FOOTNOTES

FOOTNOTES[1]Two other residences of Smith’s, less definitely associated with his books or etchings, are recorded. The first is No. 8 Popham Terrace, near the Barley Mow Tavern, in Frog Lane, Islington. His sojourn here is mentioned, without dates, by Lewis in hisHistory of Islington(1842). Frog Lane is now Popham Road, of which Popham Terrace appears to have been part. In 1809, Smith was living at No. 4 The Polygon, Somers Town.[2]Thomas Lowe had taken Marylebone Gardens in 1763, at a rent of £170. Fresh from his triumphs as a tenor at Vauxhall, he made concerts the principal entertainment. In 1768 he compounded with his creditors.[3]This theatre at Richmond was built two years before Smith’s birth, and was opened in May 1765, by Mr. Love, who spoke a prologue by Garrick. Love was the stage name of James Dance, who, as a son of George Dance, R.A., the City Architect, adopted it that he might not “disgrace his family,” a proceeding on which Genest comments: “Shall we never have done with this miserable cant? Foote, with much humour, makes Papillion say, inThe Lyar: ‘As to Player, whatever might happen to me, I was determined not to bring a disgrace upon my family; and so I resolved to turn footman.’”The Devil to Pay, by Charles Coffey, was adapted from a play by Jevon calledThe Devil of a Wife, first produced at Drury Lane in 1731, when Love played “Jobson” and Mrs. Love “Nell.”[4]“A convivial glass-grinder, then residing at No. 6, in Earl Street, Seven Dials, and who had, for upwards of fifty years, worn a green velvet cap,” is Smith’s note on his uncle. In hisNollekenshe says: “In the British Museum there is a brass medal of Vittore Pisano, a painter of Verona, executed by himself … his cap, which is an upright one with many folds, reminded me of that sort usually worn, when I was a boy, by the old glass-grinders of the Seven Dials.”[5]Dr. William Hunter (1718-83) was elder brother of the celebrated Dr. John Hunter, to whom in 1768 he gave up his house in Jermyn Street, taking possession of the one he had built for himself in Windmill Street. In 1764 he had been appointed Physician Extraordinary to the Queen. He became a foundation member of the Royal Academy, as Professor of Anatomy. It is related that half an hour before his death he exclaimed: “Had I a pen, and were I able to write, I would describe how easy and pleasant a thing it is to die.”[6]Now rebuilt as No. 38.[7]Strype’s edition of Stow, 1720, contains many such plates. John Kip, the engraver, was born in Amsterdam. He died at Westminster in 1722.[8]In the miscellaneous pages of hisNollekens, Smith reports Elizabeth Carter, of “Epictetus” fame, as saying to a Covent Garden fruiterer, named Twigg (jocularly known as the “Twig of the Garden”): “I recollect, Sir, when Mr. Garrick acted, hackney chairs were then so numerous that they stood all round the Piazzas, down Southampton Street, and extended more than half-way along Maiden Lane, so much were they in requisition at that time.”[9]Voltaire first came to London in May 1726, after his confinement in the Bastille, landing at Greenwich on a cloudless night. His first impressions of London are quoted by Mr. Archibald Ballantyne in his interestingVoltaire’s Visit to England. After being the guest of Bolingbroke, Voltaire returned to Paris in a state of indecision, but, again crossing the Channel, he settled at Wandsworth, where he found a friend and host in Sir Everard Falkener. He met Pope, and improved his English by attending the theatres. Chetwood says: “I furnished him every evening with the play of the night (at Drury Lane), which he took with him into the orchestra (his accustomed seat): in four or five months he not only conversed in elegant English, but wrote it with exact propriety.” Voltaire became a well-known figure in London, and wrote hisHenriadein his London lodging at the sign of the “White Peruke,” Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, next door to the Bedford Head.[10]Notes of Proceedings and Occurrences during the British Embassy to Pekin, 1816. Geo. Thos. Staunton, 1824. Printed for Private Circulation.[11]Pliny the Younger, in writing to his friend, Baebius Macer, on the habits and life of his uncle, C. Plinius Secundus (Pliny the elder), says: “A shorthand writer constantly attended him, … who, in the winter, wore a particular sort of warm gloves, that the sharpness of the weather might not occasion any interruption to my uncle’s studies; and for the same reason, when in Rome, he was always carried in a chair. I recollect his once taking me to task for walking. ‘You need not,’ he said, ‘lose these hours.’ For he thought every hour gone that was not given to study” (Letters of Pliny the Younger, bk. iii. letter 5, p. 82. Bohn’s Classical Library).[12]The Catalogue of this exhibition is entitled: “A Catalogue of the Paintings, Sculptures, Architecture, Models, Drawings, Engravings, etc., now exhibiting under the Patronage of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, at their Great Room in the Strand, London.” It credits Mr. Nathaniel Smith, St. Martin’s Lane, with the following:—210. A bust as large as life.211. A figure of Time, imitating a bronze.[13]Smith’s naval ancestor won his sobriquet, “Tom of Ten Thousand,” very easily. He had compelled the French corvetteGirondeto salute the British colours in Plymouth Sound, for which, on complaint, he was dismissed the navy for exceeding his instructions, but was shortly reinstated. The public believed that he had fired into theGirondeto compel its respect to our flag, and on this exaggerated report gave him the name “Tom of Ten Thousand.” Smith, who rose to high rank, but won no great personal distinction, presided over the court-martial which condemned Admiral Byng in 1757.It may be added that the name “Tom of Ten Thousand” has been borne by several men, notably by Thomas Thynne of Longleat, who was so called on account of his wealth. He was murdered in Pall Mall in February 1682, by three assassins hired by Count Königsmark. The murder is realistically portrayed on his tomb in the south aisle of Westminster Abbey. Another “Tom of Ten Thousand” was Thomas Hudson, a native of Leeds, who lost a large fortune in the South Sea Scheme, and, becoming insane, wandered the streets of London for years, leaning on a crutch.[14]These coincidences of residence seem to be overstated by Smith. It must have been after, not before, his visit to Italy, which he made in his 36th year, that Wilson took apartments in the Piazza on the north side of Covent Garden. He lived above the rooms of Cock, the auctioneer, who was followed by Langford, and later still by George Robins. Sir Peter Lely had lived in the same house from 1662 until his death in 1680, and here his collections were sold in 1667. Smith seems to be wrong about Kneller. This painter’s house had been on the east side of the Square, known as the Little Piazza. Its garden, stretching back to Bow Street, was the scene of the famous quarrel between Kneller and Dr. Ratcliffe. A tenant who did precede Wilson was Hogarth, who, though he did not reside at Cock’s, had exhibited here his “Mariage à la Mode” gratis, with a view to its sale.Wilson had a model made of a portion of the Piazza, which he used as a receptacle for his implements. The rustic work of the piers was provided with drawers, and the openings of the arches held pencils and oil bottles. An unbending devotion to his Italian manner of painting (he so Italianised a view of Kew Gardens that George the Third failed to recognise it) and a rough temper brought this fine painter to humbler dwellings in Charlotte Street, Great Queen Street, and Foley Place; finally, to a room in Tottenham Street. His fortunes were mended at the last by his appointment as Librarian to the Royal Academy, and his succession to a small estate in Wales on the death of his brother.[15]See a plate in theLady’s Magazineof 1870, in which Miss Catley wears such elbow ruffles in the character of Rosetta inLove in a Village.[16]The death of Molly Mogg was thus announced in theGentleman’s Magazine: “Mrs. Mary Mogg, at Oakingham: she was the person on whom Gay wrote the song of ‘Molly Mogg.’” This song was first printed inMist’s Weekly Journalof August 27, 1726, with a note stating that “it was writ by two or three men of wit (who have diverted the public both in prose and verse), upon the occasion of their lying at a certain inn at Ockingham, where the daughter of the house was remarkably pretty, and whose name is Molly Mogg.” These “men of wit” were supposed to have been Pope, Swift, and Gay, and it was believed that they had together concocted the song, but the weight of evidence is in favour of Gay’s sole authorship. There is, however, enough doubt to warrant one in holding to the pleasant tradition that the three poets, over their cups at the Rose Inn, made the song which began (original version):—“Says my Uncle, I pray you discoverWhat has been the cause of your woes,That you pine and you whine like a lover?I’ve seen Molly Mog of the Rose.Oh, Nephew! your grief is but folly,In town you may find better prog;Half a crown there will get you a Molly,A Molly much better than Mog.…The school boys delight in a play-day,The schoolmaster’s joy is to flog;The milk-maid’s delight is in May day,But mine is in sweet Molly Mog.”[17]Finch’s Grotto Garden stood on the site now occupied by the headquarters of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. It was opened—six years before John Thomas Smith was born—on the strength of a spring in the grounds which a Dr. Townshend was willing to declare medicinal. Concerts and fireworks were given with fair success, and here “Tommy” Lowe accepted engagements after his failure in the management of Marylebone Gardens. The tavern was burnt down in May 1795, and was replaced by another called the “Goldsmith’s Arms,” afterwards styled the “Old Grotto New Reviv’d.” This tavern bore the inscription—“Here Herbs did growAnd flowers sweet,But now ’tis call’dSaint George’s Street.”All that is known about Finch’s Grotto is told by Mr. Warwick Wroth in his admirableLondon Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century.[18]This famous aid to the teething of children was invented about the year 1717, when there appeared aPhilosophical Essay upon the Celebrated Anodyne Necklace, dedicated to Dr. Paul Chamberlen (who died in this year), and the Royal Society. This tract, quoted by Mr. J. Eliot Hodgkin inNotes and Queriesof Feb. 16, 1884, argues the advantages of the necklace as follows:—“For since the difficultCutting of Children’s Teethproceeds from the hard and strict Closure of theirGums; If you get Them but once separated and opened, theTeethwill of themselves Naturally come Forth; Now the Smooth Alcalious Atoms of theNecklace, by their insinuating figure and shape, do so make way for their Protrusion by gentlysofteningandopeningthe hard swelledGums, that theTeethwill of themselves without any difficulty or painCutand come out, as has been sufficiently proved.”Mr. Hodgkin describes the necklace as “of beads artificially prepared, small, like barley-corns,” costing five shillings. An early depôt was Garraway’s at the Royal Exchange Gate. In Smith’s day they were sold in Long Acre by Mr. Burchell at the sign of the Anodyne Necklace, and the price was still “5s. single,” with “an allowance by the dozen to sell again.” Burchell advertised: “After the Wearing of which about their Neck but One night, Children have immediately cut theirTeethwith Safety, who but just before were on the Brink of the Grave.”[19]According to Daulby’s numbering.[20]For some curious erudition on go-carts see Smith’sLife of Nollekens, where he says (1829 ed. i. 221): “When I was a boy, the go-cart was common in every toy-shop in London; but it was to be found in the greatest abundance in the once far-famed turners’ shop in Spinning-wheel Alley, Moorfields: a narrow passage leading from those fields to the spot upon which the original Bethlehem Hospital stood in Bishopsgate Street. In 1825-26, however, both Spinning-wheel Alley and Old Bethlehem were considerably altered and widened, and subsequently named Liverpool Street.”[21]Hone says: “The late King GeorgeIV. and his brothers and sisters, all the royal family of GeorgeIII., were rocked. The rocker was a female officer of the household, with a salary” (Every Day Book). Rocker cradles are to-day made in Ireland by villagers, and sold from door to door.[22]Two artists, father and son, bore the name of Israel von Meckenen. They flourished in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and appear to have collaborated on some 250 prints. The British Museum has a fine set of their engravings.[23]The stone inscribed “Here lies Nancy Dawson” no longer exists. M. Dorsay Ansell, the obliging keeper of the burial-grounds (now laid out as one recreation-ground) of St. George the Martyr and St. George’s, Bloomsbury, is frequently applied to for information as to its existence. Eighteen years ago, when these grounds were formed, careful search was made for interesting stones, and the gravestone of Zachary Macaulay, among others, was discovered by Mr. Ansell. That of Nancy Dawson was never found, but it may be buried out of sight.Nancy Dawson is stated to have died at Haverstock Hill, May 27, 1767. Her portrait in oils still hangs in the Garrick Club, and the print-sellers are familiar with her figure in theatrical costume. She is believed to have been born about 1730, to have been the daughter of a Clare Market porter, and to have lived in poverty in St. Giles’s or in a Drury Lane cellar. The rather ill-supported narratives of her career speak, as does Smith, of her waiting on the skittle-players at a Marylebone tavern, which Mr. George Clinch thinks (Marylebone and St. Pancras) may have been the old “Rose of Normandy” in High Street.Nancy Dawson’s fortune was made in 1759 in the Beggars’ Opera. The man who danced the hornpipe among the thieves happened to have fallen ill, and his place was taken by Nancy, who was then a rising young actress. From that moment her success was secure. Her real monument is the song beginning—“Of all the girls in our town,The black, the fair, the red, the brown,That dance and prance it up and down,There’s none like Nancy Dawson!Her easy mien, her shape so neat,She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet,Her ev’ry motion’s so complete,I die for Nancy Dawson!”[24]Musgrave’s note continues: “Whom she deserted upon his discovering that she had an intrigue with the exciseman of that district.”[25]Rubens’s beautiful second wife, Helena Fourment, who was only sixteen when he married her. She is the subject of not a few of his pictures.[26]Nollekens, the sculptor, highly approved of puddings for children, and would say, “Ay, now, what’s your name?” “Mrs. Rapworth, sir.” “Well, Mrs. Rapworth, you have done right; I wore a pudding when I was a little boy, and all my mother’s children wore puddings.”[27]The parent of the Royal Academy, as an exhibiting body, was the Foundling Hospital in Guilford Street. A number of painters, including Hogarth, Reynolds, Richard Wilson, and Gainsborough, agreed to present pictures to Captain Coram’s charity. These were shown with such success, that the possibility of holding remunerative exhibitions was perceived, and in 1760 a free exhibition was opened in the rooms of the Society of Arts. In following years exhibitions were held in Spring Gardens. In 1765 the “Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain” obtained its charter; but disputes arose, and three years later twenty or more painters successfully petitioned GeorgeIII. to establish the “Royal Academy of Arts in London.” So many of the original members of the Royal Academy are mentioned by Smith, that it will be useful to insert their names. They were all nominated by GeorgeIII.:Sir Joshua Reynolds.Benjamin West.Thomas Sandby.Francis Cotes.John Baker.Mason Chamberlin.John Gwynn.Thomas Gainsborough.J. Baptist Cipriani.Jeremiah Meyer.Francis Milner Newton.Paul Sandby.Francesco Bartolozzi.Charles Catton.Nathaniel Hone.William Tyler.Nathaniel Dance.Richard Wilson.G. Michael Moser.Samuel Wale.Peter Toms.Angelica Kauffman.Richard Yeo.Mary Moser.William Chambers.Joseph Wilton.George Barret.Edward Penny.Agostino Carlini.Francis Hayman.Dominic Serres.John Richards.Francesco Zuccarelli.George Dance.William Hoare.Johan Zoffany.A year and a day after the foundation of the Royal Academy, it was resolved: “There shall be a new order, or rank of members, to be called Associates of the Royal Academy.” Of the first twenty Associates, the following are mentioned in theRainy Day: Richard Cosway, John Bacon, James Wyatt, Joseph Nollekens, James Barry (all of whom were afterwards R.A.’s); and Antonio Zucchi, Michael Angelo Rooker, and Biagio Rebecca.The first Royal Academy exhibition was opened to the public in Pall Mall “immediately east of where the United Service Club now stands” (Wheatley) on the 26th of April, 1769. Two years later, the King assigned rooms in Somerset House to the Academy, but his offer was not utilised until the new Somerset House was ready, in 1780. Here the annual exhibitions were held for fifty-eight years. The Academicians then migrated to the eastern half of the National Gallery building in Trafalgar Square. In 1869 the removal to Burlington House was made. The history of the rise and progress of the Royal Academy, which Smith wished might have been undertaken by its secretary, Henry Howard, R.A., has been written very fully by William Sandby, and again recently by the late J. E. Hodgson, R.A., and Mr. F. A. Eaton in collaboration.[28]In this riot in St. George’s Fields, five or six people were killed by the Guards, and about fifteen wounded.[29]Henry Fuseli (1741-1825) had come to London in 1763. On presenting himself before Sir Joshua Reynolds, the following dialogue occurred: “How long have you studied in Italy?” “I never studied in Italy—I studied in Zurich—I am a native of Switzerland—do you think I should study in Italy? and, above all, is it worth while?” “Young man, were I the author of these drawings, and were I offered ten thousand a yearnotto practise as an artist, I would reject the proposal with contempt.”[30]Dr. John Armstrong, whose poem, “The Art of Preserving Health,” was long famous, is now best remembered as the author of a few stanzas in Thomson’sCastle of Indolencedescribing the morbid effects of indolence. Haydon writes of Fuseli: “He swore roundly, a habit which he told me he contracted from Dr. Armstrong.”[31]Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, decided several cases arising out of Wilkes’s libels: his reply to Lord North’s extraordinary letter was the only one he could make. In spite of Wilkes’s easy victory at the poll, the House of Commons declared that Colonel Luttrell ought to have been elected, and his name was substituted for Wilkes’s in the return, a proceeding which inflamed the situation.[32]Henry William Bunbury stands apart from his fellow-caricaturists as a wealthy amateur. He was the second son of the Rev. Sir William Bunbury, Bart., of Great Barton, Suffolk, and married Catherine Horneck, the “Little Comedy” of Goldsmith. Bretherton was an engraver and printseller in Bond Street. He engraved nearly all Bunbury’s drawings, and it was said that he alone could do so with good effect.[33]For almost a century the exodus of the London citizens to the outlying country was considered fair game for satire. Bunbury’s caricature of 1772 only records the humours which Robert Lloyd had touched in “The Cit’s Country Box,” printed in No. 135 of theConnoisseur.“The trav’ler with amazement seesA temple, Gothic or Chinese,With many a bell and tawdry rag on,And crested with a sprawling dragon.A wooden arch is bent astrideA ditch of water four feet wide;With angles, curves, and zigzag lines,From Halfpenny’s exact designs.In front a level lawn is seen,Without a shrub upon the green;Where taste would want its first great law,But for the skulking sly Ha-Ha;By whose miraculous assistanceYou gain a prospect two fields distance.And now from Hyde Park Corner comeThe gods of Athens and of Rome:Here squabby Cupids take their places,With Venus and the clumsy graces;Apollo there, with aim so clever,Stretches his leaden bow for ever.”Even Cowper saw little but absurdity in the demand for villas and “summer-houses.”“Suburban villas, highway-side retreats,That dread th’ encroachment of our growing streets,Tight boxes neatly sash’d, and in a blazeWith all a July sun’s collected rays,Delight the citizen, who, gasping there,Breathes clouds of dust, and calls it country air.”Horace Smith, Lord Byron, and Thomas Hood all touched more or less satirically on this subject.[34]There is a confusion here. Walpole in hisAnecdotes of Paintingdeals only with Jonathan Richardson the elder (1665-1745), portrait painter and critic; Smith refers to his son (1694-1771). The two were greatly attached to each other. There was a story that they sketched each other’s faces every day. Old Richardson, who wrote a treatise onParadise Lost, was able to study the classics only through his son, on whom he doted. Hogarth made a caricature, which he suppressed, of the father using his son as a telescope to read the writers of Greece and Rome. W. H. Pyne says of Old Richardson inWine and Walnuts: “He seldom rambled city-ways, though sometimes he stepped in at the ‘Rainbow,’ where he counted a few worthies, or looked in at Dick’s and gave them a note or two. He would not put his foot on the threshold of the ‘Devil,’ however, for he thought the sign profane. Fielding would run a furlong to escape him; he called him Doctor Fidget.”[35]The milkmaids’ chief haunt was Islington, whence hundreds of them carried the milk into London every morning. In his print “Evening,” the scene of which is laid outside the “Middleton Head,” Hogarth has an Islington milkmaid milking a cow, and in his “Enraged Musicians,” a milkmaid with her cry ofMilk Belouwcontributes to the town noises. The “garlands of massive plate” which the milkmaids carried round on May Day were borrowed of pawnbrokers on security. One pawnbroker, says Hone, was particularly resorted to. He let his plate at so much per hour, under bond from housekeepers for its safe return. In this way one set of milkmaids would hire the garland from ten o’clock till one, and another from one till six, and so on during the first three days of May. These customs had all but passed away when Smith wrote hisRainy Day, but long after the milkmaids had ceased to celebrate the London May Day the chimney-sweepers brought out their Jacks-in-the-green, specimens of which have been seen in the streets in the last twenty years. In 1825, Hone speaks of the dances round the “garland” as a “lately disused custom.”[36]The boxes and pavilions at Vauxhall were decorated with paintings at the suggestion of Hogarth, who permitted his “Four Times of the Day” to be copied by Francis Hayman. He also presented Tyers with a picture from his own hand, “HenryVIII.and Anne Boleyn,” receiving in acknowledgment a gold ticket inscribed “In perpetuam Beneficii memoriam,” and giving admission to “a coachfull” of people. The Vauxhall paintings chiefly represented sports and sentimental scenes. Among Hayman’s works were, “The Game of Quadrille,” “Children Playing at Shuttlecock,” “Leap Frog,” “Falstaff’s Cowardice Detected,” etc. In November 1841, twenty-four of these pictures, all in a dirty condition, were sold in the Gardens at prices varying from 30s. to £10.[37]Marcellus Lauron, or Laroon (1653-1702), was born at the Hague, and came to London, where he painted draperies for Sir Godfrey Kneller and executed his “Cryes of London,” engraved by Tempest. His son, Captain Marcellus Lauron, or Laroon, was soldier, artist, and actor, and a friend of Hogarth.[38]Probably Dr. George Armstrong, brother of Dr. John Armstrong, author of the poem, “The Art of Preserving Health.”[39]In Smith’s boyhood the “Queen’s Head and Artichoke” was a rural tavern and tea-garden in Marylebone Park, quarter of a mile north of the New Road, now Marylebone Road. The Marylebone Gardens were in decline, and their place was taken by three smaller resorts, the “Queen’s Head and Artichoke,” the “Jew’s Harp,” and the “Yorkshire Stingo.” The two first-named places were connected by a zigzag path known as Love Lane. In hisNollekensSmith has this choice morsel: “Mrs. Nollekens made it a rule to allow one servant—as they kept two—to go out on the alternate Sunday; for it was Mrs. Nollekens’ opinion that if they were never permitted to visit the ‘Jew’s Harp,’ ‘Queen’s Head and Artichoke,’ or Chalk Farm, they never would washtheirselves.” The site of the “Artichoke” was covered by Decimus Burton’s Colosseum.[40]The “Jew’s Harp,” dubiously explained as a corruption ofjeu trompe,i.e.toy-trumpet, stood near the lower portion of the Broad Walk in Regent’s Park. Its arbours and tea-garden were long an attraction to the London youth. Here Arthur Onslow, when Speaker, was accustomed to sit in an evening smoking his pipe, and sharing in the tavern talk. The landlord’s discovery that his guest was the Speaker of the House of Commons cost him his customer, for when Onslow found himself received at the “Jew’s Harp” with ceremony, he discontinued his visits.[41]This farm in the possession of Thomas Willan was taken by order of the Treasury for the formation of Regent’s Park in 1794. It contained about 288 acres.[42]Marylebone Gardens had their main entrance in High Street, Marylebone, and extended eastward to Harley Street.[43]Richard Kendall’s farm, comprising about 133 acres, was absorbed in Regent’s Park.[44]The “Green Man” (rebuilt) stands east of Portland Road, Metropolitan Railway Station, on the site of the “Farthing Pie House,” at which scraps of mutton put into a crust were sold for a farthing. The rural state of this neighbourhood, and the regrets which the spread of London awakened, are set forth in Dr. Ducarel’s speech in the chapter, “Nothing to Eat,” in Ephraim Hardcastle’s (William Henry Pyne’s) delightfulWine and Walnuts:—“‘Verily I cannot get this mighty street out of my head,’ said the Doctor. ‘And then there is the new park—what do you call it? Mary-le-bone—no, the Regent’s Park: it seems to be an elegant, well-planned place, methinks, and will have a fine effect, no doubt, with its villas and what not, when the shrubs and trees have shot up a little. But I shall not live to see it, and I care not; for I remember those fields in their natural, rural garb, covered with herds of kine, when you might stretch across from old Willan’s farm there, a-top of Portland Street, right away without impediment to Saint John’s Wood, where I have gathered blackberries when a boy—which pretty place, I am sorry to see, these brick-and-mortar gentry have trenched upon. Why, Ephraim, you metropolitans will have half a day’s journey, if you proceed at this rate, ere you can get a mouthful of fresh air. Where the houses are to find inhabitants, and, when inhabited, where so many mouths are to find meat, must be found out by those who come after.’”[45]Smith seems to have understated the facts. James Easton, the author of a curious work, entitled “Human Longevity, recording the name, age, place of residence, and year of the decease of 1712 persons, who attained a century and upwards, fromA.D.66 to 1799, etc.” (Salisbury, 1799), enumerates sixty-one cases in this year as against Smith’s forty-eight. He gives the following particulars of the three cases named by Smith:—“Mrs. Keithe—133, of Newnham, Gloucestershire. She, lived moderately, and retained her senses till within fourteen days of her death. She left three daughters, the eldest aged one hundred and eleven; the second one hundred and ten; the youngest one hundred and nine. Also seven great, and great great grandchildren.“Mr. Rice—115, of Southwark, cooper.“Mrs. Chun—138, near Litchfield, Staffordshire; resided in the same house one hundred and three years. By frequent exercise, and temperate living, she attained so great longevity. She left one son and two daughters, the youngest upwards of one hundred years.”[46]According to one story, Mother Damnable was Jinney, the daughter of a Kentish Town brick-maker, named Jacob Bingham. After living with a marauder named Gipsy George, who was hanged for sheep-stealing, Jinney passed from the protection of one criminal to another, until she was left a lonesome and embittered woman. She lived in her own cottage, built on waste land by her father, and abused everyone.“’Tis Mother Damnable! that monstrous thing,Unmatch’d by Macbeth’s wayward women’s ring.For cursing, scolding, fuming, flinging fireI’ the face of madam, lord, knight, gent, cit, squire.”The story went that on the night of her death hundreds of persons saw the Devil enter her house. On the site rose the inn which bore her portrait as its sign. Smith’s mention of the terror with which it was regarded may have reference to its loneliness and gruesome traditions. In his own day the inn was a pleasant resort. “Then the old Mother Red Cap was the evening resort of worn-out Londoners, and many a happy evening was spent in the green fields round about the old wayside houses by the children of poorer classes. At that time the Dairy, at the junction of the Hampstead and Kentish Town roads, was not the fashionable building it is now, but with forms for the pedestrians to rest on, they served out milk fresh from the cow to all who came” (John Palmer,St. Pancras). This dairy, so long a landmark to North Londoners, has just disappeared in favour of a “Tube” railway station.[47]This curious work may still be seen in Little Denmark Street, where its forty or fifty writhing figures, incrusted with grime, look at a little distance like some ordinary floral design. The original “Resurrection Gate” was erected about the year 1687, in accordance with an order of the vestry. The bill of expenses is extant, and its terms were contributed by Dr. Rimbault toNotes and Queriesof June 23, 1864, showing the cost to have been £185, 14s. 6d., of which £27 was paid for the carving to an artist named Love. In 1900, the present Tuscan gate in Little Denmark Street was erected with the old carving inserted.[48]Probably Charles Harriot Smith, the architect, who was at first a stone-carver. He died in 1864.[49]The Reverend James Bean was Vicar of Olney, Buckinghamshire, and assistant librarian at the British Museum. He died in 1826, and was buried in St. George’s, Bloomsbury, burial-ground.[50]Strype says these almshouses bore the inscription, “St. Giles’s Almshouse, anno domini 1656.” They were removed in 1782.[51]Originally Queen Anne’s Square and now Queen Anne’s Gate.[52]The Pound stood, as Smith indicates, in the broad space where St. Giles High Street, Tottenham Court Road, and Oxford Street met; it was removed in 1765.[53]This song, entitled “Just the Thing,” is valuable as a portrait of the eighteenth-century “hooligan,” ancestor of Mr. Clarence Rook’s nineteenth century “Alf” inHooligan Nights:—“On Newgate steps Jack Chance was found,And bred up near St. Giles’s Pound,My story is true, deny it who can,By saucy, leering Billingsgate Nan.Her bosom glowed with heartfelt joyWhen first she held the lovely boy.Then home the prize she straight did bring,And they all allow’d he was just the thing.At twelve years old, I have been told,The youth was sturdy, stout, and bold;He learn’d to curse, to swear, and fight,And everything but read and write.But when he came to man’s estate,His mind it ran on something great,A-thieving then he scorn’d to tramp;So hir’d a pad and went on the scamp.At clubs he all Flash Soup did sing.And they all allow’d he was just the thing.His manual exercise gone through,Of Bridewell, Pump, and Horse Pond too,His back had often felt the smartOf Tyburn strings at the tail of a cart.He stood the patter, but that’s no matter,He gammon’d the Twelve, and work’d on the water,Then a pardon he got from his gracious King,And swaggering Jack was just the thing.Like a captain bold, well arm’d for war.With bludgeon stout, or iron bar,At heading a mob, he never did fail,At burning a mass-house, or gutting a jail;But a victim he fell to his country’s laws,And died at last in religion’s cause.No Popery!made the blade to swing,And when tuck’d up he was just the thing.”[54]Mr. George Clinch, in hisMarylebone and St. Pancras, says that there is some reason to think that a portion at least of Capper’s farm still remains. A large furniture establishment at Nos. 195-198, Tottenham Court Road, exhibits on a wall in the rear two tablets marking the boundary of St. Pancras and St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and bearing eighteenth-century dates. An old lease of the property, Mr. Clinch adds, contains a clause binding the tenant to keep stabling for forty head of cattle, and it is known that the premises were once used as a large livery stable.

[1]Two other residences of Smith’s, less definitely associated with his books or etchings, are recorded. The first is No. 8 Popham Terrace, near the Barley Mow Tavern, in Frog Lane, Islington. His sojourn here is mentioned, without dates, by Lewis in hisHistory of Islington(1842). Frog Lane is now Popham Road, of which Popham Terrace appears to have been part. In 1809, Smith was living at No. 4 The Polygon, Somers Town.

[2]Thomas Lowe had taken Marylebone Gardens in 1763, at a rent of £170. Fresh from his triumphs as a tenor at Vauxhall, he made concerts the principal entertainment. In 1768 he compounded with his creditors.

[3]This theatre at Richmond was built two years before Smith’s birth, and was opened in May 1765, by Mr. Love, who spoke a prologue by Garrick. Love was the stage name of James Dance, who, as a son of George Dance, R.A., the City Architect, adopted it that he might not “disgrace his family,” a proceeding on which Genest comments: “Shall we never have done with this miserable cant? Foote, with much humour, makes Papillion say, inThe Lyar: ‘As to Player, whatever might happen to me, I was determined not to bring a disgrace upon my family; and so I resolved to turn footman.’”The Devil to Pay, by Charles Coffey, was adapted from a play by Jevon calledThe Devil of a Wife, first produced at Drury Lane in 1731, when Love played “Jobson” and Mrs. Love “Nell.”

[4]“A convivial glass-grinder, then residing at No. 6, in Earl Street, Seven Dials, and who had, for upwards of fifty years, worn a green velvet cap,” is Smith’s note on his uncle. In hisNollekenshe says: “In the British Museum there is a brass medal of Vittore Pisano, a painter of Verona, executed by himself … his cap, which is an upright one with many folds, reminded me of that sort usually worn, when I was a boy, by the old glass-grinders of the Seven Dials.”

[5]Dr. William Hunter (1718-83) was elder brother of the celebrated Dr. John Hunter, to whom in 1768 he gave up his house in Jermyn Street, taking possession of the one he had built for himself in Windmill Street. In 1764 he had been appointed Physician Extraordinary to the Queen. He became a foundation member of the Royal Academy, as Professor of Anatomy. It is related that half an hour before his death he exclaimed: “Had I a pen, and were I able to write, I would describe how easy and pleasant a thing it is to die.”

[6]Now rebuilt as No. 38.

[7]Strype’s edition of Stow, 1720, contains many such plates. John Kip, the engraver, was born in Amsterdam. He died at Westminster in 1722.

[8]In the miscellaneous pages of hisNollekens, Smith reports Elizabeth Carter, of “Epictetus” fame, as saying to a Covent Garden fruiterer, named Twigg (jocularly known as the “Twig of the Garden”): “I recollect, Sir, when Mr. Garrick acted, hackney chairs were then so numerous that they stood all round the Piazzas, down Southampton Street, and extended more than half-way along Maiden Lane, so much were they in requisition at that time.”

[9]Voltaire first came to London in May 1726, after his confinement in the Bastille, landing at Greenwich on a cloudless night. His first impressions of London are quoted by Mr. Archibald Ballantyne in his interestingVoltaire’s Visit to England. After being the guest of Bolingbroke, Voltaire returned to Paris in a state of indecision, but, again crossing the Channel, he settled at Wandsworth, where he found a friend and host in Sir Everard Falkener. He met Pope, and improved his English by attending the theatres. Chetwood says: “I furnished him every evening with the play of the night (at Drury Lane), which he took with him into the orchestra (his accustomed seat): in four or five months he not only conversed in elegant English, but wrote it with exact propriety.” Voltaire became a well-known figure in London, and wrote hisHenriadein his London lodging at the sign of the “White Peruke,” Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, next door to the Bedford Head.

[10]Notes of Proceedings and Occurrences during the British Embassy to Pekin, 1816. Geo. Thos. Staunton, 1824. Printed for Private Circulation.

[11]Pliny the Younger, in writing to his friend, Baebius Macer, on the habits and life of his uncle, C. Plinius Secundus (Pliny the elder), says: “A shorthand writer constantly attended him, … who, in the winter, wore a particular sort of warm gloves, that the sharpness of the weather might not occasion any interruption to my uncle’s studies; and for the same reason, when in Rome, he was always carried in a chair. I recollect his once taking me to task for walking. ‘You need not,’ he said, ‘lose these hours.’ For he thought every hour gone that was not given to study” (Letters of Pliny the Younger, bk. iii. letter 5, p. 82. Bohn’s Classical Library).

[12]The Catalogue of this exhibition is entitled: “A Catalogue of the Paintings, Sculptures, Architecture, Models, Drawings, Engravings, etc., now exhibiting under the Patronage of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, at their Great Room in the Strand, London.” It credits Mr. Nathaniel Smith, St. Martin’s Lane, with the following:—210. A bust as large as life.211. A figure of Time, imitating a bronze.

210. A bust as large as life.

211. A figure of Time, imitating a bronze.

[13]Smith’s naval ancestor won his sobriquet, “Tom of Ten Thousand,” very easily. He had compelled the French corvetteGirondeto salute the British colours in Plymouth Sound, for which, on complaint, he was dismissed the navy for exceeding his instructions, but was shortly reinstated. The public believed that he had fired into theGirondeto compel its respect to our flag, and on this exaggerated report gave him the name “Tom of Ten Thousand.” Smith, who rose to high rank, but won no great personal distinction, presided over the court-martial which condemned Admiral Byng in 1757.It may be added that the name “Tom of Ten Thousand” has been borne by several men, notably by Thomas Thynne of Longleat, who was so called on account of his wealth. He was murdered in Pall Mall in February 1682, by three assassins hired by Count Königsmark. The murder is realistically portrayed on his tomb in the south aisle of Westminster Abbey. Another “Tom of Ten Thousand” was Thomas Hudson, a native of Leeds, who lost a large fortune in the South Sea Scheme, and, becoming insane, wandered the streets of London for years, leaning on a crutch.

It may be added that the name “Tom of Ten Thousand” has been borne by several men, notably by Thomas Thynne of Longleat, who was so called on account of his wealth. He was murdered in Pall Mall in February 1682, by three assassins hired by Count Königsmark. The murder is realistically portrayed on his tomb in the south aisle of Westminster Abbey. Another “Tom of Ten Thousand” was Thomas Hudson, a native of Leeds, who lost a large fortune in the South Sea Scheme, and, becoming insane, wandered the streets of London for years, leaning on a crutch.

[14]These coincidences of residence seem to be overstated by Smith. It must have been after, not before, his visit to Italy, which he made in his 36th year, that Wilson took apartments in the Piazza on the north side of Covent Garden. He lived above the rooms of Cock, the auctioneer, who was followed by Langford, and later still by George Robins. Sir Peter Lely had lived in the same house from 1662 until his death in 1680, and here his collections were sold in 1667. Smith seems to be wrong about Kneller. This painter’s house had been on the east side of the Square, known as the Little Piazza. Its garden, stretching back to Bow Street, was the scene of the famous quarrel between Kneller and Dr. Ratcliffe. A tenant who did precede Wilson was Hogarth, who, though he did not reside at Cock’s, had exhibited here his “Mariage à la Mode” gratis, with a view to its sale.Wilson had a model made of a portion of the Piazza, which he used as a receptacle for his implements. The rustic work of the piers was provided with drawers, and the openings of the arches held pencils and oil bottles. An unbending devotion to his Italian manner of painting (he so Italianised a view of Kew Gardens that George the Third failed to recognise it) and a rough temper brought this fine painter to humbler dwellings in Charlotte Street, Great Queen Street, and Foley Place; finally, to a room in Tottenham Street. His fortunes were mended at the last by his appointment as Librarian to the Royal Academy, and his succession to a small estate in Wales on the death of his brother.

Wilson had a model made of a portion of the Piazza, which he used as a receptacle for his implements. The rustic work of the piers was provided with drawers, and the openings of the arches held pencils and oil bottles. An unbending devotion to his Italian manner of painting (he so Italianised a view of Kew Gardens that George the Third failed to recognise it) and a rough temper brought this fine painter to humbler dwellings in Charlotte Street, Great Queen Street, and Foley Place; finally, to a room in Tottenham Street. His fortunes were mended at the last by his appointment as Librarian to the Royal Academy, and his succession to a small estate in Wales on the death of his brother.

[15]See a plate in theLady’s Magazineof 1870, in which Miss Catley wears such elbow ruffles in the character of Rosetta inLove in a Village.

[16]The death of Molly Mogg was thus announced in theGentleman’s Magazine: “Mrs. Mary Mogg, at Oakingham: she was the person on whom Gay wrote the song of ‘Molly Mogg.’” This song was first printed inMist’s Weekly Journalof August 27, 1726, with a note stating that “it was writ by two or three men of wit (who have diverted the public both in prose and verse), upon the occasion of their lying at a certain inn at Ockingham, where the daughter of the house was remarkably pretty, and whose name is Molly Mogg.” These “men of wit” were supposed to have been Pope, Swift, and Gay, and it was believed that they had together concocted the song, but the weight of evidence is in favour of Gay’s sole authorship. There is, however, enough doubt to warrant one in holding to the pleasant tradition that the three poets, over their cups at the Rose Inn, made the song which began (original version):—“Says my Uncle, I pray you discoverWhat has been the cause of your woes,That you pine and you whine like a lover?I’ve seen Molly Mog of the Rose.Oh, Nephew! your grief is but folly,In town you may find better prog;Half a crown there will get you a Molly,A Molly much better than Mog.…The school boys delight in a play-day,The schoolmaster’s joy is to flog;The milk-maid’s delight is in May day,But mine is in sweet Molly Mog.”

“Says my Uncle, I pray you discoverWhat has been the cause of your woes,That you pine and you whine like a lover?I’ve seen Molly Mog of the Rose.Oh, Nephew! your grief is but folly,In town you may find better prog;Half a crown there will get you a Molly,A Molly much better than Mog.…The school boys delight in a play-day,The schoolmaster’s joy is to flog;The milk-maid’s delight is in May day,But mine is in sweet Molly Mog.”

“Says my Uncle, I pray you discoverWhat has been the cause of your woes,That you pine and you whine like a lover?I’ve seen Molly Mog of the Rose.

“Says my Uncle, I pray you discover

What has been the cause of your woes,

That you pine and you whine like a lover?

I’ve seen Molly Mog of the Rose.

Oh, Nephew! your grief is but folly,In town you may find better prog;Half a crown there will get you a Molly,A Molly much better than Mog.

Oh, Nephew! your grief is but folly,

In town you may find better prog;

Half a crown there will get you a Molly,

A Molly much better than Mog.

…

The school boys delight in a play-day,The schoolmaster’s joy is to flog;The milk-maid’s delight is in May day,But mine is in sweet Molly Mog.”

The school boys delight in a play-day,

The schoolmaster’s joy is to flog;

The milk-maid’s delight is in May day,

But mine is in sweet Molly Mog.”

[17]Finch’s Grotto Garden stood on the site now occupied by the headquarters of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. It was opened—six years before John Thomas Smith was born—on the strength of a spring in the grounds which a Dr. Townshend was willing to declare medicinal. Concerts and fireworks were given with fair success, and here “Tommy” Lowe accepted engagements after his failure in the management of Marylebone Gardens. The tavern was burnt down in May 1795, and was replaced by another called the “Goldsmith’s Arms,” afterwards styled the “Old Grotto New Reviv’d.” This tavern bore the inscription—“Here Herbs did growAnd flowers sweet,But now ’tis call’dSaint George’s Street.”All that is known about Finch’s Grotto is told by Mr. Warwick Wroth in his admirableLondon Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century.

“Here Herbs did growAnd flowers sweet,But now ’tis call’dSaint George’s Street.”

“Here Herbs did grow

And flowers sweet,

But now ’tis call’d

Saint George’s Street.”

All that is known about Finch’s Grotto is told by Mr. Warwick Wroth in his admirableLondon Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century.

[18]This famous aid to the teething of children was invented about the year 1717, when there appeared aPhilosophical Essay upon the Celebrated Anodyne Necklace, dedicated to Dr. Paul Chamberlen (who died in this year), and the Royal Society. This tract, quoted by Mr. J. Eliot Hodgkin inNotes and Queriesof Feb. 16, 1884, argues the advantages of the necklace as follows:—“For since the difficultCutting of Children’s Teethproceeds from the hard and strict Closure of theirGums; If you get Them but once separated and opened, theTeethwill of themselves Naturally come Forth; Now the Smooth Alcalious Atoms of theNecklace, by their insinuating figure and shape, do so make way for their Protrusion by gentlysofteningandopeningthe hard swelledGums, that theTeethwill of themselves without any difficulty or painCutand come out, as has been sufficiently proved.”Mr. Hodgkin describes the necklace as “of beads artificially prepared, small, like barley-corns,” costing five shillings. An early depôt was Garraway’s at the Royal Exchange Gate. In Smith’s day they were sold in Long Acre by Mr. Burchell at the sign of the Anodyne Necklace, and the price was still “5s. single,” with “an allowance by the dozen to sell again.” Burchell advertised: “After the Wearing of which about their Neck but One night, Children have immediately cut theirTeethwith Safety, who but just before were on the Brink of the Grave.”

“For since the difficultCutting of Children’s Teethproceeds from the hard and strict Closure of theirGums; If you get Them but once separated and opened, theTeethwill of themselves Naturally come Forth; Now the Smooth Alcalious Atoms of theNecklace, by their insinuating figure and shape, do so make way for their Protrusion by gentlysofteningandopeningthe hard swelledGums, that theTeethwill of themselves without any difficulty or painCutand come out, as has been sufficiently proved.”

Mr. Hodgkin describes the necklace as “of beads artificially prepared, small, like barley-corns,” costing five shillings. An early depôt was Garraway’s at the Royal Exchange Gate. In Smith’s day they were sold in Long Acre by Mr. Burchell at the sign of the Anodyne Necklace, and the price was still “5s. single,” with “an allowance by the dozen to sell again.” Burchell advertised: “After the Wearing of which about their Neck but One night, Children have immediately cut theirTeethwith Safety, who but just before were on the Brink of the Grave.”

[19]According to Daulby’s numbering.

[20]For some curious erudition on go-carts see Smith’sLife of Nollekens, where he says (1829 ed. i. 221): “When I was a boy, the go-cart was common in every toy-shop in London; but it was to be found in the greatest abundance in the once far-famed turners’ shop in Spinning-wheel Alley, Moorfields: a narrow passage leading from those fields to the spot upon which the original Bethlehem Hospital stood in Bishopsgate Street. In 1825-26, however, both Spinning-wheel Alley and Old Bethlehem were considerably altered and widened, and subsequently named Liverpool Street.”

[21]Hone says: “The late King GeorgeIV. and his brothers and sisters, all the royal family of GeorgeIII., were rocked. The rocker was a female officer of the household, with a salary” (Every Day Book). Rocker cradles are to-day made in Ireland by villagers, and sold from door to door.

[22]Two artists, father and son, bore the name of Israel von Meckenen. They flourished in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and appear to have collaborated on some 250 prints. The British Museum has a fine set of their engravings.

[23]The stone inscribed “Here lies Nancy Dawson” no longer exists. M. Dorsay Ansell, the obliging keeper of the burial-grounds (now laid out as one recreation-ground) of St. George the Martyr and St. George’s, Bloomsbury, is frequently applied to for information as to its existence. Eighteen years ago, when these grounds were formed, careful search was made for interesting stones, and the gravestone of Zachary Macaulay, among others, was discovered by Mr. Ansell. That of Nancy Dawson was never found, but it may be buried out of sight.Nancy Dawson is stated to have died at Haverstock Hill, May 27, 1767. Her portrait in oils still hangs in the Garrick Club, and the print-sellers are familiar with her figure in theatrical costume. She is believed to have been born about 1730, to have been the daughter of a Clare Market porter, and to have lived in poverty in St. Giles’s or in a Drury Lane cellar. The rather ill-supported narratives of her career speak, as does Smith, of her waiting on the skittle-players at a Marylebone tavern, which Mr. George Clinch thinks (Marylebone and St. Pancras) may have been the old “Rose of Normandy” in High Street.Nancy Dawson’s fortune was made in 1759 in the Beggars’ Opera. The man who danced the hornpipe among the thieves happened to have fallen ill, and his place was taken by Nancy, who was then a rising young actress. From that moment her success was secure. Her real monument is the song beginning—“Of all the girls in our town,The black, the fair, the red, the brown,That dance and prance it up and down,There’s none like Nancy Dawson!Her easy mien, her shape so neat,She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet,Her ev’ry motion’s so complete,I die for Nancy Dawson!”

Nancy Dawson is stated to have died at Haverstock Hill, May 27, 1767. Her portrait in oils still hangs in the Garrick Club, and the print-sellers are familiar with her figure in theatrical costume. She is believed to have been born about 1730, to have been the daughter of a Clare Market porter, and to have lived in poverty in St. Giles’s or in a Drury Lane cellar. The rather ill-supported narratives of her career speak, as does Smith, of her waiting on the skittle-players at a Marylebone tavern, which Mr. George Clinch thinks (Marylebone and St. Pancras) may have been the old “Rose of Normandy” in High Street.

Nancy Dawson’s fortune was made in 1759 in the Beggars’ Opera. The man who danced the hornpipe among the thieves happened to have fallen ill, and his place was taken by Nancy, who was then a rising young actress. From that moment her success was secure. Her real monument is the song beginning—

“Of all the girls in our town,The black, the fair, the red, the brown,That dance and prance it up and down,There’s none like Nancy Dawson!Her easy mien, her shape so neat,She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet,Her ev’ry motion’s so complete,I die for Nancy Dawson!”

“Of all the girls in our town,The black, the fair, the red, the brown,That dance and prance it up and down,There’s none like Nancy Dawson!

“Of all the girls in our town,

The black, the fair, the red, the brown,

That dance and prance it up and down,

There’s none like Nancy Dawson!

Her easy mien, her shape so neat,She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet,Her ev’ry motion’s so complete,I die for Nancy Dawson!”

Her easy mien, her shape so neat,

She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet,

Her ev’ry motion’s so complete,

I die for Nancy Dawson!”

[24]Musgrave’s note continues: “Whom she deserted upon his discovering that she had an intrigue with the exciseman of that district.”

[25]Rubens’s beautiful second wife, Helena Fourment, who was only sixteen when he married her. She is the subject of not a few of his pictures.

[26]Nollekens, the sculptor, highly approved of puddings for children, and would say, “Ay, now, what’s your name?” “Mrs. Rapworth, sir.” “Well, Mrs. Rapworth, you have done right; I wore a pudding when I was a little boy, and all my mother’s children wore puddings.”

[27]The parent of the Royal Academy, as an exhibiting body, was the Foundling Hospital in Guilford Street. A number of painters, including Hogarth, Reynolds, Richard Wilson, and Gainsborough, agreed to present pictures to Captain Coram’s charity. These were shown with such success, that the possibility of holding remunerative exhibitions was perceived, and in 1760 a free exhibition was opened in the rooms of the Society of Arts. In following years exhibitions were held in Spring Gardens. In 1765 the “Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain” obtained its charter; but disputes arose, and three years later twenty or more painters successfully petitioned GeorgeIII. to establish the “Royal Academy of Arts in London.” So many of the original members of the Royal Academy are mentioned by Smith, that it will be useful to insert their names. They were all nominated by GeorgeIII.:Sir Joshua Reynolds.Benjamin West.Thomas Sandby.Francis Cotes.John Baker.Mason Chamberlin.John Gwynn.Thomas Gainsborough.J. Baptist Cipriani.Jeremiah Meyer.Francis Milner Newton.Paul Sandby.Francesco Bartolozzi.Charles Catton.Nathaniel Hone.William Tyler.Nathaniel Dance.Richard Wilson.G. Michael Moser.Samuel Wale.Peter Toms.Angelica Kauffman.Richard Yeo.Mary Moser.William Chambers.Joseph Wilton.George Barret.Edward Penny.Agostino Carlini.Francis Hayman.Dominic Serres.John Richards.Francesco Zuccarelli.George Dance.William Hoare.Johan Zoffany.A year and a day after the foundation of the Royal Academy, it was resolved: “There shall be a new order, or rank of members, to be called Associates of the Royal Academy.” Of the first twenty Associates, the following are mentioned in theRainy Day: Richard Cosway, John Bacon, James Wyatt, Joseph Nollekens, James Barry (all of whom were afterwards R.A.’s); and Antonio Zucchi, Michael Angelo Rooker, and Biagio Rebecca.The first Royal Academy exhibition was opened to the public in Pall Mall “immediately east of where the United Service Club now stands” (Wheatley) on the 26th of April, 1769. Two years later, the King assigned rooms in Somerset House to the Academy, but his offer was not utilised until the new Somerset House was ready, in 1780. Here the annual exhibitions were held for fifty-eight years. The Academicians then migrated to the eastern half of the National Gallery building in Trafalgar Square. In 1869 the removal to Burlington House was made. The history of the rise and progress of the Royal Academy, which Smith wished might have been undertaken by its secretary, Henry Howard, R.A., has been written very fully by William Sandby, and again recently by the late J. E. Hodgson, R.A., and Mr. F. A. Eaton in collaboration.

A year and a day after the foundation of the Royal Academy, it was resolved: “There shall be a new order, or rank of members, to be called Associates of the Royal Academy.” Of the first twenty Associates, the following are mentioned in theRainy Day: Richard Cosway, John Bacon, James Wyatt, Joseph Nollekens, James Barry (all of whom were afterwards R.A.’s); and Antonio Zucchi, Michael Angelo Rooker, and Biagio Rebecca.

The first Royal Academy exhibition was opened to the public in Pall Mall “immediately east of where the United Service Club now stands” (Wheatley) on the 26th of April, 1769. Two years later, the King assigned rooms in Somerset House to the Academy, but his offer was not utilised until the new Somerset House was ready, in 1780. Here the annual exhibitions were held for fifty-eight years. The Academicians then migrated to the eastern half of the National Gallery building in Trafalgar Square. In 1869 the removal to Burlington House was made. The history of the rise and progress of the Royal Academy, which Smith wished might have been undertaken by its secretary, Henry Howard, R.A., has been written very fully by William Sandby, and again recently by the late J. E. Hodgson, R.A., and Mr. F. A. Eaton in collaboration.

[28]In this riot in St. George’s Fields, five or six people were killed by the Guards, and about fifteen wounded.

[29]Henry Fuseli (1741-1825) had come to London in 1763. On presenting himself before Sir Joshua Reynolds, the following dialogue occurred: “How long have you studied in Italy?” “I never studied in Italy—I studied in Zurich—I am a native of Switzerland—do you think I should study in Italy? and, above all, is it worth while?” “Young man, were I the author of these drawings, and were I offered ten thousand a yearnotto practise as an artist, I would reject the proposal with contempt.”

[30]Dr. John Armstrong, whose poem, “The Art of Preserving Health,” was long famous, is now best remembered as the author of a few stanzas in Thomson’sCastle of Indolencedescribing the morbid effects of indolence. Haydon writes of Fuseli: “He swore roundly, a habit which he told me he contracted from Dr. Armstrong.”

[31]Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, decided several cases arising out of Wilkes’s libels: his reply to Lord North’s extraordinary letter was the only one he could make. In spite of Wilkes’s easy victory at the poll, the House of Commons declared that Colonel Luttrell ought to have been elected, and his name was substituted for Wilkes’s in the return, a proceeding which inflamed the situation.

[32]Henry William Bunbury stands apart from his fellow-caricaturists as a wealthy amateur. He was the second son of the Rev. Sir William Bunbury, Bart., of Great Barton, Suffolk, and married Catherine Horneck, the “Little Comedy” of Goldsmith. Bretherton was an engraver and printseller in Bond Street. He engraved nearly all Bunbury’s drawings, and it was said that he alone could do so with good effect.

[33]For almost a century the exodus of the London citizens to the outlying country was considered fair game for satire. Bunbury’s caricature of 1772 only records the humours which Robert Lloyd had touched in “The Cit’s Country Box,” printed in No. 135 of theConnoisseur.“The trav’ler with amazement seesA temple, Gothic or Chinese,With many a bell and tawdry rag on,And crested with a sprawling dragon.A wooden arch is bent astrideA ditch of water four feet wide;With angles, curves, and zigzag lines,From Halfpenny’s exact designs.In front a level lawn is seen,Without a shrub upon the green;Where taste would want its first great law,But for the skulking sly Ha-Ha;By whose miraculous assistanceYou gain a prospect two fields distance.And now from Hyde Park Corner comeThe gods of Athens and of Rome:Here squabby Cupids take their places,With Venus and the clumsy graces;Apollo there, with aim so clever,Stretches his leaden bow for ever.”Even Cowper saw little but absurdity in the demand for villas and “summer-houses.”“Suburban villas, highway-side retreats,That dread th’ encroachment of our growing streets,Tight boxes neatly sash’d, and in a blazeWith all a July sun’s collected rays,Delight the citizen, who, gasping there,Breathes clouds of dust, and calls it country air.”Horace Smith, Lord Byron, and Thomas Hood all touched more or less satirically on this subject.

“The trav’ler with amazement seesA temple, Gothic or Chinese,With many a bell and tawdry rag on,And crested with a sprawling dragon.A wooden arch is bent astrideA ditch of water four feet wide;With angles, curves, and zigzag lines,From Halfpenny’s exact designs.In front a level lawn is seen,Without a shrub upon the green;Where taste would want its first great law,But for the skulking sly Ha-Ha;By whose miraculous assistanceYou gain a prospect two fields distance.And now from Hyde Park Corner comeThe gods of Athens and of Rome:Here squabby Cupids take their places,With Venus and the clumsy graces;Apollo there, with aim so clever,Stretches his leaden bow for ever.”

“The trav’ler with amazement sees

A temple, Gothic or Chinese,

With many a bell and tawdry rag on,

And crested with a sprawling dragon.

A wooden arch is bent astride

A ditch of water four feet wide;

With angles, curves, and zigzag lines,

From Halfpenny’s exact designs.

In front a level lawn is seen,

Without a shrub upon the green;

Where taste would want its first great law,

But for the skulking sly Ha-Ha;

By whose miraculous assistance

You gain a prospect two fields distance.

And now from Hyde Park Corner come

The gods of Athens and of Rome:

Here squabby Cupids take their places,

With Venus and the clumsy graces;

Apollo there, with aim so clever,

Stretches his leaden bow for ever.”

Even Cowper saw little but absurdity in the demand for villas and “summer-houses.”

“Suburban villas, highway-side retreats,That dread th’ encroachment of our growing streets,Tight boxes neatly sash’d, and in a blazeWith all a July sun’s collected rays,Delight the citizen, who, gasping there,Breathes clouds of dust, and calls it country air.”

“Suburban villas, highway-side retreats,

That dread th’ encroachment of our growing streets,

Tight boxes neatly sash’d, and in a blaze

With all a July sun’s collected rays,

Delight the citizen, who, gasping there,

Breathes clouds of dust, and calls it country air.”

Horace Smith, Lord Byron, and Thomas Hood all touched more or less satirically on this subject.

[34]There is a confusion here. Walpole in hisAnecdotes of Paintingdeals only with Jonathan Richardson the elder (1665-1745), portrait painter and critic; Smith refers to his son (1694-1771). The two were greatly attached to each other. There was a story that they sketched each other’s faces every day. Old Richardson, who wrote a treatise onParadise Lost, was able to study the classics only through his son, on whom he doted. Hogarth made a caricature, which he suppressed, of the father using his son as a telescope to read the writers of Greece and Rome. W. H. Pyne says of Old Richardson inWine and Walnuts: “He seldom rambled city-ways, though sometimes he stepped in at the ‘Rainbow,’ where he counted a few worthies, or looked in at Dick’s and gave them a note or two. He would not put his foot on the threshold of the ‘Devil,’ however, for he thought the sign profane. Fielding would run a furlong to escape him; he called him Doctor Fidget.”

[35]The milkmaids’ chief haunt was Islington, whence hundreds of them carried the milk into London every morning. In his print “Evening,” the scene of which is laid outside the “Middleton Head,” Hogarth has an Islington milkmaid milking a cow, and in his “Enraged Musicians,” a milkmaid with her cry ofMilk Belouwcontributes to the town noises. The “garlands of massive plate” which the milkmaids carried round on May Day were borrowed of pawnbrokers on security. One pawnbroker, says Hone, was particularly resorted to. He let his plate at so much per hour, under bond from housekeepers for its safe return. In this way one set of milkmaids would hire the garland from ten o’clock till one, and another from one till six, and so on during the first three days of May. These customs had all but passed away when Smith wrote hisRainy Day, but long after the milkmaids had ceased to celebrate the London May Day the chimney-sweepers brought out their Jacks-in-the-green, specimens of which have been seen in the streets in the last twenty years. In 1825, Hone speaks of the dances round the “garland” as a “lately disused custom.”

[36]The boxes and pavilions at Vauxhall were decorated with paintings at the suggestion of Hogarth, who permitted his “Four Times of the Day” to be copied by Francis Hayman. He also presented Tyers with a picture from his own hand, “HenryVIII.and Anne Boleyn,” receiving in acknowledgment a gold ticket inscribed “In perpetuam Beneficii memoriam,” and giving admission to “a coachfull” of people. The Vauxhall paintings chiefly represented sports and sentimental scenes. Among Hayman’s works were, “The Game of Quadrille,” “Children Playing at Shuttlecock,” “Leap Frog,” “Falstaff’s Cowardice Detected,” etc. In November 1841, twenty-four of these pictures, all in a dirty condition, were sold in the Gardens at prices varying from 30s. to £10.

[37]Marcellus Lauron, or Laroon (1653-1702), was born at the Hague, and came to London, where he painted draperies for Sir Godfrey Kneller and executed his “Cryes of London,” engraved by Tempest. His son, Captain Marcellus Lauron, or Laroon, was soldier, artist, and actor, and a friend of Hogarth.

[38]Probably Dr. George Armstrong, brother of Dr. John Armstrong, author of the poem, “The Art of Preserving Health.”

[39]In Smith’s boyhood the “Queen’s Head and Artichoke” was a rural tavern and tea-garden in Marylebone Park, quarter of a mile north of the New Road, now Marylebone Road. The Marylebone Gardens were in decline, and their place was taken by three smaller resorts, the “Queen’s Head and Artichoke,” the “Jew’s Harp,” and the “Yorkshire Stingo.” The two first-named places were connected by a zigzag path known as Love Lane. In hisNollekensSmith has this choice morsel: “Mrs. Nollekens made it a rule to allow one servant—as they kept two—to go out on the alternate Sunday; for it was Mrs. Nollekens’ opinion that if they were never permitted to visit the ‘Jew’s Harp,’ ‘Queen’s Head and Artichoke,’ or Chalk Farm, they never would washtheirselves.” The site of the “Artichoke” was covered by Decimus Burton’s Colosseum.

[40]The “Jew’s Harp,” dubiously explained as a corruption ofjeu trompe,i.e.toy-trumpet, stood near the lower portion of the Broad Walk in Regent’s Park. Its arbours and tea-garden were long an attraction to the London youth. Here Arthur Onslow, when Speaker, was accustomed to sit in an evening smoking his pipe, and sharing in the tavern talk. The landlord’s discovery that his guest was the Speaker of the House of Commons cost him his customer, for when Onslow found himself received at the “Jew’s Harp” with ceremony, he discontinued his visits.

[41]This farm in the possession of Thomas Willan was taken by order of the Treasury for the formation of Regent’s Park in 1794. It contained about 288 acres.

[42]Marylebone Gardens had their main entrance in High Street, Marylebone, and extended eastward to Harley Street.

[43]Richard Kendall’s farm, comprising about 133 acres, was absorbed in Regent’s Park.

[44]The “Green Man” (rebuilt) stands east of Portland Road, Metropolitan Railway Station, on the site of the “Farthing Pie House,” at which scraps of mutton put into a crust were sold for a farthing. The rural state of this neighbourhood, and the regrets which the spread of London awakened, are set forth in Dr. Ducarel’s speech in the chapter, “Nothing to Eat,” in Ephraim Hardcastle’s (William Henry Pyne’s) delightfulWine and Walnuts:—“‘Verily I cannot get this mighty street out of my head,’ said the Doctor. ‘And then there is the new park—what do you call it? Mary-le-bone—no, the Regent’s Park: it seems to be an elegant, well-planned place, methinks, and will have a fine effect, no doubt, with its villas and what not, when the shrubs and trees have shot up a little. But I shall not live to see it, and I care not; for I remember those fields in their natural, rural garb, covered with herds of kine, when you might stretch across from old Willan’s farm there, a-top of Portland Street, right away without impediment to Saint John’s Wood, where I have gathered blackberries when a boy—which pretty place, I am sorry to see, these brick-and-mortar gentry have trenched upon. Why, Ephraim, you metropolitans will have half a day’s journey, if you proceed at this rate, ere you can get a mouthful of fresh air. Where the houses are to find inhabitants, and, when inhabited, where so many mouths are to find meat, must be found out by those who come after.’”

“‘Verily I cannot get this mighty street out of my head,’ said the Doctor. ‘And then there is the new park—what do you call it? Mary-le-bone—no, the Regent’s Park: it seems to be an elegant, well-planned place, methinks, and will have a fine effect, no doubt, with its villas and what not, when the shrubs and trees have shot up a little. But I shall not live to see it, and I care not; for I remember those fields in their natural, rural garb, covered with herds of kine, when you might stretch across from old Willan’s farm there, a-top of Portland Street, right away without impediment to Saint John’s Wood, where I have gathered blackberries when a boy—which pretty place, I am sorry to see, these brick-and-mortar gentry have trenched upon. Why, Ephraim, you metropolitans will have half a day’s journey, if you proceed at this rate, ere you can get a mouthful of fresh air. Where the houses are to find inhabitants, and, when inhabited, where so many mouths are to find meat, must be found out by those who come after.’”

[45]Smith seems to have understated the facts. James Easton, the author of a curious work, entitled “Human Longevity, recording the name, age, place of residence, and year of the decease of 1712 persons, who attained a century and upwards, fromA.D.66 to 1799, etc.” (Salisbury, 1799), enumerates sixty-one cases in this year as against Smith’s forty-eight. He gives the following particulars of the three cases named by Smith:—“Mrs. Keithe—133, of Newnham, Gloucestershire. She, lived moderately, and retained her senses till within fourteen days of her death. She left three daughters, the eldest aged one hundred and eleven; the second one hundred and ten; the youngest one hundred and nine. Also seven great, and great great grandchildren.“Mr. Rice—115, of Southwark, cooper.“Mrs. Chun—138, near Litchfield, Staffordshire; resided in the same house one hundred and three years. By frequent exercise, and temperate living, she attained so great longevity. She left one son and two daughters, the youngest upwards of one hundred years.”

“Mrs. Keithe—133, of Newnham, Gloucestershire. She, lived moderately, and retained her senses till within fourteen days of her death. She left three daughters, the eldest aged one hundred and eleven; the second one hundred and ten; the youngest one hundred and nine. Also seven great, and great great grandchildren.

“Mr. Rice—115, of Southwark, cooper.

“Mrs. Chun—138, near Litchfield, Staffordshire; resided in the same house one hundred and three years. By frequent exercise, and temperate living, she attained so great longevity. She left one son and two daughters, the youngest upwards of one hundred years.”

[46]According to one story, Mother Damnable was Jinney, the daughter of a Kentish Town brick-maker, named Jacob Bingham. After living with a marauder named Gipsy George, who was hanged for sheep-stealing, Jinney passed from the protection of one criminal to another, until she was left a lonesome and embittered woman. She lived in her own cottage, built on waste land by her father, and abused everyone.“’Tis Mother Damnable! that monstrous thing,Unmatch’d by Macbeth’s wayward women’s ring.For cursing, scolding, fuming, flinging fireI’ the face of madam, lord, knight, gent, cit, squire.”The story went that on the night of her death hundreds of persons saw the Devil enter her house. On the site rose the inn which bore her portrait as its sign. Smith’s mention of the terror with which it was regarded may have reference to its loneliness and gruesome traditions. In his own day the inn was a pleasant resort. “Then the old Mother Red Cap was the evening resort of worn-out Londoners, and many a happy evening was spent in the green fields round about the old wayside houses by the children of poorer classes. At that time the Dairy, at the junction of the Hampstead and Kentish Town roads, was not the fashionable building it is now, but with forms for the pedestrians to rest on, they served out milk fresh from the cow to all who came” (John Palmer,St. Pancras). This dairy, so long a landmark to North Londoners, has just disappeared in favour of a “Tube” railway station.

“’Tis Mother Damnable! that monstrous thing,Unmatch’d by Macbeth’s wayward women’s ring.For cursing, scolding, fuming, flinging fireI’ the face of madam, lord, knight, gent, cit, squire.”

“’Tis Mother Damnable! that monstrous thing,

Unmatch’d by Macbeth’s wayward women’s ring.

For cursing, scolding, fuming, flinging fire

I’ the face of madam, lord, knight, gent, cit, squire.”

The story went that on the night of her death hundreds of persons saw the Devil enter her house. On the site rose the inn which bore her portrait as its sign. Smith’s mention of the terror with which it was regarded may have reference to its loneliness and gruesome traditions. In his own day the inn was a pleasant resort. “Then the old Mother Red Cap was the evening resort of worn-out Londoners, and many a happy evening was spent in the green fields round about the old wayside houses by the children of poorer classes. At that time the Dairy, at the junction of the Hampstead and Kentish Town roads, was not the fashionable building it is now, but with forms for the pedestrians to rest on, they served out milk fresh from the cow to all who came” (John Palmer,St. Pancras). This dairy, so long a landmark to North Londoners, has just disappeared in favour of a “Tube” railway station.

[47]This curious work may still be seen in Little Denmark Street, where its forty or fifty writhing figures, incrusted with grime, look at a little distance like some ordinary floral design. The original “Resurrection Gate” was erected about the year 1687, in accordance with an order of the vestry. The bill of expenses is extant, and its terms were contributed by Dr. Rimbault toNotes and Queriesof June 23, 1864, showing the cost to have been £185, 14s. 6d., of which £27 was paid for the carving to an artist named Love. In 1900, the present Tuscan gate in Little Denmark Street was erected with the old carving inserted.

[48]Probably Charles Harriot Smith, the architect, who was at first a stone-carver. He died in 1864.

[49]The Reverend James Bean was Vicar of Olney, Buckinghamshire, and assistant librarian at the British Museum. He died in 1826, and was buried in St. George’s, Bloomsbury, burial-ground.

[50]Strype says these almshouses bore the inscription, “St. Giles’s Almshouse, anno domini 1656.” They were removed in 1782.

[51]Originally Queen Anne’s Square and now Queen Anne’s Gate.

[52]The Pound stood, as Smith indicates, in the broad space where St. Giles High Street, Tottenham Court Road, and Oxford Street met; it was removed in 1765.

[53]This song, entitled “Just the Thing,” is valuable as a portrait of the eighteenth-century “hooligan,” ancestor of Mr. Clarence Rook’s nineteenth century “Alf” inHooligan Nights:—“On Newgate steps Jack Chance was found,And bred up near St. Giles’s Pound,My story is true, deny it who can,By saucy, leering Billingsgate Nan.Her bosom glowed with heartfelt joyWhen first she held the lovely boy.Then home the prize she straight did bring,And they all allow’d he was just the thing.At twelve years old, I have been told,The youth was sturdy, stout, and bold;He learn’d to curse, to swear, and fight,And everything but read and write.But when he came to man’s estate,His mind it ran on something great,A-thieving then he scorn’d to tramp;So hir’d a pad and went on the scamp.At clubs he all Flash Soup did sing.And they all allow’d he was just the thing.His manual exercise gone through,Of Bridewell, Pump, and Horse Pond too,His back had often felt the smartOf Tyburn strings at the tail of a cart.He stood the patter, but that’s no matter,He gammon’d the Twelve, and work’d on the water,Then a pardon he got from his gracious King,And swaggering Jack was just the thing.Like a captain bold, well arm’d for war.With bludgeon stout, or iron bar,At heading a mob, he never did fail,At burning a mass-house, or gutting a jail;But a victim he fell to his country’s laws,And died at last in religion’s cause.No Popery!made the blade to swing,And when tuck’d up he was just the thing.”

[53]This song, entitled “Just the Thing,” is valuable as a portrait of the eighteenth-century “hooligan,” ancestor of Mr. Clarence Rook’s nineteenth century “Alf” inHooligan Nights:—

“On Newgate steps Jack Chance was found,And bred up near St. Giles’s Pound,My story is true, deny it who can,By saucy, leering Billingsgate Nan.Her bosom glowed with heartfelt joyWhen first she held the lovely boy.Then home the prize she straight did bring,And they all allow’d he was just the thing.At twelve years old, I have been told,The youth was sturdy, stout, and bold;He learn’d to curse, to swear, and fight,And everything but read and write.But when he came to man’s estate,His mind it ran on something great,A-thieving then he scorn’d to tramp;So hir’d a pad and went on the scamp.At clubs he all Flash Soup did sing.And they all allow’d he was just the thing.His manual exercise gone through,Of Bridewell, Pump, and Horse Pond too,His back had often felt the smartOf Tyburn strings at the tail of a cart.He stood the patter, but that’s no matter,He gammon’d the Twelve, and work’d on the water,Then a pardon he got from his gracious King,And swaggering Jack was just the thing.Like a captain bold, well arm’d for war.With bludgeon stout, or iron bar,At heading a mob, he never did fail,At burning a mass-house, or gutting a jail;But a victim he fell to his country’s laws,And died at last in religion’s cause.No Popery!made the blade to swing,And when tuck’d up he was just the thing.”

“On Newgate steps Jack Chance was found,

And bred up near St. Giles’s Pound,

My story is true, deny it who can,

By saucy, leering Billingsgate Nan.

Her bosom glowed with heartfelt joy

When first she held the lovely boy.

Then home the prize she straight did bring,

And they all allow’d he was just the thing.

At twelve years old, I have been told,The youth was sturdy, stout, and bold;He learn’d to curse, to swear, and fight,And everything but read and write.

At twelve years old, I have been told,

The youth was sturdy, stout, and bold;

He learn’d to curse, to swear, and fight,

And everything but read and write.

But when he came to man’s estate,His mind it ran on something great,A-thieving then he scorn’d to tramp;So hir’d a pad and went on the scamp.At clubs he all Flash Soup did sing.And they all allow’d he was just the thing.

But when he came to man’s estate,

His mind it ran on something great,

A-thieving then he scorn’d to tramp;

So hir’d a pad and went on the scamp.

At clubs he all Flash Soup did sing.

And they all allow’d he was just the thing.

His manual exercise gone through,Of Bridewell, Pump, and Horse Pond too,His back had often felt the smartOf Tyburn strings at the tail of a cart.He stood the patter, but that’s no matter,He gammon’d the Twelve, and work’d on the water,Then a pardon he got from his gracious King,And swaggering Jack was just the thing.

His manual exercise gone through,

Of Bridewell, Pump, and Horse Pond too,

His back had often felt the smart

Of Tyburn strings at the tail of a cart.

He stood the patter, but that’s no matter,

He gammon’d the Twelve, and work’d on the water,

Then a pardon he got from his gracious King,

And swaggering Jack was just the thing.

Like a captain bold, well arm’d for war.With bludgeon stout, or iron bar,At heading a mob, he never did fail,At burning a mass-house, or gutting a jail;But a victim he fell to his country’s laws,And died at last in religion’s cause.No Popery!made the blade to swing,And when tuck’d up he was just the thing.”

Like a captain bold, well arm’d for war.

With bludgeon stout, or iron bar,

At heading a mob, he never did fail,

At burning a mass-house, or gutting a jail;

But a victim he fell to his country’s laws,

And died at last in religion’s cause.

No Popery!made the blade to swing,

And when tuck’d up he was just the thing.”

[54]Mr. George Clinch, in hisMarylebone and St. Pancras, says that there is some reason to think that a portion at least of Capper’s farm still remains. A large furniture establishment at Nos. 195-198, Tottenham Court Road, exhibits on a wall in the rear two tablets marking the boundary of St. Pancras and St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and bearing eighteenth-century dates. An old lease of the property, Mr. Clinch adds, contains a clause binding the tenant to keep stabling for forty head of cattle, and it is known that the premises were once used as a large livery stable.

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