"An Account of the Burning the Pope at Temple Bar in London, November the 17th, 1679.* "The horrid designs and contrivances of the Papists, for many years last past, for rooting out the Protestant religion from under heaven in this kingdom, as well as in all the Protestant countries in Europe, has raised such a just indignation in the breast of every good Christian and true Englishman, that the people of this nation have, upon all occasions, endeavour to discover their generous detestation of those cursed invaders of their religion and civil liberties; but never more apparently than upon the 17th of November, 1679, that being the day on which the unfortunate Queen Mary died, and that glorious Princess Queen Elizabeth, that true defender of the Christian, Protestant faith, ascended the English throne, and thereby dispelled those thick clouds of Egyptian popish darkness which had so long overspread these kingdoms. "Upon the said 17th of November the bells began to ring about three a-clock in the morning in the city of London, and several honourable and worthy gentlemen belonging to the Temple, as well as the City (remembring the burning both of London and the Temple, which was apparently executed by Popish villany), were pleased to be at the charge of an extraordinary triumph in commemoration of a Protestant Queen, which was as follows: * We find this was originally printed at the time as a pamphlet. See in Sir Walter Scott's Dryden his note to a line in the poet's Epilogue to Edipus, alluding to the delight the people took in this extravagant pageantry. The history of the Green Ribbon Club, which sat at a tavern near Temple Bar to arrange the proceedings, is given in Roger North's Examen, and extracted in Brayley's Londiniana. about his neck, with spots of blood upon his wrists, breasts, and shirt, and white gloves on his hands, his face pale and wan, riding upon a white horse, and one of his murderers behind him to keep him from falling, in the same manner as he was carried to Primrose-hill. "4. A priest came next in a surplice and a cope imbroidered with dead-mens skulls, bones, and skelletons, who gave out Pardons very plentifully to all that would murder Protestants, and proclaimed it meritorious. "5. A priest alone, with a large silver cross. "6. Four Carmelite fryars, in white and black habits. 7. Four Grey fryars, in their proper habits. "8. Six Jesuits carrying bloody daggers. "9. Four with musick, called the waits, playing all the way. 10. Four bishops in purple, with lawn sleeves and golden crosses on their breasts, and crosier staves in their hands. "11. Four other bishops in their pontificalibus, with surplices and rich imbroidered copes, and golden mitres on their heads. "12. Six cardinals in scarlet robes and caps. 13. Then followed the Pope's chief physician, with Jesuits powder in one hand, and an urinal in the other. "14. Two priests in surplices, with two golden crosses. Lastly. The Pope in a glorious pageant, or chair of state, covered with scarlet, the chair being richly embroidered and bedect with golden balls and crosses ; at his feet was a cushion of state, and two boys sat on each side the Pope in surplices, with white silk banners, painted with red crosses, and bloody consecrated daggers for murdering Protestant kings and princes, with an incense-pot before them, censing his Holiness. The Pope was arrayed in a rich scarlet-gown, lined through with ermines, and adorned with gold and silverlace, with a triple crown on his head, and a glorious collar of gold and precious stones about his neck, and St. Peter's keys, a great quantity of beads, Agnus Dei's, and other Romish trumpery about him. At his back stood the devil (his holiness's privy counsellour) hugging and whispering him all the way, and oftentimes instructing him aloud to destroy his Majesty, to contrive a pretended Presbyterian plot, and to fire the city again, to which purpose he held an infernal torch in his hand. The whole procession was attended with an hundred and fifty torches and flambeaus, by order; but there were so many came in volunteers, as made the number of several thousands. Never were the balconies, windows, and houses more filled, nor the streets more thronged with multitudes of people, all expressing their abhorrence to Popery, with continual shouts and acclamations, so that in the whole progress of their procession, by a modest computation, it is judged, there could not be no less than two hundred thousand spectators. "Thus, with a slow and solemn state, in some hours they arrived at Temple-bar, where all the houses seemed to be converted into heaps of men, women, and children, who were diverted with variety of excellent fire-works. It is known that Temple-bar, since its rebuilding, is adorned with four stately statues of stone, two on each side the gate, those towards the City representing Queen Elizabeth and King James the Ist, and the other towards the Strand King Charles Ist and King Charles IId. Now, in regard of the day, the statue of Queen Elizabeth was adorned with a crown of guilded lawrel on her head, and in her hand a golden shield, with this motto inscrib'd thereon, The Protestant Religion, Magna Charta; several lighted torches were placed before her; and, the Pope being brought up near the gate, the following song was sung in parts, between one who represented the English Cardinal Howard, and another the people of England. Cardinal Howard.* From York to London town we come The People Answer. O Queen Bess, Queen Bess, Queen Bess. Your Popish plot and Smithfield threat we do not fear at all, For loe! beneath Queen Besses feet you fall, you fall, you fall. Now God preserve great Charles our King, and eke all honest men ; And traytors all to justice bring, Amen, Amen, Amen. "Then, having entertained the thronging spectators for sometime with the ingenious fire-works, a very great bonefire *Philip Howard, younger brother to the Duke of Norfolk, was made a cardinal in 1675, and he popularly bore the name of the Cardinal of Norfolk, or sometimes that of Cardinal of England. THE Token engraved above is of the class called "Rhyming Tokens,"a very rare and limited series. John Hart has appropriately enough adopted a heart as his device, in juxtaposition with the initials of himself and his wife. It was a curious but universal custom to place the wife's as well as the husband's initials on these Tokens; where it is omitted the presumption is that the man was a bachelor. Instead of date or motto, round the edge we have this distich, singular for its orthography: "Take. these . that. wil. and he has also described another, of which we have an example in our own collection, issued by the proprietor of the "Coffee House in Exchange Ally" (now Garraway's), which bears the device of a Turk's head, with this rhyming inscription: * Among the prints of the Stowe Granger, in the course of sale during the present month of March by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, we find the following lots :1075. Portrait of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, large sheet oval, by Vandrebanc, very fine impression. Sold for 28. 1076. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, smaller oval, by Vandrebanc. 138. 1077. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, his Portrait and representation of his Murder, engraved on the upper side of a folio broadside, with "A Poem on the Effigies of Sir Ed. Godfrey." 1678; also another engraving, being "The Dreadful Apparition, or the Pope haunted with Ghosts." 1680-a folio broadside, with verses. 21. 6s. 1078. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey. The Solemn Mock Processions of the Pope, Cardinals, Jesuits, &c. exactly taken as they marcht through the City of London, the 17th November, 1679 and 1680, two very rare and curious oblong engravings with printed description. These prints (representing the same pageantry as the rough wood-cut we have copied) were sold for 21. 11s. Of one of them there is a copy in Brayley's Londiniana, vol. iv. It appears that the procession was repeated in 1680 and 1681. In the third volume of Brayley's Londiniana are engraved several medals commemorative of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, accompanied by a copious article upon the circumstances connected with his murder. GENT. MAG. VOL. XXXI. 3 B TO HENRY FOSS, ESQ. MY DEAR SIR, Benhall, March 9. YOU remember that a few months ago your friend Mr. Rose mentioned to me that he thought I was wrong in attributing the Life of Goldsmith, prefixed to the Miscellaneous Works, 4 vols. 8vo. 1801, to Dr. Campbell,whereas he always considered his father to be the author, and he recollected that he had received a hundred pounds as a remuneration for his labours. I promised that I would refer to the authorities which I had used, and, if I had made a mistake, and deprived Mr. Samuel Rose of the honour justly due to him, that I would set it right. I now send you the result of my inquiries. Nichols's Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. VII. P. 777. "And now that our Easter business is in all respects concluded to the perfect satisfaction of my own parish, I turn with greater ease of mind to Goldsmith. I told you I had sketched out a sort of exordium to the Life; and I have been ruminating whether I should conclude that exordium by mentioning the part you have taken, and the number of copies that Nichols is to give. This I wished to offer (with others) as a motive and apology for my own undertaking it. Your name must be introduced, where you took the hints from his own mouth; and the world must know, I mean it will find out,-whence the materials come. I therefore submit it to you now, whether it will not be best to make this acknowledgment at setting out. It will procure the work a more favourable reading, and will give me more credit. I trust it shall be conducted in such a manner as not to make you blush; but it will be always in your own power to expunge or add till it can be wrought into some shape that will in no way disgust you."-Campbell to Percy, April 6, 1790. P. 778. "Goldsmith's Life goes on without much interruption, though I am now deep in mortar, and employ masons by the day (in order that it may be executed in the best manner) in the building of my church, of which I take upon me to be architect and overseer. And at intervals I retire from this employment, sometimes vexatious enough, to write a paragraph as a recreation."-Ditto, June 16, 1790. P.779. "I have him now in London, and am endeavouring to recollect your first visit to him, when the loan, or repayment, of the chamber-pot of coals was asked, but I have defended him as well as I could against the attacks of Sir John Hawkins ; and, unless you disprove of my meddling with the knight, I shall, after allowing him due praise for that store of anecdotes he has collected, endeavour to appreciate their value."-Ditto. Ibid. "I have the first volume of Goldsmith, and would be glad to have the second, for, in truth (as he used to say), I have never yet read a line of his dramatic works; and, as his sister says one thing and Mr. Walker says another about the incident which gave the hint to 'She Stoops to Conquer,' I must see it; and I must observe that almost every thing I read of his gives me some new hint. The 'Review of Polite Literature' has been already of great use, but there are some sentiments in it which I hope to see altered in his manuscript notes, and therefore long for a sight of them; and if your Lordship will be so obliging to bring the book with you, not only to Armagh but to Caledon, on the 29th, I shall, please God, go for it myself early in the morning, so as not in the smallest degree to interrupt your Lordship's business. One thing, however, I could wish, if it met your approbation, that I had before me some hints respecting the affair of Goldsmith and Perrot: it may, without giving offence, be related; at least so as to embellish the work, by showing more of Goldsmith's character, which he himself has fairly drawn: fond of enjoying the present, careless of the future; his sentiments those of a man of sense, his actions those of a fool; of fortitude able to stand unmoved at the bursting of an earthquake, yet of sensibility to be affected by the breaking of a tea cup.'"""-Ditto. P. 780. Your anecdotes will embellish my pages highly, aud your picture of 'Green Arbour-court' shall be closely copied; as to the rest, my account of your visit to him there was almost verbatim, from my recollection of your words, what you have set down in your last. . Your sketch of Sir Richard Perrot will come in as an episode towards the conclusion, with good effect; but there, neither that nor any thing that can sully shall appear as coming from you."--Ditto. P. 782. "I have not written a line for Goldsmith this month or more."-Ditto. P. 783. "As to Goldsmith, of which you inquire, and concerning which Manrice Goldsmith has been inquiring, it is in such a state, that I think I could finish the remainder currente prelo.”*—Ditto. "The work here alluded to was evidently a MS. Life of Goldsmith, and apparently the same (with some alterations) prefixed to the edition of Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works, in 4 vols. 8vo. Lond. It thus appears that the Life of Goldsmith was written by Dr. Campbell, under the direction, and with the assistance, of Bishop Percy. But, on referring to Nichols's Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 387, we find mention of "Samuel Rose, Esq. barrister-at-law, a young man of considerable talents, and universally beloved for his truly mild and unobtrusive manners, who was the friend and correspondent of Cowper, and in 1804 was the Editor of Goldsmith's Works, 4 vols. 8vo." Also, on referring to Nichols's Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, vol. vi. p. 583, we find a note to a passage in one of Dr. Percy's letters, saying " This edition of Goldsmith's was edited in 1801 by Samuel Rose, Esq. barristerat-law."-The above statements, I think, clearly prove by whom the different offices of biographer and editor were really performed. Since writing the above I have been favoured with some valuable additional information on the subject of this Life by my friend Mr. Bowyer Nichols, who has kindly permitted me to make it public. The motives of Bishop Percy's very cautious and somewhat capricious conduct, and his extreme dislike to having his name mixed up with the Life of Goldsmith, must proceed from circumstances with which I am not sufficiently acquainted to explain. Yours, &c. J. MITFORD. TO THE REV. JOHN MITFORD. "MY DEAR SIR,-You are quite right in thinking that the Life of Goldsmith (or the materials of it) was supplied by Bishop Percy. But perhaps Mr. Rose made alterations which the Bishop did not approve of. Bishop Percy's idea of his Life of Goldsmith was as old at least as 1789, as is evident from a letter from my father to the Bishop, in which he says: "I shall be happy in any way to be the instrument of serving Mr. Goldsmith (Oliver's brother). I will print the work, if your lordship thinks proper, meo periculo, every way. Under your lordship's 1801, to which the Bishop of Dromore refers in a letter to Mr. Nichols, printed in the Lit. Illustrations, vol. VI. p. 584, and says, it had been compiled under his direction.-F. M."--Vide Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, vol. vii. p. 783. assistance I will be the OSTENSIBLE editor, and I will furnish Mr. Goldsmith gratis with 250 copies* for his subscribers, and with more (if he wants them) at a moderate price. The whole, therefore, now waits only for your lordship's further directions. The secret of YOUR LORDSHIP'S SHARE IN THE BIOGRAPHY, OR AS EDITOR, SHALL BE PRESERVED, and the fame of the deceased, and emolument of his surviving brother, be consulted as much as in the power of "J. NICHOLS."t Nichols, May 19, 1802, he thus alludes In a letter of Bishop Percy to Mr. to Goldsmith's Works, then recently published: "I have just seen the new edition of Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works. . The proprietors would have done well to have consulted me in the selection and arrangement, for they have omitted one of the best productions of Goldsmith, although it had been particularly pointed out in the account of his life-his 'Introduction to Brooke's Natural History'and have only given his Preface to that work, which is far inferior to the former. This is what they got by quarrelling with me for only supplicating for a little assistance in advance to Goldsmith's poor niece, who was starving; for I would have given them every advice and direction gratis ; but they carried their ill humour so far as to refuse to let me see and make some corrections in the MS. life of Goldsmith, which had been COMPILED UNDER MY DIRECTION."‡ In June, 1802, Malone thus addresses Percy as the author of the Life of Goldsmith : "I quite forgot to thank you for the entertainment which Goldsmith's Life afforded me. I only lamented there was not more of it."§ And in 1807 adds: "I can myself from personal knowledge bear witness to the truth of your character of Goldsmith, for I never observed any of those grimaces or fooleries that the INTERPOLATOR talks of, nor could I ever assent to Lord Orford's pointed sentence, that he was "an inspired idiot," which was said and circulated merely for the sake of the point, without any regard to just representation. I always made battle * Mr. Nichols's offer of the 250 copies is alluded to by Campbell in his Letter to Percy, April 6, 1790, noticed in the preceding page. + Literary Illustrations, vol. VIII. p. 82. lb. VI. p. 584. § Ib. VIII. 369. |