The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume II / Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia Thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &c. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts.

by Freiherr von Karl Ludwig Pöllnitz

Grosvenor’s Square, which is just finished, is even larger than St. James’s Square, and its Houses are much more magnificent. In the middle of the Garden is the Statue of King George I. on Horseback, of Lead, gilt, and indeed very ill executed. Of the many Statues that there are in London, the best is that of Charles I. represented on Horseback in Brass. It owes its Preservation to a sort of Miracle: The Usurper Cromwell having caused it to

be pulled down, and exposed to Sale, a Founder, who happen’d to be a zealous Royalist, bought it, and buried it under Ground, till the Restoration of Charles II. to whom he made a Present of it; and this Prince caused it to be set up at Charing-Cross, where it still continues. When I see it, I always look upon it as an Image that has escap’d the Fury of the Iconoclastes.

Since, the Accession of the Hanover Family to the Throne of Great Britain, London is infinitely larger than it was. There’s one intire Quarter goes by the Name of Hanover. The Parliament being apprehensive, that in Process of Time the Town would grow too big to support itself, pass’d an Act some Years ago for restraining the building on new Foundations; and if this had been done twenty Years ago, this City would nevertheless have been too large.

I say nothing to you of the other Squares, because my Design is only to give you a general Idea of London, and not a very exact Plan, that being a Business which I leave to some Traveller who is better instructed. Besides, to tell you the plain Truth, I am quite weary of entertaining you with Towers and Walls. Therefore I shall only say a Word or two more as to Houses and Churches. The House of the Duke of Montagu, Son-in-Law to the late Duke of Marlborough, is the most considerable. The Apartments are large and well laid out, and the Cielings exceeding fine, particularly those of the great Stair-case and Salon, wherein the Story of Phaethon is represented in a wonderful Manner. But all these fine Apartments are not furnish’d, and ’tis even said, that the Duke intends to lett his House to the Count de Montijo, the Spanish Ambassador.

Of the modern Churches that of St. James, which is the Parochial Church of the Court, is the

finest, having a Portico before it, supported by Columns, after the Manner of the Rotunda at Rome.

The Abby Church of Westminster, in which the Kings are crown’d and interred, is a great Fabric, which contains the Tombs of several Kings, and other Persons illustrious either for their Birth or Merit. Henry the VIIth’s Chapel, wherein that wise King is interred with his Queen, is very magnificent, as is also the Tomb of the Dukes of Newcastle. That of the late Mr. Craggs, who was Secretary of State to King George the Ist, is plain, but of a beautiful Contrivance: It represents that Minister in the Grecian Manner, and leaning in a very noble Attitude upon an Urn. The famous St. Evremont has a Place here amongst the Men of Learning: The Representation of him is in Form of a large Medal, on which there is a short Inscription, denoting that this Mausoleum was erected for him by his Friend my Lord Galloway.

Amongst the Reliques which are still preserved in this Church, there is one, which for its Antiquity, I believe, has not its Equal, it being the Stone which served for Jacob’s Pillar, when he dreamt of that mysterious Ladder which reached up to Heaven. This precious Relique is very much neglected, and I cannot imagine how it came to be so abandoned by that pious King James II. The English would do well to make a Present of it to the Republic of Venice, where this Stone would quadrate exactly with the Piece of Moses’s Rock in St. Mark’s Church. The Cardinal Cienfuegos shew’d me a Piece of it, when I was last at Rome: He told me, that he stole it in his Return from Portugal, where he had been Ambassador, when he came to London with a Commission from the Emperor to King George I. He added, that it was the only Robbery he was ever guilty of in his Life; and that he should have been exceeding

scrupulous of committing it, if this Stone had been as much honour’d in England as it deserved; but that finding it neglected and despised, he could not help filching a Piece of it, which he was so fortunate as to strike off with a Key, at the very Nick of Time when the Keeper of it happen’d to be looking another way. I told him, that I did not think that he needed to have been so very scrupulous of this Theft; that I was persuaded, that if he had given the Keeper a Guinea at most, he might have had a much greater Piece; and that perhaps for a Trifle more he might have brought away the whole Stone. O Lord! cry’d the Cardinal, lifting up his Eyes to Heaven, I wish then I had purchased it.

In Westminster Abbey I also saw the Stone Chair which Edward I. that proud Conqueror of Scotland, caused to be brought from the Abbey of Scoon to that of Westminster, in order to give the Scots to understand that they had no longer any Sovereign Power in their Country. Ever since that Time the Kings of England have made it a Rule to be seated in that Chair on the Day of their Coronation.