The story of Nell Gwyn (23 page)

p. 115. Thomas, Lord Dacre.

Thomas (Lennard), Lord Dacre, born about 1653, was gentleman of the King's bedchamber, 1680 to 1685. By extravagance and losses by gambling he had to sell the estate of Hurstmonceaux and others. He married. May 16, 1674 (at her age of twelve, and with a dower of ;^20,ooo from the King), Lady Ann Palmer, alias Fitzroy, first daughter of the notorious Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, her paternity being claimed both by King Charles II. and by Roger (Palmer), Earl of Castlemaine, who was not at the time of her birth separated from her said mother; and he was created Earl of Sussex on Oct. 5 of the same year. He died at Chevening, Oct.

30, 1715-

His widow, who was born Feb. 29, 1661-2, died May 16, 1722. In his Memoirs of the Duchess of Cleveland (1871) Steinman prints two extraordinary letters relating to Ralph Montagu's abduction of Lady Sussex from a convent in Paris. (See also Haiton Correspondence, Camd. Soc, vol. i. pp. 167-8.) Ralph Montagu (afterwards Duke of Montagu) was son of the 2nd Lord Montagu of Boughton and brother of that notorious lady Elizabeth, wife of Sir Daniel Harvey. He was successively the lover of mother and daughter (the Duchess of Cleveland and Lady Sussex).

NOTES

p. 115. A second child by the Khtg, called James.

Known as James, Lord Beauclerk. According to Wood he died at Paris " of a sore leg about Michaelmas in 1680," not being quite nine years of age {Fasti Oxon., ed. Bliss, pt. ii. p. 271). There is a pretty mezzotint by Gascar depicting him as a cupid on clouds.

p. 117. Other occtu-reftces . . . in which Nelly was interested.

As Charles forced his unhappy consort to take the Countess of Castlemaine into her service immediately after his marriage, so in 1675 ^^ had the baseness to make her appoint Nell Gwyn a lady of the Privy Chamber. The fact is recorded by Samuel Pegge in his Cttrialia (edit. 1791, i. 58). In the list given by Chamber-layne in his Notitia Anglii? Nell Gwyn's name is omitted, it being supplied by a significant "&c." Surely space might somewhere be found—say, on the episcopal garden wall—for a memorial tablet to the much-enduring Queen Catherine. Her patience under the treatment she received at the hands of her despicable husband compels our warmest admiration. Even that engaging reprobate De Grammont has nought but good to tell of her.

p. 121. Houses . . . in which Nell Givyn is said to have lived.

These are Sand ford House, Sands End, Fulham; Lauderdale House, Highgate (now part of Waterlovv Park); Littleberries, Milf Hill {Notes and Queries, 6th sen, iv. 48); King's Wick, Sunninghill, Berks, where an avenue of limes near the church which formerly led to the house goes by the name of Nell Gwyn's Avenue {ibid., 5th sen, vi. 67) ; a two-storied bow-windowed house nearly opposite Leyton Parsonage, Essex {ibid., 6th sen, xi. 275) ; and Bagnigge House, adjoining the Wells on the south. In the Assembly Room at Bagnigge Wells there was formerly a bust of a woman in Roman attire, said to represent Nell Gwyn, but the likeness was

NOTES

not discernible. A deed of covenant dated 1677 i" which Nelly is one of the parties is preserved concerning a house numbered 38 Princes Street, Leicester Square (nov/ 53, Wardour Street), but she probably never lived there {ibid. 4th ser., iii. 479).

On the site of the Fulham Town-hall stood a house known as Elton Villa. In the grounds was a venerable mulberry tree which tradition alleged had been planted either by Nell Gwyn or her royal lover. It was destroyed in 1888 when the Town-hall was built, and its branches were converted into walking-sticks.

There is nothing beyond tradition to connect Nell Gwyn with Sandford Manor House. According to one report Charles actually built it for his mistress. Faulkner {Account of Fulham, 1813) states that a plaster medallion of Nelly was found upon the estate. Other "relics" turned up at a later date cannot be taken seriously. The name of the "Nell Gwynne Cottages," facing the house and now in the possession of the Gas Light and Coke Company, long served to connect the tradition of Nelly with the place. A public-house near this spot, still recalls the name. "Once," writes Mr. Feret, " it was no unusual thing for persons to make a sort of pilgrimage to Sands End for the purpose of inspecting the supposed house of Mistress Nell" {Fulham, Old and New, vol. iii. pp. 272, 273, 277).

p. 122. Filberts, near Windsor,

More correctly, Philberds, in the parish of Bray. At that time the name of the manor was written as pronounced—"Fibbers." It was at one time the proptrJy of the notorious William Chiffinch (pander to Charles II.), who died here in Nov. 1691, "leaving ;^20,000 behind him " (will in P.C.C. 5, Fane ; Lifeand Times of Anthony Wood, Oxf. Hist. Soc, iii. 376).

p. 122. A house . . . "formerly the dairy of Nell • Gwyn."

This house, now (1903) swept away under the Strand improvement scheme of the London County Council,

NOTES

stood on the north side of the Strand, in the row in front of Holywell Street ; it had been rebuilt, was occupied by the Express Dairy Company, and was numbered 272. According to an inscription on the front the dairy was established in 1666. The rest of the inscription was meant, we can only suppose, to record the important fact that Nell Gwyn had her daily supply of milk from this particular shop, not that she herself ran the business in addition to her theatrical engagements. It was usually known as " The Thatched House" ; two drawings of it by T. H. Shepherd, dated 1854, are in the Grace Col-ection, Brit. Mus. (portfolio xvii., nos. 57 and 58),

p. 124. Constant court was paid to her for political purposes.

The election of members for the borough of Southwark in the year 1681 was accompanied by great political excitement, and much light is thrown by the broadsides of the time on the sources of the strong feelings evoked on behalf of the successful candidates, Sir Richard How and Peter Ride on the one side, and on that of the disappointed aspirants, Edward Smith and Slingsby Bethel on the other. But of all this gossip one item alone will interest the general reader. We are informed that '' the rumour of his [Slingsby Bethel] being married to Nell Gwyn did never obtain to his prejudice, and had ended with the poll, had he not afterwards taken so much pains at the Amsterdam Coffee-House to purge himself in that matter" (J. Eliot Hodgkin in Notes and Queries, 7th sen, ix. 207).

p. 124. The Duke of Monmouth.

In Memoirs of the Vemey Family (iv. 265) we read under date Dec. 7, 1679: "Nelly dus the Duck of Monmouth all the kindness shee can, bot her interest is nothing." ..." Nell Gwin begg'd hard of his Majtie to see him, telling him he was grown pale, wan, lean & long-visaged merely because he was in disfavour ; but the

NOTES

King bid her be quiet for he w'' not see him." . . , " Sir Thomas Lee was on Saturday to visit Monmouth, but Nell Gwyn and Sir Stephen Fox being there before him, Sir Thomas could not see his Grace " (cf. also Hut. MSS. Comm., 7th Report, pt. i. p. 478 a).

p. 124. '■^ Prince Perkiii."

The story is told in A Panegyric on Nelly by Lord Rochester. Evelyn, it vi'ill be remembered, calls Monmouth "this Perkin" in his graphic account of thu duke's last days.

p. 124. Mrs. Barlow.

During her career Monmouth's mother, Lucy Walter, seems to have adopted the alias of Mrs. Barlow, the name of a family with which the Walters of Pembrokeshire—from whence she came—had intermarried. She is said to have been bom in 1630, the daughter of William Walter of Roch Castle, near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of John Prothero and niece of John Vaughan, first Earl of Carbery. Colonel Algernon Sidney told James, Duke of York, that when in London in 1648 he had given fifty broad pieces for her, but having to join his regiment hastily, had missed his bargain. His brother. Colonel Robert Sidney, secured the prize for a time, but during the summer of 1648 the fair Lucy captivated Charles, Prince of Wales, then a youth of eighteen, who was at The Hague. Charles terminated his connection with her in Oct. 1651, and she died miserably at Paris in 1658.

p. 125. Neat-Houses, near Chelsea.

" There were," says Mr. F^ret, " neat-houses at Pim-lico, near the riverside, and it may have been there that the mother of Nell Gwyn came by her death. On the other hand, the old Creek facing Sandford Manor House might have been the spot where the good lady fell in. It will be noticed that the writer says ' waterside,' which

NOTES

need not necessarily mean the Thames itself" {Fulhaiii, Old and New, vol. ii. p. 273).

p. 126. From these bills.

These papers were calendared by Mr. Alfred J. Hor-vvood in Apfe?idix to Third Report of the Historical Manuscripts Co>nmission (p. 266) in 1872; they then belonged to the Rev. Francis Hopkinson, LL.D., of Malvern Wells, Worcestershire.

p. 126. Side-boxes at the Duke's Theatre . . Nell paying for all.

On the contrary it is probable that Nell treated her friends to the theatre at the cost of the country. Among the Exchequer documents in the Third Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (Appendix, p, 266) are various bills against Nell Gwyn, including bills for places at the theatres. In September to December 1674 she saw The Tempest four times, Macbeth once, Hamlet once, and, in June 1675, Lear once. There are Treasury orders for payment to her. It would therefore seem that Nell made the Treasury pay for her boxes at the theatres to which she went as a spectator. (See Forneron's Louise de Keroualle, Eng. trans, called The Court of Charles II., ed. 1897, p. 84 n.

p. 130. Nelly's household and other expenses.

In the 3rd Report of the Historical MSS. Commission (p. 217a!) there is a note of a letter of Dr. Henry Stubbes to the Earl of Kent, dated Sept. 28, 1673, in which he says that neither " Madame Kerwell's [Querouaille's], nor the Duchess of Cleveland's, nor Nell Gwynne's warrants would be accepted." Charles was unable to lavish money on his favourites by reason of the Exchequer being closed in the preceding year.

In the 6lh Report fpt. i. p. 473 b) we learn from a

NOTES

letter of Andrew Marvell, written in Dec. 1674, that ;i^4000 a year was settled upon Nelly's two sons.

In the 9th Report we find that Nell Gwyn was paid out of the secret service funds, ;^iooo on Feb. 4, 1675, and ^1500 on March 25 following (p. 450 a). At P^ge 456 (5 is a reference to a grant of ^16,000 to her ; and at page 459 a is her receipt (dated Aug. 21, 1684) for ;^5oo in part payment of a quarter of yearly allowance for and towards the maintenance of herself and Charles, Earl of Burford (now Duke of St. Albans).

In the British Museum is an account of money paid to her, 1676-9 {^Additional MS. 28,094, f. 54), and a receipt for her allowance, 1681 {Additional MS. 21,553, f- 9)-

Also in the Bodleian Library (872 Kawlinson MS.) are papers relating to grants of money on her account. Burnet (Own Time, Oxf. edit., i. 369, supplies the obvious commentary:—

" The Duke of Buckingham told me, that when she was first brought to the King, she asked only 500 pounds a year, and the King refused it. But when he told me this, about four years after, he said she had got of the King above sixty thousand pounds."

p. 131. TMs was the erection of a Royal Hospital at Chelsea.

The supposition—to which much of her popularity is due—that Nell Gwyn suggested the foundation of Chelsea Hospital is altogether baseless. It was Sir Stephen Fox, paymaster-general of the forces, who inspired Charles II. with the idea of the erection of a Royal Hospital "for emerited soldiers," and Fox gave munificently to the hospital, "as became him who had gotten so vast an estate by the soldiers." The facts connected with the history of the foundation are clearly set forth by Evelyn in his Diary, and he makes no reference to Nell Gwyn having had any concern in the matter.

p. 131. The sign remains, but not the inscription. In Bull Inn Court, Strand (one of the innumerable

NOTES

localities so mysteriously "associated" with the jocular Nell), is a public-house with the sign of Nell Gwyniie. Another house, bearing the same sign, is at 105 Pimlico Road. No. 541, King's Road, Fulham, is also the "Nell Gwynne," a comparatively modern house, which preserves the name of an older one which stood not far ofiF. It was so named from the supposed association of Nelly with Sandford House, Fulham (F^ret, Fulham, Old and New, vol. ii. p. 85).

p. 132. Diiffet.

Of Thomas Dufifet there is some account in the Dictionary of National Biography.

p. 132. Whitcombe.

As no copy of Whitcombe's book is in the British Museum or Bodleian, we append a full bibliographical note, together with the dedication.

Janua Divorum : | Or The | Lives and Histories |

(Heathen Gods,^ Goddesses, & |-with Divine and Moral Obser Demi-Gods. J vations upon | their most remarkable Actions, | Adorned with 25 Copper Cuts proper to each | Deity, and put into Verse. | By Robert Whitcombe. | ITaj'Tcs Se @iSiv xarta' &v6pwTroi. —Hom. I London, | Printed for Francis Kirk-man, and are to | be sold by most Booksellers, 1678.

Frontispiece. The Figures and Emblems of the Seaven Planets before the printed title as above. A—K in eights.

The twenty-five (including frontispiece) crude copper cuts not reckoned in the signatures.

To The

Illustrious Madam Ellen Guin. Madam,

He who has so much arrogance as to make his Address to a Person of your Ladiships Eminence, ought

NOTES

also to have so much humility, as to acknowledg that he derives a greater honour from the Dedication, than he can expect from the Composition, of the most perfect Poem; your Favour is more creditable than Ingenuity it self, and an Author need not fear the harsh attaques of Time, and Oblivion, whose Works have the Honor to wear you in their Frontispiece. Next to the Ambition of being known to your Ladiship, this consideration was the greatest inducement that led me to this boldness ; or as I think, I may rather term it Ambition, since the minutest of your incomparable Perfections could never make so swift an incursion into my thoughts, as not to find them sufSciently prepar'd with a Reverence and Adoration agreeable to so glorious a Reception. I knew that tho Curious Nature had extended her endeavors in the formation of your delicate Body, injoyn'd both it and every Limb about you to an exact Symitry, and pleasing Proportion : Tho she had been lavish of her Allurements in wantonly strewing them about your Wealthy Face, and to compleat the Fabrick, had enobled it with that brisk air and graceful meen, which certainly she has given you a Patent for, since none could ever acquire it but your Self, yet you could not be content with this her bounty, or think your Self perfect with the additional Blessings of Liberal Fate ; you never rated your Self by your Grandure, or took the Dimentions of your worth as others do, by the gilded Coach, gaudie Retinue, and snorting Six These are trifles incident to the most empty Darlings of Impartial Fate. But you are more nobly attended with an illustrious Troop of Sublime Thoughts, and fair Idea's, which tacitly invading your Great Mind, fill it with that Satisfaction & Delight, which none but a Soul as large as your own, is capable to conceive.