Tart Hall

[Tart Hall.] Stafford (the Lord) his House is at Tart Hall near James's Str. Westminster.

[Tart Hall.] At the upper End of Petty France is James-street, which runneth beyond Tart-hall (belonging to the Lord Stafford's) unto Arlington House, pleasantly seated by St. James's Park.

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To give the Bounds, or Girt Line, of this Parish [of St. Martin's in the Fields], ... crossing into St. James's Park, runs along by the Side of the Canal to Rosamond's Pond, and thence crosseth St. James's-street against Tart Hall, being the Seat of the Right Honourable the Earl of Stafford, which it passeth through, as also the Garden, one Part of which being in this Parish, and the other in that of St. Margaret's, Westminster; and on the Garden Wall, at the Processioning, there is a Boy whipt, (a Custom used to remember the Parish Bounds) for which he hath some small Matter, as about 2d. given him: The like Custom is observed at or by Tiburn Gallows.

Tart Hall, "without the gate of St. James's Park, near Buckingham House," was built (the new part at least) in 1638, by Nicholas Stone, the sculptor,² for Alathea, Countess of Arundel, wife to Thomas, the magnificent Earl of Arundel, and descended to her second son, the unfortunate William, Lord Viscount Stafford, beheaded in 1680, on the perjured evidence of, Titus Oates and others. The gateway was never again opened after the last time Lord Stafford passed through it. The house, after being for some time used as a place of entertainment, was taken down in 1720. A memory of it is still preserved in Stafford Row adjoining. The name is difficult to account for. The adjoining Mulberry Garden was above all things famous for its tarts [see Mulberry Garden], and this, it has been suggested, gave rise to the popular name of this ancient mansion, but it would hardly account for the early and general use of the name.

The Committee of Lords being informed that some important papers were hid in a wall at Tart Hall, they sent to break it, and in a copper box found those which the Attorney-General says give more light into the plot than all they had formerly seen, but most particularly against the Lord Stafford.—Algernon Sidney' 's Letters to Henry Savile, p. 74.

The parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields crosseth James Street against Tart Hall, which it passeth through, and on the garden wall at the processioning there is a boy whipt (a custom used to remember the parish bounds), for which he hath some small matter, as about 2d. , given him : the like custom is observed at or by Tyburn gallows.—Strype, B. vi. p. 67.

The remainder of the Arundelian Collection was preserved at Tart Hall, without the gate of St. James's Park, near Buckingham House. Those curiosities, too, were sold by auction in 1720, and the house itself had been lately demolished. Dr. Mead bought the head of Homer, now in the British Museum. The sale produced £6535.—Walpole's Anecdotes, ed. Dallaway, vol. ii. p. 153.

Some carved seats, by Inigo Jones, were purchased from Tart Hall, and placed in a temple at Chiswick by Lord Burlington.—Ibid., vol. ii. p. 148.

Mr. Walpole, who saw Tart Hall at the time of the second sale, informed me that it was very large, and had a very venerable appearance.—Pennant.

Among the Harleian MSS. (No. 6272) is "A Memorial of all the Roomes at Tart Hall: And an Inventory of all the Household Stuffs and goods there, except of six Roomes at the north end of the ould Building (w^ch the Right Honorable the Countess of Arundell hath reserved unto her peculiar use) and Mr. Thomas Howard's closett, etc.: 8^o September, 1641."In the "Footmen's Hall," were "Foure pictures hanging on the walls thereof—1st. A Gundelowe; 2d. A Mountebanke; 3d. A Brave. 4th. King Henry 7, his wife and children." "The Great Roome, or Hall," was situated "next to the Banketing House." "My Lord's Room" was hanged with yellow and green taffeta. A closet on the west side had the floor covered with a carpet of yellow leather. The roof of one of the rooms was decorated with a "picture of the Fall of Phaeton." Mr. Arden's room was "hanged with Scotch plad." Several pictures are mentioned with their artists' names—Diana and Actæon, by Titian (now in the Bridgewater Gallery ?); Jacob's Travelling, by Bassano (now at Hampton Court ?); A Martyrdom, by Tintoret; the Nativity of our Saviour, by Honthorst. No statues are mentioned. The site is marked in Faithorne's Map of London, 1658.

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² Walpole's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 63.

Not far from the Mulberry Gardens, on the west side of what is now James Street, as we have stated in the previous volume, [6] stood a mansion, called Tart Hall, which was built, or, at all events, extensively altered and enlarged, in the reign of Charles I., for the wife of Thomas, "the magnificent Earl of Arundel." On her death it passed into the hands of her second son, William, Lord Stafford, one of the victims of the plot of the infamous Titus Oates, in 1680, and whose memory is still kept up in the names of Stafford Place and Stafford Row. Strange to say, that John Evelyn himself, usually so circumstantial in all matters of detail, dismisses this legal murder without a single remark, beyond the dry entry in his "Diary," under December 20th, 1680: "The Viscount Stafford was beheaded on Tower Hill." It is said that the old gateway, which stood till early in the last century, was never opened after the condemned nobleman passed through it for the last time.

The building is described in the "New View of London" (1708), as being "near the way leading out of the Park to Chelsea;" and its site is marked in Faithorne's Map of London, published in 1658.

In his "Morning's Walk from London to Kew" (1817), Sir Richard Phillips writes:—"The name of Stafford Row reminded me of the ancient distinction of Tart Hall, once the rival in size and splendour of its more fortunate neighbour, Buckingham House. … It faced the Park, on the present site of James Street; its garden-wall standing where Stafford Row is now built, and the extensive livery-stables being once the stables of its residents."

The origin of Tart Hall is unknown; but the name is probably a corruption or abridgment of a longer word. It is noted, as to situation, in "Walpole's Anecdotes," as "without the gate of St. James's Park, near Buckingham House," and is described by him as "very large, and having a very venerable appearance."

After the removal of the Arundel marbles and other treasures from Arundel House, in the neighbourhood of the Strand, [7] the remainder of the collection, as Walpole tells us, was kept at Tart Hall; but they were sold in 1720, and the house was subsequently pulled down. From the same authority we learn that some carved seats, by Inigo Jones, purchased at this sale, were placed by Lord Burlington in his villa at Chiswick. In the Harleian MSS., in the British Museum, is to be seen "A Memorial of all the Roomes at Tart Hall, and an Inventory of all the household stuffs and goods there, except of six Roomes at the North end of the ould Building (which the Right Honourable the Countess hath reserved unto her peculiar use), and Mr. Thomas Howard's Closett, &c.," dated September, 1641. The memorial is curious as giving a catalogue, not only of the picture-gallery, but of the carpets and decorations of this once magnificent palace. It is, however, too long in its details to be reprinted here.

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6. See Vol. IV., p. 25.
7. See Vol. III., p. 73