The Town Part 18

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXETER CHANGE.]

Pa.s.sing one day by Exeter Change, we beheld a sight strange enough to witness in a great thoroughfare--a fine horse startled, and pawing the ground, at the roar of lions and tigers. It was at the time, we suppose, when the beasts were being fed.

FOOTNOTES:

[127] Gay's Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, book ii.

[128] Pennant, _ut supra_, p. 139.

[129] Londinium Redivivum, vol. iii., p. 397.

[130] Biographia Dramatica, from Oldys's MS. Notes on Langbaine.

[131] Censura Literaria, vol. i., p. 176.

[132] State Poems, vol. ii., p. 143,

[133] Boswell, vol. i., p. 383.

[134] Boswell, vol. iii., p. 331.

[135] Dugdale's Antiquities of Westminster. Heraldic MS. in the Museum, quoted in Londinium Redivivum (vol. ii., p. 282). Brydges's Collins's Peerage. Belsham's Life of Lindsey. We have been thus minute in tracing the occupancies of this house, from the interest excited by some of the members connected with it. Pennant says, upon the authority of the Sydney Papers, that Leicester bequeathed it to his son-in-law, which appears probable, since the latter possessed it.

Perhaps the herald was confused by the name of Robert, which belonged both to son and son-in-law.

[136] Howell's State Trials, vol. i., p. 1343.

[137] Todd's edit. of Spenser, vol. i., p. cxli.

[138] G.o.dwin's History or the Commonwealth, vol. i., p. 410.

[139] Boswell, vol. iv., p. 276.

[140] Trivia; or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, book iii.

Of a similar, and more perplexing facetiousness was the trick of extracting wigs out of hackney coaches. "The thieves," says the _Weekly Journal_ (March 30, 1717), "have got such a villanous way now of robbing gentlemen, that they cut holes through the backs of hackney coaches, and take away their wigs, or fine head-dresses of gentlewomen; so a gentleman was served last Sunday in Tooley Street, and another but last Tuesday in Fenchurch Street; wherefore this may serve as a caution to gentlemen and gentlewomen that ride single in the night-time, to sit on the fore-seat, which will prevent that way of robbing."--Malcolm's Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century, second edit., vol. i., p. 104.

[141] Londinium Redivivum, vol. ii.

[142] Second Part of Henry IV. act 3. sc. 2.

[143] Birch's Negotiations, pp. 206, 207, quoted in the work above mentioned, p. 189. Whenever we quote from any authorities but the original, we beg the reader to bear in mind, first, that we always notice our having done so; and, secondly, that we make a point of comparing the originals with the report. Both Monmouth and Birch, for example, have been consulted in the present instance.

[144] We allude to the celebrated saying of Gibbon respecting the Fairy Queen.

[145] In his Letters on the English Nation. But we quote from memory.

[146] We conclude so from our authorities in both instances. Mr.

Malcolm's Londinium Redivivum, vol. iii., p. 398.

[147] See his life in Chalmers's General Biographical Dictionary, vol.

v., p. 280.

[148] General Biographical Dictionary, 8vo., 1812, vol. vii.

[149] Letters on the English Nation.

[150] Life, in Chalmers's English Poets, p. 26.

[151] Spence's Anecdotes, p. 376.

[152] Idem, p. 46.

[153] Memoirs of the Life, Writings, &c., of William Congreve, Esq., 1730, p. xi. Curll discreetly omits his name in the t.i.tlepage. [On reconsidering this interview (though we have no longer the book by us, and therefore speak from memory) we are doubtful, whether the lady was not Mrs. Bracegirdle, instead of the d.u.c.h.ess.]

[154] Lives of the Poets, &c., by Mr. Cibber and others, 1753.

[155] Pennant's London, _ut supra_, p. 124. Swift's Letters to Stella.

The particulars of the case are taken from Howell's State Trials. vol.

xii., p. 947.

[156] "Captain Baily, said to have accompanied Raleigh in his last expedition to Guiana, employed four hackney coaches, with drivers in liveries, to ply at the May-pole in the Strand, fixing his own rates, about the year 1634. Baily's coaches seem to have been the first of what are now called hackney-coaches; a term at that time applied indiscriminately to all coaches let for hire." The favourite Buckingham, about the year 1619, introduced the sedan. The post-chaise, invented in France, was introduced by Mr. Tull, son of the well-known writer on husbandry. The stage first came in about the year 1775; and mail-coaches appeared in 1785.--See a note to the _Tatler_, as above, vol. iv., p. 415.

[157] This was written in 1834.

[158] The faults of the New Church are, that it is too small for the steeple; that it is divided into two stories, which make it still smaller; that the entablature on the north and south parts is too frequently interrupted; that pediments are "affectedly put over each projection;" in a word, that a little object is cut up into too many little parts, and rendered fantastic with embellishment. See the opinions of Gwynn, Ralph, and Malton, quoted in Brayley's London and Middles.e.x, vol. iv., p. 199.

[159] Life of James I. quoted in Pennant, p. 155.

[160] L'Estrange's Life of Charles I., quoted in D'Israeli's Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I., vol. ii., p. 218.

[161] L'Estrange's Life of Charles I.

[162] Steenie--a familiarisation of Stephen. The name was given Buckingham by James I., in reference to the beauty of St. Stephen, whose face, during his martyrdom, is described in the New Testament as s.h.i.+ning like that of an angel.

[163] See the account of the Paradise of Glory, in vol. ii., p. 225.

[164] Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq., 2nd edition, vol. i., p. 309.

[165] Id., p. 357.

[166] Lives and Letters, as above.

[167] See three Poems in his Genuine Remains.--_Chalmers's British Poets_, vol. viii., p. 187.

[168] British Poets, vol. vii., p. 101.

[169] Londinium Redivivum, vol. iv., p. 410.

[170] Gentleman's Magazine for 1793, p. 88.