Chapter VIII (3)

"You may remember there was a paper published predicting my
death on the 29th of March at night, 1708, and after that day
was passed the same villain told the world I was dead, and how
I died, and that he was with me at the time of my death. I
thank God, by whose mercy I have my being, that I am still
alive, and, excepting my age, as well as ever I was in my life,
as I was on that 29th of March. And that paper was said to be
done by one Bickerstaff, Esq., but that was a sham name, it was
done by an impudent lying fellow. But his prediction did not
prove true. What will he say to excuse that? for the fool had
considered the star of my nativity, as he said. Why, the truth
is, he will be hard put to it to find a salvo for his honour.
It was a bold touch, and he did not know but it might prove
true.

"Feb. 1709. Much lying news dispersed about this time, and also
scandalous pamphlets; perhaps we may have some knavish
scribbler, a second Bickerstaff, or a rascal under that name
for that villain, &c. It is a cheat, and he a knave that did
it, &c.

"Whereas, it has been industriously given out by Bickerstaff,
Esq., and others, to prevent the sale of this year's almanack,
that John Partridge is dead; this may inform all his loving
countrymen, that, blessed be God, he is still living in health,
and they are knaves who reported otherwise. 'Merlinus
Liberatus, with an almanack [printed by allowance for 1710]. By
John Partridge, student in Physic and Astrology.'"

In James Street, towards the beginning of the last century, lived a mysterious lady, who will remind the reader of the Catholic lady in the "Fortunes of Nigel."

"In the month of March 1720," says Mr. Malcolm, "an unknown
lady died at her lodgings in James Street, Covent Garden. She
is represented to have been a middle-sized person, with
dark-brown hair, and very beautiful features, and mistress of
every accomplishment peculiar to ladies of the first fashion
and respectability. Her age appeared to be between thirty and
forty. Her circumstances were affluent, and she possessed the
richest trinkets of her sex, generally set with diamonds. A
John Ward, Esq., of Hackney, published many particulars
relating to her in the papers; and amongst others, that a
servant had been directed by her to deliver him a letter after
her death; but as no servant appeared, he felt himself required
to notice those circumstances, in order to acquaint her
relations of her decease, which occurred suddenly after a
masquerade, where she declared she had conversed with the King,
and it was remembered that she had been seen in the private
apartments of Queen Anne; though after the Queen's demise she
had lived in obscurity. This unknown arrived in London from
Mansfield, in 1714, drawn by six horses. She frequently said
that her father was a nobleman, but that, her elder brother
dying unmarried, the title was extinct; adding, that she had an
uncle then living, whose title was his least recommendation.

"It was conjectured that she might be the daughter of a Roman
Catholic, who had consigned her to a convent, whence a brother
had released her and supported her in privacy. She was buried
at St. Paul's, Covent Garden."[309]

Perhaps she had some connection with Queen Anne's brother, the Pretender.

In King Street lived the father of Arne and Mrs. Cibber. He was an upholsterer, and is said to have been the original of the Quid-nunc in the _Tatler_, and the hero of Murphy's farce of the _Upholsterer, or, What News?_ His name is connected also with that of the four "Indian Kings," as they were called, who came into this country in Queen Anne's time, to ask her assistance against the French in Canada.

"They were clothed and entertained," says a note in the
'Tatler', "at the public expense, being lodged, while they
continued in London, in an handsome apartment," perhaps in the
house of Mr. Arne, as may be inferred from 'Tatler,' 155, and
note. Certainly their landlord was an upholsterer in Covent
Garden, in a new street, which seems at that time to have
received the name of King Street, which it retains to this day,
in common with many other streets so called, in honour of
Charles II. The figures of these four Indian kings or chiefs
are still preserved in the British Museum. The names and titles
of their Majesties are recorded there and in the 'Annals of
Queen Anne,' but with the following differences from the
account of them in this paper: _Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Prow_, and
_Sa Ga Yean Qua Prah Ion_, of the _Maquas_;--_Elow Oh Kaom_,
and _Oh Nee Yeath Ion No Prow_, of the river _Sachem_, and the
_Ganajoh-hore Sachem_. On the 18th of April 1710, according to
Salmon, on the 19th according to Boyer, these four illustrious
personages were conveyed in two of the Queen's coaches to St.
James's, by Sir Charles Cotterel, master of the ceremonies, and
introduced to their public audience by the Duke of Shrewsbury,
then Lord Chamberlain. They made a speech by an interpreter,
which Major Pidgeon, an officer who came over with them from
America, read in English to her Majesty. "They had (they said)
with one consent hung up the kettle and taken up the hatchet,
in token of their friendship to their great queen and her
children, and had been, on the other side of the great water, a
strong wall of security to their great queen's children, even
to the loss of their best men. For the truth of what they
affirmed, and their written proposals, they referred to Colonel
Scuyder and Colonel Nicholson, whom they called, in their
language, Brother Queder, and Anadgargaux, and, speaking of
Colonel Vetch, they named him Anadiasia. They said they always
considered the French as men of falsehood, and rejoiced in the
prospect of the reduction of Canada; after which they should
have free hunting, and a great trade with their great queen's
children, and as a token of the sincerity of the six nations,
in the name of all, they presented their great queen with the
belts of wampum. They concluded their speech with recommending
their very hard case to their great queen's gracious
consideration, expressing their hopes of her favour, and
requesting the mission of more of her children to reinforce and
to instruct, for they had got, as they said, since their
alliance with her children, some knowledge of the Saviour of
the world. The curious may see this speech at full length in
the 'Annals of Queen Anne,' year 9th, p. 191, _et seq._, 8vo.
On the same day, according to Boyer, a royal messenger of the
Emperor of Morocco, Elhadge Guzman, was likewise introduced by
the Duke of Shrewsbury to a private audience, and delivered
letters to the Queen from Mula Ishmael, his master; the same
emperor, probably, who sent an ambassador to our court in 1706,
mentioned in the 'Tatler,' No. 130, and note, vol. iii., p. 44.
The Indian Kings continued about a fortnight longer in London,
during which time they were hospitably entertained by some of
the lords commissioners of the Admiralty, by the Duke of
Ormond, and several persons of distinction. They were carried
to see Dr. Flamstead's house and the mathematical instruments
in Greenwich Park, and entertained with the sight of the
principal curiosities in and about the metropolis; then
conveyed to Portsmouth through Hampton Court and Windsor, and
embarked with Colonel Frances Nicholson, commander-in-chief of
the forces appointed to the American service, on board the
Dragon, Captain Martin, Commodore, who, with about eighteen
sail under his convoy, sailed from Spithead on the 18th of May,
and landed their Majesties safe at Boston, in New England, July
15th, 1710."[310]

Their names are like a set of yawns and sneezes.

Young Arne, who was born in King Street, was a musician against his father's will, and practised in the garret, on a muffled spinnet, when the family had gone to bed. He was sent to Eton, which was probably of use to him in confirming his natural refinement, but nothing could hinder his devoting himself to the art. It is said the old man had no suspicion of his advancement in it, till, going to a concert one evening, he was astonished to see his son exalted, bow in hand, as the leader. Seeing the praises bestowed on him, he suffered him to become what nature designed him for. Arne was the most flowing, Italian-like musician of any we have had in England; not capable of the grandeur and profound style of Purcell, but more sustained, continuous, and seductive. His "Water parted" is a stream of sweetness; his song, "When Daisies pied" is truly Shaksperian, full of archness and originality. Like many of his profession, who feel much more than they reflect, he became, in some measure, the victim of his sense of beauty, being excessively addicted to women. His sister, Mrs. Cibber, whose charming performances on the stage we have before noticed, did not escape without the reputation of a like tendency; but she had a bad husband (the notorious Theophilus Cibber); and on the occasion that gave rise to it, is understood to have been the victim of his mercenary designs.

Southampton Street we have noticed in speaking of the Strand. Godfrey's, the chemist's, in this street, is an establishment of old standing, as may be seen by the inscription over the door. A hundred years ago, Mr. Ambrose Godfrey, who lived here, proposed to extinguish fire by a new method of "explosion and suffocation;" that is to say, a mixture of water and _gunpowder_. Tavistock Street (where Lord Sandwich first saw Miss Ray) was once the great emporium of millinery and mantua-making. Macklin died there. He lived many years in Wyld Street. In Maiden Lane, Voltaire lodged, when in England, at the sign of the White Peruke, probably the house of a fashionable French peruquier. In "Swift's Works" (vol. xx. of the duodecimo edition, p. 294), there is a letter to him, in English, by Voltaire, and dated from this house. The English seems a little too perfect. There is another following it which looks more authentic. But there is no doubt that Voltaire, while in England, made himself such a master of the language, as to be able to write in it with singular correctness for a foreigner. He was then young. He had been imprisoned in the Bastile for a libel; came over here, on his release; procured many subscriptions for the "Henriade;" published in English "An Essay on Epic Poetry," and remained some years, during which he became acquainted with the principal men of letters--Pope, Congreve, and Young. He is said to have talked so indecently at Pope's table (probably no more than was thought decent by the belles in France), that the good old lady, the poet's mother, was obliged to retire. Objecting, at Lord Chesterfield's table, to the allegories of Milton, Young is said to have accosted him in the well-known couplet:--

Thou art so witty, profligate, and thin,
Thou seem'st a Milton, with his Death and Sin.

But this story has been doubted. Young, though not so thin, was as witty and profligate in his way as Voltaire: for, even when affecting a hermit-like sense of religion, he was a servile flatterer and preferment-hunter. The secret of the gloomy tone in his "Night-Thoughts" was his not having too much, and his missing a bishopric. This is the reason why the "Night-Thoughts" are overdone, and have not stood their ground. Voltaire left England with such a mass of subscriptions for his "Henriade" as laid the foundation of his fortunes, and with great admiration of English talent and genius, particularly that of Newton and Locke, which, with all his insinuations against our poetry, he took warm pains to extend, and never gave up. He was fond to the last of showing he had not forgotten his English. Somebody telling him that Johnson had spoken well of his talents, he said, in English, "He is a clever fellow;" but the gentleman observing that the doctor did not think well of his religion, he added, "a superstitious dog."

During his residence in Maiden Lane, there is a story of Voltaire's having been beset, in one of his walks, by the people, who ridiculed him as a Frenchman. He got upon the steps of a door-way and harangued them in their own language in praise of English liberty and the nation; upon which, the story adds, they hailed him as a fine fellow, and carried him to his lodgings on their shoulders. The treatment of foreigners at this time in the streets of London (and every foreigner was a Frenchman) was very much the reverse of what the inhabitants took it for. Thanks to the progress of knowledge, nations have learnt to understand one another's common cause better, and to suspect that the most ridiculous thing they could do is to forget it.

Long Acre is a portion of the seven acres before mentioned. The great plague of London began there in some goods brought over from Holland; but as that calamity made its principal ravages in the city, we shall speak of it under another head. During the battles of the Whigs and Tories, Long Acre was famous for its Mug-houses, where beer-drinking clubs were held, and politics "sung or said." Cheapside was another place of celebrity for these meetings. There is a description of them in a Journey through England in 1724, quoted by Mr. Malcolm in his "Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century." "Gentlemen, lawyers, and tradesmen," says the account, "used to meet in a great room, seldom under a hundred."

"They had a president, who sat in an arm-chair some steps
higher than the rest of the company, to keep the whole room in
order. A harp played all the time at the lower end of the room,
and every now and then one or other of the company rose and
entertained the rest with a song, and (by the by) some were
good masters. Here was nothing drank but ale, and every
gentleman had his separate mug, which he chalked on the table
where he sat as it was brought in; and every one retired when
he pleased, as from a coffee-house.

"The rooms were always so diverted with songs, and drinking
from one table to another one another's healths, that there was
no room for anything that could sour conversation.

"One was obliged to be there by seven to get room, and after
ten the company were for the most part gone.

"This was a winter's amusement, agreeable enough to a stranger
for once or twice, and he was well diverted with the different
humours when the mugs overflow.

"On King George's accession to the throne, the Tories had so
much the better of the friends to the Protestant succession,
that they gained the mobs on all public days to their side.
This induced this set of gentlemen to establish mug-houses in
all the corners of this great city, for well-affected tradesmen
to meet and keep up the spirit of loyalty to the Protestant
succession, and to be ready upon all tumults to join their
forces for the suppression of the Tory mobs. Many an encounter
they had, and many were the riots, till at last the Parliament
was obliged by law to put an end to this city strife, which had
this good effect, that, on pulling down the mug-houses in
Salisbury Court, for which some boys were hanged on this Act,
the city has not been troubled with them since."[311]

One of the mistresses whom Prior celebrates, under the name of Chloe, and compares to Venus and Diana, lived in Long Acre, and was the wife, some say, of a common soldier, others of a cobbler, others of the keeper of an ale-house. Perhaps she was all these, or there were three mistresses whose alliances were confounded. Spence says that the ale-house keeper was the first husband, and the cobbler the second. "Everybody knows," says Pope, "what a wretch she was." And again:--"Prior was not a right good man. He used to bury himself, for whole days and nights together, with a poor mean creature, and often drank hard. He turned from a strong Whig (which he had been when most with Lord Halifax) to a violent Tory; and did not care to converse with any Whigs after, any more than Rowe did with Tories."[312] "I have been assured," says Pope's friend, Richardson, the painter, "that Prior, after having spent the evening with Oxford, Bolingbroke, Pope, and Swift, would go and smoke a pipe, and drink a bottle of ale, with a common soldier and his wife, in Long Acre, before he went to bed."[313] After the poet's death, Arbuthnot says something to the same effect; but we forget what.

None of the wits of that time seem to have known much about love as a sentiment. There is no end of the misconceptions of what is called love. Prior would probably have retorted upon Pope, that his own taste was not very delicate; and upon Arbuthnot, that the doctor was a sensualist in his way, and of a lower order.[314] He would have quoted Propertius, Raphael, and others, for the impartiality of his taste; and the woman, though in low life, might have had wit and beauty. The secret of these inequalities has been explained by Fielding.[315]

Sir Joshua Reynolds lived successively in St. Martin's Lane, and on the north side of Great Newport Street, before he settled finally in Leicester Square. In Newport Street was born the celebrated Horne Tooke, the son of a poulterer in the adjoining market; which made him say, that his father was a "Turkey merchant." He was, perhaps, the hardest-headed man that ever figured in the union of literature and politics; meaning, by that epithet, the power to discuss, and impenetrability to objection. He died at his house at Wimbledon, and was buried at Ealing. His history trenches too closely on the politics of our own day, to allow us to expatiate upon it in a work expressly devoted to the past.

St. Martin's Lane (see Charing Cross, for a notice of the church,) was once as famous for artists as Newman Street has been since. In Salisbury Court and in St. Martin's Lane the Royal Academy may be said to have originated, for in those places successively its original members first came together as a society established by themselves. Perhaps there was not a single artist, contemporary with Sir Joshua, who was unconnected with St. Martin's Lane, either as a lodger, student, or visitor. Old Slaughter's coffee-house, in the same lane, became celebrated on the same account, and as a resort of the contemporary wits, especially Hogarth, who may be said to have amalgamated in his works the wit and the painter. St. Martin's Lane and Leicester Square are the head-quarters of the memory of English art. In the annals of the former we meet with the names of Wilson and Gainsborough: in the latter flourished and died Hogarth and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Sir Joshua's house in Leicester Square was on the eastern side, four doors from Sydney's Alley.[316] It was there he kept a handsome table, and was visited by Johnson and Goldsmith, and had the whole round of the fashionable world fluttering before him, and steadying itself to become immortal in his pictures: if, indeed, immortal they are to be, in the ordinary meaning of that word; for, out of certain misgivings, which perhaps argued a want of perfect claim to that destiny, he dabbled in experiments upon colours which have failed; and his pictures, though but of yesterday, already look old and worn out, while Titian's are as blooming as Apollo.

Hogarth, the greatest name in English art, lived in one of the two houses which now form Sabloniere's hotel. It was the one to the north. He was a little bustling man, with a face more lively than refined, a sort of knowing jockey look; and was irritable and egotistical, but not ungenerous. As a painter, he did what no man ever did before or since--brought out the absurdities of artificial life,

"Showed vice her own features, scorn her own image,"

and fairly painted even goods and chattels with a meaning! His intentions were less profound than his impulses; that is to say, he sometimes had an avowed common-place in view, as in the instance of the Industrious and Idle Apprentice, while the execution of it was full of much higher things and profounder humanities. As to the rest, if ever there was a wit on canvass, it was he. To take one instance alone, his spider's web over the poor's box is a union of remote ideas, coalescing but too perfectly.[317]

Leicester Square, formerly Leicester Fields, was not built upon till towards the restoration of Charles II. It took its name from a family mansion of the Sydneys, Earls of Leicester, which stood on the north side, on the site of the present houses and of Leicester Place.

"It was for a short time," says Pennant, "the residence of
Elizabeth, daughter of James I., the titular Queen of Bohemia,
who, on February 13th, 1661, here ended her unfortunate life.
It has been tenanted for a great number of years. It was
successively the pounting-place of princes. The late King
[George II.], when Prince of Wales, after he had quarrelled
with his father, lived here several years. His son Frederic
followed his example, succeeded him in his house, and in it
finished his days."

"Behind Leicester House," the same author informs us, "stood,
in 1658, the Military-yard, founded by Henry Prince of Wales,
the spirited son of our peaceful James. M. Faubert afterwards
kept here his academy for riding and other gentlemanlike
exercises, in the reign of Charles II., which, in later years,
was removed to Swallow Street, opposite the end of Conduit
Street. Part is retained for the purpose of a riding-house; the
rest is converted into a workhouse for the parish of St.
James's."[318]

But the glory of the neighbourhood of Leicester Fields is in St. Martin's Street, where the house is still remaining which was occupied by the great Newton.

FOOTNOTES:

[274] Scott's 'Dryden,' vol. viii., p. 178.

[275] In the prologue to Etherege's play of the 'Man of Mode.' Scott's 'Dryden,' vol. x., p. 340.

[276] Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii., p. 317.

[277] Cibber's 'Lives of the Poets' vol. iii., p. 252.

[278] Works of Dryden, vol. i., p. 387. Sir Walter thus notices a letter of Tonson's on the subject of Dryden's contribution to one of the volumes known under the title of his Miscellanies:--"The contribution, although ample, was not satisfactory to old Jacob Tonson, who wrote on the subject a most mercantile expostulatory letter to Dryden, which is fortunately still preserved, as a curious specimen of the minutiæ of a literary bargain in the seventeenth century. Tonson, with reference to Dryden, having offered a strange bookseller six hundred lines for twenty guineas, enters into a question in the rule of three, by which he discovers and proves, that for fifty guineas he has only 1,446 lines, which he seems to take more unkindly, as he had not counted the lines until he had paid the money; from all which Jacob infers, that Dryden ought, out of generosity, at least to throw him in something to the bargain, especially as he had used him more kindly in Juvenal, which, saith old Jacob, is not reckoned so easy to translate as Ovid."--Vol. i., p. 379.

[279] Dryden, vol. i., p. 114.

[280] Dryden, vol. i., p. 203.

[281] Poems on State Affairs, vol. i., p. 99.

[282] Spence's 'Anecdotes,' p. 263.

[283] Spence's 'Anecdotes,' p. 59.

[284] Vol. xv., p. 218.

[285] Spence, p. 263.

[286] Ibid., p. 286.

[287] Boswell, vol. i., p. 373.

[288] Boswell, vol. iii., p. 378.

[289] It is still so called by many of the poorer orders, who are oftener in the right in their old English than is suspected. Some of them call it Common Garden, which is a better corruption than its present one.

[290] Londinium Redivivum, vol. iv., p. 213.

[291] Londinium Redivivum, vol. iv., p. 219.

[292] Memoirs of Mrs. Letitia Pilkington. Dublin, 1748, vol. i., p. 136.

[293] Hazlitt's 'Picture Galleries of England,' p. 80.

[294] The best account we are acquainted with of the various Beef-steak Clubs has been given us by the good-humoured author of 'Wine and Walnuts.' His book is an antiquarian fiction, but not entirely such; and the present account, among others, may be taken as fact. George Lambert, Rich's scene-painter at Covent Garden, says he, "being a man of wit, and of repute as an artist, was frequently visited by persons of note while at his work in the scene-room. In those days it was customary for men of fashion to visit the green-room, and to indulge in a morning lounge behind the curtain of the theatre. Lambert, when preparing his designs for a pantomine or new spectacle (for which exhibitions the manager, Rich, was much renowned), would often take his chop or steak cooked on the German stove, rather than quit his occupation for the superior accommodation of a neighbouring tavern. Certain of his visitors, men of taste, struck with the novelty of the thing perhaps, or tempted by the savoury dish, took a knife and fork with Lambert, and enjoyed the treat. Hence the origin of the Beef-steak Club, whose social feasts were long held in the painting-room of this theatre, which, from its commencement, has enrolled among its members persons of the highest rank and fortune, and many eminent professional men and distinguished wits. The Club subsequently met in an apartment of the late theatre; then it moved to the Shakspeare Tavern; thence again to the theatre; until, being burnt out in 1812, the meetings adjourned to the Bedford. At present the celebrated convives assemble at an apartment at the English Opera House in the Strand.

"At the same time this social club flourished in England, and about the year 1749, a Beef-steak Club was established at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, of which the celebrated Mrs. Margaret Woffington was president. It was begun by Mr. Sheridan, but on a very different plan to that in London, no theatrical performer, save one _female_, being admitted; and though called a Club, the manager alone bore all the expenses. The plan was, by making a list of about fifty or sixty persons, chiefly noblemen and members of Parliament, who were invited. Usually about half that number attended, and dined in the manager's apartment in the theatre. There was no female admitted but this _Peg Woffington_, so denominated by all her contemporaries, who was seated in a great chair at the head of the table, and elected president for the season.

"'It will readily be believed,' says Mr. Victor, who was joint proprietor of the house, 'that a club where there were good accommodations, such a _lovely president_, full of wit and spirit, and _nothing to pay_, must soon grow remarkably fashionable.' It did so--but we find it subsequently caused the theatre to be pulled to pieces about the manager's head.

"Mr. Victor says of Mrs. Margaret, 'she possessed captivating charms as a jovial, witty bottle companion, but few remaining as a mere female.' We have Dr. Johnson's testimony, however, who had often gossipped with Mrs. Margaret in the green-room at old Drury, more in the lady's favour.

"This author (Victor) says, speaking of the Beef-steak Club, 'It was a club of ancient institution in every theatre; when the principal performers dined one day in the week together (generally Saturday), and authors and other geniuses were admitted members.'

"The _club_ in Ivy Lane, celebrated by Dr. Johnson, was originally a _Beef-steak_."

[295] From a paper of Steele's in the 'Spectator,' No. 468.

[296] Memoirs of the Life of Charles Macklin, Esq., &c., by James Thomas Kirkman, vol. ii., p. 419.

[297] Memoirs of the Life of Charles Macklin, Esq., by James Thomas Kirkman, vol. ii., p. 416.

[298] A few days after writing this passage, we saw the shrubs making their appearance.

[299] Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs, by J. Cradock, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., vol. i., p. 117.

[300] Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs, by J. Cradock, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., vol. iv., p. 166.

[301] Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs, by J. Cradock, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., vol. i., p. 143.

[302] Cradock, as above, p. 144.

[303] Love and Madness, a Story too True, in a series of Letters, &c. 1822, p. 11.

[304] Cradock's Memoirs, vol. iv., p. 166.

[305] Boswell, vol. iii., p. 414.

[306] Cradock's Memoirs, vol. i., p. 146.

[307] Cradock's Memoirs, vol. iv., p. 166.

[308] Account of John Partridge, in the Appendix to the Tatler, vol. iv., p. 613.

[309] Anecdotes, Manners, and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., p. 407.

[310] Tatler, _ut supra_, vol. iii., p. 397.

[311] Anecdotes, Manners, &c. _ut supra_, vol. iii., p. 239.

[312] Spence, _ut supra_, pp. 2, and 49.

[313] Johnson's Life of Prior.

[314] Arbuthnot was a lover of the table, and is understood to have embittered his end by it; a charge which has been brought against Pope. Perhaps there is not one that might be brought with more safety against ninety men out of a hundred.

[315] Journey to the Next World.

[316] The house was probably on the site now occupied by the south-east corner of New Coventry Street.

[317] For masterly criticisms on Hogarth, see the "Works of Charles Lamb," vol. ii., p. 88, and the "Picture Galleries of England," p. 181.

[318] Pennant, p. 120.