Notes.
SOME NOTES ON ARUNDEL HOUSE, STRAND, AND ON THE DISPERSION OF SCULPTURES FORMERLY PART OF THE ARUNDELIAN COLLECTION.
The celebrated Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, was son of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel—the faithful and constant, who being persecuted for his religion, was suffered by Queen Elizabeth to languish in the Tower, where he died in 1595—and great-grandson of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the accomplished nobleman who was beheaded in 1547 by "the Nero of the Tudor race." Thomas Howard was restored, as your readers know, to the earldom of Arundel by James I., and in the reign of that king and of Charles I., who held him in veneration, received other honours and employments, but was yet more distinguished by his munificent patronage of the arts and of learning. He is called "the only great subject of the northern parts, who by his conversation and great collections set a value" upon transalpine lands; and he began about 1614 to decorate with the precious and costly works of art which he had collected in Greece and in his beloved Italy, the gardens and galleries of his quaint old palace in London, called Arundel House.
This mansion, or rather collection of buildings, the site of which had been taken from the see of Bath in the time of "Protector" Somerset, appears from Hollar's Views (as is stated by Mr. Cunningham in his admirable Handbook of London Past and Present) to have comprised a range of irregular buildings, principally of red brick, erected at various periods, and combined without much regard to elegance or uniformity; although I find the earl is said to have been the first person who introduced uniformity in building, and to have been made chief commissioner for promoting this object in London. This famous, and once hospitable, mansion, stood between the gardens of Essex House on the east, and of Somerset (then Denmark) House on the west, its pleasure grounds coming down to the river, and commanding a fine view of the city as far as London Bridge, and of Westminster, and westward to Nine Elms. It is mentioned by Mr. Cunningham, that in this house Hollar drew his well-known view of London, as seen from the roof. The earl, of whose taste and munificence the Arundelian collections formed a noble monument, departed this life at Padua, on the 4th of October (or, as another account[1] says, the 26th September), 1646, in the sixty-first year of his age, having been two years before created Earl of Norfolk, in consideration of his lineal descent from Thomas de Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, a younger son of King Edward I., and was interred at Arundel. His will, dated at Dover, 3rd September, 1640, was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and is printed in the Howard Anecdotes. His marbles, medals, statues, books, and pictures (he is said to have possessed "a larger number of Hans Holbein's works than any other person, and to have been the first nobleman who set a value on them in our nation"), formed at that period, says Sir Charles Young,[2] one of the finest and most splendid collections in England. Many of the articles of virtu and of the books were, during his lifetime, in the possession of Alathea, his Countess (who was a third daughter and coheir of Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury), from whom some of them were obtained by his younger son, Sir William Howard, the unfortunate Viscount Stafford (beheaded 1680, on perjured testimony); and a portion of the marble statues and library devolved upon Henry Frederick, his eldest son, who, in his father's lifetime, was summoned to parliament as Lord Mowbray, and succeeded him as Earl of Arundel, and who died in 1652, leaving Thomas, his eldest son, who became Earl of Arundel, Surrey, and Norfolk, and was, at the Restoration in 1660, restored to the dukedom of Norfolk, with limitation to the heirs male of his father. This nobleman died unmarried in 1677, and his brother Henry (who had been created Earl of Norwich, and in 1672 Earl Marshal of England, to him and the heirs male of his body, with other limitations in default) thereupon became sixth Duke of Norfolk. By him the marbles and library were finally dispersed.
[1] Hist. Anecd. of some of the Howard Family, by Mr. Charles Howard of Greystoke, 8vo. Lond. 1769. The writer became Duke of Norfolk on the death of his cousin Edward, eighth duke, in 1777.
[2] In his preface to the Catalogue of MSS. given to the College of Arms by Henry Duke of Norfolk (not published).
The Royal Society had held their meetings since the Fire of London at Arundel House; and John Evelyn, Esq., author of the Sylva, one of the founders of the society, observing in 1667
"these precious monuments miserably neglected, and scattered up and down about the garden and other parts of Arundel House, and how exceedingly the corrosive air of London impaired them,"
induced this nobleman, then Mr. Henry Howard, to bestow on the University of Oxford
"his Arundelian marbles, those celebrated and famous inscriptions, Greek and Latine, gathered with so much cost and industrie from Greece, by his illustrious grandfather the magnificent Earl of Arundel."—Diary, vol. ii. p. 295.
In 1676 Mr. Evelyn induced the Duke to grant to the Royal Society the Arundel library, into which many of the MSS. formerly belonging to Lord William Howard (the famous ancestor of the Earl of Carlisle), who died in 1640, had found their way from Naworth Castle in the lifetime of Thomas, Earl of Arundel. In the same volume of Evelyn's Diary, p. 445., is a minute, under date 29th August, 1678, from which it appears that he was then called to take charge of the books and MSS., and remove to the then home of the Royal Society in Gresham College, such of them as did not relate to the office of Earl Marshal and to heraldry, his grace intending to bestow the books relating to those subjects upon the Heralds' College. It is known, however, that many chronicles and historical MSS. of great value formed part of the donation to the College of Arms; and it would appear from a document in the handwriting of Sir William Dugdale, referred to by Sir Charles Young, that many monastic registers and cartularies which were taken to Gresham College, had nevertheless been intended by the Duke for the College over which, as Earl Marshal, he presided. This nobleman died 1684.
In 1678, according to Mr. Cunningham (who quotes Walpole's Anecdotes, ii. 153.), Arundel House itself was demolished. This was done pursuant to an act of parliament, which had been obtained for the purpose of entailing the estate on heirs male, exempt from being charged with jointures or debts, and empowering the Duke to let a part of the site of the house and gardens to builders, at reserved ground-rents, which were to form a fund for building a mansion for the family on that part of the gardens adjacent to the river. The house was planned by Wren, but the design was laid aside about the year 1690, when Henry, seventh Duke of Norfolk, who was a favourite of William Prince of Orange, obtained an act of parliament empowering him to lease the remainder of the garden-ground for a term of forty-one years, and to appropriate to himself the fund which had accumulated. He accordingly let the ground to Mr. Stone of New Inn, an attorney, and buildings of a very different character to the palatial mansion that had been contemplated, ere long overspread the site of Arundel House. The seventh duke died in 1701. It appears that his friend King William had made him Governor of Windsor Castle; but at his death 12,000l. were due to him for arrears of salary, which sum it is said was never paid.
The museum of objects illustrative of natural history, and great part of the furniture of Arundel House, were removed to Stafford House (situated without Buckingham Gate, where Stafford Row was subsequently built), in which house, in the year 1720, the Duchess of Norfolk, consort of Thomas, eighth Duke, sold an immense quantity of plate, jewels, furniture, pictures, and curiosities. Besides these, however, many family reliques were at that time in the hands of different branches of this noble family, as, for example, the grace-cup of St. Thomas of Canterbury (which had belonged to Thomas Earl of Arundel, and is now in the possession of Philip Henry Howard, Esq., of Corby Castle, M.P.), and the staff of office of High Constable of England, formerly used by the Earl, and which in 1757 was in the possession of the Earl of Stafford.
Of the fate of the marbles which remained at the time of the removal of Arundel House, some interesting particulars are given by Mr. James Theobald in a letter written from Surrey Street, 10th May, 1757, and addressed to Lord Willoughby de Parham, President of the Society of Antiquaries; and believing that these particulars are little known, I will now subjoin them to the somewhat lengthy memoranda which I have written by way of introduction.
"As there were many fine statues, basso-relievos, and marbles, they were received," says Mr. Theobald, "into the lower part of the gardens, and many of them were placed under a colonnade there; and the upper part of the grounds, next the Strand, was let to builders, who continued the street next the Strand, from Temple Bar towards Westminster, and built thereon the several streets called Arundel, Norfolk, and Surrey Streets, leading from the Strand as far as the cross street called Howard Street, which ran parallel therewith. A cross wall was built to separate the ground let for building from that reserved for the family mansion; and many of the workmen, to save the expense of carrying away the rubbish, threw it over this cross wall, where it fell upon the colonnade and at last by its weight broke it down, and falling upon the statues, &c. placed there, broke several of them. A great part of these statues, &c., in that sad condition, were purchased by Sir William Fermor, from whom the present Earl of Pomfret is descended, and he removed them to his seat at Easton Neston in Northamptonshire, where he employed some statuary to repair such as were not too much demolished. There they continued until the year 1755, when the present countess made a present of them to the University of Oxford. In this collection was the famous sleeping Cupid represented lying on a lion's skin to express his absolute dominion over fierceness and strength, some roses being scattered on the skin, probably as emblems of silence and secrecy, as Cupid presented that flower to Harpocrates, the god of silence, as a bribe to him to conceal the amours of his mother, to whom the rose is also supposed to be sacred. Below the foot of Cupid on the cushion is the figure of a lizard, which some have supposed to have been placed here as a known ingredient of great efficacy in love-charms; others, as a proper attendant on those who sleep, from an opinion that this reptile wakes them on approach of danger. But the real design of the sculptor is, rather to perpetuate his name by this symbol, for it was Saurus. The Romans, observing how much the Grecian sculptors excelled them in this art, whenever they employed them to execute any work of this sort forbade them to put, as had been customary, their names to their works; and Pliny tells us that Saurus had recourse to this expedient, by putting the lizard upon this figure, as well as on another which he executed jointly with Batrachus, on which they were not permitted to put their names, therefore they placed on the bases the figures of a frog and a lizard.
"Some other of these broken statues, not thought worth replacing, were begged by one Boyder Cuper, who had been a servant (I think gardener) to the family, and were removed by him to decorate a piece of garden ground which he had taken opposite Somerset water-gate, in the parish of Lambeth,[3] which at that time was a place of resort for the citizens and others in holiday time, still called after him by the name of Cuper's, and thence corruptly Cupid's Gardens, which were much of the same nature as Sadler's Wells and Mary'bone Gardens. Here they continued for a considerable time, till Mr. John Freeman of Fawley Court, near Henley-on-Thames, and Mr. Edward Waller of Beaconsfield, observing something masterly in the designs and drapery of several of them, desired I would treat with Mr. John Cuper for them. I agreed with him for 75l., and soon afterwards they were divided between these two gentlemen, and sent part to Fawley Court, and part to Beaconsfield, where they at present remain.
"What statues and broken fragments yet remained undisposed of in Arundel Gardens, the Duke of Norfolk obtained leave from the Crown to remove across the water, just on the opposite shore, to a piece of waste ground in the manor of Kennington, belonging to the principality of Wales; and one Mr. Arundel, a relation of the Duke's I think, at the latter end of the reign of King Charles II. or King James II., did obtain a grant of the said piece of ground at a small rent for a term of years, which was renewed on paying a fine. (These are again referred to.)
"What were thought not worth removing were buried in the foundations of the buildings in the lower parts of Norfolk Street and the other buildings on the gardens. Mr. Aislabie, who inhabited one of these houses, found a broken statue in his cellar, which he carried to his seat in Yorkshire; and he tells me there is a sarcophagus in the cellar of Mr. James Adamson, who lives in the corner house on the left hand going into the lower part of Norfolk Street.
"As to those carried over the water and laid on the Prince of Wales' ground, Mr. Arundel, soon after he obtained the grant of the ground, let it for a timber-yard, and the person who took it built up a wharf; and when the foundation of St. Paul's was laid (Mr. Cunningham gives 1st May, 1674, as the date when the ground began to be cleared), great quantities of the rubbish were brought over thither to raise the ground which used to be overflowed every spring tide, so that, by degrees, these statues and other marbles were buried under the rubbish, and lay there for many years forgotten. About 1712 this piece of ground was rented by my father, who, on digging foundations, frequently met with some of these broken fragments, which were taken up and laid on the surface of the ground. The late Earl of Burlington having heard of the things which had been dug up, and that they had formed part of the Arundel collection, chose what he pleased and carried them down to Chiswick House, where he placed one piece of basso-relievo on the pedestal of an obelisk he erected there. Some years after this, the Right Hon. Lord Petre, speaking to me about these things of the Earl of Burlington's, told me he had heard that on some parts of my ground there were still many valuable fragments buried, and obtained my leave to employ men to bore the ground. After six days' searching of every part, just as they were going to give over, they fell upon something which gave them hopes, and upon opening the ground they discovered six statues without heads or arms, lying close to each other, some of a colossal size, the drapery of which was thought to be exceedingly fine. These were soon afterwards sent down to Worksop, the seat of his present Grace the Duke of Norfolk, in Nottinghamshire, where they remain.
"There were some few blocks of a greyish veined marble, out of which I endeavoured to cut some chimney-pieces and slabs to lay in my house, the Belvedere in Lambeth parish, over against York Buildings, but the expense was more than their worth; however, as they were cut out, some of them were used. The fragment of a column I carried into Berkshire to my house, Waltham Place, and converted it into a roller for my bowling-green, it being about six feet long and eighteen inches diameter."
[3] Mr. Cunningham mentions that the Waterloo Bridge Road now runs over the very centre of these gardens.
Sic transit gloria mundi!
Such are the particulars recorded by Mr. Theobald. When I met with them lately, I determined on asking a place for this Note in your valuable publication, thinking that its contents might be new to some of even your readers, and might form an acceptable page of topographical illustration.
WILLIAM SIDNEY GIBSON.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Oct. 1851.