Queens Square
1770
“I have now changed my abode, and quitted dear Poland Street for ever. How well satisfied shall I be if after having lived as long in Queen Square, I can look back to equally happy days!
We have a charming house here. It is situated at the upper end of the square, and has a delightful prospect of Hamstead and Hygate, we have more than room for our family, large as it is, and all the rooms are well fitted up, convenient, and handsome….”
Fanny wrote this in her Journal on Nov 16 1770
In a plan of London by J. Gibson 1767, Queen Square has only two parallel blocks of houses, and is unfinished on the other, shorter, sides. The Burney house, number 39 was at the end of the block on the south eastern side. In 1849 Cunningham is writing “There are now at least 2 square miles of brick and mortar between it [Queen Square] and the view.” (Handbook for London, ii. p. 686.)
Painting by Thomas Jones looking towards Queen Square from the north
Painting by Thomas Dawes 1786 looking towards Hampstead. Church of St George the Martyr on left. Burney’s house would be on the right beyond the picture.
Fanny’s Sources of Inspiration
Romances by the Burney Sisters
Fanny was always deeply interested in her sisters’ romances and of course they provided material for her future novels. During the final years at Poland Street Fanny had been occupied with Hetty’s love affairs, the constant devotion of their cousin Charles and the less devoted attentions of Mr Seton from Mrs Pringle’s next door. Having left Poland Street to get away from the unacceptable association with their neighbour, Mrs Pringle the introducer of Mr Seton, Fanny found herself engrossed in a new family romance equally absorbing for her. This was the romance between Maria Allen (step-sister) and Martin Folkes Rishton a young man from Lynn. Mr. Rishton’s uncle by marriage Sir Richard Bettenson and Sir William Browne MD another Rishton relative both lived in Queen Square and were visited by Mr Rishton. Sir Richard treated Mr Rishton as his heir and he sent him to travel for two years – maybe to keep him out of the way of Maria. But Maria thwarted this plan and went to Europe herself meeting up with Mr Rishton and eloping with him to Ypres where they married in 1772.
Maria was a very lively letter writer and she kept Fanny up to date confidentially with the state of play with Mr Rishton including the secret marriage. In 1771 Maria writes from Lynn Regis:
“Dear Toads, I have kept an exact Journal ever since I have been out – which is all addressed to the Two Divinities of Queen Square…I am at present as happy as I can be deprived of Two of the greatest Blessings in life your company and the heart of [Rishton] tho’ I am not quite certain of the latter…To rouse your Curiosity, I have seen him – and danced Next Couple to him a whole Evening…”
While Maria was in Europe many and frequent letters passed between her and Fanny, all which had to be burned immediately after being read by Fanny. However there is in one tantalising fragment from Maria which she ends with
“I will finish this with transcribing a paragraph in his second letter: ‘You tell me the remembrance of the first letter you sent me…has embitter’d many hours of your Life and Cost you many tears. – I grant you – such a step might have disagreeable Reflections – But pray, what reason had you for such Uneasiness? Did my Character ever give you room to Imagine I should expose you because you Loved me?…I defy the world to bring an Instance of my behaving unworthy the Character of a Gentleman…your letter was immediately destroyed.’”
So Maria must have been writing to him declaring her love which would certainly not have been acceptable conduct for a young lady at the time. (Remember Marianne in Jane Austen’s novel, Sense and Sensibility.) Maria said to Fanny
“you know my heart has never once ceased to Beat in his favour even when I thought him most unworthy – you will not wonder that left to myself – my whole soul pleading for him that I perhaps too easily fargave him – but indeed I was so happy at his return…”If ever I am his wife I will inform Hetty (Fanny’s elder sister now married to cousin Charles) of what has past – but wish at present she may be kept in ignorance.”
On Thursday, May 21 1772, Fanny writes:
“Miss Allen, – for the last time I shall so call her, – came home on Monday last.” Her novel is not yet over; nevertheless, she was married last Saturday! Good Heaven! What a romantic life has this beloved friend lived! I dare not commit particulars to paper…
Though not committing it to paper here, she used the dramatic situation in her novels, particularly Evelina.
Maria, now Mrs Rishton, concealed the marriage for a couple of weeks, going about with her mother as Miss Allen and then went down to enlist the help of their close family friend “Daddy” Crisp to whom she confessed all. Maria writes to Fanny
“He has wrote to Mama to tell her the whole affair and insists upon my going back to Queen Square Mrs Rishton and writing immediately to Martin (the new husband who hadn’t dared set foot on English soil) to come…in short I fear there will be a terrible bustle – Write me a word how Mama takes it – and in what manner.”
Unhappily, many pages of Fanny’s Journal of these years have been torn out and destroyed so we are not able to enjoy all the details of this explosive romance. “Mama” certainly wasn’t pleased, and would not receive them in Queen Square so they went to Norfolk. “Mama” eventually gave way though without much grace and according to Maria “ she spoke her mind giving Mr Rishton an account of every vice, fault, or foible I had ever been guilty of since my birth”.
A few months later Fanny writes that Mr and Mrs Rishton are in town.
“Yesterday they made me spend the day with them, to accompany them to Covent Garden Theatre…Mrs Bettenson and Sir Richard Bettenson, uncle and aunt of Mr Rishton, are to make our party at the play. The baronet has a fortune of 5000 per annum, and Mr Rishton is his presumptive heir. Though not a declared one, he is the nearest relation. They live in our Square, and we went to take them up early, as the Prelude was to be done…”
However, 10 years later, “Mama” was proved right and Maria ran away from the “Bashaw” as she had started calling Mr Rishton pretty soon after their marriage. He was apparently too overbearing and controlling. What valuable material this was for the novel writer.
Dr Burney’s Travels
Dr Burney was away in Europe gathering the stories for his book, returning in 1771. His travels served as a source of observation and interest and imagination for her books.
May 8th 1771
““We stayed very late, to avoid the crowd. When we went down, we got with difficulty to our Coach; but after the usual perils and dangers, we were driven out of the Haymarket, and into Suffolk Street. Here we concluded we were safe, – but as we afterwards found, there had been left a load of Gravel in the street, which the shade (being moonlight) hid from the Coachman. We found ourselves suddenly mounting on one side – Mama, who is soon alarmed, cried out ‘We are going! We are going!’ I sat quite quiet, thinking it a false alarm: but presently the Coach was entirely overturned and we came side ways on the Ground. Stupefied between surprise and fright, I fell without moving a finger, and laid quite silent…”
Hackney Carriage
“My father’s book, on ‘The present state of Music’ (in France and Italy) made its appearance in the world on the 3rd of this month, and we flatter ourselves it will be favourably received…” and then “We had a great deal of company last Sunday. Mrs Sheeles ( who ran the nearby school where Charles had taught music) and Mr and Mrs Mailing, her son and daughter, dined and spent the evening with us…After dinner Sir Thomas Clarges…and Mr Price…called and sat about two hours. The latter is lately returned from his travels and was eager to compare notes with my father….after tea, we were cheered indeed; for rap-tap-tap and entered Mr and Mrs Garrick with their two nieces…Dr King, who has just taken the doctor’s degree, came in…Dr Bever, [a very civil, heavy-headed man of the Law] who had listened with attentive admiration to every word Mr Garrick spoke….”
Another entry is “Many of my father’s Italian friends have been here lately.” Of a well-known Italian writer called Signor Martinelli she says “He is an admirable storyteller, if he could forbear making himself the hero of all his tales…”
Sir William Hamilton (later married to Emma) visited them in Queen Square and suggested to Dr Burney that he should make a second musical tour accompanying Sir William to Germany. Burney could not accept immediately but he formed plans to visit Germany and the Netherlands. He set off on July 6 1772. He wrote of dreadful travelling conditions, was horrified by the general poverty of the common people and the luxurious establishments of the aristocracy, and after many adventures he returned to England in November. But so exhausted was he at the end of his travels that when the ship reached Dover, he could not be roused, and he woke to find himself half way back to Calais.
Queen Square was quite some distance from the centre of London where many of these friends and guests lived. Without telephone or the internet a visit could not be announced unless a servant was sent on ahead so the Burneys would be “cheered” by the unexpected arrival of the Garricks.
For the Burneys’ many visits to the theatre or other events, a coach was used. On one memorable occasion the coach bringing Fanny, her sister Susanna and step-mother home from a Saturday evening performance at the King’s Opera House in Haymarket overturned. Fanny describes the alarm in her Journal of February 13 1773:
February 13 1773
July 1774
James Burney’s Voyage on ‘The Adventurer’
Brother James’( Jem) was 2nd lieutenant on “The Adventure” one of the boats going with Captain Cook on his second voyage (1772-1774) looking for the Great Southern Continent. The ships were the first known to have crossed the Antarctic Circle. His homecoming was recorded by Fanny in July 1774. Her description was cut short, but what they found were the partial remains of Rowe and his crew, who had been massacred and eaten by the Maoris.
“My brother is returned; – in Health, spirits and Credit. He has made what he calls a very fine Voyage; – but it must have been very dangerous: indeed he has had several personal dangers – and in these Voyages of hazard and Enterprise, so I imagine, must every Individual of the ship. Captain Cooke was parted from in bad weather accidentally – in the passage from the Society Isles to New Zealand, in the second and so fatal Visit which they made to that Barbarous Country, where they lost 10 men in the most inhuman manner. My brother, unfortunately for himself, was the witness and Informer of that horrid massacre.
Mr. Rowe, the acting Lieutenant, a midshipman, and 8 men, were sent from the ship, in a Boat to shore, to get some vegetables. The whole ship’s company had Lived so long upon good terms with the New Zealanders, that there was no suspicion of treachery or ill usage. They were ordered to return at 3 o’clock; but upon their failure, Capt. Furneaux sent a Launch with Jem to command it, in search of them. They landed at 2 places without seeing any thing of them – they went among the people and bought fish – and Jem says he imagined they were gone further up the Country…At the 3rd place – it is almost too terrible to mention – they found”
My Trip to Queens Square
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37-39 home of the Burney family
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6 Queen Square now occupied by the Art Workers’ Guild.
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Church of St George the Martyr – directly opposite to Mrs Sheele’s school.
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Walking along the east side of the Square from the spot where the Burney’s house was behind the black railings.
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Formerly Mrs Sheeles’ school
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North end of the Square
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Queens Square is the heart of neurosurgery in London
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Queen’s Larder where Queen Charlotte stored food for King George III.
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Looking south from the National Hospital towards the Burney home
Mrs Sheeles’ school on the left and the Burneys house just beyond the red letter box.
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Maybe Sir Richard Bettenson or Sir William Browne lived in these houses
Fanny describes a visit from Sir William “He has been a very renowned physician; whether for saving or killing, I cannot say.”
It is still attractive with park and trees in the square but it is not the “unobstructed views of the hills ever verdant and smiling” described by Fanny.
These days Queen Square is synonymous with neurology. Almost all of one side of the Square is taken over by the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (formerly the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital). The Institute of Neurology, is located in the north east corner of the square. The north side which was open in Fanny’s day is now built up with one large building used as the administrative centre for the National Hospital and Institute of Neurology. Several buildings on the west side of the Square are occupied by organisations involved in medical research.
No. 31, the building on the corner of Queen Square and Great Ormond Street signed the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital was the oldest of Ladies’ Charity Schools established in 1702, for “educating, clothing, and maintaining the daughters of respectable parents in reduced and necessitous circumstances.” Mrs Sheeles ran the school and Dr Burney taught music there. It was about 20 yards further along the east side of the Square from the Burney’s home at no. 39 so Mrs Sheeles was a frequent visitor.
It is said that the girls at Mrs Sheeles’ school would go in a carriage around the Square to church at St. George the Martyr as it was regarded as good training for them in getting in and out of a carriage.