Envoy, the Court party joined in the general homage, and on her birth-day Anne gave the Prince a jewelled sword, valued at £4,500. Then Swift, at first sight, 'did'nt think him an ugly faced fellow, but well enough; and a good shape.' (Journal, Jan. 13.) Eugene was not to be won; and persisted in passing most of his time with Marlborough: whom Harley, the lord treasurer, had just stripped of his title of general. One day at dinner, while Harley was plying the Prince with flattery and depreciating Marlborough, he called Eugene the first General in Europe. If I am so,' said the Prince, 'tis to your lordship I am indebted for that distinction' Both by words and behaviour, therefore, Prince Eugene firmly adhered to the cause he had come over to advance, and he fell into utter disrepute with the Tory or peace party. Then it was that Swift, eager as the rest, got a second glimpse of the great man; but the same pair of eyes jaundiced with party prejudice found him' plaguy yellow and literally ugly besides.' (Journal, Feb. 10.) Meanwhile the illustrious Envoy was the idol of the populace and of the whigs. He returned their idolatry by a pleasing affability while in public; and by a variety of small but agreeable courtesies in private. Amongst these it must be noted that he stood sponsor to Steele's second son. The whig ladies professed to be in love with him, and returned a compliment often paid to themselves by making him their toast. In company, he had, according to Burnet, a most unaffected modesty, and does scarcely bear the acknowledgements that all the world pay him.' His popularity was gall to the Tories, who with a too prevalent and mean revenge set about showering libels upon him. On the 17th of March, Prince Eugene retired from this country his disgust and disappointment slightly tempered by the kindness of the Queen; who, at parting, gave him her portrait. A running fire of squibs and pamphlets was kept up against the Tories on account of their cringing reception, and spiteful dismissal of the illustrious visitor. One was advertised in No. 471 of the Spectator as 'Prince Eugene not the Man you took him for; or a Merry Tale of a Modern Hero.' Price 6d. Page 137. 'I was no sooner come into Gray's-Inn Walks, but I heard my Friend upon the Terrace hemming twice or thrice to himself, for he loves to clear his Pipes in good Air.' Gray's Inn Gardens formed for a long time a fashionable promenade. The chief entrance to them was Fulwood's Rents, now a pent-up retreat for squalid poverty; yet, in Sir ROGER's day, no place was better adapted for 'clearing his pipes in good air,' for scarcely a house intervened thence to Hampstead. A contemporary satirist (but who can scarcely be quoted without an apology) affords a graphic description of this promenade:-'I found none but a parcel of Superannuated Debauchees huddled up in Cloaks, Frieze Coats, and Wadded Gowns, to preserve their old Carcasses from the Sharpness of Hampstead Air; creeping up and down in Pairs and Leashes no faster than the Hand of a Dial or a County Convict going to Execution: some talking of Law, some of Religion, and some of Politics. - After I had taken two or three Turns round, I sat myself down in the Upper Walk, where just before me on a Stone Pedestal was fixed an old rusty Horizontal Dial with the Gnomon broke short off.'* Round this sundial, seats were arranged in a semi-circle. Gray's Inn Gardens were resorted to by less reputable characters than the beggar whom good Sir ROGER scolded and relieved. Expert pickpockets and plausible ring-droppers found easy prey there on crowded days. In the plays of the period, Gray's Inn Gardens are frequently mentioned as a place of assignation for clandestine lovers. Page 139. The late Act of Parliament for securing the Church of England. The 10th Anne, Cap. 2. 'An Act for preserving the Protestant Religion by better securing the Church of England as by law established,' &c. It was known popularly as the act of Occasional Conformity.' Page 140. The Pope's Procession. Each anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accession (Nov. 17) was for many years celebrated by the citizens of London in a manner expressive of their detestation of the Church of Rome. A procession at times sufficiently attractive for royal spectators - paraded the principal streets, the chief figure being an effigy of "The Pope, that Pagan full of pride,' well executed in wax and expensively adorned with robes and a tiara. He was accompanied by a train of cardinals and jesuits; and at his ear stood a buffoon in the likeness of a horned devil. After having been paraded through divers streets, His Holiness was exultingly burnt opposite to the * Ward's London Spy, vol. i. p. 384. Whig club near the Temple gate in Fleet Street. After the discovery of the Rye House plot, the Pope's procession was discontinued; but was resuscitated on the acquittal of the seven bishops and dethronement of James II. Sacheverel's trial had added a new interest to the ceremony; and on the occasion referred to by Sir ROGER, besides a popular dread of the Church being — from the listlessness of the Ministers and the machinations of the Pretender- in danger, there was a very general opposition to the peace with France, for which the Tories were intriguing. The party cry of No peace' was shouted in the same breath with No popery.' The Whigs were determined, it was said, to give signifi· cance and force to these watchwords by getting up the anniversary show of 1711 with unprecedented splendour. No good Protestant, no honest hater of the French could refuse to subscribe his guinea for such an object; and it was said upwards of a thousand pounds were collected for the effigies and their dresses and decorations alone; independent of a large fund for incidental expenses. The Pope, the Devil, and the Pretender were, it was reported, fashioned in the likeness of the obnoxious Cabinet Ministers. The procession was to take place at night, and a thousand mob' it was asserted, to be hired to carry flambeaux at a crown a-piece and as much beer and brandy as would inflame them for mischief. The pageant was to open with 'twentyfour bagpipes marching four and four, and playing the memorable tune of Lillibullero.' Presently was to come figure representing Cardinal Gaulteri, (lately made by the Pretender protector of the English nation,) looking down on were, a the ground in sorrowful posture; his train supported by two missionaries from Rome, supposed to be now in England.' -'Two pages throwing beads, bulls, pardons, and indulgences. Two jack puddings sprinkling holy-water.' 'Twelve hautboys playing the "Greenwood tree." — Then were to succeed 'Six beadles with Protestant flails,' and after a variety of other satirical mummers the grand centrepiece was to show itself: 'The Pope under a magnificent canopy, with a right silver fringe, accompanied by the Chevalier St. George on the left and his councellor the Devil on his right.' The whole procession was to close with twenty streamers displaying this couplet wrought on each, 'God bless Queen Anne, the nation's great defender, To be ready for this grand spectacle the figures were deposited at a house in Drury Lane, whence the procession was to march (with proper reliefs of lights at several stations') to St. James's Square, thence through Pall Mall, the Strand, Drury Lane, and Holborn, to Bishopsgate Street, and return through St. Paul's Church Yard to the bonfire in Fleet Street. 'After proper ditties were sung, the Pretender was to have been committed to the flames, being first absolved by the Cardinal Gaulteri. After that the said Cardinal was to be absolved by the Pope and burnt. And then the devil was to jump into the flames with his holiness in his arms.'* According, however, to the Tories, who spread the most * From a folio half sheet published at the time. |