Don Saltero’s Coffee House.

This well known coffee-house was first opened in the year 1695, by one Salter, who had been a servant to Sir Hans Sloane, and had accompanied him on his travels. The collection of curiosities, which were principally the gift of his master, being the duplicates of his various curious collections, drew from London a multitude of spectators. It existed for more than a century, and was at length sold by public auction in the year 1799.

In “The Tatler,” No. 34, Sir Richard Steele has given the following humorous description of this once far-famed collection of rarities, and of its eccentric proprietor:—

“Being of a very spare and hective constitution, I am forced to make frequent journies of a mile or two for fresh air; and indeed by this last, which was no further than the village of Chelsea, I am farther convinced of the necessity of travelling to know the world; for, as it is usual with young voyagers, as soon as they land upon a shore, to begin their accounts of the nature of the people, their soil, their government, their inclinations, and their passions, so really I fancied I could give you an immediate description of this village from the Five Fields, where the robbers lie in wait, to the coffee-house, where the literati sit in council. A great ancestor of ours, by the mother’s side, Mr. Justice Overdo, (whose history is written by Ben Johnson,) met with more enormities by walking incognito than he was capable of correcting; and found great mortifications in observing, also, persons of eminence, whom he before knew nothing of: thus it fared with me, even in a place so near the town as this. When I came into the coffee-house, I had not time to salute the company, before my eye was diverted by 10,000 gimcracks round the room, and on the ceiling. When my first astonishment was over, comes to me a sage, of thin and meagre countenance, which aspect made me doubt whether reading or fretting had made it so philosophic; but I very soon perceived him to be of that sect which the ancients call Gingivistæ, in our language, tooth-drawers. I immediately had a respect for the man; for these practical philosophers go upon a very rational hypothesis, not to cure, but to take away the part affected. My love of mankind made me very benevolent to Mr. Salter; for such is the name of this eminent barber and antiquary. Men are usually, but unjustly, distinguished rather by their fortunes than their talents, otherwise their patronage would make a great figure in that class of men which I distinguish under the title of Odd Fellows; but it is the misfortune of persons of great genius to have their faculties dissipated by attention to too many things at once. Mr. Salter is an instance of this; if he would wholly give himself up to the string, instead of playing twenty beginnings to tunes, he might, before he dies play Roger de Caubly quite out. I heard him go through his whole round; and, indeed, I think he does play the Merry Christ Church Bells pretty justly; but he confessed to me, he did that rather to show he was orthodox than that he valued himself upon the music itself. Or if he did proceed in his anatomy, why might he not hope in time to cut off legs, as well as draw teeth?

“The particularity of this man put me into a deep thought, whence it should proceed that, of all the lower order, barbers should go further in hitting the ridiculous than any other set of men: watermen brawl, cobblers sing; but why must a barber be for ever a politician, a musician, an anatomist, a poet, and a physician. The learned Vossius says, his barber used to comb his hair in iambics; and indeed in all ages, one of this useful profession, this order of cosmetic philosophers, has been celebrated by the most eminent hands. You see the barber, in Don Quixote, is one of the principal characters in the history, which gave me satisfaction in the doubt, why Don Saltero writ his name with a Spanish termination; for he is descended in a right line, not from John Tradescant, as he himself asserts, but from that memorable companion of the Knight of Mancha; and I hereby certify, to all the worthy citizens who travel to see his rarities, that his double-barrelled pistols, targets, coats of mails, his sclopeta, and sword of Toledo, were left to his ancestor, by the said ancestor to all his progeny down to Don Saltero. Though I go thus far in favour of Don Saltero’s merit, I cannot allow a liberty he takes of imposing several names (without my licence) on the collections he has made, to the abuse of the good people of England, one of which is particularly calculated to deceive religious persons, to the great scandal of the well-disposed, and may introduce heterodox opinions: he shows you a straw hat, which I know to be made by Madge Peskad, within three miles of Bedford, and tells you it is Pontius Pilate’s wife’s chambermaid’s sister’s hat. To my knowledge of this very hat, it may be added, that the covering of straw was never used among the Jews, since it was demanded of them to make bricks without it.

“Therefore this is really nothing, but, under the specious pretence of learning and antiquity, to impose upon the world. There are other things which I cannot tolerate among his rarities, as the china figure of a lady in the glass case, the Italian engine for the imprisonment of those who go abroad with it; both of which I hereby order to be taken down, or else he may expect to have his letters-patent for making punch superseded, be debarred wearing his muff next winter, or ever coming to London without his wife.

“It may be thought, perhaps, I have dwelt too long upon the affairs of this operator; but I desire the reader to remember that it is my way to consider men as they stand in merit, and not according to their fortune or figure; and if he is in a coffee-house at the reading hereof, let him look round, and he will find there may be more characters drawn in this account than that of Don Saltero; for half the politicians about him, he may observe, are, by their place in nature, of the class of tooth-drawers.”

The curiosities of this collection were deposited in glass-cases, and consisted of a great variety of petrifactions, corals, chrystals, ores, shells, animals preserved in spirits, stuffed animals from various parts of the world, idols, curious Chinese manuscripts, missals, birds, snakes, butterflies, medals, models, fire-arms, fishes, portraits, prints, &c.

A catalogue of the whole was printed, with the names of the donors affixed; and under the management of skilful hands this collection could not have failed to produce ample remuneration and profit.

Such collections, aided by those of Tradescant, Ashmole, and Thoresby, cherished the infancy of science, and should not be depreciated now, as the playthings of a boy are scorned after he has arrived at manhood. Mr. Pennant’s ancestor, who lived at Chelsea, often took his great nephew, Mr. Pennant’s father, to the coffee-house, where he used to see poor Richard Cromwell, a little and very neat old man, with a most placid countenance, the effect of his innocent and unambitious life. He imagines this was Don Saltero’s coffee-house, to which he was a benefactor, and has the honour of having his name mentioned in the collection. [111]

Mr. Pennant, when a boy, saw “his uncle’s gift to the great Saltero,” which was “a lignified hog.” What Mr. Pennant thus facetiously denominates, is called, in the edition of Saltero’s catalogue that we have seen, “a piece of a root of a tree that grew in the shape of an hog.” He feared this matchless curiosity was lost; at least, it is omitted in the last, or forty-seventh edition of the catalogue.

What author, except Mr. Pennant, can flatter himself with delivering his works down to posterity in impressions so numerous as the labours of Don Saltero?

The name of Don Saltero made its first appearance in the newspaper, June 22nd, 1723; whence the following account of himself and his rarities is extracted.

“Sir, fifty years since to Chelsea great,
From Rodman, on the Irish main,
I stroll’d, and maggots in my pate,
Where, much impro’d, they still remain.
Through various employes I’ve past,
A scraper, virtuos’, projector,
Tooth drawer, trimmer, and at last
I’m now a gimcrack-whim collector.
Monsters of all sorts here are seen,
Strange things in nature as they grow so,
Some relics of the Sheha queen,
And fragments of the fam’d Bob Crusoe.
Knick-knacks, too, dangle round the wall,
Some in glass cases, some on shelf,
But what’s the rarest right of all,
Your humble servant shows himself.
On this my chiefest hope depends,
Now if you will the cause espouse,
In journals pray direct your friends
To my Museum Coffee-House:
And, in requital for the timely favour,
I’ll gratis bleed, draw teeth, and be your shaver.
Nay, that your pate may with my noddle tarry,
And you shine bright as I do—marry, shall ye
Freely consult your Revelation Molly.
Nor shall one jealous thought create a huff,
For she has taught me manners long enough.”

Chelsea Knackatory.

DON SALTERO.

Dr. Franklin, in his Life, mentions coming to Chelsea to see Don Saltero’s collection:—“We one day (says he) made a party to go by water to Chelsea, in order to see the College, and Don Saltero’s curiosities. On our return, at the request of the company, I undressed myself, and leaped into the river. I swam from near Chelsea the whole way to Blackfriars Bridge, exhibiting, during my course, a variety of feats of activity and address, both upon the surface of the water as well as under it. The sight occasioned much astonishment and pleasure to those to whom it was new. In my youth I took great delight in this exercise.”

This noted coffee-house was for many years, in the present century, conducted in a most respectable manner. There was a subscription room, where gentlemen met and conversed, and which was frequently visited by men of literature and science, many of whom are still living, but of late years it had lost the celebrity of former days. It was rebuilt in 1867, is now a capital private residence.

Henry Redhead Yorke, Esq.—This accomplished scholar died at his residence, at No. 19, Cheyne Walk, in 1813, in the 41st year of his age. He was a great classical scholar. In his youth as he himself expressed it, he was “madly in love with ideal liberty.” He became an officer in the French army, and a member of the National Convention, and personally acquainted with all the leading characters of the French Revolution. He was denounced by Robespierre; and but for a friendly hint from the celebrated Condorcet, must have been guillotined, had he been one hour longer in making his escape.

In the month of March, 1798, he was liberated from Dorchester Castle, after an imprisonment of four years, for a seditious libel. He had paid a fine of £200, and entered into securities for £2,000.

Some years previous to his death his political ideas became moderated, and he manifested a strong sense of the value of the British constitution. He had been called to the bar; a profession for which he was highly qualified, and in which there was every reason to hope he would have risen to high eminence, had his life been prolonged. Indeed, the zeal with which he devoted himself to his various professional pursuits, hastened, if it did not bring on, the disorder which put a period to his existence at the comparative early age of forty-one years. As a classical scholar, and nervous elegant writer, he has left few equals. His letters, under the signature of “Galgacus,” have scarcely been surpassed since the days of Junius. In private life, Mr. Yorke was distinguished for benevolence and liberality of sentiment, openness of character, and his company was courted by men of all parties.

Francis Chalmer, Esq., (son of Edmund Chalmer, Esq.,) resided in Cheyne Row for a great many years. He was a magistrate for the county, and highly esteemed in the parish. As a gentleman he was affable and courteous, and kind to the poor. He died at his house in Cheyne Row, in July, 1859, and was interred in the Brompton Cemetery.

Leigh Hunt, Esq., the well-known author of many interesting works, and who was the associate of the most distinguished political as well as literary men of the earlier part of the present century, occupied a house in Upper Cheyne Row for a considerable time.

Miss Frances Elizabeth Eggleton, and Miss Christian Mary Eggleton, lived in Cheyne Walk. They were the daughters of Mr. David Eggleton, of Church Street, a very old Chelsea family. The former lady died in 1861, and the latter in 1867. Miss Frances Eggleton bequeathed a sum of money, to be given at her sister’s death to the Rector and Churchwardens, in trust, for them to give, on Christmas Eve, “a shoulder of mutton of not less than seven pounds in weight, and not exceeding eight pounds in weight, and four pounds of bread, to each of twenty poor persons of Chelsea, being married persons and having a family.” An extract from her will, respecting this gift, will be inserted amongst the other parochial legacies.

Charles Rawlings, Esq., who resided in Cheyne Walk for many years, was much respected in the parish, and was of a most benevolent disposition. His deed of gift in 1862, and the legacies in 1864, will be found in the list of Chelsea Charities.

Dr. Bayford, a distinguished proctor, and father of the present Dr. Bayford, resided with his family in a spacious house, within a few doors of Manor Street. His sons, in their younger days, were particularly attached to aquatic exercises.

Nathaniel Handford, Esq., an old and respected parishioner, resided also in Cheyne Walk, where he died. Mrs. Sarah Handford, his relict, who did not very long survive him, left several small legacies, in 1865, to various charitable societies in the parish.

W. Carpenter, Esq., well-known in literary circles, and who has long been connected with the press, resided likewise within the last few years in Cheyne Walk.

R. E. N. Lee, Esq., occupied the house at the corner of Manor Street, (now in possession of Dr. Sannemann,) for a considerable period. He was Steward of the Manor for eighteen years. He died in 1833, and in St. Luke’s Church there is a tablet to his memory. No family was more respected in Chelsea.

Mr. J. Fraine, a solicitor, resided at No. 13, in Cheyne Walk, and died in 1785, aged 70. The history of this gentleman and his family was marked by some very uncommon circumstances. He was himself afflicted with a continual gnawing pain in his left arm, which he carried on a board in a sling; and by pinching his jaws and throat, and beating his right cheek through the violence of the pain, he had marked them very much. He compared the sensation to a worm in the marrow of the upper bone of his arm, and used to keep a boy to beat it with a stick whenever the pain returned, and to tap on the back of his head with a piece of wood covered with cloth. Mr. Fraine’s death was occasioned by the fall on his right thigh of a leaden weight, with which he was exercising as a remedy for his complaint; the injury brought on a speedy mortification. This extraordinary case was fully described in a letter, subsequently written by Dr. Monsey. The calamities of this unhappy gentleman extended also to his son and daughter, both of whom fell by their own hands.

Mr. Fraine’s only son. King Samuel, an amiable, accomplished young man, who received his education at Christ Church, Cambridge, put an end to his existence at his chambers in the Temple, in 1799, aged 22 years, for which no reason can be assigned but disappointment in love.

Miss Fraine, whose duteous attention to her tortured and frequently impatient father was most exemplary, after the dreadful catastrophe of her brother’s suicide, not wholly unaccountable from hereditary irregularities of system, seemed to have a dread (not aversion) of marriage. The tendency of her social feelings, strictly regulated and controlled by the reserve of modesty and the dignity of virtue, almost irresistibly inclined her best affections towards wedlock; whilst her extremely sensitive forethought shunned the general result of engagements ennobling to mankind in general, but appalling in many lights to herself.

During this state of mind, repeatedly avowing her contempt for birds, cats, and dogs, she expressed great attachment for infant children. Miss Fraine, in 1780, frequently expressed to a very near neighbour her ardent wish that a particular child were placed under her own sole and immediate management. “I cannot safely marry,” she would often observe, “but I shall undertake the charge of an infant’s education with delight.”

After making many serious colloquial attempts to reason against such an intention, the Rev. Weeden Butler sent some sportive lines to the highly gifted and unfortunate lady. It succeeded so far as to repress any further application by the lady, but her feelings remained the same. The following elegant jeu-d’esprit was written with similar effect. She appears to have possessed great sensibility of feeling without adequate reflection.

SALE OF A DAUGHTER,

In fairy guise and playful mood,
Euphrania, young and fair, and good,
Vows, if her friends a price would set
Upon their daughter Harriet,
Herself the gift of Heaven would buy,
And cherish it beneath her eye.
Does, then, Euphrania mean to say,
(If we would cast our young away,
Like ostriches) she’d prove a mother,
And rear the nestling of another?

Ye powers, it is a strange temptation!
Let us not treat it with flirtation.
Come, think upon it well, dear wife;
We love our offspring as our life.
Euphrania’s offer is adoption:
Take it, or leave it, is our option.

Heigho! I read your tearful eye,
“For the babe’s good we must comply.”
’Tis said, ’tis done. Now, in a trice,
Let us determine well the price;
And, shunning all superfluous joke,
Settle the worth of infant folk.
The bargain is as clear as water;
Full many a one has sold a daughter.

The consent of the parents having thus been obtained, the price to be given for the infant daughter is the next consideration. The following is a summary of the supposed value of the child:—

Imprimis. For a hazel eye, And tongue that never told a lie, &c.	£52	10
Item, for pranks and wanton wiles, Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles, &c.	80	0
Item, for filial obedience, One of our daughter’s chief ingredients, &c.	100	0
Then, item, for her race and name, Nearly in value both the same, &c.	200	0
Item, for every hope and fear That hitherto hath chequer’d care, &c.	67	10
	£500	0

For such a sale, to us are due
A Bond, and final Judgment too;
From you the former may be given,
The latter must be left to . . . Heaven.

Advised, pressed, solicited, nay, perhaps, commanded by an anxious father, this lady at last married. Soon afterwards she grew melancholy and desponding, and fell by her own hand, at her residence at Richmond, in the year 1785. She married Captain Fortescue.

Dr. Dominiceti’s Baths.—The dwelling house afterwards occupied by the Rev. Weeden Butler, a few doors from Flood Street, Cheyne Walk, was once inhabited by one Dominiceti, an Italian physician, of very considerable notoriety and talents. At this house he established medicinal baths for the cure of all diseases; and it was fitted up with pipes, &c., for the accommodation of numerous patients, who might choose to reside with him while they were under his care. In 1765 it is described as a large, pleasant, and convenient house, which contains four spacious and lofty parlours, two dining rooms, and thirteen bed chambers. On the east side of the garden, and directly communicating with the house, was erected an elegant brick and wooden building, 100-ft. long, and 16-ft. wide, in which were the baths and fumigatory stoves, etc. It appears, from his own account, that he expended about £37,000 altogether in erecting, contriving, and completing his house, and baths in Cheyne Walk.

Among his visitors and patients, at Chelsea, was his Royal Highness Edward Duke of York, who entrusted the preservation of his life to Dominiceti’s sole direction for above a month; and that in direct opposition to the advice of the Physicians and Surgeons of the Royal household. Sir John Fielding, having experienced the good effects, as he considered, of these baths, wrote a “Vindication of Dr. Dominiceti’s Practice of removing various afflicting diseases by medicated baths, stoves, fumigations, and frictions, founded on facts.”

Dominiceti resided for several years in Chelsea. He became bankrupt in the parish in 1782, and at length disappeared, overwhelmed with debt.

We will now notice one of the most distinguished scholars and clergymen of the early part of the present century, the Rev. Weeden Butler, who resided in the above-mentioned house for a great many years, and also one of his sons, etc., until a comparatively recent period, and which cannot fail to be highly interesting to a large number of readers.

The Rev. Weeden Butler was born at Margate, in 1742. When aged fourteen, he lost both his parents; and with his own free will was articled as clerk to Mr. Rosewell, a respectable solicitor, in Angel Court, Throgmorton Street, London. At the expiration of his term, he was offered by his considerate late master and constant friend till death, a share in the business; but he had determined to renounce for ever the profession of the law, and resolved, by intense study and application, to improve his superior intellectual powers, and ardently to prepare himself for holy orders. About this time, he frequented all the churches and chapels within and around the vast metropolis, as an enquirer after truth. The result of his search fixed his choice, and he devoted his time thenceforth, as a firm member of the Establishment, upon the fullest conviction of its excellence. The course of his classical and theological reading was directed by that splendidly and variously gifted, but most unhappy character, Dr. William Dodd, to whom, for a salary of small extent, he acted as an assiduous amanuensis, till his patron’s ignominious death, in 1777.

Dr. Dodd’s “Commentary on the Holy Bible,” was partly compiled, and wholly written out for the press, by the then unknown Rev. Weeden Butler, who also greatly assisted in editing the four last volumes of “The Christian’s Magazine,” and corrected the proof sheets of the poem, in blank vase, “Thoughts in Prison,” of which Dr. Dodd’s own MS. was in the possession of Mr. Butler’s eldest son in 1829–30. In this last singularly affecting composition occur lines indicative of the worth of the person eulogized, and of the author’s gratitude:—

“But I am lost! a criminal adjudg’d!
A guilty miscreant! can’st thou think, my friend!
Oh! Butler ’midst a million faithful found;
Oh! can’st thou think, who know’st, who long hast known,
My inmost soul; oh! can’st thou think, that life,” &c.

Dr. Dodd resigned his office of Morning Preacher, in Charlotte Street Chapel, Pimlico, in February, 1776, and at his strong recommendation, Dr. Courtney nominated the deserving Reader, Mr. Butler, who was licensed Morning Preacher accordingly; and afterwards by purchase he became proprietor of the chapel, officiating therein up to the year 1814. When the subject of the present article retired from Chelsea, to Gayton; where he piously discharged the duties of curate to his second son, till his increasing infirmities compelled him to resign this his last charge, and he finally withdrew to Greenhill, in the neighbourhood of Harrow, where he died.

He was master of the school in Cheyne Walk for forty years; where many persons of considerable rank had been so thoroughly grounded in morality and general learning as to become bright ornaments to their country. Amongst other scholars, the Rev. Weeden Butler had the gratification of seeing his two sons treading assiduously in his own paths. The Rev. G. Butler, D.D., in 1805, was chosen Head Master of Harrow School, and continued as such, with great reputation, for many years.

The elder Mr. Butler was one of the earliest institutors of the “Society for the Discharge and Relief of Persons imprisoned for small debts,” and most materially assisted James Neild, Esq., his next door neighbour, in firmly establishing that excellent Institution. The friendship, indeed, which existed between these two benevolent characters, cannot be better exemplified and attested than by the following few extracts from a letter written by Mr. Neild, dated Chelsea, January 1, 1808.

“When I look back to the distant period of our lives, and observe, that, of the first Committee of the Society, you, Rev. Sir, and myself, remain the only survivors, I cannot but feel the most powerful, and, at the same time, the most humble gratitude to the Great Disposer of all human events, for having suffered me to live and witness the happy result of our early and well-meant endeavours. * * * * With growing and well-merited esteem, Sir, I witnessed your successful exertions in behalf of the Society, at its earliest institution. Often have I felt the influence acknowledged by all who have heard the eloquent and impressive discourses which you have delivered from the pulpit, in recommendation of the objects embraced by this Charity, and never can the gratifying recollection be effaced which beamed from every countenance around you, when you mentioned the receipt of £100 from an eminent advocate for suffering humanity.” Mr. Neild concludes by referring to the promotion of Mr. Butler’s son (Dr. Butler), which he considers to be the reward of his virtues; of those early advances which his father’s tuition enabled him to make in literature, and to the purity of his Christian principles.

In 1787 he instituted the Chelsea Sunday Schools, with the sanction of the Rev. W. B. Cadogan. His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent had a great regard for Mr. Butler, and appointed him one of his domestic chaplains. Hardly one charitable Society in London existed, to which his popular oratory did not essentially contribute credit and profit. He died in a good old age, and his remains were placed in the family vault at Chelsea. The Rev. Weeden Butler, his eldest son, occupied the same house for many years afterwards, as also the son of the latter, Thomas Butler, Esq., who was much esteemed by a numerous circle of friends while he resided in Cheyne Walk. The whole of this family were remarkable for their classical attainments and love of literature. The Rev. T. Helmore, Precentor, St. Mark’s College, has since resided in Mr. Butler’s house.

A very fine portrait of Dr. Dodd, painted by Gainsborough, and a large quarto volume of the doctor’s unedited poems, in MS., bound, including a tragedy, called “The Syracusans,” and a comedy, called “Sir Roger de Coverly,” were left by Mr. Butler, to his legatees. The portrait is the only likeness extant The Rev. Philip Dodd, and the Rev. Weeden Butler (eldest son of Mr. Butler), possessed all the Doctor’s unprinted sermons.

James Neild, Esq., who resided at No. 4, Cheyne Walk, was born in 1744, at Knutsford, in Cheshire, in the neighbourhood of which his family had some good estates. He came to London, and was placed with Mr. Hemming, the King’s goldsmith, but after a short time, he removed to a jeweller’s. In 1770 he settled in St. James’s Street, and continued there till the year 1792, when finding his health declining, and having recently lost his wife, he retired from business to Chelsea, with an ample fortune.

The attention of Mr. Neild, very early in life, was drawn to the distressed state of persons imprisoned for debt; the endeavour to alleviate which soon became his favorite pursuit, and one which he followed with intense application.

In 1773, having previously visited most of the prisons in England, and many on the continent, he was, together with his benevolent friends, Dr. John C. Lettson, and the Rev. Weeden Butler, chiefly instrumental in instituting the Society for the Relief and Discharge of Persons imprisoned for small debts. In 1812 he published “The State of the Prisons,” in a quarto volume, a work teeming with valuable information. Mr. Neild died in 1814, and was buried in Battersea Church. He married a daughter of John Camden, Esq., of that parish.

John Camden Neild, Esq., was a magistrate for the county, and the son of the preceding. He resided in his late father’s house in Cheyne Walk, and bequeathed half a million of money to Queen Victoria. He died in 1852.

John Goss, Esq., the present organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral, lived at No. 3, Cheyne Walk. He was appointed Organist of St. Luke’s New Church, when that sacred edifice was completed. His proficiency, even at that early period of his musical life, excited general admiration, and large portions of the congregation frequently waited in the Church, at the close of Divine Service, to listen to his concluding performances.

There are several highly respectable families, who have for many years resided in Cheyne Walk, of whom it would have been only an act of justice to notice, but the strict rules of propriety prevent my discharging an otherwise pleasing duty, which, in some instances especially, is much to be regretted, as they take a deep interest in the promotion of whatever tends to enhance the welfare of the parish.