I have nothing more to say but to be remembered to Mary and Paul, and remain
Pray send a paper of the execution of the Valet, and the trial of Oxford—Mrs. Westley has not sent me 1 paper since I was last in town—neither has Thornton.
Mrs. Ryle,
2 & 3, Monmouth Court,
Compton Street, London.
Ultimately Catnach hired the rooms he speaks about in the body of his letter to his sister, which were on the first floor of No. 6, Monmouth Court. All the vacant space in his old premises being now fully occupied by Mrs. Ryle, and her assistants, now “the humble cottage fenc’d with osiers round,” which to his leisure afforded no pleasure, was entirely deserted, and in London he fretted out the remaining portion of his life. He soon grew peevish, and his brain got a little out of balance, then he listlessly wandered in and out of the streets, courts, and alleys, “infirm of purpose.” On stormy days and nights to stand and view the lightning from Waterloo Bridge was his special delight, and wonder. His temper and liver were now continually out of order, and which whiskey, even “potations pottle deep,” failed to relieve. At length he died of jaundice, in the very London court in which he had muck’d and grubbed for the best part of his life, on the first day of February, 1841. Like other great men of history he has several locales mentioned as his final resting-place—Hornsey, Barnet, South Mimms, &c.
Urbes, certarunt septem de patria Homeri,
Nulla domus vivo patria fuit.
Seven cities strove whence Homer first should come, When living, he no country had nor home:—Tom Nash, 1599.
Seven Grecian cities vied for Homer dead,
Through which the living Homer begged his bread.
Seven cities vied for Homer’s birth, with emulation pious,—Salamis, Samos, Colophon, Rhodes, Argos, Athens, Chios.—From the Greek.
But Catnach lies buried in Highgate Cemetery, in one of the two plots that Mrs. Ryle purchased sometime previous to her brother’s death. The official number of the grave is 256, Square 29, over which is placed a flat stone, inscribed:—