Hanover Square

“ In the Minories.
Hanover square, so called in compliment to the present royal family, has Oxford road on the north; Swallow street in the east; Conduit street on the south; 169and New Bond street on the west. The area of the square contains about two acres of ground, in the middle of which is a garden inclosed with rails; the houses are new built in the modern taste; they make a grand appearance, and are inhabited by noblemen and gentlemen of distinguished rank. ”

“ Mill Street affords us an additional memory of the rurality of London in bygone times. George Street (also St. George’s Church) , Hanover Street, and Hanover Square were designations in honour of the Hanoverian succession in the person of George I. Davies Street, connecting Berkeley Square with Oxford Street, received its name in compliment [282] to Miss Mary Davies, the heiress of Ebury Manor, Belgravia, who carried that estate by her marriage into the possession of the Grosvenors. ”

“ George’s, Hanover-Square, the Church so distinguished for marriages in high-life, and for a fashionable prestige altogether. Here one sees Hanover indeed! The names of its successive Churchwardens are emblazoned on the galleries, and I observed that they were generally those of noblemen and gentry. Fashion was much too prominent. A young and well-looking preacher, in Episcopal robes, appeared in the pulpit, and discoursed articulately, and with some spirit, (on Rev. xxii. 17,) though not remarkably in other respects. ”

“ Vigors came to Hanover Square it was not as a Master, but as the humblest of Servants; and no tradesman, constable, maid, or lacquey [24] about the house or neighbourhood would have ventured for his or her life to question that, from cellar to roof, every inch of the mansion belonged to the Unknown Lady. The vulgar held her in a kind of Awe, and spoke of her as the Lady in Diamonds ”

“ He adds, that the view down George street, from the upper side of the square, is one of the most entertaining in this whole city: the sides of the square, the area in the middle, the breaks of building that form the entrance of the vista, the vista itself, but above all, the beautiful projection of the portico of St. George’s church, are all circumstances that unite in beauty, and render the scene perfect.
170Hanover street, 1. Hanover square. 2. Long Acre. 3. Rotherhith Wall.
Hanover stairs, Hanover street, Rotherhith.
Hanover yard, St. Giles’s.
Hanson’s alley, St. ”

“ Those who feel that they are treading upon safer ground boldly engage the Hanover Square Rooms, and support themselves by their own strength. Amongst this class you will commonly meet with most agreeable additions to any social circle. ”

“ The Hanwell lunatic asylum of the county of London has been greatly extended since its erection 1831, and can accommodate over 2500 inmates. The extensive cemeteries of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, and St George, Hanover Square, London, are here. In the churchyard of St Mary’s church was buried Jonas Hanway (d. 1786) , traveller, philanthropist, and by repute, introducer of the umbrella into England. The Roman Catholic Convalescent Home for women and children was erected in 1865. Before the Norman period the manor of Hanwell belonged to Westminster Abbey. ”

“ George's, Hanover Square. This electoral district takes in the three most fashionable churches in the Metropolis, including the mother church, St. Paul's, Wilton Place, and St. Peter's, Eaton Square, besides many others, whose marriage registers cannot compete either in quantity or quality of names with these three. The district can also show streets as poor as some are rich; it includes not only Park Lane and Piccadilly, but also Pimlico and the dreary part to the south of Buckingham Palace Road. It is a long, narrow district, stretching from the river to Oxford Street. As a parish, St. ”

“ Few strangers visit the city who have not heard of the man, and who do not feel gratified to have seen his likeness in his bust. Fewer, whose love of books has carried them to the royal library, have not in silence looked, and with a melancholy interest, on the chair in which he sat when the death-stroke came upon him, and at the book which he was still holding in his hand when the sudden summons came.
Bursting its old boundaries, like Hamburg, Brunswick, Breslau, and many other fortified cities, the walls and ditches and towers of Hanover are gradually disappearing. ”

“ Some of the best company of this place were assembled on the occasion, and we were here made acquainted with old Field-Marshal Sporken, and other people of distinction. Hanover is a neat, thriving and agreeable city. It has more the air of an English town than any other I have seen in Germany, and the English manners and customs gain ground every day among the inhabitants. The genial influence of freedom has extended from England to this place. Tyranny is not felt, and ease and satisfaction appear in the countenances of the citizens. ”

“ The blackened shell of the building stands in cold decrepitude, a melancholy vestige of usefulness outlived. In consequence of the stoppage of the works, Hanover has lost seven-eighths of its population, and only about fifty inhabitants remain in the white cottages grouped about the Big House, who are employed in agricultural labors and occupations connected with the forest. ”

“ The men, he said, talked of nothing but their dull politics, and the women of nothing but their ugly clothes. Whereas, in Hanover, all these things were at perfection: men were patterns of politeness and gallantry; women, of beauty, wit, and entertainment. His troops there were the bravest in the world; his manufacturers the most ingenious; his people the happiest: in Hanover, in short, plenty reigned, riches flowed, arts flourished, magnificence abounded, everything was in abundance that could make a prince great, or a people blessed. ”

“ The River Leine divides it into the old and new Towns, which are both encompass'd with Ramparts that scarce deserve the Name. There is nothing very extraordinary in the Palace or Castle, which is rather commodious than magnificent; and the Town of Hanover, generally speaking, is but ill built. The most remarkable Structure in it, is the Roman Catholick Church, which was granted to those of that Communion by Ernest-Augustus of Brunswic-Lunenbourg-Hanover; that being one of the Conditions which the Emperor Leopold demanded of him when he honour'd him with the Electoral Dignity. ”

“ Since, the Accession of the Hanover Family to the Throne of Great Britain, London is infinitely larger than it was. There’s one intire Quarter goes by the Name of Hanover. The Parliament being apprehensive, that in Process of Time the Town would grow too big to support itself, pass’d an Act some Years ago for restraining the building on new Foundations ”

“ About six o’clock that evening we reached Hanover and were marched off through some of the main streets to an unknown destination. The town is all right; it is the people that spoil it. Proceeding down some broad streets we passed some very fine buildings, statues and fountains. Once a well-dressed woman unintentionally crossed our path, with the result that a sentry roughly threw her aside without a word of apology. ”

“ The old town within the walls was composed of rough narrow streets, and timbered, gabled60 houses with high sloping roofs. Some of these old houses, such as Leibnizhaus, a sandstone building of the seventeenth century, still remain, and so do the old brick Markt Kirche, the Rathhaus, and other quaint buildings characteristic of mediæval Germany; they make it easy to conjure up the everyday life of the old Hanoverian burghers.
Caroline found that Hanover was a more important place than Ansbach, and everything was on a larger scale. ”

“ He was a Divine Right man, a fiery Jacobite, in those days; and, probably not without some absurd unconfessed dream in his heart that it might somehow help the dead old cause, he one afternoon fluttered the Hanoverian hearts—all the men we meet in street and mart are Hanoverians, of course—of our little literary club by solemnly rising 'to give notice' that at the following meeting he would read a paper to prove that 'the House of Hanover has no right to the English throne.' Great was the excitement through the fortnight intervening, extending even to the masters ”

“ Hanover is the headquarters of the X. Prussian army corps, has a large garrison of nearly all arms and a famous military riding school. It occupies a leading position among the industrial and commercial towns of the empire, and of recent years has made rapid progress in prosperity. It is connected by railway with Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Hameln, Cologne, Altenbeken and Cassel, and the facilities of intercourse have, under the fostering care of the Prussian government, enormously developed its trade and manufactures. ”

“ Market Street, the centre and main thoroughfare of the city, wide and beautiful, begins at the river front and gradually climbs a hill Eastward, so persistently straight, that the first rays of a Summer's morning sun kiss the profusion of oak and cedar trees that border it ”

“ All that her own mother could do when her daughter complained to her of the presence near her of her husband’s mistress, was to advise her to imitate, on this point, the indifference of her mother-in-law, and make the best of it!
The Countess von Platen kept greater state in Hanover than Sophia Dorothea herself. In her own palatial mansion two dozen servants helped her helplessness. Every morning she had ‘a circle,’ as if she were a royal lady holding a court. Her dinners were costly banquets; her ‘evenings’ were renowned for the brilliancy of her fêtes and the reckless fury of gambling. ”

“ How could an open country be defended against an enemy who could march 150,000 men into it,446 and if necessary reinforce them by as many more? Should Hanover suffer by her connection with Great Britain, we ought not to make peace without exacting full and ample compensation for all the damage and injury she might have sustained. But the idea of defending Hanover by subsidies was preposterous, absurd, and impracticable. Then, excited by this favourite theme beyond the limits he had imposed on himself, he struck home at the King and his darling patrimony. ”

“ These were times when Hanoverians, who stood in fear of Prussia, never lay down in bed but with arms at their side; times when young peasants who, influenced by soft attractions, stole by night from one village to another to pay their devoirs to bright eyes waking to receive them, walked through perils, love in their hearts, and a musket on their shoulders. The enrollers of Frederick, and indeed those of his great son after him, cast a chill shadow of fear over every age, sex, and station of life. ”

“ The Court of Hanover at the time of Caroline’s marriage was one of the principal courts of North Germany, not equal in importance to that of Berlin, or in splendour to that of Dresden, but second to no others. During the reign of the first Elector, Ernest Augustus, and his consort, the Electress Sophia, Hanover had gained materially in power and importance. The town became the resort of wealthy nobles, who had before divided their attentions between Hamburg and Brunswick. ”

“ The return of the King brought many people253 to Hanover—ministers, diplomatists and princes all came to pay their respects, and to see if they could not arrange matters in some way for their own benefit. Lady Mary writes: “This town is neither large nor handsome, but the palace capable of holding a greater Court than that of St. James’s. The King has had the kindness to appoint us a lodging in one part, without which we should be very ill-accommodated, for the vast number of English crowds the town so much it is very good luck to get one sorry room in a miserable tavern.... ”

“ She must deal with it alone. To try to speak about it, even with Eve, would sap her courage. It was her secret. A strange secret for all her life as Hanover had been. But Hanover was beautiful, with distant country through the saal windows with its colours misty in the sunlight, the beautiful, happy town and the woodland villages so near. ”

“ He was recognized as the leader of the Hanoverians and of all those who opposed the “revolution from above.” He took a leading part in the formation of the party of the Centre in 1870–1871, but he did not become a member of it, fearing that his reputation as a follower of the king of Hanover would injure the party, until he was formally requested to join them by the leaders. ”

“ The sovereign of Hanover was a positive despot, both politically and socially. Everything had to be done to please him, to amuse him, to conciliate him. The women around the Court were always vying with each other to see who should most successfully flatter the King, or, in the King's absence, the Royal Prince. It was intellectually a very stupid Court. Its pleasures were vulgar, its revels coarse, its whole atmosphere heavy and sensuous. Frederick was said, however, to have given some evidence of a more cultivated taste than might have been expected of a Hanoverian Crown Prince. ”

“ From Brunswick a crowd of tramps, including myself, rode in a fourth-class car to a little station called Peine, in the direction of [Pg 187] Hanover. A few of the men remained here in order to take in the Verpflegung-Station until the next day. This station, of which there are about two thousand in Germany, is a place where a man professing to be penniless can have a night's lodging, together with supper and breakfast, for a few hours' work. I moved on toward Hanover with fifteen other men who were bound in the same direction. They all had money, and no love for the Verpflegung-Station. ”

“ Let me confess at once that we are a bit supercilious in our attitude toward the sister Square far to our West, across the Alps of Broadway. Our Square was an established center of the social respectabilities when the foot of Fifth Avenue was still frequented by the occasional cow whose wanderings are responsible for the street-plan of Greenwich Village. Our Square remains true to the ancient and simple traditions, whereas Washington Square has grown long hair, smeared its fingers with paint and its lips with free verse, and gone into debt for its inconsiderable laundry bills. ”