REMINISCENCES OF OLD SHEFFIELD

CHAPTER IX.

THE OLD, HAYMARKET-THE WICKER
-THE NURSERY BRIDGEHOUSES.

Present-Messrs. TWISS,	LEIGHTON, EVERARD, WRAGG, LEONARD and JOHNSON.

Period-A. D. 1874.

LEIGHTON : Before the Old Haymarket was used for the purpose that its
name denotes, a cattle market was held there. That, in 1786, was removed
into the Wicker. There it remained until 1830, when it went to its
present site between the river and the Victoria Station road.

LEONARD : Wonderful changes have taken place during the last few years
at the top of the Old Haymarket, in the way of opening it out, first by
way of Jehu lane (Commercial street) to the bottom of Norfolk street,
and then by demolishing the buildings in the corner to make the new road
to the Midland Station. And here we come upon the newest and latest
location of the General Post Office. We have found its changes to be
many.

WRAGG: Yes, the Nag's Head is an old hostelry that has disappeared to
make way for these improvements. It was once kept by the Heatons, one of
whom became a barrister. lie was employed in Harwood and Thomas's
warehouse, as a clerk or manager. Some dispute arose, and, regarding him
as their servant, they gave him his dismissal. But he claimed to be a
partner, and he had so well studied law and had secured for himself so
strong a legal position, that in a law-suit the firm lost, and had to
compromise the matter for a large sum.

LE0NARD : Do you know what is said to be the origin of the name Jehu
lane ? The tradition is, that when Mary Queen of Scots arrived in
Sheffield for imprisonment at the Manor, this lane was the main road,
and through it she had to pass. The streets had not been planned in
expectation of such things as coaches rolling through them, and the lane
astonished the Queen) s coachman to such an extent that he ejaculated "
Jehu !"-by way, I suppose, of invoking the tutelary genius of drivers in
his difficulty.

EVERARD: Credat Judaeus !

LEIGHTON: How the glories of the Old Haymarket have departed since the
suppression of the fine old Tontine, and since the rattle of coaches and
the galloping of post chaises, and the cracking of postilions' whips
gave way to " Waterloos," which, in turn, have been supplanted by
ignominious omnibuses and innovating tramways.

WRAGG: The Tontine, built on the site of the Castle barns, was finished
in 1785, James Watson being the first landlord, and James Bickley the
last. People stared with amazement at the erection of such an hotel and
considered its promoters dreaming, 'out the year after it was
acknowledged to be the first in the kingdom.

LEIGHTON:' G, Why was it pulled down? How well I remember the older
Charles Clegg, trumpet-major to the Yeomanry Cavalry, being ordered by
the magistrates to sound " the call" for the corps to assemble. Like a
brave man as he was he mounted and sounded, first at the front of the
Tontine, and then on the flat above the Commercial inn, at that time the
vegetable market. There a potato, thrown with great force and unerring
aim, entered the mouth of the trumpet, knocked out two of his upper
teeth, and he ceased sounding for ever. My old friend had blown his last
blast, and never more did he at early morn sound the reveille, or the
tattoo at dewy eve.

EVERARD : At this same Potato riot, or at one about the same time, the
following incident was witnessed by my father. The mob was standing near
the Yellow Lion inn, and the late Justice Parker, with the constables,
stood opposite the Tontine, when a large potato was thrown with great
force by an athletic man, wearing a leathern apron, as if by trade a
blacksmith or blade forger. The missile struck the magistrate on the
chest, and he, lifting his hand to his breast, staggered back. It would
appear that as soon as the man saw what he had done his heart smote him
(for the justice was a favourite magistrate), and, standing forth a
space in front of the mob, he shouted out-" Mester Parker, I didn't
intend that to hit yo; I meant it to hit Tom Smith." Thomas Smith, the
constable, was standing near Mr. Parker at the moment, and thus. escaped
being the victim of this very sincere, if not good, intention.

TWISS: The Tontine's history is so well known that we need not go
through the old story. Dr. Gatty gives a good description of what it was
in its glory, when " twenty horses and five postboys were always ready
when the yard bell rang," and how suddenly it collapsed on the opening
of the Midland railway. " Twenty pairs of horses were wanted one day; on
the morrow the road was forsaken. Thus one of the fine old English inns,
in the court-yard of which a carriage and pair could be easily driven
round, came to grief." It was in 1850 that the Duke of Norfolk purchased
the hotel for the erection of the New Market Hall.

LEONARD : I don't know what Wills means by The old Laithe [barns] in
Bullstake, that dismal retreat, Where hearses and stalls very often did
meet, Is now a large Tontine-the length of a street."

LEONARD: The site of the Royal hotel has been occupied for the purposes
of a public-house for great numbers of years. It was as long ago as 1779
that " Mr. Godfrey Fox purchased of Mr. Barlow the old public-house and
blackSmith's shop, and on the ground whereon they stood, built the Rein
Deer tavern."

WRAGG : Ah, Godfrey Fox occupied that house something like fifty years.,
and then he went into New Church street. He seems to have been a man of
education, for I have a book of his. It consists of a number of
pamphlets bound together-comprising Burke's Speech in 1780, and his
Reflections on the French Revolution; also a letter to a Noble Lord
(Earl Fitzwilliam), and a reply to this by Mr. C. Browne. On the leaf of
the book is written, " From the Author to his friend Godfrey Fox," and
on the fly-leaf is written, in a good, clear hand. " Godfrey Fox,
Sheffield."

LEIGHTON: We have previously spoken of " Old No. 12" and its spirited
proprietor, Mr. Thomas Wiley.

LEONARD : I remember that for many years, in the woodwork below one of
the windows, was preserved the hole made by a bullet fired by the
soldiers during the riot at the first borough election, in 1832. Mr.
Wiley had the date painted round the hole.

WRAGG: A passing glance at the Town Hall, erected on the Castle hill,
the foundation of which was laid in. 1808 (altered and enlarged in 1833,
and again in 1867), must suffice. Many Sheffielders, indeed, have been
glad enough to fight shy of the unpleasant holes " under t' clock," in
the days when the new police offices were yet unbuilt.

LEONARD : Some day, perhaps, ' it may be of interest to remember that
the deserted drinking fountain inserted in the wall of the Town Hall,
facing Castle street, was the first erected in Sheffield when the
fashion arose for supplying these useful places for quenching the
thirst. It was erected by the Town Trustees, and was opened by the late
Mr. Wm. Fisher, in 1859.

LEIGHTON: These drinking fountains were not a brilliant success here.
They were put up by various patriotic individuals, at the Church gates,
the bottom of Spital hill, the Moor head, Broad lane, and Gibraltar
street, but there soon arose a difficulty about a constant supply of
water; the stream stopped and the fountains were abominably disfigured
by mischievous boys and roughs. In fact they became nuisances.

LEONARD: Here is Castle street, or True Lovers' gutter: For lately two
lovers were sat on a rail, On the edge of the sink, fondly telling their
tale, When the flood washed them down in each other's embrace, For no
longer the lovers could sit in that place ; And hence, True Lovers'
gutter, the name that was given, Because by the flood these two lovers
were driven."

WRAGG: At the top of Castle green was Mr. Samuel Horsley's shoe shop. He
married the sister of the late Mrs. John Nicholson, of Darnall, and one
of his nieces lived with him, as he had no children. Mr. Horsley had a
nephew on his side, named Glossop, who also lived with him. From this
circumstance an attachment was formed between the two, but the young man
died, and was buried at Queen street chapel. Mr. Nicholson's daughter
became chambermaid at Page Hall, and married Mr. Greaves's coachman. Two
of their children, if not three, died in their infancy, and were buried
at the old Chapel of Ease at Attercliffe. Then the husband died, and was
buried with the children. When the widow (Mr. Nicholson's daughter)'
died, she requested to be buried with her uncle Horsley, and asked that
a walking stick that belonged to the young man Glossop, her uncle's
nephew, might be put in her coffin, and buried with her. This shows how
strong was her attachment. Mr. Horsley, although a Baptist, attended
Queen street chapel, and greatly resembled old Joshua Stephenson. There
was a curious circumstance in connection with Mr. Horsley's will. When
in his death-illness it was being written, he desired that what he had
to leave should be equally divided among the children of his wife's
sister. His wife then put in, " excepting John and Elizabeth;" so these
two had nothing, although the niece was the one whom they had brought
up, and the John was the grandfather of the Messrs. Nicholson, of
Mowbray street. Perhaps some particulars of John Nicholson, of Darnall,
may not be out of place here. You will remember the brook on coming out
of the fields by the pathway to Darnall ? Instead of turning up the lane
to the village, pedestrians cross it and follow the course of the brook.
There is a row of houses in front, and at the far end, somewhat
detached, is an old shop-there Mr. Nicholson carried on business, and in
one of the houses he lived. He was descended from the widow Nicholson,
mentioned by Hunter in his Hallamshire, as being at the formation of the
Nonconformist Church at Attercliffe. His wife was one of the Wadsworths,
whose name is mentioned in the same way by Hunter. Mrs. Nicholson,
previous to her marriage, was lady's maid to Lady Bute, at Wharncliffe
Lodge.

They had one son and five daughters. The son was father of Mr. William
Nicholson, late of Sycamore street, and grandfather of the Messrs.
Nicholson, of Mowbray street. Of the daughters, it was said there were
not five finer young women in the neighbourhood. Four out of the five
married. One has been already spoken of as chambermaid at Page Hall, and
as having married Mr. Greaves's coachman. Another was servant at Mr.
Read's, Attercliffe, and she married the coachman of Mr. Read. All Mr.
Nicholson's daughters married men who, after their marriage, learnt the
trade of a presser. Two were coachmen, as I have said, one a collier,
the fourth -1 don't know what. The collier soon left pressing, and
turned butcher. He opened the second butcher's shop in Attercliffe (the
first butcher in Attercliffe was named Fawley), and was also the
constable. Now as no one could then beconnected with any branch in the
cutlery trade except he had served a legal apprenticeship, these
sons-in-law of Mr. Nicholson must have been bound after their marriage.
I know for a fact that one of them was bound to Mr. Nicholson, as the
indenture still exists. It states that he was to learn the trade of a
maker of knives, and bears the date of 10th January, 1784. It is signed
John Nicholson, the attesting witnesses being Ben Broomhead, the then
Master Cutler' and George Wood. There must be some irregularity in the
indenture. as it does not contain the signature of the man apprenticed.
What the Master Cutler was I do not know, but George Wood we noticed in
connection with Pea croft. He writes a beautiful hand; not so Ben
Broomhead. Mr. Nicholson's son-in-law (apprentice) took out his freedom
on the 25th day of March, in 1791, and it bears the signature of Joseph
Ward, the Master Cutler, whom I presume would be the father of Thomas
Asline Ward. At that time this mature apprentice was the father of four
children. Mrs. Nicholson used to taunt or joke her three married
daughters for marrying men who had to learn a trade after their
marriage, and told them there was a gentleman who courted one of the
other two. They wondered who he could be, and desired to see him; when,
lo and behold, he turned out to be a collier, and turned presser like
the other three, but only for a time. In those days the trade of a
presser was a good one. We came across one of these sons-inlaw as
residing in Broad lane. Mr. Nicholson removed to Sheffield to be near
his children, and lived at the top of Broad street, between New street
and the street above, where he died. The property is destroyed by the
railway. His son or grandsons carried on in Pond street, now, lately
occupied by Mr. Allcock. In 1804, William Nicholson was Master Cutler.
He was a file maker in Pond street, but he was not son of the foregoing.

TWISS: Passing on to Waingate we stand on classic ground, but it is a
little foreign to the tenor of our usual conversation to go so far back
as to try to conjure up an imaginary picture of what the old Castle used
to be. The materials for such a picture are very scanty, and all that
remains to us above ground is the name. " We know that the Castle stood
on rather more than four acres of land, in the angle formed by the
confluence of the Sheaf and the Don, that it was fairly built of stone
and very spacious, and stood around an inward court and an outward
court. Antiquaries may show a stone in their museums that once formed
part of its fabric. Men who work in what we now call Castle Folds, tell
a somewhat doubtful story of the. ground sounding hollow beneath their
hammers, an indication of the existence of cellars. But the castle
itself is nowhere to be seen. Its site is defiled with killing shambles;
its, court-yards, barns, stables, and servants' rooms, its state
apartments and its great dining hall, have given place to shops and
works, public-houses, cottages, and stables. Sheffield Castle, once so
massive and strong, has become a tradition and nothing more."*

LEONARD: That hollow sound beneath the hammers is not so apochryphal as
might be supposed. Some interesting results could be obtained if only we
could carry out such explorations as the Palestine Fund has been engaged
upon in Jerusalem; but instead of that we actually have opportunities
for investigation, when they are thrown in our way, hidden from us.
Take, for instance, the narrative that was laid before the Sheffield
Archaeological Society, in October, 1872, of an interesting discovery
and an absurd concealment.

WRAGG: Let us get down into the Wicker, and among the things and people
within the memory of 'living men.

TWISS: What! without even a passing mention of the four alms-houses for
poor widows, that were at the foot of the Lady's bridge until 1767 ?

WRAGG: At the old tilt, across the Lady's bridge, which has been so long
at work in hammering out the glowing metal, once worked and lived the
father of the late Alderman Edwin Unwin. Mr. Unwin was once himself with
a man of very different character, Joseph Dewsnap, better known as "
Pimpey," who lived in the house now occupied in part by Mr. Leeds,
surgeon, and in part by Mr. Aitchison. Dewsnap was originally a razor
blade striker, but he became a rent and debt collector, and was the
first defaulter in that line. He reigned about seven years, his career
being short but "merry," for he made a grand flourish. There are many
stories of his extravagance. You may remember that in his latter days he
was employed to go round to the grocers, telling them when to raise the
price of flour.

LEONARD: Quoting from a notice of Mr. Unwin, which appeared at the time
of his death, it may be truly said that great responsibilities were
thrown upon him by this default of his employer, but " his genius for
figures, his strong good sense and his integrity enabled him so to bear
this ordeal that he early established a high character, and laid the
foundations for success in life. Mr. Unwin first came into public life
as one of the Improvement Commissioners, a body constituted under a
local Act in 1818, for lighting, cleansing, watching, &c,., the town
within a circle of three-quarters of a mile from the Parish Church." Mr.
Unwin was elected a commissioner, in August, 1830, and he continued in
the office, acting as auditor to the Commissioners, until 1865, until
the powers of the body were transferred to the Corporation. In July,
1830, Mr. Unwin became one of the directors of the New Gas Company, and
three years later he accepted the office of managing director, retiring
from his profession as accountant. When, in 1844, the two companies
amalgamated, Mr. Unwin assumed the management of the united concern.
Under his control the company was highly efficient and very successful.
Mr. room was a "midden," and under the other a bear was kept. What with the
stench and what with the grunting of the bear, you may well conceive
that it was school-keeping under difficulties; but, after great efforts
and self-denial, the school in Andrew street was erected (now an omnibus
shed for the Carriage Company), and more recently, in 1855, it
culminated in the church and schools erected near Burngreave, but
keeping the old name of " Wicker." Connected with this school was Joseph
Whittington, penblade grinder, an honourable, upright man without any
ostentation; the late Edward Hebblethwaite who, Mr. Sissons the
president of the Sunday-school Union was not afraid to say, was the best
superintendent in Sheffield, Samuel Biggin, Christopher Hyde, James
Taylor, Robert Waterhouse, George Tucker, and his brother-in-law, Thomas
Birks, who was Mayor in 1849, and Jeshua Biggin the last five were all
members of the Corporation. Mr. Joshua Biggin died on the 7th of
January, 1873, and Mr. Christopher Hyde is the only survivor.

LEIGHTON : The Bull inn, Wicker, was, if tradition does wrong them, a
favourite meeting place of Ebenezer Rhodes, Joseph Gales, James
Montgomery, and such men. It was known as " Billy Hill's parlour."

TWISS: That must have been the old 'Sembly house, for in 1775 it is
recorded, that it was kept by Hill as a publichouse, and that -there
were no houses beyond, excepting Mr. Smelter's, between that and the
Occupation road, then a footpath. The ground was open to Tomcross lane,
where. was a large pasture, kept by a person named Handley, of Old Carr,
who took in a great many cows;- hither the lasses came in great numbers
every night to milk them."

EVERARD: I think it was not the "Bull inn," but the White Lion inn," On
the opposite side of the street, a short distance before you come to
Stanley street, which was the favourite meeting place of Montgomery and
his friends. It was next door to Ebenezer Rhodes' promises, and, I
believe, was kept by a person of the name of Wood, whose son married the
eldest daughter of Mr. Rhodes. John Holland (Life of Montgomery) gives
an account of the evening when Montgomery suddenly " dropt " going. He
had got on his top coat, and was just about to set of, when he asked
himself -why he might -not just as well stop at home as go 2 He decided
to stay at home, and never went again. It is my impression, that
Montgomery had been subject to certain doubts and qualms of conscience,
at least as to the waste of time and probably dissipating influence of
such convivial meetings.

LEONARD: We have on a previous occasion had some talk about the manner
in which the neighbourhood beyond this has changed, within far more
recent times than that-within forty years, indeed.

WRAGG: The date when the cattle market was brought down here has already
been mentioned. Some of the posts, remnants of the old pens, were
remaining up to the time the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire
railway viaduct was built, between the Falstaff inn and the public-house
below.

LEIGHTON : We must not forget to mention the old residence of the
Heatons, in The Pickle-where, the family tradition says, the Young
Pretender once came. Pickle house, which still stood within the memory
of persons yet living, was where Mr. John Hobson's steel works are now,
the Pickle being the name for the district from the entrance to the old
Midland station to the Twelve o'clock. The district near the latter, on
the town side, was called Jerusalem. Beyond, all was open country,
including what were at the beginning of this century called the Local
Fields-where the local Militia was reviewed. These extended towards
Royds Mill. Colonel Fenton, the first commissioner of police, living at
Wood hill house, on the Grimesthorpe road, could thus have a good view
of his review ground in the valley below.

EVERARD : In the Pickle were the silver refining works of the father of
the present Mr. Joseph Dixon, afterwards removed to Mowbray street.

WRAGG : We should not leave the neighbourhood of the Wicker without
remarking on the learned attempts that have been made to arrive at the
correct etymology of the name.

There seems to be little doubt,' however, that it was once a marshy
place, and that the osiers growing there, and used in basket making,
gave it the name.*

LEONARD : The branches of trees, hazel twigs, and so forth, have been
found in digging in various places in the neighbourhood of the White
Rails, and the sandy deposits tend to. show that in these parts. the
river was once very apt to overflow its possibly not very accurately
defined banks. The whole vicinity of the Nursery and the Wicker would,
in early times, be swampy.

WRAGG: At the Bridgehouses end of Nursery street, near the Iron bridge
and destroyed by the railway, was the Bridgehouse, the residence of the
Clay family. Robert Clay, who died in 1737, came from Chesterfield to
Sheffield, and for some time resided at Walkley. His granddaughter
married Mr. George Bustard Greaves, of Page Hall

LEIGHT0N: Who was extremely wealthy, since the property of the two
families was joined by his marriage with the heiress of the Clays.

WRAGG: Mr. Greaves had a warehouse and town residence in Norfolk street,
and, previous to his purchase of Page Hall, he lived, I believe, in a
large house on Oaks green, Attercliffe. He was the only person in the
town who kept a carriage with coachman and footman. Hunter's pedigree
represents the Clay family as having expired in an heiress' as a
genealogist would say, but this is not so, as Joseph Clay, the father of
Mr. Greaves's wife, was twice married. By his first wife, Elizabeth
Speight, he had a son, who went to America. From some cause Mr. Clay
discarded him, and left him only £10, all his property going to Mrs.
Greaves. This disinherited son, however, left issue in America, one of
whom was the founder of the Clays of Kentucky, from whom descended the
celebrated American senator, Henry Clay. His head, according to
phrenologists, was the best developed or most equally balanced on
record.

LEONARD : Mr. Clay was the only gentleman in the neighbourhood who was
eulogised by Mather-all the rest he satirised or vilified. But this must
have been Joseph Clay, not Robert Clay, his father, with whom Mr. John
Wilson has confused him. Robert Clay died in the year in which Mather
was born.

Hunter's derivation is quite different, but equally doubtful. See for
this and other particulars respecting the Wicker, Hunter's Hallamshire,
Gatty's edition, 403. WRAGG: The last inhabitant of the Clays' house was
George Burgin, who had entered Mr. Clay's service in boyhood. His son
was a printer.

LEIGHTON : The Brightside Bierlow stocks were formerly on the
Bridgehouses side of the old Iron bridge.

EVERARD : I well recollect them.

LEONARD: Yes, even I call to mind the remnant of them, and old Mr.
Oakes, still living in Westbar,* remembers being incarcerated in them-as
he told me with much amusement one day. His offence, I grieve to add,
was playing at pitch and toss   on a Sunday. Sam Hall, the constable,
caught him and kept him there for an hour. " My mother," said the old
man, " came to see me, and didn't she call the fellow for putting me
in." He remembers, too, to have seen a man (Bill Jones) tied in a cart
and flogged by the beadle on its progress from Castle street to the Town
Hall. At Rotherham he saw a man put in the pillory, and subjected to the
operation of being pelted with rotten eggs. That was Dick Crown.

WRAGG: As to Bill Jones. there must be some mistake there-he was the
whipper, not the whipped, for he was the beadle at the Town Hall; so
that instead of receiving, he inflicted the punishment. This Bill Jones
took persons to Wakefield House of Correction after their commitment by
the magistrates. Hence arose a very common saying at one time in the
town, when one person saw another deviating from the path of rectitude-"
Bill Jones will soon have thee, without thou mindest." From the road to
Wakefield being then up Pye bank, one person would threaten another he
would " Send him up Pye bank." The prisoners had to walk, fastened
together by a long chain, like a slave gang.

LEIGHTON . Bridgehouses was, in 1789, associated with a tragedy which
caused much excitement at the time. The story has been variously told,
and it is difficult to get at its exact merits now. A leg of mutton had
been taken from a man's basket as he went over Lady's bridge, and one
version is that the thieves asked the person who carried it to go with
them and get it cooked for supper. One of the men turned King's
evidence, for there was £100 (blood money it was called) given to
anybody who got a man hanged. The people would have torn him in pieces,
but he escaped-it was from that butcher's shop at the corner of Chapel
street, Bridgehouses-by putting on women's clothes.

EVERARD: I think it must have been the prosecutor who had to escape from
the anger of the people, as it was against him that public anger was
chiefly directed. His name was Wharton, and the story, as I have heard
my father tell it, was that the men did the act as a rough and foolish
joke, the prosecutor well knowing them and they him. When they saw that
he took the matter seriously, they went and tried to persuade him to
take back the leg of mutton, but he positively refused, probably having
an eye to the " blood money." Instead of taking the mutton to a
constable or a magistrate, the jokers foolishly took it to a
public-house and had it cooked for supper. It has been said that Wharton
himself partook of that supper, but I never heard that before, and I do
not believe it.

LE0NARD : The Sheffield Register, in April, 1790, in which month the
unfortunate men were executed, said-" The behaviour of these unhappy
men, since their condemnation, manifested a hearty contrition for their
crimes and a becoming resignation to their ignominious fate. * * * Much
disturbance has arisen in this town since the execution of Stevens and
Lastley, from an idea that the prosecutor swore to aggravated
circumstances which really did not happen. This suspicion has gathered
strength from the solemn asseverations of the two unfortunate men,
communicated in a letter to their shopmates, dated the evening previous
to the execution. The populace have several times beset Wharton's house,
and hung the figure of a man on a gibbet before his door, but yesterday
they were so violent as to break every window, and otherwise so much
damage the house as to render it scarcely habitable. The current report
when our paper went to press, was that Wharton had escaped in woman's
clothes." The popular sentiment is reflected in Mather's song on the
execution of the men, and his denunciation of Wharton-" Thou villain,
most base, thy name must eternally rot."

JOHNSON: The neighbourhood of Bridgehouses reminds me of " Silly Luke,"
whom I often used to see there; and he, in turn, calls to my remembrance
how many eccentrics we had formerly about the town; now any that we
have. seem to be hidden. Besides " Silly Luke" there used to be " Mr.
Bowman," " Jack Burton," " Soft Charley" and his brother George, "
Belper Joe," and others. EVERARD: It Was a Very painful thing to see the
poor creatures pursued by a crowd of thoughtless boys, " making game" of
them, as they called it. But we had no Idiot Asylums then in which they
might have been trained to more usefulness.

LEIGHTON: There was an earlier eccentric than these Thomas Calver, an
inmate of the Brightside workhouse, whom the children dubbed "Billy
Red-waistcoat. "

JOHNSON: 11 Silly Luke" had a solid substratum of sense beneath his
folly; he was quite shrewd where shirking work or getting food were
concerned. Many of his sayings have been handed down. He told the
workhouse officials they might make him work, but they couldn't make him
like it. He said also " that he liked neither nuts nor nut-shells, but
real-clown, good-eating roast beef and plum pudding." When teased by the
grinders who, in those days, worked with water power instead of steam'
and were consequently dependent on rain for the means of working, Luke
wished we had a " sow-metal" sky, with a round hole for the sun to peep
through-for he wanted to keep the rain from his enemies but not to lose
the sun for himself.

LEIGHTON: Luke gave Dr. Sutton, the vicar, the name of Old Jog-my-eye,"
because he would not give him money or pudding; of the latter he was
very fond. The vicar had a cast in his eye, and Luke followed him about
saying, " If thou won't give me pudding I'll call thee Old Jog-my-eye."
The Doctor got Luke's liberty somewhat restricted after that. Nothing
frightened Luke so much as to be told he should be a grinder-for the
grinders had ground his fingers.

JOHNSON : Mr. Bowman's peculiarity was an affected style of walking,
varied every few yards with a skip, and " Soft Charley, " when told by
the boys to "walk proud," put on a ridiculous strut. Miss Hall, the
miser, was a very familiar figure in our streets and about the market at
one time, in her search for dirty scraps with which to make a cheap
dinner. It used to be said that her bonnet was renewed by being rubbed
over with coal-tar, or " oily-coil" as the vulgate hath it. She was
quite wealthy, and her will greatly disappointed some who had diligently
paid court to her for it' Among the eccentrics of about forty years ago,
two of the most prominent wore Edward Price, known as " Lord John
Russell, " and John Shaw, known as "Magnet Jack." "Lord John Russell'
was a working brush maker. His speciality was going about making
political Reform speeches to a large following of boys, and he always
rounded off his address with some word ending in 11 ation," which he
pronounced ore rotundo. Magnet Jack, too, was fond of spouting when in
his cups, and was a well-known maker of magnets and fireworks works.
Both these men in their sober moments were men of high intelligence.
They were very well-meaning men, doing most harm to themselves. I
believe Price, in his latter days, became a reformed character.

LEIGHTON: " Jack Burton" was still in the workhouse a few years ago. One
of his favourite antics was to stare through the windows of the houses
in St. James's row. He generally chose dinner time for his appearance,
and Jack's long face, suddenly pressed against the window when Mr.
Reedall had a dinner party, has often frightened the ladies.

TWISS: I believe the late Mr. Henry Jackson cured him of that trick.