In the Annual Register, vol. 51, p. 883 (1809), is the following satire “On the Whip Club:—
“Two varying races are in Britain born,
One courts a nation’s praises, one, her scorn;
Those pant her sons o’er tented fields to guide,
Or steer her thunders thro’ the foaming tide;
Whilst these, disgraceful born in luckless hour,
Burn but to guide with skill a coach-and-four.
To guess their sires each a sure clue affords,
These are the coachman’s sons, and those, my Lord’s!
Both follow fame, pursuing different courses;
Those, Britain, scourge thy foes—and these, thy horses;
Give them their due, nor let occasion slip;
On those, thy laurels lay—on these, the whip!”
The Morning Post, April 3rd, 1809, says that the title of the “Whip Club,” had then been changed to the “Four-in-Hand-Club,” and their first meet took place in Cavendish Square on April 28th of that year. The dress of the drivers was altered, and was as follows. A single-breasted blue coat, with a long waist, and brass buttons, on which were engraved the words “Four-in-Hand-Club,” waistcoat of kerseymere, ornamented with stripes alternately of blue and yellow; small clothes of white corduroy, made moderately high, and very long over the knee, buttoning in front over the shin-bone. Boots very short, with long tops, only one outside strap to each, and one at the back; the latter were employed to keep the breeches in their proper longitudinal shape. Hat with a conical crown, and the Allen brim(?); box, or driving coat of white drab cloth, with fifteen capes, two tiers of pockets, and an inside one for the Belcher handkerchief; cravat of white muslin spotted with black. Bouquets of myrtle, pink and yellow geraniums were worn. In May of the same year, the club button had already gone out of fashion, and “Lord Hawke sported yesterday, as buttons, Queen Anne’s shillings; Mr. Ashurst displayed crown pieces.”
Possibly this “Four-in-Hand-Club” was dissolved, for Captain Gronow says[42] that amongst his papers he found a list of the original members of the club, which met at Richmond on Saturday, June 2nd, 1838, and passed a series of resolutions, that formed the basis of the regulations which were observed during its existence: and he relates how “In the days of which I speak there were amateur coachmen, who drove with unflinching regularity, and in all weathers, the public stage-coaches, and delighted in the opportunity of assimilating themselves with professional jehus. Some young men then, heirs of large landed proprietors, mounted the box, handled the ribbons, and bowled along the high road; they touched their hats to their passengers, and some among them did not disdain even the tip of a shilling or half-crown, with which it was the custom to remunerate the coachman.
“Many persons liked travelling to Brighton in ‘The Age,’ which was tooled along by Sir Vincent Cotton, whilst others preferred Charley Tyrrwhit. On the Holyhead, Oxford, and the Bath and Bristol roads, Lord Harborough, Lord Clonmel, Sir Thomas Mostyn, Sir Charles Bamfylde, Sir Felix Agar, Sir Henry Parnell, Sir Bellingham Graham, Mr. Clutterbuck, Sir John Lade, and other members of the Four-in-Hand-Club, were seen, either driving the coach, or sitting cheek-by-jowl with the coachman, talking about horses and matters relating to ‘life upon the road.’ One of the members of the Four-in-Hand-Club, Mr. Akers, was so determined to be looked upon as a regular coachman, that he had his front teeth so filed, that a division between them might enable him to expel his spittle in the true fashion of some of the most knowing stage-coach drivers.”
In the Park, and close by the path which leads from Grosvenor Gate to the Magazine, are some small barracks for the use of the guards of the Magazine—but Hyde Park has been for more than two centuries the Campus Martius of London, and the first review recorded as having been held there was by Lord Hunsdon, the then Ranger, when as Stow says in his Annales, on the 28th of March, 1569, “The Pensioners well appointed in armour on horsebacke, mustered before the Queen’s Maiestie in Hide Park beside Westminster.”
In The Bow-man’s Glory, 1682, is “A Brief Relation of the several appearances of Archers, since His Majesties Restauration.—On March the 21st Anno Domini, 1661. Four hundred archers, with their bows and arrows, made a splendid and glorious show in Hide Park, with flying colours, and cross-bows to guard them. Sir Gilbert Talbot, Baronet, was their Colonel, Sir Edward Hungerford, Knight of the Bath, their Lieutenant-Colonel; Mr. Donne was their Major. Great was the appearance both of the nobility, gentry and commonalty: several of the archers shot near twenty score yards within the compass of a hat with their cross-bows; and many of them, to the amazement of the spectators, hit the mark; there were, likewise, three showers of whistling arrows. So great was the delight, and so pleasing the exercise, that three Regiments of Foot laid down their arms to come and see it.”
In the early days of the Commonwealth, London was fortified by the Parliament, and so urgent were they on this matter that we read in A Perfect Diurnall of the Passages in Parliament, April 24th to May 1st, 1643, “An order was made by the common Councell of London, that the Ministers in the severall Parishes of the Citie should stir up the Parishioners in their severall churches the next day to send such of their servants and children as are fit to labour, with spades, shovells and other necessary tooles to helpe and assist the raising of the out-workes for the defence of the Citie, which is very needeful to be finished with all expedition, in regard two great Armies are now on foote near the Citie, and that they would begin the work by Wednesday next.”
Nay, the very women helped in this work, as Butler tells us in Hudibras (part ii. cant. 2.):—
“Women, who were our first Apostles,
Without whose aid we ’ad all been lost else;
Women, that left no stone unturn’d
In which the cause might be concern’d;
Brought in their children’s spoons and whistles,
To purchase swords, carbines and pistols.
. . . . . . . . . .
What have they done, or what left undone,
That might advance the cause at London?
March’d rank and file, with drum and ensign,
T’ intrench the City for defence in;
Rais’d Rampiers with their own soft hands,
To put th’ Enemy to stands;
From Ladies down to Oyster-wenches,
Labour’d like Pioneers in Trenches,
Fall’n to their pickaxes, and tools,
And help’d the Men to dig like Moles.”