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 London,
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 period 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, upon the verge of it. Several of the his-
torical characters there introduced upon the scene
he had already rendered familiar to us through the
picturesque narratives of Windsor Castle and the
Tower of London. Having long ago afforded 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 lifticellany, 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 Lere 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 England, his small, plain, 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 the two central
figures in the historicceromantic 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 astheGreat 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 ficti-
tious characters introduced by the novelist into his
picturesque and must interesting narrative—the
wealthy, noisy, roystering, licentious, squint-eyed,
profligate patriot wit, caricatured by the brush of
Hogarth, glorified by the pen of Junius, and herea
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 da'i's the.t Lim*,
to be driving a rw, eine, tr,“l,- <politically) under the
name of -tikes and Liberty !'' Insomuch did their
LiLle ~net inoongruous 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,
afflicted with an obliquity of vision so glaring as to
' be 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 victim—meaning the Lord Mayor's only son, the
handsome, foppish, spendthrift, Tradescant. The
Hero of the Tale, however, par excellenee, is, as the
title of it indicates at the first glance, " The Lord
Mayor of London." Honest, kindly, open-handed,
large hearted, 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 Lord Mayor ought to be. Mr.
Ainsworth tells us in his earlier pages that the name,
and career, and individuality of the Lord Mayor here
represented are not historical, but from first to last
pure/yinaaginary. He might have 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 'ale 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 volumes, a letter in which
Mr. 41usworth 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 the story itself, how-
ever, as it now lies before us fully completed—we
will, as briefly and appropriately as may be, afford
our readers is 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
of the three volumes, together with a word or two
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, smooth-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 r face was round and full, its lineaments
were regular, and of the genuine English stamp. His
goodly person was arrayed in a full court suit, over which
he wore his robes and chain, as already mentioned. A
well-powdered tie-wig completed his costume."
Here, again, is a radiant portraiture not of any
Lord Mayor at all but of the Lord Mayor's Land-
Carriage
" The gorgeous state-coach 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
IMayors have ridden in it, and we hope it may serve to
convey a hundred more to Westmin,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 about 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 large windows calculated to afford a '
full view of those inside it, panels covered with exqui-
sitely 'ainted 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 age. The
paintings on the panels, replete with grace and eleganee, are
by Cipriani ; that on the right door exhibits Fame
ing the mayor to the genius of the City; while on thetoo
the
door is depicted Britannia pointing with her spear London
shield of Henry Fits-Alwin, the first May" of London,
years'
who enjoyed his office for the long term present-
ing
twenty-four
of John
—namely, from the Ist of Richard I. to.t
Unti, of late years the root baskets
size and the splendour
surmounted by a carved group thoifs.
boor sthis ornament. Thes
supportingnialgniidhceent carriage was.
upwards of £1 000
of fruit, but an accident deprived it
wwha:n)sy meansh' trifling,' butWhich
original cost of the coach
fictings ar.se taken into account
will not appear surprising,
The
of its decorations and
expense of keeping it in rtp
whose property the
this is now borne
coach has become,"
ieNvh lin:ming of the
As a compani'n
land
-carriage,
Lord Mayor's
view of his I ,• 2
take this vivid and
brightly coloured ez,aahip s water-car-
riage, together with its st(444atic entourage :
„ The City barge,‘ vith its double banks of rowers in rich
liveries, its carved and burnished woodwork, the rich hang..
the broad silken banner in front
jogs of its stately cabin,
arms, Q 4 the numerous Peunfulta be-
peving the City

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