Montague House

Montague-House, is an extraordinary noble and beautiful Palace situate on the N. side of Great Russel Str. near Bloomsbury, in the Occupation of his Grace the Duke of Montague. It was erected, i.e. the Shell, in the Year 1677. The Building constitutes 3 sides of a Quadrangle, is composed of fine Brick and Stone Rustick-work, the Roof covered with Slate, and there is an Acroteria of 4 Figures in the Front, being the 4 Cardinal Virtues. From the House the Gardens are Nd, where is a Fountain, a noble Tarrass, a Gladiator and several other Statues (for which see Sect. 8.) The Inside is richly furnished and beautifully finished; the Floors of most Rooms finnier'd; there are great variety of noble Paintings, the Stair-case and Cupulo-room particularly curious, being Acrchitecture done in Perspective, &c. and there are many other notable things too numerous to insert here. On the S. side of the Court, opposite to the Mansion-house, is a spacious Piazza adorned with Columns of the Ionick Order, as is the Portal in the middle of a regular and large Frontispiece toward the Str.

Montague House … for Stateliness of Building and curious Gardens, Montague House hath the Pre-eminence, as indeed of all Houses within the Cities of London and Westminster, and the adjacent Parishes.

Montague House, in Great Russel street, a noble building, with a very spacious court yard before it. His Grace the late Duke of Montague having built another house in the Privy Garden at Whitehall, this edifice was let for the use of the King's great wardrobe, and is since purchased by authority of Parliament, to be a repository for the Cotton library, and for the natural and artificial curiosities, medals, coins, printed books, and manuscripts, bought by the public of the executors of the late Sir Hans Sloane, and late Lord Oxford, &c. Stowe's Survey, last edition. See the article British Museum.

Montague House, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, the town house of Ralph Montague, third Baron Montague of Boughton, Master of the Great Wardrobe in the reign of Charles II., and Marquis of Monthermer and Duke of Montague in the reign of Queen Anne. The first Montague House was designed by Robert Hooke, Curator of the Royal Society, in the year 1678. Evelyn went to see it November 5, 1679: "To see Mr. Mountague's new palace neere Bloomsbery, built by our curator, Mr. Hooke, somewhat after the French; it was most nobly furnish'd, and a fine, but too much exposed garden." He went to see it again, October 10, 1683, and commends the labours of Verrio on the ceilings in the highest terms. There were also "some excellent paintings of Holbein and other masters." The whole house was subsequently destroyed by fire (January 19, 1685–1686), while in the occupation of the Earl of Devonshire, to whom Lord Montague had left it, for the sum of 500 guineas by the year. Lady Rachel Russell describes this fire in one of her letters to Dr. Fitzwilliam, dated January 21, 1685–1686. The Countess of Devonshire and her children escaped wrapped in blankets, and lay the remainder of the night at Southampton House.

On Wednesday, at one in the morning, a sad fire happened at Montague House in Bloomsbory, occasioned by the steward's airing some hangings, etc., in expectatioa of my Lord Montague's return home, and sending afterwards a woman to see that the fire pans with charcoal were removed, which she told him she had done, though she never came there. The loss that my Lord Montague has sustained by this accident is estimated at £40,000, besides £6000 in plate; and my Lord Devonshire's loss in pictures, hangings, and other furniture, is very considerable.—Ellis's Letters, 2d S., vol. iv. p. 89.

Pierre Puget or Poughet was sent from France to design the second Montague House, of which there is a view in Wilkinson's Londina. The Duke of Montague died in 1709, and his son, the second and last duke, in 1749. Montague House was purchased by the Government, and the British Museum established in it in 1753. The entire structure was razed to the ground between 1840 and 1849. [See British Museum.] The fields behind Montague House, from 1680 to 1750, were the most frequented place for duels in those times; and a piece of ground at the extreme termination of the north-east end of Upper Montague Street was long familiarly known as "The Field of Forty Footsteps," from forty footprints made, it was said, by two brothers in a duel, in which both were killed, about the time of Monmouth's rebellion. No grass or vegetable matter would grow on the footsteps, which were said to be visible as late as 1800, when the fields were built over.¹

June 16, 1800.—Went into the fields at the back of Montague House, and there saw, for the last time, the forty footsteps; the building materials are there, ready to cover them from the sight of man. I counted more than forty, but they might be the footprints of the workmen.—Joseph Moser (quoted by Dr. Rimbault, Notes and Queries, 1st S., vol. i. p. 217).

"The fact is," says J.T. Smith, the greater part of whose life was spent in the immediate neighbourhood, and who was of too inquisitive a turn to let any such tradition as that of the "Brothers' Steps" escape his attention,—"the fact is, that these steps were so often trodden, that it was impossible for the grass to grow. I have frequently passed over them," he adds, "they were in a field on the site of Mr. Martin's Chapel, or very nearly so, and not on the spot as communicated to Miss Porter, who has written an entertaining novel on the subject."² Robert Hill, the veteran water-colour painter, long resident in the neighbourhood, writes: "I well remember the Brother's Footsteps. They were near a bank that divided two of the fields between Montague House and the New Road, and their situation must have been, if my recollection serves me, what is now Torrington Square."³

Rashlove. Come Sir, You're punctual I find; then let's lose no more time, but take coach, and go behind Montague House.—Injured Love, or the Lady's Satisfaction, 4to, Lintot, 1711.

Whereas I [Rourk Oregan] am informed that you make love to Miss Melinda Goosetrap, this is to let you know that she is under promise of marriage to me; and that I am at this present waiting at the back of Montague House with a pair of good pistols in my hand.—Smollett, Roderick Random.

Having heard that duels were conmionly fought at the back of Montague House, he [Strap] conducted the guard to that place.—Ibid.

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¹ Notes and Queries, No. 14.
² Smith's Book for a Rainy Day, p. 28.
³ R. Hill, MS. Letter.