Part 12 (1/2)
The scene is probably laid at Newroup of peers,--pick-pockets,--butchers,--jockies,--rat-catchers,--gentlea the principal figure, is entitled to precedence In the March to Finchley, we see hi match; and here he is president of a most respectable society assembled at a cockpit What rendered his lordshi+p's passion for a totally blind In this place he is beset by seven steady friends, five of whom at the same instant offer to bet with him on the event of the battle One of thee of his blindness and negligence, endeavours to convey a bank note, deposited in our dignified gaentleed post-boy, and an honest butcher: but he is so ed in the pronunciation of those iement of his bets, that he cannot attend to their hints; and it seems more than probable that the stock will be transferred, and the note negociated in a few seconds
A very curious group surround the old nobleman, who is adorned with a riband, a star, and a pair of spectacles The whole weight of an overgrown carpenter being laid upon his shoulder, forces our illustrious personage upon athus driven doard, falls upon a fourth, and the fourth, by the accumulated pressure of this ponderous trio, composed of the upper and lower house, loses his balance, and tue of the partition, his head is broke, and his wig, shook from the seat of reason, falls into the cockpit
Aenters into the spirit of the battle,--his whole soul is engaged From his distorted countenance, and clasped hands, we see that he feels every stroke given to his favourite bird in his heart's core,--ay, in his heart of hearts! A person at the old peer's left hand is likely to be a loser Ill-humour, vexation, and disappointment are painted in his countenance The chimney-sweeper above, is the very quintessence of affectation He has all the airs and graces of a boarding-school , and the fellow beneath, who, by the way, is a very siress, are finely contrasted
A Frenchcalled arossed by the scene, and opening his snuff-box rather carelessly, its contents fall into the eyes of aalternately, imprecates bitter curses on this devil's dust, that extorts fro pearls, which so is an old cripple, with a tru roars in a ratify the auricular nerves of his companions; but as for the object to whom the voice is directed, he seeht very composedly stand close to the clock of St Paul's Cathedral, when it was striking twelve
The figure with a cock peeping out of a bag, is said to be intended for Jackson, a jockey; the gravity of this experienced veteran, and the cool sedateness of awoman behind, and the heated i his coin upon the cockpit, and offering to back Ginger against Pye for a guinea
On the lower side, where there is only one tier of figures, a sort of an apothecary, and a jockey, are stretching out their arether the handles of their whips, in token of a bet An hiccuping votary of Bacchus, displaying a half-e, for an adroit professor of legerdeht jerk, will convey it to his own pocket The profession of a gentleibbet chalked upon his coat An enraged barber, who lifts up his stick in the corner, has probably been refused pay
A cloud-capt philosopher at the top of the print, coolly s his pipe, unmoved by this crash of matter, and wreck of property, lected; for the dog, gravely resting his fore paws upon the partition, and conte the company, seems more interested in the event of the battle than his , of Guildhall, stand the two cock-feeders; a foot of each of these consequential purveyors is seen at the two extremities of the pit
As to the birds, whose attractive powers have drawn this adether, they deserved earlier notice:
Each hero burns to conquer or to die, Whatdisposed of the substances, let us now attend to the shadow on the cockpit, and this it see in a basket, and there suspended, as a punishh suspended, he is not reclai situation he offers to stake his watch against er on his favourite champion
The decorations of this curious theatre are, a portrait of Nan Rawlins, and the King's arin at the botto cock, inscribed ROYAL SPORT
Of the characteristic distinctions in this heterogeneous assembly, it is not easy to speak with sufficient praise The chimney-sweeper's absurd affectation sets the similar airs of the Frenchman in a most ridiculous point of view The old felloith a truree of deafness that I never before saw delineated; he ht have lived in the same apartment with Xantippe, or slept comfortably in Alexander the copper-smith's first floor As to the noblee of the turf, he is a uage of Ca,--you absolutely hear; and the fellow stealing a bank note,--has all the outward and visible marks of a perfect and accomplished pick-pocket; Mercury himself could not do that business in a morewith his father at Chiswick, before he went to Binfield, took great delight in cock-fighting, and laid out all his school-boycocks” Lord Orrery observes, ”If we e of Mr Pope from his works, his chief aim was to be esteemed a man of virtue” When actions can be clearly ascertained, it is not necessary to seek thecompelled to believe that some of Mr Pope's actions, at the same time that they prove him to be querulous and petulant, lead us to suspect that he was also envious, nant, and cruel How far this will tend to confirm the assertion, that when a boy, he was an amateur of this royal sport, I do, says Mr Ireland, not pretend to decide: but were a child, in whom I had any interest, cursed with such a propensity, my first object would be to correct it: if that were impracticable, and he retained a fondness for the cockpit, and the still more detestable amusement of Shrove Tuesday, I should hardly dare to flatter myself that he could become a merciful man--The subject has carried me farther than I intended: I will, however, take the freedoy,--Might it not have a tendency to check that barbarous spirit, which hasfrom the prevalence of example, than in natural depravity, if every divine in Great Britain were to preach at least one sermon every twelve s of the brute creation?
Wilt thou draw near the nature of the Gods, Draw near the e
[Illustration: THE cock PIT]
CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM
Captain Coram was born in the year 1668, bred to the sea, and passed the first part of his life asto the colonies
While he resided in the vicinity of Rotherhithe, his avocations obliging hio early into the city and return late, he frequently saw deserted infants exposed to the incleence or cruelty of their parents left to casual relief, or untimely death This naturally excited his compassion, and led him to project the establishment of an hospital for the reception of exposed and deserted young children; in which hun he laboured more than seventeen years, and at last, by his unwearied application, obtained the royal charter, bearing date the 17th of October, 1739, for its incorporation
He was highly instru a bounty upon naval stores iia and Nova Scotia But the charitable plan which he lived to h not to co the Indians in North America more closely with the British Governirls Indeed he spent a great part of his life in serving the public, and with so total a disregard to his private interest, that in his old age he was himself supported by a pension of somewhat more than a hundred pounds a year, raised for him at the solicitation of Sir Sampson Gideon and Dr Brocklesby, by the voluntary subscriptions of public-spirited persons, at the head of as the Prince of Wales On application being ood oldopened for his benefit would not offend hiave this noble answer: ”I have not wasted the little wealth of which I was forence or vain expenses, and ae I a, and s near Leicester-square, March 29, 1751, and was interred, pursuant to his own desire, in the vault under the chapel of the Foundling Hospital, where an historic epitaph records his virtues, as Hogarth's portrait has preserved his honest countenance