FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   >>  
viewing, of my _cobbler's end_." Lord Hewson's "one eye" is a frequent subject of ridicule in the political songs of the period. Thus in "The Bloody Bed-roll, or Treason displayed in its Colours:" "Make room for one-ey'd HEWSON, A Lord of such account, 'Twas a pretty jest That such a beast Should to such honour mount." The song inquired for by my friend MR. CHAPELL, beginning, "My name is old Hewson," is not contained in any of the well-known printed collections of political songs and ballads, nor is it to be found among the broadsides preserved in the King's Pamphlets. A full index to the latter is now before me, so I make this statement _positively_, and to save others the trouble of a search. EDWARD F. RIMBAULT. _Old Hewson and Smollett's "Strap."_--Perhaps the enclosed extract from an old newspaper of April, 1809, will throw some light upon this subject: "SMOLLETT'S CELEBRATED HUGH STRAP. "On Sunday was interred, in the burial-ground of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, the remains of Hugh Hewson, who died at the age of 85. The deceased was a man of no mean celebrity. He had passed more than forty years in the parish of St. Martin's, and kept a hair-dresser's shop, being no less a personage than the identical _Hugh Strap_, whom Dr. Smollett rendered so conspicuously interesting in his life and adventures of Roderick Random. The deceased was a very intelligent man, and took delight in recounting the scenes of his early life. He spoke with pleasure of the time he passed in the service of the Doctor; and it was his pride, as well as boast, to say, that he had been educated at the same seminary with so learned and distinguished a character. His shop was hung round with Latin quotations, and he would frequently point out to his acquaintance the several scenes in Roderick Random, pertaining to himself, which had their foundation, not in the Doctor's inventive fancy, but in truth and reality. The Doctor's meeting with him at a barber's shop at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the subsequent mistake at the Inn, their arrival together in London, and the assistance they experienced from _Strap's_ friend were all of that description. The deceased, to the last, obtained a comfortable subsistence by his industry, and of late years had been paid a weekly salary by the inhabitants of the Adelphi, for keeping the entrances to Vil
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   >>  



Top keywords:

Hewson

 

Doctor

 

deceased

 

Random

 

friend

 

Roderick

 

Smollett

 

scenes

 

subject

 

political


passed
 

Martin

 

service

 
pleasure
 

personage

 

dresser

 

parish

 

identical

 
intelligent
 

delight


adventures

 

rendered

 
conspicuously
 

interesting

 

recounting

 
assistance
 

experienced

 

description

 

London

 

subsequent


mistake
 

arrival

 
obtained
 
Adelphi
 

inhabitants

 

keeping

 

entrances

 

salary

 

weekly

 

subsistence


comfortable
 

industry

 

Newcastle

 

barber

 
quotations
 

frequently

 

seminary

 

learned

 

distinguished

 
character