ponton Road, Nine Elms Lane, have lately been enlarged by the Misses Baily of Esher, at a cost of over £1200. The church contains sittings for 250. There are in connection with the Mission, Sunday Schools,[Pg 112] two Mothers' Meetings, Girls' Bible Class, Girls' Sewing Class, Recreation Room for Girls, Provident Club, Penny Bank. It is also proposed to establish shortly a Working Man's Club and a Crêche, for which there is ample accommodation in the Mission Buildings. Services—Sunday at 11 and 7, Wednesday Evening at 8, Children's Service the 3rd Sunday in the month at 3.

ST. ALDWIN'S MISSION CHAPEL, (Rochester Diocesan Society) Poyntz Road, Latchmere Road, was opened on Sunday, 12th September, 1880, at 7 p.m. It will comfortably seat 300 persons. St. Aldwin's district is formed partly out of St. Saviour's and partly out of Christ Church parish—the latter ceded the Colestown Estate, the former handed over Latchmere Street and Road, and the cluster of streets which is surrounded by the triangle of railways. Mission Curate—Rev. T. B. Brooks, M.A., 2, Nevil Villas, Albert Road. Mission-woman—Mrs. Monk, Mission House, 25, Poyntz Road.

"Both young men and maidens, old men and children; let them praise the name of the Lord."—Psalm cxlviii. 12-13.

"Blessed is the people who know the joyful sound: they shall walk O Lord, in the light of thy countenance."—Psalm lxxxix. 15.

"Thy power to save!" thrice happy they
Who taught of Thee delight to pray,
Rejoicing in Thy love:
Now clothed in righteousness divine,
The heirs of glory,—soon to shine
In realms of joy above.

A pastor's warning voice!—"Take heed,
Whilst by the sunny banks you feed
Of England's good old Church!
Live close to Jesus;—not on forms,
Lest, unprepared for coming storms,
You founder in the lurch!

Heed well the Word—the joyful sound,
The Gospel of our God—still found
To point straight up to heaven:
Beware of sounds of 'yea and nay,'
For God's own 'yea' is man's sure stay,
Not Pharisaic leaven."

The presence of the Lord is found
Where love, and joy, and peace abound,
Fruits of the Spirit's Word;
Where Christian hearts unite in prayer
In Jesus' Name—the Lord is there,
Jehovah, Jesus, God.

There are two Roman Catholic places of worship in Battersea, viz.:—

THE CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL AND ST. JOSEPH, situated in Battersea Park Road, was built by a lady of the name of Mrs. Boschetta Shea (of Spanish extraction, and whose husband was an Irish Protestant) in 1868, and put under the management of the late Very Rev. Canon Drinkwater, who[Pg 113] retained the control of the church and adjacent buildings, including the Convent of Notre Dame and Girls' School, the St. Joseph's Boys' School, and the New Church lately erected. The Duke of Norfolk gave £500 towards the building fund for the new church.

Within the grounds adjoining the Convent are kitchen and flower gardens with a gravel walk and a very compact grotto.

In the month of May, the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, there are processions in the grounds every Sunday afternoon in which boys and girls take part, singing hymns in honour of "our Lady." The Boys' School is of an oblong shape, and is governed by the Xaverian Brothers, including several pupil teachers. Subjects taught: reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, English, Roman and Grecian history, geography, mathematics and the Roman Catholic religion.

CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART, Trott Street, is an Iron building with turret and cross, opened 10th of October, 1875. It was built by the Countess of Stockpool at a cost of £700. The freehold site of land including one acre cost £1,000. Priest, Rev. McKenna. New Schools have lately been erected.

THE OLD BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE, York Road, Battersea, was erected in 1736, but a church was not formed for sixty-one years afterwards. About the year 1755 the Rev. Mr. Browne became Officiating Minister, and for forty years preached to a small congregation, but as his age and infirmities increased the number of attendants on his ministration diminished till he had not more than four or five persons to hear him; enfeebled and disheartened he resigned, and in 1796 a young man, then a Student at Bristol Academy, afterwards well known as the Rev. Joseph Hughes, M.A., supplied the pulpit with so much acceptance that in 1797 a church was constituted, and he, in the 29th year of his age, was elected to be the pastor. The constitution and order of the church thus formed may not be uninteresting, it reads as follows:—

"We, the undersigned, desirous of the privilege connected with religious fellowship and a stated ministry, having already sought the Lord, and we trust, chosen Him as our Sovereign and Friend, do hereby give ourselves afresh to each other, according to the Divine Will, that being united in a Christian Church, we may render mutual aid, as fellow-travellers from earth to heaven; and, though we firmly embrace the sentiments peculiar to the Baptists, yet, espousing with equal determination the cause of evangelical liberty, we welcome to our communion all who give evidence of a change from sin to holiness; who appear to love our Lord Jesus Christ, who are willing to be accounted learners in His school, and who wish to be enrolled in connection with us. And we hope it will be our united endeavour, and the endeavour of such as may hereafter be added to us, by all means to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; to mingle faithfulness, spirituality and affection in our intercourse; strictly to regard the Divine Ordinances—so far as we know them; and to walk before the Church, our families, and our God, worthy of our heavenly calling."

Under the Rev. Joseph Hughes's ministry the work of God took deep root here and greatly flourished. By his energy, learning[Pg 114] and eloquence, and his connexion with different local societies for the promotion of religious worship, he was brought acquainted with Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Vansittart, and Mr. Perceval, by whose aid he established the "Surrey Mission Society." At a meeting of the Religious Tract Society he afterwards promulgated the idea of an institution for supplying not only the inhabitants of the British Isles, but the whole world, with copies of the Holy Scriptures; and hence arose the Bible Society, of which Mr. Hughes was joint Secretary until his death. Mr. Hughes expired on Thursday evening, October 3, 1833, in the 65th year of his age. His mortal remains were interred in Bunhill Fields.

"John Foster derived much spiritual benefit from his friendship with Mr. Hughes of Battersea Chapel with whom after he left Chichester he resided for a time, and it increases not a little the debt of gratitude due from the Christian community to that excellent man, that though his own authorship was limited to a few pulpit productions, and his sphere of duty was one of action rather than of meditation, he performed the noble office of stimulating the exertions and cherishing the piety of one of the most original and influential religious writers of his age."

Mr. Foster says "the company who made sometime since an establishment at Sierra Leone in Africa, have brought to England twenty black boys to receive European improvements, in order to be sent when they are come to be men to attempt enlightening the heathen nations of Africa. They have been placed in a house at Battersea for the present till some kind of regular and permanent establishment shall be formed, and I have been requested, and have agreed to take the care of them for the present."—Foster's Life and Correspondence, Vol. I. p. 58-60, edited by J. C. Ryland, A.M.

The Rev. Edmund Clark held the Pastorate from Spring of 1834 to Mid-Summer, 1834—three months. He was succeeded by the Rev. Enoch Crook, who was two years and a half Pastor of the Church, viz., from Mid-summer, 1834, to 1837. A tablet to his memory is placed on the wall in the vestry of the chapel. Subsequently from January, 1838, it was the scene of the labours of the Sainted Israel May Soule, who for thirty-six years was Pastor of the Church of Christ assembling here; he faithfully discharged his ministerial duties; his doctrine was truly evangelical; his services unremitting and his deportment exemplary—beloved by his flock and highly esteemed by Christians of other denominations for his large liberal-heartedness, sound judgment and unsectarian spirit. It was he who first conceived the idea of enlarging the Old Chapel and had a model in his study to represent the style of alteration which his own mind suggested with a view to meet in some humble measure the growing and increased spiritual wants of the neighbourhood. However, instead of enlarging the Old Chapel a second time, he used strenuous efforts and succeeded in having the Old Chapel demolished and a commodious place of worship erected on its site. The Chapel was enlarged and repaired in 1842 and the freehold purchased and put in trust at a total cost of £1,000. In 1868 the requisite land for further enlargement of the Chapel was purchased. The present handsome Chapel involved an outlay of £5,000, erected in the Romanesque style from the designs of Mr. E. C. Robins.[Pg 115] The accommodation on ground-floor and galleries is for 900 worshippers. The open timbered roof is one span, and the building is faced with white bricks with Bath stone dressings. It was constructed by the late Mr. John Kirk. The same architect has recently enlarged East Hill Chapel, Wandsworth. The memorial stone of the New Chapel was laid by Field Marshal Sir G. Pollock, G.C.B., G.C.S.I., on the 8th of June, 1870, being the 33rd year of the Rev. I. M. Soule's ministry; the building was completed by the end of the year, so that Mr. Soule had the pleasure of conducting the opening services January 1st, 1871. Previously to his coming to Battersea Mr. Soule for seven years had been Pastor of the Baptist Church, Lewes, Sussex. He was born Dec. 25, 1806, died unexpectedly Nov. 8, 1873, having preached with his usual energy on the previous Sunday, when in the morning he took for his text Rev. xxii. 14, and afterwards administered the Lord's Supper. The funeral service was conducted Nov. 15th, by the Rev. D. Jones, B.A., of Brixton, assisted by the Rev. Edward Steane, D.D., the Rev. Robert Ashton and other ministers. At the grave, in the presence of about 7,000 persons, the Rev. Samuel Green delivered an address. On the following day, Sunday, November 16, Funeral Sermons were preached in Battersea Chapel to overflowing congregations, in the morning by the Rev. D. Jones, in the evening by the Rev. Dr. Angus.

His mortal remains lie interred at St. Mary's Cemetery with those of Amelia his wife, where in token of fond affection to his memory a beautiful obelisk of grey polished granite has been erected. The epitaph states "that he consecrated himself in early life to the service of God; that he received during a long and faithful ministry signal tokens of Divine favour in the number who through his instrumentality were brought to a knowledge of the Saviour. His earnest constant labours to the last for the education and welfare of the young are of untold benefit, while rich and poor alike have lost in him a kind and sympathizing friend, whose loving and Christian spirit will long be remembered in Battersea." A monumental tablet to his memory is about to be erected in the Chapel.

"Servant of Christ well done,
Rest from thy loved employ,
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy."

In a small room under the south gallery is erected a beautiful marble tablet in memoriam of the Rev. Joseph Hughes, M. A. Also under the north gallery are erected tablets in affectionate remembrance of Henry Tritton, Esq., for many years a resident in the Parish of Battersea, and whose mortal remains lie buried under the Chapel. He died 20th of April, 1836, aged 48 years. Also Amelia, his wife, third daughter of Joseph Benwell, Esq., died March 28, 1855, aged 64 years.

April, 1874, Mr. Soule was succeeded by the Rev. Charles Kirtland, who still continues to fill the pastoral office.

Let strangers walk around
The city where we dwell;
Compass and view the holy ground,
And mark the building well.
[Pg 116]
The orders of Thy house,
The worship of Thy court,
The cheerful songs, the solemn vows,
And make a fair report.

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."—John iv. 24.

Deacons—G. Lawrence, Cubbington Cottage, Battersea Rise; H. M. Soule, St. John's Hill, Battersea Rise; W. H. Coe, York Road, Battersea; G. Mansell, 1, Cologne Road, St. John's Hill; Philip Cadby, 24, St. Peter's Square, Hammersmith; Thomas Sadler, 88 Spencer Road. Chapel-keeper—D. Rayner, 31, Verona Street, York Road.

BAPTIST TEMPORARY CHAPEL, Surrey Lane. This building having stood beyond the time allowed by Government was condemned by the Board of Works. The Church which formerly worshipped there have removed to the Lammas Hall until a permanent building can be raised. A fund is established which progresses slowly. A. Peto, Esq., The Boltons, South Kensington, is the Treasurer to the Building Fund. Rev. C. E. Stone is the Pastor. Deacons, J. Weller and F. T. Ashfield. It is worthy of note that this was the second Baptist Church formed in Battersea.

"I have set my affections to the house of my God."—I. Chron. xxix. 3.

"Christ is the Foundation of the house we raise;
Be its walls salvation, and its gateways praise!
May its threshold lowly to the Lord be dear;
May the hearts be holy that worship here!"

[Pg 117]

BATTERSEA PARK TEMPORARY BAPTIST CHAPEL was erected in 1869, at a cost, including the purchase of freehold land, of £2,000. In 1872 a front gallery was added which cost £175. In 1876 a piece of ground was bought at the back of the Chapel for £105, and new class-rooms and vestries erected at an additional cost of £420. The grand object of the London Baptist Association next to the promotion of spiritual work, is the extension of their bounds by the erection of at least one new Chapel in each year. The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, the third President (1869), had the pleasure of seeing a chapel erected in this region where the poor would be gathered. He was able to purchase and give to the enterprise this fine freehold site in Battersea, and leaving the front portion thereof for a future chapel, he expended the grant of the Association in erecting a school-chapel, seating 630 persons, which was put in trust without incumbrance. The neighbourhood being too poor to bear the burden of debt, and no wealthy friends being forthcoming this was thought to be the wiser course. The Rev. W. J. Mayers commenced his pastorate in the beginning of the year 1870. Upon his resignation he was succeeded by the Rev. Alfred Bax, who for two years or more preached with much acceptance. On the 2nd of April, 1877, the Rev. T. Lardner became the officiating minister. Deacons of the Church—J. S. Oldham, William Weller, W. Chaplin.

In 1866, Mr. E. Carter shoemaker by trade, residing at 16, Henley Street, commenced holding a Sunday School in his own hired house.

One Sunday Afternoon, two young students from the Metropolitan Tabernacle, called at his residence to see if they could hold religious[Pg 118] services there, but it does not appear that they at that time succeeded. Afterwards the School was removed to 32, Russell Street, then to 53, Arthur Street, where Mr. Rees, a young man from the Metropolitan Tabernacle conducted Morning and Evening Services regularly every Lord's day. Subsequently he was succeeded by Mr. William Wiggins of the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon's College who on account of the place "being too strait" made arrangements to open Norton Villas, Battersea Park Road, for Sunday School and regular Sunday Religious Services, and at stated times on Week Evenings. Norton Villa, was opened as a place of Worship, October 20th, 1867. In 1868, a Baptist Church was formed by the late Rev. I. M. Soule of Battersea Chapel and Mr. Wiggins was recognised as the Pastor, the Church consisted of forty members and a Congregation of about a hundred persons besides a Sunday School of one hundred and twenty Children; this place however, became too small to accommodate the persons desirous of attending. It was proposed therefore, to erect an Iron Chapel on a site near York Road Station. But those friends who made the proposition, on hearing that the Baptist Association had an intention to build a permanent Chapel in Battersea Park Road, abandoned the idea of purchasing and erecting an Iron Chapel so in 1870, when the present Chapel was completed, the Baptists who had met at Norton Villa for worship, (Mr. Wiggins, having resigned his pastorate there) united with the Church at Battersea Park Chapel, under the Pastoral care of the Rev. Walter J. Mayers.

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."—Hebrews x. 25.

"Great the joy when Christians meet,
Christian fellowship, how sweet!
When, their theme of praise the same
They exalt Jehovah's name."—Burder.

"Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."—I. John i. 3.

BAPTIST (PROVIDENCE) CHAPEL, Meyrick Road, is a brick building—seats 350. It is intended to have galleries when it will then accommodate 500. The memorial stone was laid by Mr. H. Clark, October 5th, 1875, on which are engraved the words "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."—Psalm cxi. 10. Cost of Chapel including the purchase of freehold land on which the Chapel is erected £2,400. G. G. Stanham, Esq., Architect; Messrs. Turtle and Appleton, Builders, Battersea. Officiating Minister, Mr. Philips. Deacons, H. Clark, S. Stiles, Joseph Palmer.

"Philip said (to the Eunuch), If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest (be baptised); and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."—Acts viii. 37.

"For we are all partakers of that one bread."—I. Cor. x. 17.

"Come in, ye chosen of the Lord,
And share the bounties of His house;
His dying feast, His Sacred word,
Our joys our hopes, and solemn vows.
[Pg 119]
Come share the blessings of that board,
Which Jesus for His Saints has spread;
Receive the grace His ways afford,
Commune with us and Christ our Head."—G. Smith.

THE NEW BAPTIST CHAPEL, Chatham Road Bolingbroke Grove.—A suitable plot of ground was obtained at a cost of £150; cost of Chapel, about £850. Services were conducted by Charles and Thomas Spurgeon. The building will seat 258 persons.

The cause was commenced about fourteen years ago in a very humble way by Mr. G. Rides, a working man, who, previously to the erection of the above place of worship, held meetings in his own hired house, Swaby Street. William Higgs, Jun., Architect; Higgs and Hill, Builders.

WESLEYAN METHODIST MISSION ROOM AND SUNDAY SCHOOLS, Everett Street, Nine Elms, opened 1871. Mr. John Farmer, Steward and Superintendent. Now closed.

UNITED METHODIST FREE CHURCH, Church Road, Battersea.—The Memorial Stone was laid by James Wild, Esq., May 25th, 1858. Another stone was laid by Mrs. Bowron, Sept. 22, 1864, when the Chapel was enlarged. S. J. Stedman, Architect.

THE UNITED METHODIST FREE CHURCH, Battersea Park Road.—The School-room at the back of the Chapel in Landseer Street was built in 1865, at a cost of £500, and it was used as a preaching Station. In 1871-2 the present Chapel was built, at a cost of £2,200. Seats about 600. Has a Lecture-room and Schools[Pg 120] underneath the Chapel. The freehold was purchased in 1876 and cost £400. Rev. James Whitton is now Resident Minister in connexion with the 7th London Circuit.

"The brotherly covenant."—Amos i. 9.

"One in heart, and one in hand,
One for all, and all for one;
Love shines through this Christian band,
Kindled from the heavenly sun."—Edmeston.

In the District known as New Wandsworth, near the Bolingbroke Grove, Wandsworth Common, is a large and increasing population which presents an opening for Christian enterprise.

The Free Methodists of the 7th London Circuit have undertaken this work. Preaching has been commenced in a room No. 89, Bennerly Road, and a society of twelve members have been formed.

A suitable freehold site has been secured in the Mallinson Road at a cost of £400, and it is proposed to erect a Chapel and Schools thereon.

The whole scheme will involve an outlay of £4,000, but at present it is only intended to build the School, which is estimated will, with the ground, cost nearly £1,200.

PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPEL, New Road, was built in 1874. The Chapel including the purchase of freehold, cost about £1,030. Seats 200. Mr. Murphy, Architect; Mr. Stocking, Builder.

Now a new and much more commodious Chapel is erected. Respecting its origin the following account may not be uninteresting.

About twelve years ago the friends of Hammersmith Station decided to Mission this neighbourhood. First of all they opened two small parlours at 32, Russell Street, Battersea Park Road, as a Preaching Station and afterwards secured premises in Stewart's Lane, which they converted into a small Chapel, and here, for several years, were numbers of conversions; but, like all small and out-of-the-way places, it became a feeder to other churches. It was at last decided to secure a suitable site and build. First a lease of a piece of land in the New-Road, and eventually the freehold was secured, and a small school-room was erected on part of the site, which has since been used for school and preaching services. The building being altogether inconvenient, it was decided, after prayerful and mature deliberation, to build a Chapel which should be more in harmony with the requirements of the neighbourhood. Mr. A. J. Rouse, the Architect, was consulted, plans were prepared, and tenders invited. The contract was let to Mr. J. Holloway, builder, Wandsworth, for £2000, which, with the debt of £690 on the school-room and Architect's fees, will bring it up to £2800. The building is plain, neat, and substantial, with stone facings. It will accommodate about 600 persons; there are two aisles, a gallery on the sides and at one end, with a back gallery for the organ. Adjoining the chapel is a large class-room capable of holding sixty children. Externally, the building is one of the most imposing and attractive in the neighbourhood, and one of the cheapest in London.

On Whit-Monday, 1878, the memorial-stones were laid. The[Pg 121] opening address was delivered by Mr. G. Harris. It was practical, earnest, and eloquent. Stones were laid by R. Burns, R. Adams, and R. Morton, Esqs., and Messrs. J. J. Flux, W. Bayford, W. Gibbs, Rev. T. Penrose for G. Palmer, Esq., M. P., Mr. S. Fortune, Circuit Steward, for the Sunday-schools, Mesdames W. and H. Baker, and Miss Whiting.

At the end of the Chapel is a Tablet in memory of Alfred James Rouse, Architect, who met with his death in the collision between the Princess Alice and the Bywell Castle on the Thames, September 3rd, 1878. Life is short but Art is long.

"Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. Matt. 24. 44."

The first Primitive Methodist preachers were, William Cowes and Hugh Borne, in 1807. When the first Primitive Methodist Church was formed it consisted of ten members; now it numbers over 180,000 and employs more than a 1,000 ministers.

"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."—Matthew xviii. 20.

PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPEL, Grayshott Road, was erected in 1875. The stone was laid by J. T. Hawkins, Esq., M. A., for the Right Hon. Earl Shaftesbury, K. G., November 21, 1874. Rev. J. Toulson, Superintendent, 7th London Circuit. Another Stone was laid by a Shareholder of the Artizans, Labourers and General Dwelling Company Limited. Rev. W. E. Crombie, Minister. Mr. A. J. Rouse, Acting Architect; J. Lose, Builder. The Chapel seats 400, and cost about £2,600. The entrance to the Chapel is up a flight of steps; the Schools are underneath the Chapel.

"Jehovah, Shammah." Ezek. xlviii. 35. "Allelujah!" Rev. xix. 1.

In the Wandsworth Road, near Grayshott Road, is an old milestone which marks the space between that and the Royal Exchange five miles, and Whitehall four and a half miles.

PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPEL, Plough Lane,—In the year 1855, a few Primitive Methodists, residing in the neighbourhood of York Road, with the view of having their hearts knitted more closely together in holy love by Christian fellowship and prayer, met from house to house for this purpose to worship God—In this way they continued to meet till the year 1858, when the Firm of Orlando Jones & Co. gave them the use of their Reading Room. Here as elsewhere they preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ and their numbers steadily increased. In 1870, a piece of land was secured in Knox Road, and the firm above mentioned, helped them to erect an Iron Chapel with a School-room underneath. This building having stood beyond the time allowed by Government was condemned by the Board of Works. It was opened in June 1871, and was finally closed in September 1880. About this time the Estate of the Late Rev. I. M. Soule was sold, and an effort was made to secure a plot of land thereon, situated in Plough Lane. The freehold site selected, was purchased, and a substantial brick Chapel with School-room underneath erected at a cost of £2,300. The Chapel will accommodate 400 worshippers. It was opened October 24th, 1880, on which occasion Sermons were preached by the Rev. J. Baxter. I will command My blessing upon you—Lev. 25. 21.

[Pg 122]

Command Thy blessing from above,
O God on all assembled here:
Behold us with a Father's love
While we look up with filial fear.

Command thy blessing Jesus, Lord,
May we thy true disciples be;
Speak to each heart the Mighty Word,
Say to the weakest, follow me.

Command thy blessing in this hour,
Spirit of Truth and fill the place
With wondering and with healing power,
With quickening and confirming grace.

With Thee and these forever found,
May all the Souls who here unite,
With harps and songs Thy throne surround,
Rest in Thy love, and reign in light.

ST. GEORGE'S MISSION HALL, Stewart's Lane, formerly belonged to the Primitive Methodists, and was used by them as a chapel.

"Glory, honour, praise and power
Be unto the Lamb for ever;
Jesus Christ is our Redeemer,
Hallelujah! Amen."

"Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generations following. For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death."-Psalms xlviii. 12-14.

BATTERSEA CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH (Independent), Junction of Bridge Road and Surrey Lane South, fifteen minutes' walk from Clapham Junction and York Road Stations, ten minutes' from Battersea Station; is an edifice constructed of Kentish rag with Bath stone dressings, and has a tower with spire at the north end of the building. The interior is spacious and lofty; the pews are made of pitch-pine, varnished, and will accommodate, including the seats in the south gallery, 600 persons. Cost of erection £4,500. H. Fuller, Architect; F. W. Sawyer, Builder. With[Pg 123] respect to its history, this is the first Congregational Church in Battersea. It owes its origin to the Surrey Congregational Union, under whose directions services were held in the Lammas-Hall previous to the erection of the previous Church building. The Foundation Stone was laid by the Rev. J. G. Rogers, B. A., of Clapham, September 17th 1866. It was opened Tuesday, October 12th, 1867, and the Dedication Service was conducted by the Rev. Samuel Martin, of Westminster. The present is the third pastoral settlement, the first minister being the Rev. J. Scott James, of Cheshunt College, who commenced his ministry in Battersea. In 1870 the Rev. J. S. James resigned to take the Pastorate of the Church at Stratford-on-Avon, and was succeeded April, 1871, by the Rev. Joseph Shaw, of Boston, Lincolnshire. In 1878 the Rev. Joseph Shaw resigned and was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Jarratt, the present Pastor.

The Sunday School and Lecture Hall, with class-room adjoining, was opened in April, 1874. The entire cost of the building, furnishing, heating, lighting, and fencing the ground was £510, the whole of which was discharged July, 1875. Of this amount a generous friend gave £300 through the Rev. Joseph Shaw; and thirty-two pounds were contributed by the Sunday School Children. The room will seat 300 persons.

The "Church Manual" for 1870 states "This is Congregational, we regarding the New Testament as the only infallible guide in matters of Church order, and learning from it that each Church is authorized to elect its officers, receive and dismiss its members, and act authoritatively and conclusively upon all questions affecting its purity and administration. We recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as our King and Sole Ruler in spiritual things, and His Word as our Statute-Book and only Standard. The membership. We believe this should be composed only of regenerated persons who are received into the Church on profession of their faith in Christ, or by letters from sister Church. Members of other churches, acting on this principle, are also received on their producing proper certificates. Candidates for membership should make their application direct to the Pastor. Deacons, Mr. John Allen, Mr. Thomas C. Tabor; Treasurer, Mr. Samuel James Roberts; Secretary, Mr. Edwin John Eason."

The seats are free, not sold or rented, but are allotted for family convenience and to preserve order. The revenues of the Church are chiefly derived from the weekly free-will offerings of the church and congregation.

"How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts."-Psalm lxxxiv. 1.

"The Hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the heavenly fields
Or walk the golden streets."

STORMONT ROAD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH Lavender Hill.

The Schools are in connexion with the above place, where the worship is at present conducted. They are built from designs by[Pg 124] J. H. Vernon Esq., and are capable of accommodating 450 scholars. There are eight class-rooms, and there is every convenience for carrying on Sunday School work.

The site, which is freehold, as is also the adjoining one for the future Church was the gift of the London Congregational Union. The cost of the school buildings was £2820. The foundation stone was laid on July 27th, 1878, by J. Kemp Welch Esq., and the buildings were opened on February 18th 1879, when Sermons were preached by the Revs. R. W. Dale of Birmingham, and Dr. Raleigh. A Church is now being formed under the Pastorate of the Rev. R. Bulmer, late of Whitby, who commenced his ministry on Sunday the 2nd of October, last. It is proposed to commence the building of the Church as soon as possible. The building according to plans will seat 850. The whole of the Christian work in connection with the above place is in a very active state, and include Band of Hope, and Improvement Societies.

WESLEYAN METHODISM IN BATTERSEA.—It is not easy to determine the time of the first appearance of Methodism in Battersea. From Mr Wesley's Journal it appears that in his later years he was accustomed to pay an annual visit to this neighbourhood, including Chelsea, Wandsworth and Balham. In the absence of any definite record of the matter we may assume that some persons in Battersea came under his influence. A half century elapsed before the Methodist Society found a local habitation in Battersea, even then, not destined to be a permanent one. A small Chapel, chiefly at the cost of the late Rev. J. Partes Haswell, was erected on the site of the present one in the Bridge Road West in 1846; the foundation stone being laid by the late Mr. Scott of Chelsea, and the works being executed by Mr John Sugden, Builder, of Bermondsey New Road.

The building was let to the late Mr. J. Boughton and others, for the use of the Wesleyan Society by Mr. Haswell, and it continued in their occupation until 1855. The agitations which disturbed the Wesleyan Connexion in 1851 and following years were felt with great severity in Battersea. The congregation and Society were so weakened by the separation that took place, that the Lessees, after allowing the Chapel to be occupied for a time by the seceding party, finally surrendered their lease into Mr. Haswell's possession again.

In the meantime, however the Wesleyan Society, began to recover from the great depression into which it had fallen; and in 1858, on their behalf, Messrs. Bell and Molineux, with the late Mr. Holloway of Battersea, took the former Chapel on a short lease from the persons into whose hands it had passed; and ultimately it was purchased by a duly appointed body of Trustees in 1862.

In 1864, aided by a munificent donation of £425 from Mr. J. Steadman of South Lambeth, and by other liberal contributions, the Trustees were enabled greatly to enlarge the building, nearly doubling its former area; and finally in 1871, it was brought to a state of completion, by the erection of a Gallery and an Organ, with other minor improvements. It now furnishes accommodation for 700 people.

[Pg 125]

The usual congregation amounts to about 500, of whom more than 300 are members of the "Society."

The Rev G. Bowden, and the Rev. E. Hawken, are the present circuit ministers, the latter being resident in Battersea, and taking special charge of the Wesleyan Church there.

The usual times of service on Sundays are, 11 o'clock in the morning, and 6.30 in the evening. There are also Weekly Prayer Meetings on Sunday mornings at 7 a.m.; and on Monday evenings at 7 p.m.; and a Week-night service on Tuesday evenings at the same hour.

In 1870, in view of the growing Educational necessities of the Wesleyan Body, the General Wesleyan Education Committee decided on the establishment of another Training College, in addition to that which they had in Westminster. Circumstances led to the placing of this on the Southlands estate, near the Battersea High Street Railway Station. It furnishes accommodation for 110 female Students, who are under training for the Office of Teachers; and who in due time are employed in all parts of the kingdom in Schools under Inspection. They constitute, it need hardly be said a very interesting portion of the congregation. The Rev. G. W. Olver, B.A., is the Principal, and Mr. James Bailey the Headmaster of the College.

A Sunday School with 280 Scholars in average attendance meets twice on each Sunday, and is conducted with more than the usual efficiency. There are also the customary benevolent and religious agencies maintained by the Wesleyan Church here; and Day Schools for Girls and Infants are connected with Southlands Training College.[1]—W.S.

O happy souls that pray
Where God delights to hear!
O happy men that pay
Their constant service there!
They praise thee still; and happy they
Who love the way to Sion's hill.
They go from strength to strength,
Through this dark vale of tears,
Till each o'ercomes at length,
Till each in heaven appears:
O glorious seat! Thou God, our King,
Shall thither bring our willing feet.

We know for certain Battersea on one occasion was honoured with the preaching of the Rev. John Wesley as recorded in one of his Journals, dated November 4, 1766, wherein this indefatigable servant of Christ states, "I preached at Brentford, Battersea, Deptford and Welling, and examined the several societies." His[Pg 126] Journals state that he preached repeatedly at Wandsworth, as the following extracts will show. Wednesday, November 16, 1748. "In the afternoon I preached to a little company at Wandsworth who had just begun to seek God; but they had a rough setting-out, the rabble gathering from every side, whenever they met together throwing dirt and stones, and abusing both men and women in the grossest manner. They complained of this to a neighbouring Magistrate, and he promised to do them justice; but Mr. C. walked over to his house, and spoke so much in favour of the rioters, that they were all discharged. It is strange, that a mild, humane man could be persuaded by speaking quite contrary to the truth, (means as bad as the end) to encourage a merciless rabble in outraging the innocent! A few days after, Mr. C., walking over the same field, dropped down and spoke no more! Surely the mercy of God would not suffer a well-meaning man to be any longer a fool to persecutors."