80
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
a large beam of wood, which has embedded itself in the growing bough for some
distance. The remains of the old Grotto were noticed, which was a domed
chamber, richly adorned, in the taste of the last century, with crystals, corals,
pebbles, stalactites, shells, etc., and with some very pretty stained glass windows.
It was not in the highest art, but was still a very interesting relic of byegone
manners and costly amusements, and all must regret its destruction by fire in
November, 1884.
The party then returned to the village (noticing the quaint inscription on the
wall of the "George Inn," "In memory of ye Cherry Pye, as cost 1/2 a Guinea
ye 17th July"), where, by the kind permission of Mr. J. R. Pascoe, a short visit
was paid to the beautiful grounds of "The Grove." The original house was
built by Sir Francis Dashwood about 1690. It was afterwards bought by
Humphrey Bowles, whose daughter, Rebecca, was married in 1766 to Sir John
Rushout, who was made Baron Northwich in 1797. George Bowles, who inherited
the estate, greatly beautified the grounds, and was an ardent collector of the
pictures of Angelica Kaufmann, R.A. ; and in his time and for many years after,
we find that the dining and drawing-rooms and library contained about ninety
pictures, of which forty-five were the works of the fair Angelica. Amongst them
were Lady Rushout (afterwards Lady Northwick) and her daughter Anne, Lord
Northwick), her own portrait, and "Venus attired by the Graces," etc. The
latter and that of Lady Rushout and child, are now in the collection of Mr. Arthur
Kimber. There were also some beautiful enamels by H. Bone, R.A., one of which
"Bacchus and Ariadne," after Titian, measuring 18 by 16 inches, cost £2,310.
The elder Mr. Bowles was one of Hogarth's early patrons, but none of his pictures
appear in the catalogue of the Grove pictures. The present house was built after
George Bowles's death by his niece, the Hon. Anne Rushout, who resided here
till her death in 1849—after which the collection and house were sold, and the
right wing pulled down. The views from the grounds over the valley are very
charming. A drawing of the Pavilion and Lake were published in 1827, in a
scarce poetical volume, entitled "Rambles in Waltham Forest." Among other
houses in the village indicated by Mr. Crouch, as worthy of note, was "Stone
Hall," with its fine carved mantel and pannelled ceiling, of early Jacobean or
Elizabethan work.
A great friend of Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. James Pound, was appointed rector of
Wanstead in 1707. He was a distinguished astronomer and naturalist of the time,
and papers on "Jupiter's Satellites," "Eclipses of the Moon," etc., from his pen
may be found in the "Philosophical Transactions." His collections of natural
history were given to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Dr. Pound's observatory
at Wanstead was furnished with a transit instrument before Greenwich possessed
one, and in 1717 the May-pole in the Strand was bought by Sir Isaac Newton,
from the parishioners, and presented by him to Dr. Pound, who put it up in the
park to support a telescope 125 feet long—the largest instrument then known.
Here also was constantly found his pupil and nephew, James Bradley, who acted
some time as his curate, who in 1721 was elected Sabilian Professor of Astronomy
at Oxford, and who made so many important discoveries relating to the velocity
and aberration of light. Dr. Bradley erected here a zenith sector of twelve feet
radius, which is still at the Greenwich Observatory, whither he removed it on his
appointment as Astronomer Royal, to succeed the famous Halley. The States-
man, George Canning, was at one time a resident in Wanstead, and in the quiet
of that rural village the famous "Begum Speech" was composed by Sheridan