Part 17 (1/2)
And Oh beware of flattering tongues, For they'll your ruin prove; So may you crown your future day, In comfort, joy, and love.
Printed at J. Pitts, Wholesale Toy and Marble Warehouse, 6, Great St.
Andrew Street, Seven Dials.
There can be little doubt that Catnach, the great publisher of the Seven Dials, next to children's books, had his mind mostly centred upon the chronicling of doubtful scandals, fabulous duels between ladies of fas.h.i.+on, ”cooked” a.s.sa.s.sinations, and sudden deaths of eminent individuals, apochryphal elopements, real or catch-penny accounts of murders, impossible robberies, delusive suicides, dark deeds and public executions, to which was usually attached the all-important and necessary ”Sorrowful Lamentations,” or ”Copy of Affectionate Verses,” which, according to the established custom, the criminal composed in the condemned cell the night before his execution, after this manner:--
”All you that have got feeling hearts, I pray you now attend To these few lines so sad and true, a solemn silence lend; It is of a cruel murder, to you I will unfold---- The bare recital of the tale must make your blood run cold.”
Or take another and stereotyped example, which from time to time has served equally well for the verses _written by_ the culprit--Brown, Jones, Robinson, or Smith:
”Those deeds I mournfully repent, But now it is too late, The day is past, the die is cast, And fixed is my fate.
Occasionally the Last Sorrowful Lamentations contained a ”Love Letter”--the criminal being unable, in some instances, to read or write, being no obstacle to the composition--written according to the street patterer's statement: ”from the depths of the condemned cell, with the condemned pen, ink, and paper.” This mode of procedure in ”gallows”
literature, and this style of composition having prevailed for from sixty to seventy years.
Then they would say: ”Here you have also an exact likeness of the murderer, taken at the bar of the Old Bailey by an eminent artist!” when all the time it was an old woodcut that had been used for every criminal for many years.
”There's nothing beats a stunning good murder after all,” said a ”running patterer” to Mr. Henry Mayhew, the author of ”London Labour and London Poor.” It is only fair to a.s.sume that Mr. James Catnach shared in the sentiment, for it is said that he made over 500 by the publication of:--
”The Full, True and Particular Account of the Murder of Mr. Weare by John Thurtell and his Companions, which took place on the 24th of October, 1823, in Gill's Hill-lane, near Elstree, in Hertfords.h.i.+re:--Only One Penny.” There were eight formes set up, for old Jemmy had no notion of stereotyping in those days, and pressmen had to re-cover their own sheep-skins. But by working night and day for a week they managed to get off about 250,000 copies with the four presses, each working two formes at a time.
As the trial progressed, and the case became more fully developed, the public mind became almost insatiable. Every night and morning large bundles were despatched to the princ.i.p.al towns in the three kingdoms.
One of the many street-ballads on the subject informed the British public that:--
”Thurtell, Hunt, and Probert, too, for trial must now prepare, For that horrid murder of Mr. William Weare.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: THURTELL MURDERING MR. WEARE.]
In connection with the murder of Mr. Weare by Thurtell and Co., Sir Walter Scott, collected the printed trials with great a.s.siduity, and took care always to have to hand the contemporary ballads and prints bound up with them. He admired particularly this verse of Theodore Hook's[13]
broadside:--
”They cut his throat from ear to ear, His brains they battered in; His name was Mr. William Weare, He dwelt in Lyon's Inn.”
THE CONFESSION AND EXECUTION OF JOHN THURTELL AT HERTFORD GAOL, On Friday, the 9th of January, 1824.
THE EXECUTION.
_Hertford, half-past twelve o'clock._
This morning, at ten minutes before twelve, a bustle among the javelin-men stationed within the boarded enclosure on which the drop was erected, announced to the mult.i.tude without that the preparations for the execution were nearly concluded. The javelin-men proceeded to arrange themselves in the order usually observed upon these melancholy but necessary occurrences. They had scarcely finished their arrangements, when the opening of the gate of the prison gave an additional impulse to public anxiety.
When the clock was on the stroke of twelve, Mr Nicholson, the Under-Sheriff, and the executioner ascended the platform, followed on to it by Thurtell, who mounted the stairs with a slow but steady step.
The princ.i.p.al turnkey of the gaol came next, and was followed by Mr Wilson and two officers. On the approach of the prisoner being intimated by those persons who, being in an elevated situation, obtained the first view of him, all the immense mult.i.tude present took off their hats.
Thurtell immediately placed himself under the fatal beam, and at that moment the chimes of a neighbouring clock began to strike twelve. The executioner then came forward with the rope, which he threw across it.
Thurtell first lifted his eyes up to the drop, gazed at it for a few moments, and then took a calm but hurried survey of the mult.i.tude around him. He next fixed his eyes on a young gentleman in the crowd, whom he had frequently seen as a spectator at the commencement of the proceedings against him. Seeing that the individual was affected by the circ.u.mstance, he removed them to another quarter, and in so doing recognised an individual well known in the sporting circles, to whom he made a slight bow.