Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol I
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Paternoster Row.
Paternoster Row.
[extra_illustrations.1.274.3] that crowded defile north of the Cathedral, lying between the old GreyFriars and the Blackfriars, was once entirely ecclesiastical in its character, and, according to Stow, was so called from the stationers and text-writers who dwelt there and sold religious and educational books, alphabets, paternosters, aves, creeds, and graces. It then became famous for its spurriers, and afterwards for eminent mercers, silkmen, and lacemen; so that the coaches of the often blocked up the whole street. After the fire these trades mostly removed to , , and , Covent Garden. In (says Strype) there were stationers and booksellers who came here in Queen Anne's reign from , and a good many tire-women, who sold commodes, top-knots, and other dressings for the female head. By degrees, however, learning ousted vanity, chattering died into studious silence, and the despots of literature ruled supreme. Many a groan has gone up from authors in this gloomy thoroughfare. | |
only, and that the most ancient, of the book-firms, will our space permit us to chronicle. The house of Longman is part and parcel of the Row. The Longman, born in Bristol in , was the son of a soap and sugar merchant. Apprenticed in London, he purchased () the business of Mr. Taylor, the publisher of for , and his venture was the works of Boyle. This patriarch died in , and was succeeded by a nephew, Thomas Longman, who ventured much trade in America and He was | |
275 | succeeded by his son, Mr. T. L. Longman, a plain man of the old citizen style, who took as partner Mr. Owen Rees, a Bristol bookseller, a man of industry and acumen. |
Before the close of the eighteenth century the house of Longman and Rees had become of the largest in the City, both as publishers and book-merchants. When there was talk of an additional paper-duty, the ministers consulted, according to West, the new firm, and on their protest desisted; a reverse course, according to the same authority, would have checked operations on the part of that firm alone of . Before the opening of the century they had become possessed of some new and valuable copyrights-notably, the of Lindley Murray, of New York. This was in . | |
The proved a valuable acquisition. Wordsworth came to them, then Coleridge, and lastly Southey. In the Longmans commenced the issue of Rees' reconstructed from the old Chambers', and about the same time the , edited by Aikin, which for the years of its existence Southey and Taylor of Norwich mainly supported. The catalogue of the firm for is divided into no less than classes. Among their books we note Paley's Sharon Turner's Adolphus's Pinkerton's Fosbrooke's Cowper's Gifford's Sotheby's and novels and romances not a few. At this time Mr. Longman used to have Saturday evening receptions in . | |
Sir Walter Scott's and were published by Longmans. by Tom Moore, was published by them, and they gave for it. | |
In Mr. Brown, who had entered the house as an apprentice in , and was the son of an old servant, became partner. Then came in Mr. Orme, a faithful clerk of the house--for the house required several heads, the old book trade alone being an important department. In , when Constable of Edinburgh came down in the commercial crash, and brought poor Sir Walter Scott to the ground with him, the Longman firm succeeded to the , which is still their property. Mr. Green became a partner in , and in Mr. Roberts was admitted. In the firm ventured on Lardner's contributed to by Scott, [extra_illustrations.1.275.1] , Mackintosh, & c., and which ended in with the rd volume. In Mr. Thomas Longman became a partner. | |
Thomas Norton Longman, says a writer in the , resided for many years at Mount Grove, Hampstead, where he entertained many wits and scholars. He died there in , leaving personally. In Mr. William Longman entered the firm as a partner. became the style of the great publishing house, the founder of which commenced business years ago, at the house which became afterwards No. , . | |
In , a year before Goldsmith's death, Dr. Kenrick, a vulgar satirist of the day, wrote an anonymous letter in an evening paper called , sneering at the poet's vanity, and calling a flimsy poem, denying the genius, fancy, or fire, and calling the merest pantomime. Goldsmith's Irish blood fired at an allusion to Miss Horneck and his supposed rejection by her. Supposing Evans, of , to be the editor of the , Goldsmith resolved to chastise him. Evans, a brutal fellow, who turned his son out in the streets and separated from his wife because she took her son's part, denied all knowledge of the matter. As he turned his back to look for the libel, Goldsmith struck him sharply across the shoulders. Evans, a sturdy, hot Welshman, returned the blow with interest, and in the scuffle a lamp overhead was broken and covered the combatants with fish-oil. Dr. Kenrick then stepped from an adjoining room, interposed between the combatants, and sent poor Goldsmith home, bruised and disfigured, in a coach. Evans subsequently indicted Goldsmith for the assault, but the affair was compromised by Goldsmith paying towards a Welsh charity. The friend who accompanied Goldsmith to this chivalrous but unsuccessful attack is said to have been Captain Horneck, but it seems more probable that it was Captain Higgins, an Irish friend mentioned in | |
Near the site of the present Dolly's Chop House stood the an ordinary kept by Shakespeare's friend and fellow actor, Richard Tarleton, the low comedian of Queen Elizabeth's reign. It was this humorous, ugly actor who no doubt suggested to the great manager many of his jesters, fools, and simpletons, and we know that the tag songs--such as that at the end , --were expressly written for Tarleton, and were danced by that comedian to the tune | |
276 | of a pipe and a tabor which he himself played. The part which Tarleton had to play as host and wit is well shown in his |
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A modern antiquary has with great care culled from the and other sources a sketch of the sort of company that might be met with at such an ordinary. It was the custom for men of fashion in the reign of Elizabeth and James to pace in till dinner-time, and after the ordinary again till the hour when the theatres opened. The author of says :
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The where Tarleton has so often talked of Shakespeare and his wit, perished in the Great Fire; but was afterwards rebuilt, and, here gave their performances, no doubt aided by many of the Choir. Part of the old premises were subsequently (says Mr. Timbs) the Oxford Bible Warehouse, destroyed by fire in , and since rebuilt. which stood near the derived its name from [extra_illustrations.1.278.1] . an old cook of the establishment, whose portrait Gainsborough painted. Bonnell Thornton mentions the beefsteaks and gill ale at The coffee-room, with its projecting fire-places, is as old as Queen Anne. The head of that queen is painted on a window at and the entrance in Queen's Head Passage is christened from this painting. | |
The old taverns of London are to be found in the strangest nooks and corners, hiding away behind shops, or secreting themselves up alleys. Unlike the Paris , which delights in the free sunshine of the boulevard, and displays its harmless revellers to the passers-by, the London tavern aims at cosiness, quiet, and privacy. It partitions and curtains-off its guests as if they were conspirators and the wine they drank was forbidden by the law. Of such taverns the is a good example. . | |
The at the corner of Chapter House Court, was in the last century famous for its punch, its pamphlets, and its newspapers. As lawyers and authors frequented the taverns, so booksellers haunted the Bonnell Thornton, in the an., , says:--
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In Chatterton, in of those apparently hopeful letters he wrote home while in reality his proud heart was breaking, says :-- He desires a friend to send him whatever he has published, to be left at the So, again, writing from the King's Bench, he says a gentleman whom he met at the had promised to introduce him as a travelling tutor to the young Duke of Northumberland;
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Perhaps that very day Chatterton came, half starved, and listened with eager ears to great authors talking. Oliver Goldsmith dined, lthere, with Lloyd, that reckless friend of still more reckless Churchill, and some Grub Street cronies, and had to pay. for the lot, Lloyd having quite forgotten the important fact that he was moneyless. Goldsmith's favourite seat at the became a seat of honour, and was pointed out to visitors. Leather tokens of the coffee-house are still in existence. | |
Mrs. Gaskell has sketched the in , with its low heavy-beamed ceilings, wainscoted rooms, and its broad, dark, shallow staircase. She describes it as formerly frequented by university men, country clergymen, and country booksellers, who, friendless in London, liked to hear the literary chat. Few persons slept there, and in a long, low, dingy room up-stairs the periodical meetings of the trade were held. Nothing of motion or of change could be seen in the grim, dark houses opposite, so near and close, although the whole width of the Row was between. The mighty roar of London ran round like the sound of an unseen ocean, yet every footfall on the pavement below might be heard distinctly in that unfrequented street. | |
The frequenters of the (-) have been carefully described by Sir Richard Phillips. Alexander Stevens, editor of the was of the choice spirits who met nightly in the as it was called, or the northeast corner box in the coffee-room. The neighbours, who dropped in directly the morning papers arrived, and before they were dried by the waiter, were called the Wet Paper Club, and another set intercepted the wet evening papers. Dr. Buchan, author of that murderous book, which treaches a man how to kill himself and family cheaply, generally acted as moderator. He was a handsome, white-haired man, a Tory, a good-humoured companion, and a . If any began to complain, or appear hypochondriacal, he used to say-- | |
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Dr. Gower, the urbane and able physician of the , was another frequent visitor, as also that great eater and worker, Dr. Fordyce, whose balance no potations could disturb. | |
279 | Fordyce had fashionable practice, and brought rare news and much sound information on general subjects. He came to the from his wine, stayed about an hour, and sipped a glass of brandy and water. He then took another glass at the and a at the then wound home to his house in , Strand. The doctors seldom agreed on medical subjects, and laughed loudly at each other's theories. They all, however, agreed in regarding the punch as an infallible and safe remedy for all ills. |
The standing men in the box were Hammond and Murray. Hammond, a Coventry manufacturer, had scarcely missed an evening at the for years. His strictures on the events of the day were thought severe but able, and as a friend of liberty he had argued all through the times of Wilkes and the French and American wars. His Socratic arguments were very amusing. Mr. Murray, the great referee of the Wittinagemot, was a Scotch minister, who generally sat at the reading papers from a.m. to m. He was known to have read straight through every morning and evening paper published in London for years. His memory was so good that he was always appealed to for dates and matters of fact, but his mind was not remarkable for general lucidity. Other friends of Stevens's were Dr. Birdmore, the Master of the Charterhouse, who abounded in anecdote; Walker, the rhetorician and dictionarymaker, a most intelligent man, with a fine enunciation, and Dr. Towers, a political writer, who over his half-pint of Lisbon grew sarcastic and lively. Also a grumbling man named Dobson, who between asthmatic paroxysms vented his spleen on all sides. Dobson was an author and paradox-monger, but so devoid of principle that he was deserted by all his friends, and would have died from want, if Dr. Garthshore had not placed him as a patient in an empty fever hospital. Robinson, and his sensible brother John were also frequenters of the as well as Joseph Johnson, the friend of Priestley, Paine, Cowper, and Fuseli, from . Phillips, the speculative bookseller, then commencing his came to the to look out for recruits, and with his pockets well lined with guineas to enlist them. He used to describe all the odd characters at this coffee-house, from the glutton in politics, who waited at daylight for the morning papers, to the moping and disconsolate bachelor, who sat till the fire was raked out by the sleepy waiter at half-past at night. These strange figures succeeded each other regularly, like the figures in a magic lantern. | |
Alexander Chalmers, editor of many works, enlivened the Wittinagemot by many sallies of wit and humour. He took great pains not to be mistaken for a namesake of his, who, he used to say, carried Other were the Parrys, of the and papers, and Captain Skinner, a man of elegant manners, who represented England in the absurd procession of all nations, devised by that German revolutionary fanatic, Anacharsis Clootz, in Paris in . Baker, an ex-Spitalfields manufacturer, a great talker and eater, joined the coterie regularly, till he shot himself at his lodgings in . It was discovered that his only meal in the day had been the nightly supper at the at the fixed price of a shilling, with a supplementary pint of porter. When the shilling could no longer be found for the supper, he killed himself. | |
Among other members of these pleasant coteries were Lowndes, the electrician; Dr. Busby, the musician; Cooke, the well-bred writer of conversation; and Macfarlane, the author of who was eventually killed by a blow from the pole of a coach during an election procession of Sir Francis Burdett at Brentford. Another celebrity was a young man named Wilson, called Langton, from his stories of the He ran up a score of , and then disappeared, to the vexation of Mrs. Brown, the landlady, who would willingly have welcomed him, even though he never paid, as a means of amusing and detaining customers. Waithman, the Common Councilman, was always clear-headed and agreeable. There was also Mr. Paterson, a long-headed, speculative North Briton, who had taught Pitt mathematics. But such coteries are like empires; they have their rise and their fall. Dr. Buchan died; some pert young sparks offended the Nestor, Hammond, who gave up the place, after years' attend- Dance, and before the grew silent and dull. | |
The edition of Dr.----ell's says Nicholls, was published by an association of respectable booksellers, who about the year I entered into an especial partnership, for the purpose of printing some expensive works, and styled themselves he term was supposed to have been at applied to them invidiously, alluding to the conger eel, which is said to swallow the smaller fry; or it may possibly have been taken from . The met at the
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The closed as a coffee-house in , and was altered into a tavern. | |
tragic memory, and alone, as far as we know, attaches to . It was here, in the reign of James I., that Mrs. Anne Turner lived, at whose house the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury was planned. It was here that Viscount Rochester met the infamous Countess of Essex; and it was Overbury's violent opposition to this shameful intrigue that led to his death from arsenic and diamond-dust, administered in the Tower by Weston, a servant of Mrs. Turner's, who received £ for his trouble. Rochester and the Countess were disgraced, but their lives were spared. The Earl of Northampton, an accomplice of the countess, died before Overbury succumbed to his months of torture. | |
says Sir Simonds d'Ewes,
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In a curious old print of West Chepe, date , in the vestry room of St. Vedast's, , we see St. Michael's, on the north side of . It is a plain dull building, with a low square tower and pointed-headed windows. It was chiefly remarkable as the burial-place of that indefatigable antiquary, John Leland. This laborious man, educated at School, was of the earliest Greek scholars in England, and of the deepest students of Welsh and Saxon. Henry III. made him of his chaplains, bestowed on him several benefices, and gave him a roving commission to visit the ruins of England and Wales and inspect the records of collegiate and cathedral libraries. He spent years in this search, and collected a vast mass of material, then retired to his house in the parish of St. Michael-le-Quern to note and arrange his treasures. His mind, however, broke down under the load: he became insane, and died in that dreadful darkness of the soul, . His great work, was not published till after his death. His large collections relating to London antiquities were, unfortunately for us, lost. The old church of says Strype,
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At the end of a somewhat long Latin epitaph to Marcus Erington in this church occurred the following lines:--
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John Bankes, mercer and squire, who was interred here, had a long epitaph, adorned with the following verses:--
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On part of the site of the church of this parish, after the fire of London in , was erected a conduit for supplying the neighbourhood with water; but the same being found unnecessary, it was, with others, pulled down anno . | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.1.274.3] Paternoster Row [extra_illustrations.1.275.1] Tom Moore [extra_illustrations.1.278.1] Dolly |
