A later period brings before us the figure of Lord Crewe; and the Marquis Cornwallis, who was living in Grosvenor Street for five years (1793-8) before he went to reside in Grafton Street; and William Huskisson, whose tragic death saddened the inauguration of the first railway line in England. Samuel Whitehead was another old Parliamentary hand who was living here in 1800, as was Sir Humphrey Davy (at No. 28) eighteen years later, and before he removed to his last residence in Park Street, on the other side of the Square; and still later, that fashionable physician of the day, Matthew Baillie, whose merits, Moore, and Rogers (who once said that “bile and Baillie were his only companions”) were never tired of advertising.
BRUTON STREET.
As we return southwards again, by way of Bond Street, we come to Bruton Street, which faces Conduit Street, but was not formed till nearly fifteen years after that thoroughfare.
As in most of the streets in this quarter there are several fine old houses to be found here, two of them, Nos. 17 and 22, being particularly noticeable. Here the great Duke of Argyle and Greenwich drew his last breath, in 1743. Six years later Horace Walpole came from Bolton Row to live here, many years before he succeeded to that title which he affected to consider such a weariness to the flesh.
But a greater than Walpole makes Bruton Street memorable, for here, in the year in which George III. ascended the throne, was residing William Pitt; so, too, some quarter of a century later, was Sheridan before he went to one of many subsequent residences in George Street, Whitehorse Street, Queen Street, and Savile Row.
Indeed Bruton Street seems always to have been a favourable resort of statesmen, and among lesser lights of the political world—and few will find fault at being placed among the smaller constellations by the side of such planets as Sheridan and Pitt—we find living here at various times Lord Hobhouse, Lord Granville, Lord Chancellor Cottenham, and, perhaps another planet, George Canning, in 1809, after he had left Maddox Street. Painting has been represented by William Owen, R.A., who died here in 1825; and medicine, by Sir Matthew Tierney, who was a resident in 1841.
GRAFTON STREET.
As we approach the Piccadilly end of Bond Street, only one more turning intervenes before we stand again at Stewart’s Corner; this is the small Grafton Street, forming as it were a boundary to both Albemarle and Dover Streets, which run into it. It takes its name from that Duke of Grafton who lived in the family mansion at the corner of Clarges Street, and who was associated with Lord Grantham in 1735, in the purchase of the property through which it runs.
Not always has it borne even the title of a street, for once it was known as “Ducking Pond Row,” which would seem to indicate the vicinity of fields and one of those pieces of water in which recalcitrant spouses, when the “scold’s bridle” failed in effect, were solemnly placed in a “ducking stool,” and lowered into watery depths until their powers of “nagging” were deemed to have been thoroughly eradicated.
At a still later date, 1767 to wit, Grafton Street was known as “Evans Row,” but its more euphonious title has long since been restored to it. London knows it chiefly on account of the Grafton Galleries which are situated at No. 7, and which annually attract crowds of art lovers. The celebrated Dilettanti Society and their fine collection of portraits are now housed here. Several clubs, notably the Turf, the Green Park Club, and the New Club, have their headquarters in Grafton Street, the latter club in the house, No. 4, in which Lord Brougham lived and died in 1848, after he had left Berkeley Square.