Born 1712.—Died 1786.
JONAS HANWAY, equally celebrated as a traveller and a philanthropist,
was born on the 12th of August, 1712, at Portsmouth, in Hampshire. His
father dying while he was yet a child, he was removed with the other
members of the family to London, where he received an education suited
to the course of life he was intended to pursue, and at the age of
seventeen was placed as an apprentice in a mercantile house at Lisbon.
Here Hanway conceived a passion for a lady then renowned for her beauty
and accomplishments; but being unsuccessful in his love, he for ever
renounced all idea of marriage, though he continued to the latest hour
of his life an ardent advocate and admirer of womankind. Shortly after
the expiration of his apprenticeship he returned to London.
Nothing remarkable occurred in the life of Hanway until the year 1743,
when he entered as a partner into the house of Mr. Dingley, a merchant
at Petersburg, for which city he embarked in the month of June of the
same year. His character for integrity and perseverance was soon
established in Russia. In the September of 1743, a few months after his
arrival, he was appointed agent of the Russia Company in Persia, and
intrusted with the management of the whole Caspian trade. He very
quickly set out on his mission. His suite consisted of an interpreter, a
clerk, a Russian servant, a Tartar boy, and a guard; and he was
intrusted with twenty carriage-loads of English cloth. With this train
he proceeded through Moscow to the banks of the Volga, where he embarked
in a vessel for Astrakhan, from whence, after a short stay, he sailed
down to Yerkie. Here he procured a passage to Persia, and traversing the
whole length of the Caspian from north to south, arrived on the 3d of
December at Lanjaron, in Persia. Here he was well received by Mr. Elton,
a captain in the service of Nadir Shah, and formerly agent of the Russia
merchants. With this gentleman he remained seven days, and then
continued his voyage. As they steered towards the east the sky grew
brighter, and the air, which had hitherto been raw and cold, became
gradually warmer. The lofty peak of Mount Demawund, thirty leagues
inland, was visible during four days. They reached Astrabad on the 18th
of December, and their vessel, which resembled those of the Russian
pirates, who usually committed great depredations on that coast, caused
so much terror in the inhabitants, that they for some time refused to
hold any communication with them.
While they were lying on the shore awaiting the reply of the governor of
Astrabad to Hanway’s application for protection, they beheld the forests
on the neighbouring mountains on fire, and the wind blowing with
violence prodigiously increased the force of the flames, which, blazing
aloft in the darkness of the night, exhibited a magnificent but terrific
appearance. Permission being obtained, our traveller proceeded to
Astrabad, where he immediately waited on the governor, Nazir Aga, who,
in the oriental style of compliment, assured him that the city of
Astrabad was his to do what he pleased with it. Hanway, however, though
unused to Persian politeness, was satisfied at a much cheaper rate, and
merely requested the Aga’s protection as far as Meshed, which was
readily granted. He now despatched the greater portion of his
merchandise on camels towards Meshed, and was patiently waiting for the
escort promised by the Aga, when news was brought to the city that the
people of the neighbouring districts had broken out into rebellion, and
being commanded by a powerful leader, who had taken a body of Turcomans
into his pay, designed to sack the city, for the purpose of seizing on
the royal treasury then deposited there, as well as on the European
merchandise.
Hanway was now in a position of extreme danger. The inhabitants, who
considered his presence in the city with so much wealth as one of the
principal incitements to the present insurrection, were by no means
disposed to incur any peril on his account, and cursed him openly. On
the other hand, the rebels looked upon his property as a desirable prey;
and as men when in the act of sacking a city are in an ill mood for
hearing remonstrance, it was probable that, should the least opposition
be shown, they would silence it by striking off his head. He was
therefore advised to make his escape, disguised in a Persian dress. But
he wisely repelled the idea, knowing well that if there was danger
within the city, there was far more danger without. The governor,
however, whose case was exceedingly different, had already fled,
disguised as a peasant; and the terrible moment was most anxiously
expected when the assault should be given and the place carried by
storm. On the approach of night Hanway made the necessary preparations
for receiving the invaders, whom it would have been impossible to
resist, and retired to his chamber, where, having performed his
devotions, he delivered himself up to sleep. A smart but irregular fire
of musketry awakened him at four o’clock in the morning. This was
followed by a short silence; and a few minutes after, shouts, wild
merriment, and the loud beating of drums announced the triumph of the
insurgents, and the fall of the city.
It was not long before two of the rebel chiefs at the head of a party of
men arrived at the house of our traveller, demanding his merchandise,
and informing him that the forty bales which he had despatched towards
Meshed were already in their hands. They engaged, however, as soon as
their government should be established, to pay for whatever they now
seized upon, and only required, they said, a short credit. Hanway, like
the ancient sophist, was thoroughly persuaded that there was no
disputing with a man who commanded forty legions, and therefore, without
vain opposition, suffered them to appropriate to themselves whatever
they thought proper, excepting one hundred and sixty gold crowns, which
he succeeded in concealing about his person. The Persians appeared
exceedingly well satisfied when they had, as they supposed, gained
possession of all his property; for they are well-bred thieves, who rob,
as it were, with a kind of honorable regret and a humane sympathy for
the sufferers; but their soldier-like allies, the Turcomans, looked upon
the matter as merely begun, and casting a longing eye upon our traveller
and his companions, as if they felt a strong inclination to eat them,
observed to Zadoc, the rebel governor, “You give us the merchandise of
the Russians—will you not give us the Russians also? They will do well
to tend our sheep!”
Notwithstanding the disturbed state of public affairs, the breed of
honest men had not become wholly extinct. Many inhabitants of Astrabad
regretted to behold the distress of the stranger, and being desirous of
placing him beyond the reach of the capricious insults of the rebels,
not only gave him information, but aided, as far as possible, in
enabling him to escape. While this design secretly occupied his mind, he
obtained from one of the new chiefs a bill for the amount of his goods,
and, upon further application, an engagement to provide ten armed men to
escort him to Ghilān, in the vicinity of which Nadir Shah was said to be
encamped with his army. The necessary precautionary measures being
taken, he departed from Astrabad under convoy of hajjî, his brother, and
two sons, with about twenty armed villagers. This holy man appeared to
have discovered, during his pilgrimage to Mecca, the full value of
earthly as well as of heavenly possessions, and thought that, while
waiting for the latter, the being master of the former would be no
inconvenience. He therefore exerted all his wits, which had no doubt
been much sharpened by travelling, in the concoction of schemes for
compelling Hanway to do an act of sublime charity, by reducing himself
to destitution for the benefit of a pilgrim. Having it in his power to
accelerate or impede, as he pleased, the movements of our traveller, he
in a great measure succeeded; after which they continued their journey.
The roads through northern Persia are at no time very safe, more
particularly for an infidel: but now that the shah’s tyranny had goaded
the wretched peasants into rebellion, the danger was infinitely
augmented. Accordingly, the hajjî, who understood the character of his
countrymen, conducted their little kafilah through pathless woods, over
deep ravines and mountains, sedulously avoiding all frequented roads,
and causing them to encamp at night in the open fields. During this
journey they passed by the ruins of the palace of Ferhabad, once famous
as the residence of the Persian kings.
Hanway’s conductors, understanding that Nadir’s general was levying
forces at Balfroosh, the capital of Mazenderan, now expressed their
determination to proceed no further; but observed that, as he was near
the coast, he might perform the remaining distance by sea. “Accordingly,
they conducted him and his attendants to a fisherman’s hut on the
seacoast: the poor man had only an open boat, like a canoe, very leaky,
and barely large enough to admit six persons; besides, it could be
navigated only with oars or paddles near the shore, where the surf then
ran very high; and the sandbanks, forming breakers, made the sea still
more dangerous. He therefore again implored the carriers to furnish
horses according to their engagement, but they treated his request with
contempt. He threatened to use force; whereupon two of them, being armed
with matchlocks, lighted their matches; two others had bows and arrows,
and all of them, being six in number, had sabres. Hanway collected his
company, among whom were four muskets, a blunderbuss, and a pair of
pistols; but as he could not depend on more than two of his servants,
after a short parley he submitted to run the risk of being drowned,
rather than engage in a fray, where no other advantage could be gained
than a precarious use of horses, through a country utterly unknown to
him; and, if he should fall, the cause in which he embarked must fall
with him.”
Embarking, therefore, in the fisherman’s canoe, they coasted along the
shore to Teschidezar, where they landed. Hanway here applied for
protection to the principal of the shah’s officers, who sent him a horse
richly caparisoned for his own use, and four mules for his servants,
with which he pushed on with all possible speed to Balfroosh. On his
arrival at this city he was somewhat comforted by the assurance of the
Persian merchants, that the shah would certainly make good his loss. But
to reach the shah was the difficulty. No beasts, or any other mode of
conveyance, could be obtained. The general, unable to oppose the rebels,
was preparing for flight; and fortune appeared once more disposed to
expose him to the danger of becoming a Turcoman shepherd. At length,
however, the governor of the city munificently provided him with a
horse, which, though “galled and spavined,” was still alive, and capable
of conveying him several miles before he died. Upon this animal,
therefore, miserable as he was, our traveller mounted; and, taking leave
of all his attendants, with whom he left the rebels’ passport and what
money he could spare, set out on his desperate journey alone. His
departure was well timed, for the Turcomans were entering the city at
the eastern gate, while he was escaping through the western one. “After
some time,” says Pugh, “he fell in with a party who conducted the
baggage of the admiral, and himself soon followed; but it was not
possible for him to keep pace with them. The poor tartar boy, attached
to him with more sincerity than his other servants, had followed him on
foot; and when he fainted, Mr. Hanway took him up behind him; but before
they had rode six miles, the horse’s hind quarters gave way, and they
were both obliged to dismount.”
His situation was now deplorable. Knowing very little of the language,
and without a guide, it was with extreme difficulty that he once more
explored his way to the coast. His miserable appearance, for his clothes
were worn out and in tatters, was his only protection. This excited the
pity of the inhabitants; and when he arrived at any great river, he was,
on pleading poverty, ferried over gratis; for he did not venture to show
the money which he had concealed about his person at Astrabad. He at
length overtook the troops of the person whom he calls the admiral, who
was flying, like himself, before the Turcomans, and among whose
followers he found his own clerk and servant. During this rapid flight
he ate nothing for nearly forty hours excepting a few parched peas which
he found by chance in his pocket. In the night the admiral decamped,
intending to abandon Hanway to his fate; but the latter, rendered doubly
energetic by despair, and highly incensed at his baseness, immediately
followed at his heels. The night was dark and tempestuous; but, by
pushing vigorously forward, he once more overtook the fugitive; and
having by extraordinary exertions kept pace with him for some time,
finding himself quite spent, and urged by despair, he seized the bridle
of the horse on which the admiral was mounted, and in a loud, determined
tone pronounced the word _shah_. The idea of Nadir brought thus suddenly
to his mind seemed to have awakened the Persian from a dream. He halted,
and, commanding his vizier to take up the traveller behind him, while
another of the company had compassion on the poor Tartar boy, they again
renewed their flight, which was continued without intermission from
seven o’clock in the evening until next day, in the midst of continual
tempest and rain.
Rapidly as they fled, however, rumour still kept up with them, and
peopled all the woods and fastnesses around with Turcomans. A detachment
of these ferocious soldiers were said to be posted in a wood in advance
of the party; the admiral gave orders to fire upon them; and when Hanway
came up to the spot he found five Afghan recruits, who had come so far
on their way to join the shah’s army, weltering in their blood. They
now, without at all relaxing in their movements, descended to the shore
of the Caspian, which, broken and ploughed up alternately by mountain
torrents and by the sea, was traversed with the utmost difficulty; while
the surge at intervals dashed the horsemen from their steeds, and
endangered their lives. At length, after a journey of twenty-three days,
during which he had not enjoyed one hour of security or unbroken sleep,
he arrived at Lanjaron, where he was most hospitably received and
entertained by Captain Elton.
Here he remained several days, until, having slightly recovered his
strength and refreshed his weary spirits, he departed for Reshed, where,
in an interview with the governor, he learned that Nadir was shortly
expected to be on the borders of Turkey. He therefore hired horses,
provided his attendants with clothes, tents, firearms, and sabres, and
set out in search of the shah. On the 2d of March he arrived, almost
blind with the reflection of the snow, at Casbin, where he remained nine
days, until the influence of spring, exceedingly rapid in those
countries, began to dissolve the snow. He then joined a party of
soldiers who were proceeding to the camp of the shah, who was reported
to be marching upon Hamadan; and all the way as he went along he
observed in the extreme distress of the inhabitants the terrible effects
of Nadir’s tyranny. An air of silence and desolation prevailed over the
whole country; for the people, taking them to be robbers or soldiers,
which was the same thing, fled to the mountains, and left them to
provide how they could for themselves.
On arriving at the shah’s camp, Hanway pitched his tent near the royal
standard; and here, after having escaped so many perils by land and sea,
he narrowly escaped perishing by a common accident. One of his muskets
went off, and, discharging its contents in the roof of the tent over his
head, set the canvass on fire. Without loss of time he presented his
petition to the shah, praying to be reimbursed the value of the goods
forcibly seized by the rebels at Astrabad; and while waiting for Nadir’s
reply, enjoyed an ample opportunity, which he usefully turned to
account, of observing the aspect and character of this motley,
extraordinary scene. He saw the despot hemmed round by a circle of evils
of his own creating, which was every moment narrowing, and threatening
that terrible catastrophe which shortly afterward consummated the
tyrant’s fate. Every heart was bursting with indignation, and curses
were struggling to every tongue for vent, against the common enemy. And
could he have looked into the heart of this imperial miscreant, he would
there have beheld the vulture of which that of Typhœus was but the type
and shadow, feeding upon apprehensions and horrors the most fearful and
odious of all earthly things.
Externally, however, the monster appeared to be the _beau idéal_ of
imperial splendour. A harem of sixty women, selected for their
resplendent beauty; palaces of barbaric grandeur; horses covered with
trappings set with pearls, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds of prodigious
size; and an army of two hundred thousand men, to maintain which his
country had been ruined, and India despoiled, according to the most
moderate computation, of one hundred and seventy millions sterling. Such
was his condition. Not long after his arrival Hanway obtained a decree
of the shah “that the particulars of his loss should be delivered to
Behbud Khan, the shah’s general, now at Astrabad, who was to return such
parts of the goods as could be recovered, and make up the deficiency out
of the sequestered estates of the rebels.”
Having obtained this decree, with which, as it took him back to
Astrabad, he was not altogether satisfied, Hanway quitted the camp of
Nadir on the 27th of March. The spring in those southern regions being
already advanced, the bright pure blue of the sky, “the falls of water
from the rocks, the stupendous mountains, far higher than any he had
seen in Europe, rising gradually one above another, some with their
summits covered with snow, and others concealing their heads in the
clouds, formed a delightful scene. The vines were full of foliage, the
orange groves perfumed the air with their fragrance, and the gardens
were in full blossom.” The beauty of the landscape, however, was almost
entirely the work of nature; for the husbandman, not knowing who might
reap the fruits of his industry, had ceased to cultivate the earth, or
cultivated it with a sparing and unwilling hand. The curse of despotism,
the bane of genius and energy, submission to which is the severest evil
humanity can suffer, was deeply felt throughout the land, where,
however, symptoms of a most salutary and just revenge, the sacred duty
of the oppressed, were beginning to manifest themselves in a very
striking manner.
Hanway reached Lanjaron on the 5th of April, where, being exceedingly
fatigued both in body and mind, he remained with Captain Elton until the
1st of May. He then set forward with six well-armed companions for
Astrabad. Their way, during the first part of their journey, lay through
a forest, where they lost their path and were benighted on the very
evening of their departure; but at length, guided by a light which they
discovered among the trees, they found their way to a house which was
barricaded with trees. The owner of this lonely mansion, with an
inhospitable terror which was fully justified by the circumstances of
the times, refused them admittance; upon which, like true Persians, they
broke into his house, and, binding a rope about one of his arms,
compelled him to serve them for a guide until they had regained their
path, when our traveller took care to reward him for his trouble.
Shortly after this two of his muleteers deserted; and in the evening,
while their beasts were at pasture, a wolf of very extraordinary size,
of which there were great numbers in the mountains of Mazenderan, made
his appearance, but was driven off by the guard, though not before he
had killed a cow. Pallas observes that the wolf is exceedingly timid in
summer; but an instance of its courage during the warm months, not
unlike the above, occurred to that traveller in Siberia; and the wolves
of Burgundy and the Vosges have the reputation, I believe, of being
sufficiently ferocious throughout the year. Next morning they overtook a
small detachment of soldiers, whose commanding officer, observing that
they were pursuing the same route, politely offered his service as a
convoy; which being readily accepted, they pursued their journey
together.
In this way they proceeded for some time; but the officer being at
length compelled to take a different direction, granted Hanway at
parting a guard of ten men, who, however, very soon deserted him.
Nevertheless he succeeded, after much fatigue and difficulty, in
reaching Astrabad, whence the rebels had recently been dislodged. The
fate of the insurgent chief excited his compassion. Upon the news of the
defeat of his party he had been seized by the demoniacal slaves who now
gained the ascendant, who, having cut holes in his flesh, in which they
set lighted candles, thus paraded him naked through the market-place,
until he dropped down dead through loss of blood. Our traveller,
immediately upon his arrival, presented to Behbud Khan, the new
governor, the decree which he had obtained of the shah, and received a
promise that it should be fulfilled to the letter. This man appeared to
have been designed by nature for executing the designs of such a master
as Nadir. Seated in his tent, half-surrounded by soldiers, “judging and
executing in a very summary way the rebels who were brought before him,
one or two at a time. After a short repast, a prisoner was brought who
had two large logs of wood riveted to the small of his legs, and a heavy
triangular collar of wood about his neck; one of the angles being longer
than the others served as a handcuff to his left wrist, so that if he
attempted to rest his arm it must press on his neck. After being
questioned for sometime about the caravan of European cloths, of which
it appeared he knew very little, the general ordered him to be beaten
with sticks, which was immediately performed by the executioners with
the utmost severity, as if it was intended to kill him; and the scene
was closed with an order to cut out his eyes. Sadoc Aga was then
produced. In the hour of his short-lived prosperity, while he was a
general of the rebel troops, he had treated Hanway with an unbecoming
insolence. But how changed was his appearance! When Mr. Hanway saw him
last he was a youth of uncommon vivacity, richly dressed, and full of
mirth; but now his garb was mean, his voice sunk, and his eyes cut out
of their sockets. He expressed his inability to make any restitution of
the property, ‘for he had been deprived of every thing.’ This answer the
general returned by an order to strike him on the mouth, which was done
with such violence that the blood gushed out.”
This scene was very ill calculated to entertain such a man as Hanway,
and might, perhaps, have touched even the breast of Shylock with
compassion. He therefore retired in silence, leaving the bloody-minded
representative of the shah to glut his ferocious appetite for slaughter
at his leisure. Meanwhile, the payment for the lost merchandise being
made very slowly, Hanway once more appealed to the justice of the
governor, who now confessed that a part of the money had been
appropriated to the shah’s own use, and, in default of other means,
offered in part of payment a number of female prisoners, who might, he
said, be sold for slaves. This Hanway refused; and having obtained the
greater portion of his demand, he repaired to the seashore, and once
more embarked on the Caspian. Proceeding along the southern shore, he
disembarked at Lanjaron, and continued his journey by land to Reshed,
where, immediately after his arrival, he was attacked by a dangerous
disorder, which detained him in that city during nearly two months;
after which he invested his money in raw silk, and, setting sail on the
13th of September, arrived safely at Yerkie on the mouth of the Volga.
Here, as the Russian authorities feigned to believe that the plague was
raging in Northern Persia, he was compelled to perform quarantine during
six weeks; at the expiration of which he proceeded by land along the
western bank of the Volga to Zarytzin, and thence to Moscow, where he
arrived on the 22d of December. Here he received letters from England,
informing him that by the death of a relation he had succeeded to a sum
of money far exceeding any advantages he could expect to derive from the
conducting of the Caspian trade. “Providence was thus indulgent to me,”
says he, “as if it meant to reward me for the sincerity of my
endeavours.”
Hanway reached Petersburg on the 1st of January, 1745. Here he remained
nearly five years engaged in commerce; but at length, the love of gain
yielding to the love of home, he quitted the Russian capital; visited
the dry dock constructed by Peter I. at Cronstadt; and, passing rapidly
through Prussia, Germany, and Holland, embarked in a yacht at
Helvoetsluys, and landed at Harwich, after an absence of nearly eight
years.
On the arrival of our traveller in London, he went to reside in the
Strand, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Townsend. Here, having now
entirely abandoned all mercantile pursuits, he lived as a private
gentleman, employed in compiling the history of his travels, and in
constant acts of benevolence. The application to sedentary employment,
which was so little in unison with the former tenor of his life, and
which the exercise of his charity was not sufficient to diversify, very
quickly injured his health; so that he was compelled for relaxation to
travel once more, though his excursion was confined to France and the
Netherlands. About this period the question respecting the expediency of
naturalizing the Jews was agitated in most of the countries of Europe;
and Hanway, on most other occasions just and philanthropic, yielded in
this instance to the force of narrow and inhuman prejudices; and argued
in a pamphlet, now very properly condemned to oblivion, in favour of the
absurd laws by which this portion of our fellow-creatures have been in
so many countries excluded from the enjoyment of the rights of man. His
other works were devoted to better purposes; he promoted, as far as was
in his power, the paving of the streets of London; he laboured to
convince the English people of the futility of the fears they seemed to
entertain of a French invasion, than which nothing could be more absurd
or impracticable; he founded the Marine Society, intended to encourage
the breed of seamen; he endeavoured benevolently, but ridiculously, to
discourage the habit of tea-drinking; he laboured to improve the
Foundling Hospital institution; was the principal means of founding the
Magdalen Hospital, or asylum for repentant public women; advocated the
cause of the orphan poor; and, by reasoning and ridicule, exposed the
practice of _vails giving_, as it was termed, by which a man who was
invited to the table of the great was made to pay threefold for his
dinner. According to Mr. Pugh, he was incited to the exposure of this
abuse by Sir Timothy Waldo. “Sir Timothy,” says he, “had dined with the
duke (of Newcastle), and, on his leaving the house, was contributing to
the support and insolence of a train of servants who lined the hall, and
at last put a crown into the hands of the cook, who returned it, saying,
‘Sir, I do not take silver.’—‘Don’t you, indeed?’ said the worthy
knight, putting it in his pocket, ‘then I do not give gold.’” Among the
ludicrous circumstances mentioned in Mr. Hanway’s letter is one which
happened to himself. He was paying the servants of a respectable friend
for a dinner which their master had invited him to, one by one, as they
appeared. “Sir, your great-coat;” _a shilling_; “Your hat;” _a
shilling_; “Stick;” _a shilling_; “Umbrella;” _a shilling_; “Sir, your
gloves.”—“Why, friend, you may keep the gloves: they are not worth a
shilling.”
In 1762 he was appointed one of the commissioners for victualling the
navy; upon which, finding that an increase of expenditure was authorized
by the augmentation of his income, he took a house in Red Lion Square,
the principal rooms of which, says his biographer, he furnished and
decorated with paintings and emblematical devices in a style peculiar to
himself. “I found,” said he, “that my countrymen and women were not _au
fait_ in the art of conversation; I have therefore presented them with
objects the most attractive that I could imagine, and such as cannot
easily be imagined without exciting amusing and instructive discourse;
and when that fails there are the cards.” Prince Eugene, who, I suppose,
found his companions in much the same predicament, was used to have
music during dinner, and, upon being questioned respecting his reasons,
replied, “It saves you the trouble of talking.”
Among numerous other benevolent schemes of our worthy traveller was one
which had for its object the bettering the condition of young
chimney-sweepers, who, besides the distresses which are open to general
observation, such as the contortion of their limbs and the stunting of
their growth, are liable to a disease peculiar to their occupation,
known by the name of the “chimney-sweepers’ cancer.” The extent of the
benefit conferred on these wretched beings—the very _Pariahs_ of English
society—by the exertions of Hanway cannot be exactly estimated; but they
certainly were considerable, and serve to show that genuine benevolence
can condescend to commiserate the miserable in whatever position they
may be placed. During his labours in behalf of these little “fathers of
soot,” as an Arab would term them, he addressed a little urchin who had
just been sweeping his own chimney:—“Suppose, now, I give you a
shilling?”—“God Almighty bless your honour, and thank you!”—“And what if
I give you a fine tie-wig to wear on May-day, which is just at
hand?”—“Ah! bless your honour; my master won’t let me go out on
May-day.”—“No! why not?”—“_He says it’s low life!_” The idea of a young
chimney-sweeper, black as if just issued from Pandemonium, in “a fine
tie-wig,” could never have suggested itself to any but a man of original
genius.
Pugh, the honest and intelligent author of Hanway’s life, tells us an
anecdote connected with our traveller’s history, which I will relate in
his words:—“To one of his books written for the use of the poor he
prefixed a description of the frontispiece, in which he says to the
gentle reader, ‘Here you see the grass grow and the sheep feed.’ The
reviewers fastened on this unfortunate sentence. ‘We remember,’ said
they (I quote from memory after a lapse of several years), ‘a miller,
who quitted his trade to take a public-house, and sent for a painter to
paint him the sign of the _mill_. “I must have the miller looking out of
the window.”—“It shall be done,” said the painter. “But I was never seen
to be idle; you must make him pop his head in if any one looks at him.”
This also the artist promised, and brought home the sign. “’Tis all
well; but where’s the miller?”—“Sir, he popped his head in when you
looked.” Even so,’ said the reviewers, ‘when we look on the benevolent
author’s frontispiece, the grass ceases to _grow_, and the sheep leave
off _feeding_.’”
Hanway died on the 5th of September, 1786. His last moments were those
of a Christian and a philosopher, calm and tranquil, indicating the
firmest reliance on the mercy and goodness of God, and a consciousness
of a life honestly and usefully spent. It might not be difficult to
collect from the history of his life materials for forming a correct
notion of his character; but in addition to the information to be
derived from this source, Pugh enjoyed the advantage of having lived
with him in the same house on terms of considerable familiarity. For
this reason, I prefer the adopting of the character which he has drawn,
and which appears to be sufficiently impartial, to the maintaining of an
appearance of originality, by conveying the same idea in different
words:—“Mr. Hanway in his person was of the middle size, of a thin spare
habit, but well shaped; his limbs were fashioned with the nicest
symmetry. In the latter years of his life he stooped very much, and,
when he walked, found it conduce to his ease to let his head incline
towards one side; but when he went first to Russia, at the age of
thirty, his face was full and comely, and his person altogether such as
obtained for him the appellation of the ‘handsome Englishman.’ His
features were small, but without the insignificance which commonly
attends small features. His countenance was interesting, sensible, and
calculated to inspire reverence. His blue eyes had never been brilliant,
but they expressed the utmost humanity and benevolence; and when he
spoke, the animation of his countenance and the tone of his voice were
such as seemed to carry conviction with them even to the mind of a
stranger. When he endeavoured to sooth distress, or point out to any
wretch who had strayed the comforts of a virtuous life, he was
peculiarly impressive; and every thing that he said had an air of
consideration and sincerity. In his transactions with the world he was
always open, candid, and sincere; whatever he said might be depended on
with implicit confidence. He adhered to the strict truth, even in the
manner of his relation, and no brilliancy of thought could induce him to
vary from the fact. But although so frank in his own proceedings, he had
seen too much of life to be easily deceived by others; and he did not
often place a confidence that was betrayed. He did not, however, think
the world so degenerate as is commonly imagined; ‘and if I did,’ he used
to say, ‘I would not let it appear; for nothing can tend so effectually
to make a man wicked, or to keep him so, as a marked suspicion.’ He knew
well how much the happiness of mankind is dependent on honest industry,
and received a pleasure but faintly described in words when any of the
objects of his charity, cleanly apparelled, and with cheerful and
contented countenances, came to pay their respects to him. He treated
them as his acquaintance, entered into their concerns with a paternal
affection, and let them know that on any real emergency they might apply
with confidence to him. It was this rather than the largeness of his
gifts that endeared him so much to the common people. He never walked
out but he was followed by the good wishes, silent or expressed, of some
to whom he had afforded relief. To meet the eye of the person he had
served was to him the highest luxury; and no man enjoyed it oftener. His
own misfortunes, I believe, never caused him to shed tears; and if the
miseries of others had that effect, which was very rare indeed, he was
particularly careful to conceal it. Yet the sight of a regiment of
soldiers under exercise, of the charity-children in their annual
assembly at Saint Paul’s, the Marine Society’s boys marching to join
their ships, or in procession, were objects which he could not resist.”
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