Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

was surprised by the receipt of the following curious epistle, which deserves to be preserved.

SIR,

My having been from Hampton, I did not receive your letter so soon as you might have expected an answer had it come to my hands on Augt. the 9th.

I am sorry not to be able to comply with your request, as my stay in any of my houses is always uncertain; and the picture can not be trusted to be copied, without my being present.

I have great reason to complain of what my servant informed me of at my arrival at Hampton yesterday: that the pleasure barge stopped last Saturday; and the company pretended to have leave to land, and do as they pleased,—as they supposed there was an agreement of an emolument for their being admitted. The woman who had the imprudence to admit them without an order from me, in my absence, was shocked of such a supposition. The company must have been composed of very mean people to suspect me of being capable to receive money for letting my house to be seen. I was told they left the house as dirty as a dirty inn with their dirty shoes for the future, my house shall be shut up from them; and

they may idle their time

away where they can; for I am cured to shew civility to

strangers.

I remain, Sir,

Your humble servant,

Hampton, August the 20th.

M. GARRICK.

The Sheriff, who had no jurisdiction in the case, so far complied as to entertain the next meeting at the Mansion House by reading it after dinner, of which fact he apprised the lady, and offered to give further publicity to her epistle; but in a subsequent note, while she thanked him, she reiterated her belief, that if he were in earnest he might afford her the protection which she sought; but it did not appear that the marauders' barge belonged to the Corporation, but to the fishing and to the pleasure and Sunday parties, who made Garrick's grounds their favourite rendezvous.

SHERIDAN AND SHAKSPEARE.

WHEN Sheridan's goods were taken in execution, in Hertford Street, May Fair, Postan, the Sheriff's officer, waited upon him, as is usual in such cases, and told him that, if there was any particular article, upon which he set an affectionate value, he might secrete it, or carry it off from the premises. "Thank you, my generous fellow," said Sheridan:-" no,-let all go:-affections in my situation are out of the question ;-however," said he, recollecting himself," there is one thing which I wish to save."-" What is it?" said Postan, expecting him to name some cabinet or piece

of plate. "Don't be alarmed," said Sheridan, "it is only this old Book, worth all others in the world, and, to me, of special value, because it belonged to my father, and was the favourite of first wife." Postan looked into it, and it was a dogs'-eared First Edition of Shakspeare.

my

CONDITION OF THE SHAKSPEARE FAMILY.

It is well known that the line of Shakspeare's own body terminated in his grand-daughter, lady Barnard, of Abington, near Northampton: but Shakspeare had a sister, Joan, who married William Harte, of Stratford; and this branch, partly under the name of Harte, and partly under that of Smith, may be regarded as the last remains of that family, which, as long as transcendent genius merits distinction, ought not to be suffered to pine in want, or to struggle against the miseries which beset poverty, however industrious.

In passing lately through Tewkesbury, Sir Richard Phillips was led, by a reported inscription on the tomb-stone of a John Harte, buried there in 1800,-which inscription described him as "a sixth descendant of the poet Shakspeare," -to inquire whether there lived in that town

any survivors of the family. After much search, he discovered a son of this Harte, who had been christened by the name of William Shakspeare. This poor man is a chair-maker by trade, and works as journeyman to a Mr. Richardson: and the contour of his countenance strikingly resembles the portrait in the first folio edition of the Bard's works.

In one room of the ground-floor of a wretched hovel, lived this man, his wife, and five children. In a corner stood a stocking-frame, in which the mother said she worked after her children were in bed at night, and before they awoke in the morning, adding thereby 3s. or 4s. per week to her husband's 15s. In answer to inquiries about the great Bard, Harte said his father and grandfather often talked on the subject, and buoyed themselves with hopes that the family might some time be remembered;-but, for his part, the name had hitherto proved of no other use to him than to furnish jokes among his companions, by whom he was often annoyed on this account. On Sir Richard presenting him with a guinea, he declared it was the first benefit which had ever arisen from his being a Shakspeare!

[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]
« ElőzőTovább »