Another publisher took advantage of the State trials to stimulate the public to purchase three little poems, on the ground that they were ‘Published faithfully, as they were found in a Pocket-Book taken up in the Westminster Hall the last day of the Lord Wintoun’s Tryal.’ Roberts, the publisher in Warwick Lane, stated in his advertisement that, upon reading them at the St. James’s coffee-house, they were with one voice pronounced to be by a Lady of Quality. The foreman of the poetical jury at Button’s, considering the style and thought, declared that ‘Mr. Gay must be the Man.’ On the other hand, a gentleman of distinguished merit, who lived not far from Chelsea, protested that the poems could come from no other hand than the judicious translator of Homer. The wits at St. James’s were of course nearest the mark, and it is now known, as Mr. Roberts knew then, that these ‘Court Poems,’ ‘The Basset Table,’ ‘The Drawing-Room,’ and ‘The Toilet’ were from the pen of that lively lady, Mary Wortley Montague.
PRINCESS OF WALES AND LADY KENMURE.
Another lady, the widowed Viscountess Kenmure, was otherwise engaged in the stern prose of life. She prepared a petition to the king in which she prayed that 150l. a year might be added to her jointure, for the education of her children. She asked for that sum out of her late lord’s confiscated estate. The young widow earnestly prayed for an interview with the Princess of Wales. When this was made known to her royal highness, that lady said, ‘I know that she will burst into a flood of tears and I shall do the same, and I shall not be able to bear the sight of so much grief as she will bring with her.’ This way of declining the interview was made known to the viscountess. Lady Kenmure eagerly replied that, if the princess would only see her, she would not shed a single tear nor utter one poor sob. Caroline consented. She not only received Lady Kenmure with cordial sympathy, but after some conversation, the princess took her by the hand and led her to the king’s apartments. On presenting her to the sovereign, Caroline recommended the poor lady to his generous consideration, and she did this so well that the king not only granted the petition, but made her a present of 300l. The Princess of Wales again took Lady Kenmure by the hand back to her own apartments, where she added 200l. to the sum given by the king; and finally, she conducted her interesting visitor to the very foot of the stairs. The papers state that Lady Kenmure was subsequently heard to say, ‘Good God! are these the people that have been represented so odious to us, and for rebelling against whom I have lost my dear husband? Sure, if this had been known, we had never been so unfortunate!’ The royal example had beneficial influence. The Duchess of Marlborough collected subscriptions among her lady friends, and her grace placed fourteen hundred guineas in the widow’s hands to carry with her back to Scotland.
LUXURY IN NEWGATE.
The execution of Lords Kenmure and Derwentwater, and the sentence on Lord Wintoun, sobered the spirits in Newgate, where the too profuse liberality of the outside Jacobites had caused many of the captive rebels to put off dignity and decency, for riot, revelry, and licentiousness. The author of the ‘History of the Press Yard’ states, that they, after a time, lived profusely and fared voluptuously, by the help of daily visitors, and of sympathisers who sent their money, but avoided personally appearing. ‘While it was difficult to change a guinea almost at any house in the street, nothing was more easy than to have silver for gold, in any quantity, and gold for silver, in the prison; those of the fair sex, from persons of the first rank to tradesmen’s wives and daughters, making a sacrifice of their husbands’ and parents’ rings and other precious movables, for the use of those prisoners.’ The aid was so reckless that forty shillings for a dish of early peas and beans, and thirty shillings for a dish of fish, with the best French wine, ‘was an ordinary regale!’
GENERAL FORSTER’S ESCAPE.
During the first ten days of April the Jacobite sympathy was everywhere manifested for ‘General Forster,’ who was to be tried on the 18th. On the 11th of the month, Jacobite London was in ecstacy. In every Jacobite mouth was the joyous acclaim: ‘Tom Forster is off and away!’ The Whigs damned themselves, the Tories, and Pitt, the keeper of Newgate, that ‘the rascalliest of the crew had broke bonds.’ The Government shut up Pitt in one of his own dungeons, offered 1,000l. for the recovery of the ‘General,’ and ordered strict examination of all persons at the different sea-ports attempting to leave England. Forster did not intend to come in the way of such examination. His escape was well planned and happily executed. His sharp servant found means to obtain an impression of Pitt’s master-key, from which another key was made and conveyed to Forster, without difficulty. Pitt loved wine, and Forster seems to have had a cellar full of it. He often invited the governor to get drunk on the contents. One night Pitt got more drunk than usual, finished the wine, and roared for more. Forster bade his servant to fetch up another bottle. This was the critical moment. The fellow was long, and Forster swore he would go and see what the rascal was at. On going, he locked the unconscious Pitt in the room, and, the way being prepared by his servant, and turnkeys, as it would seem, subdued by the ‘oil of palms,’ master and man walked into the street, where friends awaited them. Pitt soon sounded an alarm, but everything had been well calculated. A smack lay at Holy Haven, on the Thames, which had often been employed by the Jacobites in running between England and France. A RIDE FOR LIFE. At midnight two gentlemen, a lady, and a servant arrived in a coach at Billingsgate, and made enquiries touching this suspicious vessel. So ran a popular report. The Dogberrys concluded that Forster was one of these men, and that he was lying hidden by the river side. He was, however, far off beyond their reach. He was so well served and so well protected, that by four in the morning he and five horsemen gallopped into Prittlewell, near Rochford, in Essex. They quietly put up at an upland ale-house, and sent for a skipper who expected them. This man, Shipman, took them three miles below Leigh, where a vessel awaited them. Men and horses were there embarked at noon, and Shipman accompanied them to France, on which coast they were safely landed. The joy of the Jacobites was uncontrollable. The Whigs shook their heads and doubted if such an escape could have been accomplished without connivance on the part of persons in high places.
Forster’s escape was so easily effected as to almost warrant a suspicion that, for service rendered, he was allowed to get away. Others, however, got off from Newgate and the Tower whom the Government undoubtedly intended to keep there, with Tyburn in view as their utmost limit abroad. In the old ballad—
Lord Derwentwater to Forster said:—
Thou hast ruin’d the cause and all betray’d,