Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
But I forget; the Stranger and his Chum,
With t’other two, to Barth’lomew Fair are come;
Where, being seated, and the supper past,
They drink so deep, and put about so fast,
That, e’re the warning Watchman walks about,
With dismal tone Repeating, Who goes out?[76]
Ere St. Paul’s Clock no longer will withold
From striking Ten, and the voice cries--All told;[77]
Ere this, our new Companions, everyone
In roaring Mirth and Wine so far were gone,
That ev’ry Sense from ev’ry Part was fled,
And were with Difficulty got to Bed;
Where, in the Morn, recover’d from his Drink,
The new Collegian may have Time to think;
And recollecting how he spent the Night,
Explore his Pockets, and not find a Doit.
Too thoughtless Man! to lavish thus away
A Week’s support in less than half a Day,
But ’tis a Curse attends this wretched Place,
To pay for dear-bought Wit in little Space,
Till Time shall come when this new Tenant here,
Will in his turn shule for a Pot of Beer,
Repent the melting of his Cash too fast,
And Snap at Strangers for a Night’s Repast.
JONAS HANWAY.
If Jonas Hanway had lived before Fuller, he certainly would have been
enshrined among his ‘Worthies;’ and it is astonishing to find how
comparatively ignorant of him and his works are even well-read men.
Ask one about him, and he will reply that he was a philanthropist,
but he will hardly be able to say in what way he was philanthropic:
ask another, and the reply will be that he was the man who introduced
umbrellas into England--but it is very questionable if he could tell
whence he got the umbrella to introduce. But in his time he was a
man of mark, and his memory deserves more than a short notice in
‘Chalmers,’ the ‘Biographie Universelle,’ or any other biographical
dictionary.
He was born at Portsmouth on the 12th of August, 1712, in the reign
of ‘good Queen Anne.’ History is silent as to his pedigree, save and
except that his father was connected with the navy, and was for some
years store-keeper to the dockyard at Portsmouth, and his uncle by
the father’s side was a Major John Hanway, who translated some odes
of Horace, &c. His father died whilst Jonas was still a boy, and Mrs.
Hanway had much trouble to bring up her young family, who all turned
out well, and were prosperous in after life: one son, Thomas, filling
the post of commander-in-chief of his Majesty’s ships at Plymouth, and
afterwards commissioner of the dockyard at Chatham.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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