Description
Old print photograph out of a book which was dated 1894.
The page is over 100 years old and in good condition.
In order to enhance and protect the page we have set in within a brown frame and mount. Also available in either a gold frame or a black frame, your choice.
Frame size circa 400mm x 370mm. BB.165.
Entitled – Barn Elms
Below the picture an inscription reads:
Barn Elms, in the eastern portion of the village of Barnes, Surrey, is now occupied by the Ranelagh Club.
Here Queen Elizabeth, who loved to take her pleasure by the river-side, would come, with her whole court, to be entertained by her trusted servant, Sir Francis Walsingham.
He died (1590) so poor, mainly in consequence of Her Majesty’s frequent visits, that he was buried privately.
The place is associated with other entertainments, for here lived Heidegger, “Master of the Revels” to George II. – he made a fortune in that capacity.
But Barn Elms is chiefly famous in history as the home of one of the most renowned clubs that has ever existed in England.
In a cottge adjoining the mansion lived Jacob Tonson, the bookseller; and it was here that he built a room for the reception of the members of the Kit-Cat Club, of which he was secretary, and adorned its walls with portraits painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller – these pictures are reverently preserved by Mr. W. Baker in his house at Hertingfordbury.
The club was called after Christopher Kat, the landlord of the house.
Sir Richard Phillips describes his dismay at the ruined condition of this sacred building in the year 1816.
One of the parlous had been turned into a wash-house, and dense cobwebs hung over the door which led to the once superb staircase.
He ascended the rotten steps and found there the old Kit-Cat room.
The beautiful mouldings and ornaments were falling to pieces from dry-rot; but he could see on the faded cloth hangings the marks of the pictures, and even the names, written in chalk for the guidance of the hanger, were still legible.
He read the names aloud – Addison and Steele, Congreve, South and Dryden – “I invoked their departed spirits; and was appalled by the echo of my own voice.”
If you buy an item and then see it relisted this is because we occasionally have more than one available, each page is original and not a photocopy.
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