Charles M'Gee, a notorious black man, whose father died at the age of 108. He usually stood at the Obelisk, at the foot of Ludgate Hill.
This man's portrait, when in his 73d year, was drawn on the 9th of October 1815, in the parlour of a public-house, the sign of the Twelve Bells, opposite to the famous well of St Brigit, which gave name to the ancient palace of our kings, Bridewell; but which has, ever since the grant of Edward VI., been a house of correction for vagabonds, &c. It is a truly curious circumstance, that this establishment gave name to other prisons of a similar kind; for instance, Clerkenwell Bridewell, and Tothill-fields' Bridewell. Over the entrance of the latter, the following inscription has been placed:—
HERE ARE SEVERAL SORTS OF WORK
FOR THE POOR OF THIS PARISH OF ST.
MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER;
AS ALSO THE COUNTY, ACCORDING TO
LAW, AND FOR SUCH AS WILL BEG, AND
LIVE IDLE IN THIS CITY AND LIBERTY
OF WESTMINSTER, ANNO 1655.
Black people, as well as those destitute of sight, seldom fail to excite compassion. Few persons, however humble their situation, can withhold charity from the infant smiling upon features necessarily dead to its supplications, and deeply shrouded from the prying eyes of the vulgar by the bonnet, placarded with
PRAY PITY THE BLIND AND FATHERLESS!
A lady, on seeing this woodcut, composed the following lines:—
Lo! yonder Widow, reft of sight,
A Mother, who ne'er knew
The joys which Parents' eyes delight