318
NOTES 'AND QUERIES. [9* s. vm. OCT. 19, 1901.
but also to Disraeli's previous dwelling, pre-
sently to be noticed. The King's Road lease
most satisfactorily and conclusively describes
the situation of the house. It was, and is
for no alteration has been made, except that
King's Road became Theobalds Road in 1878
"the first house eastward, and next the
house at the corner of John Street." Hor-
wood's clear large-scale map of 1799 shows
the house exactly ; the houses are numbered,
and "6" marks that in which we are
interested.
The correspondence of 1884 had reference chiefly to 6, Bloomsbury Square (another 6 !), to which it is clearly proved from Boyle's directory that Isaac D'Israeli moved on leaving 6, King's Road in 1817 ; his son Benjamin was then in his thirteenth year. The house in Bloomsbury Square has also been a claimant for the birthplace honour or rather the claim was made by Mr. E. G. Rust, living in it when he wrote to the Standard, 22 April, 1881. Mr. Rust was right as to its having been the D'Israeli resi- dence, but not as to its having been the birthplace of the future Prime Minister.
There can be no doubt that Lord Beacons- field himself mystified his place of birth. But perhaps he did not know it, or had not been sufficiently interested in the fact to make precise inquiry ; and indeed at the best his evidence could only have been of secondary value, for to the circumstances of birth "the memory of man runneth not." Yet solid and astute statesman as he was, he was also an eminent novelist and romancer ; and it may even be thought possible that his Eastern origin inclined him to mystery. However it may be, to inquiry respecting his birthplace he at three different times gave three dif- ferent answers, and it does not appear that he was ever correct. At the age of twenty, when proposing an insurance, he gave St. Mary Axe, in the City, as his place of birth, which statement is unsupported and unexplained. Once, when at the house of Sir Anthony Panizzi in Bloomsbury Square, and asked if he had not been born at the house in the square mentioned above, his Hebraic reply was, " You have always told me so." Lord Barrington, relating this, observes, "Lord Beaconsfield clearly fenced with a leading question." Again, the same friend having put the question to the earl during his last illness, he replied :
"That is a thing not generally known. I was born in a set of chambers in the Adelphi I may say in a library, for all my father's rooms were full of books."
Here the cultivated vein of romance seemingly
tiad play : it was special and picturesque to
be born in a library !
Lord Beaconsfield certainly was not correct as to his birth in "the Adelphi," but that his father had chambers there for a space of about three years is fully proved. The same depository of London house-history before used contains the register of lease to Isaac D'Israeli in 1799 of the first floor of "No. 2, James Street, Adelphi, on the north side of John Street" (not No. 2, John Street, as also represented), and there is a later assignment by D'Israeli of these chambers to Thomas Coutts, the banker, dated March, 1802. The Coutts firm still hold these pre- mises, which are connected with their bank in the Strand, so that identification is sure. In that curious, though not cheerful group of streets built by the brothers Adam on the bank of the river, John Street has some length, but, turning off it northward, James Street is one of the shortest in London. Apparently the number has remained un- altered ; the Coutts house is yet No. 2 at the corner, the hall-door in James Street, which street would be " blind" but that at its north end there is a return eastward called William Street, presumably after another Adam brother. The literary D'Israeli married 10 February, 1802, and then, assigning the Adelphi chambers to Mr. Coutts, went to live at 6, King's Road, near Bedford Row. There he lived fifteen years, and there pro- bably his five children were born. Of these Lord Beaconsfield, the second, came into the world on 21 December, 1804, when his parents had resided in that house two years and eight months. By - and - by it would seem that the father, desiring closer proximity to his constant haunt, the British Museum, moved to 6, Bloomsbury Square, lived there about twelve years, and in 1829 sought the quietude of the country in Bradenham House, Buckinghamshire, where he spent the re- mainder of his life, dying in 1848.
I hope that the reader, especially if con- nected with the Society of Arts, will now share my conviction that the birthplace was 6, King's Road, to-day 22, Theobalds Road. The only two serious competitors in the field have been the Adelphi chambers and Blooms- bury Square, and their claims could have easily been disposed of had the contemporary street directory, 'Boyle's Court Guide '(readily seen at the British Museum), been consulted. The 6, John Street, Bedford Row, of Mrs. Tait was, I believe, a mere lapsus calami, and St. Mary Axe no more than lusus Disraelis. One other place has had mention, and I referred to it when adverting to the possibility of
