An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

Al"TOBIOGRAPHY II Golden Square*, of the widow of Archibald Patterson, which was held from George Engleheart at £100. I bought the freehold of this house and we kept on practising there till recently, when my sons moved to o. 13 t, having sold the freehold of No. r6 at a large profit. In 1833 he went into partnership witll John Harris, of Burton Street, but that person turning out a such undesirable partner he dissolved partnership at a heavy loss in 1838. l\Ieanwhile he had married on 2nd April, 1828, at St. J arues', Piccadilly, Maria, eldest daughter of Benjamin Tuppen (see ante), of Brighton, by Elizabeth, daughter of John and Mary Collins, of St. Albans, and by her had a numerous family, viz., Maria Susan Rye, born 1829; Elizabeth Rye, born 1830 ; Edward Caldwell Rye, born 1832, and died in 1885 (all the above baptized at St. James, Westminster); Mary Ann Cubitt Rye, born 1837; Charles Ryt, born 1839, died 1854; Walter Rye, born 1843 (see hereafter); Clara Louisa Rye, born 1846; and Francis Rye, born 1848, died 1884; all the last five being born at Chelsea, and baptized at St. Luke·s Church there. In 1835 he bought a long leasehold house, No. 14, King's Parade, Chelsea (held of the Fielder Estate), from Mary Caldwell, 1 of Fulham Road, widow, for a life annuity * It was an old house panelled throughout, and tradition said it had once beeu the residence of the panish Ambassador, and that it was the house described by Dickells. I remember that Cardinal Wiseman lived opposite, and I was told his windows were broken at the time of the No Papery Riots. There was a great well in the gardens, which had the most beautifully cool water, but it was closed when the cholera scare was about, as Broad Street, Golden Square, was 011e of the greatest ceutres of the disease, and I remember a black flag bangi11g oul of a window there. Popular rumour ascribed the cholera to the disturba1Jce of the plague pit, which was once at the back of Silver Street, Golden Square. I was long one of the trustees of the Square as is at present my son, F. G. Rye, wbo has also built other houses in it. Probably no West End locality has improved more than this in value of late years, chiefly owing to the migration further west of the wholesale woollen merchants from Cloth Fair, Smithfield. t I am afraid we are all reckless as regards the unlucky numbers. Perso11ally I always looked forward to Friday especially when it fell on the 13th of a month, for I used to think it always brought me special luck. 1 I faucy she must have been some relation, for he named his eldest son after her, and Caldwell is a Norfolk name.