LONDON
IN
THE JACOBITE TIMES
VOL. I.
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
TABLE TRAITS AND SOMETHING ON THEM
HABITS AND MEN
KNIGHTS AND THEIR DAYS
MONARCHS RETIRED FROM BUSINESS
NEW PICTURES AND OLD PANELS
LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
HISTORY OF COURT FOOLS
THE BOOK OF THE PRINCES OF WALES
THEIR MAJESTIES’ SERVANTS: ANNALS OF THE STAGE
SAINTS AND SINNERS
THE LAST JOURNALS OF HORACE WALPOLE (EDITED)
A LADY OF THE LAST CENTURY
‘MANN’ AND MANNERS AT THE COURT OF FLORENCE
LONDON
IN
THE JACOBITE TIMES
BY
Dᴿ DORAN, F.S.A.
AUTHOR OF ‘TABLE TRAITS’ ‘QUEENS OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER’
‘THEIR MAJESTIES’ SERVANTS’ ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.
[Illustration: colophon]
LONDON
RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1877
_All rights reserved_
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
TO MY SON
ALBAN HENRY G. DORAN, F.R.C.S.
WITH EQUAL RESPECT AND
AFFECTION
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
CHAPTER I.
(1714.)
PAGE
In the Churches――In the Streets――Steele’s Satire――In
Parliament――Political Amenities――Sacheverel:
Marlborough――On Parade. First Blood――The ‘Peregrine
Yatch’――The King at Greenwich――Scottish Homage――Claret
Loyalty――The Artillery Company――The Royal Entry――The
Players’ Homage――The Affairs of Scotland――A Royal
Proclamation 1
CHAPTER II.
(1714.)
Carte, the Jacobite――An Old and New Lord
Chancellor――Preparations for the Coronation――The Scene
in the Abbey――Whigs and Jacobites――Tory Mobs――The Royal
Family in the Park――Seditious Pamphlets――Jacobite
Clubs――Royalties――At St. James’s――Electioneering
Tactics――Royal Chaplains――The Chevalier in London 18
CHAPTER III.
(1715.)
At the Play――Flight of Ormond――Sacheverel――Politics in
the Pulpit――Calumny against Sacheverel――Danger in
the Distance――Flight of Bolingbroke――Bolingbroke
Pamphlets――Bolingbroke’s Character――Politics in
Livery――Satire――Flying Reports――Decree in the
‘Gazette’――The Lash――The Pillory――A Harmless Jacobite 33
CHAPTER IV.
(1715.)
Politics in the Army――Lieutenant Kynaston――Jacobite
Plotters――False Accuser――The Military Board――The
Lieutenant disposed of――Captain Paul――Arrest of
Members of Parliament――Harvey, of Combe――Sir William
Wyndham――Search for Papers――Wyndham’s Escape――Dramatic
Courtesy――Uncourteous Interview――A General Stir 50
CHAPTER V.
(1715.)
Pamphleteering――General Confusion――Jacobite
Mobs――Rioting――Ballad-Singers――Political
Songs――Arrests――In the Park――Invasion Imminent――Sound
of Shot――Afloat on the Thames――The Horse
Guards――The Chevalier de St. George――The King’s
Speech――Preachers Awake――A Famous Sermon――Satirical
Art――Mischievous Sermons――A Sound of Alarm――Jacobite
Agents――Arrests――Popular Feeling 66
CHAPTER VI.
(1715.)
Camp and Pulpit――Popular Slogan――Perilous
Anniversaries――Popular Demonstrations――News from the
North――Reports from Scotland――Further Intelligence――News
from Preston――Jacobite Fury――Street Fighting――The
Prisoners from Preston――Tyburn Tree――Jacobite
Captains――Drawing near London――Highgate to
London――Arrival in Town――The Jacobite Chaplain――Lady
Cowper’s Testimony――Jacobite Reports 89
CHAPTER VII.
(1715-16.)
The Chevalier in Scotland――The Chevalier out of
Scotland――Cost of living in Newgate――Inside
Newgate――Visitors to Newgate――Sorting the
Prisoners――Extortion――Dissensions――Jacobite
Patten――Hanoverian Patten――Addison’s Satire――Lack
of Charity――Whig Liberality――Whig and Jacobite
Ladies――Matthew Prior――Royalty on the Ice――Impeachment
of the Rebel Lords――Character of King George――From the
Tower to Westminster――The Drum Ecclesiastic――Muscular
Christians――Charles I., King and Saint――The
Rebel Peers――Solemn Politeness――Derwentwater’s
Plea――Widdrington’s Reply――Appeal for Mercy――Nithsdale’s
Apology――Carnwath and Kenmure――Nairn’s Explanation――The
Lord High Steward――Conclusion――Lord Cowper’s Speech 109
CHAPTER VIII.
(1716.)
Carnwath’s Confession――The King and Lady Nithsdale――The King
and Lady Derwentwater――Scene at Court――The Condemned
Lords――Lady Nithsdale――Changes of Dress――Escape of
Lord Nithsdale――Lady Nithsdale――Visiting Friends――The
Eve of Execution――The Press, on the Trials――The
King, on the Escape――Lord Derwentwater――Lord
Kenmure――Taking the Oaths――The Derwentwater
Lights――Scientific Explanations――Lady Cowper on
the Aurora――Revelry――Addison, on the Princess of
Wales――Nithsdale in Disguise――Lady Nithsdale in Drury
Lane――Comic and Serio-Comic Incidents――To the Plantations
143
CHAPTER IX.
(1716.)
State-Trial Ceremonies――Lord Wintoun in Court――Opening of the
Trial――The Legal Assailants――The King’s Witnesses――The
Rev. Mr. Patten――Patten’s Character of Wintoun――Military
Witnesses――The Surrender at Preston――A Prisoner
at Bay――Incidents of the Trial――Wintoun Baited by
Cowper――The King’s Counsel――The Verdict――Sir Constantine
Phipps――A Fight for Life――The Fight grows Furious――The
Sentence――Doom Borne Worthily――The Jacobite Lawyer 169
CHAPTER X.
(1716.)
Edmund Curll――The New Poems――Princess of Wales and Lady
Kenmure――Luxury in Newgate――General Forster’s Escape――A
Ride for Life――The Prisoners in the Tower――Patten on
the Prince of Wales――In and Out of Newgate――Politics
on the Stage――Simon Fraser, as a Whig――Dutch Service
in Gravesend Church――Aids to Escape――Shifting of
Prisoners――Breaking out of Newgate――Pursuit――Hue and
Cry――Domiciliary Visits――Talbot Recaptured――Escape of
Hepburn of Keith 190
CHAPTER XI.
(1716.)
David Lindsay――Trials of Rebel Officers――Colonel Oxburgh――The
Colonel at Tyburn――A Head on Temple Bar――More
Trials――Jacobite Jurymen――Towneley and Tildesley――Their
Trials――Their Acquittal――The Chaplain at Towneley
Hall――Justice Hall and Captain Talbot――Gascogne’s
Trial――The Duchess of Ormond――Gascogne’s
Defence――Christian Feeling――Fracas in a Coffee-House――Joy
and Sorrow in Newgate――Chief Justice Parker――The
Swinburnes――Scott’s Newgate――Mob Ferocity 211
CHAPTER XII.
(1716.)
Festive Fighting――Jacobite Boys――Flogging Soldiers――Hoadly
in the Pulpit――Flattery by Addison――On the Silver
Thames――Two Pretty Fellows――Thanksgiving Day――Sherlock’s
Sermon――Bishop of Ely’s Sermon――King George’s Right to
the Throne――A Nonjuring Clergyman, to be Whipt――Saved
by the Bishop of London――The Rose in June――More
Bloodshed――Jacobite Ladies――Ladies’ Anti-Jacobite
Associations――Riot in a Church――Pope’s Double
Dealing――Addison, on Late and Present Times――Political
Women 234
CHAPTER XIII.
(1716.)
The Rev. Mr. Paul――A Cry for Life――Paul and Patten――Paul,
a Jacobite Again――The King in Fleet Street――A Reading
at Court――Sanguinary Struggles――A Jacobite Jury――The
Mug-Houses――The Street Whipping Post――Patten in
Allendale――Scenes at Hampton Court――Bigots on Both
Sides――At Drury Lane Theatre――Afternoon Calls――Escape
of Charles Radcliffe――The Stage and Playgoers――Loyal
Players――An Anti-Jacobite Pamphlet 256
CHAPTER XIV.
(1717.)
Bishop Atterbury――Jacobite Congregations――Liberty Used,
and Abused――Jacobites at Large――An Entry in a Cash
Book――Bishop Atterbury, the Chevalier’s Agent――More
Prosecutions――Trial of Francia――Patten’s ‘History
of the Late Rebellion’――Slander Against the
Jacobites――Patten’s Details――Downright Shippen――Shippen,
on George I.――Cibber’s ‘Nonjuror’――Dedication to the
King――Significant Passages――Jacobite Outlay――Advantages
of Clamour――Political Allusions――Incense for the King――A
Lecture from the Stage――Public Feeling――Atterbury’s
Opinion 276
CHAPTER XV.
(1718.)
A Youthful Jacobite――A would-be Regicide――A Fight in
Newgate――Up the Hill to Tyburn――Scene at Tyburn――A
Jacobite Toast――Satirical Pamphlet――Lovat already
Suspected――Hearne on Echard’s ‘England’――Atterbury
Conspiring――The Bishop’s View of Things――The Royal
Family on the Road――Military Difficulties――Scenes at
Court――A Scene in ‘Bedlam’――A Whig Whipt――Treason in
the Pulpit――More Treason――Jacobites in the Pillory――The
King at the Play――Daniel Defoe――His Dirty Work――Mist’s
Journal――Jacobite Hopes――Art and Poetry 300
CHAPTER XVI.
(1719.)
The Skirmish at Glenashiels――Judicial Caprice――Assault on
the Princess of Wales――The King and his Ladies――A
Suspicious Charity Sermon――Riot in Church――Riot
Prolonged――Liberty of the Press――A Capital
Conviction――Jacobite Fidelity――A Political Victim――Three
more to Tyburn――A Last Request――An Apologetic Sermon――An
Innocent Victim――Political Plays――Incidents――Royal
Condescension――The King’s Good Nature――Rob Roy and the
Duke of Montrose 326
CHAPTER XVII.
(1720-’21-’22.)
Atterbury’s Hopes――Death of Laurence Howell――In Hyde Park――At
Bartholomew Fair――Stopping the King’s Expresses――Cibber’s
‘Refusal’――In State to the Pillory――Birth of the ‘Young
Chevalier’――Government and the Jacobites――Treasonable
Wit――Recruiting for the Chevalier――Epigrammatic
Epitaph――Arrest of Jacobites――Atterbury’s
Correspondence――Jacobite Trysting Places――The Officers
in Camp――A Cavalry Bishop――The Ladies in Camp――Whig
Susceptibility――More Arrests――Atterbury to Pope 347
CHAPTER XVIII.
(1722.)
The Bishop in the Tower――Pope and Atterbury――The
‘Blackbird’――Treatment of Atterbury――Scenes in
Camp――Soldiers and Footpads――Discipline――Christopher
Layer――The Plot――Layer at Westminster――Antagonistic
Lawyers――The Trial――A False Witness――A
Confederate――Layer’s Ladies――Layer’s ‘Scheme’――The
Defence――Strange Witnesses――The Verdict――Layer’s
Dignity――The Jacobites in Mourning――A Jacobite
Player――Suspension of the ‘Habeas Corpus’――Arrest of
Peers――Lord Chief Justice Pratt――London Sights――Ambitious
Thieves 369
CHAPTER XIX.
(1723.)
The Plot――Satire on the Plot――Decyphering――Proceedings
against Atterbury――Debate in the Commons――Debate
in the Lords――Condemnation of Plunkett――Kelly’s
Trial――Kelly’s Defence――Sentence on Kelly――The
King at Kensington――Arrests――Patten in Peril――A
Strange Sermon――Treatment of Atterbury――Oglethorpe
and Atterbury――In the House of Lords――The Whig
Press and the Bishop――Street Incidents――Opening of
Letters――Sir Constantine Phipps――The Defence――Special
Pleading――Evidence for Atterbury――Pope, as a
Witness――Atterbury’s Defence――Rejoinder for
the Crown――Wit of Lord Bathurst――Newspaper
Comments――Atterbury and Layer――Layer on
Holborn Hill――Layer at Tyburn――Lamentation for
Layer――Lamentation, continued――Bolingbroke,
Atterbury――Atterbury Leaving the Tower――Atterbury on
the Thames――Pope and Atterbury――Layer’s Head――The Co-
Conspirators――Atterbury serving the Chevalier――Letter
from Atterbury 397
[Illustration: Decorative banner]
LONDON
IN
THE JACOBITE TIMES.
CHAPTER I.
(1714.)
[Illustration: Drop_O]n the last morning of Queen Anne’s life, a
man, deep in thought, was slowly crossing Smithfield. The eyes of
a clergyman passing in a carriage were bent upon him. The carriage
stopped, the wayfarer looked up, and the two men knew each other. The
one on foot was the dissenting preacher, whom Queen Anne used to call
‘bold Bradbury.’ The other was Bishop Burnet.
‘On what were you so deeply thinking?’ asked the bishop.
‘On the men who died here at the stake,’ replied Bradbury. ‘Evil
times, like theirs, are at hand. I am thinking whether I should be as
brave as they were, if I were called upon to bear the fire as they
bore it.’
[Sidenote: _IN THE CHURCHES._]
Burnet gave him hope. A good time, he said, was coming. The queen was
mortally ill. Burnet was then, he said, on his way from Clerkenwell to
the Court, and he undertook to send a messenger to Bradbury, to let him
know how it fared with Anne. If he were in his chapel, a token should
tell him that the queen was dead.
A few hours later, Bradbury was half-way through his sermon, when he
saw a handkerchief drop from the hand of a stranger in the gallery.
This is said to have been the sign agreed upon. The preacher went
quietly on to the end of his discourse; but, in the prayer which
followed, he moved the pulses of his hearers’ hearts, by giving thanks
to God for saving the kingdom from the doings of its enemies; and he
asked for God’s blessing on the King of England, George I., Elector of
Hanover.
About the same time Bishop Atterbury had offered to go down in front
of St. James’s Palace, in full episcopal dress, and proclaim James
III.――the late Queen’s brother. The Tory Ministry wavered, and
Atterbury, with words unseemly for a bishop’s lips, deplored that they
had let slip the finest opportunity that had ever been vouchsafed to
mortal men.
[Sidenote: _IN THE STREETS._]
The Regency knew better how to profit by it. George was proclaimed
king. Dr. Owen of Warrington preached a Whig sermon, from 1 Kings xvi.
30, ‘And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord,
above all that were before him.’ The text was as a club wherewith to
assail the soil of James II. A little later, Bradbury was accused of
having preached from the words, ‘Go, see now this cursed woman, and
bury her; for she is a king’s daughter.’ This was a calumny. Burnet’s
sermon was on Acts xiii. 38-41, and defied objection. In those verses
there was nothing to lay hold of. The most captious spirit could make
little out of even these words, ‘Behold, ye despisers; and wonder and
perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no
wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.’ The Jacobites could
turn it to no purpose.
Queen Anne was dead, George was proclaimed. The fine gentlemen in
coffee and chocolate houses, and the fine ladies who breakfasted at
noon, in bed, read in their respective papers that ‘the late queen’s
bowells were yesterday buryed in Henry the VII.’s Chappel.’ ‘If,’ wrote
Chesterfield to Jouneau, ‘she had lived only three months longer, … she
would have left us, at her death, for king, a bastard who is as great a
fool as she was herself, and who, like her, would have been led by the
nose by a band of rascals.’
[Sidenote: _STEELE’S SATIRE._]
On the other hand, there were men who sincerely mourned the queen’s
death. These men were troubled in their walks by the revels at Charing
Cross. There Young Man’s Coffee-house echoed with sounds of rejoicing.
Some of the revellers had been recipients of the most liberal bounty of
the queen, and did not care to conceal their ecstacy. Men circulated
the good news as they rode in carriages which the queen had purchased
for them. At Young Man’s might be seen an officer sharing in the
unseemly joy, whose laced coat, hat and feather, were bought with the
pay of the sovereign, whose arms were on his gorget. People who had
been raised from the lowest degree of gentlemen to riches and honours,
could not hide their gladness. And now, men read with diverse feeling
a reprint, freshly and opportunely issued, of Steele’s famous letter
in the ‘Reader,’ addressed to that awful metropolitan official, the
Sword-bearer of the City Corporation. The writer reminded the dignitary
that, as the Mayor, Walworth, had despatched the rebel Wat Tyler with
a stroke of his dagger, so ‘is it expected of you,’ said Steele, ‘to
cut off the Pretender with that great sword which you bear with so much
calmness, which is always a sign of courage.’ ‘Let me tell you, Sir,’
adds Steele, with exquisite mock gravity, ‘in the present posture of
affairs I think it seems to be expected of you; and I cannot but advise
you, if he should offer to land here (indeed if he should so much as
come up the river), to take the Water Bailiff with you, and cut off his
head. I would not so much, if I were you, as tell him who I was, till I
had done it. He is outlawed, and I stand to it, if the Water Bailiff is
with you, and concurs, you may do it on the Thames; but, if he offers
to land, it is out of all question, you may do it by virtue of your
post, without waiting for orders. It is from this comfort and support
that, in spite of what all the malcontents in the world can say, I
have no manner of fear of the Pretender.’
[Sidenote: _IN PARLIAMENT._]
There were, however, some who had hopes of that luckless prince,
and who looked upon any other who should take the crown which
they considered to be his, by divine right, as a wicked usurper.
Accordingly, the Nonjuring Jacobites and High Church congregations sang
their hymns, in their respective places of worship, to words which had
a harmless ring, but which were really full of treason. One sample is
as good as twenty,――and here it is!――
Confounded be those rebels all
That to usurpers bow,
And make what Gods and Kings they please,
And worship them below!
On the day the queen died, Parliament met to vote addresses to her
successor. The Jacobite spirit was not entirely extinguished in
either House. In spite of an attempt to obtain an adjournment in the
Upper Chamber, the Lords carried an address, in which they said:
‘With faithful hearts we beseech your Majesty to give us your royal
presence.’ In the Commons, Mr. Secretary Bromley moved an address so
made up of grief expressed for Anne’s death, that Walpole demanded
‘something more substantial;’ and loyal members insisted that
congratulations rather than condolence should abound in the address
from the Commons. To both Houses the king intimated that he was
hastening to satisfy their ‘affectionate urgences.’
[Sidenote: _POLITICAL AMENITIES._]
Meanwhile rival papers watched each other as jealously as adversaries
in churches and the streets. Abel, in the ‘Post Boy,’ happened to say,
‘We patiently await the arrival of the king!’ The ‘Flying Post’ flew at
him immediately. ‘Villain,’ ‘vile wretch,’ and ‘monster,’ were among
the amenities flung at Abel. Here was a ‘fellow’ who dared to say he
‘_patiently_ waited’ for an event for which the ‘faithful Commons’ had
declared they ‘waited _impatiently_.’ In his next number, Abel said
he _meant_ ‘impatiently.’ He was called a liar now, as he had been
traitor before. Others said, ‘Hang this odious beast!――he dares to say
he waits impatiently the arrival of the king! _What king, Bezonian?_ We
guess it is his Bar-le-ducish Majesty!’ Such was the nick-name given to
the Chevalier de St. George, who was then residing at Bar-le-Duc, in
Lorraine.
[Sidenote: _SACHEVEREL: MARLBOROUGH._]
People in streets and taverns next became anxious about the wind. The
Whigs were desirous that it should blow so as to bring the new king
speedily from Holland. If a gentleman in a coffee-house ventured to
remark that ‘it was strange the wind should have turned against his
Majesty just as he had reached the Hague,’ the speaker was set upon
as a Jacobite who took that way to insinuate that God was ruling the
elements in the Tory interest. Swords were whipt out, and he had to
fight, beg pardon, or run for it. In the street if an old basket-woman
lamented that the wind was bad, and a thoughtless porter rejoined that
the wind was well enough, the loyal woman raised a cry which hounded
on a hundred blackguards to hunt the porter down, and beat him to
the very point of death. An indifferent man could not express, in any
circle of hearers, a word or two of respect for Queen Anne without
being accused of disrespect for King George. While Tories bought from
the street-criers the broadsheet ‘Fair and softly, or, don’t drive
Jehu-like,’ the Hanoverian papers called for the imprisonment of the
criers, and confiscation of the broadsheet. The latter, they said,
implied that the established Government was acting fraudulently, and
was likely to upset the State-chariot. ‘Stand fast to the Church; no
Presbyterian Government!’ was the title of another sheet, published
by word of mouth, in the City. Down swooped the constables on the
criers,――audacious fellows, it was said, who dared to insinuate that
the Government was abandoning the Church. Of course, the sight of Dr.
Sacheverel on the causeway was provocative of hostile demonstration.
As he once came from St. Andrew’s Church into Holborn, a Whig, anxious
for a row, shouted, ‘There goes Sacheverel, with a footman at his back.
It ought to be a horsewhip!’ On the other hand, Tories entrapped Whigs
into drinking ‘his Majesty’s health,’――meaning the health of King
James. In a Smithfield tavern a gentleman said to an Essex farmer,
‘I will give you half-a-crown to drink “His Majesty’s health.”’ The
farmer ‘smoked’ the Jacobite speaker, took the money, gave him a couple
of kicks as equivalent to two shillings change, and then walked off,
uttering the slang word ‘_bite!_’ by way of triumph.
[Sidenote: _ON PARADE. FIRST BLOOD._]
There was one individual whose coming was as anxiously looked for
as that of the king; namely, the Duke of Marlborough, who had been
for some time in voluntary exile. England at last was informed that
the duke had condescended to return to this ungrateful nation. On his
arrival in London, after passing triumphantly through provincial towns,
he was addressed by officials, the spokesmen of mounted gentlemen and
of commonalty afoot. He is said, not without some sarcasm in the words,
to have replied to these addresses ‘with that humble and modest air
which is so peculiar to himself.’ At Temple Bar his state carriage
broke down. Tories jeered him as he emerged from it. A humbler sort of
coach was procured, and Whigs saluted him with _huzzas!_ as he entered
it.
Loyal captains were spirited up by the news of the coming of their
old leader. On the parade in the Park, Captain Holland addressed his
company. He congratulated them on having acquired such a king as George
the First after such a sovereign as Queen Anne! The captain swore
that he would sustain the Hanoverian Protestant Succession. ‘If,’ he
added, ‘If there’s any person among you that’s a Roman Catholic, or not
resolved to act on the same principles with me, I desire him to march
out!’
Pretty well the first blood drawn in the growing antagonism of Stuart
and Brunswick was in a coffee-house dispute as to the merits of the
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Sir Constantine Phipps. A Cornet Custine,
who shared Captain Holland’s opinion, spoke contemptuously of the
Jacobite Chancellor. A Mr. Moore, described as a ‘worthy gentleman’
by the papers with Stuart proclivities, left the room in apparent
displeasure. Custine followed him into the street, compelled him to
defend himself, and ran him through the heart with the energetic
_Hanoverian thrust_. Young Moore died of it, and the Cornet was
imprisoned. ‘We wish Mr. Custine, on this occasion’ (killing a
Jacobite), say some of the papers, ‘all the favour the law can allow
him.’ The alleged grounds for favour were that the duel was fairly
fought, swords having been simultaneously drawn on both sides. At a
later period, Chancellor Phipps was dismissed. He returned to England.
Oxford immediately made him a D.C.L., and, as he resumed practice at
the English Bar, the Jacobites confided to him the conduct of their
cases, and Sir Constantine became the great Tory lawyer of Westminster
Hall.
[Sidenote: _THE ‘PEREGRINE YATCH.’_]
At length news arrived that the king and the prince had left the Hague,
where, in their impatience to reach England, they had tarried eleven
days, and laid all the blame upon the wind. Next, London was a-stir
with the intelligence that the ‘Peregrine Yatch,’ bearing Cæsar and
his fortunes, with a convoy of men of war, was off the buoy at the
Nore. The new sovereign was to land at Greenwich, whither every sort
of vehicle, carrying every sort of persons, now repaired. The loyal
excursionists hoped to have a good view of their new sovereign as he
went processionally through the Park. Pedestrians passed the gates
without difficulty, but not even to the ‘Quality’ indiscriminately was
it given to enter within the enclosure. Carriages bearing friends to
the royal family were turned back full of malcontents, when they did
not carry the great officers of the crown, privy-counsellors, judges,
peers, or peers’ sons. The Duke of Ormond’s splendid equipage drove up
to the palace, but the great Tory duke had to retire without alighting.
The king would not receive him. His Majesty was barely more gracious
to the Earl of Oxford. The ex-Lord Treasurer kissed the king’s hand,
amid a crowd of other homage-payers, but the sovereign took no more
notice of Harley than of the most insignificant unit in that zealous
mob. The other mob outside were discussing the reported changes in the
Administration, when a sovereign homage was rendered to that would-be
sovereign people.
[Sidenote: _THE KING AT GREENWICH._]
‘At Greenwich,’ say the London papers, ‘the king and prince were
pleased to expose themselves some time at the windows of their palace,
to satisfy the impatient curiosity of all loving subjects.’ Among those
who were ready to be so were Scottish chiefs with historical names.
There had been no lack of homage to Queen Anne on the part of Scottish
peers. The Master of Sinclair was a Jacobite, who had been in trouble
in Queen Anne’s time. His neck was in peril, but the queen pardoned
him. His history of the insurrection of ’15, in which he took part, is
severely condemnatory of all the leaders, and especially of Mar. In the
introductory portion of it, the Master sketches in equally censuring
terms the Scottish peers in London, a little before Queen Anne’s death.
◆[Sidenote: _SCOTTISH HOMAGE._]◆ ‘While at London,’ he says, ‘I had
occasion to see the meanness of some of our Scots nobilitie who were
of the sixteen, and who I heard complain grievously of the Treasurer’s
cheating them, because he had gone out of town without letting them
know, or giving them money as he had promised. I was told they wanted a
hundred pound, or some such matter, to pay their debts, and carry them
down to Scotland, and that they used to hang on at his levee like so
many footmen. My God! how concerned I was to see those who pretended
to be of the ancient Scots nobilitie reduced to beg at an English
Court! And some of those, of which number was my Lord Kilsyth, were
they who gave themselves the greatest airs in our affair,――so useful
is impudence to impose on mankind!’――See ‘Memoirs of the Insurrection
in Scotland in 1715,’ by John, Master of Sinclair, published by the
Abbotsford Club, 1858, and reviewed in the ‘Athenæum,’ 31st December,
1859, by the able hand of the late Mr. Dilke.
In reference to the king’s arrival at Greenwich, Mr. Dilke says:
‘Queen Anne’s ministers had taken the chiefs into the direct pay of
Government, at the rate of about 350_l._ a year each. The Highlanders
were then as quiet as Lowlanders, and when King George landed at
Greenwich, an address was ready for him, signed with all the great
names that so soon after figured in the rebellion, by Macdonel of
Glengarrie, Macdonald of the Isles, Mackenzie, Macklean, Macleod,
Cameron of Lochiel, Mackintosh, Macpherson of Cluny, Chisholm, and
others, offering loyal and faithful service to ‘a prince so highly
adorned with all royal virtues, and expressing a hope that his
Majesty’s royal and kindly influence would reach them even in their
distant homes.’ His Majesty was not so advised; his kindly influence,
that is, his money, did not reach them, and these poor people were
driven to follow the standard of a little Mogul like Mar. Mar knew what
would be influential, and in his Proclamation, though he called on them
‘by their faith, honour, allegiance, by their devotion and love, to
join the standard of their king, he wisely concluded with the promise
of a gratuity and regular pay.’
[Sidenote: _CLARET LOYALTY._]
After the king and prince had set out on their journey from Greenwich
to London, the impatient curiosity of all loving subjects in Greenwich
was directed to another object. At eight o’clock precisely they were in
crowds about the _Ship_, calling on the landlord, Thomas Sweetapple,
to make good his promise, namely, that he would broach a hogshead of
the finest French claret behind his house, and give thereof to all true
loyalists, to drink his Majesty’s health. Mine host kept his word; but
the liquor was out long before all true loyalists could taste of it.
The unsatisfied drinkers were made as loyal to the Establishment as to
the throne. One zealous Whig exclaimed, in proof of his zeal for the
Protestant succession, ‘It’s true I never go to church, but d――n me if
I don’t always stand up for her!’
[Sidenote: _THE ARTILLERY COMPANY._]
For the royal entry into and through London every preparation had
been made. Occasionally little difficulties presented themselves.
For example, Captain Silk, whose office and principles may be guessed
by his being described as ‘Muster Master, with others of his kidney,’
ventured to assert that the London Artillery Company had no right
to appear officially at the royal passage through the City. The
cannoneers, descendants of primitive heroic Cockneys, appealed to the
proper authorities, and the appeal was allowed. Further, the Artillery
Company had their little revenge. Captain Silk was prevented from even
seeing the spectacle. The warlike company charged him with having drunk
the health of the pretended James III. on his knees, while the song
was sung of ‘The king shall have his own again!’ The captain was laid
by the heels, and the artillery of London rejoiced at it. But ‘Captain
Silk’s Jacobite Militia tune’ became a favourite with Tory musicians.
Among the advertisements which offered places to spectators along
the whole line, from Greenwich to St. James’s, there was one which
announced that ‘several senior gentlemen, with their own gray hairs,’
had resolved to ride before the king ‘in white camblet cloaks, on white
horses.’ They advertised for volunteers, old and gray enough, who were
assured that they ‘would be led up in the procession by persons of
eminence and figure.’ It was subsequently reported that these ‘senior
gentlemen, in their own gray hairs,’ applied too late to the Earl
Marshal to have a place appointed for them in the procession, but that
they would have seats in a gallery of their own at the east end of St.
Paul’s. They would be presented, it was said, with lovely nosegays, to
revive their spirits and refresh their memories, ‘which will be a fine
orange stuck round with laurel――the former to put them in mind of the
happy Revolution; the latter, of the glorious victories gained under
the Duke of Marlborough in the late wars.’ The above is a specimen of
the mild political wit of the day. Curious eyes looked at the gallery
at the east end of St. Paul’s. They saw nothing of the seniors and
their emblems, but others swore they were there, nevertheless, or
why was the heroic Marlborough factiously hissed as he passed? At
other points, the Church and King party had their revenge. The king
and prince in their state coach might have been excused for wearing
an air of surprise at the unusual huzzaing and clapping of hands of
the gentlemen, and the ecstacy of the ladies in the balconies of the
Three Tuns and Rummer tavern in the City. The applause was not for
Great Brunswick but for the Earl of Sutherland. The people in the
balcony remembered that in King William’s days, Lord Sutherland had
been insulted in that very tavern. He had drunk King William’s health
on his birthday, and the Jacobites present flourished their swords and
vapoured about the Earl as if they would slay him and all Protestantism
with him.
[Sidenote: _THE ROYAL ENTRY._]
The stately line――and it was a right pompous affair――was a little
cumbrous, but it was well kept together, from the kettle-drums and
trumpeters, followed by hosts of officials, troops, coaches, &c., to
the dragoons who snatched a drink from the people, as they brought up
the rear. Perhaps the road about the east end of Pall Mall was the most
joyous; for there the balconies and galleries were filled with people
who had something to satisfy besides curiosity or loyalty, and who
had been attracted thither by the promise that all the fronts of the
balconies and galleries should have ‘broad flat tops large enough to
hold plates and bottles.’ The spectators there were primed to any pitch
of loyalty as his Majesty passed.
[Sidenote: _THE PLAYERS’ HOMAGE._]
At night, the stage paid its first homage to the new sovereign.
Graceful Wilks spoke an ‘occasional prologue’ at the theatre in Drury
Lane; and loyal and dramatic people bought it in the house or at Jacob
Tonson’s over against Catherine Street, Strand, for twopence. But while
Wilks was loyal, he had an Irish Roman Catholic servant, who was so
outspokenly Jacobite, that the player discharged him, lest evil might
follow to himself. The fellow, however, had what the French call ‘the
courage of his opinions,’ but not the discretion which many had who
shared them. He went down to the colour-yard at St. James’s, drew his
sword upon the flag, abused the new king, gave a tipsy hurrah for
his ‘lawful sovereign,’ and knew little more till he found himself
next morning aroused from the straw to answer a charge of treason. He
pleaded ‘liquor,’ and was allowed the benefit of his hard-drinking.
[Sidenote: _THE AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND._]
The press at this moment burst into unusual activity. There was
especially great activity in and about the Black Boy, in Paternoster
Row. It was from under that well-known literary emblem that Baker, the
publisher, issued the popular edition of a work that all the world
was soon reading, for exactly opposite reasons. Baker had, somehow,
got possession of the Jacobite Lockhart’s manuscript of his ‘Memoirs
concerning the Affairs of Scotland, from Queen Anne’s Accession to
the Throne to the commencement of the Union of the two kingdoms of
Scotland and England, in May, 1707. With an Account of the Origin and
Progress of the designed Invasion from France, in March, 1708. And some
Reflections on the Ancient State of Scotland.’ On the same title-page,
notice was made of ‘an Introduction, showing the reason for publishing
these Memoirs at this juncture.’
These Memoirs treat with immense severity all the leading Whig noblemen
and gentlemen of Scotland. The book was therefore read with avidity, by
the Tories, or Jacobites. But many Tories who had rallied from the Whig
or Hanoverian side were handled quite as roughly, to the great delight
of their former colleagues, and to a certain satisfaction on the part
of present confederates. The volume showed both Whigs and Tories where
their enemies were to be found, and it was accordingly read by both
to the same end. But, it also recognised no other king than James the
Third of England, and Eighth of Scotland, and, therefore, crafty Baker
had an introduction written for the Whig party; that is to say, it
warned all loyal people to put no trust now in men who had pretended
to reconcile a sham fidelity to Queen Anne with a real one to her
brother; men who, in 1708, had hoped to set aside the Protestant
succession. ‘And if,’ says the last paragraph of the Introduction, ‘a
rebellion of that _Black Dye_ was carried on against a Queen of the
greatest Indulgence to their Follies, and who was wickedly represented
by them as having concealed Inclinations to serve their Interest, and
keep the Crown in trust for their King, what Rancour, what Hellish
Malice, may not King George expect from a Faction who put their Country
in a Flame to oppose his Succession, and were reducing it to a Heap of
Ruins to prevent his being Sovereign of the Soil!’
[Sidenote: _A ROYAL PROCLAMATION._]
One of King George’s first acts was to issue a proclamation against the
‘Pretender,’ in which the reward of 100,000_l._ was promised to any
person who should apprehend him, if he attempted to land in the British
dominions.
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