Volume Ii Part 16 (2/2)
Within a few days, he writes from a Pall Mall tavern:--
”Dear Wife,
”Mr. Edgecombe, Ned Ask, and Mr. Lumley, have desired me to sit an hour with them at the George, in Pall Mall, for which I desire your patience till twelve o'clock, and that you will go to bed,” etc.
When money-matters were getting worse, Steele found it necessary to sleep away from home for a day or two, and he writes:--
”_Tennis-court Coffee-house, May 5, 1708._
”Dear Wife,
”I hope I have done this day what will be pleasing to you; in the meantime shall lie this night at a baker's, one Leg, over against the Devil Tavern, at Charing Cross. I shall be able to confront the fools who wish me uneasy, and shall have the satisfaction to see thee cheerful and at ease.
”If the printer's boy be at home, send him hither; and let Mr. Todd send by the boy my night-gown, slippers, and clean linen. You shall hear from me early in the morning,” etc.
He is found excusing his coming home, being ”invited to supper at Mr.
Boyle's.” ”Dear Prue,” he says on this occasion, ”do not send after me, for I shall be ridiculous.” There were _Caudles_ in those days.[37]
FOOTNOTE:
[37] Lives of Wits and Humourists, vol. i. p. 134.
CLARE MARKET TAVERNS.
Clare Market lying between the two great theatres, its butchers were the arbiters of the galleries, the leaders of theatrical rows, the musicians at actresses' marriages, the chief mourners at players'
funerals. In and around the market were the signs of the Sun; the Bull and Butcher, afterwards Spiller's Head; the Grange; the Bull's Head, where met ”the Shepherd and his Flock Club,” and where Dr. Radcliffe was carousing when he received news of the loss of his 5000_l._ venture. Here met weekly a Club of Artists, of which society Hogarth was a member, and he engraved for them a silver tankard with a shepherd and his flock. Next is the Black Jack in Portsmouth-street, the haunt of Joe Miller, the comedian, and where he uttered his time-honoured ”Jests:” the house remains, but the sign has disappeared. Miller died in 1738, and was buried in St. Clement's upper ground, in Portugal-street, where his gravestone was inscribed with the following epitaph, written by Stephen Duck: ”Here lie the remains of honest Joe Miller, who was a tender husband, a sincere friend, a facetious companion, and an excellent comedian. He departed this life the 15th day of August, 1738, aged 54 years.
”If humour, wit, and honesty could save The humorous, witty, honest, from the grave, This grave had not so soon its tenant found, With honesty, and wit, and humour crown'd.
Or could esteem and love preserve our health, And guard us longer from the stroke of Death, The stroke of Death on him had later fell, Whom all mankind esteem'd and loved so well.”
The stone was restored by the parish grave-digger at the close of the last century; and in 1816, a new stone was set up by Mr. Jarvis Buck, churchwarden, who added S. Duck to the epitaph. The burial-ground has been cleared away, and the site has been added to the grounds of King's College Hospital.
At the Black Jack, also called the Jump, (from Jack Sheppard having once jumped out of a first-floor window, to escape his pursuers, the thief-takers,) a Club known as ”the Honourable Society of Jackers,”
met until 1816. The roll of the fraternity ”numbers many of the popular actors since the time of Joe Miller, and some of the wits; from John Kemble, Palmer, and Theodore Hook down to Kean, Liston, and the mercurial John Pritt Harley. Since the dissolution of this last relic of the sociality of the Joe Miller age, 'wit-combats' have been comparatively unknown at the Old Black Jack.”[38]
FOOTNOTE:
[38] Jo. Miller; a Biography, 1848.
THE CRAVEN HEAD, DRURY LANE.
This modern Tavern was part of the offices of Craven House, and the adjoining stabling belonged to the mansion; the extensive cellars still remain, though blocked up.
Craven House was built for William Lord Craven, the hero of Creutznach, upon part of the site of Drury House, and was a large square pile of brick, four storeys high, which occupied the site of the present Craven-buildings, built in 1723. That portion of the mansion ab.u.t.ting on Magpie-alley, now Newcastle-street, was called Bohemia House, and was early in the last century, converted into a tavern, with the sign of the head of its former mistress, the Queen of Bohemia. But a destructive fire happening in the neighbourhood, the tavern was shut up, and the building suffered to decay; till, at length, in 1802, what remained of the dilapidated mansion was pulled down, and the materials sold; and upon the ground, in 1803, Philip Astley erected his Olympic Pavilion, which was burnt down in 1849.
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