After a Lithograph by Thomas Way.

RUSSELL SQUARE, AT THE BEGINNING OF THE

After a Picture by T. H. Shepherd.

HYDE PARK CORNER, CIRCA 1800

From an Old Colour Print.

HARCOURT HOUSE, CAVENDISH SQUARE

From a Drawing by Malcolm.

THE GLOUCESTER COFFEE HOUSE, PICCADILLY.

From a Colour Print by Pollard.

112

FOREWORD

It has not been my intention here to say anything of Thackeray in his office in Cornhill or his homes in Kensington and elsewhere; to follow him into his chambers at the Temple or his schoolroom at the Charterhouse. This has already been done, and well done, by Mr. Rideing and Mr. Lewis Melville, and (with the aid of charming illustrations by the author) by Mr. Hopkinson Smith. No! it is the London of Thackeray's characters that I endeavour, in the following pages, to recall: the London known to the Newcomes and Pendennis; the London where Brand Firmin and the Little Sister had their struggles; the London of Beatrice Esmond and the wits, of Costigan and the revellers. The Curzon Street we visit is the Curzon Street of Mrs. Rawdon Crawley; the Russell Square is the Russell Square of the Sedleys, and the Osbornes. When we go to Kensington we go not in search of the house in Young Street or the larger dwelling in Palace Green where Thackeray lived and laboured, but to the Square where Lady Castlewood dwelt and Prince James Edward visited.

Throughout Thackeray's works there are innumerable allusions to all kinds of London localities. These may roughly be divided into two sets: the first dealing with the city as it was from the time of Anne to the close of George III.'s reign; the second, from the period of the Regency to the middle of the nineteenth century. Esmond and The Virginians, Barry Lyndon and Denis Duval, with a sort of general introduction based on "The Four Georges" and "The English

Humourists," are the materials for the earlier section of the subject; the rest of Thackeray's novels, tales and miscellaneous sketches form the basis of the latter half.

Readers of these books are likely to come across allusions to London topography which may, unless the city's complexities have been to them a special study, puzzle and perplex. This little book aims at being a kind of cicerone. No special scheme is followed, but, here and there, the course of the story is adumbrated, where it seemed necessary and likely to be of assistance in illustrating the topographical details. As a rule, however, such places as required annotation are mentioned simply with a connecting link in order to ease the course of the narrative, and a more or less full account given of such localities or monuments. Needless to say that I have by no means exhausted the information available on such points, but the source whence fuller data can be easily gleaned is in such instances noted. Purple patches in the shape of extracts from Thackeray's own writings, I have not hesitated to use; in fact I have gladly availed myself of these in order to give at least some value to the following pages.

In such a little book as this references are naturally traceable to all kinds of works on London topography, but I have only, here and there, specified the source of information where it seemed necessary to give the reader an opportunity of studying more fully the history of some special landmark. The illustrations have been selected as not only recording interesting features of the London of those days, but in some cases, as being of places which have become closely identified with Thackeray's books-as, for instance, Kensington Square is with "Esmond" and Russell Square with "Vanity Fair."

E. B. C.

I

INTRODUCTORY

THE London of Thackeray's novels may be divided into two periods. In Esmond and The Virginians, in Barry Lyndon and the fragmentary Denis Duval we are in the eighteenth century-a period extending from the reign of Anne to that of George III. In the rest of the author's works we are introduced to the London of the earlier half of the nineteenth century. It is obviously appropriate to begin at the beginning, as Count Grammont says, and thus to take the four novels named, for consideration first. Before, however, doing this, there are two of the author's books which should be laid under contribution, because in them we gain a more general purview of the period than we can obtain in the novels. These are the Lectures on "The Four Georges," and those on "The English Humourists." In the former Thackeray takes occasion, in recording the state entry of George I. into the Capital by way of Temple Bar,* to give a word-picture of the London of those far-off times. "We have," he remarks," brought our Georges to

* The Temple Bar of Georgian days was that designed by Wren and set up in 1670-2, having replaced the gate described by Strype which was demolished after the Great Fire. Temple Bar was taken down in 1878-9, and is now at Theobald's Park. For account of the structure and its history see Noble's Memorials of Temple Bar, etc.