Its contiguity to the artillery-ground in Bunhill Fields, where the city trainband exercised, is amusingly alluded to in The Tatler, No. 41, where their redoubtable doings are narrated: 'Happy was it that the greatest part of the achievements of this day was to be performed near Grub Street, that there might not be wanting a sufficient number of faithful historians, who being eye-witnesses of these wonders, should impartially transmit them to posterity.' The concocters of News-letters were among the most prolific and unblushing authors of 'Grubstreet literature.' Steele, in the periodical just quoted, alludes to some of them by name: 'Where Prince Eugene has slain his thousands, Boyer has slain his ten thousands; this gentleman can, indeed, be never enough commended for his courage and intrepidity during this whole war.' 'Mr Buckley has shed as much blood as the former.' 'Mr Dyer was particularly famous for dealing in whales, insomuch that in five months' time he brought three into the mouth of the Thames, besides two porpuses and a sturgeon. The judicious and wary Mr L. Dawks hath all along been the rival of this great writer, and got himself a reputation from plagues and famines, by which he destroyed as great multitudes, as he has lately done by the sword. In every dearth of news, Grand Cairo was sure to be unpeopled.' This mob of unscrupulous scribblers, and the ballad-singers who gave voice to their political pasquinades, occasioned the government much annoyance at times. The pillory and the jail were tried in vain. 'Earless on high stood unabashed Defoe.' MINSTRELS' FESTIVAL AT TUTBURY. succeeded in repressing political satire; it has died a natural death for want of strong food! he The Minstrels' Festibal at Tutbury. The castle of Tutbury was a place of great strength, built shortly after the Conquest by Henry de Ferrars, one of William's Norman noblemen, who had received the gift of large possessions in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and the neighbouring counties. It stands upon a hill so steep on one side that it there needs no defence, whilst the other three were strongly walled by the first owner, who lost his property by joining in the rebellion of Simon de Montfort against Henry III. It was afterwards in the possession of the Dukes of Lancaster, one of whom, the celebrated John of Gaunt, added to its fortifications. During the civil war, it was taken and destroyed by the parliamentary forces; and the ruins only now remain. It was the ambition of speculative booksellers to During the time of the Dukes of Lancaster, the little town of Tutbury was so enlivened by the noble hospitality they kept up, and the great concourse of people who gathered there, that some regulations became necessary for keeping them in order; more especially those disorderly favourites of both the high and low, the wandering jongleurs or minstrels, who displayed their talents at all festive-boards, weddings, and tournaments. A court was therefore appointed by John of Gaunt, to be held every year on the day after the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin, being the 16th of August, to elect a king of the minstrels, try those who had been guilty of misdemeanours during the year, and grant licences for the future year, all which were accompanied by many curious observances. The newspapers of the day often allude to these persecutors. The Middlesex grand jury, in 1716, denounced the singing of scandalous ballads about the streets as a common nuisance; tending to alienate the minds of the people. The Weekly Packet, which gives this information, adds, 'we hear an order will be published to apprehend those who cry about, or sing, such scandalous papers. Read's Weekly Journal tells us, in July 1731, that 'three hawkers were committed to Tothill Fields Bridewell, for crying about the streets a printed paper called Robin's Game, or Seven's the Main;' a satire on the ministry of Sir Robert Walpole. In July 1763, we are told yesterday evening two women were sent to Bridewell, by Lord Bute's order, for singing political ballads before his lordship's door in South Audley Street.' State prosecutions have never old houses, are on both sides the way; and the whole neighbourhood is depressing to the spirits, through its hopeless air of poverty. 224 The wood-master and rangers of Needwood Forest began the festivities by meeting at Berkley Lodge, in the forest, to arrange for the dinner which was given them at this time at Tutbury Castle, and killed, as also another which was their yearly where the buck they were allowed for it should be present to the prior of Tutbury for his dinner. These animals having received their death-blow, the master, keepers, and deputies met on the Day of Assumption, and rode in gay procession, two and two, into the town, to the High Cross, each carrying a green bough in his hand, and one bearing the buck's head, cut off behind the ears, garnished with a rye of pease and a piece of fat fastened to each of the antlers. The minstrels went on foot, two and two, before them, and when they reached the cross, the keeper blew on his horn the various hunting signals, which were answered by the others; all passed on to the churchyard, where, alighting from their horses, they went into the church, the minstrels playing on their instruments during the time of the offering of the buck's head, and whilst each keeper paid one penny as an offering to the church. Mass was then celebrated, and all adjourned to the good dinner which was prepared for them in the castle; towards the expenses of which the prior gave them thirty shillings. On the following day, the minstrels met at the bailiff's house, in Tutbury, where the steward of the court, and the bailiff of the manor, who were noblemen of high rank, such as the Dukes of Lancaster, Ormond, or Devonshire, with the woodmaster, met them. A procession was formed to go to church, two trumpeters walking first, and then endeavoured to drive the bull into Derbyshire, the other to keep him in Staffordshire, and this led to such outrage, that many returned home with broken heads. Gradually, as 'old times were changed, old manners gone,' the minstrels fell into disrepute; the castles were destroyed in the civil wars, the nobility spent their time and sought their amusements in London, and harpers were no longer needed to charm away the ennui of their ladies and retainers; the court of minstrels found no employment, and the bull-baiting was strongly objected to by the inhabitants. The Duke of Devonshire consequently abolished the whole proceeding in 1778, after it had lasted through the long period of four hundred years. The manor of Tutbury was one of those held by cornage tenure: in 1569, Walter Achard claimed to be hereditary steward of Leek and Tutbury, in proof of which he shewed a white hunter's horn, decorated with silver gilt ornaments. It was hung to a girdle of fine black silk, adorned with buckles of silver, on which were the arms and the fleurs-de-lis of the Duke of Lancaster, from whom it descended. The Stanhopes of Elvaston were recently in possession of the badge. AUGUST 16. St Hyacinth, confessor, 1257. St Roch, confessor, 14th century. ST ROCH OR ROQUE PALMER, THE POST-REFORMER. to prodigious controversies, which whizzed and sputtered and fumed about the ears of mankind for a good many years, and by and by subsided into the silence of oblivion, in which for fully a hundred years past they have remained. Was a French gentleman, possessing estates near Montpelier, which, however, he abandoned in order to devote himself to a religious life. The date of his death is stated with some uncertainty as 1327. In consequence of working miraculous cures of the plague, while himself stricken with the disease at Placentia, in Italy, Roque was held as a saint specially to be invoked by persons so afflicted. There were many churches dedicated to him in Germany and other countries, and it seems to have been a custom that persons dying of plague should be buried there. St Roch's Day was celebrated in England as a general harvest-home. Tindal cannot be mentioned without some notice of Eustace Budgel, his friend and follower as far as regards religious ideas. Budgel was a relation of Addison, a man of fair talents, and a contributor to the Spectator and Guardian. Through Addison's influence, when secretary of state, Budgel obtained confidential and lucrative political offices, and his abilities as a writer and speaker promised his speedy rise to distinction. But, cursed with an unhappy temper, an irregular ambition, and an inability to control splenetic, revengeful passions, he lost his official position; and the bursting of the South-sea Bubble left him, in the prime of life, ruined alike in fortune and political influence. His reputation was to follow. At Tindal's death, it was found that he had made Budgel his heir, to the exclusion of his nephew. Budgel was accused of forging the will, which was written by an alleged female accomplice, a Mrs Price; and whether innocent or otherwise, there can be no doubt that he was guilty of dishonesty regarding a considerable sum he had borrowed from Tindal, just previous to his death, and the receipt of which he strenuously denied, till the notes were traced to his possession. The subject was a fruitful one for the wits of the day. Pope writes Born.-Ralph Thoresby, antiquary, author of Ducatus Leodiensis, 1658, Leeds; Catharine Cockburn, dramatist and moral writer, 1679, London; Pierre Mechain, mathematician and astronomer, 1744, Laon; Frederick, Duke of York, second son of George III., 1763. Died.-Dr Thomas Fuller, celebrated divine and author, 1661, Cranford, Middlesex; Jacques Bernouilli, mathematician and natural philosopher, 1705, Basel; Dr Matthew Tindal, freethinking writer, 1733, London; Bartholomew Joubert, French general, killed at Novi, 1799; John Palmer, post-reformer, 1818. TINDAL AND BUDGEL. 'Let Budgel charge all Grub Street on my quill, And write whate'er he please, except my will.' The best epigram on Tindal's will, however, is the following: 'Hundreds of years, th' Old Testament and New Budgel boldly attempted to outface the obloquy of this affair, and for a while seemed to have succeeded; but at length, succumbing to popular indignation, he committed suicide. The evils of undisciplined temper and passions are nowhere more clearly evinced than in the unhappy career of Eustace Budgel. PALMER, THE POST-REFORMER. Three hundred years ago, travellers had no choice but to ride on horseback or walk. Kings, queens, and gentlefolk all mounted to the saddle. The practice had existed for generations and centuries. Chaucer's ride to Canterbury is made famous by his own lucid account of that celebrated Ladies were accustomed to ride on Dr Matthew Tindal, a clergyman's son, and a fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, made himself notable, in the early part of the eighteenth century, journey. a series of books and pamphlets assailing the by pretensions of High Church, and latterly endeavouring to take away the supernatural element from Christianity itself. His writings gave rise pillions fixed on the horse, and generally behind *So Budgel termed Tindal. + His own testament, the alleged forged will. PALMER, THE POST-REFORMER. AUGUST 16. some relative or serving-man. In this way Queen Elizabeth, when she rode into the city from her residence at Greenwich, placed herself behind her lord-chancellor. Judges rode the circuit in jackboots for centuries, and continued to do so long after other means of conveyance were in general use.* The first improvement consisted in a kind of rude wagon, which was, in reality, nothing but a cart without springs, the body of it resting solidly upon the axle. In such a vehicle did Elizabeth drive to the opening of her fifth parliament. Mr Smiles, in his interesting Lives of the Engineers, relates that, 'that valyant knyght, Sir Harry Sydney, on a certain day in 1583, entered Shrewsbury in his wagon, with his trompeter blowynge, verey joyfull to behold and see." Bad as these conveyances must have been, they had scarcely fair-play on the execrable roads of the period. Even up to the end of the seventeenth century, the roads in most parts of the country were not unlike broad ditches, much water-worn and carelessly strewn with loose stones. It is on record, that on one occasion eight hundred horses were taken prisoners by Cromwell's forces while sticking in the mud! During the seventeenth century, it was common, when a long journey was contemplated, for servants to be sent on beforehand, to investigate the country, and report upon the most promising tract. In 1640, the road from Dover to London was the best in England, owing, of course, to the amount of continental traffic continually kept up, and yet the journey of Queen Henrietta and household occupied four long weary days over that short distance. It was not till towards the close of the sixteenth century that the wagon became used as a public conveyance, and only very rarely then. Fifty Years after, we find that a string of stage-wagons travelled regularly between London and Liverpool, each one starting from the Axe Inn, Aldermanbury, every Monday and Thursday, and occupying ten days on the road during summer, and generally about twelve days during winter. Ábout the same time, three men started every Friday morning for Liverpool, from Lad's Lane, London, with a gang of horses for the conveyance of light goods and passengers, usually reaching Liverpool on the Monday evening following. PALMER, THE POST-REFORMER. veyed in a Stage Coach (if God permits), which starts every Thursday at Five in the morning.' This was only, however, for the summer season; during winter, they did not run at all, but were laid up for the season like ships during arctic frosts. Even in summer, the passengers very frequently got out and walked long distances, the state of the roads in some places compelling them to do so. With the York coach especially, the difficulties were really formidable. Passing through the low Midland counties was sometimes entirely impracticable, and during the time of floods, it was nothing unusual for passengers to remain at some town en route for days together, until the roads were dry again. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, stage-coaches increased in number and in popularity, and so decidedly was travelling on the increase, that they now became the subjects of grave discussion; news-letters encouraged or reviled them, and pamphlets were written concerning them. For instance, in one entitled The Grand Concern of England Explained in Several Proposals to Parliament, these same stage-coaches are denounced as the greatest evil that had happened of late years to the kingdom, mischievous to trade, and destructive to the public health. Curious to know in what way these sad consequences are brought about, we read on, and find it stated that those who travel in these coaches contracted an idle habit of body; became weary and listless when they rode a few miles, and were then unable or unwilling to travel on horseback, and not able to endure frost, snow, or rain, or to lodge in the field!' Opinions on even such a subject as this differed most materially. In the very same year that produced the book to which we have just referred, another writer, descanting on the improvements which had been brought about in the postal arrangements of the country, goes on to say, that, 'besides the excellent arrangement of conveying men and letters on horseback, there is of late such an admirable commodiousness, both for men and women, to travel from London to the principal towns in the country, that the like hath not been known in the world, and that is by stage-coaches, wherein any one may be transported to any place, sheltered from foul weather and foul ways; free from endamaging of one's health and one's body by the hard jogging or over-violent motion; and this not only at a low price (about a shilling for every five miles), but with such velocity and speed in one hour, as that the posts in some forraign countreys make in a day.' From the information which we have been able to Stage-coaches were great improvements on all the then existing conveyances, and were destined to work great changes in travelling. A kind of stage-coach was first used in London early in the eventeenth century. Towards the middle of the fame century, they were generally adopted in the metropolis, and on the better highways around London, travelling at the rate of two or three miles on ther. Before 1698, stage-coaches were placed Three of the principal roads in the kingdom. The original announcement for that between London and York still exists, and runs as follows: "Whoever is desirous of going between London and York left. That I might not take post, or again be in Coney Street, York, where they will be conin the Black Swan in Holboorn, or the Black Swan obliged to use the stage-coach, I went from Dover Lord Cockburn, in his Memorials, describes very ling in Scotland so late as the last century, and states that he always rode circuits when he was an advocatedepute between 1807 and 1810. gather on the subject, it would appear that at first stage-coaches were not regarded as very great improvements upon the old stage-wagons. M. Soubrière, a Frenchman of letters, who landed at Dover in the reign of Charles II, alludes to the existence of stage-coaches, but he would seem to have been well acquainted with their demerits, as we may learn from an account which he has to London in a wagon. I was drawn by six horses placed in a line, one after another, and driven by a wagoner, who walked by the side of it. He was clothed in black, and appointed in all things like another St George. He had a brave monteror on his head, and was a merry fellow, fancied he 227 |