peculiar name, we have treated of such a partially-disjoined spot as a Middlesex village. The divisions to which this Hundred is subject are thus named:-Kensington Division; Holborn Division; Finsbury Division; and Tower Division. The Liberty of Westminster is, likewise, comprised in Ossulston Hundred. The Parishes, Hamlets, Precincts, &c. contained in these Divisions, generally and respectively, will be seen by a reference to the Tables of Population prefixed to this volume. CHELSEA, a village rendered of great interest by many circumstances connected with biographical record, and by two national establishments of the most munificent description, is desirably situated on the northern bank of the river Thames. The church is distant two miles from Buckingham House, on the south-west; but such has been the increase of buildings in this neighbourhood that the village now extends, on the northeast, nearly to Hyde Park corner. That Reach of the river Thames on which the church, and the most attractive portions of Chelsea, are placed, is almost two miles in length, and is wider than any part of the river westward of London Bridge.* The great increase of buildings bas necessarily deprived this once retired village of all pretensions to a rural character. The numerous Streets, and crowded dwellings in the more busy precincts, convey the idea of a town of great population and considerable traffic. In our more detailed notice of this place, we shall shew that several new Streets and ranges of buildings are conspicuous for beauty; but the general architectural character of modern Chelsea is extremely various; and dwellings are often pressed on each other for support, which appear truly unable to stand alone. Yet the hand of recent speculation has been denied access It may likewise be observed that, in this fine and bold reach, the waters of the Thames are more subject to wavy roughness, than in any other part west of the antient bridge of London. access to certain favoured spots; and here are seen detached villas, elegant, capacious, and adorned by a fine spread of home scenery. The parish of Chelsea is bounded on the north by the Fulham road, which separates it from Kensington; and on the east by a rivulet, which divides it from St. George's, Hanover Square, and which enters the Thames near Ranelagh. On the west, a brook, which rises near Wormholt Scrubs, and falls into the Thames facing Battersea church, divides this parisla from that of Fulham; and, on the south, it is bounded by the Thames.* Chelched. Lysons observes,† "that the most antient record in which he has seen the name of this place mentioned, is a charter of Edward the Confessor, in which it is written Cealchylle." In Domesday the name is thus written, in a double manner, Cercehede. The word Chelsey was first adopted in the 16th century, and the present mode of spelling the name appears to have grown into use about a century back. There have been various conjectures respecting the etymology of this term. Norden says, "that Chelsey is so called of the nature of the place, whose Strond is like the chesel, which the sea casteth up of sand and pebble stones. Thereof called Cheselsey, breefely Chelsey, as is Chelsey in Sussex;" and the opinion of Norden appears to be that best entitled to acceptation. According to a charter of Edward the Confessor, still preserved in the British Museum, the manor of Chelsea was bestowed by Thurstan, who held it of the King, on Westminster Abbey; but in the Survey taken by order of William 1. there is only the following entry concerning this place: "Edward de Sarisberie holds Chelched, or Cercehede, § for two hides. There is land to five ploughs. One hide is in the Demesne, and + Environs of London, Vol. II. p. 45. • Faulkner's Chelsea, p. 4. Speculum Britanniæ, p. 17. Written as above. and there are now two ploughs there. The Villanes have one plough; and two ploughs might yet be made. There are two Villanes of two virgates, and four Villanes of half a virgate each; and three Bordars of five acres each, and three Bondmen. Meadow for two Ploughs. Pasture for the cattle of the village. Pannage for sixty hogs and fifty-two pence. Its whole value is nine pounds; the same when received, and always. Wluuene, a vassal of King Edward's, held this ma nor; he might sell it to whom he would." It is, however, observed by Mr. Lysons" as possible that, although the Domesday Survey makes no mention of any lands or manor belonging to the church of Westminster, in Chelsea, they might have been included amongst its possessions in Westminster, where that church is said to have had thirteen hides and a half." But if two distinct manors were recognised at this period, it does not appear that they existed in any subsequent era. Thus is the subject involved in all the obscurity incidental to early annals; and we willingly proceed to the notice of particulars connected in a more general way with the history of the village. Maitland, in his History of London, supposes that when the Britons, after experiencing a defeat in the reign of Claudius, were compelled to ford the river Thames, and were followed by the Emperor, who then completely routed them, the spot chosen for their passage through the river was in the close neighbourhood of Chelsea College Garden.t * Bawdwen's Translation of Domesday for Midd. p. 24. + Environs, &c. Vol. II. p. 47. The In support of this opinion, Maitland observes that he sounded the river Thames, at different times, between Wandsworth and London Bridge, and discovered a ford," about ninety feet west of the south-west angle of Chelsea College garden, where in a right line from north-east to south-west, he found the channel to be only four feet seven inches in depth." This exami nation took place in 1732, but the bel of the river is subject to such con The same writer conjectures this to be, "likewise, the place which Julius Cæsar forced, when he routed the Britons; notwithstanding what has been alledged by Camden and others in favour of Coway Stakes." Maitland endeavours to support this latter notion by some plausible calculations, as to distance. But, after all, it is a doubt whether Cæsar's Thamesis be the river at present known by the name of Thames; and it may be observed that there are no earth-works, or remains of fortification, in the vicinity of Chelsea, to strengthen the probable correctness of the supposition; while, in the neighbourhood of Coway Stakes, such vestiges are frequent. When treating of Sheperton, and the traces of antiquity bordering on that place, we shall bestow on the subject of Cæsar's passage more extended consideration. When Pope Adrian, in the year 785, sent legates to England, for the purpose of enquiring into certain supposed errors of faith and defects of religious practice, a synod was held at Cealchythe (Chelsea.) For several centuries subsequent to the period at which this synod was held, history is silent respecting the village; but it recurs to notice, in a pleasing point of view, as the chosen residence of some of the most conspicuous persons connected with the councils and warlike operations of the country, in ages celebrated for wisdom and valour. So numerous, indeed, were the mansions constructed in this neighbourhood, that it is said Chelsea was anciently denominated the "village of Palaces." The real beauty of the spot, and its proximity to the metropolis, continued to attract fresh inhabitants, of high name and great worth, when the buildings first raised had served their term of duration, and sunk into splendid decay. No tinual changes, that no argument can be justly drawn from its existing cha racter. At present (1814) no part of the channel between the Chelsea-waterworks and Battersea-bridge, is less in depth than from ten to twelve feet, at low water. No village on the borders of London, except those honoured by a regal palace in which several successive monarchs held their court, can boast of such a variety and long continuation of eminent residents; and, in the 17th century, the place attained a great accession of consequence by the foundation of a national Hospital, of so honourable a description that the most elevated have deemed it no derogation to raise mansions in its close vicinity. As the most important features in the history of Chelsea, after a statement of the few particulars already mentioned, and with the exception of its great public foundations, are comprised in a notice of the distinguished characters connected with it as residents, we shall proceed to enumerate these; and, in a kind of perambulation of the village, shall point, where it is attainable, to the site of the dwellings they once occupied. Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who acquired high renown at the battles of Cressy and Poictiers, appears to have occasionally resided at Chelsea; and it is supposed that he occupied a house and premises which afterwards belonged to Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, and which were granted by Richard III. to Elizabeth, relict of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, for life, to be held by the service of a red rose. But the site of this mansion is now unknown; as is, also, the spot once occupied by a house which William Marquis of Berkeley, who died in 1491, and who was an adberent of the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII. possessed in this village. There stood, until the present year, a spacious house near the bank of the river, between the seat of the Bishops of Winchester and the church, which appeared to have been constructed early in the 16th century. This decayed mansion, as it remained in 1810, is thus described in Faulkner's Historical Account Environs of London, Vol. II. p. 51. |