When the King of Denmark visited our Court in 1768, he observed the eagerness of the middle and lower ranks in their attempts to view his person; and politely ordered that they should be admitted while he dined. The consequent press and rudeness was such, that the permission was rescinded after one trial: that rudeness may be estimated by the following paragraph: "A correspondent observes, in the London Chronicle, that the crowds which follow after and so rudely press upon the King of Denmark, render his situation very disagreeable, as he is constantly obstructed in the gratification of his curiosity at any public place of diversion, or of seeing any thing curious in or near the Metropolis, for fear of being stifled. He adds, that he wishes the people would consider the great rudeness they are guilty of, by thus treating so very high and respectable a Personage: and let all who have once had a view of him in any public place pass on, and not stand staring in the King's face with such intolerable effrontery as too many have done, to the annoyance of his Majesty, as well as the hindrance of others from the pleasure of seeing him."

The hospitality with which this Prince was received by the superior ranks and all the public bodies, particularly the Corporation of London, deserves the highest commendation.

The practice of Betting is tolerably prevalent at present, and by no means confined to any particular class of the community. In short, I am afraid it might be traced very far back in the history of our customs; but it will be sufficient for the information of the reader, that I present him with an article from the London Chronicle for 1768, which I think will remind him of some recent transactions in the City.

"The introduction and amazing progress of illicit gaming at Lloyd's Coffee-house is, among others, a powerful and very melancholy proof of the degeneracy of the times. It is astonishing that this practice was begun, and has been hitherto carried on, by the matchless effrontery and impudence of one man. It is equally so, that he has met with so much encouragement from many of the principal Under-writers, who are, in every other respect, useful members of society: and it is owing to the lenity of our laws, and want of spirit in the present administration, that this pernicious practice has not hitherto been suppressed. Though gaming in any degree (except what is warranted by law) is perverting the original and useful design of that Coffee-house, it may in some measure be excusable to speculate on the following subjects:

"Mr. Wilkes being elected Member for London, which was done from 5 to 50 guineas per cent.

"Ditto for Middlesex, from 20 to 70 guineas per cent.

"Alderman B——d's life for one year, now doing at 7 per cent.

"On Sir J—— H—— being turned out in one year, now doing at 20 guineas per cent.

"On John Wilkes's life for one year, now doing at 5 per cent.—N. B. Warranted to remain in prison during that period.

"On a declaration of war with France or Spain in one year, 8 guineas per cent.

"And many other innocent things of that kind.

"But when policies come to be opened on two of the first Peers in Britain losing their heads within a year, at 10s. 6d. per cent. and on the dissolution of the present Parliament within one year, at 5 guineas per cent. which are now actually doing, and underwrote, chiefly by Scotsmen, at the above Coffee-house; it is surely high time for Administration to interfere, and by exerting the rigour of the laws against the authors and encouragers of such insurances (which must be done for some bad purpose) effectually put a stop to it."

There are certain wags who find great amusement in contriving wonderful stories for the publick, which are sometimes circulated verbally, and frequently inserted in the newspapers.—This waggery has recently received the elegant term of hoaxing. Twice very lately crowds have been sent to the ship-yards below London to witness the launching of men of war and Indiamen which were not ready to launch; and last winter re-produced an old story of a gardener digging a pit to receive the body of a servant he had seduced, whom he intended to have murdered, had not his master luckily discovered the plan by the intervention of a dream. Many of these inventions are so slightly contrived that persons of very little sagacity might detect the impostor; and yet numbers are deceived.

The newspapers of 1772 furnish a rare instance of this description, which take verbatim:

"At the house of one Mrs. Goulding, a single gentlewoman, at Stockwell, in the parish of Lambeth, in Surrey, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon on Monday last, there being no person except herself and servant (Ann Robinson, aged fifteen years or thereabouts) several earthen plates, and one dish, of what is called the Queen's-ware, which were placed on a shelf in one of the kitchens, fell down, and all broke except the dish, without any visible cause; in a little time after, several candlesticks, and other things, the furniture of a mantle-piece in the back kitchen, were thrown into the middle of the floor, though no person was in that room; then some china, &c. on the mantle-piece in the other kitchen was in like manner thrown into the middle of the floor, and broke, and as the pieces lay, they snapped and flew just as though they had been thrown on an exceeding hot fire; a glazed lanthorn, which hung on the staircase, was thrown down; a clock also was thrown down and broke; a red earthen pan, containing salt beef, flew in pieces, and the beef fell about; and many such like uncommon things happened; which causing an alarm, the people from the road, without distinction, ran into the house, some supposing it to be on fire, others thought the house had received a shock from the explosion of a powder-mill at Hounslow, which was blown up about an hour before. However, all concurred in moving the goods; and Mrs. Goulding, together with her maid-servant, went to Mr. Gresham's, a gentleman who lives in the next house to Mrs. Goulding's, whither the goods were carried, and particularly a tray full of china, an iron bread-basket japanned, two mahogany waiters, several bottles of different sorts of liquors, a gallipot of jelly, and a pier-glass worth about five pounds, which glass was taken down by one Mr. Saville (a neighbour to Mrs. Goulding) who handed it to one Robert Hames, and a part of the gilt-work on each side of the frame flew off before he could put it down in the garden; but when it was laid down, remained without farther damage till it was taken into Mr. Gresham's, and put under a side-board, where it flew to pieces. Mr. Saville and others going to drink of a bottle of rum and a bottle of wine, they both flew in pieces, though they were uncorked; the china in the tray flew in pieces, some while it was in the house, and the rest in the garden, whither it was removed by the affrighted spectators after it began to break; the bread-basket was thrown down and broke, as also were the two mahogany waiters, and the pot of jelly, together with bottles of liquors and jars of pickles, all of them the property of Mrs. Goulding. Mrs Goulding, being ill with the fright, was let blood by Mr. Gardener, a Surgeon of Clapham, who borrowed a pint china bowl of Mr. Gresham's people to receive the blood, which being afterwards set upon a side-board, near a bottle of rum, the property of Mrs. Goulding, both bottle and bowl jumped on the floor and broke, the bowl going into five pieces (a piece of which is now in the possession of Mr. Waterfield at the Royal Oak Inn, Vauxhall). Mrs. Goulding and her servant then went to Mr. Maylin's next door to Mr. Gresham's; but during their stay there (which was but very short) nothing extraordinary happened; from thence they went to the house of Farmer Payne (to whose wife Mrs. Goulding is related) on Rush-common, near the Wash-way, about half a mile distant from her own house, where they found Mr. and Miss Gresham, Mr. Payne and his family; it being about dinner-time, they all dined with Mr. Payne; some time after dinner Mrs. Goulding's servant was sent home to examine into the state of the house, and returned with an account that every thing there had been quiet from the time they left it. In a little time after the return of the servant, Mr. and Miss Gresham went home (nothing unaccountable having yet happened at Mr. Payne's); but Mrs. Goulding and her servant staid, and about seven o'clock in the evening the same kind of uncommon operations as had been seen at Mrs. Goulding's began at Mr. Payne's, by seven pewter dishes out of eight falling from the top shelf over a dresser in the kitchen, without any apparent cause, which was followed by an infinite number of examples not less strange, and particularly the following: a pestle and mortar jumped from the mantle-piece in the kitchen to the floor, about six feet; a row of pewter plates fell from the second shelf (over the dresser) to the ground, and being taken up, and put one in the other on the dresser, which is about three feet high, they were thrown down again, and lay in the same manner as plates are generally placed on a shelf; the pewter, china, earthen-ware, &c. were then almost all set upon the floors in the kitchen and parlour (to prevent being broke or bruised by falling), but four pewter plates were left on one of the shelves over the dresser, which plates did not move the whole night. While the things were putting on the ground, a stone tea-cup jumped out of a beaufet to the floor; on the floor a glass tumbler jumped about a foot and a half and broke; another that stood near it jumped also about the same distance, but remained whole for some hours after, then took another spring and broke also; a china bowl jumped from the floor in the middle of the parlour, and went behind the feet of a claw table, which was standing in the same parlour, at the distance of about eight feet, but did not break at that time, but being replaced by one Mr. Fowler, remained whole for a considerable time afterwards, and then flew to pieces; three china cups, which had been left on the dresser in the kitchen, flew slant-wise across the kitchen about twelve feet, by which two were broke: an egg flew from the lower shelf over the dresser, taking the same direction as the cups had done, and went nearly the same distance; there was another egg on the shelf, which did not move the whole night: a candlestick flew from the mantle-piece in the kitchen into the parlour door-way, about fifteen feet from the place where it stood; a tea-kettle under the dresser was thrown out about two feet: another tea-kettle, which stood on the side of the grate, was thrown off against an iron that is fixed to keep the children from the fire; a mustard-glass, which was a little broke by some natural accident, was thrown from a table into a pewter-dish on the floor, at about seven feet distance, but did not break, neither was it broke afterwards; the cup that had escaped when the other two were broke (as is before-mentioned) being set on a table in the parlour, flew off to the distance of nine feet, and broke; a tumbler, with a little rum and water in it, standing on a waiter upon a table in the same parlour, jumped about ten feet, and broke; the table then overset, and threw off a silver tankard of Mrs. Goulding's, a candlestick, and the waiter the tumbler had jumped from; two hams, which had been hung up in the chimney to dry, fell down, though the nail and strings on and by which they had hung were not broke or misplaced; a case-bottle of liquor, part of which they had just drank, flew into pieces; and, in short, about four o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, almost every thing in the parlour and kitchen were animated, and made such a racket, that Mr. Payne's maid-servant ran up stairs, and took a child out of bed, and carried it into the stable naked, thinking it was not safe longer to stay in the house. Mrs. Goulding then seeing the general confusion, went with her servant across the road to Mr. Fowler's (the same Mr. Fowler as is before-mentioned in this narrative) and were accompanied by Mrs. Payne and her son, about nine years of age; and the confusion at Mr. Payne's immediately ceased, when Mr. Fowler had let them into his house, he proceeded to light a fire in his back room, which done, he put the candlestick and candle he had used upon a table in his fore-room (through which Mrs. Goulding and her servant had passed), where also stood another candlestick with a tin lamp in it, but they did not stand long before they were knocked against each other, and thrown to the ground by some invisible agent; then a lanthorn in the back-room, that had been used in lighting Mrs. Goulding, &c. across the road, was thrown to the ground; and lastly a basket of coals, which was brought from Mr. Payne's, overset, and emptied itself upon the floor. Mr. Fowler upon this told Mrs. Goulding he feared she had been guilty of some bad act, as it was plain the cause of such wonderful events was carried with her; but Mrs. Goulding answered, that her conscience was clear from any extraordinary evil, and that she could not tell the cause why she was so troubled, or such like words; however, Mr. Fowler desired her to quit his house, as he could not afford to have his goods destroyed; whereupon Mrs. Goulding and her servant left his house, which has been quiet ever since, and returned to her own house; and, in a little time after their arrival, a cask with some beer in it was thrown from its stand, and a pail of water was moved from its place a little, and some of the water spilled, but nothing more happened; then she discharged her servant, and has remained quiet ever since."

Another account has the following additional circumstance:

"Some plates of Mr. Gresham's, by way of trial, were placed upon the same shelf with those of Mrs. Goulding's; the former stood unhurt, the whole of Mrs. Goulding's were broke in pieces.

"The servant girl is gone home to her father, the clerk of Lewisham parish; and what remains are now just as inanimate as the furniture of other houses."

The following extracts from Nugent's translation of M. Grosley's Tour to London are inserted as the means by which the reader may collect facts in proof of my opinion, that the manners of the populace are greatly improved since the above period.

"Amongst the people of London we should properly distinguish the Porters, Sailors, Chairmen, and the Day-labourers who work in the streets, not only from persons of condition, most of whom walk a-foot merely because it is their fancy, but even from the lowest class of shopkeepers.

"The former are as insolent a rabble as can be met with in countries without law or police. The French, at whom their rudeness is chiefly levelled, would be in the wrong to complain, since even the better sort of Londoners are not exempt from it. Inquire of them your way to a street: if it be upon the right, they direct you to the left, or they send you from one of their vulgar comrades to another. The most shocking abuse and ill language make a part of their pleasantry upon these occasions. To be assailed in such a manner, it is not absolutely necessary to be engaged in conversation with them; it is sufficient to pass by them. My French air, notwithstanding the simplicity of my dress, drew upon me, at the corner of every street, a volley of abusive litanies, in the midst of which I slipped on, returning thanks to God I did not understand English. The constant burthen of these litanies was, French dog, French b—: to make any answer to them, was accepting a challenge to fight; and my curiosity did not carry me so far. I saw in the streets a scuffle of this kind, between a Porter and a Frenchman, who spit in his face, not being able to make any other answer to the torrent of abuse which the former poured out against the latter without any provocation. The late Marshal Saxe, walking through London streets, happened to have a dispute with a scavenger, which ended in a boxing bout, wherein his dexterity received the general applause of the spectators: he let the scavenger come upon him, then seized him by the neck, and made him fly up into the air, in such a direction, that he fell into the middle of his cart, which was brimful of dirt.

"Happening to pass one day through Chelsea, in company with an English gentleman, a number of Watermen drew themselves up in a line, and attacked him, on my account, with all the opprobrious terms which the English language can supply, succeeding each other, like students who defend a thesis: at the third attack, my friend, stepping short, cried out to them, that they said the finest things in the world, but unluckily he was deaf: and that, as for me, I did not understand a word of English, and that their wit was of consequence thrown away upon me. This remonstrance appeased them; and they returned laughing to their business.

"M. de la Condamine, in his journey to London two or three years ago, was followed, wherever he went, by a numerous crowd, who were drawn together by a great tube of block-tin, which he had always to his ear; by an unfolded map of London which he held in his hand; and by frequent pauses, whenever he met with any object worthy of his attention. At his first going abroad, being frequently hemmed in by the crowd, which prevented his advancing forward, he cried out to his interpreter, 'What would all these people have?' Upon this, the interpreter, applying his mouth to the tube, answered by crying out to him, 'They are making game of you.' At last they became used to the sight; and ceased to crowd about him as he walked the streets.

"The day after my arrival, my servant discovered, by sad experience, what liberties the mob are accustomed to take with the French, and all who have the appearance of being such. He had followed the crowd to Tyburn, where three rogues were hanged, two of whom were father and son. The execution being over, as he was returning home through Oxford-road with the remains of the numerous multitude which had been present at the execution, he was attacked by two or three blackguards; and, the crowd having soon surrounded him, he made a sight for the rabble. Jack Ketch, the executioner, joined in the sport, and entering the circle, struck the poor sufferer upon the shoulder. They began to drag him about by the skirts of his coat, and by his shoulder-knot; when luckily for him, he was perceived by three grenadiers belonging to the French guards, who, having deserted, and crossed the seas, were then drinking at an ale-house hard by the scene of action. Armed with such weapons as chance presented them, they suddenly attacked the mob, laid on soundly upon such as came within their reach, and brought their countryman off safe to the ale-house, and from thence to my lodgings. Seven or eight campaigns which he had served with an officer in the gens-d'armes, and a year which he afterwards passed in Italy, had not sufficiently inured him to bear this rough treatment; it had a most surprising effect upon him. He shut himself up in the house a fortnight, where he vented his indignation in continual imprecations against England and the English. Strong and robust as he was, if he had had any knowledge of the language and the country, he might have come off nobly, by proposing a boxing bout to the man whom he thought weakest amongst the crowd of assailants: if victorious, he would have been honourably brought home, and had his triumph celebrated even by those who now joined against him. This is the first law of this species of combat; a law which the English punctually observe in the heat of battle, where the vanquished always find a generous conqueror in that nation. This should seem to prove, in contradiction to Hobbes, that in the state of nature, a state with which the street-scufflers of London are closely connected, man, who is by fits wicked and cruel, is, at the bottom, good-natured and generous.

"I have already observed, that the English themselves are not secure from the insolence of the London mob. I had a proof of this from the young Surgeon who accompanied me from Paris to Boulogne.

"At the first visit which he paid me in London, he informed me, that, a few days after his arrival, happening to take a walk through the fields on the Surrey-side of the Thames, dressed in a little green frock which he had brought from Paris, he was attacked by three of those gentlemen of the mobility, who, taking him for a Frenchman, not only abused him with the foulest language, but gave him two or three slaps on the face. 'Luckily,' added he in French, 'I did not return their ill language; for, if I had, they would certainly have thrown me into the Thames, as they assured me they would, as soon as they perceived I was an Englishman, if I ever happened to come in their way again in my Paris dress.'

"A Portuguese of my acquaintance, taking a walk in the same fields, with three of his countrymen, their conversation in Portuguese was interrupted by two Watermen, who, doubling their fists at them, cried, 'French dogs, speak your damned French, if you dare.'

"Happening to go one evening from the part of the town where I lived to the Museum, I passed by the Seven-dials. The place was crowded with people waiting to see a poor wretch stand in the pillory, whose punishment was deferred to another day. The mob, provoked at this disappointment, vented their rage upon all that passed that way, whether a-foot or in coaches; and threw at them dirt, rotten eggs, dead dogs, and all sorts of trash and ordure, which they had provided to pelt the unhappy wretch, according to custom. Their fury fell chiefly upon the hackney-coaches, the drivers of which they forced to salute them with their whips and their hats, and to cry huzza; which word is a signal for rallying in all public frays. The disturbance upon this occasion was so much the greater, as the person who was to have acted the principal part in the scene, which by being postponed had put the rabble into such an ill-humour, belonged to the nation which that rabble thinks it has most right to insult.

"In England, no rank or dignity is secure from their insults. The young Queen herself was exposed to them upon her first arrival at London: the rabble was affronted at her Majesty's keeping one window of her sedan chair drawn up.

"The politeness, the civility, and the officiousness of people of good breeding, whom we meet in the streets, as well as the obliging readiness of the citizens and shopkeepers, even of the inferior sort, sufficiently indemnify and console us for the insolence of the mob, as I have often experienced.

"Whatever haste a gentleman may be in, whom you happen to meet in the streets, as soon as you speak to him, he stops to answer, and often steps out of his way to direct you, or to consign you to the care of some one who seems to be going the same way. A gentleman one day put me in this manner under the care of a handsome young directress, who was returning home with a fine young child in her arms. I travelled on very agreeably, though I had a great way to go, lending an arm to my guide; and we conversed together as well as two persons could do, one of whom scarce understood a word spoken by the other. I had frequent conversations of this sort in the streets, in which, notwithstanding all the pains I took to make myself understood, and others took to understand me, I could not succeed: I then would quit my guide, and say to him, with a laugh, and squeeze of the hand, Tower of Babylon! He would laugh on his side likewise; and so we used to part.

"Having occasion to inquire for a certain person in Oxford-road, I shewed his address at the first shop I came to; when out stepped a young man, in white silk stockings, a waistcoat of fine cloth, and an apron about his waist. After having examined whether I was able to follow him, he made me a sign, and began to run on before me. During this race, which was from one end of the street to the other, I thought that my guide had interest in view; and therefore I got ready a shilling, which I offered him upon arriving at the proper place; but he refused it with generous disdain, and taking hold of my hand, which he shook violently, he thanked me for the pleasure I had procured him. I afterwards saw him at the tabernacle of the Methodists.

"To take a man in this manner by the arm, and shake it till his shoulder is almost dislocated, is one of the grand testimonies of friendship which the English give each other, when they happen to meet: this they do very coolly; there is no expression of friendship in their countenances, yet the whole soul enters the arm which gives the shake. This supplies the place of the embraces and salutes of the French. The English seem to regulate their behaviour upon these occasions by the rules prescribed by Alexander Severus to those who approached his person[390:A].

"I met with the same politeness and civil treatment at all the public and private assemblies to which I was admitted. At the House of Lords as well as at the House of Commons, a foreigner may take the liberty to address himself to any gentleman who understands his language; and those who are applied to upon these occasions think it their duty to answer his questions. At the first meeting of the House of Lords to try Lord Byron, I happened to be seated amidst a family as much distinguished by their high rank as their amiable qualities. They all shewed the utmost eagerness to satisfy my curiosity with regard to the several particulars of this extraordinary spectacle; to explain to me all that was said; to instruct me with regard to the origin of the most remarkable ceremonies; and, in fine, to share with me the refreshments, which the length of the trial made it necessary for them to provide.

"When the King came to the House of Lords to give the royal assent to Bills, one of the Bishops near whom I was seated offered to be my interpreter; and he took upon him to serve me in that capacity during the whole time I staid.

"At the courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, and Exchequer, in Westminster, I seated myself amongst the Lawyers; and upon my speaking French to the two next me, neither of whom happened to understand that language, one of them rose, and brought a brother Lawyer, who, being acquainted with the French tongue, explained to me the best he could all that passed.

"At the play-houses and other public diversions, I had the same good fortune. Those that did not understand me, were eager to look for somebody that did; and my interpreter, who had taken a bottle of wine with him, never drank without afterwards presenting me with it: I made it a rule to drink, because having declined the first time it was offered, I was given to understand, that such a refusal was contrary to the laws of English politeness.

"It must, however, be observed, that this obliging behaviour is not accompanied with all those external demonstrations of civility, which are customary upon such occasions in France. If an English gentleman, who did not understand me, went in quest of an interpreter, he rose, and quitted me with an air, which seemed rather to be that of a whimsical humourist, than of a gentleman who was going to do a polite action; and I saw no more of him.

"I met with the same civility and complaisance amongst all the shop-keepers, whether great or little. The tradesman sent his son or his daughter to me, who often served me as guide, after having first acted as an interpreter: for some years past, the French language has been taught as universally as the English, in all the boarding-schools of London; so that French will soon be by choice the language of the people of England, as it was by constraint and necessity under the Norman Kings. This is a demonstration, that the antipathy of that Nation for every thing belonging to the French is not universal and without exception.

"The French are apt to imagine, that it is on account of their country they are pushed and shoved in the most frequented streets, and often driven into the kennel; but they are mistaken. The English walk very fast: their thoughts being entirely engrossed by business, they are very punctual to their appointments, and those who happen to be in their way are sure to be sufferers by it: constantly darting forward, they jostle them with a force proportioned to their bulk and the velocity of their motion. I have seen foreigners, not used to this exercise, let themselves be tossed and whirled about a long time, in the midst of a crowd of passengers, who had nothing else in view but to get forward. Having soon adopted the English custom, I made the best of my way through crowded streets, exerting my utmost efforts to shun persons who were equally careful to avoid me.

"We should be equally in an error, if we were to imagine that the English fashions, diametrically opposite to those of France, are contrived in the manner they are, in order to avoid all resemblance to those of our Nation: on the contrary, if the former are any way influenced by the latter, it is by the desire of imitating them. A mode begins to be out of date at Paris, just when it has been introduced at London by some English Nobleman. The Court and the first-rate Nobility immediately take it up: it is next introduced about St. James's by those that ape the manners of the Court; and by the time it has reached the City, a contrary mode already prevails at Paris, where the English, bringing with them the obsolete mode, appear like the people of another world. The little hats, for example, at present so fashionable in France, begin to be wore by the Nobility, who borrowed the model from Paris: by degrees the English will come at the diminutive size; but the great hats will then be resumed at Paris. This holds good in general, with regard both to men and women's apparel."

It has long been customary for the lower classes to hold a burlesque election at Wandsworth after a dissolution of Parliament for the choice of a Mayor of Garratt. To describe the strange proceedings of the candidates, who are always selected from the most ludicrous or most hideous of the community, or the riotous freaks of the mob, would be impossible. One vast wave of the populace rolls impetuous from London after the candidates and officers of the election; and, if there is but little taste in their dresses, there is always much "unreal mockery" of finery disposed in a manner which cannot but excite laughter, and the curiosity of those who are but little satisfied to witness the quarrels and intoxication that distinguish the electors of the borough of Garratt.

Many whimsical and satirical imitations of speeches and promises are made upon these occasions; but the electors, contrary to the customs of other elections, always treat themselves, though tin sixpences have sometimes been thrown amongst the mob as bribes.

The present member for Garratt is Sir Henry Dimsdale, Citizen and Muffin-seller, one of the oddest productions of injured nature, and an idiot. It is strange that the people who act these follies cannot perceive they are satirizing themselves. If they were not willing to be deceived, promises never meant to be performed would not be made; and, if they would neither receive bribes nor be treated, candidates would never offer the former, or furnish materials for the latter. When they chair a real member through Westminster, after having violated the freedom of election by deeds which deserve hanging, these wanton fools pull the hustings over their own heads, and frequently maim peaceable spectators.—Such are the electors of Garratt and . . . . . . . . !