Part 29
"The late determination of several of the Publicans, to alter the established mode of serving their outdoor customers, with quart, and pint pots, seems to have been copied from an old resolution of a certain Borough, which ran thus: 'Resolved, that the best means of preserving our lamps from being broken, is to take them down by night, and put them up in the day.' Such of the Publicans as have come into this new regulation, seem to estimate the loss of a few pots, beyond that of the most respectable of their customers. It is, however, very probable, that the Small-Beer Brewers will profit by this circumstance, as table-beer may be ordered in by those who cannot be served any longer in the usual manner."--(_Times, Sept. 21, 1796._)
"The university of Oxford has lately printed, at its own expence, to be distributed gratis among the French Clergy who have taken refuge in Great Britain (_ad Usum Cleri Gallicani in Anglia exulantis_, as the title states) 2000 copies of the _Vulgate_ of the New Testament, which is the Latin version used by the Roman Church in all Public Prayers.
"The Marquis of Buckingham, distinguished for his munificence towards the Clergy, has likewise caused to be printed at his expence, 2000 copies at the same press, and for the same use. The University of Oxford has sent its copies to the venerable Bishop of St. Pol de Leon, for distribution, accompanied by a letter, analogous to the generous sentiments which dictate this honourable mark of esteem for the French Clergy, who are fully sensible of the value of the gift."--(_Times, Oct. 25, 1796._)
* * * * *
"Christmas Eve, 1796, will be recorded hereafter, as the Frost was more rapid, and more rigorous, it is supposed, than in 1739-40, or any degree of cold ever experienced in England: the quicksilver in a thermometer in Somerset-place sunk from 28 to 4 degrees above 0 in 12 hours, 3 degrees below the depression of the Mercury in 1794 and 28 degrees below the freezing point, while it must necessarily have been still lower in the country."--(_Times, Dec. 28, 1796._)
Bartholomew fair was first held A.D. 1133, and it was then the principal mart for the vendors, and buyers, of cloth: in fact the name of a street, contiguous to Smithfield, where the fair was held, and which has come down to us,--"Cloth fair," proves it, were there any need. Of late years it got a nuisance, and public opinion demanded its dissolution. The shows were discontinued in 1850, and the fair was proclaimed, for the last time, in 1855. We see by the following paragraph, from the _Times_, what was thought of it by decent-minded people, as far back as 1796.
"BARTHOLOMEW FAIR.
"The various troops of itinerant Comedians, Showmen, Ropedancers, Jugglers, Conjurors, Fortune Tellers, Giants, Dwarfs, wild Beasts, learned Beasts, and every _lusus naturæ_ that can be collected throughout the Kingdom, with all the appendages of immorality, and vice, were on Saturday put in legal possession of Smithfield, as the theatre of their achievements. When we add to these, the numerous tribe of pickpockets, ring-droppers, and sharpers of every description, we cannot but sincerely regret, that a scene, productive of so much idleness, and debauchery, should be sanctioned by the _letter_ of the law, while the _spirit_ of it shudders at the toleration of such excesses.
"The purposes for which this fair was held by its original tenure were of a nature directly opposite to those to which it is now prostituted. They went to the encouragement of industry by the previous manufacture, and subsequent sale, of necessary articles; but they are now made subservient to corrupt the public mind by the most abandoned, and dissolute, manners. The motley multitude that infests the fair, are the more audacious in their conduct, from knowing that they are warranted in their proceedings, at least by the _appearance_ of law, which sanctions this annual ribaldry.
"We seriously lament, that this 'congratulation[22] of living vapours' so foul and pestilential to society, should be suffered to exist in the metropolis, and that the Chief Magistrate of the City of London should be annually compelled to degrade his dignity as the principal guardian of the public peace and morals, by going in state, to license a scene, which constantly terminates in the most fatal abuses."--(_Times, Sep. 5, 1796._)
[Footnote 22: _Sic_ in original.]
* * * * *
"At the general Meeting of the Magistrates for the division of Kensington, on Saturday last, complaints were made not only by the Bishop of London, as Lord of the Manor, but by other respectable inhabitants thereof, of a nuisance that has prevailed from time to time on Wormholt Scrubs by bull-baiting, to the great annoyance of the neighbourhood, and the disturbance of the public peace, when the Magistrates came to the laudable resolution of issuing warrants to the High, and Petty, Constables of the Division, requiring them to exert their utmost endeavours to prevent the same in future. And, having understood that many Publicans within their division had conveyed beer, and other liquors, from their respective houses to Wormholt Scrubs, where they had retailed it during such bull-baiting, they determined not to renew their licences."--(_Times, Sept. 8, 1796._)
* * * * *
"A few days ago some villains broke into the Lea Church, Gloucestershire, and stole a quantity of money, the property of a company of singers belonging to the said church. A reward of £20 was immediately offered for discovering the offenders, accompanied by a threat that application would be immediately made to a conjuror, who lived not far off, to tell who the robbers were. The sacrilegious rascals, being convinced that the Devil would betray them, by informing the cunning man who they were, went in the night to the church, and pushed all the money they had taken through a slit in the door, where it was found the next morning."--(_Times, Oct. 4, 1796._)
* * * * *
"An ingenious artist has invented a new Coffin, for which he has taken out a Patent. In his advertisements he says, he thinks no family would like to be without one, and that all who have made trial of them, prefer them to anything in that way, and recommend them to their friends."--(_Times, Nov. 2, 1796._)
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"We hope the Corporation of Bath will avoid a similar mistake as happened when the Duke of York was there last year, when the gold box was presented to the Duke, but somehow or other, it was forgotten to put the _freedom into it_."--(_Times, Nov. 28, 1796._)
The gushing, and eloquent, George Robins could hardly exceed the following:--
Advt. "RUS in URBE PULCHERRIMAM. To be LET furnished, the FIRST, SECOND and third Floors with a Kitchen, altogether the most convenient and beautiful little Dwelling in Europe. Satisfactory references will be required. Enquire at Messrs &c."--(_Times, Oct. 14, 1796._)
* * * * *
"Lady E. being lately complimented upon her excellent complexion, assured her friend it was owing to her custom of dipping into cold water every morning. 'But I see,' said she, 'you don't believe me.' 'Pardon me,' said the Gentleman, 'if your Ladyship said you bathed in the Red Sea, I should have believed you.'"--(_Times, Nov. 24, 1796._)
* * * * *
"Last Sunday, agreeable to his sentence in the Ecclesiastical Court, a Butcher of Newport Market, did penance in St. Ann's Church, for scandalizing a neighbour's character."--(_Times, Dec. 2, 1796._)
* * * * *
"There is a Club in St. James St. called the _Transalpine_. To be a Member, it is indispensable that you have crossed _Mont Cenis_. One of the advantages of modern travelling is, to be entitled upon your return to waste your time at home, with those who have wasted their's abroad. This is the reward of what is called seeing the world: namely, seeing those who have seen it too."--(_Times, Jan. 25, 1797._)
* * * * *
"A noble Viscount has instituted a Club, called the _Ubiquarians_--the Club is ambulatory, and held, in turn, at as many chop-houses as there are parishes in the capital. The dinner is at half-a-crown, but it costs as much more to those who are not good walkers to get at it."--(_Times, Jan. 25, 1797._)
* * * * *
"It is a very curious fact, that the Turkish custom of taking opium is beginning to prevail in what are called the first circles of London. This dissipation is spreading wide amongst female fashion."--(_Times, Feb. 10, 1797._)
* * * * *
"The Gentlemen of the _Rainbow_ (footmen), whose only wear is _motley_, have within these few days, shewn evident symptoms of uniting. They declare their wages are very inferior in value to their services, and threaten their masters with a revolution in their conduct. When pampered valets claim an increase of salary, on the ground of meritorious service, a general discharge would certainly be the most effectual way of quieting their complaints."--(_Times, June 6, 1797._)
* * * * *
"We are pleased to be able to commend one change of fashion, at least, that which has deprived the servants of Officers of the cockade in their hats: and we hope to see it spread, till it becomes as singular, as it is absurd, to dress up a _Domestic_ in the characteristics of the field!"--(_Times, June 10, 1797._)
"On Sunday, for the first time, the Civil Power interested itself in breaking up what was called Cooper's Fair in the Spa Fields, in consequence of the weekly holdings forth of a variety of Enthusiasts: such as Mystics, Methodists, Quaking Jews, &c. One of the latter description being eager for persecution, insisted upon going into confinement, and was conveyed to Clerkenwell Bridewell."--(_Times, July 20, 1797._)
* * * * *
"On the 25th of February, died in the Barony of Ivereagh, in the County of Kerry, Ireland, in the 112th year of his age Daniel Bull Macarthy Esq. He had been married to five wives: he married the fifth, who survives him, when he was 84 and she 14, by whom he had twenty children, she bearing a child every year. He was very healthy: no cold could affect him: and he could not bear the warmth of a shirt in the night time, but put it under his pillow, for the last seventy years. In company he drank plentifully of rum, and brandy, which he called _naked truth_; and when, out of complaisance to other gentlemen, he took claret, or port, he always drank an equal glass of rum, or brandy, to qualify those liquors: this he called a _wedge_. He used to walk eight, or ten, miles in a winter's morning with greyhounds, and finders, and seldom failed to bring home a brace of hares."--(_Times, Aug. 5, 1797._)
* * * * *
"On Sunday morning, about five o'clock, ten Police officers came to Norwood in three hackney-coaches, threw down all the gypsey tents, and exposed about 30 men, women, and children, in the primitive state of man. They carried them to prison, to be dealt with according to the Vagrant Act.
"It appears that they have made good harvest, this summer, of female credulity, and have often gained a guinea on a Sunday. Not only young girls, panting for matrimony, have been their dupes, but the well experienced dames, curious to trace the steps of their dear _spouses_, have paid liberally for discovery, as the following story will prove: On Thursday, as two Gentlemen, who dined at Norwood, were looking out of a window, they observed a respectable, well-dressed woman in deep consultation, for a sum paid to the old gypsey. They observed the good woman greatly agitated, and heard her ask 'If she was sure it was true'? On being answered 'As sure as God was in heaven' she gave the gypsey a further sum, and made further enquiry, and at last gave her a good pocket-handkerchief, and departed seemingly full of vengeance. The gentlemen, curious to learn the nature of the good woman's consultation, sent for the old gypsey, who candidly told them, that she enquired of her if her husband was continent, and that she answered he was not, and thereby obtained three presents instead of one."--(_Times, Aug. 22, 1797._)
Partridge shooting began on 14th September then, instead of the 1st as now.
"FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER.
"Bemired up to the knees, wetted from head to foot by the incessant rain, fatigued and disappointed, the Cocknies yesterday returned from their annual field-sport, with very little game indeed. A detachment from Cheapside, which had filed off early in the morning, toward Hampstead, with the locks of their fowling-pieces wrapped up in their handkerchiefs, were so galled by the rain, that they got no further than _Old Mother Red Cap's_, where they diverted themselves all day with firing from a window at some Dutch-pins in the skittle ground. One of these pins was mortally wounded in the belly by Ensign _Tight Breeches_, a man milliner's foreman, who drove a ball into it, at the amazing distance of two yards, without letting the gun fall out of his hand.
"Six journeymen weavers, from Spital-fields, who went in a chaise cart, to Ealing, with two guns, were rather more fortunate, in respect to Game. They killed a lame hen at Acton, shot one goose on the Common, wounded a large sow, and filled their pockets and Game-bags with turnips, and cabbages. They imagined they sprung a pheasant near Gunnersbury House,--but it proved to be an old turkey-cock. At Eleven, they returned, very wet, and very drunk, having lost one of their guns, and broke the stock of the other, by flinging it at a tame rabbit, in a farmer's yard.
"Four _gentlemen_ from Leadenhall-Market, who went on the long-coach to Woolwich, as there are partridges in that part of Kent, killed two crows in Hanging-Wood Lane, blinded a jackass near the Warren, and wounded a sparrow, several feathers being perceived to drop from its wings. They had tolerable good sport with a bat, their terriers being of an excellent breed, and having worried a flock of ducks in a ditch, and killed one, they returned from _Partridge shooting_ about nine at night, very much fatigued indeed.
"Five gentlemen who went sporting from Kent Bar to Lewisham, notwithstanding the wetness of the day, had tolerable good luck.
"They belonged to the Trained Bands, and depended more upon their bayonets, than their guns. At the Half-Way-House they killed a fine buck-cat, as he was watching a chaffinch. From the Half-Way-House to New-Cross Turnpike, every sparrow was affrighted by the noise of their guns: but the rain by this time having completely wetted the locks, and damped the powder, they were obliged to charge with bayonets, and every tree bore marks of their prowess, to the Lion and Lamb at Lewisham, where they dined, got drunk, killed two hogs, and a Chinese sow, and, in the evening, were carried home by the Lewisham stage.
"St. George's Fields, once the mart of London sportsmen, being now almost covered with houses, very few prentice-boy gunners were seen there. The birds which now inhabit that quarter, are many of them jail-birds, and if the new Magistrates were to sport their authority a little more than they do, they might bring down some of the most dangerous game with which a neighbourhood was ever infested.
"Very few were the sportsmen on Blackheath, to the great joy of sheep and jackasses, and to the safety of stage-passengers, who were often endangered by the random shot of those _one-day_ sportsmen. As to partridges, their lives were in no danger, not one of those sportmen out of fifty knowing the difference between a partridge and a crow; besides, as their dogs are generally of the bull-dog kind, of the terrier, or the fox breed, the game are in very little danger of injury from their ability."--(_Times, Sept. 15, 1797._)
* * * * *
"There will be more Powder expended to-day against the innocent Partridges, than would drive Buonaparte and his crew out of Asia. The Bank Clerks, India House Jemmies, Men Milliners, and tippy Apprentices, most loudly complain against the enclosures of that _Cockney Manor_, St. George's Fields, bewailing the loss of their sport, and lamenting that there is not a sparrow left to exercise their prowess upon."--(_Times, Sept. 14, 1798._)
* * * * *
"So great is the rage for watering places, that the Margate Packet had, the week before last, one hundred and fifty-two passengers on board, who were 27 hours on their passage; during the greater part of the time, it rained so as to drive them under deck, and made them as _comfortable_ as the people in the black hole at Calcutta."--(_Times, Sept. 16, 1797._)
* * * * *
"On Thursday evening last, one _George Kent_, a Callender, in New Compton St., St. Giles's, eat, for a trifling wager, the enormous quantity of 30 boiled eggs, a two-penny loaf, and a quarter of a pound of butter, in the short space of 27 minutes, being three minutes less than the time given to perform it."--(_Times, Oct. 2, 1797._)
* * * * *
(Advt.)
"GUILDHALL.
"THREE GUINEAS will be given for a Gentleman's Ticket to Dine this Day at Guildhall, by sending it before 12 o'clock, to Mr. Short, Hair Dresser, Bearbinder-lane, near the Mansion House."--(_Times, Nov. 9, 1797._)
* * * * *
"Never could any Country boast an equal respect, and even partiality, for _age_, with our own. Our favourite Sultanas are grandmothers, at the least: the Actresses that charmed our grandfathers return to the stage in the full bloom of their wrinkles: and we have boys of seventy, and fourscore, in our regiments."--(_Times, Nov. 15, 1797._)
* * * * *
"Amongst the great, and worthy, pluralists of the Church, few can equal, and none exceed, in spiritual, and temporal, fortune, young Dr. _Price_, nephew to Bishop _Barrington_;[23] he is Canon, and Prebendary, of Salisbury, worth £300 per annum, Golden Prebendary of Durham, worth £1200 per annum: and Rector of Milksham, worth £1000 per annum, and is possessed of a temporal fortune of between 2 and £3000 per annum!
[Footnote 23: Shute Barrington. Bishop of Llandaff 1769. Bishop of Salisbury 1782. Bishop of Durham 1791.]
"Dr. Moss, a lately appointed Residentiary of St. Paul's, worth £1200 per annum, is Chancellor of the Diocese of Wells, Prebendary of Wells, Westminster, and Salisbury, and also Canon Residentiary of the latter, to which he was elected when he was about 24 years of age, on the resignation of his father. In addition to the above preferments, Dr. Moss is also rector of Newington in Oxfordshire, worth £600 per annum. The present Bishop of Wells, with his family, it is computed has received upwards of £100,000 out of the Cathedrals of Salisbury and Wells. He strongly insisted that his son should continue his Canonry of Salisbury, which Mr. Pitt would not allow."--(_Times, Nov. 17, 1797._)
* * * * *
"In investigating a trivial cause yesterday, at Bow-Street, arising from an infamous practice, which we hope will be represented to Lord Kenyon, of issuing Marshalsea Court Writs for debts of 8s. or 12s., a fraud of some importance was discovered. It appears that it was the custom of Publicans, when they want to let their houses, to get a number of people together, whom they treat with beer.
"They call them show-men, and this is done for the purpose of deceiving the persons who come to view their house, and to make them suppose it has good custom."--(_Times, Nov. 23, 1797._)
* * * * *
Advt.
"PROCESSION TO ST. PAULS.[24]
"To BE LET, a DRAWING-ROOM about 20 feet long, the windows nearly level with his Majesty's Carriage. Twenty Persons may be comfortably accommodated. It is wished by the Proprietor of the above Premises, that the Party may be of their own selection: a strange mixture of Company on these occasions is unpleasant to most Families who wish to enjoy their own society. Price 20 Guineas. Enquire at Salmon's Goldsmith, No. 49 facing Old Round Court, Strand, between York buildings and the Adelphi."--(_Times, Dec. 8, 1797._)
[Footnote 24: To return thanks for Admiral Duncan's victory over the Dutch fleet.]
* * * * *
Advt.
"ROYAL PROCESSION.
"One of the grandest sights since the days of Queen Anne, and in all probability we shall never see the like again. Those Ladies and Gentlemen who are desirous of being accommodated with one of the best views in the City to see the procession (not only as it passes by, but of seeing the Company go into Church), will apply to No. 28 Ludgate-Street, the corner of Ave Maria-Lane, next the Churchyard. The Front Seats in the Dining Room are only 2 Guineas, the second seats 1-1/2 guinea, third seats 1 Guinea: seats in the shop, which is very pleasant 1 Guinea each: a two pair front room, with 3 windows, for a large party, at 20 Guineas for the day, an excellent prospect. Also a 3 pair of stairs front room which has a capital view of the Churchyard, for 12 Guineas. Ladies and Gentlemen will be accommodated with sight of the procession at the west end of the Town, where they may have small rooms, or large, on moderate terms, that is to say, a very handsome dining-room for 15 Guineas, a small room adjoining for 5 Guineas, large room, 2 pair, for 10 Guineas, small room adjoining for 4 Guineas, by applying to Mr. Farrance, Pastry Cook, the Corner of Spring Gardens, Charing Cross."--(_Times, Dec. 12, 1797._)
* * * * *
"The eight cream-coloured horses belonging to the King's State-Coach, are every morning drove to St. Paul's Church to train them to the _flags_ in Queen Ann's Church-yard."--(_Times, Dec. 14, 1797._)
* * * * *
"In England the amount of French prisoners is 23,600. In France the British do not exceed 1500."--(_Times, Dec. 14, 1797._)
In an article of half a column length (_Times_, Jan. 8, 1798), treating of the French Prisoners of war--the following is the concluding paragraph:--