THE
MEMORIALS OF THE HAMLET
OF
KNIGHTSBRIDGE.

With Notices of its Immediate Neighbourhood.

BY THE LATE

HENRY GEORGE DAVIS.

EDITED BY

CHARLES DAVIS.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY J. RUSSELL SMITH, SOHO-SQUARE;

AND TO BE HAD OF MR. DAVIS, ST. PAUL’S SCHOOLS, KNIGHTSBRIDGE.

1859.

LONDON:
TAYLOR AND GREENING, PRINTERS, GRAYSTOKE-PLACE,
FETTER-LANE, HOLBORN.

PREFACE.

In presenting the Memorials of Knightsbridge to the public, apology must be made for the delay in its appearance since the announcement of its intended publication.  This was occasioned by the sudden and protracted illness of its Editor: since his restoration, he has prosecuted the work with all the diligence which his time permitted.

The book is published in the hope that its critics may treat its Author kindly, since the brain that indited it is, alas! no more.  It is the result of great assiduity and perseverance amidst peculiar difficulties, and was only completed just before the death of the compiler, who, towards its close, had laboured at it with greater energy than his weakened frame ought properly to have borne.

The immediate motive for publication was the Editor’s regard, it might almost be termed veneration, for its writer, seconded by favourable opinions expressed by several literary gentlemen who perused the manuscript, and knowledge that many notices by the same hand had already appeared in “Notes and Queries,” “The West Middlesex Advertiser,” and the various local papers that have occasionally been published in the neighbourhood.

The work was written from notes made at various times, some having been taken when its author was yet a boy.  It may therefore be described as the labour of his short and painful life; and it was felt that so long as the result of his application was laid aside, so long did the Editor’s duty to his brother remain unperformed.

As some little notice of our historian may be desirable, the following sketch is subjoined:—

Henry George Davis was born at 4, Mill’s Buildings, on August 14th, 1830.  While an infant he had severe inflammation of the lungs, which afterwards became confirmed pleurisy.  He was educated at the Philological School in the New Road.  Of this Institution he was to the last fond and proud.  Having carried off many of its prizes, he always felt an identity with it.  He was of a studious inclination—a disposition doubtless fostered by his infirmities; for he was never able to join in the sports of his fellows.  As he arrived at manhood, his disease (increased in 1850 by rheumatic fever) became much more severe, and finally released his soul “to its Almighty source” on the 30th of December, 1857.

The Editor has to acknowledge obligations to O. B. Cole, Esq.; to the author of “Paddington, Past and Present;” to the Rev. M. Walcot, of “The Memorials of Westminster;” Mr. Cunningham, of “The Handbook of London;” Mr. Faulkner’s works; and to those sundry publications the name of which is given with each quotation.  He hopes his readers may have that enjoyment in the perusal of the following History which was had in the providing of it for them.

St. Paul’s Schools, Knightsbridge, June, 1859.

CONTENTS.

PERSONS.