“Mr. Makepeace was bred an attorney;”
and would frequently quote Goldsmith’s lines on Hickey, the associate of Burke and other distinguished cotemporaries:
“He cherished his friend, and he relished a bumper;
Yet one fault he had, and that was a thumper,
Then, what was his failing? come, tell it, and burn ye:
He was, could he help it? a special attorney.”
The following playful colloquy in verse took place at a dinner-table between Sir George Bose and himself, in allusion to Craven-street, Strand, where he resided:—
“J. S.—‘At the top of my street the attorneys abound,
And down at the bottom the barges are found:
Fly, Honesty, fly to some safer retreat,
For there’s craft in the river, and craft in the street.’ ”
“Sir G. R.—‘Why should Honesty fly to some safer retreat,
From attorneys and barges, od rot ’em?
For the lawyers are just at the top of the street,
And the barges are just at the bottom.’ ”
CONTEMPORARY COPYRIGHTS.
The late Mr. Tegg, the publisher in Cheapside, gave the following list of remunerative payments to distinguished authors in his time; and he is believed to have taken considerable pains to verify the items:
Fragments of History, by Charles Fox, sold by Lord Holland, for 5000 guineas. Fragments of History, by Sir James Mackintosh, 500l. Lingard’s History of England, 4683l. Sir Walter Scott’s Bonaparte was sold, with the printed books, for 18,000l.; the net receipts of copyright on the first two editions only must have been 10,000l. Life of Wilberforce, by his sons, 4000 guineas. Life of Byron, by Moore, 4000l. Life of Sheridan, by Moore, 2000l. Life of Hannah More, 2000l. Life of Cowper, by Southey, 1000l. Life and Times of George IV., by Lady C. Bury, 1000l. Byron’s Works, 20,000l. Lord of the Isles, half share, 1500l. Lalla Rookh, by Moore, 3000l. Rejected Addresses, by Smith, 1000l. Crabbe’s Works, republication of, by Mr. Murray, 3000l. Wordsworth’s Works, republication of, by Mr. Moxon, 1050l. Bulwer’s Rienzi, 1600l. Marryat’s Novels, 500l. to 1500l. each. Trollope’s Factory Boy, 1800l. Hannah More derived 30,000l. per annum for her copyrights, during the latter years of her life. Rundell’s Domestic Cookery, 2000l. Nicholas Nickleby, 3000l. Eustace’s Classical Tour, 2100l. Sir Robert Inglis obtained for the beautiful and interesting widow of Bishop Heber by the sale of his journal, 5000l.