53 SAVOY RUINS.
Wash drawing in sepia. 12-1/4 by 8-1/4 in.
The Savoy near the Strand was a house or palace built in 1245 by Peter, Earl of Savoy and Richmond, uncle of Eleanor, wife to Henry III. John, King of France, was imprisoned there after the battle of Poictiers. When in the hands of John of Gaunt it was burnt by Wat Tyler and his followers. After this it appears to have been neglected, till in 1505 Henry VII endowed it as a Hospital of St. John Baptist for the relief of poor people. Suppressed in 1553, and re-endowed by Queen Mary Tudor, seventeenth century plans show an important river frontage. It was maintained as a hospital until 1702, but Strype in 1720 describes it as being partly a prison; in another portion was "the King's printing press for proclamations," etc. After gradual decay the last remains of the building were destroyed in the earlier years of the nineteenth century.
The arches in mid-distance most likely belong to Blackfriars Bridge. Waterloo Bridge, first called Strand Bridge, was begun in 1811.
We may call to mind that the gifted artist who drew this, and died at the age of twenty-seven, was born in the same year as W. M. Turner, whose well-known saying, "if Tom Girtin had lived I should have starved," is a fine tribute to his genius.
By T. Girtin (1775-1802).
Lent by Mr. T. Girtin.
54 DRURY LANE THEATRE.
Watercolour. 9 by 5-3/4 in.
The first theatre on this site was opened by the King's Company in 1663, and was burnt down in 1672. The next, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was opened in 1674 and was new-faced by the brothers Adam. A third theatre, designed by H. Holland, was opened in 1794 and burnt down in 1809. James and Horace Smith's "Rejected Addresses" were burlesque prologues for the fourth theatre, designed by Benjamin Dean Wyatt, which is here portrayed. It was opened 10 October 1812, with a prologue by Lord Byron, whose style the Smiths had parodied. The portico in Brydges Street, now Catherine Street, was added when Elliston was lessee, and the colonnade, Little Russell Street, in 1831.
