Volume Ii Part 2 (1/2)
”They know who shall in times to come, Be either made or undone, From great St. Peter's-street in Rome, To Turnbal-street[7] in London.
”They know all that is good or hurt, To d.a.m.n ye or to save ye; There is the college and the court, The country, camp, and navy.
So great an university, I think there ne'er was any; In which you may a scholar be, For spending of a penny.
”Here men do talk of everything, With large and liberal lungs, Like women at a gossiping, With double tire of tongues, They'll give a broadside presently, 'Soon as you are in view: With stories that you'll wonder at, Which they will swear are true.
”You shall know there what fas.h.i.+ons are, How perriwigs are curl'd; And for a penny you shall hear All novels in the world; Both old and young, and great and small, And rich and poor you'll see; Therefore let's to the Coffee all, Come all away with me.”
FOOTNOTES:
[3] The Dutch admiral who, in June, 1667, dashed into the Downs with a fleet of eighty sail, and many fire-s.h.i.+ps, blocked up the mouths of the Medway and Thames, destroyed the fortifications at Sheerness, cut away the paltry defences of booms and chains drawn across the rivers, and got to Chatham, on the one side, and nearly to Gravesend on the other; the king having spent in debauchery the money voted by Parliament for the proper support of the English navy.
[4] General Monk and Prince Rupert were at this time commanders of the English fleet.
[5] Lilly was the celebrated astrologer of the Protectorate, who earned great fame at that time by predicting, in June, 1645, ”if now we fight, a victory stealeth upon us:” a lucky guess, signally verified in the King's defeat at Naseby. Lilly thenceforth always saw the stars favourable to the Puritans.
[6] This man was originally a fis.h.i.+ng-tackle-maker in Tower-street, during the reign of Charles I.; but turning enthusiast, he went about prognosticating ”the downfall of the King and Popery;” and as he and his predictions were all on the popular side, he became a great man with the superst.i.tious ”G.o.dly brethren” of that day.
[7] Turnbal, or Turnbull-street as it is still called, had been for a century previous of infamous repute. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play, the _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, one of the ladies who is undergoing penance at the barber's, has her character sufficiently pointed out to the audience, in her declaration, that she had been ”stolen from her friends in Turnbal-street.”
LLOYD'S COFFEE-HOUSE.
Lloyd's is one of the earliest establishments of the kind; it is referred to in a poem printed in the year 1700, called the _Wealthy Shopkeeper, or Charitable Christian_:
”Now to Lloyd's coffee-house he never fails, To read the letters, and attend the sales.”
In 1710, Steele (_Tatler_, No. 246,) dates from Lloyd's his Pet.i.tion on Coffee-house Orators and Newsvendors. And Addison, in _Spectator_, April 23, 1711, relates this droll incident:--”About a week since there happened to me a very odd accident, by reason of which one of these my papers of minutes which I had accidentally dropped at Lloyd's Coffee-house, where the auctions are usually kept. Before I missed it, there were a cl.u.s.ter of people who had found it, and were diverting themselves with it at one end of the coffee-house. It had raised so much laughter among them before I observed what they were about, that I had not the courage to own it. The boy of the coffee-house, when they had done with it, carried it about in his hand, asking everybody if they had dropped a written paper; but n.o.body challenging it, he was ordered by those merry gentlemen who had before perused it, to get up into the auction-pulpit, and read it to the whole room, that if anybody would own it, they might. The boy accordingly mounted the pulpit, and with a very audible voice read what proved to be minutes, which made the whole coffee-house very merry; some of them concluded it was written by a madman, and others by somebody that had been taking notes out of the _Spectator_. After it was read, and the boy was coming out of the pulpit, the Spectator reached his arm out, and desired the boy to give it him; which was done according. This drew the whole eyes of the company upon the Spectator; but after casting a cursory glance over it, he shook his head twice or thrice at the reading of it, twisted it into a kind of match, and lighted his pipe with it. 'My profound silence,' says the Spectator, 'together with the steadiness of my countenance, and the gravity of my behaviour during the whole transaction, raised a very loud laugh on all sides of me; but as I had escaped all suspicion of being the author, I was very well satisfied, and applying myself to my pipe and the _Postman_, took no further notice of anything that pa.s.sed about me.'”
Nothing is positively known of the original Lloyd; but in 1750, there was issued an Irregular Ode, ent.i.tled _A Summer's Farewell to the Gulph of Venice, in the Southwell Frigate_, Captain Manly, jun., commanding, stated to be ”printed for Lloyd, well-known for obliging the public with the Freshest and Most Authentic s.h.i.+p News, and sold by A. More, near St. Paul's, and at the Pamphlet Shops in London and Westminster, MDCCL.”
In the _Gentleman's Magazine_, for 1740, we read:--”11 March, 1740, Mr. Baker, Master of Lloyd's Coffee-house, in Lombard-street, waited on Sir Robert Walpole with the news of Admiral Vernon's taking Portobello. This was the first account received thereof, and proving true, Sir Robert was pleased to order him a handsome present.”
Lloyd's is, perhaps, the oldest collective establishment in the City.
It was first under the management of a single individual, who started it as a room where the underwriters and insurers of s.h.i.+ps' cargoes could meet for refreshment and conversation. The Coffee-house was originally in Lombard-street, at the corner of Abchurch-lane; subsequently in Pope's-head-alley, where it was called ”New Lloyd's Coffee-house;” but on February 14th, 1774, it was removed to the north-west corner of the Royal Exchange, where it remained until the destruction of that building by fire.
In rebuilding the Exchange, a fine suite of apartments was provided for Lloyd's ”Subscription Rooms,” which are the rendezvous of the most eminent merchants, s.h.i.+p-owners, underwriters, insurance, stock, and exchange brokers. Here is obtained the earliest news of the arrival and sailing of vessels, losses at sea, captures, recaptures, engagements, and other s.h.i.+pping intelligence; and proprietors of s.h.i.+ps and freights are insured by the underwriters. The rooms are in the Venetian style, with Roman enrichments. They are--1. The Subscribers'
or Underwriters', the Merchants', and the Captains' Room. At the entrance of the room are exhibited the s.h.i.+pping Lists, received from Lloyd's agents at home and abroad, and affording particulars of departures or arrivals of vessels, wrecks, salvage, or sale of property saved, etc. To the right and left are ”Lloyd's Books,” two enormous ledgers: right hand, s.h.i.+ps ”spoken with,” or arrived at their destined ports; left hand: records of wrecks, fires, or severe collisions, written in a fine Roman hand, in ”double lines.” To a.s.sist the underwriters in their calculations, at the end of the room is an Anemometer, which registers the state of the wind day and night; attached is a rain-gauge.
The life of the underwriter is one of great anxiety and speculation.
”Among the old stagers of the room, there is often strong antipathy to the insurance of certain s.h.i.+ps. In the case of one vessel it was strangely followed out. She was a steady trader, named after one of the most venerable members of the room; and it was a curious coincidence that he invariably refused to 'write her' for 'a single line.' Often he was joked upon the subject, and pressed to 'do a little' for his namesake; but he as often declined, shaking his head in a doubtful manner. One morning the subscribers were reading the 'double lines,' or the losses, and among them was this identical s.h.i.+p, which had gone to pieces, and become a total wreck.”--_The City_, _2nd edit._, 1848.
The Merchants' Room is superintended by a master, who can speak several languages: here are duplicate copies of the books in the underwriters' room, and files of English and foreign newspapers.
The Captains' Room is a kind of coffee-room, where merchants and s.h.i.+p-owners meet captains, and sales of s.h.i.+ps, etc. take place.
The members of Lloyd's have ever been distinguished by their loyalty and benevolent spirit. In 1802, they voted 2000_l._ to the Life-boat subscription. On July 20, 1803, at the invasion panic, they commenced the Patriotic Fund with 20,000_l._ 3-per-cent. Consols; besides 70,312_l._ 7_s._ individual subscriptions, and 15,000_l._ additional donations. After the battle of the Nile, in 1798, they collected for the widows and wounded seamen 32,423_l._; and after Lord Howe's victory, June 1, 1794, for similar purposes, 21,281_l._ They have also contributed 5000_l._ to the London Hospital; 1000_.l_ for the suffering inhabitants of Russia in 1813; 1000_l._ for the relief of the militia in our North American colonies, 1813; and 10,000_l._ for the Waterloo subscription, in 1815. The Committee vote medals and rewards to those who distinguish themselves in saving life from s.h.i.+pwreck.
Some years since, a member of Lloyd's drew from the books the following lines of names contained therein:--
”A Black and a White, with a Brown and a Green, And also a Gray at Lloyd's room may be seen; With Parson and Clark, then a Bishop and Pryor, And Water, how Strange adding fuel to fire; While, at the same time, 'twill sure pa.s.s belief, There's a Winter, a Garland, Furze, Bud, and a Leaf; With Freshfield, and Greenhill, Lovegrove, and a Dale; Though there's never a Breeze, there's always a Gale.
No music is there, though a Whistler and Harper; There's a Blunt and a Sharp, many flats, but no sharper.