The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-31 00:00:00

A CENTURY AGO. —lf, in those days, when di

ferent trades congregated in the several quarters, a
lady desired to purchase a silk petticoat, she forthwith
drove to Holywell-street, and made her choice at the Indian
Queen or the Golden Ball ; if a tailor would call attention
to the particular cut and fashion of a suit of garments, he
or the sprightliest of his 'prentices would strut in front of
the shop, arrayed in clocked stockings, well-varnished
pumps, and bobwig, redolent of powder and pomatum, the
new stand of clothes displayed to full advantage, with a
large nosegay planted in the breast of the posy waist-
coat ; handsome and buxom young women presided
at the counters of Exeter•'change milliners ; smart
orange-girls picked their way, between the acts, through the
well-packed pit at Drury-lane, with the invitation to buy
"apples, oranges, or ginger-beer," or " a bill of the play of
the right sort ;" the shoeblacks at Spring Gardens were an
institution, and dogs were beasts of burden. Then Sam
Johnson rose betimes for a frisk with Topham Beau-
clerk, and took a turn with the vegetable porters of old
Covent Garden Market, or made the midnight eohoes
of Fleet-street ring again as he rolled and laughed like
a rhinoceros. Then it was that honest Will Ho-
garth and his companions made the memorable trip
to Rochester. Then the redoubtable champion of
fisticuffs issued his challenges from Hockley in-the-Hole.
Tho Eideophusicon of Loutherbourg, Mrs. Salmon's wax
work, the pig-faced lady, Miss Biffin, and the learned
pig were in full vogue ; Cockneys thronged to the Tower on
the Ist IA April, to see the lions washed, and spent Cob-
bler's Monday at Bagnigge Wells tea-gardens, or partook
of ale and cheesecakes at Pancridge-in-the-Fields ; "Turn
out the young brindled bull l" was still the cry of
Monday's market at Smithfield ; the pillory, flogging at
the cart-tail, and the almost weekly day of execution, at
Tyburn-tree, still afforded their relaxation—even the
wretched criminal went gallantly, like a man of
mould, up Holborn Hill, to execution, nosegay in bosom,
quaffed St. Giles's bowl, with a promise to pay when he
should return, kissed his hand to the assembled fair ones,
made his last dying speech and confession with an air,
bowed to the sheriff, kicked off his shoes, and died hand-
somely, like a gentleman highwaymen. Ranelagh, the
ordinary at Belsize House, and Marylebone Gardens were
then the mode; and costume, if inelegant, was yet varied
and gay with bright colours.. In short, society was more
robust and picturesque, and offered ample scope to the
painter of ordinary life.—Once a Week.
THE "GHOST" IN THE ASSIZE COURTS.—At the
Liverpool Assizes on Tuesday, Mr. Davis, lessee
of the Newcastle Theatre, brought an action against the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company for the des-
struction of a large sheet of glass and other property, by
which he had sustained great loss, as the glass and other
articles were required for the effective pro:luction of the
" Ghost" at his theatre. He had been obliged to substitute
an inferior sheet of glass, and to delay his "Ghost" piece,
so that a rival exhibition had taken the wind completely
out of his sails. The jury thought that £3O, which the de-
, fendants had paid into court, was amply sufficient, as the
company could not be expected to pay for vaguely probable
profits which Mr, Davis night or not rave realised.