Gossip in the First Decade of Victoria's Reign Part 8

Mr. White: Was it a week, a month, or three or four months ago?

Witness: I cannot say.

Mr. White: Where was your master's sword at the time you saw it last?

Witness: When I went to Windsor.

Mr. White: When was that?

Witness: I cannot exactly recollect, and then he added, that about a week since, he had sent from Windsor to the Palace, a portmanteau containing his linen, and three pairs of trousers, four of stockings, and three cravats were missing. The padlock of the portmanteau had been forced by the sword having been applied to it. The sword had broken in the attempt. He had also lost five 10 sous pieces, which had been found upon the prisoner.

Mr. White: What is the value of the articles you have lost?

Witness: I don't know; but I should like to give three guineas to get them back.

Mr. White: Can you swear to the French coin found upon the prisoner as being yours?

The witness was then shown the coin, and he said that he certainly could. They had been taken from his bedroom.

Mr. White: Can any information be given as to the manner in which the prisoner gained access to the Palace? c.o.x, one of the porters to the Palace, said that the princ.i.p.al entrance door was always locked, and the key in his possession. At 5 o'clock on Sat.u.r.day morning, just as he was about to get out of bed, the prisoner opened the door of his room, as witness considered, to obtain the key; his face and hands were disguised with soot and bear's grease, and he was asked whether he came to sweep a chimney: he did not make any answer, but endeavoured to escape.

Inspector Steed, A division, said that upon examining the gates of the princ.i.p.al entrance of the Palace, he found that, at the Marble Arch, there was a vacuum sufficient to admit a boy into the Palace, without any inconvenience.

Mr. White: And is there no sentry at this gate?

Witness: There are two.

The inspector said that he had examined the boy's boots, and the gravel upon them corresponded with that lately laid down close to the Marble Arch. The boots had been taken off by the prisoner, and left in one of the apartments appropriated to the use of the porters of the Palace.

Mr. Griffiths, builder, Coventry Street, said that the lad had been in his employment for a few months; he had always expressed his intention to get into the interior of the Palace by some means or other; he was a clever lad, and had made a sketch of the exterior, and a view of the enclosure fronting the Palace. He had left his service two days since, and witness was very much distressed, as were his parents, to know what had become of him. Upon reading the accounts in the newspapers, he immediately went to Tothill Fields, and identified him, much to the gratification of his father, who supposed that he had drowned himself, the latter having, on account of his son's bad conduct, turned him out of doors.

The Magistrate, after telling the boy that he would, most likely, be committed for trial, asked him what he could say in his defence.

Prisoner: I wished to see the Palace, and I went in with a man in a fustian jacket. I had the whole range of the Palace for a day or two, but the money found upon me I picked up in one of the rooms.

Mr. White: Tell me the truth, for I am about to send you for trial.

Prisoner: Oh, very well; with all my heart.

He was fully committed to the Westminster Sessions, and all parties bound over to prosecute.

He was tried on 28 Dec., and was most ably defended by his Counsel, Mr.

Prendergast, who turned everything to ridicule, and the jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty, regarding the escapade in the light of a youthful folly, and being, also, mindful of the fact that the boy did not enter the Palace for the purpose of theft.

But we shall hear of THE BOY JONES again.

CHAPTER VIII.

Death of Lord Norbury-Birth of photography-Experimental street pavements-Forecast of the Queen's marriage-Sad story of Lady Flora Hastings-Story of a climbing boy-Van Amburgh-Embanking the Thames-Victoria Park-Robbery of gold dust.

In a book, professedly of Gossip, politics should be strictly kept in the background-but at this time Ireland was seething with sedition. Still I should hardly have adverted to it, had not the deliberate and brutal murder of the Earl of Norbury, on 1 Jan., set all tongues wagging. His Lordship was walking in the shrubbery, near his own house at Kilbeggan, in the county of Meath, talking to his steward, and pointing out to him some trees he wished to have cut down, when some miscreant, behind a hedge, fired a blunder-buss loaded with swan shot at him, and he fell, mortally wounded. He lived for 43 hours afterwards-but his a.s.sa.s.sin ran away and escaped; nor, in spite of large rewards offered, was he ever discovered.

Photography may be said to have been practically born early in this year, for, on 7 Jan., the French Academy reported on the invention of M.

Daguerre, by which the pictures of the camera lucida were rendered permanent. All former attempts may be regarded as scientific dilletanteism and nothing more. The earliest known pictures caused by light on a sensitive surface were made by Thomas Wedgwood (a son of Josiah, the famous potter), whose researches were published in 1802 in the _Journal of the Royal Inst.i.tution_, under the t.i.tle: "An account of a Method of copying Paintings upon Gla.s.s, and making Profiles by the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver: with Observations by H. Davy."

Afterwards, came Niceph.o.r.e Niepce, of Chalon sur Saone, who produced permanent light pictures in 1814, and he and Daguerre went into partnership in this matter, in 1829. Fox Talbot was the first to invent a negative photograph, and he read a paper on "Photogenic Drawings"

before the Royal Society, on 31 Jan., this year; and that scientific investigation of the new wonder excited the attention, even of amateurs, is shown by a letter in the _Times_ of 21 Feb.:

"SIR,-Seeing in a newspaper, last week, that a German had found out M.

Daguerre's secret, I was so impressed with that testimony to the possibility of _seizing a shadow_, that I thought over all the little I knew of light, colours and chymistry. The next day, I took a piece of writing paper, hastily prepared by myself, placed it behind the lens of a _camera obscura_, made on the spur of the moment, and obtained a satisfactory result; for the trees, in front of my house, were produced, but not the parts agitated by the wind. Since that, I have obtained, progressively improving, several landscapes, which may be called, most appositely, 'lucigraphs.' I mention my humble effort as corroborative of the reality, or feasibility of M. Daguerre's beautiful discovery; and I can readily conceive that, in a very short time, the traveller's portmanteau will not be complete without the very portable means of procuring a lucigraph at pleasure.-Yours, etc., CLERICUS, Welney, Wisbeach." This gentleman's prophecy has, long since, been verified, as the "Kodakers" all over the world can testify. But the first public experiment in England (if we exclude Wedgwood's) was made, on Sept. 13, 1839, when M. St. Croix exhibited the whole process of Daguerreotype, in presence of a select party of scientific men and artists. He also succeeded in producing a picture of the place of meeting; No. 7, Piccadilly.

People were beginning to wake up as to social improvements, and the better paving of, at least, the most public thoroughfares, was loudly called for. Hitherto people had been content with the old cobble stones, and wide kennels, or gutters-but henceforth there was to be inaugurated a newer and better _regime_, as we learn from the _Observer_ of 6 Jan.:

"EXPERIMENTAL PAVEMENT OF OXFORD STREET.-This, doubtless, the most extraordinary and novel undertaking which has ever been attempted in the annals of road making, is, to the gratification, not only to the respectable inhabitants of Oxford Street, but to a curious public, at last, completed. On Friday (4 Jan.) at 2 o'clock, the line of this great thoroughfare, occupied by the various specimens of paving, extending from Charles Street to Tottenham Court Road, presented a most animated spectacle, being thronged by thousands of spectators anxious to witness its opening to the public. Shortly after 2 o'clock, the Paving Committee appointed by the Marylebone Vestry to superintend the arrangement of this work of art, headed by the parish beadles, in full uniform, with their maces; and accompanied by the respective projectors and the parochial authorities, arrived on the spot in procession, and pa.s.sed over the ground, followed by 21 omnibuses, after which, the road was thrown open to the public. From time to time, during the progress of the work, many erroneous statements have gone the rounds of our daily contemporaries, with respect to the extent of ground allotted to the experiments, and on other matters connected with the arrangements. The following, however, being obtained from an official source, may be fully relied upon as correct: The whole s.p.a.ce between Charles Street and Tottenham Court Road is occupied by 12 different specimens, which are completed in the following order, commencing at Charles Street: viz.-40 feet of Robinson's Parisian bitumen-24 feet laid in straight courses, and 16 feet diagonally; 74 feet of parish stone paving, 54 feet of which is laid in straight courses, the stones 9 inches deep, and the interstices filled up with Claridge's asphalte; the remaining 20 feet consisting of stones only 4 inches deep, but laid diagonally, and filled up with the same composition; 60 feet of the Bastenne and Gaujac bitumen, partly laid in straight courses, and partly diagonally: 135 feet of parish stone paving, divided into three sections, in the following order-1st, 70 feet of dressed Aberdeen granite, with concrete bottom, and the joints grouted with lime and sand; 2nd, 40 feet of the same, laid diagonally; and 3rd, 25 feet of dressed Aberdeen granite, without concrete bottom, the joints filled in with fine gravel; this is followed by 50 feet of the Scotch asphaltum, which is entirely the produce of this country, laid down in straight courses: 60 feet of Mr. Stead's pavement, of wooden blocks, of a s.e.xagonal form, 12 inches deep, divided into three compartments, one prepared with Kyan's patent, part dipped in, and joints run with asphalte, and part without any preparation whatever: the last specimen, at Tottenham Court Road, is 60 feet of the Val de Travers bitumen, a portion of which consists of square blocks, laid in straight courses, and the remainder consisting of a layer of clean Guernsey chippings cemented together by boiling asphalte, run among them nearly to the surface, and a face made with asphalte, merely showing the chippings, here and there, in patches. The whole work presents a most even and beautiful road, and, yesterday, during the day, attracted the notice of many hundreds of persons. The portion, however, it is but justice to add, to which attention was more particularly directed, was that of the wooden blocks, the noiseless tendency of which, made the vehicles pa.s.sing along, appear to be rolling over a thick carpet or rug. The time allowed by the Vestry of St. Marylebone for the test of these experiments, is until the last Sat.u.r.day of June next, when the official report of the surveyors will be laid before that body, and upon which the fate of Oxford Street depends."

People began to feel that it was high time that the Queen should marry-but, as yet, no signs of such a thing, and no speculations, as far as I can see, were hazarded as to who her future consort should be. At length, one newspaper, the _Sun_, seems to have been inspired, by authority, and is thus quoted in the _Times_ of 24 Jan.:-"'MARRIAGE OF HER MAJESTY.-The country will learn with delight that the most interesting part of the speech from the throne {81a} to both Houses of Parliament, and the country at large, will be the announcement of Her Majesty's intended marriage. The happy object of Queen Victoria's choice is Prince Albert, son of the reigning Duke of Saxe Coburg, and cousin of Her Majesty. Prince Albert is handsome, and about 22 years of age. He has resided, for some time, in this country, on a visit to his Royal relatives. How soon the happy event is to take place, we are not prepared to say, but our readers may depend upon the authenticity of our information.'-_The Sun_. Has not some wag been hoaxing the editor? We suspect so, though, at the same time, we do not profess to have any knowledge on the subject."

Indeed, it was about time that the Queen married, and got out of the leading strings of the women folk who surrounded her. Had she been married, we should, probably, have never heard of the sad episode of Lady Flora Hastings.

This lady, who was highly accomplished, and the auth.o.r.ess of some pretty poems, {81b} which were published after her death, was the eldest daughter of Francis, Marquis of Hastings, and Flora, Countess of Loudon, and was lady of the bedchamber to the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent. Two old busybodies, the Ladies Portman and Tavistock, spread the vile and unfounded rumour that the unfortunate lady was _enceinte_, and the Queen forbade Lady Flora to appear at Court until she had submitted to the indignity of a medical examination. The case called forth some very strong feeling-and a vast quant.i.ty of correspondence was published on the subject, especially the indignant letters of the poor lady's mother to the Queen; but, perhaps, the most temperate account of the whole affair, is in a letter from Lady Flora's uncle, Mr. Hamilton Fitzgerald, which was published in the _Examiner_ of Sunday, 24th of March, and, afterwards, copied into all the daily papers.

"SIR,-Many false and contradictory reports of the deplorable insult which has been lately offered to my niece, Lady Flora Hastings, at Buckingham Palace, having appeared in the public papers, I, as her ladyship's nearest connection, feel it my duty to request of you to publish the following account of the transaction, for the correctness of which I vouch.

"Lady Flora arrived, some weeks since, from Scotland, very unwell.

She immediately consulted Sir James Clark, the physician to both Her Majesty and the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent. One symptom of her complaint was a swelling of the stomach. By dint of exercise and medical treatment, she was getting better; the swelling had considerably subsided, and she had every hope of a speedy recovery; when, on or about the 1st of March, Sir James Clark went to her room, and announced to her the conviction of the ladies of the Palace that she was pregnant. In answer to all his exhortations to confession, 'as the only means of saving her character,' Lady Flora returned an indignant, but steady denial that there was anything to confess. Upon which, Sir James Clark told her, 'that nothing but her submitting to a medical examination would ever satisfy them, or remove the stigma from her name.' Lady Flora found that the subject had been brought before the Queen's notice, and that all this had been discussed, arranged and denounced to her, without one word having been said on the subject to her own mistress, the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent; who had no suspicion of what was going on, and whose sanction was not sought for the humiliating proposition which had been made to Lady Flora. On leaving Lady Flora's room, Sir James Clark went to the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent, and announced his conviction that Lady Flora was with child; and was followed by Lady Portman, who conveyed a message from Her Majesty to her mother, that the Queen would not permit Lady Flora to appear till the examination had taken place. Lady Portman (who, with Lady Tavistock, are mentioned as most active against Lady Flora) expressed to the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent, her conviction of Lady Flora's guilt.

"'Her beloved mistress' never, for a moment, doubted Lady Flora's innocence. She said that she knew her, her principles, and her family too well to listen to such a charge. However, the edict was given; and, the next day, Lady Flora having obtained the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent's very reluctant consent-'for Her Royal Highness could not bear the idea of her being exposed to such a humiliation'-but, Lady Flora, 'feeling it her duty to Her Royal Highness, to herself, and to her family, that a point blank refutation should be instantly given to the lie,' submitted herself to the most rigid examination; and now possesses a certificate, signed by Sir James Clark, and also by Sir Charles Clark, stating, as strongly as language can state it, that there are no grounds for believing that pregnancy does exist, or ever has existed. Lord Hastings, though, at the time very ill from influenza, went to London immediately, and demanded, and obtained, from Lord Melbourne, a distinct disavowal of his partic.i.p.ation in the affair; and demanded, and obtained, an audience of Her Majesty, in which, while he disclaimed all idea that the Queen had any wish to injure his sister, he plainly, though respectfully, stated his opinion of those who had counselled her, and his resolution to find out the originator of the slander, and bring him, or her, to punishment. Lady Flora is convinced that the Queen was surprised into the order which was given, and that Her Majesty did not understand what she was betrayed into; for, ever since the horrid event, Her Majesty has shown her regret by the most gracious kindness to Lady Flora, and expressed it warmly, with 'tears in her eyes.'

"The d.u.c.h.ess of Kent's conduct was perfect; 'a mother could not have been kinder.' 'She immediately dismissed Sir James Clark from her service, and refused to see Lady Portman'; and has crowned her goodness by a most beautiful letter she has written to the Dowager Lady Hastings, from whom the accounts were kept, till all hope of avoiding publicity was impossible."

Her brother, the Marquis of Hastings, was indefatigable in trying to unearth the promoters of the scandal, but, from the published letters, without much result; but the unfortunate affair involved the whole Court, for a time, in unpopularity-Lady Loudon, her mother, demanded from the Queen, Sir James Clark's dismissal, but was not successful. Meantime, the object of all this agitation, after resuming, for a time, the duties of her situation, grew gradually worse, and, at length, expired, on the 5th July, at the age of 33. By the desire of Lord Hastings, a _post mortem_ examination of the body took place, the particulars of which, attested by five of the most eminent surgeons of the metropolis, were published in the papers, and fully established the unfortunate lady's complete innocence of the charge brought against her, the cause of death being clearly shown to be enlargement of the liver.

Lady Flora's remains were removed from the palace, at an early hour in the morning, to be conveyed, by steamboat, to Scotland. Even as early as two o'clock, a considerable number of spectators were a.s.sembled, which increased in every street through which the procession pa.s.sed. Four Royal carriages, including those of the Queen and the Queen Dowager, and many belonging to the n.o.bility, accompanied the hea.r.s.e. Lady Flora's body was interred, on the 15th of July, in the family vault at Loudon, Ayrshire.

There were many books and pamphlets published with regard to this affair, among which were her mother's letters to the Queen: "The Lady Flora Hastings, a Brief Sketch"-"A Warning to the Baroness Lehzen, {84} etc."-"The Palace Martyr, a Satire"-"The Dangers of Evil Council, etc."-"A Dirge on the Death of Lady Flora Hastings"-"The late Lady Flora Hastings: Statements of the Marquis of Hastings, etc."-"The Victim of Scandal."

At the time of which I write, climbing boys were still employed to sweep chimneys, and as a sample of the manner in which they were treated by their masters, I give the following police case. 25 Jan.: