The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-07 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Lord Mayor of London; or, City Life in the
Last Century. By W. Harrison Ainsworth. 3
vols. Chapman and Hall.
As a historical romancist Mr. Ainsworth is always
happy in his titles. And he has never been more
so than in the present instance. If he has already
inseparably associated his name as a story teller
with Windsor Castle, with the Tower of Lonclen,
with St. James's Palace, and with Old St. Paul's
Cathedral, he has now done the like quite as effec-
tually with regard to two renowned historical per-
sonages. Both of these, official--one obsolete and
even abolished—the other still surviving amongst
us, though somewhat shorn of the pomps and cere-
monials heretofore attendant upon him whenever
and wherever he chanced to make his appearance
in public. The former official personage now purely
titular and unsubstantial was the hero of Mr. Ains-
worth's last work of imagination. " The Con-
stable of the Tower" will long be remem-
bered by its readers as having again intro-
duced us to a perioo in our national annals that
seems to have a peculiar fascination for our author,
for he has more than once hesitated, as it were re-
luctantly, upan the verge of it. Several of the his-
torical characters there introduced upon the scene
he had alreedy rendered familiar to us through tne
picturesque narratives of Windsor Castle and the
Tower of London. Having long ago sfforded us
more than one gorgeous panoramic view of inci-
dents relating to the reign of King Henry VIII., our
novelist has at length, in what is as yet his penulti-
mate work, narrated the closing scenes of that ter-
rible existence, and has even advanced far on into the
reign of Henry's boy successor. A very different
spectacle has here been unfolded to view in this
last—and very far, indeed, from least successful—
specimen of Mr. Ainsworth's well-sustained powers
as a Novelist. During the progress of the work in
its serial form of publication from month to month
in the pages of Bentley's Miscellany, we have
so repeatedly commented upon its merits and
peculiarities, that it would be little better
than a tedious repetition, it would be an
act, in truth, of positive supererogation to
attempt to examine it more in detail, or to
regard it otherwise than as a whole. Those who,
like ourselves, have watched its progress since its
commencement when the year was young, following
the course of the narrative from incident to inci-
dent, will need no reminder as to who are the lead-
ing personages introduced. While those who have
waited patiently, until the whole tale was completed,
before dipping even into the opening sentences of
the first chapter, will prefer to any dry analysis of
the plot as therein artistically fabricated, that more
direct and obvious enjoyment of the fiction now
tempting them to carve their freshly-prepared
" feast of reason and flow of soul" with that harm-
less literary couteau the paper-knife. Wielding
that never unwelcome instrument in. the hands of
every genuine lover of the better portions of our
current literature—and wielding it here with a
gusto like that with which mine ancient Pistol
may have flourished his Toledo over the emblematic
Oyster of his Fortunes—what a pleasant, sparkling
world is it not that here opens up to view under the
gaze of the reader of these three volumes of Harri-
son Ainsworth's "Lord Mayor of London !" It is
the world as it was—" city life" as it appeared
(principally in gala dress) a hundred years ago!
When George 111. was in his blooming youth—
when (wonderful this to remember of that old mad
king of half a century later !) he was as handsome
and fresh-complexioned a young prince as ever wore
a bob-wig and a pigtail, laughing and chatting, and
crying out, ``What ! what !" upon every possible
opportunity. Beside the gay, comely young King
of Er.gland, his small, plait), pale-faced young Ger-
man Queen : that mother " that was to be' of a
race of kings in the hereafter, the " sweet Queen"
long afterwards of Madame d'Arblay (nee
Fanny Burney)—the sovereign more familiarly
though less amiably known to the mass of
her subjects in a younger generation as " Old
Queen Charlotte." Around these as Ihe two central
theures in the historico.romantic pageant are recog-
nised upon Mr. Ainsworth's gorgeous canvas how
many other of the then contemporary celebrities!
There—the Great Commoner, afterwards almost
greater as the Great Earlof Chatham ! There--Alder-
man Beckford later on to assume a conspicuous place
in history as the patriotic Lord Mayor of London.
There, too, more intimately mixed up with the fie, i-
tious characters introduced by the novelist into his
picturesque and Most interesting narrative—the
wealthy, noisy, roystering, licentious, squint-eyed,
profligate patriot wit, caricatured by the brush of
HoF,sarth, glorified by the pen of Junius, and here
recalled to the semblance of life, almost to our sight
and hearing, by the vivifying fancy of Harrison
Ainsworth—Wilkes who in his time almost seemed
to have taken Liberty into partnership with Lim,
and who, together with her, used during that time
to be driving a roaring trade (politically) under the
name of " Wilkes and Liberty !" Insomuch did their
title as th it incongruous firm become familarised
in the mouths of the people—(it should rather have
been dubbed, judging the gentleman from his habits
and associates, " Wilkes and License !")—that it is
related of a wag of that age that he facetiously
began an epistle to an acquaintance, " Sir—
I take the Wilkes and Liberty of addressing
you. &c." Around the form of this slim Silenus,
afflscred with an obliquity of vision so glaring as to
he far more of a squint than of a cast—our romance
writer has grouped a motley crowd of the livelier
personages of the tale. Wilkes is the centre of the
evil throng ; while the young hero of the story is for
a long while, but happily not up to the end of it,
its vic,im—meaning the Lord Mayor's only son, the
handsome, foppish, spendthrift, Tradescant. The
Hero of the Tale, however, par excellence, is, as the
title of it indicates at the first glance, " The Lord
Mayor of London." Honest, kindly, open-handed,
large hearled, just but also generous, a liberal
trader with plenty of wealth to back his enterprise,
a good feeder with a splendid appetite, portly in form,
rich in voice as in purse, well-looking and rubicund
in visage—this Lord Mayor (Lorimer) is the very
beau ideal of what a Lora Mayor ought to be. Mr.
Ainsworth tells us in his earlier pages that the name,
and career, and individuality oft he Lord Mayor here
represented are not historical, but from first to last
purekimaginary. He might has e added as truthfully
—what we perhaps may here more gracefully assert
for him—that in the person of Lord Mayor Lorimer
he seems to have collected all the good qua-
lities of all the worthiest Lord Mayors upon record
and rolled them into one ! Nothing, however,
could well be more graceful, and we will even
add more courtly, than the Dedicatory Epistle
prefixed to these three voiumes, a letter in which
Mr. Ainsworth inscribes this latest fruit of his
genius to the present popular, able, and munificent
Lord Mayor (Cubitt)—twice Lord Mayor of Lon-
don ! By his family, this dedication to his lordship
of Mr. Ainsworth's brilliant romance, will assuredly
be regarded as not the least valued or the least
charming memorial of the civic reign of the present
chief magistrate . Turning to tee story itself, how-
lever, as it now lies before us fully completed—we
will, as brit fly and appropriately as may be, afford
our readers a flavour of it, as it were, by way of an
appetizing relish—before commending them to the
entire banquet of the three courses, that is to say
lof the three volumes, together with a word or two
j of meritted commendation by way of appending to
them theirdesserts. Here, then, is Mr. Ainsworth's
pleasant little picture of the personal appearance of
his Lord Mayor :
"Tall, well-
proportioned, and stout, his bulkiness of per-
son rather heightened his dignity of deportment than de-
tracted from it, His pink cheeks, swooth-shaven and
glossy, bespoke him no enemy to good' cheer ; but his eyes
were bright, and his looks indicative of good health, and
its best and surest promoters cheerfulness and kindness of
heart. Though his face was round and full, its lineaments
were regular; and of the genuine English stamp: His
goodly person was arrayed in a WI court suit, over which
he wore his robes awl' chain, as already mentioned. A
well-powdered tie-wig completed his costume?*
I Here, again, is a radiant portraiture not of any
Lord Mayor at all but of the Lord Mayor's Land-
Carriage :
" The gorgeous state-coacla in which our Lord Mayor rode
still exists, and constitutes a principal feature in the annual
civic show. Since good Sir Gresham's day, a hundred Lord
Mayors have ridden in it, and we hope it may serve to
I convey a hundred more to Weatmin -ter and back. Though
richly gilt and burnished, it is not gaudy, but has a grand,
imposing, courtly appearance, and seems fitted for the City
sovereign, or for any other sovereign. Indeed, it formed
the model for the royal state-coach—still likewise in use—
constructed for George 111. in 1762. Built abut four or
five years previous to the date of our story, in the some-
what cumbrous but handsome style of the day, hung
very low, having lar:e windows calculated to afford a
toll view of those inside it, panels covered with exqui-
sitely -minted emblematical designs and elaborately carved
woodwork, represen ing Cupids sustaining the City
arms, this state•coach, by its antiquated air and
splendour, carries back the mind to another nge. The
paintings on the panels, replete with grace and elegance, are
by Cipriani ; that on the right door exhibits Fame present-
ing the mayor to the genius of the city;
while on the other
door is depicted Britannia pointing with her spear o tthe
shield of Henry Fitz-Alwin, the first Mayor of London,
who enjoyed his office for the long term of twenty-four ea
I. to. the loth of John.
—Lamely, from the let of Richard
Unti. of late years the root of this magnificent carriage was
of
•tbo}.B-..anpdp thenasgplbenasdkeeutrs
surmounted by a carved group
tht.ysn'o means trifling, but
of fruit, but an accident deprived
upwards.
trthsis t].rn,eateent. The
original coat of the coach w.aesnuips ;oi -1,000, which
will not appear surprising, when
of its decorations and fittings. are taken. into account. The
expense of keepineit
y the corporation
this is now borne
~ Whose property the
view of his lordship's
coach has become: in refer
sketch
to limning of the
take this
Lord mayor's kedn dec ar r i ege
As a companion
vivid and
water-car-
riage,brightly together e°l(coloured
ewith its aequoic
entourage:—
„ The City barge, with its double banks of rowe
rowers in rich
liveries, its carved and burnished woodwork, the rich hang
jugs of its stately cabin, the brd silken banner in front
displaying the City arras, and the numerous penzants be-

decking its roof, flamed like the Venetian Bucentaur. Nor
were the barges belonging to theCitycompanies interior ir sine
and splendour to that destined for the recepsion of the Lord
Mayor and the great civic dignitaries. Newly gilt and deco-
rated for the occasion, decke with pennons and displaying
their banners, they were all provided with bands, and manned
by watermen in their liveries. At the helm of each of these
magnificent balks, which glittered in the sunbeams as if
made of gold, stood the barge-master in his state livery.
To several of them a fantastical appearance was given by the
actors in the pageants exhibited in the land procession being
taken on board, and so placed that they could be seen by
the occupants iu the numerous wherries by which the river
was crowded. Thus, the two giants, Colbrand and Brenda-
more, having quitted their chariots, were now comfortably
seated on th roof of the gilded saloon of the Brewer's barge
smoking their pipes, and occasionally drinking to the health
of the good folks in the wherries. Sir John Hawkweed,
leaning on his two-handed sword, stood at the prow of the
Merchant Tailors' barge; St. Peter took the Fishmongers
under his care; Vulcan and the Cyclops went on board the
ironmongers' galley; and Bacchus and his crew re-
vexed with the Vinters. The Skinners were rowed by
watermen disguised in strange spotted skins and painted
hides, while their great brown bear, chained upon the cabin
roof, continued to clamber up his pole."

To complete our little cluster of quotations Ws
will now merely add to the foregoing Mr. Ains-
worth's interesting record in connexion with the
Lord Mayor's official home, so well known to us
all, in the very heart of the City, as the Mansion
House :

Stocks-market, which derived its name from a pair of
stock anciently set upon the spot for the punishment of
offenders, was one of the oldest markets in the city of LOU'
don, having been established in 1282 by Henry de Walleis,
then Mayor. Few would imagine that on the place where
the ponderous Mansion House now stands, where thousands
upon thousands pass and repass, where the pavement is
always inconveniently crowded, and the street constantly
stopped by carriages and public ccnveyances, little more
than a century ago there was a pretty fruit 'market, planted
on the east side with rows of trees, having an antique con-
duit at the north end and sut mounted by an equestrian statue,
and stalls where fruitand vegetables of the choicestkind were
vended. An odd story is told about the equestrian statue.
It was designed for John Sobieski, King of Poland, but
was left on the maker's hands, and e statue of Charles IL
being wanted by Sir Robert Viner after the Restoration,
he availed himself of this image with commendable
thrift, converting the warlike Pole into the Merry
Monarch, and the turbaned Turk, whom his horse was
trampling beneath its feet into Oliver Cromwell.
Trees, stalls, conduits, and statue were removed in 1739'
On digging the foundation of the proposed building, the
ground proved to be so full of springs that strong piles were
needed for the support of the erection. Nearly 14 years
were occupied in the work—the first Lord Mayor who
tenanted the Mansion House being Sir Crisp Gascoigne, in
1753,"

Having placed which extracts before our readers, it
now scarcely remains for us to observe that, while
the work under consideration possesses the superfi-
cial charm of a fiction, it also possesses abundantly,
latent among its leaves, the fruits of much histori-
cal research. One is tempted, indeed, to
avail oneself of the aptitude of this el"
towable figure of speech by adding—fruits
nutritiously instructive and ripened into flavour
by the glowing imagination of the Novelist.
The Lord Mayor of London is another and a sub-
stantial benefaction of Mr. Ainsworth's to all the
lovers of a school of romance racy of the soil on
which we live, stories among the familiar mazes of
which we can look upon (and recognise) genuine
London scenes, peopled wi.h unmistakable English
characters.