Part 19

"The prisoner entered. He was death's counterfeit, tall, shrivelled, and pale; and his soul shot so piercingly through the port-holes of his head that the first glance of him nearly petrified me. I said in my heart, putting my pencil in my pocket, God forbid that I should disturb thy last moments! His hands were clasped, and he was truly penitent. After the yeoman had requested him to stand up, 'he pinioned him,' as the Newgate phrase is, and tied the cord with so little feeling that the governor, who had not given the wretch the accustomed fee, observed 'You have tied me very tight;' upon which Dr. Ford, the chaplain, ordered him to slacken the cord, which he did, but not without muttering, 'Thank you, sir,' said the governor to the doctor: 'it is of little moment.' He then observed to the attendant, who had brought in an immense iron shovel-full of coals to throw on the fire, 'Ay, in one hour that will be a blazing fire,' then turning to the doctor, questioned him: 'Do tell me, sir: I am informed I shall go down with great force; is it so?' After the construction and action of the machine had been explained, the doctor questioned the governor as to what kind of men he had at Goree:--'Sir,' he answered, 'they sent me the very riff-raff.' The poor soul then joined the doctor in prayer; and never did I witness more contrition at any condemned sermon than he then evinced.

"The sheriff arrived, attended by his officers, to receive the prisoner from the keeper. A new hat was then partly flattened on his head, for owing to its being too small in the crown, it stood many inches too high behind. As we were crossing the Press Yard, the dreadful execrations of some of the felons so shook his frame that he observed, the clock had struck; and quickening his pace, he soon arrived at the room where the sheriff was to give a receipt for his body, according to the usual custom. Owing, however, to some informality in the wording of this receipt, he was not brought out as soon as the multitude expected; and it was this delay which occasioned a partial exultation from those who betted as to a reprieve, and not from any pleasure in seeing him executed.

"After the execution, as soon as I was permitted to leave the prison, I found the Yeoman selling the rope with which the malefactor had been suspended, at a shilling an inch; and no sooner had I entered Newgate-street, than a lath of a fellow, passed threescore years and ten, who had just arrived from the purlieus of Black Boy Alley, woe-begone as _Romeo's_ apothecary, exclaimed, 'Here is the identical rope at sixpence an inch.'"

STAGE-COACH IN 1760.

_Ayscough's Nottingham Courant_ of this date, contained the following advertisement:--The flying machines on steel springs set off from the Swan with Two Necks Inn, Lad-lane, London, and from the Angel Inn in Sheffield, every Monday and Thursday morning at five o'clock, and lies the first night from London at the Angel Inn in Northampton, the second at the Blackmoor's Head Inn, Nottingham, and the third at Sheffield. Each passenger to pay 1_l._ 17_s._, and to be allowed fourteen pounds of luggage. Performed (if God permit) by John Hanforth and Samuel Glanville.

BLIND WORKMAN.

A young man, in Greenock, of the name of Kid, who was blind from his infancy, finished the model of a sixty-four gun ship, of about five feet keel, planked from the keel, with carriages for the guns, and every necessary material and apparelling of a ship of that rate, without any assistance whatever, or other instrument than a small knife and hammer.

SPORTS OF THE LOWER CLASSES IN 1749.

The following handbill is curious, on account of the light it sheds on what was considered attractive to the million a hundred years ago:--

"_According to Law. September 22, 1749._ On Wednesday next, the 27th inst., will be run for by _Asses_ (!!) in _Tothill Fields_, a purse of gold, not exceeding the value of Fifty Pounds. The first will be entitled to the gold; the second to two pads; the third to thirteen pence half-penny; the last to a halter fit for the neck of any ass in Europe. Each ass must be subject to the following articles:--

"No person will be allowed to run but _Taylors_ and _Chimney-sweepers_; the former to have a cabbage-leaf fixed in his hat, the latter a plumage of white feathers; the one to use nothing but his yard-wand, and the other a brush.

"No jockey-tricks will be allowed upon any consideration.

"No one to strike an ass but the rider, lest he thereby cause a retrograde motion, under a penalty of being ducked three times in the river.

"No ass will be allowed to start above thirty years old, or under ten months, nor any that has won above the value of fifty pounds.

"No ass to run that has been six months in training, particularly above stairs, lest the same accident happen to it that did to one nigh a town ten miles from London, and that for reasons well known to that place.

"Each ass to pay sixpence entrance, three farthings of which are to be given to the old clerk of the race, for his due care and attendance.

"Every ass to carry weight for inches, if thought proper."

Then follow a variety of sports, with "an ordinary of _proper victuals_, particularly for the riders, if desired."

"_Run, lads, run! there's rare sport in Tothill Fields!_"

STATE COACH AT THE PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT IN 1796.

Never was a greater assemblage of persons collected together than on this occasion: in the Park and in Parliament-street there were at least 20,000 people. By the repair of the state coach, which has undergone several material alterations since the damage it received at the opening of the last session, the king is now secluded from the sight. Hitherto, the upper pannels of it had always been of glass, so that the multitude could see the king in all directions, through the front, through the sides, as well as through the windows in the doors: it has been newly glazed, and the whole of the carriage is lined with sheet copper, musket proof; between the crimson lining of the carriage is a wadding of fine wool, coated with buffalo skin, the nature of which is so close that no bullets can penetrate it.

HISTORICAL ANECDOTE.

On the dollars, stivers, &c., coined at the town of Dordrecht in Holland, is the figure of a milk-maid sitting under her cow, which figure is also exhibited in relievo on the water-gate of the place. The occasion was as follows: In the noble struggle of the United Provinces for their liberties, the Spaniards detached a body of forces from the main army, with the view of surprising Dordrecht. Certain milkmaids, belonging to a rich farmer in the vicinity of the town, perceived as they were going to milk, some soldiers concealed under the hedges. They had the presence of mind to pursue their occupation without any symptoms of alarm. On their return home they informed their master of what they had seen, who gave information to the Burgomaster, and the sluices were let loose, by which great numbers of the Spaniards were drowned, and the expedition defeated. The States ordered the farmer a handsome revenue for the loss he sustained by the overflowing of his lands, rewarded the women, and perpetuated the event in the manner described.

TOMB OF JOHN BUNYAN.

"Who has not read the "Pilgrim's Progress," "that wonderful book," writes Mr. Macaulay, "which, while it obtains admiration from the most fastidious critics, is loved by those who are too simple to admire it?" We can remember our own delight on reading, for the first time, the precious volume. This was in the days of our childhood, when we were deeply imbued with the fairy lore which at that time was so plentifully supplied, and so eagerly devoured.

John Bunyan was buried in Bunhill Fields burying-ground, City-road; and the tablet on his tomb, which the engraving very correctly represents is as follows:--"Mr. John Bunyan, author of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' ob. 12 Aust. 1688, aet. 60." Formerly there were also the following lines:--

"The Pilgrim's Progress now is finished. And death has laid him in his earthly bed."

[Illustration: [++] Tomb of John Bunyan.]

Bunhill Fields burying-ground was opened as a suburban cemetery in 1665, in the time of the great plague, and was a favourite burying-place with the Dissenters. Here are buried Daniel Defoe; Dr. Isaac Watts; Joseph Ritson the antiquary; Dr. Thomas Goodwin, the chaplain who attended Cromwell's death-bed; George Fox, the founder of the Quakers; the mother of John Wesley; Lieut.-General Fleetwood, son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell; Thomas Stothard, R.A., and other eminent men.

SPIDERS FOND OF MUSIC.

Spiders hear with great acuteness, and it is affirmed that they are attracted by music. Disjonval relates the instance of a spider which used to place itself on the ceiling of a room over the spot where a lady played the harp, and which followed her if she removed to another part; and he also says that the celebrated violinist Berthome, when a boy, saw a spider habitually approach him as soon as he began to play, and which eventually became so familiar that it would fix itself on his desk, and on his arm. Bettina noticed the same effect with a guitar, on a spider which accidentally crossed over it as she was playing.

BREAKFASTING HUT IN 1745.

This quaint announcement, in a handbill of the time, shows how cheaply those who lived a century or so past could enjoy suburban pleasures in merrie Islington:--

"This is to give notice to all Ladies and Gentlemen, at Spencer's original Breakfasting-Hut, between Sir Hugh Middleton's Head and St. John Street Road, by the New River side, fronting Sadler's Wells, may be had every morning, except Sundays, fine tea, sugar, bread, butter, and milk, at fourpence per head; coffee at threepence a dish. And in the afternoon, tea, sugar, and milk, at threepence per head, with good attendance. Coaches may come up to the farthest garden-door next to the bridge in St. John Street Road, near Sadler's Wells back gate.--_Note._ Ladies, &c., are desired to take notice that there is another person set up in opposition to me, the next door, which is a brick-house, and faces the little gate by the Sir Hugh Middleton's, and therefore mistaken for mine; but mine is the _little boarded place_ by the river side, and my backdoor faces the same as usual; for

I am not dead, I am not gone, Nor liquors do I sell; But, as at first, I still go on, Ladies, to use you well.

No passage to my hut I have, The river runs before; Therefore your care I humbly crave, Pray don't mistake my door.

"Yours to serve, S. SPENCER."

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.

In Leroux's Journal de Medicine, is an account of a very fat woman, twenty-eight years of age, who was found on fire in her chamber, where nothing else was burning. The neighbours heard a noise of something like frying, and when the body was removed it left a layer of black grease. The doctor conceives that the combustion began in the internal parts, and that the clothes were burnt secondarily.

MOTHER MAPP THE BONE-SETTER.

She was the daughter of a man named Wallis, a bone-setter at Hindon, in Wiltshire, and sister to the celebrated "Polly Peachem," who married the Duke of Bolton. Upon some _family quarrel_, Sally Wallis left her professional parent, and wandered up and down the country in a miserable manner, calling herself "Crazy Sally," and pursuing, in her perambulations, a course that fairly justified the title. Arriving at last at Epsom, she succeeded in humbugging the worthy bumkins of that place, so decidedly, that a subscription was set on foot to keep her among them; but her fame extending to the metropolis, the dupes of London, a numerous class then as well as now, thought it no trouble to go ten miles to see the conjuror, till at length, she was pleased to bless the afflicted of London with her presence, and once a week drove to the Grecian Coffee-house, in a coach and six with out-riders! and all the appearance of nobility. It was in one of these journeys, passing through Kent-street, in the Borough, that being taken for a certain woman of quality from the Electorate in Germany, a great mob followed and bestowed on her many bitter reproaches, till Madame, perceiving some mistake, looked out of the window, and accosted them in this gentle manner, "Confound you, don't you know me? I am Mrs. Mapp, the _bone-setter_!" upon which, they instantly changed their revilings into loud huzzas.

TWO CERTIFICATES OF GRETNA-GREEN MARRIAGES AT DIFFERENT DATES.

"This is to sartfay all persons that my be consernid, that A B from the parish of C in the County of D and E F from the parish of G and in the county of H and both comes before me and declayred themseless both to be single persons, and now mayried by the form of the Kirk of Scotland, and agreible to the Church of England, and givine ondre my hand, this 18{th} day of March 1793."

"Kingdom of Scotland "County of Dumfries "Parish of Gretna

"These are to certify, to all whom it may concern, that John N.... from the parish of Chatham in the County of Kent, and Rosa H.... from the Parish of St. Maries in the County of Nottingham, being both here now present and having declared to me that they are single persons, but have now been married conformable to the Laws of the Church of England, and agreeable to the Kirk of Scotland. As witness our hands at Springfield this 4th day of October 1822.

"Witness "Witness me. Jane Rae David Lang. John Ainslie." John N.... Rosa H...."

THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND.

The women here are generally more handsome than in other places, sufficiently endowed with natural beauties, without the addition of adulterate sophistications. In an absolute woman, say the Italians, are required the parts of a Dutch woman, from the girdle downwards; of a French woman, from the girdle to the shoulders: over which must be placed an English face. As their beauties, so also their prerogatives are greater than any nation; neither so servilely submissive as the French, nor so jealously guarded as the Italians; but keeping so true a decorum, that as England is termed the Pergatorie of Servants, and the Hell of Horses, so is it acknowledged the _Paradise_ of _Women_. And it is a common by-word amongst the Italians, that _if there were a bridge built across the narrow seas, all the women in Europe would run into England_. For here they have the upper hand in the streets, the upper place at the table, the thirds of their husband's estates, and their equal share of all lands; privileges with which other women are not acquainted. They were in high esteem in former times amongst foreign nations, for the modestie and gravitie of their conversation; but of late so much addicted to the light garb of the French, that they have lost much of their ancient honour and reputation amongst knowing and more sober men of foreign countries who before admired them.--_Peter Heylin's Cosmographie_, 1652.

PRICES FOR SEATS AT CORONATIONS.

On consulting Stowe, Speed, and other antiquaries, it appears that the price of a good place at the coronation of William the Conqueror was a _blank_; and probably the same at that of his son William Rufus. At that of Henry I. it was a _crocard_, and at King Stephen's and Henry the Second's a _pillard_. At King Richard's and King John's, it was a _fuskin_; and rose at Henry the Third's to a _dodkin_. In the reign of Edward I. the coins began to be more intelligible; and we find that for seeing his coronation a Q was given, or the half of a _ferling_, or farthing, which was, as now, the fourth part of a _sterling_, or penny. At the coronation of Edward II. it was a farthing; and at that of Edward III. a halfpenny, which was very generally given. In the reign of Richard II. it was a penny, and continued the same at that of Henry IV. But at that of Henry V. it was two pennies, or half of a _grossus_, or groat; and the same at that of Henry VI. and of Edward IV.; nor do we find it raised at the coronation of Richard III. or that of Henry VII.

At that of Henry VIII. it was the whole _grossus_, or groat, nor was the price altered at those of Edward VI. and Queen Mary; but at Queen Elizabeth's it was a _teston_, _tester_, or sixpence. At those of James I. and Charles I. a shilling was given; which sum was advanced to half a crown at the coronations of Charles and James II. At King William's and Queen Anne's, it was a crown; and at George the First's the show was seen by many at the same price.

At the coronation of George II. some gave half a guinea; but at that of George III. and Queen Charlotte, anno 1761, curiosity seems to have risen to an amazing height. On this occasion the price given for single seats were almost incredible; in some houses ten guineas, and in ordinary houses five guineas. Great and universal anxiety prevailed to see this grand spectacle, from the reflection how improbable it was that many who were there could ever have an opportunity of witnessing the like again. As an instance of this extreme anxiety, it is confidently related, that a gentleman was prevailed on to take a room for his lady, at the price of one hundred and forty guineas; but the appointment of the solemnity of the coronation falling unluckily at the exact time when she expected to be delivered, she actually further prevailed on her husband to let a skilful man-midwife, nurse, &c., attend her, and to hire another room, lest the hurry of the day should bring on her labour, when it might be impossible for her to be removed without endangering her life.

ANCIENT HOUSE AT BLACKWALL--SAID TO BE THE RESIDENCE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

The house shown in the engraving is interesting from two causes; first, that it was the house in which Sir Walter Raleigh smoked his first pipe of tobacco in England, and secondly, that it is one of the few relics remaining of those picturesque old houses of the days of Queen Bess. The house is built of strongly framed timber, which, in recent years, has been plastered over; and the carved heads that ornament the gables, and which are good both in design and execution, show that this house is at least 350 years old.

[Illustration: [++] Ancient House at Blackwall.]

At the present time a tavern has been built between this house and the river. Formerly, however, there was, no doubt, a trimmed garden and terrace towards the Thames, from which the inhabitants may have watched the progress of Queen Elizabeth from the Tower to her palace at Greenwich.

It is singular to notice the fashion of these old houses, arising from the value of space within walled towns; each floor projects over the other, so that the upper apartments have more room than the lower. While, in an artistic point of view, we cannot help regretting the disappearance of the venerable and quaint gables, for sanitary and other reasons we must be content with the change.

AMBASSADORS--WHY HELD BY THE ARMS AT THE OTTOMAN COURT.

A dervise addressed Bajazet, emperor of the Turks, 1495, for alms, and while the charitable Sultan searched for his money, the treacherous beggar wounded him with a dagger, and was instantly slain by the royal attendants. This incident is rendered memorable by its having occasioned the ungracious restraint under which even the ambassadors of Christian powers were subject to in former times when they received an audience from the Ottoman Emperor.

They were held by the arms by two attendants, when they approached the throne, nor were their arms loosed till they had quitted the presence.

TRAVELLING IN 1760.

The nobility and gentry were accustomed to make their long journeys in ponderous family-carriages, drawn by four horses. These vehicles would be laden at the top with an array of trunks and boxes, while perhaps six or seven persons, with a lapdog, would be stowed within. The danger of famine on the road was averted by a travelling larder of baskets of various condiments; the risk of thirst would be provided against by bottles of usquebaugh, black cherry-brandy, cinnamon-water, sack, port, or strong beer: while the convoy would be protected by a basket-hilted sword, an old blunderbuss, and a bag of bullets and a great horn of gunpowder.

OLD ST. PAUL'S.

In the old cathedral was a tower of stone, in height from the ground 260 feet, on which was a spire of wood, covered with lead, 274 feet high. In the tower was a celebrated peal of bells; and somewhat above the stone-work was a "faire dial," from which there was order taken in the eighteenth year of Edward III. that the rich chasing and gilding should be always kept in good preservation. On this dial was the figure of an angel pointing to the hours of both day and night--a device more appropriate than most of the clock-hands in present use. From this lofty steeple, which formed such an important feature of old London, the chimes rung merrily on saints' days and holidays; and at times the choristers mounted up aloft and chaunted forth their orisons at dawn and sunset--a custom still observed at Durham Cathedral. Before the fire of London, the spire of St. Paul's was more than once destroyed or damaged by fire and lightning.

On Candlemas Eve, 1444, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the lightning fired the steeple. The citizens came forth and succeeded in overcoming the fire; it, however, broke forth again at night, and but little of the spire was saved. In the year 1561, in the month of June, there fell a prodigious quantity of rain, attended with thunder and lightning. St. Paul's steeple was struck within a yard of the top. At first, a little fire appeared, resembling the light of a torch, and in eight minutes the weather-cock fell; and the wind rising high, the fire within an hour afterwards destroyed the steeple down to the very battlements, and then, in consequence of the mass of burning timber that fell from the spire, burnt so violently that the iron-work and the bells melted and fell upon the stairs in the church; the east and west roofs catching fire communicated with the north and south, and destroyed them all. Much damage was also done to other parts.

The spire was again reared, and the damaged bells properly replaced. In addition to the bells in the tower of old St. Paul's there was a common bell, the property of the city, hung in a suitable building, closely adjoining to the Cathedral, which was rung that the inhabitants might assemble at wardmotes and other important occasions. Another fire damaged the ancient church, and then the great fire of 1666, swept steeples, bells, churches, and all before it.

THE BEDFORD MISSAL.