CHAPTER II.

RECREATIONS.

William Pitt-Prior-Thomas Warton-Porson-ElmsleyTurner-Bishop Corbet - George Selwyn - Charles Mathews-Dr. Paley-Lord Macaulay-Charles Lamb -Douglas Jerrold-Curran-Dr. Battie-Lord Stowell -Shelley-Robert Stephenson-Edmund Kean-Lord Westbury-Vice-Chancellor Shadwell-Lord ByronT. Assheton Smith-Lord Hatherley-Sydney SmithWarren Hastings-Sir Thomas Munro-David Garrick -Charles Lever-Third Earl Spencer-Charles James Fox-Gibbon-Goldsmith-Faraday-Sir Charles Barry

-James Brindley.

It is curious to note how many men have in their leisure moments found a strange pleasure in recreation of an almost eccentric kind. Thus it has been remarked that the contrast between a great man, as he appears to the world, and as he is seen in private life, was never more strikingly illustrated than in the case of the younger Pitt. "When he was at Walmer," writes Lady Hester Stanhope," he used to go to a farm were hay and corn were kept for the horses. He had a room

fitted up there with a table and two or three chairs. Oh, what slices of bread-and-butter I have seen him eat there, and hunches of breadand-cheese big enough for a ploughman! He used to say that whenever he could retire from public life he would have a good English woman cook. To see him at table with vulgar sea captains, and ignorant militia colonels, with two or three servants in attendance-he who had been accustomed to a servant behind each chair, to all that was great and distinguished in Europe-one might have supposed that disgust would have worked some change in him; but it was always the same. On one occasion Sir Edward Knatchbull took him to the Ashford ball, to show him off to the yeomen, and their wives. Though sitting in the room, in all his senatorial seriousness, he observed everything, and nobody could give a more lively account of the ball than he. He told who was fond of a certain captain, how Mr. R. was dressed, how Miss Jones, Miss Johnson, or Miss Anybody danced."

In the same way, many men who have been famous for their polish and culture have in their play-hours experienced a fascinating amusement in associating with their inferiors. Prior, for instance, "one of the most elegant of our minor poets, the companion of princes and diplomatists,

constantly passed whole evenings in chatting with a common soldier and his slattern wife in a low public-house in Long Acre.

“Thomas Warton, the historian of English poetry, and a singularly refined scholar, was often to be found in sordid taverns joking and being joked. Porson and Elmsley had similar propensities. So also had Turner, the painter."* It is also recorded how Bishop Corbet passed his lighter hours. It appears that when the business of the day was over, he delighted to descend with his favourite, and faithful, chaplain and companion, Dr. Lushington, into the cellar of the episcopal palace. The bishop would then doff his hood, saying, "There lies the doctor." He would then divest himself

of his gown, adding, "There lies the bishop." The glasses were filled and the toast was drunk, "Here's to thee, Lushington." "Here's to thee,

Corbet."

Few idiosyncrasies were more curious than that of George Selwyn, who took a morbid, and eager, interest in human suffering, united with a passionate taste for witnessing criminal executions. Not only was he a constant frequenter of such scenes of horror, but all the details of crime, the private history of the criminal, and his demeanour Temple Bar," lxiii., 358.

on the scaffold, were to him matters of the deepest interest. "Even," writes Mr. Jesse, "the most frightful particulars relating to suicide and murder, the investigation of the disfigured corpse, the sight of an acquaintance lying in his shroud, seem to have afforded him a painful, and unaccountable, pleasure."

Numerous stories are recorded of this curious, and eccentric hobby. When the first Lord Holland was on his death-bed, he was told that Selwyn had called to inquire after his health. "The next time Mr. Selwyn calls," he said, "show him up. If I am alive I shall be delighted to see him, and if I am dead he will be glad to see me." Sir Nathaniel Wraxall relates a well-known anecdote respecting his visit to France to see Damien executed. He writes" Selywn's nervous irritability and anxious curiosity to observe the effect of dissolution on men exposed him to much ridicule. He was accused of attending all executions, and sometimes, in order to elude notice, disguised in a female dress. I have been assured that in 1756 he went over to Paris expressly for the purpose of witnessing the last moments of Damien, who expired under the most acute tortures for having attempted the life of Louis XV. Being among the crowd, and attempting to approach too near the scaffold, he was

at first repulsed by one of the executioners, but having informed the person that he had made the journey from London solely with a view to be present at the punishment and death of Damien, the man immediately caused the crowd to make way, exclaiming, "Faites place pour Monsieur, c'est un Anglois, et un amateur.”*

He

Another well-known character who was exceedingly fond of hearing trials was Charles Mathews. It was during the assize weeks at York that he derived much of that vast stock of observation of life, and character, of which he so successfully availed himself in after years. felt that much was to be gathered "from the contemplation of human nature under the conflicting and self-deluding position of plaintiff and defendant;" and he derived many an hour's enjoyment from the frequently ludicrious trials at which he was present in the Civil Courts, "where originals abounded, and where the passions, in all their varieties and shades, are displayed." Among the oft-quoted anecdotes, he was fond of relating, was an instance of naïveté in a witness who convulsed the court with laughter. An action was brought against the owner of a waggon, which, by the reckless driving of the waggoner, had forced

*For another version of this story see George Selwyn and his Contemporaries," 1843, i., 11.