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February 20th
Born:
Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, poet, dramatist,
historical and philosophical writer, 1694, Chatenay:
David Garrick, actor and dramatist, 1716, Hereford:
Charles Dalloway, 1763, Bristol.
Died:
Archbishop Arundel, 1413-14, Canterbury; Sir Nicholas
Bacon, Lord Keeper, 1579, York House, Strand;
Dorothy
Sidney, Countess of Sunderland, 1684, Brington, Mrs.
Elizabeth Rowe, philanthropic-religious writer, 1737;
Charles III (of Savoy), 1773; Joseph II (Emperor),
1790; Dr. John Moore, novelist, 1802, Richmond;
Richard Gough, antiquary, 1809, Wormley: Andreas
Hofer, Tyrolese patriot, shot by the French, 1810:
Joseph Hume, statesman, 1855.
Feast Day:
Saints Tyrannio, Zenobius, and others, martyrs in
Phoenicia, about 310. St. Sadoth, bishop of Scleucia
and Ctesiphon, with 128 companions, martyrs, 342. St.
Eleutherius, bishop of Tournay, martyr, 522. St.
Mildred, virgin abbess in Thanet, 7th century. St.
Eucherius, bishop of Orleans, 743. St. Ulrick, of
England, 1154.
JOSEPH HUME
The name of Joseph
Hume has become so inseparably associated with his
long-continued exertions to check extravagance in the
use of public money, that most persons will hear with
a feeling of surprise that he was in reality disposed
to a liberal use of the state funds wherever a good
object was to be served, and especially if that object
involved the advancement of knowledge among the
people. The Earl of Ellesmere, in his address to the
Geographical Society, in 1855, bore strong testimony
to the help which Mr. Hume had given in promoting the
claim of that body for assistance towards giving it a
better place of meeting, and enabling it to throw open
to the public the use of its 'instruments of research
and instruction.' The present writer can add a
grateful testimony, in regard to the Scottish Society
of Antiquaries. That body, being a few years ago
hardly rich enough to keep a person to shew its
valuable museum, a proposal was made that it should
hand. its collection over to the state, who might then
keep it open for the instruction and gratification of
the public at its own expense. Mr. Hume became
satisfied that the proposal was an honest one,
calculated to prove serviceable to the public and the
Society had no such friend and advocate as he in
getting the transaction with the Treasury effected.
The result has been such as fully to justify the zeal
he spewed on the occasion.
Mr. Hume was a native
of Montrose, made his way through poverty to the
education of a physician, and, realizing some wealth
in India, devoted himself from about the age of forty
to political life. As a member of Parliament, it was
the sole study of this remarkable man to protect and
advance the interests of' the public: he specially
applied himself, in the earlier part of his career, to
the advocacy of an economical use of the public purse.
He met with torrents of abuse and ridicule from those
interested in opposite objects, and he encountered
many disappointments: but nothing ever daunted or
disheartened him. Within an hour of' a parliamentary
defeat, he would be engaged in merry play with his
children, having entirely cast away all sense of
mortification. The perfect single-heartedness and
honesty of Joseph Hume in time gained upon his
greatest enemies, and he died in the enjoyment of the
respect of all classes of politicians.
TWO POET FELONS
On the 20th of
February 1719, the vulgar death of felons was suffered
at Tyburn by two men different in some respects
from
ordinary criminals, Usher
Gahagan and Terence
Conner, both of them natives of Ireland. They were
young men of respectable connections and excellent
education: they had even shown what might be called
promising talents. Gahagan, on coming to London,
offered to translate Pope's Essay on Man into
Latin for the booksellers, and, from anything that
appears, he would have performed the task in a manner
above mediocrity. There was, however, a moral
deficiency in both of these young men. Falling into
vicious courses, and failing to supply themselves with
money by honest means, they were drawn by a
fellow-countryman named Coffey into a practice of
filing the coin of the realm, a crime then considered
as high treason. For a time, the business prospered,
but the usual detection came. It came in a rather
singular manner. A teller in the Bank of England, who
had observed them frequently drawing coin from the
bank, became suspicions of them, and communicated his
suspicious to the governors. Under direction from
these gentlemen, he, on the next occasion, asked the
guilty trio to drink wine with him in the evening at
the Crown Tavern, near Cripplegate. As had been
calculated upon, the wine and familiar discourse
opened the hearts of the men, and Gahagan imparted to
the teller the secret of their life, and concluded by
pressing him to become a confederate in their plans.
Their apprehension followed, and, on Coffey's
evidence, the two others were found guilty and
condemned to death.
Just at that time,
the young Prince George (afterwards George III) and
his younger brother Edward had appeared in the
characters of Cato and Juba, in a boy-acted play at
court. Poor Gahagan sent a poetical address to the
young prince, hoping for some intercession in his
behalf. It was as well expressed and as well rhymed as
most poetry of that age. After some of the usual
compliments, he proceeded thus:
'Roused with the
thought and impotently vain,
I now would launch into a nobler strain;
But see! the captive muse forbids the lays,
Unfit to stretch the merit I would praise.
Such at whose heels no galling shackles ring,
May raise the voice, and boldly touch the string;
Cramped hand and foot while I in gaol must stay,
Dreading each hour the execution day;
Pent up in den, opprobrious alms to crave,
No Delphic cell, ye gods, nor sybil's cave;
Nor will my Pegasus obey the rod,
With massy iron barbarously shod,' &
Conner in like verse
claimed the intercession of the Duchess of
Queensberry, describing in piteous terms the hard
usage and meagre fare now meted out to him, and
entreating that she, who had been the, protectress of
Gay,
would not calmly sec another poet hanged. All was
in vain.
WARWICK LANE
Few of the
thoroughfares of old London have undergone such
mutations of fortune as may be traced in Warwick-lane,
once the site of the house of the famed Beauchamps,
Earls of Warwick, afterwards distinguished by
including in its precincts the College of Physicians,
now solely remarkable for an abundance of those
private shambles which are still permitted to disgrace
the English metropolis.
In the coroners'
rolls of five centuries ago, we read of mortal
accidents which befell youths in attempting to steal
apples in the neighbouring orchards of Paternoster-row
and Ivy-lane, then periodically redolent of
fruit-blossoms.
'Warwick Inn, as the
ancient house was called, was, in the 28th of Henry VI
(about 1450) possessed by Cecily, Duchess of Warwick.
Eight years later, when the greater estates of the
realm were called up to London,
Richard Neville, Earl
of 'Warwick, the King-maker:
'came with 600 men, all in red jackets, embroidered
with ragged staves before and behind, and was lodged in Warwick-lane; in whose
house there was oftentimes six oxen eaten at a breakfast, and every tavern was
full of his meat; for he that
had any acquaintance in that house, might have there so much of sodden and roast
meat as he could prick and carry on a long dagger.'
The Great Fire swept
away the Warwick-lane of Stow's time;
and when it was
rebuilt, there was placed upon the house at its
north-west end, a has-relief of Guy, Earl of Warwick,
in memory of the princely owners of the inn, with the
date '1668' upon it. This memorial-stone, which was
renewed in 1817, by J. Deykes, architect, is a
counterpart of the figure in the chapel of St Mary
Magdalen, in Guy's Cliff, near Warwick.
The College of
Physicians, built by Wren to replace a previous fabric
burnt down in the Great Fire, may still be seen on the
west side of the lane, but sunk into the condition of
a butcher's shop. Though in a confined situation, it
seems to have formerly been considered an impressive
structure, the exterior being thus described in
Garth's witty satire of the Dispensary:
Not far from that
most celebrated place, Where angry Justice shews her
awful face, Where little villains must submit to fate,
That great ones may enjoy the world in state, There
stands a dome majestic to the sight, And sumptuous
arches bear its awful height; A golden globe, placed
high with artful skill, Seems to the distant sight a
gilded pill.'
This simile is a
happy one; though Mr. Elmes, Wren's biographer,
ingeniously suggests that the gilt globe was perhaps
intended to intimate the universality of the healing
art. Here the physicians met until the year 1825, when
they removed to their newly-built College in Pall Mall
East. The interior of the edifice in Warwick-lane was
convenient and sumptuous; and one of the minute
accounts tells us that in the garrets were dried the
herbs for the use of the Dispensary. The College
buildings were next let to the Equitable Loan (or Pawnbroking) Company; next to
Messrs. Tyler, braziers,
and as a meat-market: oddly enough, on the left of the
entrance portico, beneath a bell-handle there remains
the inscription ' Mr. Lawrence, Surgeon,' along with
the words 'Night Bell,' recalling the days when the
house belonged to a learned institution.
We must, however,
take a glance at the statues of Charles II. and Sir
John Cutler, within the court; especially as the
latter assists to expose an act of public meanness. It
appears by the College books that, in 1674, Sir John
Cutler promised to bear the expense of a specified
part of the new building: the committee thanked him,
and in 1680, statues of the King and Sir John were
voted by the members: nine years afterwards, when the
College was completed, it was resolved to borrow money
of Sir John, to discharge the College debt; what the
sum was is not specified; it appears, however, that in
1699, Sir John's executors made a demand on the
College for �7,000, supposed to include money actually
lent, money pretended to be given, and interest on
both. The executors accepted �2,000, and dropped their
claim for the other five. The statue was allowed to
stand; but the inscription, 'Omnis Cutleri cedat
Labor Amphitheatre,' was very properly
obliterated.
 In the lane are two
old galleried inns, which carry us back to the
broad-wheeled travelling wagons of our forefathers.
About midway, on the east side, is the Bell Inn, where
the pious Archbishop
Leighton ended his earthly
pilgrimage, according to his wish, which Bishop Burnet
states him to have thus expressed in the same peaceful
and moderate spirit, as that by which, in the
troublous times of the Commonwealth, Leighton won the
affections of even the most rigid Presbyterians. 'He
used often to say, that, if he were to choose a place
to die in, it should be an inn: it looking like a
pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all as an
inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion in
it. He added that the officious tenderness and care of
friends was an entanglement to a dying man: and that
the unconcerned attendance of those that could be
procured in such a place would give less disturbance.
And he obtained what he desired: for he died [1684] at
the Bell Inn, in Warwick-lane Own Times.
Dr. Fall, who was
well acquainted with Leighton, after a glowing eulogy
on his holy life and 'heavenly converse,' proceeds:
'Such a life, we may easily persuade ourselves, must
make the thought of death not only tolerable, but
desirable. Accordingly, it had this noble effect upon
him. In a paper left under his own hand, (since lost,)
he bespeaks that day in .a most glorious and
triumphant manner; his expressions seem rapturous and
ecstatic, as though his wishes and desires had
anticipated the real and solemn celebration of his
nuptials with the Lamb of God. He sometimes expressed
his desire of not being troublesome to his friends at
his death; and God gratified to the full his modest
humble choice: he dying at an inn in his sleep.'
Somewhat lower in the
Lane is the street leading to Newgate-market, which
Gay has thus signalized:
'Shall the large
mutton smoke upon your boards?
Such Newgate's copious market best affords.'
Trivia, book ii.
Before the Great
Fire, this market was kept in Newgate-street, where
there was a market-house formed, and a middle row of
sheds, which afterwards were converted into houses,
and inhabited by butchers, tripe-sellers, &c. The
stalls in the open street grew dangerous, and were
accordingly removed into the open space between
Newgate-street and Paternoster-row, formerly the
orchards already mentioned: and here were the houses
of the Prebends of St Paul's, overgrown with ivy:
whence ivy-lane takes its name, although amidst the
turmoil of the market, with the massive dome of St
Paul's on one side, and that of the old College of
Physicians on the other, it is hard to associate the
place with the domain of a nymph so lovely as Pomona.
The other galleried
inn of Warwick-lane is the Oxford Arms, within a
recess on the west side, and nearly adjoining to the
residentiary houses of St Paul's in Amen-corner. It is
one of the best specimens of the old London inns
remaining in the metropolis. As you advance you
observe a red brick pedimented facade of the time of
Charles II, beneath which you enter the inn-yard,
which has, on three of its sides, two stories of
balustraded wooden galleries, with exterior staircases
leading to the chambers on each floor: the fourth side
being occupied by stabling, built against part of old
London wall. The house was an inn with the sign of the
Oxford Arms before the Great Fire, as appears by the
following advertisement in the London Gazette for
March, 1672-3, No. 762:
'These are to give notice,
that Edward Bartlett, Oxford carrier, hath removed his
inn, in London, from the Swan, at Holborn-bridge, to
the Oxford Arms, in Warwick-lane, where he did inn
before the Fire: his coaches and wagons going forth on
their usual days,�Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. He
hath also a hearse, with all things convenient, to
carry a corpse to any part of England.'
The Oxford
Arms was not part of the Earl of Warwick's property,
but belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's, who
hold it to this day. From the inn premises is a door
opening into one of the back yards of the residentiary
houses, and it is stated that, during the riots of
1780, this passage facilitated the escape of certain
Roman Catholics, who then frequented the Oxford. Arms,
on their being attacked by the mob: for which reason,
as is said, by a clause inserted in the Oxford Arms
lease, that door is forbidden to be closed up. This
inn appears to have been longer frequented by
carriers, wagoners, and stage-coaches, than the Bell
Inn, on the east side of the Lane; for in the list in
Delaune's Present State of London, 1690, the Oxford
Arms occurs frequently, but mention is not made of the
Pell Inn.
'At the Oxford Arms,
in Warwick-lane,' lived John Roberts, the bookseller,
from whose shop issued the majority of the squibs and
libels on Pope.
In Warwick-square,
about midway on the west side of the Lane, was the
early office of the Public Ledger newspaper, in
which Goldsmith wrote his Citizen of the World!,
at two guineas per week; and here succeeded to a share
in the property John Crowder,
who, by diligent habits, rose to be alderman of the
ward (Farringdon Within), and Lord Mayor in 1S29-30.
The London Pucket (evening paper) was also
Crowder's property. The Independent Whig was
likewise localized in the square: and at the
south-west corner was the printing-office of the
inflexible John Wheble, who befriended John Britton,
when cellarman to a wine-merchant, and set him to
write the Beauties of Wiltshire. Wheble was, in
1771, apprehended for abusing the house of Commons, in
his Middlesex Journal, but was discharged by
Wilkes: of a better complexion was his County
Chronicle, and the Sporting Magazine, which
he commenced with John Barris,
the bookseller. in this dull square, also, was the
office of Mr. Wilde, solicitor, the father of Lord
Chancellor Truro, who here mounted the office-stool en
route to the Woolsack.
HAPPY ACCIDENTS
In 1684, a poor boy,
apprenticed to a weaver at his native village of
Wickwar, in Gloucestershire, in carrying, according to
custom on a certain day in the year, a dish called 'whitepot'
to the baker's, let it fall and broke it, and fearing
to face his mistress, ran away to London, where he
prospered, and, remembering his native village,
founded the schools there which bear his name. At
Monmouth, tradition relates that one William Jones
left that place to become a shopboy to a London
merchant, in the time of James I, and, by his good
conduct, rose first to the counting-house, and then to
a partnership in the concern: and having realized a
large fortune, came back in the disguise of is pauper,
first to his native place, Newland, in
Gloucestershire, from whence, having been ill received
there, he betook himself to Monmouth, and meeting with
kindness among his old friends, he bestowed �9,000 in
founding a free grammar-school.
February 21st
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