dress of the english without variety.—coal-heavers.—post-men.—art of knocking at the door.—inscriptions over the shops.—exhibitions in the shop-windows.—chimney-sweepers.—may-day.—these sports originally religious.
tuesday, may 4, 1802.
the dress of englishmen wants that variety which renders the figures of our scenery so picturesque. you might think, from walking the streets of london, that there were no ministers of religion in the country; j— smiled at the remark, and told me that some of the dignified clergy wore silk aprons; but these are rarely seen, and they are more generally known by a 138huge and hideous wig, once considered to be as necessary a covering for a learned head as an ivy bush is for an owl, but which even physicians have now discarded, and left only to schoolmasters and doctors in divinity. there is, too, this remarkable difference between the costume of england and of spain, that here the national dress is altogether devoid of grace, and it is only modern fashions which have improved it: in spain, on the contrary, nothing can be more graceful than the dresses both of the clergy and peasantry, which have from time immemorial remained unchanged; while our better ranks clothe themselves in a worse taste, because they imitate the apery of other nations. what i say of their costume applies wholly to that of the men; the dress of english women is perfect, as far as it goes; it leaves nothing to be wished,—except that there should be a little more of it.
the most singular figures in the streets of this metropolis are the men who are employed 139in carrying the earth-coal, which they remove from the barge to the waggon, and again from the waggon to the house, upon their backs. the back of the coat, therefore, is as well quilted as the cotton breastplate of our soldiers in america in old times: and to protect it still more, the broad flap of the hat lies flat upon the shoulders. the head consequently seems to bend unusually forward, and the whole figure has the appearance of having been bowed beneath habitual burthens. the lower classes, with this exception, if they do not wear the cast clothes of the higher ranks, have them in the same form. the post-men all wear the royal livery, which is scarlet and gold; they hurry through the streets, and cross from side to side with indefatigable rapidity. the english doors have knockers instead of bells, and there is an advantage in this which you would not immediately perceive. the bell, by whomsoever it be pulled, must always give the same sound, 140but the knocker may be so handled as to explain who plays upon it, and accordingly it has its systematic set of signals. the post-man comes with two loud and rapid raps, such as no person but himself ever gives. one very loud one marks the news-man. a single knock of less vehemence denotes a servant or other messenger. visitors give three or four. footmen or coachmen always more than their masters; and the master of every family has usually his particular touch, which is immediately recognised.
every shop has an inscription above it expressing the name of its owner, and that of his predecessor, if the business has been so long established as to derive a certain degree of respectability from time. cheap warehouse is sometimes added; and if the tradesman has the honour to serve any one of the royal family, this is also mentioned, and the royal arms in a style of expensive carving are affixed over the door. these inscriptions in large gilt letters, shaped 141with the greatest nicety, form a peculiar feature in the streets of london. in former times all the shops had large signs suspended before them, such as are still used at inns in the country; these have long since disappeared; but in a few instances, where the shop is of such long standing that it is still known by the name of its old insignia, a small picture still preserves the sign, placed instead of one of the window panes.
if i were to pass the remainder of my life in london, i think the shops would always continue to amuse me. something extraordinary or beautiful is for ever to be seen in them. i saw, the other day, a sturgeon, above two varas in length, hanging at a fishmonger’s. in one window you see the most exquisite lamps of alabaster, to shed a pearly light in the bedchamber; or formed of cut glass to glitter like diamonds in the drawing-room; in another, a convex mirror reflects the whole picture of the street, with all its moving 142swarms, or you start from your own face magnified to the proportions of a giant’s. here a painted piece of beef swings in a roaster to exhibit the machine which turns it; here you have a collection of worms from the human intestines, curiously bottled, and every bottle with a label stating to whom the worm belonged, and testifying that the party was relieved from it by virtue of the medicine which is sold within. at one door stands a little scotchman taking snuff,—in one window a little gentleman with his coat puckered up in folds, and the folds filled with water to show that it is proof against wet. here you have cages full of birds of every kind, and on the upper story live peacocks are spreading their fans; another window displays the rarest birds and beasts stuffed, and in glass cases; in another you have every sort of artificial fly for the angler, and another is full of busts painted to the life, with glass eyes, and dressed in full fashion to exhibit the wigs which are made 143within, in the very newest and most approved taste. and thus is there a perpetual exhibition of whatever is curious in nature or art, exquisite in workmanship, or singular in costume; and the display is perpetually varying as the ingenuity of trade, and the absurdity of fashion, are ever producing something new.
yesterday, i was amused by a spectacle which you will think better adapted to wild african negroes than to so refined a people as the english. three or four boys of different ages were dancing in the street; their clothes seemed as if they had been dragged through the chimney, as indeed had been the case, and these sooty habiliments were bedecked with pieces of foil, and with ribbons of all gay colours, flying like streamers in every direction as they whisked round. their sooty faces were reddened with rose-pink, and in the middle of each cheek was a patch of gold leaf, the hair was frizzed out, and as white as powder could make it, and they wore an 144old hat cocked for the occasion, and in like manner ornamented with ribbons, and foil, and flowers. in this array were they dancing through the streets, clapping a wooden plate, frightening the horses by their noise, and still more by their strange appearance, and soliciting money from all whom they met.
the first days of may are the saturnalia of these people,—a wretched class of men, who exist in no other country than england, and it is devoutly to be hoped, for the sake of humanity, will not long continue to exist there. the soot of the earth-coal, which, though formerly used by only the lower classes, is now the fuel of rich and poor alike, accumulates rapidly in the chimneys: and instead of removing it by firing a gun up, or dragging up a bush, as is sometimes practised in the country, and must have been in former times the custom every where, they send men up to sweep it away with a brush. these passages are not unfrequently so crooked and 145so narrow, that none but little children can crawl up them; and you may imagine that cruel threats and cruel usage must both be employed before a child can be forced to ascend places so dark, so frightful, and so dangerous.
no objects can be more deplorable than these poor children. you meet them with a brush in the hand, a bag upon the shoulders, and a sort of woollen cap, or rather bandage swathed round the head; their skin, and all their accoutrements, equally ingrained with soot, every part being black except the white of the eyes and the teeth, which the soot keeps beautifully clean. their way of life produces another more remarkable and more melancholy effect; they are subject to a dangerous species of hydrocele, which is peculiar to them, and is therefore called the chimney-sweeper’s disease.
the festival of these poor people commences on may-day: it was perhaps the day of their patron saint, in times of yore, 146before the whole hierarchy of saints and angels were proscribed in england by the levelling spirit of a diabolical heresy. they go about in parties of four or five, in the grotesque manner which i have described. a more extraordinary figure is sometimes in company, whom they call jack-in-the-bush; as the name indicates, nothing but bush is to be seen, except the feet which dance under it. the man stands in a frame-work, which is supported upon his shoulders, and is completely covered with the boughs of a thick and short-branched shrub: the heat must be intolerable, but he gets paid for his day’s purgatory, and the english will do any thing for money. the savages of virginia had such a personage in one of their religious dances, and indeed the custom is quite in savage taste.
may-day is one of the most general holydays in england. high poles, as tall as the mast of a merchant ship, are erected in every village, and hung with garlands 147composed of all field flowers, but chiefly of one which is called the cowslip: each has its king and queen of the may chosen from among the children of the peasantry, who are tricked out as fantastically as the london chimney-sweepers; but health and cleanliness give them a very different appearance. their table is spread under the may-pole; their playmates beg with a plate, as our children for the little altar which they have drest for their saint upon his festival, and all dance round the pole hand in hand.
without doubt, these sports were once connected with religion. it is the peculiar character of the true religion to sanctify what is innocent, and make even merriment meritorious; and it is as peculiarly the character of calvinism to divest piety of all cheerfulness, and cheerfulness of all piety, as if they could not co-exist; and to introduce a graceless and joyless system of manners suitable to a faith which makes 148the heresy of manes appear reasonable. he admitted that the evil principle was weaker than the good one, but in the mythology of calvin there is no good one to be found.
