In and About Drury Lane, and Other Papers, Vol. 2 (of 2): Reprinted from the pages of the 'Temple Bar' MagazineDoran, Dr. (John)
History
In and About Drury Lane, and Other Papers, Vol. 2 (of 2): Reprinted from the pages of the 'Temple Bar' Magazine
Doran, Dr. (John)
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Theater -- England -- London -- Anecdotes
after the fight that Franklin acknowledged that he was the receiver,
and it was not till much later that Hugh Williamson was discovered to
be the thief. In 1780 the popular Lord Shelburne was hit in the groin
in a duel with Colonel Fullarton, of whom, as an _attaché_ to the
English Embassy in Paris, the minister had spoken with great contempt.
The City of London sent every day a ‘How d’ye do?’ to the leader of the
Opposition. Subsequently parsons were not ashamed to do their bit of
murder here, or run the risk of being murdered by another. Parson Bate
fought his co-proprietor of the ‘Morning Post’ without much harm to
either; and Parson Allen stretched his man, Dulany, dead on the turf.
For this feat he suffered half-a-year’s imprisonment in Newgate. But
this penalty did not prevent the Hon. Cosmo Gordon from killing Colonel
Thomas on the same spot, nor weaken the arm of General Stewart in
running his sword into Lord Macartney. When people of quality thought
butchering one another a salve for wounded honour, fools of lower
degree soon followed the example. In June, 1792, one Frizell, weary
of a night’s debauch with other Irish law students, was sarcastically
rebuked for his comparative sobriety by his friend Clarke. The whole
party resorted to Hyde Park, in the beautiful summer dawn, to settle
the question with pistols. In five minutes poor Frizell was lying stark
dead among the buttercups and daisies. His tipsy companions tumbled
the body into a hackney-coach, which was afterwards found standing
in Piccadilly, without coachman or any passenger except the dead law
student, who was beyond giving any account of himself. In August,
1796, Mr. Pride, an American, killed his countryman, Mr. Carpenter, in
the park. In 1797 Colonel King exchanged six shots ineffectually with
Colonel Fitzgerald, a married man, from whom King had only recently
recovered his sister whom Fitzgerald had seduced from her home. Some
time after this duel in the park Fitzgerald went over to Kilworth,
Ireland, in order to gain possession again of the unhappy young lady.
Her brother, who had become Lord Kingsborough, broke into Fitzgerald’s
room for the purpose of chastising him. He would probably have been
slain by the stalwart ruffian but for the timely arrival of his
father, the Earl of Kingston, who, seeing his son’s danger, fired at
Fitzgerald, and killed the rascal on the spot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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