Rookwood Part 78

[8] See Du-Val's life by Doctor Pope, or Leigh Hunt's brilliant sketch of him in _The Indicator_.

[9] We cannot say much in favor of this worthy, whose name was Thomas Simpson. The reason of his _sobriquet_ does not appear. He was not particularly scrupulous as to his mode of appropriation. One of his sayings is, however, on record. He told a widow whom he robbed, "that the end of a woman's husband begins in tears, but the end of her tears is another husband." "Upon which," says his chronicler, "the gentlewoman gave him about fifty guineas."

[10] Tom was a sprightly fellow, and carried his sprightliness to the gallows; for just before he was turned off he kicked Mr. Smith, the ordinary, and the hangman out of the cart--a piece of pleasantry which created, as may be supposed, no small sensation.

[11] Many agreeable stories are related of Holloway. His career, however, closed with a murder. He contrived to break out of Newgate but returned to witness the trial of one of his a.s.sociates; when, upon the attempt of a turnkey, one Richard Spurling, to seize him, Will knocked him on the head in the presence of the whole court. For this offence he suffered the extreme penalty of the law in 1712.

[12] Wicks's adventures with Madame Toly are highly diverting. It was this hero--not Turpin, as has been erroneously stated--who stopped the celebrated Lord Mohun. Of Gettings and Grey, and "the five or six," the less said the better.

[13] One of Jack's recorded _mots_. When a Bible was pressed upon his acceptance by Mr. Wagstaff, the chaplain, Jack refused it, saying, "that in his situation one file would be worth all the Bibles in the world." A gentleman who visited Newgate asked him to dinner; Sheppard replied, "that he would take an early opportunity of waiting upon him." And we believe he kept his word.

[14] The word Tory, as here applied, must not be confounded with the term of party distinction now in general use in the political world. It simply means a thief on a grand scale, something more than "a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles," or petty-larceny rascal. We have cla.s.sical authority for this:--TORY: "An advocate for absolute monarchy; _also, an Irish vagabond, robber, or rapparee_."--GROSE'S _Dictionary_.

[15] A trio of famous High-Tobygloaks. Swiftneck was a captain of _Irish_ dragoons, by-the-bye.

[16] REDMOND O'HANLON was the Rob Roy of Ireland, and his adventures, many of which are exceedingly curious, would furnish as rich _materials_ for the novelist, as they have already done for the ballad-mongers: some of them are, however, sufficiently well narrated in a pleasant little tome, published at Belfast, ent.i.tled _The History of the Rapparees_. We are also in possession of a funeral discourse, preached at the obsequies of the "n.o.ble and renowned" Henry St. John, Esq., who was unfortunately killed by the _Tories_--the _Destructives_ of those days--in the induction to which we find some allusion to Redmond. After describing the thriving condition of the north of Ireland, about 1680, the Rev.

Lawrence Power, the author of the sermon, says, "One mischief there was, which indeed in a great measure destroyed all, and that was a pack of insolent b.l.o.o.d.y outlaws, whom they here call _Tories_. These had so riveted themselves in these parts, that by the interest they had among the natives, and some English, too, _to their shame be it spoken_, they exercise a kind of separate sovereignty in three or four counties in the north of Ireland. REDMOND O'HANLON is their chief, and has been these many years; a cunning, dangerous fellow, who, though proclaimed an outlaw with the rest of his crew, and sums of money set upon their heads, yet he reigns still, and keeps all in subjection, so far that 'tis credibly reported _he raises more in a year by contributions a-la-mode de France than the king's land taxes and chimney-money come to, and thereby is enabled to bribe clerks and officers_, IF NOT THEIR MASTERS, (!) _and makes all too much truckle to him_." Agitation, it seems, was not confined to our own days--but the "finest country in the world" has been, and ever will be, the same. The old game is played under a new color--the only difference being, that had Redmond lived in our time, he would, in all probability, not only have pillaged a county, but _represented_ it in parliament. The spirit of the Rapparee is still abroad--though we fear there is little of the _Tory_ left about it. We recommend this note to the serious consideration of the declaimers against the sufferings of the "six millions."

[17] Here t.i.tus was slightly in error. He mistook the cause for the effect. "They were called Rapparees," Mr. Malone says, "from being armed with a half-pike, called by the Irish a _rapparee_."--TODD'S JOHNSON.

[18] _Tory_, so called from the Irish word _Toree_, give me your money.--TODD'S JOHNSON.

[19] As he was carried to the gallows, Jack played a fine tune of his own composing on the bagpipe, which retains the name of Macpherson's tune to this day.--_History of the Rapparees_.

[20] "Notwithstanding he was so great a rogue, Delany was a handsome, portly man, extremely diverting in company, and could behave himself before gentlemen very agreeably. _He had a political genius_--not altogether surprising in so eminent a _Tory_--and would have made great proficiency in learning if he had rightly applied his time. He composed several songs, and put tunes to them; and by his skill in music gained the favor of some of the leading musicians in the country, who endeavored to get him reprieved."--_History of the Rapparees_. The particulars of the _Songster's_ execution are singular:--"When he was brought into court to receive sentence of death, the judge told him that he was informed he should say 'that there was not a rope in Ireland sufficient to hang him. But,' says he, 'I'll try if Kilkenny can't afford one strong enough to do your business; and if that will not do, you shall have another, and another.' Then he ordered the sheriff to choose a rope, and Delany was ordered for execution the next day. The sheriff having notice of his mother's boasting that no rope could hang her son--and pursuant to the judge's desire--provided two ropes, but Delany broke them one after the other! The sheriff was then in a rage, and went for three bed-cords, which he plaited threefold together, _and they did his business_! Yet the sheriff was afraid he was not dead; and in a pa.s.sion, to make trial, stabbed him with his sword in the soles of his feet, and at last cut the rope. After he was cut down, his body was carried into the courthouse, where it remained in the coffin for two days, standing up, till the judge and all the spectators were fully satisfied that he was stiff and dead, and then permission was given to his friends to remove the corpse and bury it."-_History of the Rapparees_.

[21] Highwaymen, as contradistinguished from footpads.

[22] Since Mr. Coates here avows himself the writer of this diatribe against Sir Robert Walpole, attacked under the guise of _Turpin_ in the _Common Sense_ of July 30, 1737, it is useless to inquire further into its authors.h.i.+p. And it remains only to refer the reader to the _Gents.

Mag._, vol. vii. p. 438, for the article above quoted; and for a reply to it from the _Daily Gazetteer_ contained in p. 499 of the same volume.

[23] In reference to this imaginary charm, Sir Thomas Browne observes, in his "Vulgar Errors." "What natural effects can reasonably be expected, when, to prevent the Ephialtes, or Nightmare, we hang a hollow stone in our stables?" Grose also states, "that a stone with a hole in it, hung at the bed's head, will prevent the nightmare, and is therefore called a hag-stone." The belief in this charm still lingers in some districts, and maintains, like the horse-shoe affixed to the barn-door, a feeble stand against the superst.i.tion-destroying "march of intellect."

[24] Brown's Pastorals.

[25] The Merry Beggars.

[26] The parties to be wedded find out a dead horse, or any other beast, and standing one on the one side, and the other on the other, the patrico bids them live together till death do them part; and so shaking hands, the wedding dinner is kept at the next alehouse they stumble into, where the union is nothing but knocking of cannes, and the sauce, none but drunken brawles.--DEKKAR.

[27] Receiver.

[28] Memoirs, of the right villainous John Hall, the famous, and notorious Robber, penned from his Mouth some Time before his Death, 1708.

[29] A famous highwayman.

[30] A real gentleman.

[31] Breeches and boots.

[32] Gipsy flask.

[33] How he exposes his pistols.

[34] For an account of these, see Grose. They are much too _gross_ to be set down here.

[35] "The shalm, or shawm, was a wind instrument, like a pipe, with a swelling protuberance in the middle."--_Earl of Northumberland's Household Book_.

[36] Perhaps the most whimsical laws that were ever prescribed to a gang of thieves were those framed by William Holliday, one of the prigging community, who was hanged in 1695:

Art. I. directs--That none of his company should presume to wear s.h.i.+rts, upon pain of being cas.h.i.+ered.

II.--That none should lie in any other places than stables, empty houses, or other bulks.

III.--That they should eat nothing but what they begged, and that they should give away all the money they got by cleaning boots among one another, for the good of the fraternity.

IV.--That they should neither learn to read nor write, that he may have them the better under command.

V.--That they should appear every morning by nine, on the parade, to receive necessary orders.

VI.--That none should presume to follow the scent but such as he ordered on that party.

VII.--That if any one gave them shoes or stockings, they should convert them into money to play.

VIII.--That they should steal nothing they could not come at, for fear of bringing a scandal upon the company.

IX.--That they should cant better than the Newgate birds, pick pockets without bungling, outlie a Quaker, outswear a lord at a gaming-table, and brazen out all their villainies beyond an Irishman.

[37] Cell.

[38] Newgate.

[39] A woman whose husband has been hanged.

[40] A dancing-master.

[41] "Nothing, comrades; on, on," supposed to be addressed by a thief to his confederates.

[42] Thus Victor Hugo, in "Le Dernier Jour d'un Cond.a.m.ne," makes an imprisoned felon sing:

"J'le ferai danser une danse Ou il n'y a pas de plancher."

[43] Thieves in prison.

[44] Shoplifter.

[45] Pickpocket.

[46] Handkerchiefs.