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FOR THE MONTH.

No. XXX.]

"I will make a prief of it in my Note-Book."-SAAKSPERE.

(June, 1853.

Dr. TRUSLER.

| Bishop of London, alarmed for the consequence, sent for Tae parish of Marylebone, renowned for politics and

Trusler, representing the inducement it afforded to idleness.

is

| Dr. Trusler replied that he gained £150 a year by the pub. vestry squabbles, was known to ancient Cockneys for its

lication, that he had no preferment, but if his lordship would bowling-green and tea gardens. “They stood," says

give him a living of that value, his Script types should no Cunningham, “behind the manor house, on what is now longer be put in requisition. Whether the bishop thought Beaumont Street, part of Devonshire Street, and part of that giving a living on such terms would be something like Devonshire Place, and after experiencing the caprice of simony, I do not know, but Trusler did not obtain one from public taste as much as Ranelagh and Vauxhall, were him."**" finally closed in 1777-8." Here Pepys strolled, and "This kind attention to the accommodation of the inthought it “a pretty place;" here Mohawks bullied, and dolent portion of his brethren was followed by the Subwild blades of the town came, as Polly Peachum says, lime Reader: or, the emphatic words in the Church to learn valour. Here Sheffield Duke of Buckingham service marked to display all the beauty of the language. was wont “ to bowl time away,” and at the end of the land render it impossible to be read by the most iniuseason gave a dinner to the chief frequenters of the dicious reader but with propriety.'' place, drinking the toast which he thought appropriate, I have been unable to ascertain the exact period when " May as many of us as remain unhanged next spring / he became a bookseller and publisher. The speculation meet here again !" It was in this delectable tea-drinking was successful. After making a fortune, he purchased place of resort that the noted Dr. Trusler was born, I an estate on Englefield Green in Middlesex, and died at 1735. His father was the proprietor of the gardens, the age of 85 in 1820. his sister made the plum cakes. At ten years of age he A list of his numerous works will be found in Gent. was sent to Westminster School, and at fifteen was re- Mag. XC. 89, 120, and Watts’ Bib. Brit. His genius moved to a fashionable seminary, and from thence to was universal. He wrote a Chronology of Events, and Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he took a degree. the Pocket Farrier, Hogarth Moralised, and the Honours On leaving college he turned author, and translated

of the Table. The Adventures of Gabriel Outcast (an Italian burlettas for the stage, until he contrived to take

English Gil Blas) contain some curious sketches of scenes orders, and was appointed curate of Enford in Wiltshire. I

I in Wiltshire; he had really witnessed. His anecdotes have all the In 1759 he took priest's orders and a wife, and removed

raciness of Joe Miller. to the cure of Ockley in Surrey. Here, by the aid of

“The churchwardens of a parish once waited on a Quaker, presents from friends, he managed to keep a couple of saddle horses, and like Goldsmith's curate was “passing

a tinman, to solicit bis contribution towards the support of

s passing the afternoon lecturer. Thou knowest, friend,' says he, rich" on £40 a year. He eventually removed to London,

don; that we give nothing to thy clergy.' 'I admit that' re

the and was appointed curate of St. Clements Danes, and turns one of the churchwardens, but he is a worthy gentleafterwards chaplain to the Poultry Compter, and to the man, and a good preacher, and you would say so if you 90th regiment of foot. At one period of his career he gave heard him, I hope, therefore, as our parish is small, and lessons in elocution, and after attending a course of we cannot make up any great sum, that you will add to it medical lectures procured a doctor's degree from Leyden. for the sake of your neighbours. The Quaker repeated his A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine states that he words as before, and they were leaving his shop, when he " shewed as much skill in making up sermons as his sister called them back with · Hark ye, friend, though I told thee did in making cakes. He found that some of his brethren we Quakers never give anything towards the support of thy had so many pleasanter occupations than the dry study of clergy, yet as mayhap he may want light, I'll gi'e 'un à divinity, that they were at a loss when they sat down to lantern.'compose a sermon; to use a printed one exposed them to Trusler looked upon a lawyer with the same feeling be detected by some ef the congregation, especially where that a sailor regards a shark. This was somewhat there was a gallery ; but an ingenious idea struck him that

| excusable, since he complains that of seventeen attornies a type which printers call Script, and which is a close imi

he employed, he lost by sixteen. He gives a charactation of a good writing hand, would prevent the incon.

teristic sketch of Lawyer Grind, one of those pettifogging venience. He accordingly had several sermons so printed, and then sent a letter to the clergyman of every parish in

rascals that hang about the purlieus of the court, and England, stating the utility of his plan, and assuring them

live upon the miseries of the unfortunate. that there was little risk of detection, as, though the dis “A man of tolerable good connexions was brought to courses which he selected were the most admired, they were prison for a highway robbery. This fellow applied to him, the least known. His scheme was so much approved, and and amused him with hopes of escape. As a drowning man his sermons were in such demand, that Dr. Terrick, then will, to save himself, even catch at straws, so this unhappy

VOL. III.

culprit listened to his deceitful adviser. He gave him to Dives, an old maid, then lived. Howard, one cold day, in understand, that if he could furnish him with ten guineas, waiting, was standing with his back to the fire in a room com. he would procure a copy of the indictment, and had no mon to all the attendants. Miss Dives came in shivering, and doubt of discovering some error in it that would instantly cried, 'Stand away, Doctor, and be more civil, don't keep all quash it. The ten guineas were given, but on a second visit the fire to yourself.' 'Are you cold, madam ? replied he. he was told that counsel had examined the indictment, and Cold ? retorts the lady; if you had any penetration you not the shadow of a flaw could be found, but that he was might read it in my face. It is my misfortune, madam,' convinced from the account he had received of the prose- returned the Doctor, 'not to be able to read old print.' cutor, that he might be bought off, and of the evidence, that | “This man was witty from nature-not ill nature. He they might be softened for about twenty pounds. He pos. would be facetious even in the pulpit. It was well known sessed that twenty pounds. It was given, and a third visit that he lived too fast, and was involved in debt, but he was told him that the prosecutor had been applied to, and was a pleasant companion, and every one liked him. At a club found incorruptible, and the evidence too respectable to be of the principal tradesmen of his parish ihe Doctor was one, influenced ; that the cash had been expended in bribing and it being proposed by a friend that those present to those who were supposed to have some weight with the whom he was indebted should give him a discharge, a evidence, but they could not succeed. However,' says butcher to whom he owed fifty pounds agreed to the measure Grind, as I bave always people ready to prove an alibi, it provided he would preach a sermon the Sunday following you can raise £30 more there is no doubt of success. The on a text he should point out. It was acceded to, and the poor wretch applies to his friends, and these thirty pounds text given was from the parable of the unjust steward, were raised, but they turned out as ineffectual as the last. Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. The The trial came on, the alibi was overthrown, and the poor church was crowded on the occasion; the Doctor expadevil convicted. Could nothing more be done? Yes, for tiated largely on the powers of benevolence and the virtue ten more he would move an arrest of judgment, for the pro- of forbearance, and closed his sermon with thus according ceedings had been illegal. Here he was foiled again; to my text, Have patience with me, and I will pay you all — counsel had exerted themselves, but the attempt was over- / but as to the manner how and the time when, this must be ruled. There was, however, another step in which he left to some future opportunity flattered himself he should be more successful. This was, “I am told that this Dr. Howard once received a conby a proper application of thirty guineas, to bring over the siderable sum of money for the loan of his name to a Bible Recorder to make a favourable report. This sum was also which was published with annotations by him, but which got, but the means equally unsuccessful. In this hopeless he never wrote; all that he did was to revise the sheets." situation, the attorney addresses him again; if he could

| Trusler being of “the mushroom tribe,” and of a anyways contrive through his friends to raise £20 more, a family unknown to those cobblers of gentility, the petition should be presented to the throne, and care should be taken to get it well backed at the Council board, and he

heralds, had no great reverence for a lord, and has some might rely on a pardon. He usually contrived the matter

sarcastic reflections upon the meanest of all prideto end long before it got so far, 'but your case,' says he, “purse pride." ' is an uncommon one, which has hitherto baffled all my "Were we to point out,” he remarks, “ a person as he endeavours, but in this final step I never fail. Encouraged passes, and say, "There goes a good man, one who has not by this declaration, every friend as for life was importuned, a vice,' he would scarce be noticed; but exclaim, That and this last twenty pounds procured, but all to no purpose. | man is worth £500,000,' and he will be stared at till out of The death warrant was signed, and an order came down sight. This sordid habit of thinking was finely bit off by a for execution. In a distracted state of mind, the poor keen fellow of a neighbouring nation, who had carried on wretch sends for his lawyer, again reminds him of the many business in London, and failed. Sitting in a coffee-house promises he had made, the many great sums he had received, one day, where a few wealthy citizens were discussing some and asked him if there were no hopes after all. Hopes,'

money concerns, and observing him very attentive, one says he, to be sure there are. The petition is so strongly person turned aside and said to him, 'What's your opinion, worded, and so powerfully backed, that, take my word for Sir, of the matter ? "Sir,' returned he peevishly, what it, they cannot hang you--they dare not hang you,' and opinion can a man have in this country, who has not a there was not the least doubt but he would be left out of the guinea in his pocket? This makes good what Burke says: death warrant. "Aye, Sir,'returns the despairing criminal, that a morchant has no faith but in his banker, his ledger

it was on this account I sent for you. The death warrant is his Bible, the Exchange is his church, the desk his altar, is signed, I am in that warrant, and an order is come down and his money is his God.' for execution on Wednesday morning. This the attorney “When Mingotti, the Italian singer, was in this country, could not stand. •Execution !' exclaimed he, execution ! she frequently performed the parts of men, and after the -Well-let 'em hang you-let 'em hang you, and d— me opera was over, used to meet many of the musical performers if it shall not be the worst job they ever did in their lives !' at the Prince of Orange's coffee house in the Haymarket. At this he turned upon his heel, and left his deluded client She then and there instituted what she called the Order of to his fate."

the Lyre,' confined it to twelve members of that club, preTrusler's Memoirs are excessively rare, as he destroyed

sented each with a gold lyre to hang at the button hole, and

swore them in always to wear it. Giardini was one; Pasall the copies he could meet with. Purchasers of this cu- | quali another, and Storace, the father of the composer, a rious production, by paying half-a-crown,were further en- third. To show its use in one respect, I was in company titled to a specific remedy for the most inveterate ulcers. with the latter at Harrow when the arrow was shot for, and

“ He relates a bon mot of the facetious Dr. Howard, chap- the crowd was so great that I could no way get within the lain to the Princess Dowager of Wales, with whom Miss ring; but the instant Storace came forward, who was an

Italian, and his order discovered Make way there,' was, within three rows of the orchestra; a countryman who sat the word; they took him for a foreign minister; the people in the first row in a line before him, being too short to have opened right and left, and we had free admission ; so much | as he sat, a command of the stage, stood up and interrupted for appearances !

his view. Mr. C., in a peremptory tone of voice, and loud, “I recollect being told by an old gentleman, that cried out, Sit down!' the man sat down, but some time having been to dine privately at Northumberland House | after, not being able to see, rose again. A second time and with the proud Duke of Somerset, and who boasted of louder than before, Mr. C. cried, “Sit down. The man a lineal descent from the Plantagenets; that whilst they said as he had paid for his seat, he had a right to see as were talking tête-a-tête in the saloon, the folding doors well as he. Peace, fellow,' said he, do you know to flew open, and a man in a black fringed robe, with a large whom you are talking Unfortunately for Mr. C. this silver-headrd staff in his hand, entered and exclaimed with simple man was given to understand who this honourable a loud voice, Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! This is to give notice gentleman was, by a loud voice from the gallery, exclaimthat his Grace the Duke of Somerset's dinner 's upon the ing, "It is Parson Cholmondeley, who was broke for table !' and then retired.

cowardice at the battle of Dettingen.'" “I have known this pride of rank spread through al “When Cheere the statuary was knighted, he made a whole family, from the lord even to his lowest domestic; point of calling on all his acquaintance, and introduced the though it does not sit so well upon them. It partakes of honour he had received by saying, that though his Majesty infection. A certain Duchess, who had been very kind to had been pleased to confer a title on him, he should not the distressed poor round her country seat, being taken overlook his old friends, but be always as glad to see them dangerously ill, a woman who had been often fed by her as before ; and being at a club soon after, and desired to bounty went to her house, bathed in tears, and with every give a lady for a toast, he rose from his chair, and filling a mark of true sorrow begged to know how her Grace did; bumper, vociferated aloud, Sir Harry Cheere drinks when her favourite maid, who happened to be at the gate, | Larly Cheere's good health!'”. fired with indignation at the presumptuous grief of the Some curious stories are told of the roué Duke of woman, shoved her from it, with,. I should not have thought Cumberland, “ I had it from very good authority that of it! It's the height of assurance in a low creature like Lord Trevor was applied to by a gentleman, when the you to be at all affected or concerned for the ill health of a Bishopric of Durhamn was vacant, saying, that if he wished Duchess.""

his brother to be Bishop, it might be brought about in his Dr. Trusler had a wealthy relation, named Benjamin advancing the Duke of Camberland £10,00'), who was in Webb of Devizes. He was a noted miser, and being immediate want of it to go to Newnarket. The money was “left executor to his own son, a batchelor, who lived under | advanced and his brother was the bishop. the same roof with him, and who bequeathed to an aunt of “At another time he obtained a loan of the like sum mine £1000 : 500 to be paid six days after his funeral, from his sister, the Princess Amelia, whom he importuned carried his love of money so far that he would not bury very much; she took him to task, arraigned his dissipated this son, but kept him six months above ground, supported conduct, and said, she never would be instrumental to it. in his coffin on a pair of tressels, standing in his hall; He assured her that the money he wanted was to complete an through which he passed ten times a day; where the body improvement in Windsor Park, where it was well laid out would have continued till the old man's death had not the in employing the surrounding poor, and to convince her of parish threatened him with a prosecution."

it proposed to take her down to inspect the works. He had “That prowess is often occasional and the effect of frame, at that time near 500 men digging a canal. She went to is evident by a man's being more courageous at one tiine the lodge and he drove her round the park in a one horse than another from better health and spirits; we have had chaise : and had so contrived it with his manager, that as numberless instances of this. The Hon. and Rev. Mr. she passed from one place to another, the same set of men Cholipondeley, Rector of Hertingfordbury, Herts, once an as in a theatre, removed to another spot; which when she officer, broke for cowardice at the battle of Dettingen, was brought to, were seen planting trees, at another, 500 had acquitted himself with marked bravery on some former men (the same) were found grubbing hedges. Well,' occasion ; Sir Eyre Coote, who when a subaltern, was broke said she, “brother, I had no conception of this ; you must for running away at the battle of Falkirk, signalized him- employ near 2000 peopie.' 'True madam,' said he, and self in more advanced life with uncommon heroism in was I to take you to the other side of the park, I could India; and Lord (ieo. Sackville broke for cowardice at the shew you as many more.' No, she was satisfied that his battle of Minden, acquitted himself afterwards manly in a money was better expended than she had apprehended, duel; and yet Lord Ligonier, who delivered him the orders and she lent him the sum he wanted. The truth of this from Prince Ferdinand, declared to me that he was a rank was averred to me by an old servant privy to the decepconard. Death therefore should never be inflicted for tion." want of courage. When Admiral Byng was shot for not A good story is told how Lady Maria Waldegrave engaging the enemy, Voltaire shrewdly observed, that it was jilted by her lover, but it would seem, “there are was done to encourage others."

'in return women who act as unfeelingly by our sex. I “ The stigma that hangs upon a man (who acted as Mr. | heard once of a lady, who so played upon the feelings of a Cholmondeley did) as long as he lives is a sufficient panislı- young gentleman who courted her as to break his heart, ment. He had married Mary, sister of the celebrated Peg and he requested on his dying bed, that it might be emWoffington, the comedian, with whom he was so enamoured, balmed and taken to her as his last gift, and without her that his plea for not being able to face the enemy was that being made previously acquainted with it. When brought Polly was in bis head and he could not get her out of it. to her she seemed amazed, but on recollecting herself, I happened to be at one of the theatres, thirty years after called to her maid, and smiling, said, “Fanny, take it up this transaction, when Mr. Cholmondeley was in the pit, stairs and place it on my toilette, I wanted a pincushion."

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MEDIÆVAL SEALs.—The invaluable work upon MERTON PRIORY. (Austin Canons.) “ Ancient Scottish Seals," published by Mr. Laing under The obverse exhibits the Virgin Mary sitting on a the auspices of the Bannatyne Club, has frequently in- throne, crowned as Regina Cæli, with the infant Jesus duced me to hope that a similar Descriptive Catalogue on her left knee, and on each side of her a medallion would be undertaken by some of our Antiquarian Societies. with a head. Ample materials are at hand in the stores of the British | Legend : Sigill. Ecclesie Sancte Marie de Meritona. Museum and in private collections. The new edition of Dugdale's Monasticon, Surtees' Durham, and indeed most topographical works, are rich in similar illustrations; the Gentleman's Magazine has devoted considerable attention to the subject ; we possess an unbroken series of royal seals from William the Norman to Victoria; all that is required is the enterprise of a painstaking editor to work this “raw material” into form. The study of seals is no unimportant branch of Archæology. They serve to illustrate correctly the costume of individuals and the architecture of buildings, present portraits of kings, bishops, saints and abbots, and are in most instances beautiful specimens of mediæval art. I subjoin a few examples I have met with, in my own native county-Surrey, and shall esteem it a favour if any of your correspondents can add to the list.

F. R. S. Croydon.

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Reverse. St. Augustine, mitred, standing under a pointed arch, having his right hand raised in the act of benediction, and holding in his left a pastoral staff.

Legend: Mundi Lucerna, nos Augustine Guberna.
Exergue: Augustine Pater, quos instruis in Meritona

His Christi mater tutrix est atque Patrona.
From an indenture dated 1264.

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NEWARK PRIORY. (Canons Regular of the Order of St. Augustine.)

The Virgin is represented sitting with the infant Saviour at her breast, and angels glorifying at the sides. The middle part is defaced.

Legend: + S. Ecclesie Beate Marie et Sci. T.

From a deed, temp. Henry VI. engraved in Brayley, ii. 134.

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The counter Seal is a half-length figure of our Saviour, with a globe in his left hand surmounted by a cross, and his right uplifted in the attitude of benediction.

From a Grant in the Augmentation Office. 1356.

A second Seal represents the assassination of Archbishop Becket, to whom this Priory was dedicated. The shield charged with a chevron between three escallops, denotes Richard Brito, who is said to have cloven off a piece of the archbishop's skull. The other knights are William de Tracy, Reginald Fitz-Urse, and Hugh de Moreville. Within a niche at the bottom is a monk praying to the archbishop, who was canonized by Pope Alexander III. 1173. From a deed, temp. Henry VI,

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A Seal engraved in Current Notes, ii. 63, has been considered that of a prior of Newark.

BERMONDSEY PRIORY (dedicated to St. Saviour.)

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Seal of John de Chartres, Abbot, represents the Flight into Egypt.

Legend: Sigi . . . . oris . . . . Bermondeseye.

From a deed in the Chapter House at Westminster, bearing date 1266.

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