Post-Office, and found _not sorted_ on the door: eat my
shilling's worth, one buttered roll, one dry toasted, and one
cold ditto: heard who had won, or lost, at whist, and billiards,
the night before; read the newspapers, and wrote a letter. Went
over the way to Silver's library, who at my request gave me the
choice of three rides, observing, that I might take a little of
each by going round by Kingsgate, the North Foreland, and
Broadstairs to Ramsgate, then crossing over to the Camp, and
figuring in by Dandelion. 'What a charming General' (said I)
'spoilt in a Toyman. How you understand tactics, Mr. Silver!'
'Used to it all my life, Sir,' (said he with a pleasing
flippancy) 'plan rides for the company daily all over the
Island.' Set out with the _carte du pays_ in my pocket: visited
all the places in it, and finished with the cricket match, and
the place of the public breakfast. Heard a lady say she had won
two lotteries, and saw _Tom Lord_ run without winning a notch.
Went to the ordinary in the gardens at 6s. 6d. a head, for cold
chicken, and roast lamb, with a haunch of venison given by a
Noble Lord, who, very kindly, having helped himself to the first
slice, sent it on. The heat on the cricket ground was intense. I
was sorry I did not bring my white hat: but a remedy was at hand,
as I learnt afterwards, if I had been ingenious enough to have
tied a white handkerchief round the crown of my black one. Having
finished my second breakfast, I rode home to dine at Margate. The
green where the breakfast was, was much cooler than the burning
cricket field, having the advantage of being shaded by the trees
in the garden at its back; but I found I was out of luck, as
there was no dancing, and, indeed, at the public breakfast, it
sometimes happens, that the wagtails, and the yellow-hammers from
the Capital are so numerous, and frisky, that the humming birds,
the cockatoos, and the birds of Paradise of the higher order
won't always hop with them. Got back to Margate on my pony, for
which I was to pay 18d. a side, and thought as I rode along on
the sands, where I should dine. The boarding houses were all open
to me, on paying for a week, or one guinea. This was a great
temptation: but having been offered a party at the Bowling green,
on Prospect Place, I conceived this to be a better thing, on
account of the humours of the loaded pigeon, and the fun of the
canting machine, and the fireworks at night. I accordingly rode
to my lodgings to dress, and went immediately to dinner. After
dinner proceeded to the libraries, where the raffling lists were
filling fast: was induced to throw in my shillings at Silver's
and Were's: from thence passed on to Wood's, Surflen's, and
Garner's. At Surflen's heard music, and several favourite glees:
from thence to the playhouse, where I was invited to the
rehearsal of a new piece, which was to be full of good things, if
it had been suffered to be represented. It was now time to go to
supper: I accordingly returned to the Coffee House, and from
thence to the Billiard Room, where there was a violent cry of
swindler, black-legs, and pickpocket, at which Mrs. Benson
interfered, whilst her husband walked coolly up and down the
Piazza, not venturing to intrude. The obnoxious person being
turned out, and order restored, I retired at one o'clock in the
morning.
EPHEMERIS."
--(_Times, Oct. 2, 1795._)
Fancy seeing an advertisement like the following, in the _Times_
nowadays:--
Advt.
"A MARE'S to be SOLD,
About six years old,
That's warranted perfectly sound:
Her height's fourteen hands,
And an inch as she stands,
And will trot freely all the way round.
The Mare's to be seen
Any time that's between
The hours of twelve, and of three,
At the Inn called One Bell,
In the Strand they will tell,
Price twenty-five Guineas and three."
--(_Times, June 17, 1796._)
* * * * *
"RAMSGATE. (Extract of a letter.)
"Our early season has already begun, and those who are fond of
cheap lodgings, have made their appearance _hirundine primâ_. I
assure you, we have City Misses here at this moment, each of
whom, in the vain idea of rising 'A new born Goddess from the
Sea' sowces into salt water every morning. Our company is of the
_greater_ sort. We have Mrs. Deputy _Plumb_, with her naked
daughters, who have scarce more cloathing than a _fig_ leaf on
them, and imitate their great grand-dame Eve in much more even
than that. Then we have Mrs. _Pop_ from Whitechapel. She came
down in state in her own job-coach, which was loaded so full with
_unredeemed_ Articles for family wear, that her dear _pledges_ of
domestic Love, her daughters, who are the very _duplicate_ of
herself, in delicacy and beauty, were forced to come in the Hoy.
But she vows it is so shocking to her feelings, that they never
shall ride down _no more_ in that nasty sort of water conveyance,
though she should spend upon their luxury and elegance _ten_,
out of that _thirty per cent._, which she grinds from the
necessitous miseries of hard-earned industry. Then we have three
learned Ladies, who, after the great fatigues of novel-writing in
the winter, have retired hither to display themselves to the vast
pleasure, and edification, of some ancient enamoratus, who would
not yield to Old Q himself in pretensions to gallantry. In truth,
we begin to look gaily, early as it is: and I would that the
salt-water, for the benefit of the _Pops_, and the _Plumbs_, who
frequent our watering places, could as easily wash away the mud
of vulgarity, and affectation, from their hearts, as it does the
_rouge_ from their faces."--(_Times, July 8, 1796._)
* * * * *
"BRIGHTON.--The Prince and Princess of Wales's arrival has been
talked of much in London; but as yet we have no signs of it here.
The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough pass their time in a very
retired manner indeed. His Grace walked for some time yesterday
evening upon the _Steyne_; the company consisted chiefly of
opulent Jews, needy fortune hunters, broken-down Cyprians,
fishermen's daughters, and several fat city-dowdies, from the
environs of Norton Folgate. Her Grace commands the Play on Friday
evening, which will be her _first appearance_ in public here for
this season. The Officers of the Blues are the _great dashers_ of
the place: they associate with no one but their own Corps. The
most of them keep their blood-horses, their curricles, and their
girls. At one o'clock they appear on the parade, to hear the word
of command given to the Subaltern Guard: afterwards they toss off
their _goes_ of brandy, dine about five, and come about eight to
the Theatre, _Vivent L'Amour et Bacchus_."--(_Times, July 13,
1796._)
* * * * *
"Yesterday a curious cricket match was played at Montpelier
Gardens, between 11 of the Greenwich Pensioners, wanting an arm
each, against the same number of their fellow sufferers with each
a wooden leg. Not fewer than 5000 people were assembled on the
occasion, who were highly entertained with the exertions of the
old veterans of the ocean, who never acted against their most
inveterate enemy with more energy, each party striving to quit
the field victorious. The evening coming on, the contest could
not be decided, but it was so much in favour of the Timber toes,
as never to be recovered by the dint of Arms."--(_Times, Aug. 10,
1796._)
* * * * *
"On Wednesday morning the 11 men with one arm, and 11 men with
but one leg, were brought by three Greenwich stages engaged for
that purpose, to the new Cricket Ground, the back of the
Montpelier Tea Gardens, Walworth, when the match was played out,
and the men, with one leg, beat the one arms, by 103 runnings.
After the match was finished, the eleven one-legged men ran a
race of 100 yards distance, for 20 Guineas, and the first three
had prizes."--(_Times, Aug. 12, 1796._)
* * * * *
"A new embankment of the River, on the Middlesex shore, from
Westminster to Chelsea, is just commencing, to prevent the
encroachments which are making almost daily."--(_Times, Aug. 20,
1776._)
* * * * *
"On Tuesday morning, a young whale came up the River as far as
Rotherhithe, and was killed near Execution Dock after having
overset two boats. It measured 19 feet in length."--(_Times, Aug.
25, 1796._)
* * * * *
"This day, the Publicans in the Metropolis, and its vicinity,
have, conformable to an agreement amongst themselves, withdrawn
from the Public the accommodation of finding them Pewter Pots,
agreeable to a long established custom, which will, of course,
occasion great inconvenience to workmen of every description, who
are employed in raising buildings, repairing houses, &c.; as well
as lodgers, and, even, to many respectable families. The profits
upon Porter, for a length of time, have been very considerable,
which proves itself beyond a doubt, by their acknowledging, in a
Bill left at the houses of their customers, that they,
collectively, sustain a loss, annually, of; £100,000 per annum,
in Pots, which, by no means, could have been afforded, were not
their returns somewhat enormous. Under that idea, it is presumed,
having availed themselves of an opportunity, no longer to be
liable to losses of that kind, in future, they will, as a
recompence to the Public, make a reduction in price of the
necessary article of Porter."--(_Times, Sept. 2, 1796._)
* * * * *
"The late determination of several of the Publicans, to alter the
established mode of serving their outdoor customers, with quart,
and pint pots, seems to have been copied from an old resolution
of a certain Borough, which ran thus: 'Resolved, that the best
means of preserving our lamps from being broken, is to take them
down by night, and put them up in the day.' Such of the Publicans
as have come into this new regulation, seem to estimate the loss
of a few pots, beyond that of the most respectable of their
customers. It is, however, very probable, that the Small-Beer
Brewers will profit by this circumstance, as table-beer may be
ordered in by those who cannot be served any longer in the usual
manner."--(_Times, Sept. 21, 1796._)
"The university of Oxford has lately printed, at its own expence,
to be distributed gratis among the French Clergy who have taken
refuge in Great Britain (_ad Usum Cleri Gallicani in Anglia
exulantis_, as the title states) 2000 copies of the _Vulgate_ of
the New Testament, which is the Latin version used by the Roman
Church in all Public Prayers.
"The Marquis of Buckingham, distinguished for his munificence
towards the Clergy, has likewise caused to be printed at his
expence, 2000 copies at the same press, and for the same use. The
University of Oxford has sent its copies to the venerable Bishop
of St. Pol de Leon, for distribution, accompanied by a letter,
analogous to the generous sentiments which dictate this
honourable mark of esteem for the French Clergy, who are fully
sensible of the value of the gift."--(_Times, Oct. 25, 1796._)
* * * * *
"Christmas Eve, 1796, will be recorded hereafter, as the Frost
was more rapid, and more rigorous, it is supposed, than in
1739-40, or any degree of cold ever experienced in England: the
quicksilver in a thermometer in Somerset-place sunk from 28 to 4
degrees above 0 in 12 hours, 3 degrees below the depression of
the Mercury in 1794 and 28 degrees below the freezing point,
while it must necessarily have been still lower in the
country."--(_Times, Dec. 28, 1796._)
Bartholomew fair was first held A.D. 1133, and it was then the
principal mart for the vendors, and buyers, of cloth: in fact the name
of a street, contiguous to Smithfield, where the fair was held, and
which has come down to us,--"Cloth fair," proves it, were there any
need. Of late years it got a nuisance, and public opinion demanded its
dissolution. The shows were discontinued in 1850, and the fair was
proclaimed, for the last time, in 1855. We see by the following
paragraph, from the _Times_, what was thought of it by decent-minded
people, as far back as 1796.
"BARTHOLOMEW FAIR.
"The various troops of itinerant Comedians, Showmen, Ropedancers,
Jugglers, Conjurors, Fortune Tellers, Giants, Dwarfs, wild
Beasts, learned Beasts, and every _lusus naturæ_ that can be
collected throughout the Kingdom, with all the appendages of
immorality, and vice, were on Saturday put in legal possession of
Smithfield, as the theatre of their achievements. When we add to
these, the numerous tribe of pickpockets, ring-droppers, and
sharpers of every description, we cannot but sincerely regret,
that a scene, productive of so much idleness, and debauchery,
should be sanctioned by the _letter_ of the law, while the
_spirit_ of it shudders at the toleration of such excesses.
"The purposes for which this fair was held by its original tenure
were of a nature directly opposite to those to which it is now
prostituted. They went to the encouragement of industry by the
previous manufacture, and subsequent sale, of necessary articles;
but they are now made subservient to corrupt the public mind by
the most abandoned, and dissolute, manners. The motley multitude
that infests the fair, are the more audacious in their conduct,
from knowing that they are warranted in their proceedings, at
least by the _appearance_ of law, which sanctions this annual
ribaldry.
"We seriously lament, that this 'congratulation[22] of living
vapours' so foul and pestilential to society, should be suffered
to exist in the metropolis, and that the Chief Magistrate of the
City of London should be annually compelled to degrade his
dignity as the principal guardian of the public peace and morals,
by going in state, to license a scene, which constantly
terminates in the most fatal abuses."--(_Times, Sep. 5, 1796._)
[Footnote 22: _Sic_ in original.]
* * * * *
"At the general Meeting of the Magistrates for the division of
Kensington, on Saturday last, complaints were made not only by
the Bishop of London, as Lord of the Manor, but by other
respectable inhabitants thereof, of a nuisance that has prevailed
from time to time on Wormholt Scrubs by bull-baiting, to the
great annoyance of the neighbourhood, and the disturbance of the
public peace, when the Magistrates came to the laudable
resolution of issuing warrants to the High, and Petty, Constables
of the Division, requiring them to exert their utmost endeavours
to prevent the same in future. And, having understood that many
Publicans within their division had conveyed beer, and other
liquors, from their respective houses to Wormholt Scrubs, where
they had retailed it during such bull-baiting, they determined
not to renew their licences."--(_Times, Sept. 8, 1796._)
* * * * *
"A few days ago some villains broke into the Lea Church,
Gloucestershire, and stole a quantity of money, the property of a
company of singers belonging to the said church. A reward of £20
was immediately offered for discovering the offenders,
accompanied by a threat that application would be immediately
made to a conjuror, who lived not far off, to tell who the
robbers were. The sacrilegious rascals, being convinced that the
Devil would betray them, by informing the cunning man who they
were, went in the night to the church, and pushed all the money
they had taken through a slit in the door, where it was found the
next morning."--(_Times, Oct. 4, 1796._)
* * * * *
"An ingenious artist has invented a new Coffin, for which he has
taken out a Patent. In his advertisements he says, he thinks no
family would like to be without one, and that all who have made
trial of them, prefer them to anything in that way, and recommend
them to their friends."--(_Times, Nov. 2, 1796._)
* * * * *
"We hope the Corporation of Bath will avoid a similar mistake as
happened when the Duke of York was there last year, when the gold
box was presented to the Duke, but somehow or other, it was
forgotten to put the _freedom into it_."--(_Times, Nov. 28,
1796._)
The gushing, and eloquent, George Robins could hardly exceed the
following:--
Advt. "RUS in URBE PULCHERRIMAM. To be LET furnished, the FIRST,
SECOND and third Floors with a Kitchen, altogether the most
convenient and beautiful little Dwelling in Europe. Satisfactory
references will be required. Enquire at Messrs &c."--(_Times,
Oct. 14, 1796._)
* * * * *
"Lady E. being lately complimented upon her excellent complexion,
assured her friend it was owing to her custom of dipping into
cold water every morning. 'But I see,' said she, 'you don't
believe me.' 'Pardon me,' said the Gentleman, 'if your Ladyship
said you bathed in the Red Sea, I should have believed
you.'"--(_Times, Nov. 24, 1796._)
* * * * *
"Last Sunday, agreeable to his sentence in the Ecclesiastical
Court, a Butcher of Newport Market, did penance in St. Ann's
Church, for scandalizing a neighbour's character."--(_Times, Dec.
2, 1796._)
* * * * *
"There is a Club in St. James St. called the _Transalpine_. To be
a Member, it is indispensable that you have crossed _Mont Cenis_.
One of the advantages of modern travelling is, to be entitled
upon your return to waste your time at home, with those who have
wasted their's abroad. This is the reward of what is called
seeing the world: namely, seeing those who have seen it
too."--(_Times, Jan. 25, 1797._)
* * * * *
"A noble Viscount has instituted a Club, called the
_Ubiquarians_--the Club is ambulatory, and held, in turn, at as
many chop-houses as there are parishes in the capital. The dinner
is at half-a-crown, but it costs as much more to those who are
not good walkers to get at it."--(_Times, Jan. 25, 1797._)
* * * * *
"It is a very curious fact, that the Turkish custom of taking
opium is beginning to prevail in what are called the first
circles of London. This dissipation is spreading wide amongst
female fashion."--(_Times, Feb. 10, 1797._)
* * * * *
"The Gentlemen of the _Rainbow_ (footmen), whose only wear is
_motley_, have within these few days, shewn evident symptoms of
uniting. They declare their wages are very inferior in value to
their services, and threaten their masters with a revolution in
their conduct. When pampered valets claim an increase of salary,
on the ground of meritorious service, a general discharge would
certainly be the most effectual way of quieting their
complaints."--(_Times, June 6, 1797._)
* * * * *
"We are pleased to be able to commend one change of fashion, at
least, that which has deprived the servants of Officers of the
cockade in their hats: and we hope to see it spread, till it
becomes as singular, as it is absurd, to dress up a _Domestic_ in
the characteristics of the field!"--(_Times, June 10, 1797._)
"On Sunday, for the first time, the Civil Power interested itself
in breaking up what was called Cooper's Fair in the Spa Fields,
in consequence of the weekly holdings forth of a variety of
Enthusiasts: such as Mystics, Methodists, Quaking Jews, &c. One
of the latter description being eager for persecution, insisted
upon going into confinement, and was conveyed to Clerkenwell
Bridewell."--(_Times, July 20, 1797._)
* * * * *
"On the 25th of February, died in the Barony of Ivereagh, in the
County of Kerry, Ireland, in the 112th year of his age Daniel
Bull Macarthy Esq. He had been married to five wives: he married
the fifth, who survives him, when he was 84 and she 14, by whom
he had twenty children, she bearing a child every year. He was
very healthy: no cold could affect him: and he could not bear the
warmth of a shirt in the night time, but put it under his pillow,
for the last seventy years. In company he drank plentifully of
rum, and brandy, which he called _naked truth_; and when, out of
complaisance to other gentlemen, he took claret, or port, he
always drank an equal glass of rum, or brandy, to qualify those
liquors: this he called a _wedge_. He used to walk eight, or ten,
miles in a winter's morning with greyhounds, and finders, and
seldom failed to bring home a brace of hares."--(_Times, Aug. 5,
1797._)
* * * * *
"On Sunday morning, about five o'clock, ten Police officers came
to Norwood in three hackney-coaches, threw down all the gypsey
tents, and exposed about 30 men, women, and children, in the
primitive state of man. They carried them to prison, to be dealt
with according to the Vagrant Act.
"It appears that they have made good harvest, this summer, of
female credulity, and have often gained a guinea on a Sunday. Not
only young girls, panting for matrimony, have been their dupes,
but the well experienced dames, curious to trace the steps of
their dear _spouses_, have paid liberally for discovery, as the
following story will prove: On Thursday, as two Gentlemen, who
dined at Norwood, were looking out of a window, they observed a
respectable, well-dressed woman in deep consultation, for a sum
paid to the old gypsey. They observed the good woman greatly
agitated, and heard her ask 'If she was sure it was true'? On
being answered 'As sure as God was in heaven' she gave the gypsey
a further sum, and made further enquiry, and at last gave her a
good pocket-handkerchief, and departed seemingly full of
vengeance. The gentlemen, curious to learn the nature of the good
woman's consultation, sent for the old gypsey, who candidly told
them, that she enquired of her if her husband was continent, and
that she answered he was not, and thereby obtained three presents
instead of one."--(_Times, Aug. 22, 1797._)
Partridge shooting began on 14th September then, instead of the 1st
as now.
"FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER.
"Bemired up to the knees, wetted from head to foot by the
incessant rain, fatigued and disappointed, the Cocknies yesterday
returned from their annual field-sport, with very little game
indeed. A detachment from Cheapside, which had filed off early in
the morning, toward Hampstead, with the locks of their
fowling-pieces wrapped up in their handkerchiefs, were so galled
by the rain, that they got no further than _Old Mother Red
Cap's_, where they diverted themselves all day with firing from a
window at some Dutch-pins in the skittle ground. One of these
pins was mortally wounded in the belly by Ensign _Tight
Breeches_, a man milliner's foreman, who drove a ball into it, at
the amazing distance of two yards, without letting the gun fall
out of his hand.
"Six journeymen weavers, from Spital-fields, who went in a chaise
cart, to Ealing, with two guns, were rather more fortunate, in
respect to Game. They killed a lame hen at Acton, shot one goose
on the Common, wounded a large sow, and filled their pockets and
Game-bags with turnips, and cabbages. They imagined they sprung a
pheasant near Gunnersbury House,--but it proved to be an old
turkey-cock. At Eleven, they returned, very wet, and very drunk,
having lost one of their guns, and broke the stock of the other,
by flinging it at a tame rabbit, in a farmer's yard.
"Four _gentlemen_ from Leadenhall-Market, who went on the
long-coach to Woolwich, as there are partridges in that part of
Kent, killed two crows in Hanging-Wood Lane, blinded a jackass
near the Warren, and wounded a sparrow, several feathers being
perceived to drop from its wings. They had tolerable good sport
with a bat, their terriers being of an excellent breed, and
having worried a flock of ducks in a ditch, and killed one, they
returned from _Partridge shooting_ about nine at night, very much
fatigued indeed.
"Five gentlemen who went sporting from Kent Bar to Lewisham,
notwithstanding the wetness of the day, had tolerable good luck.
"They belonged to the Trained Bands, and depended more upon their
bayonets, than their guns. At the Half-Way-House they killed a
fine buck-cat, as he was watching a chaffinch. From the
Half-Way-House to New-Cross Turnpike, every sparrow was
affrighted by the noise of their guns: but the rain by this time
having completely wetted the locks, and damped the powder, they
were obliged to charge with bayonets, and every tree bore marks
of their prowess, to the Lion and Lamb at Lewisham, where they
dined, got drunk, killed two hogs, and a Chinese sow, and, in the
evening, were carried home by the Lewisham stage.
"St. George's Fields, once the mart of London sportsmen, being
now almost covered with houses, very few prentice-boy gunners
were seen there. The birds which now inhabit that quarter, are
many of them jail-birds, and if the new Magistrates were to sport
their authority a little more than they do, they might bring down
some of the most dangerous game with which a neighbourhood was
ever infested.
"Very few were the sportsmen on Blackheath, to the great joy of
sheep and jackasses, and to the safety of stage-passengers, who
were often endangered by the random shot of those _one-day_
sportsmen. As to partridges, their lives were in no danger, not
one of those sportmen out of fifty knowing the difference between
a partridge and a crow; besides, as their dogs are generally of
the bull-dog kind, of the terrier, or the fox breed, the game are
in very little danger of injury from their ability."--(_Times,
Sept. 15, 1797._)
* * * * *
"There will be more Powder expended to-day against the innocent
Partridges, than would drive Buonaparte and his crew out of Asia.
The Bank Clerks, India House Jemmies, Men Milliners, and tippy
Apprentices, most loudly complain against the enclosures of that
_Cockney Manor_, St. George's Fields, bewailing the loss of their
sport, and lamenting that there is not a sparrow left to exercise
their prowess upon."--(_Times, Sept. 14, 1798._)
* * * * *
"So great is the rage for watering places, that the Margate
Packet had, the week before last, one hundred and fifty-two
passengers on board, who were 27 hours on their passage; during
the greater part of the time, it rained so as to drive them under
deck, and made them as _comfortable_ as the people in the black
hole at Calcutta."--(_Times, Sept. 16, 1797._)
* * * * *
"On Thursday evening last, one _George Kent_, a Callender, in New
Compton St., St. Giles's, eat, for a trifling wager, the enormous
quantity of 30 boiled eggs, a two-penny loaf, and a quarter of a
pound of butter, in the short space of 27 minutes, being three
minutes less than the time given to perform it."--(_Times, Oct.
2, 1797._)
* * * * *
(Advt.)
"GUILDHALL.