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VOLUME FIVE
1688-1837
READINGS IN SOCIAL HISTORY
VOLUME FIVE
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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READINGS
IN
ENGLISH SOCIAL HISTORY
FROM
CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
VOLUME FIVE
1688—1837
EDITED BY
R. B. MORGAN, M.Litt*
INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS TO THE CROYDON EDUCATION COMMITTEE
AUTHOR OF
A New English Grammar, The Groundwork of English
ETC.
» 7 S 4 13.
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1922
TO
PHILIP
Printed in Scotland
by Tumbull &■= Shears, Edinburgh
PREFACE
It is a truism that every great political upheaval is followed
by a keener and livelier interest on the part of statesmen
and the people generally in the social and industrial ques-
tions that, phoenix-like, arise and demand settlement.
The upheaval caused by the war has focussed the atten-
tion of the country upon the necessity for improving the
social conditions of the people ; and for many years to
come legislation in the main will have to deal with the better-
ment of the conditions of life in its broadest and fullest
aspect.
A glimpse at the social conditions of the inhabitants of
this country in the past will be a help towards the better
understanding of what has gone to make " this little world
. . . set in the silver sea " the cradle of a race of shop-
keepers (as Napoleon dubbed us), and warriors, as we have
proved ourselves to be.
In these little volumes the editor has endeavoured to
select from contemporary writers pen-pictures of the country
and its inhabitants throughout the centuries : their mode of
life ; their food and clothing ; their games and recreations ;
their feastings and their burials ; their methods of fighting
on land and sea ; their laws and customs ; their education ;
their instinct for trade ; their pageants and their music ;
their joys and their sorrows ; in fact, all that goes to make
what we call " life."
In order to tempt his readers to explore for themselves
the sources from which the extracts are taken, the editor
has, where possible, chosen his selections from such editions
of authorities as can be found in any modern reference
VI
PREFACE
library, and to that end, the source of each extract is defined
in detail. In this connection the editor is under a debt of
gratitude to Mr G. Berwick Sayers, the chief librarian of
Croydon's splendidly equipped public library, for his expert
advice and assistance ; and to him and his staff sincere
thanks are due.
To Mr Walter Blackie, at whose suggestion the work was,
in the first place, undertaken, the editor offers his thanks.
The editor desires to express his sincere acknowledgments
to Mr S. C. Roberts, of Pembroke College, Cambridge, who,
in addition to being responsible for the selection of the illus-
trations, has, during the preparation of the volumes for the
press, placed at the editor's disposal his sound scholarship
and wide experience, which have been most gratefully
accepted.
Finally, the editor wishes to record his appreciation of
the many cordial notices of the earlier volumes which have
appeared in the public press.
R. B. M.
10 Wellesley Grove
Croydon
Aug. 26th, 1922
CONTENTS
Preface
PAGE
v
THE REVOLUTION
1. The English Country Gentleman of 1688
2. Developments in Naval Warfare
3. Why the Navy lacks Seamen
4. London Street-Cries
Macatjlay
1
Evelyn
7
il Miscellany
9
Addison
10
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
5. The South Sea Bubble .
6. A Playbill of 1720
7. London Life in 1714
8. On the Manners of the Bath Visitors
9. Some English Towns in 1725 .
10. Impressions of England in 1730
11. Postal Arrangements in 1730 .
12. The diet of a Blue-Coat Boy
13. The Blue-Coat Boy
14. The Birth of Methodism
15. A Service of John Wesley
16. The Opening of Ranelagh Gardens
17. A London Gala
18. A Schoolmaster's Life
19. Garrick and Golf .
20. The Duke of Bridgewater's Canal
21. An evening with Dr Johnson at the Mitre
22. Roads and Inns during the Eighteenth Century
COXE
13
.
19
Macky
19
Steele
20
Defoe
23
Gonzales
28
Gonzales
30
Gonzales
31
Lamb
32
Wesley
33
Walpole
43
Walpole
44
Walpole
44
Lloyd
48
Caklyle
49
Defoe
51
Boswell
54
Hervey, Wesley, Defoe, Young 57
viii CONTENTS
PAGE
23. The Division of Labour
Adam Smith
60
24. The State of the Poor (1795)
Eden
62
25. A Farmer's Fare in 1799
Parkinson
63
26. English Passion for Politics . - .
Goldsmith
63
27. Some English Customs ....
Moritz
67
28. Election of a Member of Parliament
Mokitz
70
29. A Debate in the House of Commons (1782)
Moritz
73
30. Highwaymen .....
Moritz
75
31. A Boat Race .....
. Walpole
78
32. Sunday Schools (1791) ....
Madame D'Arblay
78
33. Discovery of Vaccination
Baron
79
34. With Wellington's Army in the Peninsula
. Larpent
82
35. A View of the Threatened French Invasion (1815)
Sydney Smith
88
36. Rural Life in England ....
Washington Irving
89
37. The Stage Coach'
Washington Irving
96
38. The Christmas Dinner ....
Washington Irving
100
39. Taxation ......
. Sydney Smith
105
40. The Triumph of The Rocket .
Smiles
106
41. The Birth of Railways (1825)
. Creevey
111
42. Railways and Travel ....
. Sydney Smith
113
43. The English Countryside (1823)
Cobbett
114
44. An Extract from the Poor Law Report (1834)
117
45. The Old English Squire ....
.
118
Notes on Sources .....
•
121
The editor gratefully acknowledges permission to quote
extracts granted by the following owners of copyright
material :
The Navy Records Society (No. 3).
The Epworth Press (No. 14).
Mi John Murray (No. 41).
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACIXQ PAOB
London Street Cries ...... 12
From Tempest's Cries of London. These are illustrations
of four of the cries contained in the list on page 13.
The South Sea Bubble ..... 13
From a satirical print in the British Museum.
The Pump Room at Bath in the Eighteenth
Century 22
On the left of the picture may be seen an invalid chair ;
in the middle a lady riding on a pillion ; on the right a coach
and sedan-chairs.
Warner, History of Bath, 1801.
Newington in the Eighteenth Century . . 23
At this time Newington was a small parish with a church
and about 195 houses.
Bibliotheca Britannica, 1790.
John Wesley ....... 44
From the portrait by Nathaniel Hone in the National
Portrait Gallery.
Ranelagh Gardens ...... 45
This picture shows a masquerade held at Ranelagh Gardens
on 24 May 1759, the birthday of the Prince of Wales.
An Eighteenth Century Golfer . . 50
This is from an etching by John Kay, the Scottish carica-
turist, and represents a famous golfer of the period (Alex.
McKellar) as the "Cock of the Green."
From Paston's Social Caricature in the XVIII Century,
by permission of Messrs Methuen & Co., Ltd.
x ILLUSTRATIONS
PACING PAGE
The Manchester Canal at Barton Bridge . 51
At this point [the canal passed over the River Irwell and
" the spectator was gratified with the extraordinary sight never
before beheld in this country, of one vessel sailing over the
top of another."
The Polling 70
This is the third of a series of caricatures by Hogarth de-
picting an eighteenth-century election. A one-legged and one-
armed old soldier has just recorded his vote amidst the protests
of the bewigged advocate ; the next voter is apparently a
deaf imbecile ; behind him is an invabd wrapped in a blanket
and carried to the poll by two supporters.
The House of Commons in 1793 ... 71
William Pitt is seen delivering a speech. On the left, in
front of the second pillar, is Charles James Fox.
From the painting by Hinckel in the National Portrait Gallery.
A University Volunteer of 1804 ... 90
The illustration is from Harraden's Costume of the University
of Cambridge, 1803-5.
"In September [1803], the lay members of the University
formed a volunteer corps, who were drilled by Captain
S. Bircham of the 30th Foot. The Heads and Tutors
allowed one hour each day for this purpose and permitted a
suitable dress to be worn when on duty," — Cooper, Annals of
Cambridge.
English Rural Life 91
These are from an edition of Thomson's Seasons published
in 1802. The upper picture is from an engraving by W. Cooke,
the lower from one by W. Woolnoth.
The Bell Inn, Kilburn 100
From a print in the Crace Collection, British Museum.
The Triumph of The Rocket . . . .101
The upper picture shows The Rocket in working ; the lower the
contest at Liverpool described on pp. 106 ff.
From Smiles, Life of Oeorge Stephenson.
READINGS
IN SOCIAL HISTORY
THE REVOLUTION
1. THE ENGLISH COUNTRY GENTLEMAN OF 1688
Sottrce : Macaulay, History of England, Chap. 3.
A country gentleman who witnessed the revolution was
probably in receipt of about a fourth part of the rent which
his acres now yield to his posterity. He was, therefore,
as compared with his posterity, a poor man, and was gener-
ally under the necessity of residing, with little interruption,
on his estate. To travel on the Continent, to maintain an
establishment in London, or even to visit London frequently,
were pleasures in which only the great proprietors could
indulge. It may be confidently affirmed that of the squires
whose names were in [King Charles's] Commissions of
Peace and Lieutenancy not one in twenty went to town
once in five years, or had ever in his life wandered so far
as Paris. Many lords of manors had received an education
differing little from that of their menial servants. The heir
of an estate often passed his boyhood and youth at the seat
of his family with no better tutors than grooms and game-
keepers, and scarce attained learning enough to sign his
name to a mittimus. 1 If he went to school and to college,
he generally returned before he was twenty to the seclusion
of the old hall, and there, unless his mind were very happily
1 Mittimus — a warrant granted for sending to prison a person charged
with a crime.
VA l
2 THE REVOLUTION
constituted by nature, soon forgot his academical pursuits
in rural business and pleasures. His chief serious employ-
ment was the care of his property. He examined samples
of grain, handled pigs, and, on market-days, made bargains
over a tankard with drovers and hop-merchants. His chief
pleasures were commonly derived from field-sports. . . .
His language and pronunciation were such as we should now
expect to hear only from the most ignorant clowns. His
oaths, coarse jests, and scurrilous terms of abuse, were
uttered with the broadest accent of his province. It was
easy to discern, from the first words which he spoke, whether
he came from Somersetshire or Yorkshire. He troubled him-
self little about decorating his abode, and, if lie attempted
decoration, seldom produced anything but deformity. The
litter of a farmyard gathered under the windows of his
bedchamber, and the cabbages and gooseberry-bushes grew
close to his hall door. His table was loaded with coarse
plenty ; and guests were cordially welcome to it. But,
as the habit of drinking to excess was general in the class
to which he belonged, and as his fortune did not enable
him to intoxicate large assemblies daily with claret or
canary, strong beer was the ordinary beverage. The
quantity of beer consumed in those days was indeed
enormous. For beer then was to the middle and lower
classes, not only all that beer now is, but all that wine,
tea, and ardent spirits now are. It was only at great houses,
or on great occasions, that foreign drink was placed on the
board. The ladies of the house, whose business it had
commonly been to cook the repast, retired as soon as the
dishes had been devoured, and left the gentlemen to their
ale and tobacco. The coarse jollity of the afternoon was
often prolonged till the revellers were laid under the table.
It was very seldom that the country gentleman caught
glimpses of the great world ; and what he saw of it tended
rather to confuse than enlighten his understanding. His
THE REVOLUTION 8
opinions respecting religion, government, foreign countries,
and former times, having been derived, not from study,
from observation, or from conversation with enlightened
companions, but from such traditions as were current in
his own small circle, were the opinions of a child. He
adhered to them, however, with the obstinacy which is
generally found in ignorant men accustomed to be fed with
flattery. His animosities were numerous and bitter. He
hated Frenchmen and Italians, Scotchmen and Irishmen,
Papists and Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists,
Quakers and Jews. Towards London and Londoners he
felt an aversion which more than once produced important
political effects. His wife and daughter were in tastes and
acquirements below a housekeeper or a stillroom maid of
the present day. They stitched and spun, brewed goose-
berry wine, cured marigolds, and made the crust for the
venison pasty.
From this description it might be supposed that the
English esquire of the seventeenth century did not materi-
ally differ from a rustic miller or ale-house keeper of our
time. There are, however, some important parts of his
character still to be noted, which will greatly modify this
estimate. Unlettered as he was and unpolished, he was
still in some most important points a gentleman. He was
a member of a proud and powerful aristocracy, and was
distinguished by many both of the good and of the bad
qualities which belong to aristocrats. His family pride
was beyond that of a Talbot or a Howard. He knew the
genealogies and coats-of-arms of all his neighbours, and
could tell which of them had assumed supporters without
any right, and which of them were so unfortunate as to be
great-grandsons of aldermen. He was a magistrate, and,
as such, administered gratuitously to those who dwelt
around him a rude patriarchal justice, which, in spite of
innumerable blunders and of occasional acts of tyranny,
4 THE REVOLUTION
was yet better than no justice at all. He was an officer
of the train-bands; and his military dignity, though it
might move the mirth of gallants who had served a cam-
paign in Flanders, raised his character in his own eyes and
in the eyes of his neighbours. Nor, indeed, was his soldier-
ship justly a subject of derision. In every county there
were elderly gentlemen who had seen service which was no
child's play. One had been knighted by Charles I, after
the battle of Edgehill. Another still wore a patch over
the scar which he had received at Naseby. A third had
defended his old house till Fairfax had blown in the door
with a petard. The presence of these old Cavaliers, with
their old swords and holsters, and with their old stories
about Goring and Lunsford, gave to the musters of militia
an earnest and warlike aspect, which would otherwise
have been wanting. Even those country gentlemen who
were too young to have themselves exchanged blows with
the cuirassiers of the parliament had, from childhood,
been surrounded by the traces of recent war, and fed
with stories of the martial exploits of their fathers and
uncles. Thus the character of the English esquire of the
seventeenth century was compounded of two elements
which we seldom or never find united. His ignorance
and uncouthness, his low tastes and gross phrases, would,
in our time, be considered as indicating a nature and a
breeding thoroughly plebeian. Yet he was essentially a
patrician, and had, in large measure, both the virtues and
the vices which flourish among men set from their birth
in high place, and used to respect themselves and to be
respected by others. It is not easy for a generation ac-
customed to find chivalrous sentiments only in company
with liberal studies and polished manners to image to itself
a man with the deportment, the vocabulary, and the accent
of a carter, yet punctilious on matters of genealogy and pre-
cedence, and ready to risk his life rather than see a stain
THE REVOLUTION 5
cast on the honour of his house. It is, however, only by thus
joining together things seldom or never found together in
our own experience, that we can form a just idea of that
rustic aristocracy which constituted the main strength of
the armies of Charles I, and which long supported with
strange fidelity the interest of his descendants.
The gross, uneducated, untravelled country gentleman
was commonly a Tory ; but, though devotedly attached to
hereditary monarchy, he had no partiality for courtiers
and ministers. He thought, not without reason, that
Whitehall was filled with the most corrupt of mankind, and
that the great sums which the House of Commons had voted
to the crown since the Restoration part had been embezzled
by cunning politicians, and part squandered on buffoons.
. . . His stout English heart swelled with indignation
at the thought that the government of his country should
be subject to French dictation. Being himself generally
an old Cavalier, or the son of an old Cavalier, he reflected
with bitter resentment on the ingratitude with which the
Stuarts had requited their best friends. Those who heard
him grumble at the neglect with which he was treated . . .
would have supposed him ripe for rebellion. But all this
ill-humour lasted only till the throne was really in danger.
It was precisely when those whom the sovereign had loaded
with wealth and honours shrank from his side, that the
country gentlemen, so surly and mutinous in the season
of his prosperity, rallied round him in a body. Thus after
murmuring twenty years at the misgovernment of Charles II
they came to his rescue in his extremity, when his own
Secretaries of state and the Lords of his own Treasury had
deserted him, and enabled him to gain a complete victory
over the opposition ; nor can there be any doubt that they
would have shewn equal loyalty to his brother James, if
James would, even at the last moment, have refrained from
outraging their strongest feeling. For there was one in-
6 THE REVOLUTION
stitution, and one only, which they prized even more than
hereditary monarchy ; and that institution was the Church
of England. Their love of the Church was not, indeed, the
effect of study or meditation. Few among them could
have given any reason, drawn from Scripture or ecclesi-
astical history, for adhering to her doctrines, her ritual, and
her polity ; nor were they, as a class, by any means strict
observers of that code of morality which is common to all
Christian sects. But the experience of many ages proves
that men may be ready to fight to the death, and to
persecute without pity, for a religion whose creed they
do not understand, and whose precepts they habitually
disobey. . . .
When the lord of a Lincolnshire or Shropshire manor
appeared in Fleet Street, he was as easily distinguished
from the resident population as a Turk or a Lascar. His
dress, his gait, his accent, the manner in which he gazed
at the shops, stumbled into the gutters, ran against the
porters, and stood under the waterspouts, marked him out
as an excellent subject for the operations of swindlers and
banterers. Bullies jostled him into the kennel. Hackney
coachmen splashed him from head to foot. Thieves ex-
plored with perfect security the huge pockets of his horse-
man's coat, while he stood entranced by the splendour of
the Lord Mayor's show. Money-droppers, sore from the
cart's tail, introduced themselves to him, and appeared to
him the most honest friendly gentlemen that he had ever
seen. ... If he asked his way to St James's, his informants
sent him to Mile End. If he went into a shop, he was in-
stantly discerned to be a fit purchaser of everything that
nobody else would buy, of second-hand embroidery, copper
rings, and watches that would not go. If he rambled into
any fashionable coffee-house, he became a mark for the
insolent derision of fops and the grave waggery of Templars.
Enraged and mortified, he soon returned to his mansion,
THE REVOLUTION 7
and there, in the homage of his tenants, and the conversa-
tion of his boon-companions, found consolation for the
vexations and humiliations he had undergone. There he
was once more a great man, and he saw nothing above him-
self except when at the assizes he took his seat on the bench
near the Judge, or when at the muster of the militia he
saluted the Lord Lieutenant.
2. DEVELOPMENTS IN NAVAL WARFARE
Soukce : Evelyn, Diary.
1690, March 7. — I din'd with Mr Pepys, late Secretary
to the Admiralty, where was that excellent Shipwright and
Seaman (for so he had ben and also a Commiss r of the
Navy) Sir Anthony Deane. Amongst other discourse, and
deploring the sad condition of our Navy, as now govern'd
by unexperienc'd men since this Revolution, he mention'd
what exceeding advantage we of this nation had by being the
first who built Fregats, 1 the first of which ever built was that
vessell which was afterwards call'd The Constant Warwick,
and was the work of Pet of Chatham, for a trial of making
a vessell that would sail swiftly ; it was built with low
decks, the guns lying neere the water, and was so light
and swift of sailing, that in a short time he told us she had,
ere the Dutch war was ended, taken as much money from
privateers as would have laden her ; and that more such
being built did in a yeare or two scour the Channel from
those of Dunkirk and others which had exceedingly infested
it. He added that it would be the best and onely infallible
expedient to be masters of the sea, and able to destroy the
greatest navy of any enemy, if instead of building huge
greate ships and second and third rates, they would leave
off building such high decks, which were for nothing but to
gratify Gentlemen Commanders, who must have all their
1 Fregats — frigates.
8 THE REVOLUTION
effeminate accommodations, and for pomp ; that it would
be the ruin of our fleets if such persons were continued in
command, they neither having experience nor being capable
of learning, because they would not submit to the fatigue
and inconvenience which those who were bred seamen
would undergo, in those so otherwise usefull swift fregats.
These being to encounter the greatest ships would be able
to protect, set on, and bring off, those who should manage
the fire-ships ; and the Prince who should first store
himselfe with numbers of such fire-ships would, thro' the
help and countenance of such fregats, be able to ruin the
greatest force of such vast ships that could be sent to sea,
by the dexterity of working those light, swift ships to guard
the fire-ships. He concluded there would shortly be no
other method of sea-fight, and that great ships and men of
war, however stor'd with guns and men, must submit to
those who should encounter them with far less number.
He represented to us the dreadfull effect of these fire-ships ;
that he continually observ'd in our late maritime war with
the Dutch, that when an enemy's fire-ship approach'd, the
most valiant commander and common sailors were in such
consternation that tho' then, of all times, there was most
need of the guns, boomes, etc., to keep the mischief off,
they grew pale and astonish'd, as if of a quite other mean
soul, that they slunk about, forsook their guns and work
as if in despair, every one looking about to see which way
they might get out of their ship, tho' sure to be drown'd
if they did so. This he said was likely to prove hereafter
the method of sea-fight, likely to be the misfortune of
England if they continued to put Gentlemen Commanders
over experienc'd Seamen, on account of their ignorance,
effeminacy and insolence.
THE REVOLUTION 9
3. WHY THE NAVY LACKS SEAMEN [1692]
Source : A Commissioner's Note Book. Published in The Naval
Miscellany, Vol. II. (Laughton.)
Reflecting upon the state of this nation as to naval strength
in 1652, when the Dutch first made war upon us, we, at
beginning of that war having but a small navy, ended the
same with more than a double strength, notwithstanding
the many smart fights with them before we could obtain
the mastery of the sea. And considering the great number
of ships of war built since for a further reinforcement, do
find ourselves at this day much inferior to the French in
naval strength, particularly in the number of seamen, they
having no navy then and wanting those natural helps
England have to breed seamen by the Flanders, Holland,
Hamburg, Raltic, and Norway trade, North Sea, Island
[Iceland], Westmony [Westmanna, a little island on the
South coast of Iceland], and herring fishery ; our New
England, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Carolina, and
Carribbee Islands, increased by Jamaica, our Guinea,
Spanish, Portugal, and French as well as coasting, and
coal trade, our fishery for the river Thames, besides that
of watermen and west country bargemen, afford England
many more helps to breed seamen than the French.
And also considering the Dutch, their double war (with
us) since and the French king's invasion upon them by
land and sea in 1672, which greatly impoverished them, do
yet retain the same vigour for war and opinion of their
neighbours for naval strength and conduct that ever they
had, it is visible to me that this defect amongst a troop of
other causes, as bad and short victualling, changing one
specie for another with giving an equivalent, keeping sea-
men long without their pay, turning them into other ships
with a captain they love not, keeping them over long from
their families, not curing the sick with the King's medicines
nor well cared for to go abroad after recovery, not eating
10 THE REVOLUTION
fresh meat and roots while in port, crowding too many men
in a ship ; not taking care to get seamen a proper specie of
slop clothes, nor a sufficient quantity, over gunning ships
in the winter so as seamen seldom lie dry in foul weather ;
not letting seamen have any plunder or prize money
or preferment, and preferring Volunteer gentlemen and
soldiers in their accommodation aboard before officers and
seamen — as Lord Torrington by lodging soldiers in the middle
and seamen on the lower gun deck, preferring the ignorant
and least able, ashore for money and at sea for power.
Punishing seamen severely for slight causes springs
chiefly from gentlemen commanding in the navy, who for
the most part, meet with more accidents (too many of their
own making) than a seaman captain.
4. LONDON STREET-CRIES
Source : Addison, Spectator, No. 251, Dec. 18, 1711.
There is nothing which more astonishes a foreigner and
frights a Country Squire, than the Cries of London. My
good friend Sir Roger often declares that he cannot get
them out of his head, or go to sleep for them the first week
that he is in Town. On the contrary, Will Honeycomb
calls them the Ramage de la Ville and prefers them to
the sounds of larks and nightingales, with all the musick of
the fields and woods.
. . . The Cries of London may be divided into Vocal
and Instrumental. As for the latter they are at present
under a very great disorder. A Freeman of London has
the privilege of disturbing a whole street for an hour
together, with the twancking of a brass-kettle or a frying-
pan. The Watchman's thump at midnight startles us in
our beds, as much as the breaking in of a thief. . . .
Vocal cries are of a much larger extent, and indeed so
full of incongruities and barbarisms, that we appear a dis-
THE REVOLUTION 11
tracted city to foreigners, who do not comprehend the
meaning of such enormous outcries. Milk is generally sold
in a note above E-la, 1 and in sounds so exceeding shrill,
that it often sets our teeth on edge. The Chimney-sweeper
is confined to no certain pitch ; he sometimes utters himself
in the deepest base, and sometimes in the sharpest treble ;
sometimes in the highest, and sometimes in the lowest note
of the gamut. The same observation might be made on
the Retailers of Small-coal, not to mention broken Glasses
or Brick-dust. In these therefore, and the like cases, it
should be my care to sweeten and mellow the voices of
these itinerant tradesmen, before they make their appearance
in our streets, as also to accommodate their cries to their
respective wares : and to take care in particular, that
those may not make the most noise who have the least to
sell, which is very observable in the vendors of Card-matches,
to whom I cannot but apply that old proverb of Much
cry but Little Wool.
Some of these last mentioned musicians are so very loud
in the sale of these trifling manufactures, that an honest
splenetick gentleman of my acquaintance bargained with
one of them never to come into the street where he lived.
But what was the effect of this contract ? Why, the whole
tribe of Card-matchmakers which frequent that quarter,
passed by his door the very next day, in hopes of being
bought off after the same manner.
It is another great imperfection in our London Cries,
that there is no just time nor measure observed in them.
Our News should indeed be published in a very quick time,
because it is a commodity that will not keep cold. It
should not, however, be cried with the same precipitation
as Fire. Yet this is generally the case. A bloody battle
alarms the town from one end to another in an instant.
Every motion of the French is published in so great an hurry,
1 Elah — E natural, " lah " in the scale of G major.
12 THE REVOLUTION
that one would think the enemy were at our gates. . . .
Nor must I omit under this head those excessive alarms
with which several boisterous rustics infest our streets
in Turnip-SEASON ; and which are more inexcusable, be-
cause these are wares which are in no danger of cooling
upon their hands.
There are others who affect a very slow time, and are in
my opinion much more tuneable than the former. The
Cooper in particular swells his last note in an hollow voice,
that is not without its harmony ; nor can I forbear being
inspired with a most agreeable melancholy, when I hear
that sad and solemn air with which the publick are very
often asked, if they have any Chairs to mend ? . . .
It might likewise deserve our most serious consideration,
how far, in a well regulated city, those humourists are to
be tolerated, who, not contented with the traditional cries
of their forefathers, have invented particular songs and
tunes of their own : such as was not many years since,
the Pastry-man, commonly known by the name of the
Colly-Molly-Puff ; and such as is at this day the vendor
of Powder and Washballs, who, if I am rightly informed,
goes under the Name of Powder- Watt.
I must not here omit one particular absurdity which runs
thro' this whole vociferous generation, and which renders
their Cries very often not only incommodious, but altogether
useless to the publick. I mean, that idle accomplishment
which they all of them aim at, of crying so as not to be
understood. Whether or no they have learned this from
several of our affected singers, I will not take upon me to
say ; but most certain it is, that people know the wares
they deal in rather by their tunes than by their words ;
insomuch that I have sometimes seen a county boy run
out to buy apples of a bellows-mender, and ginger-bread
from a grinder of knives and scissors. . . .
(The following list of London Street cries is taken from
t>uy my Dulcli Bilker.*
I : hw*J Lu«j Long y Strong^
'
■
« if! E\ J
*HS*T
Jtj' i
Bl
il
■sa If/ /fir 1 1
EDj
Bf
f^M&m
Mew River ^ juc
London Street Cries
Hie
SOUTH SEA BITBBUE.
The Head I ana Fools'J'tufuj& ut/s South. Sea 'Wafer,
But the Sly Jong-heads, Wade with Caution a'ter.
The First are Drowtuna but the Wiser Last. -3
Venture no Deeper than tAeJfoees or Wast . "^)
mo.
t^S/rr (SeiM&i
*?l& cy M*
^<J?e>6/e?
lev,
The South Sea Bubble
^-cJ^vvvf
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
13
Habits and Cryes of the City of London, 1709, by Marcellus
Lauron, quoted in Ashton's Social Life in the reign of
Queen Anne.)
A Bed Matt or a Door Matt.
A Merry New Song.
Any Bakeing Peares.
Any Card matches or Savealls.
Any Kitchin Stuffe have you
maids.
Any work for John Cooper.
Buy a fine Tahle Basket.
Buy a Fork or a Fire Shovel.
Buy a Rahbet a Rabbet.
Buy a new Almanack.
Buy any Wax or Wafers.
Buy my Dish of great Eeles.
Buy my Dutch Biskets.
Buy my Four Ropes of Hard
Ouyons.
Colly Molly PufFe.
Crab Crab any Crab.
Delicate Cowcumbers to pickle.
Fair Lemons and Oranges.
Fine Writeing Inke.
Four for six pence Mackrell.
Four paire for a Shilling Holland
Socks.
Hott Bak'd Wardens » Hott.
Knives Combs or Inkhornes.
Knives or Cisers to Grinde.
Lilly white Vinegar 3 pence a
quart.
Londona Gazette here.
Long Threed Laces Long and
Strong.
New River Water.
Old Chaires to mend.
Old Satten Old Taffety or Velvet.
Old Shooes for Some Broomes.
Pretty Maids Pretty Pins Pretty
Women.
Remember the Poor Prisoners.
Ripe Speragas.
Ripe Strawberryes.
Six pence a pound fair Cherryes.
Twelve Pence a Peck Oysters.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
5. THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE [1720]
Source : Coxe, Memoirs of Sir B. Walpole, Vol. I.
The South Sea Company owed its origin to a chimerical
project, formed by Harley, in 1711, for the purpose of
restoring the public credit, which had been greatly affected
by the dismission of the Whig Ministry. ... In order
to allure the creditors with the hopes of advantages from
a new commerce, the monopoly of a trade to the South
Sea, or coast of Spanish America, was granted to a com par)
1 Pies.
14 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
composed of the several proprietors of this funded debt,
which being incorporated by act of parliament, took the
appelation of the South Sea Company. The great advan-
tages to be derived from this commerce, had been held
forth and exaggerated from the time of our first voyages to
Spanish America ... a rumour, industriously circulated,
that four ports on the coasts of Peru and Chili, were to be
ceded by Spain, inflamed the general ardour. . . .
But the grand benefits of this commerce were never
realized. The first voyage . . . was not made till 1717,
and in the following year, the trade was suppressed by the
rupture with Spain. Their effects, factories, and servants
were seized and detained. . . . Such was the state of
the South Sea Company, when the Ministry, instead of
attempting to lessen the national incumbrances, by the
only just and successful means, a clear and inviolable
sinking fund, adopted the visionary schemes of projectors,
and gave to the South Sea Company the power of fascinating
the minds of the public, and spreading an infatuation similar
to that which had recently involved France in national
bankruptcy. The grand point which Government had
in view was the reduction of the irredeemable annuities,
created in the reigns of William and Anne, . . . amounting
nearly to £800,000 per annum, as no effectual measures
could be adopted to lessen the public debts, whilst these
annuities remained irredeemable.
In order to effect this liquidation, the minister accepted
proposals from the South Sea Company, for reducing the
debts to a redeemable state : as the object of the ministers
who had previously and secretly arranged the scheme with
the directors, was to surprise the house of commons into
the measure of granting this extensive privilege to the
South Sea Company, and of preventing competition, they
entertained the most sanguine hopes of success, from the
specious advantages which they held forth to the" public
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 15
as the necessary consequences. They accordingly laid the
business before a committee of the house of commons. . . .
In consequence of these resolutions, the bank of England
laid a proposition before the commons, offering still more
advantageous terms. . . . The South Sea Company had
offered to give £3,500,000 ; but the bank, having bid
£5,500,000, the Company were so irritated, that at a general
court, the directors were instructed to obtain the preference,
cost what it would, and they succeeded, by the offer of paying
the enormous sum of £7,567,500 as a gratuity to the public.
This proposal being laid before the house of commons, was
warmly opposed by Walpole, who spoke in favour of the
bank. . . . The preference was given to the South Sea,
and the bill was afterwards carried by a majority of more
than 3 to 1. . . .
The general frenzy in favour of the South Sea speculation
had risen to an enormous height. The compensation to
to South Sea Company, for the immediate payment of the
£7,567,500, seemingly for no value received, was to be
drawn from the profits of their scheme. . . .
The company could not fulfil its engagements with
government, and pay so large a sum as between seven and
eight millions, without taking advantage of the general
infatuation, and availing themselves of that spirit of
pecuniary enterprise, which had seized the public mind.
Imaginary advantages were accordingly held forth ; ground-
less and mysterious reports were circulated concerning
valuable acquisitions in the South Sea, and hidden treasures ;
dividends of ten, thirty, and even fifty per cent, were voted,
which the directors knew could never be paid ; and for
which there was no foundation.
The promoters of the scheme highly exaggerated the
profits. . . . The public being intoxicated with these ideas,
the stock, which at the close of the books at Christmas, 1719,
was only at 126, rose, at the opening of the first subscription,
16 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
on the 14 of April, to above £300. ... As the frenzy
spread, and the desire of making rapid fortunes became
contagious, the stock successively rose to above 1000 per
cent. . . . The sanguine cupidity, which marked this
speculation, was not confined to the South Sea scheme :
the whole nation became stock jobbers and projectors. . . .
These delusive projects received their first check from
the power to which they owed their birth : The directors
of the South Sea Company, jealous of their success, . . .
obtained writs . . . against the conductors of bubbles,
and thus put an end to them. But in opening the eyes
of the deluded multitude, they took away the main prop of
their own tottering edifice. Suspicion once excited was not
to be suppressed, and the public . . . declined all farther
purchases of stock. . . . Amongst the numbers who suffered
by these speculations, were not only persons of the first rank,
but merchants and traders of every class, and bankers.
When the public distress was arrived at a most alarming
height, and despair pervaded all ranks of people, to Walpole
every eye was directed, as the only person capable of
affording assistance, under the pressure of immediate
necessity. . . .
[Walpole] did not, however, shrink from the trial ; but
engaged in the task with that ardour and assiduity which
marked his character. . . . He adopted a plan for ingrafting
a certain portion of the South Sea stock in the bank and East
India company. . . . The king and cabinet having ratified
the scheme ... he [submitted] it to parliament. ... In
its passage through the commons, it was in some respects
altered . . . but the principal features were preserved.
1721. — During the period in which this scheme was
carrying through both houses of parliament, the loudest
and most violent clamours were excited as well against the
directors, as against the ministers who had promoted the
South Sea act, which was considered as the sole cause of
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 17
the national distress. ... All the managers were indis-
criminately involved in the same guilt ; the very name
of a director was synonymous with every species of fraud
and villainy. Petitions from counties, cities, and boroughs,
in all parts of the kingdom, were presented to the house,
crying for justice due to an injured nation against the
villainy of these peculators, and the sufferers looked up for
indemnification from the confiscation of their property, or
for vengeance in the punishment of their guilt.
. . . The spirit by which Walpole was directed, and
the principles by which he acted, during the whole progress
of this delicate business, are laid down in the speech from
the throne, on the prorogation of parliament, which he
drew up. " The common calamity, occasioned by the
wicked execution of the South Sea Scheme, was become
so. very great before your meeting, that the providing
proper remedies for it was very difficult ; but it is a great
comfort to me to observe, that public credit now begins to
recover ; which gives me the greatest hopes that it will be
entirely restored, when all the provisions you have made for
the end, shall be duly put into execution. I have great
compassion for the sufferings of the innocent, and a just
indignation against the guilty ; and have readily given
my assent to such bills as you have presented to me, for
punishing the authors of our late misfortunes, and for
obtaining the restitution and satisfaction due to those who
have been injured by them, in such a manner as you judged
proper. I was at the same time willing and desirous, by
my free and general pardon, to give ease and quiet to the
rest of my subjects, many of whom may, in such a general in-
fatuation, have been unwarily drawn in to transgress the laws."
Thus at length, by the ability, address, and perseverance
of Walpole, the fatal project of the South Sea was converted
into a national benefit ; the distresses are forgotten, and
the advantages remain,
v b
18 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
The following are some of the Bubble Companies, which,
on 12th July, 1720, were declared to be illegal by the Lords
Justices assembled in Privy Council and were accordingly
abolished : —
1. For building and rebuilding houses throughout all
England. Capital £3,000,000.
2. For supplying the town of Deal with fresh water.
3. For making of iron and steel in Great Britain.
4. For improving the land in the county of Flint. Capital
£1,000,000.
5. For trading in hair.
6. For carrying on an undertaking of great advantage :
but nobody to know what it is.
7. For paving the streets of London. Capital £2,000,000.
8. For furnishing funerals to any part of Great Britain.
9. For insuring of horses. Capital £2,000,000.
10. For a grand dispensary. Capital £3,000,000.
11. For a wheel for perpetual motion. Capital £1,000,000.
12. For insuring and increasing children's fortunes.
13. For insuring to all masters and mistresses the losses
they may sustain by servants. Capital £2,000,000.
14. For the importation of timber from Wales. Capital
£2,000,000.
15. For the transmutation of quicksilver into a malleable
fine metal.
16. For buying and fitting out ships to suppress pirates.
17. For erecting loan-offices for the assistance and en-
couragement of the industries. Capital £2,000,000.
18. For improving the art of making soap.
19. For extracting silver from lead.
20. For bleaching coarse sugars, without the use of fire or
loss of substance.
Etc., etc.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 19
G. A PLAYBILL OF 1720
Source : Advertisement quoted in Macfarlane and Thomson's Com*
prehensive History of England, Vol. III.
These are to give notice that Belsize [a stately building
in front of the highway of Hampstead] is now opened for
the whole season, and that all things are most commodiously
concerted for the reception of gentlemen and ladies ; the
park, wilderness, and gardens being wonderfully improved,
and filled with variety of birds, which compose a most
melodious and delightsome harmony. Every morning, at
seven o'clock, the music begins to play, and continues the
whole day through ; and any persons inclined to walk and
divert themselves in the morning, may as cheaply breakfast
there, on tea or coffee, as in their own chambers. And for
the convenience of single persons or families who reside
at Hampstead, there are coaches prepared to ply betwixt
the two places, which, by the least notice given, shall attend
at their lodgings or houses for sixpence per passenger ; and
for the security of his guests, there are twelve stout fellows
completely armed to patrol betwixt London and Belsize,
to prevent the insults of highwaymen or footpads which
may infest the road.
7. LONDON LIFE IN 1714
Source : Macky, Journey through England, 1714-29. Letter IX.
I am lodged in the street called Pall Mall, the ordinary
residence of all strangers. If you would know our manner
of living it is thus : — We rise by nine, and those that frequent
great men's levees find entertainment at them till eleven or,
as in Holland, go to tea-tables. About twelve the beau
moncle assembles in several coffee or chocolate houses, the
best of which are the Cocoa Tree and White's Chocolate-
houses, St James's, the Smyrna, Mrs Rochford's and the
20 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
British Coffee-houses ; and all these so near to one another
that in less than an hour you see the company of them all.
We are carried to these placed in chairs, which are here
very cheap, a guinea a week, or one shilling per hour, and
your chair-men serve you for porters to run on errands. . . .
If it is fine weather we take a turn in the park till two,
when we go to dinner, and if it be dirty, you are entertained
at picquet or basset at White's, or you may talk politics at
Smyrna, or St James's. I must not forget to tell you that
the parties have their different places, where, however, a
stranger is always well received, but a Whig will no more
go to the Cocoa Tree or Osinda's than a Tory will be seen
at the Coffee-houses of St James's. The Sets generally go
to the British, and a mixture of all sorts to the Smyrna.
Ordinaries are not so common here as abroad, but there
are good French ones in Suffolk Street. The general way
here is to make a party at the Coffee house to go to dine at
the tavern, where we sit till six, when we go to the play,
except you are invited to the table of some great man.
After the play the best company generally go to Tom's and
Will's Coffee houses near adjoining, where there is playing
at picquet and the best of conversation till midnight. . . .
8. ON THE MANNERS OF THE BATH VISITORS
Source : Steel's essay in The Guardian, No. 174, dated Sept. 30, 1713.
In public assemblies there are generally some envious
splenetic people, who having no merit to procure respect,
are ever finding fault with those who distinguish themselves.
This happens more frequently at those places, where this
season of the year calls persons of both sexes together for
their health. I have had reams of letters from Bath, Epsom,
Tunbridge, and Saint Wenefrede's Well ; wherein I could
observe that a concern for honour and virtue proceeded
from the want of health, beauty, or fine petticoats. A lady,
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 21
who subscribes herself Eudosia, writes a bitter invective
against Chloe the celebrated dancer ; but I have learned,
that she herself is lame of the rheumatism. Another, who
hath been a prude ever since she had the small-pox, is
very bitter against the coquettes . . . ; and a sharp wit
hath sent me a keen epigram against the gamesters ; but I
took notice that it was not written upon gilt paper.
Having had several strange pieces of intelligence from
the Bath ; as, that more constitutions were weakened there
than repaired ; . . . I resolved to look upon the company
there, as I returned lately out of the country. It was a
great jest to see such a grave ancient person as I am, in
an embroidered cap and brocade night-gown. But, besides
the necessity of complying with the custom, by these means
I passed undiscovered, and had a pleasure I much covet,
of being alone in a crowd. It was no little satisfaction to
me, to view the mixt mass of all ages and dignities upon a
level, partaking of the same benefits of nature, and mingling
in the same diversions. I sometimes entertained myself by
observing what a large quantity of ground was hidden under
spreading petticoats ; and what little patches of earth w r ere
covered by creatures with wigs and hats, in comparison to
those spaces that were distinguished by flounces, fringes
and falbullows. . . .
Having thus prepared thee, gentle reader, I shall not
scruple to entertain thee with a panegyric upon the gamesters.
I have indeed spoken incautiously heretofore of that class
of men ; but I should forfeit all title to modesty, should I
any longer oppose the common sense of the nobility and
gentry of the kingdom. Were we to treat all those with
contempt, who are the favourites of blind chance, few
levees would be crowded. It is not the height of sphere in
which a man moves, but the manner in which he acts, that
makes him truly valuable. When therefore I see a gentle-
man lose his money with serenity, I recognise in him all the
22 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
great qualities of a philosopher. If he storms, and invokes
the gods, I lament that he is not placed at the head of a
regiment. The great gravity of the countenances round
Harrison's table, puts me in mind of a council board : and
the indefatigable application of the several combatants
furnishes me with an unanswerable reply to those gloomy
mortals, who censure this as an idle life. In short, I cannot
see any reason why gentlemen should be hindered from
raising a fortune by those means, which at the same time
enlarge their minds. Nor shall I speak dishonourably of some
little artifice or finesse used upon these occasions ; since the
world is so just to any man who is become a possessor of
wealth, as not to respect him the less, for the methods he
took to come by it.
Upon considerations like these, the ladies share in these
diversions. I must own, that I receive great pleasure in
seeing my pretty countrywomen engaged in an amusement
which puts them upon producing so many virtues. Hereby
they acquire such a boldness, as raises them nearer that
lordly creature, man. Here they are taught such con-
tempt of wealth, as may dilate their minds, and prevent
many curtain lectures. Their natural tenderness is
a weakness here easily unlearned ; and I find my soul
exalted, when I see a lady sacrifice the fortune of her children
with as little concern as a Spartan or a Roman dame. In
such a place as the Bath I might urge, that the casting of a
die is indeed the properest exercise for a fair creature to
assist the waters ; not to mention the opportunity it gives
to display the well-turned arm, and to scatter to advantage
the rays of the diamond. But I am satisfied, that the
gamester ladies have surmounted the little vanities of
showing their beauty, which they so far neglect, as to throw
their features into violent distortions, and wear away their
lilies and roses in tedious watching, and restless elucubra-
tions. I should rather observe, that their chief passion is
acscs
J Kt&fJ*/* <j£*4l
Newington in the Eighteenth Century
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 23
an emulation of manhood, which I am the more inclined
to believe, because, in spite of all slanders, their confidence
in their virtue keeps them up all night, with the most
dangerous creatures of our sex. It is to me an undoubted
argument of their ease of conscience, that they go directly
from church to the gaming-table ; and so highly rever-
ence play as to make it a great part of their exercise on
Sundays. . . .
The physicians here are very numerous, but very good-
natured. To these charitable gentlemen I owe, that I was
cared, in a week's time, of more distempers than I ever had
in my life. They had almost killed me with their humanity.
A learned fellow-lodger prescribed me a little something,
at my first coming, to keep up my spirits ; and the next
morning I was so much enlivened by another, as to have an
order to bleed for my fever. I was proffered a cure for
the scurvy by a third, and had a recipe for the dropsy gratis
before night. In vain did I modestly decline these favours ;
for I was awakened early in the morning by an apothecary,
who brought me a dose from one of my well-wishers. I paid
him, but withal told him severely, that I never took physic.
My landlord hereupon took me for an Italian merchant that
suspected poison ; but the apothecary, with more sagacity,
guessed that I was certainly a physician myself. . . .
9. SOME ENGLISH TOWNS IN 1725
Source : Defoe, A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain.
London. Mr Maitland says that in the year 1732, he
measured the length and breadth of this city and suburbs
with a perambulator, and found the extent as follows :
Length, from the upper end of Knightsbridge in the west
to Robin- Hood- Lane, at the lower end of Poplar in the east,
seven miles and a half.
Length, from Robin- Hood- Lane, back again, coasting the
24 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
river westward to Peterborough-house, at the south end of
Millbank-Row, above the horse ferry, Westminster, six
miles and three quarters.
Breadth, from Jejfery's Almshouses in Kingsland Road, to
the upper end of Camberwell Road, Newington Butts, three
miles.
Within this extensive area there were computed to be
5,099 streets, lanes, squares, etc., composed of 95,968 houses;
but so many of the old streets have been since altered, and
so many new streets added, that however right this com-
putation was at that time it can now be no longer so.
We see several villages, formerly standing, as it were, in
the country, and at a great distance, now joined to the
streets by continued buildings, and more making haste to
meet in like manner. For example, [1] Deptford . . .
[2] The Town of Islington ... [3] Of Mile End . . .
[4] Newington-Butts, in Surrey. . . .
The Mews near Charing Cross, where the King's horses
are kept, and the Coaches of State set up, is a very large
kind of Square ; but the buildings being old, and unworthy
of the situation, as well as of the use, are, as 'tis said, to
be pulled down. The principal range at the upper end is
already finished ; and when the other parts are completed,
it will be one of the finest things, of its kind, in Europe.
I cannot forbear particularly to mention one beauty,
because it is an honour to our country ; and that is the
great Piazza in Covent Garden, the noblest square in
Europe. . . .
To these must be added the Adelphi building near the*
Strand, which forms a very stupendous mass of new and
large houses ; beneath which are vast subterranean passages,
whereby carriages of all kinds have communication with
the Thames ; and the immense warehouses, which form
the base of the streets, etc. are rendered commodious. . . .
Nor should the Pantheon be forgotten, which in taste,
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 25
magnificence and novelty of design and decoration, may be
pronounced superior to anything of the kind in Europe, its
principal room is truly magnificent, it is lighted by a centrical
dome of a considerable magnitude ; the galleries round this
room are supported by columns formed of a new-discovered
composition, which rivals the most beautiful marble both
in colour and hardness. . . .
The gates of the city of London were seven, besides
posterns.
Ludgate was a prison for debt, for freemen of the city only.
It is now taken down, in order to open the passage for the
convenience of both cities.
Newgate is a prison for criminals . . . and for debtors.
Moorgate ... a beautiful Gateway, the arch being near
twenty foot high, . . . for the city Train'd Bands to go
through . . . with their pikes advane'd. It has likewise
been pulled down. . . .
Cripplegate . . . very old and made but a mean figure,
is now taken down.
Bishopsgate, though newly rebuilt, yet not with the least
elegance, is also taken down.
Aldersgate and Aldgate made handsome appearances, but
were [in 1761], both taken down, as well as Ludgate, Cripple-
gate and Bishopsgate.
Temple-bar is the only gate which is erected at the extent
of the City Liberties ; and this was occasioned by some
needful ceremonies, as at the proclaiming any King or Queen
of England, at which time the gates are shut. The Herald
at Arms knocks hard at the door ; the Sheriffs of the city
call back, asking, Who is there ? Then the herald answers,
/ come to proclaim, etc. according to the name of the Prince
who is to succeed to the Crown, and repeating the titles
of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, etc., at which the
Sheriffs open, and bid them welcome ; and so they go on to
the Exchange, where they make the last proclamation. . . .
26 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
The City of London, and parts adjacent, as also all the
South of England, is supplied with coals, [by sea], called
therefore sea-coal, from Newcastle upon Tyne and from the
coast of Durham and Northumberland. This trade . . .
is esteemed the great nursery of our best seamen. . . . The
quantity of coals, [which one year with another, are] burnt
and consumed in and about this City, is supposed to be
about Five hundred thousand chalder, every chalder con-
taining thirty-six bushels, and generally weighing about
thirty hundred weight.
All these coals are bought and sold [at this Exchange;] and,
though sometimes, especially in case of a war, or of con-
trary winds, a fleet from 500 to 700 sail of ships comes up
the river at a time, yet they never want a market. The
brokers or buyers of these coals are called Crimps ; . . .
the vessels they load their ships with at New Castle are
called Keels ; and the ships that bring them are called
Cats and Hags, or Hag boats, Fly boats and the like.
Let us now mention something briefly in relation to the
yearly births and burials of this extended city. ... I shall
only take notice, that whereas the general number of the
burials in the year 1666, and farther back, were from 17,000
to 19,000 in a year, the yearly bill for the year 1759 amounted
as follows : —
Christened .... 14,253
Buried .... 19,604
Here is to be observed, that the number of burials exceeding
so much the number of births, is, because as it is not the
number born, but the number christened, that are set down,
which is taken from the Parish Register ; so all the children
of dissenters of every sort, Protestant, Popish and Jewish,
are omitted, also all the children of foreigners, French, Dutch,
etc., which are baptised in their own churches, and all the
children of those who are so poor, that they cannot get them
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 27
registered : so that if a due estimate be made, the births
may be well supposed very much to exceed the burials. . . .
Whitstable, a place of little consequence in former times,
is now, from its being a kind of port to Canterbury, become
a town of brisk trade, and a great deal of business. . . .
Margate is now become a place of great resort for sea-
bathing, where every accommodation is prepared that the
place will admit of to render immersion in the salt water
pleasant and efficacious. Hence, from a small town, in-
habited only by fishermen and smugglers, it is now increased
to a place of very considerable magnitude, and adorned
with houses fit for the reception of people of the first rank,
and with places of amusement and recreation which will
satisfy those who are the most addicted to them. . . .
Brighthelmstone x is now become a polite place, by the
annual resort of the gentry in the summer season, as being
the nearest sea-port to London, and very convenient for
sea-bathing ; for the accommodation of whom there have
been two handsome ball-rooms built, and several machines
for bathing. The gentry may also have the use of two
circulating libraries. . . .
Shoreham a town chiefly inhabited by ship-carpenters,
ship-chandlers, and all the several trades depending upon
the building and fitting up of ships, which is their chief
business. . . . Vessels of a large size, some for the use
of the navy, but most for the merchants service are here
constructed. . . . Shoreham is justly noted for sailors, and
for neat and stout sea-boats.
Isle of Wight. On the west side of the island are the
Needles, which consist of several large chalky rocks, one of
which, that was almost two hundred feet in height from its
base, fell down about three years ago.
Croydon has a great corn-market, but chiefly for oats and
oatmeal for the service of London. The town is large and
1 Brighthelmstone — Brighton.
28 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
full of citizens from London : ... it is the ancient palace of
the archbishops of Canterbury, and several of them lie
buried in the church here, which is reckoned the largest and
handsomest in the county ; particularly archbishop Whitgift,
who not only repair' d the palace, but built and endowed
the famous hospital (which is for a Warden and 28 men and
women, poor decayed housekeepers of this town, and of
Lambeth), and the free school. . . .
Darlington ... is a large, considerable market town,
of great resort, and well supplied. ... It is noted for the
linen manufacture ; but it particularly excels in hucka-
backs of ten quarters wide, which are made no where else
in England, and of which, as well as other linen cloth, it
sends up large quantities to London. A good many tammys
and other worsted goods are now made here.
10. IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND IN 1730
Source : Don Manoel Gonzales, Voyage to Great Britain [circa 1730]. In
John Pinkerton, General Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1808-14, Vol. II.
First its advantages. It is a great, rich, and powerful
kingdom. 2. Separated by the sea from other countries,
so that it cannot be attacked by other nations, but with
great trouble and danger ; and, on the contrarjr, the English
may easily and probably with success attack other countries.
3. This island is very convenient for trade, being so situated
upon a streight, 1 that ships going either east or west are
obliged to pass through it. 4. And besides a safe and deep
coast, which is as it were an universal harbour, there are
also many sea-ports and havens, artificial and natural ;
so that the English by their situation can extend their trade
into all parts of the world, and if they be not sole masters
of the trade, no other nation is able to dispute it with them
but the Dutch. 5. Another thing contributes also very
1 Streight — strait [the English Channel].
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 29
much to enrich England, viz. the raw silks they bring from
other countries, and which they export when they arc
wrought and changed into stuffs ; the same thing they
observe about their wool, and even it is a capital crime to
export it unwrought ; for if the French or Dutch could have
the English wool with ease, there is no doubt but they
would export a great quantity, whereby great numbers of
English families would be impoverished, who now live very
handsomely ; for as the French and Dutch journeymen
have not so great wages, and are more diligent than the
English, it is certain that few people would buy from
England, what they might have cheaper and as good, and
as fine, in France or Holland.
But there is another thing that renders England rich,
viz. the liberty of conscience, granted and allowed to every
nation, whereby great numbers of foreigners are invited
to come and trade here sooner than in Spain and other
countries, where liberty of conscience is not allowed. 2. No
European country can boast of having such a good form of
government. The property of chattels and goods being
not precarious as in other countries ; so that when a man
by his industry gets an estate, his children if he please, and
not his lord, shall inherit it. 3. Another thing which con-
tributes very much to the enriching of England is, that it
is forbidden to carry away above 10£ in specie. 4. No oak
must be exported, which is very good for building of ships,
as not being apt to split when cannon balls pierce it.
The defects of England may be thus reduced : one thing
is very prejudicial to their trade, viz. that they eat a great
quantity of meat, and are naturally too much addicted to
ease ; so that they are obliged to put on board their ships
as many more men and provisions as the Dutch. 2. Though
the English are very fond of money, and consequently
easy to be bribed, yet they despise a moderate gain ; where-
as the Dutch, being content with a reasonable advantage,
30 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
get more goods to be transported from one place to
another, than the English. 3. The English are very much
subject to some particular diseases, especially the rickets,
the scurvy, and the consumption ; the first incident to
children, the scurvy to most people more or less, and the
consumption to many ; all of them proceeding chiefly from
the constitution of the air, the rickets from its moistness,
the scurvy from its saltness, and the consumption from
its grossness, and from the too fast living of people, where-
fore it is very common in London. . . . There is perhaps
no country where rheums and coughs are more predominant,
especially in winter, which are often attended with ill con-
consequences, if not timely prevented : agues and rheumat-
isms are also very rife, especially near the sea ; but fevers
and bloody-fluxes are not so frequent here as in hot countries.
. . . Lastly, lawsuits are here a very common distemper,
which by the great number of lawyers are often spun to a
great length, to the prejudice of good neighbourhood, if
not to the utter ruin of families.
11. POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS IN 1730
SotTECB : As No. 10.
Letters and packets are dispatched from hence [The Post
Office in London] every Monday to France, Italy, Spain,
Portugal, Flanders, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Kent,
and the Downs.
Every Tuesday to the United Netherlands, Germany,
Swedeland, Denmark, and to all parts of England, Scotland
and Ireland.
Every Wednesday to Kent only, and the Downs.
Every Thursday to France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and
all parts of England and Scotland.
Every Friday to the Austrian and United Netherlands,
Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and to Kent and the Downs.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 31
Every Saturday to all parts of England, Scotland and
Ireland.
The post goes also every day to those places where the
court resides, as also to the usual stations and rendezvous
of his majesty's fleet, as the Downs, Spithead, and to
Tunbridge during the season for drinking the waters, etc.
Letters and packets are received from all parts of England
and Scotland, except Wales, every Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday ; from Wales every Monday and Friday ; and
from Kent and the Downs every day.
His Majesty keeps constantly, for the transport of the said
letters and packets, in times of peace,
Between England and France, three packet-boats ; Spain,
one in a fortnight ; Portugal, one ditto ; Flanders, two
packet-boats ; Holland, three packet-boats ; Ireland, three
packet-boats.
And at Deal, two packet-boats for the Downs.
Not to mention the extraordinary packet-boats in time
of war with France and Spain, to the Leeward Islands, etc.
A letter containing a whole sheet of paper is conveyed
80 miles for 3d., and two sheets 6d., and an ounce of letters
but 1/-. And above 80 miles a single letter is 4d., a double
letter 8d. and an ounce Is. 4d.
12. THE DIET OF A BLUE COAT BOY
Source : As No. 10.
The children are dieted in the following manner : They
have every morning for their breakfast bread and beer, at
half an hour past six in the morning in the summer time,
and at half an hour past seven in the winter. On Sundays
they have boiled beef and broth for their dinners, and for
their suppers legs and shoulders of mutton. On Tuesdays
and Thursdays they have the same dinners as on Sundays,
that is, boiled beef and broth ; on the other days no flesh
32 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
meat, but on Mondays milk-porridge, on Wednesdays
furmity, 1 on Fridays old pease and pottage, on Saturdays
water-gruel. They have roast beef about twelve days in
the year, by the kindness of several benefactors, who have
left, some £3 some 50s per annum, for that end. Their
supper is bread and cheese, or butter for those that cannot
eat cheese ; only Wednesdays and Fridays they have
pudding-pies for supper.
The diet of these children seems to be exceeding mean
and sparing ; and I have heard some of their friends say,
that it would not be easy for them to subsist upon it with-
out their assistance. However, it is observed they are
very healthful ; that out of eleven or twelve hundred, there
are scarce ever found twelve in the sick ward ; and that in
one year, when there were upwards of eleven hundred in this
hospital, there were not more than fifteen of them died.
Besides, their living in this thrifty parsimonious manner,
makes them better capable of shifting for themselves when
they come out into the world.
13. THE BLUE-COAT BOY
Source : Charles Lamb, Recollections of Christ's Hospital, 1813.
The Christ's Hospital or Blue-coat boy, has a distinctive
character of his own, as far removed from the abject qualities
of a common charity-boy as it is from the disgusting forward-
ness of a lad brought up at some other of the public schools.
There is pride in it, accumulated from the circumstances
which I have described as differencing him from the former ;
and there is a restraining modesty, from a sense of obligation
and dependence, which must ever keep his deportment from
assimilating to that of the latter. His very garb, as it is
antique and venerable, feeds his self-respect ; as it is a
badge of dependence, it restrains the natural petulance of
1 Furmity — hulled wheat boiled in milk and seasoned.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 33
that age from breaking out into overt-acts of insolence.
This produces silence and a reserve before strangers, yet
not that cowardly shyness which boys mewed up at home
will feel ; he will speak up when spoken to, but the stranger
must begin the conversation with him. Within his bounds
he is all fire and play ; but in the streets he steals along
with the self-concentration of a young monk. He is never
known to mix with other boys, they are a sort of laity to
him. All this proceeds I have no doubt, from the continual
consciousness which he carries about him of the difference
of his dress from that of the rest of the world.
14. THE BIRTH OF METHODISM
Source : Wesley, Journal. (Ed. Curnock. 8 volumes. The Epworth
Press).
In my return to England, January 1738 (from Georgia),
being in imminent danger of death, and very uneasy on that
account, I was strongly convinced that the cause of that
uneasiness was unbelief, and that the gaining a true, living
faith, was the one thing needful for me. But still I fixed
not this faith on its right object : I meant only faith in
God, not faith in or through Christ. Again, I knew not
that I was wholly void of this faith ; but only thought I
had not enough of it. So that when Peter Bohler, whom
God prepared for me as soon as I came to London, affirmed
of true faith in Christ (which is but one) that it had those
two fruits inseparably attending it, " Dominion over sin,
and constant peace from a sense of forgiveness," I was quite
amazed, and looked upon it as a new gospel. But I was
not willing to be convinced of this, therefore I disputed with
all my might, and laboured to prove that faith might be
where these were not, especially where the sense of forgive-
ness was not. . . . Besides, I well saw, no one could have
such a sense of forgiveness and not feel it. But I felt it
not. If then there was no faith without this, all my prc-
vc
34 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
tensions to faith dropped at once. When I met Peter
Bohler again, he consented to put the dispute upon the
issue which I desired, viz. Scripture and experience. When
... I considered the Word of God, comparing them
together, endeavouring to illustrate the obscure by the
plainer passages, I found they all made against me. I
could not (yet) allow it to be true, till I found some living
witnesses of it. He replied, he could show me such at
any time ; if I desired it, the next day. And accordingly
the next day, he came with three others, all of whom
testified of their own personal experience that a true living
faith in Christ is inseparable from a sense of pardon for all
past and freedom from all present sins. ... I was now
thoroughly convinced, and by the grace of God, I resolved
to seek it unto the end. ... I asked P. Bohler . . .
" Whether I ought not to refrain from teaching others ? "
He said " No ; do not hide in the earth the talent God hath
given you." Accordingly I spoke clearly and fully at
Blendon to Mr Delamotte's family of the nature and fruits
of faith. Mr Boughton and my brother were there. . . .
My brother was very angry and told me, " I did not know
what mischief I had done by talking thus." And indeed
it did please God then to kindle a fire, which I trust shall
never be extinguished. ... P. Bohler walked with me
and exhorted me not to stop short of the grace of
God. At Gerrard's Cross I plainly declared to those
whom God gave into my hands, " the faith as it is in
Jesus."
Monday, May 1, 1738. — The return of my brother's
illness obliged me to hasten to London. In the evening I
found him at James Hutton's better as to his health than I
expected ; but strongly averse from what he called " the
new faith." This evening our little Society began, which
afterwards met in Fetter Lane. Our fundamental rules
were as follows :
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 35
In obedience to the command of God by St James, and
by the advice of Peter Bohler, it is agreed by us,
1. That we will meet together once a week to confess
our faults one to another, and pray one for another, that
we may be healed.
2. That the persons so meeting be divided into several
bands, or little companies, none of them consisting of fewer
than five or more than ten persons.
3. That every one in order speak as freely, plainly, and
concisely as he can, the real state of his heart, with his
several temptations and deliverances, since the last time
of meeting.
4. That all the bands have a conference at 8 every
Wednesday evening, begun and ended with singing and
prayer.
5. That any one who desire to be admitted into the
society be asked, What are your reasons for desiring this ?
Will you be entirely open, using no kind of reserve ? Have
you any objection to any of our orders ? (which may then
be read).
6. That when any new member is proposed, every one
present speak clearly and freely whatever objection he has
to him.
7. That those against whom no reasonable objection
appears be, in order for their trial, formed into one or more
distinct bands, and some person agreed on to assist them.
8. That after two months' trial, if no objection then
appear, they may be admitted into the society.
Wed. 3. — My brother had a long and particular con-
versation with Peter Bohler, and it now pleased God to
open his eyes ; so that he also saw clearly what was the
nature of that one true living faith, whereby alone, "through
grace, we are saved." . . .
I continued thus to seek [this freedom from sin] — though
with strange indifference, dullness and coldness, and usually
36 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
frequent relapses into sin — till Wednesday, May 24. . . .
In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in
Aldersgate Street ; where one was reading Luther's preface
to the Epistle to the Romans. . . . while he was describing
the change which God works in the heart through faith in
Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust
in Christ, Christ alone for salvation ; and an assurance was
given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine,
and saved me from the law of sin and death ... I then
testified openly to all there what I now first felt in my heart.
Thursday, 15th March, 1739. — During my stay [in London]
I was fully employed between our own society in Fetter
Lane and many others, where I was continually desired to
expound ; so that I had no thought of leaving London,
when I received, after several others, a letter from Mr
Whitefield, and another from Mr Seward, entreating me in
the most pressing manner to come to Bristol without delay.
• • • • • ' •
Wed. 28. — My journey was proposed to our society in
Fetter Lane. . . . We ... all agreed to decide it by lot.
And by this it was determined I should go. . . .
Thurs., March 29. — I left London, and in the evening
expounded to a small company at Basingstoke.
Sat. 31. — In the evening I reached Bristol, and met
Mr Whitefield there. I could scarce reconcile myself at
first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which
he set me an example on Sunday ; having been all my life
(till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to
decency and order, that I should have thought the saving
of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church.
Mori. 2. — At four in the afternoon I submitted to be
more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings
of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in the ground
adjoining to the city, to about 3000 people. . . .
Sunday 8. — At seven in the morning I preached to about
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 37
a thousand persons at Bristol, and afterwards to about
fifteen hundred ... in Kingswood.
March 19, 1742. — I rode ... to Pensford [about
5 miles from Bristol] at the earnest request of several serious
people. The place where they desired me to preach was a
little green spot near the town. But I had no sooner begun
than a great company of rabble, hired (as we afterwards
found) for that purpose, came furiously upon us, bringing a
bull, which they had been baiting, and now strove to drive
in among the people. But the beast was wiser than his
drivers, and continually ran either on one side of us or the
other, while we quietly sang praise to God, and prayed for
about an hour. The poor wretches, finding themselves
disappointed, at length seized upon the bull, now weak and
tired, after having been so long torn and beaten both by
dogs and men ; and, by main strength, partly dragged and
partly thrust him in among the people. When they had
forced their way to the little table on which I stood, they
strove several times to throw it down, by thrusting the
helpless beast against it, who, of himself, stirred no more
than a log of wood. I once or twice put aside his head with
my hand, that the blood might not drop upon my clothes ;
intending to go as soon as the hurry should be a little over.
But, the table falling down, some of our friends caught me
in their arms and carried me right away on their shoulders ;
while the rabble wreaked their vengeance on the table. . . .
We went a little way off, where I finished my discourse
without any noise or interruption.
Thurs., Oct. 20th, 1743.—. . . I rode to Wednesbury. At
12 I preached in a ground near the middle of the town to a
far larger congregation than was expected. ... I was
writing at Francis Ward's in the afternoon when the cry
arose that the mob had beset the house. We prayed that
God would disperse them : ... in half an hour not a
38 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
man was left. I told our brethren, " Now is the time for
us to go ; " but they pressed me exceedingly to stay ; so
... I sat down. Before 5 the mob surrounded the house
again, in greater numbers than ever. The cry of one and
all was, " Bring out the minister ; we will have the minister."
... As soon as I was in the midst of them, I called for a
chair, and, standing up, asked, " What do any of you want
with me ? " Some said, " We want you to go with us to the
Justice." I replied, " That I will with all my heart." . . .
1 asked, " Shall we go to the Justice to-night or in the
morning ? " Most of them cried, " To-night, to-night : " on
which I went before, and two or three hundred followed. . . .
The night came on before we had walked a mile, together
with heavy rain. However, on we went to Bentley Hall,
2 miles from Wednesbury. One or two ran before to tell
Mr Lane, they had brought Mr Wesley before his worship.
Mr Lane replied, " What have I to do with Mr Wesley ?
Go and carry him back again." By this time the main
body came up and began knocking at the door. A servant
told them Mr Lane was in bed. His son followed, and
asked what was the matter ? One replied, " Why an't
please you, they sing psalms all day ; nay, and make folks
rise at 5 in the morning. And what would your worship
advise us to do ? " " To go home," said Mr Lane, " and
be quiet." . . . One advised to go to Justice Persehouse
at Walsal. All agreed to this ; so we hastened on and
about 7 came to his house. But Mr P likewise sent
word that he was in bed ... at last all thought it the
wisest course to make the best of their way home ; . . .
but we had not gone a hundred yards when the mob of
Walsall came, pouring in like a flood, and bore down all
before them. The Darlaston mob made what defence they
could ; but they were weary as well as outnumbered ; so
that in a short time, many being knocked down, the rest ran
away and left me in their hands. To attempt speaking
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 39
was vain, for the noise on every side was like the roaring of
the sea. So they dragged me along till we came to the
town. . . . They . . . carried me through the main street,
from one end of the town to the other. ... At the west
end of the town, seeing a door half open, I made toward it,
but a gentleman in the shop would not suffer me. . . .
However, I stood at the door and asked, " Are you willing
to hear me speak ? " Many cried out, " No ! no ! knock
his brains out ! down with him ! kill him at once." Others
said, " Nay, but we will hear him first." I began asking,
" What evil have I done ? Which of you all have I wronged
in word or deed ? and continued speaking for above a
quarter of an hour, till my voice suddenly failed. Then
the floods began to lift up their voice again ; many crying
out, " Bring him away." . . . And now the man who just
before headed the mob, turned and said, " Sir, I will spend
my life for you : follow me, and not one soul here shall
touch a hair of your head." Two or three of his fellows
confirmed his words and got close to me immediately.
. . . The people then, as if it had been by common con-
sent, fell back to the right and left ; while those three or
four men took me between them, and carried me through
them all. But on the bridge the mob rallied again ; we
therefore went on one side over the mill-dam, and thence
through the meadows, till, a little before ten God brought
me safe to Wednesbury ; having lost only one flap of my
waistcoat and a little skin from one of my hands. . . .
I cannot close this head without inserting as great a
curiosity in its kind as, I believe, was ever yet seen in
England, which had its birth within a few days of this
remarkable occurrence at Walsal.
" Staffordshire.
" To all High Constables, Petty Constables, and other
of His Majesty's Peace Officers, within the said County, and
particularly to the Constable of Tipton (Near Walsal) :
40 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
" Whereas we, His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the
said County of Stafford, have received information that
several disorderly persons, styling themselves Methodist
Preachers, go about raising routs and riots, to the great
damage of His Majesty's liege people, and against the peace
of our Sovereign Lord the King : These are in His Majesty's
name, to command you and every one of you, within your
respective districts, to make diligent search after the said
Methodist Preachers, and to bring him or them before some
of us his said Majesty's Justices of the Peace, to be examined
concerning their unlawful doings.
" Given under our hands and seals, this [12th] day of
October, 1743.
" J. Lane.
" W. Persehouse."
N.B. — The very Justices to whose houses I was carried,
and who severally refused to see me !
On Monday, Jan. 23 [1744], a great mob gathered together
at Darlaston, a mile from Wednesbury. They fell upon a
few people, who were going to Wednesbury. . . .
Mon., Jan. 30. — The mob gathered again, broke into
Joshua Constable's house, pulled part of it down, broke
some of his goods to pieces, and carried the rest away :
particularly all his shop goods, to a considerable value. . . .
Mond., Feb. 6. — The mob had been gathering all Monday
night, and on Tuesday morning they began their work.
They assaulted, one after another, all the houses of those
who were called Methodists. They first broke all their
windows, suffering neither glass, lead, nor frames to remain
therein. Then they made their way in ; and all the tables,
chairs, chests of drawers, with whatever was not easity re-
movable, they dashed in pieces, particularly shop goods,
and furniture of every kind. What they could not well
break, as feather beds, they cut in pieces and strewed about
the room. . . . (Had the French come in that place, would
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 41
they have done more ?) All this time none offered to resist
them. Indeed most part, both men and women, fled for
their lives. . . . Wearing apparel and things which were
of value or easily saleable, they carried away : every man
loading himself with as much as he could well carry, of
whatever he liked best. ... On Wednesday the mob
divided into two or three companies, one of which went
to Aldridge, [6] miles from Wednesbury, and plundered
many houses there, as they had done in several other villages.
. . . They came back through Walsal with their spoils ; but
the gentlemen of Walsal being apprised of their coming,
raised a body of men, who met them, took what they had
away, and laid it up in the Town-Hall. Notice was then
sent to Aldridge that every man who had been plundered
might come and take his own goods.
Wed., April 4. — About 11 we reached St Ive's [Cornwall].
As soon as we went out [of John Nance's house] we were
saluted as usual with a huzza and a few stones or pieces
of dirt. But in the evening none opened his mouth
while I proclaimed, " I will love thee, O Lord, my
strength."
Thurs. 5. — I took a view of the ruins of the house, which
the mob had pulled down a little before, for joy that Admiral
Matthews had beat the Spaniards. Such is the Cornish
method of thanksgiving. I suppose if Admiral Lestock had
fought too, they would have knocked all the Methodists
on the head.
Tues., May 15th, 1744. — I rode the shortest way to
Birstal [Yorks]. Here I found our brethren partly mourn-
ing, and partly rejoicing, on account of John Nelson. On
Friday the 4th instant (they informed me) the constables
took him, just as he had ended his sermon, at Adwalton,
and the next day carried him before the Commissioners at
Halifax. . . . Many were ready to testify that he was in
no respect such a person as the Act of Parliament specified.
42 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
But they were not heard ; he was a Preacher, that was
enough. So he was sent for a soldier at once.
• ••••••
Thurs., Sept. 12, 1745. — I came to Leeds, preached at five,
and at eight met the Society ; after which the mob pelted
us with dirt and stones, greater part of the way home. The
congregation was much larger next evening, and so was
the mob at our return, and likewise in higher spirits, being
ready to knock out all our brains, for joy that the Duke
of Tuscany was emperor.
Monday, July 23, 1759. — I preached, near Huddersfield,
to the wildest congregation I have seen in Yorkshire ; yet
they were restrained by an unseen hand, and I believe some
felt the sharpness of His word.
Friday, Aug. 3, 1759. — I preached at Gainsborough, in
Sir Nevil Hickman's great hall. It is full as large as the
Weaver's Hall in Bristol. At two it was filled with a rude,
wild multitude (a few of a better spirit excepted). Yet all
but two or three gentlemen were attentive while I enforced
our Lord's words : " What shall it profit a man, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? " I was
walking back through a gaping, staring crowd, when Sir
Nevil came and thanked me for my sermon, to the no small
amazement of his neighbours, who shrunk back as if they
had seen a ghost. Thence I rode to North Scarle, the last
village in Lincolnshire, ten miles short of Newark. Here
a great multitude assembled from various parts, most of
them wholly unacquainted with the ways of God ; indeed
to such a degree, that, though I spoke as plain as I could
on the first principles of religion, yet it seemed very many
understood me no more than if I was talking Greek.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 43
15. A SERVICE OF JOHN WESLEY
Source : Horace Walpole, Letters. To John Chute (1735-1797).
10 Oct., 1766. — My health advances faster than my amuse-
ment. However, I have been at one opera, Mr Wesley's.
They have boys and girls with charming voices, that sing
hymns, in parts, to Scotch ballad tunes ; but indeed so
long, that one would think they were already in eternity,
and knew how much time they had before them. The
chapel is very neat, with true Gothic windows (yet I am
not converted) ; but I was glad to see that luxury is creep-
ing in upon them before persecution : they have very neat
mahogany stands for branches, and brackets of the same
in taste. At the upper end is a broad hautpas of four steps,
advancing in the middle : at each end of the broadest part
are two of my eagles, with red cushions for the parson and
clerk. Behind them rise three more steps, in the midst of
which is a third eagle for pulpit. Scarlet armed chairs to
all three. On either hand, a balcony for elect ladies. The
rest of the congregation sit on forms. Behind the pit, in
a dark niche, is a plain table within rails ; so you see the
throne is for the apostle. Wesley is a lean, elderly man,
fresh-coloured, his hair smoothly combed, but with a soupcon
of curl at the ends. Wondrous clean, but as evidently an
actor as Garrick. He spoke his sermon, but so fast, and
with so little accent, that I am sure he has often uttered it,
for it was like a lesson. There were parts and eloquence in
it ; but towards the end he exalted his voice, and acted very
ugly enthusiasm ; decried learning, and told stories, like
Latimer, of the fool of his college, who said, "I thanks God for
everything." Except a few from curiosity, and some honour-
able women, the congregation was very mean. There was a
Scotch Countess of Buchan, who is carrying a pure rosy vulgar
face to heaven, and who asked Miss Rich, if that was the author
of the poets. I believe she meant me and the Noble Authors.
44 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
16. THE OPENING OF RANELAGH GARDENS
Source : As No. 15. To Horace Mann.
May 26, 1742. — . . . Two nights ago Ranelagh-gardens
were opened at Chelsea ; the Prince, Princess, Duke [of
Cumberland], much nobility and much mob besides, were
there. There is a vast amphitheatre, finely gilt, painted,
and illuminated, into which everybody that loves eating,
drinking, staring, or crowding, is admitted for twelvepence.
The building and disposition of the gardens cost sixteen
thousand pounds. Twice a-week there are to be ridottos,
at guinea tickets, for which you are to have a supper and
music. I was there last night, but did not find the joy of
it. Vauxhall is a little better ; for the garden is pleasanter
and one goes by water.
[Writing two years later, he states : — ]
To Hon. Henry Seymour Conway.
You must be informed that every night constantly I go
to Ranelagh ; which has totally beat Vauxhall. Nobody
goes anywhere else — everybody goes there. My Lord
Chesterfield is so fond of it, that he says he has ordered
all his letters to be directed thither. If you had never seen
it, I would make you a most pompous description of it, and
tell you how the floor is all of beaten princes — that you
can't set your foot without treading on a Prince of Wales
or Duke of Cumberland. The company is universal : there
is from his Grace of Grafton down to children out of the
Foundling Hospital — from my Lady Townshend to the
kitten— from my Lord Sandys to your humble cousin and
sincere friend.
17. A LONDON GALA
Source : As No. 15. To Sir Horace Mann.
May 3, 1749. — I am come hither for a few days, to repose
myself after a torrent of diversions, and am writing to you
John Wesley
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THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 45
in my charming bow-window with a tranquility and satis-
faction which, I fear, I am grown old enough to prefer to
the hurry of amusements, in which the whole world has lived
for this last week. We have at last celebrated the peace, 1
and that as much in extremes as we generally do everything,
whether we have reason to be glad or sorry, pleased or
angry. Last Tuesday it was proclaimed : the King did not
go to St Paul's, but at night the whole town was illuminated.
The next day was what was called " a jubilee-masquerade
in the Venetian manner " at Ranelagh : it had nothing
Venetian in it, but was by far the best understood and the
prettiest spectacle I ever saw : nothing in a fairy tale ever
surpassed it. One of the proprietors, who is a German, and
belongs to court, had got my Lady Yarmouth to persuade
the King to order it. It began at three o'clock, and, about
five, people of fashion began to go. When you entered you
found the whole garden filled with masks and spread with
tents. ... In one quarter was a May-pole dressed with
garlands, and people dancing round it to a tabor and pipe
and rustic music, all masqued, as were all the various bands
of music that were disposed in different parts of the garden ;
some like huntsmen with French horns, some like peasants,
and a troop of harlequins and scaramouches in the little open
temple on the mount. On the canal was a sort of gondola,
adorned with flags and streamers, and filled with music,
rowing about. All round the outside of the amphitheatre
were shops, filled with Dresden china, japan, etc., and all
the shopkeepers in mask. The amphitheatre was illumin-
ated ; and in the middle was a circular bower, composed
of all kinds of firs in tubs, from twenty to thirty feet high :
under them orange trees, with small lamps in each orange,
and below them all sorts of the finest auriculas in pots ; and
festoons of natural flowers hanging from tree to tree.
1 The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), which terminated the War of the
Austrian Succession.
46 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
Between the arches too were firs, and smaller ones in the
balconies above. There were booths for tea and wine,
gaming-tables and dancing, and about two thousand persons.
In short, it pleased me more than anything I ever saw. It
is to be once more, and probably finer as to dresses, as there
has since been a subscription masquerade, and people will
go in their rich habits. The next day were the fireworks,
which by no means answered the expense, the length of
preparation, and the expectation that had been raised ;
indeed, for a week before, the town was like a country fair,
the streets filled from morning to night, scaffolds building
wherever you could or could not see, and coaches arriving
from every corner of the kingdom. This hurry and lively
scene, with the sight of the immense crowd in the Park and
on every house, the guards, and the machine itself, which
was very beautiful, was all that was worth seeing. The
rockets, and whatever was thrown up into the air, succeeded
mighty well ; but the wheels, and all that was to compose
the principal part, were pitiful and ill-conducted, with no
changes of coloured fires and shapes : the illumination was
mean, and lighted so slowly that scarce anybody had
patience to wait the finishing ; and then, what contributed
to the awkwardness of the whole, was the right pavilion
catching fire, and being burnt down in the middle of the
show. The King, the Duke, and Princess Emily saw it
from the library, with their courts : the Prince and Princess,
with their children, from Lady Middlesex's ; no place being
provided for them, nor any invitation given to the library.
The Lords and Commons had galleries built for them and
the chief citizens along the rails of the mall : the Lords had
four tickets a-piece, and each Commoner, at first, but two,
till the Speaker bounced and obtained a third. Very little
mischief was done, and but two persons killed : at Paris,
there were forty killed and near three hundred wounded,
by a dispute between the French and Italians in the manage-
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 47
ment, who, quarrelling for precedence in lighting the fires,
both lighted at once and blew up the whole. Our mob was
extremely tranquil, and very unlike those I remember in
my father's time, when it was a measure in the Opposition
to work up everything to mischief, the excise and the
French players, the convention and the gin-act. We are
as much now in the opposite extreme, and in general so
pleased with the peace, that I could not help being struck
with a passage I read lately in Pasquier, an old French
author, who says, " that in the time of Francis I the French
used to call their creditors, ' Des Anglois,' from the facility
with which the English gave credit to them in all treaties,
though they had broken so many." On Saturday we had
a serenta at the Opera-House, called Peace in Europe, but
it was a wretched performance. On Monday there was a
subscription-masquerade, much fuller than that of last year,
but not so agreeable or so various in dresses. The King was
well disguised in an old-fashioned English habit, and much
pleased with somebody who desired him to hold their cup
as they were drinking tea. The Duke had a dress of the
same kind, but was so immensely corpulent that he looked
like Cacofogo, the drunken captain, in Rule a Wife and have
a Wife. 1 The Duchess of Richmond was a lady mayoress
in the time of James I ; and Lord Delawarr, Queen
Elizabeth's porter, from a picture in the guard-chamber
at Kensington : they were admirable masks. Lady Roch-
ford, Miss Evelyn, Miss Bishop, Lady Stafford, and
Mrs Pitt, were in vast beauty ; particularly the last, who
had a red veil, which made her look gloriously handsome.
I forgot Lady Kildare. Mr Conway was the Duke in Don
Quixote and the finest figure I ever saw. . . .
If you ever think of returning to England, as I hope it
will be long first, you must prepare yourself with Methodism.
I really believe that by that time it will be necessary : this
1 By Heaumont and Fletcher.
48 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
sect increases as fast as almost ever any religious nonsense
did. Lady Fanny Shirley has chosen this way of bestowing
the dregs of her beauty ; and Mr Lyttleton is very near
making the same sacrifice of the dregs of all those various
characters that he has worn. The Methodists love your
big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon — and indeed
they have a plentiful harvest — I think what you call fiagrancy
was never more in fashion. Drinking is at the highest wine-
mark ; and gaming joined with it so violent, that at the
last Newmarket meeting, in the rapidity of both, a bank-bill
was thrown down, and nobody immediately claiming it,
they agreed to give it to a man that was standing by. . . .
18. A SCHOOLMASTER'S LIFE [1750]. Robert Lloyd.
Were I at once empower'd to shew
My utmost vengeance on my foe,
To punish with extremest rigour,
I could inflict no penance bigger
Than using him as learning's tool
To make him Usher of a school.
For, not to dwell upon the toil
Of working on a barren soil,
And lab'ring with incessant pains
To cultivate a blockhead's brains,
The duties there but ill befit
The love of letters, arts, or wit.
For me, it hurts me to the soul
To brook confinement or controul ;
Still to be pinion'd down to teach
The syntax and the parts of speech ;
Or, what perhaps is drudging worse,
The links, and joints, and rules of verse
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 49
To deal out authors by retale,
Like penny pots of Oxford ale ;
— Oh ! 'Tis a service irksome more
Than tugging at the slavish oar.
Yet such his task, a dismal truth,
Who watches o'er the bent of youth ;
And while, a paltry stipend earning,
He sows the richest seeds of learning,
And tills their minds with proper care,
And sees them their due produce bear,
No joys, alas ! his toil beguile,
His own lies fallow all the while.
" Yet still he's on the road," you say,
" Of learning." — Why, perhaps he may,
But turns like horses in a mill,
Nor getting on, nor standing still ;
For little v/ay his learning reaches,
Who reads no more than what he teaches.
19. GARRICK AND GOLF [1758]
Source : Alexander Carlyle, Autobiography.
Garrick was so friendly to John Home that he gave
a dinner to his friends and companions at his house at
Hampton, which he did but seldom. He had told us to
bring golf clubs and balls that we might play at that game
on Molcsly Hurst. We accordingly set out in good time,
six of us in a landau. As we passed through Kensington,
the Coldstream regiment were changing guard, and, on
seeing our clubs, they gave us three cheers in honour of a
diversion peculiar to Scotland ; so much docs the remem-
brance of one's native country dilate the heart, when one
has been some time absent. The same sentiment made us
v D
50 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
open our purses, and give our countrymen wherewithal to
drink the " Land o' Cakes." Garrick met us by the way,
so impatient he seemed to be for his company. There were
John Home, and Robertson, and Wedderburn, and Robert
and James Adam, and Colonel David Wedderburn, who
was killed when commander of the army in Bombay [in the
year 1773]. He was held by his companions to be in every
respect as clever and able a man as his elder brother the
Chancellor, with a much more gay, popular and social
temper.
Immediately after we arrived, we crossed the river to the
golfing ground, which was very good. None of the company
could play but John Home and myself, and Parson Black
from Aberdeen, who, being chaplain to a regiment during
some of the Duke of Cumberland's campaigns, had been
pointed out to his Royal Highness as a proper person to
teach him the game of chess : the Duke was such an apt
scholar that he never lost a game after the first day ; and
he recompensed Black for having beat him so cruelly by
procuring for him the living of Hampton, which is a good
one. We returned and dined sumptuously. Mrs Garrick,
the only lady, now grown fat, though still very lively, being
a woman of uncommon good sense, and now mistress of
English, was in all respects most, agreeable company. She
did not seem at all to recognize me, which was no wonder,
at the end of twelve years, having thrown away my bag- wig
and sword, and appearing in my own grisly hairs, and in
parson's clothes ; nor was I likely to remind her of her
former state. 1
Garrick had built a handsome temple, with a statue of
Shakespeare in it, in his lower garden, on the banks of the
Thames, which was separated from the upper one by a high-
road, under which there was an archway which united the
two gardens. Garrick, in compliment to Home, had ordered
1 She was a Viennese dancing girl before Garrick married her.
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THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 51
the wine to be carried to this temple, where we were to drink
it under the shade of the copy of that statue to which Home
had addressed his pathetic verses on the rejection of his play.
The poet and the actor were equally gay, and well pleased
with each other, on this occasion, with much respect on the
one hand, and a total oblivion of animosity on the other ;
for vanity is a passion that is easy to be entreated, and
unites freely with all the best affections. Having observed
a green mount in the garden, opposite the archway, I said
to our landlord, that while the servants were preparing the
collation in the temple, I would surprise him with a stroke
at the golf, as I should drive a ball through his archway
into the Thames once in three strokes. I had measured
the distance with my eye in walking about the garden, and
accordingly at the second stroke, made the ball alight in
the mouth of the gateway and roll down the green slope
into the river. This was so dexterous that he was quite
surprised, and begged the club of me by which such a feat
had been performed. We passed a very agreeable afternoon,
and it is hard to say which were happier, the landlord and
landlady or the guests.
20. THE DUKE OF BRIDGEWATER'S CANAL
Source : As No. 9.
This waits on you with an account of the duke of Bridge-
water's magnificent work near Manchester, which is, perhaps,
the greatest artificial curiosity in the world ; crowds of
people from all parts resort to it, and persons of high rank
express their admiration of it.
This is a new canal, and I know not what to call it besides,
constructed, as it should seem, to convey coals out of a
mine to Manchester and other places ; but is capable of
being applied to more considerable purposes.
This stupendous work was begun at a place called WorsUy
52 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
Mill, about seven miles from Manchester, where, at the
foot of a large mountain, the duke has cut a bason capable
of holding all his boats, and a great body of water, which
serves as a reservoir, or head, to his navigation ; and in
order to draw the coals out of the mine, which runs
through the hill to an amazing extent, his grace has cut a
subterranean passage, big enough for long flat-bottomed
boats to go up to the work, and has so preserved the
level, that a part of the water, which drives a mill near
the mouth of the passage, runs in, and stands to the depth
of about five feet. This passage also serves to drain the
coal mines of that water which would otherwise obstruct
the work, and is to be carried on three miles or more
under ground.
Having obtained a ticket to see this curiosity, which is
done by sending your name to a new house, which the duke
has lately built for his residence, at about half a mile dis-
tance, you enter with lighted candles the subterreanean
passage in a boat, made for bringing out the coals, of this
form and dimensions ;
Fifty feet long, four a*nd a half broad.
Two feet three inches deep.
When you first enter the passage, and again when you
come among the colliers, your heart will be apt to fail you ;
for it seems so much like leaving this world for the regions
of darkness, that I could think of nothing but those descrip-
tions of the infernal shades which the poets have drawn
for Ulysses, Mneas, and your old friend Telemachus. There
is more civility, however, in this region, than Homer, Virgil
and Fenelon ever discovered in theirs ; for should your
spirits sink, the company are ever ready to aid you with
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 53
a glass of wine ; even Charon himself will offer you a cup on
the occasion.
Through this passage you proceed, towing the boat on
each hand by the rail, to the extent of 1,000 yards, that is,
near three quarters of a mile, before you come to the coal
works ; then the passage divides, and one branch continues
on a straight line among the coal works 300 yards further,
while another turns off, and proceeds 300 yards to the left ;
and each of them may be extended farther, or other passages
be conveyed from them to any other part, as the mines
may run and necessity require. Hence you will perceive,
that those who go up both passages travel near three miles
underground before they return. The passages in those
parts where there were coals or loose earth, are arched over
with brick, in others the arch is cut out of the rock.
At certain distances there are, in niches, on the side of
the arch, funnels or openings through the rock to the top
of the hill (which is in some places near 37 yards per-
pendicular) in order [to] preserve a free circulation of fresh
air, as well as to [prevent] those damps and exhalations
that are often so destructive in works of this kind, and to
let down men to w r ork in case any accident should happen
to the passage. Near the entrance of the passage, and
again further on, there are gates to close up the arch, and
prevent the admission of too much air in tempestuous and
windy weather.
At the entrance the arch is about six feet wide, and
about five feet high from the surface of the water ; but as
you come further in it is wider, and in some places opened
so that the boats, that are going to and fro, can pass each
other ; and when you come among the pits the arch is ten
feet wide.
The coals are brought from the pits to this passage or
canal in little low waggons that hold near a ton each, and
as the work is on the descent, are easily pushed by a man,
54 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
on a railed way, to a stage over the canal, and then shot into
one of the boats already mentioned, each of which holds
about eight tons. They then, by means of the rails, are
drawn out by one man to a bason at the mouth of the
passage, where four, five, or six of them are linked together,
and drawn by one horse or two mules, by the side of the
canal, to Manchester or other places where the canal is
conveyed.
There are also on the canal, other broad boats, that
hold about fifty tons, which are likewise drawn by one
horse. Of the small boats there are about fifty employed
in the work and of the large ones a considerable number.
21. AN EVENING WITH DR JOHNSON AT THE MITRE
Source: Boswell, Life of Johnson. 1791.
On Wednesday, July 6th [1763], he [Dr Johnson] was
engaged to sup with me at my lodgings in Downing-street,
Westminster. But on the preceding night my landlord
having behaved very rudely to me and some company who
were with me, I had resolved not to remain another night
in his house. I was exceedingly uneasy at the awkward
appearance I supposed I should make to Johnson and the
other gentlemen whom I had invited, not being able to
receive them at home, and being obliged to order supper
at the Mitre. I went to Johnson in the morning, and
talked of it as of a serious distress. He laughed, and said,
" Consider, Sir, how insignificant this will appear a twelve-
month hence. . . . There is nothing in this mighty mis-
fortune ; nay, we shall be better at the Mitre. . . ."
• ••••••
I had as my guests this evening at the Mitre tavern,
Dr Johnson, Dr Goldsmith, Mr Thomas Davies, Mr Eccles,
an Irish gentleman, for whose agreeable company I was
obliged to Mr Davies, and the Revd. Mr Ogilvie, . . . who
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 55
was very desirous of being in company with my illustrious
friend, while I, in my turn, was proud to have the honour
of showing one of my countrymen upon what easy terms
Johnson permitted me to live with him.
Goldsmith, as usual, endeavoured, with too much eager
ness, to shine, and disputed very warmly wth Johnson
against the well-known maxim of the British constitution,
" the King can do no wrong," affirming, that " what was
morally false could not be politically true ; and as the King
might, in the exercise of his regal power, command and
cause the doing of what was wrong, it certainly might be
said, in sense and in reason, that he could do wrong."
Johnson — " Sir, you are to consider, that in our constitu-
tion, according to its true principles, the King is the head ;
he is supreme ; he is above everything, and there is no
power by which he can be tried. Therefore it is, Sir, that
w r c hold the King can do no wrong, that whatever may
happen to be wrong in government may not be above our
reach, by being ascribed to Majesty. Redress is always
to be had against oppression, by punishing the immediate
agents. The King, though he should command, cannot
force a judge to condemn a man unjustly; therefore it is
the judge whom we prosecute and punish. . . . It is better
in general that a nation should have a supreme legislative
power, although it may at times be abused. And then,
Sir, there is this consideration, that if the abuse be enor
mous, Nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights,
overturn a corrupt political system."
Mr Ogilvie was unlucky enough to choose for the topick
of his conversation the praises of his native country. He
began with saying, that there was very rich land round
Edinburgh. Goldsmith, who had studied physiek th< re,
contradicted this, very untruly, with a sneering laugh. Dis-
concerted a little by this, Mr Oglivie then took new ground,
56 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
where, I suppose, he thought himself perfectly safe ; for
he observed, that Scotland had a great many noble wild
prospects.
Johnson — " I believe, Sir, you have a great many.
Norway, too, has noble wild prospects ; and Lapland is
remarkable for prodigious noble wild prospects. But, Sir,
let me tell you, the noblest prospect which a Scotchman
ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England ! "
This unexpected and pointed sally produced a roar of
applause.
15th Feb., 1766. — At the Mitre, when I presented to him
[Johnson] my old and most intimate friend, the Revd. Mr
Temple, then of Cambridge. I having mentioned that I had
passed some time with Rousseau in his wild retreat, and
having quoted some remark made by Mr Wilkes, with whom
I had spent many pleasant hours in Italy, Johnson said,
(sarcastically,) " It seems, Sir, you have kept very good
company abroad, Rousseau and Wilkes ! " Thinking it
enough to defend one at a time, I said nothing as to my gay
friend, but answered with a smile, " My dear Sir, you don't
call Rousseau bad company. Do you really think him a bad
man ? " Johnson — " Sir, if you are talking jestingly of
this, I don't talk with you. If you mean to be serious, I
think him one of the worst of men ; a rascal, who ought
to be hunted out of society, as he has been. Three or four
nations have expelled him ; and it is a shame that he is
protected in this country." Boswell — " I don't deny,
Sir, but that his novel may perhaps do harm ; but I cannot
think his intention was bad." Johnson — " Sir, that will
not do. We cannot prove any man's intention to be bad.
You may shoot a man through the head, and say you
intended to miss him ; but the judge will order you to be
hanged. . . . Rousseau, Sir, is a very bad man. I would
sooner sign a sentence for his transportation, than that of
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 57
any felon who has gone from the Old Bailey these many
years. Yes, I should like to have him work in the planta-
tions." Boswell — " Sir, do you think him as bad a man
as Voltaire ? " Johnson — " Why, Sir, it is difficult to
settle the proportion of iniquity between them."
22. ROADS AND INNS DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Roads
Sources : Various.
a. Source : Hervey, Memoirs of Ike Feign of George II, 1848.
The length of way (from Windsor to Petworth) was only
40 miles, but 14 hours were consumed in traversing it ;
while almost every mile was signalized by the overturn of a
carriage, or its temporary swamping in the mire. Even
the royal chariot would have fared no better than the rest
had it not been for the relays of peasants, who poised and
kept it erect by strength of arm and shouldered it forward
the last nine miles, in which tedious operation 6 good hours
were consumed.
b. Source : Wesley, Journal.
The road near Leigh in Essex : The ruts were so deep
and uneven that the horses could scarce stand, and the
chaise was continually in danger of overturning ; so my
companions thought it best to walk to town, though the
road was both wet and dirty.
c. Source: Defoe, Tour through Gnu! Britain, 1724-2G.
Going to church at a country village, not far from
Lewis, I saw an ancient lady — and a lady of very good
quality I assure you — drawn to church in her coach with
six oxen : nor was it done in frolic or humour, but mere
necessity, the way being so si ill' and deep that no horses
could go in it.
58 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
d. Source : Hervey, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, 1848.
The road between this place (Kensington) and London
is grown so infamously bad, that we live here in the same
solitude as we would do if cast on a rock in the middle
of the ocean ; and all the Londoners tell us that there is
between them and us an impassable gulf of mud.
e. Source : Young, A Six Months Tour through the North of England,
1770-71.
From Richmond to Darlington, by Croft Bridge. To
Croft Bridge cross, and very indifferent. From thence to
Darlington is the great north road, and execrably broke into
holes, like an old pavement ; sufficient to dislocate ones
bones.
To Durham. Turnpike. Good. But some of it rough.
To Newcastle. Turnpike. Good ; but part of it
broken.
From Beverly to Driffield is, I think, by much the best
turnpike road I have met with in Yorkshire.
From London to Oxford. Turnpike. Middling. Many
narrow ways, where a horse cannot pass a carriage ; and
in general, in this country, the not breaking the stones small
enough is a great nuisance.
[From London] to Stevenage. Turnpike. Very good.
From Stevenage to Luton. Cross [Rd.]. Execrable.
[From Newport-Pagnel] to Bedford. Turnpike. A vile
narrow cut-up lane.
From Doncaster to Pontefract. Cross. Indifferent.
From Lancaster to Preston. Turnpike. Very bad.
From Preston to Wigan. Ditto. I know not, in the
whole range of language, terms sufficiently expressive to
describe this infernal road. . . . Let me most seriously
caution all travellers, who may accidentally purpose to
travel this terrible country, to avoid it as they would the
devil : for a thousand to one but they break their necks
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 59
or their limbs by overthrows or breakings down. They will
here meet with ruts which I actually measured four feet
deep, and floating with mud only from the wet summer ;
what therefore must it be after a winter ? The only
mending it in places receives, is the tumbling in some loose
stones, which serve no other purpose but jolting a carriage
in the most intolerable manner. . . .
[From Wigan] to Warrington. Turnpike. This is a paved
road, and most infamously bad. Any person would imagine
the boobies of the country had made it with a view to im-
mediate destruction ; for the breadth is only sufficient for
one carriage. . . .
[From Brentford] to London. Turnpike. Excellent.
From Henley to Maidenhead. Turnpike. Admirable.
But much too narrow for such vast traffic.
Inns
I think there are many objections to suffering the char-
acters of inns, and the minutice of a journey, to intermix
with the material objects of a tour. But I cannot agree
with those who think all matters of this sort beneath a
man's notice ; the most trifling circumstances are of some
weight in deciding the character and state of a nation ;
the grand chain of prosperity has links we do not think of :
Good roads, and convenient accommodations for travellers,
are necessary, not only to agriculture and manufactures,
but to the fine arts ; even to literature, and every embellish-
ment of life ; the possession of them implies a state of
prosperity and elegance. It is of consequence to know,
that in the remotest parts of the kingdom a traveller will
meet a reception, in most respects different from what he
will find in foreign countries ; a decent bed ; clean sheets ;
plenty of fuel ; wholesome provisions ; and general y a
civil landlord. . . .
60 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
Grantham : " George." . . . Very good, uncommonly
civil and very reasonable.
Newark : " Saracen's Head." Disagreeable and dear.
Rotherham : " Crown." Very disagreeable and dirty ;
but very cheap. . . .
Sheffield : " Angel." . . . Very good, exceedingly civil,
and cheap.
Wakefield : " White Hart." . . . Disagreeable and dirty ;
but cheap.
Leeds : " Old King's Arms." . . . Dirty and disagreeable.
Beverly : " Tiger." . . . Very civil and reasonable.
Castle Hotvard : " New Inn." . . . An excellent house,
but dear, and a saucy landlady.
Oxford : " Angel." Very dirty, and not obliging.
Woodstock : " Bear." . . . Good.
Henley : " Red Lion." . . . Very good.
Worcester : " Hop Pole." Good ; very civil.
Birmingham : " Swan." . . . Good, but rather dear.
23. THE DIVISION OF LABOUR
Source: Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776.
Observe the accommodation of the most common artificer
or day-labourer in a civilised and thriving country, and
you will perceive that the number of people of whose
industry a part, though but a small part, has been em-
ployed in procuring him this accommodation, exceeds all
computation. The woollen coat, for example, which covers
the day-labourer, as coarse and rough as it may appear, is
the produce of the joint labour of a great multitude of
workmen. The shepherd, the sorter of the wool, the wool-
comber or carder, the dyer, the scribbler, the spinner, the
weaver, the fuller, the dresser, with many others, must
all join their different arts in order to complete even this
homely production. How many merchants and carriers,
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 61
besides, must have been employed in transporting the
materials from some of those workmen to others who often
live in a very distant part of the country ! how much
commerce and navigation in particular, how many ship-
builders, sailors, sail-makers, rope-makers, must have been
employed in order to bring together the different drugs made
use of by the dyer, which often come from the remotest
corners of the world ! What a variety of labour too is
necessary in order to produce the tools of the meanest of these
workmen ! To say nothing of such complicated machines as
the ship of the sailor, the mill of the fuller, or even the loom
of the weaver, let us consider only what a variety of labour
is requisite in order to form that very simple machine, the
shears with which the shepherd clips the wool. The miner,
the builder of the furnace for smelting the ore, the feller
of the timber, the burner of the charcoal to be made use of
in the smelting house, the brick-maker, the brick-layer, the
workmen who attend the furnace, the millwright, the forger,
the smith, must all of them join their different arts in order
to produce them. Were we to examine, in the same manner,
all the different parts of his dress and household furniture,
the coarse linen shirt which he wears next his skin, the
shoes which cover his feet, the bed which he lies on, and
all the different parts which compose it, the kitchen grate
at which he prepares his victuals, the coals which he makes
use of for that purpose, dug from the bowels of the earth,
and brought to him perhaps by a long sea and a long land
carriage, all the other utensils of his kitchen, all the furniture
of his table, the knives and forks, the earthen or pewter
plates upon which he serves up and divides his victuals,
the different hands employed in preparing his bread and
his beer, the glass window which lets in the heat and the
light, and keeps out the wind and the rain, with all the
knowledge and art requisite for preparing that beautiful
and happy invention, without which these northern pails
62 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
of the world could scarce have afforded a very comfortable
habitation, together with the tools of all the different work-
men employed in producing those different conveniences ;
if we examine, I say, all these things, and consider what a
variety of labour is employed about each of them, we shall
be sensible that without the assistance and co-operation of
many thousands, the very meanest person in a civilised
country could not be provided, even according to what we
very falsely imagine the easy and simple manner in which
he is commonly accommodated. Compared, indeed, with
the more extravagant luxury of the great, his accommoda-
tion must no doubt appear extremely simple and easy ;
and yet it may be true perhaps that the accommodation of
an European prince does not always so much exceed that
of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation
of the latter exceeds that of many an African king, the
absolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand
naked savages.
24. THE STATE OF THE POOR [1795]
Source : Sir F. Eden, State of the Poor, 1797. East Riding of Yorkshire.
Neighbourhood of Hornsey.
Common wages, with diet, from Martinmas to Lady-day,
5s. the week ; ditto from Lady-day to Mid-summer, 6s. ;
ditto, from Mid-summer to Michaelmas, 9s. ; ditto, from
Michaelmas to Martinmas, 6s. Common wages, without
diet, 9s. the week in winter ; and 12s. in summer. In
harvest, men receive 12s. and 14s. the week and victuals ;
and women, 6s. and 7s. the week, with beer, but no meat.
There is very constant employment, in the winter. The
labourers are, in general, supplied by their employers with
corn, etc., much below the market price. The rents of
cottages vary according to the quantity of land annexed ;
and are from £l to £l 10s. Many of the cottages on this
coast are miserable hovels, built of mud and straw. Such
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 63
habitations are sometimes granted by the parish to poor
families ; and sometimes the parishes supply their poor
inhabitants with fuel. Many cottagers cultivate potatoes in
their garths and gardens ; some have a pig ; and a few keep
cows. . . .
25. A FARMER'S FARE IN 1799
Source : Parkinson, The Experienced Farmer's Tour in America, 1805.
I was accustomed to eat what may be termed black bread,
for which the small wheat called hinder-ends, or light wheat
taken out of the best sent to market, is used and kept for
family use ; which being ground, was afterwards passed
through a wide sieve, with the small bran searched out of
the best wheat flour, and put amongst the bread meal ;
altogether making a sort of coarse or black bread ; and the
fine flour used for puddings, pies, etc. Yeast not being
then in general use, a piece of dough was kept out of the
last baking and salted ; which before the time of using it
for the next batch, becoming sour, this sort of bread
acquired the same quality. Very fat bacon was the chief
of our diet, garden stuff not being in such general use at
this time, excepting the large Windsor beans in summer,
and potatoes occasionally in the winter, with pease-puddings.
I know no greater dainty to me than these beans and fat
bacon, or pease-pudding, to the offal of pig's flesh in the
winter, or some of the black bread and fat bacon.
20. ENGLISH PASSION FOR POLITICS
Source: Goldsmith's The Citizen of the World, 1775.
I have already informed you of the singular passion of
this nation for politics. An Englishman not satisfied with
finding by his own prosperity the contending powers of
Europe properly balanced, desires also to know the precise
value of every weight in cither scale. To gratify this
curiosity, a leaf of political instruction is served up every
64 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
morning with tea. When our politician has feasted upon
this, he repairs to a coffee-house, in order to ruminate upon
what he has read, and increase his collection ; from thence
he proceeds to the ordinary, enquires what news, and
treasuring up every acquisition there, hunts about all the
evening in quest of more, and carefully adds it to the rest.
Thus at night he retires home, full of the important advices
of the day. When lo ! awaking next morning, he finds
the instructions of yesterday, a collection of absurdity or
palpable falsehood. This, one would think, a mortifying
repulse in the pursuit of wisdom ; yet our politician no
way discouraged, hunts on in order to collect fresh materials,
and in order to be again disappointed.
I have often admired the commercial spirit which prevails
over Europe ; have been surprised to see them carry on a
traffic with productions, that an Asiatic stranger would
deem entirely useless. It is a proverb in China, that an
European suffers not even his spittle to be lost ; the maxim,
however, is not sufficiently strong ; since they sell even their
lies to great advantage. Every nation drives a considerable
trade in this commodity with their neighbours.
An English dealer in this way, for instance, has only to
ascend to his work-house, and manufacture a turbulent
speech averred to be spoken in the senate ; or a report
supposed to be dropt at court ; a piece of scandal that
strikes a popular Mandarine ; or a secret treaty between
two neighbouring powers. When finished, these goods are
baled up and consigned to a factor abroad, who sends
in return two battles, three sieges, and a shrewd letter
filled with dashes blanks and stars * * * of
great importance.
Thus you perceive, that a single Gazette is the joint
manufacture of Europe ; and he who would peruse it with
a philosophical eye, might perceive in every paragraph,
something characteristic of the nation to which it belongs.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 65
A map does not exhibit a more distinct view of the boundaries
and situation of every country, than its news does a picture
of the genius and the morals of its inhabitants. The super-
stition and erroneous delicacy of Italy, the formality of
Spain, the cruelty of Portugal, the fears of Austria, the
confidence of Prussia, the levity of France, the avarice of
Holland, the pride of England, the absurdity of Ireland,
and the national partiality of Scotland, are all conspicuous
in every page.
But, perhaps, you may find more satisfaction in a real
news paper, than in my description of one ; I therefore
send a specimen, which may serve to exhibit the manner
of their being written, and distinguish the characters of
the various nations which are united in its composition.
Naples. — We have lately dug up here a curious Etruscan
monument, broke in two in the raising. The characters
are scarce visible ; but Nugosi, the learned antiquary,
supposes it to have been erected in honour of Picus, a Latin
king, as one of the lines may be plainly distinguished to
begin with a P. It is hoped this discovery will produce
something valuable, as the literati of our twelve academies
are deeply engaged in the disquisition.
Pisa. — Since father Fudgi, prior of St Gilbert's, has gone
to reside at Rome, no miracles have been performed at the
shrine of St Gilbert ; the devout begin to grow uneasy, and
some begin actually to fear that St Gilbert has forsaken
them with the reverend father.
Lucca. — The administrators of our serene republic have
frequent conferences upon the part they shall take in the
present commotions of Europe. Some are for sending a
body of their troops, consisting of one company of foot and
six horsemen, to make a diversion in favour of the empress-
queen [Maria-Theresa, Queen of Hungary] ; others are as
strenuous asserters of the Prussian interest : what turn
these debates may take, time only can discover. However.
v E
66 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
certain it is, we shall be able to bring into the field at the
opening of the next campaign, seventy-five armed men, a
commander-in-chief, and two drummers of great experience.
Spain. — Yesterday the new king showed himself to his
subjects, and after having stayed half an hour in his balcony,
retired to the royal apartment. The night concluded on
this extraordinary occasion, with illuminations and other
demonstrations of joy.
The queen is more beautiful than the rising sun, and
reckoned one of the first wits in Europe : she had a glorious
opportunity of displaying the readiness of her invention,
and her skill in repartee lately at court. The duke of
Lerma, coming up to her with a low bow and a smile, and
presenting a nosegay set with diamonds, Madame, cries
he, I am your tnost obedient humble servant. 0, Sir-,
replies the queen, without any prompter, or the least
hesitation, Tm very proud of the very great honour you do
me. Upon which she made a low curtesy, and all the
courtiers fell a-laughing at the readiness and the smartness
of her reply.
Lisbon. — Yesterday we had an auto da fe, at which were
burned three young women accused of heresy, one of them
of exquisite beauty ; two Jews, and an old woman, convicted
of being a witch : One of the friars, who attended this last,
reports, that he saw the devil fly out of her at the stake in
the shape of a flame of fire. The populace behaved on this
occasion with great good humour, joy, and sincere devotion.
Our merciful Sovereign has been for some time past
recovered of his fright : though so atrocious an attempt
deserved to exterminate half the nation, yet he has been
graciously pleased to spare the lives of his subjects, and not
above five hundred have been broke upon the wheel, or
otherwise executed upon this horrid occasion.
Vienna. — We have received certain advices that a party
of twenty thousand Austrians, having attacked a much
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 67
superior body of Prussians, put them all to flight, and took
the rest prisoners of war.
Berlin. — We have received certain advices that a party
of twenty thousand Prussians, having attacked a much
superior body of Austrians, put them to flight, and took
a great number of prisoners, with their military chest,
cannon, and baggage.
Though we have not succeeded this campaign to our
wishes ; yet, when we think of him who commands us, we
rest in security : while we sleep, our king is watchful for
our safety.
Paris. — We shall soon strike a signal blow. We have
seventeen flat-bottomed boats at Havre. The people are
in excellent spirits, and our ministers make no difficulty of
raising the supplies.
We are all undone ; the people are discontented to the
last degree ; the ministers are obliged to have recourse to
the most rigorous methods to raise the expenses of the
war. . . .
England. — Wanted an usher to an academy. — A T .Z?. —
He must be able to read, dress hair, and must have had the
small-pox. . . .
W T e hear from Germany that Prince Ferdinand has gained
a complete victory, and taken twelve kettle-drums, five
standards, and four waggons of ammunition prisoners of war.
Edinburgh. — We are positive when we say, that Saunders
M'Gregor, who was lately executed for horse-stealing, is
not a Scotchman, but born in Carrickfcrgus. Farewell.
27. SOME ENGLISH CUSTOMS
Source: C. P. Moritz, Travels, chiefly on foot, through Several Parts of
Great Britain, 1782. In John Pinkcrton, General Collection of Voyages and
Travels, 1808-14. Vol. II.
The singing of the choristers in the streets, so usual with
us [in Germany], is not at all customary here. Indeed,
68 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
there is in England, or at least in London, such a constant
walking, riding, and driving up and down in the streets,
that it would not be very practicable. Parents here, in
general, nay even those of the lowest classes, seem to be
kind and indulgent to their children ; and do not, like our
common people, break their spirits too much by blows and
sharp language. Children should certainly be inured early
to set a proper value on themselves ; whereas with us,
parents of the lower class bring up their children to the
same slavery under which they themselves groan.
Notwithstanding the constant new appetites and calls of
fashion, they here remain faithful to nature till a certain
age. What a contrast, when I figure to myself our petted,
pale-faced Berlin boys, at six years old, with a large bag,
and all the parade of grown-up persons, nay even with laced
coats ; and here, on the contrary, see nothing but fine,
ruddy, slim, active boys, with their bosoms open, and their
hair cut on their forehead, whilst behind it flows naturally
in ringlets. It is something uncommon here to meet a
young man, and more especially a boy, with a pale or sallow
face, with deformed features, or disproportioned limbs.
With us, alas ! it is not to be concealed, the case is very
much otherwise : if it were not, handsome people would
hardly strike us so very much as they do in this country.
This free, loose, and natural dress, is worn till they are
eighteen, or even till they are twenty. It is then, indeed,
discontinued by the higher rank, but with the common
people it always remains the same. They then begin to
have their hair dressed, and curled with irons, to give the
head a large bushy appearance, and half their backs are
covered with powder. I am obliged to remain still longer
under the hands of an English, than I was under a German
hair-dresser ; and to sweat under his hot irons, with which
he curls my hair all over, in order that I may appear among
Englishmen, somewhat English. I must here observe that
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 69
the English hair-dressers are also barbers, an office, how-
ever, which they perform very badly indeed ; though I
cannot but consider shaving as a far more proper employ-
ment for these petit maitres than it is for surgeons, who, you
know, in our country are obliged to shave us. It is in-
credible how much the English at present Frenchify them-
selves ; the only things yet wanting are bags and swords,
with which at least, I have seen no one walking publicly,
but I am told they are worn at court.
In the morning it is usual to walk out in a sort of negligee,
or morning dress, your hair not dressed, but merely rolled
up in rollers, and in a frock and boots. In Westminster,
the morning lasts till four or five o'clock, at which time they
dine ; and supper and going to bed are regulated accordingly.
They generally do not breakfast till ten o'clock. The farther
you go from the court into the city, the more regular and
domestic the people become ; and there they generally dine
about three o'clock, i.e. as soon as the business or 'Change
is over.
Trimmed suits are not yet worn, and the most usual dress
is in summer, a short white waistcoat, black breeches, white
silk stockings, and a frock, generally of very dark blue cloth,
which looks like black ; and the English seem in general
to prefer dark colours. If you wish to be full drest, you
wear black. Officers rarely wear their uniforms, but dress
like other people, and are to be known to be officers only
by a cockade in their hats. . . .
Electricity happens at present to be the puppet-show of
the English. Whoever at all understands electricity, is
sure of being noticed and successful. — This a certain Mr
Katterfelto experiences, who gives himself out for a Prussian,
speaks bad English, and understands, besides the usual
electrical and philosophical experiments, some legerdemain
tricks, with which (at least according to the papers) he sets
the whole world in wonder. . . . Every sensible person
70 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
considers Katterfelto as a puppy, an ignoramus, a bragga-
docio, and an imposter ; notwithstanding which he has a
number of followers. He has demonstrated to the people,
that the influenza is occasioned by a small kind of insect,
which poisons the air ; and a nostrum, which he pretends
to have found out, to prevent or destroy it, is eagerly bought
of him.
28. ELECTION OF A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Source : As No. 27.
The cities of London and Westminster send, the one four,
and the other two members to Parliament, Mr Fox is one
of the two members for Westminster ; one seat was vacant,
and that vacancy was now to be filled. And the same Sir
Cecil Wray, whom Fox had before opposed to Lord Hood,
was now publicly chosen. They tell me that at these
elections, when there is a strong opposition-party, there is
often bloody work ; but this election was, in the electioneer-
ing phrase, a " hollow thing," i.e. quite sure ; as those
who had voted for Admiral Hood now withdrew, without
standing a poll ; as being convinced beforehand, their
chance to succeed was desperate.
The election was held in Covent-garden, a large market
place, in the open air. There was a scaffold erected just
before the door of a very handsome church, which is also
called St Paul's ; but which however is not to be compared
to the cathedral.
A temporary edifice, formed only of boards and wood
nailed together, was erected on the occasion. It was called
the hustings, and filled with benches ; and at one end of
it, where the benches ended, mats were laid ; on which
those who spoke to the people, stood. In the area before
the hustings, immense multitudes of people were assembled ;
of whom the greatest part seemed to be of the lowest order.
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THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 71
To this tumultuous crowd, however, the speakers often
bowed very low, and always addressed them by the title
of gentlemen. Sir Cecil Wray was obliged to step forward
and promise these same gentlemen, with hand and heart,
that he would faithfully fulfil his duties, as their representa-
tive. He also made an apology, because, on account of
his long journey, and ill health, he had not been able to
wait on them, as became him, at their respective houses.
The moment that he began to speak even this rude rabble
became all as quiet as the raging sea after a storm ; only
every now and then rending the air with the parliamentary
cry of " Hear him ! hear him ! " and as soon as he had
done speaking, they again vociferated aloud an universal
huzza, every one, at the same time, waving his hat.
And now, being formally declared to have been legally
chosen, he again bowed most profoundly, and returned
thanks for the great honour done him : when a well-dressed
man, whose name I could not learn, stepped forward, and
in a well indited speech congratulated both the chosen and
the choosers. " Upon my word," said a gruff carter, who
stood near me, " that man speaks well."
Even little boys clambered up and hung on the rails and
on the lamp posts ; and as if the speeches had also been
addressed to them, they too listened with the utmost
attention : and they too testified their approbation of it,
by joining lustily in the three cheers, and waving their
hats.
All the enthusiasm of my earliest years, kindled by the
patriotism of the illustrious heroes of Rome, Coriolanus,
Julius Csesar, and Anthony, were now revived in my mind :
and though all I had just seen and heard, be, in fact, but
the semblance of liberty, and that too tribimitial liberty,
yet at that moment, I thought it charming, and it warmed
my heart. Yes, depend on it, my friend, when you here see
how, in this happy country, the lowest and meanest member
72 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
of society, thus unequivocably testifies the interest which
he takes in everything of a public nature ; when you see,
how even women and children bear a part in the great
concerns of their country ; in short, how high and low,
rich and poor, all concur in declaring their feelings and
their convictions, that a carter, a common tar, or a scavenger,
is still a man, nay, an Englishman ; and as such has his rights
and privileges defined and known as exactly and as well as
his King, or as his King's minister — take my word for it,
you will feel yourself very differently affected from what
you are, when staring at our soldiers in their exercises
at Berlin.
When Fox, who was among the voters, arrived at the
beginning of the election, he too was received with an
universal shout of joy. At length, when it was nearly over,
the people took it into their heads to hear him speak, and
every one called out, Fox ! Fox ! I know not why, but I
seemed to catch some of the spirit of the place and time ;
and so I also bawled Fox ! Fox ! and he was obliged to
come forward and speak ; for no other reason that I could
find, but that the people wished to hear him speak. . . .
When the whole was over, the rampant spirit of liberty,
and the wild impatience of a genuine English mob, were
exhibited in perfection. In a very few minutes the whole
scaffolding, benches, and chairs, and every thing else, was
completely destroyed ; and the mat with which it had been
covered torn into ten thousand long strips or pieces, or
strings, with which they encircled or enclosed multitudes
of people of all ranks. These they hurried along with them,
and everything else that came in their way, as trophies of
joy ; and thus, in the midst of exultation and triumph,
they paraded through many of the most populous streets
of London. . . .
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 73
29. A DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS [1782]
Source : As No. 27.
The first day that I was at the House of Commons, an
English gentleman who sat next to me in the gallery, very
obligingly pointed out to me the principal members, such
as Fox, Burke, Rigby, etc., all of whom I heard speak. The
debate happened to be whether, besides being made a peer,
any other specific reward should be bestowed by the nation
on their gallant admiral Rodney. In the course of the
debate, I remember, Mr Fox was very sharply reprimanded
by young lord Fielding, for having, when minister, opposed
the election of admiral Hood, as a member for Westminster.
Fox was sitting to the right of the speaker, not far from
the table on which the gilt sceptre lay. He now took his
place so near it that he could reach it with his hand, and
thus placed, he gave it many a violent and hearty thump,
either to aid, or to shew the energy with which he spoke.
If the charge was vehement, his defence was no less so : he
justified himself against lord Fielding, by maintaining, that
he had not opposed this election in the character of a
minister, but as an individual, or private person : and that,
as such, he had freely and honestly given his vote for another,
namely for Sir Cecil Wray ; adding, that the King, when
he appointed him secretary of state, had entered into no
agreement with him, by which he lost his vote as an indi-
vidual : to such a requisition he never would have submitted.
It is impossible for me to describe, with what fire, and per-
suasive eloquence he spoke, and how the speaker in the chair
incessantly nodded approbation from beneath liis solemn
wig; and innumerable voices incessantly called out, Hear
him ! hear him ! and when there was the least sign that
he intended to leave off speaking, they no less vociferously
exclaimed, Go on ; and so he continued to speak in this
manner for nearly two hours. Mr Rigby in reply, made a
74 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
short but humourous speech, in which he mentioned of how
little consequence the title of lord and lady was without
money to support it, and finished with the Latin proverb,
" infelix paupertas, — quia ridiculos miseros facit." After
having first very judiciously observed that previous enquiry
should be made, whether admiral Rodney had made any
rich prizes or captures ; because, if that should be the case,
he would not stand in need of further reward in money. I
have since been almost every day at the parliament house ;
and prefer the entertainment there meet with, to most other
amusements.
Fox is still much beloved by the people, notwithstanding
that they are, (and certainly with good reason) displeased
at his being the cause of admiral Rodney's recal ; though
even I have heard him again and again, almost extravagant
in his encomiums on this noble admiral. The same cele-
brated Charles Fox is a short, fat, and gross man, with a
swarthy complexion, and dark ; and in general is badly
dressed. There certainly is something Jewish in his looks.
But upon the whole, he is not an ill-made nor an ill-looking
man ; and there are many strong marks of sagacity and fire
in his eyes. I have frequently heard the people here say,
that this same Mr Fox is as cunning as a fox. Burke is a
well made, tall, upright man, but looks elderly and broken.
Rigby is excessively corpulent, and has a jolly rubicund
face.
The little less than downright open abuse, and the many
really rude things which the members said to each other,
struck me much. For example, when one has finished,
another rises, and immediately taxes with absurdity all that
the right honourable gentleman, (for with this title the
members of the House of Commons always honour each
other) had just advanced. It would indeed be contrary to
the rules of the house, flatly to tell each other that what
they have spoken is false, or even foolish : instead of this,
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 75
•
they turn themselves, as usual, to the Speaker, and so,
whilst their address is directed to him, they fancy they
violate neither the rules of parliament, nor those- of good
breeding and decorum, whilst they utter the most cutting
personal sarcasms against the member, or the measure they
oppose. . . .
Two shorthand writers have sat sometimes not far distant
from me, who (though it is rather by stealth) endeavour to
take down the words of the speaker ; and thus all that is
very remarkable in what is said in parliament, may generally
be read in print the next day. The shorthand writers,
whom I noticed, are supposed to be employed and paid by
the editors of the different newspapers. . . . There appears
to be much more politeness and more courteous behaviour
in the members of the upper house. But he who wishes to
observe mankind, and to contemplate the leading traits of
the different characters most strongly marked, will do well
to attend frequently the lower, rather than the other,
house.
30. HIGHWAYMEN
Sotjbce : As No. 27.
Richmond, 2lst June, 1782.
Yesterday afternoon I had the luxury, for the first time,
of being driven in an English stage. These coaches are at
least in the eyes of a foreigner, quite elegant, lined in the
inside ; and with two seats large enough to accommodate
six persons ; but it must be owned, when the carriage is
full, the company are rather crowded.
At the White Hart from whence the coach sets out. there
was, at first, only an elderly lady who got in ; but as we
drove along, it w r as soon filled, and mostly by ladies, there-
being only one more gentleman and myself. The conversa-
tion of the ladies among themselves, who appeared to be a
little acquainted with each other, seemed to me to be but
very insipid and tiresome. All I could do was, I drew
76 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
out my book of the roads, and marked the way we were
going.
Before you well know that you are out of London, you
are already in Kensington and Hammersmith ; because
there are all the way houses on both sides, after you are
out of the city ; just as you may remember the case is with
us when you drive from Berlin to Schoneberg ; although
in point of prospect, houses, and streets, the difference, no
doubt, is prodigious.
It was a fine day, and there were various delightful
prospects on both sides, on which the eye would willingly
have dwelt longer, had not our coach rolled on past them,
so provokingly quick. It appeared somewhat singular to
me, when, at a few miles from London, I saw at a distance
a beautiful white house ; and perceived on the high road, on
which we were driving, a direction post, on which were
written these words : " that great white house, at a distance,
is a boarding-school ! "
The man who was with us in the coach pointed out to us
the county seats of the lords and great people, by which
we passed ; and entertained us with all kinds of stories of
robberies which had been committed on travellers, here-
abouts : so that the ladies at last began to be rather afraid ;
on which he began to stand up for the superior honour of the
English robbers, when compared with the French : the
former he said robbed only, the latter both robbed and
murdered.
Notwithstanding this, there are in England another
species of villains, who also murder, and that oftentimes
for the merest trifle, of which they rob the person murdered.
These are called Footpads, and are the lowest class of English
rogues ; amongst whom, in general there reigns something
like some regard to character.
The highest order of thieves are the pick-pockets, or
cutpurses, whom you find every where ; and sometimes
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 77
even in the best companies. They are generally well and
handsomely dressed, so that you take them to be persons of
rank ; as indeed may sometimes be the case : persons who
by extravagance and excesses have reduced themselves to
want, and find themselves obliged at last to have recourse
to pilfering and thieving.
Next to them come the highwaymen, who rob on horse-
back ; and often, they say, even with unloaded pistols they
terrify travellers, in order to put themselves in possession
of their purses. Among these persons, however, there are
instances of true greatness of soul, there are numberless
instances of their returning a part of their booty, where the
party robbed has appeared to be particularly distressed ;
and they are seldom guilty of murder.
Then comes the third and lowest, and worst of all thieves
and rogues, the footpads before mentioned ; who are on
foot, and often murder in the most inhuman manner, for
the sake of only a few shillings, any unfortunate people
who happen to fall in their way. Of this several mournful
instances may be read almost daily in the English papers.
Probably they murder because they cannot like high-
waymen, aided by their horses, make a rapid flight ; and
therefore such pests are frequently pretty easily pursued
and taken, if the person robbed gives information of his
robbery in time.
But to return to our stage, I must observe, that they have
here a curious way of riding, not in, but upon a stage coach.
Persons to whom it is not convenient to pay a full price,
instead of the inside, sit on the top of the coach, without
any seats or even a rail. By what means passengers thus
fasten themselves securely on the roof of these vehicles, I
know not ; but you constantly see numbers seated there,
apparently at their ease, and in perfect safety.
This they call riding on the outside ; for which they pa)
only half as much as those pay who arc within.
78 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
31. A BOAT RACE
Souece : Horace Walpole, Letters (1735-1797). To Mk-3 Berry.
Aug. 23. 1791. — On Monday was the boat-race. I was
in the great room at the Castle, with the Duke of Clarence,
Lady Di, Lord Robert Spencer, and the House of Bouverie,
to see the boats start from the bridge to Thistleworth. and
back to a tent erected on Lord Dysart's meadow, just before
Lady Di's windows : whither we went to see them arrive,
and where we had breakfast. For the second heat, I sat
in my coach on the bridge ; and did not stay for the third.
The day had been coined on purpose, with my favourite
south-east wind. The scene, both up the river and down,
was what only Richmond upon earth can exhibit. The
crowds on those green velvet meadows and on the shores,
the yachts, barges, pleasure and small boats, and the
windows and gardens lined with spectators, were so delight-
ful, that when I came home from that vivid show, I
thought Strawberry [Strawberry Hill, Walpole's residence]
looked as dull and solitary as a hermitage. At night there
was a ball at the Castle, and illuminations, with the Duke's
cypher, etc., in coloured lamps, as were the houses of his
Royal Highness's tradesmen. I went again in the evening
to the French ladies on the Green, where there was a bonfire ;
but, you may believe, not to the ball.
32. SUNDAY .SCHOOLS [1791]
~p.CE : Madame D'Arblay, Diary and Letters, 1842-1846.
Aug. 31, 1791. — The name of Mrs Trimmer led us to talk
of the Sunday-schools and Schools of Industry. They are
both in a very flourishing state at Bath, and Lady Spencer
has taken one school under her own immediate patronage.
. . . On Sunday she sent me a message upstairs to say she
would take me to see the Sunday-school if I felt well enough
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 79
to desire it. . . . It was a most interesting siodvt. Such
a number of poor innocent children all put in a way of
right, most taken immediately from every way of wrong,
lifting their little hands, and joining in those prayers and
supplications for mercy and grace, which, even if they
understood not. must at least impress them with a genera]
idea of religion, a dread of evil, and a love of good. . . .
33. DISCOVERY OF VACCINATION
SOTTBOI : Baron, Life of Edunrd Jenner. 1S38.
(a) Jenner a Petition to Parliament [1802].
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled.
The humble Petition of Edward Jenner. Doctor of Physic,
Sheweth,
That your petitioner having discovered that a disease
which occasionally exists in a particular form among cattle,
known by the name of the cowpox, admits of being inoculated
on the human frame with the most perfect ease and safety,
and is attended with the singularly beneficial effect of
rendering through life the persons so inoculated perfectly
secure from the infection of the small-pox.
That your petitioner after a most attentive and laborious
investigation oi' the subject, setting aside considerations of
private and personal advantage, and anxious to promote
the safety and welfare of his countrymen and of mankind
in general, did not wish to conceal the discovery he so made
on the mode of conducting this new species of inoculation,
but immediately disclosed the whole to the public : and
by communication with medical men in all parts of this
kingdom, and in foreign countries, sedulously endeavoured
to spread the knowledge of his discovery and the benefit
of his labours as widely as possible.
80 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
That in this latter respect the views and wishes of your
petitioner have been completely fulfilled, for to his high
gratification he has to say that his inoculation is in practice
throughout a great proportion of the civilized world, and has
in particular been productive of great advantage to these
kingdoms, in consequence of its being introduced, under
authority, into the army and navy.
That the said inoculation hath already checked the
progress of the small-pox, and from its nature must finally
annihilate that dreadful disorder.
That the series of experiments by which this discovery
was developed and completed have not only occupied a
considerable portion of your petitioner's life, and have not
merely been a cause of great expense and anxiety to him,
but have so interrupted him in the ordinary exercise of his
profession as materially to abridge its pecuniary advantages,
without their being counterbalanced by those derived from
the new practice.
Your petitioner, therefore, with the full persuasion that
he shall meet with that attention and indulgence of which
this Honourable House may deem him worthy, humbly
prays this Honourable House to take the premises into
consideration, and to grant him such remuneration as to
their wisdom shall seem meet.
(b) Brothers of the Five Nations [1807].
Early in May last, His Excellency Lieutenant-Governor
Gore took every possible means to introduce vaccine inocu-
lation among your tribes ; but, owing to your people being
then out on their hunt, it did not take place. When on
public business here about a month after, I spoke to you
again, and strongly recommended to your serious considera-
tion the introducing among your people this valuable dis-
covery, the want of which you soon afterwards felt very
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 81
severely in the loss of one of your chiefs, Oughquaghga
John.
Brothers ! I have now the satisfaction to deliver to you
a book, sent to you from England by that great man, l)r
Jenner, whom God enabled to discover so great a blessing
to mankind : it explains fully all the advantages derived
from so great a discovery. I, therefore, Brothers, at his
request, and in his name, present this book to the Five
Nations, as a token of his regard for you and your rising
generation, by which many valuable lives may be preserved
from that most dreadful pestilence the small-pox.
(Signed) W. Claus, D.S.G.I.A.
Speech of the Five Nations, assembled in Council at Fort
George, in Upper Canada, to Dr. Jenner, London, on
the 8th of November, 1807.
Brother ! Our Father has delivered to us the book you
sent to instruct us how to use the discovery which the Great
Spirit made to you, whereby the smallpox, that fatal enemy
of our tribes, may be driven from the earth. We have
deposited your book in the hands of the man of skill
whom our great Father employs to attend us when sick or
wounded.
We shall not fail to teach our children to speak the name
of Jenner ; and to thank the Great Spirit for bestowing
upon him so much wisdom and so much benevolence.
We send with this a belt and string of Wampum, in token
of our acceptance of your precious gift ; and we beseech
the Great Spirit to take care of you in this world and in the
land of spirits.
Signed by two representatives of each of the Five Nations
— Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Oneidas, Cayougas.
v v
82 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
34. WITH WELLINGTON'S ARMY IN THE PENINSULA
[1812-14]
Source : Larpent, Private Journal, 1853.
Headquarters, Frenada, February 7 th, 1813.
There never were known so many Court-martials in this
army as at this moment, and as I have the whole direction
of them all, I really scarce know where to turn, and my
fingers are quite fatigued as well as my brains, with the
arrangements and difficulties as to witnesses, etc. I sent out
seventeen letters yesterday : and to-day I have one case of
thirteen prisoners who have been committing every sort of
outrage on their march here. Lord Wellington is now much
more easy with me, and seems to trust to me more ; and
yesterday I was pleased when he said, " If your friends knew
what was going on here, they would think you had no
sinecure. And how do you suppose I was plagued when I
had to do it nearly all myself? "
He seemed to feel relieved, and of course I could not but
feel gratified. I can assure you, however, that we have
none of us much idle time. Dr M'Gregor has seven hundred
medical men to look after. The Quarter-Master-general,
all the arrangement of the troops, clothing, etc. The
Adjutant-general, daily returns of the whole, constantly
checked by an eye that finds out even a wrong casting-up
of numbers in the totals. Lord Wellington reads and looks
into everything. He hunts every other day almost, and
then makes up for it by great diligence and instant decision
on the intermediate days. He works until about four
o'clock ; and then, for an hour or two, parades, with any
one whom he wants to talk to, up and down the little square
of Frenada (amidst all the chattering Portuguese) in his
grey great-coat.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 83
Headquarters, Casscda, June 20th, 1813.
In marching, our men have no chance at all with the
French. The latter beat them hollow, and, I believe,
principally owing to their being a more intelligent set of
beings, seeing consequences more, and feeling them. This
makes them sober and orderly, whenever it becomes mate-
rial, and on a pinch, their exertions and individual activity
are astonishing. Our men get sulky and desperate, drink
excessively, and become daily more weak and unable to
proceed, principally from their own conduct. They eat
voraciously when opportunity offers, after having had short
fare. This brings on fluxes, etc. In every respect, except
courage, they are very inferior soldiers to the French and
Germans. When the two divisions, the 4th and light,
passed through Taffalla the day before yesterday, the more
soldierlike appearance and conduct of the foreigners, though
in person naturally inferior, was very mortifying. Lord
Wellington feels it much, and is much hurt.
The 23rd and 11th Portuguese regiments, who behaved
in the field on the 23rd as well as any British did, or could
do, are on the march, though smaller animals, most superior.
They were cheerful, orderly, and steady. The English
troops were fagged, half tipsy, weak, disorderly, and un-
soldierlike ; and yet the Portuguese suffer greater real
hardships, as they have no tents, and only bivouac, and
have a worse commissariat.
Lord Wellington at dinner on Sunday directed some jokes
at Major D., who makes out the returns, because he wanted
to make a grand total of wounded, etc.. alter the late live
days' fighting. He laughed, and said, all might go wrong
from this innovation, but he was determined lie would have
no more grand totals until he got another Vittoria without
more loss ; that the loss was always great enough, in all
84 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
conscience, without displaying it in this ostentatious manner,
and that he would not have every drummer and every officer,
etc., killed or wounded in the five days, all added up in one
grand total, but that at least the croakers should have the
trouble themselves of adding up all the different losses, and
making it out for themselves.
Headquarters, St Jean de Luz, February 2nd, 1814. '
My dear M.
Here we remain absolutely tied by the leg by this horrible
state of the roads, and weather, and without any regular news
from England. Nothing but reports on the side of France
which would encourage us to proceed ; and, on the seaside,
of heavy gales, and lost vessels. I am just now driven in
by a furious hailstorm, and yet the weather is mild, and,
till this moment, pleasant enough. "We have two ships in
our little bay, one full of hay, which has been four days nearly
within three hundred yards of the shore, and in hourly
danger of drifting on the beach ; and yet we have not been
able, in spite of our distress, to get out a truss ; and the
other a brig transport, empty, and driven in here against
her will by stress of weather. A frigate was also off here
all yesterday, apparently labouring much, and fearful of
the coast. We certainly have undertaken a bold thing in
wintering in such a place, but it was a choice of difficulties.
If we had money we should do well, but that is as scarce
as anything else. Plenty of supplies would come in from
the right from the French had we cash to give in return.
As it is, in consequence of the little ready money we gave
at first, a great quantity of cattle, food, etc., has been
obtained, but now we are reduced to Treasury bills, and
that cannot last, and the loss is very great. Even the
muleteers get a past payment now in those bills, and the
consequence is that a person may buy them with dollars at
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 85
the rate of 7s. -Id., and, I believe, 7s. 6d. a dollar. The
army is also six months, and the staff seven months in
arrear of their pay.
We have, however, I believe, plenty of bread and biscuit,
and meal for a month with the army, and corn at Passages
in abundance. The short transport from thence is almost
too much for us, and the supply is by no means general to
the animals, whilst long forage is quite a rarity. The
destruction in the oxen is frightful in the rear. Our great
depot is as far back as Palencia, and even there, in store,
the cattle die very fast, and the moment they march they
fall away to nothing, and die by fifties. Our Commissary-
general almost despairs of getting more up, although he has
made depots of bran and straw, etc., on the road, to try and
obviate the total want of food. It is now in contemplation
to ship cattle from St Andar, where there is a store ; but
then we have rather a scarcity of naval transports also.
Cattle would come in as fast as we wished from twenty
leagues to our right, could we but pay for it. As it is, I am
almost inclined to think we shall, as a choice of evils, be
obliged, in spite of the roads, etc., to move towards our
right in quest of food.
• ••••••
I heard a few days since an anecdote about the siege of
Rodrigo, which shows the man [Wellington]. Scarcely any-
one knew what was to be done ; the great preparations were
all made in Almeyda, and most supposed, and I believe the
French, that everything which arrived there, was for the
purpose of defence there, not of attack elsewhere. On a
sudden the army was in front of Rodrigo. A new advanced
work was discovered, which must be taken before any pro-
gress could be made in the siege. To save men and time,
an instant attack was resolved upon. Scaling-ladders were
necessary; the engineers were applied to j they had none
with them, for they were quite ignorant of the plans an
86 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
inconvenience which has often arisen in different departments
from Lord Wellington's great secrecy, though the general
result, assisted by his genius, has been so good. The scaling
could not take place without ladders ; Lord Wellington
was informed of this. " Well," says he, " you have brought
up your ammunition and stores, never mind the waggons,
cut them all up directly, they will make excellent ladders —
there you see, each side piece is already cut." This was
done, and by the help of these novel ladders, the work was
scaled forthwith.
At Badajoz, he found so little to be had in the regular way
for a siege, from want of transport, and so many difficulties
in consequence from the regular bred artillery generals, etc.,
that he became principal engineer himself, making use of
Colonel Dickson, the acting man, as his instrument. These
sieges procured Dickson his majority and lieutenant-
colonelcy in consequence, and though only a Captain in the
Royal Regiment of Artillery, he now conducts the whole
department here, because he makes no difficulties.
In one instance Lord Wellington is not like Frederick the
Great. He is remarkably neat, and most particular in his
dress, considering his situation. He is well made, knows
it, and is willing to set off to the best what nature has
bestowed. In short, like every great man, present or past,
almost without exception, he is vain. He cuts the skirts
of his own coats shorter, to make them look smarter : and
only a short time since I found him discussing the cut of
his half -boots, and suggesting alterations to his servant,
when I went in upon business. The vanity of great men
shows itself in different ways, but I believe always exists
in some shape or other.
Head-Quarters, Bordeaux, July 15th, 1814.
Our final departure from hence appears, at last, to be
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 87
gradually approaching. The numbers of the English
diminish daily; and though we have for this month pasl
been talking of the "next week," I begin to think that
another week will really and truly see us off, and the French
army again in possession of Bordeaux.
The tradesmen of the town will miss us greatly. They
have made a famous time of it these last three months, as
the army has in that time received six months pay, and
most of it has found its way into the pockets of the keepers
of the restaurateurs, the hotels, etc. Bordeaux has had
its full share of the spoils of the milords. Nor have the
inhabitants suffered anything by the army, except the little
inconvenience of giving up a room or two in general as
quarters for the officers, who partly made up even for this
by giving their hosts tickets for the play, taking boxes for
the ladies, etc., and making them presents every now and
then. The only persons who have suffered by us at all in
the neighbourhood, are those who have small gardens, near
the camp. They certainly have had their vegetables and
and fruit gathered gratis, and have generally not even had
their share. This evil is, however, exaggerated, and much
of it which really exists, has been done by the French
peasantry and country servants, who, if a soldier takes six
cabbages, immediately take a dozen more themselves, sell
them in the camp, and swear to the owners that the soldiers
are the culprits.
Those who have vineyards as well as gardens, have also
their full revenge in the price of their wines, which were
immediately doubled, by the arrival of the troops, and the
latter, in fact, pay dearly for their vegetables, though they
get a good part for nothing. It is fortunate for the inhabi-
tants that we shall be off before the grapes begin to ripen,
and for our own soldiers likewise. Surrounded by Nine-
yards, the temptations would be irresistible, and the means
of offence almost bound less ; so thai the loss to the cultivators
88 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
of their principal harvest, and the injury to the soldiers,
would be very considerable.
35. A VIEW OF THE THREATENED FRENCH INVASION [1815]
Source : Sydney Smith, Letters of Peter Plymley, No. 5, 1807.
As for the spirit of the peasantry, in making a gallant
defence behind hedgerows, and through plate-racks and hen-
coops, highly as I think of their bravery, I do not know any
nation in Europe so likely to be struck with panic as the
English ; and this from their total unacquaintance with the
science of war. Old wheat and beans blazing for twenty
miles round ; cart mares shot ; sow& of Lord Somerville's
breed running wild over the country ; the minister of the
parish wounded sorely in his hinder parts ; Mrs Plymley
in fits ; all these scenes of war an Austrian or a Russian has
seen three or four times over ; but it is now three centuries
since an English pig has fallen in a fair battle upon English
ground, or a farm-house been rifled. . . .
The old edition of Plutarch's Lives, which lies in the
corner of your parlour window, has contributed to work you
up to the most romantic expectations of our Roman behaviour.
You are persuaded that Lord Amherst will defend Kew
Bridge like Codes ; that some maid of honour will break
away from her captivity, and swim over the Thames ; that
the Duke of York will burn his capitulating hand ; and little
Mr Sturges Bourne give forty years' purchase for Moulsham
Hall, while the French are encamped upon it. I hope we
shall witness all this, if the French do come ,* but in the
mean time I am so enchanted with the ordinary English
behaviour of these invaluable persons, that I earnestly pray
no opportunity may be given them for Roman valour, and
for those very un-Roman pensions which they would all,
of course, take especial care to claim in consequence.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 89
3G. RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND
Soubce : Washington Irving, 8h tch Hook.
Oh ! friendly to the best pursuits of man,
Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to p<
Domestie life in rural pleasun - pasl !- Cowpeb.
The stranger who would form a correct opinion of the
English character, must not confine his observations to the
metropolis. He must go forth into the country ; he must
sojourn in villages and hamlets ; he must visit castles, villas,
farm houses, cottages ; he must wander through parks and
gardens; along hedges and green lanes; he must loiter
about country churches ; attend wakes and fairs, and other
rural festivals ; and cope with the people in all their con-
ditions, and all their habits and humours.
In some countries, the large cities absorb the wealth and
fashion of the nation ; they are the only fixed abodes of
elegant and intelligent society, and the country is inhabited
almost entirely by boorish peasantry. In England, on the
contrary, the metropolis is a mere gathering place, or general
rendezvous, of the polite classes, where they devote a small
portion of the year to a hurry of gaiety and dissipation, and
having indulged this kind of carnival, return again to the
apparently more congenial habits of rural life. The various
orders of society are therefore diffused over the whole
surface of the kingdom, and the most retired neighbourhoods
afford specimens of the different ranks.
The English, in fact, are strongly gifted with the rural
feeling. They possess a quick sensibility to the beauties of
nature, and a keen relish for the pleasures and employments
of the country. This passion seems inherent in them. Even
the inhabitants of cities, born and brought up among brick
walls and bustling streets, enter with facility into rural
habits, and evince a tact for rural occupation. The
merchant has his snug retreat in the vicinity of tli<
90 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
metropolis, where he often displays as much pride and zeal
in the cultivation of his flower garden, and the maturing of
his fruits, as he does in the conduct of his business, and the
success of a commercial enterprise. Even those less fortunate
individuals, who are doomed to pass their lives in the midst
of din and traffic, contrive to have something that shall
remind them of the green aspect of nature. In the most
dark and dingy quarters of the city, the drawing room
window resembles frequently a bank of flowers ; every spot
capable of vegetation has its grass plot and flower bed ; and
every square its mimic park, laid out with picturesque taste,
and gleaming with refreshing verdure.
Those who see the Englishman only in town are apt to
form an unfavourable opinion of his social character. He
is either absorbed in business, or distracted by the thousand
engagements that dissipate time, thought, and feeling, in
this huge metropolis. He has, therefore, too commonly, a
look of hurry and abstraction. Wherever he happens to be,
he is on the point of going somewhere else ; at the moment
he is talking on one subject, his mind is wandering to another ;
and while paying a friendly visit, he is calculating how he
shall economise time so as to pay the other visits allotted
to the morning. An immense metropolis, like London, is
calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting. In their
casual and transient meetings they can but deal briefly in
commonplaces. They present but the cold superficies of
character — its rich and genial qualities have no time to be
warmed into a flow.
It is in the country that the Englishman gives scope to
his natural feelings. He breaks loose gladly from the cold
formalities and negative civilities of town ; throws off his
habits of shy reserve, and becomes joyous and free-hearted.
He manages to collect round him all the conveniences and
elegancies of polite life, and to banish its restraints. His
country seat abounds with every requisite, either for studious
A University Volunteer of 1804
7/ 'u
English Rural Life
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 91
retirement, tasteful gratification, or rural exercise. Books,
paintings, music, horses, dogs, and sporting implements of
all kinds, are at hand. He puts no constraint either upon
his guests or himself, but in the true spirit of hospitality
provides the means of enjoyment, and leaves every one to
partake according to his inclination.
The taste of the English in the cultivation of land, and
in what is called landscape gardening, is unrivalled. They
have studied nature intently, and discover an exquisite
sense of her beautiful forms and harmonious combinations.
Those charms, which in other countries she lavishes in wild
solitudes, are here assembled round the haunts of domestic
life. They seem to have caught her coy and furtive graces,
and spread them, like witchery, about their rural abodes.
Nothing can be more imposing than the magnificence of
English park scenery. Vast lawns that extend like sheets
of vivid green, with here and there clumps of gigantic trees,
heaping up rich piles of foliage. The solemn pomp of groves
and woodland glades, with the deer trooping in silent herds
across them ; the hare, bounding away to the covert ; or
the pheasant, suddenly bursting upon the wing. The brook,
taught to wind in the most natural mcanderings, or expand
into a glassy lake — the sequestered pool, reflecting the
quivering trees, with the yellow leaf sleeping on its bosom,
and the trout roaming fearlessly about its limpid waters :
while some rustic temple, or sylvan statue, grown green and
dank with age, gives an air of classic sanctity to the seclusion.
These are but a few of the features of park scenery ; but
what most delights me, is the creative talent with which
the English decorate the unostentatious abodes of middle
life. The rudest habitation, the most unpromising and
scanty portion of land, in the hands of an Englishman of
taste, becomes a little paradise. Witha nicely discriminating
eye, he seizes at once upon its capabilities, and pictures in
his mind the future landscape. The sterile spot grows into
92 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
loveliness under his hand ; and yet the operations of art
which produce the effect are scarcely to be perceived. The
cherishing and training of some trees ; the cautious pruning
of others ; the nice distribution of flowers and plants of
tender and graceful foliage ; the introduction of a green
slope of velvet turf ; the partial opening to a peep of blue
distance, or silver gleam of water, — all these are managed
with a delicate tact, a pervading yet quiet assiduity, like
the magic touchings with which a painter finishes up a
favourite picture.
The residence of people of fortune and refinement in the
country has diffused a degree of taste and elegance in rural
economy, that descends to the lowest class. The very
labourer, with his thatched cottage and narrow slip of ground,
attends to their embellishment. The trim hedge, the grass
plot before the door, the little flower bed bordered with snug
box, the woodbine trained up against the Avail, and hanging
its blossoms about the lattice, the pot of flowers in the
window, the holly providently planted about the house, to
cheat winter of its dreariness, and throw in a semblance of
green summer to cheer the fireside : — all these bespeak the
influence of taste, flowing down from high sources, and per-
vading the lowest levels of the public mind. If ever love,
as poets sing, delights to visit a cottage, it must be the
cottage of an English peasant.
The fondness for rural life among the higher classes of
the English, has had a great and salutary effect upon the
national character. I do not know a finer race of men
than the English gentlemen. Instead of the softness and
effeminacy which characterize the men of rank in most
countries, they exhibit a union of elegance and strength,
a robustness of frame and freshness of complexion, which
I am inclined to attribute to their living so much in the
open air, and pursuing so eagerly the invigorating recrea-
tions of the country. These hardy exercises produce also a
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER OP,
healthful tone of mind and spirits, and a manliness and
simplicity of manners, which even the follies and dissipations
of the town cannot easily pervert, and can never entirely
destroy. In the country, too, the different orders of society
seem to approach more freely, to be more disposed to blend
and operate favourably upon each other. The distinctions
between them do not appear to be so marked and impassable
as in the cities. The manner in which property has been
distributed into small estates and farms, has established a
regular gradation from the nobleman, through the classes
of gentry, small landed proprietors, and substantial farmers,
down to the labouring peasantry ; and while it has thus
banded the extremes of society together, has infused into
each intermediate rank a spirit of independence. This, it
must be confessed, is not so universally the case at present
as it was formerly ; the larger estates having, in late years
of distress, absorbed the smaller, and, in some parts of the
country, almost annihilated the sturdy race of small farmers.
These, however, I believe, are but casual breaks in the
general system I have mentioned.
In rural occupation there is nothing mean and debasing.
It leads a man forth among scenes of natural grandeur and
beauty ; it leaves him to the workings of his own mind,
operated upon by the purest and most elevating of external
influences. Such a man may be simple and rough, but he
cannot be vulgar. The man of refinement, therefore, finds
nothing revolting in an intercourse with the lower orders
in rural life as he does when he casually mingles with the
lower orders of cities. He lays aside his distance and
reserve, and is glad to waive the distinctions of rank, and to
enter into the honest, heartfelt enjoyments of common life.
Indeed, the very amusements of the country bring men more
and more together ; and the sound of hound and horn blend
all feelings into harmony. I believe this is one great reason
why the nobility and gentry arc more popular among the
94 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
inferior orders in England than they are in any other country ;
and why the latter have endured so many excessive pressures
and extremities, without repining more generally at the un-
equal distribution of fortune and privilege.
To this mingling of cultivated and rustic society may also
be attributed the rural feeling that runs through British
literature ; the frequent use of illustrations from rural life ;
those incomparable descriptions of nature, that abound in
the British poets — that have continued down from The
Flower and the Leaf of Chaucer, and have brought into our
closets all the freshness and fragrance of the dewy landscape.
The pastoral writers of other countries appear as if they had
paid nature an occasional visit, and become acquainted with
her general charms ; but the British poets have lived and
revelled with her, — they have wooed her in her most secret
haunts, — they have watched her minutest caprices. A spray
could not tremble in the breeze — a leaf could not rustle to
the ground — a diamond drop could not patter in the stream
— a fragrance could not exhale from the humble violet, nor
a daisy unfold its crimson tints to the morning ; but it has
been noticed by these impassioned and delicate observers,
and wrought up into some beautiful morality.
The effect of this devotion of elegant minds to rural
occupations has been wonderful on the face of the country.
A great part of the island is level, and would be monotonous,
were it not for the charms of culture ; but it is studded
and gemmed, as it were, with castles and palaces, and
embroidered with parks and gardens. It does not abound
in grand and sublime prospects, but rather in little home
scenes of rural repose and sheltered quiet. Every antique
farm house and moss-grown cottage is a picture ; and as
the roads are continually winding, and the view is shut in
by groves and hedges, the eye is delighted by a continual
succession of small landscapes of captivating loveliness.
The great charm, however, of English scenery is the moral
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 95
feeling that seems to pervade it. It is associated in the
mind with ideas of order, of quiet, of sober, well-established
principles, of hoary usage and reverend custom. Every-
thing seems to be the growth of ages of regular and peaceful
existence. The old church of remote architecture, with its
low, massive portal ; its gothic tower ; its windows rich
with tracery and painted glass, in scrupulous preservation ;
its stately monuments of warriors and worthies of the olden
time, ancestors of the present lords of the soil ; its tomb-
stones, recording successive generations of sturdy yeomanry,
whose progeny still plough the same fields, and kneel at the
same altar. The parsonage, a quaint, irregular pile, partly
antiquated, but repaired and altered in the tastes of various
ages and occupants. The stile and footpath leading from
the churchyard, across pleasant fields, and along shady
hedge-rows, according to an immemorial right of way. The
neighbouring village, with its venerable cottages, its public
green, sheltered by trees, under which the forefathers of the
present race have sported. The antique family mansion,
standing apart in some little rural domain, but looking down
with a protecting air on the surrounding scene. All these
common features of English landscape, evince a calm and
settled security, an hereditary transmission of home-bred
virtues and local attachments, that speak deeply and
touchingly for the moral character of the nation.
It is a pleasing sight of a Sunday morning, when the bell
is sending its sober melody across the quiet fields, to behold
the peasantry in their best finery, with ruddy faces and
modest cheerfulness, thronging tranquilly along the green
lanes to church ; but it is still more pleasing to see them
in the evenings, gathering about their cottage doors, and
appearing to exult in the humble comforts and embellish-
ments which their own hands have spread around them.
It is this sweet home feeling, this settled repose of affection
in the domestic scene, that is, after all, the parent of the
96 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
steadiest virtues and purest enjoyments ; and I cannot
close these desultory remarks better, than by quoting the
words of a modern English poet, who has depicted it with
remarkable felicity :
Through each gradation, from the castled hall,
The city dome, the villa crown'd with shade,
But chief from modest mansions numberless,
In town or hamlet, sheltering middle life,
Down to the cottag'd vale, and straw-roof'd shed ;
This western isle hath long been famed for scenes
Where bliss domestic finds a dwelling place :
Domestic bliss, that, like a harmless dove,
(Honour and sweet endearment keeping guard,)
Can centre in a little quiet nest
All that desire would fly for through the earth ;
That can, the world eluding, be itself
A world enjoy'd ; that wants no witnesses
But its own sharers, and approving heaven.
That, like a flower deep hid in rocky cleft,
Smiles, though 'tis looking only at the sky. 1
37. THE STAGE COACH
Sotxrce : As No. 3G.
In the course of a December tour in Yorkshire, I rode for
a long distance in one of the public coaches, on the day pre-
ceding Christmas. The coach was crowded, both inside and
out, with passengers, who, by their talk, seemed principally
bound to the mansions of relations or friends, to eat the
Christmas dinner. It was loaded also with hampers of
game, and baskets and boxes of delicacies ; and hares hung
dangling their long ears about the coachman's box, presents
from distant friends for the impending feast. I had three
fine rosy-cheeked boys for my fellow-passengers inside, full
of the buxom health and manly spirit which I have observed
1 From a poem on the Death of the Princess Charlotte, by the Rev. Rann
Kennedy, A.M.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 97
in the children of this country. They were returning home
for the holidays in high glee, and promising themselves a
world of enjoyment. . . .
They were under the particular guardianship of the coach-
man, to whom, whenever an opportunity presented, they
addressed a host of questions, and pronounced him one of
the best fellows in the world. Indeed, I could not but
notice the more than ordinary air of bustle and import-
ance of the coachman, who wore his hat a little on one
side, and had a large bunch of Christmas greens stuck
in the buttonhole of his coat. He is always a personage
full of mighty care and business, but he is particularly
so during this season, having so many commissions to
execute in consequence of the great interchange of
presents. . . .
He has commonly a broad, full face, curiously mottled
with red, as if the blood had been forced by hard feeding
into every vessel of the skin ; he is swelled into jolly dimen-
sions by frequent potations of malt liquors, and his bulk is
still further increased by a multiplicity of coats, in which
he is buried like a cauliflower, the upper one reaching to his
heels. He wears a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat ; a
huge roll of coloured handkerchief about his neck, knowingly
knotted and tucked in at the bosom ; and has in summer
time a large bouquet of flowers in his buttonhole ; the
present, most probably, of some enamoured country lass.
His waistcoat is commonly of some bright colour, striped,
and his small-clothes extend far below the knees, to meet
a pair of jockey-boots Which reach about half-way up
his legs.
All this costume is maintained with much precision ; he
has a pride in having his clothes of excellent materials ; and,
notwithstanding the seeming grossness of his appearance,
there is still discernible that neatness and propriety of person
which is almost inherent in an Englishman. He enjoys
v o
98 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
great consequence and consideration along the road ; has
frequent conferences with the village housewives, who look
upon him as a man of great trust and dependence ; and he
seems to have a good understanding with every bright-eyed
country lass. The moment he arrives where the horses are
to be changed, he throws down the reins with something of
an air, and abandons the cattle to the care of the hostler ;
his duty being merely to drive from one stage to another.
When off the box, his hands are thrust into the pockets of
his great coat, and he rolls about the inn yard with an air
of the most absolute lordliness. Here he is generally sur-
rounded by an admiring throng of hostlers, stable-boys,
shoeblacks, and those nameless hangers-on that infest inns
and taverns, and run errands, and do all kinds of odd jobs,
for the privilege of battening on the drippings of the kitchen
and the leakage of the taproom. These all look up to him
as to an oracle ; treasure up his cant phrases ; echo his
opinions about horses and other topics of jockey lore ; and
above all, endeavour to imitate his air and carriage. Every
ragamuffin that has a coat to his back thrusts his hands in
the pockets, rolls in his gait, talks slang, and is an embryo
Coachey.
Perhaps it might be owing to the pleasing serenity that
reigned in my own mind, that I fancied I saw cheerfulness
in every countenance throughout the journey. A stage
coach, however, carries animation always with it, and puts
the world in motion as it whirls along. The horn, sounded at
the entrance of a village, produces a general bustle. Some
hasten forth to meet friends, some with bundles and band-
boxes to secure places, and in the hurry of the moment can
hardly take leave of the group that accompanies them. In
the meantime the coachman has a world of small commissions
to execute. Sometimes he delivers a hare or pheasant; some-
times jerks a small parcel or newspaper to the door of a
public-house ; and sometimes, with knowing leer and words
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 99
of sly import, hands to some half-blushing, half-laughing
housemaid an odd-shaped billet-doux from some rustic
admirer. As the coach rattles through the village, everyone
runs to the window, and you have glances on every side of
fresh country faces and blooming giggling girls. At the
corners are assembled juntos of village idlers and wise men,
who take their stations there for the important purpose of
seeing company pass ; but the sagest knot is generally at
the blacksmith's, to whom the passing of the coach is an
event fruitful of much speculation. The smith, with the
horse's heel in his lap, pauses as the vehicle whirls by ; the
cyclops round the anvil suspend their ringing hammers, and
suffer the iron to grow cool ; and the sooty spectre in brown
paper cap, labouring at the bellows, leans on the handle for
a moment, and permits the asthmatic engine to heave a long-
drawn sigh, while he glares through the murky smoke and
sulphureous gleams of the smithy.
Perhaps the impending holiday might have given a more
than usual animation to the country, for it seemed to me as
if everybody was in good looks and good spirits. Game,
poultry, and other luxuries of the table, were in brisk circula-
tion in the villages ; the grocers' butchers', and fruiterers'
shops were thronged with customers. The housewives were
stirring briskly about, putting their dwellings in order ; and
the glossy branches of holly, with their bright red berries,
began to appear at the windows. The scene brought to
mind an old writer's account of Christmas preparations : —
" Now capons and hens, besides turkeys, geese, and ducks,
with beef and mutton — must all die — for in twelve days a
multitude of people will not be fed with a little. Now plums
and spice, sugar and honey, square it among pies and broth.
Now or never must music be in tune, for the youth must
dance and sing to get them a heat, while the aged sit by the
fire. The country maid leaves half her market, and must
be sent again, if she forgets a pack of cards on Christinas
100 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
eve. Great is the contention of holly and ivy, whether
master or dame wears the breeches. Dice and cards benefit
the butler ; and if the cook do not lack wit, he will sweetly
lick his fingers." . . .
In the evening we reached a village where I had deter-
mined to pass the night. As we drove into the great gateway
of the inn, I saw on one side the light of a rousing kitchen
fire beaming through a window. I entered, and admired,
for the hundredth time, that picture of convenience, neatness,
and broad, honest enjoyment, the kitchen of an English inn.
It was of spacious dimensions, hung round with copper and
tin vessels highly polished, and decorated here and there
with a Christmas green. Hams, tongues, and flitches of
bacon, were suspended from the ceiling ; a smoke-jack made
its ceaseless clanking beside the fireplace, and a clock ticked
in one corner. A well-scoured deal table extended along
one side of the kitchen, with a cold round of beef and other
hearty viands upon it. . . . Travellers of inferior order
were preparing to attack this stout repast, while others sat
smoking and gossiping ... on two high-backed oaken
settles beside the fire. Trim housemaids were hurrying
backwards and forwards under the directions of a fresh
bustling landlady ; but still seizing an occasional moment
to exchange a flippant word, and have a rallying laugh with
the group round the fire.
38. THE CHRISTMAS DINNER
Source : As No. 36.
The dinner was served up in the great hall, where the
squire always held his Christmas banquet. A blazing
crackling fire of logs had been heaped on to warm the
spacious apartment, and the flame went sparkling and
wreathing up the wide-mouthed chimney. The great picture
of the crusader and his white horse had been profusely
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The Triumph of The Rocket
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 101
decorated with greens for the occasion ; and holly and ivy
had likewise been wreathed round the helmet and weapons
on the opposite wall, which I understood were the arms of
the same warrior. ... A sideboard was set out just under
this chivalric trophy, on which was a display of plate that
might have vied (at least in variety) with Belshazzar's
parade of the vessels of the temple ; " flagon, cans, cups,
beakers, goblets, basins, and ewers " ; the gorgeous utensils
of good companionship that had gradually accumulated
through many generations of jovial housekeepers. Before
these stood the two Yule candles, beaming like two stars
of the first magnitude ; other lights were distributed in
branches, and the whole array glittered like a firmament
of silver.
We were ushered into this banqueting scene with the sound
of minstrelsy, the old harper being seated on a stool beside
the fireplace, and twanging his instrument with a vast deal
more power than melody. Never did Christmas board
display a more goodly and gracious assemblage of counte-
nances ; those who were not handsome were, at least, happy ;
and happiness is a rare improver of your hard-favoured
visage. . . .
The parson said grace, which was not a short familiar one,
such as is commonly addressed to the Deity in these uncere-
monious days ; but a long, courtly, well-worded one of the
ancient school. There was now a pause, as if something
was expected ; when suddenly the butler entered the hall
with some degree of bustle ; he was attended by a servant
on each side with a large wax-light, and bore a silver dish,
on which was an enormous pig's head, decorated with rose-
mary, with a lemon in its mouth, which was placed with
great formality at the head of the table. The moment
this pageant made its appearance, the harper struck up a
flourish ; at the conclusion of which the young Oxonian, on
receiving a hint from the squire, gave, with an air of the
102 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
most comic gravity, an old carol, the first verse of which
was as follows : —
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.
The boar's head in hand bring I,
With garlands gay and rosemary.
I pray you all synge merily
Qui estis in convivio. . . .
The table was literally loaded with good cheer, and pre-
sented an epitome of country abundance, in this season of
overflowing larders. A distinguished post was allotted to
" ancient sirloin," as mine host termed it ; being, as he
added, " the standard of old English hospitality, and a joint
of goodly presence, and full of expectation." There were
several dishes quaintly decorated, and which had evidently
something traditional in their embellishments ; but about
which, as I did not like to appear over-curious, I asked no
questions.
I could not, however, but notice a pie, magnificently
decorated with peacock's feathers, in imitation of the tail
of that bird, which overshadowed a considerable tract of
the table. This, the squire confessed, with some little
hesitation, was a pheasant pie, though a peacock pie was
certainly the most authentical ; but there had been such a
mortality among the peacocks this season, that he could not
prevail upon himself to have one killed.
When the cloth was removed, the butler brought in a huge
silver vessel of rare and curious workmanship, which he
placed before the squire. Its appearance was hailed with
acclamation ; being the Wassail Bowl, so renowned in
Christmas festivity. The contents had been prepared by
the squire himself; for it was a beverage in the skilful
mixture of which he particularly prided himself; alleging
that it was too abstruse and complex for the comprehension
of an ordinary servant. It was a potation, indeed, that
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 108
might well make the heart leap within one ; being composed
of the richest and raciest wines, highly spiced and sweetened,
with roasted apples bobbing about the surface.
The old gentleman's whole countenance beamed with a
serene look of indwelling delight, as he stirred this mighty
bowl. Having raised it to his lips, with a hearty wish of a
merry Christmas to all present, he sent it brimming round
the board, for every one to follow his example, according
to the primitive style ; pronouncing it " the ancient fountain
of good-feeling, where all hearts met together." . . .
The dinner-time passed away in this flow of innocent
hilarity ; and, though the old hall may have resounded in
its time with many a scene of broader rout and revel, yet I
doubt whether it ever witnessed more honest and genuine
enjoyment. How easy it is for one benevolent being to
diffuse pleasure around him ; and how truly is a kind heart
a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to
freshen into smiles ! the joyous disposition of the worthy
squire was perfectly contagious ; he was happy himself, and
disposed to make all the world happy ; and the little eccen-
tricities of his humour did but season, in a manner, the
sweetness of his philanthropy.
When the ladies had retired, the conversation, as usual,
became still more animated ; . . . and though I cannot
positively affirm that there was much wit uttered, yet I have
certainly heard many contests of rare wit produce much less
laughter. Wit, after all, is a mighty tart, pungent, ingredient,
and much too acid for such stomachs ; but honest good
humour is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is
no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are
rather small, and the laughter abundant.
The old squire told several long stories of early college
pranks and adventures, in some of which the parson had
been a sharer ; though in looking at the latter, it required,
some effort of imagination to figure such a little dark
104 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
anatomy of a man into the perpetrator of a madcap gambol.
Indeed, the two college chums presented pictures of what
men may be made by their different lots in life. The squire
had left the university to live lustily on his paternal domains,
in the vigorous enjoyment of prosperity and sunshine, and
had flourished on to a hearty and florid old age ; whilst the
poor parson, on the contrary, had dried and withered away,
among dusty tomes, in the silence and shadows of his
study. . . .
After the dinner- table was removed, the hall was given
up to the younger members of the family, who, prompted
to all kind of noisy mirth by the Oxonian and Master Simon,
made its old walls ring with their merriment, as they played
at romping games. I delight in witnessing the gambols of
children, and particularly at this happy holiday season, and
could not help stealing out of the drawing-room on hearing
one of their peals of laughter. I found them at the game
of blind-man's-buff. Master Simon, who was the leader of
their revels, and seemed on all occasions to fulfil the office
of that ancient potentate, the Lord of Misrule, 1 was blinded
in the midst of the hall. The little beings were as busy
about him as the mock fairies about Falstaff ; pinching him,
plucking at the skirts of his coat, and tickling him with
straws. One fine blue-eyed girl of about thirteen, with her
flaxen hair all in beautiful confusion, her frolic face in a
glow, her frock half torn off her shoulders, a complete picture
of a romp, was the chief tormentor ; and, from the slyness
with which Master Simon avoided the smaller game, and
hemmed this wild little nymph in corners, and obliged her
to jump shrieking over chairs, I suspected the rogue of
being not a whit more blinded than was convenient.
1 At Christmasse, there was in the Kinge's house, wheresoever hee was
lodged, a lorde of misrule, or mayster of merie disportes, and the like had
ye in the house of every nobleman of honour, or good worshippe, were he
spiritual! or temporall. — Stows.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 105
39. TAXATION
Source : Sydney Smith, America. (In Edinburgh Review, 1820 ; re-
printed in his Essays.)
We can inform Jonathan [America] what are the in-
evitable consequences of being too fond of glory ; — Taxes
upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers
the back, or is placed under the foot — taxes upon everything
which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste — taxes
upon warmth, light, and locomotion — taxes on everything
on earth, and the waters under the earth — on everything
that comes from abroad, or is grown at home — taxes on the
raw material — taxes on every fresh value that is added to
it by the industry of man — taxes on the sauce which pampers
man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health —
on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which
hangs the criminal — on the poor man's salt, and the rich
man's spice — on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of
the bride — at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay :
— The schoolboy whips his taxed top — the beardless youth
manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road :
— and the dying Englishman pouring his medicine, which has
paid 7 per cent., into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent. —
flings himself back upon his chintz-bed, which has paid 22 per
cent., — makes his will on an eight pound stamp, and expires
in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a licence of an
hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death.
His whole property is then immediately taxed from 2 to
10 per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded
for burying him in the chancel ; his virtues are handed down
to posterity on taxed marble ; and he is then gathered to
his fathers, — to be taxed no more.
106 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
40. THE TRIUMPH OF THE ROCKET [1829]
Source : Smiles, Life of George Stephenson, 1859.
The time so much longed for by Mr Stephenson had now
arrived, when the merits of the passenger locomotive were
about to be put to the test. . . .
Great interest was felt at Liverpool, as well as throughout
the country, in the approaching competition. Engineers,
scientific men, and mechanics, arrived from all quarters to
witness the novel display of mechanical ingenuity on which
such great results depended. The public generally were
no indifferent spectators either. The populations of Liver-
pool, Manchester, and the adjacent towns felt that the
successful issue of the experiment would confer upon them
individual benefits and local advantages almost incalculable,
whilst populations at a distance waited for the result with
almost equal interest.
On the day appointed for the great competition of loco-
motives at Rainhill, the following engines were entered for
the prize : —
1. Messrs Braithwaite and Ericsson's 1 "Novelty."
2. Mr Timothy Hackworth's " Sanspareil."
3. Messrs R. Stephenson and Co.'s " Rocket."
4. Mr Burstall's " Perseverance."
Another engine was started by Mr Brandreth of Liverpool
— the " Cy eloped " weighing three tons, worked by a horse
in a frame, but it could not be admitted to the competition.
The above were the only four exhibited, out of a considerable
number of engines constructed in different parts of the
1 The inventor of this engine was a Swede, who afterwards proceeded to
the United States, and there achieved considerable distinction as an engineer.
His Caloric Engine has so far proved a failure, but his iron cupola vessel,
the " Monitor," must be admitted to have been a remarkable success in
its way.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 107
country in anticipation of this contest, but which could not
be satisfactorily completed by the day of trial.
The ground on which the engines were to be tried was a
level piece of railroad, about two miles in length. Each
was required to make twenty trips, or equal to a journey
of 70 miles, in the course of the day ; and the average rate
of travelling was to be not under 10 miles an hour. It was
determined that, to avoid confusion, each engine should be
tried separately, and on different days.
The day fixed for the competition was the 1st of October,
but to allow sufficient time to get the locomotives into good
working order, the directors extended it to the 6th. On
the morning of the 6th, the ground at Rainhill presented a
lively appearance, and there was as much excitement as if
the St Leger were about to be run. Many thousand spec-
tators looked on, amongst whom were some of the first
engineers of the day. A stand was provided for the ladies ;
and the " beauty and fashion " of the neighbourhood were
present, whilst the side of the road was lined with carriages
of all descriptions.
It was quite characteristic of Mr Stephenson, that,
although his engine did not stand first on the list for trial,
it was the first that was ready, and it was accordingly
ordered out by the judges for an experimental trip. . . .
The distance which it ran on that day was about twelve
miles, performed in about fifty-three minutes.
The " Novelty " was next called out. It was a light
engine, very compact in appearance, carrying the water
and fuel upon the same wheels as the engine. The weight
of the whole was only three tons and one hundredweight.
A peculiarity of this engine was that the air was driven or
forced through the fire by means of bellows. The day being
now far advanced, and some dispute having arisen as to
the method of assigning the proper load for the " Novelty,"
no particular experiment was made, further than that the
108 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
engine traversed the line by way of exhibition, occasionally
moving at the rate of twenty-four miles an hour. The
" Sanspareil," constructed by Mr Timothy Hackworth was
next exhibited ; but no particular experiment was made
with it on this day. ...
The contest was postponed until the following day ; but
before the judges arrived on the ground, the bellows for
creating the blast in the " Novelty " gave way, and it was
found incapable of going through its performance. A
defect was also detected in the boiler of the " Sanspareil " ;
and Mr Hackworth was allowed some further time to get it
repaired. The large number of spectators who had assembled
to witness the contest were greatly disappointed at this
postponement ; but, to lessen it, Mr Stephenson again
brought out the " Rocket," and, attaching to it a coach
containing thirty persons, he ran them along the line at
the rate of from twenty-four to thirty miles an hour, much
to their gratification and amazement. Before separating,
the judges ordered the engine to be in readiness by eight
o'clock on the following morning, to go through its definitive
trial according to the prescribed conditions.
On the morning of the 8th October, the " Rocket " was
again ready for the contest. The engine was taken to the
extremity of the stage, the fire-box was filled with coke, the
fire lighted, and the steamraised until it lifted the safety-valve
loaded to a pressure of 50 pounds to the square inch. This
proceeding occupied fifty-seven minutes. The engine then
started on its journey, dragging after it about 13 tons weight
in waggons, and made the first ten trips backwards and
forwards along the two miles of road, running the thirty-
five miles, including stoppages, in an hour and forty-eight
minutes. The second ten trips were in like manner per-
formed in two hours and three minutes. The maximum
velocity attained during the trial trip was twenty-nine miles
an hour, or about three times the speed that one of the
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 109
judges of the competition had declared to be the limit of
possibility. The average speed at which the whole of the
journeys were performed was 15 miles an hour, or five
miles beyond the rate specified in the conditions published
by the Company. The entire performance excited the
greatest astonishment amongst the assembled spectators ;
the directors felt confident that their enterprise was now
on the eve of success ; and George Stephenson rejoiced to
think that in spite of all false prophets and fickle counsellors,
his locomotive system was now safe. When the " Rocket,"
having performed all the conditions of the contest, arrived
at the " grand stand " at the close of its day's successful
run, Mr Cropper — one of the directors favourable to the
fixed-engine system — lifted up his hands, and exclaimed,
" Now has George Stephenson at last delivered himself ! "
Neither the " Novelty " nor the " Sanspareil " was ready
for trial until the 10th, on the morning of which day an
advertisement appeared, stating that the former engine was
to be tried on that day, when it would perform more work
than any engine upon the ground. The weight of the
carriages attached to it was only about seven tons. The
engine passed the first post in good style ; but in returning,
the pipe from the forcing-pump burst and put an end to the
trial. The pipe was afterwards repaired, and the engine
made several trips by itself, in which it was said to have
gone at the rate of from 24 to 28 miles an hour.
The " Sanspareil " was not ready until the 13th ; and
when its boiler and tender were filled with water, it was
found to weigh 4 cwt. beyond the weight specified in the
published conditions as the limit of four-wheeled engines ;
nevertheless the judges allowed it to run on the same footing
as the other engines, to enable them to ascertain whether
its merits entitled it to favourable consideration. It
travelled at the average speed of about fourteen miles an
hour, with its load attached ; but at the eighth trip the
110 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
cold-water pump got wrong, and the engine could proceed
no further.
It was determined to award the premium to the successful
engine on the following day, the 14th, on which occasion
there was an unusual assemblage of spectators. The owners
of the " Novelty " pleaded for another trial ; and it was
conceded. But again it broke down. Then Mr Hackworth
requested the opportunity for making another trial of his
" Sanspareil." But the judges had now had enough of
failures ; and they declined, on the ground that not only
was the engine above the stipulated weight, but that it was
constructed on a plan which they could not recommend for
adoption by the directors of the Company. One of the
principal practical objections to this locomotive was the
enormous quantity of coke consumed or wasted by it — about
692 lbs. per hour when travelling — caused by the sharpness
of the steam blast in the chimney, which blew a large pro-
portion of the burning coke into the air.
The " Perseverance "... was found unable to move
at more than five or six miles an hour ; and it was with-
drawn at an early period from the contest. The " Rocket "
was thus the only engine that had performed, and more
than performed, all the stipulated conditions ; and it was
declared to be fully entitled to the prize of £500 which was
awarded to the Messrs Stephenson and Booth accordingly.
And further, to show that the engine had been working
quite within its powers, Mr Stephenson ordered it to be
brought upon the ground and detached from all incum-
brances, when, in making two trips, it was found to travel
at the astonishing rate of thirty-five miles an hour.
The " Rocket " had thus eclipsed the performances of all
locomotive engines that had yet been constructed, and
outstripped even the sanguine anticipations of its con-
structors.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 111
41. THE BIRTH OF RAILWAYS [1825]
Sottrce : The Creevey Papers : Selection from Correspondence and Diaries
of the late Thomas Creevey. Edited by Maxwell, 1903.
Mr Creevey to Miss Orel.
London, March 16, 1825.
"... Sefton and I have come to the conclusion that
our Ferguson is insane. He quite foamed at the mouth
with rage in our Railway Committee in support of this
infernal nuisance — the loco-motive Monster, carrying eighty
tons of goods, and navigated by a tail of smoke and sulphur,
coming thro' every man's grounds between Manchester and
Liverpool. He was supported by Scotchmen only, except
a son of Sir Robert Peel's, and against every landed gentle-
man of the county — his own particular friends, who were
all present, such as Ld. Stanley, Ld. Sefton, Ld. Geo.
Cavendish, etc."
25th March.
"... I get daily more interested about this rail-road
— on its own grounds, to begin with, and the infernal,
impudent, lying jobbing by its promoters. ..."
Slst May.
" This railway is [a nuisance] . . . from 12 till 4 daily
is really too much. We very nearly did the business to-day ;
we were 36 to 37 on the Bill itself. I led for the Opposition
in a speech of half an hour ..."
June 1.
"... Well — this [confounded] railway is strangled at
last. I was sure that yesterday's division had put him on
his last legs, and to-day we had a clear majority in the
Committee in our favour, and the promoters of the Bill
withdrew it, and took their leave of us. . . . We had to
112 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
fight this long battle against an almost universal prejudice
to start with — interested shareholders and perfidious Whigs,
several of whom affected to oppose us upon conscientious
scruples. Sefton's ecstacies are beyond, and he is pleased
to say it has been all my doing ; so it's all mighty well."
Croxteih, Nov. lUh, 1829.
"... To-day we have had a lark of a very high order.
Lady Wilton sent over yesterday from Knowsley to say
that the Loco Motive machine was to be upon the railway
at such a place at 12 o'clock for the Knowsley party to ride
in if they liked, and inviting this house to be of the party.
So of course we were at our post in 3 carriages and some
horsemen at the hour appointed. I had the satisfaction,
for I can't call it pleasure, of taking a trip of five miles in it,
which we did in just a quarter of an hour — that is 20 miles
an hour. As accuracy upon this subject was my great
object, I held my watch in my hand at starting, and all the
time ; and as it has a second hand, I knew I could not be
deceived ; and it so turned out there was not the difference
of a second between the coachee or conductor and myself.
But observe, during these five miles, the machine was
occasionally made to put itself out or go it ; and then we
went at the rate of 23 miles per hour, and just with the same
ease as to motion or absence of friction as the other reduced
pace. But the quickest motion is to me frightful ; it is
really flying, and it is impossible to divest yourself of the
notion of instant death to all upon the least accident
happening. It gave me a headache which has not left me
yet. Sefton is convinced that some [horrible] thing must
come of it ; but he and I seem more struck with such
apprehension than others. . . . The smoke is very con-
siderable indeed, but sparks of fire are abroad in some
quantity : one burnt Miss de Ros's cheek, another a hole
in Lady Maria's silk pelisse, and a third a hole in some one
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 113
else's gown. Altogether I am extremely glad indeed to
have seen this miracle, and to have travelled in it. Had
I thought worse of it than I do, I should have had the
curiosity to try it ; but, having done so, I am quite satisfied
with my first achievement being my last"
42. RAILWAYS AND TRAVEL
Source : Sydney Smith, Letter to The Morning Leader, 7 June, 1842.
Railway travelling is a delightful improvement of human
life. Man is become a bird ; he can fly longer and quicker
than a solan-goose. The mamma rushes sixty miles in two
hours to the aching finger of her conjugating and declining
grammar-boy. The early Scotchman scratches himself in
the morning mists of the north, and has his porridge in
Piccadilly before the setting sun. The Puseyite priest,
after a rush of a hundred miles, appears with his little
volume of nonsense at the breakfast of his bookseller.
Everything is near, everything is immediate — time, distance,
and delay are abolished. But, though charming and
fascinating as all this is, we must not shut our eyes to the
price we shall pay for it. There will be every three or four
years some dreadful massacre — whole trains will be hurled
down a precipice, and two hundred or three hundred persons
will be killed on the spot. There will be every now and
then a great combustion of human bodies, as there has been
at Paris ; then all the newspapers up in arms — a thousand
regulations, forgotten as soon as the directors dare — loud
screams of the velocity whistle — monopoly locks and bolts
as before.
The locking plea of directors is philanthropy ; and I
admit that to guard men from the commission of moral
evil is as philanthropical as to prevent physical suffering.
There is, I allow, a strong propensity in mankind to travel
on railways without paying ; and to lock mankind in till
VH
114 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
they have completed their share of the contract is bene-
volent, because it guards the species from degrading and
immoral conduct ; but to burn or crush a whole train,
merely to prevent a few immoral insides from not paying,
is, I hope, a little more than Ripon or Gladstone will
permit.
We have been, up to this point, very careless of our
railway regulations. The first person of rank who is killed
will put everything in order, and produce a code of the most
careful rules. I hope it will not be one of the bench of
bishops ; but should it be so destined, let the burnt bishop
— the unwilling Latimer — remember that, however painful
gradual consumption by fire may be, his death will produce
unspeakable benefits to the public. Even Sodor and Man
will be better than nothing. From that moment the bad
effects of the monopoly are destroyed ; no more fatal
deference to the directors ; no despotic incarceration, no
barbarous inattention to the anatomy and physiology of
the human body ; no commitment to locomotive prisons
with warrant. We shall then find it possible voyager libre
sans mourir.
43. THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE [1823]
Source : Cobbett, Rural Bides, 1830.
Singleton (Sussex) 2 August, 1823.
I have seen no wretchedness in Sussex ; nothing to be at
all compared to that which I have seen in other parts ; and,
as to these villages in the South Downs, they are beautiful
to behold. . . . There is an appearance of comfort about
the dwellings of the labourers, all along here, that is very
pleasant to behold. The gardens are neat, and full of
vegetables of the best kinds. I see very few of " Ireland's
lazy root ; ' : and never, in this country, will the people be
base enough to lie down and expire from starvation. . . .
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 115
As I came along between Upwaltham and Eastdean, I called
to me a young man, who, along with other turnip-hoers,
was sitting under the shelter of a hedge at breakfast. He
came running to me with his victuals in his hand ; and, I
was glad to see, that his food consisted of a good lump of
household bread and not a very small piece of bacon. I did
not envy him his appetite, for I had, at that moment, a
very good one of my own ; but, I wanted to know the
distance I had to go before I should get to a good public-
house. In parting with him, I said, " You do get some
bacon then ? " " Oh, yes ! Sir," said he, and with an
emphasis and a swag of the head which seemed to say,
" We must and will have that." I saw, and with great
delight, a pig at almost every labourer's house. The houses
are good and warm ; and the gardens some of the very
best that I have seen in England.
Petworth (Sussex) 1 August, 1823.
To-day, near a place called Wesborough Green, I saw a
woman bleaching her home-spun and home-woven linen. I
have not seen such a thing before since I left Long Island.
There, and indeed, all over the American States, North of
Maryland, and especially in the New England States, almost
the whole of both linen and woollen, used in the country,
and a large part of that used in towns, is made in the farm-
houses. . . . The Lords of the Loom have taken from the
land, in England, this part of its due ; and hence one cause
of the poverty, misery, and pauperism, that are becoming
so frightful throughout the country. . . . The country
people lose part of their natural employment. The women
and children, who ought to provide a great part of the
raiment, have nothing to do. The fields must have men and
boys ; but, where there are men and boys there will be
women and girls ; and, as the Lords of the Loom have now
116 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
a set of real slaves, by the means of whom they take away
a great part of the employment of the country-women and
girls, these must be kept by poor-rates in whatever degree
they lose employment through the Lords of the Loom.
Tenterden (Kent), 31 August, 1823.
. . . Coming through the village of Benenden, I heard
a man at my right, talking very loud about houses ! houses !
houses ! . . . Scarcely had I proceeded a hundred yards
from the place where this fellow was bawling, when I came
to the very situation which he ought to have occupied, I
mean the stocks, which the people of Benenden have, with
singular humanity, fitted up with a bench, so that the
patient, while he is receiving the benefit of the remedy, is
not exposed to the danger of catching cold by sitting, as in
other places, upon the ground, always damp, and some-
times actually wet. But, I would ask the people of Benenden
what is the use of this human precaution, and, indeed, what
is the use of the stocks themselves, if, while a fellow is ranting
and bawling in the manner just described, at the distance
of a hundred yards from the stocks, the stocks (as is here
actually the case) are almost hidden by grass and nettles ?
This, however, is the case all over the country ; not nettles
and grass indeed smothering the stocks, but, I never see
any feet peeping through the holes, any where, . . . though
the law compels the parishes to keep up all the pairs of stocks
that exist in all parts of them ; and, in some parishes, they
have to keep up several pairs. I am aware, that a good
part of the use of the stocks is the terror they ought to
produce. I am not supposing, that they are of no use
because not continually furnished with legs. But, there is
a wide difference between always and never.
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 117
44. AN EXTRACT FROM THE POOR LAW REPORT [1834]
"It is now our painful duty to report, that in the
greater part of the districts which we have been able
to examine, the fund, which the 43rd of Elizabeth
directed to be employed in setting to work children and
persons capable of work but using no daily trade, and
in the necessary relief of the impotent, is applied to
purposes destructive ... to the welfare of all (classes).
The great source of abuse is the out-door relief afforded
to the able-bodied on their own account or on that of
their families. This is given in kind or in money. The
out-door relief of the able-bodied, when given in kind
consists rarely of food, rather less infrequently of fuel,
and still less unfrequently of clothes ; . . . but its
most usual form is that of relieving the applicants, either
wholly or partially, from the expense of obtaining house-
room. . . . Partial relief from the expense of obtaining
house-room is given or professed to be given, whenever the
occupant of a cottage or an apartment is exempted on the
ground of poverty from the payment of rates. ... In a
great number of cases, the labourer if a parishoner is not
only exempted from rates, but his rent is paid out of the
parish fund.
. . . The practice of granting small sums of money to
able-bodied men without requiring labour in return, is
adopted in some parishes in each county. In the Strat-
ford division the overseer of Alveston stated that there
were young men receiving 2s. 6d. and 3s. a-week, and
that though it was barely sufficient for their support,
. . . yet they greatly preferred it to earning their own
living."
118 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
45. THE OLD ENGLISH SQUIRE
(A song published in 1838.)
About fifty years ago, when old George the Third was King,
And the Prince, the star of fashion, brightly shone in
pleasure's ring
The English County Squire was a man of great renown,
He'd an old hall in the country, and a modern house in town ;
A justice of the peace he was, and also an M.P.,
But was fettered to no party, — his principles were free ;
He courted not the Premier, though his son was in the Guards;
With Fox he sometimes voted, but much oft'ner played at
cards.
He kept a stud of racers — 'twas his joy to see them run —
And his side-board was well covered with the gold cups
they had won ;
To the town he represented every year he gave a plate,
And to the course in coach and six he always came in state; —
Six goodly nags they were indeed, though fat and rather slow,
Their manes were decked with ribbons, and their flowing tails
also ; —
His lady sat beside him, tall and upright as a wand,
And the people loudly cheered them on alighting at the Stand.
He kept a pack of fox-hounds too, of pure old English breed ;
Most musical and staunch they were ; but not much famed
for speed ;
His hunters were enduring and could go a decent pace, —
To suit his hounds he bred them, not to ride a steeple chase.
He boldly went at hedge and gate, nor stopped at ditch or
brook,
And many a Melton-Mowbray swell might shy the leaps he
took :
THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 119
'Twas a pleasant sight to see him through a bullfinch make a
gap.
With his pigtail, like a drumstick, cocking out behind his cap.
On the first day of September, as the season still came round,
With his pointers in the stubble he was certain to be found ;
Though his gun was like a musket, an old-fashioned flint-and-
steel,
Wide-muzzled, and a kicker, — she was heavy in the heel, —
Yet, birds then being plentiful, he brought down many a
brace ;
And if he found them sitting, — why he showed them little
grace :
Few thought of shooting flying about fifty years ago —
' Kill when you can,' was then the word, and ' Surest
shooting low.'
On his rent-day — 'twas at Michaelmas — within his oak-
roofed hall,
Where portraits, arms, and horns of deer bedecked the
panelled wall,
'Twas his custom, and a good one, with Ms tenantry to dine,
And the first toasts that he gave them, in the gold cup filled
with wine, —
Were ' The King and Royal Family ' and ' God speed the
Plough,'
' Amen ! ' exclaimed the Vicar to his Patron seated near,
While the farmers drank their bumpers off and gave a hearty
cheer.
'Tis now thirty years ago, — the sad time I well remember, —
On a dull and cheerless day in the dark month of November,
The good Old English Squire, aged three score years and
ten,
Was gathered to his fathers, to the grief of all good men.
120 THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
In the village church he's buried, scarce a mile from the old
hall ;
His heir was the chief-mourner, — six old neighbours bore the
pall :
His memory is cherished yet ; and many people say,
' With the good Old English Squire, good Old Times are gone
for aye.'
NOTES ON SOURCES
Addison, Joseph (1672-1719), was educated at Charterhouse and Queen's
College, Oxford. He first made a name for himself in 1704 by a poem
written in honour of the victory of Blenheim, and entitled The Campaign.
He is best known, however, as one of the greatest of English essayists,
contributing to The Tatter (edited by Richard Steele) between 1709 and
1711, and producing The Spectator, in collaboration with Steele, 1711-12.
He was also the author of Cato, a tragedy which was acted with great
success at Drury Lane.
Arblay — (Frances Burney) — Madame d' (1752-1840), was the daughter
of Dr Burney, a musician, who was an intimate friend of Dr Johnson. Her
greatest achievement was her novel Evelina, or a Young Lady's Entrance
into the World, which was at first published anonymously. The book
took the world of London by storm, and, when its authorship was re-
vealed, Fanny became immediately famous. Her Diaries are also valuable
contemporary records.
Boswell, James, the companion and biographer of Dr Johnson, was
born in Edinburgh, 1740. He was educated at Edinburgh and Glasgow
Universities. During his second visit to London (1703) he was introduced
to Dr Johnson, and an acquaintance began between them which quickly
ripened into friendship. The famous Life of Samuel Johnson was published
in 1791, and has long been recognised as the greatest of English biographies.
Carlyle, Alexander (1722-1805), was a Scottish Presbyterian minister,
and received his education in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Leyden. He was
the leader of the Scottish " Broad Church " party, and was moderator of
the General Assembly in 1770. His circle of friends was a wide one, as
may be seen from his Autobiography, first printed in 1860.
Cobbett, William (1762-1835) was of lowly origin. A labourer's son,
he taught himself, and at the age of twenty secured employment as a
solicitor's clerk. Tiring of this he enlisted in 1783, and was quickly pro-
moted to the rank of sergeant-major, and was entrusted with the keeping
of the regimental accounts. Discovering dishonest dealings on the part
of some of his officers he left the army, intending to lay information against
them, but he learned that false witness would be given against him and
dropped the charge, fleeing the country. After a few years in France
121
122 NOTES ON SOURCES
and America, where he gained fame as a pamphleteer, he returned to
England and started the publication of the weekly Political Register. In
addition to his work on this paper he wrote several books, the most famous
of which are Advice to Young Men and Rural Rides. His outspoken opinions
often led him into legal actions, and in 1810 he was imprisoned by the
Government, again taking refuge in America in 1817, a few years after
his release. He was an eager champion of the labouring classes and a
strenuous advocate of Parliamentary reform.
Coxe, William (1747-1828), was educated at Eton and King's College,
Cambridge. He was ordained priest, 1771, but most of his life was spent
as tutor to the sons of noble families and in editing eighteenth-century
memoirs. These memoirs are valuable, inasmuch as he was entrusted
with many important private papers, which he edited with laborious care.
His Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole was published in 1798.
Creevey, Thomas (1768-1838), was born in Liverpool. He entered
Parliament as member for Thetford and afterwards Appleby, both pocket
boroughs. He became a staunch supporter of the Whig party, and was
admitted into the inner circle of Whig politics. He was appointed treasurer
of the Ordnance, and, later, treasurer of Greenwich Hospital. The Creevey
Papers contain a vivid picture of the social and political life of the times.
Defoe, Daniel (? 1661-1731), the author of Robinson Crusoe, was born in
London, the son of a butcher. He had a good education at a private
school, and in 1685 was in business as a hose factor. His career was a
varied one, but it was in journalism that he became best known, the out-
spokenness of his political pamphlets frequently bringing him into serious
trouble. At the age of fifty-nine he produced the first volume of his im-
mortal Robinson Crusoe. This was followed by several other novels and a
vivid Journal of the Plague Year (1722). His Tour Thro' the Whole Island of
Great Britain (1724-26) is a journal of considerable importance, as it
describes in a clear manner the social and economic conditions of the
various counties.
Eden, Sir Frederick Morton (1766-1809), was a graduate of Oxford,
but spent most of his life in business and in social and economic investiga-
tions. He was a founder of the Globe Insurance Company, and his State
of the Poor is a classical work in economic literature.
Evelyn, John, was bom of wealthy parentage at Wotton, Surrey, in 1620,
and was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and the Middle Temple.
During the Civil War he travelled on the Continent, but at the Restoration
he was received at Court with great favour and became one of the Com-
missioners of the Privy Seal, treasurer of Greenwich Hospital, and secretary
to the Royal Society. He died in 1706. He wrote on many subjects,
but is chiefly remembered for his delightful Diary, discovered in an old
NOTES ON SOURCES 123
clothes basket at Wotton in 1817. The extracts given in this volume will,
it is hoped, encourage the reader to read the book itself.
Gonsalez, Don Manoel, a Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, who visited
England in 1730 and matle a tour of the country. The account of his
impressions of his travels has been translated and is to be found in
Pinkerton's Voyages.
Hervey, John (Baron Hervey of Ickworth), younger son of John,
first Earl of Bristol, was born in 1696, and educated at Westminster School
and Clare Hall, Cambridge. He entered Parliament in 1725, and held the
office of Lord Privy Seal, 1740-42. He was very well known in political
circles, and his Memoirs give a good picture of the Court life of the period.
He died in 1743.
Irving, Washington, was born in New York in 1783 and visited Europe
in 1804. On his return to New York he was admitted to the Bar, and
afterwards joined his brothers in partnership in business. The business
became bankrupt, and he returned to Europe, devoting himself to literature,
in which he achieved great success. His Sketch Book is the most famous
of his writings. He died in 1859.
Jenner, Edward, was bom at Berkeley in 1749. Educated for the
medical profession, he started practice in his own town in 1773. Becoming
interested in the disease of smallpox, he spent some years in a most careful
study of it, and as a result of close observation and experiments he dis-
covered the valuable antitoxic properties of vaccine, which he made public
in 1796. Though violently opposed at the time, and since, Jenner's vaccine
treatment of smallpox gradually became more and more practised ; now
it is generally used throughout the civilised world. He died in 1823.
Lamb, Charles (1775-1834), was educated, with S. T. Coleridge, at
Christ's Hospital. He left school in 1789 ; in 1792 was appointed to a
clerkship in the India House, where he was employed for over thirty years.
His first published work consisted of four sonnets, which Coleridge included
in his Poems on Various Subjects in 1796. From that year he began to
contribute to various newspapers and periodicals, and wrote several plays
and miscellaneous works. The well-known Tales from Shakespeare, written
in collaboration with his sister Mary, appeared in 1807. His chief claim
to the great position he holds in English literature was made by the famous
Essays of Elia, the first of which he contributed to The London Magazine
in 1820.
Larpent, F. S., born in 1776, was Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge.
He was then called to the Bar, and in 1812 became Judge- Advocate-
General to the Armies in Spain under Wellington. He died in 1845, and his
Private Journals were published in 1853.
124 NOTES ON SOURCES
Lloyd, Robert (1733-64), was educated at Westminster and Trinity
College, Cambridge ; he returned to his old school as an usher, but soon
gave up this work and endeavoured to make a living by writing. He
published a collection of poems in 1762 but achieved no great success ;
he was imprisoned for debt and became a bookseller's hack. His comic
opera, The Capricious Lovers, was performed in 1764.
Macaulay, Lord, born in 1800, entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in
1817, where he had a brilliant career. He was called to the Bar in 1826,
but forsook law for literature, and became a frequent and popular con-
tributor to Knight's Quarterly Magazine and The Edinburgh, Review. In
1830 he became a member of Parliament and won renown as an orator.
He afterwards became legal adviser to the Supreme Council of India, and
on his return to England was made Secretary for War. His best-known
works are Lays of Ancient Rome, his Essays, and his famous History of
England, which was never completed. He died in 1859 and was buried in
Westminster Abbey.
Macky, John, a Government agent or spy, was a Scotsman of good
education, but of his parentage or birth nothing is known. He discovered
several important plots, including James IL's projected expedition to
England in 1692, and was inspector of the coast from Dover to Harwich,
1693. He was suspected by the Government and imprisoned, but was
released on the accession of George I. His Memoirs of the Secret Services
of John Macky, Esq., were published in 1733. He died at Rotterdam
in 1726.
Moritz, Charles (?), " a literary gentleman of Berlin," who, in a tour
through England in 1782, gave his description of the country in letters to
a friend. The account of these travels, " chiefly on foot," is included in
Pinkerton's Voyages.
Parkinson, Richard (1748-1815), was a Lincolnshire farmer. He pro-
ceeded in 1798 to America as agriculturist to George Washington, who
employed him at Mount Vernon. On his return to England he published
his Tour in America, which described the American system of agriculture
and cattle-breeding.
Smiles, Samuel, was born in 1812, took his M.D. at Edinburgh when
twenty, and practised as a surgeon in Haddington. He then came to
England, editing The Leeds Times (1838-42), and afterwards became
secretary of the South-Eastern Railway. Whilst at Leeds he met George
Stephenson and wrote his Life (1857). His best-known work, Self -Help
(1859), had an extraordinary success, and has been translated into seventeen
languages. His later life was entirely devoted to authorship, and he pro-
duced many well-known and popular works. He died in 1904.
NOTES ON SOURCES 125
Smith, Adam, political economist, was bom in 1723 and died in 1790.
Educated at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford, he eventually
became Professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy at Glasgow. His famous
book, The Wealth of Nations, was published in 1776 and established his
reputation as a writer on economic questions.
Smith, Sydney, a brilliant wit, writer, preacher and talker, was bom in
1771 and died in 1845. Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford,
he took holy orders and eventually became a Canon of St Paul's. He was
a prominent Whig and was one of the founders of The Edinburgh Review.
Walpole, Horace, was the fourth son of vSir Robert Walpole. Ho was
bom in 1717 in London, and educated at Eton and King's College,
Cambridge. He interested himself in literature, and though he entered
Parliament and remained a member for some time, the greater part of
his life was devoted to dabbling in art and literature. An ardent collector
of " objets d'art," he soon became regarded as a great art critic. Moving
amongst a wide circle of friends, he cultivated the art of letter-writing, and
his published letters, nearly 2700 in number, contain much valuable
information on the literature, art, and social intercourse of that period.
He died in London, 1797.
Wesley, The Rev. John, was bom in Epworth Rectory in 1703, his father
being the rector of the town at the time. He was educated at Charter-
house and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1728 he was made a priest in the
Church of England. From 1738 to the close of his life he devoted his
energies to the revival of religion and the founding of a new religious
society called Methodists. During his fifty years of active work he travelled
250,000 miles and preached 40,000 sermons. His Journal is full of vivid
descriptions of the writer's personal experiences, together with shrewd
reflections on the manners and custons of his age. He died in 1791.
Young, Arthur, was bom at Whitehall, 1741, but passed most of his
early life at Bradfield Hall, near Bury St Edmunds. After an unsuccessful
attempt at farming he turned his attention to writing on agricultural
subjects. His account of his tours through England, Ireland, and France,
undertaken with a view to ascertaining, and eventually describing, the
conditions and methods of farming of the period, gives a most graphic
description of the agricultural practices of the parts he visited. In 1793
he was appointed secretary to the Board of Agriculture. He died in 1820.
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