The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-08-22 00:00:00

LONDON, DAY, *UO UST .n, 1623.

the Gnat Ar *WM Age/Y0 fill M tAs Field, and StPArßi'

Morltht#, and performs Me ilearkey with the greatest Pa=
WC'', AT isouceo 'saes.
PatstitgrFe detained Oh the eadd, by bushiest or plea-
sure, have Me peculiar advantage of their seals being Se-
cured in the ;text Coach.
?rib. ONLY et &Melt 5"O CARLOILR.
_4 I brftr

The New Royal Patent Mail, Cambridge aro' IVatO,
Bantiagford, Rockland, k Royston, &caw, at half past
o'etiek. SOOdag, at ti quttrtrr beibre t.
! . Kendal, Lancaster, Presto*, Kirby. LOluidak, MOM*,
Chorley, Orniskirik and Gordan, Light Post Coaches,
triply Afternool.
The " Royal &Are*" Nell Light Foistrilotide Post
Coach, to Liverpool, in 29 -Monte only, thro' Warrivtoo,
Prescot, Ctiitgleton, Lairtd*, MiredStle, Rittlgly, Knot:-
fiord. Stone, Stiiford and Litt feed, reify Ode Night on
the ltiad,) every Afternoon; arrives qt the Saracen's
Read Ink, Ddle-suet!, LiverpoOl, nazi Reeking, at S.
The adliastages to Traveiteri *he hassolor this coach frith
their preference are far superior to any other on this Road,
as the "Royal trpreit" is driven tar dilibleat *RA 4 coach.
, *ben only (8 Less than any other coach to LirrepObt)—a sa-
' ring to Passengers too evident to require comment ; -besides
the additional advantage, espeially to commercial inter-
ests, of performing the jonfiligy in less time than any other
coat*; and, notwlthaditoding its elildpiskse anti expedititne,
the Proprietors pledge themselves that for s4O-ty and ae-
commodWfors its- is egtkithrd by jelli Mist Am bf sisipdeted
by none.
Wakefield 4.liutide Post Coaches, every Morning and
Aftergoo*, arrifreab PA ets.
Chester, Neniptirt, Wkitveharch, rafpiiHry; Nabs*.
with, Northivich and Middleivicli Light Pest Coach, every
Afternoon.
fttilektba that YdFri light Past touch every
Morning, to the &serge Dinh Bnialelltisd, AT anDVCsD
PA 4ES.
Mbiklitants kiliniite' to Makellesteh. Winston, Cats-
*ton, Newcastle, Wailed, Wolterhathsoll * holltiferrk
New Four inside Post Coach, ever, Afternoon. only
One Night on theirbittzad. AT ABDOCED PA ass.
Shtintl4 and tint Went Four Betide Pod Conehes
every Morning, tutted -" The Express." and also " The
Rockiaghant,' every Afternoon, AT 11EDUr D repro.
The " Royal Entrees." nil Birittlisghain Light tact
Pod Coat*, sits OM every aiternhen, tillrying 4 turtle
°Nip, passes throng.% Warrick.- Leamington. Sosaans,
Weedon, Coventry, Stoney-Shot/Ord, gad Toweester,, to
theSarderts's Head, RIN A*.t, ittfAifft#Adis, early the
next hsorniny.l-DHreol thfoutfit with Has coachmen *idyl
(two less than any other coach.)
" repress' a New Light Post &act to Hull, Lin-
coln, Northcutt, Matinteit Mkt Doneastir, *erg diroroloisi;
at eight o'clock to the Cress Keys, Market Race' Hull, and
also the " Rockingham" in the afternoon pt r 1 o'clock.
7lc Hertford, War, Itaddesdoti add Cheitklitt Coach,
AT mamma° PAR ILL

ToiletsAata aid Mu**los Concise daily at egrets, half-
past two, fire, cad eight o'clock.
es° At Reduced Mee, to Leeds. Tort, and benetittei:
Laggage and Portages at only two-penes per lb.
S. A. MOUNTAIN and Co. respectfully acquaint their
Friends and the Public, that the, will sot be accountable
for any Parcels, Passengers' Lepage, Writings, Kite, ere.
of more than Five Pounds value, if lost. stolen, or damaged,
unless entered as such, and the Insurance paid for accord-
ingly, at the Saracen's Head Inn, Skinner-street, Savo MI,
Londotr.

ON THE SHBURDE OP OENO AND THE COVNTET

ABOuit-.614-6614."
-40!-

(From Me LITERARY EXAMINER.)

[The readers of the former series of the Intheater, cannot
but recognise in the following extract, the pen to which
they were indebted for the lively sketches which appeared
there, of the literary associations connected with the streets
of London. For ether readers only. it may be netessary
to add that the pen was Mr. Leigh Hunt's.]
Dear N,-1 could bear my large study no longer; so I
have mounted into my third story, and entrenched myself,
as natal, in a little corner roons.--It lifts me above a sense
of the lanes and stone walls Of this suburb of Henna. Al-
bans is a pretty name, and a very pretty looking bill at a
distance. It has also some fine retreats and gardens, for
those whti cad afford them. But for a Otte to *alk about
in, and enjoy one's neighbotr'S goods (ta which you know
I haves propensity) it ooly-shows me bow very pretty some
hills as well ai women to look at a distance, and what stony-
hearted creatnres they turn oat upon inspection. When
you behold Altar° from the sea, you cry out, 6, What a
delicious place to live in!" Imagine a gentle green hill, j
full of olive trees, vineyards, and country seats, beheld t'rom
a blue sea, glittering under a blob sky, and with the Appen-
nines at the back of it. Enter it, and the charm i 1 dissolved.
Eternal lanes, with eternal stone walls, intersect it in all direc-
tions. The best are paVed like the ca triage port of the London
streets, with a stripe of smoother walk in the middle, made
of tiles laid edgeways. The worst are compounded Of bite
of broken walls, Stones, and occasional pushing's forth of
the native rock. Some are merely the beds of torrents ;
but all are lanes, lanes, laned,—all stone, brick, and mortar,
with seldom even a hole to look through. Your only re-
source, as in the worst passages of human life, is to imagine
what may be on the other side; but then the tantalization
is in proportion. In the snmmet, the vines look over the
walls, here and there, and afford a relief: but the 1 toes for
the most part are then hot and dose, and in those that lead
down to the sea the footing is stills nuisance. Furthermore,
the sea has no beach. In winter (Which is quite severe
enough in this quarter of Italy to maks yon feel it) the
promenade is intolerable, Sometimes a wind comes down
from the snowy mountains, sharp set as a wolf, and more
scorching than any East wind with us. Besides; Ilenoa
being situate between the sea and the mountains, is famous
for wind; and Albgro, I suppose, is the most raincius place
for wind about Benoit. Last winter one would have thought
the whole army of tempests bad come by sea to pass over
the mountains, and go and trample down some incorrigible
tyranny. The whole cavalcade seemed to sweep over us
alth their " sightless horses," their whistling hair, and
mad outcries. . _ _

It is little better, for the most part, in the rest of the
suburbs: in some of them, not so good. There is one good
road, which circles the kill ; and on the other side of lienoa,
there is a wider piece of plain to get footing upon. lint
generally speaking; your path lios up and' down kill,
through the Stoniest of all bony alleys. Even the road
which I speak of, round Albaro; and which would make a
beautiful figure in a picture, presenting depths of olive
grounds lick) r, and the sea in the distance, tantalizes von
with the sight of pleasiat pleees Id *bleb It it Ititpossible
to enter, and which, if yea did eater. it would be impossi-
b!e to wslk in. The olive grounds are all walled la, as
'Baal, and all raised njoia terraces of artiliciai eaftit; lest
the torrents shotild wash them atiitty: Bat whit care the
lien° we? Nattire, with them, is bat a slave in the hands
of the slave merchant. All her hearties consist is what
they sill fetch. Thrif olive Frei, produce nothing but
4asttrinl and Wettish', thenhnuebes of gralfeS are hut ad
many pnrsea of soldi. Tbey,cire foe nwhint bat card it-
self, and a co3d oleaginous dinner to make it worse.
No* tell it mit ih YFotland, teat thb Coeknies of the Can-
on-gate rejoice; but vied toe, dear N:, before ell the batten
suburbs in the world (bits of usounteigineln.le.l) the green,
pastures and gentle eminences mound about gloriosa Lou.
dad; .There lie hare field; :tlterb* cent cap{ Wilk on tent'
I positive turf: there old tan getitrere.th.it 'reef ssa ast,
end get under tress, and get among trees; and have kedges, ,

. PA,

rold 1"

stiles, field-paths, sheep and oxen, and other pastoral ame-
nities,.
I fancy you discern to whet all this leads,—the sketch
that I promised ion a long while hick, 0f pleasant memo-
ries connected w►th the country shout London t similar to
those which I have touched upon in a former Indicator
connected with the inside of it. You are right I could not
delay it longer, if I would.

Alt, happy hills I ah, pleasing shade!
Ab.delds beloved In vain !
Where once tnl, tireless Childhood strayed,;
A stranger yet to Oda!
I feel the gales that from ye blow
A Momentary bliss beauty.
AS Waring fresh their eildsoine wing,
Div weary soul they amp to soothe,
A A.l, redolent of .1 oy and youth. ,
To breathe a Wend goring. . •
' And yet the fields are not " beloved in vaiti ;" neither
was my childhood a stranger to suffering. My life his
' had strong lights abet; shade! upoh it from its commence.
meet; but upon the whole I am grateful; and the. plea-
sates I hamonjoyed make tee loins eves the memory of
some of the pains.
A draw of sirdet is worth a ponnd of sour.
' how could Gray say that his fields were " beloved in vain,"
when the sight of them, in pain and melancholy could
still please him in this manner; and when he cultivated
dowers in his catilege window to the last 1 Nature is never
belospd in vale. -Shakespeare. after tanning the whole
round of humanity, went to live and to (lie among his
native deka, Roasseau's botany never forsook biro.—The
WAS sib firm friends ;. and we can love the most blooming
of roses in our old age.
Id taking my circuit Mond London, 1 will begin with
the East, in order that I may end with the North. It is
the least pleasant side, yet two out of oar four greatest
games in Poetry are connected with it,—Spenser and Mil-
ton.' I have already noticed that Spenser was born in East
Sliiithdeld. Iltiohill Fields has the most unromantic of
sonnets. and yet th,!re Milton ndt only lived, but seems to
Wee delighted to live. It is probably the " noble sub-
urban spot," Of which he speaks in his Latin poems, and
contained the elm t'rees of which he was so fond. I de not
remember whether I have mentioned before, that Steele
amused himself with a laboratory at Poplar. Yon may
gather from some of the works of De Foet who eras a
hosier in Cornltill, that he was a great walker about the
neighbourhood of the river. An unaccustomed eye, mil.
debt) emerging from the narrow streets upon Tower-hill,
is met by a crowd of grand and tragical reflections;—by
Mordered patriots and heroes, Wants, lovers, and kings
There breathed out the souls of time Raleigh' and Syd-
ney'. There Hutchinson prepared himself to die in pati-
ent endurance; and Guilford Dudley and Jane Grey Went
one after the other to the public axe, instead of the retire-
ment that suited their innocence. The death. of another
Jane, *hens I3sdy Jane perlisps would not have despised,
though others might, is said to have given its name to
Shoreditcb. Jane Shore, the life of the voluptuous retire.
ments of Edward IV. and the friend of all who wanted
assiitatice, was seen there in her old age, wrinkled, and
gathering water-tresses. What a diSeretwe from the pic-
turek of her, in which she is described as having risen
r" out of her bed in the morning, listing nothing on but a
rich mantle cast ander one arm over her shoulder, and sit-
tin* ii a their, ott which her naked arm did lie!" This
portrait, by the way. argues a taste, and an eye for colour.
rag, which one should hardly have looked for in the paint-
ings of those times. It was perhaps the work of an
Itilith. Lint I shall never get out of town. Of Hackney
and all that region, fatuous for giving a name to Hackney
coaches, I know nothing more illustrious than what is said
of it in a quaint periodical work, which 1 have met with
bomewhere ;—namely. that
Homerton and Clapton do declare,
The many country seats that there aretbere.
They tell me, however, (is this true ?) that I am to like
a place a little more to the north, the name of Which I
'hall not allow myself to be sure of till I hear
further advice'. Let it be as good a name as you
eau ; far I shall " like it most horribly." I remember now
that I used to go that way to bathe. Besides, you have C.
L. The great men of the Court of Elizabeth must have
resided much about the neighbourhood of Stoke Newiog-
ton and Highbuey ; for every old mansion thereabout is
dignified With the title of one of her palaces. At Stoke
Newington lived the late Dr. Aikin, who was a clever man
and did good ; though he should not have said that Spen-
ser's Epithalamium " wants only judicious curtailment to
drake it a eery pleasing piece." I would as lief have had
the bride curtailed, had I been the hero of it. Dr. Aikins's
sister, Mrs. Barhauld, still renders the place ititisgthpg by
her residence. Here lived Dr. Watts, whose lokirtil: head
did out hinder his little frail person from being hypochondri-
acal, and whose hypochondria unfortunately drove him into
Calvinism instead of the Bowling Green. But I believed
he extricated himself at last. There wants a good account
of the list years of men who get rid of their superstitions,
as well as of those who are said to have been overcome by
them.
To return to the river's side, and cross the water. At
Greenwich, famous for its green woods and white sails,
for its old weather-beaten pensioners, who sit eyeing the
placid stream,—and for lasses who kiss their mother earth
all the way down bill in fair time, and their cousin John
at the bottom ofit,—Queen Elizabeth held her Court : such
a Court, as princes and courtiers ran Seldom contrive to
muster op. Flattery there had a sort of right ; and accord.
ingly the old Q leen was a ` nymph" to the last, scorching
up the flattons and Raleiglis with the retrospective beau-
ties of seveuty.• Furthermore, she walked abroad
among them with a wrinkled face;:--black teeth,—little
Sparkling grey eyes,—a hand and arm so white
that it transported even Dutch young gentlemen,—
and a new pien for every day in the year.—
How she contrived to maintain her charms, while dancing
end playing on the late, in order to convince a Scotch am-
bers4dor of her jaitnility, who wis to look through a cre-
vice, Dime but a Seotchman cad say; and accordingly 1
leave it to Sir Walter. If he discovers something to.tene;o
rate in the fumbling of Kink "Jaws, he will surely not be
at a loss itt the ttinibling of old -e, he
At Redriff
(vainly spelt Rothetbithe) some story book hero cuts a
figure; but I cannot remember his Caine. Down the Kent
Road, Chauree's pilirichs toolc their: 'way to Canterbury,
telling storied that have outlasted St. Thomas's shrine, and
will outlast a thousand others. I think I see him now,
looking downwards; the Wife of Bath grinning ; the Friars
and Sultimortera in all their' virlitiei of hypocrisy and im-
pudence ; the Squire danclbg On hit IWO, cohseious of the
Prioress; the experienced Koighr, his father; the busy
Sergeant at Lair, who seemed sd:l It bUsier than he was ;'
the t*ltles9 Salloe; the unhealthy took; the teat+ meek
Scholar, open his lean horger the leek chdletick Steward;
upon his. plump one; the bull .of a Miller; &c. &c. and
Hairy Willie, toe host, ienring hit admiration of a patio:tic
stdry ih i Weft of eats. Rent Street derives a minor
Distil, from Goldsmith's !SWIM Blase. Newington butte,
its its name. denotes, was famous for archery. With
;he stibitil fields, that now contains prisons and hed-
lathe, the greit idefs and Witi dt Shakesp-are's time must
have ben- coneetSaht,-dwiis to. the neighbourhood of the
Orval', to the Borough. Their Club at the Mermaid in
Odthflill ibis iii convenient if 'spot as they could well choose
'between tilt Waite aft Otitf bind; ifid the court and
epuotry seats of elisalgth ha the two sides of the water on I
. th., other. Camberwell was tat-ly remarkable fur the

SEVitv PF.NeR

proud villa of a Quaker physician. Claphath looks unna-
tural. with its !bolters' houses on a hit of wild common.
Armstrong in his poem upon presetting health recom-
mends Daltvich as " yet ottapoiled by att." I believe it
still retains Its character, though inure hoitses`have come,
, Cad the gypsies gone swat. It tenches upon Norwood.—
here is Doltvicli College, founded by one of Shakespeare',
I fellow players, Alleri,—a name which seems to belong to
people of worth. I kpow one myself. fhe original of
Fielding's A Ilworthy was soother ; and the first counte-
nance I remember at school was an Allen's,—so good and
handsome, that an old stall-woman against whom lie hap-
pened to run in the street, and to turn round upon in thn
course of her abuse, exrlaimed, '4 Confound your great,
ugly, driving --• sweet face, God bless it !" Poor
Allen! he died aboard ship, a surgeon, vainly forewarned
by Roderick Random. What had his blushing maiden
face to do in a gang-way? And yet, what would the hard
.places of the world become, if such faces never shone on
them! To Dulwich College Sir Francis Bourgeois be-
tit:seethed his collection of pictures, which it is * holiday to
go and see. Between Dulwich and Beckenham is a pretty,
rustic, ont of the May spot, called Penge, which an ac-
qualntanee of yours thinks the chariningeit place in the
world. Her first chill was born at Beckenham. The
white spire of Beckenham Church, issoing,out of the trees,
is a truly English and sylvan spectacle. I think Johnson
was in the habit of visiting somebody at Beckenham. In
the church is Gray's Epitaph on Mrs. Clarke,' lo! *here the
silent marble weeps.' Sydenham, another pretty village with
a green, has king been the residence of Mr. Campbell.
LeWishitm was immortalised by Queen Elizabeth in 4 strain
of alliterate abuse, which not being a queen, I wept the
face o tepeat. Returning westward, we come to Thrale
and Johnson at Streatham. There Mrs. Virale encou-
raged his bile with good dinners, and soothed it with gay
curtains; end there, it seems, he had two desks oil each
side of the window, upon which he used to write his Lives
of the Poets,—a "mechanical operation of the spirit" Come-
what too p?oplietic of the point of criicisni at which he
would s:op stmt. But admiration ever be paid to the hero
of Boswell, and reverence to the good Samaritan who took
tip the female in the street,and pot her to bed while other
people were chattering ! At a pretty place with a
I •
pretty appellotion (so at least it seemed to me, when.l spent,
My holidays there) lived the illustrious little withered lion,
Nelson. But it once contained a personage much inure in-
teresting in my eyes; to wit, an aunt of mine ; a true West
Indian of the best sort, somewlia: wilful, very and go-
nerous, and a lady to the heart of her. If the mention of
tHese two personages together looks like an
take the following out of a master of the " bun goat,"
which I think beats it hollow. It is Cliatilien addressing
the Cbuntess of Stalford:
Veto a'aiireijarrals brioin
De Muse qui vin. aninav,
Si qu' Apolloa pretioe ruin
He eons mutter le rublime
Car T.11.1$ trotiverezehes you.
ham, an finer botaioulble,
En maitre plus pie rai.able
De roc.. foram. au IrJu gutit.
But what has this impertinent Frenchman to do with
one's young days and one's natural affections? Talking of
Queen Flizaheth and her Nymphals, I remember writing
an elegy on tlw death of this kinswoman, in which I ea!le I
her a " nymph" also, though she was between fifty and six-
ty. Why did she not live to be called a damsel ? There
was inch an el.ganee about her in My eye, that I never
thought her wrinkled face old. And where are you, dear
cousin F. that in the pride of your turiceri and dressed
locks you are not still calling me " petit garcon," an
throwing down peaches from the trees to my adoring eyes ?
What had trouble to do with your warm strip of West-I n-
dianism, that it did not dance and natter all its life in per-
petual youth ? She had the cruelty to give me a little
chrystal heart, as if it signified nothing to the" petit gar-
con ;" and I wore it hest my own at school, with an ion-
nite mixture of pride and pensivene.s. Few things are
better than these fancies, or even the recollections of then ;
and those that are, partake of the same character. Let me
try as 1 may, I feel I have nothing greater, much less hap-
pier in me, than I had when a boy; nor can I do any thing
better than draw out, as it were, what was in me then.—
Business has only made me uneasy to others, and remorse-
ful to Myself. My tasks take another direction. I :1::t
formed by nature to sutler and imagine alone, or in comp s-
ny with some friend ; and in pnblieto do nothing- bat i:n-
part a sense of the joys which rove and patience reward :n.!
with.

But whnt have the peach tree done with me, that I stand
here in a dream, when I have to make half the circuit of
London.? Yet I must not forget die little river iYandle,
which runs by Merton, and in which I once saw a vision
bright and ideal as any in a picture. It was nothing too, hat
a girl with long flaxen hair and blue eyes, wasiiinz smie.
linen with naked feet among the pebbles. Her hair wog
flaxenest of the flaxen; her eyes blue as sapphire;—it teas
August; and the
—eteryle stream, rambling In peblde-ston,
Crept under tnoao as green as any gourd.
What she must have thought of me in my school petti-
coats, I know not; but her surprise had the advantage of
fixing her in a beautiful posture, and making her open ail
her blue eyes. I wish Mr Wordsworth had flourished then,
and set "us youth" upon attempting to write natural) l
made "a copy of verses" afterwards upon the IVaiidle,
which might have been a little be: ter for it. When I ulr
with the lines upon it in Drayton's Polyolhion, the sision
came upon me again in all its beauty, only nut pile so
"
Then ‘tandal eenseth In, the Mole's Leuvu 1 mute,
So amiable, so fair, so pure, so dolieate,
S. pinta'', so full, so fresh, her eyes so awning's clear;'
And tirst unto her lord at Watelsworth eloth appear,
That i:r the goodly Court of their eYeat sovereign Thant's.)
There :night no other 'Krell he h..,1 soi.ngst the streams
Hot only nt this nymph, sweet Wa :tla!, what she wore,
Of her ctimplexlou, grace,and how herselfshe bore.
Po iv(' 8. Sslz 17
At Wimbledon, when a child, I was taken to see Horns
Tooke, who patted me on the head, and gave me a very dif-
fereot benediction from the Bishop. In a wood near the
same place I saw, inany years afterwards, one of the most
successful of ministers, who seemed one of the ctio.;: misera-
ble of men. I have pitied him ever since.
At Pntney Gibbon was born, and at Battersea lired Bo-
lingbroke. A pretty infidel neighbourhood i I think I
see Bolingbroke and Swift sitting at the open window over
the Thames, waiting for Arbuthnot and thy to come front
London, and Pope frpm Twickenham. Bolingbroke is
lounging., with an end of his peruke over his
Swift is fidgeting with the girdle of his cassock, or cutting
his nails to toe quick with a penknife. All the batiks Of
the Tli tuns upwards are classic groand. At Richmond, its
that lazy undress of a fat body, called Tlionocoff, lived one
of the treest, most elegant, and most cordial of poetical
the most au-Scolch of Scotchtnen. lie was so,eis
eating peaches °fie tree with his hands in his waistcoat
pockets ; which is what he ougut to bafze done. Out or
his enjoyments have room oars. Garrick must not be ptss-
ed be at Hampton ; nar old Jacob Toulon, at Barn films,
since Congreve and Vanhengif used to dine with him ;'

• a pleasant parody liy Rowe, Oil the time/lie iNlWrell
Lydia. The are T4/11,0114111t noii.oill says,
rola with Captain Vauhurgli at Cie pre/sent.
A men sweet-natured geatiewali. awl pleasant;
Ile Write,. your ronwitiee, dram, s, hen. and models.,
And Wil I. dakea houses 141,011 Wiry hilia.
Vet b. "4. with saTilld.tilat he would aire up even Vwihrugh to hr re-ow.
ailed With C uagrzee, arid *mild vt up a WO lor WA a :as ditgag-ta4.n at