BILLY IN THE SALT BOX.
Political caricatures are generally well worth preserving, they familiarize us with the features and peculiarities of celebrated men, and they tell us what was the popular feeling of the day. We regret that in general they are too large for our pages, but now and then we meet with a small one which we are glad to present to our readers.
Mr. Pitt's budget of 1805 was not allowed to pass without severe remarks, and a heavily increased duty on salt excited general dissatisfaction. People said that the grand contriver of taxes had visited every corner of the house above stairs, and that he had now descended into the kitchen; and the annexed caricature, by Gilray, which was published at this period, represents the premier alarming the poor cook by popping his head out of the salt-box, with the unexpected salutation—"How do you do, cookey?" The person thus apostrophised cries out in consternation, "Curse the fellow, how he has frightened me!—I think, on my heart, he is getting in everywhere!—who the deuce would have thought of finding him in the salt-box?"
DANGEROUS FEAT.
An extraordinary instance of the rash feats which men with cool heads and courageous hearts will sometimes perform, was witnessed at Nottingham on January 22, 1789.—The vane at the top of St. Peter's spire, which was placed there in 1735, and measured thirty-three inches in length, having become insecure, the parish officers agreed with Mr. Robert Wooton, of Kegworth, to take it down and reinstate it.
This venturous man, henceforth known as "the steeple climber," commenced his undertaking by placing a ladder against the steeple, and securing it to the wall with tenters: he then mounted that with another on his shoulder, which he fastened above it in like manner; and so on till he reached the top. To prevent himself falling, he was girded round with belts, which he connected with the ladders by means of hooks. In this manner he replaced the vane and cock, and rebuilt four yards of the steeple.
The celerity with which the man placed the ladders was remarkable. He began to affix the first at eleven in the morning, and brought the vane down in triumph by two in the afternoon. The bells were then set a-ringing, the congregation of people became very great, and Wooton re-ascended the spire, to exhibit his daring. He extended himself on its summit, only thirteen inches in diameter, and spread out his arms and legs. He afterwards balanced himself on the uppermost stave of the top ladder, and for a quarter of an hour capered about in every imaginable posture, the admiring crowd beneath expecting momentarily to witness his descent in a manner much less agreeable than precipitate.
Subsequently, when his undertaking was accomplished, to excite admiration and obtain money, he again balanced himself on the apex of the spire, beat a drum, and drank a bottle of ale, in the sight of thousands of people, on a market-day; but the reprobation of the man's temerity so far preponderated over public approval, as in a considerable degree to diminish his expected reward.