As I was in the midst of my recollections, and separation of the real from the fictitious, an English Jew came up with a great tray full of medals -one heap labelled a "shilling," another heap labelled "sixpence," all representing the great ship, "The Chinese Junk, Keying," in full sail, with her three bamboo-stretched sails all spread to the wind, and her great lumbering rudder cleaving through the Glad waters of the dark blue sea. I took one up, and, on the reverse side read as follows: "This remarkable vessel is a Junk of the largest class, and is the first ship constructed by the Chinese which has reached Europe, or ever rounded the Cape of Good Hope. "This Junk was purchased, August, 1846, at Canton, by a few enterprising Englishmen. She sailed from Hong-Kong, 6th of December, 1846, rounded the Cape, 1st of March, 1847, arrived in England, 27th of March, 1848." Away went sentiment, sympathy, interest, for "Dis my name sixpence," and all. Instead of contemplating enterprising Easterns, we had been patronising some mercenary devils who had jobbed themselves for the season to some enterprising Englishmen. As no Englishman's day is perfect without a dinner, we determined-thinking the Blackwall Hotels would be sure to be full-to cross over to Greenwich, and have our white-bait there. Blackwall, to my fancy, is the pleasantest place of the two. The view altogether is much more varied and fine; the bend of the river much nobler, added to which, Greenwich, itself one of the finest features in the scene, is lost to you when there. We know nothing more lovely than the wood-clad Kentish hills rising irregularly until crowned by Shooter's Hill, with its wood-embosomed tower in the distance, with the noble Thames sweeping so angularly as to give ships near Woolwich the appearance of sailing on dry land. Then up the river, the high ground of Greenwich Park, with its dark Scotch firs and eagle-winged cedars, commingling with the brighter green of the chestnut, the oak, the elm, the ash, and other trees, all flourishing most vigorously, makes a fine irregular background to the splendid hospital below. Look at Greenwich from Blackwall on a summer's evening, just as the rows of gas-lights relieve the retiring sun, and say if any thing can be finer. There used to be a nice old-fashioned house at Blackwall, half wood, half brick, with balconies and bay-windows projecting right upon the river, so that a person at dinner might fancy himself on the water. It was entered from the street at the back, by a curious Frenchified sort of half court-yard, with a vine against the wall, and a larder in the corner. At this old house a man could dine off white-bait—have it when he wanted it, instead of having to eat his way to white-bait through endless relays of other fish, and Burke his appetite before he gets to it, as he does at the great houses, and without that worst feature of all, an inordinate bill at the end. Often have I enjoyed a nice comfortable dinner, just what I wanted to eat at the time I wanted to eat it, drank just what I liked to drink without thinking it necessary to drink for the good of the house, and sat enjoying the gay and lively bustle of the river, seen the great steamers arrive from their distant voyages, and caught wafts of music from the holiday-making parties in the river boats, as long as I liked to stay, without being interrupted every five minutes by an impatient waiter wanting the table for somebody else, and all for six or seven shillings-what they charge for dinner alone at the great houses. But those days are gone. The quiet little hostelry has been transformed into a fine-looking hotel, looking very like saying, "all you who enter here must expect to damage a sovereign." I say nothing in disparagement of it-people who go to great hotels must expect to pay accordingly, but as in these trips, quiet and comfort, a feeling of being at home, are quite as essential to enjoyment as the prog, commend me to where I can be served by a neat, noiseless maid at a moderate price, instead of a sweating, hurrying, napkin-whisking waiter at a high one. Between a first and a second class house, there is little to choose. The charges are generally pretty much the same while the cookery and oftentimes the provender itself is very inferior-second-hand, in short. The "Crown and Sceptre at Greenwich" has perhaps the finest river-view coffee-room on the Thames. The glass extends the whole width of the room. This room, however, was bespoke for a private party, I suppose, and as the look-out is half the battle, we did not inspect the place they had substituted, but proceeded at once to the "Trafalgar." The coffeeroom here terminates in a bay, affording a river view to half-a-dozen tables. Having engaged the second table from the window in the centre, and ordered what the waiter called a regular fish dinner, and fowls to follow, we proceeded to loiter the hour that intervened in the hospital or town. The old pensioners were at their tea, and a precious hubbub they made. One would have thought they hadn't been together for a year. We visited the Picture Gallery ;-the price of admission (fourpence to it and the chapel) is painted up outside, with an assurance that any thing extra that may be given will be properly applied to something or other, I forget what. My object in noticing it is to observe on a little bit of paltriness, similar to that practised by the umbrella-taker at the Exhibition in London, namely, laying a few specious coin before them, to induce innocent people to believe that it is customary to give something. Such work is unworthy a great national charity, and ought to be forbidden. When we returned to the "Trafalgar" the plot had thickened considerably. Carriages stood in rows, and others were setting down, while the coffee-room was fast filling with hungry Junketers and Londoners. Every table was then bespoke, still the waiters seemed unwilling to let any one go away. The consequence was, that what with the number of private parties and the overstocking of the coffee-room, the waiters could not get through the work, and dire and loud were the anathemas hurled from all sides. It was actually three-quarters of an hour after time before we got any thing at our table, and the first course of fish was succeeded by an interregnum of twenty minutes, and others by a like break. At last we cut short the farce of dining, with the fowls, and left, for the nine o'clock boat. But for the bill we should never have imagined we had dined. There is doubtless great risk attending the keeping of these houses, so much depending on the weather and the whim of the moment; but it would be better for landlords to say they are full, than take in more guests than they can accommodate. I should add that what we got was good, but who likes dining by instalments? Steaming up the river I thus ran over the proceedings of the day. What an abundance of capital there must be in this country, thought I, when money can be found for such an adventure as the Junk. Who but English would think of venturing their money in such a speculation. Then I thought I should like to see the parties all in a row, and hear the history of each, how they had been tempted into it, and by whom, and how the spec. had answered, and what they would do with the vessel, and Joss, and the Chinese when they had done with them. Then I wondered why they had not brought her to London Bridge or Westminster, or some place easier of access than Blackwall, and at last I wondered whether the hotel-keepers and steamboat proprietors had a share in her, and whether it was a down river speculation altogether. So musing, the boat bumped against Hungerford Pier, and I landed, the hazy moon giving an indication of a change of weather. ALEXANDER SELKIRK'S DREAM. BY THOMAS KEIGHTLEY, ESQ. Still the tints of day were shed. Homewards hied the lonely man, And he sought his lowly bed; In his view the lively dream sets Hills and vales in verdure bright, Loud resounds the solemn ringing Youths and maids from glen and mountain 21 Fervently the hoary pastor, In their hearts that hear his call; How beyond the grave extending How, our thoughts on that world bending, We should careless be of this. Once again the raised hymn pealeth Notes of joy and jubilee, Praising Him who truth revealeth, Night's dim shades were now retreating, Birds their merry notes were singing, Waked by Nature's general chorus Still the vision hovers o'er him, Still the heavenly strains he hears, State of mankind here on earth, HISTORY ILLUSTRATED BY CARICATURE.* PICTORIAL and written satires, are the most harmless and at the same time, the most effective weapons of opposition. Seeking simply to bring out the faults and foibles of a question, a principle, or a fashion, in a ridiculous point of view: a satire, however pointed or bitter, has little of the asperity and invective of direct argument. Appealing also at once to the eye, it often brings home truth to idlers who have not zeal to search for it elsewhere-hence its influence often in deciding questions even of primary importance. Caricature is a word of Italian origin, but the application of so homely, and yet so potent a means of persuasion to politics, dates from the remotest times. Caricatures and songs have been found in Egyptian tombs, and Mr. Wright particularly points out that the song and the lampoon were the constant attendant on, and medium of invective in, those incessant political struggles which, during the middle ages, were preparing for the formation of modern society; and many an old manuscript and sculptured block, whether of wood or stone, shows that our forefathers in the middle ages understood well the permanent force of pictorial satire. It was at once a new and promising idea to illustrate a given period of modern history by materials entirely derived from such sources. Nor in selecting such a period could a more happy choice have been made by Mr. Wright than that of the reigns of the first three Georges. It is the period at which the House of Brunswick was established on the throne of England, upon the ruin of Jacobitism, by the overthrow of the political creed of despotism, as also that when the same dynasty and its throne were defended against the encroachments of that fearful flood of republicanism which burst out from a neighbouring kingdom, and thus gained the victory over democracy. These are to us interesting periods, because in them originated all those distinctions of political parties and that peculiar spirit of constitutional antagonism which exist at the present day. It was during these periods that the great political parties of Tories and Whigs came into play, and it was in the political warfare brought about by this antagonism of parties that caricatures not only chiefly flourished, but appear almost to have had their origin as a national art; for Mr. Wright informs us that previous to the Revolution of 1688 caricatures were chiefly executed by Dutch artists, and that the majority of such were imported from Holland. The antipathy, however, that existed between the two opposing parties, which sprang from that revolution was of the bitterest description. Each endeavoured to render its opponents odious to the public by personal abuse and calumny, and this animosity even extended to the pulpit. A Tory paper of the 12th of November, 1715, reported that, "on Monday last the Presbyterian minister at Epsom broke his leg, which was so miserably shattered, that it was cut off the next day. This is a great token, that those pretenders to sanctity do not walk so circumspectly as they give out." The first regular political mob was a High Church mob stirred up for the purpose of raising a clamour against the Whigs, and headed by the noto England under the House of Hanover; its History and Condition during the Reigns of the three Georges, illustrated from the Caricatures and Satires of the Day. By Thomas Wright, Esq., M. A., F. S. A., &c., with numerous illustrations, executed by F. W. Fairholt. Bentley. |