Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London LifeKirwan, Daniel Joseph
History
Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London Life
Kirwan, Daniel Joseph
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- Social life and customs
The Prince of Wales, despite all the counsels and admonitions of the
Queen (of whom whatever may be said, the merit cannot be denied her of
being a good mother), has, I regret to say, the reputation of being a
very sorry scamp.
His intimates are, generally, the worst and most abandoned roues of the
Clubs, the lowest turf blackguards and swindlers, and when he chooses
a companion who is not a swindler or a blackguard, a debauchee, or a
decoy, he is sure to be a fool.
The young man standing by the side of the Prince of Wales when I
entered the dancing hall, was Charles, Lord Carington, whose mother was
of the great family of d'Eresby, the head of which is Lord Willoughby
d'Eresby, Lord High Chamberlain of England, to whom is entrusted the
duty of looking after the morals of the English people and the sanctity
of the British drama. It is he who gives passes to the House of Lords
on Saturdays, on slips of blue paper which the unwashed are very eager
to obtain; and it is also the duty of the Lord High Chamberlain to
watch every new burlesque when produced, in order that the skirts of
the ballet girls and blondes may be of the proper length, and not too
short for the proprieties.
Lord Carington's grandfather was a rich man named Smith, who was
ennobled for some reason or another, and his large fortune and title
has descended to the present possessor, who is known to be one of the
wildest and most rakehelly young noblemen in London. He is a lieutenant
in the Guards of the Queen's Household Brigade, and one of the boon
companions of the Prince of Wales. The latter is constantly to be found
in company with this "Charley Carington," as he is called, who was the
perpetrator of a most cowardly outrage upon the person of Mr. Grenville
Murray, an aged gentleman who was supposed to be proprietor and editor
of the "Queen's Messenger," a satirical weekly journal, in which Mr.
Murray was said to have written several scathing articles upon the
"Hereditary Legislators" of England. In one of these articles a sketch
was given of Lord Carington, under the title of "Bob Coachington, Lord
Jarvey," in which the practice of driving a mail coach and four horses
to and fro between London and its environs and taking up passengers for
money, a favorite pastime of Lord Carington, was referred to in no very
flattering terms. For this supposed affront, without any positive proof
to warrant the outrage, the gallant Lord Carington, aged 25 years,
set upon Mr. Murray, as he was coming out of the Conservative Club,
of which he was a member, and beat him badly. Mr. Murray is about 60
years of age, and was of course not able to defend himself, and when
he sought justice in the usual way at the Marlborough Street Police
Station, of the magistrate, Mr. Knox, he found the Prince of Wales and
a number of titled ruffians sitting on the bench along side of the
dispenser of justice!
[Sidenote: TWO IMBECILES.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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