Forum Topic

Authors who lived in the Brentford Area and Brentford appearing in literature

I’ve started to search for which authors have lived in the Brentford area and also which books Brentford appears in. So far I have found the following. Does anybody know of any others?George Manville Fenn  (1831–1909)Syon Lodge, London Road, IselworthHe was a prolific writer of boys’ adventure stories.George Manville Fenn's books online http://www.athelstane.co.uk/gmanfenn/index.htmElizabeth Helme, (~ 1750 -1812)Her husband William Helme took up the position of schoolmaster in Brentford, where he became well known for his teaching. He was also a published writer. He published largely educational works Elizabeth too began working at the Brentford school and later became headmistress.• Louisa; or the Cottage on the Moor (1787) • The Farmer of Inglewood Forest (1796) • Albert, or The Wilds of Strathnavern (1799) • St Margaret's Cave (1801) • St Clair of the Isles (1803) • The Pilgrim of the Cross, or Chronicles of Christabelle de Mowbray (1805) • Columbus; or, The discovery of America, as related by a father to his child (translated from the German original by Campe) (1811) • Magdalen, or The Penitent of Godstow'' (1812) • Modern Times (1814) (published posthumously) Gladys Mitchell (1901 -1983)www.gladysmitchell.com/Gillian Clegg in ‘Brentford Past’ says: “Galdys Mitchell was educated at the Rothschild school in Brentford High Street and later taught History, English, Spanish and athletics at St Paul’s School. As a child she lived in Windmill Road and later York Road. In 1938 she was sharing a house with her friend Winifred Blazey at 18 Swyncombe Avenue. M itche wrote over 50 novels, most of them featuring her eccentric detective Mrs Bradley. ‘The Rising Moon’ is about a killer who runs amok on the streets of Brentford.”Philip Larkin considered THE RISING OF THE MOON to be Gladys Mitchell's best novel. The sleepy Thames-side town of Brentford is evoked memorably, and seen as a place of adventure and mystery, with murder acting as a dangerous game in the fairy-tale world that is life as seen through the eyes of the two boy heroes at the centre of the book: Simon and Keith Innes.In addition to her 66 Mrs. Bradley novels Mitchell also used the pseudonyms of Stephen Hockaby (for a series of historical novels) and Malcolm Torrie (for a series of detective stories featuring an architect named Timothy Herring) and wrote ten children's books under her own namea BBC television series, based to a degree on the The Mrs Bradley Mysteries (starring Diana Rigg) was produced in 1999.Robert Rankin (1949 -)He lived on the corner of Albany Road. Rankin refers to his style as 'Far Fetched Fiction'.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_RankinPercy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822)Went to school  in Brentford, at he entered the Sion House Academy  (now demolished and the Royal Mail sorting office, Londo Road is there) 1802-04

Duncan Walker ● 6645d52 Comments

I finally got around to buying, a secondhand copy from Amazon, and reading ‘The King of Brentford’ by Robert Henrey after both Neil Chippendale and Janet McNamara recommended it. The author ‘Robert Henrey’ was actually Madeleine Henrey, a French woman who married Robert Henrey in 1928. It's about her father in-law who was the vicar of St. Georges Church and lived in the vicarage opposite on the riverside. The vicarage was where the current Watermans Centre is and was demolished in 1931 to make way for the expansion of the gas works.It gives a strong feel for the rich history of a Brentford ‘..between factory and river, slum and palace, dirty high street and green meadow.’ I enjoyed the book.I found this Obituary of the author…..From http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1206409,00.htmlMadeleine Henrey (Mrs Robert Henrey), writer, born August 13 1906; died April 25 2004 French writer who endeared herself to Britain John WhaleFriday April 30, 2004The Guardian Madeleine Henrey, who has died in Normandy aged 97, owed her mid-century success as a writer to the fact that she was a French woman writing in English for English readers. Both her ways of thought and her turns of phrase, like her accent in speaking English, were recognisably and piquantly French. Her main vein was autobiography. Her most widely read book, The Little Madeleine (1951), began the story of her journey from a poor childhood in Paris to an adventurous existence in prewar and wartime London, and then to a writer's life in Normandy. Fourteen further volumes carried on the tale. The sequence showed her as the woman of courage and resource that she was. It was a story worth telling. She was born Madeleine Gal in Clichy, on the industrial northern edge of Paris. Her father had been a miner and a first world war poilu. After his death, when she was in her teens, she migrated with her seamstress mother to London, where she finished her formal education at a convent in Tooting. Living with her mother in Soho, she found work at a French newsagent, in a city silk merchant's office, then as a manicurist at the Savoy Hotel. One of her clients there was Robert Henrey, a tall Etonian who had left Magdalen College, Oxford, without a degree to become a journalist. In 1928 they married; their admiring affection for each other lasted till his death in 1982. At the outset, he took in hand her English reading; she helped him with his gossip-writing. A small, stylish figure, she went with him to places like the Embassy Club, where she could watch George V's four sons on the dance floor. She did a little interviewing herself. A sudden source of material was the house her husband bought in the Normandy countryside behind Villers-sur-mer. There, the Henreys kept hens and grew cider apples. But within three years, in 1940, northern France had been invaded by the Germans; her first book, A Farm In Normandy (1941), in the lid-off- a-small-town genre, was published by Dent when the Henreys were back in London. They returned to the Normandy house for good in 1964. Between 1941 and 1979 she published more than 30 books: works of retrospection, contemporary history, observation. Two of them - A Film Star In Belgrave Square (1948) and A Journey To Vienna (1950) - were about her chaperoning her son, Bobby, in his work as a child actor on Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol and another film. Among the other books, one of the tenderest in tone was Green Leaves (1976): it was a reminiscence of her mother-in-law, the devout, wealthy and philanthropic wife of a west London parson. The nom de plume that she settled for, Mrs Robert Henrey, was neither a nod to gentility nor a disclaimer of feminism. It was an acknowledgement that, as between wife and husband, authorship was not to be disentangled. Early work appeared sometimes without the Mrs. The material was mostly hers; the editorial, sometimes originating, hand was his. In her long widowhood in the Normandy house, her two passions were reading and gardening. Though her frame was fragile, her intellect, still quick to see the general in the particular, remained sharp. She kept her wits, and a few hens, till the end. It was a fall near the henhouse that led to a quiet death in hospital eight days later. She is survived by her son.

Duncan Walker ● 6466d

Take it from me Helen, if delving into Brentford's history, you'll be out of it for more than a single weekend!See if you can get a copy of Canham's '2000 years of Brentford' - and that's just scratching the surface!

Nigel Moore ● 6469d

""As the chief town of Middlesex (hooray!) Brentford is frequently mentioned in Latin records as the capital of England"" !!!So says Kelly's Directory for Brentford and Chiswick (1938) in its lengthy introduction. Amazing eh?

Jim Lawes ● 6469d

Nigel, I just copied and pasted a very small extract from one of the pages, I read most of the different extracts and didn't realize how much history there is in Brentford. So this weekend will be head down in the computer having a good old read.

Helen Fogarth ● 6469d

Just checking Helen, - was that courtesans or courtiers? How much more interesting if the former!

Nigel Moore ● 6469d

Just Googled Breguntford very interesting reading thank you.The name of the river 'Brent' comes from 'Brigantia' - meaning holy, or high, water. Hence 'Breguntford' - where the King of Wessex & his courtesans met with the East Saxons in AD705, due to it's close location to the borders of both Kingdoms. King Offa held a council here - 'Bregentforda' - in AD780 with all his cronies; in AD781 the local Synod helped settle a minor squabble between Offa & the Bishop of Worcester.

Helen Fogarth ● 6469d

Have just discovered that the earliest extant letter written in England has Brentford as its subject!

Nigel Moore ● 6469d

OK, it's not Brentford as such, but it IS "MR Brentford" ie Lord of the Manor Colonel James Clitheroe. A song written in his honour a few short years after opening of the canal.(Warning to the sensitive - this is not particularly "PC") -

Nigel Moore ● 6571d

Male Expectation and Female Alliance in Dekker and Webster’s Westward Ho’ (in Frye and Robertson, eds., Maids and Mistresses, Cousins and Queens: Women’s Alliances in Early Modern England, pp. 7O-84). Although this is partly about the co-operation of the merchants’ wives, and their more temporary alliance with the bawd, in the context of emerging ideas of female collective action, it also finds space to give a lot of interesting information on ‘sinfull’ Brentford’s seventeenth-century reputation as a place of pleasure and freedom (p. 83). Again, there is a concern with economic vocabulary, and the way that Brentford and London are described as competing marketplaces.

Nigel Moore ● 6576d

At least I think thats the title. Chris Dawes I think is the Author. Lots of references to Brentford, the Griffin Pub and surrounds.

Luke Kirton ● 6585d

Rankin has also made me see other dimensions outside the Brentford triangle. In one book he writes about the Wandering Jew in Chiswick High Road, who explains he has been wandering for so long he was bound to pass through the High Road sometime. I've been on the look out for his return trip. And whenever I seek a car with blacked out windows I try to peer in to see if it is Jack Palance being driven from the BSI building (IBM in the Trology).And the other Ed often seems to pop up out of nowhere.

Malcolm Peltu ● 6589d

William Whitehead 1715-1785[VARIETY - A TALE FOR MARRIED PEOPLE poem]"….Now nearer town, and all agog,They know dear London by its fog.Bridges they cross, through lanes they wind,Leave Hounslow's dangerous heath behind,Through Brentford win a passage freeBy roaring, 'Wilkes and Liberty!'"John Wilkes is the radical MP for Middlesex, who was a friend of John Horne (Tooke) the minister of St Lawrence's Brentford, himself a radical who was a leader in 'The Bill of Rights Society'. I bet their public meetings in Brentford would have been interesting.

Duncan Walker ● 6592d

This reference in Dickens, we have mentioned before:‘Hard Times’ novelBook 1 Sowing, Chapter 3 A Loophole“The same Signor Jupe was to 'enliven the varied performances at frequent intervals with his chaste Shaksperean quips and retorts.' Lastly, he was to wind them up by appearing in his favourite character of Mr. William Button, of Tooley Street, in 'the highly novel and laughable hippo- comedietta of The Tailor's Journey to Brentford.' “An interesting fact is that Philip Astley created what is considered the first circus in England in 1768. He also created the first circus clown act called Billy Buttons, or the Tailor’s Ride To Brentford. The topical act was based on a popular tale of a tailor, an inept equestrian, trying to ride a horse to Brentford to vote in an election. Astley impersonated the tailor attempting to ride the horse. First he had tremendous difficulty mounting correctly, and then when he finally succeeded the horse started off so fast that he fell off. As the circus grew and Astley hired other clowns, he required them to learn Billy Buttons. It soon became a traditional part of every circus for 100 years. Variations of the routine with somebody coming out of the audience to attempt to ride a horse are still being performed in modern circuses.Maybe we should perform the act again in the High Street once a year? Who will play Billy?

Duncan Walker ● 6592d

Not very nice Keith!

Nigel Moore ● 6592d

Brentford nuked.?Causing nearly a tenners worth of damage..!

Keith Iddon ● 6592d

Well spotted Luke! Another one I obviously read too long ago for the name to register.On a cheerier note, one of Rankin’s novels had Brentford hosting the Olympics! In that one, whenever I read of O’Malley’s councillor girlfriend, Ruth kept cropping to mind, though she’ll hardly thank me for that I suppose. Depends on which characteristics you take as prompting the comparison.

Nigel Moore ● 6592d

In the book The Rats by James Herbert Brentford gets a mention as a nuclear bomb lands on it :0(

Luke Kirton ● 6592d

Very funny Nigel, a visit by disciples. I like their parting statement "Our advice - leave Brentford to the Brentonians. It is their priviledge and curse, and theirs alone". It seems to chime with Malcolm's unsettled observation, "entering Brentford can seem like entering another dimension".

Duncan Walker ● 6592d

Have you seen the website essay of a tour of Rankin's Brentford? http://totl.net/Brentford/

Nigel Moore ● 6592d

Robert Rankin's booklet on the Brentford Griffin, written when he was Writer in Resident at the Waterman's, is a good read. It's also getting very hard to find.

Neil Chippendale ● 6592d

Sorry I missed Duncan's mention - didn't scroll down far enough before moving on. Anyway, Rankin is worth another post. One of the 'trology' is the Brentford Trilogy, a collection of the first three. And once you have a trilogy of more than three, who's counting.Rankin ran a wonderful poetry group at the Watermans when it opened, which is when I first learnt about him and his writing. I know Chiswick better than Brentford, and particularly like the way he captures my feeling that sometimes entering Brentford can seem like entering another dimension.

Malcolm Peltu ● 6592d

I have to disagree with Gillian. The Ferry Quays site of that Inn was in effect the opposite side of town from St Lawrences. Bear in mind that Pepys arrived that first time from the west, St Lawrences would have been the first (& most ancient and important) ecclesiastical establishment, while the first inns would have been the 3 Pigeons on his left and the Boar's Head on his right, with the Magpie figuring in there close by. Boar's Head yard was the single most important and certainly largest of the access ways to the river from the High St then. It seems logical that that would have been Pepys' stopping off and departure point, Workhouse Dock (as it came to be known some 50 years later), being a major wharf at the time.

Nigel Moore ● 6593d

Pepys mentions that his waterman got infected with the plague at Brentford. From the account on website 'Ealing and Brentford: Growth of Brentford, A History of the County of Middlesex’ , it seems to have been fairly bad in Brentford:“….In 1664 there were 136 houses at New Brentford, most of them small: 73 had 2 hearths or less, of which 29 were not chargeable for hearth tax, 19 had 3 hearths, 15 had 4, 9 had 5, and 7 had 6 hearths. The 6 with 10 or more hearths included the manor house, at least one inn, and an unoccupied house. (fn. 12) New Brentford was hard hit by the plague in 1665, when 103 burials took place….”In a previous topic on this site called ‘Deadmens graves’ Jim Lawes said there was a burial pit at Carville Hall Park.

Duncan Walker ● 6593d

Gillian Clegg in her book ‘Brentford Past’ believes the inn mentioned by Pepys would be The Grapes, at the Brentford ferry on Ferry Lane, (which later, became The Bunch of Grapes and then The Ferry Hotel). I suppose the church, Pepys said he went to, would be St Lawrence’s Church. It took him 2-3 hours by boat from Brentford to Queenhithe (Southark Bridge). I don't know whether that's a good rowing pace. Brentford certainly was a hub in those days, from horse and carriage to river transport, together with its fine orchards and many inns, it attracted many. Wonderful.

Duncan Walker ● 6593d

Duncan mentioned him in the very first post. The Trilogy is up to 8 volumes according to the website, I haven't read the last two. Still left of Rankin's Brentford is the Butts, Waterman's Institute (demolished in one of the novels), pubs, the boat wrecks around Lot's Ait, the Library - and the allotments of course.

Nigel Moore ● 6593d

I haven't seen any mention of Robert Rankin's Brentford Trilogy (Antipope, Brentford Triangle, East of Eailing) plus a fourth part of the 'trilogy'(Sprouts of Wrath). Hilarious, if you like the humour, but interesting about life in Brentford even if you don't. See:http://www.sproutlore.com/books/rankinbooks.php

Malcolm Peltu ● 6593d

Samuel Pepys of diary fame, frequented Brentford. Extracts from his diary:20th August 1665…… “I did presently eat a bit off the spit about 10 o'clock, and so took horse for Stanes, and thence to Brainford to Mr. Povy's, the weather being very pleasant to ride in. Mr. Povy not being at home I lost my labour, only eat and drank there with his lady, and told my bad newes, and hear the plague is round about them there. So away to Brainford; and there at the inn that goes down to the water- side, I 'light and paid off my post-horses, and so slipped on my shoes, and laid my things by, the tide not serving, and to church, where a dull sermon, and many Londoners. After church to my inn, and eat and drank, and so about seven o'clock by water, and got between nine and ten to Queenhive, very dark. And I could not get my waterman to go elsewhere for fear of the plague.7th September 1665 Up by 5 of the clock, mighty full of fear of an ague, but was obliged to go, and so by water, wrapping myself up warm, to the Tower, …….. Thence to Brainford, reading "The Villaine," a pretty good play, all the way. There a coach of Mr. Povy's stood ready for me, and he at his house ready to come in, and so we together merrily to Swakely, Sir R. Viner's………… and a most pleasant journey we had back, Povy and I, ………. He showed me my Lord Arlington's house that he was born in, in a towne called Harlington: and so carried me through a most pleasant country to Brainford, and there put me into my boat, and good night. So I wrapt myself warm, and by water got to Woolwich about one in the morning, my wife and all in bed. His reluctant waterman proved prescient:September 14, 1665…….. “; and that one of my own watermen, that carried me daily, fell sick as soon as he had landed me on Friday moring last, when I had been all night upon the water (and I believe he did get his infection that day at brainford), and is now dead of the plague.”

Nigel Moore ● 6593d

Another of Jonson's references, suggesting a prostitute and he disport themselves at the infamous 3 Pigeons:"We will turn our course,To Brainford, Westward, if thou sayst the word....My bird o' the night. We'll tickle at the Pigeons."

Nigel Moore ● 6593d

Neil,Your book:Battle of Brentford, 1642: Hounslow Area in the Civil War (Battles of the English Civil War), by Neil ChippendaleOctober 1991ISBN: 0-946525-90-062 pages (A5)£6.99is available at Partizan Press www.caliverbooks.comI've just ordered a copy, so check your royalties, and don't go wild!

Duncan Walker ● 6594d

Must try to find a copy of that!Following on from Neil’s reference to the Civil War, (and I do have a copy of your excellent little booklet Neil), the (presumably Royalist) soldiers were referred to as ‘saints’ in one song:'Collonel Vennes Encouragement to his Souldiers'The text of this ballad is drawn from the collection 'Rump Songs' which was published in London in 1662.“At Keinton, Brainford, Plymouth, York, and divers Places more,What Victories we Saints obtain, the like nere seen before.”

Nigel Moore ● 6594d

This is published with his "Personal Study"

Neil Chippendale ● 6595d

Brentford appears in many books on the English Civil War due to the battle on 12th November 1642.Also a great booklet on the battle was available, don't know if it still is, by a certain person who posts on this site.

Neil Chippendale ● 6595d

Thanks Duncan, fascinating stuff!

Nigel Moore ● 6595d

I tried putting an HTML tag in for a link to this page but must have got it wrong. Anyway here is the page URL.http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/journal/issues/v40n3/34544/34544.web.pdf

Duncan Walker ● 6595d

Nigel,George Peele’s death by pox is referred to in a few places, but I found the article below, which not only says:“Shakespeare’s fellow writers Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, and George Peele all died young, apparently from syphilis acquired in the London brothels.”but goes on to suggest that Shakespeare had it too.The article is: Shakespeare’s Chancre: Did the Bard Have Syphilis?

Duncan Walker ● 6595d

Read so long ago, at a time when I'd never heard of Brentford, that mention had never registered! Thanks.Ben Jonson (contemporary of Shakespeare):To Mime.That, not a pair of Friends each other see,  But the first Question is, When one saw thee?That there's no Journy set, or thought upon,  To Braynford, Hackney, Bow, but thou mak'st one;That scarce the Town designeth any Feast  To which thou'rt not a Week, bespoke a Guest;That still thou'rt made the Suppers Flag, the Drum,  The very Call, to make all others come:

Nigel Moore ● 6595d

Aldous Huxley mentions Brentford a few times in 'Brave New World'. He was right in anticipating that there would be lots of TV related media based here but a bit of in saying that we would have a monorail!Text below....'At Brentford the Television Corporation's factory was like a small town. "They must be changing the shift," said Lenina. Like aphides and ants, the leaf-green Gamma girls, the black Semi-Morons swarmed round the entrances, or stood in queues to take their places in the monorail tram-cars. Mulberry-coloured Beta-Minuses came and went among the crowd. The roof of the main building was alive with the alighting and departure of helicopters. '

Dan Evans ● 6595d

Died of the pox? That would come as no surprise. Where did you find that info?Another fragment of his, mentioning Brentford:The Iests of George and the Barber."Nay good sir, quoth the Barber, go with me now: for I Purpose, God willing, to be at Brainford to night.  ……..  . Alas, quoth the Barber, sir I am no Keeper, I am quite vndone: I am a Barber dwelling at Brainford, and with weeping teares vp and told him how George had vsed him. The seruant goes in and tels his Master: which when he heard, he could not but laugh at the first: yet in pitty of the poore Barber, he gaue him twenty shillings towards his losse. The Barber sighing tooke it, and towards Brainford home he goes, and whereas he came from thence in a new Cloake and a faire Hat, he went home weeping in an old Hat, and greene Jerkin."

Nigel Moore ● 6598d

Great find Nigel.George Peele sounds like a real character and I would have thought fitted into a Brentford inn well! The Three Pigeons was certainly a lively place, let’s resurrect it for the new High Street development, together with its theatrical reputation.I wondered about the phrase ‘Sack and Sugar’ and found out that the favoured wine of the Elizabethans was strong, sweet, white wine: muscadine, malmsey, and sack [sherry]--and they even added sugar to these already sweet wines. (One of the drunkard’s Falstaff's nicknames was "Sir John Sack-and-sugar.")Apparently, George Peele died of the pox.

Duncan Walker ● 6598d

Of seemingly eponymous authorship, George Peele (1556-1596),  published a book of his (largely criminal & unpleasant) practical jokes. An excerpt:The Iests of G E O R G E  P E E L E, with foure of his Companions at Brainford.George, with others of his Associates, being merry together at the Tauerne, hauing more store of Coine than usually they did possesse, although they were as regardlesse of their siluer, as a garden whore is of her honesty, yet they intended for a season to become good husbands, if they knew how to be sparing of that their pockets were then funisht withall: Five pounds they had amongst them, and a plot must be cast how they might be merry with extraordinary cheare three or foure dayes, and keepe their five pounds whole in stocke: George Peele was the man must doe it, or none, ………. . Instantly they tooke a paire of Oares, whose armes were to make a false gallop no further than Brainford, where their fare was paid them so liberally, that each of them the next tide to London, purchased two new waistcoats, …………. I speake not this of all, but of some that are brought vp in the East, some in the West, some in the North; but most part in the South: but for the rest they are honest compleat men, leauing them to come to my honest George, who is now merry at the three Pigeons in Brainford, with Sack and Sugar, not any wine wanting, the Musicians playing, my host drinking, my hostis dancing with the worshipfull Justice, for so then he was termed, ……… they are at London, George in his chamber at Brainford, accompanied with none but one Anthony Nit a Barber, who din'd and supt with him continually, of whom he had borrowed a Lute to passe away the melancholy afternoone, of which he could play as well as Bankes his horse. …………. my Hostis she was in te market buying of prouision for supper: mine Host he was at Tables, and my two masterlesse men desired the maids to excuse them if their Master came, for, quoth they, we will goe drinke two pots with my Smug Smiths wife at old Brainford. I warrant you, quoth the Maids. So away went my men to the Smiths at old Brainford, from thence to London; where they all met, and sold the Horse and the Mare, the Gowne and the Lute, which mony was as badly spent, as it was lewdly got. How my Host and my Hostis lookt when they saw the euent of this, goe but to the three Pigeons at Brainford, you shall know.”

Nigel Moore ● 6598d

Good to see you back here Neil.Another diarist who pre-dated Pepys was less impressed with Brentford. Too many good times were being had obviously!John Dee, diarist in the 16th Century:Diary, May 21, 1590 "I showed by indignation against Bacchus feast at Braynford intended, making a complaint about it to the Bishop of London who took it very cordially”Still, he put a daughter to school there later:…”on May 21 (15--?) "my dowghter was put to Mistress Brayce at Braynford [Brentford], hir mother and Arthur went with her after dynner."Not sure what that says about him as a father.Any takers for organising a renewed Bacchus feast in Brentford? Purely in the interests of historical roots of course.

Nigel Moore ● 6600d

One author that seems to have been missed is Mrs Robert Henrey. She wrote the Excellent "King of Brentford".It's about her father in-law who was the vicar of St. Georges. Great descriptions of the town.

Neil Chippendale ● 6601d

Ben Johnson frequented the 3 Pidgeons. This is an excerpt from one of his writings in which Brentford appears:To Mime.That, not a pair of Friends each other see,  But the first Question is, When one saw thee?That there's no Journy set, or thought upon,  To Braynford, Hackney, Bow, but thou mak'st one;That scarce the Town designeth any Feast  To which thou'rt not a Week, bespoke a Guest;That still thou'rt made the Suppers Flag, the Drum,  The very Call, to make all others come:

Nigel Moore ● 6601d

That was indeed the round. The sound itself was what I'd posted previously, here again:

Nigel Moore ● 6640d

George Peele‘Merrie Conceited Jests of George Peele – The Jests of George Peele with Four of His Companions at Brainford’ (1620)www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/peele1.html“…my honest George, who is now merry at the three Pigeons in Brainford, with Sack and Sugar, not any wine wanting, the Musicians playing, my host drinking, my hostis dancing with the worshipfull Justice, for so then he was termed, and his mansion house in Kent, who came thither of purpose to be merry with  his men, because he could not so conueniently neare home, by reason of a shrewish wife he had.”

Duncan Walker ● 6640d

That’s a good one Linda. I’ve just found that Janet McNamara, has described Cecil Robert’s book ‘And to Bath’ on the marvelous ‘Brentford High Street’ website.  http://www.bhsproject.co.uk/history.shtml#1“Cecil Roberts' Views on Brentford (1939)In 1939 when Cecil Roberts travelled the High Street on his journey exploring what was left of the great coaching route to Bath he described having to make a decision at Chiswick Roundabout. Should he take the road to the right he described as industrial America transplanted on to the perimeter of London or to the left through Brentford, which he described as hideously disfigured by its gasometers.He decided to follow the old route but said that the entrance to Brentford was like the gate of Hell with the gas works and the coal yards already there for stoking the punishing fires! Kew across the river he described as the Garden of Eden.He repeated the stories of George II likening the road to his muddy native Hanover. Of George II and Queen Caroline tipping out of their coach into the mud and of a journey to Brentford made by Prince George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne, early in the 18th century. The Court Circular apparently recorded that ‘His Highness made no stop during the journey except when overturned or stuck in the mud.’He also makes conjectures about the likelihood of Shakespeare visiting the town to visit an old member of his company who became the landlord at the Three Pigeons in the Market Place and of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s school days at Syon Park Academy.In 1939, when he was writing the house where this was conducted was very dilapidated and contained the offices of a transport company. There was a gazebo on the garden wall overlooking the road which he suggests would have originally been a perfect vantage point to watch the fashionable, well to do travellers on their way to Bath and the guests of the Duke of Northumberland at Syon House. He points out that a previous house on the site had played host to the Indian Princess Pocahontas. It is now the site of the Royal Mail Sorting Office.”I'll keep a look out for the book.

Duncan Walker ● 6640d

Nigel, I couldn’t find your posting on the Brentford song, but I think it was this the round – ‘Goe no more to Brainford’ by Ravenscroft.http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/ravenscroft/pammelia/pam_13small.htmlGillian of Brentford certainly was a character and according to this note in the Thomas Nash play which I found on http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10467/10467-8.txt “[Note 20] [The tract here referred to is Robert Copland's poem, called "Jyl of Breyntford's Testament. (1515)" See Hazlitt's "Handbook," p. 122.] Julian of Brentford, or, as she is here called, Gyllian of Braynford, seems to have been an old woman who had the reputation of possessing supernatural power. In Henslowe's MSS., a play by Thomas Downton and Samuel Ridley, called "Friar Fox and Gillian of Brentford," is mentioned under date of February 1598-9, but it was acted, as appears by the same authority, as early as 5th January 1592. She is noticed in "Westward Hoe!" 1607, whereClare says: "O Master Linstock, 'tis no walking will serve my turn: have me to bed, good, sweet Mistress Honeysuckle. I doubt that _old hag Gillian of Braineford_ has bewitched me." Sig. G 4.”

Duncan Walker ● 6640d

Cecil Roberts 1940 book  And so to Bath (published by Hodder & Stoughton London)  charts a journey by road from Kensington to Bath.In chapter 5 Caeser In Brentford we learn that At Kew, on the right bank of the river, man created a garden of Eden, at Brentford on the left he created Hell. The two miles of brick misery that comprised Brentford made a joke for wits and dramatistsBrentford, tedious town,for dirty streets, and white legged chickens knownwrote Gayand lots moreChapter 6 Syon, a Ducal House  is also good valuewell worth trying to get a copy

Linda Irene Butler ● 6640d

Well researched Duncan, a couple of new ones to me in that lot.Have you heard the Brentford round from  the 1609 songbook  that I posted under Brian's "Promote what we already have" thread?As to Gillian of Brentford, I have an earlier reference to her, obviously a source of considerable inspiration! She appears in Thomas Nashe's 1600 publication, "Summers last will and testament". He refers to her in his preamble:"What can be made of Summers last will& Testament? Such another thing as Gyllian of Braynford'swill, where she bequeathed a score of farts among'sther friends."A lady of some humour evidently!

Nigel Moore ● 6642d

You're right Nigel, there are lots of references to Brentford (Brainford, Branford, and in the 16th and 17th century a lot for the famous inn, The Three Pigeons, which was located on the south-west corner of the market place, where the tile shop is now. Below are some more references I've found:Three Pigeons InnBrentford in the 16th and 17th centuries was a favourite resort of Londoners and its Three Pigeons Inn, (closed in 1916), which was kept for a time by John Lowin, one of the first actors of Shakespeare’s plays, is frequently alluded to by dramatists of the period. According to James Halliwell (biographer of Shakespeare), Shakespeare made notes in the Three Pigeons of local life for The Merry Wives of Windsor,Samuel Butler‘Hudibras’ verse (1660)A satire of the Cromwellians, illustrated by William Hogarth.http://bulfinch.englishatheist.org/hud/HudibrasIndex.htmlPart II Canto3 line 995“And though you overcame the bear,                              The dogs beat you at Brentford fair;Where sturdy butchers broke your noddle,And handled you like a fop-doodle.”Thomas Dekker and John Webster‘Westward Ho’ (1607)“I doubt that old hag Gillian of Brainford has bewitched me.”Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton‘The Roaring Girl’ (1611)http://www.tech.org/~cleary/roar.htmlAct II scene iiiMany mentions in this scene including, “MISTRESS GALLIPOT: And that in sinful Brainford they would commit”Charles Dickens  ‘Our Mutual Friend’  novel (1864-5) Old Betty Higden, lived in Brentford where she cared for foster children.“At length, tidings were received by the Reverend Frank of a charming orphan to be found at Brentford. One of the deceased parents (late his parishioners) had a poor widowed grandmother in that agreeable town, and she, Mrs Betty Higden, had carried off the orphan with maternal care, but could not afford to keep him.”“The abode of Mrs Betty Higden was not easy to find, lying in such complicated back settlements of muddy Brentford that they left their equipage at the sign of the Three Magpies, and went in search of it on foot. After many inquiries and defeats, there was pointed out to them in a lane, a very small cottage residence, with a board across the open doorway,…”‘Hard Times’ novelBook 1 Sowing, Chapter 3 A Loophole“The same Signor Jupe was to 'enliven the varied performances at frequent intervals with his chaste Shaksperean quips and retorts.' Lastly, he was to wind them up by appearing in his favourite character of Mr. William Button, of Tooley Street, in 'the highly novel and laughable hippo- comedietta of The Tailor's Journey to Brentford.' “‘The Uncommercial Traveller’ novelChapter 10 Shy Neighbours“But, the family I have been best acquainted with, since the removal from this trying sphere of a Chinese circle at Brentford, reside in the densest part of Bethnal-green.”‘Oliver Twist’ novelChapter 21“As they passed the different mile-stones, Oliver wondered, more and more, where his companion meant to take him. Kensington, Hammersmith, Chiswick, Kew Bridge, Brentford, were all passed; and yet they went on as steadily as if they had only just begun their journey. At length, they came to a public-house called the Coach and Horses; a little way beyond which, another road appeared to run off. And here, the cart stopped.Sikes dismounted with great precipitation, holding Oliver by the hand all the while; and lifting him down directly, bestowed a furious look upon him, and rapped the side-pocket with his fist, in a significant manner.”‘Great Expectations’ novelChapter 42“"I might a-took warning by Arthur, but I didn't; and I won't pretend I was partick'ler - for where 'ud be the good on it, dear boy and comrade? So I begun wi' Compeyson, and a poor tool I was in his hands. Arthur lived at the top of Compeyson's house (over nigh Brentford it was), and Compeyson kept a careful account agen him for board and lodging, in case he should ever get better to work it out.”Oliver Goldsmith ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ play, 1773http://teaching.shu.ac.uk/ds/sle/altered/selections/scene/stoops.htmHastings and Marlow turn up at the Three Pigeons Alehouse. Tony Lumpkin, inheritor to an estate, is there with his goodfellows, drinking away his estate.Ben Jonson (1572–1637).  ‘The Alchemist’ playhttp://www.levity.com/alchemy/jn-alch0.htmlAct V Scene IV“Subtle: Soon at night, my Dolly,When we are shipp'd, and all our goods aboard,Eastward for Ratcliff; we will turn our courseTo Brainford, westward, if thou sayst the word,And take our leaves of this o'er-weening rascal,This peremptory Face.”“Subtle: My fine flitter-mouse,My bird o’ the night! We’ll tickle it at the Pigeons,When we have all, and may unlock the trunks,..”(Pigeons is the Three Pigeons Inn at Brentford.)Shakespeare, ‘Merry Wives of Windsor’ playFalstaff is disguised as the ‘Fat Woman of Brentford’ http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/The_Merry_Wives_of_Windsor/14.htmlAct 4, scene 2“MISTRESS FORD     My maid's aunt, the fat woman of Brentford, has a     gown above………..”

Duncan Walker ● 6642d

Within 100yards of mine, but actually right on the Johnson's Island/MSO boatyards. The description however leaves me confused. Some poetic licence I suspect. Marvellous to have found this though, must try for a copy myself!As to Brentford IN literature, - Shakespeare, Ben Johnson and others all brought it into their work. Haven't time now to find where I began collecting such stuff, but there's a lot of it out there.

Nigel Moore ● 6645d

I've just bought one of Gladys Mitchell's books 'The Rising of the Moon'(pub 1945). Her books are freely available in paperback.Its a novel about a Ripper running amok on the streets of Brentford. There are lots of descriptions in it of places in Brentford such as:"We crossed one of the mouths of our little river, as it ran beside the canal which had been cut from it, by means of narrow lock gates which were not used for boats but only to regulate the water. The we had to cross two bridges. Once across these we ran up a narrow path between the two basins where there was a village of disused hoppers and barges, and came past the little public house called the Brewery Tap and into Catherine Wheel yard. This alley led up to the High Street and very shortly we were on our way up the Half Acre to mr Taylor's field."This is near where Nigel Moore has his boatyard.

Duncan Walker ● 6645d