FLEET STREET (_continued_).
The "Green Dragon"--Tompion and Pinchbeck--The _Record_--St. Bride's
and its Memories--_Punch_ and his Contributors--The _Dispatch_--The
_Daily Telegraph_--The "Globe Tavern" and Goldsmith--The _Morning
Advertiser_--The _Standard_--The _London Magazine_--A Strange
Story--Alderman Waithman--Brutus Billy--Hardham and his "37."
The original "Green Dragon" (No. 56, south) was destroyed by the Great
Fire, and the new building set six feet backward. During the Popish Plot
several anti-papal clubs met here; and from the windows Roger North
stood to see the shouting, torch-waving procession pass along, to burn
the Pope's effigy at Temple Bar. In the "Discussion Forum" many Lord
Chancellors of the future have tried their eloquence. It was celebrated
some years ago from an allusion to it made by Napoleon III.
At No. 67 (corner of Whitefriars Street) once lived that famous
watchmaker of Queen Anne's reign, Thomas Tompion, who is said, in 1700,
to have begun a clock for St. Paul's Cathedral which was to go one
hundred years without winding up. He died in 1713. His apprentice,
George Graham, invented, as Mr. Noble tells us, the horizontal
escapement, in 1724. He was succeeded by Mudge and Dutton, who, in 1768,
made Dr. Johnson his first watch. The old shop was (1850) one of the
last in Fleet Street to be modernised.
Between Bolt and Johnson's courts (152-166, north)--say near "Anderton's
Hotel"--there lived, in the reign of George II., at the sign of the
"Astronomer's Musical Clock," Christopher Pinchbeck, an ingenious
musical-clockmaker, who invented the "cheap and useful imitation of
gold," which still bears his name. (Watt's, in his "Dictionary of
Chemistry," says "pinchbeck" is an alloy of copper and zinc, usually
containing about nine parts copper to one part zinc. Brandt says it is
an alloy containing more copper than exists in brass, and consequently
made by fusing various proportions of copper with brass.) Pinchbeck
often exhibited his musical automata in a booth at Bartholomew Fair,
and, in conjunction with Fawkes the Conjuror, at Southwark Fair. He
made, according to Mr. Wood, an exquisite musical clock, worth about
L500, for Louis XIV., and a fine organ for the Great Mogul, valued at
L300. He died in 1732. He removed to Fleet Street (between Bolt and
Johnson's courts, north side) from Clerkenwell in 1721. His clocks
played tunes and imitated the notes of birds. In 1765 he set up, at the
Queen's House, a clock with four faces, showing the age of the moon, the
day of the week and month, the time of sun rising, &c.
No. 161 (north) was the shop of Thomas Hardy, that agitating bootmaker,
secretary to the London Corresponding Society, who was implicated in the
John Horne Tooke trials of 1794; and next door, years after (No. 162),
Richard Carlisle, a "freethinker," opened a lecturing, conversation, and
discussion establishment, preached the "only true gospel," hung effigies
of bishops outside his shop, and was eventually quieted by nine years'
imprisonment, a punishment by no means undeserved. No. 76 (south) was
once the entrance to the printing-office of Samuel Richardson, the
author of "Clarissa," who afterwards lived in Salisbury Square, and
there held levees of his admirers, to whom he read his works with an
innocent vanity which occasionally met with disagreeable rebuffs.
"Anderton's Hotel" (No. 164, north side) occupies the site of a house
given, as Mr. Noble says, in 1405, to the Goldsmiths' Company, under the
singular title of "The Horn in the Hoop," probably at that time a
tavern. In the register of St. Dunstan's is an entry (1597), "Ralph
slaine at the Horne, buryed," but no further record exists of this
hot-headed roysterer. In the reign of King James I. the "Horn" is
described as "between the 'Red Lion,' over against Serjeants' Inn, and
Three-legged Alley."
[Illustration: AN EVENING WITH DR. JOHNSON AT THE "MITRE" (_see page
51_).]
[Illustration: OLD HOUSES (STILL STANDING) IN FLEET STREET, NEAR ST.
DUNSTAN'S CHURCH (_see page 52_).]
The _Record_ (No. 169, north side) started in 1828 as an organ of the
extreme Evangelical party. The first promoters were the late Mr. James
Evans, a brother of Sir Andrew Agnew, and Mr. Andrew Hamilton, of West
Ham Common (the first secretary of the Alliance Insurance Company).
Among their supporters were Henry Law, Dean of Gloucester, and Francis
Close, afterwards Dean of Carlisle. Amongst its earliest writers was the
celebrated Dr. John Henry Newman, of Oxford. The paper was all but dying
when a new "whip" was made for money, and the Rev. Henry Blunt, of
Chelsea, became for a short time its editor. The _Record_ at last began
to flourish and to assume a bolder and a more independent tone. Dean
Milman's neology, the peculiarities of the Irvingites, and the dangerous
Oxford tracts, were alternately denounced. In due course the _Record_
began to appear three times a week, and became celebrated for its
uncompromising religious tone and, as Mr. James Grant truly says, for
the earliness and accuracy of its politico-ecclesiastical information.
The old church of St. Bride (Bridget) was of great antiquity. As early
as 1235 we find a turbulent foreigner, named Henry de Battle, after
slaying one Thomas de Hall on the king's highway, flying for sanctuary
to St. Bride's, where he was guarded by the aldermen and sheriffs, and
examined in the church by the Constable of the Tower. The murderer,
after confessing his crime, abjured the realm. In 1413 a priest of St.
Bride's was hung for an intrigue in which he had been detected. William
Venor, a warden of the Fleet Prison, added a body and side-aisles in
1480 (Edward IV.) At the Reformation there were orchards between the
parsonage gardens and the Thames. In 1637, a document in the Record
Office, quoted by Mr. Noble, mentions that Mr. Palmer, vicar of St.
Bride's, at the service at seven a.m., sometimes omitted the prayer for
the bishop, and, being generally lax as to forms, often read service
without surplice, gown, or even his cloak. This worthy man, whose living
was sequestered in 1642, is recorded, in order to save money for the
poor, to have lived in a bed-chamber in St. Bride's steeple. He founded
an almshouse in Westminster, upon which Fuller remarks, in his quaint
way, "It giveth the best light when one carrieth his lantern before
him." The brother of Pepys was buried here in 1664 under his mother's
pew. The old church was swallowed up by the Great Fire, and the present
building erected in 1680, at a cost of L11,430 5s. 11d. The tower and
spire were considered masterpieces of Wren. The spire, originally 234
feet high, was struck by lightning in 1754, and it is now only 226 feet
high. It was again struck in 1803. The illuminated dial (the second
erected in London) was set up permanently in 1827. The Spital sermons,
now preached in Christ Church, Newgate Street, were preached in St.
Bride's from the Restoration till 1797. They were originally all
preached in the yard of the hospital of St. Mary Spital, Bishopsgate.
Mr. Noble, has ransacked the records relating to St. Bride's with the
patience of old Stow. St. Bride's, he says, was renowned for its
tithe-rate contests; but after many lawsuits and great expense, a final
settlement of the question was come to in the years 1705-6. An Act was
passed in 1706, by which Thomas Townley, who had rented the tithes for
twenty-one years, was to be paid L1,200 within two years, by quarterly
payments and L400 a year afterwards. In 1869 the inappropriate rectory
of St. Bridget and the tithes thereof, except the advowson, the
parsonage house, and Easter-dues offerings, were sold by auction for
L2,700. It may be here worthy to note, says Mr. Noble, that in 1705 the
number of rateable houses in the parish of St. Bride was 1,016, and the
rental L18,374; in 1868 the rental was L205,407 gross, or L168,996
rateable.
Mr. Noble also records pleasantly the musical feats accomplished on the
bells of St. Bride's. In 1710 ten bells were cast for this church by
Abraham Rudhall, of Gloucester, and on the 11th of January, 1717, it is
recorded that the first complete peal of 5,040 grandsire caters ever
rung was effected by the "London scholars." In 1718 two treble bells
were added; and on the 9th of January, 1724, the first peal ever
completed in this kingdom upon twelve bells was rung by the college
youths; and in 1726 the first peal of Bob Maximus, one of the ringers
being Mr. Francis (afterwards Admiral) Geary. It was reported by the
ancient ringers, says our trustworthy authority, that every one who rang
in the last-mentioned peal left the church in his own carriage. Such was
the dignity of the "campanularian" art in those days. When St. Bride's
bells were first put up, Fleet Street used to be thronged with carriages
full of gentry, who had come far and near to hear the pleasant music
float aloft. During the terrible Gordon Riots, in 1780, Brasbridge, the
silversmith, who wrote an autobiography, says he went up to the top of
St. Bride's steeple to see the awful spectacle of the conflagration of
the Fleet Prison, but the flakes of fire, even at that great height,
fell so thickly as to render the situation untenable.
Many great people lie in and around St. Bride's; and Mr. Noble gives
several curious extracts from the registers. Among the names we find
Wynkyn de Worde, the second printer in London; Baker, the chronicler;
Lovelace, the Cavalier poet, who died of want in Gunpowder Alley, Shoe
Lane; Ogilby, the translator of Homer; the Countess of Orrery (1710);
Elizabeth Thomas, a lady immortalised by Pope; and John Hardham, the
Fleet Street tobacconist. The entrance to the vault of Mr. Holden (a
friend of Pepys), on the north side of the church, is a relic of the
older building. Inside St. Bride's are monuments to Richardson, the
novelist; Nichols, the historian of Leicestershire; and Alderman
Waithman. Among the clergy of St. Bride's Mr. Noble notes John
Cardmaker, who was burnt at Smithfield for heresy, in 1555; Fuller, the
Church historian and author of the "Worthies," who was lecturer here;
Dr. Isaac Madox, originally an apprentice to a pastrycook, and who died
Bishop of Winchester in 1759; and Dr. John Thomas, vicar, who died in
1793. There were two John Thomases among the City clergy of that time.
They were both chaplains to the king, both good preachers, both
squinted, and both died bishops!
The present approach to St. Bride's, designed by J.P. Papworth, in 1824,
cost L10,000, and was urged forward by Mr. Blades, a Tory tradesman of
Ludgate Hill, and a great opponent of Alderman Waithman. A fire that had
destroyed some ricketty old houses gave the requisite opportunity for
letting air and light round poor, smothered-up St. Bride's.
The office of _Punch_ (No. 85, south side) is said to occupy the site of
the small school, in the house of a tailor, in which Milton once earned
a precarious living. Here, ever since 1841, the pleasant jester of
Fleet Street has scared folly by the jangle of his bells and the blows
of his staff. The best and most authentic account of the origin of
_Punch_ is to be found in the following communication to _Notes and
Queries_, September 30, 1870. Mr. W.H. Wills, who was one of the
earliest contributors to _Punch_, says:--
"The idea of converting _Punch_ from a strolling to a literary laughing
philosopher belongs to Mr. Henry Mayhew, former editor (with his
schoolfellow Mr. Gilbert a Beckett) of _Figaro in London_. The first
three numbers, issued in July and August, 1841, were composed almost
entirely by that gentleman, Mr. Mark Lemon, Mr. Henry Plunkett
('Fusbos'), Mr. Stirling Coyne, and the writer of these lines. Messrs.
Mayhew and Lemon put the numbers together, but did not formally dub
themselves editors until the appearance of their 'Shilling's Worth of
Nonsense.' The cartoons, then 'Punch's Pencillings,' and the smaller
cuts, were drawn by Mr. A.S. Henning, Mr. Newman, and Mr. Alfred
Forester ('Crowquill'); later, by Mr. Hablot Browne and Mr. Kenny
Meadows. The designs were engraved by Mr. Ebenezer Landells, who
occupied also the important position of 'capitalist.' Mr. Gilbert a
Beckett's first contribution to _Punch_, 'The Above-bridge Navy,'
appeared in No. 4, with Mr. John Leech's earliest cartoon, 'Foreign
Affairs.' It was not till Mr. Leech's strong objection to treat
political subjects was overcome, that, long after, he began to
illustrate _Punch's_ pages regularly. This he did, with the brilliant
results that made his name famous, down to his untimely death. The
letterpress description of 'Foreign Affairs' was written by Mr. Percival
Leigh, who--also after an interval--steadily contributed. Mr. Douglas
Jerrold began to wield _Punch's_ baton in No. 9. His 'Peel Regularly
Called in' was the first of those withering political satires, signed
with a 'J' in the corner of each page opposite to the cartoon, that
conferred on _Punch_ a wholesome influence in politics. Mr. Albert Smith
made his _debut_ in this wise:--At the birth of _Punch_ had just died a
periodical called (I think) the _Cosmorama_. When moribund, Mr. Henry
Mayhew was called in to resuscitate it. This periodical bequeathed a
comic census-paper filled up, in the character of a showman, so cleverly
that the author was eagerly sought at the starting of _Punch_. He proved
to be a medical student hailing from Chertsey, and signing the initials
A.S.--'only,' remarked Jerrold, two-thirds of the truth, perhaps.' This
pleasant supposition was, however, reversed at the very first
introduction. On that occasion Mr. Albert Smith left the 'copy' of the
opening of 'The Physiology of the London Medical Student. The writers
already named, with a few volunteers selected from the editor's box,
filled the first volume, and belonged to the ante-'B. & E.' era of
_Punch's_ history. The proprietary had hitherto consisted of Messrs.
Henry Mayhew, Lemon, Coyne, and Landells. The printer and publisher also
held shares, and were treasurers. Although the popularity of _Punch_
exceeded all expectation, the first volume ended in difficulties. From
these storm-tossed seas _Punch_ was rescued and brought into smooth
water by Messrs. Bradbury & Evans, who acquired the copyright and
organised the staff. Then it was that Mr. Mark Lemon was appointed sole
editor, a new office having been created for Mr. Henry Mayhew--that of
Suggestor-in-Chief; Mr. Mayhew's contributions, and his felicity in
inventing pictorial and in 'putting' verbal witticisms, having already
set a deep mark upon _Punch's_ success. The second volume started
merrily. Mr. John Oxenford contributed his first _jeu d'esprit_ in its
final number on 'Herr Doebler and the Candle-Counter.' Mr. Thackeray
commenced his connection in the beginning of the third volume with 'Miss
Tickletoby's Lectures on English History,' illustrated by himself. A few
weeks later a handsome young student returned from Germany. He was
heartily welcomed by his brother, Mr. Henry Mayhew, and then by the rest
of the fraternity. Mr. Horace Mayhew's diploma joke consisted, I
believe, of 'Questions addressees au Grand Concours aux Eleves d'Anglais
du College St. Badaud, dans le Departement de la Haute Cockaigne' (vol.
iii., p. 89). Mr. Richard Doyle, Mr. Tenniel, Mr. Shirley Brooks, Mr.
Tom Taylor, and the younger celebrities who now keep _Mr. Punch_ in
vigorous and jovial vitality, joined his establishment after some of the
birth-mates had been drafted off to graver literary and other tasks."
Mr. Mark Lemon remained editor of _Punch_ from 1841 till 1870, when he
died. Mr. Gilbert a Beckett died at Boulogne in 1856. This most
accomplished and gifted writer succeeded in the more varied kinds of
composition, turning with extraordinary rapidity from a _Times_ leader
to a _Punch_ epigram.
A pamphlet attributed to Mr. Blanchard conveys, after all, the most
minute account of the origin of _Punch_. A favourite story of the
literary gossipers who have made _Mr. Punch_ their subject from time to
time, says the writer, is that he was born in a tavern parlour. The idea
usually presented to the public is, that a little society of great men
used to meet together in a private room in a tavern close to Drury Lane
Theatre--the "Crown Tavern," in Vinegar Yard. The truth is this:--
In the year 1841 there was a printing-office in a court running out of
Fleet Street--No. 3, Crane Court--wherein was carried on the business of
Mr. William Last. It was here that _Punch_ first saw the light. The
house, by the way, enjoys besides a distinction of a different
kind--that of being the birthplace of "Parr's Life Pills;" for Mr.
Herbert Ingram, who had not at that time launched the _Illustrated
London News_, nor become a member of Parliament, was then introducing
that since celebrated medicine to the public, and for that purpose had
rented some rooms on the premises of his friend Mr. Last.
The circumstance which led to _Punch's_ birth was simple enough. In
June, 1841, Mr. Last called upon Mr. Alfred Mayhew, then in the office
of his father, Mr. Joshua Mayhew, the well-known solicitor, of Carey
Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Mr. Mayhew was Mr. Last's legal adviser,
and Mr. Last was well acquainted with several of his sons. Upon the
occasion in question Mr. Last made some inquiries of Mr. Alfred Mayhew
concerning his brother Henry, and his occupation at the time. Mr. Henry
Mayhew had, even at his then early age, a reputation for the high
abilities which he afterwards developed, had already experience in
various departments of literature, and had exercised his projective and
inventive faculties in various ways. If his friends had heard nothing of
him for a few months, they usually found that he had a new design in
hand, which was, however, in many cases, of a more original than
practical character. Mr. Henry Mayhew, as it appeared from his brother
Alfred's reply, was not at that time engaged in any new effort of his
creative genius, and would be open to a proposal for active service.
Having obtained Mr. Henry Mayhew's address, which was in Clement's Inn,
Mr. Last called upon that gentleman on the following morning, and opened
to him a proposal for a comic and satirical journal. Henry Mayhew
readily entertained the idea; and the next question was, "Can you get up
a staff?" Henry Mayhew mentioned his friend Mark Lemon as a good
commencement; and the pair proceeded to call upon that gentleman, who
was living, not far off, in Newcastle Street, Strand. The almost
immediate result was the starting of _Punch_.
At a meeting at the "Edinburgh Castle" Mr. Mark Lemon drew up the
original prospectus. It was at first intended to call the new
publication "The Funny Dog," or "Funny Dog, with Comic Tales," and from
the first the subsidiary title of the "London Charivari" was agreed
upon. At a subsequent meeting at the printing-office, some one made some
allusion to the "Punch," and some joke about the "Lemon" in it. Henry
Mayhew, with his usual electric quickness, at once flew at the idea, and
cried out, "A good thought; we'll call it _Punch_." It was then
remembered that, years before, Douglas Jerrold had edited a _Penny
Punch_ for Mr. Duncombe, of Middle Row, Holborn, but this was thought no
objection, and the new name was carried by acclamation. It was agreed
that there should be four proprietors--Messrs. Last, Landells, Lemon,
and Mayhew. Last was to supply the printing, Landells the engraving, and
Lemon and Mayhew were to be co-editors. George Hodder, with his usual
good-nature, at once secured Mr. Percival Leigh as a contributor, and
Leigh brought in his friend Mr. John Leech, and Leech brought in Albert
Smith. Mr. Henning designed the cover. When Last had sunk L600, he sold
it to Bradbury & Evans, on receiving the amount of his then outstanding
liabilities. At the transfer, Henning and Newman both retired, Mr. Coyne
and Mr. Grattan seldom contributed, and Messrs. Mayhew and Landells also
seceded.
Mr. Hine, the artist, remained with _Punch_ for many years; and among
other artistic contributors who "came and went," to use Mr. Blanchard's
own words, we must mention Birket Foster, Alfred Crowquill, Lee,
Hamerton, John Gilbert, William Harvey, and Kenny Meadows, the last of
whom illustrated one of Jerrold's earliest series, "Punch's Letters to
His Son." _Punch's Almanac_ for 1841 was concocted for the greater part
by Dr. Maginn, who was then in the Fleet Prison, where Thackeray has
drawn him, in the character of Captain Shandon, writing the famous
prospectus for the _Pall Mall Gazette_. The earliest hits of _Punch_
were Douglas Jerrold's articles signed "J." and Gilbert a Beckett's
"Adventures of Mr. Briefless." In October, 1841, Mr. W.H. Wills,
afterwards working editor of _Household Words_ and _All the Year Round_,
commenced "Punch's Guide to the Watering-Places." In January, 1842,
Albert Smith commenced his lively "Physiology of London Evening
Parties," which were illustrated by Newman; and he wrote the "Physiology
of the London Idler," which Leech illustrated. In the third volume,
Jerrold commenced "Punch's Letters to His Son;" and in the fourth
volume, his "Story of a Feather;" Albert Smith's "Side-Scenes of
Society" carried on the social dissections of the comic physiologist,
and a Beckett began his "Heathen Mythology," and created the character
of "Jenkins," the supposed fashionable correspondent of the _Morning
Post_. _Punch_ had begun his career by ridiculing Lord Melbourne; he now
attacked Brougham, for his temporary subservience to Wellington; and
Sir James Graham came also in for a share of the rod; and the _Morning
Herald_ and _Standard_ were christened "Mrs. Gamp" and "Mrs. Harris," as
old-fogyish opponents of Peel and the Free-Traders. A Beckett's "Comic
Blackstone" proved a great hit, from its daring originality; and
incessant jokes were squibbed off on Lord John Russell, Prince Albert
(for his military tailoring), Mr. Silk Buckingham and Lord William
Lennox, Mr. Samuel Carter Hall and Mr. Harrison Ainsworth. Tennyson
once, and once only, wrote for _Punch_, a reply to Lord Lytton (then Mr.
Bulwer), who had coarsely attacked him in his "New Timon," where he had
spoken flippantly of
"A quaint farrago of absurd conceits,
Out-babying Wordsworth and out-glittering Keats."
The epigram ended with these bitter and contemptuous lines,--
"A Timon you? Nay, nay, for shame!
It looks too arrogant a jest--
That fierce old man--to take his name,
You bandbox! Off, and let him rest."
Albert Smith left _Punch_ many years before his death. In 1845, on his
return from the East, Mr. Thackeray began his "Jeames's Diary," and
became a regular contributor. Gilbert a Beckett was now beginning his
"Comic History of England" and Douglas Jerrold his inimitable "Caudle
Lectures." Thomas Hood occasionally contributed, but his immortal "Song
of the Shirt" was his _chef-d'oeuvre_. Coventry Patmore contributed once
to _Punch_; his verses denounced General Pellisier and his cruelty at
the caves of Dahra. Laman Blanchard occasionally wrote; his best poem
was one on the marriage and temporary retirement of charming Mrs.
Nisbett. In 1846 Thackeray's "Snobs of England" was highly successful.
Richard Doyle's "Manners and Customs of ye English" brought _Punch_ much
increase. The present cover of _Punch_ is by Doyle, who, being a zealous
Roman Catholic, eventually left _Punch_ when it began to ridicule the
Pope and condemn Papal aggression. _Punch_ in his time has had his raps,
but not many and not hard ones. Poor Angus B. Reach (whose mind went
early in life), with Albert Smith and Shirley Brooks, ridiculed _Punch_
in the _Man in the Moon_, and in 1847 the Poet Bunn--"Hot, cross
Bunn"--provoked at incessant attacks on his operatic verses, hired a man
of letters to write "A Word with _Punch_" and a few smart personalities
soon silenced the jester. "Towards 1848," says Mr. Blanchard, "Douglas
Jerrold, then writing plays and editing a magazine, began to write less
for _Punch_." In 1857 he died. Among the later additions to the staff
were Mr. Tom Taylor and Mr. Shirley Brooks.
The _Dispatch_ (No. 139, north) was established by Mr. Bell, in 1801.
Moving from Bride Lane to Newcastle Street, and thence to Wine Office
Court, it settled down in the present locality in 1824. Mr. Bell was an
energetic man, and the paper succeeded in obtaining a good position; but
he was not a man of large capital, and other persons had shares in the
property. In consequence of difficulties between the proprietors there
were at one time three _Dispatches_ in the field--Bell's, Kent's, and
Duckett's; but the two last-mentioned were short-lived, and Mr. Bell
maintained his position. Bell's was a sporting paper, with many columns
devoted to pugilism, and a woodcut exhibiting two boxers ready for an
encounter. But the editor (says a story more or less authentic), Mr.
Samuel Smith, who had obtained his post by cleverly reporting a fight
near Canterbury, one day received a severe thrashing from a famous
member of the ring. This changed the editor's opinions as to the
propriety of boxing--at any-rate pugilism was repudiated by the
_Dispatch_ about 1829; and boxing, from the _Dispatch_ point of view,
was henceforward treated as a degrading and brutal amusement, unworthy
of our civilisation.
Mr. Harmer (afterwards Alderman), a solicitor in extensive practice in
Old Bailey cases, became connected with the paper about the time when
the Fleet Street office was established, and contributed capital, which
soon bore fruit. The success was so great, that for many years the
_Dispatch_ as a property was inferior only to the _Times_. It became
famous for its letters on political subjects. The original "Publicola"
was Mr. Williams, a violent and coarse but very vigorous and popular
writer. He wrote weekly for about sixteen or seventeen years, and after
his death the signature was assumed by Mr. Fox, the famous orator and
member for Oldham. Other writers also borrowed the well-known signature.
Eliza Cooke wrote in the _Dispatch_ in 1836, at first signing her poems
"E." and "E.C."; but in the course of the following year her name
appeared in full. She contributed a poem weekly for several years,
relinquishing her connection with the paper in 1850. Afterwards, in
1869, when the property changed hands, she wrote two or three poems.
Under the signature "Caustic," Mr. Serle, the dramatic author and
editor, contributed a weekly letter for about twenty-seven years; and
from 1856 till 1869 was editor-in chief. In 1841-42 the _Dispatch_ had a
hard-fought duel with the _Times_. "Publicola" wrote a series of
letters, which had the effect of preventing the election of Mr. Walter
for Southwark. The _Times_ retaliated when the time came for Alderman
Harmer to succeed to the lord mayoralty. Day after day the _Times_
returned to the attack, denouncing the _Dispatch_ as an infidel paper;
and Alderman Harmer, rejected by the City, resigned in consequence his
aldermanic gown. In 1857 the _Dispatch_ commenced the publication of its
famous "Atlas," giving away a good map weekly for about five years. The
price was reduced from fivepence to twopence, at the beginning of 1869,
and to a penny in 1870.
[Illustration: ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH, FLEET STREET, AFTER THE FIRE, 1824
(_see page 56_).]
The _Daily Telegraph_ office is No. 136 (north). Mr. Ingram, of the
_Illustrated London News_, originated a paper called the _Telegraph_,
which lasted only seven or eight weeks. The present _Daily Telegraph_
was started on June 29, 1855, by the late Colonel Sleigh. It was a
single sheet, and the price twopence. Colonel Sleigh failing to make it
a success, Mr. Levy, the present chief proprietor of the paper, took the
copyright as part security for money owed him by Colonel Sleigh. In Mr.
Levy's hands the paper, reduced to a penny, became a great success. "It
was," says Mr. Grant, in his "History of the Newspaper Press," "the
first of the penny papers, while a single sheet, and as such was
regarded as a newspaper marvel; but when it came out--which it did soon
after the _Standard_--as a double sheet the size of the _Times_,
published at fourpence, for a penny, it created quite a sensation. Here
was a penny paper, containing not only the same amount of telegraphic
and general information as the other high-priced papers--their price
being then fourpence--but also evidently written, in its leading article
department, with an ability which could only be surpassed by that of the
leading articles of the _Times_ itself. This was indeed a new era in the
morning journalism of the metropolis." When Mr. Levy bought the
_Telegraph_, the sum which he received for advertisements in the first
number was exactly 7s. 6d. The daily receipts for advertisements are now
said to exceed L500. Mr. Grant says that the remission of the tax on
paper brought L12,000 a year extra to the _Telegraph_. Ten pages for a
penny is no uncommon thing with the _Telegraph_ during the Parliamentary
session. The returns of sales given by the _Telegraph_ for the half-year
ending 1870 show an average daily sale of 190,885; and though this was
war time, a competent authority estimates the average daily sale at
175,000 copies. One of the printing-machines recently set up by the
proprietors of the _Telegraph_ throws off upwards of 200 copies per
minute, or 12,000 an hour.
[Illustration: WAITHMAN'S SHOP (_see page 66_).]
The "Globe Tavern" (No. 134, north), though now only a memory, abounds
with traditions of Goldsmith and his motley friends. The house, in 1649,
was leased to one Henry Hottersall for forty-one years, at the yearly
rent of L75, ten gallons of Canary sack, and L400 fine. Mr. John Forster
gives a delightful sketch of Goldsmith's Wednesday evening club at the
"Globe," in 1767. When not at Johnson's great club, Oliver beguiled his
cares at a shilling rubber club at the "Devil Tavern," or at a humble
gathering in the parlour of the "Bedford," Covent Garden. A hanger-on of
the theatres, who frequented the "Globe," has left notes which Mr.
Forster has admirably used, and which we now abridge without further
apology. Grim old Macklin belonged to the club it is certain; and among
the less obscure members was King, the comedian, the celebrated
impersonator of Lord Ogleby. Hugh Kelly, another member, was a clever
young Irishman, who had chambers near Goldsmith in the Temple. He had
been a stay-maker's apprentice, who, turning law writer, and soon
landing as a hack for the magazines, set up as a satirist for the stage,
and eventually, through Garrick's patronage, succeeded in sentimental
comedy. It was of him Johnson said, "Sir, I never desire to converse
with a man who has written more than he has read." Poor Kelly afterwards
went to the Bar, and died of disappointment and over-work. A third
member was Captain Thompson, a friend of Garrick's, who wrote some good
sea songs and edited "Andrew Marvell;" but foremost among all the boon
companions was a needy Irish doctor named Glover, who had appeared on
the stage, and who was said to have restored to life a man who had been
hung; this Glover, who was famous for his songs and imitations, once had
the impudence, like Theodore Hook, to introduce Goldsmith, during a
summer ramble in Hampstead, to a party where he was an entire stranger,
and to pass himself off as a friend of the host. "Our Dr. Glover," says
Goldsmith, "had a constant levee of his distressed countrymen, whose
wants, as far as he was able, he always relieved." Gordon, the fattest
man in the club, was renowned for his jovial song of "Nottingham Ale;"
and on special occasions Goldsmith himself would sing his favourite
nonsense about the little old woman who was tossed seventeen times
higher than the moon. A fat pork-butcher at the "Globe" used to offend
Goldsmith by constantly shouting out, "Come, Noll, here's my service to
you, old boy." After the success of _The Good-natured Man_, this coarse
familiarity was more than Goldsmith's vanity could bear, so one special
night he addressed the butcher with grave reproof. The stolid man,
taking no notice, replied briskly, "Thankee, Mister Noll." "Well, where
is the advantage of your reproof?" asked Glover. "In truth," said
Goldsmith, good-naturedly, "I give it up; I ought to have known before
that there is no putting a pig in the right way." Sometimes rather cruel
tricks were played on the credulous poet. One evening Goldsmith came in
clamorous for his supper, and ordered chops. Directly the supper came
in, the wags, by pre-agreement, began to sniff and swear. Some pushed
the plate away; others declared the rascal who had dared set such chops
before a gentleman should be made to swallow them himself. The waiter
was savagely rung up, and forced to eat the supper, to which he
consented with well-feigned reluctance, the poet calmly ordering a fresh
supper and a dram for the poor waiter, "who otherwise might get sick
from so nauseating a meal." Poor Goldy! kindly even at his most foolish
moments. A sadder story still connects Goldsmith with the "Globe." Ned
Purdon, a worn-out booksellers' hack and a _protege_ of Goldsmith's,
dropped down dead in Smithfield. Goldsmith wrote his epitaph as he came
from his chambers in the Temple to the "Globe." The lines are:--
"Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed,
Who long was a booksellers' hack;
He led such a miserable life in this world,
I don't think he'll wish to come back."
Goldsmith sat next Glover that night at the club, and Glover heard the
poet repeat, _sotto voce_, with a mournful intonation, the words,--
"I don't think he'll wish to come back."
Oliver was musing over his own life, and Mr. Forster says touchingly,
"It is not without a certain pathos to me, indeed, that he should have
so repeated it."
Among other frequenters of the "Globe" were Boswell's friend Akerman,
the keeper of Newgate, who always thought it prudent never to return
home till daybreak; and William Woodfall, the celebrated Parliamentary
reporter. In later times Brasbridge, the sporting silversmith of Fleet
Street, was a frequenter of the club. He tells us that among his
associates was a surgeon, who, living on the Surrey side of the Thames,
had to take a boat every night (Blackfriar's Bridge not being then
built). This nightly navigation cost him three or four shillings a time,
yet, when the bridge came, he grumbled at having to pay a penny toll.
Among other frequenters of the "Globe," Mr. Timbs enumerates "Archibald
Hamilton, whose mind was 'fit for a lord chancellor;' Dunstall, the
comedian; Carnan, the bookseller, who defeated the Stationers' Company
in the almanack trial; and, later still, the eccentric Hugh Evelyn, who
set up a claim upon the great Surrey estate of Sir Frederic Evelyn."
The _Standard_ (No. 129, north), "the largest daily paper," was
originally an evening paper alone. In 1826 a deputation of the leading
men opposed to Catholic Emancipation waited on Mr. Charles Baldwin,
proprietor of the _St. James's Chronicle_, and begged him to start an
anti-Catholic evening paper, but Mr. Baldwin refused unless a
preliminary sum of L15,000 was lodged at the banker's. A year later this
sum was deposited, and in 1827 the _Evening Standard_, edited by Dr.
Giffard, ex-editor of the _St. James's Chronicle_, appeared. Mr. Alaric
Watts, the poet, was succeeded as sub-editor of the _Standard_ by the
celebrated Dr. Maginn. The daily circulation soon rose from 700 or 800
copies to 3,000 and over. The profits Mr. Grant calculates at L7,000 to
L8,000 a year. On the bankruptcy of Mr. Charles Baldwin, Mr. James
Johnson bought the _Morning Herald_ and _Standard_, plant and all, for
L16,500. The proprietor reduced the _Standard_ from fourpence to
twopence, and made it a morning as well as an evening paper. In 1858 he
reduced it to a penny only. The result was a great success. The annual
income of the _Standard_ is now, Mr. Grant says, "much exceeding yearly
the annual incomes of most of the ducal dignities of the land." The
legend of the Duke of Newcastle presenting Dr. Giffard, in 1827, with
L1,200 for a violent article against Roman Catholic claims, has been
denied by Dr. Giffard's son in the _Times_. The Duke of Wellington once
wrote to Dr. Giffard to dictate the line the _Standard_ and _Morning
Herald_ were to adopt on a certain question during the agitation on the
Maynooth Bill; and Dr. Giffard withdrew his opposition to please Sir
Robert Peel--a concession which injured the _Standard_. Yet in the
following year, when Sir Robert Peel brought in his Bill for the
abolition of the corn laws, he did not even pay Dr. Giffard the
compliment of apprising him of his intention. Such is official gratitude
when a tool is done with.
Near Shoe Lane lived one of Caxton's disciples. Wynkyn de Worde, who is
supposed to have been one of Caxton's assistants or workmen, was a
native of Lorraine. He carried on a prosperous career, says Dibdin, from
1502 to 1534, at the sign of the "Sun," in the parish of St. Bride's,
Fleet Street. In upwards of four hundred works published by this
industrious man he displayed unprecedented skill, elegance, and care,
and his Gothic type was considered a pattern for his successors. The
books that came from his press were chiefly grammars, romances, legends
of the saints, and fugitive poems; he never ventured on an English New
Testament, nor was any drama published bearing his name. His great
patroness, Margaret, the mother of Henry VII., seems to have had little
taste to guide De Worde in his selection, for he never reprinted the
works of Chaucer or of Gower; nor did his humble patron, Robert Thorney,
the mercer, lead him in a better direction. De Worde filled his
black-letter books with rude engravings, which he used so
indiscriminately that the same cut often served for books of a totally
opposite character. By some writers De Worde is considered to be the
first introducer of Roman letters into this country; but the honour of
that mode of printing is now generally claimed by Pynson, a
contemporary. Among other works published by De Worde were "The Ship of
Fools," that great satire that was so long popular in England;
Mandeville's lying "Travels;" "La Morte d'Arthur" (from which Tennyson
has derived so much inspiration); "The Golden Legend;" and those curious
treatises on "Hunting, Hawking, and Fishing," partly written by Johanna
Berners, a prioress of St. Alban's. In De Worde's "Collection of
Christmas Carols" we find the words of that fine old song, still sung
annually at Queen's College, Oxford,--
"The boar's head in hand bring I,
With garlands gay and rosemary."
De Worde also published some writings of Erasmus. The old printer was
buried in the parish church of St. Bride's, before the high altar of St.
Katherine; and he left land to the parish so that masses should be said
for his soul. To his servants, not forgetting his bookbinder, Nowel, in
Shoe Lane, he bequeathed books. De Worde lived near the Conduit, a
little west of Shoe Lane. This conduit, which was begun in the year 1439
by Sir William Estfielde, a former Lord Mayor, and finished in 1471,
was, according to Stow's account, a stone tower, with images of St.
Christopher on the top and angels, who, on sweet-sounding bells, hourly
chimed a hymn with hammers, thus anticipating the wonders of St.
Dunstan's. These London conduits were great resorts for the apprentices,
whom their masters sent with big leather and metal jugs to bring home
the daily supply of water. Here these noisy, quarrelsome young rascals
stayed to gossip, idle, and fight. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn this
conduit was newly painted, all the arms and angels refreshed, and "the
music melodiously sounding." Upon the conduit was raised a tower with
four turrets, and in every turret stood one of the cardinal virtues,
promising never to leave the queen, while, to the delight and wonder of
thirsty citizens, the taps ran with claret and red wine. Fleet Street,
according to Mr. Noble, was supplied with water in the Middle Ages from
the conduit at Marylebone and the holy wells of St. Clement's and St.
Bridget's. The tradition is that the latter well was drained dry for the
supply of the coronation banquet of George IV. As early as 1358 the
inhabitants of Fleet Street complained of aqueduct pipes bursting and
flooding their cellars, upon which they were allowed the privilege of
erecting a pent-house over an aqueduct opposite the tavern of John
Walworth, and near the house of the Bishop of Salisbury. In 1478 a Fleet
Street wax-chandler, having been detected tapping the conduit pipes for
his own use, was sentenced to ride through the City with a vessel shaped
like a conduit on his felonious head, and the City crier walking before
him to proclaim his offence.
The "Castle Tavern," mentioned as early as 1432, stood at the south-west
corner of Shoe Lane. Here the Clockmakers' Company held their meetings
before the Great Fire, and in 1708 the "Castle" possessed the largest
sign in London. Early in the last century, says Mr. Noble, its
proprietor was Alderman Sir John Task, a wine merchant, who died in 1735
(George II.), worth, it was understood, a quarter of a million of money.
The _Morning Advertiser_ (No. 127, north) was established in 1794, by
the Society of Licensed Victuallers, on the mutual benefit society
principle. Every member is bound to take in the paper and is entitled to
a share in its profits. Members unsuccessful in business become
pensioners on the funds of the institution. The paper, which took the
place of the _Daily Advertiser_, and was the suggestion of Mr. Grant, a
master printer, was an immediate success. Down to 1850 the _Morning
Advertiser_ circulated chiefly in public-houses and coffee-houses at the
rate of nearly 5,000 copies a day. But in 1850, the circulation
beginning to decline, the committee resolved to enlarge the paper to the
size of the _Times_, and Mr. James Grant was appointed editor. The
profits now increased, and the paper found its way to the clubs. The
late Lord Brougham and Sir David Brewster contributed to the
_Advertiser_; and the letters signed "An Englishman" excited much
interest. This paper has always been Liberal. Mr. Grant remained the
editor for twenty years.
No. 91 (south side) was till lately the office of that old-established
paper, _Bell's Weekly Messenger_. Mr. Bell, the spirited publisher who
founded this paper, is delightfully sketched by Leigh Hunt in his
autobiography.
"About the period of my writing the above essays," he says, in his easy
manner, "circumstances introduced me to the acquaintance of Mr. Bell,
the proprietor of the _Weekly Messenger_. In his house, in the Strand, I
used to hear of politics and dramatic criticisms, and of the persons who
wrote them. Mr. Bell had been well known as a bookseller and a
speculator in elegant typography. It is to him the public are indebted
for the small editions of the poets that preceded Cooke's. Bell was,
upon the whole, a remarkable person. He was a plain man, with a red face
and a nose exaggerated by intemperance; and yet there was something not
unpleasing in his countenance, especially when he spoke. He had
sparkling black eyes, a good-natured smile, gentlemanly manners, and one
of the most agreeable voices I ever heard. He had no acquirements--perhaps
not even grammar; but his taste in putting forth a publication and getting
the best artists to adorn it was new in those times, and may be admired
in any. Unfortunately for Mr. Bell, the Prince of Wales, to whom he was
bookseller, once did him the honour to partake of an entertainment or
refreshment (I forget which--most probably the latter) at his house. He
afterwards became a bankrupt. After his bankruptcy he set up a newspaper,
which became profitable to everybody but himself."[2]
No. 93, Fleet Street (south side) is endeared to us by its connection
with Charles Lamb. At that number, in 1823, that great humorist, the
king of all London clerks that ever were or will be, published his
"Elia," a collection of essays immortal as the language, full of quaint
and tender thoughts and gleaming with cross-lights of humour as shot
silk does with interchanging colours. In 1821, when the first editor was
shot in a duel, the _London Magazine_ fell into the hands of Messrs.
Taylor & Hessey, of No. 93; but they published the excellent periodical
and gave their "magazine dinners" at their publishing house in Waterloo
Place.
Mr. John Scott, a man of great promise, the editor of the _London_ for
the first publishers--Messrs. Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy--met with a very
tragic death in 1821. The duel in which he fell arose from a quarrel
between the men on the _London_ and the clever but bitter and
unscrupulous writers in _Blackwood_, started in 1817. Lockhart, who had
cruelly maligned Leigh Hunt and his set (the "Cockney School," as the
Scotch Tories chose to call them), was sharply attacked in the _London_.
Fiery and vindictive Lockhart flew at once up to town, and angrily
demanded from Mr. Scott, the editor, an explanation, an apology, or a
meeting. Mr. Scott declined giving an apology unless Mr. Lockhart would
first deny that he was editor of _Blackwood_. Lockhart refused to give
this denial, and retorted by expressing a mean opinion of Mr. Scott's
courage. Lockhart and Scott both printed contradictory versions of the
quarrel, which worked up till at last Mr. Christie, a friend of
Lockhart's, challenged Scott; and they met at Chalk Farm by moonlight on
February 16th, at nine o'clock at night, attended by their seconds and
surgeons, in the old business-like, bloodthirsty way. The first time Mr.
Christie did not fire at Mr. Scott, a fact of which Mr. Patmore, the
author, Scott's second, with most blamable indiscretion, did not inform
his principal. At the second fire Christie's ball struck Scott just
above the right hip, and he fell. He lingered till the 27th. It was
said at the time that Hazlitt, perhaps unintentionally, had driven Scott
to fight by indirect taunts. "I don't pretend," Hazlitt is reported to
have said, "to hold the principles of honour which you hold. I would
neither give nor accept a challenge. You hold the opinions of the world;
with you it is different. As for me, it would be nothing. I do not think
as you and the world think," and so on. Poor Scott, not yet forty, had
married the pretty daughter of Colnaghi, the printseller in Pall Mall,
and left two children.
For the five years it lasted, perhaps no magazine--not even the mighty
_Maga_ itself--ever drew talent towards it with such magnetic
attraction. In Mr. Barry Cornwall's delightful memoir of his old friend
Lamb, written when the writer was in his seventy-third year, he has
summarised the writers on the _London_, and shown how deep and varied
was the intellect brought to bear on its production. First of all he
mentions poor Scott, a shrewd, critical, rather hasty man, who wrote
essays on Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Godwin, Byron, Keats, Shelley,
Leigh Hunt, and Hazlitt, his wonderful contemporaries, in a fruitful
age. Hazlitt, glowing and capricious, produced the twelve essays of his
"Table Talk," many dramatic articles, and papers on Beckford's Fonthill,
the Angerstein pictures, and the Elgin marbles--pages wealthy with
thought. Lamb contributed in three years all the matchless essays of
"Elia." Mr. Thomas Carlyle, then only a promising young Scotch
philosopher, wrote several articles on the "Life and Writings of
Schiller." Mr. de Quincey, that subtle thinker and bitter Tory,
contributed his wonderful "Confessions of an Opium-Eater." That learned
and amiable man, the Rev. H.F. Cary, the translator of Dante, wrote
several interesting notices of early French poets. Allan Cunningham, the
vigorous Scottish bard, sent the romantic "Tales of Lyddal Cross" and a
series of papers styled "Traditional Literature." Mr. John
Poole--recently deceased, 1872--(the author of _Paul Pry_ and that
humorous novel, "Little Pedlington," which is supposed to have furnished
Mr. Charles Dickens with some suggestions for "Pickwick") wrote
burlesque imitations of contemporaneous dramatic writers--Morton,
Dibdin, Reynolds, Moncrieff, &c. Mr. J.H. Reynolds wrote, under the name
of Henry Herbert, notices of contemporaneous events, such as a scene at
the Cockpit, the trial of Thurtell (a very powerful article), &c. That
delightful punster and humorist, with pen or pencil, Tom Hood, sent to
the _London_ his first poems of any ambition or length--"Lycus the
Centaur," and "The Two Peacocks of Bedfont." Keats, "that sleepless soul
that perished in its pride," and Montgomery, both contributed poems. Sir
John Bowring, the accomplished linguist, wrote on Spanish poetry. Mr.
Henry Southern, the editor of that excellent work the _Retrospective
Review_, contributed "The Conversations of Lord Byron." Mr. Walter
Savage Landor, that very original and eccentric thinker, published in
the extraordinary magazine one of his admirable "Imaginary
Conversations." Mr. Julius (afterwards Archdeacon) Hare reviewed the
robust works of Landor. Mr. Elton contributed graceful translations from
Catullus, Propertius, &c. Even among the lesser contributors there were
very eminent writers, not forgetting Barry Cornwall, Hartley Coleridge,
John Clare, the Northamptonshire peasant poet; and Bernard Barton, the
Quaker poet. Nor must we omit that strange contrast to these
pure-hearted and wise men, "Janus Weathercock" (Wainwright), the
polished villain who murdered his young niece and most probably several
other friends and relations, for the money insured upon their lives.
This gay and evil being, by no means a dull writer upon art and the
drama, was much liked by Lamb and the Russell Street set. The news of
his cold-blooded crimes (transpiring in 1837) seem to have struck a deep
horror among all the scoundrel's fashionable associates. Although when
arrested in France it was discovered that Wainwright habitually carried
strychnine about with him, he was only tried for forgery, and for that
offence transported for life.
A fine old citizen of the last century, Joseph Brasbridge, who published
his memoirs, kept a silversmith's shop at No. 98, several doors from
Alderman Waithman's. At one time Brasbridge confesses he divided his
time between the tavern club, the card party, the hunt, and the fight,
and left his shop to be looked after by others, whilst he decided on the
respective merits of Humphries and Mendoza, Cribb and Big Ben. Among
Brasbridge's early customers were the Duke of Marlborough, the Duke of
Argyle, and other men of rank, and he glories in having once paid an
elaborate compliment to Lady Hamilton. The most curious story in
Brasbridge's "Fruits of Experience" is the following, various versions
of which have been paraphrased by modern writers. A surgeon in Gough
Square had purchased for dissection the body of a man who had been
hanged at Tyburn. The servant girl, wishing to look at the corpse, stole
upstairs in the doctor's absence, and, to her horror, found the body
sitting up on the board, wondering where it was. The girl almost threw
herself down the stairs in her fright. The surgeon, on learning of the
resuscitation of his subject, humanely concealed the man in the house
till he could fit him out for America. The fellow proved as clever and
industrious as he was grateful, and having amassed a fortune, he
eventually left it all to his benefactor. The sequel is still more
curious. The surgeon dying some years after, his heirs were advertised
for. A shoemaker at Islington eventually established a claim and
inherited the money. Mean in prosperity, the _ci-devant_ shoemaker then
refused to pay the lawyer's bill, and, moreover, called him a rogue. The
enraged lawyer replied, "I have put you into possession of this property
by my exertions, now I will spend L100 out of my own pocket to take it
away again, for you are not deserving of it." The lawyer accordingly
advertised again for the surgeon's nearest of kin; Mr. Willcocks, a
bookseller in the Strand, then came forward, and deposed that his wife
and her mother, he remembered, used to visit the surgeon in Gough
Square. On inquiry Mrs. Willcocks was proved the next of kin, and the
base shoemaker returned to his last. The lucky Mr. Willcocks was the
good-natured bookseller who lent Johnson and Garrick, when they first
came up to London to seek their fortunes, L5 on their joint note.
[Illustration: ALDERMAN WAITHMAN, FROM AN AUTHENTIC PORTRAIT (_see page
68_).]
Nos. 103 (now the _Sunday Times_ office) and 104 were the shop of that
bustling politician Alderman Waithman; and to his memory was erected the
obelisk on the site of his first shop, formerly the north-west end of
Fleet Market. Waithman, according to Mr. Timbs, had a genius for the
stage, and especially shone as Macbeth. He was uncle to John Reeve, the
comic actor. Cobbett, who hated Waithman, has left a portrait of the
alderman, written in his usual racy English. "Among these persons," he
says, talking of the Princess Caroline agitation, in 1813, "there was a
common councilman named Robert Waithman, a man who for many years had
taken a conspicuous part in the politics of the City; a man not
destitute of the powers of utterance, and a man of sound principles
also. But a man so enveloped, so completely swallowed up by
self-conceit, who, though perfectly illiterate, though unable to give to
three consecutive sentences a grammatical construction, seemed to look
upon himself as the first orator, the first writer, and the first
statesman of the whole world. He had long been the cock of the
Democratic party in the City; he was a great speech-maker; could make
very free with facts, and when it suited his purpose could resort to as
foul play as most men." According to Cobbett, who grows more than
usually virulent on the occasion, Waithman, vexed that Alderman Wood had
been the first to propose an address of condolence to the Princess at
the Common Council, opposed it, and was defeated. As Cobbett says, "He
then checked himself, endeavoured to recover his ground, floundered
about got some applause by talking about rotten boroughs and
parliamentary reform. But all in vain. Then rose cries of 'No, no! the
address--the address!' which appear to have stung him to the quick. His
face, which was none of the whitest, assumed a ten times darker die. His
look was furious, while he uttered the words, 'I am sorry that my
well-weighed opinions are in opposition to the general sentiment so
hastily adopted; but I hope the Livery will consider the necessity of
preserving its character for purity and wisdom.'" On the appointed day
the Princess was presented with the address, to the delight of the more
zealous Radicals. The procession of more than one hundred carriages came
back past Carlton House on their return from Kensington, the people
groaning and hissing to torment the Regent.
[Illustration: GROUP AT HARDHAM'S TOBACCO SHOP (_see page 69_).]
Brasbridge, the Tory silversmith of Fleet Street, writes very
contemptuously in his autobiography of Waithman. Sneering at his boast
of reading, he says: "I own my curiosity was a little excited to know
when and where he began his studies. It could not be in his shop in
Fleet Market, for there he was too busily employed in attending to the
fishwomen and other ladies connected with the business of the market.
Nor could it be at the corner of Fleet Street, where he was always no
less assiduously engaged in ticketing his super-super calicoes at two
and two pence, and cutting them off for two and twenty pence." According
to Brasbridge, Waithman made his first speech in 1792, in Founder's
Hall, Lothbury, "called by some at that time the cauldron of sedition."
Waithman was Lord Mayor in 1823-24, and was returned to Parliament five
times for the City. The portrait of Waithman on page 66, and the view of
his shop, page 61, are taken from pictures in Mr. Gardiner's magnificent
collection.
A short biography of this civic orator will not be
uninteresting:--Robert Waithman was born of humble parentage, at
Wrexham, in North Wales. Becoming an orphan when only four months old,
he was placed at the school of a Mr. Moore by his uncle, on whose death,
about 1778, he obtained a situation at Reading, whence he proceeded to
London, and entered into the service of a respectable linendraper, with
whom he continued till he became of age. He then entered into business
at the south end of Fleet Market, whence, some years afterwards, he
removed to the corner of New Bridge Street. He appears to have commenced
his political career about 1792, at the oratorical displays made in
admiration and imitation of the proceedings of the French
revolutionists, at Founder's Hall, in Lothbury. In 1794 he brought
forward a series of resolutions, at a common hall, animadverting upon
the war with revolutionised France, and enforcing the necessity of a
reform in Parliament. In 1796 he was first elected a member of the
Common Council for the Ward of Farringdon Without, and became a very
frequent speaker in that public body. It was supposed that Mr. Fox
intended to have rewarded his political exertions by the place of
Receiver-General of the Land Tax. In 1818, after having been defeated on
several previous occasions, he was elected as one of the representatives
in Parliament of the City of London, defeating the old member, Sir
William Curtis.
Very shortly after, on the 4th of August, he was elected Alderman of his
ward, on the death of Sir Charles Price, Bart. On the 25th of January,
1819, he made his maiden speech in Parliament, on the presentation of a
petition praying for a revision of the criminal code, the existing state
of which he severely censured. At the ensuing election of 1820 the
friends of Sir William Curtis turned the tables upon him, Waithman being
defeated. In this year, however, he attained the honour of the
shrievalty; and in October, 1823, he was chosen Lord Mayor. In 1826 he
stood another contest for the City, with better success. In 1830, 1831,
and 1832 he obtained his re-election with difficulty; but in 1831 he
suffered a severe disappointment in losing the chamberlainship, in the
competition for which Sir James Shaw obtained a large majority of votes.
We subjoin the remarks made on his death by the editor of the _Times_
newspaper:--"The magistracy of London has been deprived of one of its
most respectable members, and the City of one of its most upright
representatives. Everybody knows that Mr. Alderman Waithman has filled a
large space in City politics; and most people who were acquainted with
him will be ready to admit that, had his early education been better
directed, or his early circumstances more favourable to his ambition, he
might have become an important man in a wider and higher sphere. His
natural parts, his political integrity, his consistency of conduct, and
the energy and perseverance with which he performed his duties, placed
him far above the common run of persons whose reputation is gained by
their oratorical displays at meetings of the Common Council. In looking
back at City proceedings for the last thirty-five or forty years, we
find him always rising above his rivals as the steady and consistent
advocate of the rights of his countrymen and the liberties and
privileges of his fellow-citizens."
There is a curious story told of the Fleet Street crossing, opposite
Waithman's corner. It was swept for years by an old black man named
Charles M'Ghee, whose father had died in Jamaica at the age of 108.
According to Mr. Noble, when he laid down his broom he sold his
professional right for L1,000 (L100?). Retiring into private life much
respected, he was always to be seen on Sundays at Rowland Hill's chapel.
When in his seventy-third year his portrait was taken and hung in the
parlour of the "Twelve Bells," Bride Lane. To Miss Waithman, who used to
send him out soup and bread, he is, untruly, said to have left L7,000.
Mr. Diprose, in his "History of St. Clement," tells us more of this
black sweeper. "Brutus Billy," or "Tim-buc-too," as he was generally
called, lived in a passage leading from Stanhope Street into Drury Lane.
He was a short, thick-set man, with his white-grey hair carefully
brushed up into a toupee, the fashion of his youth. He was found in his
shop, as he called his crossing, in all weathers, and was invariably
civil. At night, after he had shut up shop (swept mud over his
crossing), he carried round a basket of nuts and fruit to places of
public entertainment, so that in time he laid by a considerable amount
of money. Brutus Billy was brimful of story and anecdote. He died in
Chapel Court in 1854, in his eighty-seventh year. This worthy man was
perhaps the model for Billy Waters, the negro beggar in _Tom and Jerry_,
who is so indignant at the beggars' supper on seeing "a turkey without
sassenges."
In Garrick's time John Hardham, the well-known tobacconist, opened a
shop at No. 106. There, at the sign of the "Red Lion," Hardham's
Highlander kept steady guard at a doorway through which half the
celebrities of the day made their exits and entrances. His celebrated
"No. 37" snuff was said, like the French millefleur, to be composed of a
great number of ingredients, and Garrick in his kind way helped it into
fashion by mentioning it favourably on the stage. Hardham, a native of
Chichester, began life as a servant, wrote a comedy, acted, and at last
became Garrick's "numberer," having a general's quick _coup d'oeil_ at
gauging an audience, and so checking the money-takers. Garrick once
became his security for a hundred pounds, but eventually Hardham grew
rich, and died in 1772, bequeathing L22,289 to Chichester, 10 guineas to
Garrick, and merely setting apart L10 for his funeral, only vain fools,
as he said, spending more. We can fancy the great actors of that day
seated on Hardham's tobacco-chests discussing the drollery of Foote or
the vivacity of Clive.
"It has long been a source of inquiry," says a writer in the _City
Press_, "whence the origin of the cognomen, 'No. 37,' to the celebrated
snuff compounded still under the name of John Hardham, in Fleet Street.
There is a tradition that Lord Townsend, on being applied to by Hardham,
whom he patronised, to name the snuff, suggested the cabalistic number
of 37, it being the exact number of a majority obtained in some
proceedings in the Irish Parliament during the time he was Lord
Lieutenant there, and which was considered a triumph for his Government.
The dates, however, do not serve this theory, as Lord Townsend was not
viceroy till the years 1767-72, when the snuff must have been well
established in public fame and Hardham in the last years of his life. It
has already been printed elsewhere that, on the famed snuff coming out
in the first instance, David Garrick, hearing of it, called in Fleet
Street, as he was wont frequently to do, and offered to bring it under
the public notice in the most effectual manner, by introducing an
incident in a new comedy then about to be produced by him, where he
would, in his part in the play, offer another character a pinch of
snuff, who would extol its excellence, whereupon Garrick arranged to
continue the conversation by naming the snuff as the renowned '37 of
John Hardham.' But the enigma, even now, is not solved; so we will, for
what it may be worth, venture our own explanation. It is well known that
in most of the celebrated snuffs before the public a great variety of
qualities and descriptions of tobacco, and of various ages, are
introduced. Hardham, like the rest, never told his secret how the snuff
was made, but left it as a heritage to his successors. It is very
probable, therefore, that the mystic figures, 37, we have quoted
represented the number of qualities, growths, and description of the
'fragrant weed' introduced by him into his snuff, and may be regarded as
a sort of appellative rebus, or conceit, founded thereon."[3]
But Hardham occupied himself in other ways than in the making of snuff
and of money--for the Chichester youth had now grown wealthy--and in
extending his circle of acquaintances amongst dramatists and players; he
was abundantly distinguished for Christian charity, for, in the language
of a contemporary writer, we find that "his deeds in that respect were
extensive," and his bounty "was conveyed to many of the objects of it in
the most delicate manner." From the same authority we find that Hardham
once failed in business (we presume, as a lapidary) more creditably than
he could have made a fortune by it. This spirit of integrity, which
remained a remarkable feature in his character throughout life, induced
him to be often resorted to by his wealthy patrons as trustee for the
payment of their bounties to deserving objects; in many cases the
patrons died before the recipients of their relief. With Hardham,
however, this made no difference; the annuities once granted, although
stopped by the decease of the donors, were paid ever after by Hardham so
long as he lived; and his delicacy of feeling induced him even to
persuade the recipients into the belief that they were still derived
from the same source.
No. 102 (south) was opened as a shop, in 1719, by one Lockyer, who
called it "Mount Pleasant." It then became a "saloop-house," where the
poor purchased a beverage made out of sassafras chips. The proprietor,
who began life, as Mr. Noble says, with half-a-crown, died in March,
1739, worth L1,000. Thomas Read was a later tenant. Charles Lamb
mentions "saloop" in one of his essays, and says, "Palates otherwise not
uninstructed in dietetical elegancies sup it up with avidity."
Chimney-sweeps, beloved by Lamb, approved it, and eventually stalls were
set up in the streets, as at present to reach even humbler customers.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] An intelligent compositor (Mr. J.P.S. Bicknell), who has been a
noter of curious passages in his time, informs me that Bell was the
first printer who confined the small letter "s" to its present shape,
and rejected altogether the older form "s." [Transcriber's Note: "s."
refers to the long s of Early English]
[3] The real fact is, the famous snuff was merely called from the number
of the drawer that held it.