Chapter 9 - The Public and Private Lives of Elite Visitors to the Capital

Summary

The late sixteenth-century surge in the number of elite visitors to London was associated with attendance at court or Parliament, the pursuit of suits through the central law courts and study at the Inns of Court. The number of students enrolled at the Inns of Court rose rapidly, and Parliament, which was meeting more frequently than it had done since the Reformation Parliament of 1529–36, attracted at least a further 1,000 people. Because legal and political business brought an influx of members of the landed elite to the capital there was a social dimension too as individuals renewed their acquaintanceship with family, friends and associates from other parts of the country. Indeed, so many gentlemen were travelling to and staying in the capital, often for months at a time, that the government became alarmed, worrying lest the distractions would lead them to neglect their public duties and forget their responsibility to provide hospitality. Cavendish was no exception to the trend, spending up to two-thirds of the year in the capital. In the three years 1599–1601 he lodged in London for a recorded total of sixty-two weeks and five days. Cavendish, like others, timed his visits to London to coincide with the law terms, so he usually stayed there between May and early July and from October to the Christmas period and perhaps beyond. If he travelled back to Derbyshire for Christmas, he had returned to the capital by the end of January. Cavendish's long stays in London were not unusual, as the example of Lady Margaret Hoby attests. In her diary she records three visits to London from Hackness Hall in the period October 1600 to March 1605, which lasted five months (8 October 1600–18 March 1601), three months (13 March–30 June 1604: her husband alone) and four months (11 November 1604–7 March 1605).

Accommodation in London

The influx of seasonal visitors like Cavendish put pressure on the available stock of suitable lodgings, a demand that the erection of new housing in the West End partly met. Between October 1586 and 1601 Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland, leased a house near Ivy Bridge from Mr Fortescue for a rent that went up from £12 to £15 for a half-year over the course of the fifteen years.