Itinerant Musician
Much about this time another Bladder-man was in high estimation, whose portrait has been handed down to us in an etching by Miller, from a most spirited drawing by Gravelot. The following verses, which set forth his woful situation, are placed at the foot of the Plate:
1.“No musick ever charm’d my mindSo much as bladder fill’d with wind;But as no mortal’s free from fate,Nor nothing keeps its first estate,A pamper’d prodigal unkindOne day with sword let out the wind!My bladder ceas’d its pleasing sound,While boys stood tantalizing round.2.“They well may laugh who always win,But, had I not then thought on tin,My misery had been compleat;I must have begg’d about the street:But none to grief should e’er give way:This canister, ne’er fill’d with tea!Can please my audience as well,And charm their ears with, O Brave Nell.”
Some few years since a whimsical fellow attracted public notice by passing strings over the skull of a horse, upon which he played as a fidler. Another man, remarkably tall and thin, made a square violin, upon which he played for several years, particularly within the centre arches of Westminster Bridge.
To the eternal honour of the street-players of former times, it will ever be remembered that the great Purcell condescended to set one of their elegies to music. “Thomas Farmer, in 1684, lived in Martlet Court, in Bow Street, Covent Garden. He was originally one of the London street waits, and his elegy was set to music by Purcell.” See Hawkins’s History of Music, Vol. V. p. 18.
The Guardian, No. 1, March 12, 1713, notices the famous John Gale. “There was, I remember, some years ago, one John Gale, a fellow that played upon a pipe, and diverted the multitude by dancing in a ring they made about him, whose face became generally known, and the artists employed their skill in delineating his features, because every man was judge of the similitude of them.”
A sort of guitar or cittern, and also the fiddle, were used in this country so early as the year 1364, and may be seen upon a brass monumental plate to the memory of Robert Braunche and his two wives, in the choir of St. Margaret’s Church at Lynn. The subject alluded to is the representation of aPeacock feast, consisting of a long table with twelve persons, besides musicians and other attendants. Engravings of this very curious monument may be seen in Gough’s Sepulchral Monuments, vol. i. p. 115; in Carter’s Specimens of Ancient Sculpture, vol. ii. plate 15; and in Cotman’s Norfolk Brasses, Pl. III. p. 4.
⁂ The interest of the Plates in Mr. Smith’s “Antient Topography of London,” is much increased by numerous spirited little sketches of remarkable characters well known in the streets of the Metropolis; several of whom would have formed valuable additions, either to his work on the London Beggars, intituled, “Vagabondiana,” or the present volume: a few of these shall be here noticed.
1. In the View of the Old Houses in London Wall, p. 63, the man with two baskets isJohn Bryson, well known in London, particularly in rainy weather. He had been an opulent fishmonger in Bloomsbury Market, but became, by several losses, so reduced, that he latterly carried nothing except nuts in his basket; but his custom to the last was to cry every sort of fish from the turbot to the perriwinkle, never heeding the calls of those unacquainted with his humour. In the same Plate isWilliam Conway, whose cry of “Hard metal Spoons to sell or change,” was familiar to the inhabitants of London and its environs. This man’s portrait is also given by Mr. Smith in the present work, p. 63.
2. In the View of old Houses at the West end of Chancery Lane, p. 48, are several figures drawn from the life. The woman with crutches representsAnne Siggs. She was remarkable for her cleanliness, a rare quality for her fraternity. Slander, from whose sting the most amiable persons are not invulnerable, tempted this woman to spread a report of her being the sister of the celebrated tragedian, Mrs. Siddons. From a work of singular character by Mr. James Parry, it appears that she was a daughter of an industrious breeches-maker at Dorking in Surrey. Another back view of this woman occurs in the Plate of Duke Street, Smithfield, in p. 54.
3. The man without legs, in the same print, isSamuel Horsey, well known in Holborn, Fleet Street, and the Strand. In 1816 this man had been a London beggar for thirty-one years. He had a most Herculean trunk, and his weather-beaten ruddy face was the picture of health. Mr. Smith has given a back view of this beggar in “Vagabondiana,” p. 37, where are some further anecdotes of him.
4. The dwarf hobbling up Chancery Lane wasJeremiah Davies, a native of Wales. He was frequently shewn at fairs, and supported a miserable existence by performing sleight-of-hand tricks. He was also very strong, and would lift a considerable weight, though not above three feet high.
5. The tall slender figure next to Davies was a Mr.Creuse, a truly singular man, who never begged of any one, but would not refuse money when offered. He died in Middlesex Court, Drury Lane, and was attended to the burial ground in that street by friends in two mourning coaches. It is said he left money to a considerable amount behind him.
6. In the View of Houses in Sweedon’s Passage, p. 42, is a portrait ofJoseph Clinch, a noisy bow-legged ballad-singer, who was particularly famous, about 1795, for his song upon Whittington and his Cat. He likewise sold a coarse old woodcut of the animal, with its history and that of its master printed in the back ground.
7. In the view of Winchester Street, p. 68, the person with the umbrella went under the name of CountVerdion, well known to Book Collectors. This person was a professor of languages; for several years frequented Furnival’s Inn Coffee-House; and was a member of a man’s benefit society held at the Genoa Arms public house, in Hays’s Court, Newport Market. This supposed Count eventually proved to be a female, and died of a cancer on the 16th July 1802, at her lodgings in Charles Street, Hatton Garden, in the 58th year of her age.
8. The short figure, carrying a little box, was sketched fromthe celebrated corn-cutter, Mr.Corderoy, who married a lady five feet six inches high.
9. The figure beyond Mr. Corderoy, is that of the respectable Bishop of St.Pol de Leon; of whom a portrait and memoir by Mr. Eardley Wilmot, will be found in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1807.
10. In the view of Leadenhall Street, p. 52, the figure with a wig-box in his hands representsJoseph Watkins, born in 1739 at Richmond, in Yorkshire; by trade a barber, and a man of retentive memory. He frequently shaved Hogarth, whom he knew well, and said he was the last person in London who wore a scarlet roquelaure. He had gathered blackberries on the north side of the road now Oxford Street, and remembered the old triangular gallows at Tyburn, as represented in the Execution Plate of the Idle Apprentice.
11. The next figure is that of a draggle-tailed bawler of dying speeches, horrid murders, elegies, &c.
12. The female in a morning jacket was sketched from the celebrated Mrs.Elizabeth Carter, the learned translator of Epictetus. She died Feb. 19, 1806.
13. The clumsy figure in a white coat, holding a goose, was well known about town as a vender of aged poultry.
14. The figure with a cocked hat, was a dealer in old iron, a man well known at auctions of building materials, and was nicknamed by the brokers asOld Rusty.
In 1815 Mr. Smith published a separate whole-length portrait of “Henry Dinsdale, nicknamed Sir Harry Dimsdale, mayor of the mock Borough of Garret, aged 38, anno 1800.” It forms a good companion to his Vagabondiana. Dinsdale was by trade a muffin-man. There is also a spirited head of Dinsdale by Mr. Smith; and his portrait, in his court dress, is copied into Hone’s Every Day Book, vol. II. p. 829, where, by mistake, it is called Sir Jeffrey Dunstan.
P. 9. Hand’s Bun-house at Chelsea was pulled down April 18, 1839. See Gentleman’s Magazine for May 1839.
In p. 54 the cry of “Young Lambs to Sell” is noticed. It may be added, that in Hone’s Table Book, p. 396, is a spirited engraving of William Liston, an old soldier, with one arm and one leg, who, in 1821, carried about “Young Lambs to Sell.” Thefirstcrier of “Young Lambs to Sell,” Mr. Hone says, “was a maimed sailor, and with him originated the manufacture.”
THE END.
J. B. Nichols and Son, Printers, 25, Parliament-street.
Of Nichols and Son, may be had, Price 5l. 5s.
A NEW EDITION OF
THE ANTIQUITIES OF WESTMINSTER,
THE OLD PALACE, ST. STEPHEN’S CHAPEL, &c.
ILLUSTRATED BY
THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ENGRAVINGS
OF
TOPOGRAPHICAL SUBJECTS,
OF WHICH THE GREATER PART NO LONGER EXIST.
DRAWN ON THE SPOT, OR COLLECTED FROM SCARCE DRAWINGSOR PAINTINGS,
BY JOHN THOMAS SMITH.
⁂In this Edition the “Sixty-two additional Plates,” published subsequently to the original Work, are inserted in their proper places; together with twenty-two other Plates strictly illustrative of Mr. Smith’s publication; forming together a collection of Engravings illustrative of the antient City of Westminster unequalled in any other work.
Footnotes:
[1]The remaining copies of this curious work having fallen into the hands of Messrs. Nichols, it may now be had, with all the supplementary Plates properly arranged, and with others added to them.
[2]A copy of the Life of Nollekens, enriched with the greater portion of the autograph correspondence mentioned therein, and with numerous drawings, portraits, and prints, is in the possession of Mr. Upcott; a nearly similar copy is also in the library of William Knight, of Canonbury-house, Islington, esq. who possesses by far the most complete and valuable series of Mr. Smith’s graphic and literary labours. His copy of the History and Antiquities of Westminster, with numerous drawings of St. Stephen’s Chapel, taken by the Bucklers after the recent conflagration, is at once unique and unrivalled.
[3]Mr. Smith went to breakfast with Mr. Kean, who met him in the Hall, and asked him if he would like to see his lion; at the same moment introduced him to the beast in the parlour, who fawned about him; Mr. Kean became alarmed, and enticed the animal to the window, whilst Mr. Smith went up to Mrs. Kean in the drawing-room, who, on hearing of the circumstance, exclaimed, “Is Edmund mad?” Mr. Smith that morning made a sketch of the lion in his den.
[4]This painted glass, 24 inches by 16, commemorates a very valuable benefaction to the parish of Lambeth, by a person unknown, of a piece of land, called, in 1504, Church Hope; in 1623, the Church Oziers, or Ozier Hope; and in 1690, Pedlar’s Acre; let in 1504 at 2s.8d., and now covered with houses and wharfs. Hope or Hoope signifies an isthmus or neck of land projecting into the river, or an inclosed piece of low marsh land. By the Churchwardens’ Accounts, in 1607, it appears there was then a picture of the Pedlar; but the present pane is thus noticed: “1703. March 6. Paid Mr. Price for a new glass Pedler £2.” Nichols’s Lambeth Parish, pp. 30, 31, 39; Allen’s Lambeth, p. 62; in both which works are also representations of this painted glass. N.
[5]A view of this house is given in the Gentleman’s Magazine for May 1801. Dr. Swift, in his Journal to Stella, Nov. 15, 1712, mentioning the death of the Duke of Hamilton, in a duel with Lord Mahon, says, “the Duke was helped towards the Cake-house by the Ring in Hyde Park (where the duel was fought), and died on the grass before he could reach the house.” N.
[6]This curious series of the Cries of London, drawn after the life, was engraved on 74 copper-plates by Tempesta, after Laroon. It is noticed in Hone’s Table Book, vol. ii. p. 131, where twenty of these Cries not now heard in the streets are described, and the following figures are copied. 1. “Buy a fine singing bird,” vol. i. p. 510; 2. “Six pence a pound, fair cherries;” and 3. “Troop every one!” the seller of hobby-horses, toys for children, i. 686; 4. “Any New-River water here,” p. 733; 5. “Fine Writing Ink;” and 6. “Buy an Iron Fork, or a Spoon,” vol. ii. p. 431. The Set of Cries by Paul Sandby, consists of twelve. Both these have many real portraits. (Gough’s Brit. Top. i. 689.) N.
[7]It is much to be regretted that Mr. Smith never completed this work, for which he had collected valuable materials, which we fear are dispersed. N.
[8]Representations of these cressets are given in Douce’s “Illustrations of Shakspeare,” and in “Hone’s Every Day Book,” i. 831. N.
[9]Stowe, edit. 1618, p. 160. These extracts from Stowe attracted the notice of Mr. Hone, who has inserted them, with many suitable remarks, in his “Every Day Book,” i. 827. N.
[10]This work was very popular. The eighth edition bears this title: “English Villanies, eight several times prest to Death by the Printers, but still reviving again, are now the eighth time (as at the first) discovered by Lanthorne and Candlelight, &c. Lond. 1618.” N.
[11]Copied in Hone’s “Table Book,” vol. i. p. 733. N.
[12]Elizabeth, one of the learned and accomplished daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, Knt. was first married to Sir Thomas Hobye, (who died at Paris in 1566.) She was afterwards married to John Lord Russell, (who died in 1584); and having lived his widow 25 years, was buried at Bisham, June 2, 1609.—Nichols’s Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, III. 132. N.
[13]Sir Thomas de Veil died Oct. 7, 1746, in his 63d year, and was buried at Denham, Bucks. A good memoir of him will be found in Gent. Mag. for 1747, p. 562. N.
[14]Since this work was written, an excellent work on Ancient Furniture has been published, the plates engraved by Henry Shaw, F.S.A. and described by Sir Samuel R. Meyrick, K.H. F.S.A.
[15]This appears to have been an adaptation from—
Young Lambs to sell! Young Lambs to sell!If I’d as much money as I couldtellI never would cry, Young Lambs to sell!
[16]The lovers of saloop can no longer enjoy their favourite beverage at this the original shop, it having been closed as a coffee-house in June 1833, the proprietor having been unfortunately too fond of liquor more spirituous than his own saloop. It is now a shoe-warehouse. N.
[17]Lockyer was the name of the first proprietor of the house.
[18]Mount Pleasant is in America, and produces the sassafras, from which the proprietor of the above coffee-house made the saloop.
[19]Wormholt or Wormwood Scrubs, in the parish of Hammersmith. The following is extracted from the Sporting Magazine, Oct. 1802, p. 15. “On Thursday a pitched battle, for twenty guineas a side, was fought between O’Donnel and Pardo Wilson, brother-in-law to Belcher; and the ground fixed upon for the combat was theScrubs, through which the Paddington canal runs, about four miles from Hyde Park Corner.” Wormholt Scrubs has long been rented of the parish of Hammersmith by the Government as an exercise ground for the cavalry. At the present time Wormholt Scrubs is traversed by three railways, the London and Birmingham, the Great Western, and one now making to join the two former ones with the Thames. N.