OLD KNIGHTSBRIDGE AND ITS TAVERNS.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7894, 19 June 1891, Page 6

OLD KNIGHTSBRIDGE AND ITS TAVERNS.

Of all the famous taverns of Kniothtw bridge, The Swan, which Iβ now No. 5, Sloane-atreefc, is the only one left. lt.lt. probably as old as was the Fox and Ball, bub the first mention of it we c*n find is in Obway's " Soldier of fortune," written io the early part of Charles ll.'s reign, W which an old city knight cays of Oil daughter who has left; her home: "sot aught I knovr she may bo taking the «lt as far as KuiehtsbrldKe with some smoothfaced rogue or other. 'Tis a bad house thac Swan at Kuightsbrldga, 'tis a confounded house." All taverns ouwloe London In those days had gardens to them, with shady bowere and dans walks, were the resort of libertines and roycterers, and eeem to have been held 'laespecial dread by hunbands and fathers. The Kn Ightsbridge hosts miiiht have serwa at the period Or.way wrote, and for generations afterwards, as the model »oi Farqubar's immortal host In the * Bean* Stratagem, Boniface, for thflf eeetn to have been in league with all the robber! arid footpads that used that road. Iβ • letter written by the Duke of Bucking ham, juet after hiR duel with the Eftriol Rochester, he describes how he ana n« second " lay overnight at the Swan p« vately, to avoid being secured at Lotjdoo upon any suspicion. I aud my friend ai» euised ourselves bo as to look as wacfi w possible like highwaymen, for which m People of the house liked ue all the better, erhaps for the very reasons thatßpntttei gives fn the play when speaking; of Aimwell--" be spends his mouey so freely, ana l« co much a gentleman in every manne? of way, that he must be a btebwarmapr That the innkeepers of KujgbUbrfdM were very notorious In their day, toouga perhaps not more so than those of otnes places near London, ie shown by w>s sij hits the wits were always maktngat tbM peculiarities. Bayee, in the Duke of But* fnghara's burlesque, "The Rehearsal, say* tbatanarmymightbe concealed iuKoigntebridge if the innkeepers were fr eadiy. It would be Impossible to concede efl wild a spot within twenty miles» of ■ London nowadays, as that on which the Bwiu Inn stands wae two hundred years ago* two generations nearer our °wa "«« LordTßervey, who lived at KensiOßtoa. describes himself even in she roonttt o* November as living therein the saras solitude as though cast upon a rock M ww middle of the ocean, because KnWjw bridge was an impassable gulf o£ mua. Piccadilly wai only partly b«lt opg. London did not extend wesCof St. •Jame»| street, and all beyond wae corn-land ano meadow-land, flowery meads and «ospm ing hedges. Even at the beginning or «se present century there was Sraper's or a butcher's shop **t«m Hyde-park Corner and Sloftne-straeft, aae only oue in the whole locality wjflftjnewspaper or writing materials coeWi« purchased ; the roads were lit by dI-n ou lamps, and the only means of reach W town wae by a sort of • t »K e - Co *^ , iT ran backwards and '° rWßrds £, nce n Juet In the wide apace where S!oM*ggjJ strikes off to the south were the *"}*f etocke% watch-house, and the pound,fw stray cattle; in summer the air «yW with the perfume of ua?-*"? , * 1 "*, 3" ■ muiical with th« songs of birds, jnd »J inhabitants were as rural in *sflrw« »»« manners as they are now ac Dorking.