is the "Present State of
England" (1669). He was tutor to the Duke of Grafton, and later to Prince
George of Denmark, and was one of the original members of the Royal
Society.

The Rectory was built by the Marquis of Winchester. It was first used as
a Rectory in 1566. It is picturesque, having been added to from time to
time, and has a large old garden. The list of Rectors includes many
well-known men. Dr. Littleton, author of a Latin dictionary, was
presented to the living in 1669, and held it for twenty-five years. He
was succeeded by Dr. John King, whose manuscript account of Chelsea is
still extant. Reginald Heber, the father of the celebrated Bishop Heber,
came in 1766. Later on the Hon. and Rev. Dr. Wellesley, brother to the
first Duke of Wellington, was Rector from 1805, and still more recently
the Rev. Charles Kingsley, father of the two brothers who have made the
name of Kingsley a household word by the power of their literary talent.

The next turning out of the Embankment after Church Street is Danvers
Street, and an inscribed stone on the corner house tells that it was
begun in 1696. Danvers House, occupied, (some authorities say built,) by
Sir John Danvers in the first half of the seventeenth century, seems,
with its grounds, to have occupied almost the whole space from the King's
Road to the Embankment. Thus Paulton's Square and Danvers Street must
both be partly on its site. The gardens were laid out in the Italian
style, and attracted much notice. Sir John Danvers was knighted by James
I. After he had been left a widower twice and was past middle age, he
began to take an active part in the affairs of his time. He several times
protested against Stuart exactions, and during the Civil War took the
side of the Parliament. He was one of those who signed Charles I.'s
death-warrant. He married a third time at Chelsea, and died there in
April, 1655. His house was demolished in 1696. The house has gained some
additional celebrity from its having been one of the four supposed by
different writers to have been the dwelling of Sir Thomas More. This
idea, however, has been repeatedly shown to be erroneous. More's house
was near Beaufort Street.

The next opening from the Embankment to the King's Road is Beaufort
Street. There is no view of More's house known to be in existence, and,
as stated above, four houses have contended for the honour--Danvers,
Beaufort, Alston, and that once belonging to Sir Reginald Bray.