Scene and Time-After supper at Mr. EVERARD'S. Present-WRAGG, TWISS, LEIGHTON, EVERARD, and LEONARD. WRAGG: Suppose from this hospitable board we get back to Church street? LEONARD : - * * * Church lane, that poor narrow place, With wood buildings projecting; 'twas quite a disgrace The roofs nearly meeting, a dark dreary street, Might justly be styled the ' robbers' retreat," Where shops were so darkened for want of true light, Appeared quite at noontide as though it were night. LEIGHTON: Ah, you have got hold of James Wills's doggrel ; you should go on to quote his description of the street's improvement into " fine shops for each tradesman," and the " beautiful road into Bow street," where " coaches come down with the Manchester trade." EVERARD : That widening took place in 1785, and was to the extent of about three yards. TWISS: And it was still further widened in 1866-7 by another slice from the churchyard. LEONARD: As we go down the street, we meet with various sites of much interest. There is, for instance, what was once the residence of Mr. Hall Overend, one of the most celebrated medical men of Sheffield in the early part of this century; afterwards of his son, Mr. Wilson Overend; and now the boot shop of Mr. Brown. Mr. Hall Overend died in May, 1831, at the age of fifty-nine. His medical knowledge had been acquired under the great disadvantages incident to that period. He served an apprenticeship to a noted druggist and apothecary, named Sutcliffe, who dispensed medicine and advice largely at a shop near the Bay Horse, on Sheffield Moor. Hall Overend was a diligent student, and when he left Mr. Sutliffe, acquired a medical qualification, and began practice in Broad lane. Thence he removed to Church street, where his house and surgery occupied the frontage from Orchard street to the corner of Smith street, excepting the shop of North, the butcher. Mr. Hall Overend's skill, quickness, and diligence were rewarded by great success. He had a most extensive and laborious, but profitable practice. At that time our medical men made their rounds on horseback, and they began by degrees to seek relief by the partial use of gigs. For some years, Mr. Hall Overend rode a mule-very handsome, fleet, and enduring, but subject to fits of obstinacy, in which the animal would fight long battles with his rider for the mastery. The urgency of Mr, Overend's practice could not brook loss of time, and the mule had to repair, by extra speed, the delay he had occasioned. Mr. Hall Overend had felt so much the want of facilities for a professional education, that he gave his eldest son, John (who died early), and his second son, Wilson, the highest training as physician and surgeon that the schools of England and the Continent could afford. Mr. Overend also established a school of anatomy and medicine for the medical pupils of Sheffield. At that time the only human bodies that could be legally dissected were those of people who had been qualified by the hangman, and they were not obtainable in Sheffield. Mr. Overend had to supply his school. with "subjects" by the ageney of "resurrection men," and it was understood he did this at considerable personal risk, both from the law and the populace. Mr. Hall Overend collected, at much expense, a valuable museum of natural history, which his family ultimately presented to the Literary and Philosophical Society. Excessive labours had so much impaired Mr. Hall Overend's health, that when Mr. Wilson Overend was prepared to assume the weight of the practice, his father withdrew very much from it, and lived at Bolsover Hill, on the Barnsley road, until his death. His surviving sons-of whom we spoke in connection with the Grammar School-both attained to eminence. Mr. Wilson Overend was a distinguished surgeon, and became an active magistrate and public man. Mr. Wm. Overend, the youngest son, was a barrister, and rose to the leadership of the circuit in Yorkshire. He twice contested Sheffield, and once East Derbyshire, in the Conservative interest. In 1859 he was returned for Pontefract, but had to resign his scat on petition. Mr. William Overend has recently given up the practice of his profession to enjoy the life of a country gentleman. Mr. Hall Overend was a Quaker-not very observant, however, of the rules of the " Society," though Mrs. Overend and her daughters wore the Quaker dress of the time and attended "meeting." The brother of Mr. Hall Overend was the founder of the great discount house in London, which acquired a degree of credit second only to the Bank of England. It was familiarly known in the City as the " Corner House." When, many years after the death of its founder, its management had passed into less honest and prudent hands, its failure shook the commercial world, and the day of its stoppage was called " Black Friday." Mr. Hall Overend's children acquired a considerable accession of fortune on the death of the widow of their uncle. TWISS : A very few yards further down the street, on the other side-that is, at the corner of Vicar lane, where is now Mr. Thomas, surgeon, Mr. Jonathan Barber, the father of the present Mr. Jonathan Barber, surgeon, and of Mr. James Henry Barber, banker, learnt pharmacy with the same Mr. Richard Sutliffe whom Mr. Leonard has mentioned. Mr. Barber and Mr. Hall Overend married sisters. At this corner he and Mr. Silvester frequently met to carry on their scientific experiments, in the early days of the discovery of electricity, and they are even said to have invented an electric battery. Afterwards Mr. Barber commenced practice in Scarborough; thence he removed to London, and subsequently he went to Montreal. Mr. Barber, in addition to his scientific attainments, was a man of great elocutionary power ; and a speech he made at Scarborough, in 1813, on behalf of the Bible Society, attracted so much attention that it was printed as a pamphlet. While in London, he was secretary to the Royal Humane Society, and distinguished himself by his eloquence at its annual banquets. LEIGHTON: We must not linger round the most prominent object in the street, the Old Church and the churchyard, for Hunter, as to the former, and Mr. Holland's pamphlet, as to the latter, give us all information. LEONARD: Yet I do not see in either of them a statement of the curious fact that when, in 1800, the Church was being repaired and altered, it was found that the east end stood on a vast bed of bones. This has been taken by some as a confirmation of the tradition that the Romans had a camp here-hence Campa or Campo lane ; but these philological guesses are very hazardous. WRAGG: I fancy Campo lane means the lane leading to the country. LEONARD : It is no use theorising about etymologies; lot us rather record that we do know. Mr. Samuel Roberts's Autobiography has fortunately perpetuated for us a graphic account of the Church before the improvements made at the beginning of this century. He wrote: " The Church itself was one of the most gloomy, irregularly-pewed places in the kingdom. It seemed as if, after the work of pewing had begun, every person who chose had formed, a pew for himself in his own way, to his own size, height, and shape. There were several galleries, but all formed, as it seemed, in the same way as the pews-some of them on pillars, and some hung in chains. The Lord's closet was a gloomy structure. High under the lofty centre arch spanned from side to side the massive rood loft, behind which, filling up the apex of the arch, were the king's arms, painted most gloriously, and magnificently large. Under the clock, in a large glass case, yet scarcely perceptible in the gloom, was the pendulum, blazoned with an enormous staring gilt sun, solemnly and mysteriously moving from side to side with a loud, headpiercing tick or tack at each vibration. * * * Glad indeed was I always when the service was over; when pattens began to clatter, and Johnny Lee, the clerk, was called to on all sides for a light to the lanterns." EVERARD: One of the pews which Mr. Roberts speaks of as being " hung in chains " was fixed in the north gallery, over the stair head, and at the time went by the nickname of either the " coal cart," or the " coal barge," I forget which. Into this place my father, with other youngsters, used to climb; and when perched up there, they could do very much as they pleased whilst looking down on the congregation below. TWISS : You make no mention of the thirty fire-buckets which hung in the chancel ready (in the then primitive absence of engines) for use in. the event of a fire breaking out in the town. The buckets and the hooks to hang them on were, as the inscription in the quire to his memory used to tell, given by Robert Rollinson, mercer, the maker of Barker pool . Perhaps you do not remember them or their successors (for Mr. Rollinson died in 1631), but they must have been there in the time spoken of by the late Mr. Roberts. WRAGG: Mr. Roberts's mention of the great pendulum reminds me of a singular use to which it was once put. Martha Wright, who afterwards became the wife of William Cutler Nadin, was a singer at the Parish Church, and on one occasion she fell asleep there during service. When she awoke, she found everybody gone, the church locked up and deserted. She tried in vain to make herself heard, when a very clever idea, suggested by the pendulum, struck her. She arrested its swing, and stopped the clock. The absence of the usual indications of the flight of time attracted the attention of the clerk. He went to ascertain the cause, and the girl obtained her liberation. LEONARD: The present bells wore put up in 1798, and the new clock, with its chimes, was erected in 1867. Sixty years hence our descendants will perhaps thank us for putting on record that the tunes played are : Sunday, " Easter Hymn ;" Monday, "Home, sweet home;" Tuesday, "Blue bells of Scotland;" Wednesday, " The heavens are telling;" Thursday, " Life let us cherish ; " Friday, The 104th Psalm ; Saturday, " Caller Herring." You have no idea how difficult-indeed, impossible-I have found it to obtain a complete list of the old chimes. All I can get together are these: Sunday, 104th Psalm ; Monday, " Blue bells of Scotland;" Wednesday, " See the conquering hero comes;" Saturday, --Happyclown," from Allan Ramsay's " Gentle Shepherd," a tune that was popularly known as " Tang Ends." EVERARD : One Of the tunes played was "There's nae luck about the house." LEIGHTON : If old 'Siali Carr had been alive he could have told you not only the tunes of the late chimes, but of their predecessors, whose beauty lie never ceased to lament. He was a great worshipper of them, and would sit on the alablaster " stone listening to the airs most devoutly. TWISS: Let us not forget to mention that the old clock turret in front of the steeple was removed when the new clock was erected, that being set into the steeple itself. In doing this a stone was found, which had evidently formed a portion of an arch in the Norman church. The pattern upon the stone fixes the date of the church as in the 12th century, and proves that this is not the original Norman tower. EVERARD : I am sorry to see that our favourite Hallamshire legend about the origin of the Tuesday evening's peal -that it was established in gratitude by a wanderer who, belated on the moors beyond Ringinglow, was saved by hearing their sound wafted to him through the still night air-is believed to be mythical. TWISS : Yea, it is a beautiful story, but there is nothing to show that any legacy was ever left to defray the cost of ringing the bells on Tuesday evenings; at least, neither the Town Trustees who pay for the ringing, nor the ringers who receive the payment, know anything of such a bequest. LEONARD : I fear this is another of your etymologies, Mr. Wragg. The story must have been concocted to fit the name of Ringinglow, which we know to have existed at least as long ago as 1574, when it was 'I a great heap of stones called Ringinglawe." At any rate, the legend only shows that the bells were rung on Tuesday evenings before the legacy-if there was one. EVERARD : This Tuesday ringing is only in the winter months. It begins on the Tuesday after Doncaster racesrather a curious calendar for church bells-and continues until Shrove Tuesday. It is no doubt an immemorial custom, connected possibly with the market day. The bells, by the way are not now rung with the regularity or frequency that was formerly observed. We used always to have a bell at six in the morning, at noon, and at eight o'clock in the evening, on week-days; and there was an early Sunday morning bell at seven o'clock, which was also the time on saints'.days; but these are dropped now. We only have the peals on "Queen's days" and special occasions-the three days following Christmas, the last day in the old year, and New Year's Day. LEIGHTON: It is a pity they should be discontinued; but I think I remember business men complaining of the twelve o'clock peal as interrupting. WRAGG: Money-grubbers LEONARD : I have been told by the ringers that the discontinuance of the bells arose thus: When Mrs. Button, the wife of the late vicar, was ill, they disturbed her, living as she did in the old Vicarage, so the Doctor ordered them to stop ; and as no one ever commanded them to be resumed, the custom fell into disuse. But I believe the eight o'clock curfew bell had been discontinued before that. TWISS: Here is a contribution to our ringing recollections : "May 2, 1809, died, a few days ago, Mr. Richard Owen, much lamented, particularly by the Society of Change Ringers, to whom he had belonged nearly sixty years. They will always bear in mind how cheerfully he led off the first peal that was ever rung of ton new bells, on the 29th April, 1799. He was interred at St. Peter's Church on the 29th April, 1809, being exactly ten years after the bells were first rung." LEIGHTON: An interesting chapter might be written on the Old Church steeple. Here is a jotting for it, extracted from Mr. Gales's Sheffield Register, of July 18, 1789 : " It has been judged expedient, from its being in a decayed state, to take down a few yards of the steeple of our parish church. The person employed for this purpose has fixed ladders to effect it, and on Thursday he took down the weathercock, amidst the acclamations of an immense concourse of spectators, who had assembled on the occasion. In the evening, after this had been effected, a slater, in a state of intoxication, ascended the ladders, to the terror of the spectators, who every moment expected he would be dashed to atoms. When he was within a few yards of the top, their fears were heightened by his hat blowing off; he, however, reached the summit, and came down again remarkably swift and perfectly safe, to the relief of those who witnessed the foolhardy attempt." WRAGG: It is said that Mr. William Battie, who lived in Townhead street, in the house now occupied by Mr. Parkin, tailor, the James Wills who has been quoted lived, a door or two below, who once played a similar mad freak. LEONARD : Yes; the story is that in his younger days he, for a wager, climbed up to the top of the old steeple by the projections, took hold of the weathercock, waved his hat, came down again by the same way, and reached the bottom in safety. " Billy Battie " Was " quite a character." EVERARD : I have sufficient evidence for believing it was not Mr. William Battie who did that piece of folly, but another man, who was, at the time he undertook it, half drunk. What Mr. Battie did was this : On the occasion when a certain portion of the church steeple was taken down and rebuilt (possibly the time referred to in that extract from the Register), several persons climbed up before the ladders were removed, as a sort of opening ceremony. Among them was Mr. Battie. As previously arranged, he stood upright upon the base, where the weathercock had to be fixed, with nothing to hold by, and played the National Anthem on his French horn. My father was present, and saw him thus standing, and heard this musical performance. TWISS : I have heard Mr. Battie tell the story himself. WRAGG: That better accords with the character and position of Mr. Battie than the other story. He was a Town Trustee, and a person of considerable influence in that body. it was he who caused the opening to be made at the bottom of Broad lane and Townhead street, by the destruction of Radford row. In his younger days he was a cooper, but afterwards he was a successful ivory merchant. EVERARD : I have forgotten the name of the man who actually accomplished the feat attributed to Mr. Battie, but he was a table-blade forger, and at the time was working for Messrs. Broomhead Ward and Thomas Asline Ward, brothers, who carried on business in Howard street, the latter living in the house adjoining, the whole now forming part of the premises of Messrs. Walker and Hall. This man (who, if I remember right, had been a sailor) was one evening drinking with his mates at a publichouse, when the question of the possibility of climbing up to the top of the Old Church steeple by the projecting stones outside was mooted, discussed, and disputed. He thereupon laid a wager that he could do it, and started off, accompanied by some of his comrades. He successfully accomplished the feat; but he told my mother, who knew the man and had the relation from his own lips, that though he did not experience much difficulty in getting to the top, yet, having arrived there, the extreme peril of his position so struck his mind as completely to sober him. When he reached the ground, without speaking to any one, he ran home half frightened out of his wits. LEONARD: I have always understood that the man's name was Thomas South. He was well known in the town. One version of the story says he turned the weathercock round. LEIGHTON : Let us take a glance into St. James's street, once the Vicarage croft, "a small field amidst gardens," with an old dry draw-well in it. You all remember the yellow Vicarage, now supplanted by the auction-room of Messrs. W. H. and J. A. Eadon, and the adjoining buildings. LEONARD: Yes, even I remember that unartistic building, with its plain rounded windows. I used to have a feeling of something like awe for the mysteries of the yard, entered from St. James's street by double doors, and to wonder how the space between the Vicarage itself and the high wall abutting on St. James's row was occupied. TWISS : I have a rough drawing of the old place as it appeared in process of demolition, in 1854. There was no upper story over the centre part-the oldest portion of the building-though it was long ago that the two ends had been added. Its combinations of lath, beams, plaster, and rubble were very antique. There is one relic of it still to be seen, but in an altered form and serving a new purpose. The large stone of the step leading into Messrs. Eadon's auction room by the door in St. James's street is the identical stone that served as mantel shelf in the oldest part of the Vicarage. WRAGG: The street was long famous in another wayas the chosen home of the Scotch drapery business. Here, fifty years ago, Mr. John Brown, who subsequently built Columbia Works, first introduced that trade. LEONARD: For good or for evil- a point on which opinions greatly vary. LEIGHTON : It was here that the militia of the town used to be drilled and paraded. A soldierlylooking body of men they were, and they extended five or ten deep the whole length of the street. EVERARD: In St. James's street was the house where Mr. Robert Hadfield lived, the warehouse being at the back. He had a family of four sons and two daughters : Robert, the youngest, died many years ago ; Joseph and Samuel were partners with the father; Mr. George Hadfield, the present venerable M.P. for Sheffield, in early life removed to Manchester, where for many years he practised as an attorney. He, I am told, still signs cheques in the names of " Robert Hadfield and Sons." Mr. Robert Hadfield built the house at Crookes moor side for a country residence. Mr. Ray, surgeon, married one of the daughters, and the other died unmarried. Mr. Robert Hadfield's tombstone may be seen by passers-by in the yard of Howard street Chapel. TWISS: There is an interesting point in connection with' St. James's street. It is-from footpath to footpath, I believe-an exact proportion of a mile, and may thus be considered our Hallamshire standard of long measure. LEONARD: Do you know anything, Mr. TWISS, of the history of the corner house to which inquirers after Sheffield folk-lore do much resort for interviews with that devoted and accurate antiquary, Mr. William Swift ? TWISS: Now the Stamp office, you mean ? It was built by Mr. Stacey, who supplied the woodwork for the renovated Parish Church and for St. James's Church; and it is fitted in a style similar to the latter. Mr. T. N. Bardwell, father of the present Mr. Frederick Bardwell, subsequently lived in it; and after that, Mr. John Brown, of the firm of parker, Brown and Parker, solicitors. When the firm dissolved, Mr. Brown, for many years stamp distributor, retained the premises, which are now occupied by his son, Mr. Walter Brown, attorney, and Major Fawkes, stamp distributor. WRAGG: In St. James's row was Mr. Carr, staymaker, a nice elderly gentleman of the old style. He can still be remembered, clothed as well-to-do men were a century agoin breeches and leggings. Sometimes he wore a spencer over his coat, or a top coat like those now worn by the inmates of the Shrewsbury Hospital. TWISS: In the house adjoining the Stamp Office, the residence of that skilful surgeon, the late Mr. Henry Jackson, and now of his son, Mr. Arthur Jackson, formerly lived Mr. Brookfield, solicitor. Then at the corner of the row and Church street-now Mr. Wiltshire's, late Mr. Reedal's-was Dr. William Younge, the well-known physician, who died in 1838. I believe his father, Dr. Thomas Younge, to whom I made reference when we were speaking of the Grammar School, was there before him. EVERARD : The premises in Church Street now occupied by the Bible Society were once the residence of Dr. Hodgson, father of Mr. John Hodgson, of Goddard Hall. Then Mr. Geo. Turton, surgeon, was their tenant; afterwards Mr. Aldam, Mr. Timothy Scott, and Mr. Algar. Dr. Hodgson entered into partnership with Mr. Joseph Waterhouse, and they built Portobello place, carrying on the silver plated manufacture there, under the firm of " Waterhouse, Hodgson, and Co." Mr. Waterhouse's son John married one of Dr. Hodgson's daughters, who is still living, having been a widow for many years. The Doctor built the house on Western Bank, the residence of the late Alderman W. A. Matthews; and he performed a still more notable building feat in the erection of Bell Hagg Inn, then and still popularly known as 'I Hodgson's Folly." He died in 1832. WRAGG: The mention of Mr. Aldam reminds me of Mr. Daniel Wheeler, who was in partnership with him. EVERARD : I question whether the partnership existed here. Daniel Wheeler had his porter vaults under the Quakers' Meeting House ; and, subsequently, Mr. Aldam had the same. I remember seeing the sign of "Daniel Wheeler" over the entry of what is now the Thatched House Tavern. That Mr. Aldam was in partnership with Daniel Wheeler in some place is certain, but whether in Church street is uncertain. For my part, I do not believe he was. WRAGG: At any rate, they were in partnership. I want, however, to mention Daniel Wheeler, not as Mr. Aldam's partner, but as the celebrated Quaker missionary, noticed by the poet Whittier. Just before the Russian war many people were quite astounded that " the three Quakers " should have had the presumption to visit the Emperor of Russia to endeavour to prevail on him not to go to war ; but had they known the close and intimate relations that had existed between the late Daniel Wheeler. and the Czar Nicholas, and also the previous Emperor, they would not have been surprised at the visit of Messrs. Sturge, Peace, and Carleton. Mr. Wheeler " went about doing good." EVERARD: Mr. Wheeler originally went out to Russia to manage a model farm for the Emperor Alexander, who, about the year 1824 or 1825 had visited England. He was a little, broad-built man, and lie wore a grey Quakers' suit and broad-brimmed hat. He was away from England about ten years. Soon after his return, the Society sent him, with one or two others, to visit the mission stations ill the South Seas, New Zealand, and other places. The journal he kept was not published, but it was Landed round among the Friends for private perusal. LEIGHTON : The site on which Mr. Aldam built the present wine and spirit establishment was previously a publichouse, -with the sign of the " Grapes." It was a respectable place of the kind, and was kept by a person of the name of Hall. The house front projected halfway across the causeway, beyond the line of the other buildings. It had three windows in the front, and also a window ill each of the gable ends, one of them facing up the street and the other down. The Sheffield local band used to assemble here for practice. It included Williain Taylor, the French horn player, and his soil John, the celebrated bugler ; together with the Cleggs, father and soli, the trumpeters. EVERARD : The Sheffield and Hallamshire Bank was built on the site of the house below the " Grapes." That was it well-built and respectable-looking house, with palisades ill front. TWISS: It was a house with a fine old staircase, and was at one time the property of the Fisher family, by whom it was 801(1 to the Staceys, who, in turn, sold it for the purposes of the LEONARD:, The grandfather of the present Mr. William Fisher lived there. The house was an extremely good one. Behind it was a productive garden, in which, in addition to the commoner fruits, grapes wore grown upon the walls. Then behind the garden were the horn-pressing works of Mr. Fisher-works still occupied by his descendants, though the trade has changed its character-in Orchard place. By the gates was, as I have been told, a very fine pear tree. After Mr. John Fisher, who died in 1820, his sons, Robert and William. (the latter a fine old politician and reformer, remembered by all of us), occupied the house ; and then, as Mr. TWISS has said, it passed into other hands, although the works remained, And do still remain, the property of the Fisher family. TWISS: There is a curious story about an old barber who had a shop about here. He was tall and spindle- shanked. His door was divided in the middle into two halves, and at night his window was lighted by a tallow candle stuck in a pint bottle. A number of mischievous youths-one of whom when an old man told me the story-fastened the lower half of the door on the outside, and then, through the upper half, throw in a number of lighted jumping crackers. They could see the poor barber sitting alone, and they watched the alarm and dismay with which he found himself suddenly in the midst of a fusillade. The antics of the tall and " ungain " barber, as he skipped about to avoid the crackers, and his futile attempts to open the door and so escape, amused his tormentors greatly. LEIGHTON: Now we come to the old Cutlers' Hall, erected in 1726, demolished 1832, its predecessor dating as far back as 1638, when the Company built it on the site of some old " burbage houses." The second was a very unpretentious building compared with that which has now taken its place. It was a structure of three stories, with finished stone corners and a broad stone border round the windows, of which there were only two on the ground floor-between two doors, each of which was surmounted by a pediment. The two ground floor windows were protected by a low circular railing adorned with the cross-daggers ; while above, in the centre, between two upper rows of windows, four in number, was the coat of arms of the Company. TWISS : Which still may be seen preserved in the wall at the back of the present edifice. EVERARD : Adjoining the Hall was the "Bird in the Hand" kept by old Tommy Rose, the chief resort of the LEONARD Pray when wore these interesting ceremonials observed ? EVERARD Oh, in 1791 and other years. TWISS : " The good old times !" EVERARD In 1807, Mrs. Brownell, the Mistress Cutler, gave an elegant dinner to the ladies; and in the evening, an assembly at the rooms in Norfolk street." Mrs. Ebenezer Rhodes did the same in the following year; but the year following that, Mr. Robert Brightmore being Master, times had become so bad that the Corporation announced that, "in consequence of the state of their finances, they suspend the annual feast and dine by tickets, 15s. each." Even earlier than that, in 1798, the feast had been paid for by tickets, 10s. 6d. each, for another reason, " the money usually applied to defray the expenses of the feast having by vote been appropriated to the subscription in aid of the exigencies of the Government." LEONARD : We get a glimpse at the jolly doings at the old Cutlers' feasts from Mr. Holland's " Memorials of Chantrey." Speaking of Mr. Nicholas Jackson, the filemaker, of Shemeld croft, with one of whose daughters Chantrey had a love affair, lie says, " Ancient guests at the Cutlers' feast will remember how his loyal songs formerly divided with those of another local worthy, Billy Battie " (of whom we have just been speaking), " the applause of the Corporation, when sung in the old Hall, in Church street." Fancy the manufacturers singing songs now-a-days on that grand occasion! WRAGG : The handsome building of the Sheffield and Rotherham Bank, erected in 1866 in place of the plain brick structure, occupies the site of the premises once the residence and factory of the Roebucks. The history of Dr. Roebuck, the most distinguished member of the family, you all know. TWISS : His brothers first opened correspondences with the Continent, and one of them was possibly the first Sheffield banker (1770); on whose failure, eight years afterwards, the Broadbents' bank was established. LEONARD: When the Roebucks died, they had not a long journey to take. A tomb opposite the Sheffield and Rotherham Bank, dated 1752, bears the names of Roebuck and Fenton ; and Mr. Holland tells us that " in the month of May, 1785, Church lane was made wider by taking into it about three yards of the churchyard and removing a certain number of coffins, bodies, and gravestones, the last mostly bearing the name of Roebuck, and forming at present (1869) part of the floors in the cellars and kitchens of the houses opposite." TWISS: In making that sweeping observation Mr. Holland did not display the accuracy that is desirable in such matters. The fact is, he has multiplied one single gravestone into a wholesale collection. The only basis for his statement is the following: When the Sheffield and Rotherham Bank made certain alterations in their promises, some years before the rebuilding, it was found necessary to remove the flooring in a cottage at the back, in which the bank messenger resided, and among the payers so taken up was one which had been a gravestone, of which this is a copy: "Here was interred the Body of Rogger Robuck, late of Sheffield, joiner: he departed this life the 25th day of October, Anno Dom. 16 and in the 70th year of his age." The date is imperfect, only a portion of the third figure, which may be 0 or 6 or 9, remaining. The full date may be 1600, or any year between that and 1609 inclusive ; or it may be 1660, or any year between that and 1669 ; or it may be 1690, or any year between that and 1699. I have made a careful search in the parish register, but cannot find any entry of the burial of such a person. It probably belongs to the period between 1660 and 1669, if the following extract from " Depositions from York Castle," published by the Surtees Society, relates to the same person: "A true bill against Henry Bright, of Wharlow (Whirlow), gen., Stephen Bright, of the same, yeo., Roger Robuck, of the same, joiner, and Cornelius Clerk, of Cathorpe (Cutthorpe), co. Derby, gen., for breaking into the forest of Thomas Earle of Arundell, called Riveling Forrest, on 21 July, 1659, and killing a stag." I think it not impossible that the stone may have come from Nether Chapel, rather than from the Parish Churchyard. LEIGHTON: Mr. Webb, a well-known Sheffield surgeon, lived from about 1813 to 1818, in a house on a part of the site now occupied by the Sheffield and Rotherham Bank. He was a stout-built, dapper little man, fond of dress, and he rode a good horse. He had removed to Church street from Norfolk street, and thence lie went to Market street ; but he was not in the latter place long, for he died at Broomhall Mill, where lie had gone for the benefit of his health, about 1820. TWISS : I believe at one time he lived in Fargate, by the Lord's house." LEONARD : Mr. Webb was one of the first surgeons to the Infirmary, and an amusing story has been told me of a quarrel he had with the Rev. Alex. Mackenzie, of St. Paul's. It was the custom in those days for the medical staff of the Infirmary to assemble for prayers before commencing their duties; and Mr. Webb being invariably late, kept his colleagues waiting. At length this became so intolerable that Mr. Mackenzie took him to task, which the Doctor resented so warmly as to threaten to horse-whip "the blackcoated scoundrel " for having the impudence to dictate to him. A few days afterwards, when about to mount his horse at his own door, Mr. Webb, seeing Mr. Mackenzie coming up the street, made a rush, and began to carry his threat into execution. The curate of St. Paul's ran for protection into the bank and sped upstairs, pursued by the irate doctor, both being followed by a number of clerks and others, astonished by this strange incursion. To appreciate fully the ridiculous sight, you must remember that Mr. Mackenzie was an excessively tall man-over six feet-and that his assailant was considerably under middle height. Mr. Mackenzie did not live Iong after that. He went up to London to undergo an operation for the stone, and lie died there-in 1816. Mr. Webb had a garden at Harvest Grove, the end of Harvest lane, where Mr. Waterhouse afterwards built a house. He had a farm at Park Wood Springs, on land belonging to Parson Bland, of Bolsterstone, which was afterwards sold to the building society. Mr. Webb was accustomed to give lectures on surgery to medical students; and a list of his pupils would include such names as Wilson Overend, Jackson, France. But meetings of another kind were held at his house. Dr. Younge, Dr. Ernest, James Montgomery, Robert Hadfield, and others used to meet there to discuss politics. The Government of that day was very jealous of such meetings, and Mr. Webb's servants had instructions to represent to any callers at such times that he was engaged in lecturing upon surgery. Mr. Webb had himself been a pupil of his uncle, Mr. Charles Hawksley, whose surgery was in High street, near where Messrs. Foster, the tailors, are now; and lie was succeeded in practice by Mr. Nelson. LEIGHTON: Mr. Webb has been credited with being the hero of a curious adventure among the colliers. LEONARD : Yes ; but the assertion that the adventure happened to him is denied with much emphasis and some indignation by one who knew him well, and who asserts that lit, was not at all addicted to intemperance. I am told that it is more likely to have happened to his brother, Parson Webb, who was curate of Dore before the Rev. Frank Parker. WRAGG: What is the story? LEONARD : Its hero, whoever he may have been, having been drinking in the neighbourhood of Intake, lay on the ground helplessly drunk. Some colliers going to work at a neighbouring pit, partly as a practical joke, and partly out of consideration for his safety, picked him up and took him down the pit with them. After some time the inebriate came to himself, and seeing a number of black visages around, and a place quite different from any he had ever seen, thought he was dead and in another world. The men had got with them a pitcher of ale, and gave their visitor some. He drank, and said it was very much like what he had the night before he died. This was likely enough, as it had come from the very public-house where he had been drinking. One of the men asked him who and what he was. He told what his name and profession had been in the former state of existence, but accommodatingly said he would there be anything the gentlemen pleased. LEIGHTON : Se non e vero e' ben trovato. And at any rate this brings us to the bottom of Church street, leaving us to contemplate the changed aspect of affairs where, on the one side, the big establishment of Messrs. Cole Brothers has sprung up-one hardly knows how many stories high; while on the other, the old Town Hall has long since disappeared. EVERARD : I'm sorry to interrupt on the threshold of so interesting a theme, but had we not better reserve " the lobby " for our next meeting ? OMNES: Agreed. [Exeunt.
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