collection, is the following passage alluding to the great care Lady Hobye
took as to the arrangement of her funeral.
"Her fondness for those pompous soothings, which it was usual at that time
for grief to accept at the hands of pride, scarcely died with her; for, a
letter is extant from her to Sir William Dethick, Garter King of Arms,
desiring to know 'what number of mourners were due to her calling; what
number of waiting women, pages, and gentlemen ushers; of chief mourners,
lords, and gentlemen; the manner of her hearse, of the heralds, and
church?' &c. This remarkable epistle concludes thus: 'Good Mr. Garter, do
it exactly, for I find forewarnings that bid me provide a pick-axe,' &c.
The time of her death is not exactly known, but it is supposed to have
been about 1596. She is buried at Bisham, with her first husband.[12] It
was this Lady's daughter, Elizabeth Russell, that was said to have died
with a pricked finger."
It was usual at funerals to use rosemary, even to the time of Hogarth, who
has introduced it in a pewter plate on the coffin-lid of the funeral scene
in his Harlot's Progress. Shakspeare notices it in Romeo and Juliet, "And
stick your _rosemary_ on this fair corse." "This plant," says Mr. Douce,
in his "Illustrations of Shakspeare and Ancient Manners," page 216, vol.
i. "was used in various ways at funerals. Being an evergreen, it was
regarded as an emblem of the soul's immortality." Thus in Cartwright's
"Ordinary," Act 5, scene 1:
"----------------If there be
Any so kind as to accompany
My body to the earth, let them not want
For entertainment; pr'ythee see they have
_A sprig of rosemary_ dip'd in common water,
To smell to as they walk along the streets."
In an obituary kept by Mr. Smith, secondary of one of the Compters, and
preserved among the Sloanian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 886, is the
following entry: "Jan. 2, 1671, Mr. Cornelius Bee, Bookseller in Little
Britain, died; buried Jan. 4, at Great St. Bartholomew's, without a
sermon, without wine or wafers, only gloves and _rosemary_." And Mr. Gay,
when describing Blowselinda's funeral, records that "Sprigg'd rosemary the
lads and lasses bore."
Suicides were buried on the north side of the church, in ground purposely
_unconsecrated_.
The custom of burial observed by that truly respectable class of the
community denominated Friends, commonly called Quakers, may be deemed the
most rational, as it is conducted with the utmost simplicity.
The corpse is kept the usual time; it is then put into a plain coffin
uncovered. Afterwards it is placed in a plain hearse, also uncovered, and
without feathers; the attendants accompanying the funeral in their family
carriages, or hackney coaches. The corpse is then placed by the side of
the grave where sometimes they offer a prayer, or deliver an exhortation,
after which the coffin is lowered, the earth put over it, and thus the
ceremony closes. Should the deceased have been a minister, then the corpse
on the day of its interment is carried into the meeting house, and remains
there in the midst of the congregation during their meditations.
The orthodox members of this society never wear any kind of mourning.
Relatives are never designedly placed by each other, but are buried
indiscriminately, as death may visit each member.
They begin at the left hand upper corner, placing them in rows till they
have filled the ground to the lower right hand corner, after which they
commence again as before. They make no distinction whatever between male
and female, nor young and old, nor have they even so much as a
coffin-plate.
The Jews bury their dead within four and twenty hours, adhering to the
custom of the East, where the body would putrify beyond that time. The
great burial-ground at Mile End was made at the sole expense of the famous
Moses Hart, who, after losing an immense sum in the South Sea bubble, died
worth 5000_l._ _per annum_. This munificent Jew also built the Dutch
Synagogue in Duke's-place. The squib prints of the day designate Moses
Hart by the introduction of the Knave of Hearts. The Knave of Clubs in the
same plate was meant for the ancestor of the Gideon family. The Jews bury
their poor by a collection made at the funerals of the better part of the
community. Several boys go about to the mourners and other Jews assembled
upon the occasion, with tin boxes padlocked up, at the top of which there
is a small slit to admit of the contributions, and every Jew present,
however humble his station, is eager to drop in his mite.
[Illustration: _"Hackney Coachman"_]
HACKNEY COACHMAN.
PLATE VI.
From the writer's extensive knowledge of prints, and his intimate
acquaintance with the various collections in England, he has every reason
to conclude that the original print of a Hackney Coachman, from which this
Plate has been copied, is perhaps the only representation of the earliest
character of that calling. The print from which it was taken is one of a
Set published by Overton, at the sign of the White Horse without Newgate;
and its similarity to the figures given by Francis Barlow in his AEsop's
Fables, and particularly in a most curious sheet-print etched by that
artist, exhibiting Charles the Second, the Duke of York, &c. viewing the
Races on Dorset Ferry near Windsor, in 1687, sufficiently proves this
Hackney Coachman to have been of the reign of that monarch.
The early Hackney Coachman did not sit upon the box as the present drivers
do, but upon the horse, like a postilion; his whip is short for that
purpose; his boots, which have large open broad tops, must have been much
in his way, and exposed to the weight of the rain. His coat was not
according to the fashion of the present drivers as to the numerous capes,
which certainly are most rational appendages, as the shoulders never get
wet; the front of the coat has not the advantage of the present folding
one, as it is single breasted.
His hat was pretty broad, and so far he was screened from the weather.
Another convincing proof that he rode as a postilion is, that his boots
are spurred. In that truly curious print representing the very interesting
Palace of Nonsuch, engraved by Hoefnagle, in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, the coachman who drives the royal carriage in which the Queen
is seated, is placed on a low seat behind the horses, and has a long whip
to command those he guides. How soon after Charles the Second's time the
Hackney Coachmen rode on a box the writer has not been able to learn, but
in all the prints of King William's time the Coachmen are represented upon
the box, though by no means so high as at present; nor was it the fashion
at the time of Queen Anne to be so elevated as to deprive the persons in
the carriage of the pleasure of looking over their shoulders.
Brewer, in his "Beauties of Middlesex," observes in a note, that "It is
familiarly said, that Hackney, on account of its numerous respectable
inhabitants, was the first place near London provided with Coaches for
hire, for the accommodation of families, and that thence arises the term
Hackney Coaches."
This appears quite futile; the word Hackney, as applied to a hireling, is
traced to a remote British origin, and was certainly used in its present
sense long before that village became conspicuous for wealth or
population.
In 1637 the number of Hackney Coaches in London was confined to 50, in
1652 to 200, in 1654 to 300, in 1662 to 400, in 1694 to 700, in 1710 to
800, in 1771 to 1000, and in 1802 to 1100. In imitation of our Hackney
Coaches, Nicholas Sauvage introduced the Fiacres at Paris, in the year
1650. The hammer-cloth is an ornamental covering of the coach-box. Mr. S.
Pegge says, "The Coachman formerly used to carry a hammer, pincers, a few
nails, &c. in a leathern pouch hanging to his box, and this cloth was
devised for the hiding of them from public view." See Pegge's
"Anonymiana," p. 181.
It is said that the sum of L1500, arising from the duty on Hackney
Coaches, was applied in part of the expense in rebuilding Temple Bar.
[Illustration: _"Jailor"_]
JAILOR.
PLATE VII.
Those persons who remember old Newgate, the Gate House at Westminster, and
other places of confinement, will recollect how small and inconvenient
those buildings were, and must acknowledge the very great improvements as
to the extensive accommodation of all our Prisons, not only in London, but
in almost every county in England; and for these very great improvements
no one could have stood more forward than the benevolent Howard. It is to
him the public owe extensiveness of building, separations in the prisons
for the various criminals, and most liberal supply of fresh water. Since
his time there have been few jail distempers, as the prisoners have
spacious yards to walk in, and by thus being exposed to fresh air are kept
free from fevers and other disorders incidental to places of confinement.
Let any one who recollects old Newgate survey the present structure, and
he will be highly gratified with the respectable order kept up in that
edifice. In some of the counties the jails may be looked upon as asylums,
for neatness and good management, particularly that of Cambridge, where,
instead of the whole of the prisoners for every sort of crime being
huddled together in the tower of the Castle, they have now a building
which affords separate apartments for men, women, and children, and this
on the most elevated spot, commanding views of the adjacent country from
every window. Whoever has visited Chelmsford Jail must have been delighted
with its humane and sensible construction. Those who do not recollect the
old prisons will, upon an inspection of Fox's Book of Martyrs, perceive in
the Prisons of Lambeth Palace, the Bishop of London's House, Aldersgate
Street, &c. how very small and confined those prisons were, having been
not above eight feet square, with low ceilings and hardly an opening to
let in the light. In addition to these miseries each room had its stocks,
in which the prisoners were placed. The residences of our sovereigns in
former days had likewise their prisons. Three of these were in the old
palace of Westminster, viz. Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. Heaven was a
place where, if the prisoners could afford to pay, they had
accommodations. Purgatory was a place with a ceiling so low that they
could not walk without bending the head into the chest; and Hell was a
dungeon with little or no light, where they had only bread and water. The
pump lately standing in the street close by the Exchequer Coffee House,
and now carried to the opposite side of the way, was the pump of this last
prison, and to this day goes under the appellation of "Hell Pump."
To the credit of present manners, our modern jailors are in general men of
feeling, and wherever it is discovered that they act with cruelty they are
immediately dismissed from their office. This was not the case in former
days, for they were in general the most hard-hearted of men, and callous
even to the distresses of the aged, and crying infant at the breast.
The following Plate, pourtraying a Jailor of those times, will
sufficiently convey an idea of the morose gluttony of such a character. It
was copied from a rare tract, entitled, "Essayes and Characters of a
Prison and Prisoners, by Geffray Mynshul, of Grayes Inne, Gent. with new
additions, 1638." On the right side of the figure is written, "Those that
keepe me, I keepe; if can, will still." On the left hand, "Hee's a true
Jaylor strips the Divell in ill." The following extracts from this curious
work will shew the estimation in which the author held a Jailor:
"As soone as thou commest before the gate of the prison, doe but think
thou art entring into Hell, and it will extenuate somewhat of thy misery,
for thou shalt be sure not only to find Hell, but fiends and ugly
monsters, which with continuall torments will afflict thee; for at the
gate there stands Cerberus, a man in shew, but a dogge in nature, who at
thy entrance will fawne upon thee, bidding thee welcome, in respect of the
golden croft which he must have cast him; then he opens the doore with all
gentlenes, shewing thee the way to misery is very facile, and being once
in, he shuts it with such fury, that it makes the foundation shake, and
the doore and windows so barricadoed, that a man so loseth himself with
admiration that he can hardly finde the way out and be a sound man.
"Now for the most part your porter is either some broken cittizen who hath
plaid jack of all trades, some pander, broker, or hangman, that hath plaid
the knave with all men; and for the more certainty his emblem is a red
beard, to which sacke hath made his nose cousin-german.
"If marble-hearted Jaylors were so haplesse happy as to be mistaken, and
be made Kings, they would, instead of iron to their grates, have barres
made of men's ribs, Death should stand at doore for porter, and the Divell
every night come gingling of keyes, and rapping at doores to lock men up.
"The broker useth to receive pawnes, but when he hath the feathers he lets
the bird flye at liberty: but the Jaylor when he hath beene plum'd with
the prisoner's pawnes, detaines him for his last morsell.
"He feedes very strangely, for some say he eates cloakes, hats, shirts,
beds, and bedsteds, brasse, or pewter, or gold rings, plate, and the like;
but I say he is in his dyet more greedy than Cannibals, for they eate but
some parts of a man, but this devoures the whole body. The tenne-peny and
nine-peny ordinaries should never bee in the Fleet, Gatehouse, or the two
infernal Compters, for Hunger would lay the cloth, and Famine would play
the leane-fac'd serving-man to take away the trenchers."
A PRISON BASKET-MAN.
PLATE VIII.
This Plate exhibits one of those men who were sent out to beg broken meat
for the poor prisoners. It was copied from one of the sets published by
Overton in the reign of King Charles the Second. This custom, which
perhaps was as ancient as our Religious Houses, has been long done away by
an allowance of meat and bread having been made to those prisoners who are
destitute of support.
It was the business of such men to claim the attention of the public by
their cry of "Some broken breade and meate for ye poore prisonors! for the
Lord's sake pitty the poore!" This mendicant for the prisoners is also
noticed with the following London Cries, in a play entitled, "Tarquin and
Lucrece," viz. "A Marking Stone." "Breade and Meate for the poor
Prisoners." "Rock Samphire." "A Hassoc for your pew, or a Pesocke to
thrust your feet in." In former days the passenger was solicited in the
most melancholy and piteous manner by the poor prisoners. A tin box was
lowered by a wire from the windows of their prisons into the street, so as
to be even with the eye of the passenger. The confined persons, in hoarse,
but sometimes solemn tones, solicited the public to "Remember the poor
prisoners!" Not many persons can now recollect the tin boxes of this
description, suspended from the Gatehouse at Westminster, and under the
gloomy postern of old Newgate; but the custom was till lately continued at
the Fleet Prison: where a box of the above description was put out from a
grated window, even with the street, where one of the prisoners, who took
it by turns, implored the public to "Remember the poor Insolvent Debtors;"
but as the person was seen, and so near the street, the impression made
on the passenger had not that gloomy and melancholy air of supplication as
when uttered from a hollow voice at a distance, and in darkness; so that
hundreds passed by without attending to the supplicant.
[Illustration: _"Prison Basket Man"_]
Few of those gentlemen who come into office of Sheriff with a dashing
spirit quit their station without doing some, and, indeed, to do them
justice, essential service to the community. Sir Richard Phillips, when
sheriff, established the poor boxes put up on the outside of Newgate, with
a restriction that they should be opened in the presence of the Sheriffs,
and distributed by them to the poor prisoners, so that there could be no
embezzlement, and the donations thus rendered certain of being equally and
fairly divided among the proper objects, according to their distressing
claims.
The following extract is from a work published by Mr. Murray in 1815,
entitled, "Collections relative to Systematic Relief of the Poor," and
which perhaps may be the earliest notice of mendicants by proxy. Plutarch
notices a Rhodian custom, which is particularly mentioned by Phoenix of
Colophon, a writer of Iambics, who describes certain men going about to
collect donations for the crow, and singing or saying,
"My good worthy masters, a pittance bestow,
Some oatmeal, or barley, or wheat, for the crow;
A loaf, or a penny, or e'en what you will,
As fortune your pockets may happen to fill.
From the poor man a grain of his salt may suffice,
For your crow swallows all and is not over nice.
And the man who can now give his grain and no more,
May another day give from a plentiful store.
Come, my lad, to the door, Plutus nods to our wish,
And our sweet little mistress comes out with a dish.
She gives us her figs, and she gives us a smile,
Heav'n bless her! and guard her from sorrow and guile,
And send her a husband of noble degree,
And a boy to be danced on his grand-daddy's knee;
And a girl like herself, all the joy of her mother,
Who may one day present her with just such another.
God bless your dear hearts all a thousand times o'er,
Thus we carry our crow-song to door after door;
Alternately chaunting we ramble along,
And we treat all who give, or give not, with a song."
And the song ever concludes:
"My good worthy masters, your pittance bestow,
Your bounty, my good worthy mistresses, throw.
Remember the crow! he is not over nice;
Do but give as you can, and the gift will suffice."
[Illustration: _"Rats or Mice to kill"_]
RAT-CATCHER.
PLATE IX.
There are two kinds of rats known in this country, the black, which was
formerly very common, but is now rarely seen, being superseded by the
large brown kind, commonly called the Norway rat. The depredations
committed by this little animal, which is about nine inches long, can be
well attested by the millers and feeders of poultry, as in addition to its
mischief it frequently carries off large quantities to its hiding place.
In 1813 the following computation was made: "The annual value of the
European Empire cannot be less than 25 millions sterling, and of this at
least one fiftieth part, upon the lowest calculation, is eaten and
destroyed by rats and mice; the public loss therefore is at least
500,000_l._ _per annum_, exclusive of the damage done in ships, in store
houses, and buildings of every kind."
The bite of the rat is keen, and the wound it inflicts painful and
difficult to heal, owing to the form of its teeth, which are long, sharp,
and irregular. It produces from twelve to eighteen at a litter, and were
it not that these animals destroy each other, the country would soon be
overrun with them.
Mr. Bewick observes, "It is a singular fact in the history of these
animals, that the skins of such of them as have been devoured in their
holes, have frequently been found curiously turned inside out, every part
being completely inverted, even to the ends of the toes."
In addition to this remark of Mr. Bewick, it may be mentioned, that though
the destruction of rats is so great among themselves, yet they are in some
degree attached to each other, and have even their sports and pastimes.
It is well known that a herd of rats will be defenders of their own holes,
and that when a strange brood trespass upon their premises, they are sure
to be set upon and devoured. They are active as the squirrel, and will,
like that animal, sit up and eat their food. They play at hide and seek
with each other, and have been known to hide themselves in the folds of
linen, where they have remained quite still until their playmates have
discovered them, in the same manner as kittens. Most readers will
recollect the fable where a young mouse suggests that the cat should have
a bell fastened to his neck, so that his companions might be aware of his
approach. This idea was scouted by one of their wiseheads, who asked who
was to tye the bell round the cat's neck? This experiment has actually
been tried upon a rat. A bell was fastened round his neck, and he was
replaced in his hole, with full expectation of his frightening the rest
away, but it turned out that instead of their continuing to be alarmed at
his approach, he was heard for the space of a year to frolick and scamper
with them. In China the Jugglers cause their rats and mice to dance
together to music, and oblige them to take leaps as we teach our cats. The
following is a copy of a handbill distributed in Cornhill a few years ago:
"A most wonderful Rat, the greatest natural curiosity ever seen in London.
"A gigantic Female Rat, taken near Somerset House: it is truly worthy the
inspection of the curious, its length being three feet three inches, and
its weight ten pounds three quarters; and twenty-four inches in
circumference. Any lady or gentleman purchasing goods to the amount of one
shilling or upwards, will have an opportunity of seeing it gratis, at No.
5, Sweeting's Alley, Cornhill."
Rats were made use of as a plague, see 1st Book of Kings, chap. v. Nich.
Poussin painted this subject, which has been engraved by Stephen Picart of
Rome, 1677.
In a curious tract, entitled "Green's Ghost," published in 1626, Watermen
are nicknamed water-rats; an appellation also bestowed on pirates by the
immortal bard of Avon.
The down of the musk-rat of Canada is used in the manufacture of hats.
From the tail of the Muscovy musk-rat is extracted a kind of musk, very
much resembling the genuine sort, and their skins are frequently laid
among clothes to preserve them from moths.
"The musk-rat is of all the small species larger and whiter than the
common. He exhales, as he moves, a very strong smell of musk, which
penetrates even the best inclosures. If, for example, one of the animals
pass over a row of bottles, the liquor they contain will be so strongly
scented with musk that it cannot be drunk. The writer has known tons of
wine touched by them so strongly infected, that it was with the greatest
difficulty, and by a variety of process, that they could be purged of this
smell. These rats are a great plague to all the country, and, if they once
get into a cellar or magazine, are very hard to destroy. Cats will not
venture to attack them, for fear probably of being suffocated by the
smell; nor will the European terrier hurt them." See Les Hindous, par E.
Baltazard Solvyns, tom. 4. Paris, 1812, folio.
The Norwegians of late years have the following effectual mode of getting
rid of their rats:
They singe the hair of one of them over a fire, and then let it loose; the
stench is so offensive to his comrades that they all immediately quit the
house, and are eventually destroyed by combating with other broods. This
expedient has become so general, that Norway is relieved of one of its
greatest pests. The above method was communicated to the writer by a
native, who wondered that our farmers had not adopted it.
It appears in that very masterly set of etchings by Simon Guillain, or
Guilini, from drawings made by Annibal Caracci, of the Cries of Bologna,
published in 1646, that the Rat-catcher had representations of rats and
mice painted upon a square cloth fastened to a pole like a flag, which he
carried across his shoulder.
The Chinese Rat and Mouse-killer carries a cat in a bag. In Ben Jonson's
time, the King's most excellent Mole-catcher lived in Tothill Street.
[Illustration: _"Marking Stones"_]
MARKING STONES.
PLATE X.
The rare wood-cut, from which the present etching was made, is one of the
curious set of twelve figures engraved in wood of the time of James the
First. Under the figure are the following lines:
"Buy Marking Stones, Marking Stones buy,
Much profit in their use doth lie:
I've marking stones of colour red,
Passing good,--or else black lead."