Burlington House

“ Now let us find our way back again to Piccadilly by the easy route, especially in wet weather, of the Burlington Arcade—a sort of Passage des Princes of London—designed for Lord George Cavendish, in 1818, which tradition says was originally intended as a covered court to prevent dirt and rubbish from being thrown on the walks of Burlington House gardens.
One could, of course, go loitering over reams of paper in Piccadilly, for nearly every house or its site has had a history; every stone has echoed the footsteps of the illustrious and interesting for many a generation. ”

“ Art, I hold, is nowadays purely a commercial affair. Burlington House is simply a huge shop, and it is all nonsense to talk for one instant about the encouragement it gives to art, or to take seriously the prosy platitudes which are poured forth year by year at that picture tradesmen's dinner—the Royal Academy Banquet. Women are not invited—women, forsooth, whose works on the walls have done their share towards bringing the shillings to the turnstiles of the Academy. ”

“ In 1668, Burlington House was finished, placed where it is because it was at the time of its erection thought certain that no one would build beyond it. "In London," says Sir William Chambers, "many of our noblemen's palaces towards the streets look like convents; nothing appears but a high wall, with one or two large gates, in which there is a hole for those who are privileged to go in and out. ”

“ It is only as an architect that Kent's artistic reputation now survives. If, as has been asserted, he had any hand in designing the beautiful colonnade of Burlington House (now lying neglected on the embankment at Battersea) , this reputation might stand higher, but there appears to be no sufficient reason for depriving the Earl of Burlington of the full merit of this work. ”

“ Finally it was added to by new buildings in Burlington Gardens, for the use of the University of London, and by a new façade facing Piccadilly. Now-a-days several learned Societies have their headquarters in portions of the [Pg 83] extensive buildings, but to “the man in the street” Burlington House spells the Royal Academy, the council of which obtained a lease of their building in 1866. ”

“ Burlington has a beautiful situation on high ground, and is laid out in broad, well-shaded streets. In the centre of the city is a large public square, near which are the handsome court-house, the city hall, the United States post-office and custom-house, and the Young Men's Christian Association building and the site of the new public library. ”

“ Beside the river runs a wall which encloses the grounds and gardens of Chiswick House, the Duke of Devonshire’s villa, a classical structure, built by that nobleman of elegant taste—Lord Burlington, whose work is to be seen not only in London, but at York and other places. His buildings all exhibit this character, and are effective. This Italian villa, with the cupola to its octagon room rising over the pillared pediment, is in his best style. Not far away on the roadside is another villa, with an ambitious portico and pillars which may have been designed by the same amateur. ”

“ A few words may be said as to living-rooms. Most living-rooms in better-class houses are too high. This is probably due to the bad example of London. In London the height of a house is the only dimension in which there is, so to say, the least elasticity, and London architects have attempted to compensate by height for absolutely inadequate area.
The rooms of some of the learned societies at Burlington House, with a space of several feet between the top of the window and the ceiling, afford excellent illustrations of the point which is to be avoided. ”

“ The print representing the body of the house and a part of the wings, was all that could be taken into the visual angle. The circular colonade of the Doric order which joins the wings, is very noble and striking. The house is hardly grand enough for the colonade, and seems to want something in the center to make the entrance more conspicuous. The house is of an older date than the front, which was built by the late Earl of Burlington. The rooms within are in a fine taste, and the stair-case is painted by Seb. Ricci, with great spirit and freedom.
Burlington mews, Great Swallow street. ”

“ Reflections must now give way to facts for a moment, though few English people want to be told that every hotel here, belonging to people of condition, is shut out from the street like our Burlington-house, which gives a general gloom to the look of this city so famed for its gaiety: the streets are narrow too, and ill-paved ”

“ There were formerly no houses in this street, and only one shop for Spanish ruffs, which was called the Piccadilly or Ruff shop. At present there are several noble houses in it. See Devonshire House, Burlington House. The last house built in Piccadilly is the Earl of Egremont’s. It is of stone, and tho’ not much adorned, is elegant and well situated for a town house, having a fine view over the Green Park, which would be still more extended if the houses on each side were set farther back. ”

“ If casts of Night and Morning were placed at the head of the{128} staircase of Burlington House, no one with appreciation of art would enter the rooms; the strong would linger for ever round those stupendous groups, and the feeble would be frighted away. ”

“ With Sir John Denham he also carried out (gratuitously) certain repairs in 1663 at St. Paul's Cathedral (Malcolm, Londinium Redivivum, 1803, iii. 83) , and designed Burlington House, Piccadilly (1664–6) , for Richard Boyle, first earl of Burlington; it was remodelled in 1718–20. ”

“ In Burlington, as in all these Upper-River towns, one breathes a go-ahead atmosphere which tastes good in the nostrils. An opera-house has lately been built there which is in strong contrast with the shabby dens which usually do duty as theaters in cities of Burlington's size. ”

“ The hand of Miss Burden was found to be less complex. In her future there was only one man, and he was tall and dark.
“I think it is wonderful,” said Miss Burden, with a charming vibration in her voice.
The exigencies of the case rendered an early return to Hill Street necessary. Hurlingham was already forbidden for the remainder of the season. It would not do, declared Cheriton, for Ranelagh to be prohibited as well. Otherwise they would be compelled to restrict themselves to Burlington House, to Lord’s, and the Circus. ”

“ The Burlington is in Cork street, a select, and fashionable business thoroughfare between Bond street and Regent street. In this immediate locality are also to be found Long’s Hotel, the Bristol, Almond’s Hotel, patronized by Chauncey Depew and his family, and Brown’s Hotel in Dover street. The last-named house affects not to desire American patronage. The Burlington has enjoyed for over a century a truly unique reputation and position in London. The hotel, as seen from the Burlington street side, has a dignified exterior. ”

“ There is the “Mall,” and Chiswick Lane, up which as you glance from the river you can see the little red-rusted terrace of Queen Anne houses, with its antique railings and rural surroundings, a row of “pollarded” trees in front. Facing the church is an old roadside tavern, “The Burlington Arms,” most quaintly picturesque; and on the other side a fine old detached house standing in its garden. We are glad to find here one of the old burly independent and well-built “Manor Houses,” standing by the roadside and flourishing. ”

“ Eighteenth-Century Exteriors—The Palladian Style. Architectural design having become an elegant occupation founded on so impracticable a basis, it is not surprising to find it pursued by amateurs. Lord Burlington was the most eminent of these, and he tried his hand, according to contemporary accounts, at a number of houses as well as at some semi-public buildings, such as the Assembly Room at York. Kent includes several in his book on Inigo Jones, where they suffer somewhat by comparison with the genuine work of the master. ”

“ Another mansion of theirs, even larger, is still to be seen on the Chelsea Embankment, close to Battersea Bridge. Often from familiarly we overlook much that is interesting; but this house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields proclaims its ancient significance in a striking way. Next to it is a granite mansion of the Lord Burlington era, with an elegant and original semicircular portico, also divided into two houses. ”

“ Thirty or forty years ago, in one of those grey towns along the Burlington railroad, which are so much greyer to-day than they were then, there was a house well known from Omaha to Denver for its hospitality and for a certain charm of atmosphere. ”

“ This was a large building at the bottom of Old Burlington Street, apparently a factory or warehouse. “Few persons living,” says an agreeable reminiscent, writing in February, 1887, “can recollect the old Western Exchange, which in 1820 was one of the sights of London. It ran parallel with the Burlington Arcade, the entrance being from 10, Old Bond Street, to which house it is still attached, and was at one time the grand banqueting hall. This hall is 170 feet by 105 feet, is very lofty, and has spacious galleries all round, supported by handsome Doric columns, highly decorated. ”

“ He was on his way to dine in Curzon Street, and among his subsequent engagements for the evening the Academy soirée occupied a prominent place.
It was nearly twelve o’clock when he arrived at Burlington House, and the vestibule and staircase were alike crowded with people going up and coming down; smiling, nodding, and generally obstructing the way, with a bland oblivion of any but their own individual rights to a passage.
At the foot of the stairs Loring was seized upon and absorbed in a portentous obstruction, of which the centre figure was Mrs. ”

“ Continuing to devote himself to his studies, his first resources became exhausted, and one of his countrymen allowed him 40l. a year for seven years. Afterwards he gained the notice of Lord Burlington, who assisted and patronised him. He returned to England for a short time and made a second journey to Rome, and then coming back in 1719 he settled in London, and had an apartment in Lord Burlington's house. He first, through his patron's influence, found employment as a portrait painter, but his likenesses had no individuality, and were in every respect meretricious. ”

“ By his patron, Lord Burlington, he was entrusted with the latter's designs for the improvement of his house in Piccadilly, and, if his own statement in the ‘Vitruvius Britannicus’ is worthy of credit, designed himself the centre gateway, the principal feature in the façade, in 1717. ”

“ Burlington, home of the sparkling Burdette, is another hill city; and also a beautiful one; unquestionably so; a fine and flourishing city, with a population of twenty-five thousand, and belted with busy factories of nearly every imaginable description. ”

“ To the eye of a wearied dweller in a dense city all villages appear beautiful in summer, but Burlington is eminently so when compared with others.
We left the metropolis of the lake for Plattsburgh about noon. On our left, as we emerged from the harbor, were the Four Brothers, small islands swarming with water-fowl, and the bald point of Rock Dunder, a solitary spike rising, shrubless and bare, about twenty feet above the water. Before us spread out the two Heros (North and South) , green islands, which belonged to the Allen family during the Revolution. ”

“ A big, empty mansion, lonely in the country, and even with the comfort of John Burley and a lover in it, has its atmosphere. Furnished rooms are far less ghostly. This atmosphere now came creeping everywhere, through spacious halls and sighing corridors, silent, invisible, but all-pervading, John Burley alone impervious to it, unaware of its soft attack upon the nerves. ”

“ Headless shadows preceded them gigantically across the lawn as they moved, and one side of the great building lay already dark; bats were flitting, moths darted to and fro above the azalea and rhododendron clumps. The talk turned chiefly on the uses of the mansion as a Convalescent Home, its probable running cost, suitable staff, and so forth.
“Come along,” John Burley said presently, breaking off and turning abruptly, “we must be inside, actually inside, before the sun’s gone. We must fulfil the conditions faithfully,” he repeated, as though fond of the phrase. ”

“ Every county in England has some such houses to show. Many of them were built of stone, some partly of brick and stone. Their style shows that the English or old fashion of Gothic building was dying out. Italian ideas and Italian ornament were coming into favour. No doubt one reason why so much of the old work was ruthlessly destroyed was because it was out of fashion. It is astonishing, even in these days, how much good work is destroyed just because it has gone out of date. Among the most famous of these houses we may mention Burleigh House "by Stamford Town", Haddon Hall, and Knebworth ”

“ Mr. Burroughs was formerly the mansion of Governor Langdon. It contains noble and spacious rooms. The Doctor's library is a fine apartment, extending, I think, the whole breadth of the house, forty or fifty feet, with elaborate cornices, a carved fireplace, and other antiquated magnificences. It was, I suppose, the reception-room, and occasionally the dining-hall. The opposite parlor is likewise large, and finished in excellent style, the mantelpiece being really a fine architectural specimen. ”

“ Rumors of a New York millionaire ball had given him some vague idea of fancy dress. A lot of them looked like freaks. He caught glimpses of corridors lighted by curious, high, deep windows with leaded panes. It struck him that there was no end to the place, and that there must be rooms enough in it for a hotel.
“The tapestry chamber, of course, Burrill,” he heard Mr. Palford say in a low tone.
“Yes, sir. Mr. Temple Barholm always used it.”
A few yards farther on a door stood open, revealing an immense room, rich and gloomy with tapestry-covered walls and dark oak furniture. ”