There is a tradition that Miss Carter, while writing for the Gentleman's Magazine' under the name 'Eliza,' lodged for a time at St. John's Gate (see JOHNSON). She was buried in Grosvenor Chapel, an appendage to St. George's Church, Hanover Square. It is situated in South Audley Street, opposite Chapel Street. SUSANNA CENTLIVRE. 1667(?)-1723. - THE HE history of the early part of Mrs. Centlivre's life is involved in obscurity. Even the place of her birth and the exact date are unknown; and until 1706, when she married Queen Anne's Yeoman of the Mouth, or, as Pope more roughly expressed it, she became that Cook's wife of Buckingham Court,' — she never had permanent local habitation or a reputable name in the metropolis. She spent the last and happiest days of her life in Spring Gardens, Charing Cross. Her husband's house was on the corner of Buckingham Court. Spring Gardens garden only in name is a curiously crooked little street, immediately west of Trafalgar Square, connecting Whitehall with the east end of the Mall, and St. James's Park. The place of Mrs. Centlivre's burial has been for many years undetermined, many of the older authorities among others, the Biographia Dramatica' placing it in the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in which parish she died. But search of the Register of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, shows that she was buried in that church, Decemb'r 4th, 1723.' The date of her birth or the position of her grave is not recorded. THOMAS CHATTERTON. 1752-1770. John Davis's CHA HATTERTON'S career in London was crowded into four short melancholy months, and almost nothing is known of his life here. He found lodgings at first in a garret in the house of a Mr. Walmsley, a plasterer, in Shoreditch; he died by his own hands, in the house of a stay-maker in Brooke Street, Holborn; and he found rest in a pauper's grave in the burial-ground of the workhouse in Shoe Lane. All that his biographers and admirers have been able to learn about his sad London experiences is given below: This boy [a nephew of Mr. Walmsley], who was the bedfellow of Chatterton, informed Mr. Croft that Chatterton used to sit up all night reading and writing; that he never came to bed till very late, often three or four o'clock, but that he was always awake when he waked, and got up at the same time. He lived chiefly upon a halfpenny roll, or a tart and some water. . . . He did not, however, wholly abstain from meat, for he was once or twice known to take a sheep's tongue out of his pocket. . . . Early in July Chatterton left his lodgings in Shoreditch, and went to lodge with Mrs. Angel, a sack-maker, in Brooke Street, Holborn. It were an injury not to mention historically the lodgings of Chatterton, for every spot he made his residence has become poetical ground. . . . Of his extreme indigence there is positive testimony. Mrs. Angel remembers that for two days, when he did not absent himself from his room, he went without food. . . . Mr. Cross, an apothecary in Brooke Street, bore evidence that while Chatterton lived with Mrs. Angel, he frequently called at the shop, and ... was repeatedly pressed by Mr. Cross to dine or sup with him, but always in vain. One evening, however, hunger so far prevailed over his pride as to tempt him to partake of a barrel of oysters, when he was observed to eat most voraciously. . . . Pressed hard by indigence and its companions, gloom and despondency, the mind of Chatterton became disordered, and on the night of the 24th of August, 1770, he swallowed a large dose of opium, which caused his death. The inquest of the jury was brought in insanity, and the body of Chatterton was put into a shell, and carried unwept, unheeded, and unowned to the burying-ground of the workhouse in Shoe Lane. We know, from the account of Sir Herbert Croft, that Chatterton occupied the garret, a room looking out into the street, as the only garret in this house does. It was a square Hotten's and rather large room for an attic. It had two win- Adversaria. dows in it, — lattice windows, or casements, built in a style which I think is called 'dormer.' Outside ran the gutter, with a low parapet wall, over which you could look into the street below. The roof was very low, so low that I, who am not a tall man, could hardly stand upright in it with my hat on; and it had a long slope, extending from the middle of the room down to the windows. William Homes and Chatterton. No. 4 Brooke Street, Holborn, would be an interesting number if it remained; but as if everything connected with the history of this ill-fated youth, except his fame, should be condemned to the most singular fatality, there is no Howitt's No. 4; it is swallowed up by an enormous furniture warehouse, fronting into Holborn, and occupying what British Poets, used to be numbers one, two, three, and four Brooke vol. i.: Street. Thus the whole interior of these houses has been cleared away, and they have been converted into one long show-shop below. . . . Thus all memory of the particular spot which was the room of Chatterton, and where he committed suicide, is rooted out. What is still more strange, the very same fate has attended his place of sepulture. He was buried among the paupers in Shoe Lane; so little was known or cared about him and his fate, that it was some time, as stated, before his friends learned the sad story; in the mean time the exact site of his grave was well-nigh become unknown. It appears, however, from inquiries which I have made, that the spot was recognized; and when the public became at length aware of the genius that had been suffered to perish in despair, a head stone was erected by subscription among some admirers of his productions. . . . The very resting-place of Chatterton could not escape the ungenial character of his fate. London, which seemed to refuse to know him when alive, refused a quiet repose to his ashes. . . . The burial-ground in Shoe Lane was sold to form Farringdon Market, and tombs and memorials of the deceased disappeared to make way for the shambles and cabbage stalls of the living. ... On the 24th of August, 1770, at the age of seventeen years, Cunningnine months, and a few days, Chatterton put an end to ham's Hand- his life by swallowing arsenic in water in the house Book of Brooke Street, of a Mrs. Angel, a sack-maker in this street [Brooke Street], then No. 4, now [1850] occupied by Steffenoni's furniture warehouse. His room, when broken open, was found covered with scraps of paper. Holborn. Contemporary directories show Steffenoni's to have been on the northeast corner of Holborn and Brooke Street. His number was 142 Holborn, occupied in 1885 by the establishment of the Universal Building Society. Mrs. Angel's was about two hundred feet from Holborn. Chatterton, writing to his mother, May 6, 1770, says: I am quite familiar at the Chapter Coffee House, and know all the geniuses there. A character is now unnecessary; an author carries his genius in his pen. And on the 30th May he wrote to his sister from 'Tom's Coffee House in Birchin Lane.' The Chapter Coffee House stood at No. 50 Paternoster Row, on the south side of that street, on the corner of Chapter House Court and nearly opposite Ivy Lane. It ceased to exist as a coffee-house in 1854, but was opened as a tavern a few years later; and in 1885 the fine mahogany balustrades of the stairs, and the dining-rooms themselves, remained, comparatively unchanged since Chatterton's day (see BRONTË, p. 22). 'Tom's' stood in Cowper's Court, Birchin Lane; but no trace of it remains. GEOFFREY CHAUCER, 13--1400. NOTHING positive is known of the place of Chaucer's birth or education, although some of his commentators, upon the dubious authority of the following lines in the "Testament of Love,' claim that he was a native of London." Also in the Citie of London, that is to mee soe deare and sweete, in which I was foorth grown; and more kindely love have I to that place than to any other in yerth, as every kindely creature hath full appetite to that place of his kindely ingendure. Smith's Richard Chawcer, the father of the poet, citizen and vintner, gave to the church of Aldermary, Bow Lane, his tenement and tavern, corner of Kerion Lane. It is not certain that the father of English poetry was born here; some Antiquarian claim the honor of his birthplace for Oxfordshire, and some for Berkshire. Camden says he was born in vol. ii. London; and if so, most probably at the corner of this lane, in the house just mentioned. Rambles in The Church of St. Mary Aldermary, destroyed by the Great Fire, was rebuilt by Wren, and stands in Watling Street, near Bow Lane. Kerion Lane was never rebuilt after the Fire. It ran parallel with Upper Thames Street, north of St. James's Church, Garlickhithe. The present Maiden Lane is very near its site. It is by no means certain, however, that the poet was the son of the Richard Chawcer who is mentioned above. |