WORKHOUSES, HOSPITALS, ETC.
The London Workhouse -- Life therein -- Bedlam -- Its building --
Regulations -- Description of interior -- Governors --
Bartholomew Hospital -- St. Thomas's -- Almshouses 435
APPENDIX.
Lilli-Burlero 439
Hunt the Squirll 439
Moll Peatley 440
A List of all the Persons to whom Rings and Mourning were
presented upon the occasion of Mr. Pepys's Death and Burial 441
Lord Mayor's Delight 444
Walsingham 445
The Children in the Wood 445
A List of some of the Coffee-houses in London during Queen
Anne's Reign, 1702-14 448
Chocolate-houses 453
Sir Roger de Coverley 453
Roger of Coverly 453
Christ Church Bells in Oxon 454
Cheshire Rounds 455
The Nightingale 455
INDEX 459
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
THE 'DAILY COURANT,' March 11, 1702 _Frontispiece_
THE NURSERY (Steele's 'Ladies' Library,' ed. 1714) 8
'TROOPE, EVERY ONE' (Lauron's 'Habits and Cryes of the City of
London,' ed. 1709) 9
A RAREE SHOW ('Cris de Paris,' 1700. Print Room, B. M.) 10
'OH, RAREE SHOW!' (Lauron) 10
'RIPE STRAWBERRYES!' (Lauron) 11
'SIX PENCE A POUND FAIR CHERRYES' (Lauron) 11
A CORPSE (Undertaker's Bill, Harl. MSS. 5931, 129) 36
INVITATION TO A FUNERAL (Harl. MSS. 5931, 186) 37
LYING IN STATE (Fletcher's 'The Tamer Tamed,' ed. 1711) 43
A WIDOW ('Ladies' Library') 45
A FIRE ('Verses of John Hall, Bellman of Canterbury,' 1708) 51
'NEW RIVER WATER!' (Lauron) 52
'SMALL COALE!' (Lauron) 55
FIREPLACE AND UTENSILS (Harl. MSS. 5961, 220) 56
A BED (Harl. MSS. 5961, 180) 58
'THE MERRY FIDLER' (Lauron) 65
MEN KISSING (from a Contemporary View of Marlborough
House--Guildhall) 67
A TEA PARTY (Satirical Prints, No. 1555. 1710? B. M.) 72
A LADY AND FOOTMAN (View of Marlborough House--Guildhall) 74
RIDING PILLION (From a View of Whitehall--1713--Guildhall) 76
A BOURÉE AND A CONTRETEMPS (Weaver's 'Orchesography') 77
A SISSONE (Siris' translation of Feuillet's book on Dancing) 77
A CARD TABLE (Mrs. Centlivre's 'Basset Table,' ed. 1706) 79
A GAMBLING SCENE (Lucas's 'Memoirs, &c., of the most famous
Gamesters, &c.,' ed. 1714) 81
A LOTTERY (Steele's 'A Good Husband for Five Shillings,'
ed. 1710) 88
AN ASTROLOGER (Harl. MSS. 5931, 12) 92
'4 PAIRE FOR A SHILLING, HOLLAND SOCKS!' (Lauron) 115
A JACK-BOOT 117
SHOE-BLACK ('Cris de Paris') 118
A WATCH RIBAND (Harl. MSS. 5961, 222) 121
'OLD CLOAKS, SUITS, OR COATS!' (Lauron) 122
'OLD SATIN, OLD TAFFETY OR VELVET!' (Lauron) 122
A COMMODE (Anna Sophia of Hanover--Playing Cards, 1707, B. M.) 124
COIFFURE (Princess Royal of Prussia--Playing Cards, 1707, B. M.) 128
PATCHING (Lauron) 129
A MASK OR VIZARD (Harl. MSS. 5996, 3) 131
AN UMBRELLA (Gay's 'Trivia,' 1st ed.) 132
COSTUME OF A LADY 140
'FOUR FOR SIXPENCE, MACKERELL!' (Lauron) 144
'TWELVE PENCE A PECK, OYSTERS!' (Lauron) 146
A COFFEE HOUSE ('Vulgus Britannicus,' 1710) 162
THE LION AT BUTTON'S (Ireland's 'Graphic Illustrations of
Hogarth') 169
A TAVERN SCENE (Satirical Prints, No. 1582. B. M. 1712) 176
A LEOPARD (Harl. MSS. 5961, 327) 203
'THE LEST MAN AND HORS IN THE WORLD' (Harl. MSS. 5996, 1) 206
HUNGARIAN YOUTH (Harl. MSS. 5931, 280) 209
A POSTURE MASTER (Harl. MSS. 5961, 5) 211
PORTRAIT OF POWELL (from 'A Second Tale of a Tub,' ed. 1715) 215
GLASS-BLOWING (Harl. MSS. 5961, 224) 218
WONDERFUL FOUNTAIN (Harl. MSS. 5961, 331) 220
THE FOUR INDIAN KINGS (Hand Bill, B. M. 816. m. 19/26) 222
BILLIARDS (Cotton's 'Compleat Gamester,' ed. 1709) 243
SAVERY'S STEAM ENGINE (from 'The Miner's Friend,' 1702) 291
A PRINTING PRESS (Harl. MSS. 5915, 215) 296
'LONDON GAZETTES HERE!' (Lauron) 298
A NEWS MAN ('Cris de Paris') 301
NEWSPAPER STAMP (Newspapers of and after 1 Aug. 1712) 307
PARTRIDGE AND BICKERSTAFF (Harl. MSS. 5931, 10) 310
SIR WILLIAM READ OPERATING (Handbill B. M. 778. K. 15/13) 324
A QUACK (Harl. MSS. 5931, 147) 327
A CLERGYMAN'S WALKING COSTUME (Satirical Prints, B. M. No.
1546--A.D. 1702) 341
A BISHOP'S WALKING COSTUME (Satirical Prints, B. M. No.
1546--A.D. 1702) 342
A PREBEND'S WALKING COSTUME (Satirical Prints, B. M. No.
1546--A.D. 1702) 342
'THE MODERN CHAMPIONS' (Banks' Collection, B. M. 1890 _e_) 344
A NONCONFORMIST MINISTER (Lauron) 350
A QUAKERS' MEETING ('The Quaker's Art of Courtship,' 1710) 351
Ditto. (Satirical Prints, B. M. No. 1554, by Heemskirk,
A.D. 1710) 352
'THE FOLLY ON THE THAMES' (View of White Hall--Guildhall) 360
A STREET SCENE (Gay's 'Trivia,' 1st ed.) 363
MILKMAID ON MAY DAY (Lauron) 369
HACKNEY COACH (View of Westminster Abbey--Guildhall) 375
A STATE COACH (Thanksgiving at St. Paul's for Peace, July 7,
1713--Guildhall) 377
Ditto (Thanksgiving at St. Paul's for Peace, July 7,
1713--Guildhall) 378
A SEDAN CHAIR (Vue du Palais Royall de White Hall--Guildhall) 381
THE WATCH (Bell Man's Verses, 1708) 388
A CONSTABLE (WARD'S 'Nuptial Dialogues') 389
A DUEL (Playing Cards, 1707, B. M.) 391
DUEL BETWEEN DUKE OF HAMILTON AND LORD MOHUN (Historical
Prints, B. M. 1712) 394
SOLDIERS (Historical Prints, B. M. 1709) 400
AN ADMIRAL 404
'PEINE FORTE ET DURE' ('Newgate Chronicle'--Wm. Spigott,
Pressed 1721) 411
BEATING HEMP (Bell Man's Verses, 1708) 428
FLOGGING A WOMAN (_ibid_) 428
'REMEMBER THE POOR PRISONERS!' (Lauron) 433
SOCIAL LIFE
IN THE
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.
CHAPTER I.
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION.
(BOYS.)
The Duke of Gloucester -- The Queen's refusal to marry again --
Treatment of children after birth -- Baptismal feasts -- A
christening -- 'Daffy's Elixir' -- Treatment of infantile
diseases -- The nursery -- Toys -- Children's books -- Horn books
-- Private tuition -- Boarding and day schools -- Free schools --
Classical education -- School books -- Penmanship -- Runaway boys
-- College education -- Charity schools.
In all climes, and in all ages, since Man's creation, he has been
subject to the same conditions, modified only by circumstances. He has
been born--has had to receive some education (if only taught to fish
and hunt for his subsistence), which was to fit him for the position
he was to occupy in this life. This was absolutely necessary, for it
is scarcely possible to imagine a more helpless being than an infant.
In most cases he married, and so helped to preserve his species, and
most certainly he died.
The scheme of existence in Queen Anne's time was no exception to the
normal state of things--only, as the ways of people then were not
exactly similar to ours, it will be interesting to note the
differences attending childhood, education, marriage, and death. The
Queen herself had more than once been a mother;[1] but only one child,
the Duke of Gloucester, lived any length of time, and in his infancy
he was indebted for his life to a young Quakeress, who acted as his
wet nurse. Poor little fellow! his brief stay on earth was not a
pleasant one. He suffered from hydrocephalus (water on the brain), and
his head was so big that at five years of age his hat was large
enough for an ordinary man. He could hardly toddle about, and felt
himself unable to go upstairs without being led. His father and mother
seemed to think that this assistance was not necessary; and, shutting
themselves in a room with the poor little boy, Prince George gave him
such a severe thrashing with a birch rod, that sheer pain made him
move, and from that time he managed to get up and down stairs without
help. Coddled by the women, and with somewhat rough playmates of his
own sex, he amused himself by drilling his company of boy soldiers,
even reviewing them on his eleventh birthday, the day before he
sickened with scarlet fever, of which he speedily died. His mother
grieved sorely for him, but never had another child to supply his
place.
[Footnote 1: Seventeen times, in fact.]
On her accession to the throne, the succession (failing her issue) was
unsettled, and most anxious was the whole nation that she should yet
be the mother of their future sovereign. In 'The form of prayer with
thanksgiving to Almighty God to be used in all churches and chapels
within this realm, every year upon the eighth day of March (being the
day upon which Her Majesty began her happy reign),' in the prayer at
the Communion service, immediately before the reading of the epistle,
'for the Queen as supreme Governor of this Church,' was the following
petition: 'And that these Blessings may be continued to after Ages,
make the Queen, we pray thee, an happy Mother of Children, who being
Educated in Thy true Faith and Fear may happily succeed Her in the
Government of these Kingdoms.' Her husband, Prince George, died
October 28, 1708; and it was not until January 13 of the next year,
that the Council struck out this portion of the service, some one
evidently remembering that the 8th of March was approaching. On
January 28, 1709, both Houses of Parliament petitioned Her Majesty to
marry again; but her wounds were too recent and too sore. She replied
that the provision she had made for the Protestant succession would
always be a proof of her hearty concern for the happiness of the
nation; but that the subject of their address was of such a nature
that she was persuaded they did not expect a particular answer.[2]
[Footnote 2: _The Chronological Historian_, &c., by W. Toone
ed. 1826.]
Ignorantly as the little Duke of Gloucester was treated, what was the
condition of ordinary babies? Let a contemporary tell the tale.
Steele,[3] writing as if his familiar Pacolet was speaking, and giving
an experience of his sensations, says: 'The first thing that ever
struck my senses was a noise over my head of one shrieking; after
which, methought I took a full jump, and found myself in the hands of
a sorceress, who seemed as if she had been long waking, and employed
in some incantation. I was thoroughly frightened, and cried out; but
she immediately seemed to go on in some magical operation, and
anointed me from head to foot. What they meant I could not imagine:
for there gathered a great crowd about me, crying, "An heir! an
heir!" upon which I grew a little still, and believed this was a
ceremony only to be used to great persons, and such as made them what
they called heirs.
[Footnote 3: _Tatler_, No. 15.]
'I lay very quiet, but the witch, for no manner of reason or
provocation in the world, takes me, and binds my head as hard as
possibly she could; then ties up both my legs, and makes me swallow
down an horrid mixture. I thought it an harsh entrance into life, to
begin with taking physic; but I was forced to it, or else must have
taken down a great instrument in which she gave it to me. When I was
thus dressed, I was carried to a bedside, where a fine young lady (my
mother, I wot) had liked to have hugged me to death. From her they
faced me about, and there was a thing with quite another look from the
rest of the company, to whom they talked about my nose. He seemed
wonderfully pleased to see me; but I know since, my nose belonged to
another family.
'That into which I was born is one of the most numerous among you;
therefore crowds of relations came every day to congratulate my
arrival; amongst others, my cousin Betty, the greatest romp in nature;
she whisks me such a height over her head, that I cried out for fear
of falling. She pinched me and called me _squealing chit_, and threw
me into a girl's arms that was taken in to tend me. The girl was very
proud of the womanly employment of a nurse, and took upon her to strip
and dress me anew, because I made a noise, to see what ailed me; she
did so, and stuck a pin in every joint about me. I still cried; upon
which she lays me on my face in her lap; and to quiet me, fell to
a-nailing in all the pins, by clapping me on the back, and screaming a
lullaby. But my pain made me exalt my voice above hers, which brought
up the nurse, the witch I first saw, and my grandmother. The girl is
turned downstairs, and I stripped again, as well to find what ailed me
as to satisfy my granam's farther curiosity. This good woman's visit
was the cause of all my troubles. You are to understand that I was
hitherto bred by hand, and anybody that stood next me gave me pap if I
did but open my lips; insomuch, that I was grown so cunning as to
pretend myself asleep when I was not, to prevent my being crammed.
'But my grandmother began a loud lecture upon the idleness of this
age, who, for fear of their shapes, forbear suckling their own
offspring; and ten nurses were immediately sent for; one was whispered
to have a wanton eye, and would soon spoil her milk; another was in a
consumption; the third had an ill voice, and would frighten me instead
of lulling me to sleep. Such exceptions were made against all but one
country milch-wench, to whom I was committed and put to the breast.
This careless jade was perpetually romping with the footman, and
downright starved me; insomuch that I daily pined away, and should
never have been relieved had it not been that on the thirtieth day of
my life a Fellow of the Royal Society,[4] who had writ upon "Cold
Baths," came to visit me, and solemnly protested I was utterly lost
for want of that method; upon which he soused me head and ears into a
pail of water, where I had the good fortune to be drowned.'
[Footnote 4: Probably Sir John Floyer, who wrote several
books on the wonderful cures made by cold-water bathing.]
After its birth the babe was soon baptized, but there does not seem to
have been a great social fuss made about the event. That most
entertaining and observant traveller Henri Misson, who visited England
at the very close of the seventeenth century, and whose book was
translated into English in 1719,[5] says, 'The custom here is not to
make great feasts at the birth of their children. They drink a glass
of wine and eat a bit of a certain cake, which is seldom made but upon
these occasions.'
[Footnote 5: _M. Misson's Memoirs and Observations in his
Travels over England_, &c., translated by Ozells, 1719.]
Ward,[6] however, has left us a humorous description of a private
christening. He was asked by a relation to stand Godfather to his
newborn Child, and 'I, wanting ill-Nature enough to resist his
Importunities, submitted to his Requests; and engag'd for once to
stand as a _Tom Doodle_ for an hour or two, to be banter'd by a
Tittle-Tattle Assembly of Female Gossips. The time appointed for the
Solemnisation of this Ancient piece of Formality being come, after I
had put on a clean Band, and bestow'd Two Penniworth of Razorridge on
the most Fertile part of my Face, whose Septuary Crop requir'd Mowing,
away I Trotted towards the Joyful Habitation of my Friend and Kinsman,
but with as aking a Heart as a Wise Man goes to be Married, or a
Broken Merchant comes near the Counter.... As soon as we came into the
Room, and had bow'd our Backs to the old Cluster of Harridans, and
they in return had bent their knees to us, I sneak'd up to the
Parson's Elbow, and my Partner after me ... whilst Old Mother Grope
stood rocking of the Bantling in her Arms, wrap'd up in so Rich a
Mantle as if both _Indias_ had club'd their utmost Riches to furnish
out a Noble covering for my little Kinsman, who came as callow into
the world as a Bird out of an Eggshell.
[Footnote 6: _The London Spy_, ed. 1703.]
'At last the Babe was put into my hands to deliver, tho' not as my Act
and Deed, to the Parson, who having consecrated some _New River water_
for his purpose, wash'd away Original Sin from my new Nephew, and
brought him amongst us Christians into a state of Salvation. But when
my froward Godson felt the Cold Water in his face, he threaten'd the
Priest with such a parcel of Angry Looks, that if he had been strong
enough I dare swear he would have serv'd him the same Sauce, and under
the same Ignorance would have return'd him but little thanks for his
Labour. After we had joined together in a Petition for the good of the
infant Christian, the Religious part was concluded.... As soon as the
Parson had refreshed his Spirits with a bumper of Canary, dedicated to
the Mother; and the Clerk had said Amen to his Master's good Wishes,
after the like manner, each of 'em accepted of a Paper of Sweetmeats
for his Wife or his Children, and away they went, leaving the Company
behind.' They then seem to have drunk a full quantity of wine, and the
women having eaten, drank, and gossiped sufficiently, were each
presented with 'a Service of Sweetmeats, which every Gossip carried
away in her Handkerchief.... Having now struggled through every
difficult part of these Accustomary Formalities, I had nothing to do
but to Thank them for our Liberal Entertainment, Wish the Women well
again, and both much Happiness in their Male Offspring, and so take my
Leave, which I did accordingly; and was as greatly overjoyed when I
got out of the House as ever Convict was that had broke Gaol or
Detected Pick Pocket that had Escaped a Horse Pond.'
Having launched our baby thus far in life, we will see how he was
treated when suffering from any of the numerous ailments which infancy
is subject to. The marvel is that so many grew up. It was eminently
'the survival of the fittest.' Sanitary arrangements were extremely
rudimentary; little care being taken either as to the purity of the
water supply, or the efficiency of drainage. Fever was always in their
midst, and, neither inoculation nor vaccination being known, or
practised, smallpox was rampant, and spared no class, from the Queen
(Mary) to the beggar. Was the child fretful, there was that cordial
dear to old nurses of the Gamp school--Daffy's Elixir. This remedy,
which has survived as a popular nostrum to our own time, was not new
in Queen Anne's reign. It must even then have been a profitable
property, for rivals could afford to quarrel over it, as the following
advertisements show:--
'DAFFY'S FAMOUS ELIXIR SALUTIS,[7]
PREPARED BY KATHARINE DAFFY.
[Footnote 7: _Harl._ 5931, 336.]
The Finest now expos'd to Sale, prepar'd from the best Druggs,
according to Art, and the Original Receipt, which my Father Mr. Thomas
Daffy, late Rector of _Redmile_, in the Valley of _Belvoir_, having
experienc'd the Virtue of it, imparted to his Kinsman Mr. _Anthony
Daffy_, who publish'd the same to the Benefit of the Community, and
his own great Advantage. This Very Original Receipt is now in my
possession, left to me by my Father aforesaid, under his own Hand. My
own Brother Mr. _Daniel Daffy_, formerly Apothecary in _Nottingham_,
made this ELIXIR from the same Receipt, and Sold it there during his
Life. Those who know me will believe what I Declare; and those who do
not may be convinc'd that I am no counterfeit, by the Colour, Tast,
Smell, and just Operation of my ELIXIR. To be had at the _Hand and
Pen_ in _Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London_; and many other Places in
Town and Country.'
_Primâ facie_, the lady would seem to have made out her case; but
there were other aspirants to fame--as the following notice[8] will
show:--
[Footnote 8: _Ibid._ 121.]
'ADVERTISEMENT.
'Forasmuch as Mrs. _Elizabeth Daffy_ has lately Published an
Advertisement containing Invidious Reflections upon me, in
relation to my _Elixir Salutis_, I should be wanting to my Self
if I should not obviate them in the like public manner, to let
the World see they are Malicious, unreasonable, and false.
'In the first place she charges me with Clandestinely taking the
House in _Prugeon's Court_; which, by her leave, is equally
absurd and unjust; for the House was to be Lett a long time
before I took it (nor had she any lease of the House, or any
Power to Lett it), so consequently any one else might have taken
the same. As for my pretending to have been her Husband's
Assistant in preparing the _Elixir_, I will only say this is just
as true as the former Story; and I challenge her to produce one
single Evidence of Refutation to prove her Assertion: nor had I
need of any such trifling pretence, having known the Secret some
time before the Death of his Father Dr. _Anthony Daffy_; which I
presume was before the said _Elias Daffy_ was privy to the
preparing of the said _Elixir_ (he being then a _Cambridge_
scholar), and the same was communicated to me in the year 1684,
at the time I was going to travel beyond Sea, where, in divers
Countries, considerable Quantities of my _Elixir_ has been taken
by Persons of the greatest Rank, Quality, and Note, to their
great Satisfaction.
'And whereas the said Mrs. Daffy is pleased to call my _Elixir_
Spurious, and Insinuates as if it were hazardous to the Lives of
Men; the numerous Instances of Good it has done, both here and
abroad, do manifestly evince the Contrary. And I appeal to all
who have taken it in this City, or elsewhere, whether they have
not found at least as much Benefit from This as from any Thing of
the like Nature they have ever taken; insomuch that I am well
assured that those who have tried mine will apply themselves to
nobody else for _Elixir Salutis_.
'JOHN HARRISON.
'From my House in Prujean's Court in the Great Old Baly (The
Original and famous Elixir Salutis) being wrote in Golden
Characters over the Door fronting the Court Gate. March the 31st,
1709.'
One doctor at least (John Pechy) made the diseases of infants and
children his study, and wrote upon the subject. I have been unable to
get his book, but a few remedies from the medical works then in vogue
will show how these diseases were then treated. Here is a recipe for a
child's cough.[9]
[Footnote 9: _Collectanea Medica_, by Wm. Salmon, M.D.]
Horehound, ℥ix; Liquorice, Maidenhair, Hyssop, Wild Thyme,
Coltsfoot, Penny royal, ana ℥iij. Aniseeds and Fennel seeds ana
℥iss. Raisins of the Sun ℥vj. Figs, Jujubes ana ℥iv.
Elecampane ℥ij, boil all in lb. vj. of water to 1/2. Strain,
and add Honey, Sugar, ana lb. j. Boil to a Syrup; and when almost cold
add Orrice, Woodlice, both in fine powder, ana ℥j.'
This mixture might not have been bad, but why add powdered _woodlice_?
Worms in children were to be treated with 'Prevotius's Oyl to kill
Worms.[10] Take--Wormwood, Carduus, Scordium, Tobacco, ana Mj, Roots
of Sow bread ℥fs, Coloquintida, ℥ij, Oyl, Vinegar, ana lb.
j: boil to the consumption of the vinegar, then add Myrrh in powder
℥j; mix, and boil to the dissolution of the Myrrh. The Title
shows the Virtues, anoint it upon the Stomach and Belly.' If this was
not effective, the child might be given some lozenges made as
follows--'Take Rhubarb, Citron seeds husked, Worm seeds, seeds of
Purslain, of Coleworts, Broom finely powdered, ana ʒiij
☿ dulcis ʒij, White Sugar ʒxvj, all being in fine pouder; mix
and incorporate with mucilage of Gum Tragacanth, made with Orange-flower
water, of which Past make Lozenges each weighing ʒj. They kill all
Worms in the Stomach and Bowels, and you may give one or two of the
lozenges at a time to a Child in the Morning fasting, but some suppose
that the best time is the last three days of the Moon.'
[Footnote 10: _Collectanea Medica._]
The Measles were simply treated--the patient only had a draught to
soothe any cough, 'Let the sick keep their bed two days after the
first coming forth of the spots.'[11]
[Footnote 11: _The Family Physitian_, by Geo. Hartman.]
In teething, a child should be soothed every four hours with a
spoonful of black cherry water, in which two, three, or four drops of
Spirits of Hartshorn have been mixed.[12]
[Footnote 12: _Ibid._]
There is[13] 'An experimented Remedy for the Rickets. Take roots of
Smallage, Parsly, Fennel, and Angelica Roots, slice and boil them in
distilled water of Angelica, unset Hyssop and Coltsfoot, of each one
part, till they are tender, then strain it, and boil it up to a syrup,
with white Honey. Then take a stick of Liquorice, scrape it, and
bruise one end of it, and give the Child with it of the syrup one
spoonful in the Morning, at four of the Afternoon, and at night.'
[Footnote 13: _Ibid._]
There was also advertised 'A necklace that cures all sorts of Fits in
children occasioned by Teeth or any other Cause; as also all fits in
Men and Women. To be had at Mr. Larance's in Somerset Court, near
Northumberland House in the Strand; price 10_s._ for 8 days, though
the cure will be performed immediately;' and there was a palatable
medium for the little ones in 'the so-much approved Purging Sugar
Plumbs.'
Of the Nursery we know very little; indeed children are very seldom
mentioned. It is most likely that, in well-to-do families, they were
relegated to the nursery, and the care of their mothers, until they
were of fit age to go to school. The accompanying illustration, taken
from 'The Ladies' Library,' ed. 1714, by Steele, gives us an
excellent view of the nursery.
[Illustration: The Nursery.]
The very babies were amused much as now--for Addison, _Spectator_, No.
1, speaking of his natural gravity, says, 'I threw away my rattle
before I was two Months old, and would not make use of my Coral till
they had taken away all the Bells from it.' Some of these corals were
very beautiful and costly, even being made of gold.
We know how, from the earliest ages, a doll has been the favourite toy
with girls, and the reign of 'Good Queen Anne' was no exception to the
general rule--but they were not then called Dolls, but 'Babies'; so,
indeed, were Powel's Marionettes--as also the milliner's models. 'On
Saturday last, being the 12th instant, there arrived at my House in
King Street, Covent Garden, a French Baby for the year 1712' &c. Some
were made of wax, but these were, of course, of the expensive sort, as
must also have been those in Widow Smith's raffle--'large joynted
dressed Babies.' Probably, dolls were the girls' only playthings. As
to the boys, history records very little of their amusements. Give a
boy in the nursery a whip, or a stick, to beat somebody, or something,
he generally is content. How superlatively happy, however, must he
have been in the possession of one of these wonderful
horses?--warranted chargers--troop horses, every one! They also had
card-board windmills on the end of sticks. We hear nothing of marbles,
tops, or any other toys; but, doubtless, children's ingenuity supplied
any defects that way, then as now, and made shift to play, and amuse
themselves, until the time of enfranchisement came, and the boy could
wander in the streets and see the marvels of the raree show, and buy
'hot baked wardens--hot,' or some of old 'Colly Molly Puffe's'
pastry--or, should his tastes be simpler, there were 'Ripe
Strawberryes,' or 'Sixpence a pound fair Cherryes.'
[Illustration: 'Troope, Every One.']
These little folk, however, had their special literature. For there
was compiled and printed 'A Play book for Children, to allure them to
read as soon as they can speak plain; composed of small Pages so as
not to tire children; printed with a fair and pleasing Letter, the
Matter and Method plainer and easier than any yet extant.' The price
of this was fourpence, and it must have been a favourite, for it is
advertised as being in its second edition in 1703. Certainly, the
little ones then lacked many advantages in this way that ours
possess--but, on the other hand, so much was not required of them.
There was no dreaded 'Exam.' to prepare for--no doing lessons all day
long, and then working hard at night to get ready for the next day's
toil. They were not taught half a dozen languages, and all the
ologies, whilst still in the nursery; but, were the suggestions and
advice given to 'the Mother' in Steele's 'Lady's Library' thoroughly
carried out, they would grow up good men and women.
[Illustration: A Raree Show.]
The boys, however, had strong meat provided for them in such tales as
'Jack and the Giants,' &c. Steele, in _Tatler_ 95, says, speaking of a
little boy of eight years old, 'I perceived him a very great historian
in "Æsop's Fables," but he frankly declared to me his mind "that he
did not delight in that learning, because he did not believe they were
true," for which reason I found he had very much turned his studies
for about a twelvemonth past unto the lives and adventures of Don
Bellianis of Greece, Guy of Warwick, the Seven Champions, and other
historians of that age.... He would tell you the mismanagements of
John Hickerthrift, find fault with the passionate temper in Bevis of
Southampton, and loved Saint George for being the champion of
England.... I was extolling his accomplishments, when his mother told
me that the little girl who led me in this morning was in her way a
better scholar than he. "Betty," says she, "deals chiefly in Fairies
and Sprights; and sometimes in a winter night will terrify the maids
with her accounts, until they are afraid to go up to bed."'
[Illustration: 'Oh, Raree Show.']
In all probability the child learned his letters in the first instance
from a 'Hornbook,' such as were then commonly used and sold--as the
following excerpt from an advertisement shows: 'Joseph Hazard at the
Bible, in Stationers Court, near Ludgate, sells ... Spelling books,
Primers, _Hornbooks_, &c.' Hornbooks are now very scarce indeed, and
the man lucky enough to possess a genuine one must feel proud of his
rarity. It consisted of a small sheet of paper, generally about 4 in.
× 3 in. or so--sometimes smaller--on which was printed the alphabet,
both in capitals and small text, the vowels, and a few simple
combinations, such as ab, eb, ib, ob, ub,--ba, be, bi, bo, bu, &c.,
and the Lord's Prayer. This was laid on a flat piece of board with a
roughly shaped handle, and covered with a thin plate of horn, fastened
to the board by copper tacks driven through an edging of thin copper.
It therefore would stand a vast amount of rough usage before it would
be destroyed--a fact of great importance in elementary education.
[Illustration: 'Ripe Strawberryes!']
[Illustration: 'Six Pence a Pound Fair Cherryes!']
Private tuition existed then as now. 'A Grave Gentlewoman of about 50
years of age desires to be Governess to any Gentleman's Children; she
can give a very good account of herself,' and 'Whereas in this
degenerate Age Youth are kept for so many Years in following the Latin
Tongue, and many of them are quite discourag'd, Mr. Switterda (who was
formerly recommended to the late King William, and well known by their
Excellences my Lord Sparkein and my Lord Methuen) offers a very easy
and delightful Method, by which any Person of tolerable Capacity, who
can but spare time to be twice a Week with him, and an Hour at a Time,
nay, Children of ten Years of Age, may in one Year learn to speak
Latin and French fluently, according to the Grammar rules, and to
understand a Classical Author; and if they are not compleat in that
time, he will teach them without any farther Charge, provided they
will be manag'd.' Another gentleman, living in Abchurch Lane, offered
to do the same, and, moreover, 'he offereth to be bound to every one
for the performance thereof, and to give a Month's trial.'
But a Day School was the normal institution for a boy, although there
were Boarding Schools. Judging by the advertisements, these must have
been but few in the beginning of the reign, as they gradually become
more numerous towards its close. A record of one or two will suffice
to show what kind of education they gave. 'At the upper end of Knights
Bridge, near the Salutation, there is a Boarding School for young
Gentlemen, where, besides French, are carefully taught, after the best
English method, Latin, Greek, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, &c.' And
again, 'At Lady Day next will be open'd a Boarding School for young
Gentlemen at Kensington Gravel Pits, by Richard Johnson, A.M., author
of the Grammatical Commentaries.... There will be taught also French,
Writing, Arithmetick, and Mathematicks;' whilst another takes a wider
range: 'A boarding School will be open'd after Easter, at Chertsey ...
for the Instruction of Youth in the English, French, Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew Tongues, besides Geography, History, Mathematicks, Writing, and
Accompts; to fit 'em either for the University, Study of the Law, or
other Business.'
In London, too, were many free schools. There were Westminster,
Merchant Taylors', Paul's, Greyfriars, Christ's Hospital, and St.
Olave's, Southwark. There were three free schools in Westminster
besides the Queen's School; these were, Palmer's in Tuttlefields,
Almery School, and Hill's School. Besides which were Lady Owen's
School, Islington, and Bunhill School--and there were free schools in
Cherrytree Alley, Castle Street (Tennyson's), Great Queen Street,
Parker's Lane, Church Entry, Old Jewry, Whitechapel, Ratcliffe, Foster
Lane, Hoxton, St. Saviour's, Southwark, Plough Yard, Rotherhithe, and
East Smithfield--and this probably is not an exhaustive list.
Although French, High Dutch, and Italian were taught, it was a
Classical age, and every gentleman was bound to be a fair, if not a
good, classical scholar; indeed, other branches of education were
neglected for this, as Steele complains (_Spectator_, No. 147) that
boys at school, 'When they are got into Latin, they are looked upon as
above English, the reading of which is wholly neglected, or at least
read to very little purpose.' We might look a long time now-a-days for
an advertisement such as the following: 'At Hogarth's[14] Coffee House
in St. John's Gate, the mid-way between Smithfield Bars and
Clerkenwel, there will meet every day at 4 o'clock some Learned
Gentlemen who speak Latin readily, where any Gentleman that is either
skilled in that Language, or desirous to perfect himself in speaking
thereof, will be welcome. The Master of the House, in the absence of
others, being always ready to entertain gentlemen in the Latin
Tongue.' It is much to be doubted if that literary society, the Urban
Club, which till lately held its meetings at the same place, St.
John's Gate, could do the same.
[Footnote 14: Father of the celebrated painter.]
Let us glance at a few of the school books then in vogue. First of all
is one of the immortal Cocker, 'according to' whom all correct
calculations should be made. Although he had been long dead (since
1677), his works lived after him; and there were also other works on
Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and the use of the Globes. (By the
way, a pair of 9-in. diam. globes only cost a guinea.) There were
Latin Dictionaries, Lilly's Latin Grammar, and an abridgment of it for
the use of Blackheath School. There was that English Grammar which
'Isaac Bickerstaff' (Steele) puffed up so: 'That as grammar in general
is on all hands allow'd the foundation of all arts and sciences, so it
appears to me that this grammar of the English tongue has done that
justice to our language which, 'till now, it never obtained;' and
there was 'A Guide to the English Tongue, by Thos. Dyche, schoolmaster
in London,' the second edition of which was published in 1710, but
which has been so popular that a revised edition of it was published
as late as 1816; and there were any quantity of books on
writing--notably the 'Paul's Scholar's Copy Book, by John Rayner,'
immortalised in _Tatler_ 138. The writing of the age was very
good--and many are the specimens of elaborate caligraphy in the
'Bagford Collection': for unassuming and yet good writing, perhaps,
however, the best are in Harl. MS. 5995, 211, &c.[15] In the
eighteenth century penmanship was held in higher estimation than now,
and in 1763 W. Massey published 'The Origin and Progress of Letters,'
in which he gave the lives of the most famous writing masters during
the preceding hundred years. He mentions some half-dozen or more, as
living in Anne's reign, but Charles Snell seems to have been the most
famous.
[Footnote 15: _Harl. MSS._, British Museum.]
As may be supposed, when so much pains was taken in writing, there
were many curiosities of caligraphic art. Here is one: 'A piece of
close Knotting, viz. 2 Boys holding Circles in their Hands, either
being less than a Silver Penny, in which are perspicuously wrote the
Lords Prayer in Latin and English. Invented and perform'd by John
Dundas (who will shortly publish a Copy book with about 50 new
Fancies).... N.B. Any Gentleman or Lady that desires small Writing for
a Ring, Locket, or other Curiosity, may be furnished by the Author.'
That pens other than quill were in use is evidenced by an
advertisement _re_ a lost pocket-book, which contained 'a Brass Pen.'
Stenography was practised somewhat extensively, to judge by the
numerous advertisements; but William Mason, living at the Hand and
Pen, in the Poultry, claimed to be 'the Author and Teacher of the
shortest Shorthand extant.'
And yet, with all these scholastic advantages, some boys would not be
happy; but, as boys have done ever since boarding schools have been
invented, they sometimes ran away. _Vide_ the following
advertisements: 'A Gentleman's only Child is run from School; he is
about 12 years of Age, with light Cloaths lin'd with red, a well
favour'd brisk Boy, with a fair old Wig: speaks a little thro' the
Scots, his Name Alex Mackdonald: he has been in Spain and Portugal,
which makes his Parents fear that some Ship may entertain him.'
Whoever captured this lad was to be 'sufficiently rewarded,' whilst
the next runaway was only valued at 'half a guinea and charges,'
although he was dressed so smartly: 'A little slim, fair hair'd
handsome English Boy, who speaks French very well, between 11 and 12
Years of Age, with a sad colour, coarse Kersay Coat trim'd with flat
new Gilded Brass Buttons, with a whitish Calla-manca Waistcoat with
round Plate Silver Buttons, and a little Silver Edging to his Hat,
with fine white Worsted rowl'd Stockings, and with Silver Plate
Buttons to his sad colour Sagathy Stuff Britches: went away from
School on Thursday, the 6th Inst. Supposed to be gone towards Wapping,
Rotherif, Greenwich, or Gravesend, he having been seen near the Thames
Side asking for a Master to go to sea.' Curious how, in every century
since Elizabeth's time, the runaway English boy naturally flies to the
water. Always the same tale: ran away and went to sea. Here were two
well-nurtured lads, more than ordinarily accomplished, yet they were
bitten by this same tarantula.
Let the _Spectator_ describe the rising generation of that time after
they had finished their academic career and had gone to the
university. In No. 54, attributed to Steele, speaking of Cambridge, he
says, 'Now for their manner of living: and here I shall have a large
field to expatiate in; but I shall reserve particulars for my intended
discourse, and now only mention one or two of their principal
exercises. The elder proficients employ themselves in inspecting
_mores hominum multorum_, in getting acquainted with all the signs and
windows in the town. Some have arrived to so great knowledge, that
they can tell every time a butcher kills a calf, every time any old
woman's cat is in the straw; and a thousand matters as important. One
ancient philosopher contemplates two or three hours every day over a
sun-dial; and is true to the dial.
As the dial to the sun,
Although it be not shone upon.
Our younger students are content to carry their speculation as yet no
further than bowling greens, billiard tables, and such like places.'
Of the reading men, he says, 'They were ever looked upon as a people
that impaired themselves more by their strict application to the rules
of their order than any other students whatever. Others seldom hurt
themselves any further than to gain weak eyes, and sometimes
headaches; but these philosophers are seized all over with a general
inability, indolence, and weariness, and a certain impatience of the
place they are in, with an heaviness in removing to another.
'The loungers are satisfied with being merely part of the number of
mankind, without distinguishing themselves from amongst them. They may
be said rather to suffer their time to pass than to spend it, without
regard to the past or prospect of the future. All they know of life is
only in the present instant, and do not taste even that. When one of
this order happens to be a man of fortune, the expense of his time is
transferred to his coach and horses, and his life is to be measured by
their motion, not his own enjoyments or sufferings. The chief
entertainment one of these philosophers can possibly propose to
himself is to get a relish of dress. This, methinks, might diversify
the person he is weary of, his own dear self, to himself. I have known
these two amusements make one of these philosophers make a tolerable
figure in the world; with variety of dresses in public assemblies in
town, and quick motion of his horses out of it, now to Bath, now to
Tunbridge, then to Newmarket, and then to London, he has, in process
of time, brought it to pass, that his coach and his horses have been
mentioned in all these places.' And this description, with a little
alteration, would pass as a fair reflex of modern undergraduate
existence at either Oxford or Cambridge.
Before closing the question of male education, we must not forget that
in Queen Anne's time was inaugurated that system of charity schools
which has played so prominent a part in our national system of
education, and which has not yet been superseded by our Board Schools.
Steele (_Spectator_, 380) notices this movement--
'St. Bride's, May 15, 1712.
'Sir,--'Tis a great deal of Pleasure to me, and I dare say will
be no less Satisfaction to you, that I have an Opportunity of
informing you that the Gentlemen and others of the Parish of St.
Brides have raised a Charity School of fifty Girls as before of
fifty Boys. You were so kind to recommend the Boys to the
Charitable World, and the other Sex hope you will do them the
same Favour in Fridays _Spectator_ for Sunday next, when they are
to appear with their humble Airs at the Parish Church of St.
Brides. Sir, the Mention of this may possibly be serviceable to
the Children: and sure no one will omit a good Action attended
with no expence.
'I am, Sir,
'Your very humble Servant,
'THE SEXTON.'
At the public thanksgiving for peace in 1713,[16] the charity children
were placed in rising rows of seats in the Strand to see the
procession pass, and the Queen go to St. Paul's to return thanks--and
bitter must have been the disappointment of the little ones at the
Queen's absence, on account of illness.
[Footnote 16: There is a very large and beautiful engraving
of this scene, from which are taken the illustrations of
carriages, _post_.]
A contemporary account of this festival says: 'Upon the Thanksgiving
day for the Peace, about Four Thousand Charity Children (Boys and
Girls), new Cloath'd, were placed upon a Machine in the Strand, which
was in Length above 600 Foot, and had in Bredth Eight Ranges of seats
one above another, whereby all the Children appear'd in full View of
both Houses of Parliament, in the solemn Procession they made to St.
Paul's upon that joyful Occasion, and who, by their singing Hymns of
Prayer and Praise to God for her Majesty, as well as by their
Appearance, contributed very much to adorn so welcome a Festival; and
gave great Satisfaction to all the Spectators, not without some
Surprize to Foreigners who never had beheld such a glorious Sight. The
Trustees of the several Charity Schools in and about London and
Westminster readily agreed upon Measures for placing the Children in
the expected View of Her Majesty, as a Testimony of their great Duty
and Humble Thankfulness to Her Majesty for the particular Countenance
and Encouragement Her Majesty hath always vouchsafed to give to the
Charity Schools,[17] whereby She may be truly stiled their Patron and
Protector. Her Majesty not being present, the Hymns were both sung and
repeated during the whole Procession, which lasted near Three Hours;
and for the Satisfaction and Entertainment of the Publick they are
printed as follows:--
[Footnote 17: The Queen recommended the design of charity
schools to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, in a
letter dated August 20, 1711: 'And forasmuch as the pious
Instruction and Education of Children is the surest Way of
preserving and propagating the Knowledge and Practice of
true Religion, it hath been very acceptable to US to hear,
that for the Attaining these good Ends, many _Charity
Schools_ are now Erected throughout the Kingdom, by the
liberal Contributions of OUR Good subjects; WE do therefore
earnestly recommend it to you, by all proper Ways, to
encourage and promote so excellent a Work, and to
countenance and assist the Persons principally concerned in
it, as they shall always be sure of Our Protection and
Favour.']
'Hymns to be sung by the Charity Children upon the 7th of July,
1713, being the Thanksgiving Day for the PEACE.
'As Her MAJESTY goes to St. Paul's--
Lord give the QUEEN Thy saving Health,
Whose Hope on Thee depends:
Grant Her Increase of Fame and Wealth,
With Bliss that never ends!
Allelujah, Allelujah, Allelujah, Allelujah!
Allelujah, Allelujah, Allelujah, Allelujah, Allelujah!
For Her our fervent Vows aspire,
Our Praises are Address'd;
Thou hast fulfill'd Her Heart's Desire
And granted Her Request.
Allelujah, &c.
A Nursing Mother to Thy Fold,
Long, long may She remain,
And then with Joy Thy Face behold,
And with Thee ever Reign.
Allelujah, &c.
As Her MAJESTY returns from St. Paul's--
Glory to GOD who Reigns on High,
Whom Saints and Angels praise;
Who from His Throne above the Sky,
The Sons of Men surveys.
Allelujah, &c.
PEACE, His best Gift, to Earth's return'd,
Long may it here remain;
As we too long its Absence mourn'd,
Nor sigh'd to Heav'n in vain.
Allelujah, &c.
Good Will, Fair Friendship (Heavenly Guest!)
And Joy and Holy Love,
Make all Mankind completely bless'd,
Resembling Those above.
Allelujah, &c.
CHAPTER II.
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION.
(GIRLS.)
Boarding schools -- Town and country educations -- Pastry
schools -- Dancing -- Toasts -- 'The Little Whig' -- Madame
Spanheim.
Girls were not all educated at home--though, doubtless, the majority
of them were, with the exception of their dancing lessons--but had
boarding schools of their own; and the schoolmistresses seem always to
have been harassed by malicious reports. For instance: 'Whereas it is
reported that Mrs. Overing who keeps a Boarding School at Bethnal
Green near Hackney, is leaving off; this is to give Notice that the
said Report is false, if not Malicious. And that she continues to take
sober young Gentlewomen to board, and teaches whatsoever is necessary
to the Accomplishment of that Sex.' Take another: 'Mrs. Elizabeth
Tutchin[18] continues to keep her School at Highgate, notwithstanding
Reports to the contrary. Where young Gentlewomen may be soberly
Educated, and taught all sorts of Learning fit for young Gentlewomen.'
Observe the stress that was then laid on the _sobriety_ inculcated in
these establishments. Read the plays--read the essays of the time--and
then, if they are to be taken at all as a just standard of feminine
conduct, you will, undoubtedly, come to the conclusion that sobriety
of conduct was just the very quality that required instilling into the
heads of the maidenhood of the time. Pert little hoydens--ogling the
men, flirting their fans, their thoughts always running on a
husband--the schoolmistresses of that time must have had hard work to
keep them serious, and need of most dragon-like guardianship. They
were not taught much, these girls; 'the Needle, Dancing, and the
French tongue,' says one--'a little Music, on the Harpsichord, or
Spinet, to read, write, and cast accounts in a small way'--this was
the sum of their education. Essentially were they to be housekeepers.
Here is the description an exceptionally accomplished young lady gives
of her own education:[19] 'You know my father was a tradesman, and
lived very well by his traffick; and I, being beautiful, he thought
nature had already given me part of my portion, and therefore he would
add a liberal education, that I might be a complete gentlewoman; away
he sent me to the boarding school; there I learned to dance and sing,
to play on the bass viol, virginals, spinet, and guitar. I learned to
make wax work, japan, paint upon glass, to raise paste, make
sweetmeats, sauces, and everything that was genteel and fashionable.'
Here we see the best obtainable education of the town-bred lady. What
was a girl's education in the country like?[20]
[Footnote 18: She was sister of Tutchin, of the
_Observator_.]
[Footnote 19: _The Levellers_, a dialogue between two young
ladies concerning matrimony, &c.]
[Footnote 20: _The Scowrers_, by Shadwell.]
_Priscilla._ Did she not bestow good breeding upon you there?
_Eugenia._ Breeding! what, to learn to feed Ducklings, and cram
Chickens?
_Clara._ To see Cows milk'd, learn to Churn, and make Cheese?
_Eugen._ To make Clouted cream, and whipt Sillabubs?
_Clara._ To make a Caraway Cake and raise Py Crust?
_Eugen._ And to learn the top of your skill in Syrrup,
Sweetmeats, _Aqua mirabilis_, and Snayl water.
_Clara._ Or your great Cunning in Cheese cakes, several Creams
and Almond butter.
_Prisc._ Ay, ay, and 'twere better for all the Gentlemen in
England that Wives had no other breeding, but you had Musick and
Dancing.
_Eugen._ Yes, an ignorant, illiterate, hopping Puppy, that rides
his Dancing Circuit thirty Miles about, lights off his tyred
Steed, draws his Kit[21] at a poor Country Creature, and gives
her a Hich in her Pace, that she shall never recover.
[Footnote 21: A pocket violin.]
_Clara._ And for Musick an old hoarse singing man riding ten
miles from his Cathedral to Quaver out the Glories of our Birth
and State, or it may be a Scotch Song more hideous and barbarous
than an Irish Cronan.
_Eug._ And another Musick Master from the next town to Teach one
to twinkle out _Lilly burlero_[22] upon an old pair of Virginals,
that sound worse than a Tinker's Kettle that he cries his work
on.
[Footnote 22: See Appendix. 'Lilli burlero' and 'Bullen a
lah' are said to have been the watchwords used by the Irish
Papists in their massacre of the Protestants in 1641. The
ballad to this tune was written in 1686, when James II. made
the Earl of Tyrconnel, a bigoted papist, Lieutenant of
Ireland. The words are nonsensical, but the tune is
catching, and became very popular. This song is said to have
contributed greatly in bringing about the Revolution of
1688.]
We saw that even the accomplished town young lady was taught how to
raise paste, &c.; indeed that was a regular branch of a girl's
education, and all housewifely gifts were thoroughly appreciated.
_Niece._ Good madam, don't upbraid me with my Mother _Bridget_,
and an excellent housewife.
_Aunt._ Yes, I say, she was, and spent her time in better
Learning than ever you did. Not in reading of Fights and Battels
of Dwarfs and Giants; but in writing out receipts for Broths,
Possets, Caudles and Surfeit Waters, as became a good Country
Gentlewoman.[23]
[Footnote 23: _The Tender Husband_ (Steele).]
But, if girls could not learn pastry-making at home, or wanted a
higher class of education therein, there were the forerunners of our
'Schools of Cookery' in the shape of 'Pastry Schools,' where the
professor demonstrated. Here is one of them. 'To all Young Ladies at
Edw. Kidder's Pastry School in little Lincoln's Inn Fields, are taught
all Sorts of Pastry and Cookery, Dutch hollow works, and Butter Works,
on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in the Afternoon, and on the same
days, in the Morning, at his School in Norris Street in St. James's
Market, and at his School in St. Martin's Le Grand, on Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday in the Afternoon. And at his School at St. Mary Overies
Dock, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings from 9 to 12.'
But one branch of a girl's education seems never to have been
neglected--her dancing. Steele says,[24] 'When a girl is safely
brought from her nurse, before she is capable of forming one simple
notion of anything in life, she is delivered to the hands of her
dancing master, and with a collar round her neck, the pretty wild
thing is taught a fantastical gravity of behaviour, and forced to a
particular way of holding her head, heaving her breast, and moving
with her whole body; and all this under pain of never having a
husband, if she steps, looks or moves awry.'
[Footnote 24: _Spectator_, 66.]
He gives a humorous description of the dancing master:[25] 'There was
Colonel Jumper's Lady, a Colonel of the Train Bands, that has a great
Interest in her Parish; she recommends Mr. Trott for the prettiest
Master in Town, that no Man teaches a Jigg like him, that she has seen
him rise Six or Seven Capers together with the greatest Ease
imaginable, and that his Scholars twist themselves more ways than the
Scholars of any Master in Town; besides there is Madam Prim, the
Alderman's Lady, recommends a Master of her Own Name, but she
declares he is not of their Family, yet a very extraordinary Man in
his Way; for, besides a very soft Air he has in Dancing, he gives them
a particular Behaviour at a Tea-Table, and in presenting their Snuff
Box: to twirl, flip or flirt a Fan, and how to place Patches to the
best advantage, either for Fat or Lean, Long or Oval Faces.
[Footnote 25: _Ibid._, 376.]
Indeed, dancing was much thought of as an accomplishment, and more
will be said of it in its place among the social habits of the time.
One book alone, 'The Dancing Master' for 1713, 15th ed., contains 358
different figures and tunes for country dances. It got to be a fine
art, and books were written on 'Chorography' and 'Orchesography,'
illustrated with wonderful and most perplexing diagrams. A
contemporary sketch of a dancing academy is interesting. It is by
Budgell.[26] 'I am a Man in Years, and by an honest Industry in the
World have acquired enough to give my Children a liberal Education,
tho' I was an utter Stranger to it myself. My eldest Daughter, a Girl
of Sixteen, has for some time past been under the Tuition of Monsieur
_Rigadoon_, a Dancing Master in the City; and I was prevailed upon by
her and her Mother to go last Night to one of his Balls. I must own to
you, Sir, that having never been at any such Place before, I was very
much pleased and surprized with that Part of his Entertainment which
he called _French Dancing_. There were several young Men and Women,
whose limbs seemed to have no other Motion but purely what the Musick
gave them. After this Part was over, they began a Diversion which they
call _Country Dancing_, and wherein there were also some things not
disagreeable, and divers _Emblematical Figures_, compos'd, as I guess,
by Wise Men for the Instruction of Youth.
[Footnote 26: _Spectator_, 67.]
'Amongst the rest, I observed one, which I think they call[27] _Hunt
the Squirrel_, in which while the Woman flies, the Man pursues her;
but as soon as she turns, he runs away, and she is obliged to follow.
[Footnote 27: See Appendix.]
'The Moral of this Dance does, I think, very aptly recommend Modesty
and Discretion to the Female Sex.
'But as the best Institutions are liable to Corruptions, so, Sir, I
must acquaint you, that very great Abuses are crept into this
Entertainment. I was Amazed to see my Girl handed by, and handing
young Fellows with so much Familiarity; and I could not have thought
it had been in the Child. They very often made use of a most impudent
and lascivious Step called _Setting_, which I know not how to describe
to you, but by telling you that it is the very reverse of _Back to
Back_. At last an impudent young Dog bid the Fiddlers play a Dance
called _Mol Patley_,[28] and after having made two or three Capers,
ran to his Partner, locked his Arms in hers, and whisked her round
Cleverly above Ground in such manner that I, who sat upon one of the
lowest Benches, saw further above her Shoe than I can think fit to
acquaint you with. I could no longer endure these Enormities;
wherefore, just as my Girl was going to be made a Whirligig, I ran in,
seized on the Child, and carried her home.'
[Footnote 28: See Appendix.]
Poor Budgell! what would have been his feelings could he have but seen
a galop, or a valse _à deux temps_?
We may now consider the girl's education complete, and, as she may be
'sweet seventeen' or so, she naturally would be, if either pretty or
witty, 'a TOAST' among her male friends. This peculiar institution has
its rise in Queen Anne's time, and is aptly described[29] as 'a new
name found out by the Wits, to make a lady have the same effect, as
burridge in the glass when a man is drinking.' Pope, even, could
hardly make it out.
[Footnote 29: _Tatler_, 31.]
Say why are beauties prais'd and honour'd most,
The wise man's passion, and the vain man's toast?
Why deck'd with all that land and sea afford,
Why angels call'd, and angel-like adored?
It was an old English custom to put a toast, a roasted pippin or so,
in a hot drink, such as a tankard of spiced ale, or of sack; and this
is whimsically applied as the derivation of the word used to express
the slavish adulation and worship of the fair sex, as embodied in this
custom. [30]'Many of the Wits of the last age will assert that the
word, in its present sense, was known among them in their youth, and
had its rise from an accident at the town of Bath, in the reign of
Charles the Second. It happened that, on a public day, a celebrated
beauty of those times was in the Cross Bath, and one of the crowd of
her admirers took a glass of the water in which the fair one stood and
drank her health to the Company. There was in the place a gay fellow
half fuddled, who offered to jump in, and swore, though he liked not
the liquor, he would have the Toast. He was opposed in his resolution;
yet this whim gave foundation to the present honour which is done to
the lady we mention in our liquors, who has ever since been called a
TOAST. Though this institution had so trivial a beginning, it is now
elevated into a formal order; and that happy virgin, who is received
and drunk to at their meetings, has no more to do in this life but to
judge and accept of the first good offer. The manner of her
inauguration is much like that of the choice of a Doge in Venice: it
is performed by balloting; and when she is so chosen, she reigns
indisputably for that ensuing year; but must be re-elected anew to
prolong her empire a moment beyond it. When she is regularly chosen,
her name is written with a diamond on a drinking glass. The
hieroglyphic of the diamond is to shew her that her value is
imaginary; and that of the glass to acquaint her, that her condition
is frail, and depends on the hand which holds her.' Many of the
members of the 'Kit Cat Club'--Lords Halifax, Wharton, Lansdowne, and
Carbury, Mr. Maynwaring and others--thus immortalised their Toasts.
One, by Lord Lansdowne, will amply serve as an illustration--
[Footnote 30: _Ibid._, 24.]
Love is enjoyn'd to make his favourite toast,
And HARE'S the goddess that delights him most.
There were two very famous toasts in Queen Anne's time; one in
particular was Lady Sunderland, a daughter of the Duke of Marlborough,
who was known by the sobriquet of 'The Little Whig.' She was the toast
of her party, and her nickname was so well known that it is said the
first stone of Sir John Vanbrugh's theatre in the Haymarket had
'Little Whig' cut upon it. The other was Mademoiselle Spanheim, the
daughter of Baron Spanheim, Ambassador Extraordinary from the Court of
Prussia. She was very lovely; indeed, her good looks were proverbial,
as the current expression, 'as beautiful as Madam Spanheim,' shows.
She was married early in the year 1710 to the Marquis de Montandre.
Her father died here in November of the same year, aged 81; and the
Queen presented the Marchioness de Montandre with a thousand guineas,
which was the usual present then given to an ambassador on taking his
leave.
CHAPTER III.
MARRIAGE.
Eloping with heiresses -- Marriage between children -- Tax on
bachelors -- Valentines -- Marriage settlements -- Pin money --
Posies -- Drummers -- Private marriages -- Irregular marriages --
Fleet parsons -- Marriage Act -- Facility of marriage --
Liability of husbands -- Public marriages -- Marriage customs --
Bride's garters --Throwing the stocking -- The posset --
Honeymoon.
We will suppose our toast to escape the perils to which her position
exposed her, and not forcibly carried off by some bold knight, as had
been known in this reign[31]--'Same evening Sir Alexander Cumming,
Knight of the Shire for Aberdeen, carried off from the Ring in Hyde
Park madam Dennis and married her; she is said to be worth about
£16,000.' Probably his position stood him in good stead, for it fared
differently with one Haagen Swendsen,[32] who was, in 1702, convicted
and executed for stealing Mrs. Rawlins, an heiress. Nowadays, he would
have been unhesitatingly acquitted, even if he had ever been
prosecuted, as there was no real case against him, and Mrs. Rawlins
married him of her own free will.
[Footnote 31: _Luttrell's Diary_, Sept. 12, 1710.]
[Footnote 32: British Museum, 515, l. 2, 196.]
That people could be married young enough is rendered sufficiently
evident by the very painful case of Sir George Downing and Mary
Forester, which excited much interest in the last year of Anne's
reign. It is very lucidly put as a case for counsel's opinion.[33]
[Footnote 33: _The Counsellor's Plea for the Divorce of Sir
G. D. and Mrs. F._, 1715.]
'THE CASE.
'1. G. D. without the Knowledge and Consent of his Father (then alive,
but accounted not of sound Judgment) was at the Age of Fifteen, by the
Procurement and Persuasion of those in whose Keeping he was, Marry'd,
according to the Church form, to M. F. of the Age of Thirteen.
'2. This young Couple was put to Bed, in the Day time, according to
Custom, and continu'd there a little while, but in the Presence of the
Company, who all testify they touched not one the other; and after
that, they came together no more;--the young Gentleman going
immediately Abroad, the young Woman continuing with her Parents.
'3. G. D., after Three or Four Years Travel, return'd home to England,
and being sollicited to live with his lawful Wife, refus'd it, and
frequently and publickly declar'd he never would compleat the
Marriage.
'4. Fourteen Years have pass'd since this Marriage Ceremony was
perform'd, each Party having (as is natural to think) contracted an
incurable Aversion to each the other, is very desirous to be set at
liberty; and accordingly Application is made to the Legislative power
to dissolve this Marriage, and to give each Party leave, if they think
fit, to Marry elsewhere.
'The Reasons against such Dissolution are:--
'First. That each Party was Consenting to the Marriage, and was
Old enough to give such Consent, according to the known Laws of
the Kingdom; the Male being Fifteen Years Old, the Female
Thirteen; whereas the Years of Consent are, by Law, Fourteen and
Twelve.
'Secondly. They were actually Marry'd according to the Form
prescrib'd by the Church of England; the Minister pronouncing
those solemn Words us'd by our Saviour, _Those whom God has
joyn'd let no Man put asunder_. They are therefore Man and Wife
both by the Laws of God and of the Land; and, since nothing but
Adultery can dissolve a Marriage, and no Adultery is pretended
here, the Marriage continues indissoluble.'
And, in the course of some very able pleading, the author says, 'My
Lords, the Years of Consent are not fix'd to Fourteen or Twelve either
by _Nature_, _Reason_, or _any Law of God_; but purely and meerly by
the positive Laws of the Land, which may change them to Morrow;[34]
and if they were chang'd to Day, no Man in England would, I dare
affirm it, be dissatisfy'd; it seems so senseless and unreasonable to
give our Children the Power of disposing of their _Persons_ for ever,
at an Age when we will not let them dispose of Five Shillings without
Direction and Advice.'
[Footnote 34: But it never has been changed, and is now in
force.]
However, no pleading could prevail against the actual law, and this
singularly married couple remained, legally, man and wife.
In 1690 there was a pamphlet issued by 'A Person of Quality,'[35]
advocating a tax on bachelors, and on April 22, 1695, William III.
gave his assent to an Act intituled 'An Act for granting his Majesty
certain Rates and Duties upon Marriages, Births, and Burials, and upon
Batchelors and Widowers for the term of five years, for carrying on
the War with Vigour.'
[Footnote 35: _Marriage Promoted_, &c.]
£ _s. d._
For the Burial of every person 0 4 0
" of a Duke (above the 4_s._) 50 0 0
" of a Marquess, &c. &c., in proportion.
" of every person having a real estate £50
" per annum or upwards, or a personal
" estate of £600 or upwards 1 0 0
" of the Wife of such person having such
estate 0 10 0
For and upon the Birth of every person and Child, except
the children of those who receive Alms 0 2 0
For and upon the birth of the eldest son of a Duke 30 0 0
" of a Marquess and so forth.
Upon the Marriage of every person 0 2 6
" of a Duke 50 0 0
" " Marquess 40 0 0
" " Earl 30 0 0
and so forth.
Bachelors above 25 years old, yearly 0 1 0
Widowers above 25 years old, yearly 0 1 0
A Duke being Bachelor or Widower, yearly 12 10 0
A Marquess " " " 10 0 0
By the Act 8 & 9 Will. III., 'For making good the Deficiencies of
Several Funds therein mentioned,' these taxes were kept on, and were
to be paid until Aug. 1, 1706, so that they were in force during four
years of Anne's reign.
In a most amusing tract[36] this Act is alluded to as a law
discouraging marriage, and proposes to make bachelors of 24 and
widowers of 50 pay 20_s._ per annum, and estimates that a revenue of
2-1/2 millions sterling would accrue.
[Footnote 36: _The Levellers._]
There was every freedom of intercourse allowed between the young of
both sexes: they visited, and we have seen that they mixed in the
dancing academies. There was also the custom of valentines, now become
obsolete and unmeaning. Misson describes it well, as indeed he did
everything he saw in England: 'On the Eve of the 14th of Feb., St.
Valentine's Day, a Time when all living Nature inclines to couple, the
Young Folks in England, and Scotland too, by a very ancient Custom,
celebrate a little Festival that tends to the same End. An equal
Number of Maids and Batchelors get together, each writes their true or
some feign'd Name upon separate Billets, which they Roll up, and draw
by way of Lots, the Maids taking the Men's Billets, and the Men the
Maids; so that each of the Young Men lights upon a Girl that he calls
his Valentine, and each of the Girls upon a young Man which she calls
hers: By this means each has two Valentines; but the Man sticks faster
to the Valentine that is fallen to him, than to the Valentine to whom
he is fallen. Fortune having thus divided the Company into so many
Couples, the Valentines give Balls and Treats to their Mistresses,
wear their Billets several Days upon their Bosoms or Sleeves, and this
little Sport often ends in Love. There is another kind of Valentine;
which is the first young Man or Woman that Chance throws in your Way
in the Street, or elsewhere, on that Day.'
The whole of the literature of the day speaks of the tendency of young
men to avoid the trammels of matrimony. Most probably the wild blood
engendered in Charles the Second's time had not yet cooled down, and
the licence then habitual, had hardly been superseded by decorum; but
there were other causes, one of which was the introduction of marriage
settlements. These were comparatively new. Steele calls attention to
it:[37] 'Honest Coupler, the Conveyancer, says "He can distinguish,
upon sight of the parties before they have opened upon any point of
their business, which of the two has the daughter to sell." Coupler is
of our Club, and I have frequently heard him declaim upon this
subject, and assert "that the Marriage Settlements, which are now
used, have grown fashionable even within his memory."'
[Footnote 37: _The Tatler_, 199.]
When the theatre, in some late reigns, owed its chief support to those
scenes which were written to put matrimony out of countenance and
render that state terrible, then it was that pin money first
prevailed; and all the other articles were inserted, which create a
diffidence, and intimate to the young people that they are very soon
to be in a state of war with each other; though this has seldom
happened, except the fear of it had been expressed. Coupler will tell
you also 'that jointures were never frequent until the age before his
own; but the women were contented with the third part of the estate
the law allotted them, and scorn'd to engage with men whom they
thought capable of abusing their Children.' He has also informed me
'that those who are the oldest Benchers when he came to the Temple
told him, the first Marriage Settlement of considerable length was the
invention of an old Serjeant, who took the opportunity of two testy
fathers, who were ever squabbling, to bring about an alliance between
their Children. These fellows knew each other to be knaves, and the
Serjeant took hold of their mutual diffidence, for the benefit of the
Law, to extend the _Settlement_ to _three skins_ of parchment.' This
was undoubtedly the substance of a genuine conversation with a
lawyer, and is further referred to in a subsequent paper. Nor did
Steele like pin money: he not only declaims against it in his essays,
but in his dramatic works--in 'The Tender Husband,' where two fathers
are squabbling over settlements. One, Sir Harry Gubbin, says--
Look y', Mr. Tipkin, the main Article with me is that Foundation
of Wives Rebellion--that cursed Pin Money--Five hundred Pounds
_per annum_ Pin Money.
_Tipkin._ The Word Pin Money, Sir Harry, is a Term----
_Sir H._ It is a Term, Brother, we never had in our Family, nor
ever will. Make her Jointure in Widowhood accordingly large, but
Four hundred Pounds a Year is enough to give no account of.
_Tipkin._ Well, Sir Harry, since you can't swallow these Pins, I
will abate to Four Hundred Pounds.
_Sir H._ And to Mollifie the Article, as well as Specifie the
Uses, we'll put in the Names of several Female Utensils, as
Needles, Knitting Needles, Tape, Thread, Scissors, Bodkins, Fans,
Playbooks, with other Toys of that Nature.
Addison, too, must needs have a fling at it, and wrote a whole essay
on pin money,[38] and, in a letter therein, gives a doleful case. 'The
education of these my Children, who, contrary to my expectation, are
born to me every Year, straightens me so much that I have begged their
Mother to free me from the Obligation of the above mentioned Pin
Money, that it may go towards making a Provision for her family. This
Proposal makes her Noble Blood swell in her Veins, insomuch, that
finding me a little tardy in her last Quarter's Payment, she threatens
every Day to arrest me: and proceeds so far as to tell me, that if I
do not do her Justice, I shall die in a Jayl. To this she adds, when
her Passion will let her argue calmly, that she has several Play Debts
on her Hand, which must be discharged very suddenly, and that she
cannot lose her Money as becomes a Woman of her Fashion, if she makes
me any Abatements in this Article.'
[Footnote 38: _Spectator_, 295.]
Supposing the vexed question of settlements or no settlements disposed
of, a thing of primary importance before marriage was to provide the
ring, and that, according to the custom of the day, must have a posy
on it.[39] 'He has likewise promised me to get the measure of his
Mistress's marriage finger, with a design to make a posy in the
fashion of a ring which shall exactly fit it.' The posy was mostly a
couplet--and as not much sentiment or poetry can be compressed into
two lines, the posies, as far as we can judge, are not very brilliant
efforts of genius. The appended examples are all genuine of the time,
as they are taken from the newspaper advertisements of things lost.
[Footnote 39: _Ibid._ 59.]
Two made one
By God alone.
God's Providence
Is our Inheritance.
God decreed
Our Unity.
This in Love
Join our Hearts
To God Above.
Vertuous love
Will never remove.
And now a word or two as to the Marriages of those times, and one is
fairly surprised at the very little fuss that was generally made about
them. On the Stage, a clergyman coupled the pair presently, or the
young people just left the room and came back in a few minutes, duly
married. And this really was somewhat like real life, and not a
travesty. 'Aunt, Aunt, run for Doctor Dromedary, and let us be Married
before the Sun reposes,'[40] was a not unnatural request for a young
lady to make. A custom had grown up to avoid the noise and riot of a
public wedding, which, besides, was very expensive--open house being
but a small part of it; so it used to be, that the young people would
get married with just sufficient legal witness, and with the full
consent of the parents. Even the middle class were glad to get rid of
the noise of drums, etc. (which still survives in the marrow bones and
cleavers--the rough music of a lower-class wedding).
[Footnote 40: _Tunbridge Walks_, by Thos. Baker, 1703.]
Here Rows of Drummers stand in Martial File,
And with their Vellom Thunder shake the Pile,
To greet the new made Bride;[41]
[Footnote 41: _Trivia_, by Gay.]
and in one of Steele's _Spectators_ (364) is a letter commencing 'I
was marry'd on Sunday last, and went peaceably to Bed; but, to my
Surprize, was awaken'd the next Morning by the Thunder of a Set of
Drums.' For this noise the unfortunate bridegroom had to pay pretty
smartly.
These private marriages had their inconveniences, as the following
advertisement[42] shows: 'Whereas, for several Reasons, the Marriage
of Mrs. Frances Herbert to Capt. James Price, Son to Brigadier Price
of Ireland, was kept private for some time, which has occasioned some
insolent People to censure her Virtue; to prevent which Censures for
the future, it is thought proper to give this Publick Notice that she
was marry'd to the said Capt. James Price on the 18th Day of June last
at the Parish Church of St. Bennet's, Pauls Wharf, London, by License
and before Witnesses.'
[Footnote 42: _Post Boy_, May 24/27, 1712.]
Misson adverts to this custom of private marriage as being very
common. 'In England, a Boy may marry at fourteen Years old, and a Girl
at twelve, in spight of Parents and Guardians, without any Possibility
of dissolving their Marriage, tho' one be the Son of a Hog-driver, and
the other a Duke's Daughter.[43] This often produces very whimsical
Matches. There is another thing in it odd enough; for those Children
by this means not only become their own Masters, but obtain this
Advantage at a very easy Rate. If to be marry'd it were necessary to
be proclaim'd three Times in a full Congregation, their Friends would
be inform'd of the Matter, and might find a Way to disswade a little
Girl, that had taken it into her Head to have a Husband, by giving
her fine Cloaths, pretty Babies, and every Thing else that might amuse
her; but the Wedding is clapp'd up so privately, that People are
amaz'd to see Women brought to Bed of legitimate Children, without
having heard a Word of the Father. The Law, indeed, requires that the
Bans should be publish'd; but the strange Practice of a dispensing
Power makes the Law of no Manner of Use. To proclaim Bans is a Thing
no Body now cares to have done; very few are willing to have their
Affairs declar'd to all the World in a publick Place, when for a
Guinea they may do it _Snug_, and without Noise; and my good Friends
the Clergy, who find their Accounts in it, are not very zealous to
prevent it. Thus, then, they buy what they call a Licence, and are
marry'd in their Closets, in Presence of a couple of Friends, that
serve for Witnesses; and this ties them for ever: Nay, the Abuse is
yet greater, for they may be marry'd without a Licence in some
Chappels, which have that Privilege.... Hence comes the Matches
between Footmen and young Ladies of Quality, who you may be sure live
no very easy Life together afterwards: Hence, too, happen Polygamies,
easily conceal'd, and too much practised.'
[Footnote 43: There was a law against marrying the heiress
of a noble family before the age of twenty-one years without
the consent of her guardians.]
Sometimes they were married at a tavern.[44] 'Whereas a Couple was
marryed at the Ship Tavern without Temple Barr, London, in March,
1696. The Parson, or any other that was then Present, is desired to
come or send to the Publisher of this Paper, and give an account of
the said Marriage, and shall be satisfied for their charges of coming
or sending, and loss of time.'
[Footnote 44: _Postman_, August 28/31, 1703.]
The irregular marriages were a crying evil of the times--in spite of
legislative efforts to stop them. There was an Act passed, 6 and 7 Wm.
III. cap. 7, sec. 52, for the better levying the 5_s._ duty on
licences, and imposing a penalty of 100_l._ for marrying without
one--and the 7 and 8 Wm. III. cap. 35 recites this Act, and says it
was ineffectual, because the penalty of 100_l._ was not extended to
every offence of the same parson--because the parsons employed poor
and indigent ministers, without benefices, or settled habitations, and
because many ministers, being in prison for debt or otherwise, married
persons for lucre and gain.
There have been certain churches and chapels[45] exempted from the
visitation of the ordinary--and the ministers of such, usually married
without licence or banns--and these were called 'lawless churches.' In
Anne's reign there was one famous one, St. James', Duke's Place, by
Aldgate. Another was Holy Trinity, Minories, which exercised the same
privilege. The Savoy had not yet been much heard of, and they did a
good business. In the former case, privilege was claimed, because the
Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens of London were lords of the manor and
patrons of the church, and therefore set up an exemption from the
jurisdiction (in matters ecclesiastical) of the Bishop of London. In
the latter, it was pleaded that the living was held direct from the
Crown, in whose gift it was, and that the minister held the same by an
instrument of dotation, under the Great Seal of England, and that it
was neither a rectory nor vicarage institutive. However, the arm of
the ecclesiastical law did once reach Adam Elliott, rector of St.
James', and on Feb. 17, 1686, he was suspended for three years, _ab
officio et beneficio_, for having married, or having suffered persons
to be married, at the said church, without banns or licence. He was,
however, reinstituted on May 28, 1687, after having petitioned the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners; but he began his old trade very shortly
afterwards, in fact the next day, as appears in the marriage register
of the church--'There were no marriages from the tenth of March till
y{e} 29 day of May' 1687.
[Footnote 45: Judging by the 8th and 9th Wm. III. cap. 26,
which took away their pretended privileges, these were White
Friars, the Savoy, Salisbury Court, Ram Alley, Mitre Court,
Fuller's Rents, Baldwin's Gardens, Montague Close, the
Minories, Mint and Clink or Dead Man's Place; but there were
many others.]
People could be, and were, married without licence, both in the Fleet
and Queen's Bench Prisons. It is probable that prisoners there were
duly and properly married by banns in the prison chapel, long before
1674, which is the date of the earliest illicit Fleet Register in the
Bishop of London's registry; for, in a letter, Sept. 1613, we
read:[46] 'Now I am to enform you that an ancyentt acquayntance of
y{rs} and myne is yesterday maryed in the Fleette, one Mr. Georg
Lestor, and hath maryed M{ris} Babbington, Mr. Thomas Fanshawe
mother-in-lawe. It is sayed she is a woman of good wealthe so as nowe
the man wylle able to lyve and mayntayn hymself in prison, for hether
unto he hath byne in poor estate.' But, at all events, the law was set
at nought in Anne's reign, as it was for many a long year afterwards.
In 1702 the chaplain was Robert Elborough, who married but few without
banns or licence, 'but under a colour doth allow his clerk Bartholomew
Basset to do what he pleases,' and in 1714 Mr. John Taylor filled the
same office, but he does not seem to have solemnised matrimony at the
Fleet. There was, however, a low clergyman, named John Gaynam,
otherwise Doctor Gaynam, who did a large trade there in marriages,
from 1709 to 1740. A little anecdote of him, though not in Queen
Anne's time, may not be amiss. He was giving evidence at the Old
Bailey on the trial of Robert Hussey for bigamy, in 1733.
[Footnote 46: Lansdowne MSS., 93-17.]
_Dr. Gainham._ The 9th of September, 1733, I married a couple at
the Rainbow Coffee House, the corner of Fleet Ditch, and entered
the marriage in my register, as fair a register as any church in
England can produce. I showed it last night to the foreman of the
jury, and my Lord Mayor's Clerk, at the London Punch House.
_Counsel._ Are you not ashamed to come and own a clandestine
marriage in the face of a court of justice?
_Dr. Gainham_ (bowing). _Video meliora, deteriora sequor._
The same practice was followed by others during this reign. Wm. Wyatt,
who moved from the Two Sawyers, at the corner of Fleet Lane, to the
Hand and Pen near Holborn Bridge, married from 1713 to 1750. John
Floud, who was for some years a prisoner in the Fleet, married from
1709 to 1729. John Mottram, from 1709 to 1725. He was convicted, in
1716, in the Consistory Court, for marrying illegally, and was
suspended from his ministerial functions for three years. Jerome
Alley, from 1681 to 1707, when he left off marrying 'for some other
preferment.' Draper, from 1689 to 1716. John Evans, from 1689 to 1729.
Henry Gower, 1689 to 1718. Thos. Hodgkins, 1674 to 1728. Ed. Marston,
1713 to 1714. Oswald, 1712. Nehemiah Rogers, a prisoner, but rector of
Ashingdon, Essex, married between 1700 and 1703. He seems to have been
a specially bright specimen of the Fleet parson. 'He is a Prisoner,
but goes at larg to his P. Living in Essex, and all places else; he is
a very wicked man as lives, for drinking, whoring, and swearing, he
has struck and boxed y{e} bridegroom in y{e} Chapple, and damned like
any com'on soldier, he marries both within and without y{e} Chapple
like his brother Colton.' This was James Colton, who had been deprived
of his living for evil practices, and married from 1681 to 1721. Benj.
Bynes, 1698 to 1711. Walter Stanhope, 1711. Jo. Vice, 1689 to 1713;
and J. Wise, in 1709.
The Queen's Bench was not behind its brother of the Fleet, but there
even greater abuses existed--laymen officiating.[47] ''Tis expected
that a Bill to prevent clandestine Marriages, under a severe Corporal
Penalty, will be brought in very early next Session of Parliament. For
which 'tis said too just Occasion has been given by a Discovery lately
made that Laymen have been suffer'd to marry at the Queen's Bench; and
that John Sarjeant, who now acts there again as Clerk, has forg'd
Certificates of pretended Marriages, for which he keeps Register
books, with large blanks almost in every Page, whereby very
mischievous Frauds are practicable. For preventing whereof, the late
Chaplain labour'd hard with the most proper Person to command the said
books out of the Clerk's Custody, and not prevailing, resign'd his
Office, which he had discharg'd among the Prisoners, both in the House
and in the Rules, above five years, charitably, having never receiv'd
one Farthing of the Fees thereto annexed.--WILLIAM TIPPING.'
[Footnote 47: The _Postboy_, October 13/16, 1711.]
This evidently refers to the Marriage Act of Queen Anne (10 Anne, c.
19), which received the royal assent on May 22, 1712. This was a short
Act smuggled in in a long money bill about duties on 'Sope' and paper,
linen, silks, calicoes, stampt vellom, &c. It renewed, from June 24,
1712, the penalty of 100_l._ attaching to the performance of illegal
matches, giving half the penalty to the informer, and, 'if any gaoler
or keeper of any prison shall be privy to, or knowingly permit, any
marriage to be solemnised in his said prison, before publication of
banns, or license obtained as aforesaid, he shall for every such
offence forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds to be recovered and
distributed as aforesaid.' There, then, was an extra duty of 5_s._
imposed upon every marriage licence, or certificate of marriage.
Marriages were made easy. You could go a country walk and pop in and
get married. A newly built church at Hampstead thus[48] advertises:
'As there are many weddings at Sion Chapel, Hampstead, five Shillings
only is required for all the Church fees of any Couple that are
married there, provided they bring with them a license or Certificate,
according to the Act of Parliament. Two Sermons are continued to be
preached in the said Chapel every Sunday, and the place will be given
to any Clergyman that is willing to accept of it, to be approved of.'
Early in George the First's time, in 1716, they offered 'that all
persons, upon bringing a licence, and who shall have their wedding
dinner in the gardens, may be married in the said Chapel, without
giving any fee or reward whatsoever.'
[Footnote 48: The _Postboy_, April 18/20, 1710.]
Whilst on the subject of curious marriages, the following may well be
noticed, extracted from the Parish Register: 'John Bridmore and Anne
Sellwood, both of Chiltern All Saints, were married October 17, 1714.
'The aforesaid Anne Sellwood was married in her Smock, without any
clothes or head gier on.'
This is not uncommon, the object being, according to a vulgar error,
to exempt the husband from the payment of any debts his wife may have
contracted in her ante-nuptial condition. This error seems to have
been founded on a misconception of the law, as it is laid down[49]
that 'the husband is liable for the wife's debts, _because_ he
acquires an absolute interest in the personal estate of the wife,'
etc. An unlearned person from this might conclude, and not
unreasonably, that if his wife _had no estate whatever_, he could not
incur any liability.
[Footnote 49: _Bacon's Abridgment_, Tit. Baron and Feme.]
Anyhow, after marriage they were liable, as the following gentlemen
knew: 'Whereas Elizabeth Stephenson, Wife of George Stephenson, late
of Falken Court, near the Queen's Bench, in Southwark, hath Eloped
from her said Husband, and since hath contracted several Debts with a
design to Ruin her said Husband. These are therefore to give notice to
the Publick, That the said George Stephenson will not on any Account
whatever Pay or allow of any Debt so Contracted by the said Elizabeth
Stephenson, either before or since her elopement.' 'Whereas Isabella
Goodyear, the Daughter of Rich. Cliffe of Brixhome in the County of
Devon, and Wife of Aaron Goodyear of London, Merchant, about 18 months
since abandon'd and forsook the Bed and since the Board of Aaron her
said Husband, carrying with her in Goods, Plate, and other Goods to
the value of £200 and upwards, and whereas the said Isabella hath as
well been sollicited by the said Aaron her Husband, as also by several
of his acquaintance, to return to and Cohabit with him, under all
assurances of being civilly receiv'd and maintain'd according to his
quality and circumstances, which the said Isabella hath, and still
doth obstinately refuse. These are therefore to give notice to all
Traders, and all other persons whatsoever, that from and after this
present Notice they do not maintain, sustain, or detain the said
Isabella from the said Aaron her Husband, or any of his Goods or Plate
carryed off by the said Isabella, either by lending her Money or
Selling her Goods, or by any other ways whatsoever, under penalty of
the law, and forfeiture of the credit, if any, given to the said
Isabella from the Notice hereof.'
Having discussed the private hole-and-corner, and clandestine
marriages, it may be well to inquire the reasons why these were
preferred to the more ceremonious ones. Mainly on the score of
expense, and to get rid of the uproarious and senseless festivities
which accompanied them. Let Misson describe what one was like: 'One of
the Reasons that they have for marrying secretly, as they generally do
in England, is that thereby they avoid a great deal of Expence and
Trouble.... Persons of Quality, and many others who imitate them, have
lately taken up the Custom of being marry'd very late at Night in
their Chamber, and very often at some Country House.[50] They increase
their Common Bill of Fare for some Days; they dance, they play, they
give themselves up for some small Time to Pleasure; but all this they
generally do without Noise, and among very near Relations. Formerly in
France they gave _Livrées de Nôces_, which was a knot of Ribbands, to
be worn by the Guests upon their Arms; but that is practised now only
among Peasants. In England it is done still among the greatest
Noblemen. These Ribbands they Call Favours,[51] and give them not only
to those that are at the Wedding, but to five hundred People besides;
they send them about, and distribute them at their own houses....
Among the Citizens and plain Gentlemen (which is what they call the
_Gentry_) they sometimes give these Favours; but it is very Common to
avoid all Manner of Expence as much as Possible. When those of a
middling Condition have a mind to be so extravagant as to marry in
Publick (which very rarely happens) they invite a Number of Friends
and Relations; every one puts on new Cloaths,[52] and dresses finer
than ordinary; the Men lead the Women, they get into Coaches, and so
go in Procession, and are marry'd in full Day at Church. After
Feasting and Dancing, and having made merry that Day and the next,
they take a Trip into the Country, and there divert themselves very
pleasantly. These are extraordinary Weddings. The Ordinary ones, as I
said before, are generally incognito. The _Bridegroom_, that is to
say, the Husband that is to be, and the _Bride_, who is the Wife that
is to be, conducted by their Father and Mother, or by those that serve
them in their room, and accompany'd by two Bride men and two Bride
maids, go early in the Morning with a Licence[53] in their Pocket and
call up Mr. Curate and his Clerk, tell him their Business; are marry'd
with a low Voice, and the Doors shut; tip the Minister a Guinea, and
the Clerk a Crown; steal softly out, one way, and t'other another,
either on Foot or in Coaches; go different Ways to some Tavern at a
Distance from their own Lodgings, or to the House of some trusty
Friend, there have a good Dinner, and return Home at Night as quietly
as Lambs. If the Drums and Fiddles have notice of it they will be sure
to be with them by Day break, making a horrible Racket, till they have
got the Pence; and, which is worst of all, the whole Murder will come
out. Before they go to bed they take t other Glass, &c., and when
Bedtime is come the Bride men pull off the Bride's Garters, which she
had before unty'd that they might hang down, and so prevent a Curious
Hand coming too near her knee. This done, and the Garters being
fastened to the Hats of the Gallants, the Bride maids carry the Bride
into the Bed chamber, where they undress her,[54] and lay her in Bed.
The Bridegroom, who by the Help of his Friends is undress'd in some
other Room, comes in his Night-gown as soon as possible to his Spouse,
who is surrounded by Mother, Aunt, Sisters, and Friends, and without
any farther Ceremony gets into Bed. Some of the Women run away, others
remain, and the Moment afterwards they are all got together again.[55]
The Bridemen Take the Bride's Stockings, and the Bridemaids the
Bridegroom's; both sit down at the Bed's Feet and fling the Stockings
over their Heads, endeavouring to direct them so as that they may fall
upon the marry'd Couple. If the Man's stockings, thrown by the Maids,
fall upon the Bridegroom's Head, it is a Sign she will quickly be
marry'd herself; and the same Prognostick holds good of the Woman's
Stockings thrown by the Man. Oftentimes these young People engage with
one another upon the Success of the Stockings, tho' they themselves
look upon it to be nothing but Sport. While some amuse themselves
agreeably with these little Follies, others are preparing a good
_Posset_, which is a kind of Cawdle, a Potion made up of Milk, Wine,
Yolk of Eggs, Sugar, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, etc. This they present to the
young Couple, who swallow it down as fast as they can to get rid of
so troublesome Company; the Bridegroom prays, scolds, entreats them to
be gone, and the Bride says ne'er a Word, but thinks the more. If they
obstinately continue to retard the Accomplishment of their Wishes, the
Bridegroom jumps up in his Shirt, which frightens the Women, and puts
them to Flight. The Men follow them, and the Bridegroom returns to the
Bride.
[Footnote 50: Usually at the father's or guardian's of the
lady.]
[Footnote 51: This custom partially survives, and originated
in a division among the guests of the ribbons worn by the
bride and bridegroom. These favours were worn for some weeks
in the hat, and were made of a pretty large knot of ribbons
of various colours--gold, silver, carnation, and white.]
[Footnote 52: This was absolutely necessary, and mourning
was also temporarily left off, unless for a very near
relation recently deceased.]
[Footnote 53: The licence was generally shown the clergyman
the day before the wedding, and an appointment made for the
ceremony.]
[Footnote 54: There was then, and may be now, a curious
superstition that every pin about the bride must be thrown
away and lost. There would be no luck if one remained. Nor
must the bridesmaid keep one, for should she do so she
certainly would not be married before Whitsuntide.]
[Footnote 55: Pepys tells of a frolic Lady Castlemaine and
the beautiful Frances Terese Stuart (the original of the
Britannia on the copper coinage) had: 'That they two must be
married--and married they were--with ring and all other
ceremonies of Church service, and ribbands, and a sack
posset in bed, and flinging the stocking.']
'They never fail to bring them another Sack Posset next Morning, which
they spend in such Amusements as you may easily imagine. The young
Woman, more gay and more contented than ever she was in her Life, puts
on her finest Cloaths (for she was married only in a Mob[56]), the
dear Husband does the same, and so do the young Guests; they laugh,
they dance, they make merry; and these Pleasures continue a longer or
shorter time, according to the several Circumstances of Things.'
[Footnote 56: A mob was a _déshabillé_ dress, scarcely ever
mentioned in terms of commendation.]
There was no going away for the honeymoon for the newly married
couple. That trying season was spent at home, in a somewhat stately
manner--receiving company, and must have been excessively irksome, as
the following amusing account of a citizen's honeymoon shows:[57] 'I
have lately married a very pretty body, who being somewhat younger and
richer than myself, I was advised to go a wooing to her in a finer
suit of clothes than ever I wore in my life: for I love to dress
plain, and suitable to a man of my rank. How ever, I gained her heart
by it. Upon the wedding day I put myself, according to custom, in
another suit, fire new, with silver buttons to it. I am so out of
Countenance among my neighbours, upon being so fine, that I heartily
wish my clothes well worn out. I fancy every body observes me as I
walk the street, and long to be in my own plain geer again. Besides,
forsooth, they have put me in a Silk Night gown and a gaudy fool's
cap, and make me now and then stand in the window with it. I am
ashamed to be dandled thus, and cannot look in the glass without
blushing to see myself turned into such a pretty little master. They
tell me I must appear in my wedding suit for the first month at least;
after which I am resolved to come again to my every day's clothes, for
at present every day is Sunday with me.... I forgot to tell you of my
white gloves, which they say, too, I must wear all the first month.'
[Footnote 57: _Guardian_, No. 113.]
I am afraid some of these good gentlemen beat their wives sometimes;
and even the gallant Sir Richard Steele says:[58] 'I cannot deny but
there are perverse Jades that fall to Men's Lots, with whom it
requires more than common Proficiency in Philosophy to be able to
live. When these are joined to Men of warm Spirits, without Temper or
Learning, they are frequently corrected with Stripes; but one of our
famous Lawyers is of opinion, That this ought to be used sparingly.'
On the other hand, we hear much of hen-pecked men--so that it is
probable, so far as matrimonial jars were concerned, the world wagged
then much as now--without the facility for separation and divorce
which now exists.
[Footnote 58: _Spectator_, 479.]
CHAPTER IV.
DEATH AND BURIAL.
Longevity -- Undertakers' charges -- Costliness of funerals --
Mourning -- Burial in woollen -- Burial societies -- Burial by
night -- A cheat -- Mourning rings -- Funeral pomp -- Monuments
-- Description of a funeral -- A Roman Catholic funeral --
Widows.
That some lived to a good old age there can be no doubt; but a
patriarch died in this reign at Northampton, April 5, 1706:[59] 'This
Day died John Bales of this Town, Button Maker Aged 130 and some
Weeks; he liv'd in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth, King James the
First, King Charles the First, Oliver, King Charles the Second, King
James the Second, King William the Third, and Queen Anne.'
[Footnote 59: _Daily Courant_, April 9, 1706.]
And this brings us--
Where the brass knocker, wrapt in flannel band,
Forbids the thunder of the footman's hand;
Th' upholder, rueful harbinger of death,
Waits with impatience for the dying breath;
As vultures o'er a camp, with hovering flight,
Snuff up the future carnage of the fight.[60]
[Footnote 60: _Trivia._]
Nay, if Steele is to be believed, they even feed heavily for early
information of death.[61]
[Footnote 61: This and the following quotations are from
_The Funeral or Grief à la Mode_, by Steele, ed. 1702.]
_Sable._ You don't consider the Charges I have been at already.
_Lord Brampton._ Charges? For what?
_Sable._ First, Twenty Guineas to my Lady's Woman for notice of
your Death (a Fee I've, before now, known the Widow herself go
halfs in), but no matter for that. In the next place, Ten Pounds
for watching you all your long Fit of Sickness last Winter.
_Lord B._ Watching me? Why I had none but my own Servants by
Turns.
_Sable._ I mean attending to give notice of your Death. I had all
your long fit of Sickness last Winter, at Half a Crown a day, a
fellow waiting at your Gate, to bring me Intelligence, but you
unfortunately recovered, and I Lost all my Obliging pains for
your Service.
This, of course, is exaggeration, but although, as we have seen,
people were sparing in expense over births or marriages, they were
absolutely _lavish_ over funerals, and the undertaker could well
afford to disgorge some of his gains. Was it the funeral of a rich
man, the corpse must straightway be embalmed, roughly though it may
be. 'Have you brought the Sawdust and Tar for embalming? Have you the
hangings and the Sixpenny nails for my Lord's Coat of Arms?' The
hatchment must be put up, and mutes must be stationed at intervals
from the hall door to the top of the stairs. 'Come, you that are to be
Mourners in the House, put on your Sad Looks, and walk by Me that I
may sort you. Ha you! a little more upon the Dismal. This Fellow has a
good Mortal look, place him near the Corps; That Wanscoat Face must be
o' top of the Stairs: That Fellow's almost in a Fright (that looks as
if he were full of some strange misery) at the Entrance of the Hall.
So!--but I'll fix you all myself. Let's have no Laughing now on any
Provocation; Look Yonder, at that Hale, Well looking Puppy! You
ungrateful Scoundrel, Did not I pity you, take you out of a Great
Man's Service, and show you the Pleasure of receiving Wages? Did not I
give you Ten, then Fifteen and Twenty Shillings a Week to be
Sorrowful? and the more I give you, I think the Glader you are!'
[Illustration: A Corpse.]
The undertaker issued his handbills--gruesome things, with grinning
skulls and shroud-clad corpses, thigh bones, mattocks and pickaxes,
hearses, and what not. 'These are to Notice, that Mr. John Elphick,
Woollen Draper, over against St. Michael's Church in Lewes, hath a
good Hearse, a Velvet Pall, Mourning Cloaks, and Black Hangings for
Rooms to be Lett at Reasonable Rates.
'He also Sells all sorts of Mourning and Half Mourning, all sorts of
Black Cyprus for Scarfs and Hatbands, and White Silks for Scarfs and
Hoods at Funerals; Gloves of all sorts and Burying Cloaths for the
Dead.
'He sells likewise all sorts of Woollen Cloth Broad and Narrow, Silks
and Half Silks, Worsted Stuffs of all Sorts, and Prices of the Newest
Fashions, and all sorts of Ribbons, Bodies and Hose, very good Penny
worths.'
'Eleazar Malory, Joiner at the Coffin in White Chapel, near Red Lion
Street end, maketh Coffins, Shrouds, letteth Palls, Cloaks, and
Furnisheth with all other things necessary for Funerals at Reasonable
Rates.'
The dead were then buried in woollen, which was rendered compulsory
by the Acts 30 Car. II. c. 3 and 36 ejusdem c. 1. The first Act was
entitled 'An Act for the lessening the importation of Linnen from
beyond the Seas, and the encouragement of the Woollen and Paper
Manufactures of the Kingdome.' It prescribed that the curate of every
parish shall keep a register, to be provided at the charge of the
parish, wherein to enter all burials and affidavits of persons being
buried in woollen; the affidavit to be taken by any justice of the
peace, mayor, or such like chief officer in the parish where the body
was interred; and if there be no officer, then by any curate within
the county where the corpse was buried (except him in whose parish the
corpse was buried), who must administer the oath, and set his hand
gratis.
[Illustration: Invitation to a Funeral.
MEMENTO MORI
REMEMBER TO DIE
_SIR._
You are desired to Accompany the Corps of Mr. _Thomas
Newborough_, from his late Dwelling-House in St. _Paul's_
Church-Yard, to the Burial-place of St _Gregory's_, on
_Wednesday_ the _29th_ of this Instant _January, 1704_
at Five of the Clock in the Afternoon.]
No affidavit to be necessary for a person dying of the plague. It
imposed a fine of 5_l._ for every infringement, one half to go to the
informer, and the other half to the poor of the parish.
This Act was only repealed by 54 Geo. III. c. 108, or in the year
1815.
The material used was flannel, and such interments are frequently
mentioned in the literature of the time, and Luttrell mentions in his
diary (Oct. 9, 1703) that the Irish Parliament had just brought in
bills 'for encouraging the linnen manufacture, and to oblige all
persons to bury in woollen.'
'Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke,'
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke;
'No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face:
One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead--
And, Betty, give this cheek a little red.'[62]
[Footnote 62: Pope's _Moral Essays_, Epistle i. This is said
to refer to Mrs. Oldfield, the famous actress of Anne's
reign, who (_vide Gentleman's Magazine_ for March 1731) 'was
buried in Westminster Abby, in a Brussels lace Head dress, a
Holland Shift, with Tucker and double Ruffles of the same
Lace, and a Pair of new Kid Gloves.' 'Betty' was her old and
faithful servant, Mrs. Saunders, herself an actress, taking
widows' and old maids' parts.]
Funeral invitations were sent out--ghastly things, such as the
foregoing.
Elegies, laudatory of the deceased, were sometimes printed and sent to
friends: these were got up in the same charnel-house style. Indeed, no
pains were spared to make a funeral utterly miserable and expensive.
Hatbands were costly items. 'For the encouragement of our English silk
called Alamodes, His Royal Highness the Prince of Denmark, the
Nobility, and other persons of Quality appear in Mourning Hatbands
made of that Silk, to bring the same in fashion, in the place of
Crapes, which are made in the Pope's Country where we send our Money
for them.' Gloves, of course, had to be given to every mourner. Indeed
it is refreshing among the universal spoiling of the deceased's
survivors to find that one man advertises cheap mourning and funeral
necessaries. 'For the good of the Publick, I Edward Evans, at the Four
Coffins in the Strand, over against Somerset House; Furnish all
Necessaries for all sorts of Funerals, both great and small. And all
sorts of set Mourning both Black and Gray and all other Furniture
sutable to it, fit for any person of Quality. Which I promise to
perform 2_s._ in the Pound cheaper than any of the Undertakers in Town
or elsewhere.'
Of course these remarks do not apply to the poor: they had already
started burial clubs or societies, and very cheap they seem to have
been. 'This is to give Notice, that the Office of Society for Burials,
by mutual Contribution of a Halfpenny or Farthing towards a Burial,
erected upon Wapping Wall, is now removed into Katherine Wheel Alley
in White Chappel, near Justice Smiths, where subscriptions are taken
to compleat the number, as also at the Ram in Crucifix lane in Barnaby
Street, Southwark; to which places notice is to be given of the death
of any Member, and where any Person may have the Printed Articles
after Monday next. And this Thursday about 7 o'clock Evening will be
Buried by the Undertakers the Corpse of J. S., a Glover over against
the Sun Brewhouse, in Golden Lane; as also a Child from the Corner of
Acorn Alley in Bishopsgate Street, and another Child from the Great
Maze Pond, Southwark.'
We see in the invitation to Mr. Newborough's funeral that it was to
take place on an evening in January. This probably was so arranged by
the Undertaker (indeed, the custom was general) to increase his costs,
for then the mourners were furnished with wax tapers. These were
heavy, and sometimes (judging from the illustrations to undertakers'
handbills) were made of four tapers twisted at the stem and then
branching out. That these wax candles were expensive enough to excite
the thievish cupidity of a band of roughs the following advertisement
will show: 'Riots and Robberies. Committed in and about Stepney Church
Yard, at a Funeral Solemnity, on Wednesday the 23rd day of September;
and whereas many Persons, who being appointed to attend the same
Funeral with white Wax lights of a considerable Value, were assaulted
in a most violent manner, and the said white Wax lights taken from
them. Whoever shall discover any of the Persons, guilty of the said
Crimes, so as they may be convicted of the same, shall receive of Mr.
William Prince, Wax Chandler in the Poultry, London, Ten Shillings for
each Person so discover'd,' &c.[63]
[Footnote 63: _Daily Courant_, Sept. 30, 1713.]
We get a curious glimpse of the paraphernalia of a funeral in the Life
of a notorious cheat, 'The German Princess' who lived, and was hanged,
in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and the same funeral
customs therein described obtained in Anne's time. She took a lodging
at a house, in a good position, and told the landlady that a friend of
hers, a stranger to London, had just died, and was lying at 'a pitiful
Alehouse,' and might she, for convenience sake, bring his corpse
there, ready for burial on the morrow. The landlady consented, and
'that Evening the Corps in a very handsome Coffin was brought in a
Coach, and plac'd in the Chamber, which was the Room one pair of
Stairs next the street and had a Balcony. The Coffin being cover'd
only with an ordinary black Cloth, our Counterfeit seems much to
dislike it; the Landlady tells her that for 20_s._ she might have the
Use of a Velvet Pall, with which being well pleas'd, she desir'd that
the Landlady would send for the Pall, and withal accommodate the Room
with her best Furniture, for the next Day but one he should be bury'd;
thus the Landlady perform'd, getting the Velvet Pall, and placing on a
Side-Board Table 2 Silver Candlesticks, a Silver Flaggon, 2 Standing
gilt Bowls, and several other Pieces of Plate; but the Night before
the intended Burial, our counterfeit Lady and her Maid within the
House, handed to their Comrades without, all the Plate, Velvet Pall,
and other Furniture of the Chamber that was Portable and of Value,
leaving the Coffin and the suppos'd Corps, she and her Woman descended
from the Balcony by Help of a Ladder, which her Comrades had brought
her.' It is needless to say that the coffin contained only brickbats
and hay, and a sad sequel to this story is, that the undertaker sued
the landlady for the loss of his pall, which had lately cost him
40_l._
Another very costly item in funerals was the giving of mourning
rings. We see[64] the number of rings given at Pepys' funeral in
1703, and their value, 20_s._ and 15_s._, especially when we consider
the extra value of the currency at that period, must have been a sore
burden to the survivors. Thoresby[65] shows to what a prodigal extent
this custom might be carried. 'Afternoon, at the Funeral of my
excellent and dear friend, Dr. Thomas Gale, Dean of York, who was
interred with great solemnity: lay in state, 200 rings (besides scarfs
to bearers and gloves to all) given in the room where I was, which yet
could not contain the company.'
[Footnote 64: Appendix.]
[Footnote 65: _Diary of Ralph Thoresby_, April 15, 1702.]
Naturally, a great many must have come to a man in the course of his
life, as we may see by the contents of a box lost out of a waggon
between Stamford and London: '3 Hair Rings, 6 with a Death's Head,
about 2 penny weight apiece the Posie (Prepared be to follow me); 3
other mourning rings with W. C. ob. 18 Dec. 1702; 1 Ennamelled Ring, 3
Pennyweight twelve grains. W. Heltey, ob. 5 July, Æt. 61.' And their
value may be guessed from 'Lost on Thursday, the 8th Instant one of
the late Lord Huntingdon's Funeral Rings. Whoever brings it to Mr.
White's at the Chocolate House in St. James's shall have two Guineas
reward.'
Besides the rings, hatbands, scarves, and gloves, there was another
tax; for Evelyn,[66] noting Pepys' death and burial, says, 'Mr. Pepys
had been for neare 40 years so much my particular friend that Mr.
Jackson sent me _compleat mourning_, desiring me to be one to hold up
the pall at his magnificent obsequies, but my indisposition hinder'd
me from doing him this last office.'
[Footnote 66: _Diary_, May 26, 1703.]
The pomp of funerals was outrageous. Gay, observant as he always was,
notes this in 'Trivia,' book 3:--
Why is the Herse with 'Scutcheons blazon'd round,
And with the nodding Plume of Ostrich crown'd?
No, the Dead know it not, nor profit gain:
It only serves to prove the Living vain.
How short is Life! how frail is human Trust!
Is all this Pomp for laying Dust to Dust?
No wonder he exclaimed against these mortuary extravagances. Take an
alderman's funeral as an example: 'On Wednesday last the Corps of Sir
William Prichard, Kt., late Alderman, and sometime Lord Mayor of the
City of London, (Who died Feb. 18) having lain some days in State, at
his House in Highgate, was convey'd from thence in a Hearse,
accompanied by several Mourning Coaches with 6 Horses each, through
Barnet and St. Albans to Dunstable; and the next day through Hockley
(where it was met by about 20 Persons on Horseback) to Woburn and
Newport Pagnel, and to his seat at Great Lynford (a Mile farther) in
the county of Buckingham: Where, after the Body had been set out, with
all Ceremony befitting his Degree, for near 2 hours, 'twas carried to
the Church adjacent in this order, viz. 2 Conductors with long
Staves, 6 Men in Long Cloaks two and two, the Standard 18 Men in
Cloaks as before, Servants to the Deceas'd two and two, Divines, the
Minister of the Parish and the Preacher, the Helm and Crest, Sword and
Target, Gauntlets and Spurs, born by an Officer of Arms; the Surcoat
of arms born by another Officer of Arms, both in their rich Coats of
Her Majesty's Arms embroider'd; the Body, between 6 Persons of the
Arms of Christ's Hospital, St. Bartholomew's, Merchant Taylors'
Company, City of London, empaled Coat and Single Coat; the Chief
Mourner and his 4 Assistants, follow'd by the Relations of the
Defunct, &c. After Divine Service was perform'd and an excellent
Sermon suitable to the Occasion, preach'd by the Reverend Lewis
Atterbury, LL.D., Minister of Highgate aforesaid, the Corps was
interr'd in a handsome large Vault, in the Ile on the North side of
the Church, betwixt 7 and 8 of the clock that Evening.'[67]
[Footnote 67: _Daily Courant_, March 5, 1705.]
But there was one thing they did not spend so much money upon as their
forefathers did, _i.e._ on monumental statuary, &c. In this age the
bust, or 'busto,' was used in preference to the recumbent, or
half-figures, of the previous century; but by far the greater number
of mortuary memorials took the form of mural tablets, more or less
ornate, according to the taste and wealth of the parties concerned. As
a rule the epitaph was in Latin--this classical age, and the somewhat
pedantic one that followed, could brook no meaner tongue in which to
eulogise its dead; and their virtues were pompously set forth in that
language which is common to the whole of the civilised world.
No account of the funerals of this age would be complete without
seeing what Misson says on the subject:--'As soon as any Person is
dead, they are oblig'd to give Notice thereof to the Minister of the
Parish, and to those who are appointed to visit dead Bodies. This
Custom of visiting dead Bodies was establish'd after the dreadful
Plague that ravag'd London in 1665, to the Intent that it might be
immediately known if there was any Contagious Distemper, and proper
Methods taken to put a Stop to it. They are generally two Women that
do this. The Clerk of the Parish receives their Certificate, and out
of these is form'd an Abridgment that is publish'd every Week. By this
Paper you may see how many Persons of both Sexes dy'd within that
Week, of what Distemper, or by what Accident.
'There is an Act of Parliament which ordains, That the Dead shall be
bury'd in a Woollen Stuff, which is a Kind of a thin Bays, which they
call _Flannel_; nor is it lawful to use the least Needleful of Thread
or Silk. (The Intention of this Act is for the Encouragement of the
Woollen Manufacture.) This Shift is always White; but there are
different Sorts of it as to Fineness, and consequently of different
Prices. To make these Dresses is a particular Trade, and there are
many that sell nothing else; so that these Habits for the Dead are
always to be had ready made, of what Size or Price you please, for
People of every Age and Sex. After they have wash'd the Body
thoroughly clean, and shav'd it, if it be a Man, and his Beard be
grown during his Sickness, they put it on a Flannel Shirt, which has
commonly a Sleeve purfled about the Wrists, and the Slit of the Shirt
down the Breast done in the same Manner. When these Ornaments are not
of Woollen Lace, they are at least edg'd, and sometimes embroider'd
with black Thread. The Shirt shou'd be at least half a Foot longer
than the Body, that the Feet of the Deceas'd may be wrapped in it as
in a Bag. When they have thus folded the End of the Shirt close to the
Feet, they tye the Part that is folded down with a Piece of Woollen
Thread, as we do our Stockings; so that the End of the Shirt is done
into a Kind of Tuft.
'Upon the Head they put a Cap, which they fasten with a very broad
Chin Cloth, with Gloves on the Hands, and a Cravat round the Neck, all
of Woollen. That the Body may ly the softer, some put a Lay of Bran,
about four inches thick, at the Bottom of the Coffin. Instead of a
Cap, the Women have a Kind of Head Dress, with a Forehead Cloth. The
Body being thus equipp'd and laid in the Coffin (which Coffin is
sometimes very magnificent), it is visited a second time, to see that
it is bury'd in Flannel, and that nothing about it is sowed with
Thread. They let it lye three or four Days in this Condition; which
Time they allow, as well to give the dead Person an Opportunity of
Coming to Life again, if his Soul has not quite left his Body, as to
prepare Mourning, and the Ceremonies of the Funeral.
'They send the Beadle with a List of such Friends and Relations as
they have a Mind to invite; and sometimes they have printed Tickets,
which they leave at their Houses. A little before the Company is set
in Order for the March, they lay the Body into the Coffin upon two
Stools, in a Room where all that please may go and see it; they then
take off the Top of the Coffin, and remove from off the Face a little
square Piece of Flannel, made on Purpose to cover it, and not fastened
to any Thing; Upon this Occasion the rich Equipage of the Dead does
Honour to the Living. The Relations and chief Mourners are in a
Chamber apart, with their more intimate Friends; and the rest of the
Guests are dispersed in several Rooms about the House.
[Illustration: Lying in State.]
'When they are ready to set out, they nail up the Coffin, and a
Servant presents the Company with Sprigs of Rosemary: Every one takes
a Sprig and carries it in his Hand 'till the Body is put into the
Grave, at which Time they all throw their Sprigs in after it. Before
they set out, and after they return, it is usual to present the Guests
with something to drink, either red or white Wine, boil'd with Sugar
and Cinnamon, or some such Liquor. Butler, the Keeper of a Tavern,[68]
told me there was a Tun of Red Port drank at his Wife's Burial,
besides mull'd White Wine. Note, no Men ever go to Women's burials,
nor the Women to the Men's; so that there were none but Women at the
drinking of Butler's Wine. Such Women in England will hold it out with
the Men, when they have a Bottle before them, as well as upon t'other
Occasion, and tattle infinitely better than they.
[Footnote 68: The Crown and Sceptre in St. Martin's Street.]
'The Parish has always three or four Mortuary Cloths of different
Prices,[69] to furnish those who are at the Charge of the interment.
These Cloths, which they Call Palls, are some of black Velvet, others
of Cloth with an edge of white Linnen or Silk, a foot broad, or
thereabouts; For a Batchellor or Maid, or for a Woman that dies in
Child Birth, the Pall is white. This is spread over the Coffin, and is
so broad that the Six or Eight Men that carry the Body are quite hid
beneath it to their Waste, and the Corners and Sides of it hang down
low enough to be born by those[70] who, according to Custom, are
invited for that purpose. They generally give Black or White Gloves
and black Crape Hatbands to those that carry the Pall; sometimes also
white Silk Scarves.
[Footnote 69: The handsomest was let out on hire for
twenty-five or thirty shillings.]
[Footnote 70: Called Pall-bearers--some six friends or
so--and accounted a special honour.]
'Every Thing being ready to move (it must be remember'd that I always
speak of middling People, among whom the Customs of a Nation are most
truly to be learn'd), one or more Beadles march first, each carrying a
long Staff, at the End of which is a great Apple or Knob of Silver.
The Minister of the Parish, generally accompany'd by some other
Minister, and attended by the Clerk, walks next; and the Body carry'd
as I said before, comes just after him. The Relations in close
Mourning, and all the Guests two and two, make up the rest of the
Procession. The Common Practice is to carry the corpse thus into the
Body of the Church, where they set it down upon two Tressels, while
either a Funeral Sermon is preach'd, containing an Eulogium upon the
deceased, or certain Prayers said, adapted to the Occasion. If the
Body is not bury'd in the Church, they carry it to the Church Yard
belonging to the same, where it is interr'd in the Presence of the
Guests, who are round the Grave, and they do not leave it 'till the
Earth is thrown in upon it. Then they return Home in the same order
that they came, and each drinks two or three Glasses more before he
goes Home. Among Persons of Quality 'tis customary to embalm the Body,
and to expose it for a Fortnight or more on a Bed of State. After
which they carry it in a Sort of a Waggon[71] made for that Purpose,
and cover'd with black Cloth, to the Place appointed by the Deceased.
This Cart is attended by a long train of Mourning Coaches belonging to
the Friends of the Dead Person.'
[Footnote 71: A hearse.]
A notice of a Roman Catholic funeral must conclude this subject. It is
taken from the will of 'Mr. Benjamin Dod, Citizen and Linnen Draper,
who fell from his Horse, and dy'd soon after.'[72] 'I desire Four and
Twenty Persons to be at my Burial ... to every of which Four and
Twenty Persons ... I give a pair of white Gloves, a Ring of Ten
Shillings Value, a Bottle of Wine at my Funeral, and Half a Crown to
be spent at their Return that Night, to drink my Soul's Health, then
on her Journey for Purification in order to Eternal Rest. I appoint
the Room, where my Corps shall lie, to be hung with Black, and four
and twenty Wax Candles to be burning; on my Coffin to be affixed a
Cross, and this Inscription, _Jesus, Hominum Salvator_. I also appoint
my Corps to be carried in a Herse drawn with Six white Horses, with
white Feathers, and followed by Six Coaches, with six Horses to each
Coach, to carry the four and twenty Persons.... Item I give to Forty
of my particular Acquaintance, not at my Funeral, to every one of them
a Gold Ring of Ten Shillings Value.... As for Mourning I leave that to
my Executors hereafter nam'd; and I do not desire them to give any to
whom I shall leave a legacy.' Here follows a long list of legacies. 'I
will have no Presbyterian, Moderate Low Churchmen, or Occasional
Conformists, to be at or have anything to do with my Funeral. I die in
the Faith of the True Catholic Church. I desire to have a Tomb stone
over me, with a Latin Inscription, and a Lamp, or Six Wax Candles, to
burn Seven Days and Nights thereon.'
[Footnote 72: _The Flying Post and Medley_, July 27, 1714.]
[Illustration: A widow.]
Widows wore black veils, and a somewhat peculiar cap, and had long
trains--allusions to which are very frequent in the literature of the
time. That they were supposed to seclude themselves for six weeks, and
debar themselves of all amusement for twelve months, is shown by the
two following extracts from Steele's 'Funeral, or Grief à la Mode.'
'But, Tatty, to keep house 6 weeks, that's another barbarous Custom.'
'Oh, how my head runs my first Year out, and jumps to all the joys of
widowhood! If, Thirteen Months hence, a Friend should haul one to a
Play one has a mind to see!'
CHAPTER V.
HOUSES, FURNITURE, ETC.
'Queen Anne' houses -- Vanbrugh's house -- Real 'Queen Anne'
houses -- Hangings and wall papers -- Letting and rent --
Prevention of fire -- A fire -- Insurance companies -- Water
supply -- Thames Water Works -- New River -- Coals -- Furniture
-- China -- Bedsteads.
Although for the purpose of this work it is necessary to say somewhat
of the houses of the period, it is not worth while discussing the
so-called revival of the architecture of Queen Anne's time. The modern
houses are quaint and pretty, but they are innocent of any close
connection with her reign. Artists' and architects' holiday rambles in
Holland are provocative of most of them; 'sweet little bits' having
been brought home in sketch-books from Dordrecht and kindred happy
hunting-grounds for the picturesque. The style was not even adopted
for mansions--_vide_ Marlborough House and Blenheim; and the exterior
of the ordinary town houses, even of the better class, was singularly
unpretentious. Hatton[73] is struck with admiration of Queen Square
(now Queen Anne's Gate), and says it is 'a beautiful New (tho' small)
Square, of very fine Buildings.' If he could thus eulogise its
architecture, what must have been the plainness of the exterior of
ordinary houses! It was not that there was a lack of good architects,
for Wren and Vanbrugh were alive, but the houses and furniture were in
conformity with the spirit of the times--very dull, and plain, and
solid. We must never forget that during nearly the whole of this
queen's reign a cruel war exhausted the people's finances, that trade
was circumscribed, and that there were no mushroom _parvenus_, with
inflated fortunes made from shoddy or the Stock Exchange, to spend
their wealth lavishly on architecture or art in any shape.
[Footnote 73: _A New View of London_, 1708.]
A dull mediocrity in thought and feeling prevailed, and if any
originality in architecture was attempted, it would certainly have
been satirised, as it was in the very little-known poem of 'The
History of Vanbrugh's House.'[74]
[Footnote 74: See _Meditations upon a Broomstick and
Somewhat Beside_, Swift, ed. 1710.]
When Mother Clud[75] had rose from Play,
And call'd to take the Cards away;
VAN Saw, but seem'd not to regard,
How MISS pickt ev'ry Painted Card;
And Busie both with Hand and Eye,
Soon Rear'd a House two Story high;
VAN's _Genius_ without Thought or Lecture,
This hugely turn'd to _Architecture_.
He view'd the Edifice, and smil'd,
Vow'd it was pretty for a Child;
It was so perfect in its Kind,
He kept the _Model_ in his Mind.
But when he found the Boys at Play,
And Saw 'em dabling in their Clay;
He stood behind a Stall to lurk,
And mark the Progress of their Work;
With true Delight observ'd 'em All
Raking up _Mud_ to build a Wall;
The Plan he much admir'd, and took
The _Model_ in his Table-Book;
Thought himself now exactly skill'd,
And so resolv'd a _House_ to build.
A _real House_, with _Rooms_ and _Stairs_,
Five Times at least as big as Theirs;
Taller than MISS'S by two Yards;
Not a sham Thing of Clay, or Cards;
And so he did: For in a while,
He built up such a monstrous Pile,
That no two Chairmen cou'd be found,
Able to lift it from the Ground;
Still at _White Hall_ it Stands in View,
Just in the Place where first it grew;
There all the little School Boys run,
Envying to see themselves outdone.
From such deep Rudiments as these,
VAN is become by due Degrees,
For Building Fam'd, and justly Reckon'd
At Court, _Vitruvius_ the _Second_;[76]
No wonder, since wise _Authors_ show,
That _Best Foundations_ must be Low;
And now the Duke has wisely ta'en him
To be his _Architect_ at Blenheim:
But Railery for once apart,
If this Rule holds in ev'ry Art;
Or, if his Grace was no more Skill'd in
The Art of Batt'ring Walls, than Building,
We might expect to find next Year
A _Mouse trap_ Man, Chief Engineer.
[Footnote 75: The same lady satirised in _The Reverse_.]
[Footnote 76: Vanbrugh was Comptroller General of Works.]