d also poor little
Lady Jane Grey at the age of eleven. The history of the Manor House, of
course, coincides with the history of the manor, which has been given at
length elsewhere. Lysons, writing in 1795, states that the building was
pulled down "many years ago." It was built in 1536, and thus was probably
in existence about 250 years. More than a century after, some time prior
to 1663, James, Duke of Hamilton, had built a house adjoining the Manor
House on the western side. The palace of the Bishops of Winchester at
Southwark had become dilapidated, and the Bishop of that time, George
Morley, purchased Hamilton's new house for L4,250 to be the episcopal
residence. From that time until the investment of Bishop Tomline, 1820,
eight Bishops lived in the house successively. Of these, Bishop Hoadley,
one of the best-known names among them, was the sixth. He was born in
1676, the son of a master of Norwich Grammar School. He was a Fellow of
Catherine's Hall at Cambridge, and wrote several political works which
brought him into notice. He passed successively through the sees of
Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He was succeeded by the Hon.
Brownlow North, to whom Faulkner dedicated his first edition of
"Chelsea." Lady Tomline, the wife of the Bishop of that name, took a
dislike to the house at Chelsea and refused to live there. The great hall
was forty feet long by twenty wide, and the three drawing-rooms extended
the whole length of the south front. The front stood rather further back
than the Manor House, not on a line with it. The palace stood just where
Oakley Street now opens into Cheyne Walk. The houses standing on the
sites of these palaces are mostly modern. No. 1 has a fine doorway which
came from an old house at the other end of the row. In the next Mr.
Beerbohm Tree and his wife lived for a short time after their marriage.

No. 4 has had a series of notable inmates. William Dyce, R.A., was the
occupant in 1846, and later on Daniel Maclise, R.A. Then came George
Eliot, with Mr. Cross, intending to stay in Chelsea for the winter, but
three weeks after she caught cold and died in this house. Local
historians have mentioned a strange shoot which ran from the top to the
bottom of this house; this has disappeared, but on the front-staircase
still remain some fresco paintings executed by Sir J. Thornhill, and
altered by Maclise. In 1792 a retired jeweller named Neild came to No. 5.
The condition of prisoners i