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John Morgan too, was a Globe spirit, a man universally known and esteemed," with whom we are quite unacquainted. He was, it appears, a great wit in the neighbourhood of Shoe-lane.

Morgan was, without exception, the best companion I ever knew. One night in particular, he was so irresistibly droll, that Mr. Woodmason the stock-broker presented the ludicrous spectacle of a man of six feet high rolling about on the floor with his arms a-kimbo, to keep himself toge ther, as he said, for that he was certain otherwise he should break a blood vessel, that fellow Morgan made him laugh so much. I was to Morgan what Sir Watkin Lewes was to Wilkes, when he complained that Wilkes made a butt of him; "True," said Wilkes, "still it's only a waste butt." (P. 39, 40.)

There was a sixpenny card club at the Queen's Arms too; at which Mr. Brasbridge and nineteen other choice spirits joked and revoked incessantly. Goodwin was one,-Goodwin, the woollen-draper, who invariably exclaimed, when he came down stairs of a morning," Good morrow, Mr. Shop. You'll take care of me, Mr. Shop, and I'll take care of you!'

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The Cider Cellar too, boasted of Mr. Brasbridge's company.-In truth, he seems to have diligently attended to the signs of the times. Mr. Brasbridge speaks of our Elia as the historian of the Cider Cellar, the only fact in the volume, we believe, which is built on a sandy foundation.

The "Free and Easy under the Rose" was another society to which I belonged. It was founded sixty years ago at the Queen's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-yard, and was afterwards removed to the Horntavern. It was originally kept by Bates, who was never so happy as when standing behind a chair with a napkin under his arm; but arriving at the dignity of Alderman, tucking in the calipash and calipee himself, instead of handing it round to the company, soon did his business. My excellent friend Crickett, the marshal of the

Our

High Court of Admiralty, was President of this society for many years, and I was constantly in attendance as his Vice. It consisted of some thousand members, and I never heard of any one of them that ever incurred any serious punishment. great fault was sitting too late; in this respect, according to the principle of Franklin, that "time is money," " we were indeed most unwary spendthrifts; in other instances our conduct was orderly and correek. I cannot say so much for the com

pany that frequented the Spread Eagle, in the Strand, a house famous for the resort of young men after the theatre. Shorter, the landlord, facetiously observed, that his was & very uncommon set of customers, for what with hanging, drowning, and natural deaths, he had a change every six months.

One of our members, Mr. Hawkins, a spatterdash maker, of Chancery-lane, was remarkable for murdering the king's English. Having staid away for some days in consequence of a fit of illness, one of his friends asked him the cause of his absence; he said he had been an individual some time, meaning an invalid. In giving an account of the troops landing from Ame rica, after long absence and perilous service, he said, they were so rejoiced, that they prostituted themselves on the earth; the person, to whom he was relating it, observed, that they had been manured to hardships; "Yes, indeed they had," said Mr. Hawkins," and that was the reason they were so much affected." Mr. Hawkins was, nevertheless, a very good man, as well as a good spatterdash maker; and the name of Equity Hawkins, which we gave him on account of his living in Chancery-lane, might have been applied to him, with equal truth, on account of his own integrity. (P. 50-53.)

The following anecdote is a warning to all lovers of monumental glory.

Mr. Darwin was one of the churchwardens of St. Mildred's. A gentleman, who had formerly lived in the parish, and whose wife was buried in the churchyard, afterwards went into a distant country, and erected a superb mausoleum upon his estate; the first dedication of which, he

wished to be to the remains of his wife.

Accordingly he wrote to the churchwardens; and a proper deputation of gravediggers, with the sexton, and Mr. Darwin at their head, descended into the vaults to search for the coffin of the defunct. When they found it, however, it was in such a state that it could not be moved; they therefore contented themselves with transferring the plate, stating the name, age, and period of decease, to its next neighbour, a respectable old gentleman, who most likely little dreamed in his life-time, that his clay would finally rest beneath a superb mausoleum, and have all the honours paid to it that were intended by the owner for his departed wife. When the removal was completed, Darwin remarked, that they had had a very disagreeable job, and it would require a good dinner to get them over it, which they accordingly had. (P. 54, 55.)

We have not omitted a single joke of Mr. Brasbridge's yet we believe. The following is extremely piquant.

Darwin was very intimate with Mr. Fig

gins, a wax-chandler in the Poultry, who was also a member of the "Free and Easy." They almost always entered the room together, and, from the inseparable nature of their friendship, I gave them the names of Liver and Gizzard; and they were ever afterwards called the Liver and Gizzard of the Common Council.

(P. 56.) Miss Boydell is commemoratedand the compliment to her beauty is well-timed,

I should be wanting in my habitual reverence for the fair sex, did I not take this opportunity of acknowledging the attractions and graces possessed by Miss Boydell at this time. (P. 57.) We come now to a burst of Mr. Brasbridge's political principles, and we cannot help thinking that he carried the zeal of a patriot beyond the bounds of decency, and betrayed a curiosity beyond that of ordinary historians!

Among the rest of these intruders, for such I must deem them, was a Mr. Lothroi, a Frenchman, who appeared to me a very suspicious character, and whom I strongly suspected of being in England without a proper license. Under this idea I did what I thought my duty, and what I should think every real lover of his country would have done in similar circumstances, when the perilous aspect of the times called on all true Englishmen to be on their guard alike against internal and external enemies. I went to Mr. Chamberlain Clark, and stated fully and explicitly my suspicions respecting Mr. Lothroi, taking care, at the same time, to explain that I knew of nothing positively wrong in his conduct; and that I was not actuated by any motive of ill-will against him, but merely by my desire to do what I thought my duty as a good citizen, and a loyal subject, demanded of me. Mr. Chamberlain Clark told me, that, in order to carry on the business in proper form, I ought to send for Mr. Lothroi, and then deliver him up to the city marshal, who would take him before the Lord Mayor, which office was, at that time, filled by Paul Le Me surier, Esq. who would make him give a proper account of himself, or take the consequences. I accordingly did so; Mr. Lothroi was taken before the Lord Mayor, and, the account he gave of himself being deemed satisfactory, he was discharged. I was perfectly contented with the result, for, as I had no personal malice against the man, I could not be sorry that he had cleared himself from my suspicions. I will frankly acknowledge, that I have a natural antipathy to a Frenchman, the stronger because it is hereditary; for my

father, who was an honest inland farmer, entertained the same feeling, and carried it to such a height that he would never even let me learn the language of a people, whom he regarded as our natural and unchangeable enemies. (P. 60–62.)

The confession at the conclusion of this passage is candid and good. He showed his bringing up, and trod in the steps of his frog-sick father.

Mr. Brasbridge now "returns to his shop." He is persuaded to take stock. He finds that a young man of the name of Ashforth has abused the trust reposed in him, and, in short, ruin in due time follows. He be comes bankrupt, and Mr. Blades, the glass-man, Mr. Eley, the spoonmaker, and Mr. Hoare, of Cheapside, are appointed assignees. All the assignees are his enemies; in this Mr. Brasbridge resembles the man who always met with twelve stubborn men on a jury! The house and business in Fleet-street are sold under the commission, and Mr. Smithluckless Mr. Smith! becomes the purchaser. Mr. Smith prints up his name with "late Brasbridge," (who got the name by his club-hours!) and Brasbridge got into a neighbouring shop, and started his opposition gravy-spoons and punch-ladles.

After my name had been up in this doubtful conjunction with Smith for about five years, his house was repainted, and I, thinking I had a right to use my own name as I pleased, begged leave to run up th painter's ladder, when he descended, and efface it with a broom. Upon this, Mr. Smith sallied forth to seize the instrument of destruction to his ingenious device. I, thinking that I had been robbed enough already, held it stoutly with one hand, and advanced the other so near Mr. Smith's face, that he ran back into his shop, and took refuge behind the counter; I conjured him by the honor of an Englishman to come as far as the threshold; but he stuck close to his counter, until he was reinforced by his journeyman and porter; and then, finding myself likely to be overpowered by numbers, I also, like a prudent general, thought fit to secure a retreat. The next day he got the name painted more conspicuously than ever, and modestly sent the painter to me with his bill for so doing. On my refusing to pay it, he summoned me to the Court of Conscience, and, in explaining the matter to the commissioners, he told then that my name stunk in the parish of St. Bride's; they remarked, that he seemed very fond of stinking fish, and advised him to go home and mend his own manners?

he had accordingly the pleasure of paying
the expenses attendant on the proceedings,
and returned home to meditate on his im-
potent malice.
(P. 83-85.)

Such was the war in the parish of St. Bride! Indeed, from the time of the bankruptcy, Mr. Brasbridge seems to have encountered much hostility, and to have waged war with divers parishioners.

The following is really interesting, and ought never to have been written before, Mr. Brasbridge has written it so well.

Sir Thomas Halifax was a most excellent chief magistrate; one instance, in par ticular, of his impartiality and firmness, when he was Lord Mayor, I witnessed myself with respect to Doctor Dodd. The unfortunate delinquent was brought before him, and was standing in a room crowded with spectators, when Lord Chesterfield sent up his name to the Lord Mayor, and requested a private interview. Sir Thomas, with manly and becoming spirit, sent his compliments to his Lordship, and informed him, that, the business he was come upon being of a public nature, he could not possibly hear it in private, every person present having as much right as himself to be made acquainted with it. The sight of Doctor Dodd upon his knees, imploring the mercy of Lord Chesterfield, moved every one, but the polished statue to whom he addressed himself; in vain he reminded him of the cares he had lavished upon his infancy, and entreated his forgiveness of a fault, which, at the very moment he committed it, he meant to make amends for; in vain he implored him to save his character and his life by withdrawing his prosecution this flinty-hearted young nobleman, then only just arrived at man's estate, a period of life when all the finest feelings are generally too acutely awake, and prudence and self-interest scarcely yet roused, could, unmoved, behold his old preceptor kneeling at his feet, and could coldly turn from him, leaving him to all the misery of despair and anticipated disgrace. Had the sympathy of the whole assembly been of any avail against his Lordship's cruelty, the unfortunate man would have been spared to benefit society by the edifying example of a repentant sinner, instead of being offered up as a victim to public justice, a shrine at which so many sacrifices are annually made, apparently without producing either warning or amendment. A very different spirit possessed Mr. Manby of the Temple, when Doctor Dodd was brought before him. Significantly showing the bond to the Doctor, he laid it on the table, and went and looked out of the window; but the Doctor had not the presence of mind to

seize the opportunity thus afforded him of
destroying it. I think in such a case I
should have gone one step farther than Mr.
Manby: I should have warned the Doctor
back was turned, as I should then have no
not to put the bond into the fire, when my
evidence against him. (P. 88-90.)

people who behaved kindly to our
A list now follows of those worthy
historian after his misfortune, a-
Marlborough and Argyll stand pre-
mongst whom the late Dukes of
eminent.
he had continued in trade, the present
We are quite sure that if
Dukes would not have withdrawn
their custom from him.

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Poor Mr. Whipham, the silversmith, offended Mr. Brasbridge by candlesticks, and called down upon some naughty manner in an affair of his head the following note.

SIR,-Your ingratitude is monstrous, and I am your detester,

J. BRASBRIDGE. A history of spoon-makers follows, perhaps more interesting to the trade than to the general reader, though highly valuable as a bit of metal biography.

prietor of Vauxhall, was a customer. Mrs. Tyers, the widow of the pro

Mrs. Tyers one day remarked to me, that she had not tasted butchers' meat for twenty years; she had, however, lived upon beef and mutton, and veal, like other people; only, as the butcher told her, she always made it her own, by paying for it, before it went out of the shop. Mr. Tyers was a worthy man; but indulged himself a little too much in the querulous strain, when any thing went amiss; insomuch hatter, he believed people would have been that he said if he had been brought up a born without heads. A farmer once gave him a humorous reproof for this kind of reproach of heaven; he stepped up to him very respectfully, and asked him when he meant to open his gardens; Mr. Tyers replied, the next Monday fortnight: the ing away, but Mr. Tyers asked him in reman thanked him repeatedly, and was goturn, what made him so anxious to know; "Why, Sir," said the farmer, "I think know we shall be sure to have rain.” of sowing my turnips on that day, for you

(P. 134, 135.) The next good joke is neat but abstruse.

the command of an army. He was six feet
Col. Dillon seemed formed by nature for
high, singularly handsome, and combined in
his manner all the spirit of a soldier with the
gallantry of a courtier.
ing the beautiful Marie Antoinette on horse.
One day, in help-

green

back, he fixed his eyes intently on her slippers; she laughingly asked him, why he noticed them; " Because," said he, "they are so appropriate to the wearer, who has all the world at her feet." (P. 135, 136.) Mr. Brasbridge speaks unaffect edly and affectionately of his children; we must, however, refer to the book itself.

In 1780, Mr. Brasbridge took up arms against the rioters. Kennet, the Lord Mayor, of course comes in for a page or two.

Mr. Kennet had begun life as a waiter, and his manners never rose above his origi

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nal station. When he was summoned to be examined in the House, one of the members wittily observed, "If you ring the bell, Mr. Kennet will come of course." His excuse for his behaviour was, that being attacked both before and behind, he was seized with a fit of temerity, which made him not know what he was about. One evening at the Alderman's Club, he was at the whist-table; and Mr Alderman Pugh, a dealer in soap, and an extremely good-natured man, was at his elbow, smoking his pipe. the bell, Soap-suds," said Mr. Kennet, in his coarse way. "Ring it yourself, Bar," replied the Alderman, you have been twice as much used to it as I have." Mr. Pugh was another of the instances of successful industry with which our metropolis abounds. He originally came to town in the humble capacity of drawer and porter at the Hoop and Bunch of Grapes, in Hatton Garden. He then went to live with Alderman Benn, to take care of his horse and cart; and for his good conduct was admitted as under clerk in the counting-house; and, being a married man, his master augmented his salary, in the sum of ten pounds, on the birth of every child. He was afterwards taken into partnership, &c. (P. 163, 164.) Mr. Brasbridge is a governor of Bridewell Hospital, and here his his tory gets rather personal and particular. Mr. Blades is rebuked, Mr. Waithman is corrected, and Luke Hodson is castigated. Indeed Mr. Waithman was so offensive, at all times, in the author's eyes, that the latter informed against the Alderman for not removing the dirt from his shop-front. The alderman was not the only person that derived all his information from our author.

The day of the King going to St. Paul's is a great day with the historian, and the following anecdote of the then Prince of Wales is rather drily related.

My chiefest ornament was Mrs. Aylmer, the wife of a captain in the royal navy; whose perfect beauty of features and graceful symmetry of form attracted the notice of our present beloved monarch, at that time Prince of Wales; as he looked up to the windows, and gazed on her with all the could ever accuse him of withholding from (P. 190, 191.)

admiration which not his bitterest enemies

the fair sex.

hurst is not forgotten. However: The accomplished George Park

The Colonel had his fallibilities; having had an action brought against him for crim. con. with the wife of Mr. Parsloe, he was fined 10,000l. damages, and ever after called her dear Mrs. Parsloe, having a right, as he said, to use the word, after he had paid 10,0001. for her. (P. 202.)

Brasbridge is a famous anecdotist. When the Talents came into power, they turned out every body that they could, even Lord Sandwich, the Master of the Stag Hounds. The King met his Lordship in his ride soon after. "How do, how do," cried his Majesty; so they have turned you off; it was not my fault upon my honour, for it was as much as I could do to keep my own place.” (P. 204.)

We pass over Martin Whish, Charles Mills, Mr. Bolland, and Mr. Fish, all excellent men, and excellently commemorated in the book. The volume now approaches its end.

It is the consolation of growing old to talk of what we can remember when we were young. I recollect the first broadwheeled waggon that was used in Oxfordshire, and a wondering crowd of spectators it attracted. I believe at that time there was not a post-chaise in England excepting two-wheeled ones. Lamps to carriages are also quite a modern improvement. A shepherd, who was keeping sheep, in the vicinity of a village in Oxfordshire, came running all aghast, to say, that a frightful monster with saucer eyes, and making a great blowing noise, was coming towards the village, at such a rate, that he could scarcely keep before it. (P. 233.)

benefit of several of our readers; aye, We extract the following for the and writers too, mayhap!

I must now take the privilege of an old man, to caution my young readers against falling into the practice of smoking, the idlest of all amusements, and the stupidest of all kinds of intoxication. I have heard

indeed an excuse alleged for it, by an old smoker, that it is good for the memory and as a proof of it, the advocate remarked, that if a man be ever so drunk, he is reminded by it to drink again. (P. 235, 236.)

One more joke, a brave one! and we have done with the repartees.

Amongst the follies of my early days, was that of riding out on a Sunday. The George and Vulture was my principal place of resort; the house was kept by Vaughan, who was formerly a haberdasher

in Cornhill. About ten or twelve of us used to dine together. Vaughan was an obliging landlord, always came in with the first dish, and on taking it off used to say, he hoped we had had a good dinner; we in return thanked him for his attention. One day, however, one of the party, a complaining man, whom we called Grumpall, said, in reply to the usual question, "We should have done better if the meat had been better done;" it was a fillet of veal, and was cut down, at the moment he spoke, to the thinness of my hand, on which Mr. Vaughan, holding up the dish, said, "It seems pretty well done; what think you, gentlemen ?" on which there was a very hearty laugh against Grumpall.

(P. 241, 242.)

In the year 1819, Mr. Brasbridge had the misfortune to lose his son, and shortly afterwards he retired from business. Since his retirement he has been into Monmouthshire, and has visited Tintern Abbey:-He does not say whether he prefers it to Westminster Abbey.

This little book is thus concluded.

I drink nothing but table ale with my dinner, having taken the same dislike to wine that Reynard did to the grapes, and when the cloth is taken away my kind and worthy wife plays at cribbage with me, that I may not miss the circling glass, or

Sit like my grandsire cut in alabaster,
And creep into the jaundice
By being peevish.

After supper, with the same affectionate attention she reads to me whilst I smoke one pipe, and take a single glass of grog, or punch. I go to bed at ten, rise a little after seven, am glad to see my richer neighbours roll by in their carriages, and enjoy my

own ride in the Herne Hill stage. From this regularity of proceeding it will be seen, that I am quite willing to continue my part in this terrestrial scene as long as it shall please God to keep me here. I am indeed in very good humour with myself, and with the world too, notwithstanding any warmth of expression into which I may have been betrayed in the preceding pages, by that desire of self-vindication which every honest mind must feel when unjustly accused. I have been tempted to write this short aclous vanity of imagining that the public count of my past life not out of the ridicu could be interested in the private transactions of an obscure individual like myself, but to establish two principles of equal importance in a country of commerce and in dustry, like this to which I have the hap piness to belong. The first is, that a man imputation on his integrity; and the se may be a bankrupt without the smallest cond, that it is never too late to do well, and that honesty, frugality, and industry, with at least decent competency, peace of will invariably in the long run be rewarded mind, and the good opinion of all but the envious and the malignant. If in elucidating these principles I have reprobated the conduct of those who have treated me bered, that I have acknowledged, with far with baseness and injustice, be it remem

more warmth, the kind acts and estimable

qualities of those who have proved themselves my friends; and that in thus striking the balance between justice and injustice, candour and illiberality, generosity and meanness, I conceive myself to be serving the cause of others as well as my own; of all, in short, who may have been unfortuexposed to the animadversions of a misnate like myself, and in the same manner judging world. (P. 255–257.)

Considering the very troublesome times Mr. Brasbridge has lived in, and the sad characters he has had to encounter, he has certainly produced a peaceable and amusing volume, which may be placed on the same shelf with John Dunton, and about two shelves under Colley Cibber.

THE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE PRESENT AGE OF POETRY. WERE I called upon to state what the Characteristic of the present age of Poetry, in my opinion, was, I should without any hesitation reply -Sensuality..

The language of Philosophy is almost always the same, but the different Ages of Polite Literature have

their corresponding characteristics; in fact, it is from the existence of such distinct characteristics that the whole period of a nation's literature is divided into ages. Thus the golden age of English poetry (otherwise called the Elizabethan) is differenced from all those which succeeded it, by

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