The above account of this celebrated mansion cannot fail to be highly interesting to the generality of readers. Mr. Faulkner has truly observed, “that few houses can boast of having been the residence of such a succession of noble and distinguished characters.”
Beaufort (row) Street, which was begun to be built about 1766, takes its name from the Duke of Beaufort. A portion of his vast estate was the property of Mr. Long, a very old and respected parishioner, partly leasehold, under Earl Cadogan, and some of it, if not all, is still held by that family.
To meet the tastes of all classes of readers, I shall occasionally deviate from the prescribed order which it was my original intention to have pursued; by doing so it will remove the weariness that frequently arises, especially in works of this description, from dwelling too long on one particular subject. This motive, I trust, will be accepted as an apology for apparent digressions.
There was formerly a Ferry a little eastward of the spot where now stands Battersea Bridge, and consequently not far distant from the distinguished mansion just described. It belonged to Thomas, Earl of Lincoln, who sold it in 1618 to William Blake. After some time it became the property of Sir Walter St. John, and passed with the Bolingbroke estate to Earl Spencer, under whom it was held in 1766, when an Act of Parliament was obtained for building a bridge over the Thames, from Chelsea to Battersea, and empowering Lord Spencer to build the same. Fifteen proprietors having subscribed a sum of money each, it was accordingly begun in 1771, was opened for foot-passengers in the same year, and in the following year was ready for carriages. From 1772, when the bridge was finally erected, to the present time, 1869, is exactly 97 years, and this is the precise age of it. It is a most unsightly structure of wood, about one furlong in length, 28 ft. wide, and its cost rather more than £20,000. The proprietors have a vote for the counties of Middlesex and Surrey.
Lamps were first placed on the bridge in 1799, and in 1821 and 1822 an iron railing 4-ft. high, on the western side, was substituted for the original wooden railing, and in 1824, the eastern side was completed. So far apart were the original wooden railings, which were placed crossways, that the body of a child might have passed through them, and, if not observed, no person cognizant of the fatal accident. There were also, at the above period, eight projecting recesses, four on each side, constructed for the safety of foot-passengers, and a slightly raised pathway made.
