IN LEICESTER SQUARE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19832, 30 December 1927, Page 6

IN LEICESTER SQUARE.

FAMOUS LONDON RESORT. GHOSTS OF NOTED PEOPLE. A MOST ROMANTIC HISTORY. BY BARNACLE. In these days of fast and comfortable) steamers everyone travels more or less. This is only another way of saying that 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 favourite, Robert Dudley, created by her Earl of Leicester; but he dying without legitimate issue the title lay in abeyance; for some time. •/ "Dortunity to revive it arose when Lao v Dudley—of tiio same family as the Ov 1 earl—married Henry Sidney, the son of a famous soldier, Sir William Sidney, and accordingly James I.> Elizabeth's successor, created him the second carl. And it was this nobleman and his famous mansion, built on the northern side but a little distance back—somewhere about where the Queen's Hotel now stands —which gave the name to the square. It should be remembered that in those old days the ground was merely an ornamental attachment to the mansion; in fact, it was not until 1874 that it became public property. This neighbourhood then bore the name of St. Martins m 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 time, 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 ibe 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. I entered this place and passed up the handsome staircase. I was in the home of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of famous memory. At the south-west corner opposite is another famous painter's house (No. 30), that of William Hogarth. As he painted the seamy side of life in his time, so did Sir Joshua delineate its beautiful and stately side; as everyone knows, these two artists were, the founders of the English school of portrait painting. Next to Hogarth's is the old home of John Hunter (No. 28), the great surgeon; Jenner 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 oi them is another man, Isaac Newton, the fouuclei of a system of natural philosophy; ho house is just round the corner in StMartin's Street. Most of us can remember our English history and the story of that unfortunate but lovable daughter oi James 1., and how, through her marriage with. Frederick of Bohemia she became the ancestress of George I. Hers was a sad iiie; coming to England in the time oi Charles 11.her nephew—she, with her court, was lodged in Leicester House; here soon after lodged in Leicester House; hare soon afterwards she died.

.(For a long time the mansion was used as a royal residence. The Princes of Wales of the Georges used the mansion as a palace. In those days heirs-apparent, were invariably 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 centred round the throne and by a natural process of these 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 Qreat. A very picturesque personality., Peter the Great of Russia, once lived for a time in Leicester Square. This was in 1698. To be on the safe side the King had this wild barbarian lodged in a private house with "cronies" of his own kind. v The wraiths of so many famous nobles and commoners haunt the place, Newton and his clever niece and housekeeper, Ann Barton, Reynolds, Hogarth, Hunter, Dean Swift and Sir George Saville, Prince Eugene, ©ruickshank, la Guiccolo, Kosciusko and that scamp and duellist, Lord Mohun. Then Sir Joshua Reynold's famous dinner table at No. 47—where, being a bachelor himself, the host promoted tru® bachelor's informality—to which would gather all that represented the best in. art, in literature, wisdom and wit; those old names, many so familiar even after such a passage of time, 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 wars of Charles I.'s time, arid afterwards during the Commonwealth, the Sidney family lost much of their wealth; the town house at Leicester Square was little used and so it is not surprising to read that in 1798 the property was sold and passed into the hands of & family named Tulk.

"Seedy, Disreputable Haunt." The pride of ownership vanished and the 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 be ornamented with a variegated coat of paint, or again used as a hoarding for posting bills. The place had completely lost Cciste. I lie Board of Works endeavoured to end the scandal by taking possession, but the Tulks were successful in their suit for possession. Finally they pulled down the 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' comei's. 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 tha incessant roar of London's West J«nd.