Excerpt from Illustrated Memorial Volume of the Carlyle's House Purchase Fund Committee: With Catalogue of Carlyle's Books, Manuscripts, Pictures and Furniture Exhibited Therein
On Sunday morning, the 8th of April, 1894, I took boat at Westminster, and landing at Chelsea, made first for the Boehm statue of Carlyle in the Embankment Garden. A little inquiry (to those familiar with the fact that the statue stands just at the southmost end Of the Row, inquiry may seem superfluous) brought me to Cheyne Row. I looked at no. All was dingy and dirty, the windows particularly manifesting those Signs which one usually associates with an empty, neglected house. There was no intimation anywhere as to whether it was for sale, or whether it was to let. The curiosity I felt did not prompt me to hazard an inquiry at the House itself, - why I cannot quite explain. The place repelled me rather than anything else, and seemed the fitting accompaniment of all the malevolent abuse that has been heaped upon Carlyle since his death. To me, whatever its state or circumstances, it was still holy ground but I could. Not bring myself to knock at the door just then and as there was nobody'about the street to whom a question might have been put, I turned away without gleaning any information. I walked back towards the City, through lordly streets, through Hyde Park, and many other places likely to emphasize the discrepancy between the splen dour Of living mediocrity, and the squalid neglect of the modest Old house which had been the abode of greatness.
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