ground was given by the same lord of the manor for the infant school. The Butts and Market Place were originally a waste or common in the manor. In 1664, John Goldsmith, Esq., conveyed the land, consisting of nine and a half acres, to William Parish. The fine trees in the Butts are not the property of the lord of the manor; the great row of elms was planted in 1700 by Richard Merewether, Esq. The Butts take us back to mediæval times, when skill in archery was an essential part in every lad's education. As one might expect, Brentford abounds in hostelries, more than one possessing historic associations. The ancient Red Lion has already been noticed. It stood at the eastern corner of the Market Place, and dated back to the middle of the fifteenth century, occupying, it is supposed, the site of a much earlier inn. In course of time the Red Lion underwent considerable alteration, and but little remained of the old building. The White Horse, also situated in the Market Place, had existed from the time of Elizabeth, as appears by the following extract from the parish burial register :—“George Wood, dwellinge at the sign of the White Horse, in the Market Place, the xxvii day of February, 1603." Most interesting of all perhaps, was The Three Pigeons, called in ancient deeds The Three Doves. It stood at the western corner of the Market Place. Its landlord at one time was the celebrated tragedian, John Lowin, a contemporary of Shakespeare, and one of the original actors in his plays. Lowin died here at a great age. The house had over twenty apartments, connected by a projecting gallery at the back, and communicating by several staircases to the attics, with innumerable dark closets and passages. Tradition has it that the immortal bard himself occasionally frequented its hospitable roof, and it is an authenticated fact that many of his companions were visitors here. More than one of the early dramatists make allusion to the house. Ben

Johnson says, "We'll tickle it at the Pigeons"; and it was the scene of some of the "Merry Jests" of George Poole. The Three Pigeons was demolished a few years ago. The Castle Inn, situated to the eastward, is another ancient building. "Tumbledown Dick," to quote the Advertiser, "is fine moral on the instability of greatness, and the consequences of ambition." Mr. Walford supposes it to have been a sign set up in derision of Richard Cromwell, allusion to his "tumble-down" being very common in the satires after the Restoration. The same authority believes the Wagon and Horses, near the Kew Bridge, to be on the site of a certain "Inn that goes down to the waterside", where Samuel Pepys tells us he was entertained, having first attended Brentford church, "where a dull sermon and many Londoners" (Aug. 20, 1665). On the staircase of an ancient house in the Butts is the print of a horse's hoof, said to have been made one night by Charles II, who in a frolic attempted to ride his steed up the stairs.

Brentford and the neighbourhood are supplied by the Grand Junction Waterworks, besides which 12,000,000 gallons of water are daily propelled to the main reservoir at Paddington. The canal joins the Thames at this point. The tower of the Waterworks is a notable object for miles round. In Brentford are many important works. It has large gas-works, breweries and malt-works, the Great Western Railway docks, a huge soap manufactory, a pottery, besides several large timber-yards and saw-mills. Its workhouse has already been noticed; in connection with this is an infirmary, a really fine building, admirably adapted for its purpose.

The Middlesex elections were transferred from Hampstead Heath, where formerly they were held, to Brentford

1

1 Advertiser, No. 9, 1752.

2 Greater London, p. 35.

3 Greater London, p. 36.

in 1701, and "it is impossible for any but those who have witnessed a Middlesex election to conceive the picture it exhibited; it was a continued scene of riot, disorder, and tumult," writes a correspondent in the Annual Register for 1802. Lyson tells us that the remembrance of the famous contests of 1768 and 1769, when party feeling ran so high in favour of the popular candidates, was still kept up in his day by the signs of Wilkes' Head and No. 45. It is scarcely necessary to say that all this is changed. For Parliamentary purposes Ealing, with Chiswick and Acton, constitute the Ealing Division, for which Lord George Hamilton is the present member.

Before closing this fragmentary sketch of the interesting old town, mention must be made of a great event in its history, viz., the arrival of the Queen with H.R.H. Prince Albert on their wedding day, on which memorable occasion everything that loyalty could suggest was done to welcome in fitting manner the Royal bride and her husband.

CHAPTER X.

Gunnersbury or Ancient Gonyldesburg.

Early History.-Valuation of Gonyldesburg at the time of Alice Perrer's Banishment.-Some Owners.-Norden's Description.-Serjeant Maynard. The Princess Amelia.-Horace Walpole's Account of an Evening Spent at Gunnersbury.-Later Purchasers.-Description of Mansion previous to Sale and Pulling Down.-Gunnersbury House.--Gardens.-Its Present Owner.-A Historic Painting.

UNNERSBURY, the Gonyldesburg, Gonyldesberry, or Gunyldesburg of the ancient records, is without doubt the most interesting of the several manors lying within the parish of Ealing. Lysons, whose care

ful researches have largely contributed to this history, says :—“ That it is not improbable that it was the residence of Gunyld or Gunilda, niece to King Canute, who was banished from England in the year 1030.” It was held

1 "Anno MXXIX Canutus rex Anglorum, Danorum, et Norreganorum ad Angliam rediit, et post festivitatem sancti Martini Danicum Comitem Hacun, qui nobilem matronam Gunildam, sororis suæ et Wyregeorni regis Winidorum filiam, in matrimonium habuit quasi legationis causa in exilium misit. Timebat enim ab illo vel vita privari vel regno expelli" (1029).

"Anno мXXX prædictus comes Hacun in mari periit Guidam tamen dicunt. Eum fuisse occisum in Orcada insula."

"Podem anno nobilis matrona Gunilda regis Wortgerni et sororis Canuti regis filia et comitum Hacun et post Haroldi morte viduata cum duobus filiis Hemmungo et Turkillo expellitur Anglia. Quæ Flandriam

under the Bishop of London, though in modern times the manorial rights fell largely into disuse. In the reign of Edward III, John Bray held the manor for life under a grant of John Chepham,' who in 1365 gave the reversion to Geoffry Schrop, and his heirs. In the forty-seventh year of the same king's reign, William Gresle, clerk, and others, granted the manor of Gonyldsberry, which had formerly belonged to John de Northwych, goldsmith, of London, to John Barnes, and others, as trustees, perhaps for the celebrated Alice Perrers or Pierce, whose property it appears to have been at the time of her banishment, when it was seized by the Crown. In the year 1378, a survey was taken by order of the Crown, when the jury returned the following account of the state of this manor, viz. :—

2

"The jury say that the aforesaid Alice holdeth the manor of Gonyldesberg with the appurtenances, in the parish of Yellyne, in the county of Middlesex, of the aforesaid Bishop of London, in his Court of Fulham aforesaid, by fealty and suit of court as above, and the service of thirtysix shillings and eight-pence to be rendered at the four principal and usual terms of the year. They also say, that there is there a certain site of the aforesaid manor, with closes and other buildings, and that it

devecta, in loco qui Brige diciter aliquand in resedit et sic Danemarchiam adiit."-See Simon Dunelm, Inter Des Scriptores, col. 182.

"In the year mxxix Canute, King of the Angles, Danes, and Norwegians, returned to Anglia, and after the feast of St. Martin banished, on the pretext of sending him on an embassy, the Danish count Hacun, who was married to Gunilda, a lady of noble rank, the daughter of his sister and of Vortigern, king of the Winidi. He did this from dread of being either put to death or driven from his throne by Hacun.

"In the year mxxx Count Hacun perished at sea, some nevertheless say that he was killed in . . . . island.

"In the same year the noble lady Gunilda, daughter of King Vortigern, and of King Canute's sister, having become a widow through the deaths of the Counts Hacun and Harold was expelled from Anglia with her two sons, Hemmungo and Turkillus. She was conveyed to Flanders, and after residing for a time at a place called Bruges, eventually reached Denmark."

1 Abstract of Close Rolls, 38 Ed. III.

2 "Item dicunt quod prædicta Alicia tenet manerium de Gunnyldesberg cum pertinentiis in Parochia de Yellyne in comitatu," etc., etc.

T