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39 chapters
HABITS AND MEN.
HABITS AND MEN.
HABITS AND MEN, WITH Remnants of Record TOUCHING THE MAKERS OF BOTH. BY DR. DORAN, AUTHOR OF ‘TABLE TRAITS,’ ‘HISTORY OF READING,’ ‘LIFE OF DR. YOUNG,’ ETC. THIRD EDITION. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1855. PRINTED BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS. THESE “TRIVIAL, FOND RECORDS” TOUCHING Habits and Men ARE INSCRIBED TO A GOOD MAN, OF GOOD HABITS, TO HENRY HOLDEN FRANKUM, ESQ., IN TESTIMONY OF THE ESTEEM AND R
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BETWEEN YOU AND ME.
BETWEEN YOU AND ME.
It is remarked by Mr. T. C. Grattan, in his ‘Jacqueline of Holland,’ that the “suitableness of raiment and the becomingness of manners are links in the chain of social life, which harmonize with and beautify the whole. There is infinitely more wisdom,” he adds “in submitting to than in spurning those necessary concomitants of civilization, which, being artificial throughout, require the cement of elegance and refinement to polish, if it cannot lighten, the chain.” I offer this pinch of philosoph
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MAN, MANNERS, AND A STORY WITH A MORAL TO IT.
MAN, MANNERS, AND A STORY WITH A MORAL TO IT.
“L’homme est un animal!” said a French orator, by way of peroration to his first speech in the Chamber of Deputies; “Man is an animal!”—and there he stopped. He found his subject exhausted, and he sat down in confusion. Thereupon his own familiar friend arose, and suggested that it was desirable that the honourable gentleman’s speech should be printed, with a portrait of the author ! The definition is, as far as it goes, a plagiarism from Plato. In the Apophthegmata of Diogenes Laertius, it is s
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ADONIS AT HOME AND ABROAD. PART I.
ADONIS AT HOME AND ABROAD. PART I.
Our ancestors, in early days, had what may be called early ways. They were in no respect superior to New Zealanders in a savage state. Civilization has however copied some of their customs, and old ladies who paint their cheeks and necks are not much further advanced than their ancestors, who coloured themselves all over, and that not out of vanity. Strabo says that the people in the west of England shaved their chins, but cherished mustachios, wore black garments, and carried a stick. This desc
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ADONIS AT HOME AND ABROAD. PART II.
ADONIS AT HOME AND ABROAD. PART II.
The Jews were undoubtedly an ill-fated people. In London, in the olden time, whenever any class had a grievance, the work of redress was commenced by slaying the Hebrews. In the reign of Henry III. the municipality of London and a portion of the nobility were dreadfully incensed against Queen Eleanor; and to show their indignation, they not only plundered and murdered scores of common Israelites, but the City Marshal and Baron Fitz-John repaired to the residence of Kok ben Abraham, the wealthies
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REMNANTS OF STAGE DRESSES.
REMNANTS OF STAGE DRESSES.
There were few people who wore such a stage-look in the last century as a country squire in London. Mr. Isaac Bickerstaff speaks of one whom he had just seen in the Park. He was of a bulk and stature, we are told, larger than the ordinary; “had a red coat, flung open to show a gay calamanco waistcoat; his periwig fell in a very considerable batch upon each shoulder; his arms naturally swung at an unreasonable distance from his sides, which, with the advantage of a cane that he brandished in a gr
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ACT I.
ACT I.
“Balthazar,” said a fine-looking lad in the prison of Orléans, “you are a brute!” By way of reply to this testimonial to character, the gaoler struck the boy with his heavy bunch of keys on the head. The blow sent young Edmond staggering against the wall. He recovered himself, however, and dauntlessly repeated— “Balthazar, you are nothing better than a brute!” And Edmond Thierry was right. Balthazar was not only a brutal gaoler, but he took delight in his vocation. He had abandoned the honest ca
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ACT II.
ACT II.
The Dean of St. Patrick’s has immortalized an Irish festival of the eighteenth century, by declaring that Some such memories will cling for ever about the last of the great European Congresses,—that of Vienna. It will be a costly reminiscence for Europe as long as the world endures; and no one is likely to forget the assembly of monarchs and statesmen who, after arranging the affairs of the universe, amused themselves by enacting the French vaudeville of ‘La Danse Interrompue,’ and, in the very
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ACT III.
ACT III.
The “Corsican” however had run out his brief second imperial career, when one of the many who had hoped to profit by his rise was prostrated by his fall. The name of this one was Thierry. With the world before him where to choose, he turned his steps to South America, and went in search of a people who might happen to be in want of a king. It was always his fortune, or misfortune, wherever such a servant of the people was required, to present his credentials only after the situation was filled u
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THE EPILOGUE.
THE EPILOGUE.
Four years afterwards, a solitary English traveller, named Chalton, was standing in the centre of a wide district, near to where the last-mentioned guests had spent a summer night in 1839. He was apparently in search of some locality, and two chiefs were closely watching him. A couple of Wesleyan natives were not far off. They were assisting him in making a survey for a road. “There used to be a hut on that hill in the distance,” said he to one of the chiefs. “King Thierry’s hut,” answered both
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THE TIRING-BOWERS OF QUEENS.
THE TIRING-BOWERS OF QUEENS.
Let us not presume to look into the primitive boudoirs of the Queens before the Conquest, and only reverently into those of the sovereign ladies who succeeded. “Tread lightly, this is sacred ground!” is an injunction not to be forgotten in this locality. The first Queen after the Norman invasion, Matilda of Flanders, who was pummelled into loving her ungallant wooer William, had a costly wardrobe. Before her death she disposed of the most valuable of her garments by will, and named therein the d
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“LA MODE” IN HER BIRTH-PLACE.
“LA MODE” IN HER BIRTH-PLACE.
The Honourable James Howard, in the year 1764, wrote a sprightly comedy, entitled ‘The English Monsieur.’ The hero is an individual who sees nothing English that is not execrable. An English meal is poison, and an English coat degradation. He once challenged a tasteless individual who had praised an English dinner; and, says the English Monsieur , “I ran him through his mistaken palate, which made me think the hand of justice guided my sword.” He can tell whether English or French ladies have pa
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HATS.
HATS.
Newton observed this Shakspearian injunction by always taking off his hat when he pronounced the name of God. This was a right use. The grandmother of Guy Faux devoted one to a strange use when she bequeathed her best velvet hat to a nephew. I have often wondered if he went to church in it! The grandees of Spain treat their sacred sovereign with less respect than Newton showed for a sacred name. It is the privilege of the grandees of Spain that they may stand with their hats on in the presence o
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WIGS AND THEIR WEARERS.
WIGS AND THEIR WEARERS.
When it is said that Hadrian was the first Roman Emperor who wore a wig, nothing more is meant than that he was the first who avowedly wore one. They were common enough before his time. Caligula and Messalina put them on, for purposes of disguise, when they were abroad at night; and Otho condescended to conceal his baldness with what he fain hoped his subjects would accept as a natural head of hair belonging to one who bore the name of Cæsar. As for the origin of wigs, the honour of the inventio
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BEARDS AND THEIR BEARERS.
BEARDS AND THEIR BEARERS.
Whoever invented wigs, proud as he may be of the achievement, cannot boast of the same antiquity for his fashion as that which attaches to the beard. The beard, like sewing, came in with or was a consequence of sin. With respect to sewing and sin, I have before spoken; and I will only add here, that in the most prosperous times of Puritanism, it was the fashion for Puritan ladies to wear aprons only of a green colour, that being presumedly the colour of the apron worn by Eve, whose daughters the
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SWORDS.
SWORDS.
In the first book of the Peloponnesian War, it is stated by Thucydides that “the people of the Continent exercised robberies upon one another; and to this very day,” he adds, “the people of Greece are supported by the same practices.” The great historian especially names the Ozolian Locrians, Ætolians, and Acarnanians, and their neighbours on the continent; among whom, as he informs his readers, the custom of wearing their swords, or other weapons required by their old life of rapine, was still
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GLOVES, B⸺S, AND BUTTONS.
GLOVES, B⸺S, AND BUTTONS.
The elder D’Israeli, in his sketch on the history of gloves, sets out by observing, that in the 108th Psalm, where the royal prophet declares he will cast his shoe over Edom, and in Ruth iv. 7, where the custom is noticed of a man taking off his shoe and giving it to a neighbour, as a pledge for redeeming or exchanging anything, the word shoe may in the latter, if not in both cases, mean glove . He adds, that Casaubon is of opinion that gloves were worn by the Chaldeans; and that in the Chaldee
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STOCKINGS.
STOCKINGS.
When the old trunkhose was found to fray the sacred epidermis of Christian kings and queens, the first fruits of a remedial discovery were presented for the benefit of the illustrious sufferers. Thus we hear that when stockings were first known in Europe, a Spanish grandee manifested his loyalty and love for his Queen, by presenting a pair to the Prime Minister, with a request that that official would place them at, if not on, the feet of his sovereign lady. The Minister was shocked at the grand
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“MASKS AND FACES.”
“MASKS AND FACES.”
Francis Bacon somewhere remarks that politeness veils vice just as dress masks wrinkles. Perhaps this saying of his was founded on the circumstance, that Queen Elizabeth not only wore dresses of increasing splendour with increasing age, but that she also used occasionally to appear masked on great gala occasions. The mode thus royally given, was not however very speedily or generally followed. The introduction of masks as a fashion appears to have “obtained,” as old authors call it, only about t
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PUPPETS FOR GROWN GENTLEMEN.
PUPPETS FOR GROWN GENTLEMEN.
Madame de Puysieux was a witty and vivacious lady. Among her recorded sayings is one that exceedingly well suits me for the nonce. “I would rather,” she said, “be occasionally found looking at puppets than listening to philosophers.” There was doubtless some reason in this; but the fact is also indubitable, that puppets and philosophy are not so far apart. The latter has often condescended to illustrate the former. The learned and serious Jesuit, Mariantonio Lupi, devoted his brief leisure to wr
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TOUCHING TAILORS.
TOUCHING TAILORS.
“Rem acu tetigisti.”— Horace. “You have treated of a matter about the needle.”— Translated by a Merchant Tailors’ Pupil. “Sit merita Laus!”— St. William, Abp. “Sit, merry Tailors.”— Freely rendered by the Saint’s Chaplain. “King David’s confessor is worth a whole calendar of Williams.”— Lutheran Tailor....
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WHY DID THE TAILORS CHOOSE ST. WILLIAM FOR THEIR PATRON?
WHY DID THE TAILORS CHOOSE ST. WILLIAM FOR THEIR PATRON?
Why did the tailors choose St. William for their patron? Ah, why ? I confess it puzzles me to furnish a reply; and I would not be editor of that pleasant paper ‘Notes and Queries,’ if my official hours were to be passed in furnishing answers to such questions. I can understand why St. Nicholas is the patron of children. The Saint once came upon a dozen or two in a tub, cut up, pickled, and ready for home consumption or foreign exportation, and he restored them all to life by a wave of his wand,—
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THE TAILORS MEASURED BY THE POETS.
THE TAILORS MEASURED BY THE POETS.
Oh, Thersites, good friend, how scurvily hast thou been dealt with at the hands of man! Thou art emphatically un homme incompris , but thou art not therefore un homme méprisable . The poets have comprehended thee better than the people; and Homer himself has no desire to prove thee the coward and boaster for which thou art taken by the world on Homeric authority. I think that Ulysses, with whom, in the ‘Iliad,’ Thersites is brought in contact, is by far the greater brute of the two. The husband
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SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD, THE HEROIC TAILOR.
SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD, THE HEROIC TAILOR.
On the 10th day of August, 1668, Mr. Samuel Pepys passed a portion of his morning at Goring House, the mansion of Lord Arlington, a nobleman who conversed with him amicably, and introduced him to other lords, with whom the gallant secretary prattled after his fashion, to say nothing of the flattery and compliments paid him by Lord Orrery. In the afternoon we find him at Cooper’s, the miniature painter’s, who was painting the portrait of that excellent lady Mrs. Pepys. The portrait was excellent
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GEORGE DÖRFLING, THE MARTIAL TAILOR.
GEORGE DÖRFLING, THE MARTIAL TAILOR.
George Dörfling was born in Bohemia, in the year 1606. It is popularly said in that country, that when a child is born there, a fairy presents herself at his side and offers him a purse and a violin, leaving to him to choose which gift most pleases him. According as he makes his selection, is his future character determined. If he takes the fiddle, he turns out a musician. If he grasps at the purse, he invariably becomes a thief. Every Bohemian is declared to be either the one or the other. I ma
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ADMIRAL HOBSON, THE NAVAL TAILOR.
ADMIRAL HOBSON, THE NAVAL TAILOR.
In the reign of Queen Anne, in the pleasant village of Bonchurch, in the Isle of Wight, there lived an honest villager, whose son he had apprenticed to a tailor in the not less pleasant insular locality of Niton. Young Hobson was here engaged at his humble craft, when he heard that a British fleet was passing the back of the Wight; and he went with his fellow-workmen to view that goodly sight. It was a spectacle which fired his youthful breast with naval ardour; and, abandoning his articles of i
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JOHN STOW, THE ANTIQUARIAN TAILOR.
JOHN STOW, THE ANTIQUARIAN TAILOR.
It has been well said of John Stow, that he was, in his way, a sort of Hebrew of the Hebrews; a citizen born of a citizen; like his father, a tailor; but he was in himself a tailor, “and something more.” He was born in Cornhill, the year that the gossips there were admiringly eloquent on the glories of the royal tournament and ball at Greenwich, where Henry VIII. helped to break three hundred lances before supper; and then, attired as a Venetian nobleman, led out Anne Boleyn to dance, and set al
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JOHN SPEED, THE ANTIQUARIAN TAILOR.
JOHN SPEED, THE ANTIQUARIAN TAILOR.
So said a learned antiquary of a humble, but also learned, and a pains-taking brother. Far more reluctant was Nicolson to give praise where praise was due. The latter person does indeed say of the laborious John, that he had a head the best disposed towards history of any of our writers. “Speed,” says Nicolson, “would certainly have outdone himself, as far as he has gone, beyond the rest of his profession, if the advantages of his education had been answerable to those of his natural genius. But
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SAMUEL PEPYS, THE OFFICIAL TAILOR.
SAMUEL PEPYS, THE OFFICIAL TAILOR.
Samuel Pepys was the son of a tailor of the city of London; and although he affected much gentility when he himself prospered, he was honest enough to confess, in cipher and short-hand which he thought nobody could read, that let others say of his family what they might, he for his own part did not believe that it was of anything like gentle descent. Notwithstanding this confession, our friend Samuel had something within him of the aristocratic cobbler who, in the ‘Taming of the Shrew,’ makes in
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RICHARD RYAN, THE THEATRICAL TAILOR.
RICHARD RYAN, THE THEATRICAL TAILOR.
Dignum and Moses Kean, the latter the uncle of Edmund Kean, were one day standing employed in jovial converse under the Piazza in Covent Garden, when Charles Bannister passed by with a friend. Dignum and Moses had been but indifferent tailors, before the one turned vocalist and the other mimic. “I never see those two fellows together,” said Charles, “without thinking of one of Shakspeare’s plays.” “And which is that?” inquired his friend. “ Measure for Measure ,” said Charles. It is a custom wit
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PAUL WHITEHEAD, THE POET TAILOR.
PAUL WHITEHEAD, THE POET TAILOR.
Among the tailors who have been authors, Paul Whitehead takes a very respectable rank; which is more, I am sorry to say, than he does among men. The career of the two Whiteheads has a moral in it. William, the son of a Cambridge baker, was, like Paul, the tailor’s son, a most successful tuft-hunter; but then he hunted chiefly after patricians of principle,—of good principle. William was a gentle lad; he walked through the university of his native city with quiet credit, and passed into Lord Grey
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MEMS. OF “MERCHANT TAILORS.”
MEMS. OF “MERCHANT TAILORS.”
I regret to say it, but the Rev. H. B. Wilson, the reverend author of that half-hundredweight quarto which gives the history of the Merchant Tailors, and which the author hoped would find its way into our villages, is ashamed of the origin of his heroes. He has even enough of false pride to beg that writers will spell Merchant Ta y lors with a y , and not with an i ! Tailors with an i , he says, may be mistaken for a trade; while Taylors with a y may be taken for a name! So was Sir Piercie Shaft
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THE BEAUX OF THE OLDEN TIME.
THE BEAUX OF THE OLDEN TIME.
Dress, like all other things, has been amply used and abused in all ages; but there is this to be said for man, that he is the only animal born without being provided with a necessary costume. This shows that he is a migratory animal; and if he be not naturally covered so as to suit all climates and himself, he has reason given him to meet all exigencies, and it is only a pity that he exhibits so little taste in the application of it. His storehouse, or rough wardrobe, is in the vegetable and an
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BEAU FIELDING.
BEAU FIELDING.
Goldsmith once shed tears from his simple, unsophisticated eyes, as he passed through a village at night, and thought that the sleeping inhabitants were unconscious how great a man was journeying that way. I fancy that most people who pass the Reigate station are in a similarly ignorant state of unconsciousness, and are not at all aware that they are close upon the cradle of Orlando the Fair. I have heard the pleasant author of that pleasant story, ‘Crewe Rise,’ remark that the worthies of Suffo
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BEAU NASH.
BEAU NASH.
The gaudiest flies spring from the most unsavoury of cradles, and Beau Nash was born in ill-odoured Swansea. He used to say, he “could not help it.” Like Liston, it had been his own intention to be born in Shropshire; but he and the grotesque comedian possessed not the privilege of the embryo saint, whose prayers procured his birth in the locality and at the period which best suited himself. Accordingly, Richard Nash was born at Swansea in the stirring year 1674. His very boyhood was brassy, as
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THE PRINCE DE LIGNE.
THE PRINCE DE LIGNE.
The Prince de Ligne has, at least, the merit of being not only a “beau,” but a “brave.” The two professions are seldom united, but they were certainly to be found in this gallant coxcomb. The Prince, although ever faithful to the fortunes of the House of Hapsburg, was not himself of Austrian lineage. His patrimonial house, the Castle of Belveil, still stands in quaint supremacy over the modest village of Ligne, about six miles from Alt, in Belgium. It has endured seven centuries of change; and i
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BEAU BRUMMELL.
BEAU BRUMMELL.
The distinction of Nash was his impertinence; the characteristic of Orlando the Fair, his affectation. To make a third, Jove joined the other two; and George Bryan Brummell was, as the elder Mr. Weller says, “the consikence of the manœuvre.” Had he only possessed intellect rightly directed, and even an infinitesimal degree of principle, he might have achieved a better reputation. The Greek sage who declared that man needed but three things whereby to prosper,—first, impudence; second, impudence;
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DOCTORS READY DRESSED.
DOCTORS READY DRESSED.
Of all the doctors on the learned rota , there may have been more famous, but none more deserving, than Freake. He was regardless of nothing but dress; and he had a capital appreciation of fun, and a strong predilection for matters of fantasy. Dr. Freake of St. Bartholomew’s, and his cousin the Justice, were not only given to dreaming, but to publish their dreams. They deemed their visions not only important to themselves and the public generally, but to the sovereigns of Europe especially. The
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ODD FASHIONS.
ODD FASHIONS.
The fashion of tattooing has a singular origin. We are indebted for our knowledge thereof to Clearchus, who tells us that the women of Scythia, having seized upon some Thracian women who dwelt in their vicinity, traced on their bodies, by means of needles, certain marks, which the latter could not contemplate without being made very angry. The lady who went down Regent-street the other day with the shop-ticket affixed to her new shawl, and which contained the announcement, “Very chaste, £1. 5 s.
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