Mr. Robert Farrier, a celebrated artist and portrait painter, has resided in Hemus Terrace for some years. He is a very old inhabitant, and much respected.
Chelsea Royal Hospital.
On the site of this noble establishment—the home of our military veterans—was originally a college or place of education for controversial divines. It was projected by Dr. Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, in the reign of James I. The king was one of its best patrons, and supported it by various grants and benefactions; he himself laid the first stone of the edifice, in 1609; gave timber requisite for the building, and ordered that when erected it should be called “King James’s College at Chelsey.” Thus fortified, Dean Sutcliffe experienced no difficulty in obtaining from Charles, Earl of Nottingham, an advantageous lease of a plot of land which the latter held under the Crown, and which was called “Thame Shot,” for which he paid the yearly rent of seven pounds ten shillings. A charter of incorporation was granted, which limited the number of its members to a provost and nineteen fellows, of whom seventeen were to be in holy orders, the other two might be laymen. Their employment was to consist in noticing and recording the principal historical and religious events which might occur during the time they remained in office; but none of the members, on being elected bishops, could be permitted to retain their fellowships; by this charter, also, the college was enabled to use a corporate seal. The building, however, progressed but slowly. The Dean’s funds became exhausted; the proceeds of the king’s letter proved small. Out of two quadrangles which it was contemplated to erect, and of which the lesser was to be internally surrounded by a piazza, only a portion of one side was completed. Still the number of those who took an interest in the matter daily increased, and were far from despairing. “The work we confess,” says Darley, “hitherto proceeded slowly; and no marvel, seeing great works are not easily achieved. Noah’s Ark, God’s Tabernacle and Temple, &c., were long in building; and do we wonder that this college is not finished?”
Several causes contributed to render the king’s appeal through the medium of the bishops of slight avail. In the first place, the expenses attending the collection of briefs were then inordinate. The money, after it had been gathered, passed through many hands, each of which took care to attach a portion to itself; while the efforts made about the same time to push forward the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral stood very much in the way of the completion of King James’s College. [188] With James I. died the only conscientious supporter, excepting the founder, and a few churchmen; the death of Sutcliffe was a deadly blight upon the prospects of his infant college. It was afterwards converted into a place for prisoners of war; and, with the manor, of which the Parliament took forcible possession, was ultimately put up to sale. Darley says, “It became a cage of unclean beasts, a stable for horses; and not only a place to make leaden guns in, but desired also for a palcestra to manage great horses and to practise horsemanship.” A print of the original design of this college was prefixed to a small book, called “The Glory of Chelsey College,” by John Darley, B.D., Rector of Northill, Cornwall. 1662. Archbishop Laud called it sneeringly “Controversy College.”
In 1667, Charles II. resolved on granting this college to the Royal Society, which was about that time incorporated. And as a grant of the manor of Chelsea had been made to the Duke of Hamilton by Charles I., the heirs of that nobleman now conveyed it to Andrew Cole, in trust, for that learned body. The Society, however, did not hold their sittings in it, probably from its dilapidated state; they ultimately conveyed it, in 1681, to Sir Stephen Fox, for the king’s use, in order to build Chelsea Hospital, for the sum of £1,300.
I will now give a description of the establishment of Chelsea Hospital. The building, as it now stands, was begun by Charles II., continued during the short reign of his successor, and completed by William and Mary.
It has been just stated that the site of King James’s College was purchased of the Royal Society for the purpose of erecting this Hospital; but not being found sufficient, the lands lying between the College and the river Thames, and that in front of the present Hospital, now called Burton’s Court, were also purchased of Lord Cheyne and Sir Thomas Grosvenor, for about the sum of £1100. About twenty-two acres of this land, lying on the eastern side, were, in 1690, granted by the Crown to the Earl of Ranelagh.
There are several pleasing legends told as to the origin of Chelsea Hospital. The following is one of them:—The King was sitting in his chariot, with poor Nell Gwynne, when observing her unusually pensive, he asked:
“What ails thee, Nell?”
She replied: “A dream I had last night, troubleth me sore.”
“What was thy dream, Nell?”
“Methought I was in the fields at Chelsea, and slowly and majestically there rose before mine eyes, a beautiful palace of a thousand chambers; and in and out thereat walked divers many old and worn-out soldier-men. Some had lost a leg, some an arm, others were blind of an eye, many bore piteous scars of old wounds in the wars, upon their wrinkled faces, and all of them were aged, and past service. But none of them looked ill-at-ease, and as they went out, and as they came in, the old men cried, ‘God bless King Charles!’ and I awoke, and was sore discomfitted, that it was only a dream!”
“Cheer up, Nelly,” said the King. “Thy dream shall be fulfilled, mayhap, thou shalt yet see old soldiers come in, and go out, crying, ‘God bless King Charles!’ The monarch did violence to his infirmity, and kept his word.”
No appeal seems to have been made to the public at large, as was the case with King James’s College; but while the voluntary contributions of the charitable were received with gratitude, the troops were, to a certain extent, burdened with the expenses of the asylum from which they were themselves to derive the sole benefit. From the pay given to these, a deduction was made of one shilling in the pound; which, being divided into three equal parts, was one to defray the expenses of the Paymaster’s office, one to the general use of the soldiers, and one to the accumulation of a fund, first, for the building, and ultimately for the maintenance of the hospital. By giving to this a retrospective effect, so as to include the whole of the year 1680, and strengthened by donations of £1,300 from Sir Stephen Fox, of £1,000 from Tobias Rustas, Esq., of £1,000 from Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, and of nearly £7,000 from the Secret Service Fund, the projectors of the establishment had at their disposal a sum of £17,012 14s. 7d. with which they determined to make a beginning.