Highgate

Map

The overlays that highlight 17th century London features are approximate and derived from Wenceslaus Hollar’s maps:

Open location in Google Maps: 51.571734, -0.147204

7 Annotations

First Reading

vincent  •  Link

Highgate now famous for the resting place of K Marks, had a hill [highgate hill] along with Hampstead Heath [home to kenwood (Caen)] sat astride the great north way famous for equalising incomes (before Marks thought of a better way) (many enjoyed the court system of the old bailey). For routing of the trip for the fanatics, use the subway-underground system, for the general idea of route. High Barnet to the Oval [out of townerners take the northern line]

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Highgate at the time could have been a dangerous place for travellers:

from http://www.okima.com/tour/islingt…

Islington and beyond

Islington in the 17th century was a rural area made up almost entirely of fields and cow sheds.

The northern approaches to London, especially Holloway, between Islington and Highgate, were the haunt of the famous highwayman, Claude Duval. When travelling through rural areas on horseback or by coach you were in danger of being robbed by highwaymen. Travelling on foot presented another danger, that of being apprehended by the local watch as a "wandering rogue".

Duval was a Frenchman who came to England as a valet shortly after the Restoration, then took to the road, leading a gang of robbers.

He became a romantic figure due to a story circulated about him, that he had stopped a woman's coach in which there was a booty of four hundred pounds but only took one hundred, allowing "the fair owner to ransom the rest by dancing a coranto with him on the Heath".

Claude Duval was captured in 1669, at Mother Maberley's tavern in Chandos Street, "The-Hole-In-The-Wall", and was brought to trial. His hanging at Tyburn was the scene of much loud lamentation from the crowd in attendance. He was 27 at the time of his death.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Pictures of some old inns in Highgate about half way through these 19th century pictures ... the Spaniards Hotel, the Old Crow Inn, and the Gate House Tavern. But one shows the village green and the rutted roads as a reminder that Pepys saw a different Highgate than we see today.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, visited Highgate in the Spring of 1669.

"He went out again to Highgate, to see a children's ball which, being conducted according to the English custom, afforded great pleasure to his highness, both from the numbers, the manner, and the gracefulness of the dancers."

And that's all Count Lorenzo Magalotti wrote. Highgate seems an inconvenient place to have a dancing school, but perhaps it was a private "children's ball", in which case why didn't he write about the hosts and house? It does tell us that well-off parents prepared their children for the social scene and season to come.

From:
TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY,
THROUGH ENGLAND,
DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669)
Page 319
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT
https://archive.org/stream/travel…

His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1661

1664

1665

1666