ILLUSTRATIONS.
| PAGE | |
| Knightsbridge, the Site of Albert Gate | Frontispiece |
| The Westbourne, from the Park | [22] |
| Colours of the Knightsbridge Volunteers | [39] |
| Trinity Chapel | [62] |
| St. Paul’s Church | [94] |
| The Westbourne, looking north from Knightsbridge | [101] |
| The Cake House | [122] |
| Fort at Hyde Park Corner | [128] |
| Oak planted by Charles II. | [130] |
| Hyde Park Corner, 1824 | [131] |
| Queen’s Buildings | [172] |
| Half-Way House | [179] |
| Lanesborough House | [181] |
| The Lock Hospital | [238] |
| Lock Chapel | [241] |
ERRATUM
Page [235], line 19, for “Grosvenor Row” read “Grosvenor Place.” [0]
CHAPTER I.
“Instructed by the Antiquary Times,
We are, we must, we cannot but be wise.”Shakspeare.
Knightsbridge and Pimlico form the only suburbs west of the metropolis, whose history remains unwritten. This neglect, perhaps, is owing to the fact that neither place, till of late, assumed sufficient importance to attract the topographical writer; nevertheless, I trust the following pages will show that Knightsbridge is far from destitute of associations deserving to be recovered and saved from the ravages of time.
The derivation of its name is somewhat obscure: the earliest mention of the place I am acquainted with occurs in a charter of Edward the Confessor, in which it is called Kyngesbyrig; in one of Abbot Herbert of Westminster, nearly a century later, it is spelt Knyghtsbrigg. It is similarly written in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Edward III. The difficulty lies in the transposition from “Kyngesbyrig” to “Knyghtsbrigg.” The former sufficiently indicates its origin; and to avoid perplexity tradition comes opportunely to our aid, to point out the latent allusion in the latter.
Knightsbridge, of course, must have its legend. No place in the kingdom exists but must have some story to tell; and if it cannot show a castle built by Cæsar, and battered down by Cromwell, recourse must be had elsewhere for such. Well, then, our legend tells, that in some ancient time certain knights had occasion to go from London to wage war for some holy purpose: light in heart, if heavy in arms, they passed through Knightsbridge on their way to receive the blessing awarded to the faithful by the Bishop at Fulham. From some cause, however, a quarrel ensued between two of the band, and a combat was determined on to decide the dispute. They fought on the bridge which spanned the stream, while from its banks the struggle was watched by their partisans. Both, the legend tells, fell; and ever after the place was called Knightsbridge, in remembrance of their fatal feud.
If this old story, which I many times have heard related, has tempted us into the realms of fancy for awhile, another derivation of a totally opposite kind will speedily drive us therefrom; according to this, the name comes from the word “Neat,” signifying cattle, and refers to a time when beasts for the London citizens were ordered to be slain here.