Bloomsbury: Southampton Fields

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W. J. Loftie, adding to the incomplete work of Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Bloomsbury with this look at Southampton Fields:

Southampton House, the ancient manor-house, celebrated for the famous lime-trees surrounding it, stood on the ground now occupied by Bedford Place.

Noorthouck describes it as "elegant though low, having but one storey."

It is commonly supposed to have been the work of Inigo Jones.

When the property came into the Bedford family, it was occasionally called Russell House, after their family name.

Maitland says that, when he wrote, one of the Parliamentary forts, two batteries, and a breastwork, remained in the garden.

The house was demolished in 1800, and Russell Square was begun soon after.

A double row of the lime-trees belonging to Bedford House had extended over the site of this Square.

All this ground had previously been known as Southampton Fields, or Long Fields, and was the resort of low classes of the people, who here fought their pitched battles, generally on Sundays.

It was known during the period of Monmouth's Rebellion as the Field of the Forty Footsteps, owing to the tradition that two brothers killed each other here in a duel, while the lady who was the cause of the conflict looked on.

Subsequently no grass grew on the spots where the brothers had planted their feet.

Southey, in his "Commonplace Book," thus narrates his own visit to the spot:

"We sought for near half an hour in vain. We could find no steps at all within a quarter of a mile, no, nor half a mile, of Montague House. We were almost out of hope, when an honest man, who was at work, directed us to the next ground, adjoining to a pond. There we found what we sought, about three-quarters of a mile north of Montague House, and 500 yards east of Tottenham Court Road. The steps are of the size of a large human foot, about three inches deep, and lie nearly from north-east to south-west. We counted only seventy-six; but we were not exact in counting. The place where one or both the brothers are supposed to have fallen is still bare of grass. The labourer also showed us where (the tradition is) the wretched woman sat to see the combat."

Southey adds his full confidence in the tradition of the indestructibility of the steps, even after ploughing up, and of the conclusions to be drawn from the circumstance.

A long-forgotten novel, called "Coming Out; or, The Field of the Forty Footsteps," was founded on this legend, as was also a melodrama.

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