Plate XXXV. 82 SIR RICHARD STEELE'S COTTAGE, HAMPSTEAD.
Oil picture, 10-3/4 by 7-1/2 in.
In 1832 Constable exhibited this very small picture at the Royal Academy under the title given above. It is numbered 147 in the catalogue.
The view was painted from what is now called Haverstock Hill, looking towards London, St. Paul's Cathedral in the distance. There is a mezzotint of it by David Lucas. To the small house on the right Steele retired during the summer of 1712. In a letter to Pope dated 1 June of that year he says: "I am at a solitude, an house between Hampstead and London wherein Sir Charles Sedley died." Isaac Reed, editor of Shakespeare, in his edition of Baker's "Biographia Dramatica," says: "part of the building remains." In 1855-56 it was a dairy, faced by the "Load of Hay" public-house, here shown with Georgian buildings next to it. In one of these, then a dame's school, George Grossmith, second of that name, was a pupil. Afterwards Steele's cottage was divided into two tenements. According to F. Baines ("History of Hampstead," 1890), they were pulled down in 1867. Steele's Road covers the site.
By J. Constable, R.A., 1832 (1776-1837).
Lent by Mr. R. K. Hodgson.
83 VIEW LOOKING DOWN THE RIVER FROM ABOVE ADELPHI TERRACE.
Oil picture. 17-1/2 by 6-1/2 in.
Shows Adelphi Terrace and low buildings along the foreshore, then unchanged. In the distance is old London Bridge.
The painter, David Turner, exhibited occasionally at the Free Society and the Royal Academy, beginning in 1782; his pictures were small, their subjects for the most part being from London and the Thames. It is said that his name does not appear after 1801, but a view by him, lately sold at Christie's, was catalogued as representing Lord Nelson's funeral procession on the river.
By D. Turner.
Lent by Mr. F. A. White.
