Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Taken from Original SourcesAshton, John
History
Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Taken from Original Sources
Ashton, John
Great Britain -- History -- Anne, 1702-1714; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
Steele describes the Don as 'a sage of a thin and meagre countenance;
which aspect made me doubt whether reading or fretting had made it so
philosophic; but I very soon perceived him to be of that sect which
the ancients call _Gingivistæ_; in our language, tooth drawers.'
Besides shaving and tooth drawing, he played on the violin: 'if he
would wholly give himself up to the string, instead of playing twenty
beginnings to tunes, he might, before he dies, play _Roger de
Caubly_[311] quite out. I heard him go through his whole round, and
indeed he does play the "Merry Christ Church Bells"[312] pretty
justly;' and another authority says, 'There was no passing his house,
if he was at home, without having one's ears grated with the sounds of
his fiddle, on which he scraped most execrably.' Steele recommends
some of his curiosities to be taken away, 'or else he may expect to
have his letters patent for making punch superseded, be debarred
wearing his Muff next winter, or ever coming to London without his
wife.' Either of these would have punished Saltero severely, for he
was known out of doors by his old grey muff, which he carried up to
his nose; and Mrs. S. had a temper of her own, to escape which the Don
sometimes slipped off to London by himself. His collection seems to
have dwindled away, for when it was sold in 1799 there were only 121
lots, and the whole seem to have sold for a little over 50_l._
[Footnote 311: See Appendix.]
[Footnote 312: See Appendix.]
Slaughter's Coffee House in St. Martin's Lane afterwards superseded
Old Man's as a military meeting-place, and in the latter half of the
century it was frequented by artists and sculptors. Searle's, or
Serle's, was a legal coffee-house, and was situated at the corner of
Lincoln's Inn Fields. Of Tom's--I have a list of six--perhaps the best
known was that in St. Martin's Lane, where, as we have seen, was one
of the first insurance offices. The Virginia, which was in St.
Michael's Alley, and afterwards in Cornhill, has disappeared within
the last few years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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