Doctor Johnson, who generally gave to importunate beggars, never failed
to relieve the silent blind.
Black men are extremely cunning, and often witty; they have mostly short
names, such as Jumbo, Toby, &c., but the last seems of late to be the
most fashionable, for it has not only been used by the master of Mr
Punch, the street-strolling puppet, as a name for that merry little
fellow's dog, but by the proprietor of the Sapient Pig.
The last negro beggar called Toby, was a character well known in this
Metropolis. He was destitute of toes, had his head bound with a white
handkerchief, and bent himself almost double to walk upon two
hand-crutches, with which he nearly occupied the width of the pavement.
Master Toby generally affected to be tired and exhausted whenever he
approached a house where the best gin was to be procured; and was
perhaps of all the inhabitants of Church Lane, St Giles's, the man who
expended the most money in that national cordial.
But this man was nothing when compared with a Lascar, who lately sold
halfpenny ballads, and whose gains enabled him to spit his goose, or
broil a duck; for it is well known, that upon an average he made not
less than fifteen shillings per day.
The author of this little work sincerely regrets the loss of a sketch
that he made from a black man, whose countenance and figure were the
most interesting of any of the tribe. He was nearly six feet in height,
rather round in the shoulders, and usually wore a covering of green
baize; indeed altogether he brought to recollection that exquisite
statue of Cicero, in the Pomfret collection of marbles at Oxford, so
beautifully engraved by Sherwin. This fellow, who had often been taken
up, has not been seen for several months.
[Illustration]
Go-cart, Billies in bowls, or Sledge-beggars, are denominations for
those cripples whose misfortunes will not permit them to travel in any
other way; and these are next presented to the reader's notice.
Men of this class are to be found in every country. The little fellow
above depicted in the cart is copied from Luca Carlevarij's 100 Views in
Venice, a set of long quarto plates, most spiritedly etched, and
published in 1703.
Hogarth, whose active eye caught Nature in all her garbs, has introduced
in his Wedding of the Industrious Apprentice, a cripple well known in
those days under the appellation of Philip in the Tub, a fellow who
constantly attended weddings, and retailed the ballad of "Jesse, or the
Happy Pair."
Dublin has ever been famous for a Billy in the Bowl. A very remarkable
fellow of this class, well known in that city, and who thought proper to
leave Ireland on the Union, was met in London by a Noble Lord, who
observed, "So you are here too!" "Yes, my Lord," replied the beggar,
"the Union has brought us all over."
The back view of the person exhibited in the following plate, is that of
Samuel Horsey, who, in December 1816, had been a London beggar for
thirty-one years. Of this man there are various opinions, and it is much
to be doubted if the truth can be obtained even from his own mouth. He
states that Mr Abernethy cut off his legs in St Bartholomew's Hospital,
but he does not declare from what cause; so that being deprived of the
power of gaining a subsistence by labour, he was forced to become a
beggar. By some persons he is styled the King of the Beggars, but
certainly without the least foundation. He says that no one has been
less acquainted with beggars than himself; and as for his having the
command of a district, that he utterly denies. His walks, or rather
movements, are not always confined; on some days he slides to Charing
Cross, but is oftener to be seen at the door of Mr Coutts's
banking-house, perhaps with an idea that persons just after they have
received money are more likely to bestow charity.
Of all other men, Horsey has the most dexterous mode of turning, or
rather swinging himself, into a gin-shop. He dashes the door open by
forcibly striking the front of his sledge and himself against it.
He was once seen in a most perilous situation, when he lodged in a
two-pair of stairs back room, in Wharton's Court, Holborn. He had placed
himself on the window-sill, in order to clean the outside upper panes,
and was attached as usual to his sledge, when unfortunately he broke a
square. On this occasion he let loose the volley of oaths which at other
times he can so forcibly discharge; nor did his rage subside after he
had launched himself into the room again; indeed he was heard at
intervals to vociferate in this way for several hours.
[Illustration: PLATE XV.
Samuel Horsey, a London beggar for more than thirty-one years.
Frequented the neighbourhood of Charing Cross and Coutts's Bank.]
The very extraordinary torso etched in the next plate is that of John
Mac Nally, of the county of Tyrone. This poor fellow lost the use of his
legs by a log, that crushed both his thighs, when an apprentice at Cork.
His head, shoulders, and chest, which are exactly those of Hercules,
would prove valuable models for the artist.
Mac, who is well known about Parliament Street, Whitehall, and the
Surrey foot of Westminster Bridge, after scuttling along the streets for
some time upon a sledge, discovered the power of novelty, and trained
two dogs, Boxer and Rover, to draw him in a truck, by which contrivance
he has increased his income beyond all belief.
Though this man's dogs when coupled have occasional snarlings,
particularly when one scratches himself with an overstrained exertion,
the other feeling at the same time an inclination to dose, yet, when
their master has been dead drunk, and become literally a log on his
truck, they have very cordially united their efforts to convey him to
his lodgings in St Ann's Lane, Westminster, and perhaps with more safety
than if he had governed them, frequently taking a circuitous route
during street repairs in order to obtain the clearest path.
[Illustration: PLATE XVI.
John MacNally, of Tyrone County, with his two dogs Boxer and Rover, who
drew him in a truck. Well known about Parliament Street and Whitehall.]
The figure in the box is that of a Jew mendicant, who has unfortunately
lost the use of his legs, and is placed every morning in the above
vehicle, so that he may be drawn about the neighbourhood of Petticoat
Lane, and exhibited as an object of charity. His venerable appearance
renders it impossible for a Jew or a Christian to pass without giving
him alms, though he never begs but of his own people; a custom highly
creditable to the Jews, and even more attentively observed by that truly
honourable Society of Friends, vulgarly called Quakers, who neither
suffer their poor to beg, nor become burthensome to any but themselves.
[Illustration: PLATE XVII.
A Jew Beggar, who has lost the use of his legs, and was drawn in a box
about the neighbourhood of Petticoat Lane.]
About forty-eight years ago, when the sites of Portland Place,
Devonshire Street, &c., were fields, the famous Tommy Lowe, then a
singer at Mary-le-bone Gardens, raised a subscription to enable an
unfortunate man to run a small chariot, drawn by four muzzled mastiffs,
from a pond near Portland Chapel--called Cockney Ladle, which supplied
Mary-le-bone Basin with water--to the Farthing Pie-house, a building
remaining at the end of Norton Street, and now the sign of the Green
Man, in order to accommodate children with a ride for a halfpenny. And
it is rather extraordinary, that the son of that very man, a few years
since, and after the death of his wife, harnessed a spaniel to a small
cart, but large enough to hold his infant, which the animal drew after
the father from lamp to lamp through the very streets above mentioned.
The dog became so accustomed to his task, that as soon as he heard his
master cover a lamp, away he would scamper to the next, and there wait
the arrival of the ladder.
Street-crossing sweepers next make their appearance; the first on the
list being William Tomlins, whose stand is very productive, as it
includes both Albemarle and St James Streets. Of this man there is
nothing further remarkable, beyond his attention to his pitch, for so
the beggars and ballad-singers call their stands. He appears to be alive
to the receipt of every penny, and will not suffer himself by any means
to be diverted from his solicitations; as a strong proof of which, he
refused to hold the horse of a gentleman who called to him for that
purpose, and from this it may be inferred that he thought begging a
better occupation.
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.
William Tomlins, a crossing-sweeper, who stood at Albemarle and St
James's Streets.]
The next character portrayed is a constant sweeper of the crossing at
the top of Ludgate Hill. This man finds it his interest to wear a cloth
round his head, as he is on that account frequently noticed by elderly
maiden city dames, who mistake him for one of their own sex.
[Illustration: PLATE XIX.