London in the Jacobite times, Volume IIDoran, Dr. (John)
History
London in the Jacobite times, Volume II
Doran, Dr. (John)
London (England) -- History -- 18th century
Jacobite sympathies were attracted and puzzled by a portrait of
‘The young Chevalier,’ which was to be seen, for sale, in every
printshop. Alexander Carlyle gives an amusing account of it in his
‘Autobiography.’ ‘As I had seen,’ he says, ‘the Chevalier Prince
Charles frequently in Scotland, I was appealed to, if a print that was
selling in all the shops was not like him? My answer was, that it had
not the least resemblance. Having been taken one night, however, to a
meeting of the Royal Society, by Microscope Baker, there was introduced
a Hanoverian Baron, whose likeness was so strong to the print which
passed for the young Pretender, that I had no doubt that, he being a
stranger, the printsellers had got him sketched out, that they might
make something of it before the _vera effigies_ could be had. The
latter, when it could at last be procured, was advertised in cautious
terms, as ‘A curious Head, painted from the Life, by the celebrated M.
Torcque, and engraved in France, by J. G. Will, with proper decorations
in a new taste.’ Beneath the portrait, the following verses were
inscribed:――
‘Few know my face, though all men do my fame,
Look strictly and you’ll quickly guess my name.
Through deserts, snows, and rain I made my way,
My life was daily risk’d to gain the day.
Glorious in thought, but now my hopes are gone,
Each friend grows shy, and I’m at last undone.’
Fear of him, and of his followers, was far from having died out.
A letter in the ‘Malmesbury Correspondence,’ dated May, might
almost have been written by the advocate of Extermination, in the
‘Advertiser;’――the rev. writer says: ‘A Bill is now preparing and will
soon be brought into the House of Lords, for putting the Highlands of
Scotland under quite a new regulation, and you may be assured, until
some bill is passed effectually to subdue that herd of savages, we
shall never be free from alarms of invasion in the North of England.’
Lord Stair, then in London, was more hopeful, and expressed a belief
that the king would now have weight in the affairs of Europe. ‘Fifty
battalions and fifty squadrons well employed, can cast the balance
which way his Majesty pleases.’ Derby captains now looked to shake
themselves out of mere tavern-life; while spirited young fellows
thought of commissions, and the figure they would cut in new uniforms.
[Sidenote: _THE DUKE OF ORMOND._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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