Chapter X: Dignities, Trades, and Professions (4)

[455] This touting, or standing at the door inviting the passers by to enter, was at one time a universal practice with all kind of shops, both at home and abroad. The regular phrase used to be “What do ye lack? What do ye lack?” The French _dits_ and _fabliaux_ teem with allusions to this custom. In the story of “Courtois d’Arras,”--a travesty of the prodigal son, in a thirteenth century garb--Courtois finds the host standing at his door shouting, “Bon vin de Soissons à 6 deniers le lot.” And in a mediæval mystery, entitled “Li jus de S. Nicholas,” the innkeeper roars out, “Céans il fait bon diner, céans il y a pain chaud et harengs chauds et vin d’Auxerre à plein tonneau.” In “Les trois Aveugles de Compiegne,” mine host thus addresses the thirsty wanderers:--

“Ci a bon vin fres et nouvel,
Ça d’Ancoire, ça de Soissons
Pain et char et vin et poissons,
Céens fet bon despendre argent,
Ostel i a à toute gent,
Céens fet moult bon heberger.”

And in the “Debats et facétieuses rencontres de Gringalet et de Guillot Gorgen son maistre,” the servant who had taken advantage of the host’s invitation, excuses himself, saying, “Le tavernier a plus de tort que moy, car passant devant sa porte, et luy étant assiz, (ainsi qu’ils sont ordinairement), il me cria me disant: Vous plaist-il de dejeuner céans? Il y a de bon pain, de bon vin et de bonne viande.” This touting at tavern doors was still practised in the last century, as appears from the following passage in Tom Brown:--“We were jogging forward into the city, when our Indian cast his eyes upon one of his own complexion, at a certain coffee-house which has the _Sun_ staring its sign in the face, even at midnight, when the moon is queen regent of the planets, and, being willing to be acquainted with his countryman, gravely inquired what province or kingdom of India he belonged to; but the sooty dog could do nothing but grin, and show his teeth, and cry, _Coffee, sir, tea, will you please to walk in, sir; a fresh pot, upon my word_.”--TOM BROWN, vol iii., p. 17. Not only taverns but all sorts of shops kept these barking advertisements at the door. The ballad of “London Lyckpenny” enumerates a quantity of them. “What do you lack?” was the stereotype phrase. The “Buy, buy, what’ll you buy?” of the butchers, is one of the last remains in London of this custom. At Greenwich, the practice of touting at the doors of the small coffee-houses is still kept up; and throughout the United States and Canada the custom of waiting at steamboat wharves and railway termini, to catch passengers, and worry them with recommendations to this or that hotel, is unpleasantly prevalent. The touters there are known as hotel runners.

[456] “Wine one pint for a pennie, and bread to drink it _was_ given free in every tavern.”--Note by STOW. The imperfect tense shows that this excellent custom had already fallen into disuse in Stow’s time.

[457] Will Herbert, “History of the Twelve Great Living Companies,” vol. ii. p. 197.

[458] _Weekly Journal_, April 26, 1718.

[459] _Ibid._, July 12, 1718.

[460] Harl. MSS. 5910, part II.

[461] “Account of London,” p. 60, 1813.

[462] Pepys’s Memoirs, Sept 18, 1660.

[463] “London Spy,” 1706.

[464] Wilkinson’s “Londina Illustrata.”

[465] Boswell’s Life of Johnson, vol. i., p. 272.

[466] Erskine used to send somewhat similar cards of invitation when on the Bench, by drawing a turtle on a card, and sending it to a friend, with the day and hour.

[467] Maitland’s History of London, 1739, p. 647.

[468] “The Quack Vintners, or a Satyr against Bad Wine,” 1713; probably a pamphlet got up by the London vintners against Brook and Hilliers, the famous wine merchants recommended by the _Spectator_.

[469] Hatton’s New View of London, 1708, p. 32.

[470]

“Saint Dominic be always our friend,
Who sing thy praises daily in our pulpit,
From the veins of our hearts, after we have emptied our flagons;
Therefore if thou rejoicest to hear us set forth thy praise,
Make that in Easter time we of spring water
Need not drink, for if that were to happen, everywhere
They will be mute monks, who do not run about unless they be friars.”

[471]

“To drink like a Capuchin,
Is to drink poorly;
To drink like a Benedictine,
Is to drink deeply;
To drink like a Dominican,
Is pot after pot;
But to drink like a Franciscan,
Is to drink the cellar dry.”

[472]

“We are ten, all deep drinkers,
Jolly topers, and good smokers,
Who, never giving over drinking
And eating,
Scorn the favours of love.”

[473] The Plague, by De Foe.

[474] Beaufoy Trades Tokens.

[475] A proclamation of Queen Elizabeth restricted the length of the sword, rapier, and such like weapons to “one yard and half a quarter of the blade at the uttermost,” and the point of the buckler not above two inches in length, under the penalty of a “fine at the Queen’s pleasure, and the weapon to be forfayted, and if any such persons shall offend a second time, then the same to be banished from the place and towne of his dwelling.”

[476] Misson’s Travels, p. 307.

[477] Stow’s Chronicle, Thom’s edition, p. 83.

[478] Merry Jests of old Hobson the Londoner, 1611

[479] J. T. Smith’s Antiquarian Ramble in the Streets of London, edited by Charles Mackay, 1846.

[480] Nicolas’s Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton, p. 7.

[481] Ned Ward’s Frolic to Horn Fair, 1703.

[482] Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting, p. 132.

[483]

“Whoever outsails me under the lee,
shall have a dollar and drink scot-free.”

[484] Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches.

[485] _Intelligencer_, Jan. 27--Feb. 4, 1652.

[486] Unless it be another version of the Lamb and Anchor, see p. 300. Ship and Sheep, however, were formerly used promiscuously. Thus there is a token of William Eye “at the Sheep,” in Rye, 1652, representing a ship, whilst Decker, in Histrio-mastrix, 1602 says, “and this _ship_skin cap shall be put off.”

[487] Still in existence in Upper Fore Street, Lambeth.

[488] Thomas Allen’s History of Lambeth, 1827, p. 367.

[489] See Louisa Twining’s Symbols of Christian Art.

[490] See p. 228.

[491] Hone’s Every Day Book, vol. ii.

[492] Stowe’s Survey of London.

[493] _Daily Courant_, Dec. 17, 1718.

[494] See under HUMOROUS SIGNS.

[495] Hollinshed’s Chronicles, iv., p. 330.

[496] The whole history of this calligraphic contest, written by Bale himself, is preserved amongst the Harl. MSS., No. 675.

[497] “Twelve Sonatas in two parts; the first part solos for a violin, a bass violin, viol and harpsichord; the second Preludes, Almands, Corants, Sarabands and Jigs, with the Spanish Folly. Dedicated to the Electress of Brandenburgh by Archangelo Corelli; being his fifth and last _opera_, etc. Price 8 shillings, or each part single 5 shillings.”--_London Gazette_, August 26-29, 1700. The use of the word _opera_ here is somewhat peculiar.

[498] Hawkins’s History of Music, vol. ii., p. 107.

[499] _London Gazette_, December 30 to January 2, 1700.

[500]

“He came to an inn,
In the Rue de la Mortellerie,
Where the sign of the Pestle hangs out,
At which place there is good entertainment to be had.”

This poet-swindler, Villon, used to go about with a few friends, who robbed and cheated landlords, and obtained good dinners without paying for them, whence he called them “_Repues Franches_.” Too frequently he got off safe, but occasionally he would get a caning in the bargain to assist his digestion. These predatory dinners he has related in an _épopée_ which has come down to us.

[501] It is to be observed that these soap-basins are now always of _brass_, and also that on the continent their place is taken by a shallow brass basin to contain hot water--Don Quixote’s helmet of Mambrino, held under the chin of the person to be shaved, with a hollow space in the rim to fit the neck, and a cavity into which the soap is deposited during the operation.

[502] Vossius, “De Poematum Cantu et viribus Rythmi,” Oxford, 1673, p. 62. Isaac Vossius was an eccentric Dutchman, who died a canon of Windsor in 1689. In the above treatise on rhythm he says:--“I remember that more than once I have fallen into the hands of men of this sort who could imitate any measure of song in combing the hair, so as sometimes to express very intelligibly iambics, trochees, dactyls, &c., from whence there arose to me no small delight.”

[503]

“_Note_--Of gin and bitters, all for a penny ½d.
Come in, Jolly Tars, and be scraped across the line.”

[504] “People made younger here,” alluding to the youthful appearance of a man without a beard.

[505]

“Nature gives beard and hair,
And I cut them both.”

or--

“I devote my razors to all faces,
And can stand the test of the truest looking-glasses.”

[506] Tavern Anecdotes, 1825.

[507] Remarkable Trials, vol. ii., p. 14. 1765.

[508] Stow. p. 128.

[509] The court before which persons aggrieved in the Fair might have a “speedy relief.”

[510] H. Morley, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, p. 237. See also Hone’s Every-day Book, Sept. 5, vol. i.

[511] Boswell’s Life of Johnson, vol. ii., p. 63.

[512] Formerly a dangerous pond in Old Street Road, in which a number of people were drowned, whence it obtained its name of _perilous Pond_. In 1713 it was walled in by one Kemp, who on that occasion altered its name into Peerless Pool, by a similar process as the Pontus αξενος, inhospitable, was called ευξεινος, hospitable, by the Greeks.

[513]

“Tobacco is a noble weed, as many can testify.
Numbers of people who were long since weaned begin to suck again.”

[514]

“Here at the Milkmaid of Gouda
You will receive good articles and civil treatment,
Here you may smoke at your ease
Tip-top Varinas and Virginia tobacco.”

[515]

“Dainty noses, noble masters,
Who, by the jingling of the glasses,
Are prepared for a ’smoke;’
If you look for the finest growth,
The best Varinas? Come then at once
To the Walloon Milkmaid,” &c.

[516] Pierce Pennyless, Supplication to the Devil, 1593.

[517] These remains are engraved in Archer’s Vestiges of Old London.

[518] _Gentleman’s Magazine_, March 1842.

[519] A row of booths on the ice opposite the Temple.

[520] Randle Holme, book iii, ch. viii., p. 345.

[521] Dr Johnson’s explanation that they received their name from the town of Sedan, whence they were introduced into England, is evidently a mistake--for the French copied them from us. See Tallemant des Réaux, “Contes et Historiettes,” vol. vii., p. 102.

[522] Coach and Sedan pleasantly disputing for Place and Precedence. 4to, 1636.

[523] Roxburghe Ballads, vol. i., fol. 546, entitled “The Coaches Overthrow, or a joviall Exaltation of divers tradesmen and others for the suppression of troublesome Hackney Coaches.”

[524] Decker’s English Villanies, 1632.

[525] Brathwaite’s Strapado for the Diuell, 1615. Notes in Percy Society edition.

[526] Newspaper cutting of the year 1762, probably from the _London Register_.

[527] “--heard groans from every side, but saw nobody who uttered them.”

[528] Junius’ Etymologia: “For those that take part in these games, besmear their faces with soot and adopt outlandish garments, so that they may look like Moors, or as if they had come from distant countries, and thence had introduced this quaint amusement.”

[529] Nicholl’s Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i., p. 494.

[530] Harl. MSS., No. 2150, fol. 356.

[531] Harl. MSS., No. 5900.

[532] Roxburghe Ballads, vol. i., f. 375.

[533] Lewis’s History of Islington, p. 281.

[534] Ruckholt was a reputed mansion of Queen Elizabeth, at Leyton, in Essex. Being opened to the public in 1742, it became a fashionable summer drive during a couple of seasons; public breakfasts, weekly concerts, and occasional oratorios were numbered amongst its attractions. The house was pulled down in 1745. Old and New Sadler’s Wells relates to the well-known place in Islington, at that period a music house. Lord Cobham’s Head has been noticed on p. 97.

[535] Book iii., ch. iii., p. 181

[536] Book iii., ch. iii., p. 181.

[537] Canting Academy, second edition, 1674, as quoted in Malcolm’s “Manners and Customs,” vol. i., p. 322.

[538] Lansdowne MS., No. 231 “Remains of Judaisme and Gentilisme.”

[539] There is a very unfavourable parallel between the Ladies and Besses of Bedlam in the Muse’s Recreation, 1656, entitled:--“Upon the naked Bedlams and spotted Beasts we see in Covent Garden,” beginning:--

“When Besse! she ne’re was half so vainly clad,
Besse ne’re was half so _naked_, half so mad;
Again, this raves with lust, for love Besse ranted,
Then Besse’s skin is tanned--this is painted.”

[540] Advertisement in the original edition of the _Spectator_, No. clxxxvi.

[541] City Mercury, or Advertisements concerning Trade. November 4, 1675.

[542] _London Gazette_, May 30-June 3, 1681, where he gives a most dismal catalogue of what he could do.