Part 5

London life to John Catnach proved very disastrous, matters never went smoothly with him. It was evident to all his friends that he had made a great mistake in leaving the North of England. Mr. Mark Smith continued to visit the family as opportunities presented themselves. On one occasion he found them in extremely distressed circumstances, so much so, that he had to afford them some temporary relief from his slender earnings and then left the northern sojourners for the night, promising that he would return to see them at an early date. Anxious to learn how they were succeeding in the crowded metropolis, it was not many days before he again visited them, but this time he found them in a sorry plight; the landlady had distrained upon their all for arrears of rent. This was an awkward predicament; but the indomitable young Northumbrian, like the more burly Dr. Johnson of old, when his friend Oliver Goldsmith was similarly situated, resolved to do all he could to rescue him from the peril in which he was placed. Not being prepared for a case of such pressing emergency, the full debt and costs being demanded, he was compelled to borrow the required amount of Mr. Matthew Willoughby, a native and freeman of the Borough of Alnwick, then residing in London, and once more his old master was free.

John Catnach then removed his business to a front shop in Soho, when, in the absence of work of a higher class, he had to resort to printing quarter-sheet ballads, here is the title and imprint of one example:--

TOM STARBOARD AND FAITHFUL NANCY.

Tom Starboard was a lover true, As brave a tar as ever sail'd; The duties ablest seamen do Tom did, and never had fail'd.

LONDON.--Printed by J. Catnach, and Sold Wholesale and Retail at No. 60, Wardour-street, Soho-square.

For his wife and family he took apartments in Charlotte Street, Fitzroy-square. Again he shortly removed his business to Gerrard-street, where he had hardly got his plant into working order, when on returning home on the evening of the 29th of August, 1813, he had the misfortune to fall down and injure his leg. He was immediately taken to St. George's Hospital, Hyde-park Corner, when rheumatic fever supervened, and although placed under the skilful treatment of Dr. Young, he never rallied, his constitution being completely broken, but by means of superior medical treatment and good nursing he lingered until the 4th of December in the same year, on which day he died.

Such is a brief _résumé_ of the latter years of John Catnach's life. It is apparent that, by a little application and self-denial, this man might have made for himself a name and position in the world. He possessed all the necessary talents for bringing success within his reach. The ground which he took is the same which in after years proved to be of inestimable value to hundreds of publishers who never possessed half the amount of ability and good taste in printing and embellishing books that was centred in him.

After his death, and just at the time when his widow and daughters were sunk in the greatest poverty, his son James, who in after years became so noted in street literature publications, made his way to the metropolis. It appears that this extraordinary man at one time contemplated devoting his life to rural pursuits; in fact, when a youth he served for some time as a shepherd boy, quite contrary to the wish and desire of his parents. Every opportunity he could get he would run away, far across the moors and over the Northumbrian mountains, and, always accompanied with his favourite dog Venus, and a common-place book, in which he jotted down in rhymes and chymes his notions of a pastoral life.[5] Thus he would stay away from home for days and nights together.

This project, however, was abandoned, and he commenced to serve as a printer in the employment of his father. It is rather remarkable that he and Mr. Mark Smith

[Signature: Mr. Smith.]

were both bound on the same day as apprentices to Mr. John Catnach, and that they afterwards worked together as "improvers" in their trade with:--

Mr. Hugo, in the Supplement to his "Bewick Collector," pp. 256 (5137), says:--"This very beautiful Cut was done by Thomas Bewick, sometime about the year 1794, for a well-known Alnwick printer."

[Signature: James Catnach]

"Death made no conquest of this man, For now he lives in fame, though not in life."

At the time James--or, as he afterwards was popularly called "_Jemmy_," or, "_Old Jemmy_" Catnach commenced business in Seven Dials it took all the prudence and tact which he could command to maintain his position, as at that time "Johnny" Pitts,[6] of the Toy and Marble Warehouse, No. 6, Great St. Andrew street, was the acknowledged and established printer of street literature for the "Dials" district; therefore, as may be easily imagined, a powerful rivalry and vindictive jealousy soon arose between these "two of a trade"--most especially on the part of "Old Mother" Pitts, who is described as being a coarse and vulgar-minded personage, and as having originally followed the trade of a bumboat woman at Portsmouth: she "wowed wengeance" against the young fellow in the court for daring to set up in their business, and also spoke of him as a young "Catsnatch," "Catblock," "Cut-throat," and many other opprobrious terms which were freely given to the new comer. Pitts' staff of "bards" were duly cautioned of the consequences which would inevitably follow should they dare to write a line for Catnach--the new _cove_ up the court. The injunction was for a time obeyed, but the "Seven Bards of the Seven Dials" soon found it not only convenient, but also more profitable to sell copies of their effusions to both sides at the same time, and by keeping their own counsel they avoided detection, as each printer accused the other of obtaining an early sold copy, and then reprinting it with the utmost speed, which was in reality often the case, as "Both Houses" had emissaries on the constant look-out for any new production suitable for street-sale. Now, although this style of "double dealing" and competition tended much to lessen the cost price to the "middle-man" or vendor, the public in this case did not get any of the reduction, as a penny broadside was still a penny, and a quarter-sheet still a halfpenny to them, the "street-patterer" obtaining the whole of the reduction as extra profit.

The feud existing between these rival publishers, who have been somewhat aptly designated as the Colburn and Bentley of the "paper" trade, never abated, but, on the contrary, increased in acrimony of temper, until at last not being content to vilify each other by "Words! words!! words!!!" alone, they resorted to printing off virulent lampoons, in which Catnach never failed to let the world know that "Old Mother Pitts" had been formerly a bumboat woman, while the Pitt's party announced that:--

"All the boys and girls around, Who go out prigging rags and phials, Know Jemmy _Catsnatch_!!! well, Who lives in a back slum in the Dials. He hangs out in Monmouth Court, And wears a pair of blue-black breeches, Where all the "Polly Cox's crew" do resort To chop their swag for badly printed Dying Speeches."

But however, in spite of all the opposition and trade rivalry, Catnach persevered; he worked hard, and lived hard, and was fitted to the stirring times. The Peninsular wars had just concluded, politics and party strife ran high, squibs, lampoons, and political ballads were the order of the day, and he made money. But he had weighty pecuniary family matters to bear up with, as thus early in his career, his father's sister also joined them, and they all lived and huddled together in the shop and parlour of No. 2, Monmouth-court. He did a small and very humble trade as a jobbing master, printing and publishing penny histories, street-papers, and halfpenny songs, relying for their composition on one or two out of the known "Seven Bards of the Seven Dials," and when they were on the drink, or otherwise not inclined to work, being driven to write and invent them himself.

The customers who frequented his place of business were for the most part of the lowest grades of society:--those who by folly, intemperance, and crime, had been reduced to the greatest penury. Anyone with a few coppers in his pockets could easily knock out an existence, especially when anything sensational was in the wind.

The great excitement throughout the country caused by the melancholy death of the Princess Charlotte, on the sixth day of November, 1817, was an event of no ordinary description. It was, indeed, a most unexpected blow, the shining virtues, as well as the youth and beauty of the deceased, excited an amount of affectionate commiseration, such as probably had never before attended the death of any royal personage in England.

The Seven Dials Press was busily engaged in working off "papers" descriptive of every fact that could be gleaned from the newspapers, and that was suitable for street sale. Catnach was not behind his compeers, as he published several statements in respect to the Princess's death, and _made_ the following lines _out of his own head_! And had, continued our informant--a professional street-ballad writer--"_wood_ enough left for as many more":--

"She is gone! sweet Charlotte's gone! Gone to the silent bourne; She is gone, She's gone, for evermore,-- She never can return.

She is gone with her joy--her darling Boy, The son of Leopold, blythe and keen; She Died the sixth of November, Eighteen hundred and seventeen."

The year 1818, proved a disastrous one to Catnach, as in addition to the extra burden entailed on him in family matters, he had, in the way of his trade, printed a street-paper reflecting on the private character and on the materials used in the manufacture of the sausages as sold by the pork butchers of the Drury-lane quarter in general, and particularly by Mr. Pizzey, a tradesman carrying on business in Blackmore-street, Clare-market, who caused him to be summoned to the Bow-street Police Court to answer the charge of malicious libel, when he was committed to take his trial at the next Clerkenwell Sessions, by Sir Richard Burnie, where he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in the House of Correction, at Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex.

[Signature: John Morgan]

During Catnach's incarceration his mother and sisters, aided by one of the Seven Dials bards, carried on the business, writing and printing off all the squibs and street ballads that were required. In the meanwhile the Johnny Pitts' crew printed several lampoons on "Jemmy Catnach." Subjoined is a portion of one of them that has reached us, _vivâ voce_, of the aforesaid--John Morgan--professional street-ballad writer:--

"Jemmy Catnach printed a quarter sheet-- It was called in lanes and passages, That Pizzy the butcher, had dead bodies chopped, And made them into sausages.

"Poor Pizzey was in an awful mess, And looked the colour of cinders-- A crowd assembled from far and near, And they smashed in all his windows.

"Now Jemmy Catnach's gone to prison, And what's he gone to prison for? For printing a libel against Mr. Pizzey, Which was sung from door to door.

"Six months in quod old Jemmy's got, Because he a shocking tale had started, About Mr. Pizzey who dealt in sausages In Blackmore-street, Clare-market."

Misfortunes are said never to come singly, and so it proved to the Catnach family, for while Jemmy was _doing_ his six months in the House of Correction at Clerkenwell, we find in the pages of the _Weekly Dispatch_ for January 3, 1819, and under POLICE INTELLIGENCE, as follows:--

CIRCULATING FALSE NEWS.--At Bow-street, on Wednesday, Thomas Love and Thomas Howlett, were brought to the office by one of the patrole, charged with making a disturbance in Chelsea, in the morning, by blowing of horns, with a tremendous noise, and each of them after blowing his horn, was heard to announce with all the vociferation the strength of his lungs would admit of:--"The full, true, and particular account of the most cruel and barbarous murder of Mr. Ellis, of Sloane-street, which took place, last night, in the Five Fields, Chelsea." The patrole, knowing that no such horrid event had taken place, had them taken up. The papers in their possession, which they had been selling at a halfpenny each, were seized and brought to the office with the prisoners. But what is most extraordinary, the contents of the papers had no reference whatever to Mr. Ellis! They were headed in large letters, "A HORRID MURDER," and the murder was stated to have been committed at South-green, near Dartford, on the bodies of Thomas Lane, his wife, three children, and his mother. The murderer's conduct was stated very particularly, although, in fact, no such event occurred. The magistrate severely censured the conduct of the whole parties. He ordered the prisoners to be detained, and considered them to be very proper subjects to be made an example of. On Thursday these parties were again brought before the magistrate, together with Mrs. Catnach [the mother] the printer of the bills, which gave a fictitious statement of the horrid murder said to be committed at Dartford. She was severely reprimanded. The two hornblowers were also reprimanded and then discharged.

The busy year of 1820 was a very important one to Catnach, in fact the turning point in his life. The Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III., and father to Queen Victoria, died on the 23rd of January--the event was of sufficient consequence to produce several "Full Particulars," for street sale. Just six days after his death, viz., on the 29th of January, 1820, George III. died, and that event set the "Catnach Press" going night and day to supply the street papers, containing "Latest particulars," &c.

"Mourn, Britons mourn! Your sons deplore, Our Royal Sovereign is now no more,"

was the commencement of a ballad written, printed, and published by J. Catnach, 2, Monmouth-court, 7 Dials. Battledores, Lotteries, and Primers sold cheap. Sold by Marshall, Bristol, and Hook, Brighton.

The royal body was committed to the family vault in St. George's Chapel at Windsor, on the 16th of February, amidst a concourse of the great and the noble of the land. The usual ceremony of proclamation and salutation announced the accession of George IV. and another important era commenced.

Immediately following these events came the Cato-street conspiracy. On the 24th of February the newspapers contained the startling intelligence that, on the previous evening, a party of eleven men, headed by Arthur Thistlewood, who was already known as a political agitator, had been apprehended at a stable in Cato-street, an obscure place in the locality of Grosvenor-square, on the charge of being the parties to a conspiracy to assassinate the greater part of the King's Ministers. The truth of the intelligence was soon confirmed by the proceedings which took place before the magisterial authorities; and in due course all the parties were put on their trial at the Old Bailey, on a charge of high treason, Arthur Thistlewood, the leader, being the first tried on the 17th of April; the Lord Chief Justice Abbott presiding. The names of the other prisoners were--William Davidson, a man of colour; James Ings, John Thomas Brunt, Richard Tidd, James William Wilson, John Harrison, Richard Bradburn, James Shaw Strange, and Charles Cooper, of whom the first four, together with Thistlewood, were executed as traitors on May 1st.

The Cato-street conspiracy proved a rich harvest to all concerned in the production of street literature. Catnach came in for a fair share of the work, and he found himself with plenty of cash in hand, and in good time to increase his trade-plant to meet the great demand for the street-papers that were in a few months to be published daily, and in reference to the ever-memorable trial of Queen Caroline; then it was that his business so enormously increased as at times to require three or four presses going night and day to keep pace with the great demand for papers, which contained a very much abridged account of the previous day's evidence, and taken without the least acknowledgment from an early procured copy of one of the daily newspapers.

Great as was the demand, the printers of street literature were equal to the occasion, and all were actively engaged in getting out "papers," squibs, lists of various trade deputations to the Queen's levées, lampoons and songs, that were almost hourly published, on the subject of the Queen's trial. The following is a selection from one which emanated from the "Catnach Press," and was supplied to us by John Morgan, the Seven Dials bard, and who added that he had the good luck--the times being prosperous--to screw out half-a-crown from Old Jemmy for the writing of it. "Ah! sir," he continued, "it was always a hard matter to get much out of Jemmy Catnach, I can tell you, sir. He was, at most times, a hard-fisted one, and no mistake about it. Yet, sir, somehow or another, he warn't such a bad sort, just where he took. A little bit rough and ready, like, you know, sir. But yet still a 'nipper.' That's just about the size of Jemmy Catnach, sir. I wish I could recollect more of the song, but you've got the marrow of it, sir:--

'And when the Queen arrived in town, The people called her good, sirs; She had a Brougham by her side, A Denman, and a Wood, sirs.

'The people all protected her, They ran from far and near, sirs, Till they reached the house of Squire Byng, Which was in St. James's-square, sirs.

'And there my blooming Caroline, About her made a fuss, man, And told how she had been deceived By a cruel, barbarous, husband.'"

Street papers continued to be printed and sold in connection with Queen Caroline's trial up to the date of her death, in the month of August, 1821.

A COPY OF VERSES IN PRAISE OF QUEEN CAROLINE.

"Ye Britons all, both great and small, Come listen to my ditty, Your noble Queen, fair Caroline, Does well deserve your pity.

Like harmless lamb that sucks its dam, Amongst the flowery thyme, Or turtle dove that's given to love: And that's her only crime.

Wedlock I ween, to her has been A life of grief and woe; Thirteen years past she's had no rest, As Britons surely know.

To blast her fame, men without shame, Have done all they could do; 'Gainst her to swear they did prepare A motley, perjured crew.

Europe they seek for Turk or Greek, To swear her life away, But she will triumph yet o'er all, And innocence display.

Ye powers above, who virtue love, Protect her from despair, And soon her free from calumny, Is every true man's prayer."

J. Catnach, Printer, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials.

Immediately following the Queen's death, there were published a whole host of monodies, elegies, and ballads in her praise. Catnach made a great hit with one entitled--"Oh! Britons Remember your Queen's Happy Days," together with a large broadside, entitled "An Attempt to Exhibit the Leading Events in the Queen's Life, in Cuts and Verse. Adorned with Twelve splendid Illustrations. Interspersed with Verses of Descriptive Poetry. Entered at Stationers' Hall. By Jas. Catnach, Printer, 7 Dials. Price 2d." A copy is preserved in the British Museum. Press Mark. _Tab._ 597, _a_, 1-67, and arranged under CATNACH, from which we select two pieces as a fair sample of Jemmy's "poetry-making!"--Which please to read carefully, and "Mind Your Stops!" quoth John Berkshire.

AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN.

Curs'd be the hour when on the British shore, She set her foot--whose loss we now deplore; For, from that hour she pass'd a life of woe, And underwent what few could undergo: And lest she should a tranquil hour know, Against her peace was struck a deadly blow; A separation hardly to be borne,-- Her only daughter from her arms was torn! And next discarded--driven from her home, An unprotected Wanderer to roam! Oh, how each heart with indignation fills, When memory glances o'er the train of ills, Which through her travels followed everywhere In quick succession till this fatal year! Here let us stop--for mem'ry serves too well, To bear the woes which Caroline befel, Each art was tried--at last to crush her down, The Queen of England was refus'd a crown! Too much to bear--Thus robb'd of all her state She fell a victim to their hate! "They have destroy'd me,"--with her parting breath, She died--and calmly yielded unto death. Forgiving all, she parted with this life, A Queen, and no Queen--wife, and not a wife! To Heaven her soul is borne on Seraph's wings, To wait the Judgment of the KING of Kings; Trusting to find a better world than this, And meet her Daughter in the realms of bliss.

CAROLINE THE INJURED QUEEN OF ENGLAND.

Beneath this cold marble the "Wanderer" lies, Here shall she rest 'till "the Heavens be no more," 'Till the trumpet shall sound, and the Dead shall arise, Then the perjurer unmask'd will his sentence deplore. Ah! what will avail then? Pomp, Titles, and Birth, Those empty distinctions all levell'd will be, For the King shall be judg'd with the poor of the earth, And perhaps, the poor man will be greater than he. Until that day we leave Caroline's wrongs, Meantime, may "Repentance" her foes overtake; O grant it, kind POWER, to whom alone it belongs. AMEN. Here an end of this Hist'ry we make.

_Quod._ JAS. C-T-N-H, Dec. 10th, 1821.

In the early part of the year 1821, the British public were informed through the then existing usual advertising mediums that there was about to be published, in monthly parts, "Pierce Egan's Life in London; or, the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis. Embellished with Scenes from Real Life, designed and etched by I. R. and G. Cruikshank, and enriched with numerous original designs on wood by the same Artists."

And on the 15th of July, the first number, price one shilling, was published by Messrs. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, of Paternoster Row. This sample, or first instalment, of the entire work was quite enough for society to judge by. It took both town and country by storm. It was found to be the exact thing in literature that the readers of those days wanted. Edition after edition was called for--and supplied, as fast as the illustrations could be got away from the small army of women and children who were colouring them. With the appearance of numbers two and three, the demand increased, and a revolution in our literature, in our drama, and even in our nomenclature began to develope itself. All the announcements from Paternoster Row were of books, great and small, depicting life in London; dramatists at once turned their attention to the same subject, and tailors, bootmakers, and hatters, recommended nothing but Corinthian shapes, and Tom and Jerry patterns.[7]

TOM AND JERRY.

"Of Life in London, Tom, Jerry and Logic I sing." To the Strand then I toddled--the mob was great-- My watch I found gone--pockets undone: I fretted at first, and rail'd against fate, For I paid well to see "LIFE IN LONDON."