The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-03
OLD ENGLISH Door KNOCKERS.
Some Rare Specimens Resisted tn
Attacks of Young ROisterers.

Some Rare Specimens Resisted the
Attacks of Young Roisterers.
Each caller at a house had his own
particular knock. There was the post
mans knock, the doctors knock, the tax
and rate collectors knock. and the knock
of the master of the house. There was
signals, and in long streets their noise
was as uninterrupted as it was deafen-
ing. They were not only of practical
use, but they were a source Of no end
Of amusement for the misunderstanding
youth Of the neighborhood, who took es-
pecial pride in the number of knockers
they could wrench from their fastenings
during the night. Lord Charles BereS-
fCess, soon to be raised to the rank of adj
miral, was one of these pests, and many
a race has he given the metropolitan po-
lice, says an English correspondent.
But knocker wrenching has gone out of
few years. This is a good thing, for
many of those that now adorn doors in
London are worth hundreds, and some of
them thousands, of dollars. Many of the
ers, and many are formed on curious and
artistic models. These. of course are to
be found on the doors of distinguished
people only. The knockers on the gates
Devonshires palatial abode are fully
worthy of the latter. They came from
Italy and were made in the seventeenth
century. Lord Portman has couple of
Pompeiian knockers. They had lain con-
cealed in the ruins of Pompeii 1900 years.
In spite of this, they do not show any
cerroding effect on the part of time, and
the Diana done in bronze is still as per-
feet and as clear as 1t must nave peeh
in the days of Christ.
When Lord Charles Beresford was
younger he tried several times to wrench
off the bronze dolphins which serve as
knockers to the doors. of the town house
of the Marquis of Bath. The result OF his
last effort is thus told:
Late one night he drove up with his
intimate friend and chum, the Marquis OF
Queensberry, in a hanson to the resi- Is,
cab driver might have been recognized as
those of Lord Ribb;esdale, master of the
buckhounds in the last administration,
who for some reason or other IS known
to his friends by the sobriquet of Orb,
blesquash,' with which he was endowed
years ago by Lord Charles Beresford;
AS soon as the hanson halted, LORD
Charles and Lord Queensberry hoppeo
out. carrying q stout rope. One end OF
this they attached to the Knockers anG
the other to the body of the cab, when
they then re-entered, ordering the tltled
! driver to whip up This ne dla. Inc Inc
horse sprang forward and out came not
only the knockers, but also the panels OF
the door, An exploit of this kind could
not long be kept secret. and very soon
Lord Bath was in possession OF tae names e
of the robbers. What next followed was
wrapped in mystery, but before a week
had elapsed knockers and panels had dis,
appeared from the bachelors .digginggs ;,
their proper place in the doors of tbs
Bath mansion in Berkeley square.
The fact that these old things still re-
tain their places indicates the hold they fe,
vears tbe Introduction of the electrical
button and their existence is a fine tri.
uqnph of sentiment. They recall other
and nobler times to those who stlil use
fhem-are, in fact, indissolubly connected
with the earlier history of England.-St
Louis Post-Dispatch.