CHELSEA 25 



and a half acres in the pleasant riverside 

 village of Chelsea. In 1673 tnev obtained a 

 lease of it from Charles Cheyne, afterwards 

 Lord Cheyne, for an annual rent of 5. 



Chelsea at that time was a country manor. 

 It had its cornfields, pasture, common land, 

 and its village by the water. It was bounded 

 on three sides by rivers two of them small 

 streams. But even small rivers make efficient 

 boundaries landmarks no neighbours can 

 remove. 



The largest the Westbourne formerly 

 flowed by Westbourne Terrace into Hyde Park, 

 spread out into the Serpentine, dipped under 

 Knight's Bridge by Albert Gate, appeared again 

 at William Street, passed down by Lowndes 

 Square and Cadogan Place, parallel with Sloane 

 Street, into the Thames at Chelsea Bridge. 

 Trees grew on both its banks, especially about 

 Sloane Square. 



As late as 1809, though growing smaller 

 from the gradual draining of the land which 

 supplied it, it was able to overflow its banks, 

 flooding houses and converting lower Chelsea 

 into a great lake ; so that those who wished to 

 go from Chelsea to Pimlico had to cross over 

 in boats. Faulkner, the invaluable historian of 

 Chelsea, saw the flood, and describes it as an 

 " awful visitation " as no doubt it was. 



The Westbourne to-day passes harmlessly 

 underground, imprisoned in a huge iron tube, 

 which can be seen over the heads of passengers 

 waiting for trains at Sloane Square station, 

 and so on to the Thames near the grounds of 

 Chelsea Hospital. 



