A Book for a Rainy Day; or, Recollections of the Events of the Years 1766-1833Smith, John Thomas
History
A Book for a Rainy Day; or, Recollections of the Events of the Years 1766-1833
Smith, John Thomas
Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
[418] After Dürer’s death from a decline, his close friend,
Porkheimer, wrote to Johann Tscherte, of Vienna: “Nothing grieves
me deeper than that he should have died so painful a death, which,
under God’s providence, I can ascribe to nobody but his huswife,
who gnawed into his very heart, and so tormented him, that he
departed hence the sooner; for he was dried up to a faggot, and
might nowhere seek a jovial humour, or go to his friends.… She and
her sister are not queans; they are, I doubt not, in the number of
honest, devout, and altogether God-fearing women; but a man might
better have a quean, who was otherwise kindly, than such a gnawing,
suspicious, quarrelsome, good woman, with whom he can have no peace
or quiet, neither by day nor by night.”
[419] The architect, and author of a fine work on _Ancient and
Ornamental Architecture at Rome and in Italy_, the materials for
which he collected in the tour he mentions to Smith. He married
the daughter of Smith’s acquaintance, Williams, a well-known
button-maker in St. Martin’s Lane. William Blake found in him a
good friend, and was worshipped by his son, Frederick Tatham,
who said that a stroll with Blake was “as if he were walking
with the Prophet Isaiah.” Late in life Charles Tatham fell into
money difficulties, but obtained the post of warden of Greenwich
Hospital, where he died in 1842.
[420] Stephen Porter of the Middle Temple, and of Trinity College,
Cambridge, translated from the German a play called _Lovers’ Vows_,
by Augustus von Kotzebue, 1798.
[421] Copper Holmes had constructed a floating home out of a West
Country vessel, which cost him £150. He appears to have had his
name “Copper” from the metal he acquired with this hulk. His ark
was considered a nuisance, and the City authorities brought an
action to compel him to remove it. He died in 1821.
[422] “The flat pavement on the southern side of the church, facing
the “Golden Cross,” is called “the Watermen’s Burying-ground,”
from the number of old Thames watermen who were brought thither to
their last long rest from Hungerford, York, and Whitehall Stairs”
(Walford: _Old and New London_).
[423] The reference is to an impersonation of Joe Hatch,
the waterman, which Charles Mathews included in one of the
single-handed “At Home” entertainments which he started in 1818.
“One of the best occasional delineations of character, is that of
Joe Hatch, a waterman, who is also termed the Thames Chancellor and
Boat Barrister, a fellow (we presume a real portrait, though we
have not the good fortune to know the original) who lays down the
law of his craft, promotes and allays quarrels, and gratifies his
fare with a ‘long, tough yarn’ of his own adventures” (_Memoirs of
Charles Mathews_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account