Somerset House

Somerset House, a magnificent Structure built by the Duke of Somerset (See St. Mary Savoy, Sect. 2.) It is one of the Queen's Palaces, and was in the Occupation of Cath. Queen Dowager till her Death; it being Capacious enough for any Prince and their Retinue. It has a beautiful Front toward the Waterside, with a Piazza, Fountain, Walks and Statues. The Front Towards the Strand is adorned with Columns and Entablature of the Dorick Order: The Court is a large Quadrangle built on each side, in the present Occupation of the Earl of Feversham, Lady Arlington, &c. who have Lodgings therein.

Somerset House, or Pl., Strand, is about a quarter of a mile on the south side near the new church. Somerset House was originally built about the year 1549, by the Duke of Somerset, uncle to Edward VI., and Protector of England, who demolished the palaces of the Bishops of Chester and Worcester, an Inn of Chancery, called the Strand Inn, and the church of St. Mary-le-Strand, which all stood on its site. He built his new palace with the materials obtained from the church and tower of St. John of Jerusalem, the cloisters on the north side of St. Paul's church, and the chapel and charnel house, all of which he caused to be destroyed for that purpose, and gave the new building the name of Somerset House. The architect of that part is supposed to have been John of Padua, who had been employed by Henry VIII. On the attainder of the duke, it fell to the crown, and was the occasional abode of Queen Elizabeth, and other royal personages.

In this palace Anne of Denmark, Queen of James I. kept her court, and it was, consequently, called Denmark House, but after her death it recovered its original name. During this reign Inigo Jones added that elegant front next the Thames, that has been so often the theme of admiration, by the lovers of harmonious proportions and classical architecture. It was afterwards the residence of Queen Catherine, the Queen Dowager of Charles II., and by an act of the 2nd year of George III., it was settled on his Queen Charlotte for life, but it was afterwards exchanged for Buckingham House.

This ancient palace was taken down in 1775, under the authority of an act of parliament, and the present handsome and extensive building, erected from the designs of Sir William Chambers.

Stories of Old Somerset House.

This celebrated palace, situated on the south side of the Strand, with gardens and water-gate reaching to the Thames, was commenced building about 1547, by the Protector Somerset, maternal uncle of Edward VI. To obtain space and building materials, he demolished Strand or Chester's Inn, and the episcopal houses of Lichfield, Coventry, Worcester, and Llandaff, besides the church and tower of St. John of Jerusalem: for the stone, also, he pulled down the great north cloister of St. Paul's; St. Mary's church was also taken down, and the site became part of the garden. Stow describes it, in 1603, as "a large and beautiful house, but yet unfinished." The Protector did not inhabit the palace; for he was imprisoned in the Tower in 1549, &nd beheaded in 1552. Somerset-place then devolved to the Crown, and was assigned by Edward VI. to his sister the Princess Elizabeth. Lord Burghley notes:—"Feb. 1566–7, Cornelius de la Noye, an alchymist, wrought in Somerset House, and abused many in promising to convert any metall into gold."

In 1570, Queen Elizabeth went to open the Royal Exchange, "from her house at the Strand, called Somerset House." The Queen lent the mansion to her kinsman, Lord Hunsdon, whose guest she occasionally became. At her death, the palace was settled as a jointure-house of the queen-consort; and passed to Anne of Denmark, queen of James I., by whose command it was called Denmark House. Inigo Jones erected new buildings and enlargements. Here the remains of Anne and James I. lay in state. For Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I., Inigo Jones built a chapel, with a rustic arcade and Corinthian columns, facing the Thames; and here the Queen established a convent of Capuchin friars. In the passage leading from east to west, under the quadrangle of the present Somerset House, are five tombstones of the Queen's attendants.

Inigo Jones died here in 1652. During the Protectorate, the altar and chapel were ordered to be burnt; and in 1659 the palace was about to be sold for 10,000l.; but after the Restoration, the Queen-mother Henrietta, returned to Somerset House, which she repaired: hence she exclaims, in Cowley's courtly verse:—

"Before my gate a street's broad channel goes,
Which still with waves of crowding people flows;
And every day there passes by my side,
Up to its western reach, the London tide,
The spring-tides of the term. My front looks down
On all the pride and business of the town."

Waller's adulatory incense rises still higher:—

"But what new mine this work supplies?
Can such a pile from ruin rise?
This like the first creation shows,
As if at your command it rose."

Pepys gossips of "the Queen-mother's court at Somerset House, above our own Queen's; the mass in the chapel; the garden; and the new buildings, mighty magnificent and costly," "stately and nobly furnished;" and "the great stone stairs in the garden, with the brave echo." The Queen-mother died abroad in 1669. In 1669–70, the remains of Monk, Duke of Albemarle, "lay for many weeks in royal state" at Somerset House; and thence he was buried with every honour short of regality. Thither the remains of Oliver Cromwell were removed from Whitehall, in 1658, and were laid in state in the great hall of Somerset House, "and represented in effigie, standing on a bed of crimson velvet." He was buried from hence with great pomp and pageantry, which provoked the people to throw dirt, in the night, on his escutcheon that was placed over the great gate of Somerset House: his pompous funeral cost 28,000l. On the death of Charles II. in 1685, the palace became the sole residence of the Queen Dowager, Catherine of Braganza; and in 1678, three of her household were charged with the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, by decoying him into Somerset House, and there strangling him.

Strype describes the palace about 1720: its front with stone pillars, its spacious square court, great hall or guard-room, large staircase, and rooms of state, larger courts, and "most pleasant garden;" the water-gate, with figures of Thames and Isis; and the water-garden, with fountain and statues. Early in the last century, court masquerades were given here. Addison, in the Freeholder, mentions one in 1716; and in 1763, a splendid fête was given here by Government to the Venetian Ambassadors. In 1771, the Royal Academy had apartments in the palace, granted them by George III. In 1775, Parliament settled upon Queen Charlotte Buckingham House, in which she then resided, in lieu of Old Somerset House, which was given up to be demolished, for the erection upon the site of certain public offices, the present Somerset House; the produce of the sale of Ely House being applied towards the expenses. The chapel, which had been opened for the Protestant service by order of Queen Anne, in 1711, was not closed until 1777. The venerable court-way from the Strand, and the dark and winding steps which led down to the garden beneath the shade of ancient and lofty trees, were the last lingering features of Somerset Place, and were characteristic of the gloomy lives and fortunes of its royal and noble inmates.

Somerset House, in the Strand (the old building), "a large and goodly house,"¹ built by the Protector Somerset, brother of Queen Jane Seymour, and maternal uncle of Edward VI. Two inns, appertaining to the sees of Worcester and Lichfield, and several tenements adjoining, were pulled down in 1549 to make way for it; and the great cloister on the north side of St. Paul's, containing "The Dance of Death," and the priory church of the Knights Hospitallers (of St. John of Jerusalem), Clerkenwell, were demolished to find stones to erect it. The present Somerset House occupies the same site. The Protector began his palace in the Strand very soon after the death of Henry VIII. Letters exist dated from "Somerset Place" as early as 1547; Foxe tells of speeches in "the Gallery at his Grace's house in the Strand," and of his examining prisoners there;² and one of the "Articles objected against the Lord Protector" was that "you had and held, against the law, in your own house, a Court of Requests." But this house may have been an inn seized and new named—not an uncommon circumstance at this time, or indeed for many years after.

1551.—Master Bradford spared not the proudest, and among many many others will't them to tak example be the last Duek of Somerset, who became so cold in hearing God's word, that the yeir before his last apprehension hee wold goe visit his masonis, and wold not dinye himsell to goe from his Gallerie to his hall for hearing of a sermon.—John Knox to the Faithful in London

What portion of the work was completed when the Protector was beheaded, January 22, 1552, no research has yet been able to discover. In an account of the duke's expenditure between April 1, 1548, and October 7, 1551, the amount expended on Somerset House is stated as £10,091 : 9 : 2, equal at least to £50,000 of our present money.¹ The name of the architect is unknown. The Clerk of the Works was Robert Lawes, described in a roll of the duke's debts as "late Clerke of the Duke's Woorkes at Strand Place and at Syon."². There is a plot or plan of the house among the drawings of Thorpe, preserved in Sir John Soane's Museum. Of this very interesting old building there are several views; that by Moss is considered the best. One by Knyff is early and curious. The picture at Dulwich (engraved in Wilkinson) represents the river front before Inigo Jones's chapel and alterations destroyed the uniform character of the building. In the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge is a cork model of the facade and back, presented in 1826 by the Rev. E. B. Elliot of Trinity College. After the attainder of the duke, when Somerset House became the property of the Crown, little, if anything, was done to complete the building. The screen prepared for the hall was bought for the church of St. Bride's, where it no doubt remained till destroyed in the Great Fire.³ During a portion at least of Mary's reign it was appropriated to her sister Elizabeth.

[On February 25, 1557] the Lady Elizabeth came riding from her house at Hatfield to London, attended with a great company of lords, and nobles, and gentlemen, unto her place called Somerset Place, beyond Strand Bridge.—MS. Journal, quoted by Strype, Eccl. Mem., vol. iii. p. 444.

In 1566–1567 Queen Elizabeth listened to the promises of an alchemist who undertook to manufacture precious gems and to transmute any metal into gold. His letters were addressed direct to the Queen. Cecil writes in his Diary, February 10, 1567: "Cornelius de la Noye, an alchemist, wrought in Somerset House, and abused many." In 1596 Elizabeth granted the keeping of Somerset House to her kinsman, Lord Hunsdon, during life.⁴ James I. granted Somerset House to his Queen, Anne of Denmark, and in 1616 commanded it to be called Denmark House.⁵

August 14, 1604.—Grant by Queen Anne to John Gerard, Surgeon and Herbalist, of lease of a garden plot adjoining Somerset House, on condition of his supplying her with herbs, flowers, and fruit. With an endorsement of surrender to the Queen of the said plot, 27 June 1611, by Robert Earl of Salisbury to whom it was granted by Gerard.—Cal. State Pap., 1603–10, p. 141.

June 22, 1608.—Grant to Earl of Salisbury of the office of Keeper of Somerset House and Garden during the Queen's life.—Cal. State Pap., 1603–1610, p. 441.

February 8, 1609.—Warrant to pay to William Goodrowse, Sergeant Surgeon £400 for laying out the gardens of Somerset House.—Ibid., p. 490.

Charles I. assigned it to his Queen (Henrietta Maria) in the ninth year of his reign, and caused a chapel to be added to the building, for the free use of the Roman Catholic religion. The chapel was designed by Inigo Jones, and the first stone laid September 14, 1632.¹ It was consecrated with much ceremony at the end of 1635.

January 8, 1636.—This last month the Queen's Chapel in Somerset House Yard was consecrated by her Bishop; the ceremonies lasted three days, massing, preaching, and singing of Litanies, and such a glorious scene built over their altar, the Glory of Heaven, Inigo Jones neer presented a more curious piece in any of the Masques at Whitehall; with this our English ignorant papists are mightily taken.—Garrard to Wentworth (Strafford Letters, vol. i. p. 505).

May 10, 1638.—The Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir William Balfour, beat a priest lately for seeking to convert his wife: he had a suspicion that she resorted a little too much to Denmark House, and staid long abroad, which made him one day send after her. Word being brought him where she was, he goes thither, finds her at her devotions in the Chapel; he beckons her out; finds her accompanied with a priest, who somewhat too saucily reprehended the Lieutenant for disturbing his Lady in her devotions; for which he struck him two or three sound blows with his Battoon, and the next day came and told the King the whole passage: so it passed over.—Garrard to Wentworth (Strafford Letters, vol. ii. p. 165).

A few tombs of her French Roman Catholic attendants are built into the cellars of the present building, immediately beneath the great square. Here, in the Christmas festivities of 1632–1633, Henrietta Maria took a part in a masque (the last in which she played); Here, in 1652, died Inigo Jones, the great architect. Here, in 1658, Oliver Cromwell's body lay in state.

This folly and profusion so far provoked the people that they threw dirt in the night on his escutcheon that was placed over the great gate of Somerset House.—Ludlow, vol. ii. p. 615.

After Cromwell's death it was in contemplation to sell Somerset House. Ludlow, not always a safe authority, says it was sold.

Col. Henry Martin moved at the same time that the Chapel belonging to Somerset House might not be sold, because it was the place of meeting for the French Church, and this request was granted; but the House itself was sold for the sum of ten thousand pounds.—Ludlow, vol. ii. p. 679.

A project was formed to purchase it for the Quakers, but George Fox put his foot upon it:—

1658.—When some forward spirits that came among us would have bought Somerset House, that we might have meetings in it, I forbade them to do so: for I then foresaw the King's coming in again.—George Fox, vol. i. p. 490.

On November 2, 1660, Henrietta Maria resumed her residence in Somerset House, and Cowley and Waller wrote copies of verses on the repairs she had made in her old palace. The former makes the renovated edifice sing its own praises. After speaking of the desolate condition in which she had found it, he continues:

          And now I dare
Ev'n with the proudest palaces compare.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Before my gate a street's broad channel goes,
Which still with waves of crowding people flows.
And every day there passes by my side,
Up to its western reach, the London tide,
The Spring-tides of the term; my front looks down
On all the pride and business of the town.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
My other fair and more majestic face
(Who can the Fair to more advantage place?)
For ever gazes on itself below;
In the best mirror that the world can show.
Cowley, On the Queen's Repairing Somerset House.

Here, in May 1665, on Henrietta Maria's farewell to England, Catharine of Braganza took up her residence, although the formal grant by letters patent was not made by Charles II. till after his mother's death in 1669. Here, in January 1669–1670, the body of Monk, Duke of Albemarle, lay in state. Sir Samuel Tuke, author of Adventures of Five Hours, died in Somerset House, January 26, 1673, and was buried in the chapel. Here, on October 17, 1678, the famous Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, is said to have been murdered, and his body carried hence to the field where it was found near Primrose Hill. Two of the supposed murderers were attendants belonging to the chapel in Somerset House. Charles II. died, February 2, 1685, and on April 8 Evelyn "met the Queen-Dowager going now first from Whitehall to dwell at Somerset House. When she left England for Portugal, in May 1692 (never to return), Somerset House became a nest of lodgings (as Hampton Court at the present day) for some of the nobility and poorer persons about the Court; though it would appear to have been always recognised as part of the jointure of the consort of the sovereign.

They passed that building which of old
Queen Mothers were designed to hold,
At present a mere lodging pen,
A palace turn'd into a den,
To barracks turn'd, and soldiers tread
Where Dowagers have laid their head.
Churchill, The Ghost, B. iv.

Lewis de Duras, Earl of Feversham, who commanded King James's troops at the battle of Sedgemoor, and Lady Arlington, widow of Secretary Bennet, were living here in I708.¹ Mrs. Gunning, the mother of the three celebrated beauties—the Duchess of Argyll and Hamilton, the Countess of Coventry, and Mrs. Travers—held the appointment of housekeeper, and here she died in 1770, and her husband John Gunning in 1767. Here, in the reign of George III., Charlotte Lennox, author of the Female Quixote, had apartments.

Addison (Spectator, No. 77) represents himself as walking "in Somerset Garden a little before our Club time," when he saw Will Honeycomb "squirt away his watch a considerable way into the Thames," thinking it was the pebble he had just picked up from the grand walk.

Buckingham House, in St. James's Park, was settled on Queen Charlotte, in lieu of Somerset House, by an Act passed in 1775, and the old palace of the Protector and of the Queens of England immediately destroyed, to erect the present pile of public offices still distinguished as Somerset House. [See Denmark House; Somerset Stairs.]

---

¹ Stow.
² Foxe, vol. vi. pp. 198, 246.

¹ Letters to Granger, p. 108.
² Account of Thomas Blagrave, Esq., preserved in the Audit Office, Somerset House.
³ Stow, p. 147.
⁴ Burghley's Diary in Murden, p. 811. Norden's Essex, p. 15.
⁵ Stow, by Howes, ed. 1631, p. 1026.

¹ Ellis's Letters, vol. iii. p. 271, 2d S.

¹ Hatton, p. 633.