January 3.—The murder is out! There is the Diary in everybody’s hands, and since the publication of the New Atlantis, by Mrs. Manley, in the reign of Queen Anne—a scandal, a libel on the queen, people, and court of that day; such a book has not been seen, written, nor read.
January 8.—For the last month nothing has been
thought of or talked of but the Diary, and now Animal Magnetism has taken its
place, and all the titled credulity in London have been putting their fatuity
to the test of exhibiting themselves under the hands of Baron
| 432 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
January 9.—I am just returned with Sydney and José from looking at such a charming maisonette in William Street, which will meet our taste, and not exceed our means; no houses opposite, and all looks rather wild and rude (a thing that would be a field if it could), and a low wall round it; but then there is to be a pretty square, and then, no doubt the street will soon be built. The street terminates in Knightsbridge, of which locale I had a curious account from Dr. Milman, prebend of Westminster, which he has extracted from the rolls.
At the bottom of William Street, bounding the park, is a
little bridge over the great sewer of this quarter, behind which stands the
hideous gate of the beautiful Hyde Park. The tops of two poplar trees are all
we can see of it. This bridge was the spot where the Knights of St. John of
Jerusalem used to assemble on a certain day in October to give convoy to the
monks of Westminster Abbey, on their return from their quest for provisions,
&c., for the convent, and to conduct them through the perilous jungles of
what is now Piccadilly, through which they were obliged to pass on their way to
the Abbey, according to an ancient tenure. Next to this gate stands the Cannon
Brewery,
| SETTLEMENT IN LONDON—1838. | 433 |
I saw Mr. Cubitt yesterday, a good, little, complying man; he has yielded to all my suggestions; will knock down walls between the rooms, build balconies, and a terrace, and is to give me a tree to plant in my bit of a garden (four feet by two) though I heard him say to Sir Charles, “She shall have it, but it will not grow in so confined a place.”
