Middlesex; . century Hampstead seems tohave had a quieter reputation, when the philanthropistThomas Day brought his wife here to be out of theworld ; and it figures as a secluded spot in the Foolof ^ality, that Sandford-and-Mertonish romanceso much admired by Charles Wesley and CharlesKingsley. Here also are laid some of the scenes ofClarissa Harlowe, and of Evelina. By this time Hampstead was attracting famousresidents as a retreat from the smoke and din ofLondon. It had borne a humble name for laundressesfrom a time when they might have ducked Falstaff inits ponds. In the age of wigs and wai
Middlesex; . century Hampstead seems tohave had a quieter reputation, when the philanthropistThomas Day brought his wife here to be out of theworld ; and it figures as a secluded spot in the Foolof ^ality, that Sandford-and-Mertonish romanceso much admired by Charles Wesley and CharlesKingsley. Here also are laid some of the scenes ofClarissa Harlowe, and of Evelina. By this time Hampstead was attracting famousresidents as a retreat from the smoke and din ofLondon. It had borne a humble name for laundressesfrom a time when they might have ducked Falstaff inits ponds. In the age of wigs and waistcoats we haveglimpses of Steele, Addison, Goldsmith, Johnson, theKit Cat Club, and, indeed, almost all the literary nota-bilities, as occasional lodgers or visitors; then about acentury ago Hampstead drew together a galaxy ofartists and poets, who found inspiration in its lovelysurroundings. A later inhabitant, Coventry Patmore,tells us how Millfield Lane, leading round Caen Wood 20 ST. PAUUS FROM HAMPS-mAD. Hampstead and Highgate to Highgate, used to be known as Poets Lane, so oftenwas it trod by sons of the Muses, whose publisherssometimes drove or rode to town from more spaciousdwellings than sheltered Keats and Leigh Hunt. Caenor Ken Wood, which at one time belonged to theunpopular Lord Bute, reminds us of a constellation oflawyers, when the great Lord Mansfield settled here,and had for neighbour on the heath the eloquentErskine ; while Rosslyn House, lower down, was theseat of Wedderburn, another judge whose name is heldin less honour—all three poor Scottish cadets who grewfat on the English bench. In our generation, its rentsand rates are like to keep poets out of this paradise ;but it is still well stocked with successful Scotsmen,and is said to make a promised land for the chosenpeople of the Old Dispensation, as Defoe says it didin his own day. Among the many authors once at home here wasWilliam Howitt, to whose Northern Heights ofLondon, or to books Hke Parks Hist
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