"Or when, Apollo-like, thou'st pleased to lead
Thy sons to feast on Hampstead's airy head:
Hampstead, that, towering in superior sky,
Now with Parnassus does in honour vie."

Since that time the house has been much altered,
and additions have been made to it. One Samuel
Stanton, a vintner, who came into possession of it
near the beginning of the last century, was pro-
bably the last person who used it as a tavern. In
1750 it passed from his nephew and successor,
"Samuel Stanton, gentleman," to his niece, Lady
Charlotte Rich, sister of Mary, Countess of War-
wick; it was a few years later that George Steevens,
the annotator of Shakespeare, bought the house,
and here he lived till his death, in 1800.

years by Mr. Thomas Sheppard, M.P. for Frome, and afterwards by Mrs. Raikes, a relative of Mr. Thomas Raikes, to whose "Journal" we have frequently referred in these pages. On her death the house passed into the hands of a Mr. Lister. The old house is still kept in remembrance by a double row of elms in front of it, forming a shady grove.

With the interest attached to the place through the pages of "Clarissa Harlowe," it would be wrong not to make more than a passing allusion to it. We will, therefore, summarise from the work those portions having special reference to the "Upper Flask " and its surroundings:

Richardson represents the fashionable villain Lovelace as inducing Clarissa-whom he had managed, under promise of marriage, to lure away from her family-to take a drive with him in company with two of the women of the sponging-house into which he had decoyed her. Lovelace, afterwards writing to his friend Belford, says :—“ The coach carried us to Hampstead, to Highgate, to Muswell Hill; back to Hampstead, to the 'Upper Flask.' There, in compliment to the

a little repast; then home early by Kentish Town." Clarissa no sooner discovers the nature of the vile place into which Lovelace has brought her, than she at once sets about endeavouring to effect her escape. By one of Lovelace's accomplices she is tracked to a hackney coach, and from her directions to the driver it is at once made clear that Hampstead is her destination. The fellow then disguises himself, and making his way thither, discovers her at the "Upper Flask," which fact he communicates to Lovelace in the following words:

Steevens is stated to have been a fine classical scholar, and celebrated for his brilliant wit and smart repartee in conversation, in which he was "lively, varied, and eloquent," so that one of his acquaintances said that he regarded him as a speak-nymphs, my beloved consented to alight and take ing Hogarth. He possessed a handsome fortune, which he managed, says his biographer, "with discretion, and was enabled to gratify his wishes, which he did without any regard to expense, in forming his distinguished collections of classical learning, literary antiquity, and the arts connected with it. He possessed all the grace of exterior accomplishment, acquired when civility and politeness were the characteristics of a gentleman. He received the first part of his education at Kingston-upon-Thames; he went thence to Eton, and was afterwards a fellow-commoner of King's College, Cambridge. He also accepted a commission in the Essex militia, on its first establishment. The latter years of his life he chiefly spent at Hampstead in retirement, and seldom mixed in society except in booksellers' shops, or the Shakespeare Gallery, or the morning conversations of Sir Joseph Banks."

"Steevens," says Cradock, in his "Memoirs," "was the most indefatigable man I had ever met with. He would absolutely set out from his house at Hampstead, with the patrol, and walk to London before daylight, call up his barber in Devereux Court, at whose shop he dressed, and when fully accoutred for the day, generally resorted to the house of his friend Hamilton, the well-known editor and printer of the Critical Review."

Steevens, it is stated, added considerably to the house.

It was subsequently occupied for many

"If your honner come to the Upper Flax,' I will be in site (sight) all day about the 'Tapphouse' on the Hethe." Lovelace pursues his victim in all haste, and arrives at the "Upper Flask," but only to find that she had been there, but had since taken up her abode somewhere in the neighbourhood. We next find Lovelace writing from the "Upper Flask :"-" I am now here, and have been this hour and a half. What an industrious spirit have I." But all that he could learn with any certainty respecting the runaway was, that "the Hampstead coach, when the dear fugitive came to it, had but two passengers in it; but she made the fellow go off directly, paying for the vacant places. The two passengers directing the coachman to set them down at the Upper Flask,' she bid them set her down there also."

Clarissa has in the meantime taken up her abode in the lodging-house of a Mrs. Moore, as she herself

Hampstead.]

CLARISSA HARLOWE.

461

Lovelace. The governor's wife seized the book, and the secretary waited for it, and the chief justice could not read it for tears. He acted the whole scene as he paced up and down the Athenæum Library; I daresay he could have spoken pages of the book."

The following is the testimony of R. B. Haydon to the merits of "Clarissa Harlowe" as a work of

genius as by Othello, except by 'Clarissa Harlowe.' I read seventeen hours a day at 'Clarissa,' and held up the book so long, leaning on my elbows in an arm-chair, that I stopped the circulation, and could not move. When Lovelace writes, 'Dear Belton, it is all over, and Clarissa lives,' I got up in a fury, and wept like an infant, and cursed Lovelace till I was exhausted. This is the triumph of genius over the imagination and heart of the readers."

tells us in one of her epistles :-" I am at present at one Mrs. Moore's, at Hampstead. My heart misgave me at coming to this village, because I had been here with him more than once; but the coach hither was such a convenience that I knew not what to do better." She, however, is not allowed to rest quietly here, but is soon surrounded by Lovelace's tools and spies. She attempts to escape, and, making her way to the window, ex-fiction :-"I was never so moved by a work of claims to the landlady-"Let me look out! Whither does that path lead to? Is there no probability of getting a coach? Cannot I steal to a neighbouring house, where I may be concealed till I can get quite away? Oh, help me, help me, ladies, or I am ruined!' Then, pausing, she asks'Is that the way to Hendon? Is Hendon a private place? The Hampstead coach, I am told, will carry passengers thither?"" Richardson writes: She, indeed, went on towards Hendon, passing by the sign of the 'Castle' on the Heath; then stopping, looked about her, and turned down the valley before her. Then, turning her face towards London, she seemed, by the motion of her handkerchief to her eyes, to weep; repenting (who knows?) the rash step that she had taken, and wishing herself back again. Then, continuing on a few paces, she stopped again, and, as if disliking her road, again seeming to weep, directed her course back towards Hampstead."

Hannah More bears testimony to the fact that, when she was young, "Clarissa" and "Sir Charles Grandison" were the favourite reading in any English household. And her testimony to their excellence is striking. She writes: "Whatever objection may be made to them in certain respects, they contain more maxims of virtue, and more sound moral principle, than half the books called 'moral.'"

At the end of a century, Macaulay tells us that the merits of "Clarissa Harlowe" were still felt and acknowledged. On one occasion he said to Thackeray: "If you have once thoroughly entered on 'Clarissa,' and are infected by it, you can't leave it. When I was in India, I passed one hot season at the hills, and there were the governorgeneral, and the secretary of the Government, and the commander-in-chief, and their wives. I had 'Clarissa' with me; and as soon as they began to read it, the whole station was in a passion of excitement about Miss Harlowe and the scoundrel

Richardson, by all accounts, was one of the vainest of men, and loved to talk of nothing so well as his own writings. It must be owned, however, that he had something to be vain and proud about when he wrote "Clarissa Harlowe," which at once established itself as a classic on the bookshelves of every gentleman and lady throughout England.

"The great author," writes Thackeray, in his "Virginians," "was accustomed to be adored-a gentler wind never puffed mortal vanity; enraptured spinsters flung tea-leaves round him, and incensed him with the coffee-pot. Matrons kissed the slippers they had worked for him. There was a halo of virtue round his nightcap." So great is the popularity of the author of "Pamela," "Clarissa," and "Sir Charles Grandison," that foreigners of distinction have been known to visit Hampstead, and to inquire with curiosity and wonder for the "Flask Walk," so distinguished as a scene in "Clarissa's" history, just as travellers visit the rocks of Mellerie, in order to view the localities with which they have already been familiarised in Rousseau's tale of passion. The "Lower Flask tavern, in Flask Walk, is mentioned in "Clarissa Harlowe" as a p'ace where second-rate persons are to be found. occasionally in a swinish condition. The "Flask Inn," rebuilt in 1873, is still here, and so is Flask Walk, but both are only ghosts of their former selves!

Description of the Town-Heath Street-The Baptist Chapel-Whitefield's Preaching at Hampstead-The Public Library-Romney, the PainterThe "Hollybush "-The Assembly Rooms-Agnes and Joanna Baillie-The Clock House-Branch Hill Lodge-The Fire Brigade Station -The "Lower Flask Inn"-Flask Walk-Fairs held there-The Militia Barracks-Mrs. Tennyson-Christ Church-The Wells-Concerts and Balls-Irregular Marriages-The Raffling Shops-Well Walk-John Constable-John Keats-Geological Formation of the Northern Heights.

THE town of Hampstead is built on the slope of the hill leading up to the Heath, as Mr. Thorne, in his "Environs" styles it, "in an odd, sidelong,

tortuous, irregular, and unconnected fashion. There are," he adds, "the fairly-broad winding High Street, and other good streets and lanes,

lined with large old brick houses, within high- features in its architecture. This fabric, or rather walled enclosures, over which lean ancient trees, its predecessor on the same site, is not without its and alongside them houses small and large, with-historical reminiscences. "The Independent conout a scrap of garden, and only a very little dingy gregation at Hampstead," says Mr. Howitt, "is yard; narrow and dirty byways, courts, and pas supposed to owe its origin to the preaching of sages, with steep flights of steps, and mean and Whitefield there in 1739, who, in his journal of crowded tenements; fragments of open green May 17, of that year, says, 'Preached, after several spaces, and again streets and lanes bordered with invitations thither, at Hampstead Heath, about shady elms and limes. On the whole, however, five miles from London. The audience was of the pleasanter and sylvan character prevails, espe- the politer sort, and I preached very near the cially west of the main street. The trees along horse course, which gave me occasion to speak the streets and lanes are the most characteristic home to the souls concerning our spiritual race. and redeeming feature of the village. Hampstead Most were attentive, but some mocked. Thus was long ago 'the place of groves,' and it retains the Word of God is either a savour of life unto its early distinction. It is the most sylvan of sub- life, or of death unto death.' The congregation urban villages." Besides these avenues or groves, experienced its share of the persecutions of those almost every part of "old Hampstead" is distin- times. The earliest mention of the chapel is 1775." guished by rows of trees, of either lime or elm, It was some time leased by Selina, Countess of planted along the broad footpaths in true boulevard Huntingdon, who relinquished her right in 1782. fashion. Mr. Howitt, in his " Northern Heights," The present fabric is called Heath Street Chapel. in writing on this subject, says: "Its old narrow roads winding under tall trees, are continually conducting to fresh and secluded places, that seem hidden from the world, and would lead you to suppose yourselves far away from London, and in some especially old-fashioned and old-world part of the On our right, between the High Street and the country. Extensive old and lofty walls enclose | Heath, lived-from 1797 to 1799, George Romney, the large old brick houses and grounds of what the famous painter. He removed hither from were once the great merchants and nobles of London; and ever and anon you are reminded of people and things which lead your recollection back to the neighbouring capital and its intruding histories."

In a house on the west side of High Street is the Hampstead Public Library. After undergoing many vicissitudes of fortune, this excellent institution seems of late years to have taken a new lease of life.

his residence in Cavendish Square." He took great pains in constructing for himself a country house, between the "Hollybush Inn" and the Heath, with a studio adjoining. He did not derive, however, any great pleasure from his investment, for he entered the house when it was still wet, and he never enjoyed a day of good health afterwards. Allan Cunningham, in his "Lives of British Painters," says that Romney had resolved to withdraw to the pure air and retirement of Hampstead

Like Tunbridge Wells and other fashionable resorts of the same kind, Hampstead was not without its inducements for the "wealthy, the idle, and sickly," who flocked thither; and "houses of entertainment and dissipation started up on all sides." The taverns had their "long-rooms" and assembly-"to paint the vast historical conceptions for which rooms for concerts, balls, and card parties; and attached to them were tea-gardens and bowlinggreens. On the Heath races were held, as we have stated in the previous chapter; fairs were held in the Flask Walk, and the Well Walk and Church Row became the fashionable promenades of the place. But to proceed.

his

all this travail had been undergone, and imagined that a new hour of glory was come;" but after a few months—a little more than a year-finding his health growing worse and worse, he made up mind to return back to the wife whom more than a quarter of a century before he had deserted, and who nursed him carefully till his death. The great Leaving the Lower or East Heath, with its artist's studio was subsequently converted into the pleasant pathways overlooking the Vale of Health, Assembly Rooms. These rooms were erected on the "ponds," and the distant slopes of Highgate the principle of a tontine; but all sorts of legal behind us, we descend Heath Mount and Heath difficulties arose, and no one knows who is now the Street, and so make our way into the town. On rightful owner. Here for many years-1820 to 1860 our left, as we proceed down the hill, we pass the were held, at first every month, and subsequently Baptist Chapel which was built for the Rev. every quarter of a year, conversazioni, to which William Brock, about the year 1862. It is a good substantial edifice, and its two towers are noticeable

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See Vol. IV., p. 446.