"On Wednesday afternoon, about four o'clock, the Boston Coach broke down, on the lowest part of Snow Hill, soon after it left the Saracen's Head Inn. The outside passengers, which were FOURTEEN in number, and mostly soldiers, were thrown with such violence on the pavement, that several were bruised, and one woman was taken to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where she died, on Thursday night. The inside passengers, which were five, and a young child, were not much hurt.
"The frequent accidents which arise from the outsides of coaches being so overladen, calls highly for reprehension. The laws are either inadequate to remedy the evil, or they are not properly enforced: and we sincerely hope that the coachman, and those who are concerned, will be severely punished, as an example to prevent the same accidents in future. We think there should be a fresh Act of Parliament, and, if the inside passengers were empowered, after taking their seats, to hire a post-chaise where there was above a stipulated number (at the owner's expence), it would remedy the evil."—(Times, Aug. 8, 1795.)
"The pavement in Bridge St. Blackfriars, still grows worse, and worse, and not the least notice is taking of it by the Paving Committee. This is a most scandalous act of neglect; as, publicly, and privately, the parties have been applied to, who ought to make the necessary repairs. The ground has now sunk near three feet. In so well regulated a city, as that of London, this is a most disgraceful business."—(Times, Oct., 16, 1799.)
"A few days since, the axle-tree of a carriage was broken in descending the slope of Blackfriars Bridge, in consequence of the very large hole, at the bottom of it, on the Surry-side, which is in the highest degree dangerous. We are not certain that an indictment would not lay against the Trustees of the Surry Roads, for the scandalous manner in which they are kept. They vie with the Paviours, in some parts of the City, and we know not which are the worst of them. It is not to be conceived the number of horses that are foundered, by holes in the streets, and roads."—(Times, Oct. 5, 1799.)
"From the dangerous state of the pavement in some parts of London, it might be supposed that the Public paid nothing towards it. The thoroughfare about the New Church, in the Strand, is so bad, that two, or three, accidents have lately happened by horses tumbling down, from their feet catching in the holes."—(Times, Sept. 30, 1799.)
GAMING, &c.
We, in this Nineteenth Century of ours, are not so free from the vice of gambling, that we can afford the luxury of being particularly censorious over the habits of the last century. We have legislated against gambling, we are better educated, all our surroundings are refined, compared to those which our forefathers had to make the most of. Literature, Art, and Music, are all far more popular, and yet—are there not Clubs, thinly veiled indeed, but really, and truly, solely existing for card playing for high stakes, as much as Crockford's ever was? Have we not reduced the Turf to a science? and has it not come to such a pass, that an honest Nobleman like Lord Falmouth, will no longer run his race horses, because of the roguery on the Turf? Is not the Stock Exchange one huge Gamble? Therefore, in reading the notes about gaming, in "Old Times," let us remember the beams in our own eyes, before making a fuss about the motes, that used to be in the eyes of those that are dead and gone.
But, although Card playing was the rule at every house, in the evening, yet some did not play, and the utter weariness which is shewn in this little sketch of Gillray's, is extremely natural and vivid.
It is in 1789 that we first hear of Lady Archer, who, with Lady Buckinghamshire, figures so prominently in keeping gaming tables.
