[174a] In consequence of the management of this Establishment not having been satisfactory to the subscribers, another Institution of a similar character has been established in the same street; and it is to be hoped that this rivalry will ensure the future good management of both.
[174b] These figures have been kindly furnished to me by Mr. Brown, the Clerk of the Board of Guardians, with their permission.
[176] Kensington-gardens, and Hyde-park, are within an easy distance of Paddington, it is true; and the people see the necessity of maintaining those true lungs of London; so that these open spaces are not likely to be covered by the mason. But these Royal Parks are kept for the promenades of those who can afford to ride on horses or in carriages, or who, if walking, can afford to dress well; these therefore do not make up for the loss of the old village-green.
[182a] The account of this tradition is preserved in “Ferrers.”
[182b] Mr. Macaulay tells us from the best authority, “that there were in the City at this time fifty-five persons to ten houses.” But many causes would combine to make the families in a village less numerous than in a city; I have therefore taken five individuals, instead of five and a half, in the computations I have made for the population of Paddington.
[183a] This is not only the oldest person buried in the church-yard, so far as is known, but it is the oldest tomb now existing in it. Some time ago, an engraved copper-plate, in memory of Henry Kenwricke, citizen and mercer, was found several feet below the present surface: he died December 23rd, 1639, aged 63.
[183b] Madame Vestris and her husband, Mr. Charles Matthews, also occupied this house for some time.
[189] This story was told of several cowkeepers in the neighbourhood of London; and an old, and oft repeated tale, is told of one of this grazier’s workmen. The young man who married the heiress, turned out a terrible old miser, and his penurious habits, as a matter of course, made him no great favourite with those whom he employed; therefore his final exit from this world was not much regretted by them. “Pretty Johnny,” the Guardsman’s son, was not of the same turn of mind as his father, and his failings and faults were looked on with a more lenient eye by the people. What the father had saved with so much care, the son delighted to spend; and after the old gentleman’s death, the magic number of live stock soon vanished from the fields. A few cows were sold to supply any immediate want; and after a greater demand on one occasion, than ordinary, Pretty Johnny was not in the best of tempers. This lazy old fellow, who had by some chance found out for what purpose the cows were sold, happened to cross his path at this unlucky moment, and the grazier who saw the wicked twinkle in the fellow’s eye, swore, if he did’nt get out of the way and go on with his work, he would send him to the devil.—The countryman nothing daunted, quietly rejoined, “You’d better not, master; for if you do, I’ll tell daddy you’ve sold the cows.”
[190] Byron has said “there would be nothing to make the canal of Venice, more poetical than that of Paddington, were it not for its artificial adjuncts.” Vide Cunningham’s Hand-book. The artificial adjuncts of the Paddington Canal, from its first formation to the present time, have been any thing but poetical. It is true an imaginative Cockney might, in snowy weather, have imbibed his notion of the Alps from what he then saw on the banks of this canal; for immense heaps of dust and ashes towered high above the house-tops; and these artificial mountains are said to have been worth ten thousand pounds a-piece.
[196] In going through the Vestry Minute-Books, for the purposes of this Work, I found an opinion of Sir Frederick Pollock’s entered in November 1841 (at which time the builders and owners of houses were attempting to relieve themselves of the charge of all Empty Rates) to the effect that these words, “it shall and may be lawful,” created a duty. But I was astonished to find the opinion mutilated by a bungling attempt which had been made to scratch out the words, “and may.”