The Town Part 38

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

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

[292] Memoirs of Mrs. Let.i.tia 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 fas.h.i.+on 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 a.s.semble 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 n.o.blemen 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 fas.h.i.+onable.' 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 inst.i.tution in every theatre; when the princ.i.p.al performers dined one day in the week together (generally Sat.u.r.day), 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 pa.s.sage, 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.

CHAPTER IX.

CHARING CROSS AND WHITEHALL.

Old Charing Cross, and New St. Martin's Church -- Statue of Charles I. -- Execution of Regicides -- Ben Jonson -- Wallingford House, now the Admiralty -- Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; Sir Walter Scott's Account of him -- Misrepresentation of Pope respecting his Death -- Charles's Horse a Satirist -- Locket's Ordinary -- Sir George Etherege.

-- Prior and his Uncle's Tavern -- Thomson -- Spring Gardens -- Mrs. Centlivre -- Dorset Place, and Whitcombe Street, &c., formerly Hedge Lane -- The Wits and the Bailiffs -- Suffolk Street -- Swift and Miss Vanhomrigh -- Calves' Head Club, and the Riot it occasioned -- Scotland Yard -- Pleasant Advertis.e.m.e.nt -- Beau Fielding, and his Eccentricities -- Vanbrugh -- Desperate Adventure of Lord Herbert of Cherbury.

In the reign of Edward I., on the country road from London to Westminster, stood the hamlet of Charing; a rustic spot, containing a few houses, and the last cross set up by that Prince in honour of the resting-places of his wife's body on its way to interment in the Abbey. The Cross was originally of wood, but afterwards of stone. The reader may see it in the old map of London by Aggas. He will there observe, that towards the beginning of Elizabeth's, reign Charing Cross was united with London on the Strand side, and at little intervals with Whitehall; but Spring Gardens was then and long after what its name implies; and, in the reign of Charles II., Hedge Lane (now Whitcomb Street) and the Haymarket were still real lanes and pa.s.sages into the fields. In Elizabeth's time, you might set out from the site of the present Pall-mall, and, leaving St. Giles in the Fields on the right hand, walk all the way to Hampstead without encountering perhaps a dwelling-place. Lovers plucked flowers in Cranbourne Alley, and took moonlight walks in St. James's market.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE VILLAGE OF CHARING FROM AGGAS'S MAP.]

On this spot, in Dr. Johnson's opinion, is to be found the fullest "tide of human existence" in the metropolis. We know not how that may be at present when the tide is so full everywhere; but Charing Cross has long been something the reverse of a rural village, and is now exhibiting one of the newest and grandest evidences of an improving metropolis. By way of north front, the Mews (formerly the mews of the King's falcons) has given way to a sorry palace for the Fine Arts; on the west is a handsome edifice including the new college of Physicians; on the east St. Martin's church has obtained its long desired opening: and in the midst of these buildings and of the Strand-end is a new square, named after the greatest of our naval victories, adorned with a column surmounted by their hero, and disgraced by a couple of shabby fountains. Here also is an equestrian statue of George the Fourth. What for?

"In the reign of Henry VIII.," says Pennant, speaking of St Martin's, "a small church was built here at the King's expense, by reason of the poverty of the paris.h.i.+oners, who possibly were at that period very poor. In 1607 it was enlarged because of the increase of buildings. In 1721 it was found necessary to take the whole down, and in five years from that time this magnificent temple was completed at the expense of near thirty-seven thousand pounds. This is the best performance of Gibbs, the architect of the Radcliffe Library. The steeple is far the most elegant of any of that style which I named the _pepper-box_; and with which (I beg pardon of the good people of Glasgow) I marked their boasted steeple of St. Andrew."[319]

Our lively biographer seems chiefly to admire the steeple of this church. The Corinthian portico, we believe, is the usual object of praise. Both of them may deserve praise separately; nor, indeed, will their size and situation allow them to be regarded with indifference in conjunction; but the elevation of the steeple on the neck of the church, or without any apparent or proper base to rest upon, is a fault not to be denied; and Mr. Pennant perhaps would not have been in the wrong, had he found an ill name for steeples in general, as well as for the species which he "peppered." Steeples, however n.o.ble, and porticoes, however Greek, can never truly coalesce. The finest steeple with a portico to it is but an excrescence and an anomaly, a horn growing out of the church's neck. The Italians felt this absurdity so much, that they have often made a separate building of the steeple, converting it into a beautiful tower aloof from the church, as in the instances of the famous Hanging Tower in Pisa, and the Campanile in Florence. Suppose a shaft like the Monument, in a s.p.a.ce near St.

Martin's church, and the church itself a proper building with a portico, like St. Paul's Covent Garden, and you have an improvement in the Italian style. The best thing to say for

---- sharped steeples high shot up in air

(as Spenser calls them) is, that they seem to be pointing to heaven, or running up into s.p.a.ce like an intimation of interminability. An idea of this kind is supposed to have given rise to them. But they always have a meagre, incongruous look, considered in their union with the body to which they are attached. Their best appearance is at a distance, and when they are numerous, as in the view of a great city; but even then, how inferior are they to the ma.s.sive dignity of such towers as those of Westminster Abbey, or to a dome like that of St.

Paul's!