precise 'local habitation' in Fulham, I ventured, purely from motives
of respect for the memory of the past, and not from any affectation
of romance, to revive an ancient parochial name which had been
suffered to die out, 'like the snuff of a candle.' In changing its
precise situation, in transferring it from one side of Parson's Green
Lane to the other, a distance, however, not fifty yards from the
original site, I trust when called upon to show cause for the
transfer, to be reasonably supported by the history of the old oak
staircase. Indeed I may here venture to assert that the change of
name from 'Brunswick Cottage,'--so was 'Rosamond's Bower' called when
I took it,--and the assumption of that name, if contrasted with the
name changing and name travelling fashion of the district, is a
proceeding in which I am fully borne out by numerous precedents.

"Miss Edgeworth, in her reply, dated 31st January, 1840, to the
letter of a juvenile correspondent (then nine years of age) inquires,
'Is Rosamond's Bower a real name?' And I well remember the gestures
and even some of the jests which the omnibus passengers made when
'Rosamond's Bower' was first painted upon the stone caps of the gate
piers, such as Father Prout's '_Rosy_-man's Bower near the _White_
Sheaf' (Wheatsheaf). But the novelty wore off in a week or two, and
the name has long since ceased to be an object of speculation to any
but the inquisitive. For their information I may state, that in the
time of Elizabeth all the gardeners' cottages in this neighbourhood
were called bowers. It was the Saxon term for a room, and,
therefore, applied to the dwelling occupied by the labouring class.
And Rosamond, or Rosaman, is said to have been the name of a family
of gardeners bestowed upon the district which they had long
cultivated--possibly a sobriquet derived from the fame of their roses
in times when that flower was a badge of party distinction. . . . It
only remains for me to add, that 'Rosamond's Bower' stands 22 feet
back from the high road, and has a small garden or court before it,
measuring, exclusive of the stable-yard, 63 feet. The garden behind
the house is of that form called a gore, gradually narrowing from 63
to 22 feet, in a distance of 550 feet or 183 yards--five turns up and
down which 'long walk' may be reckoned, b