Victorian England - Articles and Stories

A DAY AT CHISWICK.

A DAY AT CHISWICK.

A pleasant village is Chiswick ; though it does not stand on the breezy heights which add such a charm to Hampstead, Highgate, and Richmond, yet it looks upon tho silvery Thames ; and, though tho Chiswick fetes have passed away, it has old associations, and literary recollections not inferior to those of any village within a dozen miles of this great metropolis. Let us then, " gentle reader" — for of course you are gentle — spend a few hours together in reconnoitring the ground which is redolent of one at least of the greatest geniuses which the last century produced. It is almost needless to add that Chiswick lies between Hammersmith and Brentford, and that it includes in its limits Turnham Green, famous in Cromwell's reign as the scene of " the battle of tho apprentices."

Chiswick is not found in Domesday Book, but it is mentioned in various records of the reign of Henry III. by the name of Chosewicke. The Roman road from Regnum, or Ringwood,* according to Stukeley, passed across Turnham Green; but though Roman silver coins were dug up here in 1731, it is impossible to identify the course of the ancient road with any certainty. There is but very little mention of Chiswick before the 17th century, and almost the first important event connected with the place that is mentioned by Lysons** is the fact of the Earl of Essex having assembled his forces there, being joined by the City train bands, after the battle of Brentford, and Sir W. Waller having mustered his forces there in Sept. 1643, when he was ordered to go to the relief of the Lord General's army, after the battle of Newbury. The village contains two manors, both of which originally belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, who still hold the patronage of the living.

Chiswick, from Barnet.

*Other writers identify Regnum. not with Ringwood, but Chichester.

** Environs of London, Vol. II., p. 1S6.

The parish church of Chiswick, which is shown in our engraving, stands near the water side. It is dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of the fisherman. The present structure, though adorned with a hand some tower, is disfigured by a fair share of the deformities of the architecture of the 18th century, and in other respects is quite in harmony with its sister edifices which grace— or disgrace — the valley of the Thames between London and Windsor.

It consisted originally of only a nave and chancel, and was built about the beginning of the loath century, at which time the tower was erected at the charge and cost of William Bordal, vicar of the parish, who died in 1435. Tho tower is built of stone and flint, as was originally the north wall of the church. Some aisles or transepts of brick, in the hideous style of the Georgian era, jut out upon either side, one of them bearing the ominous date of 1772, and the other of 1817. These excrescences were first erected in tho shape of transepts ; but as the population increased, and more space was needed by the parishioners, they were ex tended westwards, and, so far as they can be described at all, ought, perhaps, to be termed aisles, by courtesy. Tho inside of the nave is a most barn-like structure ; and a modern roof, which not many years ago replaced tho original handsome open timber-roof* of the pre-Reformation era, is heavy and cumbrous to a degree. Besides the tower, the chancel- arch is the only original feature now retained inside, the chancel itself being encased in thick solid plaster both within and without, so as to conceal every portion of the stone and its mouldings. A handsome modern window** of painted glass on the southern side of the chancel gives a faint idea of what the chancel must have appeared a little more than four centuries ago. It is surmounted by a flat white plaster ceiling, which entirely destroys the fair proportions of the building, and can not too soon be made to give place to an open roof of timber.

* This roof, in the opinion of Mr. G. G. Scott, could have been restored, although at a considerable expense.

**This window has been recently erected to the memory of the Rev. Cornelius Neale, sometime Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Senior Wrangler of his year, the father of the Church historian and poet, the Rev. J. M. Neale.