The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-10-08 00:00:00

Which requir

When one of a grand e

Makes a jump at a gi

MATRIMONY
Reared in the Morn
IATRIMONY.—Any
end and nurse him. r

—The following ludicrous advertisement
_ _

_ for a Wife to
to Mrs. Earl, Post-
_ ?ly under 70, unless
panion the advertiser

invalid; or any lady

be happy to offer her

CRACKED BEFORE.—Mrs. Brougham, mother of the
ex-Chancellor, says an Edinburgh friend, was a most
excellent and thrifty housewife. On one occasion she
was much troubled with a servant who was addicted to
dish-breaking, and who used to allege, in extenuation of
her fault, "it was crackit before." One morning little
Harry tumbled down stairs, when the fond mother, run-
ning after him, exclaimed, " Oh, boy, have you broke
your head ? " " No, ma," said the future Chancellor,
it was crackit before."—Glasgota Mail.

ORIGIN OF THE TERM " BLACKGUARD."—There are
frequent entries among those of deaths of persons attached
to the palace of Whitehall, in the registers of St. Mar-
garet's, Westminster, of " —, one of the blake garde,"
about the year 1556, and later. In the churchwardens'
accompts we find, " 1532. Pd. for licence of 4 torchis
for the Black Garde, vj. d." The Royal Halberdiers
carried black bills, (Grose, 2'lillt. Antiq, vol. i., p. 124.)
In 1584 they behaved with great cruelty in Ireland.
(Comp. Peck's Des. Curios., vol. i., p. 155.) So Stain-
burst, in his Description, says of bad men, "They are
taken for no better than rakehells, or the Devil's blacke
guarde."—Chap. 8. Perhaps, in distinction to the gaily-
dressed military guard, the menial attendants in a royal
progress were called blackguards from their dull appear-
ance. I remember a story current in Dublin of a wicked
wag telling a highly-respectable old lady, who was asking
where were the quarters of the guards, in which corps her
son was a private, to inquire at the lodge of Trinity Col-
lege if he was not within those learned walls, as the
" blackguards were lying there."—Notes and Queries.
A " DERBY" INCIDENT.—At the last settling day at
Tattersall's, an officer, who had to receive largely, by ac-
cident let fall two £lOO notes. Another officer, a friend
who was standing by, picked up the notes, and was about
returning them to, as he thought, the right owner. But
there was a third party, who had seen the notes upon the
ground, and had watched the party who had picked them
up. This gentleman, who had formerly been in the ser-
vice, went up to the party and said, "I have dropped two
bank-notes, have you heard of any person finding them ?"
" Yes," says the other, " I have just found them, but I
thought they belonged to Captain —." The notes
were immediately handed over to the claimant, and no-
thing more was heard of it for some days, when the real
owner, having discovered his loss, communicates with his
friend who was present, and of course, out came the secret.
Application was immediately made to the gentleman to
refund, to which a reply of the most offensive nature was
retarned. Thereupon an explanation was demanded, but
the bird, we will not say shark, had gone to Boulogne,
where he was followed by the principal and his friend,
and the result was,, disgorging the notes and a most ab-
ject apology.—United Service Gazette.
MR. CHARLES KEAN'S REMUNERATION.—ShortIy
after the representation of " Othello," Knowles's play
of ", The Wife " was produced, and was received with
success almost equal to that of " The Hunchback."
Charles Kean was the original Lenardo Gonzago ; Miss
Ellen Tree, .Mariana; Knowles himself playing Julian
St. Pierre. Charles Kean saw that he had as yet made
little or no impression, and resolved to act no more in
London until he could place himself at the " top of the
tree." Although he had encountered rebuffs and dis-
appointments, still the conviction of ultimate success was
strong within him, and he felt satisfied that sooner or
later. he should attain it. One day he met accidentally
Mr. Bunn, the treasurer of Drury-lane Theatre, who said
that in all probability he could readily obtain an engage-
ment at Drury-lane at £l5 a week. No," replied he,
" I will never again set my foot on a London stage until
T can command my own terms of £5O a night." " Then,
Charles Kean," rejoined Mr. Bunn, with a smile, "I fear
you may bid along farewell to London, for the days of
such salaries are gone for ever." Time rolled on, and at
the expiration of five years only, during which he had
received £20,000 by acting in the country, he drove to
the stage-door of Drury-lane in his own carriage, with a
signed engagement at £5O a night in his pocket, and
which engagement, for upwards of forty nights, was paid
to him by the very man who had predicted its impossibi-
lity."—Dublin University Magazine.
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND THE PROPHECY.—The
successor of Earl William in the occupancy of Baynard
Castle, was his son Henry, the second earl, who resided
here with his countess—" Sydney's sister, Pembroke's
mother. Here also resided their accomplished and
high-minded son, William the third earl, who united wit
and gallantry with integrity and the most refined taste—
the most courtly breeding with the kindest nature. The
death of Earl William took place in Baynard Castle, on
the 10th of April, 1630, and was attended by some rather
remarkable circumstances. It had been foretold by his
tutor, Sandford, and also by the mad prophetess, Lady
Davies, whose predictions caused Archbishop Laud so
much discomfort, that he either would not complete, or
would die on the anniversary of, his fiftieth birth-day.
That these predictions were actually fulfilled, appears by
the following curious passage in Lord Clarendon's His-
tory of the Rebellion :—" A short story may not be un-
fitly inserted ; it being frequently mentioned by a person
of known integrity, who, at that time, being on his way
to rondon, met at Maidenhead some persons of quality,
of relation or dependence upon the Earl of Pembroke.
At supper one of them drank a health to the Lord Stew-
ard ,• upon which another of them said, that he believed
his lord was at that time very merry, for he had now out-
lived the day which his tutor Sandford had prognosticated
upon his nativity that he would not outlive; but he bad
done it now, for that was his birth-day, which had com-
pleted ,his age to fifty years. The next morning, by the
time they came to Colebrook, they met with the- news of
his death." It appears that, on the fatal day, the Earl
was engaged to sup with the Countess of Bedford.
During the meal he appeared to be in excellent health
and spirits, and remarked that he would never again trust
a wan3pns prophecy. A few hours afterviards he was
attacked in apoplexy, and died during the night.
Granger, to make the story more remarkable, relates that
when. fliel Earl's body was opened, in order to be em-
balmed, the first incision was no sooner made, than the
corpse lifted up its hand, to the great terror of those who
witnessed the phenomenon.—Jesse's London and its
Celebrities,