IN LEICESTER SQUARE

Evening Star, Issue 19772, 24 January 1928, Page 13

IN LEICESTER SQUARE

FAMOUS LONDON RESORT GHOSTS OF NOTED PEOPLE A MOST ROMANTIC HISTORY. In these days of fast and comfortable steamers everyone travels more or less. This is only another way of saying that I a great number of folk know Leicester Square, London. To go to London means at least passing, if not visiting, this very interesting place. The origin of the fame of it, that is, the number of famous names associated with Leicester Square, is very largely due to the celebrity of the original owners, the famous Sidney family; it is, therefore, in keeping to sketch its early history. The first owner was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite, Robert Dudley, created by her Earl of Leicester; but lie dying without legitimate issue the title lay in abeyance for some time. An opportunity to revive it arose when Lady Mary Dudley—of the same family of the dead earl, married Henry Sidney, the son of a famous soldier, Sir William Sidney, and accordingly James 1., Elizabeth’s successor, created him the second earl. And it was this nobleman and his famous mansion, built on the northern side hut a little distance back—somewhere about where the Queen’s Hotel now stands—which gave the name to the square. It should bo remembered that in those old clays the ground was merely an ornamental attachment to the mansion; in fact, it was public property. This neighborhood then bore the name of St. Martins in the Fields; a ! reminder of this fact exists in the present day in St. Martin’s Church, opposite Trafalgar Square. Somewhere about where the National Gallery now stands were the buildings of the royal mews of that tipie, and stretching on and back toward Soho and Oxford street were other mews and also a vast conglomeration of stables and appurtenances belonging to the nobility and gentry. For long not a single street penetrated all this area; but, for all these years there stood famous Leicester House and its square, the town house and gardens of the Sidney family. WRAITHS OF FAMOUS FOLK. There is a noteworthy house near the north-west corner of the square. It still bears its old number—No.47. It is now occupied by a firm of art and philatelic auctioneers. At the southwest corner opposite is another famous painter’s house (No. 30), that of William Hogarth. As he painted the seamy side of life in his tune, so did Sir Joshua delineate its beautiful and stately side; as everyone knows, these two artists were the founders of the Engiisu sn, c \r--i f Hogarth’s is the old home of John Hunter (No. 28), the great surgeon; Jcnner was a pupil of this man. Two other famous men. Bell and Cruickshank—both surgeons—lived here also. In a way more famous than any of them is another man, Isaac Newton, the founder of a system of natural philosophy; his house is just round the corner in St. Martin’s street. Most of us can remember our English history and the story of that unfortunate but lovable daughter of James 1., and how, through her marriage with Fredrick of Bohemia she became the ancestress of George I. Hers was a sad life; coming to England in the time of Charles ll—her nephew—she, with her court, was lodged in Leicester* House; here soon afterwards she died. For a Jong time the mansion was used as a royal residence. The Princess of Wales of the Georges used the mansion as a palace. In those days heirs-apparent were invaribly at loggerheads with the King, and one of the results of these perpetual quarrels was their use of a private mansion as a home. It was really the,outcome of the political atmosphere wherein power centered round the throne and by a natural process of those days of outrageous political corruption, the Prince of Wales became the natural leader of the Opposition. Thus we have Leicester House as the centre of cliques and intrigues—a Royal Court everlastingly in antagonism with the reigning Sovereign. VISIT FROM PETER THE GREAT. A very picturesque personality, Peter the Great of Russia, onco lived for a time in Leicester Square. This was in 1698. To be on the safe side the King bad this wild barbarian lodged in a private house with “cronies” ot Ins own kind. Tho wraiths of so many famous nobles and commoners haunt tiie place, Newton and his clever niece and housekeeper, Ann Barton, Reynolds, Hogarth, Hunter, Dean Swift, and Sir George Saville, Prince Eugene, Cruiokshank, la Guiccolo, Kosciusko and that scamp and duellist, Lord Mahun. Then Sir Joshua Reynold’s famous dinner table at No. 47—whore, being a bachelor himself, tho host promoted [ true bachelor’s informality— to which | would gather all that represented the I host in art, in literature, wisdom and I wit; those old names, many so familiar even after such a passage of time, I Burke, Dr Johnson, Boswell, Bennett, ; Topham, Gibbon, Beauclerk, Garrick, Goldsmith, Lord Palmerston and ever so many others. But the famous square fell on evil days, it became a sort of no man’s land. During the years of Charles I.’s time, and afterwards during the Comj monwealth, the Sidney family lost much of their wealth; the town house I at Leicester Square was little used aud i so it is not surprising to read that in I 1798 the property was sold and passed I into the hands of a. family named Tulk. “ SEEDY DISREPUTABLE HAUNT.” The pride of ownership vanished and Die square degenerated into the seedy, disreputable haunt of cheap restaurants and so on and equally doubtful patrons, both English and foreign. As an example of the utter want of pride of ownership, the gilt statue of George L, which had for long stood in the centre became the butt and jest of every small boy and loafer who desired to exercise his wit. It was turned into any absurdity thought proper; sometimes it would be decked out in old clothes; other times it would bo ornamented with a variegated coat of paint, or again used as a hoarding . for posting bills. j The place had completely lost caste, j The Board of Works endeavoured to ; end the scandal by taking possession, 1 but the Tulks were successful in their suit for possession. Finally they pulled down tho old king as the only way out of the difficulty. Then in 1874 a public-spirited man, Baron Albert Grant, purchased the site and presented it to the nation as a rest place for all comers. And that is how we now see it, a small square of trim walks and grass plots—set off at . the four corners with busts of Reynolds, Hogarth, Newton, and Hunter, its four famous men—an oasis in the desert of tremendous traffic, an oasis so welcome to any wayfarer, weary of the incessant roar of London’s West End.