THE LIBRARY

OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES

LONDON SOUVENIRS
BY

CHARLES W. HECKETHORN
AUTHOR OF "THE SECRET
SOCIETIES OF ALL AGES,"
" LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS," ETC.

NEW YORK
A.

WESSELS COMPANY
1900

)4

3*1

CONTENTS
PACK
I,

II.

III.

IV.

V.
VI.
VII.

VIII.

GAMBLING-CLUBS AND HIGH PLAY

WITTY WOMEN AND PRETTY WOMEN

OLD LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES
OLD M.P.S AND SOME OF THEIR SAYINGS

FAMOUS OLD ACTORS

-12
24
-

35

-47
-

59

SOME FAMOUS LONDON ACTRESSES

71

QUEER CLUBS OF FORMER DAYS

82

OLD JUDGES AND SOME OF THEIR SAYINGS

IX.

CURIOUS STORIES OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE

X.

WITS AND BEAUX OF OLD LONDON SOCIETY

105

LONDON SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES

117

135

XI.

XII.

OLD LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

I.
THE GALLERIED TAVERNS OF OLD LONDON
II.

XIII.

XIV.

XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.

XIX.

OLD LONDON TEA-GAKDENS

94

-158

WILLIAM PATERSON AND THE BANK OF ENGLAND173

-184
THE OLD DOCTORS
2l6
THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON 253
ROGUES ASSORTED
265
BARS AND BARRISTERS THE SUBLIME BEEFSTEAKERS AND THE KIT-KAT
AND ROTA CLUBS
HAMPTON COURT PALACE AND

ITS

625922

MASTERS

285

300

LONDON SOUVENIRS
i.

GAMBLING-CLUBS AND HIGH PLAY.

may

PHILOSOPHERS
the former against

argue, and moralists preach,

the folly, and the latter

as may
against the wickedness of gambling, but,
be expected, their remonstrances pass but as a gentle
breeze over the outwardly placid ocean of play, causing
the fishes the familiars of the gambling world lan-

heads, and mildly to inquire

guidly to raise
? Gambling is one of the
about
What's all that row
strongest passions in the human breast, and no warning,
their

'

no exhibition of

fatal examples, will ever stop the in-

It assumes
dulgence in the excitement it procures.
all men have undergone disastrous
in
;
many phases

and yet they repeat the dangerous and

In no undertaking
calamitous
experiments.
usually
has so much money been lost as in mining ; prizes have
experiences,

occasionally been drawn, but at such rare intervals as to

be cautions rather than encouragements ; and yet, even

at the present

day, with

all

the experience of past

1

LONDON SOUVENIRS

2
failures,

sanguine speculators

their gold,

which

promoters.
Some of the

fill

empty

shafts

with

quickly fished up by the greedy

is

now most

respectable

West End

clubs

originally were only gambling-hells.

They are not so
now but the improvement this would seem to imply is
apparent only. Our manners have improved, but not
our morals
the table-legs wear frilled trousers now,
;

but the

But

it

speak

legs are there all the same, even the blacklegs.

is

the past more than the present we wish to

of.

Early in the last century gaming was so prevalent

that in one night's search the Leefs Jury of Westminster discovered, and afterwards presented to the

no

fewer than thirty-five gambling-houses.

for
the Reformation of Manners published
Society
statement of their proceedings, by which it appeared

justices,

The
a

that in the year beginning with December 1, 1724, to the

same date in 1725, they had prosecuted 2,506 persons
for keeping disorderly and gaming houses ; and for
thirty-four years the total number of their prosecutions
amounted to the astounding figure of 91,899. In 1728

the following note was issued by the King's order ' It

having been represented to his Majesty that such felons
:

and their accomplices are greatly encouraged and harboured by persons keeping night-houses
and that
.

the gaming-houses
much contribute to the corof
morals
the
of
those of an inferior rank
ruption
.

Majesty has commanded me to recommend it, in his

name, in the strongest manner to the Justices of the

his

Peace to employ their utmost care and vigilance in the

preventing and suppressing of

these

disorders,

etc."'

GAMBLING-CLUBS AND HIGH PLAY

This warning was then necessary, though as early as

1719 an order for putting in execution an old statute
of Henry VIII. had been issued to all victuallers, and

whom

might concern.
none shall keep or maintain any
lawful games, on pain of 40s. for
their recognisance, and of being
others

it

The

order ran

'
:

That

house or place of unevery day, of forfeiting

suppressed that none

haunt such places, on pain of 6s. 8d. for
every offence; and that no artificer, or his journeyman,
husbandman, apprentice, labourer, mariner, fisherman,
waterman, or serving-man shall play at tables, tennis,
;

shall use or

dice, cards, bowls, clash, coiting, loggating, or

any other

unlawful game, out of Christmas, or then out of their

master's house or presence, on pain of 20s.
1

There were thus many attempts at controlling the

conduct of the lower orders, but the gentry set them a
bad example. The Cocoa-Tree Club, the Tory chocolate-house of Queen Anne's reign, at No. 64, St. James's
In the evening of
Street, was a regular gambling-hell.

a Court Drawing-room in 1719, a number of gentlemen had a dispute over hazard at that house the
;

quarrel became general, and, as they fought with their

swords, three gentlemen were mortally wounded, and
the affray was only ended by the interposition of the

Royal Guards, who were compelled to knock the parties

down with the butt-ends of their muskets indiscriminately, as entreaties and commands were disregarded.

Within this
Walpole, in his correspondence, relates
week there has been a cast at hazard at the Cocoa-Tree,
'

J
o 180,000.
Mr.
Irish
an
had
won
=1 00,000 of a
O'Birne,
gamester,
young Mr, Harvey, of Chigwell, just started from a

the difference of which amounted to

12

LONDON SOUVENIRS

midshipman into an

estate

his elder brother's death.

by

You can never pay me. 11 " I can, 11 said

O'Birne said
11
11
"
the youth " my estate will sell for the debt.
No,
"

said O'Birne,

" I will win

,10,000

you

shall

throw

for

It is
the odd 90,000." They did, and Harvey won.
not on record whether he took the lesson to heart.

The house

was, in 1746, turned into a club, but

its

reputation was not improved bribery, high play, and

foul play continued to be common in it.
Another chocolate-house was White's, now White's
Club, St. James's Street. As a chocolate-house it was
;

established about 1698, near the

side of St. James's Street

it

bottom of the west

was burnt down in 1773.

'

'
Plate VI. of Hogarth's Rake's Progress shows a room
full of players at White's, so intent upon play as neither
to see the flames nor hear the watchmen bursting into

the room.

was indeed a famous gambling and

It

betting club, a book for entering wagers always lying

Once a man
on the table ; the play was frightful.

dropped down dead at the door, and was carried in

the club immediately made bets whether he was dead
and when they were going to bleed
or only in a fit
him the wagerers for his death interposed, saying it
;

would

affect

the fairness of the bet.

the story, hints that

Walpole, who
a

invented.

Many

shown
Hogarth's picture above
highwayman one
main
chocolate or threw
referred to there took
tells

it

is

in

is

his

his

There Lord Chesterfield

before starting for business.
Steele dated all his love news in the Tatler
;

gamed

from White's, which was known as the rendezvous of

infamous sharpers and noble cullies, and bets were laid
to the effect that Sir William Burdett, one of its

GAMBLING-CLUBS AND HIGH PLAY

first baronet who would be

The
on till dawn of day and
went
hanged.
gambling
when
Prime Minister, was not ashamed to
Pelham,

members, would be the

official table and the

piquet
General Seott was a very cautious

divide his time between his

table at White's.

player, avoiding all

indulgence in excesses at table,

and thus managed to win at White's no less than

200,000, so that when his daughter, Joanna, married
George Canning he was able to give her a fortune of
100,000.
Another club founded specially for gambling was
Al mack's, the original Brooks's, which was opened in
Pall Mall in 1764.
Some of its members were
Macaronis, the fops of the day, famous for their long
curls and eye-glasses.
'At Almack's,' says Walpole,
'

which has taken the pas of White's

the young

men of the age lose ,10,000, 15,000, 20,000 in an

The play at this club was only for rouleaux
evening.'

50

and generally there was 10,000 in gold

The gamesters began by pulling off their
embroidered clothes, and put on frieze garments, or
turned their coats inside out for luck.
They put on
and to guard
pieces of leather to save their lace ruffles
their eyes from the light, and to
prevent tumbling
of

on the

each,

table.

their hair, wore high-crowned straw hats with broad

brims, and sometimes masks to conceal their emotions.
'

Almack's afterwards was known as the Goose-Tree

Club a rather significant name and Pitt was one of
its
most constant frequenters, and there met his
'

adherents.

club was

Gibbon
still

also

Almack's

was a member, when

which, indeed, was

the

of the founder and original

proprietor of the club.

the

name

LONDON SOUVENIRS

Another gaming-club was Brooks's, which at first

was formed by Almack and afterwards by Brooks, a
wine-merchant and money-lender. The club was opened
in 1778,

'21.

and some of the

No gaming

for reckonings,

original rules are curious

in the eating-room, except tossing

on penalty of paying the whole

bill

up
of

Any member

of this society
the members present.
for
that shall become a candidate
any other club
30.

excluded.
(old White's excepted) shall be ipso facto
40. Every person playing at the new quinze-table shall
41. Every person playbefore him.
fifty guineas
shall keep no less than
table
at
the
twenty-guinea
ing
1
According to Captain
twenty guineas before him.

keep

Gronow, play at Brooks's was even higher than at

Faro and macao were indulged in to an
White's.
enabled a man to win or to lose a conwhich
extent
siderable fortune in one night.
George Harley Drummond, a partner in the bank of that name, played
once in his life at White's, and lost ,20,000 to

only

Brummell.

This event caused him to

bankimr-house.

Lord

Carlisle

retire

from the

and Charles Fox

lost

enormous sums at Brooks's.

At Tom's Coffee House, in Russell Street, Covent
Garden, there was playing at piquet, and the club conand gentlemen, many
sisting of seven hundred noblemen

whom belonged to the gay society of that day (the

middle of the last century), we may be sure the play

of

was high.
Arthur's Club, in St. James's Street, so named after
founder (who died in 1761), was a famous gambling

its

and

nobleman of the highest position

day.
in cheating at
in
influence
society was detected

centre in

its

GAMBLING-CLUBS AND HIGH PLAY

cards,

and after a

trial,

which did not terminate in his

This happened in

favour, he died of a broken heart.

1836.

The Union, which was founded

was

It

in this century,
first

was a

held at what

is

regular gambling-club.
now the Ordnance Office, Pall Mall, and subsequently
in the house afterwards occupied by the Bishop of

Winchester.
In the early days of this century the most notorious
gambling-club was Crockford's, in St. James's Street.

Crockford originally was a fishmonger, and occupied the

old bulk-shop west of Temple Bar.
But, having made
'
as
a
recent writer on
he
gave up,
money by betting,
1

The Gambling World says, selling soles and salmon,

and went in for catching fish, confining his operations
to gudgeons and flat-fish
or, in other words, he estab-

'

'

lished a gambling-house, first by taking over Watier's

old club-house, where he set up a hazard bank, and won

money he then separated from his

who had a bad year and failed. Crockford

a great deal of
partner,

removed to

James's

St.

Street,

where he built the

his name.
It was
magnificent club-house which bore
erected at a cost of upwards of ,100,000, and, in its

proportions and palatial decorations, surpassed

anything of the kind ever seen in London. To support
such an establishment required a large income ; yet
vast

Crockford made

for the highest play was encouraged

at his card-tables, but especially at the hazard -tables,
took his stand, prepared for
where Crockford
it,

nightly

all

comers.

millionaire.

had

lost as

And he
When he
much

in

was

successful,

and became a

700,000, and he
and
other
speculations. His
mining
died he

left

LONDON SOUVENIRS

death was hastened,

his bets on the turf.

it is said,

by

excessive anxiety over

He

retired from the management

The club was
of the club in 1840, and died in 1844.
soon after closed, and after a few years' interval was re1

opened as the Naval, Military, and Civil Service Club.

was then converted into dining-rooms, called the
Wellington. Later on it was taken by a joint-stock
company as an auction-room, and now it is again a
It

club-house,

We

known

as the Devonshire Club.

referred above to Watier's Club.

was estab-

It

lished in 1 807, at the instigation of the Prince of Wales,

and high play was the chief pursuit of its members.
'
'
Princes and nobles,' says Timbs in his Curiosities of
1

'

gained fortunes amongst themselves.

But the pace was too fast. The club did not last under

London,

its

lost or

original patronage,

and

it

was then, when

was

it

moribund, taken over by Crockford. At this club, also,

1
macao was the favourite game, as at Brooks s.

One

of the most objectionable results of promiscuous

gambling is the disreputable company into which it
often throws a gentleman.
'

That Marquis, who is now familiar grown

With every reprobate about the town.
Now, sad transition all his lordship's nights
.

Are passed with blacklegs and with parasites.

The rage of gaming and the circling glass
Eradicate distinction in each class

For he who
Is equal in

scarce a dinner can afford

importance with

my

lord.'

what happened when gambling-hells were

openly flourishing in London, and what happens now,
when gambling- clubs abound, and are almost daily
This

is

just

GAMBLING-CLUBS AND HIGH PLAY

raided by the police, when some actually respectable

people are found mixed up with the rascaldom which

supports these clubs.

perfect mania seems to have
seized the lower orders of our
day to gamble; but
formerly, for instance, in Walpole's time, in the latter
half of the last century, the upper classes were the worst
offenders, of which the just-mentioned statesman and
epistolary chronicler of small-beer, which, however, by
long keeping has acquired a strong and lasting flavour,
Lord Sandwich,' he reports,
gives us many proofs.
'

'

goes once or twice a week to hunt with the Duke [of

Cumberland], and, as the latter has taken a turn of

gaming, Sandwich, to make his court and fortune

a box and dice in his pocket and so they throw
a main whenever the hounds are at fault, upon every
carries

green hill and under every green tree. Five years later,
at a magnificent ball and supper at Bedford House,
the Duke was playing at hazard with a great heap of
gold before him. Somebody said he looked like the
Under such
prodigal son and the fatted calf both.
'

circumstances

it

could not

fail

that swindlers yar ex-

sometimes found their way among the royal

and noble gamblers. There was a Sir William Burdett,
whose name had the honour of being inscribed in the
cellence

betting-room at White's as the subject of a wager that

he would be the first baronet who would be hanged.

He and

a lady, ' dressed foreign, as a Princess \ e +1

House of Brandenburg, 1 cheated Lord Castledurrow

(Baron Ashbrook) and Captain Rodney out of a handsome sum at faro. The noble victim met the Baronet
at Ranelagh, and addressed him thus
Sir William,
'

here

is

the

sum

I think I lost last

night.

Since then I

LONDON SOUVENIRS

10

have heard that you are a professed pickpocket, and

therefore I desire to have no further acquaintance with
The Baronet took the money with a respectful
you.
1

bow, and then asked his Lordship the further favour to

set him down at Buckingham Gate, and without further

ceremony jumped into the coach.

Walpole writes to
Jemmy Lumley last week had a
of
at
his
own
house the combatants, Lucy
whist
party
like
a bear, Mrs. Bijean, and
that
Southwell,
curtseys

Mann,

in 1750, that

'

Mrs. Mackenzy. They played from six in the evening

till twelve next day, Jemmy never winning one rubber,

and

rising a loser of i?2,000.

cheated and would not pay.

share in his evil surmises
.

at

Hampstead to Lucy and

the rendezvous his chaise was

by someone not to proceed.

He

fancied himself

However, the bear had no

and he promised a dinner
her sister. As he went to
stopped, and he was advised
But proceed he did, and
Mackenzy. She asked him
.

garden he found Mrs.

whether he was going to pay, and, on his declining to
do so, the fair virago took a horsewhip from beneath

in the

her hoop, and fell upon him with the utmost vehemence.''
Members of clubs were fully aware of the nefariousness of their devotion to gambling.
When a waiter at
Arthur's Club was taken up for robbery, George Selwyn
said

'
:

What

a horrid idea he

will

give of us to the

Certes, some of the highwaymen

Newgate
in that prison were not such robbers and scoundrels as
some of the aristocratic members of those clubs. When,

people in

in 1750, the people got frightened about an earthquake

'
in London, predicted to happen in that year,
Lady

Catherine

Arundel 1,

Pelham, Walpole tells us,

Lady James
and Lord and Lady Gal way ... go this
'

GAMBLING-CLUBS AND HIGH PLAY

11

evening to an inn ten miles out of town, where they are

going to play at brag till five in the morning, and then

come back, I suppose, to look for the bones of their

husbands and families under the rubbish.
When the
1

on such an occasion, or any other

occasion of public terror, possibly caused by their own
mismanagement of public affairs, hypocritically and
most impertinently ordered a day of fasting and humilia-

rulers of the nation

tion, the

gambling-houses used to be

filled

with

officials

and members of Parliament, who thus had a day off.

There was one famous gambling-house we find we
have not yet mentioned, viz., Shaver's Hall, which
occupied the whole of the southern side of Coventry
Street, from the Haymarket to Hedge Lane (now
Oxenden Street), and derived its name from the barber
of Lord Pembroke, who built it out of his earnings.
Attached to it was a bowling-green, which sloped down
to the south. The place was built about the year 1650,
and the tennis-court belonging to it till recently might
still

be seen in

St.

James's Street.

II.

WITTY WOMEN AND PRETTY WOMEN.

waves of sentiment or action, or both

CERTAIN
combined, have

at various times passed over the

thousand years ago

European society.
the Old Continent went madly crusading to snatch the
Holy Sepulchre from the grasp of the pagan Sultan,
who, sick man as he is, still holds it. The movement
face of

had certain advantages

it

Europe of a good
came back, as it perished

cleared

deal of ruffianism, which never

on the journey to Jerusalem, or very properly was killed

by the justly incensed Turks, who could not understand by what right these hordes of robbers invaded
off

Then another phase of society madness

Some maniac, clad in armour, on a horse similarly

their country.
arose.

accoutred, would appear, and

challenge

everyone to

admit that the Lady Gwendolyne Mousetrap, whom he

kept company with, and took to the tea-gardens on
Sundays, was the most peerless damosel, and that whoso
doubted it, would not get off by paying a dollar, but
would have to fight it out with him. Then another
mailed and belted chap would

jump

that the Countess of Rabbit-Warren

and maintain

up,
who was the

girl

WITTY WOMEN AND PRETTY WOMEN

13

he was just then booming was the finest woman going,

and that that slut Gwendolyne Mousetrap was no
Of course, as soon as the
better than she should be.

King and Court heard of the shindy between the two

knights a day was appointed when they should fight it
out, the combatants being enclosed in a kind of rat-pit,
the King, his courtiers and
and if one of
;

officially called lists, whilst

their gentle ladies looked at the sport

the knights was killed, or perhaps both were killed, or

at least maimed for life, the Lady Gwendolyne and the

Countess of Rabbit- Warren, who, of course, both assisted

at the spectacle, received the congratulations of the
Court.
Sometimes one of the knights would funk, and
not come up to the scratch then he was declared a
lame duck, and the lady whom he had left in the lurch
and made a laughing-stock of would erase his name
;

tablets, and shy the trumpery proofs of devohad given her, a worn-out scarf or Brummagem
This was called the
aigrette, out of an upper window.

from her

tion he

age of chivalry.

Then a

the fighting mania

totally different eruption of

is, after all, the universal

which

took place.
principle in human action
vagrant
scholasticus would appear in a University town, and

announce that he was ready to hold a disputation with

any professor, Doctor of Divinity, or Master of Arts,
on any mortal subject, the more subtle, and the more
incomprehensible, and the more mystical, the better.
Thus, one such scholasticus got into the rostrum at
'
I am
Tubingen, and addressed his audience thus
about to propound three theses the answer to the first
is known to
myself only, and not to you ; to the second,
:

the answer

is

known

neither to you nor to

me

to the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

14
third, the

answer

is

known

to

you

only.'

This was a

promising programme, and, indeed, proved highly edifyNow, the first question,' resumed the scholasticus,
ing.
'

Have

know, but I do
answer to which

'

is

this

got any breeches on ? You don't

have not. The second question, the

known

neither to you nor to me, is

town any draper willing to advance
on credit stuff enough to make me a pair? And the
third question, the answer to which is known to you
Will any of you pay a tailor's wages to make
only, is
me a pair? And now that the argument is clearly
before you, we may proceed to the consideration of the
and
parabolic triangulation of the binocular theorem
then he would bewilder them with a lot of jaw-breaking
This
words, which then, as now, passed for learning.
is

Shall I find in this

;'

was called the age of scholasticism. It was succeeded

by the Renaissance, which, after a good boil-up of its
intellectual

ingredients, settled

down

into

a literary

mud, an Acqui-la-Bollente, a Nile mud, pleasant to the

soul, and fertilizing to the mind, the protoplasm of
to mention but
diarists and letter-writers, of whom
three Evelyn, Pepys, and Horace Walpole were pro-

minent patterns

in the seventeenth

and eighteenth cen-

turies.

It

is

with the

latter,

Horace Walpole, of Strawberry

we

Horace Walpole, after

are chiefly concerned.
Hill,
a
a
into
Gothic
castle, with lath and
cottage
enlarging

and rough-cast walls, and wooden pinnacles,

But he
filled it with literary and artistic treasures.
also gathered around him a select social circle, which
plaster,

included Gairick, Paul Whitehead, General Conway,

George Sehvyn, Richard Bentley, the poet Gray, Sir

WITTY WOMEN AND PRETTY WOMEN

15

Horace Mann, and Lords Edgcumbe and Strafford.

of ladies there was no lack there were Mrs. Pritchard, Kitty Give, Lady Suffolk, the Misses Berry, and
would you believe it ? Hannah More
It was the
age for chronicling small-beer and home-made wine,
and Horace Walpole
gossip, scandal, and frivolity

And

enjoyed existence as a cynical Seladon or platonic Bluebeard amidst this bevy of lively, gay-minded, frolicsome

young and old. Happily, or unhappily, for

he
not become acquainted with the Misses
did
him,
before
1788, when he was seventy-one years of
Berry
He
took the most extraordinary liking to them,
age.
beauties,

and was never content except when they were with him,
or corresponding with him.
When they went to Italy,
he wrote to them regularly once a week, and on their
return he installed them at Little
Strawberry Hill, a
house close to his own, so that he might
daily enjoy
their society.
He appointed them his literary executors,
with the charge of collecting and publishing his writings,
which was done under the superintendence of Mr.
Berry,
their father, who was a Yorkshire
gentleman. When
Walpole had succeeded to the Earldom of Orford he

made Mary, the elder of the two sisters, an offer of his

Both sisters survived him upwards of sixty years.
Little Strawberry Hill, which we just mentioned as

hand.

the residence of the Misses Berry, had, before their

coming to live in it, been occupied by Kitty Give, the

Born in 1711, she made her first

on
the
appearance
stage of Drury Lane, and in 1732
she married a brother of Lord Give, but the union
proved unhappy, and was soon dissolved. She quitted
famous

actress.

the stage in 1769, leaving a splendid reputation as an

LONDON SOUVENIRS

16

and

woman behind

her, and retired to Little

she
where
lived
in ease, surrounded
Strawberry Hill,
friends
and
world.
the
Horace Walpole
by
respected by
was a constant visitor at her house, as were many other
actress

as a

It was said of her that

persons of rank and eminence.
no man could be grave when Kitty chose to be merry.
But she must have been a woman of some spirit, too,

when it was proposed to stop up a footpath in her

neighbourhood she placed herself at the head of the
opponents, and defeated the project. She died suddenly
for

and Walpole placed an urn in the grounds to

her memory, with the inscription

in 1785,

'

Here

lived the laughter-loving

A matchless actress,

dame

Clive her name.

The comic Muse with her retired,

And shed a tear when she expired.'

The Mrs.

Pritchard mentioned above was also an actress,

of great and well-deserved fame. She lived at an origin"

Ragman's Castle," which she
ally small house, called

much improved and

enlarged.

It had, after her, various

occupants, and was finally taken down by Lord Kilmorey during his occupancy of Orleans House, near
which it stood.
Another of the constant visitors at Strawberry Hill
was Lady Suffolk, Pope's Chloe." She was married to
the Hon. Charles Howard, from whom she separated
'

when she became the

mistress of the Prince, afterwards

George II., who, as Prince, allowed her i?2,000 a year,

and as King d3,200 a year, besides several sums at

He

gave her ^12,000 towards Marble

Hill, the mansion still facing the Thames, which became

various times.

WITTY WOMEN AND PRETTY WOMEN

Her husband

her residence.

become Earl of
marry, when

Suffolk,

she

was

lived

and dying,
forty-five,

17

long enough to
left her free to

the

Hon. George

who

died eleven years after.

She survived
Berkeley,
him twenty-one years, and supplied her neighbour,

Horace Walpole, with Court anecdotes and scandal

during all that period. Walpole calls her remarkably

a favourite
and,
vulgar
-

'

'genteel
so

expression of his, though

now

in spite of her antecedents, she was

the highest in the land.
Such were the

courted by
morals of those days. According to Horace Walpole,
her mental qualifications were not of a high order, but
she was gentle and engaging in her manners, and she

was a gossip with a good memory

her host's purpose admirably.
use of her reminiscences.

and that answered

Pope

made great

also

Like Dr. Johnson, Horace Walpole liked to fill his

house with a lot of female devotees ; but whilst Johnson

seemed to prefer a parcel of disagreeable, ugly, and

cantankerous women, always quarrelling among themselves and with
everybody else, Walpole liked his women
to be

young and

fair, full

of

life

and mirth.

By what

strange circumstance was the cynical and sarcastic

Walpole led into a sort of friendship with the mild and
It was in 1784 that
pietistic Mrs. Hannah More ?
this queer friendship

began.

It

appears that about

Hannah More had discovered at Bristol a

milk woman who wrote verses, just such verses as Hannah
More and Walpole neither of whom had an idea of
that date

would
poetry

consider

must be started

for the benefit of the

Hannah More

wonderful.

subscription

milkwoman, and

applied to Horace Walpole,

who
l
2

set

up

LONDON SOUVENIRS

18

for a Maecenas,

contempt

though he always expressed the utmost

Of

for authors, for a contribution.

Hannah More

did not

make

this application

course,

without a

dose of fulsome compliment to Horace Walpole's genius,

and he went into the trap, subscribed, and expressed his
admiration of the milkwomans poetry. The woman's
name was Yearsley she was quite ready to receive the
;

money, but, having evidently a very high opinion of her

own

doggerel, she refused to listen to the literary advice

given to her by Horace Walpole and her patroness, with

whom

she very soon quarrelled. Walpole condoled with

Hannah thus ' You are not only benevolence itself,
but, with fifty times the genius of Dame Yearsley, you
:

How

are void of vanity.

expel gratitude
her fame to you

strange that vanity should

Does not the wretched woman owe

Dame

the troubadours, those vagrants

till

knew

and who used to pour out

their history,

and

Yearsley reminds me of
whom I used to admire

flatter or abuse,

trumpery verses,
accordingly as they
housed
and
or
were
dismissed to the next parish.
clothed,

Yet you did not

set this person in the stocks, after pro1

curing an annuity for her.

By this letter we see what
were Horace Walpole's ideas of patronage flattery and
a pittance, independence and the stocks. Walpole was
open to flattery. Dr. Johnson was not at least, not
:

from a woman

he despised the sex too much to care

When Hannah More laid it on very

for their praise.

thick in his case,

he

fiercely

turned round on her and

before you flatter a man so grossly to

you should consider whether or not your flattery
is worth his
And, with all his admiration for
having."
her character, Walpole could not help sneering at what
said

'

Madam,

his face,

WITTY WOMEN AND PRETTY WOMEN

he called her

saintliness,

and venting

his sarcasm

19

on her

'

silly Coelebs in Search of a Wife," the absurdity of which

has, indeed, been surpassed by a few modern novels of

the same tendency. The last we hear of their friendship

is that he made her a
fancy the
present of a Bible
leer
with
which
he
must
have
satyr's
presented it to her

She paid him out for the implied irony by wishing that
he would read it.

Among

the ladies

who were neighbours

of Horace

Walpole, we must not omit Lady Mary Wortley

Montagu, who lived for some years in a house on the
south side of the road leading to Twickenham Common.

She may justly be considered as one of the witty,

of the pretty,

women

of Walpole's time.

He

not

if

detested

Probably he was somewhat jealous of her, for her

from Constantinople on Turkish life and society
1
earned her the sobriquet of the 'Female Horace Walpole.
her.

letters

He
1

writes of her thus whilst she was living at Florence

is
laughed at by the whole town. Her dress, her
:

She

and her impudence must amaze anyone.

She wears a foul mob, that does not cover her greasy

avarice,

black locks, that hang loose, never combed or curled

an old mazarine blue wrapper, that gapes open and

discovers a canvas petticoat.

Her

face swelled violently

and partly covered with white paint, which

for cheapness she has bought so coarse that you would
not use it to wash a chimney.
In another letter he
on one

side,

describes her dress as consisting of ' a

1
dirt, with an embroidery of filthiness.

groundwork of

When

he wrote

of her then, she was about fifty years of age, and seems
to have retained none of the beauty which distinguished

her in her earlier years.

She was not only coarse in

22

LONDON SOUVENIRS

20

but in her speech and writings, which shock

modern fastidiousness. She was not the woman to
looks,

even when
seventies,
please Horace Walpole, who,
liked nothing better than acting as squire or cicerone
in the

Lady Mary was not one of them. She

what we now should call a regular Bohemian
and was it to be wondered at? She had been introduced into that sort of life when she was a girl only

to fine ladies.
was, in fact,

own father, Evelyn, Earl of

eight years old by her
Kingston. He was a member of the Kitcat Club, whose
chief occupation was the proposing and toasting the
One evening the Earl took it into
beauties of the day.
She was sent for in
his head to nominate his daughter.

a chaise, and introduced to the company in dirty Shire

Lane in a grimy chamber, reeking with foul culinary
smells and stale tobacco-smoke, and elected by acclamathe little lady's health upwith
her
sweets, and passing her
standing ; and feasting
her name with a
inscribed
round with kisses, at once
tion.

The gentlemen drank

diamond on a drinking - glass. 'Pleasure, she says,

was too poor a word to express my sensations. They
amounted to ecstasy. Never again throughout my whole
Of course, the
life did I pass so happy an evening.''
'

child could not perceive the hideousness of the whole

if the kisses were
proceeding and its surroundings
the noses above,
from
snuff
of
seasoned with droppings
even at the
clean
which otherwise were not always very
:

Lord Kenyon, Chief Justice

beginning of this century
of the King's Bench, was an utter stranger to the luxury
of a pocket-handkerchief, and had no delicacy about
the sweetness of
avowing it it did not detract from

the bon-bons with which she was regaled.

WITTY WOMEN AND PRETTY WOMEN

21

The founder of the Blue-Stocking Club, Mrs. Montagu,

nee Elizabeth Robinson, was another of Walpole's witty
and handsome lady friends. As a girl she was lively,
full

to

of fun, yet fond of study.

In 1742 she was married

Edward Montagu, M.P., a coal-owner of great

wealth.

girl the Duchess of Portland had called her La

1
but after her marriage she became more
Petite Fidget

As

'

sedate,

and a great power

in the literary world.

She

established the Blue-Stocking Club, of which herself,

Mrs. Vesey, Miss Boscawen, Mrs. Carter, Lord Lyttelton,

Mr. Pulteney, Mr. Stillingfleet, and Horace Walpole

were the first members. The name originally came from
Venice, where, in 1400, the Academical Society (Idle calze
had been established, whence the name was transferred
to similar associations in France, there called Bus Bleus,
and from the latter country it was introduced into
England. Mrs. Montagu, having been left a widow
with P7,000 a year, built herself a mansion, standing
in a large garden at the north-west corner of Portman
Square, and there the Blue-Stocking Club continued to
hold its meetings for a number of years, including all
the persons of her time who were celebrated in art,
science, or literature,

among whom may be mentioned

Boswell and Johnson, the latter of whom, in the presence

of ladies, somewhat modified his bearish habits.
Mrs.
died in 1800, and the house she had built
eventually became the town residence of Viscount

Montagu

Portman.

Of course, Horace Walpole was acquainted with the

Misses Gunning ' those goddesses,' as Mary Montagu
styled them. They were nieces of the first Earl of Mayo,

and so got a ready introduction into London

society,

LONDON SOUVENIRS

22

went raving mad about them. Horace

Walpole tells us that even the great unwashed followed
them in crowds whenever they appeared in public there
must have been an extraordinary appreciation of beauty
in the rabble
and what a rabble of ruffians it was
of those days.
But London then was no bigger than a
which

literally

'

'

compared with what it is now. The

two ladies speedily found husbands
the Duke of
Hamilton married Elizabeth, the younger, after an
evening spent in the society of the sisters and their
mother at Bedford House, and was in such a hurry
about it that he would wait for neither licence nor ring,
and, after with some difficulty satisfying the scruples of

provincial town,

the parson called upon to celebrate the extempore ceremony, they were married with the ring of a bed-curtain,
at half an hour after twelve at night, at Mayfair Chapel.
Three weeks afterwards Lord Coventry married her
sister,

Maria.

The Duke

of Hamilton dying in 1758,

six years after the strange nuptials in Mayfair Chapel,

the widow in the following year married Jack Campbell,

Duke

afterwards

of Argyll.

wear her coronet long

in

Lady Coventry

1760 she

died, it

did not

is said,

consequence of her excessive use of white paint.

'
twice duchessed/ survived her many years.
sister,

We

have far from exhausted the

list

in

Her

of the ladies

and beauty who figure in Horace

but
our space is exhausted. We
Walpole's Letters,'
conclude
without a few words on the
cannot, however,

distinguished for wit

'

'

Letters

'

in

question.

Their chief value consists in

the lively descriptions of public events; not as dry and

cold history records them, but by letting us have peeps

behind the scenes, so as to see the wire-pullers, the

WITTY WOMEN AND PRETTY WOMEN

23

secret machinery, which set in motion the actors on the

political and social stage. They show us lords and ladies

in their negliges,

and how the conceit of a hairdresser,

or the caprice of a lady's-maid, may make or mar the

destinies of a nation.
This copious letter-writing forms

indeed an era in our literary history which will never

the prying reporter and the irre-

return or be renewed

pressible interviewer now supply all the world with what

the letter-writer communicated to a few friends only.
This present age may be called the Age of Reminiscences:

everybody
end
!

is

writing his

of making books there

is

no

III.

OLD LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES.

COMPARATIVELY

small room, considering

it

was one for public use, with clingy walls, a grimy

ceiling, a sanded floor, boxes with upright backs
and narrow seats, wooden chairs, liquor-stained tables,
lighted

up

in the evening with

ing candles, the whole

smoky lamps or gutterroom reeking with tobacco like

a guard-room such was the coffee-house of the later

Its distincStuart and the whole Georgian periods.

was spittoons. In such dens

in flowing wigs and embroidered

tive article of furniture

did the noblemen,

coats,

sable

parsons in
suits

and

cassocks

and bands, physicians in

tremendous

perukes,

together with

broken-down gamesters, swindlers, country yokels, and

out-at-elbows literary and theatrical adventurers, meet,
not only for pleasure, but for business too. Dr. Radcliffe, who in 1685 had the largest practice in London,
was daily to be seen at Garraway's, now demolished,
and another
its site being included in Martin's bank
;

favourite resort of doctors hereby was Batson's, where,

'
Connoisseur says, ' the dispensers of life and
as the
'

death flock together, like birds of prey watching for

OLD LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES

25

never enter this place but it serves as a

Batson's has been reckoned
memento mor'i to me.
carcases.

the seat of solemn stupidity.

Coffee-houses, indeed, had their distinct sets of customers.
St. Paul's, for instance, was patronized by the

both by those with fat livings and by ' battered

crapes, who plied there for an occasional burial or
Dick's was frequented by members of the
sermon.
with
whom, in 1737, Mrs. Yarrow and her
Temple,
clergy,

daughter,

who kept the

house, were great favourites

wherefore, when the Rev. James Miller brought out a

1

'
comedy, called The Coffee-House, in which the ladies
were thought to be indicated the engraver having un-

fortunately

fixed

upon
scene the

Dick's

Coffee

House

as

Templars attended the

the
first

frontispiece
representation, and hissed the piece off the boards.
Button's, in Covent Garden, was the resort of Addison

and

Steele, of

Pope and

Swift, of Savage

in fact, of the wits of the time.

At

and Davenant
this

house was

through whose mouth letters were

The head
for
the
Tailers and Spectators.
dropped
Bedford
was afterwards transferred to the
Coffee-House,
under the Piazza, and eventually, in 1827, was purthe lion's

head

chased by the Duke of Bedford, and is now at Woburn

Abbey. Bedford's was the successor of Button's, and is
described in the 'Memoirs' of it as having been sig'

the emporium of wit, the

and the standard of taste.' In 1659
was founded the Rota Club by James Charrington, a
political writer, and its members met at Miles's, in Old
Palace Yard.
Pepys attended one of its meetings on
It was a kind of debatingJanuary 10, 1659-60.
nalized for

many

seat of criticism,

years as

LONDON SOUVENIRS

26

society for the dissemination of Republican opinions.

Coffee-houses, indeed, at that period became important

Nothing resembling the modern

existed
in consequence, these houses
then
newspaper
were the chief organs through which the public opinion

political institutions.

itself, and so threatening to the Court did, in

course of time, their influence appear, that on December 29, 1675, the King and his Cabal Ministry issued a

vented

proclamation for shutting up and suppressing all coffee'

houses, because in such houses, and by occasion of the

meeting of disaffected persons in them, diverse

malicious, and scandalous reports were devised
spread abroad,

to the defamation

of

his

false,

and

Majesty's

Government, and to the disturbance of the quiet and

peace of the realm.' The opinions of the judges were
taken on this

ridiculous

and

edict,

reported 'that retailing coffee

they sapiently

might be an innocent

trade, but as it was used to nourish sedition, spread

lies, and scandalize great men, it might also be a

common

On

a petition of the merchants

and tea, permission was granted
to keep open the coffee-houses until June 24 next,
under an admonition that the masters of them should
prevent all scandalous papers, books, and libels from
being read in them.*' This, of course, was a huge joke
on the part of the Cabal, who thus constituted the concoctors and dispensers of dishes
to use the hideous
word then employed of coffee and tea censors and
licensers of books, and judges of the truth or falsehood
of political opinions and intelligence.
After that no
more was heard of the matter, and the coffee-houses

and

nuisance.

retailers of coffee

'

'

remained political debating clubs, as

is

proved by the

OLD LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES

27

remarks on them in the Spectator and similar publications.

The

See, for instance, Nos. 403, 476, 481, 521, etc.

London
Bowman, coachman

coffee-house was set

up by one
Mr. Hodges, a Turkey merchant.
Others say that Mr. Edwards brought over
with him a Ragusa servant, Pasqua Rosee, who was
first

to

associated with

Bowman

house

Michael's

in

St.

in establishing the first coffee-

But the
and
Bowman
They parted,

Alley,

partners soon quarrelled.

opened a coffee-house in

Cornhill.

St. Michael's Churchyard,

from which we may infer that the public took to the
'
new drink.
Rosee issued handbills headed
The
:

vertue of the coffee-drink.

First

made and

publicly

sold in

England by Pasqua Rosee, at the sign of his

own head."' The original of one of them is preserved
in the British Museum.
It is generally said that the
second coffee-house in London was that established as
the

Rainbow (now a

tavern) in Fleet Street,

by one

In the Mercurius
Farr, a barber, in the year 1657.
Politicus of September 30, 1658, an advertisement appeared, setting forth the virtues of the then equally

new beverage, namely,

sold at the Sultaness

tcha, or tay, or tee,

which was

Head

Cophee-house, in Sweeting's
thus see that as
Exchange.

We

Rents, by the Royal

early as 1658 there were already three coffee-houses in
London.
But coffee met with opponents.
The
vintners

'

called it
sooty drink '; lampooners said it
undermined virile power, and that to drink it was to
ape the Turks and insult one's canary drinking

Farr, the founder of the Rainbow, already

mentioned, was indicted for making and selling a sort
of liquor, called coffee, whereby in making it he

ancestors.

'

LONDON SOUVENIRS

28

by evil smells, and for keeping

the most part night and day, to the great
1
But Fandanger and affrightment of his neighbours.
stood his ground, and in time became a person of
his neighbours

annoyed
of

fire for

importance in the parish, and coffee-houses multiplied.

There
Cornhill and its purlieus were full of them.
were the Great Turk, Sword Blade, Rainbow, Garraway, Jerusalem, Tom's, and Weston's Coffee-Houses in

Exchange Alley alone

in St. Michael's Alley, close by,

;
there were, besides Rosee's, Williams's, and other coffeehouses.
They also, as we have seen, had been estab-

than the City, and they were also,

already mentioned, places of rendezvous, where
appointments were made, where lawyers met clients,
and doctors patients, merchants their customers, clerks
lished further west

as

their

masters,

where

farce

writers,

journalists,

poli-

ticians, and literary hacks went to pick up ideas, and,

as it was then called, watch, and if they could, catch
the humours of the town.
The Spectator, in his very
first

number, acknowledges his indebtedness to coffeeThere is no place of general resort, he says,

'

'

houses.

wherein

do not often make

my

appearance.

Some-

am

seen thrusting my head into a round of

at
Will's (on the north side of Russell Street,
politicians
at the corner of Bow Street), and listening with great

times

attention to the narratives that are

made

in those little

Sometimes I smoke a pipe at Child's

(St. Paul's Churchyard), and whilst I seem attentive to
nothing but the Postman, overhear the conversation of
I appear on Sunday nights at
every table in the room.
St. James's (the famous Whig coffee-house from the
circular audiences.

time of Queen Anne to late in the reign of George

III.),

OLD LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES

and sometimes join the
the inner room, as one

little

committee of

who comes

29

politics in

there to hear and

improve.

There was another Will's in Serle Street, Lincoln's

Inn Fields, which was also a haunt of the Spectator, as
were the other coffee-houses in that neighbourhood. He
I do not know that
says in his ninety-ninth number
'

any of my walks objects which move both my

spleen and laughter so effectually as these young fellows
at the Grecian, Squire's, Searle's, and all other coffeehouses adjacent to the law, who rise early for no other
I

meet

in

It appears that
purpose but to publish their laziness.
it was usual to resort to the coffee-house as early as six
1

In ' Mosers Vestiges, Will's is

o'clock in the morning.
'
All the beaux that used to breakfast
thus referred to
:

in the coffee-houses

and taverns appendant to the Inns

of Court struck their morning strokes in an elegant

deshabille, which was carelessly confined by a sash of
yellow, red, blue, green, etc., according to the taste of
The idle fashion was not quite worn out
the wearer.
can remember having seen some of these
in 1765.

We

early loungers in their nightgowns, caps,

1
Lincoln's Inn Gate, about that period.

But the

etc.,

coffee-houses were not all for beer

at Will's,

and

skittles

In the City especially, the business of the City,

only.
and of England, in fact, was transacted in them. Mer-

chants and

other business people,

professional men,
brokers, agents, had not then their private offices, which
could only be reached through the ante-den of quill-

driving cerberi, vidgo clerks.

All the transactions of

daily life were then largely carried on in public, as they

are in all communities, until they arrive at a high state

LONDON SOUVENIRS

30
of civilization.

Even now among the peasantry of

various European countries a man cannot have his child

christened without the ceremony being rendered a
public
And so here in England, in the barbarous
spectacle.

days of dingy and musty coffee-houses, they were consulting-rooms,

to further

counting-houses, auction-rooms,
the business was done, or in order
refreshments of all sorts were handy, for
offices,

When

and shops.

it,

the coffee-house did not confine itself to that innocent

beverage, but supplied stronger stuffs it was, in fact,
a tavern, and many of the houses, now openly so called,
were formerly coffee-houses. And the business trans;

them was, as may be imagined, of the most

varied character.
Agents for the purchase or sale of

acted at

estates, houses

people at their

and other property, instead of seeing

Thus
offices, met them at coffee-houses.

one Thomas Rogers advertised that he gave attendance

on Tuesdays at
daily at the Rainbow by the Temple
;

Tom's, by the Exchange, and on Thursdays at Will's,

near Whitehall, for transacting agency business. This
was legitimate enough, but what of the sale of human
flesh

at a

coffee-house
'

In 1708 an

advertisement

black boy, twelve years of age, fit to

appeared
wait on a gentleman, to be disposed of at Denis's Coffee1
And again, in 1728 ' To be
house, in Finch-lane.
a
sold,
negro boy, aged eleven years. Enquire at the
:

Sometimes
Virginia Coffee-house, Threadneedle-street.
the keeper of the coffee-house sold goods on account of
thus from an advertisement in the Postman,
January, 1705, we learn that Mr. Shipton, at John's
others

Coffee-house, in Exchange Alley, sold someone's famous

razor strops. The landlords of those places, indeed, seem

OLD LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES

31

to have been very accommodating, especially in the taking

in of letters, thus anticipating the practice of modern

newspaper shops.

And

they were not squeamish as to

the advertisements, answers to which were to be sent to

them. Thus a gentleman (?) in the General Advertiser,

October, 1745, expressed a wish to hear from a lady he

had seen in one of the left-hand boxes at Drury Lane,
and who seemed to take particular notice of a gentleman

who

about the middle of the pit (the advertiser, of

course). Letter to be left for P. M. F.\ at the Portugal
In 1762 a young
Coffee-house, near the Exchange.
sat

'

man

advertised for his mother,

'

who, in 1740, resided

at a certain village near Bath, where she was delivered

of a son, whom she left with a sum of money under the
care of a person in the same parish, and promised to
him at a certain age, but has not since been heard

fetch

of

...

if

living, she is

asked to send a letter to " J. E.",

the Chapter Coffee-house, St. Paul's Churchyard

this advertisement is published by the person
himself [i.e., the son, born near Bath] not from motives

at
.

of necessity, or to court any assistance (he being by a

series of happy circumstances possessed of an easy and

independent fortune)." It would, I fancy, be difficult

at the present day to find anyone, having a reputation
of any note to keep up, willing to receive answers to
such an advertisement, which, if it was not a fraud,
looked terribly like an attempt at one. It happened in
those days, as
of gentlemen

occasionally does how, that the estates

who married late in life passed away to
it

remote branches
reflected

judge

the

'

on this subject.

by

'

young gentleman had no doubt

advertisements,

The Turk's Head

to

have

been

seems, to

somewhat

LONDON SOUVENIRS

32
heathenish.

the
'

Here

Morning

is

another advertisement, also from

to which it took in

answers

Post,

Whereas there

are ladies, who have ^2,000, ^3,000,

or i?4,000 at their command, and who, from not knowing

how

to dispose of the same to the

greatest advantage
afford them but a
the
scanty maintenance
advertiser (who is a gentleman of
independent fortune,
.

strict

honour and character, and above reward) acquaints

such ladies that

if

they will favour him with their name

will put them into a method
by

and address ... he

which they may, without any trouble, and with an

absolute certainty, place out their
money, so as to produce them a clear interest of 10 or 12
per cent.
.

on good and safe

Direct to " R.

Head

at the Turk's

any lady who

securities.

fell

Coffee-house, Strand.
into the clutches of this

of independent fortune

'
!

And how

11

J.,

Esq.,

We

pity

'

gentleman

the Turk's

Head

must have grinned when answers to R. J. arrived

About the same time a gentleman advertised that he
knew a method, which reduced it almost to a
certainty
'

to win a considerable

sum by insuring numbers in the

For
ten
lottery.
guineas the gentleman was prepared
to discover the plan.
Answers to be sent to the York
1

'

Coffee-house, St. James's Street.

Another gentleman

willing to lend oC3,000 to anyone having sufficient

interest to procure him a Government
is

appointment,
worth i?200 or / 300 per annum. Answers to this were
to be sent to the
Chapter Coffee-house, St. Paul's. To
J

some of the coffee-houses

it would seem
porters were
to
run
errands
for
attached, ready
customers, or the
outside public some of them seem to have earned a
;

reputation of a certain character.

Thus Cynthio

{Spec-

OLD LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES

tator,

at
'

33

No. 398) employs Robin, the porter, who waits

Coffee-house, to take a letter to Flavia.

Will's

Robin, you must know, we are told,

in the

town

for carrying a billet

'

is

the best

man

the fellow has a thin

body, swift step, demure looks, sufficient sense, and

knows the town
the fellow covers his knowledge
.

of the nature of his messages with the most exquisite

low humour imaginable ; the first he obliged Flavia to

take was by complaining to her that he had a wife and

three children, and if she did not take that letter, which
he was sure there was no harm in, but rather love, his

family must go supperless to bed, for the gentleman

would pay him according as he did his business.'' He

would seem to have been a mild Leporello.

We

find the cheapness of living at coifee-houses frequently extolled in the publications and conversations of

the day in which they were most flourishing.

An Irish
painter, whom Johnson knew, declared that 30 a year

was enough to enable a man to

He

live in

London, without

allowed dCIO for clothes and

being contemptible.
He said a man might live in a garret at Is. 6d.
linen.
a week few people would inquire where he lodged, and
;

'
Sir, you will find me at
they did, it was easy to say
,
such and such a place
as
just
nowadays impecunious

if

swells,

who

live

in garrets,

manage to keep up

their

club subscription, and give as their address that of the

club.
By spending threepence at a coffee-house, Johnson's Irish painter further argued, a
in very good

some hours every day

man might

be for

company he might
dine for sixpence, breakfast on bread-and-milk for a
penny, and do without supper. On clean-shirt day the
painter went out to pay visits, as Swift also did.
;

LONDON SOUVENIRS

34

coffeeregard to the persons employed in a

'
To
advertisement
prevent
house, we learn from one
all mistakes among gentlemen of the other end of the

With

town, who come but once a week to St. James's Coffeehouse, either by miscalling the servants, or requiring
such things from them as are not properly within their
notice that Kidney,
respective provinces, this is to give
of
the
book-debts
of
the
outlying customers, and
keeper

who go off without paying, having

that
employment, is succeeded by John Sowton,
resigned
to whose place of caterer of messages and first coffeeand Samuel Bardock
grinder William Bird is promoted,
observer of those

comes as shoe-cleaner

in the

room of the

said Bird.'

Well, the coffee-houses are things of the past a few

What may be considered as their
;

survive as taverns.

successors are called coffee-shops, patronized by working'

men chiefly, but the ' humours are of the tamest

may supply statistics to temperance

no
literary entertainment to the public.
apostles, but

description

they

IV.

OLD

M.P.S

AND SOME OF THEIR

SOMEBODY
a man you

SAYINGS.

has said that, on making inquiry after

have not seen for a number of years,

you may find him either in the hulks or in ParliaThis somebody evidently was a bit of a philowho
knew how to put the possibilities of human
sopher,
He understood that the same cause
a
nutshell.
life in
may have totally different effects the same heat which
softens lead hardens clay, the same abilities which may
send a man to penal servitude may elevate him to the
And thus it happened that some
dignity of an M.P.
into
Parliament, which, no doubt, was
queer people got
the fact which gave rise to somebody's wise saw, and
which was not to be wondered at in the good old days,
before Reform and Corrupt Practices Prevention Acts,
ment.

and similar humbugging interferences with the liberty

In those good old days
of the subject, were dreamt of.
of rotten and pocket boroughs men had Parliamentary
honours thrust upon them nolcntes volentes. Thus, a
noble lord, who owned several such boroughs, was asked
by the returning officer whom he meant to nominate.
Having no eligible candidate at hand, he named a waiter

32

LONDON SOUVENIRS

36

at White's Club, one Robert Mackreth ; but, as he did

not happen to be sure of the Christian name of his

nominee, the election was declared to be void. Nothing

daunted, his lordship persisted in his nomination.

was therefore held, when, the name of the

waiter having been ascertained, he was returned as a
matter of course, and Robert Mackreth, Esq., took his
fresh election

seat in St. Stephen's.

This was possible in the days of

Eldon and Perceval in fact, in the early part of this

century, 306 members, more than half of the House of
Commons, were returned by 160 persons, and in 1830 it
;

was admitted that, though there were men of ability in

the Cabinet, such as Brougham, Lansdowne, Melbourne,
Palmerston, the members of the House were 'persons
of very narrow capacities, of small reputation for talent,
and without influence with the people."
1

However, the Reform

Bill

was passed in 1832, and

There had been thirty-

pocket boroughs were abolished.

seven places returning members with constituencies not

exceeding fifty electors, and fourteen of those places

had not more than twenty

electors.

boroughs each containing only one

One of the boroughs only paid

another

16

8s. 9d.,

There were three

=?10

householder.

in assessed taxes

^3

9s.,

a third =40 17s. Id.

But, luckily
for the public, the Reform Bill did not abolish the fun
The
of the flags, music, beer, and jokes of elections.
delicate attentions which could still be paid to candidates

remained

in full swing.

in the Isle of

Thus, we remember an election

father of one of the candidates

Wight The
:

for Parliamentary distinction, in the Conservative interest, had, in his youthful days, married a lady who,
in a peripatetic

manner, dealt in oysters.

His

rival,

OLD

M.P.S

AND SOME OF THEIR SAYINGS

37

Radical, paid him the compliment of sending him daily

barrows and truck-loads of oyster-shells, which were,

with his kind regards, discharged in front of the hotel

where his committee was established, and from whose

windows he addressed the electors. It was splendid fun,

and calculated to impress the intelligent foreigner. It
showed how highly the British public appreciated their
elective franchise.

Pleasantries had, indeed, always been

When Fox, in 1802, canvassed

he
asked
a
Westminster,
shopkeeper on the opposite side
for his vote and interest, when the latter produced a
the rule at election-time.

and said that was all he could give him. Fox

thanked him, but said he could not think of depriving
him of it, as no doubt it was a family relic. At an
election at Norwich in 1875 the committee-room of the
Conservative candidate was attacked, but the agent kept
halter,

up the

fire

and had red-hot pokers ready, which, stand-

ing at the top of the stairs, he offered to his assailants,

but they would not take them

In the same town the

Liberals held a prayer-meeting, at which the Conservatives presented each man with one of Moody and

Sankey's hymn-books, with something between the leaves.

In fact, the Reform Bill had not made elections pure.

William Roupell obtained

his seat for

Lambeth by

the

expenditure of 1 0,000, 'and, said a man well able to

judge of the truth of his assertion, 'if he were released

from prison (to which he was sent for life for his forgeries)
and would spend another ^10,000, he would be re-

having proved a criminal."'

day at elections. According to
a speech made by Mr. Bright at Glasgow in 1866, a
member had told him that his election had cost him
elected, in spite of his
Money carried the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

38

9,000 already, and that he had 3,000 more to pay.

At a contest in North Shropshire in 1876, the expenses
of the successful candidate, Mr. Stanley Leighton,
amounted to 1 1,727, and of the defeated candidate,
Mr. Mainwaring, to 10,688. At the General Election
of 1880, in the county of Middlesex, the expenses of
the successful candidates, Lord George Hamilton and

Mr. Octavius Coope, were 11,506. The cost of the

Gravesend election, and the petition which followed
and unseated the candidate returned, was estimated at
20,000.

But the most expensive contest ever known

electioneering was that for the representation of

Yorkshire.
The candidates were Viscount Milton, son

in

of Earl Fitzwilliam, a Whig the Hon. Henry Lascelles,

son of Lord Harewood, a Tory ; and William Wilber;

force, in the Dissenting

and Independent

interest.

The

election was carried on for fifteen days, Mr. Wilberforce

being at the head of the poll all the time. It terminated
in his favour
is

and

in

that of Lord Milton.

The

contest

said to have cost the parties near half a million

The

expenses of Wilberforce were defrayed by

public subscription, more than double the sum being
raised within a few days, and one moiety was afterwards

pounds.

returned

to

the subscribers.

When

Whitbread, the

brewer,
opposed the Duke of Bedford's interest at
Duke informed him that he w ould spend
the
Bedford,
rather
than that he should come in. Whit50,000
first

bread replied that was nothing, the sale of his grains

would pay for that. Now, John Elwes, the miser, knew
better than

that.

Though worth

half a

million of

money, he entered Parliament, by the interest of Lord

Craven, at the expense of Is. 6d., for which he had a

OLD

M.P.S

AND SOME OF THEIR SAYINGS

dinner at Abingdon.

From 1774 he

39

sat for the next

twelve years for Berkshire, his conduct being perfectly

independent, and in his case there had been no bribery
that could be brought

home

to him.

He

was a great

gambler, and, after staking large sums all night, he

would, in the morning, go to Smithfield to await the

from his farms in Essex, and, if not

walk
on to meet them. He wore a wig
would
arrived,
if he found one thrown away into the gutter, he would
In those days members occaappropriate and wear it.
One day a
sionally wore dress-swords at the House.
leave his
was
to
Elwes
seated
next
to
rising
gentleman
so
Elwes
bent
at
moment
and
that
forward,
just
place,
that the point of the sword the gentleman wore came
in contact with Elwes's wig, which it whisked off and
earned away. The House was instantly in a roar of
laughter, whilst the gentleman, unconscious of what he

arrival of his cattle

had done, calmly walked away, and Elwes after him to

recover his wig, which looked as if it was one of those
he had picked up in the gutter.
Bribes were expected and given, as we have seen. Of
Tricks were
course, the thing was not done openly.
The
all
understood
agent would
by
parties.
practised,
A voter would
sit in a room in an out-of-the-way place.

come in the agent would say, How are you to-day P

I am not very well, the
and hold up three fingers.
answer would be, when the agent would accidentally
hold up his hand, upon which the voter would say that
he thought fresh air would do him good, and look out
In the meanof the window as if examining the sky.
time the agent would place five sovereigns on the table,
and also go to look at the weather. His back being
1

'

'

LONDON SOUVENIRS

40

turned to the table, the voter would quietly

slip

the

cash into his pocket, and, saying ' Good-morning,' take

his departure.
And how could any bribery be proved ?
1

But

occasionally the people expecting bribes were nicely

in.
Lord Cochrane, when he first stood for

taken

Honiton, refused to give bribes, and the seat was secured

by his opponent, who gave 5 for every vote. On this

Cochrane sent the bellman round to announce that he
would give to every one of the minority who had voted

him 10

for

guineas.

At

the next election no questions

were asked, and Cochrane was returned by an overwhelming majority. Those who had voted for him then
intimated that they expected some acknowledgment for
He declined to give a penny, and when

their support.

he was reminded that, after the former election, he had

given 10 guineas to every one of the minority, he coolly
replied that this was for their disinterestedness in refusing
his opponent's 5, and that to
pay them now would be

And
acting in violation of his principle not to bribe.
the disinterested voters marched off with faces as longas those of horses.

The Reform
able

to

Bill of 1832,

old-fashioned

which was highly objection-

Conservatives, was

accused by
them of having introduced some very queer and curious
members into the House. Through this Bill the bone-

W. Cobbett, was returned

and
under
the very nose of the
Oldham,
Brighton,
returned
two
Court,
rampant Radicals, who openly
talked of reducing the allowance made to the King and
Queen. Nay, John Gully, a prize-fighter, was returned
to the House for Pontefract, and was re-elected at the
next election.
He at one time kept the Plough Inn in
grubber, as Raike calls him,
for

OLD

M.P.S

AND SOME OF THEIR SAYINGS

41

the
Carey Street, which was pulled down just before
he
Courts.
new
Law
of
the
erection
Eventually
resigned
but as
his seat on account of ill-health, as he averred
constant
was
a
and
he became a great patron of racing,
;

attendant at the various race-courses, his ill-health was

for which
probably only a pretence for quitting a sphere

he

felt

himself unfit.

On

his first election the following

epigram appeared against him

'

If
Its

anyone ask why should Pontef ract sully

name by returning to Parliament Gully,

The etymological cause, I suppose, is

He's broken the bridges of so many noses.'

Another member who may be reckoned among the

curiosities who have sat in the House was William

He was the illegitimate son of Richard

Palmer Roupell, a wealthy lead merchant, who invested
a large sum in the purchase of land, to which he gave
William was
the name of the Roupell Park Estate.
Roupell.

had other legitimate

a
few days before his
;
of his own birth.
secret
the
father's death that he learnt
his

favourite

and

children

son,
it

though
was not

he

till

by which he left this

annual
property to William, on condition of his making
as this would
but
and
sisters
his
brothers
to
payments
have brought to light the forgeries he had already committed during his father's lifetime, to the amount of

The former had made a

will,

dfl 50,000, he, on his father's death, managed to

of the will, which eventually he destroyed,
hold
get
substituting a forged one, leaving all to his wife and

about

latter quickly persuaded his mother

to confer the greater part of the estates on him by deed

William

and the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

42
of

He

gift.

for

soon obtained the social position the great

he stood
usually commands;

now

wealth he

possessed

i?l 0,000, as

Lambeth, and by the expenditure of

already mentioned, he obtained the

was not only a rogue, but a fool.

seat.

But Roupell

By gambling and

fortune he had
extravagance he soon ran through the
detection of
the
obtained by crooked means. Finding
but
his crimes inevitable, he fled to Spain,
eventually
returned, and gave himself

up to

the
justice, confessing

Of course, the persons

he had committed.
who had purchased property then became aware that
which they held it were worthless. The
the deeds

forgeries

by

court considered his offences so serious that in 1862

condemned him to penal

servitude for

life

released after an imprisonment of fourteen years.

1876 he

left

Roupell as

it

but he was

Portland a free man again. But it

a member of Parliament we are

is

In

with

chiefly

He
In that capacity he did not shine.
remained in the House long enough to prove that he
to represent a large borough like
was

concerned.

disqualified

He took no part in the debates, nor did he

able to grapple with and master any
be
to
appear
Lambeth.

connected with

question

Being asked one

politics.

his constituents,
evening at the Horns, when meeting
of
House
Commons, he
why he did not speak in the
Because I do not want to make a fool of
replied
Next morning the Times made merry with
'

myself.
this confession.

He was consequently regarded as a

wealth.
was
he
but
supported by his supposed
cipher,
But soon suspicious murmurs began to be heard, and
he prepared for his flight to Spain and he decamped
;

without

making

any

application

for

the

Chiltern

OLD

M.P.S

AND SOME OF THEIR SAYINGS

43

Hundreds, so that for a considerable time his place in

Parliament could not be filled up. Advertisements in

GaUgnani apprised him of the omission, and at length

He did not meet with
the application was made.
much pity, either from the public or the press ; squibs
without end appeared against him in the papers.
append a specimen of a short one

We

Now, the Lambeth folks this wealthy gent

As their member did decide on,
But little they knew he'd happened to do
Some things he didn't oughter
;

For he'd forged a

'

And

will

the public said

and several deeds.

"

Well, this here Roupell

Has got no more than he oughter."

So there was an end of the wealthy gent
As was member from over the water.'

Lambeth appears

to have been unfortunate in the

selection of its Parliamentary candidates.

wishing for a local man,

In 1852 the

formed themparochial party,

election
of Mr.
selves into a committee to secure the
Joseph Harvey, of Lambeth House, a drapery estab-

Mr.
in the Westminster Bridge Road.
an
active part in public
never
taken
had
Harvey

lishment

matters

his

tastes

lay

not that way.

He

shrank

life, and had no training or aptitude for

However, he was forced
addressing large meetings.
forward but when he spoke at the Horns the speech
was written for him by someone else his total inon him became so
capacity for the position thrust
apparent that he gave up the contest, but not before

from public
;

he had afforded plenty of food to the squib-writers.

Parliament is not above the use of nicknames, either

LONDON SOUVENIRS

44

Cobbett\s talent for

by way of praise or in scorn.
fastening such names on anyone he disliked was very
great.

He

invented

'

Robinson,'

Prosperity
1

'

iEolus

'

Pink-nosed Liverpool, unbaptized, buttonLord Yarmouth, from

less blackguards,'' or Quakers.
the colour of his whiskers, and from the place which
'

Canning,''

gave him his

was known as

'

Red

Herrings.
Lord Durham so often opposed his colleagues in the
1
Cabinet that he was called the ' Dissenting Minister.
title,

Thomas Duncombe was

spoken of as
friends called

so popular that he was always

1
his French
or ' Poor
;

Tom

Honest
him Cher Tonne.'
'

John Arthur Roe-

'

buck had a habit of bringing forward, in a startling way,

facts he had got hold of, and thus raising opposition
;

a speech he made at the Cutlers

in
at
1858, obtained the nickname of
Feast,
Sheffield,
'Tear 'em.' He had just paid a visit to Cherbourg,

and from a passage

in

and returned home with

feelings very unfriendly to the

then ruler of France, to which he gave expression at

the feast, excusing himself at the same time for using
such language towards a neighbour by saying
The
'

farmer

who

goes to sleep, having placed the watch-dog,

his rick-yard, hears that dog bark.
He
11
bawls out of the window " Down, Tear 'em, down

Tear 'em, over

And Tear em
1

does not again disturb his sleep, till he

is woke
up by the strong blaze of his corn and hay
I am Tear "em.
ricks.
Beware
Cherbourg is a
!

Michael Angelo Taylor

standing menace to England.
was known by the sobriquet of Chicken Taylor. On
some points of law he had answered the great lawyer
'

Bearcroft, but

not without apologizing for his venhe

turing,
being but a chicken in the law, on a fight

OLD

M.P.S

AND SOME OF THEIR SAYINGS

with the cock of Westminster Hall.

was brother to Sir Watkin

Charles

Wynn, and from

arity in the utterances of the latter,

and the

45

Wynn

a peculishrillness

of Charles's voice, the two went by the nicknames of

'

Bubble and Squeak."

Sir

Watkin was

also

known

as

Wynn, from his extensive knowledge

of Parliamentary rule. William Cowper, falsely accused
of having married a second wife whilst his first was still
Will Bigamy."
alive, was known as
'

Small Journal

'

Strangers formerly were not allowed to be present at

the deliberations of the House ; now they are admitted
to the Strangers"' Gallery, but never to the floor of the

Yet sometimes there will be an intruder.

Once Lord North, when speaking, was interrupted by
He turned
the barking of a dog which had crept in.
am
I
and
said
Mr.
round,
interrupted by a
Speaker,
The dog was driven out, but got in
new member.
again, and recommenced barking, when Lord North, in
House.

'

'

Spoke once."
dry way, said
We are near the limits of our space. Let us conclude with recording a few of the strange designations
his

given to Parliaments.

The Parliament de

la

Bonde

was a Parliament in the reign of Edward II., to which

the Barons came armed against the Spencers, with
1

coloured bands, or ' bonds, upon their sleeves, by way

of distinction. The Diabolical Parliament was one held
at Coventry in the thirty-eighth year of Henry VI.'s
reign, and in which Edward, Earl of March, afterwards

King, and several of the nobility, were attainted. The

Unlearned Parliament, held at Coventry in the sixth
year of the reign of Henry IV., was so called by way
of derision, because, by a special precept to the sheriffs

LONDON SOUVENIRS

46

in their several counties,

no lawyers were to be admitted

The Insane Parliament, which was held at

Oxford in the forty-first year of the reign of Henry III.,
obtained this name from the extraordinary proceedings
of the Lords, who came with great retinues of armed
thereto.

when contention grew very high, and many

1
things were enacted contrary to the King's prerogative.
might add to the list, but the gas is being turned
men,

'

We

off; so vale!

V.

FAMOUS OLD ACTORS.

v

HERE

is

boom

""]i~"

-*

New

theatres

London

just now in the theatrical world.

are springing up, not only in

proper, but in
itself.

all its

suburbs, yet it is
to 1629 no

From 1570

only history repeating

less than seventeen
playhouses had been built in London,
and London then extended only from the Tower to

Westminster, and from Oxford Street to Blackman

Street in the Borough.
The first London theatre was
the Fortune,* opened about the year 1600, a large
round, brick building between Whitecross Street and

Golding now Golden Lane, which was burnt down

on December 9, 1621
The town was then full of actors,
.

for besides those playing at the various theatres, there

were royal comedians.

Many noblemen kept companies

of players, nay, the lawyers acted in the Inns of Court,

and there were actors of note among them. But the
inevitable reaction ensued.

Amidst the storms of the

Even Shakespeare

Revolution the stage was neglected.

* The Curtain
site of
it

is

said to have been erected in 1570,

the present Curtain Road, but the date

was more of an inn than a playhouse.

is

on the

doubtful, and

LONDON SOUVENIRS

48

had to take a back-seat

fashion again, though
enthusiastic criticism

it

Garrick brought him into

till
is

chiefly to the learned

and

of

and

German

appreciation
students of Shakespeare that the revival of his plays on
His reputation was ' made in Gerthe stage is due.

many and
speare who
,'

the Germans we have to thank for a Shake-

is
presentable to a modern audience, which
the original writer was not ; his plays were only fit to
be acted before the savages who delighted in bull and
bear baiting. This estimate of the Shakespearian drama

is

not in accordance with the prevailing sentiment, but

right to our opinions and the courage to

we have a

express them.

However, this is only incidental to our

which
deals
more with actors and acting than
theme,
with the plays they took parts in.
There

is a
general opinion abroad that the realistic
of
play
quite modern date, probably brought on the
1
*
In a publication of July,
LTAssommoir.
stage in
1797, I find it stated that 'our managers some time
is

ago conceived

it

would be proper to introduce realities

Hence we have seen real horses

instead of fictions.

and real bulls on the stage, gracing the triumphal entry

of some hero.
Hence, too, real water has been supplied
in such quantities that Harlequin's leap into the sea

The introduction of
be no joke.
water will, no doubt, facilitate the introduction of real
sea-fights, provided we can get real admirals and seawould now

men.''

really

But the writer seems to have been

oblivious of

the fact that, in the middle of the last century, already

the water of the New River had been carried under the
flooring of Sadler's Wells Theatre, the boards being
removed, for the exhibition of aquatic performances.

FAMOUS OLD ACTORS

49

And

as to this century, long before the more recent

realistic plays, we have seen in the sixties a real cab

with a real horse brought on to the stage to give the

who is about to elope, the opportunity of

heroine,

'
Now, four-wheeler, wo P (for weal
uttering the pun
or woe !).
And a very good pun it is.
The formation of the English drama is chiefly due to
:

Children of Paul, or pupils of St. Paul's School,

1
in those days nicknamed the 'Pigeons of St. Paul.
'

the

The dramatic

celebrity of these juvenile performers goes

back as far as the year 1378. Originally they confined

1
'
themselves to moralities, but in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, before

whom

they acted on various occasions,

drama with considerable

in the regular

they appeared
They exhibited burlesque interludes and
applause.
farcical comedies. Their schoolroom, which stood behind
the Convocation House near St. Paul's, was their stage ;
but about the year 1580 the citizens, bent on driving all
it to be removed.
The
players out of the city, caused
in
caused
London,
great ravages
plague had, as usual,

was thought that the actors were great means

of spreading it, wherefore their performances were
When the Children of Paul
altogether prohibited.

and

it

'

performed out of their own premises, it was generally

When they
the Blackfriars Theatre they resorted to.
admission
was 2d.
the
school-house
in
the
performed
This charge was made to keep the company select, and
1
according to a passage in Jacke Drum's Entertainment,
'

printed in 1601, it was select

" Children of Paul's " last
Sir Edward I saw the

first
'

night, and troth, they pleased

The

apes in time will

do

it

me

prettie, prettie well.

handsomely.
4

LONDON SOUVENIRS

50
'

Planet

with

I like the

audience that frequenteth there

man shall not be choked with

much

applause.
the stench of garlick, nor be passed to the barmy jacket
1
of a beer brewer.

The

stage did not attain a dignified position till the

time of Shakespeare. He and his fellow-actors Burbage,

Sly ennobled

it,
Heminge, Condell, Taylor, Kemp,
and since then the roll of English actors who have
gained distinction on the boards is very long, and our
limited space allows us to refer to but a few of them,
and then only to some characteristic traits.

Let us commence with a defence of Garrick's conduct

When the latter was preparing his

towards Johnson.
edition of

'

Garrick offered him the use

Shakespeare,

But, entering the room, he found

Johnson, according to his usual habit, pulling the books
off the shelves, breaking their backs, more easily to
of his choice library.

read them, and throwing them carelessly on the floor.

Garrick naturally grew very angry, for which he has

been much abused, charged with

having acted in
without
bad
taste
abominably
any true gentlehis
that
friend's character
knowing
manly feeling
'

Garrick ought to have been prepared for any slight

unfavourable consequences. He ought to have known
1
that much might be excused in so great a man, etc.
Now, this is most undeserved censure on a man of
.

The
greater parts than Johnson ever could boast of.
which
will
live
is his
wrote
he
ever
only thing
Dictionary.

As

to his greatness, if unabashed bounce and a dictatorial

jaw constitute greatness, he certainly, judging him by
Garrick's
Bozzy's account, could lay claim to such.
generosity induced him to offer a bear the use of his

FAMOUS OLD ACTORS

books.

Still,

who professed
know how to

51

he had a right to expect that even a bear,

to admire and practise literature, would
treat books.

But the bear remained a

bear everywhere.
He treated Mr. Thrale's books no
better.
But Garrick was generous in other ways. He
was often visited at his villa, near Sunbury, by a gentle-

man with whom he used to have lone; and violent arguments on various matters, the visitor generally differing
One day Garrick, at
from, and contradicting, his host.
the gentleman's request, readily lent him i?100.
Their
discussions continued, but the visitor was no
longer so
violent in his arguments, nor did he contradict Garrick
as

he had done formerly.

On

one occasion, when

Garrick had reintroduced an argument his friend had

always violently combated, but now mildly conceded,
Garrick, who liked a lively discussion, jumped up and

exclaimed

me

'
:

Pay me my hundred pounds, or contradict

Garrick's generous nature broke forth in that

exclamation, and he did not wish his friend to feel
I

under an obligation. That his character was gentle

and chivalrous is proved by the fact that his wife and
he were considered the fondest pair ever known, though
the lady was a woman with plenty of spirit. Her letter
of remonstrance against Keaifs Abel Drugger was brief:

Dear Sik, You don't know how to play Abel Drugger.

To which Kean courteously, yet wittily, replied Dear
Madam, I know it." She must have been very sprightly,
'

'

when

at the age of ninety-eight, and about two

months before her death (November, 1822), she visited
Westminster Abbey, she asked the clergyman who
attended her if there would be room for her by the
side of her David
not, she said, that I think I am
too, for

'

'

42

LONDON SOUVENIRS

52

likely soon to require

it,

for I

am

yet a mere girl P

She

was a Viennese danseuse, Madame Violette, when Garrick

married her, and Horace Walpole reports that it was
whispered at the time that she had been sent over to
England by no less a person than the Empress-Queen,
Maria Theresa, to be out of the way of that somewhat
Apprehensive that he might
jealous lady's husband.
be ridiculed for marrying a dancer, Garrick got some
friend to satirize

him

But we

publicly beforehand.

have seen that the marriage turned out a very happy

Garrick had been the pupil of Johnson, when
one.
the latter kept, or attempted to keep, a school near
Lichfield, and he and his two fellow-pupils (he never
had more than two) used to peep through the keyhole
of his bedroom that they might turn into ridicule the
doctor's awkward fondness for Mrs. Johnson, who was
by many years her husband's senior, and elephantine in
her figure, with swollen cheeks and a red complexion,
produced by paint and the liberal use of cordials. In

after-years Garrick used to exhibit her, by his exquisite

talent of mimicry, so as to excite the heartiest bursts

This may seem ungenerous, but Johnson

of laughter.
back
in the same coin. Vexed at Garrick's
Garrick
paid
great success in his profession, he made it his business
always to express the greatest contempt for actors.

Quin, the contemporary of Garrick, and his rival, was

employed by Prince Frederick to instruct the Royal

when he was informed of the

which George III. had delivered his

children in elocution, and

graceful

manner

in

'
Aye, it
speech from the throne, he proudly said
was I who taught the boy to speak
Quin could be

first

witty.

Disputing concerning the execution of Charles L,

FAMOUS OLD ACTORS

53

opponent asking, But by what laws was he

P
death
Quin replied
By all the laws he had
put to
When
at
left them.
Bath, he was at an
playing
evening party, where the transmigration of souls was
being discussed. A lady, remarkable for the whiteness
of her neck and bust, asked him what animal he would

and

'

his

'

wish to be transformed into.

Quin, looking sharply at

over
her
white
then
neck, with an arch
travelling
fly
A
On
another
occasion to
said
!'
at
her,
fly
glance

'

'
Why,
Berkeley, a celebrated beauty, he said
1
your ladyship is looking as charming as the spring.
The season was spring, but the day was raw and cold,

Lady

and Quin, seeing he had paid the lady but a poor comOr, rather, I
pliment, corrected himself by adding
wish the spring would look a little more like your lady'

ship.

In Clare Street, Clare Market, there is a public-house

John Rich, the harlequin and lessee of
the Duke's Theatre in Portugal Street (long since taken
called the Sun.

down), returning from the theatre in a hackney-coach,

On arriving there, he
ordered to be driven to the Sun.

jumped out of the coach, and through the window into

The coachman thought his fare was
the public-house.
a 'bilk*; but whilst he was still looking up and down
the street, Rich again jumped into the coach, and told
On
the driver to take him to another public-house.
Rich
the
but
the
offered
to
coachman,
reaching it,
pay
'

No, none of your

money, saying
Devil
wear
Mr.
shoes, I can see
though you
money,
and
off'
hoofs
he
drove
as
';
your
quickly as possible.
latter refused the

The

the Duke's Theatre, in Portugal

Street, was rebuilt by Christopher Rich, the father of
theatre

called

LONDON SOUVENIRS

54

the above-mentioned John, but he died before the

was

building

John

took

its rise,

and

finished,

quite

it is

and

it

was opened by

in this theatre that the

and here the

earliest

modern stage

Shakespearian re-

Quin was one of the performers

there and there the Beggar's Opera was first produced, and acted on sixty-two nights in one season,
causing the saying that it made Gay rich and Rich
The opera was written under the auspices of the
gay.
Duchess of Queensberry, who agreed to indemnify Rich
vivals took

place.

'

'

in all expenses if the daring speculation should fail.

Rich, in 1731, built himself a new theatre the

Covent Garden Theatre

on

granted by the
of i?100 per
Bedford,
When a new lease was granted, in 1792,
annum.
the ground-rent was raised to 94:0 per annum. When

Duke

of

Thomas

at

site

a ground-rent

Killigrew was manager of the theatre in Bear

Yard, Clare Market, he was a great favourite with

Charles II.
This King at times showed great indifference to the business of the State, and refused to attend
the Council.
One day, when he had been long expected, Lord Lauderdale went to his apartments, but
was refused admission.
His lordship complained to
Nell Gwynne, upon which she wagered him 100 that

the

King;

would

that

evening

attend the Council.

Then

she sent for Killigrew, and asked him to dress

as if for a journey, and to enter the King's rooms
without ceremony, with further instructions what he

was to do then.
said
'

As soon

as the

King saw him, he

What,

Killigrew

not give orders that

Where are you going ?

was not to be disturbed T

Did

FAMOUS OLD ACTORS

'

I don't

mind your

orders,

and

55

am going

as fast as

-1

I can.
'

Why, where

'To
'

are

you going P

replied the jester in a sepulchral tone.

are you going to do there ?' asked the King,

hell,'

What

laughing.
'

To

fetch back Oliver Cromwell, to take

of the national

affairs, for I

am

some care

sure your Majesty takes

none.''

And

the King went to the Council.

Another famous comedian of that

day was Joe

who was an Oxford M.A., but a scamp of the

order, who managed to cheat even the rector of

Haines,
first

the Jesuit College in Paris out of cP40 by a pretended

note from the Duke of Monmouth.
Not long after,

meeting with a simple-minded clergyman, he told him

that he was one of the patentees of Drury Lane, and
appointed him his chaplain, instructing him at the

same time to go to the theatre with a large bell, to

Players, come to prayers P
ring it, and call out
Which the clergyman did, till he found he had been
hoaxed. In the reign of James II., this Haines turned
Roman Catholic, and told Sunderland that the Virgin
Mary had appeared, and said to him Joe, arise P To
'

'

Sunderland dryly replied that she should have said

Joseph, if only out of respect for her husband.

this
'

The

greatest actor at the time of Charles II. was

undoubtedly Thomas Betterton. He joined the comSir William Davenant in 1662.
Pepys frewent
to
see
In
him.
those
quently
days the pay of
actors was not what it is now
Betterton, in spite of

pany of

the position he held in public estimation, never had

LONDON SOUVENIRS

56

more than

=5 a week, including 1, by way of pension,

who retired in 1694. In 1709 he took a

to his wife,

which the money taken at the doors was

he
received also more than 4*50 in compli15, but
and in the following year he had
mentary guineas
benefit, at

another benefit, by which he netted about iP^OOO.

Of

according to modern notions, these are but

small receipts ; but they are better than what seems
course,

to have been the standard of theatrical payments in

1511

judging

from a

of that year, without

bill

name

of place where the acting took place, but which states

that it was performed on the feast of St. Margaret
(July 20). According to legend, the devil, in the shape
of a dragon, swallowed St. Margaret, but she speedily

made her

escape,

and was thus considered to possess

great powers of assisting

bill runs thus

women

in

The

childbirth.

'

To

musicians, for three

players in bread

and

ale,

nights,
3s. Id.

0
;

6d.

5s.

for

for decorations,

and play-books, 1 0s. Od. to John Hobbard,

and
author of the piece, 0 2s. 8d. for the
priest,
in
which
the presentation was held, 0 Is. Od
place
for fish and bread, 0 0s. 4d
for furniture, 0 Is. 4d.
for painting three phantoms and devils, i?0 0s. 6d
and for four chickens for the hero, 0 0s. 4d.'' We see
dresses,

here the author received only 2s. 8d. for writing the
Matters have improved since then ; Sheridan
play.

i?3,000 by the sale of his altered play of

In the early part of this century authors
of successful pieces received from the theatre from o^250
realized
'

Pizarro.''

to d^SOO, and from the purchaser of the copyright for

Then actors received
publication from d(?100 to <i?400.

FAMOUS OLD ACTORS

i?30 a week

favourite performers

them were

57

stars, as

we should

now call
paid ci?50 a night. Actors have
at times found very generous friends.
When, in 1808,
Covent Garden Theatre, then under the management
of John P. Kemble, was burnt down, the loss was
immense, and the insurances did not exceed i?50,000.
The then Duke of Northumberland offered Kemble the

sum of X 10,000
J

offer

as a loan

on

his simple

appointed for laying the

returned cancelled

first

bond was

stone, the

made

When Owen McSwiney

England.

The

the day

opera-singers have

Italian

bond.

On

was accepted, and the bond given.

large

was

fortunes in

lessee of

the

1708, he engaged one Nicolini, a

really was a splendid actor and a mag-

circa

Haymarket,

who

Neapolitan,

nificent-looking man, with a voice which won universal

admiration, at a salary of eight hundred guineas for

the season

at

that time an enormous sum.

Nicolini

1712, and returned to

the stage in
Italy, where he
built himself a fine villa, which, as a testimony of his
gratitude to the nation which enriched him, he called
left

In

the English Folly.

1721

a company of French

comedians occupied the Haymarket, to the disgust of

Aaron Hill, the dramatic author and
native actors.
opera-manager, consequently had occasion to write to
I suppose you know that the Duke of
John Rich
'

Montague and I have agreed that I am to have that

11
the
house half the week, and the "French vermin
International courtesies were at some
other half.'
discount at the time

A few
tions.

theatrical anecdotes

may

close these lucubra-

Actors sometimes are strangely affected

by

LONDON SOUVENIRS

58
their

own

parts.

Betterton, although his countenance

he performed Hamlet, through the

was ruddy, when

violent and sudden emotion of horror at the presence
of his father's spectre, instantly turned as white as his
collar, whilst his whole body was affected by a strong
When Booth the first time attempted the
tremor.

when Betterton acted Hamlet, that actor's look

him struck him with such horror that he became

ghost,

at

disconcerted to such a degree that he could not speak

Of Mrs. Siddons, it was said that by the
his part.
force of fancy and reflection, she used to be so wrought
1
'
up in preparing to play Lady Constance in King John,

that,

when she

set

out from her own house to the theatre,

she was already Constance herself.

1
Smith better known as ' Gentleman Smith

married

a sister of Lord Sandwich. For some time the union

was kept concealed, but an apt quotation of Charles
Bannister elicited the truth
11
" Art thou not
said
Romeo, and a Montague
Bannister, when Foote bantered Smith on the subject.
The latter was not proof against the sally, and acknow:

'

'

'

'

Well, said Bannister, I rejoice

ledged the marriage.
that you have got a Sandwich from the family ; but if
1
The
ever
get a dinner from them, Til be hanged.

you

prophecy proved true.

Michael Kelly was an English opera-singer, a musical
Sheridan's manager at Drury
composer, and at one time

He then

went into the wine trade, when Sheridan

'
Michael Kelly,
advised him to put over his door
1
composer of wine, and importer of music.
Lane.

VI.

OLD JUDGES AND SOME OF THEIR SAYINGS.

was a

boy I drew most of my

and mankind from the picturebooks for my use and instruction. I thought
that Kings and Queens wore their crowns and sceptres
all day long, and took them to bed with them, for I
had thus seen them in the pictures in the books. One
engraving, I remember, I saw of a severe-looking gentleman, who had thrown a gray doormat over his head,
and sat behind a little desk everlastingly writing away
with an enormous quill pen. It was this quill pen

WHEN

notions of

little

life

which specially riveted

my attention. I was always

in
a
steel
pen
my writing-lessons. Why not a
given
I
who the man was, and was
?
asked
mother
quill
my
told he was a judge, and that what I took for a doormat was a wig which he wore

to look dignified, and the

great weight of which was, moreover, intended to prevent

his great legal learning from evaporating through the
pores of his skull, which was bald, but compelled

come out through

He

his

mouth

it

to

only.

used a quill pen to take notes of what was said

by the parties contending before him, because that,

LONDON SOUVENIRS

60

being a natural production, could not possibly tell lies

whereas a steel pen, as an artificial contrivance, could
not be depended on for veracity wherefore, in all law
;

proceedings, even at the lowest police court, quill pens

only could be used, for the law on morality and public
policy grounds strongly objects to lies ; it is itself so
truthful
Of course, I believed all my mother told
me ; children are so easy of belief if you only look
!

when you

serious

tell

them crammers. But

know

better

now, and crowns no longer represent to me sovereignty,

nor wigs wisdom. Of another delusion, too, I have
been cured. When I was a young man I was told that
English law was the perfection of human wisdom. I
believed this then, for I was only a bigger child without
experience. But when I arrived at years of discretion

I could
is, when I began to observe and reflect
come to no other conclusion than that the axiom of the
law's wisdom was a delusion.
There are many ways of

that

proving

this,

renders

all

but one argument presents

further

proofs

unnecessary.

itself,

which

Can a code

which comprises a number of laws, the interpretation

of whose import is liable to be declared by one judge

mean

'

Yes, whilst another as positively maintains it

means No,' be called the perfection of human wisdom ?
The ever-growing frequency of appeals alone is sufficient
to

'

show that the existing laws are ambiguous in expression, and lend themselves to the idiosyncrasies of every
individual judge, which is very far from perfection.
to

Laws should be

as precise in their definitions as mathe-

matical formulas.

To

substantiate

my

reasoning, let
or thirteen years
ago, the captain of a cargo steamer belonging to a

me

quote an actual case

Some twelve

OLD JUDGES

61

London

firm, while loading maize at Odessa, signed

of lading which were ante-dated.
Between the
false date and the real one, a few days after, of loading,
there was a considerable fall in the price of maize, and
bills

the consignees, who were the sufferers by it, brought an

action against the owners of the steamer, they
the

having
consignees

discovered the ante -dating, and

recovered dC437 damages, which the shipowners paid.
On the captain's return to England, he made a claim

of J?190 for wages, which claim was admitted by the

firm, but they set up a counter-claim for the damages

they had had to pay to the consignees, through the

captain's negligence and breach of duty in signing the
ante-dated

bills.

The

case

went to

trial

before Mr.

Justice Field and a jury, and was decided in the captain's

favour, both as to his wages and the counter-claim. The

owners appealed, and the Divisional Court, consisting

of Grove, Denman, and Wills, ordered the judgment
The Appeal
to be set aside, and a new trial granted.

Court ordered the original judgment in favour of the

captain to be restored. The owners then took the cause

House of Lords, where Lords Watson, Blackand

burn,
Fitzgerald restored the order of the Divisional
Court in favour of the owners, with all the costs they
had incurred. Now, here was a case of breach of duty
into the

as plain as it could be, yet

it

took four

trials,

the costs

amounting to about 4<,000, to decide the question.

This is but one of a hundred similar cases which might
be cited. With what wisdom can laws be framed which
can give rise to so many judicial contradictory decisions?
And the fault of this lies not with the judges, but with
the legislators, whose only wisdom seems to consist in

LONDON SOUVENIRS

62

surrounding plain matter-of-fact with a network of

a
sophistry, chicanery, and hair-splitting subtleties

system which

constantly regretted by the judges

are ever ready to warn the public
against indulgence in litigation, for English judges, as
a rule, are straightforward, honourable men, who are
themselves,

inclined

to

is

who

take common-sense and

impartial views,
bias
or
theological
gives a twist
political
to their judgment.
Nor can it be left out of our con-

except when a

sideration that

men educated

in the legal schools of the

Inns of Court, and by teachers strongly impressed with

the dignity and importance of their pursuit, should

adhere to

it with cast-iron rigidity, thus opposing, as

as possible, the introduction of new, and in their
It
estimation, revolutionary and destructive opinions.

much

is

due to

this adherence to,

and maintenance

of,

the

principles of a barbarous and an arbitrary regime that

the judges still possess the tremendous power of com-

mitting for contempt of court any person who may

make a remark displeasing to them, however innocently
that remark may have been made. Years ago I defended

an action brought against me by a tradesman for certain

goods he alleged he had supplied me with. The action
was tried in a County Court. The plaintiff made his
statement, which introduced several particulars which

me as they were false. But my solicitor

had brought with me could not know they were
so. I turned towards the judge, and stated that I could
prove in two minutes that there was not a word of truth
in the plaintiff's statements.
But the judge turned
were as new to

whom

quite savagely towards me, saying

'
You must not speak to me. You have your solicitor
:

here.''

OLD JUDGES

63

'

'

But,' I replied, my solicitor cannot

assertions are false P
1

know that

these

Be silent thundered the judge.

If you say another
word I shall commit you for contempt.
'

'

Of course

I said no more, but, like the

parrot, thought
knew that a judge, a mere County Court judge,
who passes his life amidst the most sordid and depressing
scenes of wretchedness, had the power of
sending me to
and
me
to
there
I
till
made
the
most abject
prison,
keep

lot.

apology for a speech which was never intended to be

offensive.
Persons have been kept in prison for twenty
years by the mere order of a judge,

and judge

in every such case.

accordance with our ideas of justice.

jury,

who was
This

plaintiff',

scarcely in
this relic of

is

But

a barbarous age will be abolished in time, as the Courts

of Doctors' Commons, or the Palace Court, where a
1

number of

sleepy old gentlemen

'

Were

sittin' at their ease,

A-sendin' of their writs about,

And

drorin' in their fees,'

have been abolished.

And

modern judges are superior

there

is

no doubt that our

in talent, adroitness,

and

acuteness to those of former

days.
They are men of
in
their
characteristics
those
high-breeding, combining

of the courtier and of the lawyer.

Judges of the past
were different; in fact, some of the old
judges were

noted for their

Lord Thurlow was one

an
still
aspirant for forensic
fame, he was one evening at Nando's Coffee-house
now a hairdressers shop, opposite Chancery Lane,
of them.

eccentricities.

When

he was

falsely

called the palace of

Henry

VIII.

and Cardinal Wolsey.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

64

Arguing keenly about a celebrated case then before the

courts, he was heard by some lawyers, who were so
pleased with his handling of the matter that next day
they appointed him junior counsel, and the cause won

him a

silk gown.
This was in 1754. It is asserted that
he was singularly ugly, and that when his portrait was
shown to Lavater, the physiognomist said
Whether
that man is on earth or in another place, which shall
'

be nameless, I know not

born tyrant, and will rule

but wherever he is, he is a

1
he can.
And the opinion

if

thus formed was a correct one, for Lord Thurlow was

and overbearing as a statesman, and was more

fierce

feared than any other

member

of the Cabinet.

In 1778

he had become Lord Chancellor, and been raised to the

His ugliness must have been a fact, for the
Peerage.

Duke of Norfolk, who had at Arundel Castle a fine

breed of owls, named one of them, on account of its
Great fun was caused by a
ugliness, Lord Thurlow.
messenger coming to the Duke in the Lobby of the
House of Peers with the news that Lord Thurlow had
laid

an egg.

In 1785 Lord Thurlow purchased Brockwell Green

Farm, and other lands in the neighbourhood of Dulwich

and Norwood, and chose Knight's Hill

considered

as a suitable site

The house was

for a house.
it

and would

too dear

it

never live in

finished, but Lord Thurlow

is said to have cost ^30,000

it,

but remained in a smaller

As he was coming
house, called Knight's Hill Farm.
from the Queen's Drawing-room, a lady asked him
'

when he was going into his new house.

Madam, he
me
asked
that
has
'the
Queen
impudent
just
replied,
question, and, as I would not tell her, I will not tell

OLD JUDGES
1

you.

65

Both the mansion and the farmhouse disappeared

long ago.
The romantic marriage of Lord Eldon, then plain
Mr. John Scott, of the Northern Circuit, forms a
Bessie Surtees was
pleasant episode in legal history.
the daughter of Aubone Surtees, a banker and gentleman of honourable descent at Newcastle. Scott had

met and danced with her at the assemblies in that town,

and his pretensions were at first favoured by her family;
but Sir William Blackett, a patrician but aged suitor,
presenting himself, Bessie was urged to throw over Scott

and become Lady Blackett. But Bessie was faithful,

and one night descended from a window into her lover's
arms, and they were married at Blackshiels, North
Britain.
The future Lord Eldon came to London with
his

young and pretty

wife,

house in Cursitor Street.

and

settled in a humble, small

Their housekeeping at first

must have been on a somewhat

restricted scale, for

Lord

used to relate that, in those days,

Eldon,
he frequently ran into Clare Market for sixpennyworth
of sprats.
It was probably owing to these privations
in after-life,

in the early days of their

married

life

had afterwards to complain of her

repugnance to society.
him rather sternly, for

that her husband

stinginess

and her

In fact, she seems to have ruled

we read of his often stealing into

the George Coffee House, at the top of the Haymarket,

to get a pint of wine, as Lady Eldon did not permit

peace at home. Cyrus Redding, who

tells us this, did not like Eldon either as a Tory or as a
man. ' His words, he writes, ' were no index to his real

him to enjoy

it in

He had a sterile soul for all things earthly,

doubts, and the art of drawing briefs."
money,
except
5

feelings.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

66

Cyrus Joy, who was present at the funeral of Lord

Gifford, who was buried in the Rolls Chapel, relates
that Lord Eldon and Lord Chief Justice Abbott were
placed in a

pew by

themselves, and that he saw Lord

Eldon, who was very shaky during the most solemn

part of the service, touch the Chief Justice, evidently

box was produced, and he took

a large pinch of snuff, but the moment he had taken it
he threw it away. ' I was astonished,' says Joy, at the
deception practised by so great a man, with the grave
for his snuff-box, for the

'

1
yawning before him.

Great

Seal, in 1812,

Whilst Lord Eldon held the

a

occurred at Encombe, his

fire

country seat in Dorsetshire. As soon as it broke out,

Lord Eldon buried the Seal in the garden whilst the
All the menengine played on the burning house.
1
'
it with water.
It was,
'
wrote Lord Eldon, a very pretty sight, for all the maids

servants were helping to supply

turned out of their beds, and formed a line from the

water to the fire-engine, handing the buckets. They
looked very pretty, all in their shifts.
When the fire
was subdued, Lord Eldon had forgotten where he had
buried the Seal, and all the gardeners and maids who
1

had looked

so pretty by firelight were set to work to

the
dig up
garden till the Seal was found. Lord Eldon
could be very rude at times.
He and the Archbishop
dined with George III., when he said ' It is a curious
:

fact that your Majesty's

Archbishop and your Lord

I had some excuse,

Chancellor married clandestinely.
certainly, for Bessie Surtees was the prettiest girl in
all

Newcastle

but Mrs. Sutton was always the same

pumpkin-faced thing that she

was much amused,

as

we

is

at present.

are told.

The King

OLD JUDGES
Lord Eldon's brother,

Sir

67

William Scott, had a strange

matrimonial experience. His brother eloped with a

man's daughter, and thus entered the wedded state

somewhat

illegally.

entered

in the true sense of the

Sir

William may be

said to have

it,
word, legally that
He and Lord Ellenis, as a result of his legal status.
borough presided at the Old Bailey at the trial of the

young Marquis of Sligo

for having, while in the Mediterranean, lured into his yacht two of the King's sailors,
for which offence he was fined 5,000, and sentenced to

four months' imprisonment in Newgate.

Throughout
the trial his mother sat in the court, hoping that her

presence would rouse in the bench or the jury feelings

favourable to her son.
When the above sentence was

pronounced, Sir William accompanied

jobation on the duties of a citizen.

it

by a long moral

The Marchioness

sent a paper full of satirical thanks to Sir William for

good advice to her son. Sir William read it as he

his

on

looked

the bench, and, having

towards the lady,
received from her a glance and a smile which sealed his
Within four months he was tied fast (on April 10,
fate.
1813) to a voluble, shrill termagant, who rendered him
sat

miserable and contemptible.

house

in

He

removed to

his wife's

Grafton Street, and, ever economical in his

domestic expenses, brought with him his own door-plate

from Doctor's Commons, and placed it under the preJekyll, the punster of
existing plate of Lady Sligo.
the day, condoled with Sir William at having to
Sir William had the plates transposed.
under.'
'

You

'

Not

'

knock

don't knock under now,' he said to

Jekyll.
'
now,' replied the punster ; now you knock up.'
see, I

This was said with reference to his advanced age.

52

LONDON SOUVENIRS

68

Lord Erskine, another famous judge, when dining

one day at the house of Sir Ralph Payne, afterwards
Lord Lavington, found himself so indisposed as to be

When

obliged to retire after dinner to another room.

he returned to the company, Lady Payne asked

found himself.
wrote on
1

it

how he

Erskine took out a piece of paper and

'Tis true I

am

ill,

but I cannot complain,

For he never knew pleasure who never knew Payne.'

After he

had ceased to hold the

Seals

Lord

as

and the time he held the

was one

asked
and
he
met
at
dinner,
Captain Parry
year only
Chancellor

him what he and

office

his

crew lived on in the Frozen Sea.

Parry replied that they lived on

things too, seals are, if

seals.

'

And

capital

you only keep them long enough,'

Being invited to attend the Ministerial fish dinner at Greenwich when he was Chancellor,
'
To be sure,"' he answered what would your dinner be

was Erskine's reply.

'

without the Great Seal

When Erskine

lived at

Hamp-

stead he was asked at a dinner-party he attended, The

soil is not the best in that part of Hampstead where
'

'
'
for
No, he answered, very bad
your seat is ?
an
Earl
was
as
buried
there
though my grandfather
near a hundred years ago, what has sprouted from it
Erskine married when very
since but a mere Baron T
a
young, and had four sons and four daughters. When
widower and getting old he married a second time,
and his latter days were passed in a state bordering on
;

He died in 1823, in poverty. On July 17,

a
1826,
woman, poorly dressed, was brought before the
Lord Mayor by a chimney-sweep as a person deserving

indigence.

OLD JUDGES
assistance.

69

The woman, being interrogated, declared

Lady Erskine. The Lord Mayor con-

herself to be

ducted her into his private room, where he heard her

sad story.
She had lived with Lord Erskine several
years before he married her, which he did in Scotland,
whereby their children (four) were legitimatized. His
death left her destitute, though she had been
promised

a pension from Government of twelve

shillings a week,
which had been paid very irregularly, and finally with-

drawn altogether, because she would not be parted from

her youngest child. The others had been taken care of
She had for years endeavoured to
by Government-.
maintain herself by female labour, but now she was
totally

destitute

and actually

starving.

The Lord

liberally supplied her present wants, and promised

to intercede for her with Government, with what result

Mayor

we have been unable

to ascertain.

It

was Mr.

H.

Erskine, brother of Lord Erskine, who, after being presented to Dr. Johnson by Boswell,
slipped a shilling
into the latters hand,
that
it was for showwhispering

ing him his bear. Erskine could mould a jury at his

pleasure, yet in Parliament he was not successful as an

But when pleading he was always ready with

Once, when insisting on the validity of an
I
argument before Lord Mansfield, the latter said
orator.

repartee.

'

it before
Yes, my Lord,'
you were born
'
because
I was not born."' Lord Erskine
Erskine,
replied
owned that the most discreditable passage in his life was

disproved

'

Some other judges

becoming Lord Chancellor.
seem to have had no faith in their own works. Lord
Campbell was seated one day next to Chief Baron
Pollock, when they were both Members of the House of
his

LONDON SOUVENIRS

70

Pollock, we lawyers receive the

of
an
infamous
profession.''
highest wages
Sir Nicholas Bacon was so learned in the law that he

Commons, and

said

was appointed attorney in the Court of Wards, and

made a Privy Councillor and Keeper of the Great Seal
under Elizabeth.

When

the Queen visited

him at

Redgrave, she observed, alluding to his corpulence, that

he had built the house too little for himself. ' Not so,
madam,'' he answered ;
1
too big for my house.

'

but your Majesty has made me

A man was brought before Sir

Nicholas accused of a crime which, under the Draconian

He
laws then in force, involved the penalty of death.

was found guilty, and, asked whether he had anything

to say for himself, appealed to the judge's compassion,
seeing that he was a kind of relation to him, his name
'

being Hogg.

Bacon

True,' replied
1

And

Bacon

'
;

but

Hog

is

not

hung, or hanged, to speak

hung.
did
not save his bacon. But
and
thus
he
was,
correctly,
the jest was a cruel one.
till

it's

VII.

SOME FAMOUS LONDON ACTRESSES.

~^\ISTANCE
*-**

lends enchantment to the view, but the

view frequently does not return it, a common

Distance alone invests
practice with borrowers
!

the East with a halo of romance and beauty, to which

The romance is the invenit really can lay no claim.

Western imagination, and the beauty, if not

In no respect is this excess of
tawdry, is monstrous.
over
the
reality more apparent than in the
imagination
eidolon the European forms in his mind of Eastern
female beauty. He hears or reads of houris, and nautchwomen of Japan
girls, and bayaderes, and the dancingand Burmah but if ever he sees any of them he will be
disenchanted, for awkward figures they are, wrapped up
in clothes like so many sacks, twisted and tied over one
tion of

another

if

not old, at least middle-aged

women with

The
Pooh enough of them
rings in their noses.
real beauties the European never gets a sight of, they
are shut up in harems.
But still he thinks the East the
!

region of beauty, and longs for it, even when he sees

beauty in perfection in the West, where alone it is to

be found, because in Western lands alone physical and

LONDON SOUVENIRS

72
or

intellectual

And

perfect

combination

this

beauty exists in combination.

is

most frequently

seen, as

may

be surmised from the nature of her avocation, in the

Women first appeared on the English stage in
actress.
1660.

ance of

On December
'

Othello

6 in that year, at the performat the Duke's Theatre, Lincoln's Inn

Fields, the prologue

spoken

introduce the

woman

first

'

prologue to
that came to act on the

is

entitled

'

Pepys went to see The Beggar's Bush at the

same theatre on January 3, 1661, and reports ' Here
the first time that ever I saw a woman come upon the
But the Queen had long before then, namely,
stage.'
'

stage.'

The pracin 1633, acted in a pastoral given at Court.

tice having, however, been introduced at the Duke's
Theatre, was continued, to the disgust of moralists, who
'
'
enormous shamefulness of female
looked upon the

Even the intelligent and

acting as a sinful practice.
generally liberal-minded Evelyn speaks of the drama as
abused to
of

'

an atheistical

women being

by the circumstance
become performers. In his

liberty,'

suffered to

Diary, October 18, 1666, he writes: 'This night was

"
acted my Lord Broghill's tragedy, called
Mustapha,"
before their Majesties at Court, at which I was present,

seldom going to the public theatres for many

reasons now, as they were abused to an atheistical
women now (and never till
liberty, foul and indecent
very

now) permitted to appear and act, who, inflaming several

young noblemen and gallants, became their misses, and
to some their wives, witness ye Earl of Oxford, Sir R.
Howard, P. Rupert, the Earl of Dorset, and another

who fell into their

greater person than any of them,
noble
of
their
families, and ruin
snares, to ye reproach

SOME FAMOUS LONDON ACTRESSES

73

1
'
of both body and soul.
By another greater person,
Evelyn no doubt intended the King himself, Charles II.,
who had at least three avowed mistresses taken from the

Madam Davis, Mrs. Knight, and Nell Gwynne.

Miss Davis was, according to Pepys, a natural daughter
of the Earl of Berkshire.
He went to see her perform
stage

on March
'

little

and
7, 1666, in 'The English Princess,
Miss Davis did dance a jigg after the end of the

play,

and there

came

in

telling the next day's play, so that it

1

by force only to see her dance in boy's clothes.

Mrs. Knight was a famous singer. Kneller painted her
Of Nell Gwynne we shall have occasion to
portrait.
further
on.
At the same theatre Mrs. Davenspeak
lady who played the part of Roxalana in
'The Siege of Rhodes, was taken to be the Earl of
port, the

Oxford's misse, as at this time they began to

call

lewd

But Evelyn evidently was

badly informed. Mrs. Davenport for a long time refused
the Earl of Oxford's presents and overtures, but, on his
women,

as

Evelyn

says.

marry her, she consented. The ceremony

was performed, and they lived together for some time,
and then the Earl informed her that the marriage was a
sham, and that the mock parson was one of his trumIn vain the deluded woman
peters.
appealed to the
offering to

vain she threw herself at the

King's feet to
demand justice. She might consider herself lucky to
obtain a pension of i?300.
Pepys saw her afterwards at
laws, in

the theatre, and says ' Saw the old Roxalana in the
chief box, in a velvet gown, as the fashion is, and
very
1
handsome, at which I was glad.
:

he

Moll Davies was another of the King's favourites, and

is said to have fallen in love with her through her

LONDON SOUVENIRS

74

on the Cold Ground in The

a
altered
Rivals,
by Davenant from Beaumont and
play
The
Two
Noble
Kinsmen. Pepys frequently
Fletcher's
mentions her as a rival to Nell Gwynne. She had one
'

singing

My

'

Lodging

is

'

'

daughter by Charles, who was christened Mary Tudor,

and was married in 1687 to the son of Sir Francis
Ratcliff,

who became Earl

King grew

tired

of Derwentwater.

When

the

of her he settled a pension on her of

It was as a descendant of this Earl

J?1,000 a year.
that the lady who called herself Amelia, Countess of
Derwentwater, in 1868 took possession of the old
baronial castle of Devilstone, or Dilston, claiming it
and the estates belonging thereto, but then and now

But the Lords

vested in Greenwich Hospital, as hers.
of the Admiralty, in 1870, defeated her claim, and she
disappeared from public view.
Another famous actress in the days of Charles II. was
Margaret Hughes, of whom Prince Rupert became

enamoured.

At

first

she

pretended

to

be

fiercely

virtuous, so as to secure a higher price for her favours.

And, in fact, the Prince settled on her Brandenburgh

House, near Hammersmith, in which she lived about

The house afterwards became the residence
ten years.
of Queen Caroline, who died there, shortly after which
it

was demolished.

said against women appearing on

the stage, there is something more repulsive in men and
boys taking female parts in a play, at least, so it seems

Whatever may be

to our moral feelings, and aesthetically the practice is

still more
Male performers can never
objectionable.
represent the spontaneous grace, melting voice, and
tender looks of a female, and the ludicrous contretemps

SOME FAMOUS LONDON ACTRESSES

75

the custom frequently caused further showed its abThus, on one occasion, Charles II. inquired
surdity.

the commencement of the play was

The
delayed.
forward
and
craved
his
manager stepped
Majesty's
And
indulgence, as the queen was not yet shaved.
whatever Prynne might say in his ' Histrio Mastix ,

why

female actors, the

against

cease at once

practice caught on and

course, the opposition did not

Of

became general.

even in France

it

raised its head as late

as 1733.

speaker against the stage spoke thus at the

1
'
Jesuits College in Paris
They (the actresses) do not
:

form the deadly shafts of Cupid, but they level them

with the eye, and shoot with the utmost
dexterity and
Such women I mean as represent destructive love
skill.
characters.

How

inconsiderable dart

a single one

Nancy

1
I

do they hurl the most

multitudes are wounded by

artfully

What

And, indeed, what multitudes have our

Oldfields,

Bracegirdles, Gwynnes, Kitty Gives,

Perditas, Meltons, and the whole galaxy of theatrical
beauties not only wounded, but
and some-

conquered,

times killed

The life
now

of an actress had

many ups and downs as it

former days.
There was the eccentric
Charlotte Charke, daughter of Colley Cibber, who for
some mysterious reason for many years went in male
attire, and who acted on the stage if she could get
has

in

There was then in Bear Yard, Clare

employment.
Market, a theatre, occasionally used as a tennis-court
and as an auction-room.
Thither,'' she says in her
'

'

adventured to see

if there was
any character
custom very frequent among the
gentry
who exhibited in that slaughter-house of dramatic

Memoirs,

wanting a

LONDON SOUVENIRS

76

One night, I remember, the

poetry.
Officer" was to be performed.
To
.

"Recruiting

my unbounded

joy Captain Plume was so unfortunate that he came at

five o'clock to
say that he did not know a word of his

The question being put to me, I immediately

that
I could do such a
replied
thing, but was
resolved to stand upon terms
one guinea paid in
1
which
terms
were
advance,
complied with.
part.

We

mentioned above that the life of an actress has

many ups and downs even now. In justification of that
statement let us quote from the Star of
September 12,
A pathetic story of an aged
1S96
who had been
'

lady,

a popular actress, but

upon

and who was found dead

whom

in a

days had come,

evil

poorly-furnished bedroom

in a third-floor

back at Whitfield Street, Tottenham

Court Road, was told yesterday to the coroner. The
old lady was Louisa Marshall,
aged seventy, sister of a
celebrated clown at

Drury Lane, who died before her.

She used to teach the piano, and had a small
pension
from the Musical and Dramatic Sick Fund.
The
contents of her room, an old piano and some theatrical
were said to be worth
fifty shillings at most.''

dresses,

But, as Byron says, let us lay this sheet of sorrow on

the shelf, and speak of
lively, joyous Nell Gwynne, who

drove that amorous Pepys

His Diary is
nearly mad.
of her.
First she is simply 'pretty,
witty Nell'
On January 23, 1666, Nelly is brought
(April 3, 1 665).
to him in a box at the theatre.
most pretty
full

'

woman. ...
mighty

I kissed her,

pretty soul she

is.

and so did

On March

my

wife,

2, in the

and a

same

comes in like a young gallant, and

year, 'Nell
hath the motions and carriage of a
spark the most that
.

SOME FAMOUS LONDON ACTRESSES

77

man have. It makes me, I confess,

On May 1, 1667, he writes: 'To Westthe way many milkmaids with their gar-

ever I saw any

admire

her.''

In

minster.

lands upon their pails, dancing with a fiddler before

them, and saw pretty Nelly standing at her lodging's
door in Drury Lane, in her smock sleeves and bodice,

She seemed a mighty pretty creaBut, according to her ardent admirer, this mighty
pretty creature could use mighty strong language too,
for he says of her (October 5, 1667)
But to see how
looking upon one.

ture.

'

'

'

Nell cursed for having so few people in the pit was

And again, on October 26, he reports

Nelly and Beck Marshall (one of the great Presbyterian's daughters) falling out the other day, the latter
:

strange.''
'

called the other

"

my Lord

Buckhurst's mistress.

Nell

was but one man's mistress, though I

was brought up in a disreputable house to fill strong
waters to the gentlemen, and you are a mistress to three

answered her

'

or four, though a Presbyter's praying daughter."

And
Nell may have been right, for Beck Marshall seems to

have been a
'

trifle

fast.

Pepys

on

says,

To

May

2,

1668

the King's (play) house, where

the play being
over, I did see Beck Marshall come dressed off the
.

stage, and look mighty fine and pretty, and noble

also Nell, in her boy's clothes, mighty pretty.

Lord

their confidence,

and

But,
do hover

and how many men

about them as soon as they come

and how

off the stage,

confident they are in their talk !'

Pepys, in the end,
seems to have cooled in his devotion to pretty Nell, for

on January 7, 1669, he wrote in

and I to the King's play-house.

his
.

'

Diary
.

We

upper box, and the jade Nell came and sat

My

wife

sat in

in

an

the next

LONDON SOUVENIRS

78

box, a bold, merry slut, who lay laughing there upon

people, and with a comrade of hers, of the Duke's house,
1

that came in to see the play.

Coal Yard, Drury Lane, seems to have

been Nell

Gwynne's birthplace, a low, disreputable locality, and she

died in a fine house on the south side of Pall Mall.
Previously to that, she had lived in a house on the north
side, whose site is now occupied by the Army and Navy
Club.

Though Drury Lane

was a fashionable

in the days of Nell

locality, it

Gwynne

would seem that only to

the southern division this epithet could be applied ; the

northern end, towards Holborn, had a low and mean

and Coal Yard consisted of miserable tenebeen rebuilt, and is now called
Goldsmith Street. Nell Gwynne died in 1691, and was
pompously interred in the parish church of St. Martinsin-the-Fields, Dr. Tennison, the then Vicar, and after-

character,

ments.

It has recently

wards Archbishop of Canterbury, preaching her funeral

sermon. This sermon was afterwards brought forward
at Court to impede the doctor's preferment ; but Queen
Mary, having heard the objection, answered: 'Well,

what then

This

have heard before, and

it is

a proof

woman

died a true penitent, who

course
the
of
life never let the wretched
her
through
1
This was certainly as noble an answer to
ask in vain.

that the unfortunate

give on the part of a Queen as it was mean on the part

'
of King Charles II. to say on his deathbed
Don't let
1
starve.
Was
it
not in his power to make
poor Nelly
:

provision for her, instead of leaving her to the charity

of the world ?

Another both fortunate and unfortunate

actress

was

Mrs. Montford, whose husband was murdered as he had

SOME FAMOUS LONDON ACTRESSES

come to
attempt

79

escort Mrs. Bracegirdle, after Captain Hill's

abducting this lady, on her leaving the

at

more

theatre, of which

or Mountfort

Gray wrote

the

his ballad

On Mrs. Montford,
found spelt both ways

hereafter.

name
of

is
'

Berkeley's partiality for her

Black-eyed Susan.' Lord

was so great that at his

decease he left her dP300 a year, on condition that she

did not many ; he also purchased Cowley, near Uxbridge,
for her

the

place had been the

summer

residence of

Rich, the actor and from time to time made her

She fell in love with a
presents of considerable sums.

Mr. Booth, a then well-known actor, but, not wishing

to lose her annuity, she did not many him, though she
gave him the preference over many others of her suitors.
Mrs. Montford had an intimate friend, Miss Santlow, a
celebrated dancer but, through the liberality of one of
her admirers, she became possessed of a fortune, which
;

rendered her independent of the stage, upon which

Mr. Booth proposed to her, and was accepted. This so

Montford that she became mentally

deranged, and was brought from Cowley to London to
have the best advice. As she was not violent and had
affected

Mrs.

moments, she was not rigorously confined, but

go about the house. One day she asked her
attendant what play was to be performed that
evening,
and was told it was Hamlet.' In this piece, whilst she
was on the stage, she had always appeared as
Ophelia.
lucid

suffered to

'

The

and with the cunning always

with insanity, she found means to elude the
watchfulness of her servants, and to reach the theatre,
recollection struck her,

allied

where she concealed herself till the time when Ophelia

was to appear, when she rushed on the stage,
pushing

LONDON SOUVENIRS

80

the lady who was to act the character aside, and exhibited a more perfect representation of madness than
She
the most consummate mimic art could produce.
of
incarnation
the
in
herself,
truth,
very
was,

Ophelia
Nature having made this last effort, her vital
On going off, she prophetically
powers failed her.
As she was being conveyed
It is all over V
exclaimed
madness.

'

home,

'

she,"

in

'

Gray's words,

bowed her head and

died.

like

lily

drooping,

Lovely Nancy Oldfield, who quitted the bar of the

Mitre, in St. James's Market, then kept by her aunt,
Mrs. Voss, became, towards the end of the seventeenth
Her
Lane.
century, the great attraction at Drury
intimacy with General Churchill, cousin of the great
Duke of Marlborough, obtained for her a grave in WestPersons of rank and distinction conminster Abbey.

tended for the honour of bearing her pall, and her

remains lay in state for three days in the Jerusalem

Chamber

We referred

above to the attempt made by Captain

Hill to carry off Mrs. Bracegirdle.

her his hand and had been refused.

abduct her by

Mahun

He

force.

to assist him.

Horseshoe Tavern

in

Hill had offered

He

determined to

induced his friend Lord

coach was stationed near the

Drury Lane, with

six soldiers to

which they attempted to do as she

came down Drury Lane about ten o'clock at night,
a
accompanied by her mother and brother, and friend,
Mr. Page. The attempt was resisted, a crowd collected,
and Hill ordered the soldiers to let the lady go, and she

force her into

it,

was escorted home by her

her friend Mr. Montford,

friends.

who soon

She then sent for

after turned the

SOME FAMOUS LONDON ACTRESSES

81

corner of Norfolk Street, where Hill challenged him, as

he attributed Mrs. Bracegirdle's rejection of him to
her love for Montford, which suspicion, however, was
groundless, and ran him through the body before he

could draw his sword.

Hill

made

his escape

Montford

died from his wounds.

Even

more recent days actresses have made good

Miss Anna Maria Tree, of Covent Garden,
matches.
in 1825 married James Bradshaw, of Grosvenor Place
in 1831, Miss Foote, the celebrated actress, became
in

Miss Farren, Countess of

Countess of Harrington
Miss
Countess
of Craven Miss Bolton
;
Brunton,
Derby
;

became Lady Thurlow Miss O'Neill married a baronet

Miss Kitty Stephens became Countess of Essex Miss
Campion was taken off the stage by the aged Duke of
;

The list might be greatly extended, even

own times but the instances quoted are suf-

Devonshire.
to our
ficient

to show the prizes

ladies

may draw

in

theatrical matrimonial lottery ; and there are as

fish in the sea as ever came out of it.

the

good

VIII.

QUEER CLUBS OF FORMER DAYS.

Virtuoso

THEmembers

Club

of the

was established by some

Royal Society, and held its

meetings at a tavern in Cornhill. Its professed

to advance mechanical exercises, and prowas
object
'

useful experiments ; but, according to Ned Ward,

their discussions usually ended in a general shindy, and
'

mote

results not to be described

by a modern

writer.

The

club claimed the merit of the invention of the barometer;

but, for all that, its proceedings afforded fine sport to

the

satirists

thus, the

members were

said to

aim at

making beer without water, living like princes on threehalfpence a day, producing a table by which a husband

may
may

discover

all

the particulars of the tricks his wife

play him. The ridicule showered on the club at

last reduced it to a little cynical cabal of half-pint
to meet at the same tavern.
of other learned societies
members
Convivial ly-disposed
have occasionally formed themselves into clubs. Thus
moralists,

who continued

some antiquaries, many years since, formed a club styled

*
Noviomagians.' Mr. Crofton Croker was its president

QUEER CLUBS OF FORMER DAYS

more than twenty

years,

83

and many other distinguished

men were members.

number of

roistering

companions used to hold a

which they

club at the Golden

Fleece in Cornhill, after

named

Each member on

their club.

his admission

had

a characteristic name assigned to him as Sir Nimmy

Sneer, Sir Talkative Do-little, Sir Rumbus Rattle.

They eventually adjourned to the Three Tuns, Southward

The No-Nose Club, whether it ever existed or not,
was a horrible idea
the lifetime of

The Club

its

in itself

it

flourished only during

founders.

of Beaus was what

its

name

implies

a club

The only merit they seem to have

of fops and idiots.
had was that their habits were always scrupulously
though their language usually was filthy. Their
meetings were held at an inn in Covent Garden.
The Quacks'' Club, or Physical Society, was really
an offshoot of the College of Physicians, which met
at a tavern near the Exchange, where they discussed
clean,

medical matters.

The

College of Physicians at that

time was in Warwick Lane, where

it

remained

till

removed, in 1825, to Trafalgar Square.

The Weekly Dancing Club, or Buttock Ball, was held
at a tavern in King Street, St. Giles, and was patronized

footmen who had

bullies, libertines, and strumpets
robbed their masters and turned gentlemen chambermaids who had stolen their mistresses' clothes and set

by

up

for

gentlewomen.

Though

called a club, it was not

really a close assembly, but everyone was admitted on

The
the payment of sixpence, and no questions asked.

Dancing Academy was

first

established about the year

62

LONDON SOUVENIRS

84

1710 by a dancing-master over the Coal Yard gateway

into Drury Lane, and was so successful that it was
removed to the more commodious premises mentioned
above.
But at last it became such a nuisance that the
The Coal Yard above menauthorities shut it up.
tioned, the last turning on the north-east side of Drury
Lane, is said to have been the birthplace of Nell

Gwynne.

club cultivating a certain filthy habit, which I can

as one practised by the French peasantry,
indicate
only
and as described in one of Zola's novels, was established
at a public-house in Cripplegate. The manner in which
the proceedings of the club are set forth by their
chronicler

is

as hideous

and repulsive as the writer can

could not be reproduced in any modern

risk of prosecution, which, indeed,
without
publication
But the manners of the
would be well deserved.

make

it

it

eighteenth century were excessively coarse.

The Man-Killing Club, besides admitting no one to

membership who had not

man, also bound

itself to resist the Sheriff's myrmidons on their making
any attempt to serve a writ on or seize one of them. It
was founded in the reign of Charles II. by a knot of
bullies, broken Life-Guardsmen, and old prize-fighters.
Its meetings were held at a low public-house on the
killed his

The good old times

Club
was
chiefly composed of master
Surly
and
carmen, lightermen,
Billingsgate porters, who held
their weekly meetings at a tavern near Billingsgate
back-side of St. Clement's.

The

Dock, where City dames used to treat their journeymen

with beakers of punch and new oysters. The object of
their meetings was the practice of contradiction and of

QUEER CLUBS OF FORMER DAYS

85

foul language, that they might not want impudence to

This society first
abuse passengers on the Thames.

established

harden

its

the thumping post at Billingsgate, to

members by whipping never to bridle their
-

tongues from fear of corporeal punishment. Billingsgate language was, as may be supposed, much improved
by them.

The
and

Atheistical Club

met at an inn

in

Westminster,

name

sufficiently indicates its object, namely, to

take the devil's part.
trick was played on them by
its

man

disguising himself in a bear's skin and making

them believe he was the devil, which occurrence, it is

said,

broke up the club.

Similar societies were dis-

covered in Wells Street, and at the Angel, in St. Martin's

Lane, and the members arrested ; but, it turning out
that in these cases the devil was

less

black than he was

them had to be withdrawn.

were more political, with republican

painted, the charges against

The societies,

in fact,

tendencies, inspired by the French Revolution, which

was just then at its height, and the worship of Reason
seems to have been one of their principles.

The Split-farthing Club held its weekly meetings at

the Queen's Head in Bishopsgate Street, and was supposed to be composed chiefly of misers and skinflints.
If any smoker among them left his box behind him,
and wanted to borrow a pipe of tobacco of a brother, it
would not be lent without a note of hand, which was
generally written round the bowl of a pipe so as to

prevent the waste of paper.

The Club of Broken Shopkeepers held its meetings at

the sign of Tumble-Down Dick, a famous boozing den
in the Mint in Southwark, a sanctuary of knaves, sots,

LONDON SOUVENIRS

86

and bankrupts, honest or swindling, against arrest for

debt.
The sign of Tumble-Down Dick was set up in
derision of Richard Cromwell, the allusion to his fall
from power, or tumble-down,"* being very common in
'

the satires published after the Restoration.

a house with the same sign at Brentford.

There was

Of

course,

the professed object of the meetings of the broken shopkeepers was that of driving away and forgetting care ;
and any new-comer among them, if he had any cash
left,

was

liberally allowed to

expend

it

for the further-

ance of the club's object.

The Man-Hunting Club was composed

limbs of the law

chiefly of young

uncultivated youths, though they were

law students, formed themselves into an association to
hunt men over Lincoln's Inn Fields and the neighbour;

hood whom they might happen to meet crossing them

at ten or eleven o'clock at night.
They would be concealed

upon the grass

in

one of the borders of the

fields

they heard some single person coming along, when

they would spring up with their swords drawn, run
towards him, and cry
That's he
bloody wounds,
till

'

that's

he

!'

Usually the person so attacked would run

away, when they would pursue him till he took refuge

in an alehouse in some neighbouring: street.
But if the

man-hunters encountered a person of courage, ready to

them, they would sneak off, like the curs they

fight

Their meeting-place was at a tavern close

really were.

to Bear Yard, Clare Market.

The Yorkshire Club held its meetings on market-days
at an inn in Smithfield.
It was composed of sharp

who assumed the innocence of yokels.

flourishing members among them, says one

country-folk,

The most

QUEER CLUBS OF FORMER DAYS

87

authority, were needle-pointed innkeepers; nick and

froth victuallers, honest horse chaunters, pious Yorkshire

attorneys ; the rest good, harmless master hostlers, two

or three innocent farriers, who had wormed their masters

out of their shops, and themselves into them. When

met for business, their deliberations were about horseflesh,

blind eyes, spavins, bounders and malinders, and

rid of the animals.

how to disguise defects and get

The Mock-Heroes Club met

at an alehouse in Bald1

and was composed chiefly of attorneys

clerks and young shopkeepers.
On admission the new
member assumed the name of some defunct hero, and
win's Gardens,

ever afterwards was at the meetings called by that name ;

and as the club held its meetings in the public room,

though at a separate table specially reserved for them,

this formal and ridiculous way of addressing one another
caused no slight amusement to the other persons frequenting the room. In other respects their language
was high-flown. Thus, one would face about to his
left-hand neighbour, with his right hand charged with
a brimming tankard, saying
Most noble Scipio, the
love and friendship of a soldier to you.
The thanks of
'

a brother to

my

valiant friend Hannibal,

whom I

cannot

had the honour to conquer.'

to
brave
Caesar, cries one opposite,
respects
you,
1

but value, though

'

And so on,
membering the battle of Pharsalia.
had
drunk
themselves under the table.
they

My
*

re-

till

The Lying Club, which held its meetings at the Bell

Tavern, in Westminster, is said to have been established
in 1669.
Every member was to wear a blue cap with a
red feather in it before admittance he had to give
;

proof of his powers of mendaciloquence

during club

LONDON SOUVENIRS

88

hours, that is, from four to ten p.m., no true word was
'
to be uttered without a preliminary ' By your leave to
'

and if any member told a whopper

which the chairman could not beat with a greater, the
Ned
latter had to surrender his office for that evening.
Ward gives some exquisite specimens of the whoppers
the chairman

'

'

told

by members.

The

its weekly meetings at a

ken
in
Old
All the sham cripples,
Street.
boozing
blind men, etc., belonged to it, and there discussed the
various stratagems they had adopted to excite public

Beggars' Club held

compassion, or intended to adopt for that purpose.

About 1735 a number of young gentlemen, who were
pretenders to wit, formed themselves into a society,
which met at the Rose Tavern, Covent Garden, and

which they christened the Scatter-wit Society.

But
their literary performances were poor specimens of wit,
contributed nothing to the reputation of the Rose

Tavern as the resort of

sequently is
of that day.

'

men

of parts, and connot frequently mentioned in the literature

Bob Warden was

the younger brother of Mr. Warden,

a gentleman who, ' after having given a new turn to

Jackanapes Lane, and promoted many useful objects
for the good of the public, was undeservedly hanged.''

We

may explain here that Jackanapes Lane was the

original name of Carey Street, north of the Law Courts,
and the new turn Mr. Warden gave to it is the western
bend connecting

it

with Portugal Street.

Bob Warden,

was apprenticed to a painter,

more of his palate than his palette, he
dropped the latter, and with some money left to him,

after his brother's death,

but, thinking

QUEER CLUBS OF FORMER DAYS

89

established a convivial club at the Hill, in the Strand,

where

all

such as ruined

of queer characters,

sorts

gamesters, petticoat-pensioners, Irish captains, sharpers

and cheats were welcome. As the meetings took place
in a cellar, the club became known as the Cellar Club,
and was the forerunner of the Coal Hole and the Lord
Chief Baron Nicholson.
Bob, amidst his roistering
drank
himself
to
death.
customers,
For about ten years the Mohawks, or Mohocks, kept

London

though they seldom

ventured into the City, where the watch was more
efficient, but confined themselves chiefly to the neighbourhood of Clare Market, Covent Garden, and the
The Spectator says of them
Strand.
Some of them
a

in

state

of

alarm,

'

are celebrated for dexterity in tipping the lion

them, which

upon

performed by squeezing the nose flat to

the face and boring out the eyes with their fingers.
is

Others are called the dancing-masters, and teach their

scholars to cut capers by running swords through their
third sort are the Nimblers, who set
legs.

... A

women on
on them.

their heads

and commit

barbarities

Their conduct in the end became so alarm-

ing that a reward of dflOO was offered by royal

proclamation for the apprehension of any one of them.
Curious stories were current at various times as to the
In the

origin of this society.

'

'

Memoirs of the Marquis

of Torcy, Secretary of State to Louis XIV., and a famous

diplomatist (born 1665, died 1746), the Duke of Marl-

borough is said to have suggested to Prince Eugene to

employ a band of ruffians ... to stroll about the
streets by night
and to insult people by passing
'

along, increasing their licentiousness gradually, so as to

LONDON SOUVENIRS

90

commit greater and greater disorders

that when
the inhabitants of London and Westminster were
.

accustomed to the insults of these

not be difficult to assassinate those of

rioters,

it

would

whom

they might
wish to be freed, and to cast the whole blame on the
band of ruffians.
This project the Prince is reported
1

'
to have rejected.
Swift, in his
History of the Four
Last Years of Queen Anne,' attributes the scheme to

the Prince himself on his visit to this country, through

He proposed that
his hatred of Treasurer Harley.
'

be taken off

the Treasurer should

that this

might easily be done and pass for an effect of chance,

if it were
preceded by encouraging some proper people

commit small riots in the night. And in several

parts of the town a crew of ruffians were accordingly
to

employed about that time, who probably exceeded

and acted inhuman outrages
their commission
whom
on many persons,
they cut and mangled in the
.

and arms and other parts of their bodies.

was confirmed beyond all contraIt
diction by several intercepted letters and papers.'

face

This account

that popular panic exaggerated the

of
the
Mohawks.
Perhaps they did not exceed
doings
in savagery the drunken frolics then customary at
is

just possible

night-time.
The Hell Fire Club was an institution of a character
similar to that of the

Mohawks.

It

was abolished by
'

an order of the Privy Council in 1721, against certain

scandalous clubs,' but it must have been revived in the
country, for John Wilkes, about 1750, was a notorious

member

of a club with the above

Abbey, Bucks.

name

at

Medmenham

QUEER CLUBS OF FORMER DAYS

The

Head Club

Calves"

had

for a time

its

91
head-

quarters at The Cock, an inn long since demolished,

in Suffolk Street, Pall Mall.
It was one of the many
1

The club is
inns at which Pepys was ' mighty merry.
said to have been originated by Milton and other
partisans of the Commonwealth ; and the author of the
1

'

Secret History of the Calves Head Club

probably
Ned Ward gives an account of the melodramatic and
'

An
diabolical ceremonies observed at their banquets.
axe was hung up in their club-room as a sacred symbol

the

But the eating and

destroyer of the tyrant.

drinking, for which, as

Addison

says, clubs

were

in-

not neglected by the members. At the

held
in
1710 there was spent on bread, beer,
banquet
1
on fifty calves heads,
and ale the sum of 3 10s.
stituted, were

on bacon, 1 10s. on six chickens and two

on three joints of veal, 18s. on butter
1
capons,
and flour, 15s. on oranges, lemons, vinegar, and spices,
1 on oysters and sausages, 15s. on the use of pewter

5s.

and

linen,

and on various other items additional

No wine, it
sums, bringing the total up to i?18 6s.
will be noticed, is included in the above bill, but there
is

no doubt a considerable amount for

be added to

this

item should

it.

Early in the

last

in various parts of

century street clubs became common

London, that is to say, clubs in which

the inhabitants of one or two streets met every night to

Oat of these,
discuss the affairs of the neighbourhood.

we suppose,

arose the

Mug House

which soon found imitators

The members

Club, in

Long

in other parts of

Acre,

London.

gentlemen, lawyers, and tradesmen met

in a large room.

gentleman nearly ninety years of

LONDON SOUVENIRS

92

age was their president.

harp played at the lower
end of the room, and now and then a member rose and

Nothing was drunk

his
own mug, which
had
but ale, and every gentleman
he chalked on the table as it was brought in.
In 1770 some young gentlemen, on returning from
treated the

company to a

the grand tour

it

song.

was then

to

customary

was supposed
a
which
tour
leaving college

young cubs into shape and

make

after

to lick the

their manners, of

refine

course an illusion, since, whilst abroad, they associated

of English society then swarming
chiefly with the scum

on the Continent

some

of these young gentlemen, on

their return, established in St. James's Street the Savoir

V ivre Club, where they held periodical dinners, of which

This club was the

macaroni was a standing dish.
nursery of the Macaronis, a phalanx of mild Hyde
Park beaux, who were distinguished for nothing but

An unfinished copy
the ridiculous dress they assumed.
of verses found among Sheridan's papers, and which
Thomas Moore considered as the foundation of certain
lines

in

the

'

School

for

Scandal,'

Macaronis in a few masterly strokes

'

delineates

the

Then I mount on my palfrey as gay as a lark,

And, followed by John, take the dust in Hyde Park.
In the way I am met by some smart Macaroni,
Who rides by my side on a little bay pony
;

as taper and slim as the ponies they ride,

Their legs are as slim, and their shoulders no wider,' etc.

...

The

Savoir Vivre Club did not outlive the reign of

the Macaronis, which lasted about five years, and the

days the chairmen and linkmen never

as a publicunderstood
its foreign appellation
having
club ended

its

QUEER CLUBS OF FORMER DAYS

93

house bearing the name and sign of The Savoy Weavers.

There were, in the last century especially, no end of
small clubs, whose objects in most cases were trivial and
Short notice is all they deserve.

ridiculous.

The Humdrum Club was composed of gentlemen of

peaceable dispositions, who were satisfied to meet at a
and say nothing till midThe Twopenny Club was formed by a number
night.
of artisans and mechanics, who met every night, each

tavern,

smoke

their pipes,

depositing on his entering the club-room his twopence.

If a member swore, his neighbours might kick him on
If a member's wife came to fetch him, she
was to speak to him outside the door. In the reign of
Charles II. was established the Duellists' Club, to which

the shins.

no one was admitted who had not

killed his

man.

The

'
This club, consistchronicler of the club naively says
did
continue
of
men
of
not
honour,
long, most
ing only
1
of the members being put to the sword or hanged.
:

The

Everlasting Club, founded in the first decade of

the last century, was so called because its hundred

members divided the twenty-four hours of day and

night among themselves in such a manner that the
club was always sitting, no person presuming to rise
till he was relieved by his appointed successor, so that
a member of the club not on duty himself could always
find company, and have his whet or draught, as the

rules say, at

any time.
tradespeople and workmen of the past seem to
have had a passion for clubs but there is this to be

The

said in their favour, theirs were only drinking clubs.

Our modem patrons of low-class clubs establish them
for the worse pursuits of

gambling and betting.

IX.

CURIOUS STORIES OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE.

TN

the Weekly Journal of January 2, 1719-20, can be

read ' It was the observation of a witty knight
many years ago, that the English people were

"

something

like a flight of birds at a barn-door.

Shoot

among them and kill ever so many, the rest shall return
to the same place in a very little time, without any
remembrance of the evil that had befallen their fellows.
1

The pigeons at Monte Carlo, whom the cruel-minded

idiots who fire at them have missed, instead of flying at
once and for ever from the murderous spot, perch on the
cage in which their fellows are kept, and are easily
'
Thus the
caught again, to be eventually killed.
the
Journal
concludes,
though
they
English,
Weekly
1

'

have had examples enough

in

these

latter times of

people ruined by engaging in projects, yet they still fall

1
in with the next that appears.
And thus the Stock

Exchange
tree

flourishes.

was planted

debt.

It

is

That desolation-spreading upas-

mephitic morass of the national

considered deserving of blame in an inin the

dividual to get into debt, yet sometimes his doing so is

unavoidable his means are insufficient for his wants.

THE STOCK EXCHANGE

STORIES OF

95

But a nation has no excuse

There

into debt.

pay cash

for taking credit and getting

wealth enough in the country to
and if it borrows money
requires

is

for all it

merely to subsidize foreign tyrants to enchain their own

But nearly the
subjects, it commits a criminal act.
whole of our national debt has such an origin, and its
poisonous produce
'

the Stock Exchange. The word

heard in 1688, when a crowd

is

stock-jobber'' was

first

of companies sprang into existence, and it was then

that the Stock Exchange was first established as an

independent institution at Jonathan's Coffee-house, in

Change Alley, in or about 1698. Before then tl*e
brokers had carried

Exchange.
time does

on their business

London
it

not?

in the Royal
abounded at what
with new projects and schemes,

at that time

of them delusory, consequently the legitimate

transactions of the Royal Exchange were inconveniently
interfered with by the presence of so many jobbers and

many

that pernicious spawn of the public funds, as

them and they were ordered to leave
Noortbouck

brokers

calls

They just crossed the road and went to

and though a public nuisance, they serve

the Exchange.
Jonathan's,

'

the purposes of ministers too well, in propagating a

spirit of gaming in Government securities, to be exter1

minated, as a wholesome policy would dictate."

There,
1
at Jonathan's, you will see a fellow in shabby clothes,
as we read in the
Anecdotes of the Manners and
'

'

Customs of London,'

^10,000 or .12,000 in
he
stock, though perhaps
may not be worth at the
as
same time 10s., and with
much zeal as if he were a
selling

which they call selling a bear-skin.' Thus this

latter expression seems very old.
The business of stock-

director,

LONDON SOUVENIRS

96

jobbing increased, in spite of some feeble repressive

attempts on the part of Government in 1720, the House

Commons

'
passing a vote that nothing can tend
more to the establishment of public credit than prevent-

of

ing the infamous practice of stock-jobbing"'; and also

passing at the same time an Act enabling persons who

had been

to take a

thereby to obtain an easy and

In spite of this the brokers contrived
an extent that they found it necessary

sufferers

speedy redress.*
to thrive to such

more commodious room

in

Threadneedle

Street, to which admission was obtained on

payment of

The Bank Rotunda was at one period the

place where bargains in stocks were made ; but there
the brokers were as great a nuisance as they had been
sixpence.

at the Royal Exchange, and were turned out.

It was
then they took the room in Threadneedle Street, and
in the year 1799 they raised i?13,150 in 1,263 shares of
d?50 each, and purchased a site in Capel Court, com-

and debating forum and

on
which
the present Stock Exbuildings contiguous,
change was erected, and opened in 1801. Capel Court
was so called from the London residence of Sir William
prising Mendoza's boxing-room

Within the
Capel, Lord Mayor of London in 1504.
last decade the building has been considerably enlarged
and

beautified.

Stockbrokers are supposed to lead very harassed and

restless lives
yes, if they speculate on their own account

and with their own money, a

folly

which no experienced

* An Act
passed in 1734 forbade time bargains under a penalty
of 500 on brokers and their clients, and of 100 for contracting
for the sale of stock of which the person was not possessed.

Both these

statutes were repealed circa I860.

THE STOCK EXCHANGE

STORIES OF

97

He speculates for
broker ever thinks of committing.
other people, and with their money, and, well, if before
a
the official hour of opening
viz., eleven o'clock

chance presents

itself

of a deal with a customer's stock

on the broker's account, by which a little benefit accrues

to the latter, the customer knows nothing about it, and
what you are ignorant of does not hurt. The broker is,
in this respect, very

much

like the lawyer.

Neither the

broker nor the lawyer can be expected to share their

clients anxieties concerning investments or disputed
1

and they don't.

suburban

interests,

his office for his

When

either of

villa or

them

leaves

Brighton breezes, he

leaves all thoughts of business behind

him

in the office,

considering that the freedom from care he enjoys at home

in his estimation.
is
honestly earned, and no doubt it is

Until within the

first

quarter of this century a singular

custom concerning the admission of Jews to the Stock

Exchange was in existence. The number of Jew brokers
was limited to twelve, and these could secure the privi-

by a liberal gratuity to the Lord Mayor for

the time being.
During the Mayoralty of Wilkes, one
of the Jew brokers was taken seriously ill, and Wilkes

lege only

said to have speculated pretty openly on the advantage he would derive from filling up the vacancy. The
is

son of the broker, meeting the Lord Mayor, reproached

'
Wilkes with wishing his father's death.
My dear
1

replied Wilkes, with the sarcastic humour

'
peculiar to him, you are in error, for I would rather

fellow,

have

the Jew brokers dead than your father.

funds are much affected by political events
'

all

The

goes without saying.

rapid.

Their

that

may be very
It was exceptionally so in the early period of
rise

or

fall

LONDON SOUVENIRS

98

the French revolutionary war.

In March, 1792, the
Three per Cents, were at 96, in 1797 they were as low
as 48, the lowest they ever fell to.
The possession of
or
exclusive
enables
prior
persons to specuintelligence
late with great success.

acquainted

the

with

A broker
failure

of

who

casually

became

Lord Macartney's

negotiation with the French Directory, made 16,000

while breakfasting at Batson's Coffee-house, Cornhill,

and had he not been timid, might have gained half a

million, so great was the fluctuation, owing to the news
being entirely unexpected.
But the magnates of the

on casual

intelligence.

money market did not rely

They left no stone unturned to

obtain reliable information in advance even of Govern-

ment.

Thus

Sir

Henry Furnese, a bank

director, paid

from Holland, Flanders, France

made an enormous haul by his early

for constant despatches

and Germany.

He

intelligence of the surrender of

Namur

in 1695.

King

William gave him a diamond ring as a reward for earlv

information; yet he was not above fabricating false
news, and he had his tricks for influencing the funds.
If he wished to buy, his brokers looked gloomy, and, the

Marlalarm spread, they concluded their bargains.

had
an
of
from
6,000
Medina, the
Ljrough
annuity
Jew, for permission to attend his campaigns. During
the troubles of 1745, when the rebels advanced towards
London, stocks fell terribly. Sampson Gideon, a famous

Jew

broker, managed to have the first news of the

Pretender's retreat.
He hastened to Jonathan's, bought
all the stock in the market,
spending all his cash, and

pledging his name for more.

made him a millionaire.

This stroke of business

STORIES OF

THE STOCK EXCHANGE

99

During the last years of the French wars a difference

of 8 per cent., and even 10 per cent., would occur within
an hour, and thus great fortunes might be won or lost
It was also a period of gigantic
within that short time.
frauds,

Of
born

but of these later on.

all

in

the sons of Maier Amschel Rothschild, Nathan,

1777, was undoubtedly the most prominent.

Inheriting his father's spirit, he left his home at the early

age of twenty-two, and in 1798 opened a small shop as

a banker and money-lender at Manchester.

He had
left Frankfurt, where his father's house had just been
knocked into ruins by the bombardment of Marshal
Kleber, with only a thousand florins in his pocket. But
the cotton interest was just then beginning to develop
itself,

and Nathan took such

clever advantage of the

end of five
came
from
he
Manchester
to
London with a
years
fortune of =200,000, where he became the son-in-law of
opportunities this offered him, that at the

Levi Barnett Cohen, one of the Jewish City magnates.

report of his Manchester successes had preceded

The

Capital, and he immediately engaged largely

Stock Exchange speculations. Whilst houses of the
oldest standing were tottering or falling, owing to the

him to the
in

State loan of 1810 having turned out a failure, and the

fortunes of the Peninsular War seemed most doubtful,
some drafts of Wellington to a considerable amount

came over

here,

and there was no money

in the

Ex-

chequer to meet them. Nathan Rothschild, satisfied as

to England's final victory, purchased the bills at a large
discount,
at par.

and finally found the means of redeeming them

was a splendid speculation, which resulted

It

in his entering into closer intercourse with the

Ministry,

72

LONDON SOUVENIRS

100

and he was chiefly employed in transmitting the subsidies which England furnished
most foolishly indeed

to the

Continental Powers.

Nathan was supplied by

The circumstance

his brothers at Frankfurt

that

and

elsewhere with the earliest and most reliable intelligence,

and his trustworthy connections and arrangements in

London, enabled him to turn such knowledge to immeand profitable account.

But there being then
neither railways nor telegraphs, news was slow in coming.
Nathan trained carrier pigeons, and organized a staff of
agents, whose duty it was to follow the march of the
armies, and daily and hourly to send reports in cipher,
His agents, by
tied under the wings of the pigeons.
diate

means of

fast-sailing boats, taking the shortest routes,

indicated by

Nathan himself

the

mail-boats between

Folkestone and Boulogne of the present day follow one

of these routes
carried large sums between the coasts

of Germany, France, and England.

on the Continent were coming to a

And when
crisis,

events

Nathan on

more than one occasion hurried over to the Continent

It is said that Nathan
to watch the course of affairs.
Rothschild, on June 18, 1815, was on the field of
Waterloo,* and watched the battle till he saw the
French troops in full retreat, when he immediately rode
back to Brussels, whence a carriage took him to Ostend.
The sea was stormy in vain Nathan offered 500 francs,
;

* To an

article I wrote twenty-five years ago on this topic I

appended the following note 'We give the following on
the authority of Martin, but must add that a private friend,
who formerly filled an office of trust in the firm of Rothschild
Brother?, delares the whole to be a fiction.' But who this friend
was we cannot now remember.

find

STORIES OF
600

francs,

800

THE STOCK EXCHANGE

francs, to carry

him across; at

101
last

poor fisherman risked his life for 2,000 francs, and his
frail
barque, which carried Caesar and his fortunes,
landed Nathan in the evening- at Dover.

When

he

appeared on June 20, leaning against his usual pillar in

the Stock Exchange, everything and everybody looked
gloomy. He whispered to a few of his most intimate
friends that the allied

army had been

The

defeated.

news spread like wildfire, and there was a

tremendous fall in the funds. Nathan's known agents
sold with the rest, but his unknown agents bought every
dismal

It was not till the

scrap of paper that was to be had.
afternoon of June 21 that the news of the victory of

Waterloo became known.

Nathan was the

first

to

inform his friends of the happy event, a quarter of an

hour before the news was given to the public. The
funds rose faster than they had fallen, and Nathan

still

leant against his pillar in the southern corner of the

Stock Exchange, but richer by about a million sterling.

From

that day the career of Nathan was one of everhis firm became the agents of all
increasing prosperity
Governments
he made bargains with the
;
European
;

Czar of Russia and with South American Republics,

with the Pope and the Sultan.
About the morality of
the Waterloo episode the less said the better, but
peers
and princes of the blood, bishops and archbishops,
partook of his sumptuous banquets, whilst he calculated
to a penny on what a clerk could live
Another financier, who almost rivalled Rothschild as
!

a speculator, was Abraham Goldsmid, who was ruined

by a conspiracy. He, in conjunction with a banking
establishment, had taken a large Government loan.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

102

The
to

conspirators managed to cause the omnium stock

to 18 discount.
The result was Goldsmid's

fall

and eventually

failure

spirators

his

suicide,

whilst

the

con-

made a

Among

profit of about i?2,000,000.

other notable stockbrokers we must not omit

Francis Bailey, F.S.A., President of the Royal Astronomical Society, who retired from the Stock Exchange

In 1851 he repeated at his house in Tavistock

Place, Russell Square, the Cavendish experiment of
weighing the earth, and calculating its bulk and

in 1825.

and at the same time verifying the standard

figure,

measure of the British nation, and rectifying pendulum

In the garden of the house a small
experiments.
observatory was erected for those purposes, and
believe,

is,

we

still

standing.
alluded a little while ago to some gigantic frauds
One of the most extrain Stock Exchange operations.

We

ordinary and elaborate of such frauds was that carried

out by De Berenger and Cochrane- Johnstone in 1814.

Napoleon's military operations against the allies had

On February 21, 1814,
greatly depressed the funds.
about one o'clock a.m., a violent knocking was heard
at the door of the Ship Inn, then the chief hotel at
Dover.
When the door was opened, a person in a
richly-embroidered scarlet uniform announced himself
as an aide-de-camp of

Lord Cathcart (who was aide-de-

Duke

of Wellington in 1815), and as the

bearer of important news.
The allies had gained a

camp

to the

Napoleon had been

cut his body
by Cossacks,
into a thousand pieces.
Immediate peace was now
certain.
The stranger ordered a post - chaise, and

great victory, and entered Paris

captured and

killed

who had

THE STOCK EXCHANGE

STORIES OF

103

departed for London, but before leaving, he sent a

note containing the news to the Port Admiral, who
received it about four a.m.
but the morning being
;

foggy, the telegraph could not be worked.

aide-de-camp

De

The sham

Berenger, an adventurer, afterwards a livery stable-keeper

dashed along the road,
the
to
throwing napoleons
post boys whenever he
really

At

Bexley Heath it was clear to him

telegraph could not have worked, so he
moderated his pace, spreading at the same time the

changed horses.
that the

news of Napoleon's defeat and death.

At Lambeth
he entered a hackney-coach, telling the post-boys to
spread the news, which reached the Stock Exchange
about ten
rose,

consequence of which the funds

again when it was found that the Lord
had had no intelligence.
But about twelve

but

Mayor

o'clock, in

fell

o'clock three persons,

French
Bridge

two of

whom

were dressed as

officers, drove in a post-chaise over London

their horses were bedecked with laurels.
The

papers among the crowd, announcing

of
the death
Napoleon and the fall of Paris. They
then paraded through Cheapside and Fleet Street,
officers scattered

passed over Blackfriars Bridge, and drove rapidly to

the Marshgate, Lambeth, got out, changed their

cocked

hats

mysteriously

round

for
as

done a few hours

their

ones,

and

confederate,

De

disappeared

as

Berenger, had

earlier.

The funds now

rose again, but when, after hours of

it was discovered that the news,

anxious expectation,

on which many bargains had been made, was false,

there was, of course, wailing and gnashing of teeth.
A committee was appointed by the Stock Exchange to

LONDON SOUVENIRS

104

track out the conspiracy, as on the two days before

amount of ~C826,000 had been purchased

stocks to the

One of the gang had, for a

by persons implicated.
called
on
Lord
blind,
Cochrane, and Cochrane -Johna
relation
of
his, had purchased Consols for him,
stone,
that he might unconsciously benefit by the fraud.
The
to
a
Tories, eager
destroy
political enemy, concentrated
their rage on him, and he was tried, fined i?l,000,
and sentenced to stand for one hour in the pillory but

all

part of the sentence was not carried out, as

Sir Francis 13urdett had declared that if it was done he
this latter

would stand beside

his friend

on the

Cochrane was further stripped of

scaffold of

shame.

his knighthood,

and

down the steps of St. George's

in his old age his innocence
at
Windsor.
But
Chapel
and the injustice done to him were recognised, and his
coronet restored to him unsoiled. But could this atone
his escutcheon kicked

and

the misery endured ?

Those who wish to know all the details of this remarkable fraud will find them in the two volumes of the
for all the

wrong

inflicted,

all

Gentleman's Magazine for 1814.

The first volume
a
full
of
account
the
evidence
gives
produced at the
trial

X.

WITS AND BEAUX OF OLD LONDON SOCIETY.

MERE

beau, a

define him,

'

is

man

of dress, as our dictionaries

a pitiful object a walking and

and bedizened, and

doll,

painted
a wax figure.
The
imbecile-looking
a
beau should,
chooses to go in for being
talking

as

man who

as

if

he does

not wish to be thoroughly contemptible, possess, besides

physical beauty, a stock of brains, elegant manners,

The gentleman who

ready wit, and moral courage.
at the seaside dresses altogether in white must have
a personally distinguished appearance not to be taken
Beaux are rather out of
for his own chef de cuisine.

now

fashion just

the

last

mashers

and fops replace them.

century they were more plentiful.

In

Perhaps

the then prevailing popinjay style of dress, with

its

embroidered and many-coloured coats and waistcoats,

and

gaudy breeches, wigs

swords,

lent

itself

more

readily to the assumption of the character than does

our

more

aspirants

subdued
to

the

of

beau

In

those days the

were termed bucks,

and one of their distinguishing

plays and portraits of those days

gallants,

macaronis

features,

as

the

costume.

title
;

LONDON SOUVENIRS

106

abundantly demonstrate, was their having small legs

with slender calves possibly to show they were not
footmen in disguise. And, as a rule, in those days

the valet had more brains than his master.

Beaux have always been a

fruitful

and pleasant theme

The Spectator, in No. 275, defor the satirist's pen.

of
a beau's head, which is found
scribes the dissection
to contain no brain, but in the usual place for one,
smelling strongly of essences and orange-flower water,
a kind of horny substance, cut into a thousand little
faces or mirrors.
Further, a lot of ribbons, laces, and

embroidery, billets-doux, love-letters, snuff, fictions,

vows, oaths, and a spongy substance, known as non-

muscle, not often discovered in dissections,

was found, the os cribriforme, which draws the nose
upwards when by that motion it intends to express

sense.

The
The

contempt.
with use.

ogling muscles were very much worn

individual to whom this head had

belonged had passed for a man for about thirty years,

in the flower of his youth by the blow of a
fire-shovel, he having been surprised by an eminent

and died

he was paying some attentions to his wife.

This analysis of a beau's head, or character, was written

citizen as

in

doggerel

him thus

In 1757 an essayist described

1712.
:

'

Would you
Shake

modern beau commence,

off that foe to pleasure, sense.

Scorn

real, unaffected worth,

Despise the virtuous, good and brave,
To ev'ry passion be a slave.
.

your passion, joy and fame

To play at ev'ry modish game.
Harangue on fashion, point and lace.

Bo

it

in

WITS AND BEAUX OF OLD LONDON

Affect to

know

107

each reigning belle

That throngs the playhouse or the Mall.

Though swearing yo'i detest a fool,

Be versed in Folly's ample school.

These rites observed, each foppish

May view an emblem of himself.'

elf

The combination

of wit and beau in one person has,

nevertheless, occasionally been seen, and the ordinary,
or numskulled, beau has shared in the reputation
created by such a combination, just as all judges are
assumed to be sober.
But in the days when beaux
flourished wit of a very attenuated kind tickled the

fancy of the public, who haunted the taverns patronized

by the so-called wits. Even the jokes which passed at

Mermaid between Shakspere, Ben Jonson, and other

professed jesters must appear to modern readers who are

the

not absurdly prepossessed in favour of all that savours

of antiquity, as heavy, dull, and often far-fetched.
To
justify what may appear rank heresy, let me quote one
of Tarleton's
friend

witty' sayings.

and fellow -actor,

the

Tarleton was Shakspere's

low comedian of Queen

Elizabeth's reign, who probably suggested to Shakspere

some of his jesters and fools.
Now, this is what is

transmitted to us as a specimen of his wit Tarleton,

keeping an ordinary in Paternoster Row, would approve
:

of mustard standing before his customers to have wit.

'How

so?

inquired one.

'It

is

like

a witty scold,
1

meeting another scold, begins to scold first. So," says

the mustard, being licked up and knowing that
he,
'

will bite it,

'

I'll
begins to bite you first.
try that,"
a
and
so
mustard
tickled
him
the
that his
says
gull,
1
'
'
watered.
How
Does
now
p
Tarleton.
eyes
says
my

you

LONDON SOUVENIRS

108
1

the gull, and bite too.' ' If

1
you had had better wit, says Tarleton, 'you would
have bit first. So, then, conclude with me that dumb,

jest savour

'

'

Ay,"* says

unfeeling mustard has more wit than a talking, unfeeling

And this was considered 'a rare
fool, as you are.'
conceit

'

We

the days of Shakspere.

in

are rather

more exacting now.

The beaux of the days we are speaking of were,
indeed, poor specimens

of humanity.

noisy, swaggering lot, as

we

They were a

learn from the author of

'
If a gallant,' he says, ' entered
Shakspere's England/
the ordinary ... he would find the room full of fashion-

'

courtiers, who came there

mongers
news adventurers who have no home
.

for society

and

quarrelsome

men paced about fretfully fingering their sword-hilts,

and maintaining as sour a face as that Puritan moping
in a corner, pent up by a group of young
swaggerers,
The soldiers bragged of
disputing over cards.
nothing but of their employment in Ireland and in the
Low Countries.
The mere dullard sat silent, plav.

ing with his glove, or discussing at what apothecary's

the best tobacco was to be bought.
1

But

let

Fielding,

us,

in the career

famous

in

his

of an individual, Beau
how beaux then

day, show

Scotland Yard was so called

acquired a reputation.
from a palace which stood there, and was the residence
of the Kings of Scotland on their annual visit to do
homage for their kingdom to the Crown of England.

On

the union of the Scottish and English Crowns the

Farts of it served
palace was allowed to go to decay.

as

occasional

whom

residences

for

various

persons,

one of

was Robert Fielding, who died there in

the

WITS AND BEAUX OF OLD LONDON

of the

early part

last

century.

109

This Fielding was

The Tatler, in
Beau Fielding.
generally
thus
describes him
and
50
1709
51),
(Nos.
August,
Ten lustra and more are wholly passed since Orlando
known

as

'

(R. Fielding) first appeared in the metropolis of this

island, his descent noble, his wit humorous, his person
charming. But to none of these advantages was his
title

so

undoubted

plexion was

fair,

His comas that of his beauty.

his countenance manly ; his

but

stature of the tallest, his shape the most exact ; and

though in all his limbs he had a proportion as delicate
see in the work of the most skilful statuaries, his
had
a strength and firmness little inferior to the
body
marble of which such images are formed. This made
Orlando the universal flame of all the fair sex innocent
virgins sighed for him as Adonis, experienced widows as
Hercules.
Thus did this figure walk alone, the pattern

as

we

and ornament of our species, but, of course, the envy

of all who had the same passions, without his superior

and pretences to the favour of that enchanting

However, the generous Orlando
creature, woman.
believed himself formed for the world, and not to
merit,

Woman
be engrossed by any particular affection.
was his mistress, and the whole sex his seraglio. His
form was always irresistible and if we consider that
.

not one of

five

hundred can bear the

least favour

from

we
a lady without being exalted above himself
cannot think it wonderful that Orlando's repeated
.

So it certainly did, and

conquests touched his brain.
He would
Orlando became an enthusiast in love.
.

add to the advantages of his person that of a profession which the ladies always favour, and immediately

still

LONDON SOUVENIRS

110

commenced
.

after

soldier.

Our hero

arms

feats of

many

seeks distant climes

.

Orlando returns

not loaded, with years.

The
home, full,
beauteous Yillaria (Barbara, daughter and heiress of
William Villiers, Lord Viscount Grandison, of the

but

of Ireland)

Kingdom
affection.
'"

The

became the object of

his

According to Milton,

fair

with conscious majesty approved."

Fortune having now supplied Orlando with necessaries

for his high taste of gallantry and pleasure, his equipage
and economy had something in them more sumptuous
and gallant than could be conceived in our degenerate
age, therefore ... all the Britons under the age of
sixteen
followed his chariot with shouts and
.

...

acclamations.

remember

saw him one day

the youths about him, to whom he

stop,
" Good
as
follows
spoke
youngsters, go to school, and
do not lose your time in following; my wheels. I am

and

call

know not but you are all

Why, you young dogs, did you

loath to hurt you, because I

my own

offspring.

" Never such a one as

you,
noble General, replied a truant from Westminster.
"
Sirrah, I believe thee ; there is a crown for thee.
never see a

man

before

11

11

Drive on, coachman.

Fortune being now proto
the
he
dressed, he spoke, he
pitious
gay Orlando,
moved as a man might be supposed to do in a nation
.

... he sometimes rode in an open tumbril,

than ordinary, to show the largeness of his
limbs, and the grandeur of his personage, to the greater

of pigmies

of

less size

advantage.

Orlando

...

live

In
.

all

until

these glorious excesses did

an unlucky accident brought to
.

WITS AND BEAUX OF OLD LONDON

his

111

remembrance that ... he was married before he

Several fatal memocourted the nuptials of Villaria.

revive
the memory of this
randums were produced to

and the unhappy lover was for ever banished

her presence, to whom he owed the support of his first
renown and gallantry.
Orlando, therefore, now
The
Barbara
Villiers mentioned by
in
a
rages
garret.'
the Tatler was identical with Ladv Castlemaine, Duchess
accident,

whose scandalous history

of Cleveland,

She was

sixty-five years old

when she

fell

is

notorious.

in love with
1

The ' unlucky accident of

Fielding and married him.
the Tatler was the fact that a few weeks before Fieldingby an adventuress, one Mary Wadsworth, whom, taking her for a rich widow, he had
had been taken
married.

On

in

his second

wife revealed the fact to

bigamous marriage, the

first

Lady Castlemaine, who, having

been shamefully treated by Fielding, was glad to get

The first marriage was proved in a court of

rid of him.

law,

and sentence passed on Fielding to be burnt in the

By interest in certain quarters he was spared
ignominious punishment but he was left destitute,

hand.
this

and died forgotten and forsaken.

The
fact,

Tatler gave Fielding a noble descent, and he, in

claimed descent from the Hapsburgs and on the

strength of his

name ventured

to have the arms of Lord

Denbigh emblazoned on his coach, and to drive about

the ring in Hyde Park. At the sight of the immaculate
coat-of-arms on the plebeian chariot, 'all the blood of
'

the Hapsburgs flew to the head of Basil, fourth Earl

of Denbigh.
In a high state of fury, he at once procured a house-painter, and ordered him to daub the

coat-of-arms completely over, in broad daylight, and

LONDON SOUVENIRS

112
before

all

the

company

submitted to the

in the ring.

The beau tamely

insult.

Fielding had several competitors in the beau-ship

contemporary with him were Beau Edgeworth and Beau

Of the former but little is on record the
Wilson.
;

was cut short at an early date,

hitter's career

he was not

much beyond

for

when
was

his twentieth year he

a duel between him and John Law, afterwards

so famous as the originator of the Mississippi scheme.
killed in

The

duel took place on the site of the present Bloomsmushroom growth of beaux arose about
bury Square.

the year 1770, some of whom having travelled in Italy,

and introduced macaroni as a new dish, they came to be

designated by that name.

They

dressed in the most

ridiculous fashion, wearing their hair in a very high

foretop, with long side-curls, and an enormous chignon
behind.
Their clothes were tight-fitting, while silk

stockings in all weathers were de rigucur.

was of but short duration.

In the

This

folly

half of the eighteenth century flourished

great contrast in manners, character,
social position, and conduct to Beau Fielding ; but as
first

Beau Nash
his life

was passed at Bath he cannot be reckoned among

Yet we mention him, as in his earlier

London beaux.

years he was slightly connected with the Metropolis, by

the fact that he was entered for the Temple, though he

never followed the law as a profession.

We

have to come down to comparatively recent times

some note that beau was known

to encounter a beau of
as

Beau George Brummel.

He

was born

in 1777,

and

sent to Eton, where he enjoyed the credit of being the

best scholar, the best oarsman, and the best cricketer of

WITS AND BEAUX OF OLD LONDON

113

His father was Under-Secretary to Lord North,

J
and left each of his children some c 30,000. At Eton
he made many aristocratic friends, and thus obtained
his day.

the entree to Devonshire House, where the beautiful

Duchess of Devonshire, held her court, and

Georgiana,
where she introduced Brummell to the Prince Regent,
who gave him a commission in the 10th Hussars. But

he
its restraints, did not suit the beau
where
in
Chesterfield
resided
and
then
Street,
it,
the Prince, finding in him a kindred spirit of vanity and
him in the morning to see him
frivolity, used to visit
make his toilet, and to learn the art of tying his neckerAnd frequently the Prince would
chief fashionably.
the army, with

left

day to enjoy his friend's intellectual discourse,

and not
stopping to take a chop or steak with him,
stay all

returning

home

The beau

till

spent his

the next morning, half-seas over.

time chiefly at Brighton and at

Carlton House, and regularly established himself as a

leader of fashion, his horses and carriages, his dogs,
his clothes,
walking-sticks and snuff-boxes, but especially
all the empty-headed noodles who
to
becoming patterns

But such show

required guidance in such matters.
from his
derived
income
could not be supported on the
Brummell therefore went in heavily for
patrimony
Once at Brooks's he
gambling, with varying luck.
nicknamed
Alderman
with
Mash-tub,'
Combe,
played
;

'

The dice-box circulated.

Lord Mayor and brewer.
Come, Mash-tub,' said the beau, who was the caster,
what do you set ?'
Twenty-five guineas,' said the
The beau won, and eleven more similar
Alderman.
'

'

'

ventures.

you,

'
Thank
the money, he said
no
drink
1
shall
henceforth
porter but

As he pocketed

Alderman

LONDON SOUVENIRS

114
'

yours/

wish,

sir,"

Combe,

replied

'

that every other

At the

blackguard in London would say the same."

Watier Club, established at the instigation of the Prince

of Wales, Brum mell suffered heavy losses, so that ever
after he

was

in constant

pecuniary difficulties, though

Indulging in all the
tendencies
of
superstitious
gamblers, he at one time
attributed his luck to the finding of a crooked sixpence

Fortune smiled on him at times.

he was walking with Mr. Raikes, who

tells the
He had a
story, through Berkeley Square.
hole bored in the coin, and attached it to his watchin the kennel, as

As for the succeeding two years he had great

luck at the table and on the turf, he attributed it to the

chain.

He is supposed to have made nearlv

that
time.
i?30,000 during
A coolness between the Prince and the beau arose
lucky sixpence.

after a few years; various reasons are assigned for it.

He was, for instance, said to have taken the part of

Mrs. Fitzherbert,

who had been privately married

House he is reported

the Prince Regent at Carlton

to
to

have asked Lady Chohnondeley, in the hearing of the

Prince, and pointing to him, Who is your fat friend '?
Though it is also reported that this question was put
to Jack Lee, as he was walking up St. James's Street,
'

arm-in-arm with the Prince, a few days after the beau

had quarrelled with the latter. But this blew over,
and Brummell was again invited to Carlton House,

where he took too much wine.

brother, the

Duke

of

order Mr. BrummeH\s

York

The
'

carriage

Prince said to his

think we had better

before

he gets quite

Another version of the second rupture is that

Brummell took the liberty of saying to the Prince

drunk.

WITS AND BEAUX OF OLD LONDON

'

George, ring the bell.the servant who answered

The
it

'
:

Prince rang

it,

Mr. Brummelfs

115

and told
'

carriage.

This Brummell always denied; however, he was a second

time forbidden Carlton House.
For a few years he was

Duke of York,
sums at play, he was obliged to
the country, and having lived for some years in

a hanger-on at Oatlands, the seat of the

then, having lost large
fly

obscurity at Calais, he obtained the post of British

Consul at Caen for which his previous career, of course,

him
eminently
circumstances in 1840.
fitted

He

died in that town in poor

Let us conclude this short account of the poor moth,

basking in the royal sunshine for awhile, with one or
two anecdotes. One day a youthful beau approached
Brummell, and said 'Permit me to ask you where vou
'
'
Ah, said the beau, my blacking
get your blacking V
:

positively ruins me.

I will tell

you

in confidence

it is

made with the finest champagne

Fie was once at a
in Portman
On
the
cloth
party
Square.
being removed,
the snuff-boxes made their appearance BruminelTs was
!'

particularly admired

it

was handed round, and a gentle-

man, finding it somewhat difficult to open, incautiously

Brummell was on
applied a desert-knife to the lid.
thorns, and at last could contain himself no longer, and
addressing the host, he said, loud enough to be heard
'
Will you be good enough to tell
by the company
:

your friend that

my

snuff-box

is

not an oyster T

England has had no regular beau since the time of

Brummell, though occasionally some crack-brained
individual has attempted to wear his mantle.
Such a
one was Ferdinand Geramb, a tight- laced German
General and Baron, who in the second decade of this

82

LONDON SOUVENIRS

116

century strutted about the parks, conspicuous for his

ringlets, his superb moustaches, and immense spurs.
It was asserted that he was a German Jew, who,
having
married the widow of a Hungarian Baron, assumed her
late husband's title.

His

fiery

moustaches were closely

imitated by many illustrious personages, and gold spurs

several inches long became the fashion
one fool makes

many.

It

to

is

him the

British

army

the introduction of hussar uniforms.

is

indebted for

Having; to leave

England under the Alien Act, he went to Hamburg,

where he set himself to writing against the Emperor
Napoleon, who shut him up in the Castle of Vincennes.
There, in terrible fear of being shot, he made a vow
that should he regain his liberty he would renounce the
devil and his works, and join the Trappist community.
He was released at the Restoration, and at once entered
a Trappist
Joseph, and

monastery, under the name of Brother

time became Abbot and Pro-

in course of

No more fighting of
Order.
more keeping the bailiffs who wanted to
seize him for debt at bay for twelve days in an English
country house which he had fortified he submitted to
the severest rules of the Order, and in 1831 made a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and died at Rome in

curator-General of the
duels now, no

1848.

XI.

LONDON
SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES.

TN
-*

'

the year 1765 a Frenchman, who did not give his

name, visited London, and afterwards published in
Paris an account of his visit.
'

reached London,' he says, towards the close of

the day
and at last, quite by chance, I found
settled
in an apartment in the house of the
myself
I

Cruishuer Royal in Leicester Fields. This neighbouris filled with small houses, which are
mostly let to
he
On
the
walked
down
foreigners.
following day

hood

Holborn and the Strand to St. Paul's, then crossed

London Bridge, and returned to his hotel by walking
through Southwark and Lambeth to Westminster, a
district full of mean houses and meaner taverns.'
The
'

localities

named have not

greatly altered their character

In another place our traveller says ' Even

from the bridges it is impossible to get a view of the

since then.

liver, as

the parapets are ten feet high.

The reason
is the inclination which the
English,
.

given for all this

and the Londoners especially, have for suicide. It is

true that above and below the town the banks are

LONDON SOUVENIRS

118

unprotected, and offer an excellent opportunity to those

really wish to drown themselves ; but the distance

who

who wish

great, and, besides, those

is

in

manner

this

to lease the world

prefer doing so before the eyes of the

The parapets, however, of the new bridge

[Black friars] which is being built will be but of an
'
Suicidal tendencies must indeed
ordinary height.
public.

have greatly declined, since the most recently erected

bridges, the new Westminster and Blackfriars, have
particularly low parapets.

Of the streets our author says

They are paved in
such a manner that it is barely possible to ride or walk
on them in safety, and they are always extremely dirty.
The finest streets
would be impassable were
it not that on each side
footways are made from
four to five feet wide, and for communication from one
'

to the other across the street there are smaller footways

elevated above the general surface of the roadway, and

formed of large stones selected for the purpose.

In the finest part of the Strand, near St. Clement's

Church, I noticed, during the whole of my stay in

London, that the middle of the street was constantly

covered with liquid stinking mud, three or four inches
The walkers are bespattered from head to
deep.
foot.
The natives, however, brave all these dis.

wrapped up in long blue coats, like dressinggowns, wearing brown stockings and perukes, rough,
red and frizzled.''
agreeables,

Well, we cannot find

tion, unflattering as

it is,

much

fault with this descrip-

for in the last century

London

certainly was one of the most hideous towns to live in, and
its inhabitants the most uncouth, repulsive set of guys*
'

SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES

119

Concerning Oxford Street our author makes a false

prognostic 'The shops of Oxford Street will disappear
:

as the houses are

the rich.

Soon

sought after for private dwellings by

the great city extend itself to

will

Marylebone, which

At

league distant.

not more than a quarter of a

present it is a village, principally

is

of taverns, inhabited by French refugees."'

Our traveller sees but four houses in London which

bear comparison with the great hotels in Paris. To

the inconvenience of mud, he says, must be added that
of smoke, which, mingled with a perpetual fog, covers
London as a pall. We, to our sorrow, know this to be
will

true even now.

But we have improved

men

or

police.

'

in

one respect

our old watch-

'

Charleys have disappeared before the modern

Concerning these watchmen our author says

There are no troops or guard or watch of any kind,

except during the night by some old men, chosen from
the dregs of the people. Their only arms are a stick and
a lantern. They walk about the streets crying the hour
'

and it appears to be
every time the clock strikes
a point of etiquette among hare-brained youngsters to
.

maul them on leaving their parties.''

Our Frenchman formed a correct estimate of the
London watchman of his day nay, it held good to the
final extinction of the
In December, 1826,
Charleys.
a watchman was charged before the Lord Mayor with
On being asked who had appointed
insubordination.

'

him watchman, the prisoner

great distress

replied

and a burden to the

that he was in

parish,

who

therefore

gave him the appointment to get rid of him. The

I thought so
Lord Mayor
and what can be ex'

LONDON SOUVENIRS

120

I
of choosing watchmen ?
pected from such a system
on
burdens
are
thus
who
men
of
the
know that most
are the vilest of wretches, and such men are
the

parish

appointed to guard the

also

know

lives

and property of others

that in most cases robberies are perpetrated

by the connivance of watchmen.'

But in some cases our author
naturedly credulous.

Says he

'
:

is

really too

The people

good-

of London,

at heart, and
though proud and hasty, are good
If any stoppage
class.
lowest
in
the
even
humane,

occurs in the streets, they are always ready to lend their

assistance to remove the difficulty, instead of raising a
end in murder, as is often the case
which

might

quarrel,
1
Paris.

This

in

is

really

too innocent

And

our

French visitor must have been very fortunate indeed

never to have got into a London crowd of roughs or of
in the streets for the
pickpockets, who create stoppages
and who seldom
their
of
trade,
pursuing
only purpose
hesitate to commit violence if they cannot rob without

London honesty is
1
'
the
that
In
order
boundless.
pot-boys, he says, may
have but little trouble in collecting them [the pewter
send out the beer], they are
pots in which publicans
and sometimes on the
placed in the open passages,
I saw them thus exposed
doorsteps of the houses.
assured against all the cunning of thieves.
and felt
it.

Our

author's belief, indeed, in

'

quite

But more astounding

no poor
'

of

its

is

the statement that there are

1

consequence, says our visitor,

rich and numerous charitable establishments

in

London

'

and the immense sums raised by the poor-rates, which

householders pay most
impost is one which the little
consider it a fund from which, in the
cheerfully, as they

SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES

121

event of their death, their wives and children will he

supported. Fancy a little householder paying his poor1

rate cheerfully

And what

author have had of the

a mean opinion must our

householder who

spirit of the

calmly contemplated his family, after his death, going

to the parish

The Frenchman

once more to our usual

returns
1

melancholy, which, he says, is no doubt owing to the

Beef is
fogs and to our fat meat and strong beer.
'

'

'

the Englishman's ordinary diet, relished in proportion

to the quantity of fat, and this, mixed in their stomachs
with the beer they drink, must produce a chyle, whose
viscous heaviness conveys only bilious and melancholic

vapours to the brain.

It certainly

is

satisfactory to

have so

scientific

planation of the origin of our spleen.

Another French writer in 1784

M.

'A

published a book, entitled

which,

inter alia,

forty miles

he says

'
:

waymen and

footpads.
'

though the

La Combe

Picture of London,

The highroads

round London are

an ex-

filled

in

thirty or

with armed high-

This was then pretty true,

filled
is
somewhat of an
1

expression
The medical student of forty or fifty
exaggeration.
years ago seems to have been anticipated in 1784, for
M".

La Combe

tells

us that 'the brass knockers of doors,

which cost from 12s. to

15s., are stolen at

'

maid

forgets to unscrew them

seems to have gone out of fashion.
1

'

night

if

the

precaution which

The

arrival of the

is uncertain at all times of

mails, our author says,
the year.
Persons who frequently receive letters
'

should recommend their correspondents not to insert

loose papers, nor to put the letters in covers, because

LONDON SOUVENIRS

122

sometimes treble, and always arbitrary,

a
free country.
But rapacity and injustice
though
1
are the deities of the Eno-Hsh.
M. La Combe does not
the

tux

is

in

An Englishman, he
give us a flattering character.
says, considers a foreigner as an enemy, whom he dares
not offend openly, but whose society he fears and he
1

'

'

attaches himself to no

was so

in 1784,
Perhaps
but such feelings have nearly died out at least, among
educated people. M. La Combe, in another part of his
How are you changed, Londoners
book, exclaims
it

one."'

'

Your women

become bold, imperious, and expensive.

Bankrupts and beggars, coiners, spies and informers,
robbers and pickpockets abound.
The baker mixes
alum in his bread
the brewer puts opium and
the milkwoman spoils
copper filings in his beer
are

her milk with

Do more

We

snails.

recent writers judge of us

more

correctly

shall see.

have lying before me a French book, the title of

which, translated into English, runs, Geography for
I

'

Young People. It is in its eighth edition, and written

by M. Levi, Professor of Belles-Lettres, of History and
Geography in Paris. The date of the book is 1850.
The Professor in it describes London, and if his pupils
ever have, or rather had, occasion to visit our capital,
they must have been unable to recognise it from their
teacher's description of
he commits, there are

it.

Among

the

many

blunders

some which are excusable

in

foreigner, because they refer to matters which are

often misapprehended even by natives ; but to describe

London

as possessing

a certain architectural feature

which a mere walk through the streets with his eyes

SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES

123

open would have shown him to have no existence at all

is rather
unpardonable in a professor who takes on himself to teach young people geography.
But what does

M. Levi

say

He

umbrella, because

'

says

all

In London you never see an

the streets are built with arcades,

under which you find shelter when it rains, so that an

umbrella, which to us Parisians is an indispensable
M. Levi
article, is perfectly useless to a Londoner.
1

evidently,

if

he

ever

was

in

visited

London,

the

Quadrant only, before the arcade was pulled down, and

Yet he must
thereupon wrote his account of London.
have looked about a

bit, for he tells us of splendid cafes

to be met with in every street ; the nobility patronize
them ; ' one of them accidentally treads on the toes of

a duel is the consequence, and to-morrow

one
of them will have ceased to live.''
morning
M. Levi reminds us of the Frenchman who came over

another,

to

England with the object of writing a book about us.

arrived in London one Saturday night, and being-

He

tired, at

At breakfast next morningthe

waiter told him they only
;
Out came the Frenchman's note-book,

once went to bed.

he asked for new bread

had yesterday's.
in which he wrote
In London the bread is always
baked the day before.'' He then asked for the day's
paper, but was again told they had yesterday's only.
A memorandum went into the note-book The London
'

'

newspapers are always published yesterday.' He then

thought he would present the letter of introduction he

had brought with him to a private family, so having

been directed to the house, he saw a lady near the

Not wishing to startle or disturb

window, reading.
he gave a gentle single rap.
This not being

her,

LONDON SOUVENIRS

124

answered, he had to give a few more raps, when at last

a servant partly opened the door and asked his business.

He
'

expressed his wish to see the master of the house.

anybody to-day, but he will perhaps

to-morrow, replied the servant, and shut the door in
his face.
Another memorandum was added to the
Master never

sees

In London people never see anyone

but
to-day,
always to-morrow.' Having nothing to do,
he thought he would go to the theatre. He inquired
for Drury Lane, and was directed to it.
The doors
he
about
the
being shut,
lounged
neighbourhood till
previous ones

'

As it grew later and later, and

they should open.
there was no sign of a queue, he at last addressed a
passer-by, and asked him when the theatre would open.
'

It won't

last

open to-day,' was the

reply.

straw that broke the camel's back.

This was the

Our French-

man
'

hurried back to his hotel, wrote in his note-book,

In London there are theatres, but they never open to-

day,' took a cab, caught the night mail, and hastened

to leave so barbarous a country.
This description of London life is about as correct as

that recently given in

Max

O'Rell's

'

John Bull and

his

What kind of people did OTlell visit ?

look at another book before me, written in Italian,
and entitled
Semi-serious Observations of an Exile
Womankind.'
I

'

on England.' The book was published at Lugano in

1831, but the author Giuseppe Fecchio dates his

preface from York

He

in 1827.

speaks thusly of the approach to London by the

'
If the sky is gloomy, the first aspect of

Dover road

London is no less so. The smoky look of the houses

If to this
gives them the appearance of a recent fire.

SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES

125

you add the silence prevailing amidst a population of a

million and a half of inhabitants, all in motion (so that

you seem to behold a stage full of Chinese shadows),

and the uniformity of the houses, as if you were in a
city of beavers, you will easily understand that on
entering into
astonishment.

such a beehive pleasure gives way to

This is the old country style, but since

the English have substituted blue

still

better,

pills for suicide, or,

have made a journey to Paris

"

since, instead

11

Night Thoughts,' they read the novels of

Walter Scott, they have rendered their houses a little

of Young's

outward appearance. In the West

especially they have adopted a more cheerful style
of architecture.
But I do not by this mean to imply
that the English themselves have become more lively

more pleasing

in

End

take delight in ghosts, witchcraft, cemeteries,

and similar horrors. Woe to the author who writes a

they

still

novel without some apparition to

on end

make your

hair stand

1
I

In speaking of the thinness of the walls and floors of

'
I could hear the murmur of
houses, he says

London

the conversation of the tenant of the

room above and

of that of the one below me ; from time to time the

1
11
11
words " very fine weather, " indeed, " very fine, " com11
11
11
reached my
fort,
"comfortable,
"great comfort,
''

In fact, the houses are ventriloquous.

As
In a threealready mentioned, they are all alike.
storied house there are three perpendicular bedrooms,
one above the other, and three parlours, equally so

ears.

superposed.

Wc know how much

of this description

is

true.
'

Why

are the English," he asks,

'

not expert dancers

LONDON SOUVENIR?

126

Because they cannot practise dancing in their slightlywhich a lively caper would at once send

built houses, in

the third-floor
reason

why

down

into the

This

kitchen.

the English gesticulate so

is

the

and have
The rooms are

little,

arms always glued to their sides.

so small that you cannot move about rapidly without
smashing some object," or, as we should say, you cannot
their

swing a cat

them.

in

'

'
Strangers are astounded,' continues our author, at
silence
the
prevailing among the inhabitants of London.

But how could a million and a half of people live

together without silence ? The noise of men, horses,
and carriages between the Strand and the Exchange is
so great that it is said that in winter there are two
degrees of difference in the thermometers of the City
and of the West End.
I have not verified it," our
1

author

is

'

candid enough to admit, but considering the

in the Strand, it is
probable

great number of chimneys

From Chering

enough.

[sic]

the cyclopedia of the world.

but

it

is

only apparent.

Cross to the Exchange is

Anarchy seems to prevail,

The

which Gray gives

rules

"Trivia; or, the Art of Walking the Streets of

1V
London ) seem to me un necessary.

(in his

Signor Pecchio pretty well describes the movements

of

'

City

men

The

great monster of the capital, he says,

'

to a

'

similar

huge giant, waking up, begins by giving signs of

The movement begins at the

life at its extremities.
circumference, gradually extending to the centre, until
about ten o'clock the uproar begins, increasing till four
The
o'clock, which is the hour for going on 'Change.
population seems to follow the law of the

tides.

Up

SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES

hour the tide

to that

At

Exchange.

ebh

closes, the

rises

carriages flow from the

Like

all

from the periphery to the

when the Exchange

and currents of men, horses, and

half- past

sets in,

127

four,

Exchange to the periphery.

he has something to say about

'This country, all

foreigners,

the dulness of an English Sunday.

motion, all alive on other days of the week, he

observes, seems struck with an attack of apoplexy on
in

'

the Lord's day.

Foreigners pass the day at Greenwich
or Richmond, where ' they pay dearly for a dinner,
seasoned with the bows of a waiter in silk stockings

and brown

But
it

is

if

livery, just like the dress of

you want to

not in

must look

a Turin lawyer."

Bull spends the day,

Hyde Park

for him.

personage who

Europe, who

how John

see

is

'

If

or Kensington Gardens you

you want to see that marvellous

the wonder and laughing-stock of all

all the world, wins battles on land

clothes

and sea without much boasting, who works like three

and drinks like six, who is the pawnbroker and usurer
all
Kings and all Republics, whilst he is bankrupt at
home, and sometimes, like Midas, dies of hunger in the
midst of gold, you must look for him elsewhere. In

of

winter you must descend

There, around a blazing

into

underground
will

cellars.

behold the

fire, you
workman, well dressed and shod, smoking,
For this class of readers
drinking, and reading.

English

It is in
special Sunday newspapers are published. ...
these taverns, and amidst the smoke of tobacco and the
froth of their beer, the first condition of public
opinion
is

born and formed.

It

is

there the conduct of

every

discussed and appraised

there starts the road
which leads to the Capitol or the Tarpeian rock ; there
citizen

is

LONDON SOUVENIRS

128

blame is awarded to a Burdett issuing

triumphantly from the Tower, or to a Castlereagh
There are
descending amidst curses to the tomb.
no rows in these taverns
more decency of conduct
or

praise

is

observed

When

in

them than

our [Italian] churches.

in

of spirit and beer the customers, instead of

fall down on the
fighting,
pavement like dead men.''
After having so carefully observed the conduct of the
full

British

workman, our

Italian friend watches

suburban tea-garden, which he

visits

him

in the

with his family to

take tea in the afternoon, or drink his nut-brown ale.

One of the handsomest, 1 he says, ' is Cumberland

'

Gardens,* close to Vauxhall

long pipes
supplies,

of the

filled

there he

sits smoking
which
the
landlord
clay,
one
at
tobacco,
penny each.
.

whitest

with

smoke he occasionally sends forth

,1
a truncated phrase, such as we read in " Tristram Sandi
were uttered by Trion and the captain. It being
[sic]
Between

his puffs of

Sunday, which admits of no amusement, no music or

song

is

heard.''

much

Pretty

as it

is

at the present

day
Having heard what both Frenchmen and an Italian
had to say about London, let us listen to what a
!

German

authoress has to

tell

us on the subject.
'

Johanna Schopenhauer, in her Travels through

England and Scotland (third edition, 1826), says
'

The splendid shops, which offer the finest sights, are

situate chiefly between the working City and the more
'

aristocratic, enjoying Westminster,''

a statement which,

* In the
early part of 1825, therefore shortly after our author
wrote, the tavern was burnt to the ground, and the site taken
possession of by the South London Waterworks.

SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES

Londoner knows,

as every
'

is

only

partially

129

correct.

The English custom

of always making way to the right

facilitates
greatly
walking, so that there is no pushing
1
or running against anyone.
Did our author ever take

a walk in Cheapside or Fleet Street ?

Even Italians
do
not fear rain so much as a Londoner ; to
probably
'

catch a wetting seems to them the most terrible misfortune; on the first falling of a few drops everyone not
provided with an umbrella hastens to take refuge in a
coach.

How

Londoners

well the lady has studied the habits of

What

will

they say to this

'The

police exercise a strict control over hackneycoaches.

to the driver who ventures to over-

Woe

And again
You may safely enter, carrying
charge
with you untold wealth, a coach at any time of the
night, as long as someone at the house whence you
'

start takes the

see that it

is

number of the coach, and

taken.

lets

the driver

Mrs. Schopenhauer

tells us

that

it is

for breakfast to a pastry-cook's shop,

customary to go
and eat a few

cakes hot from the pan.

Truly, we did not know it.
Of course, she agrees with other writers as to the smallness of the houses, every

from the outside

room of which you can

tell

but we were not aware that, as she

the doors are exceedingly narrow and
;

informs us, all

high, and that frequently the front-doors look only like
narrow slits in the wall.
'

Bedrooms seldom can contain more than one bed

but English bedsteads are large enough to hold three

And it is a universal custom not to sleep
persons.
alone

sisters, relations,

and female

friends share a bed

without ceremony, and the mistress of the house

<J

is

not

LONDON SOUVENIRS

130

ashamed to take her servant to bed with

her, for English

ladies are afraid of being alone in a

room at

night,

The counterhaving never been brought up to it.

is fastened to the mattress, leaving but an opening
pane
.

between the two.*

The majority
Again, we are told to our astonishment
of Londoners, workmen and shopkeepers, who form but
for slipping in

'

one category, on the whole lead sad

lives.

Heavy

taxes,

the high prices of necessaries, extravagance of dress,

compel them to observe a frugality of living which, in

other countries, would be called poverty.

'
The shopkeeper, for ever tied to his shop and the
dark parlour behind, must deny himself every amusement. Theatres are too far off and too expensive ; the
wife of a well-to-do tradesman seldom can visit

one

more than twice a year.

During the week they cannot leave the shop between
The wife
nine in the morning and twelve at night.
sits
in the
while
husband
the
attends
to
it,
generally
on
Sunaccounts.
behind
and
the
True,
keeps
parlour
'

days all the shops are closed, but so are the theatres,
and as all domestics and other employes insist on having
that day to themselves, the mistress has to stay at home
to take care of the house.
lives nearly as dull.
They have to
in
social
themselves
by the rich
pleasures indulged
deny
merchants of Hamburg or Leipsic. English ladies are
4

Merchants lead

more domesticated, and not accustomed to the bustle of

But their husbands, after business
public amusements.
hours, occasionally seek for recreation in cafes and
1

taverns.

How

a view of English
very one-sided and imperfect

SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES

middle

life,

even as

it

remarks were written,

evident

131

was seventy years ago, when these

is

presented to us by them

is self-

ladies, according to our author, 'seldom go

and
when
out,
they do, they prefer a shopping excursion
to every other kind of promenade.
They also are fond
of visiting pastry-cooks' shops, and as these are open to

English

the street, ladies

may

safely enter them.

But that

is

not allowable at Mr. Birch's in Cornhill, whose shop

ladies cannot visit without being
accompanied by gentle-

men, the breakfast-room being at the back of the house,

at the end of a long passage, and lit up all the year
round (as daylight does not penetrate into it) with wax

and gentlemen
amidst
solemn
silence
swallow
their
usually
turtle-soup
and small hot patties. The house supplies nothing
else
but its former proprietor, Master Horton, by
his patties and soup made a fortune of one hundred
candles, by the light of which ladies

thousand pounds, and his successor seems in a fair way

1
of doing the same.
hope the assumption was

We

verified.

According to Mrs. Schopenhauer, Londoners are not

very hospitable, and prefer entertaining a friend they
'

invite to dinner at a coffee-house or tavern, rather

at their

own homes, where the

restraint

upon them.

respect, but, like all personages

1
are avoided as much as possible.

Our

than

presence of ladies is a
Ladies are treated with great

imposing respect, they

must have come in contact with some

She describes a dinner at
very ungallant Englishmen.
traveller

a private house
fourteen guests,

we are told that there are twelve to

who fill the small drawing-room, the
'

92

LONDON SOUVENIRS

132

ladies sitting in armchairs, whilst the

gentlemen stand
fire, often in a

about, some warming themselves by the

At the dinner-table napkins

not very decent manner.
are found only in houses which have acquired foreign
polish,

down

and they are not many. The tablecloth hangs

and every guest takes it upon his

to the floor,

The lady of the

knee, and uses it as a napkin.
house serves the dishes, and there is no end to her
questions put to her guests as to the seasoning, the
part of the joint, the sauce, etc., they like, questions
.

which are exceedingly troublesome to a foreigner who

not up to all the technical terms of English cookery.
Of course, the hobnobbing and taking wine with every-

is

body

a fashion now happily abolished comes

deal of censure, which, indeed,

in for

richly deserved.
good
Conversation on any subject of interest is out of the
question during dinner ; were anyone to attempt it, the
is

'

master would immediately interrupt him with, " Sir,

you are losing your dinner by-and-by we will discuss
;

11

but

little

The

from sheer modesty speak

beware
from saying much,
must
foreigners

these matters.

ladies

they be considered monstrous bold.

Whilst, after dinner, the gentlemen sit over their
wine, the ladies are yawning the time away in the

lest

drawing-room, until their hostess sends word down to

1

'
It is said, conthe dining-room that tea is ready.
tinues our author, 'that the slow or quick attention
given to this message shows who is master in the
1

house, the husband or the wife.

Long after midnight
'
the
streets still swarmdrive
home
the guests
through
All the shops are still open, and
ing with people.
lighted up ; the street-lamps, of course, are alight, and

SEEN THROUGH FOREIGN SPECTACLES

burn

till

ever seen

Has any Londoner

the rising of the sun.'
the shops open and lighted np all night ?

all

Did our author have

133

visions

London Sunday, of

course,

complaint raised quite recently

seems but a revival of wai lings

commented on. The

by some of our bishops
uttered long ago, for we
is

from Mrs. Schopenhauer that in her time (sixty

years ago) 'some of the highest families in the kingdom
were called to account for desecrating the Sabbath with
learn

amateur concerts, dances, and card-playing,' so that it

would indeed seem there is nothing new under the sun.

'The genuine Englishman,

'divides
says our authoress,

time on Sundays between church and the bottle; his

wife spends the hours her religious duties leave her with

his

a gossip, and abuses her neighbours and acquaintances,

which is quite lawful on Sundays.'
We allow Mrs.
to make her bow and
1

Schopenhauer

retire

with this parting shot.

Still,

that lady was not

singular in attributing great drinking powers to

lishmen.
M. Larcher, who in 1861 published a

Engbook
1

'Les Anglais, Londres et rAngleterre, says

therein that in good societv the ladies after dinner

entitled

another room, after having partaken very

moderately of wine, while the gentlemen are left to
empty bottles of port, madeira, claret, and champagne.
And it is,1 he adds, a constant habit among the ladies
retire into

'

to

'

empty

bottles of brandy.

work by General

'

And

he quotes from a

Towards

forty years of age

1
bed intoxicated.
well-bred
to
every
English lady goes
'
M. Jules Lecomte says in his Journey of Troubles
'
to London (' Un Voyage de Desagrements a Londres,
Pillet

1854) that he accompanied a blonde English miss to

LONDON SOUVENIRS

134

Hyde Park, where at one sitting she

ate six shillings" worth of cake resembling a black brick
the Exhibition in
1

ornamented with currants.

According to M. Francis Wey's account of 'The
English at Home'CLes Anglais chez Eux, 1856), at
Cremorne Gardens the popular refreshment, and par1

ticularly

Oxford theologian,

with an

is

ginger-beer.

M. Wey probably means shandy-gaff. He agrees with

M. Lecomte the consumption of food by one English
:

young lady would

suffice for

four Paris porters

'
Russian visitor to London, the Own Correspondent of the Northern Bee Russian newspaper, who
inspected London in 1881, asserts, in his 'England and
1

that any English miss of eighteen is capable of

'
imbibing sundry glasses of wine without making a
Russia,''

face.

In the Daily Graphic of November 1, 1893, a statement appeared, according to which a French journalist
at this present day informs the world, through Le Jour,
not one cyclist
that in London
nay, in all England
is to be found, the Government having rigidly sup-

Well, M. Levi has told us that there

pressed them.
are no umbrellas in London ; now we learn that there
are no cyclists (how
curious information
selves

we wish this were true !). What

we get from France about our-

When

will travellers leave off

being Mi'mchausens

XII.

OLD LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS.*

I.

The

Galleried Taverns of Old London.

London abounded

OLDmight

be

filled

in taverns.

folio

volume

with accounts of the more im-

portant of them, but as we have only a limited

at our command, we shall confine our-

number of pages

selves to the description of

one peculiarly characteristic

sort of them, namely, the taverns with galleried courtyards, and, in consequence of their great number, our

notice of each will have to be brief.

These old taverns, very few of which are now

left

standing, formed, architecturally, squares, the buildings

surrounding a yard, furnished on three sides with outer
galleries to the floors

above

and the reason why

this

* This
chapter is based on ancient and modern histories of
on works treating of special localities on essays in
on the Transactions of Antiquarian
periodical publications

London

Societies, and as it is not a product of imagination,

but of research, nothing new to the student, but a great deal
new to the general reader, may be expected though the stones

and other

are old, the house

is

new.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

136

form of construction was adopted was because then the

yards were rendered suitable for theatrical representawhich, before the erection of regular theatres,

tions,

were usually given in inn-yards. Access to these yards

was obtained either through the part of the tavern
the street, or through the gateway, through
which coaches, carts and waggons entered the yard.
The stage was erected, in a primitive and temporary
manner, behind the front portion of the square, and
facing

faced the galleries at the back and sides of

then

itself

formed the

yard
the boxes of the theatre.
galleries,

pit,

and the

it.

The

galleries

yard so surrounded by
with their banisters or open panels, often of

elegant design, looked very picturesque ; but did this

style of construction contribute to the comfort of the

The ground -floors of the innScarcely.

guests?
buildings, on the level of the yard, were given up to
Access to the
stables, coach-houses, store-rooms, etc.
was obtained by staircases, often steep, twisted
along the galleries were the bedrooms, the
and
doors,
frequently the windows, of which opened on
to them, and there were no other means of reaching
galleries

and narrow

these rooms.

these galleries were

the changes of the weather, to

Now, consider that

open, exposed to

all

wind, rain, hail, sleet and snow, which must have been
very trying, especially at night, when the bedrooms had
to be entered by the light of a candle, difficult to keep
burning, whilst the wind was driving rain or snow into
the gallery.
Remember also that the roughly paved

yard and the stables surrounding it were full of noises,

not only during the day, but all the night through.
There were the horses kicking, coaches and waggons

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

137

constantly coming in through the gateway, or going

out, stablemen, coachmen, carters shouting, horses being
harnessed to carts, and other vehicles starting early in

the morning on their journeys, and the rest of the

sleepers in the bedrooms along the galleries must have

been sadly interfered with.

Nor can the smell arising
from the stables and from the manure heap, all confined
within the well formed by the surrounding buildings,

have added to the comfort of the guests staying at the

inn.
As the bar of the inn frequently was in the yard,
the noises

made by

and the quarrels they

and which often would be

its visitors,

occasionally indulged

in,

by a fight in the yard, were not calculated to

promote sound sleep. But our ancestors were not so

settled

particular in these matters even aristocratic quarters

of London were given up to dirt and rowdyism.
In
;

James's Square offal, cinders, dead cats and dogs

were shot under the very windows of the gilded saloons
in which the first magnates of the land
Norfolks,
St.

Ormonds, Kents and Pembrokes gave banquets and

Lord Macau lay quotes the condition of Lincoln's

balls.

Inn Fields as a striking example of the indifference

felt

by the most polite and splendid members of society in

a former age to what would now be deemed the

common

decencies of life.
But the poorest cottage and
the meanest galleried inn-yard look well in a picture.
Be glad that you have not to live in either. But a few

generations ago, as we have pointed out, tastes and

habits were different, and even now there are old fogeys
so wedded to ancient customs that they still patronize
the dark boxes yet found in some antiquated taverns,
which afford room for four or six customers, who have

LONDON SOUVENIRS

138
to

sit upright against the

perpendicular backs of the
boxes, lest they slide off' the twelve-inch-wide shelves on
which they have to perch and disappear under the table.

Strange were the customs of the days referred to. The

people seemed to live in taverns, physicians met their

and apothecaries

patients
business

men

there, lawyers their clients,

their customers, people of fashion their

Even men of fortune," says Macaulay,

their own mansions have enjoyed every
1

'

acquaintances.
'

who might

in

luxury, were often in the habit of passing their evenings in the parlour of some neighbouring house of

public entertainment,"' in the

company of

ill-bred,

loud

and spittoon-patronizing smokers.

talking,
Johnson declared that the tavern chair was the throne
roisterous

of

human

found

felicity.

his toadies,

But the

content.

'

My

To him it was, because there he

whom he could bully to his heart's
man who could say

mini

to

me

kingdom

is

'

sit on such a throne.

But we have insensibly strayed into side-openings
let us return to the main avenue of galleried taverns.
We shall have to mention so many, that we see no
better means of preventing our getting confused and
losing our way altogether than to arrange them alpha-

did not care to

betically according to the signs they were known by.

The first inn thus on our list is the Angel, at

Islington.
years.

Its

establishment dates back two hundred

Originally

it

presented the usual features of a

large country inn, having a long front, with an over-

hanging
a

tiled roof; the principal entrance

was beneath

projection, which extended along a portion of the

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

lf39

The inn-yard,
front, and had a wooden gallery at top.
approached by a gateway in the centre, was nearly a
quadrangle, having double galleries supported by plain
columns and carved pilasters, with caryatides anil other
This courtyard, as it was more than a hundred
figures.
'

his print of a Stage

years, was preserved by Hogarth in
1
( loach.
There is also a view of it in Pinks's ' History

of Clerkenwell.

In olden days the inn was a great

London, and from the

halting-place for travellers from

northern and western counties.

On

the King's birthday

the royal mail coaches used to meet there, as shown in

an engraving of 1812, in the Crace collection in the
In 1819 the old house was pulled
British Museum.

down, and the present ordinary-looking building erected

in its stead, a grand opportunity, afforded by its commanding position, ninety-nine feet above the Trinity
high water-mark, at the meeting of so
roads, being thus stupidly lost.

many important

There was another Angel inn, in St. Clement's,

1
'
To this also was
Strand, behind St. Clement Kirk.
attached a galleried yard, but, according to the wood1
'
St. Clement
cut in Diprose's
Danes, there were
and second floors on one side of the
this house also seven or eight
yard only.
mail-coaches were despatched nightly, and from here
also the royal mails used to start on the King's birth"alleries to

the

first

And from

day

for the

conveyances

West
of

announcement

of England.
those days,

reads

Concerning the public

the

following
'

amusing

On

curious

Monday

the

1762, will set out from the Angel Inn,

behind St. Clement's Church, a neat flying machine,

5th

April,

carrying four passengers, on

steel springs,

and

sets

out

LONDON SOUVENIRS

140

at four o'clock in

the morning and goes to Salisbury

the same evening, and returns from
Salisbury the next
at
the
same
hour
and
will
continue jroinff
morning
;

from London every Monday,

Wednesday and Fridav,
and return every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Performed

by

the

of

proprietors

the

stage

coach,

Thomas Massey, Anthony Coack.

Each passenger to
their fare, and to be

pay twenty-three shillings for

allowed fourteen pounds' weight
baggage all above to
pay for one penny a pound. Outside passengers and
;

children in lap to pay half fare.

N.B. The masters of
the machine will not be accountable for
plate, watches,
money, jewels, bank-notes, or writings, unless booked as
such, and paid for accordingly.'
should have called their coach a

and
till

as it

Why
'

the proprietors
'
is a riddle,

machine

took a whole day, from four in the

morning

the evening, to get over the

eighty-four miles be-

tween London and Salisbury, its rate of

progress could
hardly be called a flying one.
'

'

The Angel
mentioned
Public

inn was

of very ancient origin,

beingdated 1503.
In the

in a
correspondence

Advertiser

of

March

following advertisement

'
:

To

28, 1769, appeared the

be sold a Black Girl, the

eleven years of age, who is extremely

at her needle
tolerably, and speaks
English perfectly well ; is of an excellent temper and

property of J.

R,

handy, works

willing disposition.

Inn,

behind

St.

Inquire of Mr. Owen, at the Angel

Clement's Church.'
The inn was

closed in 1853, the freehold

fetching ^6,800, and on
its site the
chambers
known
as Danes Inn were
legal
erected.

In

Philip Lane,

London Wall,

anciently stood the

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

141

Ape, an inn with a galleried yard ; all that now remains of this ancient hostelry is a stone carving of a
monkey squatted on its haunches and eating an apple
under it is the date 1670 and the initial B. It is fixed
;

The courtyard, where the

coaches and waggons used to arrive and depart, is now
an open space, round which houses are built.
view
on the house numbered 14.

of the
is

Ape and Cock taverns

as they appeared in

1851

Crace collection.

in the

We

should be trying the reader's patience were we lo

enter into a discussion as to the origin of the sign of
the Relle Sauvage, the inn which once stood at the
bottom of Ludgate, and whose site is now occupied by
(he establishment of Messrs. Cassell and Company.
The name was derived either from one William Savage,

who

in

1380 was a

citizen living in that locality, or,

more

probably, from one

property the inn once was.
bell

hung within a hoop.

Arabella

Savage,

whose

The sign originally was a

As already mentioned, innas theatres.
The Belle

were anciently used

Sauvage was a favourite place for dramatic performances, its inner yard being spacious, and having handyards

somely carved galleries to the

first

and second

floors at

the back of the main building.

An original drawing of
it is in the Crace collection.
In this yard Banks, the

showman, so often mentioned in Elizabethan pamphlets,

exhibited his trained horse Morocco, the animal which
once ascended the tower of St. Paul's, and which on
another
Tarleton,
present.

and the

occasion

delighted

the

mob by

selecting

low

comedian, as the greatest fool

Banks eventually took his horse to Rome,
the

priests, frightened at

the circus tricks, burnt

LONDON SOUVENIRS

142

both Morocco and

his

master as sorcerers.

Close by

the inn lived Grinling Gibbons, and an old house, bearing the crest of the Cutlers' Company, remains.
1

The
w.'is,

in

old Black Bull (now No. 122), Gray's Inn Lane,

its original state, as shown by a woodcut in
1

Old and New London, a specimen, though

of the meaner sort, of the old-fashioned galleried yard.
The Black Lion, on the west side of Whitefriars
Street, was a quaint and picturesque edifice, and its
courtyard showed a gallery to the first-floor of the
building, rather wider than usual, and with massive
AValford's

'

The old house

banisters, pillars supporting the roof.
in 1877, and a large tavern of the

was pulled down

ordinary uninteresting type now occupies its site.

One of the once famous Southwark inns was the

Boars Head, which formed a part of Sir John Fastolf "s

This Sir
benefactions to Magdalen College, Oxford.
John was one of the bravest Generals in the French
wars under Henry IV. and his successors. The premises
comprised a narrow court of ten or twelve houses, and
two separate houses at the east end, the one of them
having a gallery to the

first-floor.

The property was

many years leased to the father of Mr. John Timbs,

which latter, in his ' Curiosities of London,"' gives a

for

They were taken

lengthy account of the premises.
down in 1830 to widen the approach to London Bridge.
The court above mentioned was known as Boar's Head
Court, and under

it

and some adjoining houses, on

was discovered a finely-vaulted cellar,

doubtless the wine-cellar of the Boar's Head.
Most noted among theatrical inns was the Bull, in
their demolition,

Bibhopsgate Street, so

much

so

that

the

mother of

LONDON TAVKUNS AND TEA-GARDENS

Anthony Bacon
when he went to

(the

143

brother of the great Francis),

the neighbourhood of the inn,

live in

was terribly frightened

lest

he and his servants should

be led

astray by the actors performing at the inn.

It was
Tarleton, the comedian, often acted there.
while giving representations at the Bull that Burbage,

Shakespeare's friend, and his fellows obtained a patent

( t)ucen Elizabeth for
erecting a permanent build-

from

ing for theatrical performances, though the Bull afforded

them every convenience, its vard and galleries beina on

a large scale and

good style. It was at the Bull that

the Cambridge carrier Hobson, of 'Hobson's choice,
used to put up.*
A portrait and a parchment certifiin

cate of Mr.

Van Ham, a customer of the house, were

long preserved at the Bull inn; this worthy

have drunk 35,680 bottles of wine

is

said

to

in this hostelry.

The Bull and Gate, in Holborn, probably took

name from Boulogne Gate, as the Bull and Mouth
Aldersgate Street was a corruption of Boulogne

its

in

Mouth,

and both were, no doubt, intended as compliments to

Henry VIII., who took that town in 1544. Tom Jones
alighted at the Bull and Gate when he first came to

London.
Holborn at one time abounded in inns. Says Stow
'On the higli street of Old bourne have ye many fair
houses builded, and lodgings for gentlemen, inns for
travellers and such like up almost (for it lacketh but
:

little)

to St. Giles

in

the Fields.

We

shall

mention one or two more as we go on.

The Bull and Mouth inn alluded to above
*

Though I find
Four Swans

at the

it
;

have to

in

stated in oiher authorities that he put

possiblv he resorted to both.

the

up

LONDON SOUVENIRS

144

It had a large
olden time was a great coaching-place.
vard and galleries, with elegantly designed galleries to

the

first,

second, and third floors.

There

is

a view of

it

Its site was afterwards occupied

in the Grace collection.
by the Queen's Hotel, which was pulled down in 1887

to

make room for the post-office extension.

The Catherine Wheel was a sign frequently adopted

by inn-keepers

in

former days.

Mr. Larwood,

in

his

History of Signboards, assumes that it was intended

to indicate that as the knights of St. Catherine of
Mount Sinai protected the pilgrims from robbery, he,

'

the innkeeper, would protect the traveller from being

But this surmise seems too learned
fleeced at his inn.

What

did the bonifaces of those days

know of the knights of St. Catherine ? But in Roman
Catholic countries saints were, and are still, seen on
to

be true.

numerous signboards, and

so the

one in question may

have descended in English inns from ante-Reformation

times, or it may have been the fancy of one particular

man, who may have read the story of

and been moved by it to adopt the wheel.

St. Catherine,
St.

Catherine

was beheaded, after having been placed between wheels

with spikes, from which she was saved by an angel.

But

to

come to

facts.

There were two inns

in

London with that

sign.

One

was in Bishopsgate Street, and was in the last century

a famous coaching inn, built in the style of such inns,
It
with a coach-yard and galleried buildings round.
The other was in the Borough, and
has disappeared.
was a much larger establishment, and a famous inn for

carriers

has lost

during the

last

two

its galleries

and

other distinctive features.

centuries.

It remains,

but

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

One of the

145

London, bearing the sign

1871 on the north side of Tot-

oldest inns in

of the Cock, stood

till

Street.
It was built
entirely of timber, mostly
cedar-wood, but the outside was painted and plastered,
and an ancient coat of arms, that of Edward III. (in
hill

whose reign the house

is

said to

have been

in stone, discovered in the house,

built), carved

was walled up

in the

Larwood

says that the workmen

at
the
of
the
east end of Westemployed
building
minster Abbey used to receive their wages there, and
front of the house.

at a later period, about two centuries ago, the first

Oxford stage-coach is reported to have started from

In the back parlour there was a picture of a

and
jolly
bluff-looking man, who was said to have been
its driver.
The house was built so as to enclose a
galleried yard, and it no doubt originally was one of
some importance.
Under the staircase there was a

that inn.

curious hiding-place, perhaps to serve as a refuge for a

'
mass priest or a highwayman. There were also in
'

the house two massive carvings, the one representing

Abraham about to offer up his son, and the c
.
the

adoration of the magi, and they were said to have been

left in pledge for an
unpaid score. There is a watercolour drawing of the house as it appeared in 1853 in
the Grace collection.
It is supposed that the sign of
the Cock was here adopted on account of its vicinity to

the Abbey, of which St. Peter was the patron.

In the
Middle Ages a cock crowing on the top of a pillar was
often one of the accessories in a picture of the Apostle.

sign frequently adopted by innkeepers was the

Cross Keys, the arms of the Papal See, the emblem of
There was an inn with
St. Peter and his successors.

10

LONDON SOUVENIRS

146

that sign in Gracechurch Street, having a yard with

galleries all round, and in which theatrical performances were frequently given.
Banks, already mentioned,
there exhibited

Morocco

his wonderful horse

it

was

'

here the horse, at his master's bidding to fetch the

1
veriest fool in the company, with his mouth drew forth

Tarleton
Tarleton, who was amongst the spectators.
1
could only say, ' God a mercy, horse which for a time
I

London. At this
inn the first stage-coach, travelling between Clapham
and Gracechurch Street once a day, was established in
1690 by John Day and John Bundy; but the house

became a by-word

in the streets of

was well known as early as 1681 as one of the

carriers

inns.

The Four Swans (demolished) was a

inn, with courtyard

and

galleries to

two

very fine old

on three

stories

sides complete.

Whether

St. George ever existed is doubtful ; probthe

story of this saint and the dragon is merely a
ably
corruption of the legend of St. Michael conquering
1
The
Satan, or of Perseus delivery of Andromeda.

story was always doubted, hence the lines recorded by

Aubrey
'

To

save a maid St. George the dragon slew,

pretty tale

if all is told

be true.

are no dragons, and it's said

There was no George pray God there was a maid.'

Most say there

is, and
always has been, a very
inn sign in this as well as in other countries.
We are, however, here concerned with one George only,
It existed in the time of
the one in the Borough.

But the George

common

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

Stow, who mentions
gives,

and

its

name

the

list

occurs in a

of South wark inns he

document of the year

It had the usual

near the Tabard.

It stood

1554.

it in

147

courtyard, surrounded by buildings on all sides, witli

access to
galleries to two stories on three sides giving

the bedrooms.

The

the 'footman leg

banisters were of massive size, of

style.

In 1670 the inn was in great

part burnt down and demolished by a fire which broke

out in the neighbourhood, and it was totally consumed

bv the great fire of Southwark some six years later.

The fire began at one Mr. Welsh's, an oilman, near St.
Margaret's Hill, between the George and Talbot inns.
It was stopped by the substantial building of St.
Thomas's Hospital, then recently erected. The present
George

inn, although

built

only in the seventeenth

century, was rebuilt on the old plan, having open

wooden galleries leading to the bedchambers. When

Mrs. Scholefield, descended from Weyland, the landlord

of the inn at the time of the fires, died in 1859, the
property was purchased by the governors of Guy's
Hospital.

The George now

styles itself

a hotel, but

preserves one side of its galleries intact.

still

Dragons, though fabulous monsters, asserted themselves on signboards

green appears to have been their
When Taylor, the water poet, wrote
favourite colour.
;

his

'

Travels through London,' there were no

less

than

seven Green Dragons amongst the Metropolitan taverns

The most famous of them, which is still in
of his dav.

was the Green Dragon in Bishopsgate Street,

which for two centuries was one of the most famous
coach and carriers' inns. It is even now one of the

existence,

best examples of the ancient hostelries, its proprietor

102

LONDON SOUVENIRS

148

having strictly retained the distinctive features of

former days, the only innovation introduced by him
being a real improvement, in the removal of one of the

He
objections to the open galleries of the old inns.
has enclosed these with glass, and on a trellis-work
leading up to them creeping plants have been made to
twine, so as to give a cool and refreshing aspect to the
old inn yard in summer time.
Troops of guests now
daily dine in
in

all

soi-ts

its
low-ceilinged rooms with great beams
of angles, and shining mahogany tables.

The Dragon
of

succulent

is

great in rich soups and mighty joints

meat ; in old wines, appreciated by

amateurs.

The

King's

Head was another of the many

inns once

Their great number is

easily explained by the fact that London Bridge was
then the only bridge from south to north, and vice versa.
to be found in the Borough.

and that therefore the traffic of horses and men had to

of course, necessitating much
pass through South wark
The
hotel accommodation.
King's Head was a great
resort of big waggons, for the loading of which a large

crane stood in the yard, in consequence of which one

side of the yard had a gallery to the second floor only,
the crane occupying the space of the lower one, whilst
on the other side there were galleries to the first and

second

floors.

The Old

Bell in Holborn, recently pulled down, bore

of
the Fowlers of Islington, the owners of
the arms
Barnsbury Manor and occupiers of lands in Canonbury.
In

its galleried

yard the boys used to meet to go

in

roaches to Mill Hill School.

The Oxford Arms

stood south of

Warwick Square

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

and the College of Physicians, and
Oxford

is

mentioned

Edward

advertisement of 1072.

carrier's

149
in

Martlet, an

and waggons thence

announced that he kept a

carrier, started his coaches

three times a week.

lie also
1

hearse to convey 'a corps' to any part of

England.
The Oxford Arms had a red-brick facade, of the period
of Charles II., surmounting a gateway leading into the
yard,

which had on three sides two rows of wooden

galleries with exterior staircases, the fourth side being

occupied by stabling, built against a portion of old

London Wall. This house was consumed in the <n-eat

but was rebuilt on the former plan. The house

always belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's,
and the houses of the Canons Residentiary adjoin the
(ire,

Oxford Arms on the south, and there is a door from the

old inn into one of the
back-yards of the residentiary
the
houses, which is said to have been useful
during

riots

of 1780

for

facilitating

Roman

the escape of

Catholics from the fury of the mob,

by enabling them
to pass into the
for which reason,
houses;
residentiary
it is

said

the inn,

by a clause always inserted into the

it

is

leases of

forbidden to close up the door.

John

Roberts, the bookseller, from whose shop most of the

libels and
squibs on Pope were issued, lived at the

Oxford Arms.

The Queen's Head was another

of the Southwark

yard had galleries on one side only,

one to the first and another to the second floor.
Like
all others, the
yard was approached by a high gateway
from the street, and another under the
between
inns.

Its inner

building

the outer and inner yards.

At Knightsbridge there stood

till

about 165, when

LONDON SOUVENIRS

150
it

was pulled down, the Rose and Crown,

anciently
It was one of the oldest

called the Oliver Cromwell.

houses in the
licensed

High Street, Knightsbridge, having been

above three hundred years. The Protector's

bodyguard
inscription

is

said to have been stationed in

to that effect was,

till

it,

and an

shortly before

its

This is merely
demolition/- painted on the front.
legendary, but there are grounds for not entirely rejectIn 1648 the Parliament
ing the tradition.
army was
in
that neighbourhood
Fairfax's headwere
for
a
while
at
Holland
House. There
quarters
was a house not far from the inn called Cromwell

encamped

House, and at Kensington there

still

exists a charity

called Cromwell's Gift,

originally a sum of ^45, but,
having been invested in land in the locality, of great

value now.

Cromwell House was also known as Hale

House; a portion of the South Kensington Museum

now

occupies the site.

return to the Rose and Crown.

To

Two

sides of the

yard had a gallery to the first floor, but it was of the

There were no elegant banisters,
poorest description.
the lower part of the
gallery was closed up with boards
of the roughest kind, about breast
high, and irregularly
nailed on to the posts
Two waterthe
roof.
supporting
colour drawings, dated 1857, showing the exterior of the
house and the yard, are in the Grace collection. Cor-

bould painted this inn under the

title

of the

'

Old

Hostelrie at Knightsbridge,'' exhibited in 1849 ; but he

transferred its date to 145)7, altering the house accordIn 1853 the inn had a narrow escape
ing to his fancy.

from destruction by fire. Before its final demolition it

had been much modernized, though leaving enough of

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

its

original

151

characteristics to testify to its antiquity

and former importance. The Royal Oak at Vauxhall

was an old inn with a galleried yard. It was taken
down circa 1812 to make the road to Vauxhall Bridge,
then in course of construction.

One of the
Saracen's

founded
of the

oldest of galleried inns in

Head, on Snow

Hill.

London was

the

In 1377 the fraternity

Church, Aldersgate, in honour

of Christ and of the saints Fabian and

in St. Botolplfs

Body

Sebastian, were the proprietors of the Saracen's Head

In the reign of Richard II. they granted a lease
inn.
of twenty-one years to John Hertyshorn of the Saracen's

Head, with appurtenances, consisting of two

adjoining on the north side, at the yearly rent
marks.
In the reign of Henry VI. Dame Joan
nurse to that King) obtained a
time
(some

houses
of ten

Astley
license

honour of the Holy

fraternity
In
the
of
Edward
VI. it was supTrinity.
reign
and
its endowments, valued at 30
pressed,
per annum,
The antiquity of the
granted to William Harris.
inn was thus beyond question.
Stow, describing this
to

refound

the

in

neighbourhood, mentions

it as 'a fair large inn for

The courtyard had to the last
receipt of travellers.''
many of the characteristics of an old English inn
:

there were galleries all round leading to the bedrooms,

and a spacious gateway through which the mail-coaches

used to pass in and out. It was at this inn that

Nicholas Nickleby and his uncle waited on Squeers, the
schoolmaster of Dotheboys Hall.
It was demolished in
186i3, when the Holborn Valley improvements were
undertaken.
is

in the

view of the inn as

Crace collection.

it

appeared in 1855

LONDON SOUVENIRS

152

As there were many

London Bridge for the

inns on the Southwark side of

reasons given when we spoke of

the King's Head, so for the same reason a number of
inns, some of which we have already mentioned, were on
Besides those already
the northern side of the bridge.
was
the
there
named,
Spread Eagle, in Gracechurch
The original building had perished in the
Street.

great fire, but the inn was rebuilt after it.

the usual yard and galleries to the two floors.

It

had

At

first

only a carriers inn, it became famous as a coachinghouse, the mails and principal stage-coaches for Kent
and other southern counties arriving and departing

from here. It was long the property of John Chaplin,

cousin of William Chaplin, of the firm of Chaplin and
Home. The inn was taken down in I860 ; the plot of

ground which it occupied contained 12,600 feet, and

was sold for ,95,000.
The Swan with Two Necks is a curious sign, variously
It is supposed to mean the swan with two
explained.
nicks or notches cut into swans'

owner might know

bills,

so

that each

But these nicks being

his.

so small

as not to be discernible on an inn sign hung high up,

there seems no sense in referring to them.
More likely

two swans swimming

side

by

side,

and the neck of one

of them protruding beyond that of the other, took

some artist's fancy, and induced him to produce the
illusion in a picture. However, the origin of the sign does

There was
sign.
what was Lad Lane, and is now
Gresham Street. It was for a centurv and more the
head coach-inn and booking-office for the North. Its
not concern

us,

but the inn with that

a famous one in

courtyard was of great

size

the galleries were of some-

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

153

what irregular arrangement, there being one only at

the back, communicating at one end with a lower and
an upper gallery on one side, whilst on the other side
there was a gallery unconnected with the others, and
which also was wider and more elaborately decorated
than the others.

A view of it appeared

London News, December

An

in

the Illustrated

23, 1805.

inn which has been rendered famous by Chaucer

rhymed

we

tales

cannot honestly

call

them poetry

Canterbury pilgrims is the Tabard, in the

Borough. Its history must be pretty familiar to most
It originally was the property of William of
people.

of

the

Ludegarsale, of whom the Tabard and the adjoining

house, which the Abbots made their town residence,

were purchased in 1304 by the Abbot and convent of

Hyde, near Winchester. The pilgrimage to Canterbury is said to have taken place in 1383. Henry Bailly,
Chaucer's host of the Tabard at that time, was a representative of the Borough of Southwark in Parliament

during the
Richard II.

of two Kings, Edward III. and

After the dissolution of the monasteries,

reien

and the Abbot's house were sold by

Henry VIII. to John Master and Thomas Master the
Tabard afterwards was in the occupation of one Robert
Patty, but the Abbot's house, with the stable and
the Tabard

garden belonging thereto, were reserved to the Bishop

Commendator, John Saltcote, alias Casson, who had

Abbot of Hyde, and who surrendered it

Henry VIII., and who afterwards was transferred to
The original Tabard was in
the See of Salisbury.
On a beam across
existence as late as the year lb'02.
been the

last

to

the road, whence

swung the

sign,

was inscribed

k
:

This

LONDON SOUVENIRS

154
is

the inn where Sir

twenty pilgrims lay

anno 1383.

On

Jeff'ry

in

Chaucer and the nine-and-

their journey to Canterbury,

the removal of the

beam the

tion was transferred to the gateway.

inscrip-

The house was

repaired in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and from that

period probably dated the fireplace, carved oak panels,

and other portions spared by the

were

fire

of 1676, which

to be seen at the beginning of this century.

In this fire some six hundred houses had to be destroyed
still

to arrest the progress of the flames, and as the Tabard

stood nearly in the centre of this area, and was mostly
built of wood, there can be no doubt that the old inn
It was, however, soon rebuilt, and as nearly
perished.
as possible on the same spot ; but the landlord changed

the sign from the Tabard to the Talbot ; there is,

nevertheless, little doubt that the inn as it remained

when

was demolished, with its quaint old

with
two timber bridges connecting
galleries,
their opposite sides, and which extended to all the inn
till

1874,

it

timber

buildings, and the no less quaint old chambers, Avas

the immediate successor of the inn commemorated by

Chaucer.
According to an old view published in 1721,
the yard is shown as apparently opening to the street ;
but in a view which appeared in the Gentleman's

Magazine of September, 1812, the yard seems enclosed.

A sign, painted by Blake, and fixed up against the
gallery facing you as you entered the yard, represented
Chaucer and his merry company setting out on their
There was a large hall called the Pilgrims'
journey.
1

Hall, dating of course from 1676, but in course of time

was so cut up to adapt it to the purpose of modern

it

bedrooms, that

its

original condition was scarcely recog-

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

155

There are various views of the old inn

nisable.

the Grace collection

in

one without date, one of 1780,

another of 1810, another of 1812 (the Gentleman?8
Magazine print), one of 1831, and yet another of 1841.

The

site is

now occupied by a public-house

palace style, which

presumes to

call

in the gin-

itself

the

Old

Tabard.
In Piccadilly, No. 75, there formerly stood on
part of
the site for so short a time occupied by Clarendon
House (1664-1683) the Three Kings tavern. At the

gateway to the stables there were seen two Corinthian

pilasters, which originally belonged to Clarendon House.

The

stable-yard itself presented the features of the old

galleried inn-yard, and it was the place from which the

Bath mail-coach was

first

Camden Hotten, and

Windus,

carried

started.

Later, Mr.

John

Messrs. Chatto

and

on their publishing business on

this

afterwards

spot.

In the seventeenth century the Three Nuns was the

1
sign of a well-known coaching and carriers inn in

Aldgate, which gave

its

name

to Three

Nuns Court

The

yard, as usual, was galleried, but within

recent years the inn was pulled down and rebuilt in the
close by.

form of a modern
ful

hotel.

Near

this inn

was the dread-

pit in which, during the

Plague of 1665, not less

than 1,114 bodies were buried in a fortnight, from
September 6 to 20.

The
site

Criterion Restaurant

of an old inn, the

and Theatre stands on the

White Rear, which

for a century

and more was one of the busiest coaching-houses in connection with the West and South- West of England. In
this

house Benjamin West, the future President of the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

156

from
Royal Academy, put up on his arrival in London
America.
Here died Luke Sullivan, the engraver of
some of Hogarth's most famous works. The inn yard
had galleries to two sides of the bedchambers on the
connected by a bridge across.
must once more return to Southwark, for besides

second

floor,

We

the inns already mentioned as existing in that locality,

there was another famous one, namely, the White Hart.
It

had the

largest inn sign except the Castle in Fleet

Much maligned Jack Cade and some

Street.

of his

up at this inn during their brief possession

The original inn which sheltered
in 1450.

followers put

of

London

them remained standing

down

in

the great

fire

1676, when it was burnt

It was
already mentioned.
till

and was in existence till a few years ago, when

It consisted of several open
it was pulled down.
courts, the inner one having handsome galleries on
There are
three sides to the first and second floors.
two views of it, taken respectively in 1840 and 1853,
rebuilt,

in the

Crace collection, and

inn that Mr. Pickwick

The White Lion,

first

in

it

was in the yard of this

encountered

St.

John

Sam

Weller.

Street, Clerkenwell,

was originally an inn frequented by drovers and carriers,

and covered a good deal of ground but before its
;

demolition

it

had already been greatly reduced

in size,

the gateway leading into the yard having been built up

and formed into an oil-shop. Inserted in the front
wall

was the sign

in

stone

relief,

representing a lion

rampant, painted white, and with the date 1714. A

house on the other side of the central portion also
seems to have formed part of the original White Lion.
The gate just mentioned led into a yard similar to

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

157

those attached to other ancient inns.

There were, in
the east front of the inn, strong wooden beams, which
no doubt supported the erection over the gateway, and

that there was a yard surrounded by a gallery is proved

by the remains of door openings in the upper parts of
the back walls of the premises, which had been bricked

At

one time a bowling-green was attached to the

tavern, and by the side of it a pond, in which Anthony
He was
Joyce, the cousin of Pepys, drowned himself.
up.

a tavern keeper, and kept the Three Stags in Holborn,

which was burnt down in 1666. l^pys records in his
'
Thence homeDiary, under September 5 of that year
ward
seen
having
Anthony Joyce's house on
The loss incurred by the fire preyed on Joyce's
fire.''
:

mind, and

is

supposed to have led him to commit the

rash act.

Here we will close our selection, which embraces all

the most important galleried taverns once existing in
London. Their disappearance is much to be regretted,
though with the requirements of modern travellers it
was scarcely to be avoided. But they formed picturesque
features of

London, which has so very few of them,

especially as regards hotels, which in their modern style

remind us only of slightly decorated barracks, if they

are not perfectly hideous, as, for instance, the architecBut there are
tural nightmare in Victoria Street.

plenty of people yet who delight in old-fashioned

houses and surroundings the revival of stage-coaches
is
galleried tavern with modern improveproof of it.

ments would, we fancy, not be a bad

spec.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

158

II.

Old

London Tea-Gardens.

Mr. Coward is a fierce

are often misleading.
tremble
when they hear
Mr.
Gentle's
fire-eater ;
family
on
his
return home from
his footsteps on the pavement

Names

his office, for they know that immediately on his

entrance he will kick up a row with every one of them ;
whilst Mr. Lion lives in awe of his termagant better, or

We

worse, half.

term
calls

are led into these reflections

1

'

by the

sounds so very innocent ; it

tea-gardens.
of
visions
honest
citizens, surrounded by their
up
It

wives and olive-branches, enjoying, amid idyllic scenes

rural beauties, their fragrant bohea, bread-and-

of

and

butter, cream

sillabub.

But the

vision

is

delusive.

Noorthouck, who wrote about 1770, when the teagardens were most abundant and flourishing, speaks of

them thus

'
:

The tendency

of these cheap

catering-

places of pleasure just at the skirts of this vast town

is too obvious to need farther explanation ;
they swarm

women and with boys whose morals are

and
their constitutions ruined, before thev
depraved,
arrive at manhood.
Indeed, the licentious resort to
the tea-drinking gardens was carried to such excess
with

loose

every night that the magistrates lately thought proper

to suppress the organs in their public rooms it is left
to their cool reflection whether this was discharging all
;

the duty they owe to the public.' Certes, the remedv

seems hardly adequate when the grand jury of Middle-

back as 1744, had complained of 'advertisements inviting and seducing not only the inhabitants,
but all other persons, to several places kept apart for

sex, as far

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

159

the encouragement of luxury, extravagance, idleness,

and other wicked illegal purposes, which go on with

impunity to the destruction of many families, to the

great dishonour of the kingdom, especially at a time
when we are involved in an expensive war, and so much
overburdened with taxes of all sorts,'' etc. With such
an indictment before them, the magistrates must have
been wooden-headed indeed if they thought to stop the
evil by forbidding the playing of organs at such places.

And

must have been not only serious, but

widespread, seeing there were upwards of thirty of
But our object is
these tea-gardens around London.
not to preach a sermon on the wickedness of the world,
the

evil

but to describe the places where it was practised.

begin with Bagnigge Wells tea-gardens.

We

Who

now, wandering about dreary King's Cross, unacquainted with the history of the place, would believe
that this was once a picturesque rural spot ?
But such
it was, and here Nell Gwynne had a summer residence

amidst

fields

and on the banks of the River Fleet, then

a clear stream, occasionally flooding the locality. The

ground on which the house, a gabled building, stood

was then called Bagnigge Vale. Early in the eighteenth

century the house was converted into a place of publicentertainment, in consequence of the timely discovery

on the spot of two wells, one of which was said to be

purging and the other chalybeate, and the water of
which was sold at threepence a glass or at eightpence

by the gallon. But one of the wells seems to have

been known by the name of Black Mary's Well or Hole,
which may have been a corruption of Blessed Mary's
Well, or due to the alleged fact that a black

woman

LONDON SOUVENIRS

160

The gardens, it seems, were largely

the well.
patronized, hundreds of persons visiting them in the
morning to drink the waters, and on summer afternoons
leased

to drink tea, and something stronger, too. The grounds

were ornamented with curious shrubs and flowers, a

round fish-pond, in the centre of which was a

fountain, representing Cupid bestriding a swan, which
small

spouted the water up to a great height. The Fleet

flowed through a part of the gardens, and was crossed
by a bridge. Two prints are extant (reproduced in
'

Clerkenwell '), showing the gardens as they

were in 1772 and again early in the present century.
But in December, 1813, the gardens came to grief; the
Pinks's

whole of the furniture and

fittings

were sold by auction

by order of the assignees of Mr. Salter, the tenant, a

bankrupt. The fixtures and fittings were described as
comprising the erection of a temple, a grotto, alcoves,
arbours, boxes, green-house, large lead figures, pumps,
cisterns, sinks, counters, beer machine, stoves, coppers,
shrubs,

200 drinking

tables,

350 forms, 400 dozen

[which shows that tea was not the only

drink consumed there], etc. The house itself remained
bottled

ale

till 1844, when it was demolished ; the Phoenix

afterwards
brewery
occupied the site, which is now
All that reminds you
covered with dreary streets.

standing

now of the gardens

is

a stone tablet set into the wall

of a dull house in the neighbourhood, which shows a

'
This is Bagnigge
grotesque head and the inscription
:

House, neare the Pinder a Wakefield, 1680/ It may

be added that at the time the gardens were in existence
the place was environed with hills and rising ground
every way but to the south, and consequently screened

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

161

from the inclemency of the more chilling winds. Primon the north-west were the

rose Hill rose westward

more distant

Hampstead and Highgate ;

on the north and north-east were pretty sharp ascents
to Islington.
But the ground, which, as shown then,
was in a deep hollow, has in modern times been conelevations of

siderably raised above the former level,

and no

vestige

remains of the gardens or the springs. But the gardens

were so famous in their day as to cause their name to
be adopted by a similar establishment in a totally
Towards the end of the last
direction.

different

New Bagnigge Wells tea-gardens were

at
opened
Bayswater. Whether these were identical
with the new Bayswater tea-gardens mentioned in a
century the

London guide we have not been able to ascertain, but

probably they were. Sir John Hill, born about 171(5,
had a house in the Bayswater Road, in whose grounds
he cultivated the medicinal plants from which he prepared his tinctures, balsams, and water-dock essence,
and though the profession called him a charlatan and
a quack, he must have been a learned botanist. His
1

'

Vegetable System

extends to twenty-six folio volumes.

His garden is now covered by the long range of

mansions called Lancaster Gate, but towards the close
of the last century the

site

was opened to the public as

spacious, and contained

The grounds were

tea-gardens.
several springs of fine water lying close to the surface.

The Bayswater Bagnigge Wells was opened

garden

as late as 1854, shortly after

visitors

having grown

eventually

seized

less

and

less, it

as a public

which time, the

was shut up, and

by the land-devouring speculating

builder.

11

LONDON SOUVENIRS

162

The

names has earned us from the

north of London to the west, but as the former locality,
in consequence of its natural features, always was a
similarity of

favourite one for tea-gardens, we will return to it.

On
the top of the hill we referred to as rising from Bagnigge Wells to Islington there stood, where the Belve-

now

dere Tavern

known

a house of entertainment

stands,

as Busby's Folly, so called after its owner, one

name

Christopher Busby, whose

is

spelt

Busbee on a

token, 'White Lion

at Islington, 1668,' of which he

was the landlord.
the cognomen of Folly was
given to it is not very apparent, since, to judge by the

Why

prints

extant,

But

was

there

nothing foolish about the

appears that then, as it is now, it

was customary to call any house which was not constructed according to a tasteless, unimaginative builder s
building.

ideas a Folly

it

at

Peckham

there was Heaton's Folly.

From

Busby's Folly the Society of Bull Feathers' Hall

used to commence their march to Islington to claim the
gravel earned up Highgate Hill, to which
they asserted a right in a tract published by them and
'
entitled
Bull Feather Hall
or, the Antiquity and
toll

of

all

Dignity

of

Horns

amply

shown.

name

London,

1664.'

1710, after which

it was called
and
here
men with learned
Penny's Folly,
horses, musical glasses, and similar shows entertained

Busby's Folly retained

its

till

the public.
The gardens were extensive, and about
1780 the house seems to have been rebuilt and christened

Belvedere Tavern, which name it still bears.

Close to
was another tavern known as Dobney's, and which
originally was called Prospect House, because in those

it

days, standing as it did on the top of

what was then

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

Islington

styled

Hill,

it

really

commanded

1G3
fine

In 1770 Prospect House

prospect north and south.
soon reopened as the
but
for
a
was taken
school,
Jubilee Tea-Gardens, in commemoration of the jubilee
got up at Stratford-on-Avon by Garrick in honour of

Shakespeare, and the interior of the bowers was painted

with scenes from his plays. In 1772 one Daniel Wildman here performed ' several new and amazing experi-

ments never attempted by any

kingdom

before.

He

rides,

man

in this or

any other

standing upright, one foot

on the saddle and the other on the horse's neck, with a

and by
curious mask of bees on his head and face
march
over a
of
bees
a
makes
one
the
firing
pistol
part
.

table

and the other swarm

in

the air and return to

He also advertised that he

their proper hive again.'
was prepared to supply the nobility and gentry with
any quantity of bees from one stock in the common or
In 1774 the gardens fell into a
newly-invented hives.
ruinous condition, but there were still two handsome
In 1780 the house was converted into a
tea-rooms.
discussion and lecture room, but the speculation did
not answer; the place was cleared, and about 1790
houses, known as Winchester Place, were erected on it.

But a portion of the gardens remained open till 1810,

when that also disappeared, and the only remains on
the site of this once famous tea-garden is a mean court
Penton Street called Dobney's Court. The Prospect
to which the gardens belonged still stands
behind the present Belvedere Tavern, but there is no

in

House

sign of antiquity about it.

In 1683 the well known as Sadler's
covered, and

Sadler's

Musick-House,

Well was diswas origi-

as it

112

LONDON SOUVENIRS

164

But as
nally called, thenceforth became Sadler's Well.
it was, as its name implied, rather a house for musical
entertainment than a tea-garden, and as its history is
adjoining

it,

we

by to speak of a well
namely, Islington Wells or Spa, or New

pretty well known,

pass

it

Tunbridge Wells.
This well was already in repute when the well on
Sadlers land was discovered, and as the two wells were
contiguous, the Spa was frequently mistaken for Sadler's.

About the year 1690

it was advertised that the Spa

would open for drinking the medicinal waters. In 1700
there was music for dancing all day long every Monday
and Thursday during the summer season no masks to
be admitted."* A few years later the Spa became fashion'

able, being patronized

by

Mary Wortley Montagu.

ladies of such position as

Lady

In 1733 the Princesses Amelia

and Caroline, daughters of George II., came daily in the

summer and drank the waters in fact, such was the
concourse of nobility and others that the proprietor
;

took upwards of thirty pounds in a morning. Whenever the Princesses visited the Spa they were saluted
with a discharge of twenty-one guns, and in the evening
Ned Ward described the place
there was a bonfire.
:

'

Lime

And

trees were placed at a regular distance,

scrapers were giving their awful assistance.'

It also furnished a title to a

Colman,

called

'The

dramatic

trifle,

by George

Spleen, or Islington Spa,' acted at

Drury Lane in 1776. The proprietor, Holland, failing,

the Spa was sold to a Mr. Skinner in 1778, and the
gardens were reopened every morning for drinking the
The subscription
waters, and in the afternoon for tea.

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

for the season was one guinea

165

non-subscribers drinking
the waters, sixpence each morning.
At the beginning
of this century part of the garden was built on, and
;

about 1840 what remained was covered by two rows of

At present there is at
cottages, called Spa Cottages.
the corner of Lloyd's Row a small cottage with the
'
inscription on it,
Islington Spa, or New Tunbridge
Wells.

The Islington Spa must not be confounded with a

similar neighbouring establishment in Spa Fields, adjoinThe locality was originally called
ing Exmouth Street.
Ducking Pond Fields. Hunting ducks with dogs was
one of the barbarous amusements our ancestors delighted
in.
The public-house to which the pond belonged was
taken down in 1770, and on

its site

was erected the

Oxford Street
was a large round building, with a
statue of Fame on the top of it.
Internally it had two
and
a
and
in
the
winter
it was warmed by
galleries
pit,
Pantheon,
Pantheon.

built

in

imitation

of

the

It

a stove, having fireplaces

all round, the smoke from

which was carried away under the floor. To the building was attached an extensive garden, disposed in fancy

walks, and having on one side of it a pond, at one end

of which was a statue of Hercules, at the other end
stood a summer-house for company to sit in.
There

were also boxes of alcoves all round the gardens, and

two tea-rooms in the main building itself. The place
was well patronized, the company usually consisting, as
described in the

Sunday Ramble, of some hundreds of

persons of both sexes, the greater part of which, not-

withstanding
neither

their

more nor

gay appearance, were evidently

than journeymen tailors, hair-

less

LONDON SOUVENIRS

166
and

dressers,

other such people,

companions,

proper

attended by their
mantua - makers, and
other and more objectionable

milliners,

servant-maids, besides
characters of the female sex.

addressed

to

the

According; to a letter

James's

1772, the
the
writer
resort,
the tea-houses in the environs of

St.

Chronicle,

Pantheon was a place of infamous

'

declaring that of all

London, the most exceptional he ever had occasion to

be in was the Pantheon.

at

He

was particularly annoyed

being frequently asked by the Cyprian nymphs

in the place to be treated with
a dish of
'

swarming

He ought to have heard the requests of our

modern Cyprians
The place, however, did not prosper;
the Rotunda had been built by a Mr. Craven whilst it
was being erected Mrs. Craven visited it, and was so
overcome by the gloomy thoughts that troubled her mind
that she gave vent to tears, and remarked to a friend of

tea.'

'

very pretty, but I foresee that it will be the

ruin of us, and one day or other be turned into a

hers

It

is

Methodist meeting-house."' The lady had a prophetic

mind, for in 1774 her husband became bankrupt, and
'
the Pantheon, with its four acres of garden, laid out
in the most agreeable and pleasing style, refreshed with
a canal abounding with carp, tench, etc., and com-

manding a pleasing view of Hampstead, Highgate,

and the adjacent country," were sold by auction, and
The Rotunda, as foreseen by
finally closed in 1776.
Mrs. Craven in 1779, became one of the chapels of
Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, under the name of Spa
1

Fields Chapel.
It is now replaced
Church of the Holy Redeemer.

To

by the Episcopal

the south of the Pantheon, in Bowling Green

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

167

Lane, stood, in the middle of the last century, the

Cherry Tree Public House and Gardens, with their
The gardens took their name from the
bowling-green.

number of

trees bearing that fruit which grew

There were subscription grounds for the game
of nine-pins, knock-'em-downs, etc., and the house was

large

there.

much

resorted to by the inhabitants of Clerkenwell.

But there was yet another well in this locality, which

seems to have been a very solfatara for springs, for near

King's Cross there was a chalybeate spring, known as
Chad's Well, supposed to be useful in cases of liver
St. Chad* was the
attacks, dropsy, and scrofula.
St.

founder of the See and Bishopric of Lichfield, and was

cured of some awful disease by drinking the waters of
this well, wherefore his

name was given

to

it.

He

died

about 673, and in those days the names of saints were as

commercially valuable in starting a well or other natura*
phenomenon as the names of lords are on

or unnatural

And St. Chad brought

custom to the well, for as late as the last century
eight or nine hundred persons a morning used to come
and drink these waters.
Nay, fifty years ago they

modern business prospectuses.

lots of

drew

and the gardens surrounding

a post might be seen an octagonal board,

visitors to themselves

the well.

On

'
Health preserved and restored.
legend,
Further on stood a low, old-fashioned, comfortable-

with the

looking, large-windowed dwelling, and frequently there

might also be seen standing at the open door an ancient
dame, in a black bonnet, a clean blue cotton gown, and

a checked apron.
*

He

March

2.

is

She was the Lady of the Well.

a saint in

the

The

English calendar, and his day

ia

LONDON SOUVENIRS

168

gardens might be visited and as

you pleased
4s. 6d.

monthly, and

Is.

much water drunk

per year,

Is. 6d.

6d.

9s.

as

quarterly,

A single visit and

weekly.

The water was

glassful of water cost 6d.
in a large copper, whence it was drawn off into

a large

warmed

The charge

of 6d. was eventually reduced to

There was a spacious and lofty pump-room and a

the glass.
3d.

for

large house facing Gray's Inn Road, but all that now
remains is the remembrance of the well in the name of

a narrow passage, called

inner

end

St.

Chad's Place, closed at

its

by an old-fashioned cottage with green

shutters.

We

will

ascend Pentonville Hill again to Penton

Street, at the corner of which stands Belvedere Tavern,

formerly Busby"s Folly, and, going up Penton Street a

way, we come to what was once the site of White

little

Conduit House, the present White Conduit House

tavern covering a portion of the old gardens.
It took
its name from a conduit, built in the reign of
Henry VI.,

and repaired by Sutton, the founder of the Charter

House. The house was at first small, having only four
windows in front but in the middle of the last century
for the better
the then owner could advertise that
accommodation of gentlemen and ladies he had completed a long walk, with a handsome circular fish-pond,
a number of shady, pleasant arbours, enclosed with a
fence seven feet high to prevent being incommoded by
people in the fields hot loaves and butter every day,
milk directly from the cows, coffee, tea, and all manners
of liquors in the greatest perfection also a handsome
long-room, from whence is the most copious prospects
and airy situation of any now in vogue.
A long poem
;

'

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

in

praise

169

of the house appeared in the Gentleman's

Magazine in 1760. It was written by William Woty,

a Grub Street poet.
A frequent visitor to White
Conduit House was Goldsmith, who used to repair
thither with some of his friends, after he had discovered
the place, as he relates in Letter 122 of the * Citizen of
the World.' The passage, I must confess, does little

honour to his genius or his taste, and I wonder he did

not have it expunged from his collected writings. As
is

customary with such places of amusement, in course

of time the company did not improve, though in 1826

it was attempted to revive the
reputation of the place,
partly by calling it a Minor Vauxhall ; but nightly disturbances and the encouragement of immorality
thereby,
caused it to be suppressed by magisterial authority on

the

proprietor's

license.

practice,

application

for

the renewal of

About 1827 the grounds were

and

in

1828 the old

let for

house

was

his

archery
pulled

down and a new one erected in its place, which was

opened in 1829. The new building was somewhat in
the gin-palace style
stucco front, pilasters, cornices
and plate glass. It contained large refreshment rooms,
:

and a long and

lofty ballroom above, where the dancing,

not very refined, was vigorous.
Gentlemen went
dances
with
their
hats
on and their
through country

if

coats

off.

Eventually the master of the ceremonies

objected to the hats, and they were left off, as the coats
continued to be. In 1849 this elegant place of amuse-

ment was demolished and streets built on its grounds,

White Conduit Tavern.
A former proprietor of White Conduit House,

as also the present

Christopher Bartholomew, died in positive poverty in

LONDON SOUVENIRS

170

Angel Court, Windmill

1

of stairs

Street, 'at his lodgings,

as

the

two

Gentlemans Magazine,

room,
He once owned the freehold of
March, 1809, says.
White Conduit House and of the neighbouring: Angel
but he was seized with
inn, and was worth 50,000
and
as
the lottery mania,
much as i?l,000 a day
paid
for insurances.
By degrees he sank into poverty, but a
friend having supplied him with the means of obtaining

pair

a thirty-second share, that number turned up a prize of

He purchased an annuity of of 60 per annum,
<20,000.

but foolishly disposed of it and lost it all.

few days
before he died he begged a few shillings to buy him
necessaries.

But does

equally deluded,

and that of many others

We
warning to anyone?

his fate,

act as a

fear not.

White Conduit House was sold in 1864, by order of

The lease
the proprietor, in consequence of ill-health.
had then about eighty years to run, at the rent of S0
per annum.
price would

it

What
The property fetched ^8,990.
now ? Public-houses have gone up

fetch

tremendously since then.

Close to White Conduit House was another famous
house of entertainment, that is to say, Copenhagen
House, which was opened by a Dane when the King of

Denmark paid a visit to James I., but the house did

not attract much attention till after the Restoration,
when the once public-house became a tea-garden, with
the

amusements, fives - playing being a

Hazlitt, who was enthusiastic about the

customary

favourite.

game, immortalized one Cavanagh, an Irish player, who

distinguished himself at Copenhagen House by playing
matches for wagers and dinners. The wall against which

LONDON TAVERNS AND TEA-GARDENS

171

they played was

that which supported the kitchen

and
when
the ball resounded louder than
chimney,
usual the cooks exclaimed, Those are the Irishman's
'

balls P

Hazlitt.

'And
The

the joints trembled on their spits, says

next landlord encouraged dog-fighting

and bull-baiting,

consequence of which he lost his

fields around
Copenhagen House,
now all built over, were the scene of many riotous
assemblies at the time of the French Revolution,
license in 1816.

in

The

Home Tooke, and other sympathizers with

France being the chief instigators and leaders of those

Thelwall,

meetings.

Going considerably northward, we reach Highbury

Barn, which, with lands belonging thereto, was leased
in 1482 by the Prior of the monastery of St. John of
Jerusalem to John Man tell, described as citizen and

The property thus leased comthe

prised
Grange place, with Highbury Barn, a garden,

butcher of London.

and

'

two little closures containing five

and
a
field
called Snoresfeld, otherwise Bushfield.
acres,
Highbury Barn was at first a small ale and cake house,
and as such is mentioned early in the eighteenth
castell

century.

Hilles,

Gradually

it

grew into a tavern and

tea-

Mr. Willoughby, who died in 1785, ingarden.

creased the business, and his successor added a bowlinggreen, a trap-ball ground, and more gardens. The barn
could accommodate 2,000 persons at once, and 800
people have been seen dining together, with seventy

them at one fire. Early in this

a
and
a dining room were added. Near
century dancing
this house there was, in 1868, found in a field a vase

geese roasting for

containing nearly 1,000 silver coins, consisting of silver

LONDON SOUVENIRS

172

and half-groats, two gold coins of

and an amber rosary.
The manor of
as
we
have
seen, belonged to the
Highbury having,
of
John
of
St.
Jerusalem, the coins may have
Knights
been buried by them at the time of the insurrection of
pennies,

groats

Edward

III.,

Wat
and

Tyler, whose followers destroyed the monastery

made an attack on the Priors house at High-

also

The

now

Museum.
we have got to the end of the space
allotted to us, and though we have only, as it were,
dipped into the bulk of our subject, we must defer for
bury.

But we

coins are

in the British

find

some other opportunity the description of the large

number of old tea-gardens

will

still

to be noticed.

We

here only indicate the most important of them

Camberwell

Chalk

Grove, Cuper's Gardens,

Farm,
Canonbury House, Cumberland Gardens, Cupid Gardens,
Sluice House, Eel-pie House, St. Helen's, Hornsey
Wood, Hoxton, Kilburn Wells, Mermaid, Marylebone,
Montpellier, Ranelagh, Paris Gardens, Shepherd and
Shepherdess, Union Gardens, Yorkshire Stingo, Jew's
Harp, Adam and Eve, Tottenham Court Road Adam
and Eve, St. Pancras the Brill, Mulberry Gardens,
;

Springfield,

and others of

less note.

XIII.

WILLIAM PATERSON AND THE BANK OF

ENGLAND.
London

streets have strange and unsuitable

thus you will find an alley of wretched
hovels, with muddy yards, containing nothing but

SOME
names

cabbage-stumps and broken dustbins, called Prospect

Place; whilst a lane adjoining the shambles styles itself

And what

Paradise How.
is

a curious name for a street

that of Threadneedle* Street

to be so

named

How

However, such

is

came the street

name, and in

its

is not
For lives there not in
inappropriate.
that street the Old Lady who is, year in, year out, everlastingly threading her diamond needle with gold and
silver threads, and working the gorgeous embroidery of

this case it

the financial flags of her own and of almost every other

country in the world ? Her dwelling is palatial ; to be

merely admitted into her parlour

is

in itself a positive

proof of your respectability, for you gain no entrance

* Stow

Three Needle Street, as Hatton supposes, from

been written Thrid Needle and Thred
Needle Street, but our ancestors were not so particular as
calls it

such a sign.

It has also

to spelling as

we

are.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

174

thereto unless you are a stockholder ; as to her drawingroom, the glories of Versailles and the Escurial are as

miserable

for

shanties,

her

drawing room contains,

leaving alone other treasures, engravings worth from

five pounds each to fifty thousand
nay, a hundred

thousand pounds each. There is no five o'clock tea

its notes,
there, but plenty of music all day long
are
but
the
and
silver
silent,
indeed,
instruments,
gold
;

whose fascinating and entrancing sounds have more

magic in them than has the finest orchestra, vocal or

And as to her
instrumental, are audible enough.
cellars, the treasures the Old Lady keeps there would
buy up half a dozen such caves as that into which
Aladdin descended.

The
Lady

reader has by this time discovered

of Threadneedle Street

England

the

is

who

namely, the

the Old

Bank of

most gigantic monetary establishment

in the world, the

financial reservoir, the

opening or

shutting of whose sluices causes not only the commercial

ebb and flow of east and west, of north and south, but
'
sets in motion or prevents the pomp and circumstance
of glorious war.

The

history of this

mighty establishment has often

been told, but it seems to us that but scant justice has

as yet been done to its founder, William Paterson.

The

injustice done to him, in fact, dates from an early

day, for soon after the foundation of the Bank, of

which he naturally was one of the directors, intrigue

drove him from that position, and envy and obloquy
pursued him ever after. But let us briefly recount his
early history.

Born on a farm

in

Dumfriesshire in 1658 of a family

WILLIAM PATERSON AND THE BANK

175

notable in old Scottish history, he was, at the age of

sixteen, transferred to the care of a kinswoman at

on whose death he inherited some property.

Bristol was then a great commercial
emporium, doing
with much legitimate business a little in the slave trade,
Bristol,

and

his

connection

with that town

was

afterwards

injurious to him, for whilst his friends said that he

visited the

New World

as a missionary, his enemies

mixed up with slave-dealing, and

But the fact of his
occasionally indulged in piracy.
the
widow
of
a
Puritan
minister
at Boston is
marrying
more in accordance with the statements of his friends
than with those of his enemies. Anderson, the historian
asserted that he was

of commerce, who as a lad must have known him in his

old age, speaks of him as ' a merchant who had been

much

foreign countries, and had entered far into

speculations relating to commerce and the colonies.
in

'

He was in England in 1681, and, among the various

schemes he started, he took a leading part in the project
for bringing water into the north of London from the
Hampstead and Highgate

hills.

He made

a heavy

investment in the City of London Orphans Fund in

the improved management and distribution of that
;

charity he took a profound interest, a fact which leaves

no doubt of his philanthropic and public spirit. It
was in 1684 that he first conceived the idea of the

Darien scheme, and though this turned out so unfortunate, he from first to last acted with rare disinterestedness

his errors were those such as a well-balanced

generous mind might

and

into without reproach.

Nor
is the failure of that
be
to
attributed
to
him,
enterprise
but to the conduct of William III., who had sanctioned,
fall

LONDON SOUVENIRS

176

but afterwards, at the instigation of the East India

Companies of England and Holland, discouraged and
How deeply he felt the
positively thwarted, it.
is shown
by the
mind was deranged in conseAnd who will now deny that Paterson

disastrous results of the expedition

fact that for a time his

quence of it.
was right in calling the Isthmus of Panama the ' door
of the seas and the key of the universe ? In 1825
Humboldt recommended the scheme of a canal from
1

Atlantic to the Pacific, and the enterprise of

Lesseps will yet be carried to a successful issue.
the

However, we have to deal with Paterson

chief! v as

the

founder of the Bank of England, and with the long and

fierce battle he had to fight to
accomplish his object,
for there was great opposition to it from interest and

Paterson had been long in Holland, and

his scheme of a Bank of England,

prejudice.

when he propounded

the people objected to it as coming from Holland ;

1
'
they had too many Dutch things already, just as now
,
there is a prejudice against things 'made in Germany
.

Moreover, they doubted the stability of the Government of William III. At last, however, they consented
to the Bank, on the express condition that dl, 200,000
should be subscribed and lent to the Government. The

money was

subscribed in ten days.

The Bank Act was

obtained in spite of all opposition, which perhaps

would have prevailed had not Queen Mary, acting on
the instruction of William (then in Flanders), during a
1

six

hours sitting, carried the point, and the company

received their royal charter of incorporation in July,

1694. Almost as soon as it had been established the

Bank was

called

upon to

assist

the Government in the

WILLIAM PATERSON AND THE BANK

177

The notes of the new

re-coinage of the silver money.
Bank were destined to fill up the vacuum occasioned by
the calling in of the old coin, but as the notes were
payable on demand, they were returned faster than
coin could be obtained from the

Mint

crisis

ensued,

during which the notes of the Bank fell to a discount

of 20 per cent. But the Bank passed safely through its

through the troubles caused by the

South Sea Bubble. The opposition in the first crisis
was due chiefly to the goldsmiths, who detested the
difficulties, as also

new corporation because

it interfered with their

system
of private banking, hitherto monopolized by them.
Patersons advice was of the greatest assistance in his
capacity of director, yet such was the animus against

that, as we mentioned above, in 1695 he sold out

the stock he held (i?2,000), which from the first was a

him

and retired from his office. But

he did not withdraw from public life. The Darien
Expedition already referred to was organized by him
in 1698, and its disastrous results were, as we have
shown, in nowise attributable to him, and this was, in
fact, eventually admitted by the nation, Parliament in
1715 passing an Act awarding him an indemnity of
director's qualification,

upwards of 18,000 for his losses in that enterprise.

In other ways Paterson continued to interest himself in
matters affecting the public welfare he rendered his
Sovereign signal services by the wise and shrewd advice
he gave him during the latter part of his troubled
reign he published many tracts on the management of
the National Debt and the system of auditing public
accounts he was a zealous advocate of Eree Trade, and
;

his views

on the subject of taxation were

ahead of
12

far

LONDON SOUVENIRS

178

His undoubtedly great talents,

thorough honesty and genuine patriotism, fully
entitle him to the praise given him by his friend
Daniel Defoe, as a worthy and noble patriot, one of
the most eminent, to whom we owe more than ever he

the ideas of his day.

his

'

would tell us, or, I am afraid, we shall ever be sensible

whatever fools, madmen, or Jacobites may asperse

of,

him

with.*

We cannot
England
the

Bank

attempt to give a history of the Bank of

in our limited space, but a short account of
building may not unfitly close this notice of

the founder of the establishment.

The

business was

originally started at Mercers Hall, and next removed

1
to, and for many years carried on at, Grocers Hall in

the Poultry.

In August, 1732, the governors and

new building in
of the house and

directors laid the first stone of their

Threadneedle Street, on the

site

garden formerly belonging to Sir John Houblon, the

At first the buildings
first Governor of the Bank.
comprised only the centre of the principal or south
front, the Hall, Bullion Court, and the Courtyard, and
were surrounded by St. Christopher-le-Stocks Church,
From the
three taverns, and several private houses.
year 1766 onwards considerable additions were made to
All the adjoining houses on the east
the building.

Bartholomew Lane, and those occupying the

west side of that lane almost to Lothbury, were taken

side to

down, and their places occupied by

The

south side buildings,

offices

of the Bank.

forming the eastern continua-

tion of the establishment, presented a range of fluted

columns in

pairs,

with arched intervals between, point-

ing out where windows should have been placed, which,

WILLIAM PATERSON AND THE BANK

179

however, were filled up with stone. This necessitated

the rooms within being lighted by small glass domes in
the roof, a circumstance much complained of at the
time by the clerks as injuriously affecting their eyes.
It

was intended to extend the facade on the western

by taking down the Church of St. Christopher,

which by the removal of that part of Threadneedle

side

Street

had been deprived of a great part of

its

parish.

How far so
Noorthouck, who wrote in 1773, says
extensive a plan may answer the vast expense it will
'

call for to

complete

sideration of those

a question proper for the conare immediately concerned ; an

it is

who

indifferent spectator cannot view this

expanded fabric

with the growth of public debts

and
negotiated here,
trembling more for the safety of
the one than of the other.'' Could he see the Bank
without comparing

it

now, covering nearly four acres of ground, what would

he say ?

One Ralph,

Statues,

Buildings,

London

'

whose Critical Review of the

and Ornaments in and about

architect,

was published in 1783, says: 'The

building
erected for the Bank is liable to the very same
objection, in point of place, with the Royal Exchange, and
even in a greater, too. It is monstrously crowded on
the eye, and unless the opposite houses could be pulled
as
down, and a view obtained into Cornhill, we

might

well

be

entertained

with a prospect of

through a microscope.

As

the model

to the structure

itself,

it

grand
only the architect seems to be rather too
fond of decoration ; this appears pretty
'eminently by
the weight of his cornices
rather too heavy for
is

the building.'

The

objectionable buildings here referred

122

LONDON SOUVENIRS

180

to were the triangular block of houses which formerly

stood in front of the old Royal Exchange, but was

removed on the building of the new.

At the beginning of this century the Bank on the

south side was of the same extent as now on the east
;

extended to Lothbury, on the west it

reached to about half the length of the present Princes
side also

it

which,

Street,

however, then did not proceed in a

straight line, as it does now, but took a sharp turn to

north-east, coming into Lothbury at a point nearly

opposite St. Margaret's Church, and thus cutting off a

corner of the Bank site, which would otherwise have

been nearly square. But when, early in this century,

Princes Street was extended in a straight line to Lothbury, the condensed portion of the street, together with
a block of houses on the west side of it, were added to

and the Bank assumed its present shape.

architectural
But great
improvements had in the meantime been introduced. The original or central portion,
the

Bank

site,

was of the Ionic order

eighty feet in length, which
on a rusticated basement, was altered to what it

raised

now

is

the attic seen on

was

it

from

was added in 1850.

the

This

of

design
George
portion
Sampson. The east and west wings were added by Sir
Robert Taylor, after whom Sir John Soane was
and he rebuilt many of
appointed the Bank architect,
those parts constructed by Sampson and Taylor and
on Sir John's death in 1837 Mr. Cockerell succeeded
original

He again greatly modified many

The eighty feet of the
of the building.
side now extend to 365 feet ; the length
south
original
of the west side is 440 feet, of the north side 410 feet,
him

in the position.

features

WILLIAM PATERSON AND THE BANK

and of the east

side

245

feet.

Both

internally

181

and

models have been followed. The

hall known as the Three Per Cent. Consol (three per
externally classical

gone) Office, ninety feet long by fifty wide,

models of the Roman baths, as are the
from
designed
Dividend and Bank Stock Offices. The chief cashier's
cent., alas

is

office is forty-five feet

Temple

Room

by

thirty,

of the Sun and

Moon

and designed
at

Rome.

after the

The Court

of the composite order, about sixty feet long and

thirty-one wide, is lighted by large Venetian windows

on the south, overlooking what once was the church-

yard of St. Christopher's Church, and into which in

1852 a fountain was placed, which throws a single jet,
thirty feet high,
finest lime-trees

Court

Room

is

amongst the branches of two of the

in London.
The north side of the

remarkable for three exquisite chimney-

The original Rotunda was

pieces of statuary marble.
roofed in with timber, but in 1794 it was found
it down, and the present Rotunda was
which measures fifty-seven feet in diameter, and

advisable to take
built,

about the same in

material,

as are all

height ; it is of incombustible
the offices erected by Sir John

There are a number of courts within the outer

Soane.

walls of the buildings

;
they are all of great architectural
one
the
entered
from Lothbury is truly magbeauty
nificent.
It has screens of fluted Corinthian columns,
;

supporting a lofty entablature, surmounted by vases.

This part of the edifice was copied from the beautiful

noble arch, an
temple of the Sybils, near Tivoli.
imitation of the arch of Constantine at Rome, gives
access to the Bullion Court, in

of

Corinthian

which

columns, supporting

is

an

another row
entablature,

LONDON SOUVENIRS

182

decorated with statues representing the four quarters of

the globe.
The north-west corner of the Bank is

We

modelled on the temple of Vesta at Rome.

have
to
mention
the
Old
yet
Lady's Drawing-Room, or the
pay-office, where bank-notes are issued, or exchanged for
cash.

It

is

fine hall,

seventy-nine feet long by forty

the mention of it to the last

wide, and

we have

because

suggests to us some particular reflections.

We

it

left

have seen that Paterson was the real founder of the

Bank

of England, and

we may take

this opportunity

of adding that Charles Montague and Michael Godfrey

are entitled to share in Paterson's glory for the assist-

ance they lent him in this undertaking but the Bank

ignores its founder, and had not even a portrait of him
till Mr. James
Hogg, the founder of London Society
;

In the Pay Hall stands the

presented them with one.
statue of William III., and in the Latin
inscription

underneath he

is

'

called

founder of the Bank.

It

is

the old story when a prize is taken at sea the biggest

1
share of it, the lion's share, goes to the ' Flag ; the
:

must put up with the leavings.

Let us end with another philosophical reflection.
Facts are more astounding than fiction, as we will
show by two facts.
Gaboriaus novel 'La Degringolade (The Downfall), in one of its earliest chapters
real fighters

'

the

describes

a grave in the Parisian

of

opening

cemetery of Montmartre, to discover whether it contains the body of a certain person or not.
The coffin
is

found to be empty.

likely

to

romance

see
'

its

This

is

realization

Les Mysteres

fiction,

but are we not

Paul FevaFs

shortly

Londres

'

gives a long
of
some
villains to get
account of the fictitious attempt

de

WILLIAM PATERSON AND THE BANK

183

Bank of England
by digging a tunnel under Threadneedle Street they
But now, according
are, of course, foiled in the end.
to accounts published at the end of the month of

at the treasures in the cellars of the

in the Daily Mail, the tunnel is

a
actually dug by
railway company, and so close to the
walls of the Bank as to actually compel its governors

November, 1898,

and directors to

call in

the assistance of Sir John Wolfe

Barry to advise means to avert the danger which

threatens the building, already affected by the excavations.
Truly fact is stranger than fiction.

XIV.

THE OLD DOCTORS.

THE

lines of

modern doctors have

fallen in pleasant

Their position is certainly somewhat

places.
different from what it was in the days when

they were contemptuously called leeches, when their

scientific investigations exposed them to persecution
and death. Vesalius, the father of modern anatomy,
was condemned to death by the Inquisition for dissecting a human body, but by the intervention of
King Philip II., whose physician he was, the punish-

ment was reduced

to a pilgrimage to the

Holy Land

on his return the ship was lost on the island of

Zante, where he perished of starvation in 1564. Now

Government

At

licenses

doctors

to

practise

vivisection

was fined by the bailiff

and
francs,
imprisoned for not having
fifty golden
of
some
cures
the
persons whose recovery he
completed
Dijon, in 1386, a physician

In a schedule of the offices, fees, and

which the Lord Wharton had with the Wardenry

had undertaken.
services

of the city and castle of Carlisle in 1547, a trumpeter

was rated at 16d. per day, and a surgeon only at
12d.

Edward

III.

granted Counsus de Gangeland, an

THE OLD DOCTORS

185

apothecary of London, 6d. a day for his care and

attendance on him while he formerly lay sick in
Scotland.
A knowledge of astrology was in those days
requisite for a physician

the herbs were not to be

gathered except when the sun and the planets were in

certain constellations, and certificates of their being so
were necessary to give them reputation. Sometimes
patients applied to astrologers, who were astrologers
only, whether the constellations were favourable to the
doctor's remedies.
Then, if the man died, the astrologer
ascribed the death to the
inefficacy of the remedies,
whUe the doctor threw the blame on the astrologer, he

not having properly observed the constellations. Then

the latter would exclaim that his case was
extremely

hard

if

he made a mistake, his calculation being wrong,

it, whilst if a physician was guilty of

heaven discovered

a blunder, the earth covered it. Even then doctors

were considered like the potato plant, whose fruit is
To see the doctor's carriage, whose
underground.
motto should be Live or die, or Morituri te salutant,'
'

'

attending a funeral, reminds a cynic of a cobbler taking

home his work.

In England the medical

profession

estimation from the time when

rose in

public

VIII., with that

Henry
members of the profession
community, and perpetual college, since
the College of Physicians.
The seven been th and

view, incorporated several

into a body,
called

eighteenth centuries, with their opposite characteristics

of vulgarity and romance, of
squalor and luxury, of
and
discoveries
in science, of prejudice
ignorance
grand

and intelligence, were highly conducive to the formation

and cultivation of individualism and
originality of

LONDON SOUVENIRS

186

hence those two centuries abounded in

and eccentricities," and in no section of
The members of
society more than in the medical.
that profession could very readily and appropriately
then be divided into two great schools the Rough and
the Smooth, the fierce dispensers of Brimstone and the

character;
'

oddities

'

'

The present century,

tendencies, opposed to all originality

gentle administrators of Treacle.

with

and

its levelling

so-called

eccentricity

in

custom,

speech,
in

all

full

and

dress to the

costume, reducing
gentlemen
rank of waiters, has nearly abolished the sulphury
in fact, he would scarcely be tolerated now.
Galen
;

People submit to certain foolish pretensions now, such

as those of thought-reading and pin-hunting cranks,
and similar mental eccentricities ; but they must be

administered mildly, there must be a treacly flavour

about them, for

'

This

is

an age of

flatness, dull

and dreary,

Society is like a washed-out chintz,

Which scandal renders somewhat foul and smeary

And

yet,

without

its

malice,

lies,

E'en fashion's children would at

Of looking

To which

and

last

hints,

grow weary

at the faded cotton prints

respectability subdues
hues.'

Our uncontrolled imagination's

Hence the medical showmen of the present day must accompany the exhibition of their nostrums with dulcet
sounds and honeyed speeches, especially when treating
'

'

those nursed in the lap of affluence

they are to adulation, the medico

and, accustomed as

who can condescend

to feed them with well-disguised flattery, or assume the

tone of abject servility, has too often the credit of

THE OLD DOCTORS

possessing superior skill and science.
in the words of Byron, travestied

187

And

the patients,

They swallow filthy draughts and nauseous

But yet there is no end of human ills.'

pills,

not every doctor who could, at the

his
of
career, go in for the brimstone system.
beginning
Unless he was backed by very powerful patronage, or
wrote a book or pamphlet which attracted attention
It was, of course,

as Elliotsons practice rose from i?500 to

through his papers in the Lancet or was

5,000 a year
by some lucky

accident pitched into a position which by itself alone

inspired the public with an overwhelming belief in his
skill, the

and
But

experiment of treating his patients with rudeness

would have been fatal to his prospects.

indifference

let him once make a hit, either by being luckily on

the spot when a king or prince was thrown off his horse,
or by a successful operation, or by writing a book which
1

and the public were at his feet, and he

could trample on them as much as he liked. But it
did not follow that, after such success, he must neces*

caught

on,"

Dr. Arbuthnot, the son of

sarily abuse his privileges.
a non-juring clergyman in Scotland, came to London
about the time of the Restoration, and at first earned
a living by teaching mathematics, though he had
He happened to be at Epsom on
studied medicine.
one occasion when Prince George, who was also there,
was suddenly taken ill. Arbuthnot was called in, and
having effected a cure, was soon afterwards appointed

one of the physicians in ordinary to the Queen. And,

of course, his practice was established on a solid foundation,

and he carried

it

on with considerable professional

LONDON SOUVENIRS

188

But his success did not spoil him, for he

of a genial disposition, who turned neither
to brimstone nor to treacle, but always maintained a
distinction.

was a

man

demeanour. He was a wit and a man of

and enjoyed the esteem of such men as Swift,
Pope, and Gay. Before coining to London he had
dignified

letters,

chosen Dorchester as a place to practise as a physician,

but the salubrity of the air was opposed to his success,

and he took horse for London.

asked him where he was going.

A friend

meeting him,

To

'

leave your confounded place, where I can neither live nor die."* It
was said of him that his wit and pleasantry sometimes
assisted his prescriptions,

and

in

some

cases rendered

them unnecessary. He died at the age of sixty from a

complication of disorders, so little is the physician able
to cure himself.

Cooper (b. 1768, d. 1841) also did not

the
to
brimstone school. His surgical skill was
belong
and
he liked to display it. He always
very great,
Sir Astley

retained perfect self-command in the operating theatre,

and during the most critical and dangerous performances
on a patient, he tried to keep up the latter's courage by
When he was in the
lively and facetious remarks.
zenith of his fame, a satirical Sawbones said of him
:

'

Nor Drury Lane nor Common Garden

Are, to my fancy, worth a farden
I hold them both small beer.

Give me the wonderful exploits,

And jolly jokes between the sleights,

Of

When

Astley' s Amphitheatre'

Sir Astley lived in

Broad

Street, City,

he had

every day a numerous morning levee of City patients.

THE OLD DOCTORS

The room

into which they were

189

shown would hold from

forty to fifty people, and often callers, after waiting for

hours, were dismissed without having seen the doctor.

man Charles, with more than his master's dignity,

would say to disappointed applicants when they reI am not sure
appeared on the following morning
His

'

that we shall be able to attend to you, for our list is

the day; but if you will wait, I will see what

full for

we can do

for you.
During the first nine years of his
Sir
First
practice
Astley's earnings progressed thus
:

second, 26 third, 64
year,
100
fifth,
sixth, 200 seventh, 400
5s.

96
600
eighth,
fourth,

Eventually his annual income rose to

more than 15,000 the largest sum he ever made in
ninth, 1,100.

one year was 21,000.

West Indian

millionaire

gave him his highest fee he had successfully undergone

a painful operation, and sitting up in bed, he threw his
'
'
Sir,' renightcap at Cooper, saying, Take that !'
;

plied

Sir

'

Astley,

I'll

reaching home he found

pocket the affront ;' and on

in the cap a cheque for one

thousand guineas.

Matthew

1823) was a physician

occasionally indulged in the brimstone temper, and
was disinclined to attend to the details of an uninterestDr.

Baillie (b. 1761, d.

who

After listening on one occasion to a longing case.

drawn account from a lady, who ailed so little that
she was going that evening to the opera, he had made
when he was urged to step upstairs again
that the lady might ask him whether, on her return

his escape,

from the opera, she might eat some oysters. ' Yes,
shells and all
madam, said Baillie
Dr. Richard Mead (b. 1673, d. 1754) was physician
1

'

LONDON SOUVENIRS

190
to

George

II.,

and the

friend

of

Drs.

Radcliffe,

Garth, and Arbuthnot, and a great patron of literary

and artistic genius. In his house in Great Ormond

he established what

Street

may

be called the

first

academy of painting in London. His large collection

of paintings and antiquities, as well as his valuable
was sold by auction on his death in 1754. In
1740 he had a quarrel with Dr. Woodward, like himself
a Gresham professor the two men drew their swords,
and Mead having obtained the advantage, he comlibrary,

manded Woodward

'
to beg his life.
No, doctor,'' said
the vanquished combatant, 'that I will not till I am
But, nevertheless, at last he wisely
your patient.
-1

Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors is a view of Gresham College, with a

gateway,
Within are
entering from Broad Street, marked 25.
the figures of two persons, the one standing, the other
kneeling they represent Dr. Mead and Dr. Woodward.
Dr. Mead was of a generous nature. In 1723, when
the celebrated Dr. Friend was sent to the Tower, Mead
kindly took his practice, and, on his release by Sir
submitted.

In

'

Robert Walpole, presented the escaped Jacobite with

the result, <5,000.
Dr. Mead, about 1714, lived at Chelsea ; about the
same date there lived in the same locality Dr. Alexander Black well,

whom we

introduce here chiefly on

account of his singularly unfortunate life and very

Blackwell was a native of Aberdeen,
tragical end.
studied physic under Boerhaave at Leyden, and took

On his return home he married,

the degree of M.D.
and for some time practised as a physician in London.
But not meeting with success, he became corrector of

THE OLD DOCTORS

191

the press for Mr. Wilkins, a printer, and some time

after commenced business in the Strand on his own

and promised to do well, when, under an

antiquated and unjustly restrictive law, a suit was
brought against him for setting up as a printer without
account,

his

having served his apprenticeship to

it.

Mr. Black-

well defended the suit, but at the trial in

Westminster
Hall a dunderhead ed jury, probably of narrow-minded
tradesmen, all anxious to uphold their objectionable
privileges, found a verdict against him, in consequence
of which he became bankrupt, and one of his creditors
kept him in prison for nearly two years. By the help
of his wife, who was a clever painter and engraver, he
was released.
She prepared all the plates for the
1
Herbal, a work figuring most of the plants in the
'

Physic Garden at Chelsea, close to which she lived.

copy of this book eventually fell into the hands of the

Swedish Ambassador, who sent it over to his Court,

where it was so much liked that Dr. Blackwell was
engaged in the Swedish service, and went to reside at

He

Stockholm.

who under

was appointed physician to the King,

had recovered from a serious

his treatment

Dr. Blackwell had

left his wife in England

him as soon as his position was placed
on a solid basis. But ere this could take place he was
accused of having been engaged with natives and

illness.

she was to follow

foreigners in plotting to overturn the constitution of

He was found guilty, and sentenced to

be broken alive on the wheel, his heart and bowels to
be torn out and burnt, and his body to be quartered.
the kingdom.

He was said, under torture, to have made confession of

such an attempt, but the real extent of his guilt must

LONDON SOUVENIRS

192

always remain problematical. That he, a person of no

influence, and unconnected with any person of rank,
should have aimed at overthrowing the constitution

seems very improbable. It is more likely that he was

made a scapegoat to strike terror into the party then

opposed to the Ministry. The awful sentence passed on

him, however, was commuted to beheading, which fate he
underwent on July 29, 1747. He must have been a man
of great nerve and a humorist, for, having laid his head
wrong, he remarked jocosely that this being his first ex-

periment, no wonder he should want a little instruction

The Dr. Woodward we mentioned above seems to
!

have been a very irascible and objectionable individual.

He so grossly insulted Sir Hans Sloane, when he was
reading a paper of his own before the Royal Society in
1710, that, under the presidency of Sir Isaac Newton,
he was expelled from the Society.

Among medical oddities of the rougher sort we may

reckon Mounsey, a friend of Garrick, and physician to
His way of extracting teeth was
Chelsea Hospital.
Round
the
tooth to be drawn he fastened a
original.
strong piece of catgut, to the opposite end of which he
fastened a bullet, with which and a strong dose of
On the trigger being
powder he charged a pistol.
pulled, the tooth was

drawn

out.

Of

course, it

was but

seldom he could prevail on anyone to try the process.

Once, having induced a gentleman to submit to the
operation, the latter at the last moment exclaimed
:

Fve changed my mind."'

But I have
stop
Stop
and
are
a
fool
and
a
coward
for
not,
you
your pains,
answered the doctor, pulling the trigger, and in another
instant the tooth was extracted.
'

'

THE OLD DOCTORS

193

Once, before setting out on a journey, being incredulous as to the safety of cash-boxes and safes, he hid a
considerable quantity of gold and notes in the fireplace

them with

cinders and shavings.

luckily sooner than he was
expected, he found his housemaid preparing to entertain a few friends at tea in her master's room.
She was

of his study, covering

month

after, returning

on the point of lighting the

fire, and had just applied

a candle to the doctor's notes, when he entered the
room, seized a pail of water which happened to be

standing near, and throwing its contents over the fuel

and the servant, extinguished the fire and her presence
of mind at the same time.
Some of the notes were
and
the
Bank
of
injured,
England made some difficulty

about cashing them.

When

doctors disagree, etc.

Do they ever agree ?
Yes, when, after a consultation over a mild case which
has no interest for any of them, they over wine and
'

biscuits agree that the treatment hitherto

To

better be continued.

discuss it further

pursued had

would

inter-

But
rupt the pleasant chat over the news of the day
when they meet over a friendly glass at the coffee-house
!

thev go at it hammer and tongs.

Dr. Buchan, the
1
author of ' Domestic Medicine, of which 80,000 copies

were sold during the author's lifetime, and which,

according to modern medical opinion, killed more
doctors like cheap medicine as
patients than that

and

Dr. Gower, the urbane

lawyers like cheap law
skilled physician of Middlesex
Hospital, and

little as

Fordyce, a fashionable physician, whose deep

potations never affected him, used to meet at the
Chapter Coffee-House, and hold discussions on medical

Dr.

13

LONDON SOUVENIRS

194

but they never agreed, and with boisterous

But
laughter used to ridicule each other's theories.
a
in
as
all
the
they
Chapter punch
agreed
considering
topics

safe

for all

remedy

ills.
1

'
Dr. Garth, the author of the Dispensary, a
directed against the Apothecaries and Anti

poem
-

Dis-

pensarians, a section of the College of Physicians, was

One
very good-natured, but too fond of good living.

when he lingered over the bottle at the Kit-Kat

Club, though patients were longing for him, Steele
'
Well, it's no
reproved him for his neglect of them.
night,

great matter at all, replied Garth, pulling out a list of

'
for nine of them have such bad constitutions
fifteen,

the physicians in the world can save them,

and the other six have such good constitutions that all

that not

all

the physicians in the world cannot kill them.

The
doctor here plainly admitted the uselessness of his sup1

'

posed science, as in his Dispensary he admitted drugs

to be not only useless, but murderous.
'

High where the Fleet Ditch descends

in sable streams,

To wash

the sooty Naiads in the Thames,

There stands a structure* on a rising hill,
Where Tyros take their freedom out to kill.'

In Blenheim Street lived Joshua Brookes, the famous

anatomist, whose lectures were attended by upwards of
*
Apothecaries' Hall.
obtained some mark of

doctor, I forget his name, having

distinction from the Company of

Apothecaries, mentioned at a party that the glorious Company

of Apothecaries had conferred much honour on him.
But,'
'

said

patients

'

lady,
?'

what about

the

noble

army of

martyrs

of

THE OLD DOCTORS

195

His museum was almost a

thousand pupils.
of John Hunter, and was liberally thrown
open to visitors. One evening a coach drew up at his
door, a heavy sack was taken out and deposited in the

seven

rival of that

and the servants, accustomed to such occurrences,

was in the habit of buying subjects,
were about to carry it down the back-stairs into the
dissecting-room, when a living subject thrust his head
and neck out of one end and begged for his life. The
servants in alarm ran to fetch pistols, but the subject
hall,

since their master

continued to beg for mercy in such tones as to assure

them they had nothing to fear from him. He had

been drunk, and did not know how he got into the
sack.
Dr. Brookes ordered the sack to be tied loosely

and sent him in a coach to the watchhe got into the sack may easily be surmised Some body-snatchers, a tribe then very much to
the fore, had no doubt found the man dead drunk in
round

his chin,

How

house.

the street, and knowing the doctor to be a buyer of

subjects, had taken him there, in the hope that the
doctor might begin operating on the body before it
recovered consciousness, so as to enable them afterwards
to claim the price. In the days when there were dozens
of executions in one morning at Newgate, the doctors
had a good time of it, for the bodies of the malefactors

were handed over to them for dissection.

under the steps leading

up

to

the front

In
-

fact,

door of

Surgeons' Hall, a handsome building which stood next

to Newgate Prison, there was a small door, through
which the corpses were introduced into the building.
1

Surgeons Hall was pulled down in 1809, to make room

for the new Sessions House.

]3-2

LONDON SOUVENIRS

196

The

doctors of the previous two centuries were mostly

Sangrados, who bled and purged their patients most
unmercifully; but we must say this to their credit, they

did not descend to the sublime atrocity of microbes,

bacilli, and all the other horrors of the microscopic

mania now sending unnumbered nervous people into

And so they had not, like their
lunatic asylums.

modern compeers, the chance of amusing themselves

and paying one another professional compliments by
sending glass tubes, filled with the deadly spawn, from
one country to another by ship and rail. Fancy one of
those tubes getting accidentally broken, or being intentionally smashed for a lark on board a passenger

would speedily become a vessel

least, according to modern
entre
rious, we have no more faith in
teaching, which,
medical dicta. A man is
in
other
have
than we
many
ill from over
gorging or drinking, a child ails from a
surfeit of sweets or from catching a disease playing with
steamer.

Why,

this

laden with corpses

At

other children in the streets or at school.

is

made

The doctor

'
telling the man, You have
,
a beast of yourself, or correctly indicating the

called in,

and instead of

cause of the child's illness, he sniffs about and says

There is something the matter with your drains I
:

'

can smell

sewer -gas.*

And

presently

the

sanitary

and orders the pulling up and renewal

inspector arrives,
of the drains, and for days the house is filled with the
How is it the whole
effluvia supposed to be poisonous.

family do not die off? Well, scavengers who daily deal

with offal and garbage of the most offensive kind, the
men who work down in the sewers, enjoy robust health ;

the latter only suffer when they are suddenly plunged

THE OLD DOCTORS

into an excess of sewer-gas, but

it

is

197

the quantity and

not the quality that injures.

The

excessive treacliness of

modern

doctors, as

we

have just shown, is as objectionable as was the brimstone treatment of some of their predecessors.

principle with modern doctors is never to acknowledge

The old doctors now and then
themselves nonplussed.

Said an iEsculapius who

prescribe for a child, after

confessed themselves beaten.

had been called

in

to

diagnosing, as the ridiculous farce of tongue-speering

and pulse-squeezing is called ' This here babe has got
:

posted up in fevers, but I will

send her something that will throw her into fits, and
And modern doctors, indeed,
I'm a stunner on fits.

a fever

now,

I ain't

have no occasion to admit ignorance since the invention

of the liver.
When they cannot tell what is the matter
with a man, or they are too urbane to reproach him
with his excesses, his liver is out of order and that is

an organ which cannot possibly be examined and its

condition be verified so as to prove or disprove the
practitioner's assertion.

people don't
I

don't,

know where

assume that nine out of ten

or what the liver

and don't want to

blessed the

is

I'm sure

but as Sancho Panza

man who

invented sleep, the doctors should

bless their colleague who invented the liver
Abernethy,
of whom more hereafter, with all his eccentricity, was
!

honest enough to confess that he never cured or pretended to cure anyone, which only quacks did. He
despised the humbug of the profession, and its arts to
mislead and deceive patients.

second Nature in her

efforts.

He
He

only attempted to
admitted that he

could not remove rheumatism, that opprobrium of the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

198

and no doctor can

faculty,

a residence in a

warm and

ever sunny clime, or a long course of Turkish baths,

can

do

Hence

it.

Allan

sings

'

Ramsay's

Gentle

Shepherd

'

I sits

with

my

feet in a brook,

me for why,
In spite of the physic I took,
It's rheumatiz kills me, says
And

if

they ax

I.'*

This was the desperate remedy taken by Caroline,

Queen of that brute George II., when he expected her
to take her usual walk with him, though both her feet
were swollen with rheumatism. She plunged them in

a bath of cold water, and managed to go out with him

that afternoon.
I

read in some publication

London

Society, I think
medicine, that it is a sensible plan,

on
wise people, to pay a medical man a
some
adopted by
look
sum
to
up a household periodically and
yearly
in
them
This seems to me as insane
health.
good
keep
a plan as can well be imagined. Fancy the physicking
such a family, especially the children and servants,
For the doctor does
must all the year round undergo
not like to take his money and do nothing for it so,
if there happens to be no real illness, he must exhibit
his draughts and pills, just to show that he is honestly
in

an

article

earning his

fee.

The

regular attendant, the

family

doctor, means that the family are hospitalizing all the

Better go and live in the island of Sark.
year round.
Sir Robert Inglis, in his account of the Channel Islands,
* In
searching for material for these pages I had occasion to
read the lives of a good many doctors half of them, I should
say, died of rheumatism and gout.
;

THE OLD DOCTORS

199

says that at Sark there is no doctor, and that in the

years 1816 and 1820 there was not one death on the
island, containing a population of five

hundred persons,

and that on an average of ten years the mortality is

not quite one in a hundred. But let us return to the
old doctors.

Dr.

George

who

Fordyce,

came

in

1762

from

made himself a

Edinburgh to London, very speedily

name by a series of public lectures on medical science,
which he afterwards published in a volume entitled
'

Elements of the Practice of Physic,

which passed

Unfortunately he was given

through many
to drink, and though he never was known to be dead
drunk, yet he was often in a state which rendered him
editions.

One night when he was

was
he
a condition,
suddenly sent for to attend
a lady of title who was very ill. He went, sat down,
He found he
listened to her story, and felt her pulse.
unfit for professional duties.

in such

was not up to his work he lost his wits, and in a

of forgetfulness exclaimed
Drunk, by Jove !'
;

moment

'

he managed to write out a mild prescription.

Early next morning he received a message from his
noble patient to call on her at once. Dr. Fordyce felt
Still,

The lady evidently intended to

either with an improper prescription or
with his disgraceful condition. But to his surprise and
very uncomfortable.

upbraid him

thanked him for his prompt compliance with

her pressing summons, and then confessed that he had
relief she

rightly

diagnosed

her

case,

that

unfortunately she

occasionally indulged too freely in drink, but that she

hoped he would preserve inviolable secrecy as to the

condition he had found her

in.

Fordyce listened to

LONDON SOUVENIRS

200

her as grave as a judge, and said ' You may

depend
upon me, madam I shall be as silent as the grave.
Another doctor who made his reputation by lecturing
:

was Dr. G. Wallis, of Red Lion Square. He had

originally established himself at York, where he was
born, but being much attached to theatrical amusements, and a man of wit, he had written a dramatic
'

piece, entitled

The Mercantile Lovers

a Satire.'

It

contained a number of highly caustic remarks, either so

directly levelled at certain persons of that city, or taken

by them to themselves, that he lost all professional

practice, and had to leave York, when he came to
London, and, as already mentioned, commenced lectures
on the Theory and Practice of Physic. He published
various medical works, and died in 1802.
In the reign of James I. lived Dr. Edward Jorden,
whom we mention on account of two curious circumThe doctor, being on a journey,
stances in his life.
on
benighted
Salisbury Plain, and not knowing which
a shepherd of whom he made inquiry
to
met
ride,
way
what places were near where he could pass the night.
He was told there was no house of entertainment for
travellers near,

Jordan, and

but that a gentleman of the name of

man

of great estate, lived close by.

similarity of the names as a good

Looking on the
omen, Jorden applied at the house, where he was
kindly received, and made so good an impression on his
host that the latter bestowed on

him

his

daughter with

a considerable fortune.

The second circumstance was

this
James, as is well
firm
was
a
believer
in
witchcraft.
Now, it
known,
a
was
said
to have
that
in
the
happened
girl
country
:

THE OLD DOCTORS

201

been bewitched by a neighbour. The King had her

sent for, and placed under the care of Dr. Jorden, who
very soon discovered the girl to be a cheat ; in fact,
she confessed as much, saying that her father,
having

had a quarrel with a female neighbour, had induced

her (his daughter) to accuse the woman of having
bewitched her and brought upon her the fits she
This confession Jorden reported to the
the
doctor
not being courtier enough to see what
King,
James wanted, namely, a witch to burn. But as the
simulated.

had for a short time given him the prospect of

such a treat, the King, though she
by her own confession was a diabolical liar
for everyone in those days
knew that the charge of witchcraft involved the risk of
girl

losing

life

by a

fiery

death James

actually gave her a

1
and, as the account
cured of her inimical

portion, and she was married,

naively

observes,

'thus

was

'

witchery.

Of Dr. Francis J. P. de Valangin (b. 1719, d. 1805),

of the College of Physicians, London,
though a native
of Switzerland, it was said that to his
patients he
was kind and

consolatory in

the extreme

nothing

of the rough element in him he was, as the

obituary
notice of him says, the friend of mankind and an honour
;

to his profession.

About the year 1772 de Valangin

in Pentonville, near "White

Conduit
purchased ground
House, where he erected a residence on a plan laid
down by himself; and as the design was not that of
ordinary builders or architects it was called fanciful,
chiefly because of a high brick tower rising from it,
which the doctor built for an observatory. Of course
the next tenant, a timber merchant, had nothing more

LONDON SOUVENIRS

202

pressing to do than immediately to pull down the

features which distinguished the building from the
dulness of orthodox architecture.
Valangin had chris-

tened the elevation on which his house stood

1

Hermes Trismegistus, the

Hill, after

'

Hermes

fabled discoverer

of the chemist's art.

Dr. Anthony Askew, one of the celebrities of St.

Bartholomew's in the last half of the last century, was
as

famous

in literature as

He had

he was in medicine.

a collection of Greek MSS., purchased at great expense

in the East, more numerous and more valuable than

His
that of any other private gentleman in England.
house in Queen Square was, moreover, crammed with
the sale of his library in 1775, which
;
lasted twenty days, was the great literary auction of
the time.
printed books

Another famous physician of St. Bartholomew's was

Dr. David Pitcairn, who died in 1809.
He also was
as
a
man
and
lover
of art.
His
distinguished
literary
earnings were very large, for he was frequently requested
by his brethren for his advice in difficult cases. His

manners as a physician were simple, gentle, and dignified,

and always sufficiently cheerful to inspire confidence and
It is said that he was occasionally affected in
hope.
his speech

thus he

is

reported to have asked a lady

for a pinch of snuff in the following terms

permit

me

to immerse the summits of

my

'
:

Madam,

digits in

your

pulveriferous utensil, to excite a grateful titillation of

my

olfactory nerves.''

Of Dr. John

the physician of the reigns of

William III. and Queen Anne, many strange anecdotes
are told, for he was a man of rough Abemethy manners,
lladcliffe,

THE OLD DOCTORS

203

even with kings. When called in to see King William

at Kensington, finding his legs dropsically swollen, he

would not have your two legs, your Majesty,

not for your three kingdoms.'' The remark gave great
offence.
But on another occasion he was even more
said: 'I

'Your

he said to the King, 'are all

your whole mass of blood corrupted, and the
nutriment mostly turned to water. If your Majesty
will forbear making long visits to the Earl of Bradford
(where the King was wont to drink very hard), I'll
brusque.

juices,'

vitiated,

'

engage to make you live three or four years longer, but

beyond that time no physic can protract your Majesty's
On one occasion, when he was sent for from
existence.''
the tavern, to which he resorted but too often,
by
Queen Anne, he flatly refused to leave his bottle.
'Tell her Majesty,' he bellowed, ' that it's
nothing but
1
the vapours.
He advised a hypochondriacal
who
lady,

'
complained of nervous singing in the head, to curl her
hair with a ballad.
He cured a gentleman of a quinsy
his
own
two
servants eat a
by making
hasty-pudding
for a wager, which caused the
patient to break out
1

into such a

fit of
Sir
laughter as to burst the quinsy.
Kneller
and
Radcliffe were at one time
Godfrey
neighbours in Bow Street, Covent Garden, and the
painter
having beautiful pleasure-grounds, a door was opened

accommodation of his neighbour. But in conof

quence
damage done to his flower-beds, Sir Godfrey
threatened to close the door, to which Radcliffe
for the

replied,

he might do anything with

1
Dr. Radcliffe say so P cried Sir
him, with

from him

it

but paint
'

it.

'Did

Go and

tell
Godfrey.
that
I
can
take
my compliments,
anything
1
but his physic.
In spite of his cynicism and

LONDON SOUVENIRS

204
rudeness, he

made a very

could with

placid

large income, on the average

twenty guineas a day, and when he was told that the
^5,000 he had invested in South Sea stock was lost, he
'

Well, it is only
another
stairs.'
But
5,000
though he so
going up
his
he
was
taxed
patients,
very much opposed
heavily
to paying his debts, especially such as he owed to

tradespeople.

sangfroid

pavior,

say

whom

he had employed and

constantly put off paying, at last waited for him at his

(the doctor's) door, and, when his carriage drove up,
'

roughly asked for his money.

Why, you

rascal,' said

the doctor, do you expect to get paid for such a bad

You have spoiled my pavement,
piece of work ?
'

and covered

it

with earth to hide your bad work

!'

mine is not the only

Doctor,' replied the pavior,
bad work the earth hides.' ' You dog, you !' cried the
'

'

doctor,

'you must be a wit, and want the money.

Come in.' And he paid him. Curiously enough, the

man who left the splendid library, known by his name,
to Oxford, at one time, on being asked where his library
was, pointed to a few phials, a skeleton, and a herbal,
'
in one corner of his apartment, and said, Sir, there is

my library !' He was a Tory in politics, and it was

said that he kept Lady Holt alive out of pure political
animosity to the Whig Chief Justice Holt, because she
led her lord such a life.

Of a more

genial disposition, though no less original

He was
was
Dr. John Cookley Lettsom.
character,
born in a small island near Tortola, called Little Van

view of it may
Dyke, which belonged to his father.
be seen in the Gentlemaii's Magazine, December Supplement, 1815. When only six years of age he was sent

THE OLD DOCTORS

205

England for his education, being entrusted to the

Mr. Fothergill, then a famous preacher among
His father dying before he came of age,
the Quakers.
that gentleman became his guardian, and with a view
For
to his future profession sent him to Dr. Sutcliffe.
two years he attended St. Thomas's Hospital, and then
to

care of a

returned to his native place in the West Indies to take

but on
possession of any property that might remain ;
his arrival

he found himself cfSOO worse than nothing,

elder brother, then dead, having run through an

ample fortune, leaving to his younger brother only a
his

number of negro

He

slaves,

entered on the

whom

medical

he at once emancipated.

and

profession,

in

five

months made the astonishing sum of

i?2,000, with
visited the medical

which he returned to Europe,

and Edinburgh, took his degree of
M.D. at Leyden in 1769, and was admitted a licentiate

schools of Paris

of the College of Physicians of

His

year.

rise in his profession

London

in the

same

In 1783

was rapid.

in 1785, ^4,015
in 1784, ,3,900
and in some years his income reached
But he was at the same time giving away
dP12*000.
hundreds nay thousands in gratuitous advice, and
the poorer order of the clergy and struggling literary

he earned ^3,600
in 1786, i?4,500

men

received not only gratuitous advice, but substantial

aid.
He was one of the original projectors and supof the Finsbury and
porters of the General Dispensary,

Surrey Dispensaries,

of

Infirmary, as well as of

the

many

Margate

Sea

Bathing

other charitable institu-

In 1779 he purchased some land on the east

side of Grove Hill, Camberwell, where he erected the

tions.

villa

which for years was associated with

his

name, and

LONDON SOUVENIRS

206

where he entertained some of the most eminent literati

of his time. The house contained a
library of near
ten thousand volumes, and a museum full of natural
and artistic curiosities. The grounds were most tastefully laid out
and flowers.

and adorned with choice

The avenue

of elms,

trees,

shrubs

retaining the
of Camberwell Grove, formed part of the small
estate and the approach to the house.
It is sad to
still

name

relate that Dr. Lettsom's excessive devotion to science

and

and compelled

literature impaired his resources,

him eventually to quit Grove

He

Hill.

He

died in 1815,

being in the habit of sign-

aged seventy-one years.

1
'
ing his prescriptions J. Lettsom, some wag, putting
forth the lines as the doctors own composition, wrote
thus
When patients comes to I,
I physics, Weeds, and sweats 'em
:

'

Then, if they choose to die,

What's that to I ? I lets 'em.

Everyone has heard, and has a story to

tell,

of

Dr. John Abernethy

know

(b. 1764, d. 1831), so we do not

whether in telling our stories of him we shall be

able to tell the reader anything new

but as he was
a medical eccentricitv, we cannot omit him from our
;

But let us premise that if we call

portrait gallery.
eccentric we refer to his manners only, in which he

him

did not take after his chief instructor, Sir Charles Blick,
who was a fashionable physician of the extra-courteous
school.

In

scientific

knowledge Abernethy greatly

though he got less fame by

excelled all his colleagues,

that than by his oddities.

mind

to

many

When

he had made up

his

he wrote off-hand to a lady a note of

THE OLD DOCTORS

proposal, saying that

207

he was too busy to attend

in

person, but he would give her a fortnight for consideration.

His irritable temper at times rendered him very

disagreeable with patients and medical men who consulted him.

When the latter did so, he would walk up

and down the room with his hands in his pockets and
whistle all the time, and end by telling the doctor to
go
home and read his (Abernethy's) book. On being asked
by a colleague whether a certain plan he suggested
would answer, the only reply he could obtain was
Ay, ay, put a little salt on a bird's tail, and you will
:

'

be sure to catch him.

He

could hardly be induced to

give advice in cases which appeared to depend on imfarmer of immense bulk came from a
proper diet.

distance to consult him, and having given an account of

his daily meals, which showed an immense amount of

animal food, Abernethy said

Go away, sir I won't
to
for
such
a
attempt
prescribe
hog f
loquacious
lady he silenced by telling her to put out her tongue ;
'

she having done so, ' Now keep it there till / have done
1
talking, said Abernethy.
lady having brought her

daughter, he refused to prescribe for her, but told the

mother to let the girl take exercise. Having received
guinea, he gave the shilling to the mother and
1
'
Buy the girl a skipping-rope as you go along.
When the late Duke of York consulted him, he stood

his

said

whistling with his hands in his pockets, and the

Duke

suppose you know who I am P

Suppose I
what of that P
To a
do, was the uncourtly reply,
gentleman who consulted him for an ulcerated throat,
said
1

'

'

'

and wanted him to look at it, he said

How dare you
I would allow you to blow your
that
suppose
stinking,
*

LONDON SOUVENIRS

208
breath in

foul

my

face

But sometimes he met a

A gentleman who could

Tartar.

not succeed in getting

the doctor to listen to his case, suddenly locked the
door, put the key into his pocket, and took out a

Abernethy, alarmed, asked if he meant

No, he only wanted him to listen to
his case, and meant to keep him a prisoner till he did.
The patient and the surgeon afterwards became great
loaded pistol.

to murder him.

The Duke

friends.

him out of

of Wellington having insisted on

and abruptly entering

room, was asked by the doctor how he got in.
By
that door, was the reply.
Then,' said Abernethy, I
seeing

his usual hours,

'

his

'

'

recommend you to make your

by the same way.

He refused to attend George IV. until he had delivered
exit

his lecture at the hospital, in consequence of

which he

a royal appointment. To a lady who complained

that on holding her arm over her head she felt pain, he
lost

Then what a fool you must be to hold it up V

was fond of calling people fools. A countess consulted him, and he offered her some pills, when she said
said

'

He

she could never take a

'

pill.

Not take a

pill

What

a fool you must be P was the courteous reply.

'

I
Abernethy usually cut patients short by saying
have heard enough. You have heard of my book P
Then go home and read it. This book gives
Yes.
admirable rules for dieting and general living, though
few persons would be willing to comply with them
:

'

rigidly

he himself did not.

When

someone told him

most other people, he
have such a devil of an

that he seemed to live like

'

Yes, but then I

One day a lawyer suffering from dyspepsia,
appetite
on
brought
by want of exercise and good living, went
replied

THE OLD DOCTORS

As he came out

to consult Abernethy.

ing-room he met another lawyer, a

209
of the consultof

friend

his.

What

the devil brought you here P said one, and the

other echoed the question, and the reply of each was
'
What has he prescribed for you T asked
the same.
'

the newcomer.

read as follows

The

first

'
:

The prescription was produced and

Read my book, p. 72. J. Abernethy.''

lawyer agreed to wait for his friend whilst he

went to consult the doctor. In about a quarter of an

hour he came out, well pleased apparently with his
interview.

'

Well, what

is

your prescription V inquired

Number two produced a

Read my book,
on which was written

lawyer number

one.

'

paper,

slip

of

p. 72.

That was what each got for his guinea.

But Abernethy deserves praise for three utterances, viz.,
that mind is a miraculous energy added to matter, and
not the result of certain modes of organization, as
modern scientists maintain that an operation is a reJ.

Abernethy.

proach to surgery, and that a patient should be cured

and that vivisection experiwithout recourse to it
;

ments are morally wrong and physiologically unsafe,

because unreliable.

That Dr. Abernethy, with

his

uncouth manners and

vulgar repartee, should have been so successful in his

certainly few people of the
profession is a marvel
;

day would tolerate such rudeness as his.

Possibly in former days the doctor's distinctive dress
had a secret influence of its own. The gold-headed
present

cane, the

elaborate

shirt-frill,

the massive snuff-box,

tapped so argumentatively in consultation, the

pompous

manner and overbearing assurance, no doubt

a spell with which we are unacquainted now.

exercised

14

LONDON SOUVENIRS

210

Abernethy had imitators, but they had been pupils

of his. Tommy Wormald, or Old Tommy,' as the
students called him, was Abernethy over again in voice,
To an insurance
appearance and humour.
style,
a
he
on
bad
life
reported
company
proposed to them
Done for. When an apothecary wanted to put him
off with a single guinea at a consultation on a rich
A guinea is a lean fee, and the
man's case, he said
'

'

'

patient

is

a fat patient.

Pay me two

patients.
a fat patient.'

is

always have fat fees from fat

guineas instantly ; our patient
I

Some

rich but

mean people would

drive to St. Bartholomew's to get advice gratis as outTo this Tommy meant to put a stop.
patients.
a
Seeing
lady dressed in silk, he thus addressed her
'
before a roomful of people
Madam, this charity is
for the poor, destitute invalids ; I refuse to pay atten:

tion to destitute invalids

The

who wear

lady quickly disappeared.

rich

silk dresses.'

Will no Old

Tommy

arise at the present

day and put an end to the abuse,

which

as ever?

is

as

rampant

Doctors are not agreed as to what constitutes medical

science.
By an empiric a quack is meant. Now, an
empiric goes by observation only, without rational
grounds yet Sir Charles Bell asserted that physiology
;

was a science of observation rather than of experiment,

which is the rational ground the quack is said to dis-

Who is right ? Without attempting to

answer the question, which would lead us too far, we
must rest satisfied with the fact that the profession and

regard.

the public have agreed to stigmatize certain individuals

as quacks who, with or without any medical training,

pretend to cure diseases by charms, manipulations, or

THE OLD DOCTORS

211

nostrums, which have no scientific or rational basis.

Quacks have existed at all times, for mankind, especially
suffering mankind, has ever been credulous. Henry VIII.

endeavoured to put down those of his own times by

establishing censors in physic, but the public would not
be enlightened, and so the quacks flourished.
In 1387
one Roger Clerk, of Wandsworth, pretending to be a
physician, got twelve pence in part payment from one
atte Haccke, in

Ironmonger Lane, for underthe

cure
of
his wife, who was ill.
He put a
taking
charm, consisting of a piece of parchment, round her

Roger

it did her no good,

whereupon Roger brought
him before the chamber at Guildhall for his deceit and
falsehood, and Roger Clerk was sentenced to be led
through the middle of the city with trumpets and

neck, but

on a horse without a saddle, the said

and
a
whetstone* for his lies being hung
parchment
about his neck, a urinal also being hung before him,
and another on his back. In the reign of Edward VI.
one Grig, a poulterer in Surrey, was set in the pillory
at Croydon, and again in the Borough, for cheating
pipes, he riding

money by pretending to cure them

or
charms
by
by only looking at the patient.
people out of their

Was Valentine Greatrakes, whom Charles II. invited

to his Court, a quack ?
If he was, he was a harmless
since
he
no
one,
gave
physic, but only pretended to
cure by magnetic stroking.

Our modern magnetizers

Early in English history we find the whetstone as the

symbol of a liar. Why ? Does lying imply a sharpened wit,
as a whetstone sharpens a blade ?
The custom is referred to in
'

Hudibras,'

II.,

i.

57-60.

142

LONDON SOUVENIRS

212

are not so modest

they have added

much hocus-pocus

to Valentine's simple process.

From among the medical oddities of the latter part
of the last century we must not omit Dr. Von Butchell,

who

lived

in

Mount

every disease.

He

Street,

and pretended to cure

applied for the post of dentist to

George III., but when the King's consent was obtained

he said he did not care for the custom of royalty.
When his wife died, he had her embalmed and kept in
his parlour, where he allowed his patients to see the

body

so that the

modern showman who exhibited the

dead body of his wife at Olympia was, after all, only a

doctor was half-mad, the world
copyist. But whilst the
was altogether mad for his exhibiting the corpse of
his wife was not considered as eccentric as his letting
his beard grow, which then was held to be the height of
;

madness.

And

there seems to have been

method

in his

madness, for he sold the hairs out of his beard at a

guinea each to ladies who wished to have fine children.

He used to ride about the West End on a pony painted

with spots by the doctor himself. There is an engraving extant of him, showing him astride on it. The
horse was afterwards, in consequence of a dispute with
who had charge of it, sold at Tatterwhere, as a curiosity, it fetched a good price.
There was a wonderful inscription on the outside of his
the stable-keeper
sail's,

house, extending over the front of the next, and his

neighbour rebuilding his frontage, half the inscription
was obliterated. Butchell was also a great advertiser,

and

his advertisements even

now afford amusing

reading.

He never would visit a patient, though as much as

0C0OO was offered him for a visit patients had to go to

THE OLD DOCTORS

213

I go to none, he said in his advertisements.

persons used to visit him, not for getting advice,
but simply to converse with such an original. He was

his house.

Many

twice married.

His

first

wife he dressed in black,

his second in white, never

allowing a

and

change of colour.

He was one of the earliest teetotalers. The profits he

and some of his contemporaries made on their quack
draughts and pills led, in 1783, to the imposition of
the tax on patent medicines.
But to come down to more recent times, in 1700 one
John Pechey, living at the Angel and Crown, in Basing
Lane, an Oxford graduate and member of the College
1

'

of Physicians, London, advertised that all sick people

might for sixpence have a faithful account of their
diseases

and plain directions

was prepared to

for their cure,

and that he

London for
any
and that if he were called by any person as he
passed by, he would require but one shilling for his

2s. 6d.

visit

sick person in

A physician who in our day advertised like

would be deprived of his diploma. In 1734 one
Joshua Ward became a celebrity even among quacks by

advice.
this

pills, which he extensively advertised, and which

were patronized by the Queen herself. There was a
rhyming quack, Dr. Hill, who also wrote a farce, and

his

wanted Garrick to produce it,

the following distich on him

till

the latter published

'

For

farces and physic his equal there scarce

His farces are physic, his physic a farce is.'

Dr. Hannes, a contemporary of Dr.

is,

RadclifFe,

ordered his servant to stop a number of coaches between

Whitehall and the Royal Exchange, and to inquire at

214

LONDON SOUVENIRS

each whether

it

belonged to Dr. Hannes, as he was

Entering Garraway's Coffee-House,
the servant put the same question.
Dr. Radcliffe
happening to be there, he asked who wanted Dr.

called to a patient.

Hannes.
The servant named several lords who all
wanted him.
Dr.
No, no, friend, said Radcliffe
Hannes wants the lords.
Quacks were never more flourishing than they are
now, and they always will be, for the public like
1

'

'

and are anxious to recommend

them on their friends. In nothing
is a little
knowledge more dangerous than in medicine
mothers and nurses especially, who have acquired some

mysterious remedies,

them and to

force

smattering of it from their conversations with doctors,

may do a lot of mischief. To them are due nearly all
so-called

diseases

of children

as

if

children

must

necessarily have diseases

a superstition

bv some doctors, who

also encourage the reading of

which

is

shared

The reading of those books has physically

the same effect on the body that the reading or hearing

their books.

of ghost stories has morally on the mind the reader or

hearer everywhere feels dis-ease and sees ghosts ; ergo
beware of medical books and goblin stories both are
:

unwholesome.

Modern

invalids

are

fortunate

in

escaping the tortures inflicted on patients in earlier

Edmund Verney thus writes concerning his
days.

Ralph Verney, of Clay don House, in 1686

hath been blooded, vomited, blistered, cupt and
scarified, and hath three physicians with him, besides
father, Sir
'

He

apothecary and chirurgian.*

'
he still continues very weak.

And

survived at

all.

Had

then he wonders that

The marvel was

that he

not Moliere a few years before

THE OLD DOCTORS

215

not say that a man

died of such and such a disease, but of so many
the above date said

'

You must

'

and apothecaries
The most pungent and most witty

physicians, surgeons

definition of the

that given, I think, by

When
Napoleon, in a fit of despondency,
Talleyrand.
said that he would forsake war and turn physician, the
doctor's character probably

is

sarcastic courtier said sotto voce

'

Toujours assassin T

XV.

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON.

is

deficient in

LONDON
picturesque

two conditions to render

it

lacks diversity of surface, and it

In so vast an expanse of ground as

it

lacks water.

covered by London, Ludgate Hill and Notting Hill

As to water, it has the Thames,
are mere molehills.*
is

but that

accessible at short

is

There
Westminster

is

only.

the

and broken intervals

Embankment from

Blackfriars to

a short bit at Chelsea, and the Albert

Embankment. But the City people during the day have
;

no time to waste on their Embankment, and in the

evening they are gone to the suburbs, and so this grand

promenade
*

given up to occasional country cousins'

is

highest point north is Hampstead Hill, 400 feet above

to the south Sydenham Hill, 365 feet Primrose Hill,

The

sea-level

Heme

Denmark, about
100 feet Orme Square, 05 feet Broad Walk, 90 feet North
Audley Street, 83 feet Tottenham Court Road, 85 feet Regent
about 2G0 feet

Hill,

about 180 feet

Circus, 90 feet

Cornhill, 60 feet

Euston Road, 90 feet

28 feet

Charing Cross, 24 feet

Cheapside, 59 feet Farringdon Street,

Camberwell
St. Katherine's, Regent's Park, 120 feet

Green, 19 feet.

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

visits,

and to permanent

217

For, of course, no

ruffianism.

one from the more northern parts of London ever thinks

of coming so far to take a stroll on that Embankment,

from which nothing

is

to be seen but mud-banks in the

near prospect, as by a perverse arrangement of nature it

is
generally low water when you want to take a walk ;

on the opposite bank

As

themselves.

only dismal

to the Chelsea

wharves present

Embankment, that

patronized by the dwellers in that region only,

do not neglect

who

if

they

altogether, as people generally

live in a rather
The less
picturesque locality.

say about

it

the Albert

Embankment

the better

is

do

we
its

and smoke-belching
dingy
pottery chimneys on one side, smoke and cinders from
passing steam-barges and penny steamers on the river,
and a dreary outlook on the opposite side, scarcely relieved by the Tate Gallery, which, for reasons unknown
to the general public, but self-evident to those who can
characteristics

are

hovels

the wire-pulling behind, has been pitched, like a

King Log, into the Pimlico swamp. All other parts of

see

the river are inaccessible to the public, and therefore as

good as non-existent for the Londoner.

Thus much

for the

Thames.

As

to other pieces of

water to be found in public parks, they are mere ponds,

and of benefit only locally. As to public fountains,

which form the peculiar charm of so many Continental
cities, where the melodious splash of water is heard day
and night, London possesses none. True, there are
two squirts in Trafalgar Square, and the Shaftesbury
fountain

making asthmatic efforts to assert itself,

Angel at the top seems to be shooting Folly
all around him in the
savoury purlieus of the
is

whilst the
as it

flies

LONDON SOUVENIRS

218

Haymarket. The small drinking fountains found here

and there are evidences of philanthropy, which may be
and tramps, to horses and dogs, but
do not add much to the aquatic features of London.
There are canals, it is true, but they are private property, and so fenced, hoarded, and walled in, as to be of
no use to the public. And as a rule their water is so
grateful to children

no one with a nose would walk by the side

if allowed to do so.
But London was not always so deadly level and so

dirty that

of them, even
waterless as

it is

now.

and deep valleys

the river Lea to the

hills

of

London

In ancient days there were high

in the very heart of it.
From
river Brent on the northern side

there were numerous rivulets and brooks

descending from the northern heights through the City

and its western outskirts into the Thames, brooks and
rivulets

which at times assumed such dimensions as to

cause serious inundations.

It

was the same in the

south of London, where from the Ravensbourne to the

Wandle similar watercourses reached the Thames from
the southern

hills.

All those brooks between the four rivers we have

named, and which alone are

still

existing, have totally

What

were their features, when they still

disappeared.
flowed from northern and southern heights, and what
were the causes and the process of their disappearance,

we now intend to investigate, by proceeding from east

to west, and taking the northern shore of the Thames
first.

The

site

on which the Romans founded London was

the rising ground on the northern bank of the Thames,

from the present Fish Street Hill, or Billingsgate, to

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

219

At a later date of their occupation

the
extended
City eastward to the Tower, and
they
westward to the valley of the Fleet. Then the valley
the Wallbrook.

of the Wallbrook divided the City into two portions of

size.
To the north the buildings extended

almost equal

to the present Aldgate and to Moorfields, and westward

to Newgate and Ludgate.
The wall which encom-

passed the town began at the Tower, and in a line

it terminated at the Arx Palatina,

with various bends in

somewhere near the present Times office. On the east

of the town, where the country was flat, there was a
marsh, extending to the river Lea. To the north-west
were dense forests stretching far into Middlesex, and
abounding with deer, wild boar, and other savage

This forest was partly the cause of the many

brooks, which in those days watered London from the
northern heights ; it being a well-known fact that trees

animals.

absorb and retain moisture.

It

is

doubtful

whether there

were

any

Roman

buildings west of the Fleet ; Fleet Street and the

Strand certainly were then undreamt of, and did not

come
left

into existence

our island.

To

till

centuries after the

Romans had

the west of the present Strand, the

ground lying very low, it was frequently inundated by

the river, and there are persons still living who can
remember Belgravia and Pimlico as a dismal swamp.
Westminster Abbey stood on an island, which rose
above the marshy environs, and even as late as the
times of Charles II. occasional high tides converted the
palace of Whitehall into an island.

The
close

great forest of Middlesex above mentioned came

to the City wall ; it had, in fact,
occupied a

LONDON SOUVENIRS

220

portion of the site on which the City was built, and as

much of it had been cut down, and so much space
cleared, as the builders required for their operations.
But the nature of the forest ground could not be as
It was still fall of moisture, and
changed.
numerous rills continued to flow through it. Now, one
of the most important of them was the Langbourne.

readily

This watercourse, so called because of

its

rise

in

ground now forming

length, took
of Fenchurch

its

part

It ran swiftly

through that street in a westward direction, across Grass, now Gracechurch Street,
into and down Lombard Street
where many Roman
remains have been discovered to the west of St. Mary
Street.

Woolnoth Church, where it turned sharply round to

the south and gave name to Sherbourne Lane, so
termed of sharing or dividing, because there it broke
into a

From

number of

rills

watercourse

this

and so reached the Thames.

Langbourne

Ward

took

its

Thus

says Stow, but he adds that in his day

had long been stopped up at the
bourne
this
(1598)

name.

head, and the rest of the course filled up and paved

'
over, so that no sign thereof remaineth more than the
1

name aforesaid.
Some modern

historians,

the

of

existence

Mr. Loftie,

for instance,

the

Langbourne altogether.
deny
Stow says that the Langbourne rose in Fenchurch
It does not
Street and ran down Lombard Street.
'

seem to have occurred to him that the course indicated

is
up hill, Mr. Loftie objects. But Fenchurch Street
1

was then, as

now, considerably higher than the

outfall of the Langbourne into the Thames, and what
do we know of the then levels of the streets through
it

is

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

221

was said to have run?

Upwards of thirty
feet under the present level of Lombard Street Roman
remains have been found, and the Langbourne, as we
know from various documents, was covered in as early
as the latter part of the twelfth century, a time when
which

it

building increased rapidly under Fitz-Alwyn, the first

Mayor of London ; moreover, the fenny condition of
Fenchurch Street is said to have been due to the overflowino; of the

Langbourne at

its

source.

Mr. Loftie

was
says that the original name of the Langbourne
Langford ; but a ford implies a watercourse, and not
artificial trench, which, receiving the
immediate
of
the
locality, fell into the Walldrainage
have us believe. If the
would
Burt
as
Mr.
brook,

a mere ditch or

Langbourne

Ward

never

derive its

existed,

name

whence did Langbourne

Proceeding westward, we come to a much more important stream, namely, the Wallbrook.
No more striking instance of the changes which
topographical aspect of a
that which the disappearlocality can be found than
ance of the Wallbrook has produced within the limits

Time

will

effect

in

the

Where now a
its own course and in its surroundings.
smooth expanse of asphalte paving covers firm ground
of

(except

where

rendered

treacherously

dangerous by

sewer-like railway tunnels, in which human beings are

shot to and fro like so many rats enclosed in traps in a

extending from Princes Street right across to

the Mansion House, and to and down the street called
Wallbrook, there, centuries ago, yawned a wide ravine
drain

!),

with precipitous sides, at the bottom of which flowed

the brook called the Wall-brook, because, rising in the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

222

upper fenny grounds of Moorfields, it entered the city

through an opening in the wall, somewhere near the
northern end of the present Moorgate Street. The
brook, towards its southern termination, must have
been of considerable width, for barges could be rowed

fact commemorated by Barge

Yard, formerly a kind of dock, but now solid ground,
opening into Bucklersbury. The width of the Wallbrook near its outfall was no doubt increased by
tributaries, which, flowing from the opposite portion
of the City, found an exit on the western bank.
There
is no doubt that there was a watercourse
along the line

up to Bucklersbury

of Cheapside

He

the fact

is

stated positively by Maitland.

At Bread Street corner, the north-east end,

one Thomas Tomlinson causing in the High
'

says

in 1595,

Chepe a vault to be digged, there was found

at fifteen feet deep a fair pavement, like that aboveground, and at the further end, at the channel, was
Street of

found a

tree,

sawed into

five steps,

which was to step

over some brook running out of the west towards Wallbrook.

And upon the edge of the said brook there

was found lying the bodies of two great trees, the ends
whereof were then sawed off', and firm timber as at the

when they

first

fell.

they went past the

It

was

all

forced ground until

trees aforesaid,

which was about

Thus much has the

seventeen feet deep, or better.
of
from
this
been
raised
the main. And
ground
city
here
less,

be observed that within fourscore years and

Cheapside was raised divers feet higher than it was
it

when

may

St. Paul's was first built, as appeared by several

eminent marks discovered in the late laying of the
foundation of that church."' The mention of Cheapside

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

223

as a highway does not go back to very early times.

In
the eleventh century it must have been a mere bog
for, when in 1090 the roof of Bow Church was blown

by a tempest, the rafters, which were twenty-six feet

long, penetrated more than twenty feet into the soft
soil of Cheapside.
The course of the brook just menof
west
Bread
Street is not known it is doubtful
tioned
whether it struck off' northward by about Gutter Lane,
and so towards springs known to exist near Cripplegate,
or whether it came from further westward, from the
springs which supply the ancient baths in Bath Street
off

(formerly

called

Bagnio

Court),

north

of

Newgate

Street.

But we must return to the Wallbrook

itself; and,
After entering the City through
the opening in the wall, it curved eastward, ran along
Bell Alley, crossed Tokenhouse Yard and Lothbury,
close by St. Margaret's Church, curved westward again,
first,

as to its course.

passing through ground now covered by the north-west

corner of the Bank of England ; crossing the present
Princes Street and the Poultry, it ran under what is

now the National

Safe Deposit, whence, by an almost

semicircular bend,

reached Cannon Street, which it

westwardly towards St. Michael's

crossed,

it

turning
Church, and crossing Thames Street, flowed past
There were various
Joiners Hall into the Thames.
1

There was one close

bridges over the said watercourse.
to Bokerelsberi (Bucklersbury), which in 1291 four
occupiers of tenements adjoining the bridge were
ordered to repair, according to clauses in their tenancies.
There was another over against the wall of the chancel
of the church of St. Stephen, which

it

was the duty of

LONDON SOUVENIRS

224

the parishioners to repair, as they were ordered to do,

for instance, in 1300.
At Dowgate Hill, at the outfall

Wallbrook into the Thames, there was discovered

1884 an ancient landing-stage, a Roman pavement
in tile, set upon timber piles, with mortised jointing.
The stage stood on the left bank of the Wallbrook,
It was twentyfacing not the Thames, but the brook.
one feet below the present level of Dowgate Hill, and
below the churchyard of St. John's. A large quantity
of stout oak-piling was also in situ, and the sill of the
bridge which crossed from east to west at this spot was
Another landing-stage appears to
seen very plainly.
have existed on the brook at a spot now covered by the
of the
in

National Safe Deposit

it

consisted of a timber flooring

supported by huge oak timbers, and running parallel

with the stream.
Adjoining this were evidences of a
macadamized roadway, which extended in a line with
Bucklersbury, until it reached the apparent course of
the brook.
Upon the opposite side similar indications
so
that here also a bridge may have existed.
appeared,

Another bridge seems to have spanned the brook near

London Wall, in Broad Street Ward, with yet another
a little more south. It appears that in the year 1300
both these bridges required repairs, and that the Prior
of the Holy Trinity, who was liable for those of the
New Hospital without
first, and the Prior of the
bound
do those of the second,
was
to
who
Bishopsgate,
were in that year summoned by the Mayor and Aldermen of London to rebuild the said bridges and keep
'

them

in repair.
in the seventies

When

Company dug down

the National Safe Deposit

some forty feet into the ground,

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

225

and reached the ancient course of the Wallbrook, they

found in its bed, among other debris, enormous
No
quantities of broken vessels and kitchen utensils.
doubt the careless cooks and housemaids of the ancient
Romans found the brook handy for getting rid of
but their
the evidences of mishap or recklessness
successors on the banks of the stream seem to have
;

treated

it

with even greater disrespect. In the records

we find constant references to the disgraceful

of the* City

condition of the Wallbrook.

Sheriffs of the City of

In 1288 the

London had

Warden and

to order that the

watercourse of the Wallbrook should be

made

free

from

dung and other nuisances, and that the rakes should be

put back again upon every tenement extending from
Finsbury Moor to the Thames. In 1374 the Mayor
and Aldermen granted to Thomas atte Ram, brewer, a
seven years'* lease of the Moor, together with charge of
the watercourse of Wallbrook, without paying any rent
therefor,

the said

upon the understanding that he should keep

Moor well and properly, and have the Wall-

brook cleansed for the whole of the term, clearing it

from dung and other filth thrown therein, he taking for
every latrine built upon the said watercourse twelve
pence yearly. And if, in so cleansing it, he should find

aught therein, he should have it for his own. But it

would seem that Thomas atte Ram did not properly
perform his contract, for at the expiration of it, namely
in 1383, we find by an Ordinance of the Common
Council that, whereas the watercourse of the Wall'

brook

is

stopped up by divers

filth

and dung thrown

thereinto by persons who have houses along the said

course, to the great nuisance and damage of all the

15

LONDON SOUVENIRS

226

Aldermen of the Wards of Coleman Street,

Street, Chepe, Wallbrook, Vintry and Dowgate,

City, the

Broad

through whose wards the said watercourse runs,

shall

inquire
any person dwelling along the said course has
a stable or other house, whereby dung or other filth
if

may

fall

into the same

such manner of

or otherwise throws therein

by which the said watercourse is

stopped up, and they (the Aldermen) shall pursue all
such offenders. But it shall be lawful for those persons
filth

who have houses on the

said stream to have latrines

it, provided they do not throw rubbish or other

refuse through the same
and every person having

over

such latrines shall pay yearly to the Chamberlain two

shillings for each of them."'

With such arrangements, and the constant increase

of buildings on the brook, and the decrease of water
supplied to it by the springs in Moorfields, which were
gradually being laid dry, the Wallbrook, from a clear
stream, became a foul ditch, an open sewer, so that it
was found necessary to convert it into a covered one
in

reality.

The brook was

filled

up with

kinds

all

when

of debris and

partially bricked over, so that

Stow wrote (in 1598) he was obliged to say
was afterwards vaulted over
watercourse

brick,

and

and paved

level

with the streets and lanes

This
with
.

since that houses also have been built thereon, so

that the course of Wallbrook

is

now hidden underThe stream was

ground, and thereby hardly known.'

covered in at least three centuries before the covering

in of the Fleet river, but its course can still be traced

by the many important buildings which lined its banks.

Commencing at its influx to the Thames, there were

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

along

227

course on the western side the halls of the

its

Innholders, the Dyers, the Joiners, the Skinners, the

the churches of
Tallow-chandlers, and the Cutlers
;

St.

St.

John,
stood on

Michael, St. Stephen (which originally

the western side), St. Mildred, and St.
also the Grocers' and the Founders" Halls,
1

Margaret

the estates of the Drapers and Leathersellers, and in

Bucklersbury Cornet's Tower, a strong stone tower

which was erected by Edward III. as his Exchange of

money there to be kept. In the sixteenth century it
'

seems to have come into the possession of one Buckle,

a grocer, who intended to erect in its place a '
goodly
1
frame of timber, but, ' greedily labouring to pull down
1

the tower," a part thereof fell upon and killed him.

In 1835 a curious discovery, the import of which was

then unsuspected, was made close to the Swan's Nest, a

public-house in Great Swan Alley, Moorgate Street.

A pit or well

was laid open, in which was found a large

of
earthen
vessels of various patterns.
This
quantity
well had been carefully planked over with stout boards ;
contained were placed on their sides, emor sand, which had settled so closely
round them that a great number were broken in the
the vases

bedded

it

in

mud

and some iron

which was
about three feet square, and boarded on each side with
narrow planks about two feet long. The object with
which these vessels, etc., had been deposited in this
well was not at the time surmised, but it was made
attempt to extricate them.
implements were also found

in

coin

the

well,

by a subsequent discovery. When the National

Safe Deposit Company's premises, already referred to,
were built, a similar wooden framework was discovered

clear

152

LONDON SOUVENIRS

228

at a depth of about thirty feet below the present level of

It was of oak, and about three feet square,
the street.
and the contents of the box were similar to those found

Fortunately this find came under

of
Mr.
John E. Price, F.S.A., and
observation
the
of
the
London and Middlesex
Honorary Secretary

at the Swan's Nest.

Archaeological Society, who recognised the remains as

those of an area finalis, a monument employed by the

Roman

surveyors to indicate the situation of limits

or
private property, answering to a landmark
public
Similar structures, occasionally
boundary stone.
stone or tiles, have been discovered in other parts

England, as also on the Continent.

It

is

of
or

of

of

therefore

evident that the box found higher up the stream was

also such an area.

To
it

return once more to Wallbrook.

A bridge across

we have not yet mentioned was Horseshoe Bridge,

situate where the brook crossed Cloak Lane,

which was

a famous shopping-place of the ladies of those early

on sale there. It is,

days, fancy articles being mostly
the
Wallbrook
leave
let us
to
time
;
however,
part from
with such a picture on our minds as will leave a
Remember that its
vivid and pleasant impression.

it

banks were favourite sites for villas, as is proved by all

the evidences of wealth and luxury of the ancient
dwellers on the

Wallbrook ravine and adjoining

streets,

now buried fathoms deep underground, which have been

found on and near the banks of the river.
beautiful grounds on the Wallbrook to be
of that

villa in

'

let

think

From
City

the valley of the Wallbrook the ground of the

rises

gently towards St. Paul's, and Panyers Alley,

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

229

the highest point thence it falls almost precipitously

towards the valley of the Fleet River, so precipitously,
;

indeed, that one of the descents from the Old Bailey to

Farringdon Street obtained the name of Breakneck

When

Steps.

City rendered

the increase of the population of the old

desirable to seek new habitations, the

it

the river Fleet, and saw the

opposite Holborn, Back, and Saffron Hills as yet unoccupied, stretching out as open country
though roads
had begun to be established thereon, such as Field Lane,

looked

citizens

across

then in the

fields

and began

western bank of the

bridges

built.

to erect dwellings on the

This led to the erection of

we think Holborn Bridge was the first to be

But before we enter into an account of the

bridges,

The

river.

it is

necessary to speak of the river

itself.

which once formed so important a

feature of London topography, took its rise in the
Fleet, then,

dense clay of the district just below Hampstead ; at

Kentish Town its volume was increased by an affluent

from Highgate Ponds

it

then made

its

way through

near College Street whence some writers infer

that the name of Oldbourne, by which the river was
the

hill

known

some distance, was really a corruption of

and entered the valley formed by the
of Camden Town and the Caledonian Road,
for

Hole-bourne
hills

pursuing

its

course to Battle Bridge

since 1830 known

as King's Cross
where it received an affluent from the
which
rose
in
the high ground to the south of the
west,

Hampstead Road. From Battle Bridge the river bent

round to the east, and flowed through the grounds of
Bagnigge Wells, once the residence of Nell Gwynne,
and thence, still with an easterly trend, past the walls

LONDON SOUVENIRS

230
of the

House of Correction, thence

where

it

across Baynes

Row,

received another western affluent, taking its

rise at the western end of Guilford Street.
Thence it

flowed to the northern end of Little Saffron Hill, and

in this part of its course it sometimes was called the

River of Wells, because

it

was fed by a number of

wells or springs, all situate in Clerkenwell, and known

as Clerks' Well, Skinners' Well, Faggs' Well, Loder's
1

Well,

Rad Well, and Todd's Well,

this

latter

corruption of its proper name, God's Well, from which

Goswell Street took its name. The river thence flowed

down the

valley between the old City and the Holborn

and
here it occasionally went by the name of
hills,
Turnmill Brook, because of the mills which here stood
on its banks. On its eastern side was a street called
Turnmill Street, which in later days acquired a very
bad reputation, its inhabitants being abandoned

Originally it was a respectable street, the

houses having gardens going down to the river, which
was fenced on both sides. In its southward course the
characters.

river presently reached Holborn Bridge, where it received the affluent called the Hol-bourne, which rose

somewhere near St. Giles'. The existence of this brook

is denied
by some topographers, but it is distinctly
shown in a very old map of the manor of Blemundsbury
(Bloomsbury), reproduced in Mr. W. Blott's Chronicle
of Blemundsbury,' 1892.
And we see no reason for
'

doubting the correctness of the map, and therefore

adopt the Holbourne as a fact. The Fleet then passed
under Chick Lane, afterwards called West Street, which

and in quite recent

times was the refuge of thieves, burglars, and other
crossed the river at right angles,

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

231

and means of concealment and of escape by

;
river were revealed when, in the forties and
the
of
way
West
Street was pulled down for the improvefifties,

criminals

in progress in that locality.

Holborn Bridge, the river was

ments then
under

After passing
as the

known

Fleet, not because of the fleetness of its course, as some

writers would have it, for it never had much of that

but because of the flood or high tide

ticipated in with the rise of the Thames.

it

quality,

par-

Having thus traced the river from its source to its

mouth, we may describe the bridges which crossed it.
In the northern part of its course the river, where it
passed through what in the early days was still country,
was no doubt here and there crossed by bridges, but

probably wooden bridges of light conThe first solid

struction, as the traffic was but limited.
bridge we have any record of is the one which existed
they

at

were

Battle Bridge, which derived

name from the

and Boadicea, the

its

battle between Suetonius Paulinus

Queen of the Iceni, which is said to have been fought

on the spot, and from the brick bridge which in early
times there crossed the Fleet.
Originally it was built
later on it was reuncertain
date
an
but
at
of wood,
a
number of arches.
of
placed by one of brick, consisting
Battle Bridge, from the lowness of its situation, was
exposed to frequent inundations. In the Gentleman's

From the heavy

Magazine, May, 1818, we read
Battle Bridge,
rain which commenced yesterday
St. Pancras, and part of Somers Town was inundated.
'

The water was

several feet

deep in many of the houses,

and covered an extent of upwards of a mile.

carcases of several sheep and goats were found
.

The
.

and

LONDON SOUVENIRS

232

property was damaged to a very considerable amount.

Various Acts were passed at the beginning of this
century for the improvement of the locality the river
:

was completely arched over, and in 1830 the spot

assumed the name of King's Cross from the ridiculous
structure erected in the centre of the cross roads

it

was of octagon shape, surmounted by a statue of

George IV. The basement was for some time occupied
as a police-station, then as a public-house, and the whole
was taken down in 1845, and a

tall

lamp erected on the

spot.

The
what

Fleet was next crossed by an ornamental, somegrounds of Bagnigge Wells ;

rustic bridge in the

it disappeared with the gardens and buildWells in 1841. In the seventeenth and
of
the
ings

of course

eighteenth centuries, when Clerkenwell, from an almost

rural became an urban district, streets began to cross
Fleet, such as Baynes Row, Eyre Street Hill,
Mutton Hill, Peter Street, and others. The next old
bridge we came to was Cow Bridge, by Cow Lane, or

the

the present Cow Cross.

the sixteenth century.

membered,

It

dated from the middle of

Stow, writing, it will be re'This bridge being lately

in 1598, says:

1
decayed, another of timber is made by Chick Lane.
In the time of Elizabeth the ground from Cow Cross

towards the Fleet River, and towards Ely House, on the

opposite bank, was either entirely vacant or occupied
with gardens.
next come to Chick Lane, afterwards known as
West Street. Stow, writing in 1603, refers to Chicken

We

Lane,

'

toward Turnmill Brook, and over that brook by

field.''
This must have been

a timber bridge into the

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

233

Chick Lane, which was really a bridge of houses, the

most noticeable of which was one which once had been
known as the Red Lion Inn, and which at its demolition is supposed to have been three hundred years old.

For the

last

hundred years of

its

existence

it

was used

a lodging-house, and was the resort of thieves,

Its dark closets, trapcoiners, and other criminals.

as

doors, sliding panels, and secret recesses rendered it one

of the most secure places for robbery and murder ;
openings in the walls and floors afforded easy means of

getting rid of the bodies by dropping them into the

Fleet, which for many years before its final abolition

was only known as the Fleet Ditch.

The history and

of
the
houses
in
West Street were rendered
description
so well known at the time of their demolition that we
need

not enter into

them here

besides,

they are

beyond the scope of our inquiries.

South of Chick Lane was Holborn Bridge, which was
1

built of stone, and, according to Aggas map of London

in 1560, had houses on the north side of it.
The date

of

foundation is not given in any chronicle,

must have gone far back, probably was coeval
with the building of London Bridge, since it was on the
its original

but

it

At first it was, like

great highway from east to west.
all the other
bridges on the Fleet, constructed of wood ;
after its erection in stone, with a width of

seems to

have

some twelve

been

gradually widened to
accommodate the increasing; traffic.
According to
Mr. Crosby, a great authority on the antiquities of the
feet,

it

Fleet valley, Holborn Bridge consisted of four different

Yet in 1670 the
bridges joined together at the sides.

bridge was found to be too narrow for the

traffic,

and

it

LONDON SOUVENIRS

234

had to be
run in a

way and passage might

from a certain timber-house on

rebuilt, so that the

'

bevil line

'

known by the name of the Cock, to

Wren built the new bridge on the
north or Holborn side accordingly, and the name of
William Hooker, Lord Mayor in 1673-74, was cut on
the north side,
Swan Inn.

the

the stone coping of the eastern approach. What was

meant by the bevil line , is to us obscure, and we are
'

not

much

who

in

enlightened by what Sir William Tite says,

1840 was present at the opening of a sewer at
Holborn Hill, and saw the southern face of the old
The arch, he says, was about
bridge disinterred.
The
road from the east intersected
feet
twenty
span.
the bridge obliquely, and out of the angle thus formed
'

'

a stone corbel arose to carry the parapet.

Of course,
with the disappearance of the Fleet Ditch the bridge
also vanished.

The next bridge we come to started from Fleet Lane

side to Harp Alley on the Holborn side.
As it was about half-way between Holborn and Fleet

on the east

Street bridges, it was sometimes called Middle Bridge.

was built of stone, with a stone rail and banister,

It

and was ascended by fourteen steps, and as high as

Bridewell and Fleet bridges, to allow vessels with
merchandise to pass under it. It had been erected in
1674, and disappeared with the other bridges on the
covering in of the Fleet.

The

Bridge, which we reach next, joined

This bridge was, in
Hill to Fleet Street.

Fleet

Ludgate

1431, repaired at the charges of John Wels, Mayor.

It was destroyed by the Great Fire, and the new one
erected in

its

stead was of the breadth of the street,

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

235

and ornamented with pineapples and the City arms.

But though larger in breadth, it had not the length of
the old bridge, the channel having then been already
The bridge was taken down
considerably narrowed.
in 1765.

To

the south of Fleet Bridge the river was spanned

a
by building, which seems to have been a dwelling or
a warehouse. It is distinctly shown on Aggas" map.
Bridewell Bridge, the last over the Fleet before its
entering the Thames, and the last built (in the six-

teenth century), was at first a timber bridge, between

Blackfriars and the House of Bridewell, on the site of

the Castle Mountfiquet, which originally stood there.

In 1708, or thereabouts, it was replaced by one of

much higher than the street, being ascended by

It
It was for foot passengers only.
fourteen steps.
was pulled down in 17G5.
stone,

We

may now conclude our account

of the Fleet with

a few statements concerning the vicissitudes

it

passed

through.

many antiquities

bed
found
the
Roman have been
A

British,

great

Saxon,

and

of this river, such

as coins of silver, copper, and brass, but none of gold
lares, spur rowels, keys, daggers, seals, medals, vases,
and urns. An anchor, three feet ten inches in height,
in

encrusted with rust and pebbles

is
given in the October number

sketch of which

of the Gentleman

Magazine, 1843 is said to have been discovered near

the site of Holborn Bridge, which may be genuine, as
ships are known to have ascended so far up the river

But early in that century

in the fourteenth century.
'
choked
river
was
up by the filth of the
already the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

236

tanners and others, and by the raising of wharves, and

especially by a diversion of the water in the first year
of

King John (1200) by them of the New Temple

for

without Baynard's Castle, and by other

impediments, the course was decayed, and ships could
their

mills

not enter as they were used.

Upon this complaint of
Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, the river was cleansed,
the mills removed, and other means taken for its prebut it was not brought to its former depth

servation

so was soon filled with mud again.

of
the
river seems to have been necessary
scouring
or
every thirty
forty years, at a great expense to the
find
that it was so cleansed in 1502, and
City.

and w idth, and

r

The

We

once more rendered navigable for large barges, but the

dwellers on its banks would continue to make it the
receptacle of all the refuse, and the wharves built on
banks proved unsuccessful, as vessels could not

its

approach them. Consequently, in 1733 the City of

London, seeing that all navigation had ceased, and that
the ditch, as it was then called, was a danger to the
public on account of

its unsanitary state, and because

had
fallen
in
and
been suffocated in the mud,
persons
began covering it in, commencing with the portion
from Fleet Bridge to Holborn Bridge, and the new
Fleet Market was erected on the site in 1737.
The
from
Fleet
Street
to
the
Thames
was
covered
part

in when the approaches to Blackfriars were

completed
between 1760 and 1768. One stubborn citizen, how-

a barber,
ever, would not surrender a small filthy dock
from Bromley, in Kent, was, in 1763, found in it
standing upright and frozen to death.
;

Like

all

brooks descending from

hills,

the Fleet was

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

237

sudden increases of volume, causing inundaof snow and ice by a sudden thaw
and
and heavy
long-continued rains have frequently
turned the Fleet into a mighty and destructive torrent
In 1679 it broke down the back of several
flood.
liable to

tions.*

The melting

wholesale butcher-houses at
cattle

dead and

alive.

Cow

Cross,

and carried

off

At

Hockley-in-the-Hole barrels
floated down the stream.
In

of ale, beer, and brandy

1768 the Hampstead Ponds overflowing after a severe
storm, the Fleet grew into a torrent, and the roads and

in the
about Bagnigge Wells were inundated
latter place the water was four feet
the
of
gardens
fields

deep

in Clerkenwell

many thousand pounds worth

of

In 1809 a sudden thaw produced a

flood, and the whole space between St. Pancras and
Pentonville Hill was soon under water, and for several

damage was done.

days people received their provisions in at their windows.

In 1846 a furious thunderstorm caused the Fleet Ditch

The rush from the drain at the north

to blow up.
arch of Blackfriars Bridge drove a steamer against one
of the piers and
into basements

damaged

and

worth of goods

cellars,

ruined.

it.

The water

penetrated

and one draper had i?3,000

From Acton Place, Bag-

nigge Wells Road, to King's Cross, the roads were

In 1855 the Fleet, as one of the metroimpassable.
politan main sewers, became vested in the then newlyestablished Metropolitan Board of Works.
Shortly

Wherever there are such brooks the same phenomenon

appears. Visitors to Nice may have witnessed the sudden rise

of the Paillon, and the Birsig at Basle, usually a fine thread of

water, has repeatedly risen five or six feet high in the marketplace of that town.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

238

Railway was planned, and in

1860 the work was commenced. One of the greatest
initial difficulties the engineers of that enterprise had
to contend with was the irruption of the Fleet Ditch
into their works the Fleet gave, as does the last flare
of an expiring candle, its last kick, made a final effort
The ditch, under which the railway
to assert itself.
had to pass two or three times, suddenly though not

after the Metropolitan

'

unexpectedly filled the tunnel with its dark foetid

liquid, which carried all before it; scaffoldings constructed of the stoutest timbers and solid stone and

and piers. But the Metropolitan Board of

Works and the railway company, by gigantic and
skilfully-conducted efforts, succeeded in forming an
outlet for the flood into the Thames the damage was
made good, and the work was successfully carried out.
Here we take our leave of the Fleet, and proceeding
westward, find nothing to arrest our steps till we come
to a spot which once went by the name of the Strand
Bridge not Waterloo Bridge, which originally was so
fair bridge," as Stow calls it, erected
called, but a
many hundred years ago over a brook which crossed
the Strand opposite to the present Strand Lane, and
descended from the ponds in Ficketfs Fields, part of
This bridge
Lincoln's Inn Fields, now all built over.
the
about
year 1550, when an
probably disappeared
Act was passed for paving the streets east and west of
Temple Bar, and Strand Bridge is specially mentioned
brick walls

'

'

Act

'

the paving of the Strand seems to have

done away with the brook and the bridge over it. The
name of Strand Bridge was also given to the landingin the

stage at the bottom of Strand Lane, which descends in

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

239

a tortuous line from the Strand down to the Thames.

In this lane there
bath, which,

it is

at the present day the old Roman

supposed, is supplied from the well

is

which gave its name to Holywell Street, and which

supply never fails.

There are no written records or other traces of any

brook descending from the northern heights through
London west of the Strand, till we come to the Tyburn.
This brook, like the Fleet, took its rise near Hampbut turning westward, and receiving several
tributary streamlets, it ran due south through the
stead,

Regent's Park, where it was joined by another affluent

from the site of the present Zoological Gardens, from
which point it turned to the west and crossed the

Marylebone Road opposite Gloucester Terrace, and

after running parallel with it for a short distance it
took a sharp turn to the east, following the hollow
in which the present Marylebone Lane stands, the
windings of which indicate the course of the brook.
On reaching the southern end of High Street, it again
turned to the south, crossed Oxford Street, ran down
part of South Molton Street, turned west again to the
south of Berkeley Square ; thence it flowed through the

narrow passage between the gardens of Lansdowne

House and Devonshire House, whose hollow sound
seems to indicate
below.

It

next

the existence
crossed

of

Piccadilly,

the watercourse

ran due south

through the Green Park, passed under Buckingham

Palace, directly after which it divided into three
branches, one of which ran through the ornamental
water in St. James's Park, whence it fell into the

Thames

the middle branch ran into the ancient

Abbev

LONDON SOUVENIRS

240

at Westminster, where it turned the mills the monks

had erected there. But from old maps it appears that
this arm of the Tyburn, at a point a little north-west
of the Abbey, threw out a branch which in a northerly
course rejoined the park, and then in a curved line to

the east reached the

Thames

at a point not far from

Westminster Bridge, and to the north-east of it. The

spot where this branch touched St. James's Park was
Now last year (1898) when the
close to Storey's Gate.
excavated
for the foundations of the
was
being
ground

new Institute of Mechanical Engineers, the workmen

came upon the piles and brickwork of an ancient wharf.

The

structure was wonderfully well preserved

it had
well
been
the
constructed, probably by
monks,
evidently
and may have been for the accommodation of the
;

fishermen bringing their goods to the monastery.

But
at present, and until further information is obtained, if
it is obtained, we can only form conjectures as to
the purposes of the wharf; but its discovery on that
spot is curiously illustrative of the history which still

ever

lies

hidden under our

streets.

We

have yet to mention the third branch of the

Tyburn, which started south of Buckingham Palace.
It ran in a southerly direction across Victoria Street,
for a short distance skirted the Vauxhall
Road,

Bridge

then crossed

it

and ran through the marshy grounds

then existing down to the Thames a

of Vauxhall Bridge.

Such was the course of the Tyburn.

that once must have crossed

little

to the west

Of

the bridges

not a vestige remains :

but we have the record of one which was at the spot
which is now Stratford Place, and where the Lord
it

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

241

Mayor's Banqueting-house stood, to which he resorted

when he, the Aldermen, and other distinguished citizens
went to inspect the head conduits from which the City
conduits were supplied, on which occasions they combined pleasure with business, hunting the hare before

and the fox

after dinner.

The Tyburn must

time have been a stream of considerable

year 1238

size

at one
in the

was so copious as to furnish nine conduits

for supplying the City with water.
It had rows of
elms growing on its banks, and as it generally, but
it

erroneously, is supposed to have flowed past the southern

corner of the Edgware Road, the name of Elm Place
was given to a street (now pulled down) west of

Connaught Place. How this error arose we shall show

when speaking of the West Bourne. On the Tyburn
stood the church of St.
omission of letters

burn

Mary
,

la

became

bonne
'

by the vulgar

;
1

bone, hence Mary-

The Tyburn, like the other brooks

discussed, is now a mere sewer.
lebone.

already

Proceeding still further west, we come to the Westbourne, which, like the other brooks, rose in the
northern heights above London. Around Jack Straw's
Castle at Hampstead various rills sprang from the
ground, which, forming a united stream a little north
of the Finchley Road, that stream, flowing west towards

the spot

known

as

West End, continued

its

western

reached Maygrove Road it crossed that

road, and taking a sudden turn south, it ran through
Kilburn down to Belsize Road, south of which a small
course

till

it

lake was formed,

by

its

confluence there with a con-

siderable tributary in the form of a

two-pronged fork

and

its

handle, coming from the lower southern heights

16

LONDON SOUVENIRS

242

of Hampstead.
From the lake the Westbourne flowed
in a westerly course, and near Cambridge Road received another affluent from the high ground where

Paddington Cemetery now stands still running west

at Chippenham Road, its volume was further increased
by the reception of a stream coming from the neigh;

bourhood of Brondesbury, and from this point it ran

due south, but with many windings, through Paddington,
and across the Uxbridge Road, through part of Kensington Gardens, through the Serpentine in Hyde Park
and across the Knightsbridge Road, and what was then
called the Five Fields, a miserable swamp, and formed
the eastern boundary of Chelsea till it discharged itself
into the Thames, west of Chelsea Bridge, but divided
into a considerable

number of small

streams.

Such was its course, and from its description we see

that it was no insignificant stream, and may assume that
the

first settlers in

be looked for on

its

those northern parts of London must

banks. Like the Fleet, it had various

names

in different localities

known

as the Keele Bourne, Coldbourne,

it was
and Kilbourne

thus at Kilburn

was called the Bayswater Rivulet the

name of Bayswater itself is supposed to be derived from
Baynard, who built Baynard Castle on the Thames,
and also possessed lands at Bayswater. At the end of
the fourteenth century it was called Baynard's Wateringat Bayswater

place,

it

which in time was

shortened

to

its

present

appellation.

The bridge which gave Knightsbridge its name was

a stone bridge ; by whom or when erected is not on
record, but probably Edward the Confessor, who
conferred the land about here on the Abbots of West-

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

243

minster, also built the bridge for their accommodation.

the only way to London from the west,

The road was

and the stream was broad and rapid.

The

bridge was

situated in front of the present entrance into the Park

by Albert Gate, and part of it still remains underground,

while the other portion was removed for the Albert
Gate improvements. In the churchwardens accounts
1

of St. Margaret's, Westminster, are the following entries

regarding- the bridge
1630.

Item, received of

John Fennell and Ralph

Atkinson, collectors of the escheat, for repair

of Brentford Bridge and Knightsbridge
Item, paid towards the repairs of Brentford
Bridge and of Knightsbridge, etc.

1631.

s.

d.

23

24

7 10

The Westbourne was

convenience and even

occasionally a source of indanger to the inhabitants of

After heavy rains or in sudden thaws

it overflowed.
1, 1768, it did so, and
did great damage, almost undermining some of the
Knightsbridge.

On September

and in January, 1809, it overflowed again, and

;
covered the neighbouring fields so deeply that they
resembled a lake, and passengers were for several days
rowed from Chelsea to Westminster by Thames boatmen.
houses

On the site now covered by St. George's Row, Pimlico,

there stood in the middle of the last century a house of

entertainment known as 'Jenny's Whim*'

long wooden
arms
of
the
of
one
the
over
Westbourne
many
bridge

up to the house.

The

present Ebury Bridge over

the Grosvenor Canal, which this river-branch has become,
'
'
Jenny's Whim
occupies the site of this old bridge.
led

had trim gardens,

alcoves, ponds,

and

facilities for

162

duck-

LONDON SOUVENIRS

244

hunting ; in the gardens were recesses, where, by treading on a spring, up started different figures, some ugly

enough to frighten people, a harlequin, a Mother Shipton,

or some terrible animal.
Horace Walpole occasionally
alludes to 'Jenny's Whim''; in one of his letters to
Here (at Vauxhall) we picked up
Montagu, he says
Lord Granby, arrived very drunk from Jenny's Whim.'
'

Towards the beginning of

began to decline

at last

this century
it

sank down

Jenny's Whim
to the condition

'

'

The
of a beershop, and in 1804 it was finally closed.
of
name
is doubtful.
the
of
the
historian
Davis,
origin
Knightsbridge, accepts the account given him by an old
inhabitant, that it was so called from its first landlady,

who

directed the gardens to be laid out in so fantastic a

as to cause the noun to be added to her own

manner

Other reports say that the place was

Christian name.
established by a celebrated pyrotechnist in the reign of
George I.; but that does not account for the name.
Like other London rivers, the Westbourne in the end
became a sewer it was gradually covered up of the
two chief branches by which it reached the Thames,
the eastern one became the Grosvenor Canal, and the
;

western the Ranelagh Sewer.

The

canal was crossed by

several other bridges, Stone Bridge being one of them.

We

stated above that the

Westbourne formed the

western boundary of Chelsea ; its eastern boundary was

also a river, or rather rivulet, which it appears never
even had a name, though in one old map I find it called

Bridge Creek. It rose in Wormwood Scrubs, skirted

the West London and Westminster Cemetery, and
entered the Thames west of Battersea Bridge, where, in
fact, there is still

a creek going some distance inland.

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

The

rest of the

245

West

stream has been absorbed by the

No

Kensington Railway.
has no history.
Brook Green took its

vestige of

it

remains, and

it

name from a brook which once

rose near Shepherd's Bush, but it has no records.

The next river we should come to, if we pursued our

journey westward, would be the Brent; but as that

still existing-

how

Ions; will it

continue to do

so

is

it

does not enter into the scope of our investigations.

Having now given an account of all the extinct brooks

north of the Thames, we will cross that river and see

what watercourses formerly existed on the Surrey side.
The southern banks of the Thames, being low and
flat,

overflowed by

originally were a

the river

swamp, continually
Lambeth Marsh
commemorates that condition

of the locality.
Down to Deptford, Peckham, Camberwell, Stock well, Brixton, and Clapham did the flood
extend. But by the gradual damming up of the southern

bank of the Thames, the erection of buildings on the

Surrey side, and the draining of the soil, the latter was
gradually laid dry, and the numerous rivulets which
meandered through the marsh were reduced to three
between the

still-existing rivers

court to the east, and the

first

brook, again

namely,

Wandle

the Ravens-

The

to the west.

going from east to west,

is

the

Neckinger, which rose at the foot of Denmark

adjacent parts, and, after passing in two streams under
the Old Kent Road, united north of it, and reached the
Hill and

Thames

at St. Saviour's

Dock, which,

in fact,

is

the

But according to
enlarged mouth of the old river.
some old maps we have consulted, it had a branch
running in a more easterly direction, and entering the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

246

Thames at a point near the present Commercial Docks

Pier.
But of this latter branch no trace remains, whilst
the northerly course to the Thames is indicated by
Grange and the Neckinger
past Bermondsey Abbey, up to
the gates of which it was navigable from the Thames.
The Grange Road took its name from a farm known
as the Grange, and here the Neckinger was spanned by
a bridge. When Bermondsey Abbey was destroyed, a
number of tanneries were established on the site, which
various roads, such as the

Roads.

The brook ran

took their water from the Neckinger, in connection with

which a number of tidal ditches, to admit water from
the Thames, were cut in various directions.
Near the
a
and
at
the
mouth
Road
stood
windmill,
Upper Grange

of the Neckinger a water-mill, the owner of which shut

off the tide when it suited his purpose, which led to

But
frequent disputes between him and the tanners.
in time the latter sank artesian wells, the mill was driven
by steam-power, and the water of the Neckinger being
no longer required for manufacturing purposes, the river
was neglected and finally built over. The Neckinger
Mills had been erected in the last century by a company
to manufacture paper from straw ; but, this enterprise
failing, the premises passed into the hands of the leather

manufacturers.

street to the east of St.

Saviour's

Dock, and parallel with it, is still known

There was another bridge over the Neckinger where
it crossed the Old Kent Road, near the spot where the
as Mill Street.

Albany Road joins the latter road. It was known as

Thomas-a- Watering, from St. Thomas, the patron of
the dissolved monastery or hospital of that name in
South wark. The bridge was the most southern point

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

247

of the boundary of the Borough of Southwark, and in

ancient days the first halting-place out of London on
Chaucer's pilgrims passed it on their
shrine of St. Thomas-a-Becket at Canter-

the road to Kent.

to the
wav
J

bury

'

And

forth we riden
Unto the watering-place

And

of St.

Thomas,

then our host began his hors

arrest.'

Deputations of citizens used to go so far to meet

royal or other distinguished personages who came to
visit London.
From the end of the fifteenth century

the spot was set apart for executions, and numerous are
the records of criminals who were hanged there until

about the middle of the

last century.

In 1690 two very handsome Janus heads i.e., heads

with two faces were discovered near St. Thomas-a-

Watering.

They

were found near two ancient piers of

One was

a large gate Janus was the God of Gates.

taken up and set up on a gardener's door
other,

being embedded

in quicksand,

but the

from which springs

flowed out pretty freely, was left.

Dr. Woodward, who
founded the Professorship of Geology in the University
of Cambridge, afterwards purchased the head which had
been saved, and added it to his collection of curiosities.

At

the beginning of this century there was still a brook

running across the Kent Road on the spot mentioned
above, with a bridge over

it,

and the current from the

Peckham and Denmark hills was at times so strong as

to overflow at least two acres of ground.
East of the
Mill Street above mentioned there

is

been rendered famous by Dickens in

namely, Jacob's Island.

As

'

a spot which has

Oliver Twist
'

the description he gives of

LONDON SOUVENIRS

248
it is

known

But

it

to everyone, we need not here repeat it ; it

applies, partially only, to the locality now.
1
It is, or to speak correctly was, a ' Venice of drains.

foul,

was not always so in the reign of Henry II. the

stagnant ditch, which till recently made an island
;

of this pestilential spot, was a running stream, supplied with the waters which were brought down in the

Neckinger from the southern

hills.

On

its

banks stood

the mills of the monks of St. John and St. Mary,

dependencies of the Abbey of Bermondsey, which were

worked by it. In those days the neighbourhood conblooming gardens and verdant meadows. Close
to Jacobs Island were Cupid's Gardens, a kind of
Ranelagh on a small scale, but still a very pleasant
Tanneries, and many
place of public entertainment.
still more objectionable trades now carried on in the
locality, were then undreamt of.
sisted of

Many of the horrors of Jacob's Island are now things

of the past.
The foul ditch, in whose black mud the
used
to disport themselves, undeterred by the
juveniles
close proximity of the unsavoury carcasses of dead dogs
and cats, is now filled up and turned into a solid road.

Many

of the tumble-down houses have

down

been pulled

in fact, the romance of the place

gone.
Let us proceed westward we come to the once important Eff'ra, which remained a running stream till within
the sixties, when it, like others, became a mere sewer.
It rose in the high grounds of Norwood, and ran down
is

till within the last two or three years a

rural
retreat
at the Half Moon Inn at Heme
;
perfectly
Hill it received an affluent, which rose between Streatham

Croxted Lane,

Hill

and Knighfs

Hill.

Skirting the park of Brockwell

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

Hall,

it

ran along

in the Brixton

249

Water Lane, past the police-station

Here it took a sharp turn to the

Road.

north, and ran parallel to the Brixton Road, access to

the houses on the eastern side being gained by little
bridges, till it reached St. Mark's Church, where it took
a sharp turn to the west. But before reaching that
point, a branch of the river, at a spot somewhere between

the present Clapham and South Lambeth Roads, in what

used formerly to be called Fentimans Fields, turned in

a northerly direction towards the South Lambeth Road,

flowing through what was then Caroon Park, afterwards

Lawn

Estate, a portion of which has recently become

The river ran along the lane leading
the
side
of
the
by
present Vauxhall Park to the Crown
AVorks of Messrs. Higgs and Hill, at the corner of the

the

Vauxhall Park.

lane turning almost at right angles up the South Lambeth

Road towards Vauxhall Cross. As in the Brixton Road,
little
bridges here gave access to the houses on the
eastern side of the South Lambeth Road.
According

to an old map, this branch of the Efrra sent off another

South Lambeth Road and a Mr. Freeman's

across the

land, lying between

it

and the Kingston Highway,

as

Wandsworth Road was then called, and thus reached

the Thames.
The main stream, which we left at
the

St.

Mark's Church, continued

its

course along the south

side of the Oval,

sending off in a north-westerly direction a branch which fell into a circular basin,
probably

on the spot where the great gas-holders now stand in

Upper Kennington Lane. It then turned towards
Vauxhall, where it passed under a bridge, called Cox's
Bridge, and

fell

into the

Thames a

little

northward of

Vauxhall Bridge.

250

LONDON SOUVENIRS

At Belair, one of the show-houses of Dulwich, a

branch of the Effra ran through the grounds the Effra
itself also traversed the
Springfield Estate near Heme
;

Hill,

now given up

to the builders.

The

river there

appears to have been much wider than elsewhere, and

in depth about nine feet, with banks shaded by old trees.

The

present writer remembers the Effra as a river, and

was told by a gardener, now deceased, who had worked

on the Caroon Estate, which extended from the present
Dorset Road to the Oval, for more than fifty years, that
he had often seen the Effra along Lawn Lane assume
the proportions of a river, wide and deep enough to
bear large barges, which statement gives countenance
to the tradition that Queen Elizabeth frequently in her

barge visited Sir Noel Caroon, the Dutch Ambassador,

who lived at Caroon House, on the site of which stand
the mansion and factory of Mark Beaufoy, Esq., who is
also the owner of the Belair House above-mentioned.
Dr. Montgomery, sometime Vicar of St. Mark's, and
now Bishop of Tasmania, in his ' History of Kennington,"
says that, in 1753, the whole space occupied by the

Oval and a number of streets was open meadow through

which the Effra meandered at will. It was a sparkling

running over a bright gravelly bottom, and supbridge

plied fresh water to the neighbourhood.
crossed the Effra at St. Mark's, and was called Merton

river

Bridge, from its formerly having been repaired by the

Canons of Merton Abbey, who had lands for that

Curiously enough, the author from whom we

purpose.
1
take this, Thomas Allen, in his ' History of Lambeth,
published in 1827, when the Effra was yet a running
stream, refers to

it

only on the above occasion,

when he

THE LOST RIVERS OF LONDON

calls it

'

small stream."

'

Et cest

251

ainsi qu'on ecrit

rhistoire.''

One more

'

lost river

remains on our

list,

the Falcon

Brook, which, rising on the south side of Balham Hill,

flowed almost due north between Clapham and Wands-

worth Commons to Battersea Rise, which it crossed,

which it turned sharply to the west, ran along
Lavender Road, crossed the York Road, and discharged
itself into the Thames through Battersea Creek, which
is all that now remains of the river,
except the underafter

ground sewer which represents its former course. Once

many pleasant villas stood on its banks at the present
;

day the entire valley through which it flowed is covered

by one of the densest masses of dingy streets to be seen
anywhere near London. Nothing remains to recall even
its name,
except the Falcon Road, and a newly-erected
public-house which has supplanted the original Falcon,
a somewhat rustic building, which, however, harmonized
well with the then surroundings, which were of a
perfectly rural aspect, such as, looking at the present scene,
we can scarcely realize. But it can be seen in a rare

print of the river, engraved by S. Rawle, after an original

drawing by

J.

Nixon.

He

was an

artist,

the Falcon, which was then kept by a man

Death, saw a number of undertaker's

who, passing

named Robert
men reo-aling

themselves after a funeral on the open space in front of

the inn. They were not only eating and drinking and

smoking, but indulging in various antics, endeavouring

make the maids of the inn join in their hilarity.

to

This scene, and the queer coincidence of the landlord's

strange name, induced Nixon to make a sketch of it,

which was engraved and published

in

1802, the following

LONDON SOUVENIRS

252
from

lines

the print
'

Blair's

poem 'The Grave

being added to

But

see the well-plumed hearse

comes nodding on,

Stately and slow, and properly attended

By the whole sable tribe, that painful watch

The

By

man's door, and live upon the dead,

letting out their persons by the hour
sick

To mimic

sorrow,

when

the heart's not sad.'

cantata was also published about the same time,

supposed to be sung by undertakers' merry men, to
1

celebrate the pleasure

and drink to their
'
.

and benefit of burying a nabob,

next merry meeting and quackery's increase

Here we

!'

journey and our records at a funeral.

Have we not been
not inappropriate.

close our

Well, the finale is

attending the funerals of so

many gay and bright and

and rushing, and sometimes
roaring, brooks and rivers, descending from the sunny
hillsides, finally to be buried in dark and noisome
sparkling, joyfully leaping

sewers

And

the lost river, alas

is

but too often the

type of the lost life. But moralizing is not in our line

we think it sad waste of time ; it is no better than

We

doctors' prescriptions.
reader, who in these notes

would rather remind the

miss elegance of style

and picturesqueness of description, that such qualities
were incompatible with the compactness of details the

space at our

may

command imposed upon

us.

Besides, a

must borrow something from imaginabut here we had only to deal with facts, and if
tion
the reader finds as much pleasure in studying as we did
more

florid style

in collecting them, though the labour was great, he will

not regret the time bestowed on their perusal.

XVI.

ROGUES ASSORTED.

ON

Horwood's Map of London, dated 1799, just one

hundred years ago, there is shown a road, starting

from Blue Anchor Lane, Bermondsey, at almost

a right angle to the latter, and running in an easterly
direction, but with a considerable curve in it, and this
It is more than half a
road is called Rogues Lane.
mile long, perfectly solitary, not a house on or near it,
-

'

the land around

as a lonely

How

moor

it

being a wild waste, and as deserted

Wales or Cornwall.

in the recesses of

did this lane acquire its name ? Did the inEnd of London construct it as a

habitants of the East

kind of sewer for carrying off into the outlying wilderwho infested their streets ? or did the

ness the rogues

rogues of that day, openly or tacitly acknowledging

themselves to be such, choose the lane as a kind of
rendezvous, as a sort of peripatetic exchange for the
The East End
transaction of their rascally schemes ?

of

London

seems, indeed, in those days, to have been

a favourite resort of rogues

Stepney had

its

Rogues

now they prefer the West End. But the rogues

of old were somewhat different from the modern speci-

Well

LONDON SOUVENIRS

254

mens

they were chiefly thieves, footpads, burglars,

sneaks, low cheats, sham cripples, and such mean fry
modern civilization, with its panacea of education, had
;

not yet asserted itself. Culture, which licks all the

world into shape, has even reached the rogues ; the
petty scoundrels of old are replaced by the magnificent
swindlers of the present day, who deal not in paltry
who do not cheat a
pence, but in weighty sovereigns

countryman out of the few shillings his purse may

contain, but wheedle trusting spinsters and mad and
silly

greedy speculators out of thousands of pounds. The

modern rogue is either a promoter of bogus companies,
or a director who issues bogus shares, an embezzling

bank-manager or
his means, even

trustee, or a

man who

when he knows that

lives far
all

bevond

his available

in betting, racing, and Stock Exchange

a
or
fraudulent bankrupt.
And there is
speculation,
no slitting of noses, no whipping, not even exposure on

assets are

gone

the pillory ominously looming at the end of their career ;

when the game is up, no more cash to be obtained by
loans, and the infuriated creditors become troublesome,
he attempts one more big haul, the proceeds of which,
if successful, he prudently settles on his wife, and then
the unfortunate victim of circumstances, over which, as
he pathetically says, he had no control, leisurely takes

a walk to Carey Street, has a comfortable wash and

brush up in the financial lavatory which hospitably
stands open there, and he comes out, thoroughly whitewashed and rid of all importunate claims upon him,

mansion in Belgravia, fares

and
bespatters with the mud of
sumptuously every day,
the
deluded
shareholders and tradeshis chariot-wheels

after

which he hires a

fine

ROGUES ASSORTED

255

It is all,
people whom his wily schemes have ruined.
or nearly all, the outcome of modern education, which,
by ramming notions totally unsuited to the minds and

characters under tuition into juvenile minds, bears such

But educational cranks have it all their

bitter fruit.

own way now, though

them educational '; they fancy that education means cramming,

never mind whether the food is assimilated with the
body, whilst education really means the very opposite
it is

wrong to

'

call

'

a drawing
namely, a drawing out, not a putting in
out of the hidden properties of mind and character.
:

But
old

let

come to our theme

us

the

London rogues of

done long ago, and will thereas does the rascality we see around us now.

their evil deeds were

fore not rile

We

take the beggars first not all beggars are

but
the majority are.
rogues,
They fared variously
under various Kings some protected, some persecuted
them. Strange it is that, under the juvenile, gentle
will

Edward

VI., one of the most severe laws was passed

them
a servant absenting himself for three
against
days or more from his work was to be, on his re-capture,
marked with a hot iron with the letter V (vagabond),
and be his master's slave for two years, and fed on bread
and water should he run away again, he was, on being
caught, to be marked on his forehead or cheek with a
hot iron with the letter S (slave), and be his master's
:

for a third escape the punishment was

This diabolical law was repealed two years after.
Under Elizabeth sturdy beggars were whipped till the

slave for life

death.

blood came.

James

he, like them, always

I.

rather sympathized with them ;

in need of ' siller.' Hence the

was

country, and especially London, swarmed with rogues

LONDON SOUVENIRS

256

of every description,
as Rufflers, Upright

Abraham Men,

known by various cant terms, such

Men, Hookers, Rogues, Pallyards,

Traters, Freshwater Mariners or

Whip-

Dommerars, Swadders, Bawdy Baskets, Doxies,

with many other names of the same slang category
and, of course, the object of all the members of these
various associations was to cheat the unwary and
In course of time some of these terms went
charitable.
out of use the cant of rogues is always on the move
but new ones took their places and, in spite of all the

jacks,

laws passed against them, beggars continued to flourish.

In 1728 a spirited presentment to the Court of King's

Bench was made by the Grand Jury of Middlesex against

the unusual swarms of sturdy and clamorous beggars,
as well as the

many

frightful objects exposed in the

and, the nuisance not abating, a similar presentment was made in 1741, with the same unsatisfactory
streets

And

result.

as long as there are people who will not,

as long as there are

and people who cannot, work, and

thoughtless people

who

will

indiscriminately give alms,

beggars will infest our streets. Referring to such, Sir

Richard Phillips, in his ' Morning's Walk from London
to

Kew

(1820), tells us that the passage from Charing

Cross to St. James's Park through Spring Gardens was

'
a favourite haunt of beggars.
blind woman
Says he
:

was brought to her post by a little boy, who, carelessly

leading her against the step of a door, she gave him a

and exclaimed, " Damn you, you

can't you mind what you are about ?" and then,
rascal
leaning her back against the wall, in the same breath
she began to chaunt a hymn.' Even now you may hear
a psalm-singing woman, who has hired two or three
smart box on the
!

ear,

ROGUES ASSORTED
children to render the show

more

257

effective,

when these

between her
get weary, growl, in a hoarse whisper
in
Sing out, ye devils f The Rookery
demolished to make room for New Oxford
'

Hallelujahs,
St. Giles's,

Street, was the very paradise of beggars.

held an annual carnival, to which Major

They there
Hanger on

one occasion accompanied George IV., when still Prince

of Wales. The chairman, addressing the company, and
'

I call upon that "ere

pointing to the Prince, said
gemman with a shirt for a song. The Prince got
excused on his friend agreeing to sing for him, who
:

then sang a ballad called The Beggar's

the Jovial Crew,* with great applause.
'

drank

his health,

managed

men

after

their retreat.

the most infamous rogues of the last century

Among
were

and he and the Prince soon

make good

to

Wedding or,
The beggars

of the Jonathan

cateurs, as

we should now

agents provo who

not only

Wild stamp
style them

led people into crime, but shared the proceeds of it

with the felons ; nay, worse, they got persons who were

of crimes
quite innocent convicted, by perjured witnesses,
which had never been committed. It was practices like
these which at last brought Jonathan

Wild himself to

the scaffold.

The

tricks of rogues

the same

what

is

change their names, but remain

now known

as the

'

confidence trick,

which, though it has been exposed in police-courts and

in our
reported in the press thousands of times, even

ready victims, was formerly called 'coneyconfederates

catching," and there were generally three
The Setter,
the Setter, the Verser, and the Barnacle.

day

finds

or
strolling along the Strand, Fleet Street,

Hoi born, on
17

LONDON SOUVENIRS

258

flats, on espying a coney, whom his

and general appearance pronounced to be a man
from the country, would make up to him, and, as a rule,
quickly find out what county he came from, his name,
and other particulars. If he could not induce him to
have a drink with him, he would manage to convey to

the look-out for

dress

his confederate, the Verser, close by, the information

gained, whereupon the Verser would suddenly come upon

the countryman, salute him by his name, and ask after
friends in the country.

He

proclaimed himself the near

kinsman of some neighbour of the coney, and asserted

to have been in the latter's house several times.
The
countryman, though he could not remember these visits,
was yet taken unawares, and readily accepted the invitation to have a drink.
They then induced him to play
at cards, and soon left him as bare of money as an ape
of a

tail, for in those days coney-catching was practised

the
assistance of a pack of cards.
But if all these
by
lures were wasted on the coney, the Setter or Verser would
drop a shilling in the street, so that the coney must see
is

it fall,

when he would naturally pick

one of the confederates would cry out,

claim half the find.

it
'

up, whereupon

Half-part f and

The countryman would

readily

agree to exchange the money, but the Setter or Verser

would

'

Nay, friend it is unlucky to keep found

and
the farce would end in the money being
money,
in
drink
at a tavern then cards would be called
spent
and
the
for,
coney induced to take an interest in them
by being initiated into a new game called mum-chance,
at which he was allowed to win money.
While so
engaged, the door would be opened by a stranger, the
Barnacle, who, on seeing the players, would say, Excuse
say,

-1

'

'

ROGUES ASSORTED

250

1
thought a friend of mine was here.
The stranger would be invited to have a glass of wine,
'
and join in the game, which he would
readily do, to
the
and
the
end
would
be
that
the
oblige
company';

me, gentlemen

coney, after having been allowed to win for some time,

would gradually begin to lose his money, then his watch,
or any other valuables he
might have about him, and
be
left
with
no
finally
property but the clothes he was
standing up in. This, as we have stated, was called
'

'

coney -catching,' or
coney -catching law? for those
all their
rogues possessed a great regard for law

high law
;

practices went by the name of law

highway robbery
cheating law,

'

'

'

dice

'

'

'

meant

playing with

false

versing law, the passing of bad gold

1
the
law,
cutting of purses.
;

'

figging

Vagrants and tramps in those days called themselves

and
by the more dignified appellation of 'cursitors
1

the counterfeiter of epilepsy was a

'

counterfeit crank

'
;

money-dropping and ring-dropping were even then old

tricks of cozenage.
Those who are acquainted with the
modern way of coney-catching, or the confidence trick
and who is not that lives in London ? will know that the
trick is now much simplified, and yields much
quicker
and more satisfactory results to the rogues.
And
we
as
mentioned
the
trick
has
been
above,
though,

exposed over and over again, new fools are found every
day to go into the trap. In fact, all the old rogueries
the present time, besides a few new ones
invented in this century. The holders of sham auctions ;
flourish at

horse-makers, who, by means of drugs and other

make old horses look as good as new till they
are sold ; the free foresters, who during the
night rob
the

devices,

172

LONDON SOUVENIRS

260

suburban gardens of roots and flowers, and sell them

1
next day off their barrows, all 'a-growing and a-blowing

the dog

stealers

the beer and spirit

who

doctors,

double and treble Master Bung's stock by vile adulterathe sellers of established businesses, which never
tion

had any actual existence all these are types of venerable institutions which survive to this day, and not only
but flourish in everlasting youth. The racing,
betting and Stock Exchange swindles perform their
eternal merry-go-round, as they did when first started
several centuries ago, and the home employment decepsurvive,

tion

still

draws the

And

last shillings

in

most

poor people.
law is powerless to reach

cases,

from the purses of

unfortunately, the

rogues ; our foolish

of
interests
the
trade, the freedom of
humanitarianism,
the subject to contract, the technicalities and quibbles
the

of legislative acts, and the uncertainty as to their

meaning, are at the bottom of all this failure of justice.

We

ought to cease prating about the dignity of man

as if there were any dignity in such paltry rogues
and return, perhaps in a modified form, to the drastic
remedies of our forefathers, who retaliated on those
!

who made

their neighbour suffer in health or in purse

by inflicting on them bodily pain and personal disgrace,

and not merely fining them, as is the custom with us.
In the 'Memorials of London and London Life, extracted from the City Archives, and extending from the
be found between twenty and
years 1272 to 1419, will
1

thirty

condemnations to the

pillory,

the stocks, imcity on a

prisonment, and being drawn through the

hurdle, for deficiency of weight in bread, coals, etc., for

false measure, for enhancing the price of wheat, for

ROGUES ASSORTED
brass rings

swindling, such as selling

261

and chains

for

fowls and
gold, for selling false bowstrings, putrid meat,
condemned
fish, and in these latter cases the articles

were burnt under the noses of the culprits, as they stood

Even women had to undergo the
the pillory.
constructed for
of
the
pillory, one specially
punishment
them being: used on such occasions it was called the

in

thewe.

At

the

commencement we

referred to a

Rogues Lane

at Bermondsey, but there was another lane of that

name in the very centre of London, Shire Lane, which

Temple Bar, and pulled down when room

had to be made for the new Law Courts. The Kit-Kat
was

close to

Club held its meetings in that lane but in spite of the

dukes and lords frequenting that club, the lane never
was considered respectable, and in the days of James Iwas known as Rogues' Lane, it being then the resort of
;

persons coming under that denomination.

1
public-house a printers house of call

In the Bible

there

was a

who
it, by which Jack Sheppard,
used the house, could drop into a subterranean passage
The Angel and Crown,
which led to Bell Yard.
another public-house in the same lane, was the scene of
room with a trap

in

the murder of a Mr. Quarrington, for which Thomas

Carr and Elizabeth Adams were hanged at Tyburn.
One night a man was robbed, thrown downstairs and
1

Nos. 13
one of the dens of Rogues Lane.
and 14 were bad houses; Nos. 9, 10 and 11, where
'
thieves used to meet, was known as
Cadgers Hall ;
killed in

'

2 and 3 were houses of ill-fame, and there existed

a communication with the house No. 242, Strand,
through which the thieves used to escape after illNos.

1,

LONDON SOUVENIRS

262

In Ship Yard, close to Shire

treating their victims.
a
there
stood
block
of houses which were let out
Lane,
to vagrants, thieves, sharpers, smashers and other disreputable characters. Throughout the vaults of this

rookery there existed a continuous passage, so that easy

access could be obtained from one to the other, facilitating

The end
escape or concealment in the case of pursuit.
house of this block was selected for the manufacture of
1

and was known as the Smashing Lumber.

had its secret trap or panel, and from the
room
Every
upper story, which was the workshop, there was a draft
connected with the cellar, to which the base coin could

bad

'

coin,

be lowered in case of surprise.

It is astonishing, and shows us the hollowness of the
pretence to civilization and decency set up on behalf of
the velvet-dressed, lace and gold-bedizened aristocrats

of those days, that persons, not only of respectability,

but of rank and title, could live in such close quarters
with thieves and vagabonds of the lowest grade. Yet,
as already mentioned, the Kit-Kats had their club in
Shire Lane; in 1603 there was living in it Sir Arthur
Atie, in early life secretary to the Earl of Leicester;

Elias

Ashmole

also inhabited the lane, so did Hoole,

the translator of Tasso, and James Perry, the editor

of the Morning Chronicle, who died worth 1 30,000.

London in the last century, and even in this, was full

The demolition of West
of retreats for criminals.
Street,

recent

formerly Chick Lane, and of Field Lane, so

to be still fresh in the memory of living

as

The Dog, a
persons, brought many of them to light.
low public-house in Drury Lane, was known as the
Robbers Den 1 in fact, the whole street had a bad

'

ROGUES ASSORTED

263

But
reputation, and is even now a disgrace to London.
beside these private retreats, the rogues and villains of
the past had their public refuges, where even the officers
of the law had to leave them unmolested

the sanctuaries

John of Jerusalem,

at Westminster, St.

St.

MartinVle-

Grand, Whitefriars and the Mint, and Montague Close

in Southwark, some of which retained their privileges
The name Sanctuary,
to the middle of the last century.
still given to a certain spot near Westminster Abbey,

commemorates the actual sanctuary formerly existing in

that locality, and the narrow street called Thieving
Lane, now demolished, received that name because
thieves, on their way to Gate House Prison, were taken

through
It

is

it,

to prevent their escape into the sanctuary.

when rogues fall out honest men come

own again. Yes, when their 'own' is still corae-

said that

to their

atable, but as a rule it

is

not

seldom keep what

rogues

trickery
lightly earned, lightly
;

spent is
as are
fools
are
as
great
Rogues
the fools they cheat, and the fools at heart are rogues
The fool who is
too, without the wit of the rogues.

they gain by
the rule with them.

or other property by trusting a

because he fancies himself
done
perfect stranger
more clever than the cheat, and hopes to beat him.

done out of

his

money
is

so

The

victim scarcely deserves any pity, for it is only a

And unfortunately, as
case of diamond cut diamond.

we intimated above, honest men do not come to their

own again, when rogues fall out, or are detected. The
rogue who has cheated a commercial firm out of goods
to the value of thousands of pounds, which he immediately pawns for half they are worth, rushes off to
a turf tipster or bookie, and though his betting turns

LONDON SOUVENIRS

264

out lucky, he cannot get his winnings from the said

bookie, who resists payment on the plea that the trans-

The rogues fall out, a lawsuit is the

action was illegal.
the
result,
speculator loses his case, but the firm do not
get their money ; that is irretrievably gone. Plenty of
such cases happened hundreds of years ago, and continue
to happen to the present day, and there are various
and West End of London where it

resorts in the City

might truthfully be written up, Si

circumspice

sceleratos quceris,

XVII.

BARS AND BARRISTERS.

THE

profession

of a barrister

a curious one.

is

Theoretically, he is the champion and protector

of right and justice but, practically, he often
;

but the hired advocate of wrong and injustice. It is

distinction at the Bar
only when he has attained high
is

that he can, like Serjeant Ballantine, be independent

enough to say that he will undertake no case of the
justice of

which he

is

not fully

satisfied.

True, counsel

arguments on behalf of his client

on the instructions he receives from the solicitor who
a legal educaemploys him yet he, counsel, having had

is

assumed to base

his

cannot fail to see the weak

practice, too,
are
there
any, in the case before him,
points, supposing
and the evidence adduced in examination and crosstion,

and

examination must very soon satisfy him as to the real

merits of his case ; hence we often see counsel throwing
It is related in Laud's Diary that, when
his brief.
he was standing one day near his unfortunate master,
then Prince Charles, the Prince said that, if necessity
compelled him to choose any particular profession, he

up

could not be a lawver,

'

for,' said

'

he,

I could neither

LONDON SOUVENIRS

266

defend a bad cause, nor

yield in a good one.
By the
Roman laws every advocate was required to swear that
he would not undertake a cause which he knew to be
1

unjust, and that he would abandon a defence which

he should discover to be
supported by falsehood and
This
is
continued
in Holland at this
iniquity.
day,
and if an advocate brings forward a cause there which

appears to the court plainly to be iniquitous, he is

condemned in the costs of the suit ; and if, in consequence of

this, a cause, just in itself, should not be

able to find a defender because of some strong and
1

general prejudice concerning

to appoint a counsel.

it,

the court has authority

The

universal opinion that advocates are

ready to
for
the
sake
of
that
will
support injustice
gain

they
undertake more work than they can
possibly attend to
is of
very ancient date. The Lord Keeper Puckering
directing attention to the grasping habits which too
frequently disgraced the leaders of the Bar, observed
I am to exhort
you also not to embrace multitude of

'

causes, or to undertake

more

places of hearing causes,

than you are well able to consider of or

perform, lest
either
thereby you
disappoint your clients, when their
causes be heard, or come
unprovided, or depart when
their causes be in hearing.'

That the administration

much improved in modern days is sufficiently
proved by the fact that now no judge would be allowed,
of justice

is

as he was in the closing years of the fourteenth

century,
to give opinions for money to his private clients,
although
he was forbidden to take gold or silver from
any person
1
'
having plea or process hanging before him.

It

is,

in fact,

still

a moot point, and, we

suppose,

BARS AND BARRISTERS

always

will

what lengths an advoeate may go

be,

267
to,

consistently with truth and honour, in pleading the

The
cause of a client whom he knows to be guilty.
conduct of Charles Phillipps, in defending Courvoisier,

has always been condemned.

Courvoisier did not confess

but admitted to him that he

had made away with some plate from Lord William
This
Russell's house immediately after the murder.
his guilt to his counsel,

was damning evidence, but the communication was made

by the prisoner not to admit his guilt, but merely to
prepare his counsel to deal with the evidence. But
Phillipps made a remark in his speech which the
He said ' Supposing
considered as unjustifiable.
to be guilty of the murder, which is known to
:

Bar
him

God

alone, I hope, for the sake of his eternal soul,

1
These words were not only in bad taste,
innocent.

Almighty
he

is

Counsel's part is to
but conveyed a positive falsehood.
his own opinion
and
not
the
before
jury possibilities,
lay
and a strange
of the prisoner's guilt or innocence
;

feature of the etiquette of the Bar is that if counsel is

his cause
prepared to throw up his brief because he sees

to be bad, yet he is bound, after accepting the retainer,

to continue defending the case if his client insists on his

doing so. He may then be compelled to go on arguing

on behalf of a man whom he knows to be a thorough
scoundrel.
Barristers were first appointed by Edward I. about
1291, but there is an earlier mention of professional

advocates in England, who were of various ranks, as

At more
King's or Queen's Counsel, Serjeants, etc.
recent

dates

barristers

we read of utter or outer and inner

these terms

appear to have been derived

LOxNDON SOUVENIRS

268
from

arrangements in the halls of the Inns of

In the public meetings held in these halls, the

local

Court.

benchers and readers

superior to barristersoccupying

the dais, which was separated by a bar, some of the

hamsters who had attained a certain standing were
called from the body of the hall to the bar
that is,

for the purpose of

place outside the bar
and
doubtful
cases, whence they probarguing
questions
obtained
the
name
of
outer
barristers.
The course
ably

to the

first

of legal education consisted principally of readings and

mootings. The readings were expositions of important

These readings being accompanied by costly

entertainments, especially at Lincoln's Inn, their original
object was forgotten in the splendour of the tables,
statutes.

for

which the benchers were severely reprimanded by

I.
The readings were eventually suspended,

Charles

but were revived about 1796.

Mootings were questions

on doubtful points of law, argued between certain of
There was also
the benchers and barristers in the hall.
1

another exercise in the Inns of Court, called 'bolting

not gastronomically which was a private arguing of

by some of the students and barristers. The term

was probably derived from 'bolter,'' a sieve, with reference

cases

to the sifting of cases.

As to the fees paid to barristers,

how they have

of
In
1500
the
altered
Corporation
Canterbury paid
for advice regarding their civic interests 3s. 4d. to each
!

of three Serjeants, and gave the Recorder of London

Five years later Mr. Serjeant
6s. 8d. as a retaining-fee.
Wood received a fee of 10s. from the Goldsmiths'

Company.

In the sixteenth century it was customary

and drink for their counsel.

for clients to provide food

BARS AND BARRISTERS

In

ai

bill

c
of
costs

in

269

Edward

the reign of

IV.

we

find

Westminster to our counsel

To another time for boat hire and breakfast

For

a breakfast at

s.

d.

In like manner the accountant of St. Margaret's, West'

Paid to Roger
minster, entered in the parish books
:

Fylpott, learned in the law, for his counsel given, 3s. 8d.,
with 4d. for his dinner."

In Elizabeth's reign, and during the time of her

successors, barristers'' fees showed a tendency to increase.

though 10s. was the usual

was
then called an 'angel,"
ten-shilling piece

Counsel then received 20s.

fee.

fees,

whence arose the witty saying

'
:

barrister

is

like

ass, only speaking when he sees the angel.'

When Francis Bacon was created King's Counsel to
James I., an annual salary of i?40 was assigned to him

Balaam's

but at present the status of a Q.C. is simply an affair of

professional precedence, to which no fixed emolument is

But Francis Bacon, though he received as

i0 only, made =6,000 in his profession
other King's Counsel earned even larger sums
in fees.
But the barristers were not all greedy. In the
days of Sir Matthew Hale, professional etiquette permitted clients and counsel to hold intercourse without
the intervention of an attorney. When those who came
to Hale for his advice gave him a sovereign, he used to
attached.

his official salary

;

return half, saying his fee was 10s.

When appointed
arbitrator, he would take no fees, because, as he said,

he acted in the capacity of a judge, and a judge should

take no money.
If he took bad money, as he often did,
he would not pass

it

on again, but kept

it

by him.

At

LONDON SOUVENIRS

270

he had a great heap of it, and his house being once

entered by burglars, this accumulation of bad money
attracted their attention, and they carried it off in
preference to other valuables, fancying that this must
last

be the lawyer's hoarded treasure.

Readers who wish to know in what estimation lawyers
were held in the seventeenth century should study the

pamphlets and broadsides of the Commonwealth, which

show how universal was the belief that wearers of ermine

and gentlemen of the long robe would practise any

sort

of fraud or extortion for the sake of personal advantage.

How happy we are to live in this century, when the
in a state of

It
high purification
so
does, indeed, sometimes surprise an outsider that
many barristers should be necessary to carry through
legal profession

is

it looks as if they were brought in merely for

the benefit of the lawyers ; but, in justice to the proBarristers have
fession, let us say that this is not so.

one case

their special gifts, and a long and involved case brings

them all into play to the advantage of the client. One

man

has unrivalled powers of statement ; another is

sound in law ; another excels in cross-examination ;

another in reply another has the ear of the court, or

is
barrister, to be successall-persuasive with the j ury.
;

the Bar, needs, indeed, many qualifications. Lord

Brougham states that Mansfield's powers as an advocate

ful at

were great he possessed an almost surpassing sweetness

of voice, and it was said that his story was worth other
men's arguments, so clear and skilful were his statements.
;

in
Concerning Lord Erskine, another famous debater
the forensic lists, juries declared that they felt it imlooks from him when he had
possible to remove their

BARS AND BARRISTERS

riveted and, as
o-lance:

and

it

who observed
a blood-horse

it

271

them by

were, fascinated

his first

common remark

used to be a

of men,

his motions, that they resembled those of

as

much betokening
His voice was of surpassing sweet-

light, as limber, as

strength as speed.

to express
ness, clear, flexible, strong, less fitted, indeed,

Lord Sandwich,
or scorn than pathos.
Lord of the Admiralty, having brought an action
libel against persons who had charged him with

indignation
First
for

having appointed landsmen as Greenwich pensioners to

serve his own electioneering purposes, Erskine undertook
the defence, and such was the effect of his speech that,
before he left the court, thirty retainers were presented
Fortune comes to those who can wait. Lord
to him.

Ellenborough
counsel for
the

first

distinguished himself as the leading

after rose to

Warren Hastings, and soon

head of the Northern Circuit

attained

his

subsequent

position

Lord Brougham

by

his

defence

Queen Caroline.
But counsel must not only be able to expound

of

his case

prominence all its favourable points,

and effacing or putting out of sight all those of an
be observant and
opposite character, but he must also
to take
moment
of
the
on
the
spur
quick enough
clearly, bringing into

advantage of any rift in his opponent's flute, of any

weakness in his argument he must be sharp in dealing
with the plaintiff, supposing he is for the defendant,
;

and especially so with his witnesses. He should, in civil

cases, by skilful cross-questioning, entrap the principal
or his witnesses into damaging admissions and contra-

The following case,

to illustrate our meaning.

dictions.

if

not vero,

A man

is

ben trovato

brought an action

LONDON SOUVENIRS

272

against a coach proprietor, for having by the carelessness of the lattei s servants suffered
bodily hurt, to wit,
been thrown from the coach on to the ground, the
-1

hind wheels of which passed over his body, and inj ured
his chest and lungs.
In his examination-in-chief he
testified to these facts.

took him in hand.

Then the

defendant's counsel

As

the plaintiff was about to leave

1
the box, ' One moment, my friend, said counsel quite
blandly.
'According to the evidence you have just
given,

you obviously have

suffered

much

your voice

is

gone, you say

'

Yes,

sir

Very

sad.

cannot speak above a whisper/

The coach, you say, gave a sudden lurch

backwards, and thus threw you off the hind seat under
the coach wheels ? Were you sitting or standing just

then T
'

'

Well,

was standing up just then.

What made you

motion
'

stand up whilst the coach was in

P
1

Well, you would have stood up had you been there.

Just answer my question never mind what I should
;

have done.
'

know why

should answer this question.

The judge pointed out to him that he must answer it.
'
Well, I wanted to look at a pretty girl who had
1 don't

passed the coach ; you would have done so.

1
'
Counsel might have given him a sharper
Possibly.
reply, but he did not want to lose his hold over
'

the witness by riling him. So he went on

PosAnd
like
the
then,
sibly.
gallant gentleman you are,
:

you kissed your hand to the

happened T

lady,

and then the accident

BARS AND BARRISTERS

4

That's about

'

That's

how

it,'

273

innocently replied the plaintiff.

1

it

happened, said counsel, turning to

the jury.
'
And the
then, turning to the plaintiff again
coach-wheels passing over you broke no bones, but

And

ruined your voice, which we all can hear is very weak ;

this must be a sad affliction, for you especially, because
I am given to understand that you were before this
accident a famous singer at free-and-easies and other
convivial meetings, and made much money by your
voice
'

'

T
1

That's the fact, hoarsely whispered the plaintiff.

Very sad. I am told your voice was not only
1

melodious, but very powerful.

Perhaps, continued
counsel in the most insidiously flattering tones, 'you
might give his Lordship and the jury a specimen of

what your voice was before

this

unlucky accident.'

And

the fool, entrapped by counsel's apparent symthe petty vanity clinging to all singing men
and
pathy
to show off, actually broke forth into a rollicking drink-

Thereing song, which shook the walls of the building.

a
for his client the
verdict
asked
for
counsel
upon
defendant, and for costs, and got the
second.

The terms

first,

if

not the

and counsel are often used indisis a counsel, but not

every
criminately
There are barristers whose names
counsel a barrister.
are in everybody's mouth, and who earn their thousands
;

a year

barrister

every barrister

there are counsel

unknown

to the public,

who

never, or only under peculiar circumstances, appear at

the Bar, but who are well known to the legal profession,

and make more than twice

as

much

as the barrister

18

LONDON SOUVENIRS

274

practising at the Bar; they are 'consulting' counsel.

you go to a joiner and tell him to make you a

When

cabinet, he takes your order,

piece of furniture you want

such an article

is

and sets about making the

he does not say that, as
;

not one he ever heard of in his trade,

will go and learn from someone more

experienced
than himself how to execute your order, and that you

he

have to pay for his improving himself in joinery.

if
you go to your lawyer with a case which is not
of the most usual description, he informs you that he
will

But

must have

counsel's opinion, for which you have to

pay
five guineas, to improve your
lawyer's legal

from two to

And

knowledge.
'

'

he sends a number of questions to a

Now, as every lawyer of any

consulting
in
his
has
standing
library all the legal handbooks and
are the consulting counsel's only
of
cases
which
reports
counsel.

might as well look up the precedents

would
not be etiquette, nor so profitbut
that
himself,
so
able all round, and
the more expensive method must
guides, the lawyer

be followed.

The

consulting counsel

sits in his

cham-

bers as the soothsayers of old sat in their temples, whence,

like them, he sends forth oracular utterances as obscure

and ambiguous as those of the ancient mummers, and

straightway solicitors and clients feel relieved of all
anxiety they have counsel's opinion and their case is as
:

won.

For their

counsel's opinion is favourable,

the
or, at all events, this
interpretation they put on
it, though counsel's opinion on the same case on the

good

as

is

Should it so happen
other side reads the very reverse.
that on the day in which counsel has given his opinion
a case should be decided in a law-court, which shows
that his opinion

is

not worth a rap, will counsel rush off

BARS AND BARRISTERS

to the lawyer to

tell

to admit that he

him

so

Not he

And

is fallible.

he

he

275
not going
not give his

is

will

lawyers clerk having

opinion on the same case twice.
obtained such an opinion from counsel, and passing a
pub, where he had agreed to meet a friend of his to
a little betting transaction, left the opinion in
the omnibus in which he had come, and did not discover
settle

it was too late to

go to counsel again the
So he went the next day, prepared to pay
out of his own pocket for another copy of the document.
Counsel honestly said
I could not do that, my friend

his loss

till

same day.

'

for to-day I might give you an opinion totally opposed

to the one I gave you yesterday, which would be

awkward

should turn up.'

Sometimes consulting counsel will
if

the

first

condescend

come into court to argue some disgustingly

to

technical

'
'
point about contingent remainders or conveyancing.''
On such occasions they evince unbounded contempt
for the court, whose ignorance necessitates their presence.

consume a whole day in dull and dry argusend some judges to sleep, and those who
and
ments,
remain awake after counsel's speech know less of the

They

will

matter than they knew before their brains are muddled

with the legal rigmarole they have been listening to.
;

The

ecclesiastical

counsel,

who

flourished in the days

before the Probate and Divorce Courts were established,

1
and from 'doctors became ' counsel," when called out
1

into the general practice of the new system, were like

many owls suddenly brought into daylight, Sir

so

Cresswell Cresswell so bedevilled them, and yet did

politely that they could not complain.
Barristers

had a good time of

it in

it

so

those old days of

182

LONDON SOUVENIRS

276

the Ecclesiastical

Courts

the
splendidly organized

the system of appeal was

pettiest case could gradually

be raised into one of great importance. There were

courts throughout the country
royal, archiepiscopal,

episcopal, decanal, sub

decanal,

prebendal, rectorial,

and manorial. A case arises in any one of

these courts, and the verdict being unsatisfactory to
one of the parties, he appeals to the courts of the
archdeacons and others, where the case is again heard,
Poor men, who
decided, and again appealed against.
cannot go on for ever, must stop but the party who
can afford it goes to the Consistorial Court, where the
whole process of hearing, deciding, and appealing is
The third step is the Chancellor's Court
repeated.
the fourth the Court of Arches.
If the appellant still
has some money left, he may go to the Privy Council
formerly to the Court of Delegates at Doctors Commons,
now abolished. This is no mere imaginary case. There
was a case,' says Dr. Nicholls, in which the cause had
originally commenced in the Archdeacon's Court at
Totnes, and thence there had been an appeal to the
Court at Exeter, thence to the Arches, and thence to
and the whole question at issue was
the Delegates
the
question which of two persons had the right
simply
of hanging his hat on a particular peg.
Fancy, what
an army of barristers must have grown fat on this
vicarial,

'

'

oyster
Success at the
I

Bar comes to

barristers in the

most

In this profession, as in many

capricious manner.
other pursuits, modest merit but slowly makes its way.

Manners make the man, but impudence an advocate

without this latter quality even high connections and

BARS AND BARRISTERS

277

Earl Camden,
powerful patronage often seem ineffectual.
the son of Chief Justice Pratt, was called to the Bar in
his twenty-fourth year,

and remained a

briefless barrister

for nine long years, when he resolved to abandon Westminster Hall for his College Fellowship ; but at the

Healey, afterwards Lord

once more to go
he
consented
Chancellor Northington,
his
kind
offices received
and
the Western Circuit,
through
solicitation

of

his

friend

His leader's
a brief as his junior in an important case.
illness threw the management of the case into Mr. Pratt's
his success was complete, and, after many years'
;
lucrative practice, he was made Attorney-General, and
three years after, in 1762, raised to the Bench as Chief

hands

Common Pleas. In 1766 he was made

Lord Chancellor, and raised to the peerage. The Earl
of Eldon was on the point of retiring from the contest
for clients, when fortune unexpectedly smiled upon him,
and the records of the Bar are full of similar instances.

Justice of the

We
object
facts

have spoken of cross-examination. Its legitimate

is not to
produce startling effects, but to elicit

which

forward

will
support the theory intended to be put
but in most cases the first is aimed at, and

frequently with success. Counsel, however, must perform

this operation with much discretion.
To a barrister

who was

recklessly asking a number of questions in the

of
hope
getting at something, Mr. Baron Alderson said
'
You seem to think that the art of cross-examination
:

consists in

examining crossly.
Judges frequently give
hints to counsel to one who was terribly long-winded,
the judge said 'You have stated that before, but you
;

may have

it was so
forgotten it
long ago." Counsel
must not allow himself to be carried away by the fervour

LONDON SOUVENIRS

278

of his oratorical powers, and thus overshoot the mark.

Arabin, the Commissioner, a shrewd, quaint little man,
'
uttered absurdities without knowing he did so.
I
1

assure you, gentlemen, he one day said to the jurv,

'
the inhabitants of Uxbridge will steal the very teeth

out of your mouth as you walk through the

know

streets.

technical expressions
in a case before the court,

from experience?
are likely to be brought up
counsel should be careful to get posted

up

in

them, or

may make a

he

When

it

strange and laughable mess of it.

question of collision between two boats down the river
Thames was being investigated. The master of one of

the boats was in the witness-box.

'

Now,' said counsel, cross-examining him, what time

was it when the other boat ran into you, as you say T
'

'

It

'

You

was during the dog-watch, replied the mariner.

1

hear this, gentlemen

said counsel, turning to

the jury.
'According to this man's evidence, a boat,
laden with valuable merchandize, is left in charge of a
And, guilty of such contributory negligence, this
dog
!

man

has the impudence to come into court and claim

1
And, turning to the
compensation and damages
I

witness again

'
:

Was

your boat attached to a landing-

stage T

No

'

boy
boy
'

'

is

to a buoy.

boy

These are curious revelations.

made

to hold the boat

And

mere

where was the

Why,
This

in the water, of course

is

is

1
I

The
getting more strange every moment.
in
the
water
whilst
actually kept standing

poor boy
he is holding the boat

had no idea such

cruelties

BARS AND BARRISTERS

shipping

were practised in the shipping

Legislature should see to this.'

279

The

interest.

Then, fumbling among

You

said, when questioned

learned
that
friend,
by my
you had gone on shore?
1
did you go on shore P

his papers, counsel

went on

'

Why

To get a
very much."
'

'

'

man

to bleed the buoy.

It

wanted bleeding

You went to get a surgeon, you mean P

No a workman from the yard.
To perform so
What, to bleed a boy
1

delicate an
a
on
then
in
the
water, and, in
operation
boy,
standing
the state of health he was in, no doubt in great pain,
!

whilst

holding the boat

all

the time

shocking

in-

humanity
Here judge and jury thought it time to interfere.
They all knew the meaning of the technical terms but
;

as they enjoyed the fun of seeing counsel getting deeper

and deeper into the mire, they allowed him to go on,

and the court being full of sailors, who cheered counsel

vociferously as he stumbled from blunder to blunder,
the trial was one of the most amusing in that court,
and gave judge and jury a splendid appetite for their
lunch.

Some counsel are very fond of reminding a witness at

'
every other question they put to him that he is on his
1
The practice is absurd, the very reminder sounds
oath.
1
This ' taking the oath is a relic of ancient
sarcastic.
barbarism and superstition for the man who means to
the truth it is unnecessary, and on the man who
;

tell

intends to

tell

lie it is

no check

he looks on the pro-

The very official who

ceeding as a ridiculous ceremony.
administers the oath in court, by the way he rattles it

LONDON SOUVENIRS

280
oft,

shows in what estimation he holds

it.

Nay, in

matters far more important than the mere stealing of a

piece of cheese off a counter, on occasions when one

would expect taking the oath to be invested with some

I once accompanied an
solemnity, how is it done ?
Italian friend of mine, who was being naturalized in
this country, to the court where he was to take the
oath of allegiance. This is how the official authorized
to administer the oath rushed through it
'I A. B. do
:

swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to

Her Majesty Queen Victoria her heirs and successors
1

according to law so help me God it will be half a crown.

My friend produced the half-crown, which, I suppose,
stood in place of a seal, and the performance was
over.

So help me God it will be half

was evidently the chief point, the crowning

With

a crown

'

the court

'

glory and confirmation of the allegiance business.

Swearing children as witnesses leads to very ludicrous
scenes,

enough to cover the whole proceeding with

Montagu
contempt, and show its utter futility.
Williams, Q.C., tells a good story:
At a trial a discussion arose as to whether or no a
boy of very tender age was old enough to be sworn.

The

judge, at the suggestion of counsel for the prosecu'

Do you know what will
tion, interrogated the boy
:

become of you

if

you

tell

an untruth ?

The

boy, evidently brought up in the Spurgeon

1
'
Hell fire.
school, replied
'
What will become of you if you play truant, and do
:

not go to school T
Hell fire,' again answered the boy.
What if you spill the milk T
'

'

BARS AND BARRISTERS

*

Hell

281

fire;

His lordship ran through a list of trifling faults ; the

1
Hell fire.
punishment was always the same
Counsel then suggested that the boy was scarcely

'

enough to be sworn. But the judge thought

otherwise, and expected he would grow up a very good
man, seeing he believed that the most trifling error
involved the penalty of hell fire, and the boy was sworn.
The boy, of course, was a fool, through no fault of his,
intelligent

but through that of his bigoted teachers.

It was mentioned above that in the days of Sir
Matthew Hale professional etiquette allowed clients to

have interviews with counsel without the intervention

But gradually, after his time, the public

were deprived of this privilege, and a rigid rule was
enforced that all communications to counsel must be
of a solicitor.

through the

solicitor only, a rule highly detrimental to

litigants, since it

caused constant misunderstandings and

It is a roundabout way of

misleading instructions.

doing business, which would not be tolerated for a day

It was from the first a
in any commercial transaction.
that
tyrannical assumption on the part of the profession
based
to
a
should
submit
restriction,
public

the

nominally on

professional

etiquette,

but

really

on

The

public have begun to object

professional interest.
to the rule, and in 1888 the Attorney-General (Sir R.
Webster), on being asked to express his views in
reference to the occasions

and otherwise act

when a

barrister

may

advise

for a client without the intervention

replied that in contentious business,

necessitating inquiry into facts, which could not possibly

of a solicitor,

be undertaken by a barrister,

it

was essential that the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

282
latter should
this advice

have the advice of a

solicitor.

But might

not be given in the presence of the client to

As to
possibility of misapprehension ?
non-contentious business Sir Richard allowed of direct

exclude the

communication between counsel and client. My own

rule, whenever it has been my misfortune to be involved
in a legal dispute, has always been to

bogie of professional etiquette, and

counsel my own story myself.

The

push aside this

insist on telling

we hardly need remind the reader,

distinguished characters ; to choose
from amongst them those most deserving of praise
would be difficult, and perhaps invidious ; still, the
profession, as

has produced

many

actions of those whose conduct has not imparted to

them the mere splendour of passing meteors, but has

conferred permanent benefits on the country, seem to

entitle them to a certain pre-eminence.
man entitled

and the grateful remembrance of

Englishmen was Sir Samuel Romilly. His father was
a jeweller in Frith Street, Soho the boy was first
placed with a solicitor, then with a merchant, and
to such pre-eminence

one of the sworn clerks of Chancery.

the expiration of his articles he qualified himself for
the Bar, but he had to wait long before he was rewarded
finally articled to

At

with any practice.

a flood

But when

they came in
He
=?9,000 a year.

briefs came,

his income rose to about

was returned to Parliament in 1806 by the electors of

Westminster, without the expenditure of a shilling on
his part

significant fact of his merits in those days

was also appointed
corruption.

of bribery and

He

Solicitor-General and knighted.

self in

He distinguished him-

the House by his speeches in favour of the

BARS AND BARRISTERS

283

abolition of the slave trade, but his great claims to the

gratitude of the nation are the efforts he made to

Draconic code of the criminal law, in

which nearly three hundred offences, varying from
murder to keeping company with a gipsy, were punish-

mitigate

the

The

able with death.

first

success he

of the statute of Elizabeth which

had was the repeal

it a capital

made

offence to steal privately from the person of another.

He next tried to get several statutes repealed which

made it a capital offence to privately steal from a house

But this
or a shop goods to the value of five shillings.
What bloodthirsty savages the members
Bill was lost.
of the

House must have been

in those days

this savagery remains in their blood

now, for

Some of
when the

abolition of training children to become acrobats, contortionists and similar horrors, the abolition of vivisection

and such-like

cruelties, are

mooted

in the

House, the

Romilly, as we
have seen, did not succeed in all his humane efforts, but
he kept on agitating session after session, and cleared
the way for the modification and mitigation of the
introducer of the Bill

is

hooted down.

England into human shamhad

been striving for was a
Romilly

ferocious laws which turned

bles.

And what

In the first decades of this

long time in coming.
century it was no unusual sight to see from a dozen to

twenty criminals, many for slight offences only, hanged

The end of
in one morning in front of Newgate.
He
was
sad
it showed the malignity of fate.
Romilly
;

who had spent

endeavouring to lighten the

was terribly stricken himself. In 1818 he
lost his wife, whom he had married twenty years before,
and her loss was such a shock to him that he fell into

lot of others

his life in

LONDON SOUVENIRS

284

delirium, and in an unwatched

his bed, cut his throat,

Nowadays

moment he sprang from

and expired almost

instantly.

briefless barristers utilize their legal

know-

and company promoters before

ledge
those two honest pursuits had been invented they
Thus
had to turn their attention to other specs.
as

financiers

Francis Forcer the younger, the son of Francis Forcer,

a musician, had received a liberal education, and, on
leaving Oxford, entered Gray's Inn, and was afterwards
called to the Bar, where he practised for a short time.

He

was very gentlemanly in his manners, and in person

remarkably tall and athletic. In 1735, having been
disturbed by legal interference, or some other cause, he
petitioned Parliament for a license for Sadler's Wells,
which application, we are told, was rejected at first,

must have been granted, for we are

informed that he was the first who exhibited there the
diversions of rope-dancing and tumbling, and performances on the slack wire.
It is doubtful whether the
but in the end

it

speculation paid, for at the time of his death (he died

1743) he directed by his will that the lease of the

in

premises, together with the scenery, implements, stock,

and things thereunto belongbe

sold
for
the
should
purpose of paying his debts,
ing,
which direction was carried out soon after his decease.
furniture, household stuff

This

seems

as

Mr. Forcer had

remunerative

if

the refreshment

bar,

for

which

the legal Bar, had not proved very

perhaps he had better have stuck to
left

the litigation oyster, than to the native he dispensed

at Sadler's Wells.

XVIII.

THE SUBLIME BEEFSTEAKERS AND THE

KIT-KAT AND ROTA CLUBS.

THE

last

two centuries were very

prolific

in the

production of clubs, founded to gratify rational

purposes or fanciful whims. In those days, as soon

men found themselves agree

in any particular,
so
though ever
trivial, they immediately formed themThe Apollo Club,
selves into a fraternity called a club.

as a set of

meetings at the Devil tavern in Fleet

Street, comprised all the wits of Ben Jonson's day
the Cauliflower in Butcher Hall Lane was the sober

which held

its

symposium of Paternoster Row booksellers. Humdrum

clubs were composed of peaceable nobodies, who used to
meet at taverns, sit and smoke and say nothing. A
But Addison, who
few of these latter clubs survive.

knew something of the club

life

of his day, said

'
:

All

celebrated clubs were founded on eating and drinking,

which are points wherein most men agree, and in which

the learned and the

illiterate,

the dull and the airy, the

buffoon can all of them bear a part.'

philosopher and the
Just so, though not every club would acknowledge it
but the Beefsteakers boldly proclaimed their object in
;

LONDON SOUVENIRS

286
the

name they assumed

theirs

was the worship of beef-

steaks.

Now, chops and steaks are relics of barbarism, of ages

when men, having not as yet invented cooking apparatus,
made a fire between some stones, and laid their slices of
raw meat on the top, and ate them when half burnt
and blackened.
diluvian

Steaks done on a gridiron are ante-

enough, but mutton chops

undergoing

diffusing,

throughout the

this roasting process,

when
room

the stench of a tallow candle just blown out, are enough

to turn the stomach, not of the refined gourmet only,
but of the untutored savage. It is only custom which
enables the visitor to the grill-room to stand

its

effluvium,

and to eat the food placed before him. Steaks are not
so bad, because they have not the sickening smell of the
chop, and so they actually found a set of worshippers,
who formed themselves into a society to pay due adora-

Of

tion to their idol.

course, in this age of higher

and more widely diffused intelligence, such a

proceeding must appear to us not only childish, but
somewhat degrading it was, however, a phase of the
convivial life and tendency of the Georgian era, and as
culture

such

merits a

record

but

lest

we,

in

producing

should be suspected of sympathizing with it, we deem

necessary to preface it with the above remarks.

it,

it

The Beefsteak Club* was founded in the reign of

Anne, and was composed of the chief wits and great
'

men

of the nation,

who

were, however,

silly

enough to

* Not to be confounded with the Sublime

Society of Steaks,'
founded a few years after the club, and of which we shall speak
more fully presently as the more important of the two associa'

tions.

THE SUBLIME BEEFSTEAKERS

wear suspended from the neck by a green

silk

287
ribbon a

Dick
small gridiron of gold, the badge of the club.
of
called
and
landlord
a
tavern
the
Estcourt the player,

Bumper,

in

He

club.

Covent Garden, was made caterer of the

we are told, a man of good manners and

was,

of infinite wit, or of what in those days passed for wit,

though much of it at the present time would be declined

by the editor of the poorest comic paper.

how-

Steele,

The club first

ever, grows quite enthusiastic over him.
established itself at the sign of the Imperial Phiz, just
the famous conventicle in the Old Jewry ; here

opposite
the superintendent of the kitchen was wont to provide
several nice specimens of their beef-steak cookery.
1

Eventually the boys of Merchant Taylors School

were accustomed to regale the club on its nights of
1

'

meeting with uproarious shouts of Huzza, Beefsteak

But these attentions in course of time became irksome,
I

and the club withdrew to more quiet quarters, but

final fate is left in

its

Ned Ward, in his Secret

from whom we get our chief informa'

the dark.

History of Clubs,'
'
So
tion concerning the Beefsteak Club, simply says
are
and
have
healed
the
that now, whether they
breach,
:

again returned into the Kit-Kat community, whence

is

upon some disgust, they at

shan't presume to determine,

first

believed,

...

much

it

separated

but,

though

they are difficult to be found.''

The Beefsteak Society, or the ' Sublime Society of
1
Beefsteaks, as they chose to designate themselves,

they are

talked

of,

whilst severely objecting to be called a club, originated

with George Lambert, the scene-painter of Covent

Garden Theatre during Rich's management (1735),

where Lambert often dined from a steak cooked on the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

288

in his painting-room, in which he was frequently

joined by his visitors. This led to the foundation of
lire

Afterwards the
the society in a room in the theatre.
was
of
at
the
meeting
Shakespeare tavern in the
place
Piazza, and subsequently at the Lyceum, and on its
destruction by fire (1830), at the Bedford Hotel, and on
The
its being rebuilt in 1834, at the theatre again.

members used to meet on Saturdays, from November to

the end of June, to partake of a dinner of beefsteaks.

The room

in which they met was appropriately fitted

the
doors, wainscoting and roof, of English oak,
up,
with gridirons ; Lambert's original
ornamented
being

gridiron, saved from two fires, formed the chief ornament

in the centre of the ceiling.
Among the members of this society, restricted to

were George, Prince of Wales, and his

the Dukes of York and Sussex, Sheridan,

twenty-five,

brothers,

Lord Sandwich, Garrick, John Wilkes, the Duke of

Argyle, the Duke of Leinster, Alderman Wood, and
many other men of note. The club had its president
and vice-president, its bishop, who said grace, and its
the Dukes of Sussex
boots,'' as the steward was called
'

and Leinster
Its festivals

in their turn discharged the office of 'boots.''

were of a somewhat bacchanalian character

the chief liquors consumed were port and punch, and

fun, the more rampant the more relished, followed the

They had their bard, or laureate, Captain Morris,

who had been in the Life Guards. Here is a stanza of

feast.

one of his songs

'

Like Britain's island lies our steak,

A sea of gravy bounds it
;

Shallots, confusedly scattered,

The rockwork

make

that surrounds

it.

THE SUBLIME BEEFSTEAKERS

289

Your

isle's

best

Remember

emblem

there behold,

ancient story

Be, like jour grandsires, first and bold,

And live and die with glory.'

Now what

can we think of the literary taste then

when we are told
prevailing in the highest quarters,
that this song rendered Morris so great a favourite with
the Prince of Wales that he adopted him in the circle
of his intimate friends, and made him his constant guest
both at Carlton House and the Pavilion at Brighton ?

were lightly
Truly, in those days fame and distinction
earned
But does not our own time admire, or pretend
to admire, the jerky platitudes of a Tennyson, and the
!

jejune prose, cut up into measured lines, of a Browning

as poetry ?
By the society Morris was presented with
-1

bowl for his 'pottery.

In the decline of life and fortune Morris was hand-

an elegant

silver

Duke of
somely provided for by his fellow-steak, the
retreat
at
him
a
conferred
who
Norfolk,
charming
upon
Brockham in Surrey, which he lived to enjoy until the
year 1838, surviving his benefactor by twenty-three
merit were left to
years, whilst hundreds of men of real

and unrewarded. But

fight the battle of life unaided
those who amuse the idle hours of fools with foolish
nonsense are always more highly thought of than those

There is
instruct and impart useful knowledge.
more money spent at a State or Municipal banquet in
one evening than would suffice for maintaining a

who

scientific institution for

a whole year.

What

did the

Queen's Jubilee cost the nation, and what lastingbenefit has this extravagant expenditure conferred on

the nation

Of

all

this firework,

what remains but the

19

LONDON SOUVENIRS

290

and the burnt-out cartridge tubes?

Carlyle,
agree in few things, was right in what
he said about the aggregate of fools. But return we

sticks

with

to

whom we

the

'

sublime

Beefsteakers.

The

epithet

they

assumed reminds us that there is indeed but one step

from the sublime to the ridiculous. When a society,
formed for the mere purpose of gorging and swilling,
and howling drinking songs, the most stupid of all
'
songs, calls itself sublime, may we not ask, Where are
'
'
the Lofty Taters-all-'ot and the ' Exalted Tripe and
-1

Onioners

There were some queer members in the society. A

wealthy solicitor, named Richard Wilson, popularly
called Dick, having been to Paris, and not knowing a
word of French, praised French cookery, and said that
its utmost
perfection was seen in the way in which they
dished up a
rendezvous
he meant a ?is de veau.
asked
if
he
ate
Being
partridge in France, Dick said
'Yes, but he could not bear them served up in 'shoes'
he meant perdrix mix clioux. William Taylor, another
member, believed firmly that Stonehenge was formed
by an extraordinary shower of immense hailstones which
'

'

fell

two thousand years ago.

The

society,

we know,

claimed to be a literary society, and had actually offered

a prize of <400 for the best comedy. It had many

dramatic authors among its members. One of them

was Cobb, who, among other plays, wrote
Ramah
in
or
where
the
India,
Drug
drug
droog meaning
'

scene was laid, a hill-fort ;* he was complimented by his

* The tower known as
Severndroog on Shooter's Hill commemorates the taking of the fort of that name on the coast of

Malabar.

THE SUBLIME BEEFSTEAKERS

291

fellow-members on the happy titles he always chose for

'
What could be better for your last attempt
his pieces.
" Ramah
to ram a drug down the public throat than

But Arnold, a
admiration on
claim
to
Cobb's
rival dramatist, disputed
'
could he
said
worse
What
this account.
he,
title,'
Druo-"?"' said one of the Beefsteakers.

'

have chosen for

is

no

spirit in it

his

"Haunted Tower"?

from beginning to end

Why,

there

1
I

When

the Beefsteak Society was broken up in 1869,

the pictures of the former members, mostly copies, were

The plate, however, brought

sold for only about 10.
and
forks
the
;
table-spoons, all bearing the
high prices
club, a gridiron, fetched about a sovereign
a cheesethe
punch-ladle realized 14> 5s. ;
apiece ;
Oriental
an
i?12
toaster brought
6s.;
punch-bowl,
17 15s. Wine-glasses, engraved with the gridiron,

emblem of the

The actual gridiron,

sold for from 27s. to 34s. a pair.
Eulogies have
plain as it was, fetched 5 guineas.
been written on the society, as

if it

had been a

really

meritorious institution, and endless anecdotes are told,

of the members; but
chiefly illustrating the gluttony

such details are neither attractive in themselves nor

and we will not enter into
profitable to the reader,

We

of the
agree with Thackeray's estimate
was
too
'It
club-life of the last century:
hard, too
them.

All that fuddling and punch-drinkcoffee-house boozing, reduced the

ing, that club and
lives and enlarged the waistcoats of the men of that
coarse a

life.

But such were the convivial clubs of the past it

age.
is as well to see the other side of things.
Addison, in support of his assertion that all clubs
;

were founded on eating and drinking, says that the

192

LONDON SOUVENIRS

292

Kit-Kat Club itself is said to have taken its original

from mutton-pies. If he means its name, he is, as far
as can now be known, right
but if he means that its
object was the consumption of pies, as the consumption
of steaks was that of the Sublime Beefsteaks, he was
;

'

wrong.

The Kit-Kat was

'

the great

Whig

club

of

Queen Anne's time it consisted of the principal noblemen and gentlemen who had opposed the arbitrary
measures of James II., and was instituted about the
;

year 1700 for the purpose ostensibly of encouraging

literature and the fine arts, but really for promoting
loyalty and allegiance to the Protestant succession in
House of Hanover.
Among the forty -eight
members were the Dukes of Marlborough and New-

the

the Earls of Halifax, Dorset, and Wharton

Robert Walpole, John Vanbrugh, Richard Steele,
Samuel Garth, Godfrey Kneller; Addison, Congreve,
Pulteney, Walsh, and other persons, illustrious for rank
castle

Sirs

or talent.

The real founder of the club is said to have been

Jacob Tonson, the bookseller; he was for many years
their secretary, and, in fact, the very pivot upon which
Their meetings were originally
the society revolved.
held at a house in Shire Lane, close to
lane which in time

became infamous

Temple Bar, a

as the resort of

and ruffians of every kind, though in

had been fashionable. The house
previous years
was
where they met
kept by one Christopher Katt, a
pastrycook, famous for his mutton pies, which immortalized his name, since they became known by it,
thieves, rogues,

it

Kit being then a vulgar abbreviation of Christopher,

his surname, and from these pies the

and Katt being

THE SUBLIME BEEFSTEAKERS

293

name, the pies always forming part of its

It seems strange that with so simple a
bill of fare.
derivation the origin of the name Kit-Kat should have

club took

its

been unknown even to Pope or Arbuthnot it is unwho wrote

certain to whom the lines are attributable

Whence deathless Kit-Kat took his name

Few critics can unriddle
Some say from pastrycook it came,
:

And some from Cat and Fiddle.

From no trim beaus its name it boasts,
Grey statesmen or green wits,
But from this pell-mell pack of toasts,
Of old Cats and young Kits.'
Surely the

simply that of the pastrycook, Kit

Katt, given to his pies, and has no

name

(Christopher)

is

reference to old cats or

As

the

regards

Cookery,'' wrote
'

and

1700,

Dr.

pies,

kits or kittens.

his

King, in

'Art of

Immortal made

prologue to
the line

in the
is

young

'

as

Kit-Kat by

his pies

;'

The Reformed Wife, a comedy,

'

A Kit-Kat is a

supper for a

lord.'

Tonson had his own and the portraits of all the

members painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller each member
gave him his.* The canvas was 36 inches by 28 inches,
a hand, and the size is still
sufficiently long to show
;

known

as the Kit-Kat.

There were forty-two of those

were first hung up

portraits, and they
but Tonson in time removed them to
<s

They were

Faber.

all

in the club-room,

his country-house

engraved in mezzotinto by the younger

LONDON SOUVENIRS

294

at Barn Elms, where he built a handsome room for

their reception, and where the club frequently met.

At

death in 1736, Tonson left them to his greatnephew, also an eminent bookseller, who died in 1767.
his

The

paintings were then removed to the house of his

brother at Water-Oakley, near Windsor, and on his

death to the house of Mr. Baker, one of the sons of Sir

William Baker, who had married the elder of the two
daughters of old Tonson the house of this Mr. Baker
is called the Park, situate at
Hertingfordbury, where
they still remain.
;

As
Sir

regards the

Richard

room at Barn Elms

in

his

Phillips,
1
in 1816, gives

London to Kew,
to

'

referred to above,

Morning Walk from

an account of his

visit

it.

he says, brought me to Barn Elms, where

now resides a Mr. Hoare, a banker, of London. The
family were not at home, but on asking the servants if
that was the house of Mr. Tonson, they assured me,
with great naivete, that no such gentleman lived there.
'

'

lane,'

named the Kit-Kat Club

as

accustomed to assemble

here, but the oddity of the name excited their ridicule,

and I was told that no such club was held there but
;

perhaps, said one to the other, the gentleman means

the club that assembles at the public-house on the
common.
One of them exclaimed " I should not
.

wonder

the gentleman means the philosopher's room.''

11
"
"Aye, rejoined his comrade, I remember somebody
coming once before to see something of this sort, and
11
my master sent him there. I requested, then, to be
if

shown to this room, distinguished by so high an appellation, when I was conducted across a detached garden

THE SUBLIME BEEESTEAKEliS

and brought to a handsome erection
style of the early part of the

in the architectural

last

century, evidently

Kit-Kat Club

the establishment of the

295

The

man

unfastened the decayed door of the building, and

showed me the once elegant hall filled with cobwebs, a

and accumulated rubbish. On the right

the present proprietor had erected a copper, and converted one of the parlours into a wash-house.
The
door on the left led to a spacious and once superb stair-

fallen ceiling,

now

case,

in

even

deserted

lofty ceiling,

by the

spiders.

...

ascended the

found the Kit-Kat Club-room nearly

existed in its days of service.
It was about 18 feet

staircase

as

pendant cobwebs that

and which seemed to be

ruins, presenting

hung from the

it

here

The mouldings and

high, 40 feet long, and 20 wide.
ornaments were in the most superb fashion of the day,
but the whole was tumbling to pieces from the effects
of the dry rot.

The marks and

sizes

[of the

portraits] were still visible, and the numbers and names

remained as written in chalk for the guide of the

hanger.
hall

On

rejoining Mr. Hoare's man in the

me that his master intended to

below ... he told

pull [the

room] down.

Mr. Tonson's house had

a few years since been taken down."'

In
Pilgrimage from London
'

to

Woolstrope,
communicated to the Monthly Magazine of June, 1818,
the then home of the Kit-Kat Club pictures is thus
referred

to

magnificent

'I

reached

seat of

Hartingfordbury, and

Win, Baker, Esq.

They

the

Here

to the forty-two portraits of the Kit-

my homage
Kat Club, and found myself

paid

in a splendid

apartment.

[the portraits] are all in as fine a condition as

LONDON SOUVENIRS

296

I
though they had been painted but last year.
regretted, however, that the characteristic features are
lost or disguised by the enormous perukes which dis-

figured

whole

the

human countenance

looked

Tonson

in his

in

their age.

The

wiggery, and the portrait of

velvet cap was the only relief afforded
like

'

by the entire assemblage.

But even the Kit-Kat Club in time
'

Descended from

Down

its

high politic flavour,

to a sentimental toasting savour.'

Byron improved.

The

club

When
are

all

was

invaded

by

spirit

of

gallantry.

a number of fashionable gentlemen meet, politics

very well for a time horses will afford the next
;

subject of entertainment, but the women must come in

in the end.
And so the members of the Kit-Kat Club

custom of every year electing some

To the queen of the year
the members wrote epigrammatic verses, which were
established

the

reigning beauty as a toast.

etched with a diamond on the club glasses, or a separate

to her worship, and the lines

bowl was dedicated

Some of the most celebrated of the

had their pictures hung up in the club-room.
How Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, when only eight
years old, was introduced and declared the beauty of
the year, has often been told.
Of course, to our more
engraved thereon.

toasts

refined ideas of propriety the conduct of her father, the

Duke of Kingston, in thus thrusting his infant daughter

into the society of his roistering boon -companions,

cannot but appear as highly reprehensible.
Among
the more celebrated of the toasts were the four

THE SUBLIME BEEFSTEAKERS

297

Godoldaughters of the Duke of Marlborough Lady

Little
as
the
known
Sunderland,
generally
phin, Lady
:

Bridgewater, and Lady Monthermer.

Mrs.
Swift's friend,
Long, and the niece of Sir Isaac
Others were the Duchesses
were
two
others.
Newton

Whig, Lady

of Bolton, St. Albans,

Richmond and Beaufort;

Lady Molyneux, who, Walpole

also

smoking a

says, died

pipe.

We

will

conclude our account of this club with a few

stray notes.
Three o'clock in the

morning seems to have been no

Addison
for the club to break up.
Steele usually got drunk, so did Dr. Garth, the

uncommon hour
and

poet laureate of the club, wherefore a Tory lampooner

said that at this club the youth of Anne's reign learned
1

To

sleep

away the

When Tonson

days,

and drink away the

had gone to

nights.'

at Barn Elms, the

meetings at his house.

live

members generally held their

summer they would resort to the Upper Flask
but this practice did
tavern, near Hampstead Heath
In the

not continue long

home

after

getting
Flask eventually

there was too

strong
a

much

potations.

difficulty in

The Upper

private house, and was

celebrated critic and
the
occupied by George Steevens,
The
Club died out
Kit-Kat
till his death.
antiquary,

became

before the year 1727, and we now take leave of it.

have given accounts of a purely convivial, of a
literary and artistic, and now will shortly describe a

We

purely political club, of which, however, but little

known, namely, the Rota. It took its name from
object,

is

its

namely, to promote the changing of certain

LONDON SOUVENIRS

298

Members of Parliament annually by

It held

rotation.

meetings at the Turk's Head, otherwise known as

Miles" Coffee-house, in New Palace Yard, not far from

its

the residence of James Harrington, which was in the

Little Ambry (Almonry), looking into the Dean's yard.

was founded

1659 for the dissemination of republican ideas, which Harrington had glorified in his
Oceana, and for resisting Cromwell's attempt to do
without a Parliament and to establish an undisguised

It

in

'

The republicans took the alarm,

military despotism.
and formed themselves into a debating society, says the
Royalist

Anthony Wood,

to discuss the best form of

government. Their discourses, according to this author,

of ordering a commonwealth were the most ingenious
and smart ever heard, for the arguments in the Parliament House were flat to these.
This gang had a
the room was every evening very
balloting box
full.
Beside James Harrington and Henry Nevil, who
.

were the prime

men

of the club, were Cyriac Skinner,

Major Wildman, Roger Coke, author of the 'Detection

of the Four Last Reigns, William Petty and Maximilian Petty, and a great many others.
The doctrines
were very taking, and the more so because to human
foresight there was no possibility of the King's return.
1

The

greatest of the Parliament

and balloting,

men hated

this rotation

as being against their power.

Henry

Nevil proposed it to the House ; the third part of the

House should vote out by ballot every year, and not

be re-eligible for three years to come, so that every

ninth year the Senate would be wholly changed. No
magistrate was to continue above three years, and all
were to be chosen by a sort of ballot.

It

is

probable

THE SUBLIME BEEFSTEAKERS

that Milton

was a member of

the

Rota;

299

Aubrey

belonged to it in 1659. After the death of Cromwell

the Rota gave great publicity to its proceedings, and
acquired a high reputation for learning, talent, and
eloquence, so that it became a question whether it were
more honourable to belong to the Rota or the Society
of Virtuosi, which had been designated by Boyle in
The
1646 'the Invisible or Philosophical Society/
members of the Rota threw into the teeth of their

they had an excellent faculty of magnifying

a louse and diminishing a commonwealth. Charles II.,
who was a virtuoso himself, avenged this taunt by erectrivals that

ing, in 1664, the Virtuosi into the

the

dispersing

Royal Society, by

members of the Rota, and

exiling

Harrington for life to the island of St. Nicholas, near

Plymouth but he was afterwards released on bail, and
;

died at his house in the

in 1677.

Almonry

The

state-

ment that the Royal Society was established for

political reasons, though it has often been contradicted,
would thus seem not to be without foundation. In the
third canto of the second part of
is said to be
'.

.as

As Rota-men

'

Hudibras,"' Sidrophel

full of tricks,

of politicks.'

XIX.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE AND

I.

npHE
*

Hampton

ITS MASTERS.

Court Palace.

London are very beautiful, and

of scenic and architectural contrasts.
Let

environs of

full

us render our exact

meaning clear by taking two
To the north of London

of the most striking contrasts.

lies the vast
expanse of

Hampstead Heath, a locality

charms due to Nature alone, whilst to the
south of London we have
Hampton Court, which all
famous

for

the arts of the highest civilization and noblest

genius

have for centuries striven to invest with a

grandeur and
loveliness found in few other
spots.
Painting and
sculpture, architecture and horticulture, have here
found their grandest exponents, and Time, which alone
could do it, has added thereto the
dignity of historic
interest

and the fascination of romantic associations.

are the rooms and halls, the corridors and

Not only

courtyards of the palace, artistic caskets in themselves,

And how
they are filled with treasures of art.
easily

can imagination re-people these now

usually deserted
chambers and passages, and with the mind s eye see

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

301

men who
again the famous and sometimes infamous
here disported themselves, the charming lovely
and
sometimes the reverse
lofty

beauty,

demeanour, dangerous and bewitching glances, led

men

those
tion

women, whose dazzling

But that imaginais

not
an
accurate knowledge of
this,
only
needed, but also of the historic occurrences

to fortune or the scaffold.

may do

the localities

which have taken place therein, wherefore our account

Hampton Court Palace, which we have undertaken
to give in a necessarily condensed form, will after
of

describing the structure architecturally record, briefly

the events it has been the scene of.

also,

We

assume the

local

position of the Palace to be

sufficiently well known, and therefore not necessary to

be described. It has, not inappropriately, been called

the St. Cloud of Londoners.

the Confessor

In the time of

Hampton Manor belonged

Edward

to Earl Algar,

a powerful Saxon nobleman, and its value then was

estimated at i?40 per annum.
After the Norman Conquest

it

is

Walter de

in Doomsday Book as held

by
who probably gave the advowson

mentioned
St. Valeri,

of the living to the Priory of Takeley, in Essex, which

was a cell to the Abbey of St. Valeri, in Picardy ; from
the port adjoining it William the Conqueror sailed for

Hampton Manor subsequently became the

property of Sir Robert Gray, whose widow in 1211 left
by her will the whole manor and the manor-house of
England.

site of the present Hampton Court

the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of
Jerusalem, whose chief residence in England was the
Hospital of St. John, Clerkenwell, and of which now

Hampton, the

Palace, to

nothing

but

the

gate

remains.

The

manor thus

LONDON SOUVENIRS

302

It comprised
bequeathed was of enormous extent.
its boundaries the lesser manors of Kingstonon-Thames, Walton Legh, Byflete, Weybridge, East

within

and West Moulsey, Sandon, Weston, Innworth, Esher,

Oatlands, together with the manors of Hampton, Hanworth, Eeltham, Teddington, and even Hounslow
Heath.
Tradition says that Cardinal Wolsey, at the summit
of his power, was desirous of building a palace suitable
to his rank ; but he was equally desirous of enjoying
health and long life, and employed the most eminent
physicians in England, and even called in the aid of
learned doctors from Padua, to select the most healthy

They agreed
spot within twenty miles of London.
that the parish of Hampton was the most healthy soil,
and the springs

in

Coombe Wood, south

of

Richmond

Park, the purest water within the limits assigned to

their researches.
Upon this report the Cardinal

bargained for a lease with the prior of St. John of

Jerusalem, and the following is a precis of the lease as
still

and

extant in the Cottonian

MS.

in the British

Museum,

published in the Gentleman's Magazine for

1834.
January,
The indenture was made between Sir Thomas
first

Docwra, prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem

and his brethren knights of the one part, and Cardinal
Wolsey, Primate of England, of the other part. It
granted a lease of ninety-nine years, to date from

January 12, 1514, to Cardinal Wolsey at a yearly rent

of ^oO, the lessee agreeing to the usual covenants of a
If the rent should remain unpaid
repairing lease.
whole
two
during
years, the lessors to have the right

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

303

of re-entry, and a new lease to be granted for another

ninety-nine years should such be desired by the lessee.

The

not foresee the future, which would, by

put an end to all their lease-granting.

lessors did

force majeure,
As soon as

Wolsey had obtained the

lease,

he pulled

which hitherto a prior

down the old
and a few knights had been accommodated, and began
erecting in a style of grandeur, heretofore unsurpassed
in this country, a mansion of unparalleled magnificence.
manor-house, in

But who was this Wolsey ?

A most unmitigated villain, on a par with that other
villain, Henry VIII. whose master, through being his
,

pimp, he was for a time, till, in perfect accordance with

I
his character, he became his abject whining slave.

am

it is not usual to apply such a term

a
as villain to
King or his chief adviser courtly
historians have flowery terms for the crimes of Kings

well aware that

Fathers-in-God, who
misuse the powers foolish nations have entrusted them
with to the vilest purposes but the spirit of justice,
1

by the 'grace of God, and holy

'

which directs thinking and logical minds,

flimsy arguments of sycophantic apologists
have Nero whitewashed.

Thomas Wolsey was born

He

rejects the
it will not

at Ipswich in March, 1471.

who also possessed some

was the son of a butcher,

land,

and was

sufficiently well off to

send his son to the

In those days the chief and

University of Oxford.
easiest avenue to distinction, office, and wealth was

through the Church, and Thomas appears to have been

an apt scholar, for at fourteen years of age he was
Bachelor of Arts, and thence was called the Boy
He soon after became Master of Arts, and
Bachelor.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

304

had charge of the school adjoining Magdalen College,

where he educated the three sons of Thomas Grey,
Marquis of Dorset, who presented him in 1500 to the
This was indeed a rapid rise
rectory of Lymington.
for the son of a butcher.
But he had not long resided
on his benefice when Sir Amias Paulet, a justice of the
peace, set him in the stocks for being drunk and making
a disturbance at a

was mean

the neighbourhood.
Wolsey
enough to take a cruel revenge for this
fair in

punishment, which, no doubt, he richly deserved, and

which must at the time have been approved by the

community,
set

for it was

no

trifling

a rector in the stocks.

thing in those days to

When Wolsey

was Lord

Chancellor he sent for Sir Amias, and after a severe

jobation confined him for six years in that part of the

and Wolsey "s

and afterwards was Nando's, a famous coffee-

Temple which long passed

palace,

for

Henry

VIII.

Wolsey compelled Paulet to almost entirely

When Wolsey^ patron, the Marquis
of Dorset, died, the former looked out for new means

house.

rebuild the house.

He
to push his fortunes, for his avarice was boundless.
into
himself
admitted
the
family of
accordingly got
Henry Dean, Archbishop of Canterbury

but that

he found means of ingratiating

prelate dying
himself with Sir John Nanfan, treasurer of Calais, who
being weakened by age and other infirmities, committed
in 1502,

the direction of his post to Wolsey, who by his recommendation was made one of the King^ chaplains, and

1506 was instituted to the rectory of Redgrave, in

But it was on the accession of
had
the
he
VIII.
that
opportunity of developing
Henry

in

the diocese of Norwich.

his ambitious

and covetous schemes by the

vilest

means.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

He recommended

305

himself to the King's favour by adapt-

ing himself to his capricious temper and vicious inclinations, acting as his

debaucheries.

the

King

And

that

Richard Empson

pimp, and participating in all his

so well did he play his cards with

shortly

after

the

executed with

of

attainder

his coadjutor

Sir

Dudley

1510, nominally for extortion, but really because

that extortion was not practised on the King's behalf,
but on their own shortly after this attainder the King

in

conferred on Wolsey a grant of several lands and tenements in the parish of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, which

by the knight's forfeiture devolved to the Crown. In

the grant Wolsey is styled counsellor and almoner to
In the same year he was presented by his
the King.
royal master to the rectory of Torrington, in the diocese
of Exeter.
Early in the following year he was made a

Canon of Windsor and Registrar of the Order of the

In 1512 he was advanced by Archbishop

Garter.

Bambridge to the prebend of Bugthorp,

in the

church

of York, of which afterwards he also was made a Dean.

In 1513 he attended the King in his expedition to
France, who committed to him the direction of the

and provisions to be made for the army a

which Wolsey knew how to turn
profitable concession,
On the taking of Tournay
to his own good account.
made
VIII.
Wolsey Bishop of that city, and not
Henry
supplies

long after Bishop of Lincoln. In 1814, on the death

of Cardinal Bambridge, he was translated to the ArchThe utter recklessness with which
bishopric of York.
the King bestowed on one man so many high offices,
the duties of which from their very multiplicity must

be totally neglected by this one man, this recklessness

20

LONDON SOUVENIRS

306

of ecclesiastical dignities and emoluments on an upstart whose moral character was of the
vilest in every respect, and openly known to be such,
was only equalled by the greed and vanity of the
But Fortune had greater favours yet in
recipient.
In September, 1515, he was, by the
store for him.

in the bestowal

two Kings of England and France, made

Cardinal of St. Cecilia, and in December of the same
year Lord Chancellor of England, which dignity had
been resigned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who
interest of the

resented the arrogance

of,

and the powers conferred on,

The Archbishop's

resignation led to the

the other great officers of the Crown,
and thus Wolsey became absolute master of the situation, and whilst he was really carrying out his own

Wolsey.

retirement of

all

schemes, he had the address to persuade the King,

jealous of his own power, that he was only blindly
executing his royal master's behests and wishes. The
position of England between the Emperor and the
King of France rendered Henry VIII. to some extent

the arbitrator of Europe.

Wolsey cleverly exploited
the situation ; he first secured the goodwill of Francis I.
of France by restoring to him, in 1516, Tournay,
But
receiving in return an annuity of 12,000 livres.
the Pope was the most anxious to secure the Minister's
friendship,

and

therefore, after the recall of Cardinal

Campeggio, made Wolsey his Legate a

Latere, or Extrawhich
raised
him to the rank
ordinary Envoy,
virtually
of Pope of England.
Though Wolsey's income was
from
tremendous
the various bishoprics and
already

other high

offices

he held, and the presents and pensions

he received from foreign princes, the Pope granted him

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

307

an annuity of 7,500 ducats on the bishoprics of Toledo

and Placentia. With Wolsey "s increase of power rose
his arrogance, his covetousness,

and

his love of ostenta-

His revenues
the beggar was put on horseback.
almost exceeded those of the Crown ; the splendour
tion

displayed in his
of many Kings.
as

When,

living was greater than that

after the election of Charles V.

Emperor of Germany, the

Francis

I.,

his side.

the

mode of

three

latter

quarrelled

with

each endeavoured to draw the Cardinal to

In 1520 he arranged an interview between
Sovereigns, but at last sided with the

Emperor, who granted him an annuity of 7,000 ducats,

and held out to him the prospect of the Papal crown.
After having, in 1521, attempted at Calais a reconciliation between Henry VIII. and Francis I., he entered
into a secret treaty with the Emperor, according to
which the English King was to declare war against
The death of Leo X. and the subsequent
France.

Hadrian VI. to the Papal dignity almost led

Emperor but the
latters promise that after old Hadrian's death he would
certainly procure him the Papal crown satisfied Wolsey,

election of

to a breach between him and the

especially as the Emperor added 2,500 ducats to the

former annuity, and gave him besides another of 9,000
In
dollars in gold for his loss of the French pension.

1522 Henry VIII. commenced the war against his

and devastating France.
ally by entering
find
for this war, he had
to
money
Wolsey having
recourse to financial oppression, which roused the inBut at the new
dignation of the English people.
saw
in
1523
himself again
election
Wolsey
Papal
him
which
induced
to
lead
the King to
passed over,

former

202

LONDON SOUVENIRS

308

take the part of Francis L,

Henry

who was then a

prisoner.

VIII. had to retire from the war, to enter in

1525 into an

alliance with the

French Regency, for

Wolsey received a present of 100,000

crowns, and in 1528 to declare war against the Emperor.
Thus the proud and blustering Henry VIII. became the
mere tool of an ambitious and disappointed priest, who
used him and the resources of England to avenge the
last Papal
slight the Emperor had put upon him at the
which

service

After the peace of Cambray in 1529, Wolsey

was on the summit of his power, but also terribly near
election.

to his

fall.

At

first

he had, from hatred of her nephew,

Charles V., not opposed the King's desire to obtain a

divorce from Catherine of

Aragon

but when he found

that the King wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, he disapproved of the divorce, as he feared that Anne's
relatives

might endanger

his

position

at Court.

In

the King's orders, he indeed for some

on
the suit, but grew less zealous when he
time urged
found that the Pope himself, out of consideration for
obedience to

the Emperor, was against the divorce.

Henry VIII.
looked upon the delay as due to the intrigues of
Wolsey, in which opinion he was strengthened by

Anne
for it

Boleyn, who had a special reason to hate him,

was through him that her marriage with young

Percy, a member of Wolsey's establishment,

of
the many scions of the nobility who were
one

Lord

of the Cardinal, had been

placed under the guidance
broken off. When Anne, who had been dismissed the

Court, after her recall found it necessary to augment

her rising influence over the King to dissemble, and
therefore treated Wolsey with the greatest outward

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

respect, she secretly took

the dislike

309

every opportunity to foster

it was her

Henry had taken to him, and

underhand influence which hastened

his downfall,

and

'

not reasons of statecraft, as philosophical historians

would have us believe. Long before the catastrophe
Wolsey, who had not failed to notice that the brutal
tyrant's favourable sentiment stowards his minion were

on the wane, had tried to conciliate the King by presenting Hampton Court to him in 1526; but the gift
had not been one of love, but of fear and despair, and
the chief cause of the surrender, according to tradition,
was the fol lowing:
:

The
fool

King's fool was paying a visit to the Cardinal's

for both the King and the Cardinal were such

fools themselves as to find pleasure in the gabbling of

and the couple went down into the
professional fools

wine vaults.

For fun one of them stuck a dagger into

the top of a cask, and, to his surprise, touched someThe fools thereupon
thing that gave a metallic sound.
set to work, got the head of the cask out, and found it
to be full of gold pieces.
Other casks, by the sound,
indicated that they held wine.
The King's fool stored

fact in his memory, and one day when the King

was boasting about his wine, the fool said, You have
not such wine as my Lord Cardinal, for he has casks in

up the

'

his cellar

worth a thousand broad pieces each

he told what he had discovered.

Whether

;'

and then

this be true

or not, it is certain that Wolsey was awake to the fact

that he was losing his power over the King, and so he
threw him the magnificent sop of his palace, which,

the King was determined

however, did not save him
to be rid of him. In October, 1529, the Great Seal was
;

LONDON SOUVENIRS

310

demanded of him,

his palace at

Whitehall and

all

his

goods were seized for the King's use, and he was ordered
to retire to his palace at Esher.
The King, indeed,
his
and
that he should
promised Wolsey
protection,
continue to hold the bishoprics of York and Winchester.

As Wolsey was

travelling towards Esher, he was overtaken by a messenger from the King, who brought him
that comfortable assurance, whereupon the Cardinal

dismounted from

his mule, knelt down, and blessed the

on
which
he
had received so gracious a message
ground
and to show his gratitude to his King, he made him
a present of what do you think?
his fool.
Had

Wolsey

in his disgrace

shown any manliness or dignity

of character, we might think that this present to the

'
King was kinder sarcastic," intimating that a fool was
1

about the only individual fit to be Henry's companion,

and whom he could appreciate. But from Wolsey's
conduct during the closing years of his life, we cannot
him credit for so much wit and moral courage as
the attempt to give the King such a hint would have

give

implied, and

we must therefore assume that the gift

and as in those days it was con-

was a bond fide one

sidered the proper thing for great people to associate

with fools, and take delight in their forced and artificial
jokes, too poor for a halfpenny comic paper of the

present day, there was nothing extraordinary in the

it highly compligift, and no doubt the King thought

mentary to himself. But however favourably the King

might at certain moments feel disposed towards Wolsey,
and though, from his influence in the country as head
of the Church, it was necessary to go to work cautiously,
his ruin was determined on.
Parliament, which, after

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

311

an interval of seven years, was allowed to reassemble in

1529, impeached him by a charge of forty-four articles,
relating chiefly to the exercise of his legatine power
contrary to law, and the scandalous irregularities of his
life.

The impeachment

but when

passed the House of Lords ;

came to the House of Commons it was

it

by the energy and address of Thomas

Cromwell, who had been his servant, so that no treason
could be fixed upon him.
He remained in his retire-

effectually defeated

ment at Esher

until

about Easter, 1530, when he was

ordered

to repair to his diocese of York, where, in

November of the same year, he was arrested by the

Earl of Northumberland for high treason, and committed to the custody of the Lieutenant of the Tower,

who had

orders to bring

mind that he

affected his

him to London.
fell

This so

sick at Sheffield, in the

Earl of Shrewsbury's house, whence, by short stages, he

went as far as Leicester, where he is said to have taken
poison, which no one knowing his really pusillanimous
character will believe ; however, he died on November 29,

1530, and was buried in the Abbey of Leicester. The

words attributed to him as his last utterances, that if

he had served

God

as he

had served

his

King, he would

not be thus forsaken, were false in substance and contemptible in form. He never served the King but when

own purposes, and a mean-spirited coward

would
have
attributed his fall to such a cause. He
only
fell most ignominiously, without even an attempt of
it

served his

resistance against the King's arbitrary decrees, without

a struggle to reassert his former ascendancy over his

But probably the ascendancy was irreroyal master.
coverable

he had himself resigned

it

when he

sur-

LONDON SOUVENIRS

312

rendered his palace of Hampton Court to Henry in an

access of cowardly panic
and no ascendancy which is
;

not moral or intellectual ever has any vitality in it, and

that of Wolsey over the King had never been any other

than that of the practised debauchee over the unpractised

one. Wolsey was Henry's senior by twenty years. When
the pupil had become as depraved as his teacher, he
required his assistance no longer, and in moments of
reflection, which come to the most frivolous, he must

have felt how debased such teaching had been, and the
greater its iniquity the greater the pupil's abhorrence
of the instructor, whose constant presence must act as
a perpetual reproach when the orange is sucked dry, the
;

shapeless husk becomes an offensive object to look at.

Cardinal Wolsey is credited with a love of learning

and schemes to promote

it,

as his foundation of a college

now

Christ Church, which, however, he only

But
partly accomplished, and his school at Ipswich.
these were not so much establishments to advance learnat Oxford,

ing as to support and glorify the Church, of which he

was the chief pillar and personal representative, and

which therefore it was his pride and interest to strengthen

and exalt, even at some personal sacrifice.
Such was the man who built the palace of Hampton
Court, to the description and history of which we must

now

proceed.
stated above that immediately on having entered
into possession of the estate, Wolsey pulled down the

We

ancient manor-house

early in

1515 he began the new

All researches have failed to bring to light

buildings.
the architect employed by the Cardinal.
The name of

James Bettes occurs

as master of the works, as also that

of Nicholas Townley as chief comptroller, and that of

HAMPTON CO CRT PALACE

313

Laurence Stubbes, paymaster of the works, and that of

Henrv Williams, surveyor but probably the design
of Hampton Court must be attributed to Wolsey him;

self, who had the examples of other mediaeval prelatic

builders to guide him. In fact, we are inclined to think
that the entrance to the first court was somewhat of an

imitation of the centre of Esher Place, on the river

Mole, a building erected by William of Waynfleet,

Bishop of Winchester, in 1447. Of this building nothing

now remains but the two octagonal towel's of the centre,
just as the gateway of Wolsey's college at Ipswich only
remains, which also bears a striking resemblance to that

of Esher Place.

One

of the distinguishing features of Wolsey's palace

Hampton Court was that it did not present to the
beholder a moat,* a drawbridge, or loopholes, or frownat

ing battlements or watch-towers, without which up to

that time no nobleman had thought of erecting a

mansion. Wolsev. beino- a Churchman, naturally selected

the monastic style, and the first and second courts, all
that remains of Wolsey 's original building, display it
in all its picturesque features.
At present the palace
consists of three courts, the

two just

referred to,

and

the third, built by William III., comprising the buildOn the north
ings surroundino; the Fountain Court.
side of the palace there are a number of minor courts
and passages, around which are grouped domestic offices,
stables, and other dependencies of a large mansion.

And

here by way of interscript, though the reader

seen that we hold Cardinal Wolsey "s character

may have

* In Law's
'History of Hampton Court Palace' we are told
moat surrounded the whole of the palace, but Hollar's

that a

view of

it

(temp.

Henry

Till.) shows no indication of one.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

314
as a

Churchman

in but slight estimation, we must

give
credit for proofs of aesthetic
culture, which was
unusual in his age, when even the most affluent nobles

him

of the land lived in a state of rude habits and surroundAt the conclusion of the reign of Henry VII.
ings.
the annual expenses of the
powerful family of Percy
exceeded
the
sum
of
scarcely
^1,100. The furniture of

even princely households was coarse and comfortless;

homely plenty and stately reserve in their entertainments was the rule. The love of
pomp and refined
pleasure must have been acquired by Wolsey through
his visits and residences abroad, and
though he indulged
in both from
personal inclination and political
purpose,

whatever his motive, his practice led to the amelioration of national taste and manners favourable to the

yet,

growth of art and the development and advance of

home industries. His palace became an example of an
interior arrangement suited to liberal,
polished, and
dignified entertainment.

the im-

It afforded hints for

Till then the

provement of domestic architecture.
attainment of security had been the chief object of the

builder; the times having become less turbulent, the

external and internal embellishment and comfort of the

mansion, no longer a mere castle, became the ruling

principle, and Wolsey led the way in these improve-

ments in the palace he built at Hampton.

Originally, as Camden and Hentzner
were

five

courts.

and the palace

is

Camden

calls

them

assert, there
'

'

courts,
traditionally said to have extended

large

further towards the east, but this is

very doubtful ;
probably the ground-plan of the palace now embraces
as

much

space as

it

did at any time.

As

stated above,

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

it

now

consists of three courts

315

but there are several

minor courts appertaining to parts of the original

structure, and it is possible that Camden, when he
called the courts large, had the really large ones in his
mind, and that Hentzner, the German traveller, who
visited England in 1598, and greatly admired all he

saw amongst
as to

The

us,

included them in his enumeration, so

bestows on the palace.

justify the eulogy he

being very numerous [there are

in the palace], are adorned
rooms
about
1,000
altogether
with tapestry of gold, silver, and velvet, in some of
'

rooms,''

he

'

said,

which were woven history pieces in others, Turkish and

In one
Armenian dresses, all extremely natural.
chamber are several excessively rich tapestries, which
are hung up when the Queen [Elizabeth] gives audience
;

All the walls of the palace

to foreign ambassadors.
shine with gold and silver.
Here is likewise a certain
1

'

Paradise, where, besides that everything

so
with
silver, gold, and jewels as to dazzle
glitters
one's eyes, there is a musical instrument made all of
cabinet, called

glass except

the strings.

most splendid,

The

chapel

of this

which the Queen's closet is

palace
windows of crystal.
its
quite transparent, having
In her bedchamber the bed was covered with very costly
is

in

coverlids of silk.

At no

great distance from this room

tester of which was worked

we were shown a bed, the

by Anne Boleyn, and presented by her to her husband,

Henry VIII. ... In the hall are these curiosities a
very clear looking-glass, ornamented with columns and
:

images of alabaster a portrait of

the true
brother to Queen Elizabeth
little

VI.,

portrait of
a picture of the battle of Pavia ; the history
;

Lucretia

Edward

316

LONDON SOUVENIRS

of Christ's passion, carved in mother-of-pearl; the

the picture of
portrait of Mary Queen of Scots
;

Ferdinand, Prince of Spain, and of Philip, his son ;

that of Henry VIII., under which was placed the Bible,
curiously written upon parchment an artificial sphere ;
;

In the tapestry are represented negroes riding upon elephants the bed in which
Edward VI. is said to have been born, and where his
several musical instruments.

Grotius
mother, Jane Seymour, died in childbed.
(b. 1583, d. 1645) also described it as the most splendid
palace in Europe.
Says he 'If e'er a Briton what is
:

wealth don't know, let him repair to Hampton Court,

and then view all the palaces of the earth, when he will
" Those are the residences of
Kings, but this of
say
'
the gods."
The above descriptions, of course, apply to a period
posterior to the occupation of the palace by Wolsey,
:

but we

shall presently see

how

great was

its

splendour

in the days of the Cardinal, before the alterations made

by Henry VIII., who wished as much as possible to

extinguish Wolsey 's memory ; but the old dark-red

brick walls, with still darker lines of bricks in diamond

shapes running along them, the mixture of Gothic

archways and square mullioned windows, the turrets

and cupolas, and tall twisted and cross-banded chimneys

of the first and second courts, all belong to the period
of Wolsey.
Let us enter these courts.

The usual approach to the palace is from the west.

Here on the right and left are seen ranges of subordinate chambers and domestic offices, which, it would
seem, appear formerly to have taken a wider circuit

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

than at present, as on

Hampton Court Green

317
are

many

The
coeval buildings, including a handsome gateway.
kitchens with their dependent offices were on the north
where they still remain, and are
avenues
and suitable passages, communiwith
provided
The
with
the
great hall and principal rooms.
cating
is
a
handsome
entrance to this office range
by
plain but
side of the palace,

gateway

in the western front, to the left of the chief

gateway, which gives admittance to the first court.

This gateway, built of brick, with stone embellishments, has over the portal a bay-window, adorned with
the royal arms, and divided by mullioned compartments
This central division of the
into two series of lights.

The gateway
west front is flanked by octagon towers.
was originally provided with fine oak gates these were
for many years put aside as lumber, but have lately
;

been rehung, after undergoing careful repair.

They
are of massive dimensions, are ornamented with the
usual linen-fold pattern, and are evidently of Wolsey's
Their outer face is pierced with shot and bullet
time.
holes,

which

may have been

occasioned during the

when

fighting was going

on outside the palace between the Cavaliers and Roundheads, or, as has been suggested, the holes may have

skirmishes in the civil wars,

been made through the gates having been set up as

of Hampton.
Before then
targets for the villagers

bows and arrows were the arms used

in war,

but

it

appears that during the great rebellion the practice of

archery fell into disrepute. However, at the restoration
II. the noble sport was again revived
in
1682 the Finsbury archers marched to Hampton Court,
and there, in front of the palace, shot for prizes.

of Charles

LONDON SOUVENIRS

318
Charles

II. patronized their exercise

by his presence,
but the day being rainy, after staying for about two
hours he was obliged to quit the field.
There is

nothing new under the sun a modern military commander stopped a review on account of the rain
He
should have taken an example by the British workman,
;

who

scorns to carry an umbrella, whilst

mason or carpenter never goes to

his

the foreign

work without one

should the day look threatening.

Through the portal just mentioned you enter the
first or entrance court, which is 167 feet 2 inches from

north to south, and 162 feet 7 inches from east to west.

On the west side of this court is a bay-window, corresponding in character with that over the west front
of the arched entrance, and, like that, enriched with the
royal arms ; on the turrets are placed the initials E.R.
Over the portal in the centre is a bay-window of considerable beauty, with octangular towers on each side,
face of the towers are introduced busts of

and on the

Roman

emperors in terra cotta, which had been sent to

Cardinal Wolsey by Leo X. On the left is seen the
western end of the Great Hall, which here has a broad

and richly designed window. In this court also are

rooms appropriated to families who have obtained small
Government pensions.

Through a groined archway,

finely

ornamented, we

pass to the second or middle, or Clock

This court is somewhat smaller than

Tower
the

court.

former,

measuring 133 feet from north to south, and about

100 feet from east to west. The exterior of the buildings surrounding this court appears to have experienced
The
little alteration since the days of the founder.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

319

The eastern side

general effect of this court is superb.
comprises a third portal, flanked with octangular turrets,
is of
greater richness than the preceding fronts.
the face of each turret are again introduced busts
Some repairs were effected in this
of the Caesars.

and

On

by George II. in 1732, as is signified by an

On the north side is the
inscription on the exterior.
Great Hall. Wolsey had projected it it formed so
division

important a feature in the design of the mansion, that

the exterior walls may safely be ascribed to the Cardinal,

but he did not

not completed

live
till

to finish the work

the interior was

1536, by Henry VIII.

It

is

106

feet

The roof is elaborately

long, 40 wide, and 60 high.
carved.
There are seven large windows on one side
and

six

end.

on the other, with a large window at each

bay-window on the dais, extending from the

upper part of the wall nearly to the

floor,

contributes

greatly to the cheerful aspect of the hall. The window

at the eastern end is an oriel window, divided into com-

There was formerly a

lantern in the roof, but, for some reason unexplained,
it was removed ; the
compartment, however, whence it
partments by mullions of stone.

Near the east end of the

springing remains.
the withdrawing room, of noble dimensions, and
displaying externally, as well as internally, more of the
took

hall

its

is

character of the ancient structure than any other

of equal extent throughout the palace.

room

highly interesting object in this court is the

astronomical clock in the tower and gateway giving
access to the third court.
The original clock was,

according to a notice engraved on the wrought-iron

framework, put up in 1540 by N. O. Who is meant

LONDON SOUVENIRS

320

initials is quite unknown.

It was, till its
the
oldest
clock
in
that
removal,
England
kept pretty

by these

From an

entry mentioned in Wood's

and Watches, we learn that a
payment was made in 1575 to one George Gaver,

correct time.
'

Curiosities of Clocks

'

'

for painting the great dial at

Palace, containing hours of the day
and night, the course of the sun and moon. 1 No doubt

painter,

serjeant

Hampton Court

Gaver decorated the dial -plate many clockmakers

must have repaired and altered the works. In 1649 a
In 1711 it
striking part had been added to the works.

since

was found that

in

consequence of the removal of certain

wheels and pinions, probably by ignorant or careless

workmen, the clock could not for a long time past have

performed
have been
in

the

functions correctly.

its

It

seems indeed to

Somewhere
neglected for many years.
thirties of this century G. P. R. James, the
left

novelist, addressed a

poem

of eleven

to the

stanzas

Old Clock without Hands at Hampton Court.

The
first and last stanzas we reproduce, not for their merit,
but because apposite to our subject
'

'

Memento

of the bygone hours,

recall alone the past ?

Dost thou

*****

Why

stand'st thou silent midst these towers,

still flies so fast ?

Where time

'

The future ? Yes at least to me

Thus plainly thus thy moral stands
Good deeds mark hours
Let not life be
!

dial

without hands

!'

In 1835 the works of the old clock were removed,

but what became of them is not known ; probably they

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

321

A new clock was put

of
1880
and
on
the
removal
in
there was found
this
up,
this inscription on the works: 'This clock, originally
made for the Queen's Palace in St. James Park, and
were sold for old brass and iron.

many years in use there, was a.d. 1835, by command

of His Majesty King William IV., altered and adapted
to suit Hampton Court Palace by B. L. Vulliamy, clockfor

maker to the King and on another plate on the clock

Vulliamy, London, No. 352, a.d. 1799.' Vulliamy's
address was 74, Pall Mall, which was then the first
:

house at the south-western end of the

street,

next to

the entrance-gates to Marlborough House. The motive

power of this clock had evidently not been sufficient to
drive in addition the asti-onomical dial, and the useless

had been taken down and stowed away in a workshop in the palace, the gap left being filled by a painted
board. This antiquated timepiece was entirely removed,
and in 1880 a new clock erected by Messrs. Gillett and
Bland, which shows not only the hours of the day and
night, but also the day of the month, the motion of
the sun and moon, the age of the moon, its phases and
quarters, and other interesting matters connected with
lunar movements. The dial is composed of three separate
copper discs of various sizes, with a common centre, but
dial

revolving at various rates.

have yet to notice on the south side of this court

We

the colonnade, supported by Ionic columns, built by Sir

Christopher Wren ; the effect produced by the intro-

duction of this classical colonnade amidst the venerable

and parapets of Wolsey's building is discordant

and unpleasing. But William III. would have it so,
and the great architect had to comply.
turrets

21

LONDON SOUVENIRS

322

We

will

now

pass through the gateway leading into

Here we are surrounded

the third or Fountain Court.

by a totally
of William

different style of architecture, again that

III.

Wren had

been appointed to the

office of Surveyor-General of His Majesty's Works in

]668, and employed by him to pull down part of the
old palace, and to build in its place the quadrangle

now under notice. It is not a favourable specimen of

The studies made by him from the buildings
of Louis XIV. had but too visible an effect on his
his art.

palaces

and

private
'

buildings,

so

that,

as

Horace

be considered fortunate that the

Walpole says,
may
French built only palaces, and not churches, and therefore St. Paul's escaped, though Hampton Court was
sacrificed

it

to the

god of

But the King's

false taste.

paramount, though he readily took the

blame on himself, for when the arrangement of the low
fancies were

Fountain Court was criticised, he admitted

was due entirely to his orders.
The Fountain Court is nearly a square, more than
100 feet each way. In the centre there is a fountain

cloisters in the

that

it

playing in a circular basin. This court occupies the

site of the chief or grand court, which was described by

Hentzner

in the reign of

Queen Elizabeth

as

'

paved
with square stone, and having in its centre a fountain,
finished in 1590, which throws up water, covered with
a gilt crown, on the top of which is a statue of Justice,
supported by columns of black and white marble.'

The

alterations were

made gradually

the south and

east sides of the old court were first taken

down, and

the present state apartments in those divisions erected.

The west and north sides, comprising a room of com-

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

323

munication 109 feet in length, and the Queens Guard

Chamber and Great Presence Chamber, retain internal
marks of ancient structure but a new front was given
;

to the whole

by

Sir Christopher

Wren.

As we

are not

need not enter into a descripwriting a guide-book, we

state
tion of the
apartments, or of the external
it will
appearance of the building containing them;
modern
this
be sufficient to mention that
portion of
in
and
finished
1690,
Hampton Court was commenced
that the south and eastern facades are each
in 1694
;

about 330

feet

long

that the eastern front faces the

grand gravel walk, open to the public; whilst the

south front opens on the Privy Garden, which was sunk
purpose of obtaining from the lower
of the river Thames.
view
a
apartments
of
the gardens and park, about 44
state
Of the
acres in extent, surrounding the palace and forming a

10

feet for the

east and west sides being entirely

regular peninsula, the
enclosed by the Thames, whilst the northern boundary

formed by the road from Kingston of the then

state of the gardens and park we have but scanty

is

accounts, but they no doubt corresponded in beauty,

as far as the comparatively short time of his occupancy

of the palace would allow him, with Wolsey's sumptuCertes the situation did not seem inviting.
pile.
The Thames, so lovely in many of its windings, is here

ous

by a dull expanse of level woodefforts of taste and skill

utmost
which the

skirted on both shores

less

soil,

seemed scarcely able to render picturesque, and in the

time of the founder of the palace, and even in the days
of Henry VIII., landscape gardening had not yet become
an art. At that period a park was chiefly valued for

212

LONDON SOUVENIRS

324

the security of lair it afforded to the deer sheltered in

the royal chase.
An old guide to Hampton Court of
the year 1774 says that ' notwithstanding the immediate
vicinity of the Thames, the park and garden are not in
the least incommoded by the rise of the waters, which
in other places is too often occasioned by sudden floods,

and though not

far from the reflux of the tides, yet

are
at
such
a convenient distance as never to be
they
influenced by any impurities which the flowing of the
This may have been one of the
tides is apt to create."
1

reasons which induced

Wolsey's hygienic advisers to

select the spot for its salubrity.

The gardens were greatly improved by Elizabeth and

Charles II.
Norden, writing in the time of the former,
describes the enclosures appertaining to the palace as
'

comprising two parks, the one of deer, the other of

1
hares, both of which were environed with brick walls,
except the south side of the former, which was paled
survey, made in 1653,

and encircled by the Thames.

nominally into Bushey Old

Park, the New Park, the Middle or North Park, the
Hare-warren and Hampton Court course. This latter

divides

these

enclosures

division seems to have comprised the district

Court Park.

But

was not

now termed

the reign of
Hampton
William III. that the grounds were brought to the
it

till

They are in his

perfection in which we see them now.
the
Dutch, style lawns, shaped with mathefavourite,

matical precision, bordered

regular distances

by evergreens, placed at

straight canals

broad gravel walks,

and vases. At this period the art of clipping

yew and other trees into regular figures and fantastic
shapes reached its highest point, and was greatly
statues,

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

favoured by the King.
Wilderness
planted the
'

But he
'

to

also

hide the

laid

many

325
out and
smaller

buildings, outhouses, courts, and passages to the north

of the palace.
In this part of the grounds is the maze.
A broad gravel walk extends from the Lion Gates,
which give admission from the Kingston road to the
gardens and to the Thames. These gates, adjoining the

King's

Arms

richly

handsome, being designed in

inn, are very

a bold and elegant

decorated,

The

style.

their

cornices

large stone piers are

supported by fluted

columns, and surmounted by two colossal lions, couchant.

The elegant ironwork of the gates was the work of

Huntingdon Shaw.*

At

the south-west corner of the

the pavilion, erected by Sir Christopher

Wren, and occasionally occupied by the rangers of the
park.
Throughout the park there are fine trees, and

gardens

is

here and there masses of verdure

less

formally disposed.

There may also be seen some lines of fortifications,

which were originally constructed for the purpose of
teaching the art of war to William, Duke of Cumberthe same Duke who afterwards
land, when a boy
became so famous in the Scottish rising of 1745. In
the centre of the park there is a stud -house, founded

by the Stuarts, but greatly extended in

its

operations
The creamof breeding race-horses by George IV.
coloured horses used on state occasions by the Sovereign
are kept here.
They are descended from those brought
over from Hanover by the princes of the Brunswick

they are the last representatives of the Flemish

The canal in the grounds
fed by the Cardinal's or Queen's River, issuing from

line

horses, once so fashionable.

is

Or, according to Mr. Law, of Jean Tijou, a Frenchman.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

326

the river Colne, near Longford, and passing over Hounslow Heath and through Hanworth and Bushey Parks.

We stated, when mentioning the reasons which

induced Cardinal Wolsey to fix on Hampton Court as
his future residence, that the springs in Coombe Wood
supplied excellent water

with this water the palace is

to
it in leaden
supplied.
brought
pipes, for which
some 250 tons of lead were employed, and as that
It

is

5 per ton, the cost of the material

alone amounted to a large sum ; the pipes pass under
the Hogsmill River, near Kingston, and under the
metal was then

Thames

at a short distance from the palace, and their

is
upwards of three miles, so that Mr. Law,

whole length

the latest historian of

Hampton

Court,

may not be

far

out in estimating the cost of the whole work at something like i?50,000 of our present money.
The tennis-court, said to be the largest and most

complete in Europe, is where Charles I. passed many

hours of his captivity when detained a prisoner, or

by the Parliament.
is
separated from the gardens by a
modern iron railing, 600 yards long, having at every
50 yards wrought-iron gates, 7 feet high, of most
elegant workmanship, and some ornamented with the
others with the thistle,
initials of William and Mary
rose, and harp.
They were erected by William III.
quasi-prisoner,

The Home Park

II.

Its

Masters.

of the palace and

have already been
incidents
grounds
insufficient for
are
such
casual
notices
but
introduced,
In

the

foregoing description

several historical

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

327

our purpose the topographical warp and woof of our

canvas has to be embroidered with the facts nay, the
;

romance

of human action

to present a living picture

of the past, to put animation and reality into the silent
shadows which flit around us on all sides.
there-

We

fore proceed to enter into details, within the limits of

our space, of the

whose connection

lives

and fortunes of those persons

with the

palace

invest

it

with a

personal interest.

We

have seen that Wolsey lived in regal splendour

Hampton Court nay, his train, his furniture, were
more numerous and gorgeous than that of the King,
which at an early stage roused the latter^ envy. The

at

Cardinal had no
his hall he

less

than 800 persons in his

suite.

In

maintained three boards with three several

a steward who was a priest, a treasurer who

was a knight, and a comptroller who was an esquire ;
also a confessor, a doctor, three marshals, three ushers
of the halls, and two almoners and grooms.
In the
hall kitchen were two clerks, a clerk
comptroller and
officers

surveyor of the dresser, a clerk of the spicery ; also two

cooks with assistant labourers and children
turnspits,
four men of the scullery, two yeomen of the pastry, and

two paste-layers under them. In his own kitchen was

a master cook, who was attired daily in velvet or satin,
and wore a gold chain, under whom were two cooks and

yeoman and a groom

and
two
yeoman
grooms in the ewry
(linen-room), two yeomen and two grooms; in the
in the chandry
cellar, three yeomen and three pages
two
in
the
wardrobe
of the
(candle-room),
yeomen
the
master
of
the
wardrobe
and
dormitory,
twenty

six assistants

in the larder, a

in the scullery, a

LONDON SOUVENIRS

328

in the laundry, a yeoman, groom and

two
pages,
yeomen purveyors and a groom
in
the
bakehouse, two yeomen and two
purveyor;
in
the
grooms
wood-yard, one yeoman and a groom
in the barn, one yeoman
at the gate, two yeomen and
two grooms a yeoman in the barge and a master of
the horse a clerk of the stables and a yeoman of the
same a farrier and a yeoman of the stirrup a maltster
and sixteen grooms, every one keeping four horses. In
the Cardinal's great chamber and in his privy chamber
were the chief chamberlain, a vice-chamberlain, and
two gentlemen ushers there were also six gentlemen
waiters and twelve yeomen waiters.
At the head of all

different officers

thirteen

these people, ministering to the state of this priest of a

religion whose founder had not where to lay His head, as

he must often have proclaimed from the pulpit in his

preaching days, were nine or ten lords, with each their

two or three
bearers,

servants.

gentlemen

There were

carvers,

six

also

gentlemen cup-

yeomen ushers and

In addition to these
eight grooms of his chamber.
there were twelve doctors and chaplains, the clerk of
the closet, two secretaries, two clerks of the signet, and
four counsellors learned in the law.

He

also retained

a riding-clerk, a clerk of the crown, a clerk of the

hamper, fourteen footmen garnished with rich ridingcoats."'
He had a herald -at -arms, a physician, an
'

apothecary, four minstrels, a keeper of his tents

he

also kept a fool.

All these were in daily attendance,
for whom were continually provided eight tables for

the chamberlains and gentlemen officers, and two other

tables, one for the young lords and another for the sons
of gentlemen

who were

in his suite.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

Such
hold.

is

Of

329

the account given of the Cardinal's houseown daily habits we are told The Cardinal

his

and

came out of his bedchamber he generally heard two masses.

Then he
made various necessary arrangements for the day, and
about eight o'clock left his privy chamber ready dressed
rose early,

as soon as he

in the red robes of a Cardinal, his

upper garment being

of scarlet or else of fine crimson taffeta or satin, with a
black velvet tippet of sables about his neck, and hold-

ing in his hand

an orange, deprived of its internal

substance, and filled with a piece of sponge, wetted
with vinegar and other confections against pestilent
not be any at

airs (surely there could

chosen because of

monly held to

its

very salubrity

his nose

Hampton

!),

Court,

which he com-

when he came to the

presses

(crowds) or was pestered with many suitors.

(Were
such unsavoury people allowed to come between the

wind and his nobility?)

This

may account

for so

many portraits representing him with an orange in his

hand. The Great Seal of England and the Cardinal's
hat were both borne before him by some lord or some
gentleman of worship right solemnly,' and as soon as
he entered the presence chamber, the two tall priests
with the two tall crosses were ready to attend upon
him, with gentlemen ushers going before him bareheaded, and crying
On, masters, before, and make
room for my lord
The crowd thus called on consisted
'

'

!'

not only of

common

suitors, but often of peers of the

or
chose,
by circumstances were obliged,
crouch to an upstart.
In this state the

who

realm,
thus to

Cardinal proceeded

down

his hall,

arms before him, carrying a large

with a sergeant-atmace, and two

silver

LONDON SOUVENIRS

330

gentlemen, each carrying a large plate of silver. On

his arrival at the gate or hall-door, he found his mule

The
ready, covered with crimson velvet trappings.
cavalcade which accompanied him when he took the air
or went to preside over some meeting was of course
equally pompous, consisting of men-at-arms and a long
train of nobility

and gentry.

Fancy what a

to lead day after day

life

None but

the vainest of coxcombs, the most conceited, arrogant,

and ostentatious of small-minded parvenus, could have

any length of time. But it agreed with

Wolsey's shoddy greatness he delighted in all that has
ever delighted small minds idle show and pompous
exhibitions.
Both at Whitehall and Hampton Court
borne

it

for

revel, as we learn from George Cavendish,

gentleman usher, especially when the King paid
him a visit. ' At such times, says Cavendish, there
wanted no preparations or goodly furniture, with viands

he held high
his

of the finest sorts

for the Kingfs comfort

'

such pleasures were then devised

and consolation as might be
,

Of course, Caveninvented or by man's wit designed.

'
The banquets
dish wrote like the flunkey he was
mummeries
in so
and
with
masks
were set forth
:

gorgeous a sort and costly manner that

to behold.

it

was a heaven

Pageantry has indeed at

all

times been the device of

Of course, sometimes the rogue

rogues to catch fools.
takes as much pleasure in getting up and participating
in the show as the fool does in beholding it.
Wolsey
took delight in it, because it enabled him to display his
wealth ; but there was also policy in it when such disBut the exhibition
play seemed to prove his loyalty.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

is

331

its
When it is made to a man
dangers.
envious and covetous, and, moreover, has not

not without

who

is

only the will but the power to gratify his avaricious longAs we have already seen,
ings, the risk is very great.
it was fatal in
"s case.
He had to surrender
Wolsey

Hampton Court
up
wayman.

gives

to

Henry

VIII.

much

as a traveller

his purse and watch to the well-armed highTrue, for this truly princely present Henry

bestowed upon Wolsey the manor-house of Richmond,

an old and favourite residence of his predecessor,

Henry

VII.,

and

also of

Henry

VIII. himself in the

early part of his reign ; but it was particularly galling

to the ancient servants of Henry VII. to see the recent

habitation of their Sovereign occupied by one whom

they considered an upstart, and they joined in the

popular outcry against Wolsey, concerning whom it

was remarked that strange things had come to pass
'a bochers dog should live in

since

the manor of

Richmond.
But though the palace of Hampton Court was now
the King's property, Wolsey 's connection with it was
not totally severed from it at once. In 1527 Wolsey,

by the desire of the King, feasted the ambassadors from

The preparations
the King of France in the building.
are
related
with
terrible prolixity
and
the
feast
itself,
for,
by the gentleman usher Cavendish, already quoted as
his description gives a fair specimen of what was then
a grand banquet, we quote from it the following pas;

sages

made great preparation for this

at
great assembly
Hampton Court. The Cardinal called
before him his principal officers, as steward, treasurer,
'

Then

there was

LONDON SOUVENIRS

332

and clerk of his kitchen

commanding
them neither to spare for any cost, expense, or travail,
to make such a triumphant banquet as they might not
only wonder at it here, but also make a glorious report
controller

of

in their country.
.
They sent out caters, purand
divers
other
veyors,
persons ; they also sent for all
the expert cooks within London or elsewhere.
The
it

purveyors provided, and my lord's friends sent in such

The
provision as one would wonder to have seen.

cooks wrought both day and night with subtleties and

many crafty devices the yeomen and grooms of the
;

wardrobe were busy in hanging of the chambers and

furnishing the same with beds of silk and other furniture.

Then wrought the

carpenters, joiners, masons, and all

There was the carnage and re-carriage
of plate, stuff, and other rich implements.
There was
also provided two hundred and eighty beds furnished

other

with

artificers.

all

manner of furniture to them belonging.

to the Frenchmen assigned, and they
.

The day was come

ready assembled before the hour of their appointment,

whereof the officers caused them to ride to Hanworth,
a park of the King's within three miles, there to hunt
until night, at which time they

and spend the day

Hampton Court, and every one of them was

to
their several chambers, having in them
conveyed
and
wine to their comfort and relief. The
great fires,
returned to

chambers where they supped and banqueted were ordered

in this sort first the great
waiting chamber was hanged
with rich arras, as all others were, and furnished with
:

tall yeomen to serve.

There were set tables round
about the chamber, banquetwise covered a cupboard
was there garnished with white plate, having also in
;

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

333

the same chamber, to give the more light, four great

plates of silver set with great lights, and a great fire of

wood and coals. The next chamber, being the chamber

of presence, was hanged with rich arras, and a sumptuous
cloth of estate furnished with many goodly gentlemen

Then

to serve the tables.

as long as the

there was a cupboard being

chamber was broad, garnished with

gilt

plate and gold plate, and a pair of silver candlesticks

and which cost three hundred
gilt, curiously wrought,

marks.
This cupboard was barred round about, that
no man could come nigh it, for there was none of this
plate touched in this banquet, for there was sufficient
besides.

having

in

The plates on the walls were

them large wax candles to give

supper was ready the

principal

of silver
light.

officers

gilt,

When

caused the

trumpeters to blow the officers conducted the guests

from their chambers into the supper rooms, and when
they all had sat down their service came up in such
;

abundance, both costly and

full

of subtleties, with such

pleasant music, that the Frenchmen (as it seemed) were

wrapt into a heavenly paradise. You must understand

that

my

lord Cardinal

had not yet come, but he came

in before the second course, booted and spurred, and

"
bade them " preface
[a contraction of four French
" Much
words, meaning
good may it do you !"], at

whose coming there was great joy, every man rising

from his place. He, the Cardinal, being in his apparel
as he rode [why he did so is not very clear], called for
a chair, and sat among them as merry as ever he had been
seen.

and

The second
devices,

course with

many

dishes, subtleties,

above a hundred in number, which were of

such goodly proportion and so costly, that

think the

LONDON SOUVENIRS

334

Frenchmen never saw the like. There were castles with

images beasts, birds, and personages most lively made
;

a chessboard of spiced plate with men thereof, which

was put into a case to be taken to France. Then took

my lord a bowl of gold filled with ippocrass, and drank

to his lord the King, and next to the King of France.
The guests, of course, did the same, and the cups went
so merrily

around that many of the Frenchmen were

fain to be led to their beds.

Then

rose

up my lord,
went into his privy chamber to pull off his boots, and
then went he to supper, making a slight repast, and
then rejoined his guests, and used them so lovingly and
familiarly that they could not commend him too much.
Cavendish's account of the banquet, which he evidently
1

is much
longer than our extract, and
too long for our readers.
To them we
for
so
them
with
tedious a
entertaining (?)
apologize
of
in
a
but
trivialities,*
description
special historic

wrote con amore,

that probably

is

such details must necessarily

be inserted, just as in making an inventory of the

precis of

Hampton Court

* In the Middle
Ages and Renaissance days banquets, masks
and revels were thought a great deal of yea, so great was the
rage for them that nowhere were masks more frequently performed than at the very last place one would expect them to
be indulged in, namely, at the Inns of Court, where grave
and learned lawyers, under the presidency of the Master of
the Revels an office which led more readily to knighthood
than professional merit discussed the cut and colour of the
;

shepherdesses' kirtles.

Whoso

likes to read of

such doings

-will

'
find plenty about them in the Progresses of Queen Elizabeth,'
and in Whitelock's 'Memorials.' An account of the revival of

the 'Maske of Flowers' at Gray's Inn in July, 1887,

found in the journals of that date.

will be

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

335

contents of a mansion, not the grand furniture of the

drawing and dining-room only has to be enumerated,

but also the humble pots and pans of the scullery.

The banquet just described took place, as already
mentioned, after Wolsey's surrender of the palace to
the King, and by the latters orders.
Henry VIII. no

doubt knew that the Cardinal was the man to carry

them out well, for he would take a personal interest

and pleasure in so doing, seeing that the banquets and

masques so prevalent in that King's reign had nowhere
been more magnificently ordered than at Hampton Court
and Whitehall, as already intimated above. But it is
strange that the King should have abstained from
appearing at the banquet given to his royal friend's
ambassadors.

As soon as Henry had obtained

possession of

Hampton

Court, he began making extensive alterations in the

buildings; the Great Hall as it now appears was his

work.

many

Having a

taste for art,* he

now

of whose works are

at

employed Holbein,

Hampton

Court.

Items of the expenses of building have come down to

Thus in 1527, from February 26 to March 25,
us.
there was paid to the Freemason builders, to the master,

John Molton,

at

12d. per day, 6s. ; to the warden,

5s. the week, 20s. ; to the setters,

William Reynolds, at

superstition has been cherished from classical days

that artistic and literary culture softens and refines manners.

both, and yet what a brute, brutal in every

was
Dr. Johnson was another instance of bearishness coupled with learning and Porson, soaked though he was
with Greek and Latin lore and wisdom, was a savage, with
whom no gentleman could associate for any length of time.
Emolliet mores, what a delusion

Henry VIII. had

respect, he

LONDON SOUVENIRS

336

Nicholas Seyworth and three others, at 3s. 8d. per

week, 13s. 8d. to others, at 3s. 4d. the week, 13s. 4d.
Some of the workmen evidently took frequent holidays.
The clerk of the works had 8d. a day, and the writing
;

clerks 6d. each.

The Great Hall was on many occasions during the

reign of Henry VIII. used for royal banquets, but as
one banquet is very much like another, the reader need
not be wearied with a repetition of the one already

banquets mean eating and drinking, and

undergoing the wet-blanket of dreary speeches one day,
and what the Germans elegantly call 'pussy's lamentation'' the next.
In 1536 Henry married Jane Seymour,

described

and

in the following year she died at

after giving birth to

Edward

VI.

On

Hampton

Court,

this occasion the

English Bluebeard went into mourning, and compelled

the Court to do the same.
Having been married to

Jane but seventeen months, he had probably not had

time to get tired of her. He actually remained a
widower for some time, but eventually, in order to
strengthen the Protestant cause in England, at the
suggestion of Thomas Cromwell he married, much
against his inclination, the Flanders mare,' Anne of
'

In less than six months he obtained a divorce

Cleves.
from her, and sent Cromwell to the block. Then in
1540 the ill-fated Catharine Howard was openly shown
as the future Queen at Hampton Court Palace, and the
marriage performed with great pomp and joyous
But in less than two years the royal
celebrations.
cut
off her head on account of faults she
voluptuary
had committed before knowing him.
At Hampton
Court also Henry married his last wife, Lady Catherine

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

337

who

survived him, but her head was once in great

She
danger.
opposed the King on some religious
and
in
question,
great wrath he ordered an impeachment to be drawn up against her but she, being warned
Parr,

of her danger, spoke so humbly of the foolishness of her

sex that when the Chancellor came to arrest her Henry

ordered the

'

to be gone.
In 1538 Henry VIII., who was particularly fond of
hunting, but who was then so fat and unwieldy that

beast

he required special facilities for following his favourite

sport, and needed them close at hand, extended his

These he kept strictly

and
use,
they were enclosed by a
wooden paling, which was removed after his death, the
deer sent to Windsor, and the chase thrown open.
chase through fifteen parishes.

preserved for his

own

During the Christmas of 1543, Henry VIII. entertained

Francis Gonzaga, the Viceroy of Sicily, at Hampton
Court, and Edward VI. on this occasion likewise presided, in puerile magnificence, over the table in the

high place of the hall, an occurrence over which grave

historians grow quite enthusiastic, Avhilst at the same
time describing the splendour of the entertainment.
But after reading all this gush it is quite a relief to

come on a passage like the following, showing the

seamy side of regal pomp. It is from a curious old
manuscript, containing some very singular directions
for regulating the household of
'

His Highness

Henry

VIII.

-1

baker shall not put alum in the

bread, or mix rye, oaten or bean flour with the same,
and if detected he shall be put in the stocks. [This
prohibition implies that the thing had been done, and
by the King's own highly-paid baker !] His Highness"

22

LONDON SOUVENIRS

338

attendants are not to steal any locks or keys, tables,

forms, cupboards, or other furniture out of noblemen's
or gentlemen's houses where they go to visit.
[The
King's attendants must have been worse than modern
burglars,

who

are not

known

Master cooks
!]
as go about naked, or
boards

before the kitchen

fire.

shall
lie

["

to steal tables and cupnot employ such scullions

all night on the
ground

High

life

below

stairs

"

was,

would seem, then in its infancy with scullions going

about naked !] The officers of his privy chamber shall
be loving together, no grudging or grumbling, nor talkit

[Fancy the officers of the

ing of the King's pastimes.
privy chamber, those grand gentlemen, having to be
taught how to behave, and not to indulge in shindies
themselves, nor, like a parcel of low lackeys, to
judgment on their master's doings !] The King's
barber is enjoined to be cleanly, not to frequent the

among
sit in

company of misguided women,

for fear of danger to the

knowing that his

wise King,

[A
King's royal person.
barber was given to such practices, would have sent
him to the deuce, and given up being shaved !] There
no romping with the maids on the staircase,
dishes and other things are often broken.
which
by
[The crockery being smashed was his Majesty's chief
shall be

matter !] Care shall be taken that the

and
the wooden ones used in the kitchen
pewter spoons
be not broken or stolen. [What a lot of paltry thieves
The
there must have been in the royal household !]
concern in

this

[Those
pages shall not interrupt the kitchen maids.
pages then, as now, must have been awful fellows !]
The grooms shall not steal his Highness' straw for beds,
sufficient

being allowed for them.

[How

those grooms,

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

339

who were, as we have seen, so busy in furnishing the

rooms with 280 beds of silk, must have enjoyed the
Coal only to be allowed to the
straw they slept on !]
and
Lady Mary's chambers. [Rather
King's, Queen's,
hard on the other inmates of the palace !] The brewers
are not to put any brimstone in the ale.
[His Majesty
did not want to taste sulphur before his time !]'

When

the Knights Hospitallers of St. John granted

the lease of Hampton Court to Cardinal Wolsey, they
were on or before its expiry prepared to renew it ; but

they never had the chance of doing so, for as in 1540

Henry VIII. suppressed all the monasteries and con-

Knights Hospitallers shared

became royal property.
Court
Hampton
death the palace was chosen by the

fiscated their property, the

that fate, and

On

Henry's
guardians of Edward VI., then a minor, as his residence;
he was placed under the special care of his uncle, the
Duke of Somerset, Protector of the Council of Regency.
But serious dissensions arose amidst the Council, and

was proposed to deprive the Duke of his royal ward,

and an alarm having been given that this was to be
done bv force, the household and the inhabitants of
it

Hampton armed themselves for the protection of the

young King. The Protector, however, removed him to
Windsor

Castle, lest the Council should obtain possesIn 1550 Edward and his attendants

sion of his person.

removed from London to Hampton Court, in consequence of an alarm that the black death had made
in fact, two of Edward's servants
its appearance there
have
died
of it.
In 1552 Edward held a
were said to
chapter of the Order of the Garter at Hampton Court
Palace the knights went to Windsor in the morning,
'

'

222

LONDON SOUVENIRS

340

but returned to this palace in the evening, where they

were royally feasted, and where Henry Grey, Marquis
of Dorset, was created Duke of Suffolk, and John
Dudley, Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumberland.
In 1553 Mary I. became Queen of England, and in
the following year she married Philip, son of the

Emperor Charles and

heir to the Spanish crown.

alliance with the leading Catholic

This

Power highly

dis-

fact, they soon

pleased the English people, and,
began to feel the effects of Mary's bigoted adherence
She and her
to her own, the Roman Catholic, faith.

in

husband passed their honeymoon in gloomy retirement

Hampton Court in 1554, but in 1555 they kept
their Christmas there with great solemnity, and the
Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, was
invited as a guest, though there was little love between
at

the two

sisters.

At

this

Christmas festivity the great

The Princess
hall was illuminated with 1,000 lamps.
Elizabeth supped at the same table with their Majesties,
state, and after supper was served
with a perfumed napkin and plate of comfits by Lord
Pa^et but she retired with her ladies before the revels,

next the cloth of

On St. Stephen's
maskings, and disguisings began.
hear
to
was
she
matins, or more likely
Day
permitted
the
in
Queen's closet, where, we are told, she was
mass,
attired in a robe of white satin, strung all over with
On December 29 she sat with their
large pearls.
and the nobility at a grand spectacle of

Majesties

jousting,

batants

when 200
being

lances were broken, half the

accoutred

Spaniards.
At her accession

to

as

the

Germans

and

com-

half

as

throne Elizabeth made

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

341

Hampton Court one of her favourite residences it

was the most richly furnished, and here she caused her
naval victories over the Spaniards to be worked in fine
;

Here was the scene of her grand festivities,

Her
splendour those of Henry VIII.

tapestries.

equalling

in

ordinary dinner was a solemn

describes

it

'
:

While she was

affair.

Hentzner thus
we saw her

at prayers,

table set in the following solemn manner a gentleman

entered the room, bearing a rod, and along with him
:

another, who had a tablecloth, which, after they had

both knelt down three times with the utmost veneration, he spread upon the table, and, after kneeling
again, they both retired. [Oh, the contemptible flunkey
souls of those days !]
Then came two others, one with

the rod again, the other with a saltcellar, a plate, and

bread when they had kneeled, as the others had done,
and placed what was brought upon the table, they then
;

same ceremonies performed by the first.

came an unmarried lady (we were told she was
a Countess), and along with her a married one, bearing
a tasting knife, who, when she had prostrated herself
three times in the most graceful manner, approached
the table and rubbed the plates with bread and salt,
with as much awe as if the Queen had been present.
When they had waited there a little while, the yeomen
retired with the

At

last

of the guard entered, bareheaded, clothed in scarlet,

with a golden rose upon their backs, bringing in at

each turn a course of twenty-four dishes, served in

it gilt
these dishes were received by a

plate most of

gentleman

in the

same order they were brought and

placed upon the table, while the lady taster gave to

each of the guard a mouthful to eat of the particular

LONDON SOUVENIRS

342

dish he had brought, for fear of any poison.

During
the time that this guard, which consists of the tallest

and stoutest men that can be found

in all England,
were bringing dinner, twelve trumpets and two kettle1
drums made the hall ring for half an hour together.

No wonder that

the Maids of

Honour of Queen Elizabeth

would, disguised as orange-girls, escape from the purlieus

of the palace, and frequent those of the theatres
The
!

tidings of the defeat of the

Armada

arrived on Michael-

mas Day, and were communicated to the Queen

whilst she

was at dinner at Hampton Court, partaking of a goose

hence the origin of partaking of that savoury dish on
Michaelmas Day. Such is the tradition but geese
were eaten on that day and about that time of the
year before the Armada was dreamt of; they are then
;

eaten because then in the finest condition.

James

I.

took up his residence at

Hampton Court

soon after his arrival in England, and here in 1604

took place, not revels and masques, but a conference of
Presbyterians and

Church

it

translation

churches.

the

members of the Established

and its result was the

lasted three days,

of the

'

appointed to be read in

Bible,

But even

Sowship James I., who

learning and theological knowhis

'

prided himself on his

ledge, was satisfied with a three days conference on so
important a question as was involved in his favourite
1

axiom,
feasting;

'

No

Bishop, no King,

but when

he wanted more time.

When

it

in

came to
1606 he

entertained Francis, Prince of Vaudemont, son of the

Duke of Lorraine, and the noblemen and gentlemen

who accompanied him, the feasting and pastimes occupied

fourteen days.

Queen Anne, the

wife of

James

I.,

died

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

343

at the palace of Hampton Court in 1618, and was

interred in Westminster Abbey.

Charles L, on his marriage with Henrietta Maria,

daughter of Henry IV. of France, here spent the honey-

moon, and the plague then raging in London (1625)

kept the royal pair and the Court, which had followed
them, some time longer at Hampton Court. Here the
King gave audience to the ambassadors of France and

Denmark,

as also to

an envoy from Gabor, Prince of

In 1641, when the strife between the

Transylvania.*
two great political parties the Cavaliers, siding with

the King, and the Roundheads, or the great mass of

farmers, merchants, and shopkeepers, the Tories and

Whigs

of the future

was

at

its

height, the

London

radical faction,
apprentices, then formidable engines of
became so threatening in their conduct towards the

Court that Charles retired to

Hampton Court

for a

be averted, and in
1647 he was again brought to Hampton Court by the
army, and kept there, not in actual imprisonment, but
under restraint, to November 11, when he made his
time.

But the King's

fate could not

Diary,' records a visit he

'
I came to
paid Charles on October 10 in these words
Court, where I had the honour to kiss His

escape.

John Evelyn,

in his

'

Hampton

of those
Majesty's hand, he being now in the power
execrable villains, who not long after murdered him.'
After the King's execution, the fine collections of art

which once decorated the walls of Hampton Court were

scattered abroad, and now form the choicest treasures
* In 1621 he had been elected King of Hungary, but afterwards had to resign that dignity for the inferior one mentioned
above.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

344

of foreign and private galleries, and the honour* of

Hampton Court and the palace were sold in 1651 to

John

a Mr.

Commons,

a member of the House of

sum of ,P1 0,765 19s. 9d. but in

Phelps,

for the

1656 Oliver Cromwell, enriched by the wreck of the

State, again acquired possession of the palace, for which
he had a great predilection, and consequently made it
his chief residence.

The marriage

ceremonies of Eliza-

daughter of Cromwell, with Lord Falconberg

were performed here on November 18, 1657, and in the

beth,

following year the Protector's favourite daughter, Mrs.

Claypole, who disapproved of her father's doings, here
Hither Cromwell would repair,
breathed her last.

when Lord Protector of the realm,

Thurloe thus records the fact

officers.

as the

army

to dine with his

'
:

Sometimes,

takes him, he dines with the officers of his

at Hampton Court, and shows a hundred antic
fit

tricks, as

throwing cushions at them, and putting hot

and boots. At others, before

coals into their pockets

he has half dined, he gives orders for a drum to beat,

and calls in his foot-guards to snatch off the meat from
the table and tear

it

in

accountable whimsies.
guards, with
and before
.

pieces,
.

with

Now

many
he

other un-

calls

for

his

whom
.

he rides out, encompassed behind

and at his return at night shifts from

bed to bed for fear of

attended by a dog,

surprise.

who guarded

He

was constantly

his

bedroom door.

*
Hampton Court had been erected into an honour when it
became the property of Henry VIII. An honour in law is a
lordship, on which inferior lordships and manors depend by
performance of customs and services. But no lordships were
honours but such as belonged to the King.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

One morning he found the

dog- dead.

He

345

then remem-

bered the prediction a gipsy had made to Charles I.,

that on the death of a dog in a room the King was
the kingdom he was about to lose would be
*
The kingdom is departed
restored to his family.
from me P cried Cromwell, and he died soon after.

then

in,

After the Restoration the palace, which of course

reverted to the Crown, was occasionally occupied by
Here he spent his honeymoon on his
Charles II.

He had married
marriage with Catherine of Braganza.
her for money ; he received with her a dowry of half a
million, besides

and Bombay

two

fortresses

Tangier

in

Morocco

He

soon neglected her for

and
of
her
hussies
character.
Pepys,
Lady Castlemaine
in

Hindostan.

indeed, under May 31, 1662, records: 'The Queen

brought a few days since to Hampton Court, and

is

all

people say of her to be a very fine and handsome lady,

and very discreet, and that the King is pleased enough

with her, which

I fear will

put

Madame

But Pepys was a bad

on this matter. The unhappy Queen,
forgotten, spent most of her time in a
which overlooked the river Thames, and

nose out of joint.''

Castlemaine's

prognosticatineglected and
small building
was considered

a sort of summer residence.

It was known by the

name of the Water Gallery, and occupied the site in
front of what is now the southern facade of King
William's quadrangle, on whose erection the Water

Gallery was entirely removed.

When the great plague of 1665 spread westward in
the Metropolis, the ' merry monarch
and his suite
'

again retired to Hampton Court, where, like Boccaccio's

Florentines under a similar calamity, they sought

LONDON SOUVENIRS

346

oblivion of fear in a continual succession of festivities.

who

Persons

are curious on such matters will find an

amusing account of those doings in the autobiography

of Sir Ralph Esher, edited by Leigh Hunt.
Pepys, it appears, paid frequent visits to Hampton
but was, it seems, not always well treated.
To Hampton
Thus, on July 23, 1665, he writes
Court, where I followed the King to chapel and heard
Court,

'

a good sermon.

...

was not invited any whither to

though a stranger, which did also trouble

but' (he adds philosophically) 'I must remember
dinner,

a Court.

me

it is

However, Cutler carried me to Mr.

Marriott's, the housekeeper, and there we had a very

good dinner and good company, among others Lilly, the
1

Pepys was

painter.
'

'

treated

quality

James

II.

him

easily consoled

for the snub the

to.

also occasionally visited

Hampton

Court,

but the palace was neglected, and did not actually

again become a royal residence till the accession of
William III. and Queen Mary. He, as we have already
mentioned on a former occasion, made the palace what

now

by pulling down the buildings erected by

and covering the site with the present
Henry
Fountain Court and the State apartments surrounding

it

is

VIII.,

According to a drawing by Hollar, showing Hampton Court as furnished by Henry VIII., the eastern

it.

front was really picturesque, and agreed perfectly with

the architectural features of Wolsey's building.
Still,
according to the notions of the seventeenth century,

the apartments were not suitable for a royal residence,

especially as William intended to make it a permanent

and not a merely temporary

one.

Moreover, the King

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

347

took a personal pleasure in building and planting and

He determined to create
decorating his residence.

another Loo on the banks of the Thames.

wide

extent of ground was laid out in formal walks and

parterres ; limes, thirty years old, were transplanted

from neighbouring woods to make shady alleys. The

new court rose under the direction of Wren, and with
it the grand eastern and southern fronts.
It is said
that the King once entertained the idea of erecting an
entirely new palace at the west end of the town of

Hampton on an

elevation distant about half a mile

from the river Thames, but the design was abandoned

from a consideration of the length of time necessary for
such an undertaking.

Horace Walpole informs us that

Sir Christopher Wren submitted another design for the

alterations of the ancient palace in a better taste, which

Queen Mary wished to have executed but she was overThe same authority says
ruled.
This palace of King
William seems erected in emulation of what is intended
to imitate the pompous edifices of the French monarch.'
;

'

Unfortunately for William, he found after a time

that Hampton Court was too far from the Houses of

Lords and Commons and the public offices, but being

unable to stand the impure air of London, he took up
his residence at Kensington House, which was then

But he frequently visited

country.
Court, and it was there he met with the
On February 20,
accident which caused his death.
quite

in

the

Hampton

1702, he was ambling on a favourite horse

named

He urged the horse to strike

Sorrel through the park.
into a gallop just at a spot where a mole had been at
work.

The

horse stumbled

and went down on

his

LONDON SOUVENIRS

348
knees

off and broke his collar-bone.

and the King returned to Kensingcoach; but the jolting of the rough roads

the King

The bone was

ton in his

fell

set,

made it necessary to reduce the fracture again. He

never recovered the double shock to the system, and
fever supervening, he died a few days subsequently.

The

Princess of

Denmark, afterwards Queen Anne,

gave birth on July 24, 1689, to the Duke

of Gloucester, who died at eleven years of age, and thus
made room for the House of Brunswick. Anne occasionin this palace

ally resided here after her accession to the throne.

The Great Hall had in Queen Elizabeth's time been

used as a theatre

was

up for a similar purpose

was intended that plays
should have been acted there twice a week during the
by George

summer

in

I.

it

1718.

fitted

It

season by the King's

company of comedians,

but the theatre was not ready till nearly the end of
September, and only seven plays were performed in it
in that season.
The first play, acted on September 23,

was

'Hamlet."

On

October

1,
curiously enough,
Wolsey, was represented
on the very spot which had been the scene of his
'

Henry

VIII., or the Fall of

greatest splendour, recalling the events of the life of

The King paid the
the founder of the princely pile.
and
the travelling
of
the
representation
charges

expenses of the actors, amounting to i?50 a night,

besides which he made a present of i?200 to the

managers for their trouble. It was never afterwards

used but once for a play, performed on October 16,
1731, for the entertainment of the Duke of Lorraine,
Emperor of Germany but the fittings were

afterwards

not removed

till

the year 1798.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

349

In 1829 the parish of Hampton obtained permission

of George IV. to fit up the hall for divine service
during the rebuilding of Hampton Church, and it was
so used for about two years.

George II. but seldom visited Hampton Court, and

George III. preferred Kew Palace. From his time no
Sovereign has occupied Hampton Court as a royal
residence.

On November

4,

1793, Richard Tick ell, a political

who had apartments

in Hampton Court Palace,

and read on a parapet wall
The
or kind of platform in one of the upper rooms.
was
filled
with
in
On
the
spot
day
quesflower-pots.
tion, while his carriage was waiting to take him and his

writer,

had been accustomed to

sit

family to town, his wife having left him for a moment,

on her return missed him, and going to the open window,
saw her husband lving in the garden below on the ground.
Before she could reach him, he had expired.
How the
accident happened can never be known.
He was said
to have

committed

suicide,

but there was no assignable

reason for such an act.

The famous

vine at

fruit,

for

slip in the year 1768.

the black

the

Court, the largest in

Hampton

Europe, was planted from a

Its

reserved exclusively
Hamburg kind,
table.
The
writer
of a ' Tour of
Queen's
is

England,

in 1798, says

'
:

In these gardens

is

a most

The gardener told me 1,550

remarkably large vine.
bunches of grapes are now hanging upon it, the whole
It bears the
weight of which is estimated at 972 cwt.
.

same number of bunches, that

is,

from 1,500 to 2,000,

now.

For the

last

century or more apartments in

Hampton

LONDON SOUVENIRS

350

Court Palace have generally been bestowed on the poorer

female members of noble families, or on the widows of
distinguished generals and admirals who have died in
the service of their country.
And several of these apart-

ments contain large suites of rooms, some of which are

compact and self-contained, whilst in other cases they
are inconveniently disconnected.
For the accommodation of tenants of such suites there survives an ancient
Sedan chair on wheels, drawn by a chairman, and called
1

'

Push, which is used by ladies going out in the

evening from one part of the building to another. Of
the fifty-three apartments into which the palace is now
the

divided,

some contain

as

many

as forty rooms, with five

or six staircases.

the distinguished personages

times found an asvlum within

Among
various

who have

at

the walls of

Hampton Court

Palace is William, Prince of Orange,

Stadtholder
of Holland.
Driven from his
Hereditary
in
1795 by the advancing wave of the French
country
Revolution, he sought refuge in England ; the apartments occupied by him in the palace were those on the
east side of the middle
quadrangle. Gustavus IV., after

having in 1810 been deposed from the Swedish throne

by Napoleon, came to England, and occupied a set of

apartments here. He died in February, 1837.

One of the most curious circumstances in connection
with the grant of these apartments is the fact that
Dr. Samuel Johnson made application for one
his
;

making it is still extant, and was, I think, first

made known by Mr. Law in his History of Hampton
Court.''
The letter was addressed to Lord Hertford
Lord
(then
Chamberlain), and dated Bolt Court, Fleet

letter

'

'

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

He

Street, 11 April, 1776.'

says in

it

351

that hearing

that some of the apartments are now vacant, the grant

of one to him would be considered a great favour, and
he bases his claim on his having had the honour of
The reply to it
vindicating his Majesty's Government.
was
Lord C. presents his compliments to Mr. Johnson,
'

and

sorry that he cannot obey his

commands, having
his
hands
on
many engagements unsatisfied.'
already
The answer sounds somewhat satirical. But what could
is

mean by making the application ? If we

him
thought
capable of a huge joke, we might think
he meant this for one but, as he dealt in small jokes
only, we are driven to assume that he wrote seriously.
Did he know what he was asking for ? Supposing his
request had been granted, he would very soon have wished
it had been refused.
Fancy Johnson, the boisterous,
Dr. Johnson

arrogant tavern dictator,

who

considered the chair at

a punch-drinking bout in an inn the throne of human

in an apartfelicity, what would he have done shut up

ment in the palace, in the midst of

serious widows, and prim old maids,

haughty dowagers,

who would speedily

companions who would

have complained of the noisy

Had he gone to the King's
have looked him up there
Arms or some other hostelry in the neighbourhood, he
!

would have had to return at early and regular hours.

How could he have submitted to that ? Would he have
all his old women with him, and how long would
have
been at peace with the aristocratic ladies
they

taken

inhabiting the palace

meeting on

The

results of their accidentally

staircases or in passages are too awful to

contemplate, and Johnson's application remains an in-

explicable enigma.

LONDON SOUVENIRS

352

In 1838, whilst removing one of the old towers built

by Wolsey, the workmen came upon a number of glass
bottles, which lay among the foundation
they were of
;

curious shape, and it has been suggested that

they were
buried there to denote the date of the
building.

On December

1882, the palace had a narrow

suite of eight or nine
rooms, in the occupation of a lady, and overlooking
the gardens and the Fountain Court, caught fire at
escape

14,

from destruction.

half-past seven in the morning, it is supposed by the

1
upsetting of a benzoline lamp in one of the servants

That the authorities should permit the use of

such lamps in the building seems strange,
especially in
rooms situate as those were, over the tapestry-room,
rooms.

which adjoins the Picture Gallery, and contains splendid

specimens of Gobelin and other ancient needlework.

The

flames spread rapidly through the rooms, and three

of them were entirely burnt out before the firemen,
assisted by men of the 4th Hussars, then stationed at

the palace, could check the outbreak.

rooms were greatly damaged by

fire

All the other

and water.

But

the saddest part of the occurrence was that one of the

servants, the cook, whilst rushing to the assistance of

her fellow-servants, fell senseless on the floor, overcome

by the smoke, and her charred and lifeless body was
It is
only got out when the fire had been subdued.
to be hoped that a cause which might involve a great
national loss has now been removed by prohibition.

In 1839 those parts of the palace which are not

occupied by private residents, and the gardens, were
thrown open to the public, and during the summer

months are

visited

by thousands, who arrive there by

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

rail, river,

bike.

353

van, or, latterly, on the wheel-horse

vulgo
residents bitterly complain of

The permanent

invasions, and not without reason, seeing how

'Arrys and 'Arriets come down in holiday time ;
but as the palace and gardens are maintained at an

these

many

expense of about PI 1,000 per annum out of the people's

money, the right of visiting them can scarcely be denied
to the public.
Nor can the amount spent on the place

be found fault with

it is

a mere triHe in the domestic

of the nation, and a larger sum is

house-keeping
wasted
in
The
useless firing off of cannon.
annually
bill

palace and gardens

'

The
The

pleasant place of all festivity,

revel of the earLb, the masque of

Albion, are to us what Venice

'
.

'

is

a boast, a marvel,

But unto us

to Italy

'

and a show.'

'

Hampton Court
'

A name

Hath

in story,

a spell beyond
aud a long array

Of mighty shadows.'

To us Hampton Court is a type of the progress of

the nation from slavery to freedom, from darkness to
Founded to gratify the pride and self-indulgence
light.
of an arrogant and scheming
priest, for more than three
centuries Hampton Court was the
symbol of oppression
on the one side, and of subjection on the other. But

Time, which works such strange metamorphoses, has,

since the last
sixty years, transformed what was once
the exclusive appanage of kings into the
playground of

354

LONDON SOUVENIRS

the plebs, and what this change implies may well form
a subject of study for inquiring and philosophical minds.

But such study must be based on a knowledge of facts,

an axiom we have kept in view in the compilation of
our topographical and historical notes on the origin,
progress, and final realization of the architectural,
political, and social idea embodied in the monumental
we have so concisely attempted to
endow the contemplation thereof, in

pile

describe, so as

to

all its

phases,

with an intelligent appreciation of the physical and

ideal beauties, together with their importance as an
index of national advancement, which invest with an
undying charm the palace and gardens of Hampton
Court.*
* In
Herefordshire, not far from Leominster, there is another
Court, a spacious mansion of monastic and castellated

Hampton

It
architecture, having a fine chapel with open timber roof.
built by Sir Rowland Lenthall, Yeoman of the Eobes to
Henry IV., who distinguished himself at the Battle of Agin-

was

court.

THE END.

BILLINO AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.

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