Thursday 10 February 2011

John Moore's Mooriana


De Quincey notes a considerable number of texts in his Everton diary which formed his reading during the summer of 1803. Many of these texts are now obscure and unknown to many including myself. Therefore, it is my intention to provide information on the texts referred to by De Quincey to get a better understanding of his reading at this point in his life.

He lists John Moore's Mooriana as part of a breakdown of his expenditure prepared on April 16th 1803 for his mother. The cost was threepence which I am assuming was the cost to borrow from a lending library in Liverpool.


John Moore(1729-1802) was born at Stirling, the son of a clergyman. After taking his medical degree at Glasgow, he served with the army in Flanders during the Seven Years' War, then proceeded to London to continue his studies, and eventually to Paris, where he was attached to the household of the British ambassador. In 1792 he accompanied Lord Lauderdale to Paris, and witnessed some of the principal scenes of the Revolution. His Journal during a Residence in France (1793) is the careful record of an eye-witness, and is frequently referred to by Carlyle. He died in London on 21 January 1802.

His novel Zeluco (1789), a close analysis of the motives of a selfish profligate, produced a great impression at the time, and indirectly, through the poetry of Byron, has left an abiding mark on literature. Read more on Wikipedia

Here are 2 extracts from Mooriana which I thought had a certain irony. De Quincey was a life long hypochondriac and he was full of ennui during his stay in Everton in 1803! (Click on images to enlarge)





St Ann's Church, Manchester


I had completely forgotten that De Quincey was baptised in St Ann's Church in Manchester until I read it again this afternoon. The coincidence between his attending St Anne's Church in Liverpool while in Everton in 1803 and being baptised in a church of the same name in 1785.

MANCHESTER SJ8398SE ST ANN STREET 698-1/27/384 (South side) 25/02/52 Church of St Ann GV I Church. 1709-12 (traditionally said to have been designed by Sir Chistopher Wren or one of his pupils); restored 1886-91 by Alfred Waterhouse. Sandstone ashlar, hipped slate roof. Classical style. Nave with east apse and west tower. The 2-storey 6-bay nave has coupled pilasters to both levels, the lower being fluted Corinthian and the upper plain, both with cornices, each bay containing large round-headed windows with keystones, and the westernmost a square headed doorway in a large pedimented tetrastyle Corinthian doorcase with fluted columns; and a pilastered parapet (formerly with urns). The semi-circular full-height apse has tall fluted Corinthian pilasters, a full entablature with carved emblems on the frieze, a very prominent cornice, and large round-headed windows with panelled aprons, moulded imposts and enriched keystones. The square west tower has 4 stages divided by string courses and a mid-height cornice, rusticated clasping corner pilasters to the lower half, a Tuscan pilaster west doorway, coupled round-headed lancets to the 2nd stage, an oculus in a blank arch to the 3rd stage (and clock-faces under segmental pediments in the north and south sides), a belfry stage with coupled fluted Corinthian pilasters framing round-headed 3-light louvred belfry windows with keystones, and a moulded cornice and balustraded parapet (originally surrounding a 3-stage cupola). Interior: galleries on 3 sides, supported by stout Tuscan columns (replacing square pillars), and with upper arcades on original slender Tuscan columns; most furnishings dating from C19 restoration, including choir in nave, but fragments of original pulpit and communion rail survive. Stained glass by Frederick Shields. History: second oldest church in Manchester, built as part of early C18 development of St Ann's Square; formerly had strong Whig and Anti-Jacobite connections; John Wesley preached here 1733 and 1738, Thomas De Quincey was baptised here 1785. English Heritage

Yermack, the rebel, a drama


Yermacks Conquest of Siberia, 1582 by Vasily Surikov.

"Yermack, the rebel, a drama; (poetic and pathetic) was one of the works De Quincey listed in his diary which he wished; "at some time or other, seriously intended to execute".

I presume that De Quincey was thinking of Yermack Timofeyevich:

Yermack Timofeyevich with a force of free Cossacks were enlisted by the Russian Tsar to defeat Kucham the self-proclaimed Khan of Siberia. Yermacks force prepared for the campaign during the winter and embarked on their campaign crossing into Siberia in the early summer of 1582, culminating in the routing of Kuchams large army on the banks of the River Irtysh and entering the Siberian capital of Khanate on the 26th October 1582. Yermack is shown standing under the Vernicle standard which is now housed in the armoury of the Kremlin in Moscow. Military Art

I am unsure where De Quincey read about Yermack or Yermac but one possible source is Colin Macfarquhar, George Gleig Encyclopædia britannica: or, A dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature, Volume 17, Part 2 1797 or L'Eveque's History of Russia. De Quincey was a prolific reader and may have come across Yermack's story in the encyclopaedia. It is an early example of De Quincey's fascination with the East.

As ever with this blog we search out strange connections on our travels. Here's Group X with There Are Eight Million Cossack Melodies And This Is One Of Them:



According to Rick Resource Forum this is The Mark Leeman Five

Monday 7 February 2011

De Quincey's Plan of Works to "Execute" in 1803


I am always fascinated by writer's plans for their work even if they don't produce the final article. We can sometimes learn a lot about what interested writers by these kinds of plans or lists. De Quincey was an aspiring writer in 1803 and his diary reflects his plans for his future writing:

Thursday night, May 26, 1803

"The following is a list of the works which I have, at some time or other, seriously intended to execute:-

1. Ethelfrid, a drama (poetic and pathetic)
2. Yermack, the rebel, a drama; (poetic and pathetic)
3. Paul a drama;
4. A pathetic tale, of which a black man is the hero;
5. A pathetic tale of which an Englishman is the hero;
6. An essay on poetry;
7. An essay on character;
8. A life of Catiline;
9. A life of Julius Caesar;
10. A poetic and pathetic ballad reciting the wanderings of two young children (brother and sister) and their falling asleep on a frosty - moonlight night among the lanes...and so perishing. (I projected this at Bath; I think, a few weeks before my going to Ireland.)
11. A pathetic poem describing the emotions (strange an wild) of a man dying on a rock in the sea...which he had swum to from a shipwreck...within sight of his native cottage and the paternal hills.
12. An ode in which two angels or spirits were to meet in the middle of the Atlantic.
I have sometimes thought too, though with less firmness of determination than on the preceding, that I would write-

1. An essay on pathos, as a counterpoint to No 6;
2. An essay on French and English Character, as a sequel and illustration of No. 7;
3. Many different travels and voyages.
I have besides always intended of course that poems should form the corner-stones of my fame;- but I not (at this moment) recollect any subjects that I have chosen for my poetical efforts..except those already mentioned. Between 11 and 12 o'clock"

I will be posting in more detail of some of the above at a later date.

Reverend William Blundell


The Reverend William Blundell was the rector of St. Anne's Church who was living in 1 Clare Street, Liverpool in the early 1800's. De Quincey refers to the Reverend William Blundell on several occasions in the 1803 Diary:

Thursday night, April 14, 1803

"High consideration" - Mr Blondell tranposed "from the top to the bottom" to "from the bot to the toppom" last Sunday. - "And inclined our -s to keep this law". Miss - turned in Cathedrali Caspiensi to me at "but there is no man to help vel aliquod simile in the psalms." (NB Chatto & Pickering edition of the 1803 Diary replaces Caspiensi for Cestriensi which translates as Chester Cathedral, vel aliquod translates as "or something")

Sunday, May 1, 1803

"Went to St Ann's - heard an ass preach"

Sunday, May 8, 1803

"Charity Sermon at St. Ann's for Infirmary"

Sunday, May 14, 1803

"On my road to church, am surprised to meet Mr Kelsall; - go with him to St Ann's; hear Blondell"

Sunday, May 22, 1803

"Go to St Ann's; - am plagued with the old man; - hear a political sermon"

Sunday, May 29, 1803

"Go to St Ann's; see people running after mad dog; - am again disturbed by old man; hear Blondell preach about the spirit"

De Quincey seems to be singularly unimpressed by William Blundell from the diary entries. De Quincey mis-spells both Blundell's surname and the church.

It would appear from the above entries that De Quincey attended St. Anne's Church for the first month of his 1803 stay in Everton. De Quincey may have been familiar with the church from previous visits to Everton as the church was the nearest to where he was staying in Everton and was probably used by the people who he knew in Everton. After his May 29th visit he appears to have started attending St George's Church in the centre of Liverpool which I will feature in a later post.

There is little information about William Blundell in the 1927 edition of the 1803 Diary edited by Horace A. Eaton or in the Chatto and Pickering edition of the 1803 Diary.

I have managed to find a few snippets including that he was paid £144 per annum according to Tait's Edinburgh Magazine Vol 2 1835:

Here is his obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine 1843 Volume 174 Page 196:



I wondered whether he was related to the famous Liverpool family of the Blundells - here is what I found in Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Proceedings and papers, Volumes 3-4 1850-51:



Reverend Blundell was also the chaplain for the Asylum of the Blind in Liverpool as mentioned in the extract from Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Transactions Vol 3 1850-51 Page 154:





He also contributed to the British and Foreign Bible Society mentioned in their 1813 documents:



In 1804, he contributed to the School for the Blind:





It is interesting to note that the Harper family contributed to the fund. The Harpers may have worshiped at St. Anne's and were an influential family in Liverpool in the early 1800's.

Below is the inscription for the Asylum for the Blind:

Sunday 6 February 2011

St Anne's Church, Liverpool


Went to St. Ann's;— heard an ass preach;— went to the woodlands after return to Everton and thence to the resounding shore, "To worship God amongst His handy-works."

St Anne's Church (note De Quincey mis-spells the name)was about half a mile from where he was staying in Everton in 1803. He would have walked out of the village down what is now Everton Brow then called Causeway Lane or Loggerheads Lane after the tavern at the bottom of the lane and into Richmond Row which joined St Anne's Street as can be seen on the 1848-64 map below.

The Reverend William Blundell was the minister who he called an "ass". I will return to the minister in a later post.

Here are several descriptions of the church.

"St Ann's Church stands at the North end of St Anne's Street. It was built by two private gentlemen about the year 1770. It was a small neat structure of brick and stone, chiefly of the Gothic sty;e. At the North end is a plain brick tower, on each angle there is a pinnacle... The inside is well pewed in two aisles; the galleries are supported on each by slender cast-iron columns. The altar ornaments are neat, and the window is of glass richly executed. The church is remarkable for being in a north and south direction" The Stranger in Liverpool 1812

St. Anne's Richmond was opened for divine service on 25th October 1772. The building had been started earlier and had been completed under the terms of 'An Act for completing a building intended for a new Church or Chapel at Richmond near Everton...' 1772. The church was built at the expense of Thomas and Richard Dobb, cabinetmakers, of Williamson Square and a Henry North, fruit merchant, Dale Street. The church was built on land belonging to them. They had noted that there was a need for a church 'in some convenient part near to Everton due to the increasing population'. The church stood in what later became known as St. Anne Street. According to an article in 'Topographical News cuttings: St. Anne's Church, St. Anne Street' [Liverpool Record Office] for many years 'the original St. Anne's held the most aristocratic congregation in the town and the pews at one time were sold for sixty and seventy guineas to some of the most noted families of the period'. There were no free pews in the church, the pew rents and money given for burial plots in the churchyard having largely made up the incumbent's income.

In time the 'character of the locality deteriorated'. The rich moved away, the poor owned no pews and by the middle of the 19th century the church had fallen into neglect and disuse.



In 1865 the Liverpool Construction Act was passed on 26 May 1865. Under the terms of this act, St. Anne's Street was to be extended into Cazneau Street. To facilitate this, the Act provided for the demolition of St. Anne's Church but its terms prevented the Corporation from pulling down St. Anne's before erecting a new church. The Corporation duly built the new church of St. Anne's at the corner of St. Anne Street and Great Richmond Street and the consecration of the new building took place on 16th November 1871. GEN UKI

The location of the original church can be seen on the map below. (Click to enlarge)



Sir James Allanson Picton was critical of the design of the church:

It was originally plain red brick, with stone jambs to the windows and doors, supporting ogee arches, intended, it is presumed, to indicate the Gothic or Pointed style of architecture. At the north end was a plain square brick tower. Internally it was a simple parallelogram, with galleries on three sides, and a recess for the altar at the south end. Any attempt at criticism on such a piece of composition would be superfluous. It is worthy of notice on another account. It was one of the very few public buildings in Liverpool which terminated a vista. In former times, standing as it did at the extremity of a long, straight avenue, on a slightly rising eminence, and shadowed by trees, the perspective was striking when seen from a distance, at which the paltry detail was lost in the general outline. Our English towns are for the most part deficient in effects of this kind. Paris abounds with them. Edinburgh possesses a noble avenue in its George Street, terminated by the Melville Monument at one end, and by St. George's Church at the other.

On the principle of gilding refined gold, the dingy brickwork of St. Anne's Church was ultimately covered with a coat of compo, which brought out with better effect its incarnate ugliness.
Memorials of Liverpool, Historical and Topographical 1873

James Stonehouse says:

(St Anne's) .... was the most aristocratic church in town. The pews at one time sold for sixty and seventy guineas each" The Streets of Liverpool 1869

We passed the site of both churches on our first De Quincey dérive. Below is a photograph taken on the dérive of the site:



The photograph is taken roughly from where the first church stood looking back up St Anne's Street and the second church was on the site of the car wash on left of the photo.

Monday 31 January 2011

Lascar House, Waterloo Road/Vandries Street Liverpool


Our first De Quincey dérive on Saturday 22nd January took us past the above building which stands on the former North Shore - the "resounding shore" which was the destination of a walk by De Quincey on the Sunday May 1st 1803 and the inspiration for our dérive.

The above building on the corner of Vandries Street and Waterloo Road was called "Lascar House" and was the offices until 1971 of the Beldam Asbestos Company. The building has been in a state of dereliction for a number of years and partially collapsed in 2009.

The Bedlam Asbestos Company may have been using the building for a considerable time as I came across this snippet from the Rubber Journal:

Ernest A. Beldam The death occurred recently at his home near Woking of Mr Ernest Beldam, MIMar.E., senior director of Beldam Asbestos Co. Ltd., and Auto-Klean Strainers Ltd. In 1899, Robert Beldam founded the firm now known as Beldam

In the photograph below you can see the name of Auto-Kleen is visible:



The Who's Who of Engineering 1921 has Directors : George Wm. Beldam and Cyril Asplan Beldam. Manufactures. — HP asbestos packings and jointings ; all kinds of packings.

Interestingly, in a the Dairy and ice cream industries directory 1954 has this entry:

Beldam Asbestos Co. Ltd., Lascar House, Hounslow, Middlesex. Hounslow 6441

That one did worry me - asbestos and ice cream!!

In 1970, The Institute of Marine Engineers magazine Transition had an job advert addressed to: PERSONNEL MANAGER BELDAM ASBESTOS CO. LIMITED LASCAR WORKS, HOUNSLOW, MIDDLESEX.

Why use the name Lascar House in both locations? Did they move up from Hounslow or was the office on Waterloo Road a subsidary? I thought Lascar may refer to the name for Eastern seamen but I am not too sure as I came across this description in a magazine called Fairplay in 1996: Beldam Lascarite Green Jointing Beldam Lascarite Reinforced Jointing. Therefore Lascar House may have nothing to do with the term for Eastern seamen but something to do with an asbestos product or did the term originate from the company's original premises? However, there is a certain irony using the name of "lascar" as the building is right opposite docks where many Eastern seamen sailed in and out of the port.



A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent or other countries east of the Cape of Good Hope, employed on European ships from the 16th century until the beginning of the 20th century. The word comes from the Persian Lashkar, meaning military camp or army, and al-askar, the Arabic word for a guard or soldier. Wikipedia

I came across an interesting website dedicated to the "publication and exchange of information about the history of lascars. i.e. the forgotten Asian, African and other 'foreign' seamen serving on British ships" - sadly it was last updated in 2003.

I also came across a site with extracts from a book entitled The Merchant Seamen's War Sons Of Empire concerning seamen in the merchant navy during world war II. The extracts demonstrate the inherent racism in the ship owners and authorities to African, Indian and Chinese sailors during WW11:

'In September 1942, eighteen West Africans were jailed for one month after refusing to withdraw their demands for higher pay. Nine men, each from two ships, had been originally engaged in Lagos for what they believed to be a regular run between West Africa and the UK. But while in the UK they had found their ships being altered for use in a different trade and argued they should be paid higher wages accordingly. When their demands were rejected the men went on strike. They were found guilty by Liverpool magistrates of disobeying the masters' lawful commands and offered the option of paying a £6 fine each. The press reported the men as appearing to resent the decision of the magistrate and said they could not pay. On being asked by the clerk if they were willing to go to sea without persisting in this demand for higher wages the men replied with an emphatic 'No'. [The presiding magistrate] thereupon said, 'We are sorry to hear you adopt this attitude. . . The fine will be withdrawn and you must all go to prison for one month with hard labour.'



Here is another extract:

'Private reports were more mixed. Major-General Gleadell, a passenger aboard the Llandaff Castle when she was sunk, wrote that he was 'eventually picked out [of the water] by Bil Dames, a big Liverpool negro and a first class man for the occasion' and that Dames had also pulled into the boat a 'Lt. Brigstocke, complete in white naval topee'. J.K. Gorrie, 3rd mate of the Athelking, was on watch when the ship came under fire from the German raider Atlantis.



He recalled that he was 'scared stiff' but seems to have been surprised that the West Indian helmsman defied stereotypical expectations by sticking to his post: 'One thing that sticks in my mind is that when he opened fire, we had a big West Indian called Bodin at the wheel and he just stayed there. We had steel flaps to let down over the wheelhouse windows and we dropped those down but this West Indian just stayed at the wheel.'




Returning to De Quincey, the above painting by William Mulready called Train Up A Child featuring Lascars is thought be some commentators to be based on De Quincey's dream of the Malay in his Confessions of An English Opium Eater. See High anxieties: cultural studies in addiction by Janet Farrell Brodie, Marc Redfield 2002.

I am currently reading a book entitled Thomas Burke's Dark Chinoiserie Limehouse Nights and the Queer Spell of Chinatown by Anne Veronica Witchard. This books details De Quincey's rabid sinophobia and how his reading is permeated with lurid racism as can be seen below in an extract from his essay 'Murder As One Of The Fine Arts':

"Every third man at least might be set down as a foreigner. Lascars, Chinese, Moors, Negroes, were met at every step. And, apart from the manifold ruffianism shrouded impenetrably under the mixed hats and turbans of men whose past was untraceable to any European eye, it is well known that the the navy (especially, in time of war, the commercial navy) of Christendom is the sure receptacle of all the murderers and ruffians whose crimes have given them a motive for withdrawing themselves for a season from the public eye."

I will return to De Quincey's racism, sinophobia and Chinoiserie after a dérive I have planned for later this year to be called "De Quincey Goes to Chinatown"

The original purpose of "Lascar House" was a pub called "The Anglo-American Hotel" which symbolises both the connection of Liverpool to the USA and perhaps the more friendly welcome the port gave to white cousins?

Loggerheads Tavern and Causeway-lane


Click on above map to enlarge

On the first De Quincey dérive, we discussed whether De Quincey would have been walking over open field to the North Shore on his trips to the river from Everton where he was staying in 1803. I discovered the above map which shows that he could have walked down a lane from Everton which corresponds to today's Everton Brow called Causeway Lane. Herdman's painting below shows such a lane out of the village:



The photograph below of Everton Brown taken on the dérive is a present day view looking towards where Herdman painted the above picture of Everton Village:



If you look at the above map you will notice a building called Loggerheads which would have been located below the present-day Everton Brow on Richmond Row which still exists. Below is Richmond Row which I will return in more detail in a later post:



The tavern no longer exists but would have been a feature which De Quincey would have seen on any walk from Everton down to the North Shore. Here is a description of the Loggerheads Tavern from Richard Brooke's Liverpool as it was During the Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century 1853:



The Loggerheads Tavern is also mentioned in a book called Recollections of Liverpool by a Nonagenarian. The author refers to the Liverpool born poet Felicia Hemans being friendly with the author's friends The Nicholsons who ran the tavern. Felicia as a young Ms Browne was encouraged to write by Mr Nicholson. Mr Nicholson eventually turned the tavern into a private residence but by the 1830's it had reverted back to the "Loggerheads Tavern Revived".



The above is detail from a painting by W.G. Herdman of Liverpool from Everton 1774. Kay Parrott in her excellent book Pictorial Liverpool: The Art of W.G. & William Herdman states that the dome in the wood in painting is possibly a summer house in the garden of the Loggerheads Tavern.

This is what Robert Syers says about Causeway-lane and the Loggerhead Tavern:

The road called Everton-brow has, from time immemorial, been the main passage from Liverpool to Everton; its first known name was Causeway-lane, afterwards it long went by the name of Loggerhead-lane, and for the last forty years it has been styled Everton-brow, until recently, the lower or west end has been honoured with the more dignified title of the Crescent. This road was formerly narrow, and in poor plight. It may serve to give an insight into its former state, and also to shew some other points connected with the neighbourhood of that thoroughfare, to use the words of an elderly gentleman, who well remembered the circumstances of which he treats; "The communication (from Everton) with Liverpool was through a deep sandy lane, the cops or hedges on each side not being many yards asunder, nor was there any parapet or foot path to accommodate pedestrians : just within the limits of Liverpool, at a long low house, where the late Mr. Nicholson long resided, was a small ale-house, near to a dyer's pond the latter surrounded with willows. This public-house was called the Loggerheads, and was of much celebrity in former days, which it first obtained from the civility of the landlady, and the choice and nourishing qualities of the viands and beverage she dispensed; the sign was two heads, the motto, ' We three logger- heads be.' " The informant somewhat cynically goes on to say, " Whether or not the sign was intended as a perpetual monitor to the nobles of Everton, history has left us in the dark." The same house has recently been again licensed, and is now open to the public under the name of "The Loggerheads Revived." The History of Everton 1830.



The name Loggerheads used to be common name for taverns and is alluded to in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Act Two Scene 3. The tavern sign would have shown two wooden heads with the inscription; "We three loggerheads" as can be seen in the above sign at the present-day pub in Loggerheads in North Wales. According to the Dictionary of Pub Signs; "The visitor was supposed to fall into the trap of asking where the third one was, immediately falling into the trap of becoming one himself. A variation was to say that the third man was inside having a drink. Picture of two asses were sometimes used instead of the thick log like heads." See also The Pub in Literature: England's altered state By Steven Earnshaw page 57 for mention of loggerheads in Shakespeare's Henry 1V.



I came across an interesting article on Richard Wilson in the Somerset House Gazette and Literary Museum dated 24th July 1824 which discusses the above Loggerheads sign from the North Wales pub which he painted.

Another take on the meaning of the sign can be found in Reuben Percy, Thomas Byerly, John Timbs The Mirror of literature, amusement, and instruction: Volume 28 - Page 194 1836; "The sign of the Three Loggerheads, is two wooden heads, with this inscription : — " Here we three loggerheads be ;" the reader being the third."

Below is an extract from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night edited by Horace Henry Furness which has a detailed note on the meaning of loggerheads: Click on image to enlarge:

Hoaxing Mania Liverpool Chronicle Nov 4th 1807


I came across an amusing item contained in the above publication while researching Chisenhale Street bridge. You can read the item below:





The attractions:

Angelica Catalani



Angelica Catalani (1780 – 12 June 1849) was an Italian opera singer, the daughter of a tradesman.

At Sinigaglia, she was educated at the convent of Santa Lucia at Gubbio, where her soprano voice soon became famous.

In 1795 she made her debut on the stage at Venice. For nearly thirty years she sang at all the great houses, receiving very large fees; her first appearance in London being at the Kings Theatre in 1806. She remained in England, a prima donna without a serious rival, for seven years. Then she was given the management of the Opera in Paris, but this resulted in financial failure, due to the incapacity and extravagance of her husband, Captain Valabrégue, whom she married in 1806.

In 1827, she visited Sweden, during which she heard Elisabeth Olin and Brita Catharina Lidbeck sing; during her stay, she was inducted as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.

Her continental tours continued to be enormously successful, until she retired in 1828. She settled in Florence in 1830, where she founded a free singing school for girls; and her charity and kindness were unbounded. She died of cholera in Paris.
Catalani's greatest gift was her voice, a soprano of nearly three octaves in range. Its unsurpassed power and flexibility made her one of the greatest bravura singers of all times. She also worked as a singing teacher. Her pupils included Laure Cinti-Damoreau and Fanny Corri-Paltoni


Stephen Polito's Hippopotamus



The Royal Menagerie at the Exeter Change, The Strand London was run by Stephen Polito, an Italian ex-patriot from 1810 to 1814, when he died prematurely, at the age of fifty. Visitors could see the animals being fed, and, if they were lucky, hold a live lion cub.



The most famous of the residents was Chunee the elephant. After a visit, Lord Byron wrote in his diary that Chunee 'took and gave me my money again—took off my hat—opened a door—trunked a whip—and behaved so well, that I wish he was my butler.'

Sadly Chunee was killed in 1826, when he went into an elephant rage or 'musth' (a Hindi word for madness) and crushed one of his keepers. Bishopsgate




Stephen Polito also operated a travelling circus with the animals spending the winter months at the menagerie.

Lord Stanhope



Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope aka Charles Mahon, 3rd Earl Stanhope FRS (3 August 1753 – 15 December 1816) was a British statesman and scientist. He was the father of the great traveller and Arabist Lady Hester Stanhope and brother-in-law of William Pitt the Younger. Read more on Wikipedia

I cannot find any information as to what the "new plan" referred to.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a friend of De Quincey's, actually wrote a poem about Lord Stanhope - "To Lord Stanhope"

98 Gun Warship



One possibility is the 98 gun warship Neptune. HMS Neptune was a 98-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She served on a number of stations during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was present at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The painting above depicts Neptune engaged at Trafalgar, 1805, by John Francis Sartorius. HMS Neptune, seen in bow profile, exchanges broadsides with the Spanish Santísima Trinidad.

Chisenhale Street Bridge


One of the principal aims of our first De Quincey dérive was to cross the site of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal using the former Chisenhale Street bridge. De Quincey would have had to use this route to cross the barrier to his walks from Everton to the North Shore in 1803. The route over the canal, as can be seen from the Herdman view above was still rural even in 1814, a pleasant almost rural lane in 1803 before the onset of industrialisation which consumed this area in the 19th and 20th Centuries.



Originally the Leeds and Liverpool Canal stretched to the outskirts of Liverpool near to present day Old Hall Street as can be seen on the map below (Click on map to enlarge):



By the the 1960's the canal had been truncated at Pall Mall. In the 1960s the Pall Mall terminus basin was filled in up to Chisenhale Street Bridge (Bridge A). In the 1980s the Eldonian Village housing estate was built for the community which was disrupted by the building of the Mersey Tunnel and the demolition of the Tate and Lyle sugar refinery. This meant the canal was filled in between Chisenhale Street Bridge (Bridge A) and just north of Burlington Street Bridge (Bridge B). Below is a photo from our dérive showing what the crossing looks like now. The existing bridge is a later one to the original stone one used by De Quincey:



The street is currently a quiet one at the edge of the Eldonian Village in a hinterland between the 21st Century inner city and the outskirts. Below is a photo of Tate & Lyle's site developed from 1857 onwards, which once occupied the area north of Chisenhale Street bridge. Chisenhale Street can be seen in the bottom right-hand corner (click on photo to enlarge):



We intend to pursue further dérives in the area and I will return with more on the surrounding area of Vauxhall.