commence my sketches; and experience has taught me, that the more
fashionable frivolities of high life seldom present the same opportunity
for the ~298~~study of character, which is to be found in the merry,
open-hearted, mirthful meetings of the medium classes and the lower
orders. The pleasure we had felt in Blackstrap's society at Cheltenham,
induced us to engage him to dine in the coffee-room, with our early
friends Heartly and Eglantine, both of whom being then at Bath, we had
invited to meet us, in the expectation that Dick Gradus, having arranged
his legal affairs at Berkeley, would, by the dinner hour, arrive to join
such a rare assemblage of old Eton _cons_--a gratification we had the
pleasure to experience; and never did the festive board resound with
more pleasant reminiscences from old friends: the social hour fled
gaily, and every fresh glass brought its attendant joke. Heartly and
Eglantine had, we found, been sufficiently long in Bath to become very
able instructors to Transit and myself in all that related to the haute
class, and old Barnaby Blackstrap was an equally able guide to every
description of society, from the mediums down to the strange collections
of vagrant oddities which are to be found in the back Janes and suburbs
of the city of Bath. It has been well said, in a spirited reply to the
Reverend Mr. Ek--r--s--l's illiberal satire, entitled "The Bath Man,"
that "London has its divisions of good and bad sets as well as Bath;
nay, every little set has its lower set; Bank looks down contemptuously
upon wealth; those who are asked to Carlton Palace cut the muligatawny
set; the ancient aristocracy call law-lords and _parvenues_ a bad set;
and so downward through the whole scale of society, from Almack's to a
sixpenny hop, 'still in the lowest deep a lower deep,' and human pride
will ever find consolation that there is something to be found beneath
it. Plain men, accustomed to form their notions of good and evil on
more solid foundations than grades of fashionable distinctions, will
not consent to stigmatize as bad any class of society because there may
happen to ~299~~be a class above it." And what better apology could we
desire for our eccentric rambles through every grade of Bath society?
with us every set has its attractions, and I have known my friend
Transit cut a nobleman and half a dozen honourables for the delightful
gratification of enjoying the eccentricities of a beggars' club, and
being enabled to sketch from the life the varied exhibition of passion
and character which such a meeting would afford him. It will not,
therefore, create any surprise in my readers, that our first evening in
Bath should have been devoted to the social pipe; the pleasant account
Blackstrap gave us of the sporting party, in Matthew Temple's snuggery,
induced us to adjourn thither in the evening, where we might enjoy life,
smoke our cigars, join a little chaffing about the turf and the ring,
sip our punch and grog, enjoy a good chaunt, and collect a little
character for the pages of the English Spy. To such as are fond of these
amusements, most heartily do I recommend a visit to the Sporting Parlour
at the Castle, where they will not fail to recognise many of the jovial
characters represented in the opposite page; and as old Time pays no
respect to worth and mellow-hearted mortals, but in his turn will mow
down my old friend Matthew and his merry companions, I am desirous to
perpetuate their memory by a song, which will include all of note who
upon this occasion joined the festive scene.
[Illustration: page300]
SPORTSMAN'S HALL.
A SCENE AT THE CASTLE.
~300~~
Come all you gay fellows, so merry and witty,
Ye Somerset lads of the elegant city,
Ye sons of the turf who delight in a race,
And ye Nimrods of Bath who are fond of the chase;
Come join us, and pledge us, like true brothers all,
At old Matthew Temple's, the Castle and Ball.
Will Partridge, the father of sports, in the chair,
With honest George Wingrove will welcome you there,
While Handy, who once on two horses could ride,
And merry Jack Bedford will meet you beside;
Then for sport or for spree, or to keep up the ball,
We've an excellent fellow, you'll own, in Bill Hall.
~301~~
Captain Beaven, a yeoman of merry renown,
Will keep up the joke with the gay ones from town,
While, if you'd go off in a canter or speed,
You've only to take a few lessons with Mead;
Then Sharland can suit every beau to a T,
So haste to the Castle, ye lovers of glee.
Sweet Margerim, clerk of the course, will be found
With any young sportsman to trot o'er the ground,
Though his Honesty, since at Wells races 'twas tried,
It must be admitted, has bolted aside;
The Newcombe's are good at all sports in the ring,
While, like Chanticleer, Hunt the Cocker will sing.
Jack Langley, the fam'd 'Squire Western of Bath,
A jolly fox-hunter, who's fond of a laugh,
With mellow Tom Williams, of Brewers a pair,
Are the bacchanals form'd for to banish dull care;
Then haste to the Castle, ye true merry sprites,
Where the song, and the chase, and the fancy delights.
Give a host more to name of the jovial and free,
That my song would extend till to-morrow d'ye see:
But a truce to particulars; take them all round,
There's nothing in Bath like themselves to be found;
Where harmony, friendship, and mirth can combine,
The pleasures of life with kind hearts and good wine.
And in good truth, there is no place within the dominions of King
Bladud, where the social man can find more cheerful companions, the
sporting man more kindred spirits, and the lovers of the characteristic
and the humorous meet with a greater variety of genuine eccentricity,
unalloyed with any baser or offensive material. Matthew Temple himself
is a great original, pure Somerset, perfectly good-natured, ever ready
to oblige, and although for many years the commander-in-chief of the
Castle, is yet in all the chicanery of his
~302~~
profession, and the usual obtrusiveness of a landlord, as unlike the
generality of his brethren as a raw recruit is to an effective soldier.
Old Master William Partridge is also worthy of notice as the father of
the turf, and then if you would ride to hounds, no man in Bath can mount
you better, or afford you such good corn, great attentions, and a warm
stall for a prime hack. Rich in anecdote, and what is still better, with
a charitable purse and a worthy heart, there are few men who have earned
for themselves more respect in this life, or deserve it better, than
William Handy, Esq. the once celebrated equestrian, who having realized
a handsome competency, retired, some years since, to Bath, to enjoy his
_otium cum dignitate_: here, at an advanced age, with all the spirits
of youth, and a lively interest in every thing relating to sporting, you
will meet with the character I have described; and, take my word for
it, will not be disappointed in the likeness. Among the bon vivants of
Sportsmans' Hall I must not omit that care-killing soul Captain Beaven,
whose easy flow of good-humour and love of good sport is not less
conspicuous than his love for a pretty lass, and his delight in a good
song and a cheerful glass. Honest George Wingrove, a wealthy baker,
and the patriarch of the room, will never prove a crusty customer, I
am sure; and if that good-looking fellow Mead, the riding-master, does
sometimes "o'erstep the modesty of nature" in his mode of addressing
his pupils, adopting the familiar style of addressing them by their
christian name--as, for instance, "set upright, Sally; more forward,
Eliza; keep your rein-hand more square, Ellen;" and soon; he
hath, however, yet many good points that amply compensate for this
perverseness of habit. Among the genuine good ones, the real thing, as
the sporting phrase has it, not a biped in Bath beats Tom Williams, who,
agreeable to our Eton Gradus, is good at every thing: a more jovial,
worthy-hearted, respected soul breathes not within the merry court
of King Bladud, and very ~303~~few there that can rival him in a good
horse, a long run, or as a lively companion. Tom is married to the
sister of Bartley, the comedian, and carries with him into private life
the estimation which ever attends him in public. For a rum story, a
bit of real life, or a roguish joke, who shall excel Jack Bedford? And
then, if your honour would knock the balls about, why "Jack's the
lad" to accommodate you. And little Bill Hall, who keeps the Kingston
billiard-rooms, will be most happy to make his best bow to you without
any view to the mace. But, i' faith, I am sketching away here in
Sportsman's Hall at old Matthew Temple's, and could continue so to do
for another chapter; forgetting, as Transit says, that we have yet to
traverse the whole city of Bath through, spying into the vagaries and
varieties of the more polished, and taking a slight occasional glance
at the lowest grade of society, in order to diversify and keep up the
chiaroscuro of our pictures.
[Illustration: page303]
Merry reader, for such I hope thou art, we have now travelled on for
nearly two years together; and many a varied scene in life's pilgrimage
have we set before you, from the gilded dome of royalty to the humble
shed of the Emeralder; but our visit to Bath will afford you a richer
treat than aught that has yet preceded it. It was when the party broke
up at Temple's, and that was not before the single admonition of old
father Time had sounded his morning bell, that a few _bon vivants_
of the Castle, accompanied by the English Spy and his merry friends,
sallied forth in quest of strange adventure; for it must be admitted,
that in the elegant city
"Candles and ladies' eyes oft shine most bright,
When both should be extinguish'd for the night."
A fancy ball at the Upper Rooms on this night had attracted all the
elegance, fashion, and beauty to be found within the gay circle of
pleasure, and thither ~304~~we bent our steps, having first provided
ourselves with the necessary introductions. The scene above all others
in the fascination of gay life and the display of female charms is
a fancy ball; a species of entertainment better suited to the modest
character of our countrywomen than the masquerade, and, in general, much
better liked in this country, where the masked entertainment, unless in
private, is always avoided by females of rank and character. One of
the most amusing scenes which first presented itself to our notice
on approaching the entrance to the rooms was the eager anxiety and
determined perseverance of the liveried Mercuries and Bath dromedaries,
alias chairmen, to procure for their respective masters and mistresses
a priority of admission; an officious zeal that was often productive of
the most ludicrous circumstances, and, in two or three instances, as far
as indispensable absence from the pleasures of the night could operate,
of the most fatal effects. A well-known city beau, who had been at
considerable expense in obtaining from London the splendid dress of a
Greek prince, was completely upset and rolled into the kennel by his
chairmen running foul of a sedan, in which Lord Molyneaux and his
friend Lord Ducie had both crammed themselves in the dress of Tyrolese
chieftains. The Countess of D--------, who personated Psyche, in
attempting to extricate herself from an unpleasant situation, in
which the obstinacy of her chairmen had placed her, actually had her
glittering wings torn away, unintentionally, from her shoulders by the
rude hand of a Bath rustic, whose humanity prompted him to attempt her
deliverance. Old Lady L--------, in the highest state of possible alarm,
from feeling her sedan inclining full twenty degrees too much to the
right, popped her head up, and raising the top part of the machine,
screamed out most piteously for assistance, and on drawing it back
~305~~again, tore off her new head-dress, and let her false front shut
in between the flap of the chair, by which accident, all the beautiful
Parisian curls of her ladyship were rendered quite flat and
uninteresting. An old gentleman of fortune, who was suffering under
hypochondriacal affection, and had resolved to attempt Sir John
Falstaff, received the end of a sedan pole plump in his chest, by which
powerful application he was driven through the back part of the machine,
and effectually cured of "_la maladie imaginaire_" by the acuteness of a
little real pain. The flambeau of a spruce livery servant setting fire
to the greasy tail of a Bath chairman's surtout produced a most awkward
_rencontre_, by which a husband and wife, who had not been associated
together for some years, but were proceeding to the ball in separate
chairs, were, by the accidental concussion of their sedans in a moment
of alarm, actually thrown into each other's arms; and such was the
gallantry of the gentleman, that he marched into the ball-room bearing
up the slender frame of his heretofore forsaken rib, to whom he from
that time has become reunited. The lady mayoress of the city was
excessively indignant on finding her preeminence of _entree_ disputed by
the wife of a Bristol butcher; while the chair of the master of the
ceremonies was for some time blocked in between the sedans of two old
tabbies, whose expressions of alarm, attempts at faintings, and little
flights of scandal, had so annoyed the poor M. C. that when he entered
the ball-room, he felt as irritable as a tantalized lover between two
female furies. In short, the scene was rich in amusement for the group
of merry hearts who had left the Castle in quest of adventure; and while
we were enjoying the ludicrous effects produced by the jostling of the
sedans, my friend Transit had sketched the affair in his usual happy
style, and designated it thus: ~306~
THE BATTLE OF THE CHAIRS.
"The chairs are order'd, and the moment comes,
When all the world assemble at the rooms."
Illustration: page306]
For the ball-room itself, it was the most splendid scene that the magic
power of fancy could devise. The variety of characters, the elegance
of the dresses, and the beauty of the graceful fair, joined to their
playful wit and accomplished manners, produced a succession of delights
which banished from the heart of man the recollection of his mortal
ills, and gave him, for the passing time, a semblance of Elysian
pleasures. The rooms are admirably calculated for this species of
entertainment, and are, I believe, the largest in England; while the
excellent regulations and arrangements adopted by the master of the
ceremonies to prevent any of those unpleasant intrusions, too often
admitted into mixed assemblies, deserved the highest commendation. It is
from scenes of this description that the writer on men ~307~~and manners
extracts his characters, and drawing aside from the mirth-inspiring
group, contemplates the surrounding gaieties, noting down in his
memory the pleasing varieties and amusing anecdotes he has there heard;
pleasantries with which at some future time he may enliven the social
circle of his friends, or by reviving in print, recall the brightest
and the best recollections of those who have participated in their gay
delights.
"In this distinguish'd circle you will find
Many degrees of man and woman kind."
And as I am here "life's painter, the very Spy o' the time," I shall
endeavour to sketch a few of the leading Bath characters; most of the
gay well-known being upon this occasion present, and many an eccentric
star shining forth, whose light it would be difficult to encounter in
any other circle. The accompanying view of the rooms by Transit will
convey a correct idea of the splendour of the entertainment, and the
fascinating appearance of the assembled groups.
"Ranged on the benches sit the lookers-on,
Who criticise their neighbours one by one;
Each thinks herself in word and deed so bless'd,
That she's a bright example for the rest.
Numerous tales and anecdotes they hatch,
And prophesy the dawn of many a match;
And many a matrimonial scheme declare,
Unknown to either of the happy pair;
Much delicate discussion they advance,
About the dress and gait of those who dance;
One stoops too much; and one is so upright,
He'll never see his partner all the night;
One is too lazy; and the next too rough;
This jumps too high, and that not high enough.
Thus each receives a pointed observation,
Not that it's scandal--merely conversation."
A three months' sojournment at Bath had afforded my friend Eglantine an
excellent opportunity for ~308~~estimating public character, a science
in which he was peculiarly well qualified to shine; since to much
critical acumen was joined a just power of discrimination, aided by a
generosity of feeling that was ever enlivened by good-humoured sallies
of playful satire. To Horace Eglantine, I may apply the compliment which
Cleland pays to Pope--he was incapable of either saying or writing "a
line on any man, which through guilt, through shame, or through fear,
through variety of fortune, or change of interest, he would ever be
unwilling to own." It too often happens that the cynic and the satirist
are themselves more than tinged with the foibles which they so severely
censure in others. "You shall have a specimen of this infirmity," said
Horace, "in the person of Peter Paul Pallet; a reverend gentleman whom
you will observe yonder in the dress of a Chinese mandarin. Some few
years since this pious personage took upon himself the task of lashing
the prevailing follies of society in a satire entitled Bath Characters,
and it must be admitted, the work proves him to have been a fellow of
no ordinary talent; but an unfortunate amour with the wife of a reverend
brother, which was soon after made public, added to certain other
peculiarities and eccentricities, have since marked the satirist himself
as one of the most prominent objects for the just application of his own
weapon."
Come hither, Paul Pallet, your portrait I'll paint:
You're a satirist, reverend sir, but no saint.
But as some of his characters are very amusing, and no doubt very
correct portraits of the time, 1808, my readers shall have the advantage
of them, that they may be the better able to contrast the past with the
present, and form their own conclusions how far society has improved
in morality by the increase of methodism, the influx of evangelical
breathings, or the puritanical pretensions of bible societies. I shall
pass by his description of the club; gaming ever was ~309~~and ever will
be a leading fashionable vice, which only poverty and ruin can correct
or cure. The clergy must, however, be greatly delighted at the following
picture of the cloth, drawn by one of their holy brotherhood. "The Bath
church," says the satirist, "is filled with croaking ravens, chattering
jays, and devouring cormorants; black-headed fanatics and white-headed
'dreamers of dreams;' the aqua-fortis of mob politics, and the mawkish
slip-slop of modern divinity; rank cayenne pepper, and genuine powder of
post!" Really a very flattering description of our clerical comforters,
but one which, I lament to say, will answer quite as well for 1826,
with, perhaps, a little less of enthusiasm in the composition, and some
faint glimmerings of light opposed to the darkness of bigotry and the
frauds of superstition. Methodism is said to be on the wane--we can
hear no better proof that true religion and good sense are coming into
fashion. The sketch of Mrs. Vehicle, by the same hand, is said to have
been a true copy of a well-known female gambler; it is like a portrait
of Sir Joshua Reynolds, a picture worthy of preservation from its
intrinsic merits, long after the original has ceased to exist: how
readily might it be applied to half a score card-table devotees of the
present day! "Observe that _ton_ of beauty, Mrs. Vehicle, who is sailing
up the passage, supported like a nobleman's coat of arms by her amiable
sisters, the virtuous widow on one side, and the angelic Miss Speakplain
on the other. By my soul! the same roses play upon her cheeks now that
bloomed there winters ago, the natural tint of that identical patent
rouge which she has enamelled her face with for these last twenty years;
her gait and presence, too, are still the same--_Vera incessa patuit
Dea_; she yet boasts the enchanting waddle of a Dutch Venus, and the
modest brow of a Tower-hill Diana. Ah, Jack, would you but take a few
lessons from my old friend ~310~~at the science of shuffle and cut, you
would not rise so frequently from the board of green cloth, as you
now do, with pockets in which the devil might dance a saraband without
injuring his shins against their contents. Why, man, she is a second
Breslaw with a pack; I have known her deal four honours, nine trumps to
herself three times in the course of one rubber, and not cut a higher
card to her adversary than a three during the whole evening. Sensible
of her talents, and of the impropriety of hiding them in a napkin, she
chose Bath, independence, and her own skill in preference to a country
parsonage, conjugal control, and limited pin-money. Her _caro sposo_
meanwhile retired to his living; and now blesses himself on his escape
from false deals, odd tricks, and every honour but the true one."
One more sketch, and I have done; but I cannot pass by the admirable
portrait of a Bath canonical, "Jolly old Dr. Mixall, rosy as a ripe
tomata, and round as his own right orthodox wig,
'With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
The weight of mightiest monarchies!'
Awful and huge, he treads the ground like one of Bruce's moving pillars
of sand! What a dark and deep abyss he carries before him--the grave
insatiate of turtle and turbot, red mullet and John Dories, haunches and
pasties, claret, port, and home-brewed ale! But his good-humour alone
would keep him at twenty stone were he to cease larding himself for
a month to come; and when he falls, may the turf lie lightly on his
stomach! Then shall he melt gently into rich manure;
'And fat be the gander that feeds on his grave.'"
"But now for the moderns," said Horace; "for the
enchanting fair,
'Whose snow-white bosoms fascinate the eye,
Swelling in all the pride of _nudity_;
~311~~
The firm round arm, soft cheek, and pouting lip,
And backs exposed below the jutting hip;
To these succeed dim eyes, and wither'd face",
And pucker'd necks as rough as shagreen cases,
But whose kind owners, hon'ring Bladud's ball,
Benevolently show their little all.'"
But I must not particularize here, as I intend sketching the more
prominent personages during a morning lounge in Milsom-street; when,
appearing in their ordinary costume, they will be the more easily
recognised in print, and remain a more lasting memorial of Bath
eccentrics,
SKETCHES IN BATH--CHAPTER II.
~312~~
Well-known Characters in the Pump-room taking a Sip with
King Bladud--Free Sketches of Fair Game--The awkward
Rencontre, or Mr. B------and Miss L.--Public Bathing or
stewing alive--Sober Thoughts--Milsom-street Swells--A
Visit to the Pig and Whistle, Avon-street--of the Buff
Club.
To the pump-room we went, where the grave, and the gay,
And the aged, and the sickly, lounge time away;
Where all the choice spirits are seen making free
With the sov'reign cordial, the true _eau de vie_.
[Illustration: page312]