Teresa Cornellys was a native of Germany; and early showing an inclination to music, was brought up to it as a profession, and soon became celebrated on the Continent as a public singer. Having accumulated a considerable sum of money, she came to England, about 1757; and her fame gradually becoming known, she was induced, in 1763, to open Carlisle House, Soho Square, as a place of public entertainment. None but the upper classes were admitted, and the rooms were decorated in the most costly manner. Her balls, concerts, and masquerades soon gained great celebrity, being carried on in a most glaring and extravagant style. And this was not all: her masquerades were characterised, not only by indecency, but also by mockery of the most solemn feelings and principles. [157a] The lessees of the theatres were injured by her popularity, and stimulated the outcry which began to arise; and at length she was convicted before Sir John Fielding for performing dramatic entertainments without a licence. The opposition of the managers, and the Pantheon opening with a class of amusements somewhat similar in 1772, with the restraint imposed by the magistrate’s decision, combined to ruin her; and in August, 1772, her effects were sold by auction, and she became a bankrupt. [157b]
The allusions to Mrs. Cornellys in contemporary literature are innumerable; Murphy, in his Epilogue to Zobeide, 1771, refers to her popularity:—
“Oh, farewell!
For her each haunt that charms a modern belle!
Adieu, Almack’s! Cornellys’! masquerade!
Sweet Ranelagh! Vauxhall’s enchanting shade!” &c.
This allusion will suffice for one view of her career. The opposite is severely described by Combe, in his satire “The Diabolady,” published in 1777:—
“The ready ministers of hell’s commands,
Obedient fly, and take their several stands
At Court, Cornellys’, and the Coterie;
Where vice, more vicious by effrontery,
Fearless, unblushing, braves the eternal laws
Of God and man to aid the devil’s cause.”
After her bankruptcy she followed her profession for several years at various places in London, but in 1785 was obliged to retire from the importunities of her creditors. Ten years after, to the great surprise of the public, she reappeared at Knightsbridge as Mrs. Smith, a retailer of asses’ milk. A suite of breakfast-rooms was opened; but her former influence could not be recovered. The speculation utterly failed; and at length she was consigned to the Fleet Prison. There she ended her shallow career, dying August 19, 1797.
Immediately beyond the entrance to the Grove stood Messrs. Downing’s floor-cloth manufactory, formerly Morley and Downing’s. It was a pleasant detached house, with a clean white front, and conspicuous green verandahs. It was pulled down in 1823, and the manufacturing department removed to the King’s Road.
Montpelier Square, so called from the salubrity of its air, [159] was built about 1837. Mr. Fairholt, the distinguished artist and antiquary (at No. 10), Mr. Walter Lacy (38), Dr. Morison (27), and the Rev. Mackenzie Walcot, to whose writings on the city of Westminster I owe several obligations, are among its residents.
New Street, built, I believe, about 1773, was a new street across the fields to Sloane Street, and is the point dividing Knightsbridge and Brompton—formerly, according to the landladies, a very “respectable” street; it has in our day sadly changed. At No. 7, Chalon, the animal painter, resided; and at No. 6, the Right Hon. David Pigott in 1824 and ’25, while studying under Mr., afterwards Chief Justice, Tindal. Mr. Godwin, the editor of the Builder, also in his boyhood. In Exeter Street resided a family named Perrin, one of whom it has been said was employed by the Duchess of Kingston to furnish a place of meeting between Prince George, afterwards George III., and his fair inamorata, Hannah Lightfoot. [160] The Perrins appear to have long resided in Knightsbridge; entries of the name occur in the registers of Trinity Chapel as far back as 1680.
Park Side, abutting on the south side of Hyde Park, is a part of the manor of Knightsbridge, although eastward of the stream, and is the freehold of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. The Birkheads were once the lessees; at present it is rented by the descendants of Mr. Gamble, of Trinity Chapel. The row of petty shops at its east end were erected about fifty years since, the houses formerly extending no further than the one now occupied by Miss Marshall. The Knightsbridge Bank, a private concern, was carried on in Mr. W. Stocken’s house, and these shops were offices belonging thereto.