saying it was a fine piece of sport: and, owing to his unfeeling
and brutish conduct, the young Ladies have ever since been
ashamed to be seen, even by their relations."--(_Times, Aug. 8,
1794._)
* * * * *
"The three _water nymphs_ at Bury have preferred an indictment
against the blacksmith who stole their cloaths, and this may
probably turn out a very serious affair, and make poor _Vulcan_
pay for his _peeping_."--(_Times, Aug. 9, 1794._)
* * * * *
"Bath Charter.--A further degree of power, to be vested in the
Magistrates, being deemed necessary, a new charter was a short
time since granted for that purpose. It was sent by the Mail
Coach, and for want of care in the packing, the impression of the
Great Seal was knocked to atoms. It was presented to the Lord
Chancellor to be resealed: but this his Lordship refused unless
the Mayor and Corporation would petition the Court setting forth
the reasons. The Charter of Bath conveys the exclusive privilege
of electing _two Members_ to the British House of Commons to the
select Corporation of 26, excluding ALL the other
inhabitants."--(_Times, Aug. 9, 1794._)
We have seen, in the Historical Summary attached to this book, how
gallantly, year after year, Wilberforce attacked slavery. In England,
we see, they euphemised the word _slave_, and called them _Indented
Black Servants_, the same as those poor wretched white slaves, the
"Redemptioners" who sold themselves into bondage in the Plantations.
See the following Advertisement.
"Absconded from his master's service at Cheltenham, on Friday
night the 8th August, between the hours of 9 and 10, an INDENTED
BLACK SERVANT LAD, named TONEY, aged about 19 or 20 years. He is
very black, and slender made, but with remarkably long feet. He
went off in a striped dressing jacket, nankeen waistcoat and
breeches, ribbed cotton stockings, shoes and plated buckles. He
is articled for 5 years, from the 21 April last; and upwards of
£30 has been laid out upon him, in having him taught to shave and
dress, cloathing, and other necessaries for him. A reward of TEN
POUNDS will be paid to any person who shall apprehend, and
deliver him, to Mr. Coningham, Sherborne Lane, London; or lodge
him in any Gaol in this Kingdom, and give notice thereof as
above. There is every reason to believe, that great art, and
industry, have been used to seduce, and spirit away, the lad;
otherwise that he would not have formed a thought of quitting his
master. If, therefore, any person will give such information, and
evidence, as shall be sufficient to convict any responsible
person of having enticed, seduced, or carried away, the negro lad
above described, a reward of TWENTY GUINEAS will be paid to the
person so informing, and giving evidence."--(_Times, Aug. 13,
1794._)
* * * * *
"On Tuesday last, the corpse of a Gentleman, as it was proceeding
in a hearse to the Burial Ground, was arrested by a Sheriff's
officer and his followers, under a warrant as usual granted
against the _body_. The friends who followed, immediately left
their coaches, and told the officer, if he chose, he was welcome
to the body, but he should have neither _coffin_, _shroud_, nor
any particle in which the body was enveloped; and if he took them
by force, he should be indicted for a _highway robbery_, as those
matters were the property of the Executors; nay, they went
further, and said, that as the deceased had, by his will,
bequeathed his body to the Executors, no _execution_ would hold
good against the corpse, the process must be against them. The
Bailiff, very properly being persuaded that the spirit of the law
meant a _living_, and not a dead _body_, marched off without
insisting on the _legality of his capture_. This is the first
instance of the kind that has happened since the arrest of the
dead body of a Sheriff of London, not many years
since."--(_Times, Sept. 5, 1794._)
* * * * *
"_To the_ CONDUCTOR _of the_ TIMES.
"Sir,--Leaving a shop in the City a few days ago, I fell into a
reverie with the thoughts of what trade would come to next
century: how it would be conducted, and by what description of
persons: as in the shop I had just left, one servant said to
another, 'Do you know were _Master_ S---- is gone'? Another
answers, _Mr._ R---- (which was an apprentice) knows: _ask him_.
Presently came down stairs a maid servant, to enquire whether all
the _gentlemen_ (meaning the shopmen) would come to dinner. Half
these _gentlemen_ were booted, as if going to take a morning's
ride. O tempore! O mores!"--(_Times, Sept. 30, 1794._)
* * * * *
"The Glove Manufacturers in the different counties, will no
doubt make the most of the Princess of Wales's delicate hand: but
there is something more than ordinarily ludicrous in the
extravagant anticipation of a Shopkeeper, at the West End of the
Town, who puts up in Roman characters, "Wedding-ring maker to the
Princess Caroline of Brunswick."--(_Times, Nov. 15, 1794_.)
The Lady Lade, here mentioned, once rode a race on horseback at New
Market--but lost it:--
"_Lady Lade_ and _Mrs. Hodges_ are to have a _curricle race_ at
Newmarket, at the next Spring Meeting, and the horses are now in
training. It is to be a _five mile course_, and great sport is
expected. The construction of the traces is to be on a plan
similar to that by which _Lord March_, now Duke of Queensbury,
won his famous match against time. The odds, at present, are in
favour of _Lady Lade_. She runs a _grey mare_, which is said to
be the _best_ horse in the _Baronet's stables_."--(_Times, Dec.
20, 1794._)
* * * * *
"The following circumstance is extraordinary beyond parallel:--On
Tuesday se'nnight died, on her return from Bath, Miss Henrietta
Dickenson, the fourteenth daughter of the late John Dickenson,
Esq. of East Place, in Yorkshire, having attained precisely that
age at which each of her 13 sisters died."--(_Times, Dec. 22,
1794._)
* * * * *
"Crosthwaite Church, in the Vale of Keswick, Cumberland, hath
five chapels belonging to it. The Minister's stipend is five
pounds per annum, and _goose grass_, or the right of commoning
his geese: a _whittle gate_, or the valuable privilege of using
his knife for a week at any time, at any table in the parish; and
lastly, a _hardened sark_, or a shirt of coarse linen: whereas
the Rectory of Winweck, a small village in Lancashire, is the
richest living in England. The Rector is Lord of the Manor, and
has a glebe of £1400 annual rent. The whole living is worth £3000
a year."--(_Times, Dec. 26, 1794._)
* * * * *
"At Hanworth Booths, a public-house near to Lincoln, a few days
ago, a man dropped a Boston Bank Bill, value five guineas, which
momentarily disappeared, and a strict search was made without
producing any favourable effect. At length a woman present
recollected a playful _whelp_ chewing something apparently white.
This observation consigned the life of the poor dog to an
immediate sentence and he was instantly hanged, and his thorax
opened, wherein the lost bill was found in a mangled state: but
nevertheless the purport of the paper was evidently discoverable,
and cash to the amount was got for it at the Boston
Bank."--(_Times, Jan. 14, 1795._)
* * * * *
"In the various researches made throughout the house of
_Langleys_, the seat of John Jolliffe Tuffnell, Esq. in Essex,
two caskets of family Jewels have been found concealed amongst
old linen, and near £150,000 in specie, behind the books in the
library, the chief part of which sum he is supposed to have sold
out of the funds, with a view of purchasing some advertised
estates in that county."
* * * * *
"It is worthy of remark, that the number of deaths in this
metropolis, within the last few months past, amounts to double
what it ever has been, within the same space of time, since the
plague, which desolated London in the last century."--(_Times,
Feb. 20, 1795._)
* * * * *
"So great has been the mortality in the metropolis, that the
Undertakers, like the distressed Prompter we read of, have been
obliged 'to mow away brown.' A hearse with bay horses was
actually observed in one of the many melancholy processions in
the course of last week."--(_Times, March 7, 1795._)
* * * * *
"We are informed there is a Cask now building at Messrs Meux and
Co.'s Brewery, in Liquor-pond Street, Grays Inn Lane, the size of
which exceeds all credibility, being designed to hold twenty
thousand barrels of porter; the whole expense attending the same
will be upwards of £10,000."--(_Times, April 1, 1795._)
* * * * *
"Numbers, it is said, have gone into the King's Bench and Fleet
Prison, under an idea that there would be an Act of Grace, on
account of the Prince's marriage--but no such act is to take
place."--(_Times, April 27, 1795._)
* * * * *
"In the absence of our Reporter, we understand that Mr.
Mainwaring, on Monday, presented a Petition to the House of
Commons signed by above 10,000 Livery Servants, against the
Employing of Foreigners in that capacity; which not being
seconded, was not received."--(_Times, April 30, 1795._)
* * * * *
Advt.--ASTROLOGY. _Mrs._ NEWTON respectfully informs her friends
and the Public, that she continues at No. 111 in Wardour St.
Soho, where she may be consulted on Planetary Influence, as it
relates to, involves, and guides all the Events and Occurrences,
as Marriages, Legacies, Possession of Wealth, Attainment of any
particular Desire, the State of an Absent Friend by Sea or Land,
or whatever can interest our Hopes, or agitate our Fears. The
private Door in Portland St., and the Name under the
one-pair-of-stairs window."--(_Times, May 6, 1795._)
Medicinal Waters were in great repute, and if there were any spring,
at all charged with mineral matter, near the Metropolis, it was a good
thing for the proprietor. They existed at the Beulah Spa, Norwood--Spa
fields, Bermondsey--Hampstead--Clerkenwell--Holywell Street, and at
this "Duck and Dog" St. George's Fields. This was a famous suburban
publichouse--much as the Welsh Harp is nowadays--where shooting
matches at small birds was a favourite pastime.
"Advt.--DOG AND DUCK SPA AND BATH, St. Georges Fields.--J. Hedger
respectfully informs the Public, that the Gardens of the above
Spa are open for the reception of those who wish to drink the
Waters on the spot, at the usual terms of 3d. each person. The
general salubrity of this Spa is well known: and its happy
medicinal effects in Scorbutic, Scrophulous, and eruptive
Complaints: as well as in the Gravel, and several other
Disorders, have been long and incontestibly established. It will
be sent to any part of the town in bottles, corked and sealed at
the pump, on receiving orders as above. The Bath and Bowling
Green are also open to Subscribers."--(_Times, May 26, 1795._)
The _Mr. Brothers_ mentioned in the following paragraph had been a
Lieutenant in the Navy--and held most extravagantly visionary
religious views--he pretended to have revelations from the Deity, and
set up as a Prophet. He was imprisoned in 1794 for fear he should
create some political disturbance.
"Many persons were yesterday not a little terrified by _St.
Paul's_ clock striking 10 three times within an hour, expecting
every moment, that Mr. _Brothers's_ prophecy was about to be
fulfilled, which had appointed some dreadful calamity to befal
the City of London before the 4th day of June instant."--(_Times,
June 4, 1795._)
In the next paragraph, we must bear in mind the difference in the
value of the Currency then and now.
"It is with infinite pleasure we hear, that the Bishops in their
respective dioceses, in conjunction with the opulent pluralists
and other beneficed Clergy, are advancing the stipends, and
making contributions, for their necessitous Curates, in these
times of scarcity. A liberality (or rather an act of justice)
which most probably originated with the Bishop of London, who
declared in his Charge to the Clergy of his dioceses, as long
since as the year 1790, that he would licence no Curate to a
single church under £50, nor to two under £70 per an."--(_Times,
Aug. 13, 1795._)
* * * * *
"That practical bulls are not confined to Ireland, take the
following specimen: A tradesman of this city, out of charity,
took a French boy into his family, who was sent out one evening
in a great hurry for butter. His haste threw him into the kennel,
butter and all. This was an unfortunate mishap: the dirt he could
scrape off, but that partial adhesion of water to grease could
not so easily be removed. At last he hit upon an experiment: The
maid was bawling out for the butter--'Well, well,' quoth
_Jaques_, 'you shall have it quickly. I had the misfortune to wet
it, and have just hung it up on a string, before the great
stove--it will be dry in a moment, for it dripped before I came
away.'"--(_Times, Aug. 21, 1795._)
* * * * *
"What would our forefathers have thought to see a board with this
inscription:--'_With the nicest taste, and by men most exquisite
for their professional abilities_' over a _Barber's
shop_?"--(_Times, Aug. 21, 1795._)
* * * * *
"EPIGRAM. In utramque paratus.
"How shall we Dr. Drawl obey,
His different counsel keep:
Whose _Text_ advises 'Watch and pray,'
Whose _Sermon_ bids you 'Sleep.'"
--(_Times, Aug. 27, 1795._)
* * * * *
"In an advertisement addressed to a young lady who has eloped,
she is _most earnestly_ requested to return to her most
_disconsolate parents_: but it is added, that if she does not
choose to come herself, she is most particularly desired to send
the key of the _tea chest_!"--(_Times, Sept. 4, 1795._)
* * * * *
"The grand match of Cricket, for one thousand guineas, between
Kent and All England, was some days since terminated at
Dandelion,[21] in favour of Kent."--(_Times, Sept. 15, 1795._)
[Footnote 21: Dent de Lion, Margate.]
* * * * *
"A Clergyman in Essex, who had long _farmed_ his _tythes_
alternately among his parishioners, began at last to suspect that
the rogues endeavoured to keep the income of his _small_ living
still _less_, and so determined, this year at least, to take his
_tythes in kind_. To '_Cheat the Parson_' is one of the oldest
jokes in the history of agriculture, and stands on the same
authority with the _wittier malevolence_ of _distressing_ him.
These gentlemen, determined not to be behindhand with their
predecessors: and, in the last harvest, sent to the Parson to
take away his _hay_ the moment it was cut down, alleging, that as
soon as it was cut into _swathes_, it was no longer grass, and
that he might _turn it, and cook it, himself_. Rather than 'go to
law' the Parson submitted, and took his next Sunday's text on
_brotherly kindness_, beginning thus--'Brotherly kindness may be
divided into _three_ parts--domestic affection--social love--and
charity: from all which proper inferences may be drawn for
instruction. Thus brethren, I give you a sermon in _swathes_--you
may turn it, and cook it, yourselves.' The plan succeeded; his
parishioners doubled the income, acknowledging it even then less
than it should be: and thus, what _justice_, and _law_, might
have kept from him for years, was given up to a _clerical
joke_."--(_Times, Sept. 19, 1795._)
* * * * *
"A curious circumstance occurred here (Brighton) yesterday. Sir
John Lade, for a trifling wager, undertook to carry Lord
Cholmondely, on _his back_, from opposite the Pavilion, twice
round the Steine. Several ladies attended to be spectators of
this extraordinary feat of the dwarf carrying a giant. When his
Lordship declared himself ready, Sir John desired him to _strip_.
'Strip!' exclaimed the other: 'why surely you promised to carry
me in my clothes!' 'By no means,' replied the Baronet. 'I engaged
to carry _you_, but not an inch of clothes. So therefore, my
Lord, make ready, and let us not _disappoint_ the ladies.' After
much laughable altercation, it was at length decided that Sir
John had won his wager, the Peer declining to exhibit _in puris
naturalibus_."--(_Times, Oct. 2, 1795._)
What would the writer of the following have thought if he could only
have seen Girton and other cognate female Colleges?
"Nobody can doubt of the use and advantage of Boarding-Schools in
an immense capital like this. When a Tradesman's daughter is
taught to jump a dance, to play a tune, and spit French, she is
fit for any thing--but a wife."--(_Times, Oct. 17, 1795._)
* * * * *
"An amiable great lady, though very accomplished in the English
language, now and then makes some innocent mistakes. She lately
asked Lady Jersey if her child would not like _new_
milk?"--(_Times, Nov. 23, 1795._)
* * * * *
"A Gentleman lamenting the robbery committed at Mr. Erskine's
house last week, after enquiring the particulars, said, he 'hoped
none of the Family were alarmed?' 'No,' replied Mr. E., 'but I
wish _they had_.'"--(_Times, Dec. 23, 1795._)
* * * * *
"The name of _Merchant of London_ will be as common in London as
in France. A fellow who keeps a caricature shop in Oxford-Road,
has the impudence to write in large characters against his house,
_Caricature Merchant_.
"We think the Magistrates are deficient in their duty, when they
permit such a number of obscene prints to be exposed in their
windows. It is well known that some of them have likewise rooms
in their houses, where they expose those prints to debauch the
rising generation, and have agents at the public seminaries,
where they introduce them among the boys."--(_Times, Dec. 25,
1795._)
* * * * *
"The Confectioners begin to tremble from the fear that there will
not be frost enough to enable them to lay in a stock of ice
sufficient for the consumption of the ensuing summer. Ice is
become so much a necessary of life in this climate, that the
Island has not always produced a sufficient quantity for the
supply of the inhabitants, and many vessels sent to Norway have
returned freighted with this new luxury. How would Queen
Elizabeth's Maids of Honour have stared at iced oranges after a
hot dinner? They would probably have given them the same
emphatical appellation with a late English Admiral--_painted snow
balls_."--(_Times, Jan. 22, 1796._)
* * * * *
"The vast estate of the Duke of Portland, in Marybone, cost his
ancestors, about 100 years ago, but £9000; and the estate of Mr.
Berners, (all the streets about the Middlesex Hospital) now £6000
a year, were in the year 1730, at a rental of £330 a
year."--(_Times, Jan. 25, 1796._)
* * * * *
"The Balls at Southampton are exceedingly lively, and
well-attended. The young Ladies are particularly favourable to a
German Dance, called _the Volse_: for squeezing, hugging, &c., it
is excellent in its kind, and more than one Lady has actually
fainted in the middle of it."--(_Times, Feb. 19, 1796._)
* * * * *
"Thirteen thousand, five hundred vessels, freighted with
property, to the value of between 60, and 70, millions sterling,
sailed from, and arrived at, the port of London, in the course of
a year."--(_Times, Aug. 29, 1796._)
* * * * *
"Campus Nautica may be sailor-latin for a pleasant exhibition,
though not quite concordical. A sailor at Oxford some time ago,
wished to prove the whole University to be sailor-like, and he
managed it in this way. 'The Gownsmen are _Puppes_, the Tradesmen
are _Naves_, and the women are _nautoe_.' What though the puns
don't quite spell, they are not less true for all
that."--(_Times, Feb. 29, 1796._)
* * * * *
"Lately died, in Scotland, _James Anderson_, a well-known
itinerant tinker, at the astonishing age of 114, after carrying
his budget since his 14th year."--(_Times, March 12, 1796._)
* * * * *
"We learn from Chester, that the Grand Jury at Conway Assizes
found an Indictment against the Bishop of Bangor, his Agent,
Chaplain, and two other Divines, for a riot; and also another
Bill against the Bishop for an assault!!!"--(_Times, April 5,
1796._)
* * * * *
"There was a Bank Note came into the Bank the other day, the
interest of which, calculated from the time it had been in
circulation, amounted to more than £4300."--(_Times, April 26,
1796._)
* * * * *
"Mrs. Mills had fourteen rooms open at her famous Rout and
Supper, in Piccadilly, the other night. The bill for green-peas
was seventy-five pounds."--(_Times, May 18, 1796._)
* * * * *
"At one of Lady B----'s elegant Entertainments at Ham-Common,
amongst other amusements provided for her refined company, were a
pig with a soaped-tail and a smock-race. A Great Number of young
women were collected by curiosity, but none of them could be
prevailed upon to contend for the last prize. They declared
ingenuously, that they only came for curiosity, as they thought
her Ladyship and her Company were to run for it."--(_Times, June
29, 1796._)
* * * * *
"'I should like to be an _emigré_,' said Mr. V----n the other
day. 'Why so?' answered a gentleman present. 'Because,' he
replied, 'the emigrants are the only people in town who know how
to amuse themselves.'
"And surely nothing can exceed the refined elegance of the balls
given by some of the emigrated Ladies, where the widows of twenty
guillotined poor souls, trip the merry country-dance with all the
swiftness of a fairy. We must, however, observe that these
eminent dancers disdain the name of _emigrées_, and call
themselves _Americaines_, from the property they possess in the
West Indies, in order to avoid the reproach of thus squandering
the superfluities of their incomes, which would be better
employed in comforting so many unfortunate families, driven from
their own country."--(_Times, Aug. 1, 1796._)
* * * * *
"A DAY AT MARGATE.
"Rose at seven; went to Sayer's Bathing House, set my name down
on the slate: took a walk on the Pier. Came back and waited a
quarter of an hour, then bathed. Not a little delighted with the
idea of realising in some degree _la theorie des sentimens
agreables_ by dipping in the same ocean with the sea nymphs from
the City. Returned to my lodgings to dress for breakfast. Finding
nobody in the Coffee-room, went back to the Pier, arrived at the
happy moment, just as a hoy was vomiting out its sick: witnessed,
as Peter Paragraph says, the Queen of France abuse, like a drab
of Drury, one of the passengers. The case seemed a strong one,
and well made out on the part of the Lady, but produced, as far
as I saw, no conviction.