Mary Lynn, condemn'd last Assizes for the County of Norfolk, was burnt to ashes at a stake, for being concern'd in the murder of her mistress; and Smith, the principal, was hang'd for the same fact. She deny'd her being guilty, and said Smith could clear her if he would. She behaved with decency, and died penitent. Smith was drunk at the gallows; and seem'd to have but little sense either of his crime or punishment; however, desired all masters to pay their servants' wages on Saturday night, that they might have money to spend, and not run in debt. Said, "My mother always told me I should die in my shoes, but I will make her a liar;" so threw them off.
PERSONAL CHARMS DISCLAIMED.
If any human being was free from personal vanity, it must have been the second Duchess d'Orleans, Charlotte Elizabeth of Bavaria. In one of her letters (dated 9th August, 1718), she says, "I must certainly be monstrously ugly. I never had a good feature. My eyes are small, my nose short and thick, my lips broad and thin. These are not materials to form a beautiful face. Then I have flabby, lank cheeks, and long features, which suit ill with my low stature. My waist and my legs are equally clumsy. Undoubtedly I must appear to be an odious little wretch; and had I not a tolerable good character, no creature could endure me. I am sure a person must be a conjuror to judge me by my eyes that I have a grain of wit."
CADER IDRIS.
On the very summit of Cader Idris there is an excavation in the solid rock, resembling a couch; and it is said that whoever should rest a night in that seat, will be found in the morning either dead, raving mad, or endued with supernatural genius.
OLD LONDON SIGNS.
Some notion of the houses and shops of old London may be gathered by a visit to Bell Yard, near Temple Bar; Great Winchester Street, near the Bank; the wooden houses near Cripplegate Church; and a few other districts which were spared by the Great Fire of 1666. In Bell Yard, for instance, the national feeling for improvement has from time to time effected changes; the lattices of diamond-shaped lead-work, carved pendants, and the projecting signs of the various tradesmen, have disappeared, and here and there sheets of plate glass have been used, to give a somewhat modern appearance to the places of business. Still the projecting and massive wood-work of the shops, and the peculiar picturesque appearance of the houses, cannot be altogether disguised; and if any of our readers, who may be curious in such matters, will walk up Bailey's Court, on the west side of Bell Yard, he will there see a group of wooden buildings exactly like the great mass which was cleared by the fire. In some of the pictures of London of about this time, the shops of the various tradesmen were chiefly unglazed, and above the door of each was suspended the silver swans; the golden swans; the chained swans; the golden heads; mitres; bells—black, red, white, and blue; rising and setting suns; moons of different phases; men in the moon; sceptres; crowns, and many other devices, which, even at that time, were necessary to distinguish one shop from another. The chequers; St. George and the dragon; royal oaks; king's heads; and double signs, such as the horseshoe and magpie; bell and crown; bell and horns, and such like, were more particularly set apart for the use of the various hostelries. Everyone, however, who had a London shop of any kind or consequence, had his sign. Many of them were well carved in wood, and ornamented with emblazonry and gilding.
No doubt if it were possible to find at the present time the same picturesque architectural displays as were to be met with in London in Queen Elizabeth's days, our artistic friends would be able to pick up many a nice subject for their pencils, but in those days there were plenty of drawbacks; the pavement was bad, the drainage was worse, and from the eaves of the houses and pents of the shops, streams of water ran down in wet weather upon the wayfarers, and, by lodging in the thoroughfares, made the London streets something in the same state as those of Agar Town and some other neglected parts of the metropolis. We must not forget that in the days to which we allude there were no flagged footpaths, and that the only distinction from the horse and cart roads, and that for the foot passengers, was a separation by wooden posts, which, in genteel places, were made supports for chains. People, however, got tired of this bad state of things, and measures were taken to put a stop to the streams of water from the roofs, &c. After the Great Fire, an enactment was made for an alteration in the spouts, &c.; all barbers poles, and projecting signs, and other projections were to be done away with, and other changes made for the better. Up to the reign of Queen Anne, we find, by reference to views of Cheapside and the neighbourhood of the Monument, that the projecting signs were still in use; and that even at that recent date, many of the London shops in the important neighbourhoods above mentioned were without glazing, and looked much like some of the greengrocers' sheds in use now in Bermondsey and some other places.
Severe measures seem to have been at length taken against the projecting signs, and most of them disappeared, and then it became a most difficult matter either to address letters, or find a man's shop. In Dr. Johnson's day, he and other persons gave the address "over against" a particular sign, or so many doors from such a sign. In consequence of this uncertainty, many houses in London, which from their association with eminent men would possess much interest now, cannot be pointed out; and it was a wonderful benefit to the metropolis when the plan of numbering the houses in each street was hit upon. But for this, considering that the population has doubled in the last fifty years, it is difficult to know how the genius of Rowland Hill would have worked his plan of London post-office delivery, or business could be carried on with any kind of comfort.
The booksellers and publishers seem to have been the last, with the exception of the tavern-keepers, to give up the old signs. After the Great Fire, some of the ancient signs which were cut in stone, and which had escaped the conflagration, were got out of the ruins, and afterwards placed in the front of the plain, yet solid, brick buildings which were erected after that event. Some of these—the "Chained Bear," the "Collared Swan," the "Moon and Seven Stars," and "Sun," in Cheapside, and some others which we now engrave—are still preserved. The carved wooden sign of the "Man in the Moon," in Wych Street, Strand, is a rare example; and the "Horse-shoe and Magpie," in Fetter Lane, is one of the last of the suspended signs to be now found in the City.