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
Fleet Street (continued).
Fleet Street (continued).
The original (No. , south) was destroyed by the Great Fire, and the new building set feet backward. During the Popish Plot several anti-papal clubs met here; and from the windows Roger North stood to see the shouting, torch-waving procession pass along, to burn the Pope's effigy at . In the many barristers of note, many judges, and Lord Chancellors of the future have tried their eloquence when young men. | |
No. (south) was long a well-known coaching house, the [extra_illustrations.1.53.1] In a grant to the White Friars, in the century, it is spoken of as The old inn was demolished a few years ago, its name is preserved in Bolt-in-Tun Yard, and the railway booking-office which partly occupies its site. | |
At No. (corner of Whitefriars Street) once lived that famous watchmaker of Queen Anne's reign, Thomas Tompion, who is said, in , to have begun a clock for which was to go for a years without up. He died in . His apprentice, George Graham, invented, as Mr. Noble tells us, the horizontal escapement, in . He was succeeded by Mudge and Dutton, who in , made Dr. Johnson his watch. The old shop was () of the last in to be modernised. | |
Between Bolt and Johnson's Courts (-, north) say near --there lived, in the reign of George II., at the sign of the Christopher Pinchbeck, an ingenious musical clockmaker, who invented the which still bears his name. Pinchbeck often exhibited his musical automata in a booth at Bartholomew Fair and in conjunction with Fawkes the Conjuror, at Fair. He made, according to Mr. Edward T. Wood, the author of an exquisite musical clock, worth about , for Louis XIV., and a fine organ for the Great Mogul, valued at . He died in . He removed to from Clerkenwell in . His clocks played tunes and imitated the notes of birds. In he set up, at the Queen's House, a clock with faces, showing the age of the moon, the day of the week and month, the time of sun rising, & c. | |
No. (north) was the shop of Thomas Hardy, that agitating bootmaker, secretary to the London Corresponding Society, who was implicated in the John Horne Tooke trials of ; and next door, years after (No. ), Richard Carlisle, a opened a lecturing, conversation, and discussion establishment, preached the hung effigies of bishops outside his shop, and was eventually quieted by years' imprisonment, a punishment by no means undeserved. No. (south) was once the entrance to the printing-office of Samuel Richardson, the author of who afterwards lived in , and there held levees of his admirers, to whom he read his works with an innocent vanity which occasionally met with disagreeable rebuffs. | |
(No. , north side) occupies the site of a house given, as Mr. Noble says, in , to the Goldsmiths' Company, under the Singular title of probably at that time a tavern. In the register of St. Dunstan's is an entry (), but no further record exists of this hot-headed roysterer. In the reign of King James I. the is described as
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The (No. , north) was started in as an organ of the extreme Evangelical party. The promoters were the late Mr. James Evans, a brother of Sir Andrew Agnew, and Mr. Andrew | |
55 | Hamilton, of Common, the secretary of the Alliance Insurance Company. Among their supporters were Henry Law, Dean of Gloucester, and Francis Close, afterwards Dean of Carlisle. Amongst its earliest writers was Dr. (now Cardinal) John Henry Newman, of Oxford. The paper was all but dying when a new was made for money, and the Rev. Henry Blunt, of , became for a short time its editor. The at last began to flourish and to assume a bolder and a more independent tone. Dean Milman's neology, the peculiarities of the Irvingites, and the dangerous Oxford Tracts, were alternately denounced in it. In due course the began to appear times a week, and |
| became celebrated for its uncompromising religious tone, and, as Mr. James Grant truly says, for the earliness and accuracy of its politico-ecclesiastical information. | |
The old church of St. Bride (Bridget) was of great antiquity. As early as we find a turbulent foreigner, named Henry de Battle, after slaying Thomas de Hall on the king's highway, flying for sanctuary to , where he was guarded by the aldermen and sheriffs, and examined in the church by the Constable of the Tower. The murderer, after confessing his crime, abjured the realm. In a priest of was hung for an intrigue in which he had been detected. William Venor, a warden of the , added | |
56 | a body and side-aisles in (Edward IV.) At the Reformation there were orchards between the parsonage gardens and the Thames. In , a document in the Record Office, quoted by Mr. Noble, mentions that Mr. Palmer, vicar of , at the service at a.m., sometimes omitted the prayer for the bishop, and, being generally lax as to forms, often read the service without surplice, gown, or even his cloak. This worthy man, whose living was sequestered in , is recorded, in order to save money for the poor, to have lived in a bed-chamber in steeple. He founded an almshouse in , upon which Fuller remarks, in his quaint way, The brother of Pepys was buried here in under his mother's pew. The old church was swallowed up by the Great Fire, and [extra_illustrations.1.56.2] erected in , at a cost of The tower and spire were considered master-pieces of Wren. The spire, originally feet high, was struck by lightning in , and it is now only feet high. It was again struck in . The illuminated dial (the erected in London) was set up permanently in . The Spital sermons, now preached in , , were preached in from the Restoration till . They were originally all preached in the yard of the hospital of St. Mary Spital, Bishopsgate. Mr. Noble has ransacked the records relating to with the patience of old Stow. , he says, was renowned for its tithe-rate contests; but after many lawsuits and great expense, a final settlement of the question was come to in the years -. An Act was passed in , by which Thomas Townley, who had rented the tithes for years, was to be paid within years, by quarterly payments and a year afterwards. In the impropriate rectory of St. Bridget and the tithes thereof, except the advowson, the parsonage house, and Easter-dues offerings, were sold by auction for . It may be here worthy to note, says Mr. Noble, that in the number of rateable houses in the parish of St. Bride was and the rental ; in the rental was gross, rateable. [extra_illustrations.1.56.1] |
Mr. Noble also records pleasantly sundry musical feats accomplished on the bells of . In bells were cast for this church by Abraham Rudhall, of Gloucester, and on the , it is recorded that the complete peal of grandsire caters ever rung was effected by the In treble bells were added; and on the , the peal ever completed in this kingdom upon bells was rung by the college youths; and in the peal of Bob Maximus, of the ringers being Mr. Francis (afterwards Admiral) Geary. It was reported by the ancient ringers, says our trustworthy authority, that every who rang in the last-mentioned peal left the church in his own carriage. Such was the dignity of the art in those days. When bells were put up, used to be thronged with carriages full of gentry, who had come far and near to hear the pleasant music float aloft. During the terrible [extra_illustrations.1.56.3] Riots, in , Brasbridge, the silversmith, who wrote an autobiography, says he went up to the top of steeple to see the awful spectacle of the conflagration of the , but the flakes of fire, even at that great height, fell so thickly as to render the situation untenable. | |
Many great people lie in and around ; and Mr. Noble gives several curious extracts from the registers. Among the names we find Wynkyn de Worde, the printer in London; Baker, the chronicler; Lovelace, the Cavalier poet, who died of want in , ; Ogilby, the translator of Homer; the Countess of Orrery () Elizabeth Thomas, a lady immortalised by Pope; and John Hardham, the tobacconist. The entrance to the vault of Mr. olden (a friend of Pepys), on the north side of the church, is a relic of the older building. Inside are monuments to Richardson, the novelist; Nichols, the historian of Leicestershire; and Alderman Waithman. Among the clergy of Mr, Noble notes John Cardmaker, who was burnt at for heresy, in ; Fuller, the Church historian and author of the who was lecturer here; Dr. Isaac Madox, originally an apprentice to a pastrycook, and who died Bishop of Winchester in ; and Dr. John Thomas, vicar, who died in . There were John Thomases among the City clergy of that time. They were both chaplains , both good preachers, both squinted, and both died bishops! | |
The present approach to , designed by J. P. Papworth, in , cost , and was urged, forward by Mr. Blades, a Tory tradesman of , and a great opponent of Alderman Waithman. A fire that had destroyed some ricketty old houses gave the requisite opportunity for letting air and light round poor, smothered-up [extra_illustrations.1.56.5] . | |
The office of [extra_illustrations.1.56.4] (No. , south side) is said to occupy the site of the small school, in the house of a tailor, in which Milton once earned a precarious | |
57 | living. Here, ever since , the pleasant jester of has scared folly by the jangle of his bells and the blows of his staff. The best and most authentic account of the origin of is to be found in the following communication to , . Mr. W. H. Wills, who was of the earliest contributors to , says:--
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Mr. Mark Lemon remained editor of from till , when he died. His successor was Shirley Brooks, whose reign lasted till his death in . Mr. Gilbert à Beckett, who died at Boulogne in , succeeded in the more varied kinds of composition, turning with extraordinary rapidity from a leader to a epigram. | |
A pamphlet attributed to Mr. Blanchard conveys, after all, the most minute account of the origin, of . A favourite story of the literary gossipers who have made their subject from time to time, says the writer, is that he was born in a tavern parlour. The idea usually presented to the public is, that a little society of great men used to meet together in, a private room ina tavern close to . The truth is this : | |
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In the year there was a printing-office in a court running out of Fleet Street--No. , Crane Court--wherein was carried on the business of Mr. Joseph William Last. It was here that saw the light. The house, by the way, enjoys besides a distinction of a different kind--that of being the birthplace of [extra_illustrations.1.58.2] for Mr. Herbert Ingram, who had not at that time launched the , nor become a member of Parliament, was then introducing that since celebrated medicine to the public, and for that purpose had rented some rooms on the premises of his friend Mr. Last. [extra_illustrations.1.58.1] [extra_illustrations.1.58.4] | |
The circumstance which led to 's birth was simple enough. In , Mr. Last called upon Mr. Alfred Mayhew, then in the office of his father, Mr. Joshua Mayhew, the well-known solicitor, of , . Mr. Mayhew was Mr. Last's legal adviser, and Mr. Last was well acquainted with several of his sons. Upon the occasion in question Mr. Last made some inquiries of Mr. Alfred Mayhew concerning his brother Henry, and his occupation at the time. Mr. Henry Mayhew had, even at his then early age, a reputation for the high abilities which, he afterwards developed, had already experience in various departments of literature, and had exercised his projective and inventive faculties in various ways. If his friends had heard nothing of him for a few months, they usually found that he had a new design in hand, which was, however, in many cases, of a more original than practical character. Mr. Henry Mayhew, as it appeared from his brother Alfred's reply, was not at that time engaged in any new effort of his creative genius, and would be open to a proposal for active service. | |
Having obtained Mr. Henry Mayhew's address, which was in , Mr. Last called upon that gentleman on the following morning, and opened to him a proposal for a comic and satirical journal. Henry Mayhew readily entertained the idea; and the next question was, Henry Mayhew mentioned his friend ark Lemon as a good commencement; and the pair proceeded to call upon that gentleman, who was living, not far off, in , Strand. The almost immediate result was the starting of | |
At a meeting at the Mr. ark Lemon drew up the original prospectus. It was at intended to call the new publication The or and from the the subsidiary title of the was agreed upon. At a subsequent meeting at the printing-office, some made some allusion to the and some joke about the in it. Henry Mayhew, with his usual electric quickness, at once flew at the idea, and cried out, It was then remembered that, years before, Douglas Jerrold had edited a for Mr. Duncombe, of , , but this was thought no objection, and the new name was carried by acclamation. It was agreed that there should be proprietors-Messrs. Last, Landells, Lemon, and Mayhew. Last was to supply the printing, Landells the engraving, and Lemon and Mayhew were to be co-editors. George Hodder, with his usual good-nature, at once secured. Mr. Percival Leigh as a contributor, and Leigh brought in his friend Mr. John Leech, and Leech brought in Albert Smith. Mr. Henning designed the cover. When Last had sunk , he sold his share to Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, on receiving the amount of his then outstanding liabilities. At the transfer, Henning and Newman both retired, Mr. Coyne and Mr. Grattan seldom contributed, and Messrs. Mayhew and Landells also seceded. | |
Mr.Hine, the artist, remained with for many years; and among other artistic contributors who to use Mr. Blanchard's own words, we must mention Birket Foster, Alfred Crowquill, Lee, Hamerton, John Gilbert, William Harvey, and Kenny Meadows, the last of whom illustrated of Jerrold's earliest series, for was concocted for the greater part by Dr. Maginn, who was then in the , where Thackeray has drawn him, in the character of Captain Shandon, writing the famous prospectus for the . The earliest hits of were Douglas Jerrold's articles signed and Gilbert à Beckett's In , Mr. W. H. Wills, afterwards working editor of and , commenced In , Albert Smith commenced his lively which were illustrated by Newman; and he wrote the which Leech illustrated. In the volume, Jerrold commenced and in the volume, his Albert Smith's carried on the social dissections of the comic physiologist, and à Beckett began his and created the character of [extra_illustrations.1.58.5] [extra_illustrations.1.58.3] the supposed fashionable correspondent of the . had begun his career by ridiculing Lord Melbourne; he now attacked Brougham, for his temporary subservience to Wellington; and Sir | |
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James Graham came also in for a share of the rod; and the christened and as oldfogyish opponents of Peel and the Free-Traders. à Beckett's proved a great hit, from its daring originality; and incessant jokes were squibbed off on Lord John Russell, Prince Albert (for his military tailoring), Mr. Silk Buckingham and Lord William Lennox, Mr. Samuel Carter all and Mr. Harrison Ainsworth. [extra_illustrations.1.59.4] once, and once only, wrote for , a reply to [extra_illustrations.1.59.5] (then Mr. Bulwer), who had coarsely attacked him in his where he had spoken flippantly of The epigram ended with these bitter and contemptuous lines,-- [extra_illustrations.1.59.1] [extra_illustrations.1.59.3] | |
Albert Smith left many years before his death. In , on his return from the Eat, Mr. Thackeray began his and became a regular contributor. Gilbert à Beckett was now beginning his [extra_illustrations.1.59.6] [extra_illustrations.1.59.2] and Douglas Jerrold his inimitable Thomas Hood occasionally contributed, but his immortal was his Coventry Patmore contributed once to his verses denounced General Pellisier and his cruelty at the caves of Dahra. Laman Blanchard occasionally wrote; his best poem was on the marriage and temporary retirement of charming Mrs. Nisbett. In Thackeray's was highly successful. [extra_illustrations.1.59.7] brought much increase. [extra_illustrations.1.59.8] was designed by Doyle, who, being a zealous Roman Catholic, left Punch when it began to ridicule the Pope and condemn in his time has had his raps, but not many and not hard ones. Poor Angus B. Reach (whose mind went early in life), with Albert Smith and Shirley Brooks, ridiculed in the ; and in the Poet Bunn- --provoked at incessant attacks on his operatic verses, hired a man of letters to write and a few smart personalities soon silenced the jester. says Mr. Blanchard, In he died. Among the later additions to the staff were [extra_illustrations.1.59.9] , now its editor. | |
The (No. north) was established by Mr. Bell, in . Moving from to , and thence to Wine Office Court, it settled down in the present locality in . Mr. Bell was an energetic man, and the paper succeeded in obtaining a good position; but he was not a man of large capital, and other persons had shares in the property. In consequence of difficulties between the proprietors there were at time in the field- Bell's, Kent's, and Duckett's; but the lastmentioned were short-lived, and Mr. Bell maintained his position, Bell's was a sporting paper, with many columns devoted to pugilism, and a woodcut exhibiting boxers ready for an encounter. But the editor (says a story more or less authentic), Mr. Samuel Smith, who had obtained his post by cleverly reporting a fight near Canterbury, day received a severe thrashing from a famous member of the ring. This changed the editor's opinions as to the propriety of boxing-at anyrate pugilism was repudiated by the about ; and boxing, point of view, was henceforward treated as a degrading and brutal amusement, unworthy of our civilisation. | |
Mr.Harmer (afterwards Alderman), a solicitor in extensive practice in cases, became connected with the paper about the time when the office was established, and contributed capital, which soon bore fruit. The success was so great, that for many years the as a property was inferior only to the . It became famous for its letters on political subjects. The original was Mr. Williams, a violent and coarse but very vigorous and popular . He wrote weekly for about or years, and after his death the signature was assumed by Mr. Fox, the famous orator and member for Oldham. Other writers also borrowed the well-known signature. [extra_illustrations.1.59.10] wrote in the in , at signing her poems and , but in the course of the following year her name appeared in full. She contributed a poem weekly for several years, relinquishing her connection with the paper in . Afterwards, in , when the property changed hands, she wrote or poems. Under the signature Mr. Serle, the dramatic author and editor, contributed a weekly letter for about years; and from till was editor-in-chief. In - the had a hard-fought duel with the . wrote a series of letters, which had the effect of preventing the | |
60 | election of Mr. Walter for . The retaliated when the time came for Alderman Harmer to succeed to the lord mayoralty. Day after day the returned to the attack, denouncing the as an infidel paper; and Alderman Harmer, rejected by the City, resigned in consequence his aldermanic gown. In the commenced the publication of its famous giving away a good map weekly for about years. The price was reduced from fivepence to twopence, at the beginning of , and to a penny in . |
The office is No. (north). Mr. Ingram, of the originated a paper called the , which lasted only or weeks. The present | |
was started on by the late Colonel Sleigh. It was a single sheet, and the price twopence. Colonel Sleigh failing to make it a success, Mr. Lawson, the present chief proprietor of the paper, took the copyright as part security for money owed him as a printer by Colonel Sleigh. In Mr. Lawson's hands the paper, reduced to a penny, became a great success. says Mr. Grant, in his When Mr. Lawson bought the , the sum which he received for advertisements in the number was exactly The daily receipts for advertisements are now said to exceed . Mr. Grant says that the remission of the tax on paper brought a year extra to the . pages for a penny is no uncommon thing with the during the Parliamentary session. The returns of sales given by the h for the halfyear ending showed an average daily sale of ; and a competent authority estimates the average daily sale at the present time at over copies. of the printing-machines recently set up by the proprietors of the throws off upwards of copies per minute, or an hour. | |
The (No. , north), though now only a memory, abounds with traditions of [extra_illustrations.1.61.1] and his motley friends. The house, in , was leased to Henry Hottersall for years, at the yearly rent of , gallons of Canary sack, and fine. Mr. John Forster gives a delightful sketch of Goldsmith's Wednesday evening club at the in . When not at Johnson's great club, Oliver beguiled his cares at a shilling rubber club at the or at a humble gathering in the parlour of the Covent Garden. A hanger--on of the theatres, who frequented the has left notes which Mr. Forster has admirably used, and which we now abridge without further apology. Grim old Macklin belonged to the club it is certain; and among the less obscure members was King, the comedian, the celebrated impersonator of Lord Ogleby. Hugh Kelly, another member, was a clever young Irishman, who had chambers near Goldsmith in the Temple. He had been a staymaker's apprentice, who, turning law writer, and soon landing as a hack for the magazines, set up as a satirist for the stage and eventually, | |
62 | through Garrick's patronage, succeeded in sentimental comedy. It was of him Johnson said, Poor Kelly afterwards went to the Bar, and died of disappointment and over-work. A member was Captain Thompson, a friend of Garrick, who wrote some good sea songs and edited but foremost among all the boon companions was a needy Irish doctor named Glover, who had appeared on the stage, and who was said to have restored to life a man who had been hung; this Glover, who was famous for his songs and imitations, once had the impudence, like Theodore Hook, to introduce Goldsmith, during a summer ramble in Hampstead, to a party where he was an entire stranger, and to pass himself off as a friend of the host. says Goldsmith, Gordon, the fattest man in the club, was renowned for his jovial song of and on special occasions Goldsmith himself would sing his favourite nonsense about the little old woman who was tossed times higher than the moon. A fat pork-butcher at the used to offend Goldsmith by constantly shouting out, After the success of , this coarse familiarity was more than Goldsmith's vanity could bear, so special night he addressed the butcher with grave reproof. The stolid man, taking no notice, replied briskly,
asked Glover, said Goldsmith, good-naturedly, Sometimes rather cruel tricks were played on the credulous poet. evening Goldsmith came in clamorous for his supper, and ordered chops. Directly the supper came in, the wags, by pre-agreement, began to sniff and swear. Some pushed the plate away; others declared the rascal who had dared set such chops before a gentleman should be made to swallow them himself. The waiter was savagely rung up, and forced to eat the supper, to which he consented with well-feigned reluctance, the poet calmly ordering a fresh supper and a dram for the poor waiter, Poor Goldy! kindly even at his most foolish moments. A sadder story still connects Goldsmith with the Ned Purdon, a worn-out booksellers' hack and a of Goldsmith, dropped down dead in . Goldsmith wrote his epitaph as he came from his chambers in the Temple to the The lines are:-- Goldsmith sat next Glover that night at the club, and Glover heard the poet repeat, , with a mournful intonation, the words,-- Oliver was musing over his own life, and Mr. Forster says touchingly,
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Among other frequenters of the were Boswell's friend Akerman, the keeper of Newgate, who thought it prudent never to return home till daybreak; and William Woodfall, the celebrated Parliamentary reporter. In later times Brasbridge, the sporting silversmith of , was a frequenter of the club. He tells us that among his associates was a surgeon, who, living on the Surrey side of the Thames, had to take a boat every night, not being then built. This nightly navigation cost him or a time, yet, when the bridge came, he grumbled at having to pay a penny toll. Among other frequenters of the Mr. Timbs enumerates
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The (in ), was originally an evening paper alone. In a deputation of the leading men opposed to Catholic Emancipation waited on Mr. Charles Baldwin, proprietor of the , and begged him to start an anti-Catholic evening paper, but Mr. Baldwin refused unless a preliminary sum of was lodged at the banker's. A year later this sum was deposited, and in the , edited by Dr. Giffard, ex-editor of the , appeared. Mr. Alaric Watts, the poet, was the sub-editor; he was soon succeeded by the celebrated Dr. Maginn. The daily circulation soon rose from or copies to and over. The profits Mr. Grant calculates at to a year. On the bankruptcy of Mr. Charles Baldwin, Mr. James Johnson bought the and , plant and all, for . The new | |
63 | proprietor reduced the from fourpence to twopence, and made it a morning as well as an evening paper. In he reduced it to a penny only. The result was a great success. The annual income of the is now, Mr. Grant says, The legend of the Duke of Newcastle presenting Dr. Giffard, in , with for a violent article against Roman Catholic claims, has been denied by Dr. Giffard's son in the . The Duke of Wellington once wrote to Dr. Giffard to dictate the line which the and were to adopt on a certain question during the agitation on the Maynooth Bill; and Dr. Giffard withdrew his opposition to please Sir Robert Peel--a concession which injured the . Yet in the following year, when Sir Robert Peel brought in his Bill for the abolition of the corn laws, he did not even pay Dr. Giffard the compliment of apprising him of his intention. Such is official gratitude when a tool is done with. |
Near lived of Caxton's disciples. [extra_illustrations.1.63.1] who is supposed to have been of Caxton's assistants or workmen, was a native of Lorraine. He carried on a prosperous career, says Dibdin, from to , at the sign of the in the parish of , . In upwards of works published by this industrious man he displayed unprecedented skill, elegance, and care, and his Gothic type was considered a pattern for his successors. The books that came from his press were chiefly grammars, romances, legends of the saints, and fugitive poems; he never ventured on an English New Testament, nor was any drama published bearing his name. is great patroness, Margaret, the mother of Henry VII., seems to have had little taste to guide De Worde in his selection, for he never reprinted the works of Chaucer or of Gower; nor did his humble patron, Robert Thomey, the mercer, lead him in a better direction. De Worde filled his blackletter books with rude engravings, which he used so indiscriminately that the same cut often served for books of a totally opposite character. By some writers De Worde is considered to be the introducer of Roman letters into this country; but the honour of that mode of printing is now generally claimed by Pynson, a contemporary. Among other works published by De Worde were that great satire that was so long popular in England; Mandeville's lying (from which Tennyson has derived so much inspiration); and curious treatises on partly written by Johanna Berners, a prioress of St. Alban's. In De Worde's we find the words of that fine old song, still sung annually at Queen's College, Oxford,-- De Worde also published some writings of Erasmus. The old printer was buried in the parish church of , before the high altar of St. Katharine; and he left land to the parish so that masses should be said for his soul. To his servants, not forgetting his bookbinder, Nowel, in , he bequeathed books. De Worde lived near the Conduit, a little west of . This conduit, which was begun in the year by Sir William Estfielde, a former Lord Mayor, and finished in , was, according to Stow's account, a stone tower; on the top were images of St. Christopher and angels, who, on sweet-sounding bells, hourly chimed a hymn with hammers, thus anticipating the wonders of St. Dunstan's. These London conduits were great resorts for the apprentices, whom their masters sent with big leather and metal jugs to bring home the daily supply of water. Here these noisy, quarrelsome young rascals stayed to gossip, idle, and fight. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn this conduit was newly painted, all the arms and angels refreshed, and Upon the conduit was raised a tower with turrets, and in every turret stood of the cardinal virtues, promising never to leave the queen, while, to the delight and wonder of thirsty citizens, the taps ran with claret and red wine. , according to Mr. Noble, was supplied in the Middle Ages with water from the conduit at Marylebone and the holp wells of and St. Bridget's. The tradition is that the latter well was drained dry for the supply of the coronation banquet of George IV. As early as the inhabitants of complained of aqueduct pipes bursting and flooding their cellars, upon which they were allowed the privilege of erecting a pent-house over an aqueduct opposite the tavern of John , and near the house of the Bishop of Salisbury. In a wax-chandler, having been detected tapping the conduit pipes for his own use, was sentenced to ride through the City with a vessel shaped like a conduit on his felonious head, and the City crier walking before him to proclaim his offence. | |
The mentioned as early as , stood at the south-west corner of . Here the Clockmakers' Company held their | |
64 | meetings before the Great Fire, and in the possessed the largest sign-board in London. Early in the last century, says Mr. Noble; its proprietor was Alderman Sir John Task, a wine merchant, who died in (George II.), worth, it was understood, a quarter of a million of money. |
The (No. , north) was established in , by the Society of Licensed Victuallers, on the mutual benefit society principle. very member is bound to take in the paper and is entitled to a share in its profits. Members unsuccessful in business become pensioners on the funds of the institution. The paper, which took the place of the , and was the suggestion of Mr. Grant, a master printer, was an immediate success. Down to the circulated chiefly in public-houses and coffee-houses at the rate of nearly copies a day. But in , the circulation beginning to decline, the committee resolved to enlarge the paper to the size of the , and Mr. James Grant was appointed editor. The profits now increased, and the paper found its way to the clubs. The late Lord Brougham and Sir David Brewster contributed to the ; and the letters signed excited much interest. This paper has generally been Liberal. Mr. Grant remained the editor for years : he died in . | |
No. (south side) was till lately the office of that old-established paper, Mr. Bell, the spirited publisher who founded this paper, is delightfully sketched by Leigh Hunt in his autobiography. | |
he says, in his easy manner,
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No. , (south side) is endeared to us by its connection with Charles Lamb. At that number, in , that great humorist, the king of all London clerks that ever were or will be, published his a collection of essays immortal as the language, full of quaint and tender thoughts and gleaming with cross-lights of humour as shot silk does with interchanging colours. In , when the editor was shot in a duel, the fell into the hands of Messrs. Taylor & Hessey, of No. ; but they published the excellent periodical and gave their at their publishing house in . | |
Mr. John Scott, a man of great promise, the editor of the for its publishers-Messrs. Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy-met with a very tragic death in . The duel in which he fell arose from a quarrel between the men on the and some clever but bitter and unscrupulous writers , started in . Lockhart, who had cruelly, maligned Leigh Hunt and his set (the as the Scotch Tories chose to call them), was sharply attacked in the Fiery and vindictive, Lockhart at once rushed up to town, and angrily demanded from Mr. Scott, the editor, an explanation, an apology, or a meeting. Mr. Scott declined giving an apology unless Mr. Lockhart would deny that he was editor of . Lockhart refused to give this denial, and retorted by expressing a mean opinion of Mr. Scott's courage. Lockhart and Scott both printed contradictory versions of the quarrel, which continued till at last Mr. Christie, a friend of Lockhart, challenged Scott; and they met at Chalk Farm. by moonlight on , at o'clock at night, attended by their seconds and surgeons, in the old business-like, bloodthirsty way. The time Mr. Christie did not fire at Mr. Scott, a fact of which Mr. Patmore, the author, Scott's , with most blamable indiscretion, did not inform his principal. At the fire Christie's ball struck Scott just above the right hip, and he | |
65 | fell. He lingered till the . It was said at the time that Hazlitt, perhaps unintentionally, had driven Scott to fight by indirect taunts. Hazlitt is reported to have said, and so on. Poor Scott, not yet , had married the pretty daughter of Colnaghi, the print-seller in , and left children. |
For the years it lasted, perhaps no magazine --not even the mighty itself--ever drew talent towards it with such magnetic attraction. In Mr. Barry Cornwall's delightful memoir of his old friend Lamb, composed when the writer was in his year, he has summarised the writers in the , and shown how deep and varied was the intellect brought to bear on its production. of all he mentions poor Scott, a shrewd, critical, rather hasty man, who wrote essays on Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Godwin, Byron, [extra_illustrations.1.65.1] , Shelley, Leigh Hunt, and Hazlitt, his wonderful contemporaries, in a fruitful age. Hazlitt, glowing and capricious, produced the essays of his many dramatic articles, and papers on Beckford's Fonthill, the Angerstein pictures, and the Elgin marbles-pages wealthy with thought. Lamb contributed in years all the matchless essays of Mr. Thomas Carlyle, then only a promising Scotch philosopher, wrote several articles on the Mr. de Quincey, that subtle thinker and bitter Tory, contributed his wonderful That learned and amiable man, the Rev. H. F. Cary, the translator of Dante, wrote several interesting notices of early French poets. Allan Cunningham, the vigorous Scottish bard, sent the romantic and a series of papers styled Mr. John Poole--who died in --(the author of and that humorous novel, which is supposed to have furnished Mr. Charles Dickens with some suggestions for ) wrote burlesque imitations of contemporaneous dramatic writers-Morton, Dibdin, Reynolds, Moncrieff, & c. Mr. J. H. Reynolds wrote, under the name of Henry Herbert, notices of contemporaneous events, such as a scene at the Cockpit, the trial of Thurtell, & c. That delightful punster and humorist, with pen or pencil, Tom Hood, the elder, sent to the his poems of any ambition or length- and Keats, and Montgomery, both contributed poems. Sir John Bowring, the accomplished linguist, wrote on Spanish poetry. Mr. Henry Southern, the projector of that excellent work, the , contributed [extra_illustrations.1.65.2] , that very original and eccentric thinker, published in this magazine at least of his admirable Mr. Julius (afterwards Archdeacon) Hare reviewed in it the robust works of Landor. Mr. Elton contributed graceful translations from Catullus, Propertius, & c. Even among the lesser contributors there were very eminent writers, not forgetting Barry Cornwall, Hartley Coleridge, John Clare, the Northamptonshire peasant poet; and Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet. Nor must we omit that strange contrast to these pure-hearted and wise men, (Wainwright), the polished villain who murdered his young niece and most probably several other friends and relations, for the money insured upon their lives. his gay and evil being, by no means a dull writer upon art and the drama, was much liked by Lamb and the set. The news of his cold-blooded crimes (transpiring in ) seem to have struck a deep horror among all the scoundrel's fashionable associates. Although when arrested in France it was discovered that Wainwright habitually carried strychnine about with him, he was only tried for forgery, and for that offence transported for life. | |
A fine old citizen of the last century, Joseph Brasbridge, who published his memoirs, kept a silversmith's shop at No. , several doors from Alderman Waithman's. At time Brasbridge confesses he divided his time between the tavern club, the card party, the hunt, and the fight, and left his shop to be looked after by others, whilst he decided on the respective merits of Humphries and Mendoza, Cribb and Big Ben. Among Brasbridge's early customers were the Duke of Marlborough, the Duke of Argyle, and other men of rank, and he glories in having once paid an elaborate compliment to Lady Hamilton. The most curious story in Brasbridge's is the following, various versions of which have been paraphrased by modern writers. A surgeon in had purchased for dissection the body of a man who had been hanged at Tyburn. The servant girl, wishing to look at the corpse, stole upstairs in the doctor's absence, and, to her horror, found the body sitting up on the board, wondering where it was. The girl almost | |
66 | threw herself down the stairs in her fright. The surgeon, on learning of the resuscitation of his subject, humanely concealed the man in the house till he could fit him out for America. The fellow proved as clever and industrious as he was grateful, and having amassed a fortune, he eventually left it all to his benefactor. The sequel is still more curious. The surgeon dying some years after, his heirs were advertised for. A shoemaker at eventually established a claim and inherited the money. Mean in prosperity, the
shoemaker then refused to pay the lawyer's bill, and, moreover, called him a rogue. The enraged lawyer replied, The lawyer accordingly advertised again for the surgeon's nearest of kin; Mr. Willcocks, a bookseller in |
| , then came forward, and deposed that his wife and her mother, he remembered, used to visit the surgeon in . On inquiry Mrs. Willcocks was proved the next of kin, and the base shoemaker returned to his last. The lucky Mr. Willcocks was the good-natured bookseller who lent Johnson and Garrick, when they came up to London to seek their fortunes, on their joint note. | |
Nos. (afterwards the office) and were the [extra_illustrations.1.66.1] ; and to his memory was erected the obelisk on the site of his shop, formerly the north-west end of Fleet Market. Waithman, according to Mr. Timbs, had a genius for the stage, and especially shone as Macbeth. He was uncle to John Reeve, the comic actor. Cobbett, who hated Waithman, has left a portrait of the alderman, written in his usual racy English, he says, talking of the Princess Caroline agitation, in , According to Cobbett, Waithman, vexed that Alderman Wood had been the to propose an address of condolence to the Princess at the | |
| Common Council, opposed it, and was defeated. On the appointed day the Princess was presented with the address, to the delight of the more zealous Radicals. The procession of more than carriages came back past Carlton House on their return from Kensington, the people groaning and hissing, to torment the Regent. | |
Brasbridge, the Tory silversmith of , writes very contemptuously in his autobiography of Waithman. Sneering at his boast of reading, he says :-- According to Brasbridge, Waithman made his speech in , in Founder's Hall, , Waithman was Lord Mayor in -, and was returned to Parliament times for the City. He died in . His shop was pulled down about the year , in order to make room for . | |
A short biography of this civic orator will not be uninteresting:-- [extra_illustrations.1.68.2] [extra_illustrations.1.68.1] was born of humble parentage, at Wrexham, in North Wales. Becoming an orphan when only months old, he was placed at the school of a Mr. Moore by his uncle, on whose death, about , he obtained a situation at Reading, whence he proceeded to London, and entered into the service of a respectable linen-draper, with whom he continued till he became of age. He then entered into business at the south end of Fleet Market, whence, some years afterwards, he removed to the corner of . He appears to have commenced his political career about , at the oratorical displays made in admiration and imitation of the proceedings of the French Revolutionists, at Founder's all, in . In he brought forward a series of resolutions, at a common hall, animadverting upon the war with revolutionised France, and enforcing the necessity of a reform in Parliament. In he was elected a member of the Common Council for the Ward of Farringdon Without, and became a very frequent speaker in that public body. It was supposed that Mr. Fox intended to have rewarded his political exertions by the place of Receiver-General of the Land Tax. In , after having been defeated on several previous occasions, [extra_illustrations.1.68.4] , [extra_illustrations.1.68.3] defeating the old member, Sir William Curtis. | |
Very shortly after, on the , he was elected Alderman of his ward, on the death of Sir Charles Price, Bart. On the , he made his maiden speech in Parliament, on the presentation of a petition praying for a revision of the criminal code, the existing state of which he severely censured. At the ensuing election of the friends of Sir William Curtis turned the tables upon him, Waithman being defeated. In this year, however, he attained the honour of the shrievalty; and in , he was chosen Lord Mayor. In he stood another contest for the City, with better success. In , , and he obtained his re-election with difficulty; but in he suffered a severe disappointment in losing the chamberlainship, in the competition for which Sir James Shaw obtained a large majority of votes. | |
We subjoin the remarks made on his death by the editor of the newspaper:--
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There is a curious story told of the crossing, opposite Waithman's corner. It was swept for years by an old black man named Charles M'Ghee, whose father had died in Jamaica at the age of . According to Mr. Noble, when he laid down his broom he sold his professional right for a very large sum. Retiring into private life much respected, he was always to be seen on Sundays at Rowland Hill's chapel. When in his seventythird year his portrait was taken and hung in the parlour of the . To Miss Waithman, who used to send him out soup and bread, he is, untruly, said to have left . | |
Mr. Diprose, in his tells us more of this black sweeper. or as he was generally called, lived in a passage leading from into . He was a short, thick-set man, with his white-grey hair carefully brushed up into a toupee, the fashion of his youth. He was found in his shop, as he called his crossing, in all weathers, and was invariably civil. At night, after he had shut up shop (swept mud over his crossing), he carried round a basket of nuts and fruit to places of public entertainment, so that in time he laid by a considerable amount of money. Brutus Billy was | |
69 | brimful of story and anecdote. He died in in , in his year. This worthy man was perhaps the model for Billy Waters, the negro beggar in , who is so indignant at the beggars' supper on seeing
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In [extra_illustrations.1.69.1] time John Hardham, the wellknown tobacconist, opened a shop at No. . here, at the sign of the Hardham's Highlander kept steady guard at a doorway through which half the celebrities of the day made their exits and entrances. His celebrated snuff was said, like the French millefleur, to be composed of a great number of ingredients, and Garrick in his kind way helped it into fashion by mentioning it favourably on the stage. Hardham, a native of Chichester, began life, as a servant, wrote a comedy, acted,. and at last became Garrick's having a general's quick at gauging an audience, and so checking the money-takers. Garrick once became his security for a ; but eventually Hardham grew rich, and died in , bequeathing to Chichester, guineas to Garrick, and merely setting apart, for his funeral, only vain fools, as he said, spending more on such pageants. We can fancy the great actors of that day seated on Hardham's tobacco-chests discussing the drollery of Foote or the vivacity of Clive. | |
says a writer in the ,
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But Hardham occupied himself in other ways than in the making of snuff and of money--for the Chichester youth had now grown wealthy-and in extendinig his circle of acquaintances amongst dramatists and players he was abundantly distinguished for Christian charity; for, in the language of a contemporary writer, we find that and his bounty From the same authority we find that Hardham once failed in business (we presume, as a lapidary) more creditably than he could have made a fortune by it. This spirit ofintegrity, which remained a remarkable feature in his character throughout life, induced him to be often resorted to by his wealthy patrons as trustee for the payment of their bounties to deserving objects; in many cases the patrons died before the recipients of their relief. With Hardham, however, this made no difference; the annuities once granted, although stopped by the decease of the donors, were paid ever after by Hardham so long as he lived; and his delicacy of feeling induced him even to persuade the recipients into the belief that they were still derived from the same source. | |
No. (south) was opened as a shop, in , by Lockyer, who called it It then became a where the poor purchased a beverage made out of sassafras chips. The proprietor, who began life, as Mr. Noble says, with half-a-crown, died in , worth . Thomas Read was a later tenant. Charles Lamb mentions in of his essays, and says, Chimneysweeps, beloved by Lamb, approved it, and eventually stalls were set up in the streets, as at present, to reach even humbler customers. | |
70 | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.1.53.1] Bolt-in-Tun. [extra_illustrations.1.56.2] the present building [extra_illustrations.1.56.1] Holden's Vault-St. Bride's [extra_illustrations.1.56.3] Gordon [extra_illustrations.1.56.5] St. Bride's [extra_illustrations.1.56.4] Punch [extra_illustrations.1.58.2] Parr's Life Pills; 2 portraits and 2 advertisements [extra_illustrations.1.58.1] Thomas Parr [extra_illustrations.1.58.4] Title page. Mayhew's Great World of London [extra_illustrations.1.58.5] Jenkins, [extra_illustrations.1.58.3] Jenkins at French Ambassador's Ball [extra_illustrations.1.59.4] Tennyson [extra_illustrations.1.59.5] Lord Lytton [extra_illustrations.1.59.1] Punch's publication of Vanity Fair [extra_illustrations.1.59.3] Doyle as Draughtsman [extra_illustrations.1.59.6] Comic History of England [extra_illustrations.1.59.2] Title page Comic History of Rome [extra_illustrations.1.59.7] Richard Doyle's [extra_illustrations.1.59.8] The present cover of Punch [extra_illustrations.1.59.9] Mr. Shirley Brooks and Mr. Tom Taylor [extra_illustrations.1.59.10] Eliza Cook [extra_illustrations.1.61.1] Goldsmith [extra_illustrations.1.63.1] Wnkyn de Worde [] An intelligent compositor (Mr. J. P. S. Bicknell), who has been a noter of curious passages in his time, informs me that Bell was the first printer who confined the small letter s to its present shape,and rejected altogether the older form f. --W. T. [extra_illustrations.1.65.1] Keats [extra_illustrations.1.65.2] Mr. Walter Savage Landor [extra_illustrations.1.66.1] shop of that bustling politician, Alderman Waithman [extra_illustrations.1.68.2] Robert Waithman [extra_illustrations.1.68.1] Waithman's Obelisk [extra_illustrations.1.68.4] he was elected as one of the representatives in Parliament of the City of London [extra_illustrations.1.68.3] various election Papers, including Hogarth's Election [extra_illustrations.1.69.1] Garrick's [] The real fact is, the famous snuff was merely called from the number of the drawer that held it. |
