D. F. E. Sykes

“ As might be expected, Ealing and its vicinity abound in noble mansions, large and stately dwellings, standing in rich and ornate grounds, surrounded by lofty walks, and sheltered by noble trees. Here for generations the great and noble have sought repose from the distractions of society, the studious have found quiet and serenity, the statesman calm, the gallant soldier peace, the merchant prince contentment, and all a sweet and healthful retirement. ”

“ In the early part of the century Brentford was the scene of much rioting and disorder and even bloodshed, and the route from Charing Cross to Brentford was often lined with eager partisans cheering or hooting the freeholders as they made their way to record their votes for or against the man whom the irony of fate had made the champion of the national liberties. ”

“ In the Manor of Ealing the custom of Borough English prevails by virtue of which lands descend to the youngest and not, as generally, to the eldest son, and if the tenant have no issue to the younger brother. The reason of this custom is, says Littleton, that the youngest son is presumed in law to be least able to shift for himself. This is a curious and interesting mark of the difference between feudal or military tenures and copyhold, which were originally agricultural. ”

“ The Public Buildings comprise a Free Library, Science and Art School and the Victoria Jubilee Hall, largely used for public meetings and popular entertainments. If to this we add that the Lyric Hall furnishes forth a charming theatre, to which the cult of the higher drama attracts the not infrequent visits of world-famed artistes, enough has been said to assure the most confirmed haunter of cities that though Ealing is not Mayfair, one might have a worse fate than to be banished thither. ”

“ The caprices of a Court favourite, the humours of a royal mistress, the rivalries of contending houses no less than reasons of State affected the ownership of broad domains, and the faithful recorder of the growth of towns that are now great hives of industry had little to enrich his volumes save the vicissitudes of courts and the fortunes of barons of high degree. ”

“ The tendency of modern education is to lay greater stress than formerly on scientific study, and extensive chemical and physical laboratories are now being erected with a well-filled workshop. It is confidently anticipated that these will not only be of service to the pupils at the school, but will be availed of by students residing in the neighbourhood, who seek to obtain practical experience in scientific or technical subjects. A large and well-appointed gymnasium is also in course of erection in the playground attached to the school and classes in physical education will be formed. ”

“ The vicinity of Ealing appears to have known little of the horrors of war, from the time of Canute to that of the Civil war when, on November 12th, 1642, an engagement took place at Brentford between the Royalist and Parliament forces, which though of no great magnitude was the occasion of much recrimination between the King and his disaffected subjects, as it occurred at a time when efforts, more or less sincere, were being made to accommodate the differences between the Throne and the people. ”

“ The neighbouring town of Brentford has a less happy fate, and Ealing doubtless shared to some extent in the events at Brentford. In the year 1016, Ethelred, the King, dying, the country was torn by the rival claims of Edmund Ironside and Canute. London and the parts about it declared for Edmund, the remoter counties ranging themselves with the Danish King. A sharp engagement between the hostile forces gave a temporary victory to Edmund, and the Danes fled across the Thames, many of the Saxons being, in the ardour of the pursuit, drowned in the river near where Kew Bridge now stands. ”

“ It is noteworthy also that the House of Commons ordered that “The Minister of Middlesex and parts of London, do the next fast-day read in their several parish-churches the account of the sufferings of the inhabitants of Old Brentford, on the 12th and 13th of the month by his Majesties forces; and that they do exhort the people to a compassionate consideration of them.” “Compassionate consideration” is good and we may surmise that “Remember Brentford” was used in those days much as the historic phrase “Remember Mitchels-town” was used in our own. ”

“ But novelists as great if not greater than Fielding have sojourned in Ealing. Thackeray was at school here, of which more anon. Dickens used often to ride over to visit his sister, Mrs. Hogarth, at Ealing Dean. Dibdin wrote many of his best songs at his house in Hanger Lane; and Edward Bulwer Lytton was at school in a house that stood in what was then called Love Lane. The school was kept by Mr. Wallington, and a correspondent of Lytton’s biographer furnishes us with an interesting sketch of school and pedagogue. ”

“ They also plundered an ancient gentlewoman of about three score and ten years of age, whose age and weakness would not permit her to go to Church for these seven years last past, they took from her all her bedding, linen, pewter, &c., and even her mantle from her back, leaving her in a poor and miserable condition. Their plundering was so universal, that even divers of the richer as well as the mean sort were, and to this day are, inforced to live on the charity of the Earl of Essex and his soldiers, the Cavaliers leaving scarce a piece of bread or meat in all the town. ”

“ And now since it appears by the prodigious acts of rapine, devastation, and tyranny, that these men delight in cruelty, and fight against their own associates, and spoil those that favour their own cause with those that oppose it, what remains but that they be taken not for such as endeavour the defence of the King, but the ruin of the Kingdom, and not as enemies of some kind of men, but as the common enemies of mankind ”

“ A black marble table with gilt letters contains some particulars of the family of Sir Frederick Morton Eden, Bart; a pyramid with arms recalls the memory of Joseph Gulston, of Ealing Grove, five times M.P. for Poole, and one of the South Sea Directors, who died in 1766. A monument of white marble is sacred to the names of John Loving, of Little Ealing, one of the Tellers of the Exchequer in the reign of King Charles the Second, King James the Second, and King William the third. ”

“ Wallington, we had always before us the example of one who in principles, as well as manners, was a gentleman in the best sense of the word; courteous in bearing, pleasant in speech, with patience, fine temper, and a tender regard for the feelings of others. ”

“ Standing in some half-acre of ground, abutting on four acres of play-ground, the building itself has been designed and constructed specially for the use to which it is now devoted. A building whose original purpose is private residence is not always best adapted for a large school, but the architect for the Castle. Hill School with the initial advantage of commodious and appropriate site has produced a School whose adaptation of means to end, strikes the merest observer. The central school-room is 60ft. ”

“ My wife, who behaved more like a heroine and a philosopher, though at the same time the tenderest mother in the world, and my eldest daughter followed me; some friends went with us, and others here took their leave; and I heard my behaviour applauded with many murmurs and praises, to which I knew I had no title; as all other such philosophers may, if they have any modesty, confess in the like occasion.” Fielding died at Lisbon in the following October. ”

“ It stands on a gravel soil, and is surrounded by nearly seven acres of ground, with lawns and orchards. If the list of the conspicuous successes gained in nearly all the Public Examinations of the present day are any augury for the future, the Great Ealing School bids fair to sustain its illustrious traditions. No school could do more. ”

“ We have mentioned two events so far removed in time as the reigns of Edmund and Charles I, and they are the only ones in which Ealing and its vicinity seem to have been perturbed by armed forces, but it should be added that when England was threatened with invasion by Napoleon in 1797, the inhabitants of Ealing and Brentford formed a volunteer corps of some two hundred strong, and at the close of the war its colours were, happily unstained, deposited in the Parish Church at Ealing. ”

“ But what was most pitiful was, to see how many poor men ended and lost their lives, striving to save them, for they run into the Thames, and about two hundred of them, as we might judge, were there drowned by themselves, and so were guilty of their own deaths ”

“ Here had their barbarous carriage begun and ended in the heat of blood and revenge, had a little qualified their offence; but so full of inhumanity was their hearts, even before the fight at Old Brainford, with Colonel Holles, his regiment, that they placed ten of the Earl of Essex his soldiers, whom they had formerly taken prisoners at Kingston, pinioned in the front of their men to be as a breastwork to receive the bullets that came from Colonel Holles, his regiment, that the Cavaliers might escape them ”

“ Mary’s, stands on the site of a former structure, which was built in 1729, under Act of Parliament and by the Authority of a “brief,” replacing the original church that had begun to sink. The present edifice is of brick, and consists of a nave and chancel, organ chamber, ambulatories and a square tower, designed after the Romanesque style, a corruption of the Doric and Ionic. It is basilican in its internal and external appearance, and a baptisty stands in lieu of the southern transept. The monuments from the walls of the former structure are mostly collected in recesses at the west end. ”

“ One of the greatest living musicians and one of the best of our modern sculptors received their early training at Byron School, and many of the banks and commercial establishments of high repute throughout England and the Colonies have officered their desks from former pupils of the School. ”

“ Tickle-us of Great Ealing School.” How few private schools, indeed can any other private school? claim among its alumni such men as Sir Henry Lawrence, Lord Lawrence, Bishop Selwyn, Charles Knight, Sir Henry Rawlinson, William Makepeace Thackeray, Cardinal Newman, Professor Huxley and W. S. Gilbert. Charles Knight says of his schooldays here, “my school life was a real happiness. My nature bourgeoned under kindness.” The present Great Ealing School stands on the opposite side of the road to the former premises. ”

“ On rising ground on the outskirts of Ealing where it borders on Turnham Green, stands the historic mansion of Gunnersbury, now owned by Baron Rothschild. The present mansion replaces an earlier edifice, which was pulled down at the end of the last century. ”

“ Their hearts were so scared they would not extend compassion to the aged and greyheaded; for they took one grave old gentleman, above four score years of age, and put him with other of the inhabitants of the town, into the pound, where they were divers hours, and afterwards were removed into a slaughter-house, where they lay all night, it being a most nasty and noisome place ”

“ The mansion, the present seat of Baron Rothschild, is surrounded by grounds of considerable extent and laid out with much care and taste. The house contains many noticeable statues, and several striking pictures, one of which limns a historic scene, the introduction of the late Baron Lionel Rothschild into the House of Commons in 1858 after the removal of the Disabilities of the Jews. The baron’s sponsors were Lord John Russel and Bernal Osborne, of witty memory, and on the front benches on either side are to be seen the well-known faces of Lord Palmerstone, Mr. ”

“ It was largely owing to the exertions of Tooke that Wilkes was elected for Middlesex in 1768, and he was closely allied with that agitator in the foundation of the society for supporting the Bill of Rights, and in the contests in which that politician engaged with Parliament. Tooke obtained his degree of M.A. though not without opposition, many members of the University resisting the conferment, Dr. Paley among others, and in his political strife Tooke drew upon him the bitter invective of Junius. ”

“ But these may be accounted acts of grace and favor in comparison to what they did to others of them; for when divers of Master Holles, his soldiers, fled into the Thames for safeguard of their lives, they shot at them as they were swimming, and divers of them were drowned. ”