Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its PlacesThornbury, Walter
History
Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places
Thornbury, Walter
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
The "Globe Tavern" (No. 134, north), though now only a memory, abounds
with traditions of Goldsmith and his motley friends. The house, in 1649,
was leased to one Henry Hottersall for forty-one years, at the yearly
rent of L75, ten gallons of Canary sack, and L400 fine. Mr. John Forster
gives a delightful sketch of Goldsmith's Wednesday evening club at the
"Globe," in 1767. When not at Johnson's great club, Oliver beguiled his
cares at a shilling rubber club at the "Devil Tavern," or at a humble
gathering in the parlour of the "Bedford," Covent Garden. A hanger-on of
the theatres, who frequented the "Globe," has left notes which Mr.
Forster has admirably used, and which we now abridge without further
apology. Grim old Macklin belonged to the club it is certain; and among
the less obscure members was King, the comedian, the celebrated
impersonator of Lord Ogleby. Hugh Kelly, another member, was a clever
young Irishman, who had chambers near Goldsmith in the Temple. He had
been a stay-maker's apprentice, who, turning law writer, and soon
landing as a hack for the magazines, set up as a satirist for the stage,
and eventually, through Garrick's patronage, succeeded in sentimental
comedy. It was of him Johnson said, "Sir, I never desire to converse
with a man who has written more than he has read." Poor Kelly afterwards
went to the Bar, and died of disappointment and over-work. A third
member was Captain Thompson, a friend of Garrick's, who wrote some good
sea songs and edited "Andrew Marvell;" but foremost among all the boon
companions was a needy Irish doctor named Glover, who had appeared on
the stage, and who was said to have restored to life a man who had been
hung; this Glover, who was famous for his songs and imitations, once had
the impudence, like Theodore Hook, to introduce Goldsmith, during a
summer ramble in Hampstead, to a party where he was an entire stranger,
and to pass himself off as a friend of the host. "Our Dr. Glover," says
Goldsmith, "had a constant levee of his distressed countrymen, whose
wants, as far as he was able, he always relieved." Gordon, the fattest
man in the club, was renowned for his jovial song of "Nottingham Ale;"
and on special occasions Goldsmith himself would sing his favourite
nonsense about the little old woman who was tossed seventeen times
higher than the moon. A fat pork-butcher at the "Globe" used to offend
Goldsmith by constantly shouting out, "Come, Noll, here's my service to
you, old boy." After the success of _The Good-natured Man_, this coarse
familiarity was more than Goldsmith's vanity could bear, so one special
night he addressed the butcher with grave reproof. The stolid man,
taking no notice, replied briskly, "Thankee, Mister Noll." "Well, where
is the advantage of your reproof?" asked Glover. "In truth," said
Goldsmith, good-naturedly, "I give it up; I ought to have known before
that there is no putting a pig in the right way." Sometimes rather cruel
tricks were played on the credulous poet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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