"were, accordingly, agreed to be given to the Town Clerk, to
secure such accommodation at an inn in Oxford, Reading, and
Windsor, as might be adequate for the civic party; and to make
every other necessary arrangement."
And here, before we go any further, it may be necessary to state,
that the work of which we are about to speak has actually been
written by command of Lord Wenables, by his ci-devant Lordship's
ci-devant Chaplain, and published by Messieurs Longman, Rees, Orme,
Brown, and Green, embellished with two beautiful engravings; all we
should add is, that the author is perfectly serious in his details,
and that our extracts are made from his work, correctly verbatim et
literatim.
Scarce had the Lord Wenables and his Council decided upon going to
Oxford, when the Corporation of that City sent them a letter inviting
them to dinner on the 26th. This unexpected and welcome letter
puzzled the Lord and his Council, inasmuch as they had fixed only
to stay one day at Oxford--that day the 26th, and on that day to
entertain (as no doubt they would) the heads of houses at dinner.
That the Lord Wenables and his Aldermen could have arranged the
matter satisfactorily to all parties by eating two dinners in one
day is evident, but not at the same time, and upon this dilemma the
reverend author makes this communication:--
"From this difficulty," says he, "they were happily released
by the question, 'Could not your Lordship go a day sooner to
Oxford?' It was immediately seen that this slight alteration of
the plan first intended would obviate every difficulty: it would
allow them the opportunity of showing their respect to the Mayor
and Magistrates of Oxford by dining with them on the Tuesday; and
would also give them the honour of having the University and City
to dinner on the Wednesday."
The quickness of perception in the Lord Wenables and his Aldermen,
which gave them the advantage of "immediately seeing" that by going
to Oxford on the 25th, they could dine there on the 26th, and by
staying till the 28th they might also dine there on the 27th, if
they liked, is well worthy of praise; and the liberality of inviting
the University and City to dine at the Star Inn, cannot fail to
impress upon the reader the magnificence of Lord Wenables' mind.
Suffice it to say, the Mayor of Oxford accepted the Mayor of London's
invitation, and that the Mayor of London adopted the Mayor of
Oxford's proposition.
The reverend author then says:--
"Every preliminary arrangement being completed, and ample
accommodation having been secured at the Star Inn, Oxford, for
his Lordship and suite, to the number of about thirty persons,
the civic party began to lay their plans for the journey!
"It had been previously understood that while his Lordship and
friends should return together, in the City state barge, they
should yet go to Oxford in such a way, and at such a time, as
best comported with their own convenience. Mr. Alderman Atkins,
accompanied by two of his daughters, Miss Atkins and Miss Sarah
Jane, left his seat, Halstead Place, in Kent, on Monday, the
24th of July, and set out from London for Oxford in the cool of
the following morning. On the same day, Mr. Alderman and Mrs.
Lucas, with their daughters, Miss Charlotte and Miss Catharine,
left their house, at Lee, in Kent, and went by land as far as
Boulter's Lock, near Maidenhead, where they embarked on board
the Navigation shallop, and proceeded by water to Reading; thus
selecting some of the finest views on the river."
Lord Wenables himself was, however, not so rash; for having satisfied
himself of the actual existence of Oxford by receiving a letter from
one of the natives, he resolved to proceed thither by land. See we
then from his reverend chaplain's history the mode of his Lordship's
setting forth:--
"On the morning of the 25th, the Lord Mayor, accompanied by the
Lady Mayoress, and attended by the Chaplain, left the Mansion
House, soon after eight o'clock.
"The private state-carriage, drawn by four beautiful bays, had
driven to the door at half-past seven. The coachman's countenance
was reserved and thoughtful, indicating full consciousness of
the test by which his equestrian skill would this day be tried,
in having the undivided charge of four high-spirited and stately
horses--a circumstance somewhat unusual; for, in the Lord Mayor's
carriage, a postillion usually guides the first pair of horses.
These fine animals were in admirable condition for the journey.
Having been allowed a previous day of unbroken rest, they were
quite impatient of delay, and chafed and champed exceedingly on
the bits, by which their impetuosity was restrained.
"The murmur of expectation, which had lasted for more than half
an hour, amongst the crowd who had gathered around the carriage,
was at length hushed by the opening of the hall-door. The Lord
Mayor had been filling up this interval with instructions to
the _femme de menage_! and other household officers, who were
to be left in residence, to attend, with their wonted fidelity
and diligence, to their respective departments of service during
his absence, and now appeared at the door. His Lordship was
accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, and followed by the Chaplain.
"As soon as the female attendant of the Lady Mayoress had taken
her seat, dressed with becoming neatness, at the side of the
well-looking coachman, the carriage drove away; not, however,
with that violent and extreme rapidity which rather astounds than
gratifies the beholders; but at that steady and majestic pace,
which is always an indication of REAL GREATNESS!
"Passing along Cheapside and Fleet Street--those arteries, as Dr.
Johnson somewhere styles them, through which pours the full tide
of London population--and then along the Strand and Piccadilly,
the carriage took the Henley-road to Oxford.
"The weather was delightful; the sun, as though it had been
refreshed by the copious and seasonable showers that had fallen
very recently, seemed to rise more bright and clear than usual,
and streamed in full glory all around. The dust of almost a whole
summer had been laid by the rain; the roads were, of consequence,
in excellent order, and the whole face of creation gleamed with
joy!"
In fact, creation was so delighted with the appearance of Lord
Wenables, that "Nature wore an universal grin."
The reverend gentleman then describes the blowing up of a powder-mill
as they reached Hounslow, which at first startled Lord Wenables, who
imagined fondly that he had accidentally set fire to the great river
whose source he was seeking; but Lady Wenables concurred with the
reverend writer in assuring his Lordship that he might make himself
perfectly easy upon that particular point.
"At Cranford-bridge," says the reverend author, "which is about
thirteen miles from Hyde Park Corner, the Lord Mayor staid only
long enough to change horses. For, his Lordship intending to
travel post from Cranford-bridge to Oxford, his own fine horses
were, after a proper interval of rest, to return to town under
the coachman's care.
"These noble animals, however, seemed scarcely to need the rest
which their master's kindness now allotted them. For though
they had drawn a somewhat heavy carriage a distance of nearly
seventeen miles, they yet appeared as full of life as ever;
arching their stately necks, and dashing in all directions the
white foam from their mouths, as if they were displeased that
they were to go no farther!
"Just as the carriage was about to drive away, Mr. Alderman
Magnay, accompanied by his lady and daughter, arrived in a
post-chaise! After an interchange of salutations, the Lady
Mayoress--observing that they must be somewhat crowded in the
chaise--invited Miss Magnay to take the fourth seat, which had as
yet been vacant in the carriage. As the day was beginning to be
warm, this courteous offer of her Ladyship was readily accepted."
Here we have, in one short page, a striking instance of the "true
instinct" of Lord Wenables' fine horses, who were quite displeased
that they were not allowed to drag him any farther--a delightful
picture of a worthy Alderman and his family--three in a chay--a
splendid specimen of Lady Wenables' sagacity and urbanity, and a
fair estimate of the value of the latter upon the mind of the young
invitée, who accepted her Ladyship's offer of a seat in the state
coach because the day was beginning to get warm!
In safety, however, did Lord Wenables get to Oxford, of which, the
reverend author says--"There is something peculiarly imposing in
the entrance, particularly in the eastern entrance, to this city."
Now this, which is ably twisted into the beginning of a flourishing
description of towers and colleges, evidently refers to the toll at
the Bridge-gate, and which Lord Wenables, who paid the turnpikes
himself and kept the halfpence in the coach pockets, declared to be
one of the greatest impositions at the entrance of a city that he had
ever met with.
We are unable to give our readers the account of the highly
honourable reception which Lord Wenables met with at Oxford, or the
description of the dinner of which he partook--but we must, let
what may happen, extract the whole account of the dinner given by
his Lordship to the Oxfordians--a dinner which took place after a
somewhat protracted lecture on comparative anatomy, which, if it
failed in the delivery of establishing a likeness between a "bat"
and a "whale," most certainly bears evidence, in its transmission to
paper, of the great similitude between a Lord Mayor's Chaplain and a
donkey.
It will be needless for us to make an observation upon what follows:--
"The hour of six had scarcely arrived, when the company, invited
by the Lord Mayor to dine with him at the Star, began to
assemble. The City watermen, in their new scarlet state liveries,
were stationed in the entrance hall; and a band of music was in
attendance to play on the arrival of the visitors."
The reverend author, by blending the band and the watermen (who are
also firemen), leaves it somewhat doubtful to which corps the duty of
playing on the arrival of the visitors was confided. He proceeds:--
"In a large drawing-room, on the first floor, fronting the
street, on a sofa at the upper end, sat the Lady Mayoress,
accompanied by Mr. Charles Venables, and surrounded by the other
ladies of the party. The City Marshal of London, Mr. Cope,
dressed in full uniform, and carrying his staff of office in
his hand, took his station at the door, and announced the names
of the guests as they severally arrived. Near the entrance of
the room also stood Mr. Beddome, in a richly-wrought black silk
gown, carrying the sword downwards. The Lord Mayor, who was in
full dress, and attended by the Chaplain in clerical robes, wore
on this occasion the brilliant collar of S.S. (_quære_ A.SS.)
The Worshipful the Mayor, and the other Magistrates of Oxford;
Richard Cox, Esq., Thomas Fox Bricknell, Esq., Aldermen; William
Folker, Esq., Thomas Robinson, Esq., Richard Ferdinand Cox, Esq.,
Assistants; Mr. Deodatus Eaton, and Mr. Crews Dudley, Bailiffs;
together with Mr. Percival Walsh, the City Solicitor, attended by
the Town Clerk, in his robe of office, which resembled in some
degree the undress black silk gown worn by Gentlemen Commoners
of the University--were all severally introduced, and received
by the Lord Mayor with a warmth and cordiality adequate to that
which they had so kindly manifested on the preceding day.
"The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, the Rev. Dr. Richard Jenkyns,
Master of Baliol, preceded, as usual, by one of the Yeomen
Bedels, carrying a large mace, and the Rev. Dr. Thomas Edward
Bridges, President of Corpus Christi College, the Rev. Dr. George
William Hall, Master of Pembroke; the Rev. Dr. Nicholas Philip
Shuttleworth, Warden of New College; the Rev. Dr. John Dean,
Principal of St. Mary's Hall, and Lord Almoner's Prælector in
Arabic; together with the two Proctors, the Rev. George Cumming
Rashleigh, M.A., and the Rev. Wadham Harbin, M.A.; the Rev. Mr.
Woodgate, to whom allusion has before been made, and other
Members of the University, all of whom were dressed in full
academicals, were severally introduced to the Lady Mayoress. To
this distinguished list of visitors must be added the names of
John Fane, Esq., one of the Members of Parliament for the county
of Oxford; and James Haughton Langston, Esq., and John Ingram
Lockhart, Esq., Members for the City of Oxford.
"When dinner was announced, the party, amounting to nearly
sixty persons, each gentleman taking charge of a fair partner,
descended to a long room on the ground floor.
"Every attention had been given by the proprietor of the Star
to render the dinner as excellent as the occasion required,
and to fit up the dining-room with as much taste as its extent
would admit of; and no means had been left untried to keep the
apartment as cool as possible. Wreaths of flowers were hung
thickly round it, and the windows, which opened on a garden,
were overspread with branches of trees, to exclude, as much as
possible, the warm beams of a western summer sun. The band of
musicians now removed their station from the entrance hall to the
garden under the windows, where they played, at proper intervals,
with excellent effect, the whole evening. The Lord Mayor and
Lady Mayoress took their seats at the head of the table, the
Vice-Chancellor of the University sitting on the right hand of
his Lordship, and the Chief Magistrate of Oxford on the left of
her Ladyship. The heads of the Houses then took their seats,
according to the priority of their admission to the degree of
Doctor, alternating with the ladies and daughters of Aldermen
Atkins, Magnay, Heygate, and Lucas. The Aldermen of London and of
Oxford then filled the remainder of the table.
"Amidst much elegance and beauty, the Lady Mayoress attracted
particular observation. Her Ladyship was arrayed in the most
splendid manner, wore a towering plume of ostrich feathers, and
blazed with jewels!
"When the Chaplain, by craving a blessing on the feast, had set
the guests at liberty to address themselves to the dainties
before them, and the room was illuminated throughout by a
profusion of delicate wax candles, which cast a light as of broad
day over the apartment, it would not have been easy for any
eye, however accustomed to look on splendour, not to have been
delighted, in no common manner, with the elegance of the classic
and civic scene now exhibited in the dining-parlour of the first
inn in Oxford.
"The accompaniments, indeed, fell short of that splendour which
they would have had in the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House in
London, but still the general effect was peculiarly striking; and
when the rank of the company is considered, may with truth be
called brilliant!
"The conversation naturally assumed that tone best qualified for
the discovery of those talents and learning, of which the evening
had drawn together so select and bright a constellation.
"After dinner, as soon as the health of the King, the welfare of
the Church, the prosperity of the University and City, and other
toasts of loyalty, literature, and religion, had been honoured,
the Lord Mayor proposed the health of the Vice-Chancellor of
Oxford. This was followed by toasts to the health of the other
Heads of Houses, the Professors, and Proctors; the Worshipful
the Mayor and other Magistrates of Oxford, and the Right Hon.
the Lord Mayor of London; each toast giving rise to such
acknowledgments as the individuals, to whom they referred,
considered appropriate and adequate. The health of the Lady
Mayoress, and the other ladies of the company, was proposed by
one of the Heads of the Houses; the toast was hailed with warm
demonstrations of respect, and the honour was acknowledged with
considerable point and taste by Mr. Lockhart, the Member, at her
Ladyship's request.
"The Ladies, who, to the great gratification of the Company, had
sat longer than is usual at most tables, at length obeyed the
signal of the Lady Mayoress, and retired to the drawing room,
'With grace,
Which won who saw, to wish their stay.'
"The conversation was, however, in no degree changed in their
absence. The Lady Mayoress and her fair friends had taken
their share in it with much good sense and delicacy; and their
departure, so far from being succeeded by that obstreperous and
vulgar merriment, or anything like that gross profligacy of
conversation, which indicates rejoicing at being emancipated
from the restraint of female presence, only gave occasion to
the Magistrates of Oxford to express their wish, that, in the
invitations to their Corporation dinners, arrangements could be
made that would include the ladies."
After such a dinner and such an evening, it may easily be imagined
that Lord Wenables and his Court slept like tops--not but that his
Lordship had "requested his friends not to devote too many hours to
repose." In obedience to a wish, which when breathed by a Lord Mayor
becomes a command, everybody was up and busy "while the morning was
early:" the yeoman of his Lordship's household, half covered with an
awning, was occupied with the cook, who was busied on this lovely
day in making a fire to boil the tea-kettle, in a grate in the bow of
the boat.
"About seven o'clock," says the reverend historian, "signals of
the approach of his Lordship's party were descried and heard.
The populace, thickly stationed on the road through which the
carriages were to pass, caught up the acclamation; and announced
to all who thronged the margin of the river, that----the Lord
Mayor was coming! His Lordship and the Lady Mayoress alighted
from the carriage at the bridge, and walked through the
respectful crowd, which divided to give them passage; and were at
once conveyed to the state barge----in the Water Bailiff's boat!"
The shouts of delight which rent the air were music to the ears of
greatness--it was quite a genial morning, and one of those days "when
we seem to draw in delight with the very air we breathe, and to feel
happy we can scarcely tell why." So writes the reverend author, with
more taste than judgment; for a man, placed as he was in the society
of Lord Wenables and his Court, not to know why he felt happy, shows,
we fear, a want of perception equally lamentable with the want of
tact displayed in confessing it.
The reverend author laments that the eagerness of the party to
do honour to the delicacies of the Lord Mayor's breakfast-table,
prevented their seeing the beauties of Nuneham.
At ten o'clock they made Abingdon--and at Clifton the water shoaled
suddenly from eighteen inches to fourteen and a half, so that his
Lordship's yacht, which drew nearly two feet, could be drawn no
farther, and they remained hard and fast till a fresh supply of the
element could be procured.
The following passage is in the author's happiest style:--
"The crowds of people--men, women, and children--who had
accompanied the barge from Oxford, were continually succeeded by
fresh reinforcements from every town and village that is skirted
by the river. Distant shouts of acclamation perpetually re-echoed
from field to field, as the various rustic parties, with their
fresh and blooming faces, were seen hurrying forth from their
cottages and gardens; climbing trees, struggling through copses,
and traversing thickets, to make their shortest way to the
water-side. Handfuls of halfpence were scattered to the children
as they kept pace in running along the banks with the City Barge;
and Mr. Alderman Atkins, who assisted the Lord Mayor in the
distribution, seemed to enter with more than common pleasure into
the enjoyment of the little children. It was gratifying to see
the absence of selfish feeling manifested by some of the elder
boys, who, forgetful of themselves, collected for the younger
girls."
It will be remembered that the voyage now under detail was undertaken
in the dreadful year of panic--but we confess we had no idea of
the desperate state of affairs in the country which could induce
so severe a run on the banks for a few halfpence, such as is here
described. It may not be uninteresting to trace the source of the
Lord Wenables's munificence. The halfpence in question were those
which we mentioned his Lordship to have taken in change at the
turnpike-gates during his Lordship's over-land journey to Oxford, and
were now distributed with that liberality and grace for which his
Lordship and Mr. Alderman Atkins will never cease to be remembered.
The reverend writer, indeed, says:--
"There is, unquestionably, something genuine and affectionate
in the cheerfulness of the common people, when it springs from
the bounty and familiarity of those above them: the warm glow of
gratitude spreads over their mirth; and a kind word or look, or
a little pleasantry, frankly said or done--and which calls in no
degree for any sacrifice of personal dignity--always gladdens the
heart of a dependant a thousand times more than oil and wine. It
is wonderful, too, how much life and joy even one intelligent and
good-humoured member of a pleasure-party will diffuse around him.
The fountain of indwelling light, which animates his own bosom,
overflows to others; and every thing around quickly freshens into
smiles."
It is, we fear, too evident that this passage comes direct from the
reverend writer's heart: it seems clear to the meanest capacity, that
he speaks from experience--perhaps of himself--when he expresses the
delight which _even one_ intelligent person can convey to a party. It
is quite clear, that in the party now assembled there either was no
intelligent person, or only one--at least, the observation of the
author leaves little room to doubt the disagreeable fact.
At page 80, the following account of the natives of Caversham and
the neighbouring districts is given, which is at once romantic and
picturesque:--