273. Motto. These cold springs, these soft meadows, this grove, all shall be consumed with age, as you will be, too, Lycoris. Virgil, Eclogue, X, 42-3. With No. 555, Dec. 6th, 1712, Addison and Steele brought the Spectator to an end. In 1714, Addison revived the paper, the first number of this new volume (No. 556), appearing on June 18th. The Spectator now came out on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It ended with No. 635, Dec. 20th, 1714, 277. Motto. The unshorn mountains themselves shout for joy to the stars: the very rocks, the shrubs break forth in song. Virgil, Eclogue V, 62-4. 281. The first number of the Freeholder appeared on Friday, December 23, 1715. Published Mondays and Fridays it ran for fifty-five numbers, ending Friday, June 29th, 1716. On the accession of George I., the Scottish Jacobites, under the leadership of the Earl of Mar, had taken arms against the government, and the English Jacobites were threatening rebellion. At this juncture the Freeholder appeared to support the Hanoverian succession. Addison's papers were accordingly written to encourage loyalty, to ridicule the Pretender, and to extol the virtues of the House of Hanover. 281. Motto. Rude in his education, rough in speech, strenuous, ready, quick in thought. Vellius Paterculus, Hist. Rom. II, 73, I. 282: 22, The Rump. On Dec. 6th, 1648, Thomas Pride, with Parliamentary troops, excluded from the House of Commons all members favouring a compromise with the Royalists. The members who were left after this “purge were called the Rump Parliament. 283 29, Dyer's letter. John Dyer published a wellknown news-letter, half printed, half written. There is a humorous reference to it in Tatler, No. 18. This "letter," came to an end with Dyer's death, in 1713. 284:9, Ride the great horse. Put on airs. Cf. Etherege's Love in a Tub (1664), Act III, Sc. VI. "To learn de lan guage, de bonne mine, de great horse, and many oder triké." 286: 27, Sneaker. A punch bowl. 287. Motto. Moreover many various forms of monstrous beasts are there. At the doors, the Centaurs make their stalls, and the Scyllas of twofold shape, and hundred-handed Briareus, and the huge beast of Lerna, hissing frightfully, and Chimaera armed with flames, the Gorgons, the Harpies, and the shape of the triple-bodied phantom. Hereupon, Aeneas, alarmed with sudden fear, snatches up his sword, and presents against them as they come the naked edge; and had not his instructed companion warned him that those were unsubstantial, disembodied spirits, flitting about within the hollow phantom of a shape, he would have rushed on them and idly cut in sunder shadows with his sword. Virgil, Aen. VI, 285-94. 288: 3, Rosamond's Pond. In St. James park. It was filled up in 1770. 290: 3, Somerset House. the Protector Somerset. 291: 10, Masquerade. Built on the Strand in 1549, by It was demolished in 1775. For a good account of these entertainments, see Boulton's Amusements of Old London, Vol. I, chap. iii. 292. Motto. The laugh costs too much if paid for at the expense of honesty. Quint. VI, 3, 35. 292 10, Sir Richard Blackmore. Richard Blackmore (?-1729), physician and author, the butt of the wits. His Essays on Several Subjects, appeared in 1716. Swift wondered that Addison could praise 'so insipid a scoundrel whom I know he despised. 297. Motto. The madness ceased and the wild mouths were quiet. Virg. Aen. VI, 102. 297: 7, Charles I., on horseback. The equestrian statue of Charles I., by Le Soeur was cast about 1630. It was hidden during the civil war and set up in Charing Cross in 1674, 297: 26, Fifty more. See note 239: 32. 298: 4, Screw plot. An absurd rumour that a number of screws and bolts had been taken from the roof of St. Paul's cathedral in order that the beams might fall on Queen Anne and the officials who were assembled there for a public thanksgiving. See the interesting article by W. Sparrow Simpson in Notes and Queries, Eighth Series, Vol. II, pp. 281-283. The rumour started because of a reward offered in the London Gazette, Nov. 9, 1710, for the discovery of the "evil designing persons," who had "unscrewed and taken away several iron bolts out of the great timbers of the west roof of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul." Boyer, Annals, ninth volume, in speaking of “the pretended screw-plot," says, "upon enquiry, it appeared that the missing of the iron pins was owing to the neglect of some workmen, who thought the timbers sufficiently safe without 'em," and that "many uncharitable persons were ready enough to fasten upon the Whigs," this so called plot. See the entry for November 9th, 1710. 298:6, City Sword. Miege, writing of the Lord Mayor, 1708, says: "Il tient une espèce de Cour, et sa table est ouverte à toutes les personnes de qualité. Il a sous lui de grands et de petits officiers, et entre les premiers un PorteEpée qui a pour sa table 1,000 livres sterling par an." 298 11, Lions. See note 62: 19. The death of one of the Tower lions was looked upon by the superstitious as a sign of impending evil. 298 22, The monument. "This is one of the greatest Ornaments of this City, and a Masterpiece of Building, erected in perpetual Memory of the dismal Conflagration which began September 2, 1666, and continued raging three Days together; this stately Pile (standing near the bridge on the North side of it, and about the fatal Place where the Fire began) is a Pillar all built of solid Portland Stone, upon a Pedestal, 40 foot high, and 21 foot square; the whole Height of it from the Ground being 202 foot, the Diameter 15. Within-side is a fair winding Stair-Case, with Iron Rails up to the top; and this graced with a fair Iron Balcony yielding a pleasant Prospect all over the City. . . . . And ... whereas upon Evidence it was made out, that this dreadful Fire was contrived and carried on by the Popish Faction, the same is expressed in English round the Pedestal under the said Inscriptions, in these following Words. This Pillar was set up in perpetual Remembrance of the most dreadful Burning of this Ancient City, begun and carried on by the Treachery and Malice of the Popish Faction, in the beginning of September, in the year of our Lord, 1666, in order to the carrying on their horrid Plot for Extirpating the Protestant Religion, and the old English Liberty, and introducing Popery and Slavery. Which inscription being razed out by Order of the late King James, was set up again upon the late Revolution.” Britannia Fortior: or the New State of Great Britain and Ireland under our Sovereign Anne, London, 1709, the Seventh Edition. Part I, pp. 138-141. 298: 14, Perth. In the Jacobite uprising in 1715, the Earl of Mar with six thousand Highlanders seized Perth. ' He was defeated by Argyll at Sheriffmuir and the Pretender fled to France. 299: 31, Royal Exchange. See Spectator, No. 69, p. 127. 300: 11, Stocks Market. "For Fruit and all eatable Roots or Herbs, also for Flowers, and all manner of Simples or Physical Herbs, there are two noted Markets, one in London called Stocks-Market, the other in Covent-Garden, Westminster." Britannia Fortior, Part I, Chap. 13. The present Mansion House stands on the site of the Stocks Markets. 300 12, The Meuse. The old Mews, originally built for the Royal falcons, stood on the present site of the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square. In the Reign of Henry VIII, the Royal stables were burned, and the horses were transferred to the Mews, which was made into a stable. It was pulled down in 1732. See Smith's An Antiquarian Ramble in the Streets of London, London, 1846, Vol. I. pp. 129–131. |