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Title: The History of the Catnach Press
       at Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Alnwick and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,
              in Northumberland, and Seven Dials, London

Author: Charles Hindley

Release Date: September 10, 2013 [EBook #43691]

Language: English

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THE HISTORY OF THE CATNACH PRESS

THE
HISTORY OF THE CATNACH PRESS.

LARGE PAPER COPY.

Only Two Hundred and Fifty Printed. Each Copy
numbered and Signed

No. ________

Purchased by

_________________________________________

of

_________________________________________

on the ___________ day of ____________ 18____

THE
HISTORY
OF THE
CATNACH PRESS,
AT
BERWICK-UPON-TWEED,
ALNWICK AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE,
IN NORTHUMBERLAND,
AND
SEVEN DIALS, LONDON.

BY
CHARLES HINDLEY, Esq.,
Editor of “The Old Book Collector’s Miscellany; or, a Collection of Readable Reprints
of Literary Rarities,” “Works of John Taylor—the Water Poet,” “The
Roxburghe Ballads,” “The Catnach Press,” “The Curiosities of
Street Literature,” “The Book of Ready Made Speeches,”
“Life and Times of James Catnach, late of the
Seven Dials, Ballad Monger,” “Tavern
Anecdotes and Sayings,” “A History
of the Cries of London—Ancient
and Modern,” etc.

London:
CHARLES HINDLEY
[The Younger,]
BOOKSELLERS’ ROW, ST. CLEMENT DANES,
STRAND, W.C.
1886.

TO
MR. GEORGE SKELLY,
OF
THE MARKET PLACE,
AND
MR. GEORGE H. THOMPSON,
OF
BAILIFFGATE, ALNWICK,
In the County of
NORTHUMBERLAND,
THE
HISTORY OF THE CATNACH PRESS.

Is most Respectfully Dedicated by
THE AUTHOR

St. James’ Street, Brighton.
Lady Day, 1886.

[Pg v]

[Pg vi]

THE CATNACH PRESS.

——There can be little doubt that Jemmy Catnach, the printer, justly earned the distinction of being one of the great pioneers in the cause of promoting cheap literature—he was for a long time the great Mæcenas and Elzevir of the Seven Dials district. We do not pretend to say that the productions which emanated from his establishment contained much that was likely to enlighten the intellect, or sharpen the taste of the ordinary reader; but, to a great extent, they served well in creating an impetus in the minds of many to soar after things of a higher and more ennobling character. Whilst for the little folk his store was like the conjuror’s bag—inexhaustible. He could cater to the taste and fancies of all, and it is marvellous, even in these days of a cheap press, to look back upon the time when this enterprising man was by a steady course of action, so paving the way for that bright day in the annals of Britain’s history, when every child in the land should be educated.

[Pg vii]

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
OR
A PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

——Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.—Boswell, Life of Johnson.

hat history repeats itself is fairly and fully exemplified by the reproduction of “The Catnach Press,” the first edition of which was published in 1869, and “Guaranteed Only Two Hundred and Fifty Copies Printed.”—Namely: 175 on fine, and 75 on extra-thick paper. Each copy numbered. The outer and descriptive title set forth that the work contained:—

The announcement of the publication of the work was first made known through the medium of the metropolitan press, some few days prior to the copies being delivered by the[Pg viii] book-binders, and so great was the demand of the London and American trade, that every copy was disposed of on the day of issue.

The work is now eagerly sought after by book collectors who indulge in literary rarities.

While engaged in collecting information for “The Catnach Press,” and interviewing the producers of ballads, broadsides and chap-books, we met with a vast assemblage of street-papers and of a very varied character, which we proposed to publish in quarto form under the title of “The Curiosities of Street Literature,” and when in London in 1869, still seeking for information on the subject, met by mere chance in the Strand with the street ballad singer of our youth, one Samuel Milnes, who used between the years of 1835 and 1842 to visit Fetter Lane every Thursday with the newest and most popular ballad of the day. We so often met with him at other times and places in and about London in after years that a peculiar kind of a friendly feeling grew up towards him in preference to all other street ballad singers of the time, so much so that at our meetings—and friendly greetings, we invariably purchased the ballad he was singing, or, gave him a few halfpence as a fee for having detained him from his calling—or shall we say bawling, for to tell the truth, Samuel Milnes was but a very indifferent vocalist.

Time rolled on—“still on it creeps, each little moment at another’s heels”—and we continued to meet our old ballad singer either in London or Brighton. The meeting with him on this particular occasion was most opportune for we wanted him. First we obtained from him “Wait for the Turn of the Tide,” and “Call her back and kiss her,” then the following information:—

Our next adventure—in pursuit of knowledge under difficulties—occured at Brighton in the month of August, 1869, and when we were winding our way through a maze of small streets lying between Richmond and Albion Hills, in the Northern part of the town, our ears voluntarily “pricked up,” on hearing the old familiar sounds of a ‘street, or running patterer’ with the stereotyped sentences of “Horrible.”—“Dreadful.”—“Remarkable letters found on his person.”—“Cut down by a labouring man.”—“Quite dead.”—“Well-known in the town.”—“Hanging.”—“Coroner’s Inquest.”—“Verdict.”—“Full particulars.”—“Most determined suicide.”—“Brutal conduct.”—&c., &c., Only a ha’penny!—Only a ha’penny! Presently we saw the man turn into a wide court-like place, which was designated by the high-sounded name of “Square,” and dedicated to Richmond; hither we followed him, and heard him repeat the same detached sentences, and became a purchaser for—‘only a ha’penny!’ when to our astonishment we discovered a somewhat new phrase in cock or catchpenny selling. Inasmuch as our purchase consisted of the current number (253) of the Brighton Daily News—a very respectable looking and well printed Halfpenny Local Newspaper, and of that day’s publication, and did[Pg xi] in reality contain an account of a most determined suicide of an old and highly respected inhabitant of Brighton and set forth under the heading of:—

The Determined Suicide of an Aged Artist.
Remarkable Letters of Deceased.

Calling the man aside, we ventured upon a conversation with him in the following form:—

Having rewarded the man with a few half-pence to make him some recompense for having detained him during his business progress, we parted company.

While still prosecuting our enquiries for information on the literature of the streets, we often read of, and heard mention made of, a Mr. John Morgan, as one of the “Seven Bards of the[Pg xii] Seven Dials” and his being best able to assist us in the matter we had in hand. The first glimpse we obtained of the Poet! in print was in an article entitled “The Bards of the Seven Dials and their Effusion” and published in “The Town,” of 1839, a weekly journal, conducted by the late Mr. Renton Nicholson, better known as “Baron Nicholson,” of Judge and Jury notoriety:—

Again, the writer of an article on “Street Ballads,” in the “National Review,” for October, 1861, makes the following remarks:—

At every enquiry we made for information in regard to street-literature, we still continued to be referred to Mr. John Morgan as the most likely person living to supply what we needed on the subject.

But the grave question arose in our own minds of the How, When, and Where: could we find out and interview this said Mr. John Morgan, Poet! First we made enquiry at the office of Mr. Taylor, Printer of Ballads, &c., 92 and 93, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, but, they “had not the least idea where we could find him. In fact they had only heard of him as a ballad-writer, and knew nothing about where he lived, never having employed him: had perhaps printed some of his ballads. Thought Mr. Such, of the Borough, might give some information, but, sure to find out all about him in the Seven Dials district.”

Mr. H. Such, Machine Printer and Publisher, 177, Union Street, Borough, S.E., on being applied to could give us no positive information as to the whereabout of Mr. John Morgan—he knew him, but where he lived he could not tell. Mr. Fortey or Mr. Disley, in the Dials-way, would be most likely to know.

Mr. William S. Fortey, (late A. Ryle, successor to the late J. Catnach), Printer, Publisher, and Wholesale Stationer, 2 and 3, Monmouth Court, Seven Dials, London, W., on being applied to could not exactly tell where Mr. John Morgan did live, it was[Pg xvi] somewhere Westminster-way: it was very uncertain when he should next see him, because he did not sometimes call in for weeks together, yet he might by chance see him to-morrow, or the next day. Anyway, we felt that we had no right to press the question any further, more particularly so because Mr. Fortey had been very civil and obliging to us on other occasions—in fact we have been under great and lasting obligations to him, so changed the conversation.

Mr. Henry Disley, Printer, 57, High Street, St. Giles’, London, who we found to be a very genial sort of a man, and that he had formerly been in the service of James Catnach; he was working in his front shop at a small hand-press on some cards relative to a forthcoming Friendly Lead,[1] to be held at a public-house in the immediate neighbourhood, while Mrs. Disley was hard at work colouring some Christmas Carols, and which she did with a rapidity that was somewhat astonishing. In answer to our inquiry whether he knew of one John Morgan—who was—as we described him, “something of a song writer.” Well! both Mr. and Mrs. Disley together—“did know him—should think they did.” But when we came to enquire about his private address they knew nothing about that. He (Mr. Morgan) wrote ballads for them at times: often called on them—whenever he did it was always to sell a good ballad he had on hand, or to tell them what bad times it was with him: but as to where he lived, beyond that it was somewhere Westminster-way, they did not know—in fact, had not the least idea. But, most likely, Mr. Fortey, him in Monmouth Court, did. Yes! come to think of it, he would be sure to know.

[Pg xvii]The very unsatisfactory and evasive answers received in reference to the address of Mr. John Morgan gave a zest to our zeal in the matter—so much so, that we then determined “to work the oracle” out in our way.

At this time we had a near relative occupying chambers in Barnard’s Inn, which we held to be a good central and lawyer-like address—one that had the “true ring,” of business and substantiality about it. Yes! Barnard’s Inn, Holborn, London, E.C., looked to our mind to be likely to serve our stratigical purpose to the point we desired. Having made all the preparatory arrangements, we then procured from a neighbouring stationer’s shop a sheet of mourning note-paper and an envelope of large proportions, each having the very blackest and broadest of black borders we could find in stock. Then we wrote in a law-like hand:—

The above document having been duly intrusted to Her Majesty’s Post Master General for delivery, we had to abide[Pg xviii] our time for the result. We had not to wait long, for although we had appointed the next following Wednesday to communicate “something greatly to the advantage of Mr. John Morgan,” he turned up a little sooner than we expected, or desired, by reason of his putting in an appearance at Barnard’s Inn on Tuesday evening, where he arrived “happy and glorious,” and made earnest enquiries for “the gentleman who had sent him a letter to say he had got a something to his advantage—perhaps a fortune! For sometimes he thought somebody would die and leave him one. Where was the gentleman who wrote him the letter? He says that I am to call here. He sent it in a black-bordered envelope for him. Where is the gentleman? See here is the letter, and all in black—black as your hat—look for yourself, sir.”

All the above was spoken to a friend of ours who lived on the ground-floor at the particular house in Barnard’s Inn, where Mr. John Morgan had been requested to call on Wednesday. It was then only Tuesday, and that fact had to be explained; also, that the gentleman in question was not at present in his chambers on the third-floor, but would be in the morning up to 10 o’clock. Our friend on the first-floor—who had received instructions from us in the event of Mr. John Morgan turning-up while we were not at home—informed us of all that had taken place when we arrived a little later on in the evening.

On the next morning preparations were made for the reception of our expectant friend—a good fire, a good breakfast, and a half-pint of “Old Tom” from Carr’s well-known Establishment, St. Clement Danes, Strand.

Very soon after the old clock of the ancient hall of Barnard’s Inn, and all the public clocks in the surrounding neighbourhood had proclaimed aloud that the hour of 10 a.m. of that Wednesday[Pg xix] morning had arrived, there was heard a knock at the outer door of our chamber-rooms, and on the same being opened, Mr. John Morgan announced himself as the party to whom the gentleman had sent a black-bordered letter and envelope for him to say there was a something to his advantage to be had. Then Mr. John Morgan, full of bows and scrapes, was ushered into our presence.—He was the party who had received the letter. Oh! yes, Mr. Morgan we added: take a seat sir. Yes, sir, and thank you to, he replied, at the same time sitting down and then very carefully despositing his somewhat delapidated hat under—far under—the chair. We then enquired whether he would have anything to eat, or have a cup of coffee. No! it was a little too early in the morning for eating, and coffee did not always agree with him. Or, a drop of good “Old Tom,” we somewhat significantly suggested. Mr. John Morgan would very much like to have a little drop of gin, for it was a nasty raw cold morning: In answer to our enquiry whether he would prefer hot or cold water, elected to have it neat if it made no difference to us.

Mr. John Morgan at our suggestion having “wet the other eye,” i.e., taken the second glass, the real business part of the question we had met upon commenced thus:—“We have been informed that you were acquainted with, and used to write for the late James Catnach, who formerly lived in the Seven Dials, and that you can give us much of the information that we require towards perfecting a work we have in hand treating on Street Literature. If you are willing to do so, we are prepared to treat with you in a liberal manner, and that, please to at once to understand is the ‘Something greatly to your advantage that is mentioned in the note we addressed to you.’” Here Mr. John Morgan hinted that he thought it was—or he had hoped it was, a little fortune some one had been kind enough to leave him, he[Pg xx] always expected that old Jemmy Catnach would—after what he had done for him, have left him a bit, however small, but no such luck.

Mr. Morgan expressed his willingness to give all the information he could on the subject and leave it to our generosity to pay him what we pleased, and adding that he had no doubt that we should not fall out on that score. And so we proceeded, we talked and took notes. Mr. Morgan talked and took gin. Mr. Morgan got warm—warmer and warmer—and very entertaining, his conversational powers increased wonderfully, he became very witty and laughed ha! hah!! he joked and made merry at some old reminiscences in connection with old Jemmy Catnach—and admitted, that after all old Jemmy wasn’t a particular bad sort—that is, when you knew him, and could handle him properly—then old Jemmy was as right as my leg! Still we continued to talk and take notes, still Mr. Morgan talked and took gin, until he emulated the little old woman who sold “Hot Codlings,” for of her it is related that—“the glass she filled and the bottle she shrunk and that this little old woman in the end got——.”

At length it became very manifest that we should not be able to get any more information out of Mr. John Morgan on that day, so proposed for him to call again on the morrow morning and at the same time and place to pursue the thread of our narrative. Then having presented him with a portrait of Her most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, set in gold, we volunteered to see him down stairs which we observed were very crooked—Mr. Morgan thought they were very old and funny ones: up and down like—in fact what old Charley Dibdin would have called regular “whopping old stairs!” Being safely landed from the last stone step on to the stone-paved way, we thought it advisable, for appearance sake, to conduct our friend out of Barnard’s[Pg xxi] Inn by a sideway leading into Fetter-lane. After that it occurred to us that it would perhaps be better to see him to the Fleet-street end of the lane and then to put him into a Westminster omnibus, but we had reached Somerset House before one going that way came in sight. Then it was Mr. John Morgan suddenly recollected that he could not pass his old friend Short—who was Short? why surely you know Short—old Short, him as sells the wine so good and so cheap, there over the way—that’s Short’s—“Wines from the Wood,” that’s out of the cask you know, you remind me to-morrow, sir, and I’ll tell you a good tale about old Short before he made such a lot of money as he has got now.—Capital chap old Short, he knows me—it’s all about a song I wrote—but I’ll tell you all about it to-morrow. Besides I must have change ye know for there’s no one got any at my home—my landlord—There’s no change about him, Oh! dear no—He’s never got any change but he’s always got an old account, do you see? an old account—but no matter let’s go in!

Respectfully, but firmly declining the kind and very pressing invitation to have “only just one drop with old Short.” We left Mr. John Morgan to take care of himself for the day and to be sure to meet us on the next morning in Barnard’s Inn at 10 o’clock—sharp.

At length the wishful morrow came, also ten of the clock, but not so Mr. John Morgan, nor did he call at any hour during the day. But soon after 11 o’clock the next day he made his appearance, but being so stupidly drunk we gave him some money and told him to call again to-morrow. And he did, but still so muddled that we could make nothing out of him, so we somewhat curtly dismissed him and returned to Brighton.

The next day the letter—of which we give a verbatim et literatim copy—was received and then forwarded on to us.

[Pg xxii]

Having no desire to incur the expense of another journey to London in the matter, and believing that we had obtained sufficient information on the subject, we published, in the year 1871, a limited number of copies of our work under the title of:—

 [Pg xxiii]

CURIOSITIES
OF
STREET LITERATURE:
COMPRISING
“COCKS,” OR “CATCHPENNIES,”
A Large and Curious Assortment of
STREET DROLLERIES, SQUIBS, HISTORIES, COMIC STORIES
IN PROSE AND VERSE,
Broadsides on the Royal Family,
POLITICAL LITANIES, DIALOGUES, CATECHISMS, ACTS OF PARLIAMENT,
STREET POLITICAL PAPERS.
A VARIETY OF “BALLADS ON A SUBJECT,”
DYING SPEECHES AND CONFESSIONS,
TO WHICH IS ATTACHED THE ALL-IMPORTANT AND NECESSARY
AFFECTIONATE COPY OF VERSES,
AS

“What hast here? ballads? I love a ballad in print, or a life; for then we are sure
they are true.”—Shakespeare.

“There’s nothing beats a stunning good murder, after all.”—Experiences of a Running Patterer.

LONDON:
REEVES AND TURNER
196, STRAND,
1871.

 [Pg xxiv]

CURIOSITIES OF STREET LITERATURE.

Guaranteed only Four Hundred and Fifty Six Copies Printed,

☞ EACH COPY OF EACH EDITION NUMBERED.

 [Pg xxv]

Our work on the Curiosities of Street Literature soon ran out of print. But we continued to gather from time to time fresh information on the subject of the “Two Catnachs—John and James,” and in the early part of 1876 we determined on publishing a work, to be entitled “The Life and Times of James Catnach—late of Seven Dials—Ballad Monger.” And for the purpose of obtaining the verification, amendment, or denial to the several scraps of information we had obtained, we wrote to our old friend, Mr. John Morgan, on the subject, and from him we received the letters that follow:—

[Pg xxix]

At this date we were through the instrumentality of Mrs. Paul, widow of Mr. James Paul—formerly in the service of Catnach, introduced to Mrs. Elizabeth Benton, the last surviving daughter of John and Mary Catnach. Mr. Benton was assistant treasurer, and box-book keeper to Mr. Alfred Bunn, of Covent Garden and Drury Lane Theatres, Mrs. Benton, at the time being wardrobe-mistress and costumier. At one period Mr. and Mrs. Benton lived[Pg xxxi] with Mr. Bunn in St James’ Place, St. James’ Street, Mrs. Benton acting in the capacity of housekeeper. During several seasons Mr. Benton was also treasurer for the proprietors of Vauxhall Gardens, afterwards he filled the same office for E. T. Smith—Dazzle Smith! at Cremorne Gardens. He died abroad in 1856. The interview we had with Mrs. Benton led up to receiving the two letters that follow:—

 [Pg xxxiii]

It was at this particular date of our history—1876—that we had the good fortune to get acquainted with Mr. George Skelly, of Alnwick—who, like ourselves, is possessed of the cacoethes scribendi, and was at the time supplying, con amore, an article to the Alnwick Journal, entitled “John and James Catnach,” which we found to contain certain information relative to the elder Catnach, and also of the earlier portion of the life of James, of which we had no previous knowledge. At our solicitation to be allowed to make a selection from the same, we received a most courteous and gentlemanly letter, which, in addition to containing several pieces of information and answers to many queries we had put to Mr. Skelly, he wound up by saying:—“You have full liberty to make use of anything that I have written, and it will afford me much pleasure if I can further your intentions in any way.”

From that date, Mr. George Skelly continued to correspond with us on the subject of the “Two Catnachs,” nearly up to the last moment of our going to press with our own “Life and Times of James Catnach,” and to him we are greatly indebted for much of the information therein contained. And it was at his suggestion that we wrote the following letter to the Alnwick Journal—Mr. Skelly at the same time furnishing the local paragraph.

The above letter to the Alnwick Journal was the means of obtaining another valuable correspondent—Mr. George H. Thompson, also of Alnwick, who volunteered his services to aid and assist, to the best of his time and ability, in supplying all the information he possessed or could glean from his friends and acquaintances in the good old borough of Alnwick, or the county at large. And inter alia copied out verbatim from the Parish Register of Baptisms in St. Michael’s Church all the entries in connection with the family of John and Mary Catnach and which will be found in extenso at pages 2-3 of this work.

[Pg xxxv]Mr. George Skelly and Mr. G. H. Thompson are fortunate by their residence in Alnwick in having had the acquaintance and friendship of the late Mr. Mark Smith—James Catnach’s fellow apprentice, Mr. Thomas Robertson, Mr. Tate, the local historian, and several other Alnwick-folk. And they have made the best possible use of the circumstance to supply us with information on the subject of our enquiry.

Recently Mr. Geo. Skelly has forwarded to us an original trade invoice of John Catnach of which we here append a fac-simile copy:—

We have now brought up the history of our pursuit of knowledge to the eve of the publication of the Life and Times of James Catnach—late of Seven Dials, Ballad-monger—which was first announced in 1878 in the manner following.

[Pg xxxvi]

[Pg xxxvii]The Seven Dials!—Jemmy Catnach and Street Literature are, as it were, so inseparably bound together that we now propose to give a short history of the former to enable us to connect our own history with the later:—

The Seven Dials were built for wealthy tenants, and Evelyn, in his Diary, 1694, notes: “I went to see the building near St. Giles’s, where Seven Dials make a star from a Doric pillar placed in the middle of a circular area, in imitation of Venice.” The attempt was not altogether in vain. This part of the parish has ever since “worn its dirt with a difference.” There is an air of shabby gentility about it. The air of the footman or waiting-maid can be recognised through the tatters, which are worn with more assumption than those of their unsophisticated neighbours.

“You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will;
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.”

The Seven Dials are thus described in Gay’s Trivia:—

“Where famed St. Giles’s ancient limits spread,
An in-railed column rears its lofty head;
Here to seven streets, seven dials count their day,
And from each other catch the circling ray;
Here oft the peasant, with inquiring face,
Bewildered, trudges on from place to place;
He dwells on every sign with stupid gaze—
Enters the narrow alley’s doubtful maze—
Tries every winding court and street in vain,
And doubles o’er his weary steps again.”

This column was removed in July, 1773, on the supposition that a considerable sum of money was lodged at the base; but the search was ineffectual.

[Pg xxxviii]Charles Knight, in his “London,” writes thus of Seven Dials:—

Douglas Jerrold in his article on the Ballad Singer, published in “Heads of the People; or Portraits of the English”—1841, writes thus of Seven Dials and its surroundings:—

Charles Dickens, as Boz, long since “sketched” the Seven Dials, and at the same time and place given us his—“Meditations in Monmouth Street”:—

[Pg xli]Several years ago Mr. Albert Smith, who lived at Chertsey, discovered in his neighbourhood part of the Seven Dials—the column doing duty as a monument to a Royal Duchess—when he described the circumstance in a pleasant paper, entitled “Some News of a famous Old Fellow,” in his “Town and Country Magazine.” The communication is as follows:—

[Pg xlii]We are now approaching—“The beginning of the end”—of our history. We were not taken by surprise as we know that “coming events cast their shadows before,” and that:—

Often do the spirits
Of great events stride on before the events,
And in to-day already walks to-morrow.

Therefore we were well prepared to read in the newspapers of October, 1883, the following paragraph:—

All that is fortold in the above has since taken place, Monmouth-court and the house and shop wherein old Jemmy Catnach established the “Catnach Press” in the year 1813 has disappeared to make way for the “New Thoroughfare” from Leicester-square to New Oxford street, and:—

The Catnach Press

removed by Mr. W. S. Fortey—Catnach’s successor—to Great St. Andrew-street, Bloomsbury, W.C.

O tempora! O mores!

Larger Image

Thomas Bewick,

Thomas Bewick died at his house on the Windmill-Hills, Gateshead, November the 8th, 1828, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and on the 13th he was buried in the family burial-place at Ovingham, where his parents, wife, and brother were interred.

[Pg 1]

THE CATNACH PRESS.

In addition to the full title of our work—“The History of the Catnach Press”—the two Catnachs—John and James—father and son, we deem it necessary to incidentally introduce into our pages some notice of Alnwick, an ancient borough, market-town and parish of Northumberland, also a few passing remarks on the life and doings of Mr. William Davison, who, in conjunction with the elder Catnach as a business partner and subsequent successor, employed Thomas Bewick—an English artist, who imparted the first impulse to the art of wood-engraving—for many of their publications.

Of the early life of John Catnach, (Kat-nak), the father, we have little information. He was born in 1769, at Burntisland, a royal burgh and parish of Fifeshire, Scotland, where his father was possessed of some powder-mills. The family afterwards removed to Edinburgh, when their son John was bound apprentice to his uncle, Sandy Robinson, the printer. After having duly served out his indentures, he worked for some short time in Edinburgh, as a journeyman, then started in a small business of his own in Berwick-upon-Tweed, where he married[Pg 2] Mary Hutchinson, who was a native of Dundee, a seaport-town in Scotland. While at Berwick a son and heir, John, was born. In 1790 they removed their business to Alnwick, and during their residence there seven children were born to them and from the Register of Baptisms in St. Michael’s Church we glean that four of them were baptised at one time, viz., September 24, 1797, and there described as “of John Catnach, printer, and Mary his wife: Dissenter.”[?] John Catnach had been brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, and his wife as a Presbyterian. The following is taken verbatim from the Parish Register:—

To the above we have to add that there were two sons—John, born to John and Mary Catnach. John I. who was born at Berwick-upon-Tweed, died August 27, 1794, aged 5 years and 7 months, and we find him duly recorded in the Register of Deaths. John II., whose name appears at the end of the inscription on a tombstone in Alnwick churchyard, and of which further mention will be made in another portion of our work, died, presumably unbaptized, March 5, 1803, aged 4 months.

John Catnach was not long a resident in the borough of Alnwick before he became acquainted with many of the principal tradesmen in the place. Naturally he was of a free-and-easy disposition, and, like many of his kinsman on the Borders, was particularly fond of the social glass. The latter practice he allowed to grow upon him in such a way that it ultimately interfered very much with his business prospects, and finally hastened his death.

The shop that he commenced business in, was situated in Narrowgate-street, and adjoining the old Half-Moon hostelry. In gaining access to the place one had to ascend a flight of steps. Whilst in this shop he secured a fair amount of patronage, and the specimens of printing that emanated from his press are of such a character as to testify to his qualifications and abilities in the trade which he adopted as his calling. He possessed a fond regard for the traditions and customs which for centuries had been so closely associated with the Border country.

[Pg 4]When the printing press was first introduced into Alnwick is not exactly known; but that it was considerably before the time of Catnach is certain. John Vint, the bookseller and author of the “Burradon Ghost,” for several years used a press for printing purposes in the town, and Thomas Lindsay carried on a similar business at a still earlier period.

John Catnach had a great relish for printing such works as would admit of expensive embellishments, which, at the time he commenced business, were exceedingly rare. The taste he displayed in the execution of his work will be best exemplified in examining some of the printed editions of the standard works which emanated from his press; and in no instance is this more characteristically set forth than in those finely printed books which are so beautifully illustrated by the masterly hand of Thomas Bewick and his accomplished and talented pupil, Luke Clennell. Notably among which are:—

1.—“The Beauties of Natural History. Selected from Buffon’s History of Quadrupeds, &c. Alnwick: J. Catnach, [n. d.] Circa 1790, 12mo., pp. 92. With 67 cuts by Bewick.”—Another edition. Published and Sold by the Booksellers. By Wilson and Spence, York, and J. Catnach, printer, Alnwick. (Price 1s. 6d. sewed, or 2s. half-bound.) [n. d.] Circa 1795.

The embellishments of “The Beauties of Natural History” form an unique and valuable collection. They are very small and were done at an exceedingly low price, yet every bird and animal is exquisitely brought out in the minutest detail; whilst many of the illustrations which served as “tail pieces” are gems of art.

2.—“Poems by Percival Stockdale. With cuts by Thomas Bewick. Alnwick: printed by J. Catnach. 1800.”

[Pg 5]3.—“The Hermit of Warkworth. A Northumberland Ballad. In three Fits. By Dr. Thos. Percy, Bishop of Dromore. With Designs by Mr. Craig; and Engraved on Wood by Mr. Bewick. Alnwick: Printed and Sold by J. Catnach. Sold by Lackington, Allen, and Co., London; Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Hodgson, Newcastle. 1806.” The Arms of the Duke of Northumberland precedes the Dedication, thus:—

4.—A Second Edition; of which a few copies were printed on extra thick paper, royal 8vo., to match with some of his other[Pg 6] works, illustrated by Bewick, pp. xiv., 182, with 13 cuts. At the end of the Poem are a Postcript, a Description of the Hermitage of Warkworth, Warkworth Castle, Alnwick Castle, Alnwick Abbey, and A Descriptive Ride in Hulne Park, Alnwick: Printed and Sold by J. Catnach. Sold by Wilson and Spence, York. 1807.

THE HERMIT OF WARKWORTH.

[Pg 7]

[Pg 8]

The illustrations of “The Hermit of Warkworth” are, upon the whole, very creditable, and are well calculated to enhance the value of the book, but as works of art some few of them fall far short of many of Craig or Bewick’s other productions.

John Catnach also printed and published a series of Juvenile Works, as “The Royal Play Book: or, Children’s Friend. A Present for Little Masters and Misses.” “The Death and Burial of Cock Robin, &c. Adorned with Cuts.—Which in many cases were the early productions of Thomas Bewick.—Alnwick: Sold Wholesale and Retail by J. Catnach, at his Toy-Book Manufactory.”

[Pg 9]In the year 1807, John Catnach took an apprentice—a lad named Mark Smith, of whom more anon; a few months afterwards he entered into partnership with a Mr. William Davison, who was a native of Ponteland, in the county of Northumberland, but he duly served his apprenticeship as a chemist and druggist to Mr. Hind, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and for whom he ever cherished a fond regard. The union was not of long duration—certainly under two years—but it is very remarkable that two such men should have been brought together, for experience has shown that they were both morally and socially, the very opposite of each other.

During the partnership: Mr. Davison held his business of chemist, &c., in Bondgate-street; while the printing and publishing continued at Narrowgate-street, and among the works published by the firm of Catnach and Davison we may record:—

“The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genuis. In Two Parts. With some other Poems. By James Beattie, LL.D. With sixteen Cuts from Designs by Mr. Thurston; and engraved on Wood by Mr. Clennel, Alnwick. Printed by Catnach and Davison. Sold by the Booksellers in England and Scotland. 1807. 12mo. and Royal 8vo., pp. 142.”

“The Grave. A Poem. By Robert Blair. To which is added Gray’s Elegy. In a Country Church Yard. With Notes Moral and Explanatory. Alnwick: Printed by Catnach and Davison. Sold by the Booksellers in England, Scotland, and Ireland. 1808. 12mo., pp. xiv., 72. With a frontispiece and other cuts by Thomas Bewick.”

 [Pg 10]

T. Bewick.

THE GRAVE.

[Pg 11]After the dissolution of the strange partnership, Mr. Davison still prosecuted with vigour the several departments of the business; for although reared to the prescribing of physics, he had a fine taste and relish for the book trade, and the short time that he was with Catnach enabled him to acquire a good amount of valuable information on this subject. Be this as it may, he soon laid the basis of a large and lucrative business. About the first work Mr. Davison issued on his own account was:—

The Repository of Select Literature.

Being an Elegant Assemblage of Curious, Scarce, Entertaining and Instructive Pieces in Prose and Verse. Adorned with beautiful Engravings by Bewick, &c. Alnwick: Printed by W. Davison. Sold by the Booksellers in England and Scotland. 1808.

[Pg 12]This work is a fine specimen of provincial book-printing; its pages are adorned with some of Bewick’s excellent cuts. There is one that we would particularly refer to, and that is “Shepherd Lubin.” In size it is very small, but, like most of Bewick’s pieces, sufficiently large to show the inimitable skill of the artist. The picture tells its own tale:—

“Young Lubin was a shepherd’s boy,
Who watched a rigid master’s sheep,
And many a night was heard to sigh,
And may a day was seen to weep.”

And for whole days would wander in those places she had been used to walk with Henry.

“The History of Crazy Jane, by Sarah Wilkinson, with a frontispiece by Bewick: Alnwick. Printed by W. Davison; and Sold by all the Principal Booksellers in England and Scotland. 1813.”

[Pg 13]

“Willie Brew’d a Peck o’Maut.”

“The Poetical Works of Robert Burns. Engravings on Wood by Bewick, from designs by Thurston. Alnwick: Printed by Catnach and Davison, 1808.” And London: Printed for T. Cadell and Davis, Strand, 1814. With cuts previously used in Davison’s publications.

“Many of the engravings produced for Burns’ Poems, are of a very superior class, and cannot be too highly commended.”—Hugo.

[Pg 14]

“Sandie and Willie.”

“The Poetical Works of Robert Ferguson, with his Life. Engravings on Wood by Bewick. Alnwick: Printed by W. Davison.”

Mr. Davison, following up the actions of his former partner, had a great regard for the standard poets. Previous to the issuing of the poems of Ferguson they had tried to imbue a better taste into the minds of the general reader, by means of publishing nothing but what was of an elevating character. And this will be seen by examining such works as Buffon, Beattie, Percy, Burns, &c. Almost simultaneously with the poems of Burns appeared those of Ferguson. Both works are uniform in size and price—viz: 2 vols., Foolscap 8vo.—12s. in boards; they contain some of Bewick’s choicest and most exquisite wood-engravings.

[Pg 15]“The Northumberland Minstrel: A Choice Selection of Songs. Alnwick: Printed by W. Davison.”

There were only three numbers of this work published,[4] each of which contained 48 pages. The object of this undertaking was for the carrying out a project which at that time was becoming very popular, and consisted in bringing together in a collected form some of the best and most admired of our ballad-poetry. In fact, the object Mr. Davison had in view was only to extend what had been so successfully accomplished by Herd, Ramsay, Motherwell, Ritson, and others.

Mr. Davison continued in business at Alnwick up to the time of his death, in 1858, at the ripe age of 77. He was by far the most enterprising printer that had settled in the North of England. His collection of wood blocks was very large, and it is hardly possible to form an adequate conception of the many hundreds of beautiful specimens which he possessed. He stated that he had paid Thomas Bewick upwards of five hundred pounds for various woodcut blocks. With a view of disposing of some of his surplus stock, he printed and published in 4to., a catalogue:—“New Specimens of Cast-Metal Ornaments and Wood Types, Sold by W. Davison. Alnwick. With impressions of 1,100 Cast Ornaments and Wood Blocks, many of the latter executed by Thomas Bewick.” This Catalogue—now exceedingly rare—is of the greatest interest and utility, as it embraces a series of cuts dispersed, as Mr. Hugo plainly shows, among a considerable number of publications, and enables those who collect Bewick’s pieces to detect the hand of the Artist in many of his less elaborated productions.

[Pg 16]Those of our readers who desire more information as to the many books printed by W. Davison, the Alnwick publisher, are referred to “The Bewick Collector,” and the Supplement thereto, by the Rev. Thomas Hugo, M.A., &c. London: 1866-68. These volumes, illustrated by upwards of two hundred and ninety cuts, comprise an elaborate descriptive list of the most complete collection yet formed of the works of the renowned wood-engravers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Not only to Bewick collectors, but to all persons interested in the progress of Art, and especially of wood-engraving, these volumes, exhibiting chronologically the works of the Fathers of that Art in England, cannot fail to be of the highest interest.

Mr. Davison printed and published a series of Halfpenny Books; they are not only well printed, but in addition to this it is not unusual to see them illustrated by some of Thomas Bewick’s choicest engravings. Mr. Hugo possessed twenty-seven in number, the titles of which he enumerates in his “Bewick Collector” and the Supplement thereto: adding the remarks that follow:—

Herewith we publish one of the series from our own private collection. The justness of Mr. Hugo’s opinion will be at once seen.

[Pg 17]

 [Pg 18]

2

 [Pg 19]

3

THE

GUESS BOOK.

THE MOON.

 [Pg 20]

4

Guess Book.

A CAT.

 [Pg 21]

5

Guess Book.

A CANNON.

 [Pg 22]

6

Guess Book.

AN OWL.

 [Pg 23]

7

Guess Book.

A TOP.

 [Pg 24]

8

Guess Book.

BOOKS.

 [Pg 25]

9

Guess Book.

A DRUM.

 [Pg 26]

10

Guess Book.

A SAND-GLASS.

 [Pg 27]

11

Guess Book.

TIME.

 [Pg 28]

12

Guess Book.

DEATH.

 [Pg 29]

13

Guess Book.

A PAIR OF SHOES.

 [Pg 30]

14

Guess Book.

A SQUIRREL.

 [Pg 31]

15

Guess Book.

A FISH.

 [Pg 32]

[Pg 33]

AT

Newcastle.

In or about the latter part of the year 1808, John Catnach, with his wife and family, left Alnwick for Newcastle-upon-Tyne,[Pg 34] and commenced business in a small shop in Newgate-street, and among other Works which he printed there, mention may be made of “The Battle of Chevy Chase,” a selection from the works of “Dr. Samuel Johnson, in two volumes,” and “The Life of John Thompson, Mariner. Written by Himself: Also, his Divine Selections, in Prose and Verse. From esteemed Authors. Embellished with steel Engravings. Newcastle: Printed for the Author. By J. Catnach, Newgate-street. 1810. 12mo., pp. lxxvi., 214. With two tail-pieces by Thomas Bewick.”

John Thompson, alias Godfried Thomas Leschinsky, born at Riga, 1782, was a seaman. He sailed with Nelson’s fleet to Copenhagen, 1801. Continuing at sea he endured many hardships from severe accidents and ill health, and was at length discharged as not being fit for his Majesty’s service. In 1806, while in the Infirmary at Newcastle, one of his legs—from old injuries, rapidly mortified and had to be amputated. Subsequently, in consequence of the bones and joints of his right hand decaying, his arm was taken off below the elbow. He for years made a living out of his misfortunes and assumed piety. Catnach was induced, by specious reasoning, to undertake the printing of the book, but the eleemosynary author dying just as it was all worked off but not bound, he had the whole of the stock thrown on his hands to do the best he could with. There were between fifty and sixty claims set up by persons who averred that they had in part, or whole, paid for a copy each to the author on signing his subscription list, and most of these claims were allowed on the payment of sixpence extra: the work was subscribed for at 3s. 6d., but being extended to 20 pages more than was expected, the price was advanced to 4s.

[Pg 35]John Catnach, at Newcastle, worked attentively for awhile, but without finding his expectations realised. Alas! time and the change of scene and companions had not improved the man. He contrived to get into a great amount of debt, without the least possible chance, from his irregular mode of living, of being able to pay it off. Eventually, he made up his mind for the worst, and the downward course would seem to have been the only way open to him. From bad to worse, and from one extreme to the other, he rapidly drifted. The loose and irregular manner in which he had existed was beginning to tell upon his constitution. His business had been neglected, and his adventures were nearly at a climax. The wreck came, with a terrific blow; but it was not unlooked for. Poor Catnach was a bankrupt, and as such sent to the debtor’s gaol. But just before, he had managed to send his wife and daughters to London, together with a wooden printing press, some small quantity of type, and other articles of his trade that could be hurriedly and clandestinely got together.

During the five years’ residence of John and Mary Catnach in Newcastle, they had one child, Isabella, burned to death, and another, Julia Dalton, born to them.

Mr. Mark Smith, who had been bound apprentice to John Catnach, but by reason of whose removal from the Borough of Alnwick, the indentures had been rendered void, was then in London, serving out his time as a turnover and improver with Mr. John Walker, of Paternoster Row, and on being made acquainted with the arrival of Mrs. Catnach and her family, paid them a visit at their lodgings in a court leading off Drury-lane, and assisted in putting up the press and arranging the other few matters and utensils in connection with their tiny[Pg 36] printing office, there to await John Catnach’s release from prison and arrival in the metropolis.

London life to John Catnach proved very disastrous, matters never went smoothly with him. It was evident to all his friends that he had made a great mistake in leaving the North of England. Mr. Mark Smith continued to visit the family as opportunities presented themselves. On one occasion he found them in extremely distressed circumstances, so much so, that he had to afford them some temporary relief from his slender earnings and then left the northern sojourners for the night, promising that he would return to see them at an early date. Anxious to learn how they were succeeding in the crowded metropolis, it was not many days before he again visited them, but this time he found them in a sorry plight; the landlady had distrained upon their all for arrears of rent. This was an awkward predicament; but the indomitable young Northumbrian, like the more burly Dr. Johnson of old, when his friend Oliver Goldsmith was similarly situated, resolved to do all he could to rescue him from the peril in which he was placed. Not being prepared for a case of such pressing emergency, the full debt and costs being demanded, he was compelled to borrow the required amount of Mr. Matthew Willoughby, a native and freeman of the Borough of Alnwick, then residing in London, and once more his old master was free.

John Catnach then removed his business to a front shop in Soho, when, in the absence of work of a higher class, he had to resort to printing quarter-sheet ballads, here is the title and imprint of one example:—

[Pg 37]

Tom Starboard and Faithful Nancy.

London.—Printed by J. Catnach, and Sold Wholesale and Retail at No. 60, Wardour-street, Soho-square.

For his wife and family he took apartments in Charlotte Street, Fitzroy-square. Again he shortly removed his business to Gerrard-street, where he had hardly got his plant into working order, when on returning home on the evening of the 29th of August, 1813, he had the misfortune to fall down and injure his leg. He was immediately taken to St. George’s Hospital, Hyde-park Corner, when rheumatic fever supervened, and although placed under the skilful treatment of Dr. Young, he never rallied, his constitution being completely broken, but by means of superior medical treatment and good nursing he lingered until the 4th of December in the same year, on which day he died.

[Pg 38]Such is a brief résumé of the latter years of John Catnach’s life. It is apparent that, by a little application and self-denial, this man might have made for himself a name and position in the world. He possessed all the necessary talents for bringing success within his reach. The ground which he took is the same which in after years proved to be of inestimable value to hundreds of publishers who never possessed half the amount of ability and good taste in printing and embellishing books that was centred in him.

After his death, and just at the time when his widow and daughters were sunk in the greatest poverty, his son James, who in after years became so noted in street literature publications, made his way to the metropolis. It appears that this extraordinary man at one time contemplated devoting his life to rural pursuits; in fact, when a youth he served for some time as a shepherd boy, quite contrary to the wish and desire of his parents. Every opportunity he could get he would run away, far across the moors and over the Northumbrian mountains, and, always accompanied with his favourite dog Venus, and a common-place book, in which he jotted down in rhymes and chymes his notions of a pastoral life.[5] Thus he would stay away from home for days and nights together.

[Pg 39]This project, however, was abandoned, and he commenced to serve as a printer in the employment of his father. It is rather remarkable that he and Mr. Mark Smith

were both bound on the same day as apprentices to Mr. John Catnach, and that they afterwards worked together as “improvers” in their trade with:—

Joseph Graham, Printer, Alnwick.

Mr. Hugo, in the Supplement to his “Bewick Collector,” pp. 256 (5137), says:—“This very beautiful Cut was done by Thomas Bewick, sometime about the year 1794, for a well-known Alnwick printer.”

[Pg 40]

At the time James—or, as he afterwards was popularly called “Jemmy,” or, “Old Jemmy” Catnach commenced business in Seven Dials it took all the prudence and tact which he could command to maintain his position, as at that time “Johnny” Pitts,[6] of the Toy and Marble Warehouse, No. 6, Great St. Andrew street, was the acknowledged and established printer of street literature for the “Dials” district; therefore, as may be easily imagined, a powerful rivalry and vindictive jealousy soon arose between these “two of a trade”—most especially on the part of “Old Mother” Pitts, who is described as being a coarse and vulgar-minded personage, and as having originally followed the trade of a bumboat woman at Portsmouth: she “wowed wengeance” against the young fellow in the court for daring to set up in their business, and also spoke of him as a young “Catsnatch,” “Catblock,” “Cut-throat,” and many other opprobrious terms which were freely given to the new comer. Pitts’ staff of “bards” were duly cautioned of the consequences which would inevitably follow should they dare to write a line for Catnach—the new cove up the court. The injunction was for a time obeyed, but the “Seven Bards of the Seven Dials” soon found it not only convenient, but also more profitable to sell[Pg 41] copies of their effusions to both sides at the same time, and by keeping their own counsel they avoided detection, as each printer accused the other of obtaining an early sold copy, and then reprinting it with the utmost speed, which was in reality often the case, as “Both Houses” had emissaries on the constant look-out for any new production suitable for street-sale. Now, although this style of “double dealing” and competition tended much to lessen the cost price to the “middle-man” or vendor, the public in this case did not get any of the reduction, as a penny broadside was still a penny, and a quarter-sheet still a halfpenny to them, the “street-patterer” obtaining the whole of the reduction as extra profit.

The feud existing between these rival publishers, who have been somewhat aptly designated as the Colburn and Bentley of the “paper” trade, never abated, but, on the contrary, increased in acrimony of temper, until at last not being content to vilify each other by “Words! words!! words!!!” alone, they resorted to printing off virulent lampoons, in which Catnach never failed to let the world know that “Old Mother Pitts” had been formerly a bumboat woman, while the Pitt’s party announced that:—

“All the boys and girls around,
Who go out prigging rags and phials,
Know Jemmy Catsnatch!!! well,
Who lives in a back slum in the Dials.
He hangs out in Monmouth Court,
And wears a pair of blue-black breeches,
Where all the “Polly Cox’s crew” do resort
To chop their swag for badly printed Dying Speeches.”

But however, in spite of all the opposition and trade rivalry, Catnach persevered; he worked hard, and lived hard, and was[Pg 42] fitted to the stirring times. The Peninsular wars had just concluded, politics and party strife ran high, squibs, lampoons, and political ballads were the order of the day, and he made money. But he had weighty pecuniary family matters to bear up with, as thus early in his career, his father’s sister also joined them, and they all lived and huddled together in the shop and parlour of No. 2, Monmouth-court. He did a small and very humble trade as a jobbing master, printing and publishing penny histories, street-papers, and halfpenny songs, relying for their composition on one or two out of the known “Seven Bards of the Seven Dials,” and when they were on the drink, or otherwise not inclined to work, being driven to write and invent them himself.

The customers who frequented his place of business were for the most part of the lowest grades of society:—those who by folly, intemperance, and crime, had been reduced to the greatest penury. Anyone with a few coppers in his pockets could easily knock out an existence, especially when anything sensational was in the wind.

The great excitement throughout the country caused by the melancholy death of the Princess Charlotte, on the sixth day of November, 1817, was an event of no ordinary description. It was, indeed, a most unexpected blow, the shining virtues, as well as the youth and beauty of the deceased, excited an amount of affectionate commiseration, such as probably had never before attended the death of any royal personage in England.

The Seven Dials Press was busily engaged in working off “papers” descriptive of every fact that could be gleaned from the newspapers, and that was suitable for street sale. Catnach was not behind his compeers, as he published several statements[Pg 43] in respect to the Princess’s death, and made the following lines out of his own head! And had, continued our informant—a professional street-ballad writer—“wood enough left for as many more”:—

“She is gone! sweet Charlotte’s gone!
Gone to the silent bourne;
She is gone, She’s gone, for evermore,—
She never can return.

She is gone with her joy—her darling Boy,
The son of Leopold, blythe and keen;
She Died the sixth of November,
Eighteen hundred and seventeen.”

The year 1818, proved a disastrous one to Catnach, as in addition to the extra burden entailed on him in family matters, he had, in the way of his trade, printed a street-paper reflecting on the private character and on the materials used in the manufacture of the sausages as sold by the pork butchers of the Drury-lane quarter in general, and particularly by Mr. Pizzey, a tradesman carrying on business in Blackmore-street, Clare-market, who caused him to be summoned to the Bow-street Police Court to answer the charge of malicious libel, when he was committed to take his trial at the next Clerkenwell Sessions, by Sir Richard Burnie, where he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in the House of Correction, at Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex.

During Catnach’s incarceration his mother and sisters, aided by one of the Seven Dials bards, carried on the business, writing and printing off all the squibs and street ballads that were required. In the meanwhile the Johnny Pitts’ crew printed several lampoons on “Jemmy Catnach.” Subjoined is a[Pg 44] portion of one of them that has reached us, vivâ voce, of the aforesaid—John Morgan—professional street-ballad writer:—

“Jemmy Catnach printed a quarter sheet—
It was called in lanes and passages,
That Pizzy the butcher, had dead bodies chopped,
And made them into sausages.

“Poor Pizzey was in an awful mess,
And looked the colour of cinders—
A crowd assembled from far and near,
And they smashed in all his windows.

“Now Jemmy Catnach’s gone to prison,
And what’s he gone to prison for?
For printing a libel against Mr. Pizzey,
Which was sung from door to door.

“Six months in quod old Jemmy’s got,
Because he a shocking tale had started,
About Mr. Pizzey who dealt in sausages
In Blackmore-street, Clare-market.”

Misfortunes are said never to come singly, and so it proved to the Catnach family, for while Jemmy was doing his six months in the House of Correction at Clerkenwell, we find in the pages of the Weekly Dispatch for January 3, 1819, and under Police Intelligence, as follows:—

The busy year of 1820 was a very important one to Catnach, in fact the turning point in his life. The Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III., and father to Queen Victoria, died on the 23rd of January—the event was of sufficient consequence to produce several “Full Particulars,” for street sale. Just six days after his death, viz., on the 29th of January, 1820, George III. died, and that event set the “Catnach Press” going night and day to supply the street papers, containing “Latest particulars,” &c.

“Mourn, Britons mourn! Your sons deplore,
Our Royal Sovereign is now no more,”

was the commencement of a ballad written, printed, and published by J. Catnach, 2, Monmouth-court, 7 Dials. Battledores, Lotteries, and Primers sold cheap. Sold by Marshall, Bristol, and Hook, Brighton.

The royal body was committed to the family vault in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, on the 16th of February, amidst a concourse of the great and the noble of the land. The usual ceremony of proclamation and salutation announced the accession of George IV. and another important era commenced.

Immediately following these events came the Cato-street conspiracy. On the 24th of February the newspapers contained[Pg 46] the startling intelligence that, on the previous evening, a party of eleven men, headed by Arthur Thistlewood, who was already known as a political agitator, had been apprehended at a stable in Cato-street, an obscure place in the locality of Grosvenor-square, on the charge of being the parties to a conspiracy to assassinate the greater part of the King’s Ministers. The truth of the intelligence was soon confirmed by the proceedings which took place before the magisterial authorities; and in due course all the parties were put on their trial at the Old Bailey, on a charge of high treason, Arthur Thistlewood, the leader, being the first tried on the 17th of April; the Lord Chief Justice Abbott presiding. The names of the other prisoners were—William Davidson, a man of colour; James Ings, John Thomas Brunt, Richard Tidd, James William Wilson, John Harrison, Richard Bradburn, James Shaw Strange, and Charles Cooper, of whom the first four, together with Thistlewood, were executed as traitors on May 1st.

The Cato-street conspiracy proved a rich harvest to all concerned in the production of street literature. Catnach came in for a fair share of the work, and he found himself with plenty of cash in hand, and in good time to increase his trade-plant to meet the great demand for the street-papers that were in a few months to be published daily, and in reference to the ever-memorable trial of Queen Caroline; then it was that his business so enormously increased as at times to require three or four presses going night and day to keep pace with the great demand for papers, which contained a very much abridged account of the previous day’s evidence, and taken without the least acknowledgment from an early procured copy of one of the daily newspapers.

[Pg 47]Great as was the demand, the printers of street literature were equal to the occasion, and all were actively engaged in getting out “papers,” squibs, lists of various trade deputations to the Queen’s levées, lampoons and songs, that were almost hourly published, on the subject of the Queen’s trial. The following is a selection from one which emanated from the “Catnach Press,” and was supplied to us by John Morgan, the Seven Dials bard, and who added that he had the good luck—the times being prosperous—to screw out half-a-crown from Old Jemmy for the writing of it. “Ah! sir,” he continued, “it was always a hard matter to get much out of Jemmy Catnach, I can tell you, sir. He was, at most times, a hard-fisted one, and no mistake about it. Yet, sir, somehow or another, he warn’t such a bad sort, just where he took. A little bit rough and ready, like, you know, sir. But yet still a ‘nipper.’ That’s just about the size of Jemmy Catnach, sir. I wish I could recollect more of the song, but you’ve got the marrow of it, sir:—

‘And when the Queen arrived in town,
The people called her good, sirs;
She had a Brougham by her side,
A Denman, and a Wood, sirs.

‘The people all protected her,
They ran from far and near, sirs,
Till they reached the house of Squire Byng,
Which was in St. James’s-square, sirs.

‘And there my blooming Caroline,
About her made a fuss, man,
And told how she had been deceived
By a cruel, barbarous, husband.’”

Street papers continued to be printed and sold in connection with Queen Caroline’s trial up to the date of her death, in the month of August, 1821.

 [Pg 48]

A Copy of Verses in Praise of Queen Caroline.

J. Catnach, Printer, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials.

Immediately following the Queen’s death, there were published a whole host of monodies, elegies, and ballads in her praise. Catnach made a great hit with one entitled—“Oh! Britons Remember your Queen’s Happy Days,” together with a large broadside, entitled “An Attempt to Exhibit the Leading Events in the Queen’s Life, in Cuts and Verse. Adorned with Twelve splendid Illustrations. Interspersed with Verses of Descriptive Poetry. Entered at Stationers’ Hall. By Jas. Catnach, Printer, 7 Dials. Price 2d.” A copy is preserved in the British Museum. Press Mark. Tab. 597, a, 1-67, and arranged under Catnach, from which we select two pieces as a fair sample of Jemmy’s “poetry-making!”—Which please to read carefully, and “Mind Your Stops!” quoth John Berkshire.[Pg 50]

An Elegy on the Death of the Queen.

 [Pg 51]

CAROLINE

THE INJURED

QUEEN

OF ENGLAND.

 [Pg 52]

In the early part of the year 1821, the British public were informed through the then existing usual advertising mediums that there was about to be published, in monthly parts, “Pierce Egan’s Life in London; or, the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis. Embellished with Scenes from Real Life, designed and etched by I. R. and G. Cruikshank, and enriched with numerous original designs on wood by the same Artists.”

And on the 15th of July, the first number, price one shilling, was published by Messrs. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, of Paternoster Row. This sample, or first instalment, of the entire work was quite enough for society to judge by. It took both town and country by storm. It was found to be the exact thing in literature that the readers of those days wanted. Edition after edition was called for—and supplied, as fast as the illustrations could be got away from the small army of women and children who were colouring them. With the appearance of numbers two and three, the demand increased, and a revolution in our literature, in our drama, and even in our nomenclature began to develope itself. All the announcements from Paternoster Row were of books, great and small, depicting life in London; dramatists at once turned their attention to the same subject, and tailors, bootmakers, and hatters, recommended nothing but Corinthian shapes, and Tom and Jerry patterns.[7]

 [Pg 53]

Tom and Jerry.

As may be readily conceived; the stage soon claimed “Tom and Jerry.” The first drama founded upon the work was from the pen of Mr. Barrymore, and produced—“in hot haste,” at the Royal Amphitheatre, on Monday, Sept. 17, 1821. The second dramatic version was written for the Olympic Theatre, by Charles Dibden, and first played on Monday, Nov. 12, 1821.

Mr. Moncrieff appeared as the third on the list of dramatists, and it was announced at the Adelphi Theatre in the following style:—“On Monday, Nov. 26th, 1821, will be presented for the first time, on a scale of unprecedented extent (having been many weeks in preparation under the superintendence of several of the most celebrated Artists, both in the Ups and Downs of Life, who have all kindly come forward to assist the Proprietors in their endeavours to render the Piece a complete out-and-outer), an entirely new Classic, Comic, Operatic, Didactic, Aristophanic, Localic, Analytic, Panoramic,[Pg 54] Camera-Obscura-ic Extravaganza-Burletta of Fun, Frolic, Fashion and Flash, in three acts, called ‘Tom and Jerry; or Life in London.’ Replete with Prime Chaunts, Rum Glees, and Kiddy Catches, founded on Pierce Egan’s well-known and highly popular work of the same name, by a celebrated extravagant erratic Author. The music selected and modified by him from the most eminent composers, ancient and modern, and every Air furnished with an attendant train of Graces. The costumes and scenery superintended by Mr. I. R. Cruikshank, from the Drawings by himself and his brother, Mr. George Cruikshank, the celebrated Artists of the original Work.

“Corinthian Tom, Mr. Wrench; Jerry Hawthorn, Mr. John Reeve; Logic, Mr. Wilkinson; Jemmy Green, Mr. Keeley; Dusty Bob, Mr. Walbourn; African Sal, Mr. Sanders; Billy Waters, Mr. Paulo; Kate, Mrs. Baker; Sue, Mrs. Waylett, &c., &c.

Black Sal and Dusty Bob.

[Pg 55]Besides the authors already mentioned, Tom Dibden, Farrell, and Douglas Jerrold, each produced dramas upon the popular theme, and during the seasons of 1821-2, “Life in London” was performed with éclat, at ten theatres in and around the metropolis, to overflowing houses. But Pierce Egan at length became tired of the successes of the playwrights in using his book, and resolved to try his own hand at a dramatic version—or, as he termed it, to “take a leaf out of his own book,”—and the Author’s Piece was “got up” and performed for the first time at Sadler’s Wells, under the management of Mr. Egerton, on Monday, April 8, 1822, with most decided success.

It was thus announced by Mrs. Egerton, in the address written for the occasion by T. Greenwood, Esq.:—

“To-night my friends, this modern taste to meet,
We show you Jerry at his country seat:
Then up to town transport the rustic beau,
And show him ‘Life in London,’ HIGH and LOW.”

At length Tom and Jerry had been repeated so often in the Metropolis, that the performers, notwithstanding the great applause they nightly received in the above piece, absolutely became tired and worn-out with the repetition of their characters, when the following piece of satire, written by T. Greenwood, Esq., was published, entitled, “The Tears of Pierce Egan, Esq., for the Death of ‘Life in London;’ or, the Funeral of Tom and Jerry, dedicated to Robert and George Cruikshank, Esqs. Price Two Shillings, with an engraving by George Cruikshank.”

“Beat out of the Pit and thrown over the Ropes,
Tom and Jerry resign’d their last breath,
With them, too, expired the Managers’ hopes,
Who are left to deplore their sad death!
[Pg 56]
“Odd and various reports of the cause are about,
But the real one was this, I opine:
They were run to a standstill, and, therefore, no doubt,
That the cause was a rapid decline.

“When Death showed his Nob, out of Time they were beat,
And neither would come to the scratch;
They hung down their heads and gave up the last heat,
Not prepared with the Spectre to match.

“All wept at the Funeral! the Fancy and all—
Some new, but a great many mended:
And Egan, while Cruikshank and Bob held the pall,
As Chief-Mourner in person attended!!!

“Their Sprees and their Rambles no more shall amuse,
Farewell to all nocturnal parleys:
The Town felt regret as the bell tolled the news,
And no one rejoiced—but the Charleys!

“A monument, too, their kind Patrons will raise,
Inscribed on—‘Here lies TOM and JERRY,
Who, departing the stage to their immortal praise,
ONE THOUSAND NIGHTS made the Town Merry!!!’

“May their souls rest in peace, since they’ve chosen to flit,
Like other great heroes departed;
May no mischief arise from the sudden exit,
Nor Pierce Egan die—broken-hearted!”

In reference to the above, Pierce Egan states in “The Finish to the Adventures of Tom, Jerry, and Logic,” that Catnach, in less than twelve hours after the publication, produced a pirated edition for street sale, for twopence.

Mr. Pierce Egan, in his “Finish,” states that he reckoned no less than sixty-five separate publications, which he enumerates in extenso, all derived from his own work, and adds, with his usual amount of large and small Capitals and italics—“We[Pg 57] have been pirated, COPIED, traduced; but unfortunately, not ENRICHED by our indefatigable exertions; therefore NOTORIETY must satisfy us, instead of the smiles of FORTUNE.”

Jemmy Catnach, true to his line of life, soon joined what Pierce Egan designates as the “Mob of Literary Pirates,” and brought out a “whole sheet” for street-sale, entitled “Life in London,” with twelve woodcuts, which are reduced and very roughly executed copies of the centre figures of the original plates by the Brothers Cruikshank—but all in reverse. The letter-press matter consists of a poetical epitome of the plot and design of the original work of “Life in London.” And taking it as it stands, and from whence it emanated, rather a creditable performance, particularly when we take into consideration—as duly announced by the street-patterer, that it was “Just printed and pub—lish—ed, all for the low charge of twopence.”

On the rarity of this Catnachian and pirated edition of “Life in London” it is superfluous to enlarge, and it is easy to account for this circumstance, if we reflect that the broadside form of publication is by no means calculated for preservation; hundreds of similar pieces printed for street-sale must have perished. The more generally acceptable a broadside or street ballad became, and was handed about for perusal, the more it was exposed to the danger of destruction. No copy of Catnach’s version is preserved in the British Museum, therefore, and for the reason above stated, it must be considered as a great “Literary Rarity.”[8]

 [Pg 58]

CUT I.—Jerry in Training for a Swell.

CUT II.—Tom and Jerry among the Ladies.

 [Pg 59]

CUT III.—Jerry Loses at Play.

CUT IV.—Jerry Learning to Spar.

 [Pg 60]

CUT V.—Tom and Jerry at a Fortune-Teller’s.

CUT VI.—Beggar’s Opera. Tom, Jerry, and Logick among the Cadgers in the Holy Land.

 [Pg 61]

CUT VII.—Night Scene.—Tom and Jerry upsetting the Charleys.

CUT VIII.—Brought before the Magistrates.

 [Pg 62]

CUT IX.—Tom, Jerry, and Logick in a Row.

CUT X.—Scene in a Gin-shop.

 [Pg 63]

CUT XI.—Poor Logick in the Fleet.

CUT XII.—Jerry Going Back to the Country.

[Pg 64]How delightful Pierce Egan’s book was to the youths of England, and how eagerly all its promised feasts of pleasure were devoured by them, Thackeray has told us in his “Roundabout Papers—De Juventute” in the “Cornhill Magazine” for October, 1860.

Mr., afterwards Sir William Cubitt, of Ipswich, erected a treadmill at Brixton Gaol, and soon afterwards in other large prisons. A street ballad on the subject was issued from the “Catnach Press” and had a most unprecedented sale, keeping the pressmen and boys working for weeks—

“And we’re all treading at fam’d Brixton Mill.”

The treadmill—that “terror to evil doers”—excited much attention, and the inventor’s name gave rise to many jokes on the subject among such of the prisoners as could laugh at their own crimes, who said they were punished by the cubit!.

The Treadmill.

 [Pg 65]

“The gallows does well: But how does it well? it does well to those that do ill.”—Hamlet, Act v., sc. i.

There can be little doubt that Jemmy Catnach, the great publisher of the Seven Dials, had his mind mostly centred upon the chronicling of doubtful scandals, fabulous duels between ladies of fashion, “cooked” assassinations, and sudden deaths of eminent individuals, apochryphal elopements, real or catch-penny account of murders, impossible robberies, delusive suicides, dark deeds, and—though last, not least, in his love—public executions, vulgo “Hanging Matches,” to which was usually attached the all-important and necessary “Sorrowful Lamentations,” or “Copy of Affectionate Verses,” which according to the established custom, the criminal composed in the condemned cell the night before his execution, after this manner:—

[Pg 66]

The Flying Stationer, otherwise Patterer.

 [Pg 67]

[Pg 68]Or take another and stereotyped example, which from time to time has served equally well for the verses written by the culprit—Brown, Jones, Robinson, or Smith:

“Those deeds I mournfully repent,
But now it is too late,
The day is past, the die is cast,
And fixed is my fate.

I see the hangman before me stand,
Ready to seize me by the law’s command;
When my life is ended on the fatal tree,
Then will be clear’d up all mystery.”

Occasionally the Last Sorrowful Lamentation contained a “Love Letter”—the criminal being unable, in some instances, to read or write, being no obstacle to the composition—written according to the street patterer’s statement: “from the depths of the condemned cell, with the condemned pen, ink, and paper.” This mode of procedure in “gallows” literature, and this style of composition having prevailed for from sixty to seventy years.

Then they would say: “Here you have also an exact likeness of the murderer, taken at the bar of the Old Bailey by an eminent artist!” when all the time it was an old woodcut that had been used for every criminal for many years. The block! opposite, to our own knowledge, served as the counterfeit presentment of all popular murderers for upwards of forty years.

 [Pg 69]

Likeness of the Murderer.

“There’s nothing beats a stunning good murder after all,” said a “running patterer” to Mr. Henry Mayhew, the author of “London Labour and London Poor.” It is only fair to assume that Mr. James Catnach shared in the sentiment, for it is said that he made over £500 by the publication of:—

There were eight formes set up, for old Jemmy had no notion of stereotyping in those days, and pressmen had to re-cover their[Pg 70] own tympans with sheep-skins. But by working day and night for a week they managed to get off about 250,000 copies with the four presses, each working two formes at a time.

Thurtell Murdering Mr. Weare.

As the trial progressed, and the case became more fully developed, the public mind became almost insatiable. Every night and morning large bundles were despatched to the principal towns in the three kingdoms.

One of the many street-ballads on the subject informed the British public that:—

“Thurtell, Hunt, and Probert, too, for trial must now prepare,
For that horrid murder of Mr. William Weare.”

[Pg 71]The circumstances immediately attending the murder are so fully and so well detailed in the proper channels that we need not here say more than that the trial took place at Hertford on the 5th January, 1824.

The prisoners who stood indicted were John Thurtell and Joseph Hunt. The latter was at the time well known as a public singer and was somewhat celebrated for the talent which he possessed. Both prisoners were found guilty, but Hunt was reprieved and subsequently ordered to be transported for life. Thurtell, who fully confessed to the crime, was executed in front of Hertford gaol on Friday, the 9th of January, 1824.

As before observed, Catnach cleared over £500 by this event, and was so loth to leave it, that when a wag put him up to a joke, and showed him how he might set the thing a-going again, he could not withstand it; and so, about a fortnight after Thurtell had been hanged, Jemmy brought out a startling broad-sheet, headed, “WE ARE ALIVE AGAIN!” He put so little space between the words “WE” and “ARE” that it looked at first sight like “WEARE.” Many thousands were bought by the ignorant and gullible public, but those who did not like the trick called it a “catch penny,” and this gave rise to this peculiar term, which ever afterwards stuck to the issues of the “Seven Dials’ Press,” though they sold as well as ever.

Probert, who had been mixed up in the affair, was admitted as King’s evidence and discharged at the rising of the Court. He subsequently met the fate he so richly deserved, for, having been found guilty at the Old Bailey of horse stealing, he was executed there on the 20th of June, 1825.

 [Pg 72]

 [Pg 73]

On the 10th of September, 1824, Henry Fauntleroy, of the firm of Marsh, Stracey, Fauntleroy, and Graham, bankers, in Berners-street, was apprehended in consequence of its being discovered that in September, 1820, £10,000 3 per cent stock, standing in the names of himself, J. D. Hume, and John Goodchild, as trustees of Francis William Bellis, had been sold out under a power of attorney, to which the names of his co-trustees and some of the subscribing witnesses were forged. It was soon ascertained that the extent to which this practice had been carried was enormous, no less than £170,000 stock having been sold out in 1814 and 1815 by the same fraudulent means.

Every exertion was used by Mr. Fauntleroy’s counsel, his case being twice argued before the Judges, but both decisions were against him; and on the 30th of November, 1824, his execution took place. The number of persons assembled was estimated at nearly 100,000.

The station in society of this unfortunate man, and the long-established respectability of the banking-house, in which he was the most active partner, with the vast extent of the forgeries committed, gave to his case an intensity of interest which has scarcely ever been equalled, and during the whole time it was pending afforded plenty of work for the printers and vendors of street literature. Catnach’s advanced position, which was now far beyond all his compeers, caused him to get the lion’s share. Every incident in the man’s character, history, and actions was taken advantage of. The sheets, almost wet from the press, were read by high and low; by those who lived and revelled in marble halls and gilded saloons, as well as by those who thronged our large towns and centres of industry.

[Pg 74]The parliamentary election of 1826, for the county of Northumberland, the principal seat of which was at Alnwick, gave early promise of being severely contested. There were four candidates in the field, namely, Henry Thomas Liddell, afterwards first Earl of Ravensworth, of Ravensworth Castle, county Durham; Mr. Matthew Bell, of Woolsingham, Northumberland; Mr. Thomas Wentworth Beaumont, and Lord Howick, afterwards Henry the third Earl Grey, K.G. The nomination of the candidates took place on Tuesday, June 20th, 1826, and the polling continued till July 6th, when the result was as follows:—

This contest was the greatest political event in the history of the county. It is estimated that it cost the candidates little short of £250,000.

Now, as we have before observed, Mr. Mark Smith—who till the time of his death, on the 18th of May, 1881, aged 87—carried on the business of printer and bookseller at Alnwick—and James Catnach, were fellow apprentices, both being bound to learn the art of printing to the elder Catnach on the same day. This early-formed acquaintanceship continued throughout the remaining portion of Catnach’s life, and whenever Mr. Mark Smith came to London in after years, he always visited Jemmy’s house.

It was in consequence of the continued friendship existing between Mr. Mark Smith and Jemmy Catnach that the latter had often expressed a desire to serve his fellow-apprentice, should circumstances occur to render it necessary. The[Pg 75] Alnwick election of 1826 promised to be a good one as regarded printing, and Mr. Smith anticipating a difficulty in getting through his work, applied to Catnach to know if he could render him any assistance. The result was that Jemmy at once proffered to go to Alnwick and take with him a small hand-press. After his arrival he seldom went out of the house, as all hands worked early and late, for, besides addresses, squibs, &c., they had to get out the state of the poll every afternoon, shortly after four o’clock. The number of addresses and squibs, in prose and verse, during this memorable election was enormous. The whole, when collected together, forms four good-sized volumes. The principal printers in Alnwick at this time, and who were engaged by the candidates, were Smith, Davison, and Graham. But there was a great deal of printing done at Newcastle, Gateshead, North Shields, Morpeth, and other towns.

There can be but little doubt that all who were professionally engaged at this election made a good thing out of it. The money spent upon printing alone must have been very great. And nearly all the public-houses in Alnwick were made “open houses,” as well as most of those in the principal towns throughout the county. Old people talk to this day, with a degree of pride of “those good old times” that existed at the Parliamentary elections previous to the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832. As far as Catnach was concerned, he merely went to help to pay off a deep debt of gratitude owing by him to the Smith family for many past favours to his own family when they were in dire distress in auld lang syne. Besides, Jemmy was now getting towards that state known as being “comfortably well-to-do,” and the trip was a change of air—a bit of a holiday, and a visit to the town of his birth. And as he had buried his[Pg 76] mother in London during the early part of the year, he took the opportunity to erect in the parish churchyard, that which at once stands as a cenotaph and a tombstone, bearing the following inscription:—

“John, Son of John Catnach,
Printer, died August 27th,
1794, Aged 5 years & 7 months.
JOHN CATNACH died in
London, 1813, Aged 44.
Mary, his wife died Jany.
24th, 1826, Aged 60 years,
Also John, Margaret, and
Jane Catnach, lie here.”[9]

During Catnach’s absence from London on the Alnwick election, his old rivals—the Pitts family—were, as usual, concocting false reports, and exhibiting lampoons, after the following manner:—

“Poor Jemmy with the son of Old Nick,
Down to Northumberland he’s gone;
To take up his freedom at Alnwick,
The why or the wherefore’s known to none.

“Before he went, he washed in soap and sud,
The Alnwick folks they found the fiddle;
Then they dragged poor Jemmy through the mud,
Two foot above his middle.

The above was in allusion to the old ceremony of being dragged through the dirty pool to be made a Freeman of the town of Alnwick. But, as far as Catnach was concerned, there is no truth whatever in the matter, it was simply “a weak invention of the enemy.” It was in the latter part of June and the beginning of July in the same year, that Catnach was at Alnwick, and the ceremony of making freemen always took place on St. Mark’s Day, April 25th, or at least two months earlier.

[Pg 77]Thus the statement of the Pitts’ party was—

“As false
As air, as water, as wind, as sandy earth,
As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer’s calf,
Pard to the hind, or step-dame to her son.”

Catnach, as the high priest of the literature of the streets, surrounded by trade rivals, “stood like a man at a mark with a whole army shooting at him,” but he was as firm as a rock and with the strength of a giant, and, as Hyperion to a Satyr, defied them all.

The destruction of the Royal Brunswick Theatre, Well-street, Wellclose-square, East London, on the 29th of February, 1828, by the falling in of the walls, in consequence of too much weight being attached to the heavy cast-iron roof, made a rare nine-day’s wonder for the workers of street-papers. Fortunately the catastrophe happened in the day-time, during the rehearsal of “Guy Mannering,” and only fifteen persons perished, viz:—

“Oh yes, sir! I remember well the falling of the Brunswick Theatre, out Whitechapel way. It was a rare good thing for all the running and standing patterers in and about ten miles of London. Every day we all killed more and more people—in our “Latest Particulars.” One day there was twenty persons killed, the next day thirty or forty, until it got at last to be worked up to about a hundred, and all killed. Then we killed all sorts of people, Duke of Wellington, and all the Dukes and Duchesses, Bishops, swell nobs and snobs we could think of at the moment.”

 [Pg 78]

ATROCIOUS MURDER OF A YOUNG WOMAN
IN SUFFOLK.

SINGULAR DISCOVERY OF THE BODY
FROM A DREAM.

The Red Barn.

THE SCENE OF THE MURDER, AND WHERE THE BODY OF MARIA
MARTEN WAS FOUND CONCEALED.

Four years after the Thurtell and Weare affair, namely, in the month of April, 1828, another “sensational” murder was discovered—that of Maria Marten, by William Corder, in the Red Barn, at Polstead, in the county of Suffolk. The circumstances that led to the discovery of this most atrocious murder, were of an extraordinary and romantic nature, and manifest an almost special interposition of Providence in marking out the offender. As the mother of the girl had on three several nights dreamt that her daughter was murdered and buried in Corder’s Red Barn, and as this proved to be the case, an additional “charm” was given to the circumstance. The “Catnach Press” was again set working both day and night, to meet the great demand for the “Full Particulars.” In due course came the gratifying announcement of the apprehension of the murderer! and the sale continued unabatingly in both town and country, every “Flying Stationer” making great profits by the sale.

 [Pg 79]

Likeness of William Corder.

The trial of Corder took place at Bury St. Edmonds, on the 7th of August, 1828, before the Lord Chief Baron (Anderson). The prisoner pleaded “Not Guilty,” and the trial proceeded. On being called on for his defence, Corder read a manuscript paper. He declared that he deeply deplored the death of the unfortunate deceased, and he urged the jury to dismiss from their minds all that prejudice which must necessarily have been excited against him by the public press, &c. Having concluded his address, the Lord Chief Baron summed up, and a verdict of “Guilty” was returned. The Last Dying Speech and Confession had an enormous sale—estimated at 1,166,000, a fac-simile copy of which with the “Lamentable Verses,” said to have been written by Old Jemmy Catnach will be found on the next page.

 [Pg 80]

 [Pg 81]

Catnach, like many others connected with the getting up of news broadsides and fly-sheets, did not always keep clear of the law. The golden rule is a very fine one, but, unfortunately, it is not always read aright; in some cases injured innocence flies at extremes. Jemmy Catnach for a long time had been living upon unfriendly terms with a party connected with the management of one of Mother Cummins’s lodging-house establishments in the immediate neighbourhood, so out of spite printed a pamphlet, purporting to be the “Life and Adventures of Old Mother Cummins.” Here Catnach had reckoned without his host, by reason of his not taking into consideration the extensive aristocratic and legal connection Mother Cummins had for her friends and patrons. The moment she was made acquainted with the “dirty parjury” that Jemmy Catnach had printed and caused to[Pg 82] be publicly circulated, she immediately gave instructions to her Attorney General to prosecute the varmint, when a warrant was applied for and obtained to search the premises of the Seven Dials printer. But Catnach got the news of the intended visit of the Bow Street Runners, and naturally became alarmed from having a vivid recollection of the punishment and costs in the case of the Drury-lane sausage makers, so the forme containing the libellous matter was at once broken up—“pied,” that is, the type was jumbled together and left to be properly distributed on a future occasion. What stock of the pamphlets remained were hastily packed up and carried off to the “other side of the water” by John Morgan, one of Catnach’s poets! while another forme, consisting of a Christmas-sheet, entitled “The Sun of Righteousness,” was hurriedly got to press, and all hands were working away full of assumed innocence when the officers from Bow Street arrived at Monmouth-court, when, after a diligent search, they had very reluctantly to come to the conclusion that they were “a day behind the fair,” and that the printer had been a little too sharp for them this time. But Mother Cummins did not mean to be so checkmated by Catnach and Co., and vowed to pursue him and his dirty blackguards to the end of the world and back again, and instructed her lawyers to serve him with several notices of action for libel, defamation of character, and, more particular, as she expressed it, for “parjury.” Then Catnach became somewhat alarmed by her known vindictive disposition and long purse, that he consulted his own solicitor in the matter, who took “counsel’s opinion” when an instant compromise at all costs, together with an ample apology, was recommended as the only safe way out of the dilemma; a course which was ultimately agreed to by both sides. An apology was drawn up and approved of, with the understanding[Pg 83] that Catnach was, after paying all costs incurred to print the apology and publish the same on three several places in front of his business premises in Monmouth Court for fourteen clear days. All this—and more—Jemmy promised steadfastly to observe. Yet in effect, he evaded the conditions by printing the apology in small pica type and sticking the three copies so high up on the premises, that it would have required Sam Weller’s “pair of double million magnifying gas microscopes of hextra power” to have been able to read the same.

Immediately after Mother Cummins’s death and funeral, March, 1828, the following announcement appeared:—

 [Pg 84]

[Pg 86]It may be remarked, en passant, that Mr. Corder, with Paragalli and Colla, the two Italian witnesses, who gave evidence as to the identity of the body, said to be that of the Italian boy, at the trial of Bishop, Williams, and May, appeared at Bow Street, in consequence of doubts being entertained by a portion of the public as to the body being that of Carlo Ferrari, to re-assert their former evidence. Mr. Corder afterwards published a statement in the “Times” newspaper, which gave scarcely the possibility of doubt that the body offered at King’s College must have been that of Ferrari notwithstanding the murderer’s assertion to the contrary. On December the 10th, a Post-obit prosecution of Williams, the Burkite murderer, took place in the Court of Excise, where he was charged, on information, with having carried on an illicit factory for making glass at No. 2, Nova Scotia Gardens, Bethnal Green. An officer proved the seizure of goods used in the manufacture of glass, at the house of the person charged, and that Bishop was at the time in company. The Court condemned the goods seized.

A drama on the subject of the “Burkers” was produced at an unlicensed theatre, designated The Shakespeare, in the Kingsland Road, and not far from Shoreditch Church, and for a time was specially attractive. In the young actor, who played Carlo Ferrari, the Italian boy, might now be recognised an eminent tragedian.[10]

[Pg 87]Street-ballads on political subjects, though not regarded as of great interest by the whole body of the people, are still eventful among certain classes, and for such the street author and ballad singer cater. The measure of Reform by Earl Grey’s administration, was proposed in the House of Commons by Lord John Russell, 1st March, 1831. On the first division, second reading 22nd March, there stood for it, 302; against it, 301. Ultimately, the Bill for that session was abandoned, and Parliament dissolved. The Reform Bill of 1832 was read for the third time on the 23rd of March, when the numbers stood thus:—for the Bill, 355; against it, 239—majority for it, 116. In the Lords, the Bill was carried through the Committee on the 30th of May, and read a third time on the 4th of June. For the Bill, 106; against, 22—majority, 84.

During the whole of the time the Reform Bills of 1831-2 were before the Houses of Parliament, the “Catnach Press,” in common with other printing offices that produced street-literature, was very busy in publishing, almost daily, songs and papers in ridicule of borough-mongering and of the various rotten boroughs then in existence, but which were entirely swept away by the passing of this Bill; fifty-six boroughs in England being disfranchised, while thirty were reduced to one member only; twenty-two new boroughs were created to send two members, and twenty to send one member; other important changes were also made. Songs upon the subject were sung at every corner of the streets, to the great delight of the multitude.

The Reform Bill.

 [Pg 88]

ATTACK ON KING WILLIAM IV. AT ASCOT HEATH,

On Tuesday, the 19th of June, 1832.

The Ascot Races for 1832 will be rendered memorable in the history of this country by reason of a stone thrown at his Majesty while on the grand stand at Ascot Races, which hit him on the forehead. The man by whom it was thrown was immediately secured, and proved to be Dennis Collins, a seaman with only one leg, formerly a pensioner of Greenwich Hospital, from whence he had been dismissed for ill-conduct. On his examination he confessed he committed the outrage in revenge because no notice had been taken of petitions which he had sent to the Lords of the Admiralty and the King. He was committed to Reading gaol to take his trial, which took place at Abingdon, on August 22nd. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the fifth count, that of intending some bodily harm to his Majesty, but not guilty of the intent to kill.

[Pg 89]Mr. Baron Gurney passed sentence on the prisoner, that he be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, and being hung by his neck until dead, his head be afterwards severed from his body, and his body divided into four pieces, and disposed of as his Majesty should think fit. His sentence was afterwards respited.

Nothing better than the above circumstance could have suited the producers and workers of street-literature. King William and Queen Adelaide were very popular at the time. “Yes, sir, we all did well out of that job of the wooden-legged sailor and old King Billy. It lasted out for months. We had something fresh nearly every day. We killed old Billy five or six times; then we made out that the sailor-chap was a love-child of the Sailor King and Madame Vestris; then that he was an old sweetheart of Queen Adelaide’s, and that he was jealous and annoyed at her a jilting of him and a-marrying of old King Billy, and so on. But it was an awful sell, and a robbery to us all, because they didn’t hang and cut the chap up into four quarters—that would have been a regular Godsend to us chaps, sir. But I think old Jemmy Catnach, as it was, must have cleared pretty nigh or quite fifty pounds for himself out of the job. A-talking about Madame Vestris, sir, reminds me that once we had a song about her, and the chorus was:—

The year 1837 produced two sensational murders and executions. The first case—that of Pegsworth—made a great stir, particularly in the east part of London. It was on the evening of the 9th of January, 1837, that a most atrocious and cold-blooded murder was committed in Ratcliff Highway. The[Pg 90] individual who suffered was Mr. John Holliday Ready, who for some time carried on the trade of a tailor, draper, and milliner. John Pegsworth, was a messenger in the tea department of St. Katherine’s Docks, he had formerly kept a small tobacconist’s shop in the same street, and had contracted a debt of £1 with Mr. Ready, who being unable to obtain payment, took out a summons against him in the Court of Requests, Osborne-street, Whitechapel. The court gave judgement against Pegsworth for the full amount and costs, which he was ordered to pay by instalments. On the evening of the same day Pegsworth proceeded to a cutler’s shop in Shadwell, where he bought a large pig-knife, armed with which he immediately repaired to the house of Mr. Ready for the purpose of executing his diabolical intention. He entered the shop, and having spoken to Mrs. Ready, passed on to the parlour and got into conversation with Mr. Ready. Pegsworth, although pressingly asked to do so, declined taking a seat, and after he had been talking about ten minutes in a calm and collected manner on the subject of the debt and the misfortunes he had met with in business, he pointedly asked Mr. Ready if he intended to enforce the payment of the debt? Ready said he should be compelled to issue an execution against his goods if the money was not paid. The words had scarcely left the lips of the unfortunate man than Pegsworth uttered some exclamation which is supposed to have been “Take that!” and plunged the knife with great force into his breast up to the hilt. Ready called out to his wife, “O, I am stabbed!” fell back in his chair, and almost immediately expired. Mrs. Ready, who saw Pegsworth move his arm, but was not aware her husband was stabbed until she saw him fall back, screamed aloud for assistance, and several of her neighbours rushed into the shop for the purpose of securing the[Pg 91] murderer, who did not make the least attempt to escape, but having completed his purpose, withdrew the knife from the body of his victim, laid it on the table, and calmly awaited the arrival of the police.

Pegsworth was tried at the Central Criminal Court of London on the 12th of February, and found guilty of wilful murder, and was executed in front of the debtor’s door in the Old Bailey on the 9th of March following.

During the whole of the time that was occupied in the trial and execution of Pegsworth, a circumstance took place which excited an extraordinary sensation throughout the metropolis and its neighbourhood—namely, the discovery near the Pine Apple Gate, Edgware Road, of the trunk of a human being, tied up in a sack, dismembered of the arms, legs, and head.

The utmost vigilance was exercised to trace out the murderer, but for several days no light was thrown upon the transaction. At length, on the 6th of January, as a barge was passing down the Regent’s Canal, near Stepney, one of the eastern environs of London, the bargeman, to his unspeakable horror, fished up what proved to be a human head. Proper notice of this circumstance was forwarded to the police. It was now very generally supposed the head would prove to belong to the body found in the Edgware road, although at a distance of nearly five miles, and this conjecture proved to be correct.

On the second of February the remaining portions of the human being was discovered in a sack in an osier bed, near Cold Harbour Lane, Camberwell. These mutilated remains were carefully matched together, and at length recognised as those of a Mrs. Brown, and suspicion fell, and justly so, upon James Greenacre and his paramour Sarah Gale.

[Pg 92]In respect to the last two murders we have cited, Mr. Henry Mayhew received from an old “running patterer” the following statement—“Pegsworth was an out-and-out lot. I did tremendous with him, because it happened in London, down Ratcliff Highway—that’s a splendid quarter for working—there’s plenty of feeling—but, bless you, some places you go to you can’t move nohow, they’ve hearts like paving stones. They wouldn’t have ‘the papers’ if you’d give them to ’em—especially when they knows you. Greenacre didn’t sell so well as might have been expected, for such a diabolical out-and-out crime as he committed; but you see he came close after Pegsworth, and that took the beauty off him. Two murderers together is no good to nobody.”

In the Greenacre tragedy Catnach did a great amount of business, and as it was about the last “popular murder” in which he had any trade concern, we give a statement in respect to the sale of “Execution Papers,” of the chief modern ‘popular’ murders, thus:—

So that the printers and publishers of “Gallows” Literature in general, and “The Catnach Press” in particular must have reaped a golden harvest for many a long day, even when sold to the street patterers at the low rate of 3d. per long dozen.

 [Pg 93]

[Pg 94]Catnach received a very indifferent education, and that little at the establishment of Mr. Goldie, in Alnwick, where his attendance was very irregular, and this drawback assisted very much in blunting his relish for the higher walks of literature. The father had not carried out the heavenly injunction so much practised in Scotland, by giving to his son the best of blessings—“a good education.”

Jemmy had a tenacious love of money, and this propensity he retained throughout life. As a man of business he was rough and brusque in his manners, but this mattered little, as his trade lay amongst a class who were low and insensitive in their habits and modes of living.

The productions issued at the “Catnach Press” were not destined to rank high in the annals of literature; and they bear a sorry appearance when placed alongside of several works of a similar kind, which were printed at the same period in many parts of the kingdom. In this respect Jemmy Catnach was very unlike his father, for, whilst the former had a niggardly turn in all his dealings, the latter was naturally inclined to the reverse.

One class of literature which Jemmy Catnach made—by reason of greater mechanical skill and a larger capital than his rivals—almost his own, was children’s farthing, halfpenny, and penny books. Among the great many that he published we select from our own private collection, those that follow as a fair sample.

Many other nursery books of a similar kind might be mentioned as some of the chief attractions that emanated from the “Catnach Press,” and which, to the juvenile population, were more eagerly welcomed than the great sensational three-volume novels are by many in our day.

[Pg 95]

“THE CATNACH PRESS.”

A

COLLECTION

OF

JUVENILE BOOKS.

Printed and published by

JAMES CATNACH,

LATE OF

MONMOUTH COURT,

SEVEN DIALS,

LONDON.

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Larger Image

Text of Image

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2

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3

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

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4

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

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5

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

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6

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

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7

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

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8

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

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9

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

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10

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

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11

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

Tom Trueby was a good and sensible boy, who neither played the truant nor kept company with naughty children. He did not like tossing up nor chuck up farthing, because he thought it might lead him to love gaming, when he was grown up; but he liked very well to play at ball or top, and most particularly at marbles, at which he was very clever, never cheated, and played so well that he used to teach the neighbouring children.

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12

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

And here you see him instructing Master Manly, a Baronet’s son in the place, as he did in matters of more consequence, and behaved so well towards him, that he was his friend all his lifetime.

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13

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

Fire-Works and Crackers.

Fire-Works are things that look very pretty when they are properly managed by those who understand them, but children ought to take care how they meddle with gunpowder lest they should hurt themselves or other people.

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14

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

Tom Hazard for example was always fond of playing with serpents crackers &c. At one time he was near doing damage by his fireworks falling into a cellar, and at another time as you see in the cut he so much frightened one of his schoolfellows that he fell down, and put his ancle out, for which Tom was severely corrected and you must own he richly deserved it.

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15

NURSE LOVECHILD’S LEGACY.

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2

The
Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven, Give us this Day our daily Bread, and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us, and lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from Evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the Glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

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3

A
Was an Arch Boy.

B
A Beauty was.

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4

C
A comely Wench but Coy.

D
A Dainty Lass.

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5

E
Loved Eggs, and eat his fill.

F
Was full and fat.

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6

G
Had Grace and wit at will.

H
Wore a Gold Lace Hat.

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7

I
Stands for little Jackys name.

K
For Kitty Fair.

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8

L
Loved Learning & got fame.

M
Was his Mother dear.

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9

N
Was naughty & oft crying.

O
An Only Child.

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10

P
Was pretty Peggy sighing.

Q
Was a Quaker mild.

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11

R
Was Rude, & in disgrace.

S
Stands for Sammy Still.

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12

T
For ever talked a-pace.

V
Was fond of Veal.

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13

W
He watched the house & hall.

X
Does like a Cross appear.

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14

Y
A Youth well shaped & tall.

Z
Whips up the Rear.

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15

A B C

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[Pg 129]

London:
Printed by J. Catnach, 2, Monmouth
Court, 7 Dials.

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2

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3

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4

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5

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6

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7

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8

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9

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10

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11

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12

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13

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14

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15

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FINIS.

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2

Jumping Joan.

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3

Jumping Joan.

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4

Jumping Joan.

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5

Jumping Joan.

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6

Jumping Joan.

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7

Jumping Joan.

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8

Jumping Joan.

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9

Jumping Joan.

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10

Jumping Joan.

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11

Jumping Joan.

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12

Jumping Joan.

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13

Jumping Joan.

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14

Jumping Joan.

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15

Jumping Joan.

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TO THE

Juvenile Reader.

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THE

Butterfly’s Ball,

AND

Grasshopper’s Feast.

J. Catnach,
2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials.

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THE

BUTTERFLY’S BALL,

AND

Grasshopper’s Feast.

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A B C

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Printed by J. Catnach.

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THE
LIFE AND DEATH
OF AN
APPLE PIE.

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A curious Discourse that passed between the Twenty-five Letters at dinner time.

[Pg 184]Having concluded their discourse and dinner together, I have nothing more to add; but if my little readers are pleased with what they have found in this book they have nothing to do but to run to J. Paul & Co’s., 2, & 3, Monmouth Court; 7 Dials, where they may have a great variety of books not less entertaining than this of the same size and price.

But that you may not think I leave you too abruptly, I here present you with the picture of dame Dumpling, who made the Apple pie you have been reading about; she has several more in her basket, and she promised that if you are good children you shall never go to bed supperless while she[Pg 185] has one left. But as good people always ask a blessing, as a token that you are good and deserve a pie, you must learn the two following Graces, that one be said before your meals, and the other after.

Grace before Meat.

Good Lord, bless us, and these thy creatures, to our use, which we are about to receive, of thy bounteous liberality, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Grace after Meat.

We thank thee, O Lord, for all the benefits of this time, and of our whole lives. Make us thankful for all thy mercies now, and for evermore. Amen.

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London:
Printed by J. Catnach, 2 & 3, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials.

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Text of Image

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NURSERY RHYMES.

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Simple Simon cutting his
mother’s bellows open to
see where the wind lay.

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JACK JINGLE.

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DEATH & BURIAL OF COCK ROBIN.

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LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD.

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CINDERELLA.

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THE CHILD’S NEW YEAR’S GIFT.

A pair of Spectacles.

A pair of Stays.

A Pin.

A letter M.

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Text of Image

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THE ALPHABET.

The Letters promiscuously arranged.

D B C F G E H A X U Y M V
W N K P J O Z Q I S L T R

z w x o c l y b b f p s m q n v h
k r t g e j a u i

Double and Triple Letters.

fi fl ff ffi ffl
f i   f l   f f   f f f i   f l

Diphthongs, &c.

AE Œ æ œ & &c.
Æ OE ae oe and et cætera

Arabic Numerals.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

Roman Numerals.

I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX.
X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV.

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THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
DICK TURPIN.

RICHARD TURPIN was born at Hempstead, in Essex, where his father kept the sign of the Bell; and after being the usual time at school, he was bound apprentice to a butcher in Whitechapel, but did not serve out his time, for his master discharged him for impropriety of conduct, which was not in the least diminished by his parents’ indulgence in supplying him with money, which enabled him to cut a figure round the town, among the blades of the road and the turf, whose company he usually kept.

His friends, thinking that marriage would reclaim him, persuaded him to marry, which he did with one Hester Palmer, of East Ham in Essex, but he had not long been married before he became acquainted with a gang of thieves, whose depredations terrified the whole county of Essex, and the neighbourhood of London. He joined sheep stealing to foot-pad robbery; and was at last obliged to fly from his place of residence for stealing a young heifer, which he killed and cut up for sale.

Soon after, he stole two oxen from one Farmer Giles, of Plaistow, and drove them to a Butcher’s slaughtering house, near Waltham Abbey.

He was followed there, but made his escape out of the window of the house where he was, just as they were entering the door.

He now retreated into the Hundreds of Essex, where he found more security: he adopted a new scheme; and that was to rob the smugglers, but he took care not to attack a gang, only solitary travellers, this he did with a colour of justice, for he pretended to have a deputation from the Customs, and demanded their property in the king’s name.

He again joined the gang with whom he had before connected himself, the principal part of those depredations were committed upon Epping Forest, &c.

But this soon becoming an object of magisterial enquiry, he again returned to the solitude of the country, with some more of the gang, and they became notorious deer-stealers, and Turpin being a good shot, sent many a buck up to his connections in London.

[Pg 215]

DICK TURPIN.3

They next determined to commence house-breakers; and in this they were much encouraged by joining with Gregory’s gang, as it was then called, a company of desparadoes that made the Essex and adjacent roads very dangerous to travel.

Somehow or other, Turpin became acquainted with the circumstances of an old woman, that lived at Laughton, that kept a great quantity of cash by her; whereupon they agreed to rob her; and when they came to the door, Wheeler knocked and Turpin and the rest forcing their way into the house, blindfolded the eyes of the old woman and her maid, and tied the legs of her son to the bedstead, but not finding the wished-for booty, they held a consultation, as they were certain she must have a considerable sum concealed. Turpin told her he knew she had money, and it was in vain to deny it, for have it they would. The old lady persisted that she had none, but Turpin insisting she had money, he swore he would put her on the fire. She continued obstinate and endured for some time, when they took her off the grate, and robbed her of all they could find, upwards of four hundred pounds.

They next proceeded into Surrey, where Turpin and his company robbed Mr. Sheldon’s house, near Croydon Church, where they arrived about seven o’clock in the evening. They secured the coachman in the stable. His master hearing some strange voices in the yard, was proceeding to know the cause, when he was met by Turpin, who seizing hold of him compelled him to show them the way into the house, when he secured the door, and confined the rest of the family in one room, here they found but little plate and no cash. From Mr. Sheldon’s person they took eleven guineas, two of which Turpin returned him, begged pardon for what they had done, and wished him a good night.

These robberies hitherto had been carried on entirely on foot, with only the occasional assistance of a hackney coach but now they aspired to appear on horse-back, for which purpose they hired horses at the Old Leaping Bar in Holborn, from whence they set out about two o’clock in the afternoon, and arrived at the Queen’s Head, Stanmore, where they staid to regale themselves. It was by this means that Wood, the master of the horse, had so good an opportunity of observing the horses, as to remember the same again when he saw them afterwards in Bloomsbury, where they were taken. About five they went from Mr. Wood’s to Stanmore and staid from six until seven and then went together for Mr. Lawrence’s, about a mile from thence, where they got about half-past seven. On their arrival at Mr. Lawrence’s they alighted from their horses at the gate; whereupon Fielder knocked at the door, and calling out Mr. Lawrence. The man servant thinking it to be some of the neighbours, opened the door, upon which they all rushed in with pistols, and seizing Mr.

[Pg 216]

4DICK TURPIN

Lawrence and his man, threw a cloth over their faces then fell to rifling their pockets, out of which they took one guinea, and about fifteen shillings in silver, with his keys. They said they must have more, and drove Mr. Lawrence up stairs, where coming to a closet, they broke open the door, and took out from thence two guineas, ten shillings, a silver cup, 13 silver spoons, and two gold rings. They then rifled the house of all they could get, linen, table cloths, shirts, and the sheets off the bed, and trod the beds under feet, to discover if any money was concealed therein. Suspecting there was more money in the house, they then brought Mr. Lawrence down again, and threatened to cut his throat, and Fielder put a knife to it, as though he intended to do it; to make him confess what money was in the house. One of them took a chopping bill, and threatened to cut off his leg: they then broke his head with their pistols, and dragged him about by the hair of his head. Another of them took the kettle off the fire, and flung it upon him; but it did no other harm just wetting him, because the maid had just before taken out the greater part of the boiling water, and filled it again with cold. After this they dragged him about again, swearing they would “do for him” if he did not immediately inform them where the rest of the money was hid. They then proceeded to make a further search; and then withdrew; threatening to return again in half an hour, and kill every one

[Pg 217]

DICK TURPIN.5

they found loose. So saying they locked them in the parlour and threw the keys down the area.

Turpin by this robbery got but little, for out of the 26l, they took in the whole, he distributed it among them all but three guineas and six shillings and six pence.

A proclamation was issued for the apprehension of the offenders, and a pardon and 50l was offered to any of the party who would impeach his accomplices, which however, had no effect. The white Hart in Drury-lane was their place of rendezvous. Here they planned their nightly visits, and here they divided their spoil, and spent the money they acquired.

The robbery being stated to the officers of Westminster, Turpin set off to Alton, where he met with an odd encounter, which got him the best companion he ever had, as he often declared. King, the highwayman, as he was returning from this place to London, being well dressed and mounted, Turpin seeing him have the appearance of a substantial gentleman, rode up to him, and thinking him a fair mark, bid him stand and deliver, and therewith producing his pistols, King fell a laughing at him, and said “what dog rob dog! Come, come, brother Turpin, if you don’t know me, I know you, and shall be glad of your company.” After a mutual communication of circumstances to each other, they agreed to keep company, and divide good or ill fortune as the trumps might turn up. In fact King was true to him to the last, which was for more than three years.

They met with various fortunes; but being too well known to

[Pg 218]

6DICK TURPIN.

remain long in one place, and as no house that knew them would receive them in it, they formed the resolution of making themselves a cave, covered with bevins and earth, and for that purpose pitched upon a convenient place, enclosed with a thicket, situated on the Waltham side of Epping, near the sign of the King’s Oak.

In this place Turpin lived, ate, drank, and lay, for the space of six years, during the first three of which he was enlivened by the drollery of his companion, Tom King, who was a fellow of infinite humour in telling stories, and of an unshaken resolution in attack or defence.

One day, as they were spying from their cave, they discovered a gentleman riding by, that King knew very well to be a rich merchant near Gresham College. This gentleman was in his chariot, and wife with him; his name was Bradele. King first attacked him on the Laughton road; but he being a man of great spirit, offered to make resistence, thinking there was but one; upon which King called Turpin, and bid him hold the horses’ heads. They proceeded first to take his money, which he readily parted with, but demurred a good while about his watch, being the dying bequest of his father. King was insisting to take it away, when Turpin interposed, and said, they were more gentlemen than to deprive anyone of their friend’s respect which they wore about them, and bid King desist from his demand.

On the day after this transaction they went to the Red Lion ale house, in Aldersgate street, where they had not been more than half an hour, when Turpin heard of the approach of the chief constable and his party; they mounted each their horse; but before King could get fairly seated he was seized by one of the party, and called on Dick to fire. Turpin replied, “If I do, I shall hit you.” “Fire, if you are my friend.” said King—Turpin fired, but the ill-fated ball took effect in King’s breast. Dick stood a moment in grief, but self-preservation made him urge his mare forward to elude his pursuers; it was now he resolved on a journey to York, and raising himself in his saddle, he said, “By G—, I will do it.” Encouraged by “Harkaway Bess,” she flew on.

Astonishing to relate, he reached York the same evening and was noticed playing at bowls in the bowling-green with several gentlemen there, which circumstance saved him from the hands of justice for a time. His pursuers coming up and seeing Turpin, knew him; and caused him to be taken into custody; one of them swore to him and the horse he rode on, which was the identical one he arrived upon in that city; but on being in the stable, and its rider at play, and all in the space of four-and-twenty hours, his alibi was admitted; for the magistrates of York could not believe it possible for one horse to cover the ground, being upwards of 190 miles, in so short a space.

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DICK TURPIN.7

For the last two years of his life he seems to have confined his residence to the county of York, where he appears to be a little known. He often accompanied the neighbouring gentlemen in their parties of hunting and shooting; and one evening, on a return from an expedition of the latter kind, he saw one of his landlord’s cocks in the street, which he shot.

The next day Mr. Hall received a letter from Robert Appleton, Long Sutton, with this account:—that the said John Palmer had lived there about three quarters of a year, and had before that been once apprehended, and made his escape, and that they had a strong suspicion he was guilty of horse-stealing.

Another information gave notice, that he had stolen a horse from Captain Dawson, of Ferraby; his horse was that which Turpin rode on when he came to Beverley, and which he stole from off Hickinton Fen in Lincolnshire.

He wrote to his father upon being convicted, to use his interest to get him off for transportation, but his fate was at hand, his notoriety caused application to be ineffectual.

After he had been in prison five months, he was removed from Beverley to York Castle to take his trial. When on his trial his case seemed much to affect the hearers. He had two trials, upon both of which he was convicted upon the fullest evidence. After a long trial the Jury brought in their Verdict and found him Guilty.

He was carried in a cart to the place of execution, on Saturday, April, 7th, 1739. He behaved himself with amazing assurance and bowed to the spectators as he passed. It was remarkable that as he mounted the ladder, his right leg trembled, on which he stamped it down with an air, and with undaunted courage looked round about him; and after speaking near half an hour to the topman, threw himself off the ladder, and expired in about five minutes.

W. S. Fortey, Printer, Monmouth Court, Bloomsbury.

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Text of Image

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The Long Song-Seller.

Songs and Song Literature.

“Songs! Songs! Songs! Beautiful songs! Love songs! Newest songs! Old songs! Popular songs! Songs, Three Yards a Penny!” was a “standing dish” at the “Catnach Press,” and Catnach was the Leo X. of street publishers. And it is said that he at[Pg 222] one time kept a fiddler on the premises, and that he used to sit receiving ballad-writers and singers, and judging of the merits of any production which was brought to him, by having it sung then and there to some popular air played by his own fiddler, and so that the ballad-singer should be enabled to start at once, not only with the new song, but also the tune to which it was adapted. His broad-sheets contain all sorts of songs and ballads, for he had a most catholic taste, and introduced the custom of taking from any writer, living or dead, whatever he fancied, and printing it side by side with the productions of his own clients.

He naturally had a bit of a taste for old ballads, music, and song writing; and in this respect he was far in advance of many of his contemporaries. To bring within the reach of all the standard and popular works of the day, had been the ambition of the elder Catnach; whilst the son was, nolens volens, incessant in his endeavours in trying to promulgate and advance, not the beauty, elegance, and harmony which pervades many of our national airs and ballad poetry, but very often the worst and vilest of each and every description—in other words, those most suitable for street-sale. His stock of songs was very like his customers, diversified. There were all kinds, to suit all classes. Love, sentimental, and comic songs were so interwoven as to form a trio of no ordinary amount of novelty. At ordinary times, when the Awfuls and Sensationals were flat, Jemmy did a large stroke of business in this line.

It is said that when the “Songs—Three-yards-a-penny”—first came out and had all the attractions of novelty, some men sold twelve or fourteen dozen on fine days during three or four of the summer months, so clearing between 6s. and 7s. a day, but on the average about 25s. a week profit. The “long songs,”[Pg 223] however, have been quite superseded by the “Monster” and “Giant Penny Song Books.” Still there are a vast number of half-penny ballad-sheets worked off, and in proportion to their size, far more than the “Monsters” or “Giants.”

As a rule there are but two songs printed on the half-penny ballad-sheets—generally a new and popular song with another older ditty, or a comic and sentimental, and “adorned” with two woodcuts. These are selected without any regard as to their fitness to the subject, and in most cases have not the slightest reference to the ballad of which they form the head-piece. For instance:—“The Heart that can feel for another” is illustrated by a gaunt and savage looking lion; “When I was first Breeched,” by an engraving of a Highlander sans culotte; “The Poacher” comes under the cut of a youth with a large watering-pot, tending flowers; “Ben Block” is heralded by the rising sun; “The London Oyster Girl,” by Sir Walter Raleigh; “The Sailor’s Grave,” by the figure of Justice; “Alice Grey” comes under the very dilapidated figure of a sailor, or “Jolly Young Waterman;” “Bright Hours are in store for us yet” is headed with a tail-piece of an urn, on which is inscribed Finis! “The Wild Boar Hunt,” by two wolves chasing a deer; “The Dying Child to its Mother,” by an Angel appearing to an old man; “Autumn Leaves lie strew’d around,” by a ship in full sail; “Cherry Ripe,” by Death’s Head and Cross Bones; “Jack at the Windlass,” falls under a Roadside Inn; while “William Tell” is presented to the British public in form and style of an old woman nursing an infant of squally nature. Here follow a few examples of the style, also that of some of the ballad-sheets: together with various verbatim imprints used by “The Catnach Press,” chronologically arranged from circa 1813 to the present time.

 [Pg 224]

London:
Printed by J. Catnach, and sold Wholesale and Retail at
No. 60, Wardour Street, Soho Square.

CHORUS.

 [Pg 225]

Printed by J. Catnach, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials.
Sold by J. Sharman, Cambridge, Bennet, Brighton; & R. Harris, Salisbury.

 [Pg 226]

Printed by J. Catnach, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials.
Travellers and Shopkeepers supplied with Sheet Hymns. Patters, and Slip
Songs as Cheap and Good as any Shop in London.

 [Pg 227]

—————————————
J. Catnach, Printer, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials. Cards, &c. Printed
Cheap. ☞ Country Shops and Travellers supplied.
——————————

 [Pg 228]

J. Catnach, Printer, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials. Sold by W. Marshall.
Sold by T. Pierce, Southborough. (Cards Printed Cheap.)

 [Pg 229]

Printed by J. Catnach, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials. Sold by Pierce,
Southborough, Bennet, Brighton; and Sharman, Cambridge.

 [Pg 230]

Printed by J. Catnach, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials. Sold by T. Batchelor,
14, Hackney Road Crescent; W. Marshall, Bristol. Sold by Bennet
and Boyes, Brighton.

 [Pg 231]

J. Catnach, Printer, 2 & 3, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials, & at 14, Waterloo
Road, (late Hill’s). Country Shops, and Travellers supplied.

 [Pg 232]

Printed and Sold by J. Catnach, 2 & 3, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials.

 [Pg 233]

A. Ryle and Co., Printers, 2 & 3, Monmouth Court, Seven Dials, and 35,
Hanover Street, Portsea, where upwards of 4000 different sorts of ballads
are continually on sale together with 40 new penny song books.

 [Pg 234]

London:—Printed by J. Paul & Co., 2 & 3, Monmouth Court.

CHORUS.

 [Pg 235]

London:—Published by Ryle and Paul, 2 & 3, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials.
Where an immense number of songs are always ready.

 [Pg 236]

——————————
London:—Ryle & Co., Printers, 2 & 3, Monmouth Court, Bloomsbury.
——————————

RECITATIVE.

AIR.

 [Pg 237]

A. Ryle & Co., Printers, 2 & 3, Monmouth Court, Bloomsbury.

 [Pg 238]

London:—Printed at the “Catnach Press” by W. Fortey, (late A. Ryle)
2 & 3, Monmouth Court. Bloomsbury. (Established 1813.) The Oldest
and Cheapest House in the World for Ballads, (4,000 sorts) Song Books, &c.

 [Pg 239]

Printed at the “Catnach Press” by W. FORTEY, Monmouth Court,
Bloomsbury, the Oldest House in the World for Ballads (4,000 sorts) Song
Books, &c. &c.

 [Pg 240]

London:—Printed at the “Catnach Press” by W. S. Fortey, 2 & 3, Monmouth
Court, Bloomsbury. (Established 1813.) The Oldest and Cheapest
House in the World for Ballads, Song Books, Children’s Spelling & Reading
Books, Panorama Slips, Almanacks, Valentines, Hymns, Toy Cards,
Poetry Cards, Lotteries, Characters, Note Paper, Envelopes, &c.
⁂ Shopkeepers and Hawkers supplied on the lowest terms.

 [Pg 241]

From time immemorial the ballad singer, with his rough and ready broad-sheet, has travelled over the whole surface of the country in all seasons and weathers, yet there was one time of the year, however, when he went out of his every-day path and touched on deeper matters than accidents, politics, prize fights, sporting matches, murders, battles, royalty, famous men and women. Christmas time brought, both to him and his audience, its witness of the unity of the great family of heaven and earth, its story of the life and death of Him in whom that unity stands.[Pg 242] Several examples, of Christmas carols and Scripture-sheets, bearing Catnach’s imprint lie before us, thanks to the kindness of Mr. W. S. Fortey, Catnach’s successor; these broadsides bear several distinctive marks which show that it was an object of more than ordinary care to publishers and ballad singers. In the first place, these Christmas sheets are double the size of the ordinary broad-sheet—measuring 30 inches by 20—and[Pg 243] contain four or five carols—generally one long narrative ballad, and three or four short pieces. Each of them having two or three large woodcuts and several of smaller sizes, and having the following distinctive titles—The Trial of Christ. Faith, Hope, and Charity. Our Saviour’s Love. The Tree of Life. The Crucifixion. The Saviour of Mankind. The Messiah. The Harp of Israel. The Saviour’s Garland. Divine Mirth. And The Life of Joseph, to which is appended:—

LONDON: PRINTED AND SOLD BY
J. CATNACH, 2, MONMOUTH COURT, 7, DIALS,
WHERE MAY BE HAD THE FOLLOWING SHEETS, WITH CUTS.

The Last Day, Our Saviour’s Letter, The Son of Righteousness, Travels of the Children of Israel, Glory of Solomon, The Morning Star, The Noble Army of Martyrs, Christmas Gambols, The Hertfordshire Tragedy, and a Variety of Others are in a state of forwardness for the Press.

“Looking at these Christmas broad-sheets,” says the writer of an article on street-ballads, in the “National Review,” for October, 1861, “it would really seem as if the poorest of our brethren claimed their right to higher nourishment than common for their minds and souls, as well as for their bodies, at the time of year when all Christendom should rejoice. And this first impression is confirmed when we examine their contents. In all those which we have seen, the only piece familiar to us is that noble old carol ‘While shepherds watched their flocks by night,’ where the rest come from, we cannot even conjecture; but in the whole of them there is not one which we should wish were not there. We have been unable to detect in them even a coarse expression; and of the hateful narrowness and[Pg 244] intolerance, the namby-pamby, the meaningless cant, the undue familiarity with holy things, which makes us turn with a shudder from so many modern collections of hymns, there is simply nothing.

“Account for it how we will, there is the simple fact. Perhaps it may lead us to think somewhat differently of those whom we are in the habit of setting down in the mass as little better than heathens. We cannot conclude this article better than by giving an extract or two from these Christmas broad-sheets.”

 [Pg 245]

“The Saviour’s Garland, a choice Collection of the most esteemed Carols,” has the usual long narrative ballad, which begins:

“Come, all you faithful Christians
That dwell upon the earth,—
Come celebrate the morning
Of our dear Saviour’s birth:
This is the happy morning,—
This is the happy morn
Whereon, to save our ruined race,
The Son of God was born.”

And after telling simply the well-known story, it ends:

“Now to him up ascended,
Then let your praises be,
That we His steps may follow,
And He our pattern be;
That when our lives are ended
We may hear His blessed call:
‘Come, Souls, receive the Kingdom
Prepared for you all.’”

[Pg 246]

Another, “The Star of Bethlehem, a collection of esteemed Carols for the present year,” opens its narrative thus:

“Let all that are to mirth inclined
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done,
In sending His beloved Son.

Let all our songs and praises be
Unto His heavenly Majesty;
And evermore amongst our mirth
Remember Christ our Saviour’s birth.

The twenty-fifth day of December
We have great reason to remember;
In Bethlehem, upon that morn,
There was a blessed Saviour born,” &c.

[Pg 247]One of the short pieces, by no means the best, we give whole:

“With one consent let all the earth
The praise of God proclaim,
Who sent the Saviour, by whose birth
To man salvation came.

All nations join and magnify
The great and wondrous love
Of Him who left for us the sky,
And all the joys above.

But vainly thus in hymns of praise
We bear a joyful part,
If while our voices loud we raise,
We lift not up our heart.

We, by a holy life alone,
Our Saviour’s laws fulfil;
By those His glory is best shown
Who best perform His will.

May we to all His words attend
With humble, pious care;
Then shall our praise to heaven ascend,
And find acceptance there.”

We do not suppose that the contents of these Christmas broad-sheets are supplied by the same persons who write the murder-ballads, or the attacks on crinoline. They may be borrowed from well known hymn books for anything we know. But if they are borrowed, we must still think it much to the credit of the selectors, that, where they might have found so much that is objectionable and offensive, they should have chosen as they have done. We only hope that their successors, whoever they may be who will become the caterers for their audiences, will set nothing worse before them.

[Pg 248]Christmas broad-sheets formed an important item in the office of the “Catnach Press,” as the sale was enormous, and Catnach always looked forward for a large return of capital, and a “good clearance” immediately following the spurt for Guy Fawkes’ speeches, in October of each year. But although the sale was very large, it only occupies one “short month.” This enabled them to make Carols a stock job, so that when trade in the Ballad, Sensational, “Gallows,” or any other line of business was dull, they used to fill up every spare hour in the working off or colouring them, so as to be ready to meet the extraordinary demand which was sure to be made at the fall of the year.

Like most of the old English customs, Christmas-carol singing is fast dying out. Old peripatetic stationers well remember the rich harvest they once obtained at Christmas times by carol selling. Now there are very few who care to invest more than a shilling or two at a time on the venture; whereas in times long past, all available capital was readily embarked in the highly-coloured and plain sheets of the birth of our Saviour, with the carol of “Christians awake,” or “The Seven Good Joys of Mary:”—

[Pg 249] “The first good joy our Mary had,
It was the joy of one,
To see her own Son, Jesus,
To suck at her breast-bone.
To suck at her breast-bone, God-man,
And blessed may He be
Both Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
To all eternity.”

Now, whether carol singing has degenerated with carol poetry, and consequently the sale of Christmas carols diminished is a question we need not enter upon; but when we turn to the fine old carols of our forefathers, we cannot help regretting that many of these are buried in the records of the long past.

Here are a couple of verses of one, said to be the first carol or drinking-song composed in England. The original is in Anglo-Norman French:—

[Pg 250] “Lordlings, from a distant home,
To seek old Christmas are we come,
Who loves our minstrelsy—
And here unless report mis-say,
The greybeard dwells; and on this day
Keeps yearly wassail, ever gay
With festive mirth and glee.
****
Lordlings, it is our host’s command,
And Christmas joins him hand in hand,
To drain the brimming bowl;
And I’ll be foremost to obey,
Then pledge we, sirs, and drink away,
For Christmas revels here to day,
And sways without control.

Now wassail to you all! and merry may you be,
And foul that wight befall, who drinks not health to me.”

One can well imagine the hearty feeling which would greet a party of minstrels carolling out such a song as the above in Christmas days of yore; and then contrast the picture with a troupe from St. Giles’s or Whitechapel bawling out “God Rest you Merry Gentlemen!” The very thought of the contrast sends a shudder through the whole human system; and no wonder the first were received with welcome feasting, and the latter driven “with more kicks than half-pence” from the doors.

In an old book of “Christmasse Carolles newely emprinted at London, in the fletestrete at the sygne of the Sonne by Wynkyn de Worde. The yere of our Lorde, m.d.xxi. Quarto.” Is a carol on “Bryngyng in the Bore’s Head”:—

“The bore’s head in hand bring I,
With garlandes gay and rosemary,
I pray you all synge merely,
Qui estis in convivio.
[Pg 251]
The bore’s head, I understande
Is the chiefe servyce in this lande,
Loke wherever it be fande,
Servite cum Contico.

Be gladde, lordes, both more and lasse,
For this hath ordayned our stewarde,
To chere you all this Christmasse
The bore’s head with mustarde.”

[Pg 252]With certain alterations, this carol is still, or at least was very recently, retained at Queen’s College, Oxford, and sung to a cathedral chant of the psalms.

It would occupy too much space to search into the origin of Christmas carols. They are doubtless coeval with the original celebrations of Christmas, first as a strictly Romish sacred ceremony, and afterwards as one of joyous festivity.

 [Pg 253]

This “Moral-Sheet” entitled “THE STAGES OF LIFE: or, The various Ages and Degrees of Human Life explained by these Twelve different Stages, from our Birth to our Graves,” had a great sale.

INFANCY

To 10 Years old.

From 10 to 20 Years old.

From 20 to 30 Years old.

[Pg 254]

From 30 to 40 Years old.

From 40 to 50 Years old.

From 50 to 60 Years old.

From 60 to 70 Years old.

From 70 to 80 Years old.

From 80 to 90 Years old.

 [Pg 255]

From 90 to 100 Years old.

 [Pg 256]

Catnach was now at the height of his fame as a printer of ballads, Christmas-pieces, carols, lotteries, execution papers, dying speeches, catchpennies, primers and battledores, and his stock of type and woodcuts had very considerably increased to meet his business demands. And it may be said that he was the very Napoleon of buyers at sales by auction of “printers’ stock.” On one occasion, when lot after lot was being knocked down to him, one of the “Littlejohn crew” of “knock-out-men” of the period, observed to the auctioneer, “Why, sir, Mr. Catnach is buying up all the lots.” “Yes,” replied the auctioneer, “And what’s more, Mr. Catnach will pay for them and clear away all his lots in the morning;” then adding somewhat pointedly, “which is a thing I can’t say of all parties who attend my sales.”

But although we are informed, vivâ voce of a contemporary, that Jemmy Catnach was so large a buyer at sales by auction of “printers’ stock,” we may, with some degree of safety, come to the conclusion that he could have only bought such lots that would be considered by other master printers as worthless, and that it was the apparent cheapness that would be the incentive for his buying up all the worn-out and battered letter, for Jemmy was a man who hated “innowations” as he used to call improvements, and he, therefore, had a great horror in laying out his money in new and improved manufactured type, because, as he observed, he kept so many standing forms, and when certain sorts ran short he was not particular, and would tell the boys to use anything which would make a good shift. For instance, he never considered a compositor could be aground for a lowercase “l” while he had a figure “1” or a cap “I” to fall back upon; by the same rule, the cap. “O” and figure “0”[Pg 257] were synonymous with “Jemmy;” the lowercase “p,” “b,” “d,” and “q,” would all do duty for each other in turn, and if they could not always find Roman letters to finish a word with, why the compositor knew very well that the “reader” would not mark out Italic, nor wrong founts.

From a small beginner in the world, Catnach was soon able to see his way clear to amass a fortune. He had now established his reputation as a man of enterprise, and he was very sensitive to maintain a sort of shabby-genteel appearance. It was amusing, especially when over his glass, to hear him describe the effect the “awfuls” had on the public. The proprietor of any of our leading journals could not have felt prouder than did Catnach, as he saw drafted from his press the many thousands of varied productions.

We will now briefly allude to the wood-blocks which Catnach had in his possession, and which served for the purpose of illustrating during the time that he had been in business. He had a large collection, such as they were; but as works of art they had little or no pretension, being, upon the whole, of the oddest and most ludicrous character. Those that were intended for the small books were very quaint—as we have shown by the fac-similed specimens we have given—whilst the larger portion, which were chiefly intended for the “awfuls,” were grotesque and hideous in their design and execution. No more ghastly sight could be imagined than one of Jemmy’s embellishments of an execution. It would appear that for the last discharge of the law he had a large collection of blocks which would suit any number of victims who were about to undergo the dread penalty. It mattered little how many Jack Ketch was going to operate upon, wood-blocks to the exact number were always adopted, in[Pg 258] this particular the great “Dying Speech Merchant” would seem to have thought that his honour and reputation were at stake, for he had his network so formed as to be able to secure every information of news that was passing between the friends of the culprits and the prerogative of the Crown. But we are informed that upon one occasion he was nearly entrapped. Three victims were upon the eve of being executed, and in those days—and in later times—it was not an uncommon thing to see the confession and dying speech printed one or two days previous to the event. This we are told by those in the trade was almost necessary, in order that the sheets might be ready for the provinces almost as soon as the sentence of the law had been carried out. It so happened that on the night previous to an execution, one of the culprits was reprieved. It was solely by a piece of good luck that Catnach heard of it. Several sheets had been struck off; and Jemmy was often chaffed about hanging three men instead of two; but our informant assures us that the error was corrected before any of the impressions were dispatched from the office. Had they gone before the public in their original state, the locus standi of the great publisher in Monmouth Court would have been greatly imperilled. To those who are fond of the fine arts, in usum vulgi, Catnach’s embellishments will afford a fund of amusement. Amongst the lot were several well known places, the scenes of horrible and awful crimes, engravings of debauchery and ill-fame, together with an endless number of different kinds, suitable at the shortest possible notice, to illustrate every conceivable and inconceivable subject.

The Seven Dials in general, and “The Catnach Press” in particular, had no dread of copyright law—the principal Librarian of the British Museum, Stationers’, or any other Hall in those[Pg 259] days—and as wood engravings were not to be had then so quickly or cheaply as now-a-days, Jemmy used at times to be his own engraver, and while the compositors were setting up the types, he would carve out the illustration on the back of an old pewter music plate, and by nailing it on to a piece of wood make it into an improvised stereo-plate off-hand, for he was very handy at this sort of work, at which also his sister, with his instruction, could assist; so they soon managed to rough out a figure or two, and when things were dull and slack they generally got one or two subjects ready in stock, such as a highwayman with crape over his face, shooting a traveller, who is falling from his horse near a wide-spreading old elm tree, through which the moon was to be seen peeping; not forgetting to put the highwayman in top boots and making him a regular dandy. This was something after the plan of the artists of the cheap illustrated papers of the present day, who generally anticipate events sometime beforehand to be ready with their blocks. As a proof of this, the editor of the “London, Provincial, and Colonial Press News,” says “I happened to call one day on an artist for the ‘Illustrated Press,’ and found him busily engaged in sketching a funeral procession with some twenty coffins borne on the shoulders of men who were winding their way through an immense crowd. Upon inquiry, I was told that it was intended for the next week’s issue, and was to represent the funeral of the victims of the late dreadful colliery explosion, for although the inquest was only then sitting, and all the bodies had not yet been found, there was sure to be a funeral of that kind when it was all over, and as they did not know how many bodies were to be buried at one time, it was very cleverly arranged to commence the procession from the corner of the block, and so[Pg 260] leave it to the imagination as to how many more coffins were coming in the rear; something after the plan of a small country theatre, when representing Richard the Third, and in the battle scene, after the first two or three of the army had made their appearance, to cry ‘halt!’ very loudly to all those behind who were not seen, and leave the spectators to guess how many hundreds their were to come.”

For the illustrating of catchpennies, broadsides, and street-literature in general, particular kinds of wood-cuts were required. In most cases one block was called upon to perform many parts; and the majority of metropolitan printers, who went in for this work, had only a very limited number of them. Very often the same cuts were repeated over and over again, and made to change sides as one another, and that simply to make a little variation from a ballad or broadside that had been printed at the same office on the day, week, or month previous. It mattered little what the subject was, it required some adornment, in the shape of illustration, to give effect to it. The catchpennies, especially those connected with the awful, were in general very rough productions. A lover strangling his sweetheart with a long piece of rope. A heartless woman murdering an innocent man. Vice punished and virtue rewarded, and similar subjects, were always handled in such a manner as to create a degree of excitement, sympathy, and alarm. The broadsides, generally adorned with some rough outline of the royal arms of England, a crowned king or queen, as the subject might be, received their full share of consideration at the hands of the artist. Scions of royal blood, and those connected with the court, were often painted in colours glaring and attractive, whilst the matter set forth in the letterpress was not always the most flattering or encouraging.

An Account
OF THE
DREADFUL APPARITION

That appeared last night to Henry —— in this street, of Mary ——, the shopkeeper’s daughter round the corner, in a shroud, all covered in white.

The castle clock struck one—the night was dark, drear, and tempestuous.—Henry sat in an antique chamber of it, over a wood fire, which in the stupor of contemplation, he had suffered to decrease into a few lifeless embers; on the table by him lay the portrait of Mary—the features of which were not very perfectly disclosed by a taper, that just glimmered in the socket. He took up the portrait, however, and gazing intensely upon it, till the taper, suddenly burning brighter, discovered to him a phenomenon he was not less terrified than surprised at.—The eyes of the portrait moved;—the features from an angelic smile, changed to a look of solemn sadness; a tear stole down each cheek, and the bosom palpitated as with sighing.

Again the clock struck one!—it had struck the same hour but ten minutes before.—Henry heard the castle gate grate on its hinges—it slammed too—the clock struck one again—and a deadly groan echoed through the castle. Henry was not subject to superstitious fears—neither was he a coward;—yet a hero of romance might have been justified in a case like this, should he[Pg 262] have betrayed fear.—Henry’s heart sunk within him—his knees smote together, and upon the chamber door being opened, and[Pg 263] his name uttered in a hollow voice, he dropped the portrait to the floor; and sat, as if rivetted to the chair, without daring to lift up his eyes. At length, however, as silence again prevailed, he ventured for a moment to raise his eyes, when—my blood freezes as I relate it—before him stood the figure of Mary in a shroud—her beamless eyes fixed upon him with a vacant stare; and her bared bosom exposing a most deadly gash. “Henry!—Henry!!—Henry!!!” she repeated in a hollow tone—“Henry! I come for thee! thou hast often said that death with me was preferable to life without me; come then, and enjoy with me all the ecstacies of love these ghastly features, added to the contemplation of a charnel-house, can inspire;” then grasping his hand with her icy fingers, he swooned; and instantly found himself—stretched on the hearth of his master’s kitchen; a romance in his hand, and the house dog by his side, whose cold nose touching his hand, had awaked him.

———

FRIENDS

It is with feelings of the deepest regret that we are at present compelled, for the support of our friends and families, to offer this simple, but true tale to your notice, trusting, at the same time, that you will be pleased to purchase this paper, it being the only means at present to support the tender thread of our existence, and keep us and our families from utter starvation which at present surrounds us.

Price One Penny.
Printed for Author and Vendor.

[Pg 264]

Murder of Captain Lawson.

Cruel and Inhuman Murder, Last Night.

[Pg 265]

THE SCARBOROUGH TRAGEDY.

Giving an Account how Susan Forster, a Farmer’s Daughter, near Scarborough, was seduced by Mr. Robert Sanders, a Naval Officer, under promise of Marriage.—How she became Pregnant, and the wicked hardened and cruel Wretch appointed her to meet him at a well-known, retired spot, which she unhappily did, and was basely Murdered by him, and buried under a Tree—and of the wonderful manner in which this base Murder was brought to light, and he committed to Gaol.

J. CATNACH, Printer, 2, Monmouth-court, 7 Dials.

[Pg 267]

HORRID MURDER,
Committed by a Young Man on a Young Woman.

George Caddell became acquainted with Miss Price and a degree of intimacy subsisted between them, and Miss Price, degraded as she was by the unfortunate step she had taken, still thought herself an equal match for one of Mr. Caddell’s rank of life. As pregnancy was shortly the result of their intimacy, she repeatedly urged him to marry her, but he resisted her importunities for a considerable time. At length she heard of his paying addresses to Miss Dean, and threatened in case[Pg 268] of his non-compliance, to put an end to all his prospects with that young lady, by discovering everything that had passed between them. Hereupon he formed a horrid resolution of murdering her, for he could neither bear the thought of forfeiting the esteem of a woman whom he loved, nor of marrying one who had been as condescending to another as to himself. So he called on Miss Price on a Saturday and requested her to walk with him in the fields on the following day, in order to arrange a plan for their intended marriage. Miss Price met him at the time appointed, on the road leading to Burton, at a house known by the name of the “Nag’s Head.” Having accompanied her supposed lover into the fields, and walked about till towards evening, they sat down under a hedge, where after a little conversation, Caddell suddenly pulled out a knife and cut her throat, and made his escape, but not before he had waited till she was dead. In the distraction of his mind he left behind him the knife with which he perpetrated the deed, and his Case of Instruments. On the following morning, Miss Price being found murdered in the field, great numbers went to take a view of her body, among whom was the woman of the house where she lodged, who recollected that she said she was going to walk with Mr. Caddell, on which the instruments were examined and sworn to have belonged to him. He was accordingly taken into custody.

J. CATNACH, Printer, Monmouth Court.

[Pg 269]

The Secrets Revealed,
or the
Fashionable Life of Lord & Lady ******.

Dreadful Murder by a Soldier,
Yesterday Morning.

 [Pg 270]

The LIVERPOOL TRAGEDY.

Showing how a Father and Mother
barbarously Murdered their own Son.

A few days ago a sea-faring man, who had just returned to England after an absence of thirty years in the East Indies, called at a lodging-house, in Liverpool, for sailors, and asked for supper and a bed; the landlord and landlady were elderly people, and apparently poor. The young man entered into conversation with them, invited them to partake of his cheer, asked them many questions about themselves and their family, and particularly of a son who had gone to sea when a boy, and[Pg 271] whom they had long given over as dead. At night the landlady shewed him to his room, and when she was leaving him he put a large purse of gold into her hand, and desired her to take care of it till the morning, pressed her affectionately by the hand, and bade her good night. She returned to her husband and shewed the accursed gold: for its sake they mutually agreed to murder the traveller in his sleep.

In the dead of the night, when all was still, the old couple silently creeped into the bed room of their sleeping guest, all was quiet: the landlady approached the bedside, and then cut his throat, severed his head from his body; the old man, upwards of seventy years of age, holding the candle. They put a washing-tub under the bed to catch his blood, and then ransacking the boxes of the murdered man they found more gold, and many handsome and costly articles, the produce of the East Indies, together, with what proved afterwards, to be a marriage certificate.

In the morning early, came a handsome and elegantly dressed lady, and asked, in a joyous tone, for the traveller who arrived the night before. The old people seemed greatly confused, but said he had risen early and gone away. “Impossible!” said the lady, and bid them go to his bed-room and seek him, adding, “you will be sure to know him as he has a mole on his left arm in the shape of a strawberry. Besides, ’tis your long lost son who has just returned from the East Indies, and I am his wife, and the daughter of a rich planter long settled and very wealthy. Your son has come to make you both happy in the evening of your days, and he resolved to lodge with you one night as a stranger, that he might see you unknown, and judge of your conduct to wayfaring mariners.”

[Pg 272]The old couple went up stairs to examine the corpse, and they found the strawberry mark on its arm, and they then knew that they had murdered their own son, they were seized with horror, and each taking a loaded pistol blew out each other’s brains.

Printed by J. Catnach.—Sold by Marshall, Bristol.

Just Published.—A Variety of Children’s Books, Battledores, Lotteries, and a quantity of Popular Songs set to Music. Cards, &c., Printed cheap.

[Pg 273]

Text of Image

 [Pg 274]

The Arrest of the Prisoner.

“For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ.”

The prisoner was arrested while drinking with his companions in a public-house, and after two Magistrates had heard the evidence he was fully committed to the Assizes to be tried before my Lord Judge and a British Jury, at the County Hall.

 [Pg 275]

THE TRIAL!

———
“Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein.”
———

At an early hour on the morning of the trial, the Court was crowded to excess, the Judge taking his seat at nine o’clock. The Prisoner on being placed at the bar, pleaded “Not Guilty,” in a firm tone of voice. The Trial lasted many hours, when, having been found ‘GUILTY.’ the learned Judge addressed the prisoner as follows:—

The County Gaol.

 [Pg 276]

The Home of the Good Man.

“Sundry blessings hang about his Throne, that speak him full of Grace.”

Letter Written by the Prisoner after his Condemnation.

Condemned Cell.

Dear Sister,

When you receive this you will see that I am condemned to die; my Father and Mother are coming to take their last farewell, and I should very much liked to have seen you, but knowing that you are on the eve of bringing into the world another to your family, I beg that you will refrain from coming; if that you do serious may be the consequences, therefore, dear Sister, do not attempt to come. I hope that no one will upbraid you for what I have done; So God bless you and yours; farewell! dear Sister, for ever.

J. WARD.

 [Pg 277]

THE EXECUTION.

“A threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

The Execution of the above prisoner took place early this morning at eight o’clock, the people flocking to the scene at an early hour. As the period of the wretched man’s departure drew near, the chaplain became anxious to obtain from him a confession of the justice of his sentence. He acknowledged the justice of his sentence, and said he was not fit to live, and that he was afraid to die, but he prayed to the Lord for forgiveness, and hoped through the merits of his Saviour that his prayer would be heard. Having received the sacrament, the executioner was not long in performing his office. The solemn procession moved towards the place of Execution, the chaplain repeating the confession words, “In the midst of life we are in death.” Upon ascending the platform he appeared to tremble very much. The cap being drawn over his eyes and the signal given, the wretched man was launched into eternity. He died almost without a struggle. After the body had hanged the usual time it was cut down and buried according to the sentence in the gaol.

 [Pg 278]

The Home of the Bad Man.

“One Sin doth another provoke.”

Copy of Verses.

 [Pg 280]

[Pg 281]

 [Pg 282]

A short time since, some of the moral-mending crew of Parsons, Magistrates, Quakers, Shakers, Puritans, Old Maids, and highly respectable, and, now retired from active business “Young Ladies,” who now assume a virtue, though they have it not, and a variety of other goodly persons ever ready to compound for sins they are inclined to, by exposing those they have no mind to, living not 50 miles hence, determined on reforming doings, manners, and customs:—

IN THIS TOWN!

and a meeting in consequence took place at “Rosebud Cottage” the residence of Miss Mary Ann Lovitt, when, as a first step, it was determined to remove the facilities and accommodation[Pg 283] afforded a certain—You-know-what! crime very general in this neighbourhood by hunting out of the town:—

A CERTAIN LADY ABBESS!!

who keeps a very genteel house for the accommodation of “single young men and their wives” and one who never offends, or bores her patrons by asking for a sight of their ‘Marriage Certificates.’

At the meeting, the armchair was taken by the Rev. John —— —— —— B.A., of this parish, Mr. Churchwarden Smith, and Mr. J. Brown, the draper, supporting him on either side; when a variety of methods were suggested for the removal of the alledged social evil, one thought entreaty might best answer, another was for force, a third recommended the Religious Tract Society, while a fourth was for the aid of the Very Rev. Rowland H———l, Miss A. and Miss B. were both loud in their praise of the Rev. Jabez B———g, mention was made of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, at length the Reverend Divine Chairman was called on for his opinion, when he—conscious of the integrity and purity of his own life and experience! at once pronounced:—

A BURNING SHAME!!!

as the only effectual remedy for the ever increasing evil. This was indeed a harsh measure, and some of the worthies looked a variety of colours on the occasion, but as none had the moral courage for personal character sake to oppose the parson’s proposition, it was carried unanamously. A board bearing on it in legible characters:—

BEWARE OF A BAD HOUSE!!!!

was soon prepared, and with a lanthorn attached, was paraded[Pg 284] before the house of the fair—but frail duenna’s mansion. It did not remain long in this position as the following letter from the lady abbess of the Agapemone! soon had its deserved effect:—

It is almost needless to say that the board and lanthorne were very soon removed, and, that, the old, and accommodating lady is doing a good business again:—

THUS CONSCIOUS DOES MAKE COWARDS OF US ALL.

[Pg 285]

 [Pg 286]

About a week since, a dashing young blade, dressed in the very height of the prevailing fashion, having long black and curly hair, together with a pair of out-and-out slap-up whiskers and moustaches, and calling himself Count de Coburgh Aingarpatzziwutchz, and professing to be a foreigner and a man of enormous fortune, and one of the haut ton! took up his lodging at the principal inn, The —— Arms, in this town, where the swell foreigner looking blade soon made a great stir among the ladies of the place; the old, the young, the tall, the short, the fair, and the dark, were all alike smitten over head and ears in love with the distinguished visitor, but none seemed to make so much impression upon his heart as Mary Jane Jemima S——w, the youngest of the landlord’s daughters of[Pg 287] The —— Arms Inn, of this town. She is well known in this neighbourhood to be very handsome, with light brown hair all in ringlets, light blue eyes, a fine aquiline nose, and of a tall and commanding figure, aged about sweet 17 years of age, and very tender.

The foreign Count! soon won the affections of the young lady, and while she was all cock-a-hoop at the thought of having such a fine handsome young blade for a husband, all the other women of the town, old and young, were ready to tear out her eyes and boil them in their own blood with womanly vexation and revenge, and spoke of the intended bridegroom as the Count Don’t-know-who!

On Thursday the bells of the old parish church rang merrily ding!-dong!!-ding!!! and the happy couple were married, our old and respected Rector officiating; assisted by his Curate, Rev. Mr. ——, and all the parish was gay from one end to the other.

[Pg 288]A few hours after the ceremony had taken place, whilst the happy couple were feasting on all of the very best with their friends and relations, a stranger, fat and greasy, and looking like a master or journeyman butcher in his Sunday clothes, and about forty years of age, and black whiskers, made his appearance, and not being acquainted with the occasion that brought the party together, without hesitation exclaimed, loud enough to be heard by all in the room, “Well, brother-blade, you are a lucky fellow! the business about Sal Saunders is all settled to our satisfaction, the lawyer made a good job of it for you, poleaxed the lot on the other side in prime style, and skinned ’em alive, so you may now return home to Whitechapel and put on your blue apron and steel.”—The company stood aghast, the bride fainted, and all was confusion. At length it came out that the newly-married man had a wife and four children at home, and that his visit to the above town was in consequence of a woman swearing a child to him. In the midst of the confusion which this discovery occasioned, the bridegroom and his brother slaughterman from Whitechapel—which is in London—made a sudden retreat, and—have not since been heard of.

[Pg 289]

THE EFFECTS OF LOVE.

SAD SHOCKING NEWS!

CRUEL SEDUCTION: Dreadful Warning to all Young
Women in this Neighbourhood to Beware of
Young Men’s Deluding and Flattering
Tongues.

The following melancholy account of her cruel seduction and desertion by her base lover was forwarded to that very worthy man Mr. —— a churchwarden, well-known and respected by all in this neighbourhood by Miss S——h W——r, the night before she committed suicide.

Printed in London for the Venders.

 [Pg 291]

SHOCKING RAPE
AND
DREADFUL MURDER OF TWO LOVERS.

Showing how John Hodges, a Farmer’s Son,
Committed a Rape upon Jane Williams,
and afterwards murdered her and
her lover, William Edwards,
in a field near Paxton.

This is a most revolting murder. It appears Jane Williams was keeping company, and was shortly to be married to William Edwards, who was in the employment of Farmer Hodges. For[Pg 292] some time a jealousy existed in John Hodges, who made vile proposals to the young girl, who although of poor parents was strictly virtuous. The girl’s father also worked on Farmer Hodges’ estate. On Thursday last she was sent to the farm to obtain some things for her mother, who was ill; it was 9 o’clock in the evening when she set out, a mile from the farm. Going across the fields she was met by the farmer’s son, who made vile proposals to her, which she not consenting to, he threw her down, and accomplished his vile purpose. In the meantime her lover had been to her house, and finding she was gone to the farm, went to meet her. He found her in the field crying, and John Hodges standing over her with a bill-hook, saying he would kill her if she ever told. No one can tell the feelings of the lover, William Edwards. He rushed forward, when Hodges, with the hook, cut the legs clean from his body, and with it killed the poor girl, and then run off. Her father finding she did not return, went to look for her, when the awful deeds were discovered. Edwards was still alive, but died shortly afterwards from loss of blood, after giving his testimony to the magistrates. The farmer’s son was apprehended, and has been examined and committed to take his trial at the next assizes.

Thousands of persons followed the unfortunate lovers to the grave, where they were both buried together.

COPY OF VERSES.

 [Pg 294]

A Funny DIALOGUE

BETWEEN A FAT BUTCHER And A

MACKEREL In Newport Market Yesterday.

Butcher.—Well, Mr. Mackerel, pray let me ask you how you come to show your impudent face among those who don’t want to see you or any of your crew?

Mackerel.—That my company is not agreeable to many such as you I very well know; but here I am, and will keep my place in spite of you. Don’t think to frighten me with your lofty looks, Mr. Green. You are an enemy to the poor, I am their true friend, and I will be in spite of you.

Butcher.—I will soon see the end of you and your vain boasting. What’s the poor to me?

Mackerel.—I and thousands of my brethren are come to town for the sole good of the industrious poor. We will soon pull down your high prices, your pride and consequence, and Melt your fat off your overgrown Carcass. I am their sworn friend, and although you are biting off your tongue with vexation, yet I am determined they shall have a cheap Meal—good, sweet, and wholesome—put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Butcher.—Aye, aye. You are a saucy set, confound you altogether. Oddzbobs, I wish the Devil had the whole of your disagreeable tribe.

Mackerel.—I would advise you, Mr. Green, not to show your teeth when you can’t bite. Millions of my friends are on their way to town to make the poor rejoice. We have had a fine seed time, everything looks promising. Meat must and will come down. The poor will sing for joy, and you may go hang yourself in your garters.

Catnach, Printer, 2, Monmouth Court,
Cards, Bills, &c., Printed on Low Terms.

 [Pg 295]

Catnach, to the day of his retirement from business in 1838, when he purchased the freehold of a disused public-house, which had been known as the Lion Inn, together with the grounds attached at Dancer’s Hill, South Mimms, near Barnet, in the county of Middlesex, worked and toiled in the office of the “Catnach Press,” in which he had moved as the pivot, or directing mind, for a quarter of a century. He lived and died a bachelor. His only idea of all earthly happiness and mental enjoyment was now to get away in retirement to a convenient distance from his old place of business, so to give him an opportunity occasionally to go up to town and have a chat and a friendly glass with one or two old paper-workers and ballad-writers, and a few others connected with his peculiar trade who had shown any disposition to work when work was to be done. To them he was always willing to give or advance a few pence or shillings, in money or stock, and a glass—

“Affliction’s sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!”

But Jemmy knew the men that were “skulkers,” as he termed them, and there was no coin, stock, or a glass for them. He invariably drank whiskey, a spirit not in general demand in England in those days. Gin was then, as now, the reigning favourite with the street folks. When the question was put to him in reference to his partiality to whiskey, he always replied—the Scotch blood proudly rising in his veins, and with a strong Northumberland burr, which never wholly forsook him, particularly when warmed by argument or drink—that, “He disdained to tipple with ‘stuff,’ by means of which all the women of the town got drunk. I am of Catnach. Yes! there’s Catnach blood in me. Catnach—King Catnach—Catnach, King of the[Pg 296] Picts. We descend in a right straight line from the Picts. That’s the sort of blood-of-blood that flows in the veins of all the true-bred Catnachs.” Jemmy would be for continually arguing when in his cups, and the old and the more artful of the street-folk would let him have all the say and grandeur that he then felt within him on the subject, well knowing that they would be much more likely to have their glasses replenished by agreeing with him than by contradicting him. Even in his sober moments Jemmy always persisted, right or wrong, that the Catnachs, or Catternachs, were descended direct from a King of the Picts. Yet, what is somewhat anomalous, he was himself a rigid churchman and a staunch old Tory, “one of the olden time,” and “as full of the glorious Constitution as the first volume of Blackstone.”

On Catnach’s retirement from the business, he left it to Mrs. Annie Ryle, his sister, charged, nevertheless, to the amount of £1,000 payable at his death to the estate of his niece, Marion Martha Ryle. In the meanwhile Mr. James Paul acted as managing man for Mrs. Ryle. This Mr. Paul—of whom Jemmy was very fond, and rumour saith, had no great dislike to the mother—had grown from a boy to a man in the office of the “Catnach Press.” He was therefore, well acquainted with the customers, by whom he was much respected; and it was by his tact and judgment that the business was kept so well together. He married a Miss Crisp, the daughter of a publican in the immediate neighbourhood.

Catnach did not long enjoy or survive his retirement. After the novelty of looking, as the poet Cowper puts it, and no doubt in his case found it, “Through the loop-holes of retreat, to see the stir of the Great Babel, and not feel the crowd,” had worn[Pg 297] itself out, “James Catnach, Gentleman, formerly of Monmouth Court, Monmouth Street, Printer,” grew dull in his “Old Bachelor’s Box;” he was troubled with hypochondriasis, and a liver overloaded with bile, and was further off than ever from being a happy man. He had managed to rake and scrape together—as far as we can get any knowledge—some £5,000 or £6,000, although £10,000 and upwards is mostly put down to him. However, he had grabbed for and caught a fair amount of “siller and gold,” but it failed to realize to him—

An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!

No! all he had realized was that unenviable position so popularly known as of a man not knowing what to do with himself. His visits to town were now much more frequent and of longer duration, and for hours he would sit and loiter about the shops and houses of his old neighbours, so that he might catch a glimpse, or enjoy a friendly chat with his old friends and customers. At length he got sick at heart, “wearied to the bone,” and sighed for the bustle of London Life.

From the following letter written to his sister, Mrs. Ryle, in 1840, and now before us, we glean something of his state of mind and bodily health:—

Ultimately Catnach hired the rooms he speaks about in the body of his letter to his sister, which were on the first floor of No. 6, Monmouth Court. All the vacant space in his old premises being now fully occupied by Mrs. Ryle, and her assistants, now “the humble cottage fenc’d with osiers round,” which to his leisure afforded no pleasure, was entirely deserted, and in London he fretted out the remaining portion of his life. He soon grew peevish, and his brain got a little out of balance, then he listlessly wandered in and out of the streets, courts, and alleys, “infirm of purpose.” On stormy days and nights to stand and view the lightning from Waterloo Bridge was his special delight, and wonder. His temper and liver were now continually[Pg 299] out of order, and which whiskey, even “potations pottle deep,” failed to relieve. At length he died of jaundice, in the very London court in which he had muck’d and grubbed for the best part of his life, on the first day of February, 1841. Like other great men of history he has several locales mentioned as his final resting-place—Hornsey, Barnet, South Mimms, &c.

But Catnach lies buried in Highgate Cemetery, in one of the two plots that Mrs. Ryle purchased sometime previous to her brother’s death. The official number of the grave is 256, Square 29, over which is placed a flat stone, inscribed:—

IN MEMORY OF
JAMES CATNACH,
Of Dancer’s Hill.
DIED 1st FEBRUARY, 1841,
Aged 49.

ANNE RYLE,
Sister to the above, and widow of Joseph Ryle, who died in
India, 10th October, 1823. She died 20th April, 1870,
Aged 75.

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.

[Pg 300]The freehold in the other plot of ground, after Catnach’s death, was transferred to Mr. Robert Palmer Harding, the accountant of London, who married Catnach’s niece. The stone records the death of Elizabeth Cornelia, third daughter of Robert Palmer Harding and Marion Martha Harding, born 9 June, 1848, died 8 of November, 1848; and Greville, second son of the above, born 29 May, 1856, died 3 September, 1856. This grave is now numbered 5179. We have been thus minute in respect to Catnach’s grave, from the circumstance of our having received so many contradictory statements as to its whereabouts. But however, we have removed all doubt from our mind by a personal visit to the Highgate Cemetery where under the guidance of the very civil and obliging superintendent of the grounds, Mr. W. F. Tabois, we were conducted to the spot we required, then introduced to Mr. Marks, the sexton, “here man and boy thirty years,” and whom we found very intelligent and communicative on various subjects—

“From grave to gay, from lively to severe.”

After Catnach’s death, Mr. James Paul entered into partnership with Mrs. Ryle, and then the business was carried on under the title and style of A. Ryle and Paul. In 1845 the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Paul receiving £800 in settlement. He then entered into the public line taking the Spencer’s Arms, at the corner of the Monmouth Court. A son that was born to him in 1847, he had christened James Catnach Paul. He died in the year 1870, just six weeks after Mrs. Ryle, and lies buried in the next grave but one to Catnach and his sister.

After Mr. Paul had left the business it was carried on as Ryle & Co., and ultimately became the property of Mr. W. S. Fortey, who still carries on the old business in the same quarter.

[Pg 301]For the purpose of clearing up, if possible, some contradictory statements, a few years ago we made personal search through the musty-fusty red-tapeism of Doctor’s Commons for the Will and Testament—or “Last Dying Speech” of “James Catnach, of Dancer’s Hill, South Mimms, in the county of Middlesex, Gentleman, formerly of Monmouth Court, Monmouth Street, Printer,” an office copy of which, together with Probate and Administration Act, we give below, by which it will be seen that the Personal Effects are sworn to as under three hundred pounds. But this gives us no idea of the value of his “Freehold, Copyhold, or Leasehold Estate” mentioned in the body of the Will.

“Extracted from the principal Registry
of Her Majesty’s Court of Probate.

“In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury—

“This is the last Will and Testament of me JAMES CATNACH of Dancers Hill, South Mimms in the County of Middlesex Gentleman formerly of Monmouth Court Monmouth Street Printer I direct that my just debts funeral and testamentary expences be paid as soon as conveniently may be after my decease and subject thereto I give devise and bequeath all my real and personal Estate whatever and wheresoever and of what nature or kind soever to my Sister Anne the Widow of Joseph Ryle now residing in Monmouth Court aforesaid her heirs executors and administrators according to the nature and qualities thereof respectively In trust nevertheless for her Daughter Marion Martha Ryle her heirs executors administrators and assigns respectively when she shall attain the[Pg 302] age of twenty one years absolutely with power in the meantime to apply the rents interest dividends or proceeds thereof for and towards the maintenance education and advancement of the said Marion Martha Ryle and notwithstanding the private means of my said Sister may be adequate to such purpose but if the said Marion Martha Ryle shall depart this life before she shall attain the age of twenty one years then I give devise and bequeath all my said real and personal Estate to my said Sister her heirs executors administrators and assigns absolutely I hereby direct that during the minority of the said Marion Martha Ryle it shall be lawful for the said Anne Ryle her heirs executors administrators to demise or lease all or any part of my freehold copyhold or leasehold Estate for any term consistent with the tenure thereof not exceeding twenty one years so that on every such demise the best yearly rent be reserved that can be obtained for the property which shall be therein comprised without taking any fine or premium and so that the tenant or lessee be not made dispunishable for waste I hereby nominate constitute and appoint my said Sister sole Executrix of this my Will and hereby revoking all former and other Wills by me at any time heretofore made I declare this to be my last Will and Testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand the twenty second day of January one thousand eight hundred and thirty nine—JAMES CATNACH—Signed and acknowledged by the above named James Catnach as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us present at the same time who in his presence and the presence of each other have hereunto set our names as Witnesses—William Kinsey 13 Suffolk St. Pall Mall Solr.—Wm. Tookey his Clerk.”

 [Pg 303]

[The Probate and Administration Act.]

“Extracted from the principal Registry
of Her Majesty’s Court of Probate.

“In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury—

April, 1842.

“JAMES CATNACH—On the second day of April administration (with the Will annexed) of the Goods Chattels and Credits of James Catnach formerly of Monmouth Court Monmouth Street Printer but late of Dancers Hill South Mimms both in the county of Middlesex Gentleman deceased was granted to William Kinsey Esquire the Curator or Guardian lawfully assigned to Marion Martha Ryle Spinster a Minor the Niece and usufructuary Universal Legate until she shall attain the age of twenty one years and the absolute Universal Legatee on attaining that age named in the said Will for the use and benefit of the said minor and until she shall attain the age of twenty one years have been first sworn duly to administer Anne Ryle Widow the Sister sole Executrix Universal Legatee In trust and the contingent universal Legatee named in the said Will and also the natural and lawful Mother and next of kin of the said minor having first renounced the probate and execution of the said Will and the Letters of administration (with the said Will annexed) of the goods of the said deceased and also the Curation or Guardianship of the said Minor and consented (as by Acts of Court appear)—

EFFECTS UNDER THREE HUNDRED POUNDS.

 [Pg 304]

It is gratifying to be able to record that what the late Mr. Catnach was to the masses in the way of news provider some fifty years ago, the penny papers are now, with this exception, that the former tended to lower and degrade their pursuit after knowledge, the latter, on the contrary, improve and elevate them while they amuse and instruct all who peruse their contents. With the march of intellect, and the thirst for knowledge blended with the desire for truth, out went, to a great extent, the penny broad-sheet. Several persons made the attempt to revive it long after the death of the great original Jemmy Catnach, but without success.

[Pg 305]

[Pg 306]

INDEX.

Adelaide, Queen, 89

A Funny Dialogue, 294

Alnwick—The Borough of, 1
"St. Michael’s Church, 2
"Parish Register, 2
"Catnach’s shop in, 3
"Register of Death, 3
"Printing Press in, 4
"The Catnach Press, 4
"The Castle, 6
"The Abbey, 6
"Davison’s business, 9
"Election at, 74

Attack on William IV, 88


Ballads:—Banks of the Nile, 239
"Crazy Jane, 240
"Death of Nelson, 236
"Drink to me eyes, 228
"Gallant Sailor, 224
"Meet me Willow Glen, 227
"Mistletoe Bough, 229
"Mountain Maid, 226
"O Rare Turpin, 225
"Rose will cease to blow, 230
"Scarlet Flower, 237
"Sun that lights Roses, 233
"The Thorn, 238
"True Hearted Sailor, 231
"When Bibo though fit, 232
"Woodpecker, The, 234
"Ye Topers all, 235

Benton, Mrs. nee Elizabeth Catnach, 38

Bewick, T., wood-engraver, 14

Bewick Collector, The, 16

Bewick:—See Books

Bewick’s Illustrations—See Books.

Bishop and Williams, 84

Black Sal and Dusty Bob, 45

Books printed by John Catnach:—
"Beauties of Natural History 4
"Chevy Chase, 34
"Cock Robin, 8
"Dr. Johnson’s Works, 34
"Hermit of Warkworth, 5
"Life of Thompson, 34
"Stockdale’s Poems, 4

——By Catnach and Davison:—
"Beattie’s Minstrel, 9
"Blair’s Grave, 9
"Burn’s Poems, 13
"Gray’s Elegy, 9

——By Davison:—
"Crazy Jane, 12
"Ferguson’s Poems, 14
"Guess Book, The, 17, 32
"Halfpenny Books, 16
"Northumberland Minstrel, 15
"Repository, The, 11

——Illustrated by Bewick.
"Beauties of Natural History, 4
"Burn’s Poems, 13
"Blair’s Grave, 9
"Hermit of Warkworth, 5
"Repository, The, 11
"Stockdale’s Poems, 4

Brown, Mrs., murdered, 91

Brunswick Theatre, The, 77

Burkers, The, 84

Burnie, Sir Richard, 43

Burradon Ghost, The, 4


Caroline, Queen, The trial of, 46
Verses on, 47, 48, 50
Death of, 49, 51

Cato Street Conspiracy, The, 45, 46

Catchpennies:—Apparition, The, 261
"Burning Shame, 281
"Cruel Murder, 264
"Execution of Ward, 273
"Extraordinary Marriage, 285
"Horrid Murder, 267
"Liverpool Tragedy, 270
"Murder by a Soldier, 269
"Murder of Capt. Lawson 264
"Murder of Two Lovers, 291
[Pg 307]"Secrets Revealed, 269
"Scarborough Tragedy, 265
"Shocking News, 289
"Shocking Rape, 291

Catnach, John—the father, born, 1
"Married, 2
"At Alnwick, 3, 4, 5, 8
"At Newcastle, 33
"A Bankrupt, 35
"In London, 35, 36
"Death of, 37

Catnach, James, born 1792, 2
"His early life, 38
"Arrives in London, 40
"Imprisoned for 6 months, 43
"Queen Caroline, 47
"Verses on Caroline, 48
"Life in London, 57, 63
"At Alnwick, 75, 76
"And Mother Cummins, 81
"His education, 94
"Nursery books, 94
"Christmas Carols, 242
"His Woodcuts, 257
"Dying Speeches, 258
"His Retirement, 295
"At Dancer’s Hill, 296
"Letter to his sister, 297
"Return to London, 298
"Death of, 299
"Will of the, 301

Charlotte, The Princess of, 42
"""Death of, 43

Christmas Carols, 241 to 255

Collins, Dennis, 88

Copy of Affectionate Verses, 65, 66, 67, 68, 80, 292

Clennell, Luke, 4

Corder, Wm., The murderer, 79
""Execution of, 80

Cruikshank, George, 54

Cruikshank, Robert, 55

Cubitt’s Treadmill, 64

Cummins “Mother”, 81
and Catnach, 81-2-3

Davison of Alnwick:—
Davison and Catnach, 1
"Partnership, 9-11
"His chemistry, 9
"Death of, 15

Dennis Collins, 88


Earl Grey, 87

Executions—Public of:—
Bishop and Williams, 85
Courvoisier, 92
Corder, 92
Fauntleroy, Mr. H., banker, 73
Five Pirates, The, 92
Greenacre, 92
Muller, 92
Mannings, 92
Pegsworth, 91
Thurtell, 72


False News, circulating of, 14

Flying Stationer, The, 66

Fortey, Mr., 242-300


George the III, death of, 45

George the IV, 45

Goldie, Mr., of Alnwick, 94

Graham, printer, Alnwick, 39

Greenacre and Gale, 91

Gurney, Mr. Baron, 89


Haines, Mrs. nee Mary Catnach, 38

“Hanging Matches”, 65

Hugo, Rev. Thomas, 13, 15
"his Bewick collector, 16, 39


Jane Williams, 292

Juvenile Books:—
A Apple Pie, 177
Butterfly’s Ball, 163
Cinderella, 203
Cock Robin, 199
Easter Gift, The, 171
Golden Pippin, The, 113
Good Child’s Alphabet, 207
Guess Book, The, 17
Jack Jingle, 197
Jerry Diddle, 129
Jumping Joan, 145
[Pg 308]Mother Hubbard, 187
New Year’s Gift, 205
Nurse Love-child’s, 97
Nursery Rhymes, 193
Red Riding Hood, 201
Simple Simon, 195


Kent, Duke of, his death, 45


Life in London, by Pierce Egan, 52
on the Stage, 54
Catnach’s version 57, 63
Thackeray on, 64

Likeness of the Murderer, 69
""William Corder, 79

Lindsay, Printer, &c., 4

Long, Song Seller, The, 221


Marten, Maria, Murder of, 78
""Verses on, 80

Mayhew’s “London Labour”, 69, 92

Morgan, John, Poet!, 43, 47, 82


Paul, Mr., 296, 300

Pitts, John, 40
"Old Mother, 41

Pizzey, Sausage Maker, The 43, 44

Pocock, Mr. C. J. of Brighton, 57


Red Barn, The, 78

Reform Bill, The, 87

Ryle, Mrs. Anne, 296, 297
"death of, 299
"Marion Martha, 296


Sarah Gale, 91

Seven Dials, The Bards of, 40, 41
""The Trade in, 42
""and Queen Caroline, 47

Shocking Rape and Murder, 291

Smith, Mark, of Alnwick:—
"Apprenticed to Catnach, 9
"in London, 35
"in Alnwick, 74
"his autograph, 39
"the death of, 74

Songs, 3 yards-a-penny, 222


Thistlewood, The Conspirator, 46

Thompson, John, Life of, 34

Thurtell, and Weare, 70
"Execution of, 72

Tom and Jerry, 53, 55
"the Tears of, 55

Treadmill, The, 64


Vestris, Madame, 89

Vint, John, Printer, &c., 4


Walker, Mr., Paternoster Row, 35

Weare, Mr., Murder of, 70

William the IV, 88

Willoughby family Alnwick, 36