Bill

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Bill has posted 2,777 annotations/comments since 9 March 2013.

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Second Reading

About Louise de Querouaille

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Louise de Querouaille, or Queroville, dutchess of Portsmouth, was sent over to England by Lewis XIV. in the train of the dutchess of Orleans, to bind Charles II. to the French interest. This she did effectually ; and the business of the English court was constantly carried on with a subserviency to that of France. She occasionally dissembled love, the vapours, or sickness; and rarely ever failed of working the easy monarch to her point. Her polite manners and agreeable temper riveted the chains which her personal charms had imposed upon him: she had the first place in his affections, and he continued to love her to the day of his death. Her beauty, which was not of the most delicate kind, seemed to be very little impaired at seventy years of age. Ob. Nov. 1734, Æt. 89.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Barbara Palmer (Countess of Castlemaine)

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Barbara Villiers, dutchess of Cleveland, was sole daughter and heir of William viscount Grandison, and wife to Roger Palmer, esq. afterwards created earl of Castlemaine. Her person was to the last degree beautiful; but she was, in the same degree, rapacious, prodigal, and revengeful. She had, for a considerable time, a great, and no less dangerous influence over the king , as no woman of her age was more likely to beggar, or embroil a kingdom. She was the most inveterate enemy of the earl of Clarendon, who thought it an indignity to his character to shew common civilities, much more to pay his court, to the mistress of the greatest monarch upon earth. It was impossible that the king could be an absolute stranger to her intrigues: but he seems to have had as little delicacy with regard to the virtue of his mistresses, as his brother was observed to have in point of beauty. Though her pride was great, she is said to have been sometimes humble in her amours; and, if we may believe the scandalous chronicles of this reign, she could descend to play-wrights, players, and rope-dancers. When the king's affections were alienated from her, he, to pacify her, created her dutchess of Cleveland. Ob. 1700.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Saturday 12 January 1660/61

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Nate, I wonder if you read this humorous/serious entry from last month?

"This afternoon there came in a strange lord to Sir William Batten’s by a mistake and enters discourse with him, so that we could not be rid of him till Sir Arn. Breames and Mr. Bens and Sir W. Pen fell a-drinking to him till he was drunk, and so sent him away." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

There was a number of annotations then about this "strange lord" incident. Your post has some relevance, I think.

About Bishopsgate Street

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Bishopsgate, one of the City gates, so called after Erkenwald, Bishop of London (d. 685), son of Offa, King of Mercia, by whom it was erected. The maintenance of the gate was considered to devolve upon the Bishop of London, though the chief burden came, in course of time, to be laid upon the Hanse merchants. ... The gate was rebuilt by the Hanse Merchants in 1471, and lasted till 1731, when, being greatly out of repair, it was taken down, and a much less ornamental gate erected in its place at the cost of the City.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Lombard Street

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The name of Lumbarde Stret occurs in the City books in 1382, and in 1416 the "searchers of wines" report the finding of a "pipe of [unsound] wine in the dwelling-house of William Culver in Lumbard Strete." Many of the merchants who, in the middle of the 13th century, fled from the cities of Italy to escape the strifes of Guelphs and Ghibellines, and the ravages of Frederick II., took refuge in London. The customs of the City and jealousy of foreigners and interlopers prevented them from taking their place as ordinary traders; but their wealth, their readiness to negotiate loans, and business ability, procured them access to the throne and influence at Court, and they obtained a grant of residence in Langbourne Ward, like that already possessed by the Hanse merchants. The confirmation of a grant made by Edward II. in 1318 shows that the street in which they dwelt had for some time been known as Lombard Street. They were goldsmiths, and dealers in money, jewels and other valuables; were our earliest bankers and insurers of shipping; and acted as the agents of great foreign merchants and princes. During the 13th and 14th centuries they supplied many loans to the English sovereigns, and in return received protection and privileges.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Temple Bar

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Temple Bar, a gateway of Portland stone which, until 1878, separated the Strand from Fleet Street. The first mention of Temple Bar occurs in 1301 in a grant of land in the parish of St. Clement Danes, extra Barram Novi Templi. At that time the gate of the City was Ludgate, and the bar or chain put up at the end of Fleet Street by the Knights Templars marked the boundary of the territory under the control of the City, but without its walls. As the City increased in population the space within the walls became too limited, and these extra-mural lands were put under the control of the ward which they adjoined; hence the without and within added to the names of certain of the wards.

Temple Bar is the place where the freedom of the City of London and the Liberty of the City of Westminster doth part: which separation was anciently only Posts, Rails and a Chain; such as now are at Holbourn, Smithfield and Whitechapel Bars. Afterwards there was a House of Timber, erected cross the street, with a narrow gateway, and an entry on the south side of it under the house.—Strype, B. iii. p. 278.

The gate, described by Strype, of which a drawing is given in Hollar's seven-sheet Map of London, was taken down after the Great Fire, and a new Bar erected 1670-1672 from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Salisbury Court Theatre

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SALISBURY COURT THEATRE, Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, was built in 1629, by Richard Gunnell and William Blagrove, players, and was originally the "barn" or granary at the lower end of the great back yard or court of Salisbury House.

"In the yere one thousand sixe hundred [and] twenty-nine, there was builded a new faire Playhouse, near the White-Fryers. And this is the seauenteenth stage or common Play-house which hath beene new made within the space of threescore yeres within London and the suburbs."— Homes, ed. 1631, p. 1004.

"The Play-house in Salisbury Court, in Fleete Streete, was pulled down by a company of souldiers, set on by the Sectaries of these sad times, on Saturday, the 24th day of March, 1649."—MS. Notes by Howes, quoted in Collier's Life of Shakspeare p. ccxlii.

It was bought by William Beeston, a player, in 1652, and rebuilt and re-opened by him in 1660. The Duke's company, under Davenant, played here till their new theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-fields was ready to receive them. Salisbury-court Theatre was finally destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. The Duke's Theatre in Dorset-gardens, opened Nov. 9th, 1671, stood facing the Thames, on a somewhat different site.
---Handbook of London. P. Cunningham, 1850.

About Anne Monck (Duchess of Albemarle)

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Anne Clarges, dutchess of Albemarle, was the daughter of a blacksmith, who gave her an education suitable to the employment she was bred to, which was that of a milliner. As the manners are generally formed early in life, she retained something of the smith's daughter, even at her highest elevation. She was first the mistress, and afterwards the wife, of general Monck; who had such an opinion of her understanding, that he often consulted her in the greatest emergencies. As she was a thorough royalist, it is probable that she had no inconsiderable share in the Restoration. She is supposed to have recommended several of the privy-counsellors in the list which the general presented to the king soon after his landing. It is more than probable that she carried on a very lucrative trade in selling of offices, which were generally filled by such as gave her most money. She was an implacable enemy to lord Clarendon; and had so great an influence over her husband as to prevail with him to help ruin that excellent man, though he was one of his best friends. Indeed the general was afraid to offend her, as she presently took fire; and her anger knew no bounds. She was a great mistress of all the low eloquence of abusive rage, and seldom failed to discharge a volley of curses against such as thoroughly provoked her. Nothing is more certain, than that the intrepid commander, who was never afraid of bullets, was often terrified by the fury of his wife.

The following quotation is from a manuscript of Mr. Aubrey, in Ashmole's Museum: " When he (Monck) was prisoner in the Tower, his sempstress, Nan Clarges, a blacksmith's daughter, was kind to him in a double capacity. It must be remembered that he was then in want, and that she assisted him. Here she was got with child. She was not at all handsome, nor cleanly: her mother was one of the five women barbers, and a woman of ill fame. A ballad was made on her and the other four: the burden of it was,

Did you ever hear the like,
Or ever hear the fame,
Of five women barbers,
That lived in Drury Lane."

---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Mary Villiers (Duchess of Buckingham)

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Mary, sole daughter and heiress of Thomas, lord Fairfax, and wife of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, was a woman of little or no beauty, but of great virtue and piety. The duke, who seemed to be all mankind's epitome, well knew how to assume, at least, the character of an affectionate husband; and loved her, very probably in her turn, as she was a complying and contented wife. A man who could equally adapt himself to the presbyterian Fairfax and the irreligious Charles, could, with great ease, become a civil and obliging husband to a woman who was never disposed to check the current of his humour, or correct the eccentricity of his course. She died in 1705, in the 66th year of her age.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Frances Stuart (Duchess of Richmond)

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The dutchess of Richmond, who is better known by the name of Mrs. Stuart, was a daughter of captain Walter Stuart, son of lord Blantyre, a Scottish nobleman. She was perhaps the finest figure that ever appeared in the court of Charles II. Such were the attractives of her person, that, even in the presence of lady Castlemaine, she drew upon her the eyes of every beholder. It was supposed that Charles would have divorced his queen, and raised her to the throne: certain it is that she made the deepest impression upon the heart of that monarch; and his passion for her was daily increasing when she married the duke of Richmond. All the rage of a disappointed lover fell upon the duke, his consort, and the earl of Clarendon, who was supposed to be instrumental to the match. Her wit was so far from being extraordinary, that it stood in need of all her beauty to recommend it. See more of her in lord Clarendon's "Continuation of the Account of his own Life." There is a good deal of her secret history in the "Memoires de Grammont," written by count Hamilton.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About John Playford

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John Playford, who kept a music shop near the Temple-gate in London, was author of "An Introduction to the Skill of Music," published in 1655, and often re-printed. Mr. Wood informs us, that he was assisted in this work by Charles Pidgeon, of Gray's Inn, and that he was indebted for a considerable part of it to Thomas Morley's "Introduction to Music," printed in folio, 1597. The latter editions of it have the manner and order of performing divine service in cathedral and collegiate churches, subjoined to them. He was editor of "The Book of Psalms and Hymns in Metre, with all their usual and proper tunes," &c. This was corrected by Henry Purcell, and was sometimes bound with the "Book of Common Prayer." He also published "Airs and Songs for the Theorbo Lute, or Bass Viol."
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Prince Rupert

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Prince RUPERT is celebrated for the invention of mezzotinto, of which he is said to have taken the hint from a soldier scraping his rusty fusil. It is also said that the first print of this kind ever published was done by his highness; it may be seen in the first edition of Evelyn's "Sculptura." The secret is said to have been soon after discovered by Sherwin the engraver, who made use of a loaded file for laying the ground. The prince, upon sight of one of his prints, suspected that his servant had lent him his tool, which was a channelled roller; but upon receiving full satisfaction to the contrary, he made him a present of it. The roller was afterwards laid aside, and an instrument with a crenelled edge, in shape like a shoemaker's cutting-knife, was used instead of it. The glass drops invented by him are well known. He also invented a metal called by his name, in which guns were cast, and contrived an excellent method of boring them, for which purpose a water-mill was erected at Hackney Marsh, to the great detriment of the undertaker, as the secret died with the illustrious inventor. He communicated to Christopher Kirby the secret of tempering the best fish-hooks made in England.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Sir Balthazar Gerbier

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Sir BALTHASAR GERBIER was promised, as he tells us himself, the place of surveyor-general of the works, upon the decease of lnigo Jones. After the death of Charles, he was very attentive to the business of his academy, which he had erected at Bethnal-green "for foreign languages, and all noble sciences and "and exercises" Butler has ridiculed this academy, in his fictitious "Will of Philip earl of Pembroke" who bequeaths "all his other speeches, of what kind soever, to the academy, to help Sir Balthasar's art of well-speaking." As this project did not answer his expectation, he went to Surinam in the time of the usurpation, and is supposed to have returned to England with Charles 11. as he is said to have designed the triumphal arches erected for the reception of that prince. In 1663, he published a small treatise, entitled, "Counsel and Advice to all Builders;" to which he has prefixed no less than forty dedications. He died at Hempsted Marshal, the seat of lord Craven, of which he drew the plan, and lies buried in the chancel of the church.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Christopher Wren

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Sir CHRISTOPHER WREN built the church of St. Stephen Walbrook in this reign which was sufficient to establish his reputation as an architect. He may rather be said to have extended his fame by building St. Paul's, than to have raised it to a greater height.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Charles Beale

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Charles Beale painted in oil and water-colours: but a weakness in his eyes occasioned his quitting his profession, after he had followed it four or five years.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Samuel Butler

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"The Hogarth of poetry," says Mr. Walpole, "was a painter too." He did but few things; yet there is no question but the genius of painting was greatly assisting to the comic muse. It is observable, that Hogarth's first public specimen of his talent for humourous pieces, was a set of prints which he designed for a new edition of "Hudibras." This was his best method of studying that admirable burlesque poem.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Alexander Browne

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Alexander Browne was author of "Ars Pictoria, or an Academy, treating of Drawing, Painting, Limning, and Etching," 1669, folio; to which is prefixed his head. He, in the title, styles himself Practitioner in the Art of Limning. It appears from the encomium of Payne Fisher, before this treatise, that he engraved the thirty plates at the end of it. Some of them are taken from Bloemart's fine drawing-book, and they are well copied. Many of our old mezzotintos have this inscription, "Sold by Alexander Browne, at the Blew Balcony in Little Queen-Street." As there is seldom the name of any engraver to the prints laid to be sold by him, it is very probable that some of them were done by his own hand.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About John Hayls

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Though the name or the works of Hayls are very little known, he is said to have been a rival of sir Peter Lely. His greatest excellence was in copying Vandyck. Ob. 1679.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

About Samuel Cooper

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Samuel Cooper was a disciple of his uncle Hoskins, who, though one of the best painters of his age in miniature, was far exceeded by his nephew. He is called The Vandyck in little, and is well known to have carried his art to a greater height of perfection than any of his predecessors. His excellence was limited to a head. He died in 1672, in the 63d year of his age. His wife was sister to Mrs. Eadith Pope, mother of our celebrated poet.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.