But to shew how thoroughly the religious forms of the state-churchcanbe upheld by the voluntary system alone, even in a parish from which that church has derived vast sums of money, and to which it has returned so little, it is only necessary to mention that
is not only self-supporting, but a portion of the income derived from the pew-rents annually goes towards the support of the hospital and asylum.
The pew-rents of the Lock Chapel, for the year ending the thirty-first of December, 1851, amounted to £948 3s.2d.,[160]and this department of a charitable Institution, “after bearing all the expenses incident to its services, yielded to the Institution, the sum of £348 19s.2d.” during the same period.
Another such an example as this, a third, might have proved too much; and it was not allowed to exist, although the foundations of the building were laid, and the means were in hand to raise the superstructure. The correspondence between the proprietor of the intended chapel, and the Bishop of London, on the subject of this new church, proposed to bebuilt at Westbourn Green, must be fresh in the memory of most readers of the daily journals; and it is only necessary to refer those, who wish to know the history of an attempt to erect another church in this parish upon the voluntary principle, to that correspondence.
At the present time, the parish of Paddington is divided into five ecclesiastical districts; and the episcopal form of church-government and the present forms of the state-religion, are supported by accomplished clergymen, attached to the various places of public worship.
The people of Paddington see in their own parish an exemplification of that state of church economy, which is more or less prominently exhibited all over the country; they know the extent of the church-lands here; they know how they were acquired; they know for the performance of what duties these lands were granted; they see how the income from these lands has been disposed of; they know that the duties of providing for religion, and for the poor, have been transferred from the holders of this church-land, to those who occupy the houses which have been built on it; and they know that a second Reformation is inevitable. So that, if the church ministers of this parish could report to their bishop, that no dissenter lived in this very profitable part of his diocese, it would convey to him no more accurate notion of the feeling of the people respecting the management of the state-church than the bishops conveyed to Laud “on the very eve of troubles, fatal to himself, and to his order,” when they reported to him “that not a single dissenter was to be found within their jurisdiction.”[161]
That those dignitaries of the church, who have taken upon themselves the disposal of the church-lands in Paddington, should have made such sorry provisions for the promulgation and protection of their own creed in this place, is much more surprising, than that they should have looked with no favourable eye on the diffusion of doctrines which differed, in any respect, from their own. To prevent, so far as in them lay, the erection of any places of worship, save those in which were taught the particular dogmas they reverenced, is but what experience teaches us, might have been expected, as it is well known to be the common practice of every dominant sect to permit no rival near its throne; or, if a rival is to be tolerated without a systematic opposition, it must be one that is not seriously antagonistic to its principles.
The Bishop of London, in his last Charge to his clergy, while guarding them against a too great leaning to Popish practices, told them there was less danger to fear from Rome, than from Germany. And, so far as danger to the peculiar dogmas, and the histrionic ceremonies we have seen spring up within the last few years, is concerned, all who know anything of the “Reformation of the nineteenth century,” as it is being developed in Germany, will readily admit. To get a good insight into the “Humane Reformation” now in progress not only in Germany, but in England and America, I must refer my readers to the little Work which has been published for the English reader by the great apostle of this Reformation, Johannes Ronge, and to which I have before alluded.
The present Bishop of London and his predecessors, I am credibly informed, have considered it to be their duty to prevent, so far as in them lay, the erection of any Dissenting place of worship in Paddington. But some part of the Paddington Estate was leased without any restrictive provisions of this nature, therefore the whole of the land in Paddington is not now in the hands of a dominant church.
In 1816, a chapel, capable of holding six hundred persons, with school-rooms on the basement story, was built in Praed-street, on ground leased by the Grand Junction Canal Company.
This chapel, “The Tabernacle,” is now in the hands of a congregation of Baptists, who, to purchase and repair it, incurred a debt of £2,000. This they have paid off within the last ten years, over and above their contributions for the support of their minister. They also educate upwards of two hundred scholars; and twenty-three teachers give their leisure on the day of rest for this purpose.
There is a freehold chapel in the Harrow Road, at the entrance to Paddington Green; the Wesleyans have a chapel in the Queen’s Road, Bayswater; and the Roman Catholics are now building a large church at the western extremity of this parish, on a portion of that land, which was bequeathed by the Lady Margaret, to the poor. Another chapel, called “the Boatman’s chapel,” also exists in Paddington, on the ground leased to the Grand Junction Canal Company. This place of worship, which is capable of holding two hundred persons, was constructed out of a stable and coach-house, at the expense of a few pious individuals, who saw how much the poor boatmen wanted the advantages which accrue fromreligious instruction, and how little likely they were to get it in a parish-church which could not hold one-fourth part of the settled inhabitants. This little place of worship is in connection with “Paddington Chapel”—a place of worship belonging to the Independents. To attend the latter, the people of Paddington have to cross the Queen’s highway; as they have, to go to the chapels in John Street, and New Church Street.
These very commodious places of worship in St. Marylebone, are served by learned men, who believe that the religion of the poor carpenter’s son needs neither rich bishops nor rich endowments, to preserve its existence in this world; and they are supported in this belief by a very considerable number of tenants on the Bishop of London’s Estate.
SCHOOLS—CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS—PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS AND ESTABLISHMENTS OF PUBLIC UTILITY.
ASunday School, in connection with the Church, was established in Paddington, during the last century; but it was not till the beginning of this, that any public means of instruction existed for the children of the poor on week days. Lysons, in his second Edition, tells us that “A charity school for thirty boys and thirty girls was established in this parish in 1802;” and that it was “supported by voluntary contributions, and the collections at an annual charity sermon.” This public day-school for poor children was one of the first established in the outskirts of London; and the school room was built on that land which is said to have been given by Bishop Compton. But this building was but small; for it held only one hundred children; and in 1816, it was discovered that there were 1508 children under twelve years of age, living on the south side of the canal only; and it was supposed that four hundred of these were between seven and twelve years old.
The curate of the parish and other influential inhabitants, seeing this great field open for profitable cultivation, got up a Committee, to devise ways and means to effect so desirable an object. This Committee reported to the vestry, in March, 1818, that “the Bishop of London, as the most extensive proprietor as well as the patron of the church, &c.” had been consulted on the propriety of establishing a school for three hundred children; which they calculated might be supported for £175 per annum, while the expense of building the school room, was estimated at £650; and they further reported to the vestry, that the bishop expressed “his hearty good wishes for its success.” But as “hearty good wishes” did not build or endow the school, it was not built till some years after this time; and then, not by the bishop, or his lay lessees.
As we have already seen, the proceeds of the sale of waste lands were devoted to this purpose; Denis Chirac’s legacy, which, with interest, now amounted to £170 3s.10d., and a donation of £130 from Baron Maseres, one of his executors, being added; and in 1828, the vestry resolved to devote two-thirds of the proceeds of the copyhold estate to the support of this school.
When the Act of 1838, relative to the freehold estates, was obtained, a re-arrangement of these funds was made; and three-fifths of the whole estates, freehold as well as leasehold, were appropriated “towards the support of thePaddingtonParochial National and Infant Schools.” The new school rooms were built in 1822 on Paddington Green, or rather on a part of the site of the “town pool;” and in 1831, other school rooms, in connection with that system which is called National, were built at Bayswater.
In 1840 the parochial school-rooms of St. John’s district were erected in Tichbourn Row; and the new schools, built at the back of Stanley Street, and St. Mary’s Hospital, in the district of All Saints, were opened in February, 1852.
The Rev. F. C. Cook’s “Report on Schools in the Eastern district,” published in “Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education 1845,” contains a full account of those schools then in operation; and the following extracts are taken from it.
In 1845, the number of scholars was as follows, viz., in the schools on Paddington Green, April fifth and sixth, “200 boys present, total 210; 115 girls present, total 131; 180 infants present, total 190.”
“Titchbourn Street, second of April, Boys present, 167; total, 190. Girls present, 91; total, 109. Infants present, 151; total 200.”
“Bayswater, twenty-fifth April. Boys, 106; girls, 49; infants, 60.”
The masters and mistresses of these schools, and of the new school, have kindly furnished me with the numbers now in attendance; they are as follows:—
Boys.
Girls.
Infants.
Paddington Green
174
98
150
Bayswater
168
100
160
Tichbourn Street
184
113
217
All Saints
140
138
174
Total
666
449
701
Mr. Cook reported, that at the schools on Paddington Green, “the boys and girls are instructed in two rooms, well-built, warmed and ventilated. The building handsome, and well arranged.
“Boys: instructed by master, with pupil teacher, seventeen years old, who was educated in the school. Arranged in six classes on the circulating system. The rewards for medals are books, which cost about £5 per annum. The attendance averages more than nine-tenths of the total number. Age of boys between seven and twelve, excepting ten boys near thirteen years. Many boys have been in school from infancy. There is an increase of fifty since the last inspection. The fluctuation in the numbers not considerable. Boys are very healthy and cleanly in appearance. The discipline is nearly perfect.
“The general proportion of instruction in the several classes is somewhat advanced since last year. In the first class of fifty boys, averaging eleven years old, and three years in school, twenty-five work a sum in practice, 9860874, at £35 10s.6½d., with ease; the others compound rules and proportion. Write exceedingly well from dictation, and some good abstracts. Geography, grammar, and etymology well taught. Read History of England fluently, and are acquainted with the facts. Learn linear drawing, and music on Hullah’s method. The lower classes are advancing in due proportion to age and time in school. The religious instruction throughout is good.
“Generally speaking, methods of teaching are those of the National Society.”
“Girls: instructed in two rooms, and four classes, by mistress, assistant and monitors. From seven to thirteen years old; fifteen, between twelve and thirteen.
“The manners of the girls are very pleasing, and the school is in good order.
“All can read from easy narrative, to the third book and History of England. Eighty read with ease in the third book. Good secular reading books in all classes. Writing on paper, ninety in books, and from memory, neat and accurate. Ciphering to compound rules, with practical questioning. The first class learn geography and grammar very well; the religious instruction in all classes is remarkably good. Needlework is very well taught; thirty can fix a shirt.”
“Infants, one hundred and eighty. Conducted by a mistress; assistant employed in managing, not in instructing the children.A handsome, well-arranged school, with abundant apparatus. All infants between two and six years. The infants are cheerful, orderly, clean, and fond of their mistress. It is peculiar to the school that the mistress teaches all the children to read, &c., without monitors. The result is that they are more advanced than in good infant schools conducted on the usual system; seventy read in books; twenty very well; and twenty write sentences on slates, twenty, words; and thirty, letters; all elementary subjects are well-taught. Children are well acquainted with scriptural history, and give more intelligent answers on meaning of words and sentences than is usual in good schools. The mistress is an able teacher, and devoted to her duties.”
Mr. Cook adds, “I have recommended many clergymen to visit these schools, as among the best and most complete in London.”
And he concludes this part of his report by saying, that “in addition to these nine schools, it is intended to erect others in the neighbourhood of the new church, which will make altogether provision for the instruction of 2000 children, in a population of 25,000. The present schools cost nearly £1,300 per annum.” The expenditure of these schools varies, as a matter of course; and this sum must not be taken as the present expenditure. The new schools will cost £400 per annum, in addition to this sum; and I find that in 1847–48, the total expenditure of St. John’s schools for the year, amounted to £591; the income being made up of £336, subscriptions, donations, and collections; £140 paid by scholars in the form of “school pence;” and £115 from other sources. By another report I find that the sum paid by the children at Paddington Green, amounted in the year to £130.
All these schools have received, and continue to receive, grants from the Parliamentary Fund. For the year ending thirty-first of October, 1850, I find the schools on Paddington Green, had an award of £135 10s.; Bayswater, of £67 10s.; and St. John’s, of £65 10s., “to apprentices and teachers, for their instruction;” with an additional grant of £9 7s.2¾d., to St. John’s for “books and maps.” The Government grant for the All Saints schools was £180; the cost of the site, £640, and the building of these schools amounted, altogether, to £2,173 7s.0d.; which sum was raised by donations and subscription from the inhabitants of the parish, with the exception of the grant just mentioned, and one hundred pounds given by the Bishop of London.But before these new schools were erected, the population of Paddington numbered upwards of 46,000; and 1816, is the actual number of scholars on the books of the twelve schools at the present time, (January, 1853).
From the “Blue Book,” which contains the answers to Questions on education, printed by order of the House of Commons, twentieth March, 1835, we learn, that the first infant school in this parish was commenced in 1833; that it then contained fifty children of both sexes, and was supported principally at the cost of the individual who established it, but partly by the payment of two-pence per week from the parent with each child. We are also informed by this inquiry, that a school for fifty females was established at Bayswater, and supported by Mrs. Sutcliffe, of Orme-square. From this “Blue Book” we also learn, that to each of the four “day and Sunday National Schools,” and to two of the Dissenters’ Sunday schools a lending library is attached, a most excellent provision which has been extended since that period to the other schools; but the books are obtainable only upon the scholars conforming to certain regulations.
Although the reports of the Tichbourn-street, and Bayswater schools, were not quite so favourable, in 1845, as the Paddington-green school; and although from subsequent reports, we find the Paddington-green schools suffered from change of teachers, while the others were more favourably reported on, yet the published annual reports of the Inspector, to which I must refer for further information, shew that, on the whole, the schools of Paddington may be looked on as amongst the best of those which follow the peculiar methods of teaching laid down by the “National Society.”
The masters, and mistresses, and those who have the management of these schools, evidently do their duty; and the instruction given is highly valuable. But whether it was right to apply the proceeds of the sales of waste lands, and three-fifths of all the charity estates of this parish, exclusively to those schools which adopt the methods of teaching instituted by the “National Society,” may, I think, be justly questioned; seeing that the greater portion, if not the whole of that property, was given to the poorgenerally, and not to thoseonly, who were willing to have their children taught a particular Catechism, and a particular Belief.
Out of Paddington there are systems of teaching, which do not base themselves on peculiar and sectarian tenets; and in which, learning controversial portions of scripture, in “proof”of the truth of a catechism, does not form an essential element. Many learned men, whose religious principles cannot be called in question, do not approve of this catechism, or of this teaching; and they believe the first Society established, the British and Foreign School Society, advocate a system morenationalthan that of the self styled National Society. “Rational Schools,” too, are not unknown—even within “a stone’s throw of the High Court of Chancery”[169]—but Dr. Birkbeck’s plan istoo rationalfor the Parochial schools of Paddington.
The foundation stone of the “Westbourne Schools,” conducted on the “Glasgow Training System,” was laid on the thirty-first July, 1850. This excellent establishment, which is in connection with the Lock Chapel, is built by the side of “the green lanes,” (the old road which led from the Great Western-road to the Harrow-road,) and is now in full operation.
The different congregations of Dissenters, too, have schools attached to their respective chapels; and the Roman Catholics have built a large school room in connection with their new chapel.
There are, also, many excellent private schools in Paddington; but of schools strictly private, I have nothing to say.
In July 1848, the “Paddington Wharfs Ragged Schools,” for infants, girls, and boys, were opened in Kent’s place; but in December of the same year, larger premises in Church-place were taken. These have been found too small, and the Committee have incurred a considerable expense in making them more convenient. The average attendance is set down in the third annual report at one hundred and ten infants, thirty girls, and forty boys. In the adult schools there were twenty pupils; and the scholars in the evening and Sunday schools vary from forty-five to ninety. The current expenses tor 1851, amounted to £206 7s.5d.
There are two small establishments at Bayswater for female orphans. The one called the “Orphan Asylum,” was instituted in 1833, by Mrs. Sutcliffe and other ladies connected with the private charity school, which was supported for many years by that lady’s generosity. The other, called the “Bayswater Episcopal Female Orphan School,” was established in 1839. The former of these establishments contained fourteen female orphans in 1851, the current expenses for the year, being £251 4s.2¾d.In the latter, in the same year, there were sixteenorphans, and the expenditure amounted to £335 17s.6d.Both institutions are supported by voluntary contributions.
Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in-Hospital, now situated in the New-road, was originally established in Paddington; Lysons tells us the Naval Asylum was removed to Greenwich from this place; and the “School of Industry for Female Orphans,” which was “instituted in Church street, Paddington Green, in 1786, for the maintenance and education of twenty-four children” is about to be removed to their new premises in St. John’s Wood-road.
“The Paddington Visiting Society,” was established in the year 1838; its objects being “to promote the religious and moral improvement of the poor, in co-operation with the parochial clergy, to relieve distress and sickness, to encourage industry, frugality, and provident habits, and generally, to cultivate a friendly intercourse between the poor and the wealthier and more educated classes of society.” It was proposed to effect these objects by means of district visiting, in connection with provident institutions, and visiting societies or church associations. The Provident Dispensary in Star-street; Provident Funds, and lending libraries connected with the schools; and the Paddington Savings’ Bank, have arisen out of this parent Institution. And, although some of the district visitors may have been over ardent in pressing on the poor, the necessity of observing certain forms, as one of the conditions of their assistance, yet undoubtedly these associations have done much good. I must refer to the annual reports of these charitable Institutions for the detailed account of their operations; but I may mention here, that the church association in connection with St. John’s District, collected during the year 1851, £1,105 10s.2d.besides £128 1s.0d., contributed to a fund, called the “additional curate’s fund,” “designed for the increased visitation of the sick and poor at their own houses, and the maintenance of a daily service in the church.”
The block of small alms-houses at present existing in the Harrow-road, said to have been built in 1714, on a portion of what had been Paddington Green, is the oldest charitable building in Paddington; but the endowment, if there ever was one, has merged into other estates; for no endowment now exists. Sixteen poor old women belonging to the parish, are still supported there out of the poor rates; but the inmates think themselves not so far degraded as they would be, if obliged to become tenants of the great parish poor-house; although in the latter they might have a less confinedcrib, and perhaps, a more generous diet; buttherethey would not be free. Now they can ramble about at pleasure; and when at home, for each little room is a home, they can dwell upon the remembrance of those pretty little flower gardens, which formerly existed in front of these almshouses, and which may have attracted them in their younger days, when perhaps, they little thought of becoming the recipients of alms. With the alteration of the Harrow-road, which added “thirty feet in depth” to the church-yard, and I presume the same quantity to that strip of the Green, which was so kindly offered to the parish for four thousand pounds, and a portion of which was purchased for £2,000, these little attractions vanished; and a considerable portion of the “thirteen feet ten inches” of flower garden, which existed on the north side of this charitable institution, now forms a part of the altered road; while on the garden to the south, the vestry-room, the police-station, the infant-school, and other buildings, have been erected.
The great charitable Institution of modern Paddington, is St. Mary’s Hospital, situated in Cambridge-place. “Its establishment was commenced in 1843, and His Royal Highness Prince Albert was pleased to lay the first stone on the twenty-eighth of June, 1845.” Thomas Hopper, Esq. made the design gratuitously; and Mr. Winsland’s tender of £33,787 was accepted for the building; which, when complete, was intended to hold 380 beds.
A portion of this building, “with all the requisite appurtenances, capable of containing 150 beds,” was opened for the reception of fifty patients on the thirteenth of June, 1851; 332 patients were admitted into the wards of the Hospital, during the first six months; the average duration of their stay being twenty two days.
Mr. Winsland’s original tender was for the whole building, included “in five separate divisions;” and a certain portion was to have been completed within a specified period, but the sudden death of the contractor is said to have thrown some obstacles in the way of its progress. There must have been some alteration, too, in the original design, or some sad miscalculation in the contract; for instead of a building capable of containing 380 beds having been erected for £33,787, I find by a “statement and appeal” published by “the Bond of Governors” in 1851, that there had been expended the end of that year £33,806 5s.3d.“on account site and building,”as it then existed: £1,776 6s.9d., inaddition, had been expended in furnishing; and £1,223 3s.2d., for the maintenance of the fifty beds for six months. The estimated sum “to maintain the establishment of 150 beds, and to defray the expense of out-patients,” was calculated at £4,400 per annum; £300 additional being required to support the maternity department.
At the present time there are 150 beds for patients, the total number the present building is capable of containing; and attendance on the practice of this Hospital is now recognised by the medical examining boards—the medical staff having been complete from the first opening of the establishment. This staff consists of three Physicians, and three Assistant Physicians; three Surgeons, and three Assistant Surgeons; a Physician-Accoucheur; a Surgeon-Accoucheur; an Ophthalmic-Surgeon; and an Aural-Surgeon; all of whom perform their respective duties gratuitously. There are also two resident medical officers, and a Dispenser. There is a paid Secretary; an Assistant Secretary; a Collector; a Matron; and a Chaplain; and the establishment is managed by a certain number of Governors elected on building, special, house, finance, and medical committees; subject to a code of laws, and, in most instances, to the will of the whole body of Governors.
“Every subscriber of three guineas or upwards annually, is eligible to be elected an annual governor; and every individual, making a donation of thirty guineas or upwards in one sum, is eligible to be elected a life governor.”
“Every governor, in addition to the privilege of recommending in and out-patients as a subscriber, has the right to attend at all, or any weekly, quarterly or special boards, and to speak and vote on all questions, and to vote on all elections which shall come before such board; &c.,” but “no governor is entitled to vote on an election, until he shall have been a governor for a period of three calendar months.”
“Annual subscribers of twenty-five guineas, ordonorsof 500 guineas in one sum, have an unlimited right of recommending in-patients.
“Annual subscribers of ten guineas, ordonorsof 100 guineas in one sum, may recommend an unlimited number of in-patients, one in-patient only at a time in the Hospital.
“Annual subscribers of three guineas, ordonorsof thirty guineas in one sum, may recommend three in-patients annually, and eighteen out-patients.
“Annual subscribers of two guineas, ordonorsof twentyguineas in one sum, may recommend two in-patients annually, and twelve out-patients.
“Annual subscribers of one guinea, ordonorsof ten guineas in one sum to the maternity fund, may recommend three patients annuallyto that department; and three additional patients for each guinea annually subscribed, or each donation of ten guineas in one sum.”
But, although great sums have been already subscribed, and although these inducements to subscribe have been held out to the charitable, the Hospital is already in debt; and the advertisements declare that “to maintain the present number of in-patients, and to supply medicine for a very large number of out-patients, the amount of annual subscriptions is quite inadequate.”
From what has been seen in the previous part of this Work, it may have been thought that the site of this Hospital, with the whole of its enclosed ground, was the gift of the Bishop of London and the trustees of the Paddington Estate; but from a printed statement, dated the tenth of July, 1846, I find that this is not the case. The ground which was to be given up, according to the provisions of the 7th and 8th Vic. chap. 30, as a site for this Hospital, is said to consist “of upwards of three quarters of an acre;” “its value was stated to have been estimated at £3,885;” but “the trustees of the Hospital were required to pay £1,000, as an indemnity to the Grand Junction Water Works Company, to whom the ground had been leased.” Further, the Committee “deemed it expedient to purchase, at an expense of £2,000 two adjoining pieces of ground, in order that the future governors of the institution should not be restricted in their operations for want of space.”
These pieces together, made “an acre and a quarter of land, being nearly half an acre more than the present site of St. George’s Hospital.”
Within a few yards of this large building, there is another charitable medical Institution, called the “Paddington Free Dispensary, for the Diseases of women and children.” This Institution, also, is supported by voluntary contributions; and a consulting physician; a consulting surgeon; two physicians; a surgeon; a dentist; and a secretary; give their gratuitous services to this charity. The report of 1851, states that 5,280 patients had been “admitted during the last year;” the expenditure of the whole establishment being but £218 18s.0d.
In the same street—Market-street,—there is a “Refuge forthe Destitute” supported by voluntary contributions. Here the houseless poor, to the number of 100, may obtain a bed and breakfast during the winter months; and here, winter and summer, the manager and his wife have been maintained for some years in very easy circumstances.[174a]
For the regular poor of the parish, a very excellent house has been built, at a cost of £11,431 9s.11d., on a portion of five and a quarter acres of “the Upper Readings,” purchased of the Bishop of London and the trustees of the Paddington Estate for £5,168 15s.0d.[174b]—By an “extract from the statistical and financial statements of accounts of the Board of Guardians,” I find that for the half year ending Michaelmas, 1851, the total number of paupers relieved was 1,054, viz.—in-door, 88 males; 126 females; 117 children. Out-door, 122 males; 289 females; 312 children. The collective number of days being 37,171. I also find, from the same official document, that there was an increase of 36 in-door, and a decrease of 160 out-door paupers as compared with the corresponding half of the previous year; that the total expenditure for the relief of the poor, amounted to £2,995 16s.0½d.; that the sum of £1,130 10s.8d.was repaid for “workhouse loan and interest;” and that the whole cost of the establishment for this half-year was £4,237 16s.8½d.—£4,500 having been called for to meet the expenditure. The financial account closed with a balance in hand of £1,154 10s.1d.
From the same kind of printed document, for the half-year ending lady-day, 1852, I find the total number of paupers relieved, was 1,070; viz., in-door, 70 males; 139 females; 101 children; out-door, 135 males; 290 females; 335 children; being a decrease of 120 out, and 26 in-door paupers, as compared with the corresponding half of the previous year; the collective number of days, being 36,738. The in-maintenance and clothing for this half-year, amounted to £892 16s.9d.; the “establishment and common charges,” to £830 6s.2½d.; the out-relief to 1,056 7s.10¾d.; the lunatic charges to £315 14s.7d.; and the extra medical fees to £27 4s.0d., making the total expenditure for the relief of the poor this half-year £3,122 9s.5d.Payment of interest, registration fees, &c., increased this sum to £3,474 18s.11d.The amount called for this half-year was £2,700 0s.0d., and £410 2s.1d., was the amount of balance in hand.
The Lock Hospital, which adjoins the Work-house, was removed from Grosvenor-place to its present site, in 1842. This institution was founded in 1737, and no less than 60,502 patients have been treated at this Hospital since that date. The number of in-patients for 1851, was 388; of these 193 were females, and 195 males; during the same period 785 persons were attended to, as out-patients. Attached to this charity, and indeed forming an important portion of it, is “the Asylum.”
“The Lock Asylum was founded in the year 1787, by the Rev. Thomas Scott, the venerable commentator. It then occupied a building in connection with the old Lock Hospital. In 1842, it was removed to its present site, and in 1848–9, enlarged to its present dimensions. When first founded, the Asylum received only sixteen inmates; in 1842, it was enlarged so as to receive twenty; it is now capable of containing 100.
Since the foundation of the Asylum, 1,175 female patients of the Hospital have been admitted, a majority of whom have been provided with situations, restored to their friends, or otherwise comfortably settled in life.
There are now forty-seven in the Asylum.
Needlework is taken in at the Asylum, and the payment for it constitutes a valuable addition to the receipts of the Institution. A laundry is open also for the washing of those families who may be willing, by sending the work, thus further to benefit the Asylum.”
Besides the chapel and the schools, which have sprung out of these charitable institutions, there are now connected with them and the chapel, the following societies, viz. The Westbourn Friendly Visiting Society, the Westbourn Provident Bank, the Lock Sunday schools, the Church Missionary Association, the Juvenile Missionary Association, the Sunday School Children’s Missionary Association, the Church of England Young Men’s Society; and the London City Mission.
The Public Establishments in Paddington, unconnected with particular forms of religion, are soon recounted:
Here there are no places for rational amusement—unless indeed, we consider such places as “the Flora tea-gardens,” and “Bott’s Bowling-green,” to come under this designation. In that region of the parish still devoted to bull-dogs, and pet spaniels; the bodies of broken-down carriages, old wheels, rusty grates, and old copper boilers; little gardens, and low miserable sheds; there is an establishment, which boasts ofhaving the truly attractive glass, in which “for the small charge of two-pence, any young lady may behold her future husband.” But although such attractions as these exist, the youths who live on the celebrated Paddington Estate, have not to thank the lords of the soil for setting apart any portion of it for their physical improvement; and yet for the efficient development both of mind and body, it is necessary that the physical condition of the young should be cared for. In Paddington, however, there is no public gymnasium; there is now no village-green, worthy of the name;[176]the young are not trained to use their motive powers to the best advantage; there are no public baths. And when, on the establishment of the baths and washhouses in Marylebone, the governing Body in Paddington was solicited to join in that useful work, that good office was rejected, and the people of Marylebone were permitted to carry out that necessary and useful undertaking by themselves. Perhaps the Paddington vestrymen thought there ought to be a bath, and a bath-room, in every house in Paddington; if so they certainly thought rightly. But how many of these necessary adjuncts to a healthful home are to be found even on the Paddington Estate, and what steps have our local governors taken to supply this want in the houses of the poor?
In particular religious communities, the education of those who can no longer be called children, is beginning to be attended to, in some degree; yet there is no public lecture room; no museum; no public reading room; no place of general instruction in Paddington, where Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner, alike may meet to receive lessons from that fountain of truth which ought to be open to all mankind, irrespectively of their private religious opinions.
And yet in Paddington we see some of the most miraculous signs of the times. A city of palaces has sprung up on a bishop’s estate within twenty years; a road of iron, with steeds of steam, brings into the centre of this city, and takes from it in one year, a greater number of living beings than could be found in all England a few years ago. The electric telegraph is at work by the side of this iron road. And by means of conveyances, open to all who have any small change, from sixpence to a penny, the whole of London can be traversedin half the time it took to reach Holborn-bar at the beginning of this century, when the road was in the hands of Mr. Miles, his pair-horse coach, and his redoubtable Boy. This coach and these celebrated characters were for a long time the only appointed agents of communication between Paddington and the City. The journey to the City was performed by them in something more than three hours; the charge for each outside passenger being two shillings, the “insides” being expected to pay three. The delivery of parcels on the line of road added very materially to Mr. Miles’s occupation and profit; and I am informed that Miles’s Boy not only told tales, to the great amusement of his master’s customers, but gave them some equally amusing variations on an old fiddle, which was his constant travelling companion, and which he carefully removed from its green-baize covering, to beguile the time at every resting-place on the road.
When the Paddington omnibuses first started, the aristocracy of “The Green” were quite shocked at the disgrace thus brought on the parish; and loud and long were their complaints to the vestry, and most earnest were their petitions to that body, to rid them of “the nuisance.” Since that time, however, greater folks than those of “The Green” have not objected to be seated in these public vehicles; and so useful and necessary to the public have they become, that one Company of Proprietors of Paddington Omnibuses has had in use 700 horses at one time. And, if the Paddington omnibuses were improved, as they easily might be, they would be much more useful than they are at present.
The glory of the first public Company which shed its influence over Paddington, has in a great measure departed; the shares of the Grand Junction Canal Company are below par, though the traffic on this silent highway to Paddington, is still considerable; and the cheap trips into the country offered by its means, during the summer months, are beginning to be highly appreciated by the people, who are pent in close lanes and alleys; and I have no doubt the shareholders’ dividends would not be diminished by a more liberal attention to this want.
If every one had their right, I am told there would be a wharf, adjoining this canal, open free to the people of Paddington, for loading and unloading goods. It is certain that the old road to Harrow was never leased to the Grand Junction Canal Company; but a wharf, upwards of one hundred feet wide, now exists on a portion of that road; and, as I am informed, the rent of this wharf is not received by the parish.I was promised, twelve months since, that the claims of the parish to this wharf should he inquired into; but as yet no such inquiry has been made.
At the western extremity of the parish, there is an artesian well, to which the name of “the Western Water Works” has been given; the water from which supplies the houses, which have been built on that clayey district. The west Middlesex, and the Grand Junction Water Works Companies supply the other parts of the parish.
The Imperial Gas Company have supplied the parish with gas, since its first introduction into Paddington, in 1824.
A new station and hotel, now nearly finished, will make a fine terminus to the Great Western Railway; and add to the many showy buildings, which have been erected in Paddington, within the last few years.
A REVIEW OF THE CONDITION OF THE PARISH AND THE PEOPLE, AT VARIOUS PERIODS OF THEIR HISTORY.
Thosepeople who have been the most completely governed by ecclesiastics, are proverbial for having made the slowest progress in all the elements of knowledge which concern man; and the people of Paddington formed no exception to that rule which has been found to hold good in other places. Here, as elsewhere, the spiritual governors of the people made but poor attempts to develope the mind; and those to whom they deputed this duty, took care to follow the example set them by their superiors.
To keep the breath of life, the living soul, under subjection by the agency of superstitious dogmas and by threats of everlasting punishment, was attempted for ages, and is even now attempted; but the world is freeing itself from the government of organised crafts; and it will soon be useless—in spite of all the vain efforts which are now being made—to attempt to teach the people that the greatest virtue isto believe and obey, without the exercise of reason; and that the greatest vice consists in doubting the power of symbols to save.
Although the people of Paddington lived at so short a distance from the two rich cathedral marts of London and Westminster, they made no greater advances in civilization for many centuries, than did those who lived in the most remote village in England. The few people who did live here, were wholly agricultural; and they owed every useful lesson of their lives, much more to their own intelligence and observation, than to any instruction given them by those who were well paid to be their teachers.
Paddington, however, is no longer what it was; the lay element, independent of all craft, has thoroughly diffused itself through the country; and its advent in this place, though attended with much cunning, was the real cause of the wonderful transformation which has taken place here within the last half-century.
The Reformation and the Revolution added to the numbers and importance of the people; and the execrable act of that vain braggart, who wildly called himself the State, not only increased the population of Paddington, but brought out to useful purpose the christian virtues of the residents of this village. Here, on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, many of the exiled protestants of France found a home, which had been denied them by theirgreatKing; and here, too, the memory of their sufferings and virtues will be kept green, so long as one of their graves shall be permitted to remain in the Old Church-yard.
It is impossible to tell what number of persons lived in this parish, at any one period previous to the present century. The oldest Parish Register, now to be found in Paddington, is dated 1701; and all the written proceedings of the rate-payers in vestry assembled, previous to the second of April, 1793, are said to have been burnt, lost, stolen or destroyed. The only sources from which I have been able to form any conjecture respecting the ancient population of Paddington, are, therefore, necessarily very imperfect, and open to many objections.
By the Subsidy Rolls, however, we discover the names of those who were rated in particular places, at different periods, when the respective subsidies were levied; and although their tombstones may have crumbled into dust, or may have been removed by Act of Parliament, and sold “for the best price that could be got,” yet in these tax-papers their names may receive a notice which will, for centuries, preserve their memories.
From the Subsidy Roll of the sixteenth year of Henry the eighth, I find that twenty persons, then living in Paddington, were taxed for the subsidy levied that year, although the amount of tax collected in this parish was but forty-eight shillings. All the heads of families might not have been included in this levy; but, if we suppose that all were included, and that each of these twenty persons represented a family, and if we calculate further five individuals for each family, we shall make the population of Paddington, in 1524, one hundred; which in all probability, was not very much under, or over, the number at that date.
The value of land, goods, and wages, on which this sum was assessed, amounted to £77 6s.8d.But if these descriptions of property were all charged in this Subsidy, they were not taxed in the same proportion, on the capital sum assessed; for, although the wages of the labourer were taxed, they were taxed at only one-and-a-quarter per cent.; while goods were charged two-and-a-half per cent.; and land five per cent. So that, three hundred years ago, a more equitable property-tax existed, than that which is the result of present legislative wisdom.
In the thirty-fifth year of the same reign, the valuation for this parish was raised to £272 13s.4d.Fifteen families only, however, were included in the subsidy for this year—land and goods alone being charged.
In a Subsidy Roll, of the thirty-ninth, of Elizabeth, Marylebone and Paddington are united, to produce a small sum.
In a Subsidy made in the eighteenth year of James the first, the name of Sir Rowland St. John occurs, as I have before observed; and, as this is the first time I find the name of a lessee of the manor on these Rolls, I am inclined to think Sir Rowland was the first lessee, who lived on the Paddington Estate.
It was not the son of Sir Rowland, but another Oliver St John, a relative of this Knight of the Bath, to whom the people owed so deep a debt of gratitude. That man of noble birth and noble mind, opposed the Tyranny of his time, not only in thought, but in word and deed; for he was one of the brave soldiers of that army, which fought and bled for the liberties we now enjoy; and the people of Paddington who preserved the sacred mound of liberty, which they erected within sight of his relatives’ windows, must have felt themselves ennobled, when the Lion settle echoed his valorous deeds. The people of Paddington knew the value of liberty, if their lords did not; and the public houses which were the only celebrated institutions in this rural village, were their debating clubs. Two, at least, were in existence, before “the house for two tenants” was occupied by the lord or his lessees; for they claim to have been established before the Reformation. There are three lions still in Paddington, each contending for the most ancient origin. The “White lion,” in the Edgeware-road, was established, according to the date on its present facade, in 1524—the year in which hops were first permitted to be imported, to preserve our beer. The “Red Lion,” in the Edgeware-road, near the commencement of the Harrow-road,claims a more ancient date for its establishment. In one of its old wooden chambers, taken down, some few years ago to make room for the present house, tradition tells us Shakspeare played;[182a]and many a story has been told of the haunted chamber in this house, as well as of that in the Manor House. The other ancient “Lion,” also “Red,” is situated in the Harrow-road, having taken up its present position as near to its old quarters, as the alteration in that road would permit. This house was formerly situated near the bridge which carried the Harrow-road over the bourn; and was, as I conceive, the property described in an Inquisition, held the second year of Edward the sixth,—vide p. 51—as the “two tenements, called the Bridge-House.”
There is a younger Lion, “Black,” but still of some pretensions to antiquity, standing in the Uxbridge-road; there is also an ancient “Pack Horse,” in the Harrow-road; and at the corner of Old Church-street, in the Edgeware-road, there is a “Wheat Sheaf,” which has the credit of having frequently entertained honest and learned Ben Johnson; so that, if learning and science were not allowed to flourish in the churches and other public buildings of Paddington, the ale houses, in some degree, attempted to supply the defect.
From theIndex Villarisof 1690, I find there were “more than three gentlemen’s seats” in Paddington, at that date. Probably there were four—Westbourn Manor House; Paddington Manor House; Desborough House; and Little Shaftsbury House; the two latter names pointing out their original occupants.
Although I am not now able to offer any positive evidence in proof of Desborough House having belonged to the celebrated Colonel, who was related to Cromwell, and whose doings in the Commonwealth are so well known, yet I have met with many circumstances which incline me to this belief.
Lysons tells us that Little Shaftesbury House was built by “The Earl of Shaftesbury, author of the Characteristics, or his father the Chancellor.”
There can be no doubt but the population of Paddington was considerably increased, when the manor and rectory fell into lay hands; and by making the same computation as before—five members for each family,[182b]we shall find thatby 1685, it had increased to upwards of three-hundred; for, in the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth Charles the second, sixty-two persons are charged for 267 fire-hearths in Paddington: John Ashley, the gentleman who made the greatest smoke in the parish at that time, being charged for sixteen.
John Hubbard is not included in this impost; for he did not live to see all the good results produced by the Restoration, having died, according to his tombstone, in 1665, “aged 111 years.”[183a]
Lysons has omitted to notice this patriarch in his list of cases of longevity. “Whether he abstained from doing so, because John wasin some wayrelated to the venerable lady of that name, and because his tomb was too well known to require mention, I cannot say. Seeing, however, this tomb exists when others of more recent date are not to be found, I am inclined to believe some such historical interest must have attached to it, or it would have shared the fate of others. At all events, from John’s Diary, if he kept one, many a story as good as Old Mother Hubbard’s could have been made.
In another part of the church-yard, on the end of a plain, flat stone, we may read these words:—
Sacred to the Memory of Sarah Siddons, who departed this life, June 8th, 1831, in her 76th year.“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”
Sacred to the Memory of Sarah Siddons, who departed this life, June 8th, 1831, in her 76th year.
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”
Mrs. Siddons lived at one time in Paddington; but Mr. Cunningham tells us, in his Hand-book for London, that the pretty little house and grounds which she occupied, were destroyed, to make room for the Great Western Railway; Desborough Lodge, however, in which I am informed she lived, still stands in the Harrow-road, a little south and east of the second Canal bridge.[183b]
Poor Haydon, who devoted “forty-two years to the improvement of the taste of the English people in high art,” lived in Paddington; and his shattered corpse was placed near the spot, where Mrs. Siddons was buried. At no great distance, Collins, the painter of English coast and cottage scenery, lies. And Dr. Geddes, the “Translator of the Historical Books of the Old Testament,” was buried in Paddington Church-yard.His surviving friends could engrave on his tombstone the following sentence from his works:—
“Christian is my name, and Catholic my surname; I grant that you are a Christian as well as I, and embrace you as my fellow disciple of Jesus; and if you were not a disciple of Jesus, still I would embrace you as my fellow man.”
“Christian is my name, and Catholic my surname; I grant that you are a Christian as well as I, and embrace you as my fellow disciple of Jesus; and if you were not a disciple of Jesus, still I would embrace you as my fellow man.”
Yet, because he dared to express his honest conviction, as to the real origin of the Books he had taken so much trouble to translate, he was condemned and despised by many zealots, who thought their hatred a Christian act; and “public censure was passed upon him by the Vicar Apostolic, of the London district.” The Life of this great scholar, and good man, was published by Dr. Mason Good, in 1803.
Banks the sculptor; the elder George Barret; Merlin the mechanist; the careful sculptor Nollekins, and his father; the Marquis of Lansdowne, without a word to mark his tomb, and many other notables; lie buried in this church and churchyard. But, although thoughts are to be picked up, by day as well as by night, in a ramble among the tombs, it is not my intention to copy all the grave-stones, or to encroach on the province of the biographer, or village barber, if there be one such useful gossip still remaining among us.
For a sketch of a people, whether forming a parish or a nation, it is better to go to their laws, and observe the effects those laws have produced; than to rely on any description of individuals, dead or living. With the exception of the ancient customs of the place, the common law of the land was the light which guided the people of Paddington, down to the middle of the last century. Then, as we have already seen, began the enactment of special laws,—laws which altered the relations between those who had duties to perform, and those who had rights and privileges to protect.
Previous to 1753, the people of this parish managed their own affairs without external aid, the influential inhabitants exercising their influence here, as influential people in all quarters of the world have done, either for their own, or the public good, according as their selfish passions, or the Eternal Truth, prevailed within them. Riches had their weight, as well as reason, even before Sturges Bourne and his system of plural voting, came to regulate and measure the powers of mammon in local elections. But in every system of government, the selfish rely on ignorance, more than on any other agent, for the preservation of their powers. When the ignorant, however, as well as the wise, were free to speak on localaffairs, many unwelcome truths, which did not fall from the lips of the ordained teachers, must have reached the ears of “the jobbers,” within the walls of St. Katherine’s, St. James’s, and St. Mary’s. The meetings of the people, in these sainted places, for the transaction of their parish business, were open to all the inhabitants of the parish; and no local burden could be imposed without the sanction of the majority. No wonder, then, that those who did not reside in the parish, but who had determined to impose burdens on all those who did, should call to their aid a power never before felt by the people of Paddington: one, against which it was useless to rebel; and from thejusticeof which there was no appeal.
Private Act followed private Act, for the regulation of property, over which the people saw and felt,theyhad no control. And, when at length their voices were raised in no measured cadence, some against this grievance, others against that, the church was said to be desecrated, and polite ears could no longer listen to such a babel of tongues. A gag was provided. “A select vestry” was the instrument used. And among the many unjust and unwise laws “passed, to keep down the people, from 1817 to 1820, the most disgraceful era in our legislation,” “An Act for the regulation of parish vestries,” better known as “Sturges Bourne’s Act,” is to be found. In this Act there are, without doubt, provisions which were much required for the “regulation of parish vestries;” but I have never yet heard any reason, worthy a moment’s consideration, for the introduction of the third clause into that Act. This clause gives “one vote and no more” to all persons rated for property “not amounting to fifty pounds,” and adds one vote “for twenty-five pounds of annual rent, &c.” But “so, nevertheless, that no inhabitant shall be entitled to give more than six votes.” The principle, “that property should be properly represented,” is thus absurdly carried out: all those rated at £50 per annum, have double the amount of influence of those rated at £49; while those rated at £500, have no more power in the local election, than those rated at £150. But to such miserable shifts as these must legislation condescend, as soon as it swerves from the eternal principles of justice. Is it not of as much concern to the poor rate-payer, as to the rich, that the parish funds shall be well expended? And who can shew that the wisdom of a man can be measured by the size of his house; or by the amount he contributes to the poor-rate?
On the fourth of April, 1820, the Rev. Dr. Crane, the LordBishop of Exeter, and other influential inhabitants managed to establish “a select vestry” in Paddington; in which they and their friends had all the talk as well as all the work to themselves. But if this select body prevented the people talking, they prevented their eating also. The glorious parish dinners, at which the parish officers and their friends had rejoiced at the people’s expense, were discontinued by the bishop and his friends, in 1821; much to their credit be it spoken, seeing that at the beginning of this year it was discovered that there were no less than 824 persons in the parish who claimed relief as paupers—more than one-eighth of the whole population—and that out of these, thanks to the cottages, there were 635 legally settled on the parish.
In May, 1821, a general meeting of the inhabitants was called to consider, amongst various other things, the propriety of petitioning the House of Commons for a general law, to regulate the formation and maintenance of the highways on the north-west side of the metropolis; and so much was such an Act required, that it was resolved unanimously to petition. But when the petition was read, and considered, it was found to be so objectionable that it was as unanimously rejected. And by the thirtieth of March, 1822, the inhabitants had seen quite enough of the select vestry system; for on that day, when called on to re-appoint it for another year, they would not do so. But on the first of April, 1823, power was given to a committee of rate-payers to procure a local Act. A draft-bill was prepared by an experienced Parliamentary counsel, which was left in the hands of the vestry-clerk, for the inspection of the inhabitants; and it is said to have received “their cordial approbation.” Whether that clause which has compelled the people of Paddington, to elect their local governors, under the system of plural votes, received their approbation, we are not told; neither is it brought down to us by any authentic record, how many read and digested an Act, which contains no less than one hundred and fifty-five clauses, and occupies eighty printed Act-of-Parliament-pages. Whether its provisions were understood or not, however, the fifth of George the IV., chapter 126, received the sanction of the legislature on the seventeenth of June, 1824, and since that date all the provisions which have met with the approval of those who have been elected under it, have been carried into effect.
The cost of procuring this Act, is said to have been £1,088 14s.6d.
During these two years of select rule—from 1820 to 1822—the path had been paved for the introduction of this local Act. A committee had been appointed early in 1822, to inquire into its expediency; spacious vestry premises and other offices had been built on a portion of the garden belonging to the alms-houses; and other preparations had been made to effectually take the management of the local affairs out of the hands ofthe people.
To find laws so comprehensive and wise, as not to require the tinker at every little exigency, which may arise in every little portion of the community, must surely be a proof of the wisdom of a people. To find it necessary, constantly to alter general laws; and constantly to be called on to “stop gaps” by rotten bits of special legislation, which scarcely wear a single session, must as surely betoken want of foresight in the law-makers; or the approaching end of that system, which rests on so sandy a foundation. Five and twenty Acts of Parliament, at the least, have been passed specially to affect the property and people of Paddington; and when we think of these, in connection with the laws which apply to the people in general, we may not be surprised to find, now and then, even a local governor, elected under the aristocratic provisions of Sturges Bourne’s Act, lost amidst this heap of legislative wisdom.
Local self-government, and local taxation, are questions of the day; and are slowly, but surely, forcing themselves on the consideration of those who have to direct the affairs of “an Empire on which the sun never sets.”
Centralization, too, is under consideration; and, although in the objectionable sense in which this idea is generally understood, it has received the condemnation of the most acute thinkers of the present and past time, still it is supported by learned and powerful advocates, who profess to understand what government really is or ought to be. In every sense these subjects demand the attention ofthe people—not only on account of the enormous revenue annually raised by local taxation; but because all forms of government are in the crucible, and it is desirable for the benefit of all, that the best elements should be eliminated.
For the inhabitants of a particular parish or district to be permitted to carry out a general law which has been enacted by a whole people, according to the peculiar circumstances of their local condition, is a very different thing from giving to that district special privileges and laws, which may, and mostlikely would, become inimical to the public good. The circumstances of almost every place in England have so changed—not to say since their ancient municipal laws were enacted, but within the last few years—that radical alterations are absolutely demanded; and tinkering must soon end. But the spirit of self-government, and the desire for it, can never die, so long as the people understand the true value of liberty. And no system of centralization for the management of local affairs, can ever be rendered so palatable to the people of England, as to induce them to endure it, till mismanagement has attained a still higher point than it has yet reached—a consummation many causes are now at work to secure;—or till the people have greater power over the actions of those who regulate the expenditure of the country—a principle of justice which must ultimately prevail.
That the whole of the people of Paddington, Marylebone, and Pancras, (at the last census, upwards of 371,000 souls,) should have but two “places and voices,” in the Commons’ House of Parliament, while a few hundred in other districts, have the same direct power over the legislative and executive administration of this country, is so monstrous a wrong, that some may imagine the people, who quietly submit to such anomalies, have reached a point at which power may be safely centred in a few hands. These are they, however, who do not clearly discern the signs of the times. Any thing resembling the tyranny of an absolute monarchy, or the despotism of a well-paid and idle oligarchy, is as detestable now, as ever it was to that people, who from their childhood are taught to adore liberty for its own sake, as well as for the fruits it brings forth. The Saxon people are patient, and endure much; but to educate their children to look upon thraldom as liberty, will never be permitted in England; and cannot much longer be tolerated in other countries.
Till private legislation interested itself in the affairs of the people of Paddington, the local government must have been of the simplest kind. They had, indeed, little to trouble themselves about on this score. Their church was provided for, very badly, it is true, by those who took care of the revenues which were given for its support; so that the churchwardens were not troubled with the collection of church-rates; and they had no archdeacon’s visitations to attend; so that no troublesome questions could be put to them by this once useful and important officer of the church. The overseer was equally unemployed; for at no time previous to the latter part of thelast century, could there have been many poor. The culture of the land, and its attendant duties, found occupation and a living for all. Alms-houses for the aged and infirm were built, as we have seen, in 1714; but no other sort of poor-house was required; for the only idle people in the parish were the few rich families, who were privileged to live on the industry of others.
By the middle of the last century, nearly the whole of this parish had become grazing-land. In 1795, according to Lysons, there were upwards of eleven hundred acres of grassland in Paddington; eighty four and a half acres only being arable, or garden-ground. And for a long period, the people who occupied the bishop’s estate in Paddington, were as celebrated for the quantity or quality of their milk, as they are now for the number and size of their houses. One persevering and handsome guardsman, who had contrived to gain the good graces of a grazier’s daughter, congregated cows here to such an extent, that all London rang with the number. “Nine hundred and ninety-nine” could he keep, but the black boggies always killed or ran away with his thousandth.[189]Whether these sprites were in league with, or in any way connected with, “Black Meggie,” who always lay in the cow-shed at the corner of Tybourn Field, when not on duty, I cannot pretend to say. I am informed by a gentleman who was born in this parish, and who is no longer young in years, that he has heard the Tripod, which is represented in Rocque’s maps, as standing at the junction of the Edgeware with the Uxbridge-road, was only placed there when the good old English oracle had to execute her judgments thereon. And that this “three-legged mare,” Black Meggie by name, was only a poor temporary substitute for the more ancient and formal “Tybourn Tree” which had been cut down by some daring fellows thenight before it was to have been put in requisition for the benefit of a string of their friends. “Tybourn tree” had been removed from its old quarters, as we have already seen, and had been firmly erected, before Black Meggie’s time, as one of the institutions of the country, on that which is now the Marylebone side of the Edgeware-road.
At the beginning of the last century, next to the beautiful fields and quiet village, the gallows and the gibbet were the principal attractions in Paddington. At the beginning of this, “Tomlin’s New Town;” the collection of cottages, west of St. George’s-row; a row of gardens, and a large bowling-green, by the side of the Edgeware-road, between Tybourn turnpike, and Paddington, were called into existence. These changes, in conjunction with the grand canal of Paddington,[190]obliterated in a few years the work of centuries; and succeeded not only in altering the whole aspect of the place, but in infusing another element of social life into the people. Lysons, writing in 1794, says “this parish being chiefly church-land, there has been but little increase of buildings till about four years ago; since which time a number of small wooden cottages, to the amount of nearly one hundred, have been erected a little north of Tybourn turnpike. These cottages are let at from £7 to £12 per annum, and inhabited principally by journeymen artificers who work in London, forming with their families a small colony of about 600 persons.”
In the second edition of Lysons’ Work, published in 1811, he tells us these cottages were begun to be built in 1790. And he was informed by Mr. Pickering, the curate at that time, that before the second census was taken, they had increased to 600.
In Horwood’s large and beautiful plan of London, dated 1799, we find that a part of this colony, that lot of cottages built nearly opposite George-street, was called Tomlin’s New Town. We see, too, that St. George’s row was built at this time; that to the west of it a large building, called Trafalgar, existed; and that another plot of land had been covered with cottages. So that some portion of this colony was added tothe people of Paddington, and these tenements to the Tybourn Field, before the bishop’s first Building Act, was passed. Whether these wooden houses were built in anticipation of that Act, by some one who had heard the tale of the tinker, who lit his fire, and boiled his pot, and erected his shed, all in one night, at the corner of old Church-street; and who could not be dispossessed of that land which he had so magically acquired; (a tradition which appears to have some reference to the establishment of Paedings New Town,) or whether these miserable sheds were built by the direction of the ground landlords, to give them a telling argument in favour of their private Act,—I cannot say. Both landlord and tenant, however, found the power of a modern private Act of Parliament, and the “journeymen artificers” had to “move on,” in order that Connaught-terrace, and better houses for the rich, might be built. The greater part of the enormous increase in the population between 1801 and 1811, was caused by the erection of these cottages, so very ill-suited for preserving health and life. They were soon filled, however, by the poorer class from the crowded parts of London; for pure air is more relished by the poor, than that which is fetid and foul, whatever the rich may say to the contrary. Give them but an opportunity of getting it, and see how greedily it is embraced; unless, indeed, the demoralizing effect of generations of bad education is brought into operation, to counteract this natural instinct. As fast as these cottages in the open fields were built, they were occupied; although those who were to reap the greater benefit of this more profitable occupation of the land, had made no provision for effective drainage, security from cold and wet, or for proper ventilation:—essentials, without which all sanitary laws are put absolutely at defiance, however well the situation of a town may be chosen, or however provident the bountiful Giver of all good may have been in sending storms and winds, to disperse the natural accumulation of unwholesome gases in certain localities.