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Title: Glimpses of King William IV. and Queen Adelaide In Letters of the Late Miss Clitherow, of Boston House, Middlesex. With a Brief Account of Boston House and the Clitherow Family

Author: Mary Clitherow

Editor: G. Cecil White

Release Date: January 26, 2011 [EBook #35086]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GLIMPSES OF KING WILLIAM IV. ***

Produced by David McClamrock

GLIMPSES OF KING WILLIAM IV. AND QUEEN ADELAIDE

IN LETTERS OF THE LATE MISS CLITHEROW, OF BOSTON HOUSE, MIDDLESEX. WITH A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF BOSTON HOUSE AND THE CLITHEROW FAMILY

BY REV. G. CECIL WHITE, M.A., F.S.S., RECTOR OF NURSLING, HANTS

LONDON. MDCCCCII R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON

PREFACE

THE following pages are mainly compiled from certain letters by Miss Mary Clitherow, which have come into the editor's possession. They afford glimpses of the Court at that time, with reference not so much to public functions as to their Majesties' more private relations with persons honoured with their friendship. The reader will meet with few, if any, references in them to leaders in political or philanthropic movements or in the realms of literature or fashion; but it is not to be inferred that these were regarded with disfavour or treated with coldness by their Majesties, whose kindly interest in the well-being of their people is notorious. There were in this short reign many commanding personalities whose names must live in our history, and ever be remembered With respect and gratitude. To name only a few: the Duke of Wellington, Lords Grey, Melbourne, Brougham, Palmerston and Shaftesbury, Sir Robert Peel, William Wilberforce, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Southey, Thomas Campbell, S. T. Coleridge, Henry Hallam, Bulwer Lytton and William Thackeray were among the leading spirits of the time.

With such, however, these pages have no direct concern. They treat of personal friends whose interests lay neither in the Court nor in the Senate, and whose aims had no taint of self-seeking. The knowledge that William IV.'s intimate friends were high-minded, independent, kind-hearted English gentlefolk assures us that the King's well-known simplicity of taste was joined to a kindliness of heart, a sincerity of character, and a devotion to duty which enabled him to maintain his heritage of royal responsibility, and to hand it on to his successor with its honour restored, its resources enlarged, and its security confirmed.

CONTENTS

I. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF BOSTON HOUSE AND THE CLITHEROW FAMILY

II. DEFEAT OF THE MINISTRY—DINNER AT ST. JAMES's, 1830

III. A WEEK-END VISIT TO WINDSOR, 1831

IV. CHOLERA AT BRENTFORD—FALSE RUMOURS ABOUT THE QUEEN—DISMISSAL OF EARL HOWE—DEATH OF THE PRINCESS LOUISE—AT WINDSOR AGAIN—AN AFTERNOON ON VIRGINIA WATER, 1832

V. THE ROYAL BIRTHDAY FÊTES, 1833

VI. DINNER TO THEIR MAJESTIES AT BOSTON HOUSE, 1834

VII. LUNCHEON AT WINDSOR—VISITS TO WINDSOR AND ST. JAMES'S, 1835

VIII. DINNER AT KEW—FÊTES AT SYON HOUSE—QUEEN ADELAIDE'S FUND

IX. DEATH OF THE KING, 1837

X. AN APPRECIATION OF WILLIAM IV. AND HIS REIGN

GLIMPSES OF KING WILLIAM IV. AND QUEEN ADELAIDE

I

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF BOSTON HOUSE AND THE CLITHEROW FAMILY

IT seems almost incredible that in the twentieth century a station on the Metropolitan Railway should stand amidst quite rural surroundings. About Brentford,[*] however, there are still several fine properties which have hitherto escaped the grip of the speculative builder—e.g., Osterley Park, the seat of the Earl of Jersey, and Syon Hill, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland—and the immediate neighbourhood of Boston Road is not yet covered with semi-detached villas, or sordid streets of jerry-built cottages. It is nearly a quarter of a mile's walk along the road leading from Hanwell to Brentford before one comes to the first house on the right. Though not a mansion of the first rank, it is of sufficient size and antiquity to arrest attention. This is Boston House. It stands a little back from the high road, and the handsome iron gates allow the passer-by a glimpse of its quaint gables and narrow stone porch. It was built in 1622, and is a brick house of three stories, with three gables in front, and a long range of offices, etc., stretching from it on the north side.

[*] In a paper reprinted from Home Counties Magazine for October, 1901, occur the following remarks in 'Royalty in the Parish': 'Edmund the Atheling, also called Ironside, in 1016 was murdered at night in a house at Brentford by his brother-in-law, Edric Steone. Henry VI. in 1445 held a chapter of the Garter at the Red Lion Inn, Brentford. Charles I. witnessed the Battle of Brentford between his troops and those of the Parliament in 1642 from the grounds of Boston House. But it is not generally known that King William IV. and Queen Adelaide dined at that house in 1834.'

The hall, which is not large, is surrounded by shields bearing the arms of former owners of the manor. The first of these to the north of the entrance is that of Edward I., who granted the manor to St. Helen's Hospital in the City of London. Then follow those of Edward VI., who granted it to the Duke of Somerset; Elizabeth, who granted it to Robert, Earl of Leicester; Charles II. and William IV., who visited Boston on several occasions. In addition to these are seen in order those of other holders of the manor: Rollesby, who devised it to St. Helens; St. Helen's; Edward, Duke of Somerset; Robert, Earl of Leicester; Sir Thomas Gresham, who also owned Osterley; Sir W. Read; I. Goldsmith. These are on the south side. On the north are Clitherow and Hewett; Clitherow and Campbell; Clitherow and Barker; Clitherow and Paule; Clitherow and Gale; Clitherow and Jodrell; Clitherow and Powell; Clitherow and Kemeys; Clitherow and Pole; Clitherow and Snow.

The drawing-room, which is on the first floor, has a very fine moulded ceiling with many beautiful medallions. These contain allegorical representations of Peace and War, the five senses, the four elements, the three Christian graces, etc. The mouldings and borders are picked out in red, and the Latin names of the subjects are in gilt letters. The walls of this room, as well as those of the dining-room and library, are hung with many portraits of the Clitherow family by leading artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Among these should be specially noted a pastile by Zoffany of Mr. and Mrs. and Miss Child, taken in the porch at Osterley. Mrs. Child (née Jodrell) was the sister of Mrs. Clitherow, and afterwards married (1791) the third Lord Ducie. Miss Child married the tenth Earl of Westmoreland, and became the mother of the Countess of Jersey. Here are also to be seen examples of Rubens, Van Dyke, C. Lorraine, Sir P. Lely, Sir G. Kneller, Romney, Zuccharo, Van Somers, Zoffany, and many others. Behind the drawing-room is a State bedroom, the ceiling