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Building mapping applications with QGIS create your
own sophisticated applications to analyze and display
geospatial information using QGIS and Python Westra
Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Westra, Erik
ISBN(s): 9781783984671, 1783984678
Edition: Online-Ausg
File Details: PDF, 5.59 MB
Year: 2014
Language: english
Building Mapping Applications
with QGIS

Create your own sophisticated applications to

analyze and display geospatial information using
QGIS and Python

Erik Westra

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Building Mapping Applications with QGIS

Copyright © 2014 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy
of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is
sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt
Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages
caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2014

Production reference: 1231214

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78398-466-4

www.packtpub.com
 Credits

Author Project Coordinator

Erik Westra Kinjal Bari

Reviewers Proofreaders
David McDermott Cathy Cumberlidge
Pablo Pardo Ameesha Green
Heegu Park Sonia Sanghera
Christopher Wesson
Indexer
Commissioning Editor Monica Ajmera Mehta
Pramila Balan
Production Coordinator
Acquisition Editor Conidon Miranda
Sonali Vernekar
Cover Work
Content Development Editor Conidon Miranda
Rikshith Shetty

Technical Editor
Shruti Rawool

Copy Editors
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 About the Author

Erik Westra has been a professional software developer for over 25 years, and has
worked almost exclusively with Python for the past decade. Erik's early interest in
graphical user interface design led to the development of one of the most advanced
urgent courier dispatch systems used by messenger and courier companies
worldwide. In recent years, he has been involved in the design and implementation
of systems that match seekers and providers of goods and services across a range of
geographical areas. This work has included the creation of real-time geocoders and
map-based views of constantly changing data. He is based in New Zealand, and
works for companies worldwide.

He is the author of Python Geospatial Development, Packt Publishing.

I would like to thank Ruth, the love of my life, for all her support
and encouragement. I would also like to thank my two children,
Anneke and Oscar, for reminding me what is important in life.
 About the Reviewers

David McDermott (MPhys Geog PGCE (Cantab)) is a proud Yorkshireman who

has a keen interest in science fiction and Rugby League, as well as in GIS.

He studied at the University of Hull, where he acquired a 2:1 master's degree in

Physical Geography. During his 4 years at university, he developed an interest in
GIS, subsequently gaining his highest marks in GIS-related modules. He went on
to use GIS to analyze remote sensing data as part of his master's level dissertation.

Following on his master's degree, he qualified as a secondary school geography

teacher at the University of Cambridge. He spent 6 months teaching before
embarking on a career in GIS.

His first GIS position was for a UK-based unaddressed mail company. He spent 18
months working with address data, promoting the use of GIS, redesigning delivery
maps, and creating Python scripts to automate common repetitive tasks.

He currently works in the GIS team for a local authority in the UK. Along with
working in GIS, he is the Local Land and Property Gazetteer Custodian and Street
Naming and Numbering Officer. In this role, he has expanded his knowledge of
database management, programming, and web GIS. He has also presented at the
QGIS South East user group, and was part of the panel at GeoUtilities London 2014.

I would like to thank James Rutter for allowing me the time to peer
review this book.
Pablo Pardo is a geographist from Spain. He has studied MSc in GIS, and
specialized in natural risk assessment, focusing his MSc thesis on open data quality.
He also received a certificate of higher education in software development.

After several years of working as a GIS technician, he is now starting his freelance
career, mixing GIS consulting with data analysis and programming.

This is the first book he has helped review. He likes open data, free software,
and geo stuff. You can find more about him at www.pablopardo.es.

Heegu Park began his career at an IT company as a software engineer, and

developed some web programs for a famous Korean fashion company. After a short
period of time as a software engineer, he moved to the gaming industry, which was
booming at that time in South Korea, and he experienced technical producing and
coordinating of several online games at leading online game companies.

A five-year work experience drove him to get a higher degree in business and
management, so he went to the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology for his MBA (Master's degree in Business Administration), and to the
University of Southern California for his MSBA (Master of Science in Business
Administration). During his time at two graduate schools, KAIST and USC, he
mainly focused on IT and the creative industry. His studies have given him great
opportunities to enhance his cooperation and management skills of various teams
and people, and his knowledge, along with this work experience, has driven him
to pursue successful IT business and efficient marketing strategies.

Now, he works at Gaia3D, a geospatial company based in South Korea, and is in

charge of marketing and business development. Gaia3D is actively using many open
source GIS to develop systems or services for clients. Also, Gaia3D participates in
open source GIS activities such as FOSS4G, open source GIS training, and so on. He
has conducted several lectures on open source GIS for many people from all over the
world, and also participated in translating open source GIS software such as QGIS.
His goal at Gaia3D is to make Gaia3D become a global open source GIS company.
Christopher Wesson is a cartographic design consultant at Ordnance Survey.
Qualified with a master's degree, he studied a wide range of disciplines at the
University of Southampton, including oceanography, engineering, management,
and finance. He has authored and presented papers domestically and
internationally, and makes time to share a blog on cartographic design
(http://christopherwesson.azurewebsites.net/).

A member of the British Cartographic Society and a contributor to International

Cartographic Association activities and several multi-organization projects, he
has a keen interest in partnering modern technology with traditional cartographic
excellence. Most of his recent work has been in automated cartography and the
visualization of geographic data across different platforms.
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 Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Getting Started with QGIS 7
About QGIS 7
Installing and running QGIS 8
Understanding QGIS concepts 10
Linking QGIS and Python 11
Exploring the Python Console 12
Examining a Python plugin 15
Writing an external application 20
Summary 26
Chapter 2: The QGIS Python Console 27
Using the console 27
Working with geospatial data in the console 34
Scripting the QGIS user interface 39
The status bar 39
The message bar 40
Progress indicators 41
QGIS logging 42
Custom dialogs and windows 43
Summary 44
Chapter 3: Learning the QGIS Python API 47
About the QGIS Python APIs 47
Deciphering the C++ documentation 48
Table of Contents

Organizing the QGIS Python libraries 53

The qgis.core package 53
Maps and map layers 54
Coordinate reference systems 55
Vector layers 56
Raster layers 61
Other useful qgis.core classes 63
The qgis.gui package 64
The QgisInterface class 64
The QgsMapCanvas class 65
The QgsMapCanvasItem class 66
The QgsMapTool class 66
Other useful qgis.gui classes 67
Using the PyQGIS library 67
Analyzing raster data 68
Manipulating vector data and saving it to a shapefile 70
Using different symbols for different features within a map 73
Calculating the distance between two user-defined points 76
Summary 78
Chapter 4: Creating QGIS Plugins 79
Getting ready 79
Understanding the QGIS plugin architecture 80
Creating a simple plugin 82
The plugin development process 86
Using the Plugin Builder 87
Automating the build process 88
Plugin help files 91
Unit testing 92
Distributing your plugin 95
Writing a useful plugin 97
Possibilities and limitations of plugins 105
Summary 106
Chapter 5: Using QGIS in an External Application 107
Introducing Lex 108
Getting the data 109
Designing the application 110
Creating the application's framework 111
Adding the user interface 113
Connecting the actions 117
Creating the map canvas 118

[ ii ]
 Table of Contents

Labeling the points 121

Filtering the landmarks 122
Implementing the zoom tool 124
Implementing the pan tool 124
Implementing the explore mode 125
Further improvements and enhancements 127
Summary 128
Chapter 6: Mastering the QGIS Python API 129
Working with symbol layers 129
Combining symbol layers 134
Implementing symbol layers in Python 137
Implementing renderers in Python 142
Working with custom map layers 144
Creating custom map canvas items 148
Using memory-based layers 151
Summary 157
Chapter 7: Selecting and Editing Features in a
PyQGIS Application 159
Working with selections 160
Using the layer editing mode 161
Adding Points 163
Editing Points 164
Deleting Points and other features 165
Adding lines and polygons 166
Editing lines and polygons 173
Summary 179
Chapter 8: Building a Complete Mapping Application
using Python and QGIS 181
Introducing ForestTrails 182
Designing the ForestTrails application 182
Creating the application 184
Laying out the application 185
Defining the toolbar icons 187
The constants.py module 188
The forestTrails.py module 188
The mapTools.py module 192
The ui_mainWindow.py module 192
Running the application 196

[ iii ]
Table of Contents

Obtaining the basemap 196

Defining the map layers 201
Defining the map renderers 204
The Pan Tool 209
Implementing the track editing mode 210
Summary 212
Chapter 9: Completing the ForestTrails Application 213
The Add Track map tool 213
Testing the application 218
Vertex snapping 220
The Edit Track map tool 223
The Delete Track map tool 226
The Get Info map tool 228
The Set Start Point and Set End Point actions 233
The Find Shortest Path action 237
Adjusting the toolbar actions 240
Suggested improvements 241
Summary 242
Index 243

[ iv ]
 Preface
As software applications become more and more a part of people's lives, the
concepts of location and space become more important. Developers are regularly
finding themselves having to work with location-based data. Maps, geospatial data,
and spatial calculations are increasingly becoming just another part of the everyday
programming repertoire.

A decade ago, geospatial concepts and development was limited to experts in the
Geographic Information Sciences. These people spent years working with maps
and the complex mathematics that underlie them. Often coming from a university
background, these specialists would spend years becoming familiar with a particular
Geographic Information System (GIS), and would make a career of using that system
to draw maps and process geospatial data.

While the ever-popular Google Maps meant that anyone can view and manipulate
a map, the more advanced custom display and processing of geospatial data was
still limited to those who used a professional GIS system. All this changed with
the advent of freely available (and often open source) tools for manipulating and
displaying geospatial data. Now, anybody can learn the necessary concepts and start
building their own mapping applications from scratch. Rather than being limited to
the minimal capabilities and restrictive licensing terms of Google Maps, developers
can now build their own mapping systems to meet their own requirements, and
there are no limits to what can be done.

While the necessary tools and libraries are freely available, the developer still needs
to put them together into a workable system. Often, this is a rather complex process
and requires a lot of understanding of geospatial concepts, as well as how to compile
the necessary wrappers and configure the tools to work on a particular computer.
Preface

Fortunately, now there is an even easier way to include geospatial programming

tools and techniques within your Python applications. Thanks to the development
of the freely available QGIS system, it is now easy to install a complete geospatial
development environment, which you can use directly from within your Python
code. Whether you choose to build your application as a plugin for the QGIS system,
or write a standalone mapping application using QGIS as an external library, you
have complete flexibility in how you use geospatial capabilities within your code.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with QGIS, shows you how to install and run the QGIS
application, and introduces the three main ways in which Python can be used
with QGIS.

Chapter 2, The QGIS Python Console, explores the QGIS Python Console window,
and explains how it acts as a useful tool while building your own custom mapping
applications. It also gives you a taste of what can be done with Python and QGIS,
and improves your confidence and familiarity with the QGIS environment.

Chapter 3, Learning the QGIS Python API, introduces the Python libraries available
for the QGIS Python developer, and shows how these libraries can be used to
work with geospatial data and create useful and interesting maps based on
your geospatial data.

Chapter 4, Creating QGIS Plugins, introduces the concept of a QGIS plugin, and
explains how to write a plugin using Python. We take an in-depth look at how
plugins work, and how to create a useful geospatial application as a QGIS plugin.
We also look at the possibilities and limitations of QGIS plugins.

Chapter 5, Using QGIS in an External Application, completes the process of building

standalone Python applications that make use of the QGIS Python libraries. You
will learn how to create a wrapper script to handle platform-specific dependencies,
design and build a simple but complete standalone mapping application, and learn
about the structure of an application built on top of QGIS. Along the way, you will
become a far more competent QGIS programmer as you build your own turnkey
mapping application from scratch.

Chapter 6, Mastering the QGIS Python API, delves once more into the PyQGIS library,
looking at some more advanced aspects of this library, as well as various techniques
for working with QGIS using Python.

Chapter 7, Selecting and Editing Features in a PyQGIS Application, looks at how Python
programs built using PyQGIS can allow the user to select, add, edit, and delete
geospatial features within a map interface.

[2]
 Preface

Chapter 8, Building a Complete Mapping Application Using Python and QGIS, covers the
process of designing and building a complete turnkey mapping application called
"ForestTrails". You will design the application, implement the overall user interface,
and construct a suitable high-resolution basemap for use by the application.

Chapter 9, Completing the ForestTrails Application, covers the completion of the

implementation of the "ForestTrails" mapping application by implementing the
various map-editing tools, as well as writing a feature to find the shortest available
path between two points on the map.

What you need for this book

To follow through the examples in this book, you will need to install the following
software on your computer:

• QGIS Version 2.2 or later

• Python Version 2.6 or later (but not Python 3.x)
• GDAL/OGR Version 1.10 or later
• PyQt4 Version 4.10 or later
• Depending on your operating system, you might also need to install
the Qt toolkit so that PyQt will work

All of this software can be freely downloaded, and works on Mac OS X, MS

Windows, and Linux computers.

Who this book is for

This book is aimed at experienced Python developers who have some familiarity
with maps and geospatial concepts. While the necessary concepts are explained
as we go along, it would help to have at least some understanding of projections,
geospatial data formats, and the like.

Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different
kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of
their meaning.

[3]
Preface

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions,
pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows:
"This uses the QGIS_PREFIX environment variable we set earlier to tell QGIS where
to find its resources."

A block of code is set as follows:

app = QApplication(sys.argv)

viewer = MapViewer("/path/to/shapefile.shp")
viewer.show()

app.exec_()

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the
relevant lines or items are set in bold:
def unload(self):
self.iface.removePluginMenu("Test Plugin", self.action)
self.iface.removeToolBarIcon(self.action)

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

export PYTHONPATH="$PYTHONPATH:/Applications/QGIS.app/Contents/Resources/
python"

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the
screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "If you
haven't already installed QGIS, click on the Download Now button on the main
QGIS web page to download the QGIS software."

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about
this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it
helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.

[4]
 Preface

To send us general feedback, simply e-mail [email protected], and mention

the book's title in the subject of your message.

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing
or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors.

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help you to get the most from your purchase.

Downloading the example code

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do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or
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[5]
Piracy
Piracy of copyrighted material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all
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If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, please
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Questions
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[email protected], and we will do our best to address the problem.
 Getting Started with QGIS
This chapter provides an overview of the QGIS system and how you can work
with it using the Python programming language. In particular, this chapter will
cover the following:

• Downloading, installing, and running QGIS

• Becoming familiar with the QGIS application
• Using Python within QGIS
• Using the Python Console as a window into the QGIS environment
• Working of a QGIS Python plugin
• Interacting with the QGIS Python API from an external Python program

About QGIS
QGIS is a popular, free, and open source Geographic Information System (GIS),
which runs on all major operating systems. People often use QGIS to view, edit,
and analyze geospatial data. For our purposes, however, QGIS is more than just
a GIS system; it is also a geospatial programming environment, which we can
use to build our own geospatial applications using Python.

QGIS has a comprehensive website (http://qgis.org), which makes it easy to

download, install, and use.

Before reading further, you should spend 15 minutes looking through the website
and getting familiar with the application and the documentation available online.
In particular, you should check out the Documentation page, where three
important manuals are available: QGIS User guide/Manual, QGIS Training manual,
and PyQGIS cookbook.
Random documents with unrelated
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all the company except Johnson was very surly and ill-tempered;
of the philosopher he appeared extremely fond, rubbed against
him, and displayed every mark of awkward partiality and subdued
kindness. "How is it," said one of the company, "that this savage
animal is so attached to Mr. Johnson?" "From a very natural
cause," replied Mallet; "the bear is a Russian philosopher, and he
knows that Linnæus would have placed him in the same class
with the English moralist. They are two barbarous animals of one
species."
The Doctor disliked Mallet for his tendency to infidelity, and this
sarcasm turned that dislike into positive hatred. He never spoke
to him afterwards, but has gibbeted him in his octavo Dictionary
under the article alias.
[112] I cannot learn in what year the duration of this fair was
shortened; but I should suppose from the following circumstance,
very soon afterwards. This print was published in 1733, and on
the 24th of June 1735 the Court of Aldermen came to a resolution
touching Bartholomew Fair, "that the same shall not exceed
Bartholomew eve, Bartholomew day, and the day after; and that
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the sale of goods, wares, and merchandizes, and no acting be
permitted."
[113] A Mr. Banckes, who a few years afterwards published
some rhymes on this print, asserts, "that the performance at the
booth, on the sign of which is written, The Fall of Bajazet, is the
droll of Fair Rosamond." From the dresses, etc., I should imagine
this ingenious gentleman is wrong. He also observes, "that young
Louis XV., King of France, his queen, children, prime minister, etc.,
were this year exhibited in Smithfield and the Borough at very
reasonable prices, to spectators of all degrees." Our artist,
however, had forgot himself in regard to the matter of which
these great personages were made, the whole town having been
informed by their master of the ceremonies that they were of a
composition far exceeding wax. The same writer goes on to
inform us:
"There Yeates and Pinchbeck change the scene
To slight of hand, and clock machine;
First numerous eggs are laid, and then,
The pregnant bag brings forth a hen," etc.
 From the above lines, I should suppose that the late Mr.
Pinchbeck, with his wonderful and surprising piece of mechanism
the Panopticon, was at this fair; though he frequently spoke of
one of his brothers, "who," he said, "was a showman, and who
once gave a very large sum for an elephant, and took a room at
Southwark Fair, with an intention of exhibiting it; but the passage
to this room," added he, "was so narrow, that though my poor
brother 'got the beast into it, a'never could get un out on't; a'
stuck in the middle on't and died!' So, sir, you sees my poor
brother lost all his money. Ah! he was a most unfortunate dog in
everything he took in hand! and so was I, God knows." Cætera
desunt.
[114] The late Lord Sandwich, not very eminent for his
reverence of the clerical habit, being once in a company where
there were a number of clergymen, offered, in a whisper, to lay a
considerable wager with the gentleman who sat next him, that
among the ten parsons there was not one Prayer-book. The
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ask for a Prayer-book to decide it. They had not one.—He soon
after privately offered to lay another wager with the same
gentleman, that among the ten parsons there was half a score
corkscrews. This also was accepted; and the butler being
previously instructed, coming into the room with a bottle of claret
and a broken corkscrew, requested any gentleman to lend him
one. Every priest who was present had a corkscrew in his pocket!
[115] Of Henley's absurdities we have heard much; but they
had their source in an adoption of that manner which he knew
would be agreeable to his auditors, rather than in ignorance. The
following circumstance proves he was a man of some humour:—
"I never," says a person who knew little about the doctor, "saw
Orator Henley but once, and that was at the Grecian Coffeehouse,
where a gentleman he was acquainted with coming in, and
seating himself in the same box, the following dialogue passed
between them:—
Henley. "Pray what is become of our old friend Dick Smith? I
have not seen him for several years."
Gentleman. "I really don't know. The last time I heard of him
he was at Ceylon, or some of our settlements in the West Indies."
Henley (with some surprise). "At Ceylon, or some of our
settlements in the West Indies! My good sir, in one sentence
there are two mistakes. Ceylon is not one of our settlements, it
belongs to the Dutch; and it is situated, not in the West, but in
the East Indies."
Gentleman (with some heat). "That I deny!"
Henley. "More shame for you! I will engage to bring a boy of
eight years of age who will confute you."
Gentleman (in a cooler tone of voice). "Well,—be it where it
will, I thank God I know very little about these sort of things."
Henley. "What, you thank God for your ignorance, do you?"
Gentleman (in a violent rage). "I do, sir. What then?"
Henley. "Sir, you have a great deal to be thankful for."
[116] These lines are from Banckes' Poems, p. 87, in which a
contracted copy of the print is placed as the headpiece of an
epistle to the painter. This good gentleman, with true poetic
vanity, pathetically exclaims,

"Alas! that pictures should decay;

That words alone can wit convey:
But words remain—Oh, may this verse
Remain, etc. etc."
Little did this rival of Stephen Duck imagine that the words
"which alone can wit convey," would not have preserved his two
volumes from the trunkmaker, to whom every verse had been
long since consigned, had not this little print, and another copy
from the same artist, sometimes induced a collector to purchase
the volumes.
The concluding lines of his poem are not, however, so
contemptible:

"In vain we ransack Rome and Greece

To match this Conversation piece;
In vain our follies would advance
The names of Italy and France;
Labour and art elsewere we see,
But native humour strong in thee;
In thee—but parallels are vain,
A great original remain.
Go on to lash our reigning crimes,
And live the censor of the times."
 [117] I once heard a freemason observe, that this droning
disciple of Morpheus, and the heavy politician on the opposite
side, were the Jachin and Boaz of the lodge.
[118] On the top of a shop-bill, which contains a list of Doctor
——, I forget his name's, wonderful and surprising cures,
performed by elixir of——, I don't know what, this descendant of
Sangrado has inserted a wooden print, which displays a reduced
copy of his sign. It exhibits a half-length of much such a person
as our antiquated beau, with his hand in precisely the same
situation. This our quack very emphatically denominates the sign
of the headache.
[119] Those gentlemen who wish to enjoy
"The feast of reason and the flow of soul,"
would find some use in adopting the old threadbare adage,
"Not more than the Muses, nor fewer than the Graces." Poor
Mortimer the painter, whose convivial talents were hardly to be
paralleled, had such a dislike to large companies, that he used to
say, "If he invited the twelve apostles to supper, he would
certainly take two evenings to receive them, six being a sufficient
number, be the society ever so good."
[120] The preacher is said to be intended for a portrait of a
Doctor Desaguliers.
[121] Our clerk carries every appearance of being the
schoolmaster of the hamlet. He has much of that surly, tyrannic
dignity which frequently accompanies the character. One of these
gentlemen, in a village distant from the capital, having a
disagreement with a neighbouring yeoman, the farmer, in his
wrath, called him an overbearing Turk, and an insignificant beast.
Our haughty Holofernes was irritated beyond description; his rage
choked his utterance: he stalked home, and wrote a poetical
epistle to the rustic, beginning with the lines which follow:—
"God not a beast did make, but me a man;
And not a Turk, but a true Christian;
And by His grace I am a schoolmaster;
None of the meaner kind, I dare aver."
[122] These moping birds, being the worshippers of darkness
consecrated to dulness, closing their eyes against the light, and
holding their silent, solitary reign in old buildings which are
seldom trodden by human feet, are with great propriety placed in
this church.
The cross on an escutcheon in one of the windows is there
placed to the memory of the learned and Reverend Ebenezer
Muzz; who, his epitaph declareth, after "painfullie labouring in
this vineyard for one and fortie years, now sleepeth with his
fathers."
[123] An hour-glass is still placed on some of the pulpits in the
provinces. Daniel Burgess, of whimsical memory, never preached
without one, and he frequently saw it out three times during one
sermon. In a discourse which he once delivered at the conventicle
in Russel Court, against drunkenness, some of his hearers began
to yawn at the end of the second glass. But Daniel was not to be
silenced by a yawn; he turned his timekeeper, and altering the
tone of his voice, desired they would be patient a while longer, for
he had much more to say upon the sin of drunkenness:
"therefore," added he, "my friends and brethren, we will have
another glass,—and then!"
[124] Doctor Arbuthnot, Mr. Pope, and the Dean, have united
their talents to expose the anti-climax, and selected innumerable
conceits from the ponderous works of Sir Richard Blackmore and
others. They have unkindly neglected their friend Gay; and yet
Blackmore's mowing the beard is not much worse than Gay's
shaving the grass:
"When the fresh spring in all her state is crown'd,
And high luxuriant grass o'erspreads the ground,
The lab'rer with the bending scythe is seen
Shaving the surface of the waving green;
Of all her native pride disrobes the land,
And meads lays waste before his sweeping hand."
—Gay's Pastorals, p. 5, l. 39, etc.
[125] When I was very young, I once paid a morning visit to a
poet. Upon his table was Byshe's Art of Poetry. I naturally
observed, "Your manager of a puppet-show is more prudent than
you are; he keeps his wires out of sight." So tremblingly alive are
these valets to the Muses, that this good-natured hint, which had
its source in a wish to serve him, was never forgiven.
[126] This excellent paper is now no more; but our modern
poets and poetesses have a still more extended channel in which
to pour out their warm effusions. Reams of good white paper are
daily metamorphosed, and become magazines, newspapers, and,
though last mentioned, not less in regard, auctioneer's
catalogues. That the last named is as poetical as are the two
former, many examples might be adduced to prove. One shall
suffice, and that one is so bespangled with beauteous metaphors,
that, though neither in rhyme nor blank verse, yet, from its
brilliancy of colouring and splendour of diction, it must be classed
amongst the most sublime compositions of our most sublime
bards. Thus is a sale announced:—"Particulars and conditions of
sale of that elegant freehold villa called Luxborough, which will be
sold on the 26th of June 1765, together with the several farms
that encompass the premises, containing in the whole near six
hundred acres of rich arable meadow, pasture, and woodland,
lying and being in an extensive vale, whose surrounding
acclivities are nobly clothed, and, rising in magnifique form,
exhibit luxuriant prospects of unequalled richness and beauty.
"The pleasure-ground is comprised in a space of eleven acres,
encompassed with ha-ha! and grub walls. The elegant disposition
of the ground is beautifully improved with vistas, groves, and
plantations, through which walks wind in extensive circuit. Store-
ponds and elevated basons occupy the areas, regale those
fragrant coverts, and afford a constant and inexhaustible supply
of water for the house, by means of lead pipes, aqueducts, etc.
"Nature, propitious, hath luxuriantly featured the
circumadjacent grounds, and art hath been judiciously introduced
to give richness and effect. The lawn swells with gentle rise and
easy slopes; clumps of trees are placed in pleasing irregularity; a
serpentine stream flows through the vale, heightening the
verdure of the divided pasture; and the villages of Chigwell,
Woodford, and Woodford Bridge, dawn through that mass of
prolific richness which fills the wide expanse."
[127] Had the artist given this speaking countenance to the girl
who is exhibited in the first print of the "Rake's Progress," how
much more should we have been interested in her situation?
[128] When this was first published, the following quotation
from Pope's Dunciad was inscribed under the print:—

"Studious he sate, with all his books around,

Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profound:
Plung'd for his sense, but found no bottom there;
Then wrote and flounder'd on in mere despair."
 All his books, amounting to only four, was, I suppose, the
artist's reason for erasing the lines.
A reduced copy, with some variations, is placed as the
headpiece of an Epistle to Alexander Pope, Esq., by Mr. Banckes.
One of the variations is, a cobweb over the grate. If this good
gentleman had consulted his own headpiece, he would have
recollected that, as even a poet must sometimes eat, and the
poor bard had no other room, or grate, it was natural to think he
must sometimes have a fire to dress his scanty meal. In almost
every other respect he is indeed a much more unaccommodated
man than was Stephen Duck when he was a thresher. Duck,
having made some rhymes, which for a thresher were deemed
extraordinary, was taken out of his barn, furnished with a stock in
trade, and set up as a poet. After that time he never wrote a
stanza; his Muse forsook him; he was haunted by the foul fiend,
and hanged or drowned himself, because Queen Caroline, who
had made him a parson, could not make him a bishop.
In one of the journals of the day, dated June 30, 1736, I find
written as follows:—"A handsome entertainment was this day
given at Charlton, in Wiltshire, to the threshers of that village, by
the Lord Viscount Palmerston, who has given money to purchase
a piece of land, the produce of which is to be laid out in an
annual entertainment, on the 30th of June, for ever, in
commemoration of Stephen Duck, who was a thresher at that
place." Happy man! patronized by the Queen's Majesty, and
"So lov'd, so honour'd, in the House of Lords!"
[129] This unfortunate creature, in the memory of many
persons now living, used to parade the streets of the metropolis
with a hautboy, which afforded him a precarious subsistence.
[130] He was brother to Festin who led the band at Ranelagh,
and has been dead about thirty years.
[131] "What signifies," says some one to Dr. Johnson, "giving
half-pence to common beggars? they only lay them out in gin or
tobacco." "And why," replied the Doctor, "should they be denied
such sweeteners of their existence? It is surely very savage to
shut out from them every possible avenue to those pleasures
reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which
none of us can swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we
delight in stripping it still more bare, and are not ashamed to
show even visible marks of displeasure, if ever the bitter taste is
taken from their mouths."
[132] This is said to be a striking resemblance of that very
great man. For many years he attended Covent Garden market
every morning.
[133] It has been said that this incomparable figure was
designed as the representative of either a particular friend or a
relation. Individual satire may be very gratifying to the public, but
is frequently fatal to the satirst. Churchill, by the lines,
"Fam'd Vine Street,
Where Heaven, the kindest wish of man to grant,
Gave me an old house, and an older aunt,"
lost a considerable legacy; and it is related that Hogarth, by the
introduction of this withered votary of Diana into this print,
induced her to alter a will which had been made considerably in
his favour: she was at first well enough satisfied with her
resemblance, but some designing people taught her to be angry.
[134] Of this there is an enlarged copy, which some of our
collectors have ingeniously enough christened, The Half-Starved
Boy. It bears the date of 1730, and is inscribed "W. H. pinx. F.
Sykes sc." Sykes was the pupil of either Sir James Thornhill or
Hogarth, and the 0 might be intended for an 8 or a 9; but the
aquafortis failing, it appears to have an earlier date than the print
from which it was copied. If the date is right, Sykes undoubtedly
copied it from a sketch of his master's, which might then be
unappropriated. In any case, it is too ridiculous to imagine for a
moment that Hogarth was a plagiary; for supposing, what is not
very probable, that his pupil was capable of delineating the
figure, he would scarcely have made the sketch without some
concomitant circumstances to explain its meaning.
[135] I speak of the large print; in the small copy, which is
inserted in this work, they are properly placed.
[136] From what combination is this now made the sign for a
colour shop?
[137] This boy is copied from a figure in a picture of The Rape
of the Sabines, by N. Poussin, now in the collection of Sir R.
Hoare, at Stourhead.
[138] At that period there was a windmill at the bottom of
Rathbone Place.
 [139] Mr. Nichols, in his Anecdotes.
[140] I have seen more than one modern impression with the
hands and face tinged with red and blue. Those only are genuine
which are printed in colours.
[141] To the memory of this great and public-spirited citizen I
never saw any other memorial. Such a benefactor to the city
ought to have had a statue of gold placed in the centre of the
Royal Exchange.
He was a native of Denbigh, in North Wales, and a citizen and
goldsmith of London. Though there were three Acts of Parliament
empowering the freemen of London to cut through lands, and
bring a river from any part of Middlesex or Hertfordshire, the
project had always been considered as impracticable, till Sir Hugh
Middleton undertook it. He made choice of two springs, one in
the parish of Amwell, in Hertfordshire, the other near Ware, each
of them about twenty miles from town. Having united their
streams with immense labour and expense, he conveyed them to
London. This most arduous and useful work was begun on the
20th of February 1608, and brought into the reservoir, at
Islington, on Michaelmas day, 1613. Like many other projectors,
he ruined his private fortune by his public spirit. King James I.,
however, created him a baronet; and his descendants, in lieu of a
very considerable estate, had the honour of being called Sirs. For
the benefit of the poor members of the Goldsmiths' Company, he
left a share in his New River water; and his portrait is still
preserved in their hall.
The seventy-two shares into which this great liquid property
was divided, originally sold for one hundred pounds each, and for
thirty years afforded scarce any advantage to the proprietors. In
the year 1780, shares were sold at nine and ten thousand pounds
each; and their price is increasing in proportion to the increase of
the dividends, by which their value is regulated.
[142] On the resignation of Mr. Horace Walpole, in February
1738, De Veil was appointed inspector-general of the imports and
exports, and was so severe against the retailers of spirituous
liquors, that one Allen headed a gang of rioters for the purpose of
pulling down his house, and bringing to a summary punishment
two informers who were there concealed. Allen was tried for this
offence and acquitted upon the jury's verdict declaring him
lunatic.
 [143] On this spot once stood the cross erected by Edward I.
as a memorial of affection for his beloved Queen Eleanor, whose
remains were here rested on their way to the place of sepulture.
It was formed from a design by Cavalini, and destroyed by the
religious fury of the Reformers. In its place, in the year 1678, was
erected the animated equestrian statue which now remains. It
was cast in brass, in the year 1633, by Le Sœur; I think by order
of that munificent encourager of the arts, Thomas Howard, Earl
of Arundel. The Parliament ordered it to be sold, and broken to
pieces; but John River, the brazier who purchased it, having more
taste than his employers, seeing, with the prophetic eye of good
sense, that the powers which were would not remain rulers very
long, dug a hole in his garden, in Holborn, and buried it
unmutilated. To prove his obedience to their order, he produced
to his masters several pieces of brass, which he told them were
parts of the statue. M. de Archenholtz adds further, that the
brazier, with the true spirit of trade, cast a great number of
handles for knives and forks, and offered them for sale, as
composed of the brass which had formed the statue. They were
eagerly sought for, and purchased,—by the loyalists from
affection to their murdered monarch, by the other party as
trophies of the triumph of liberty over tyranny.
[144] Doctor Arne, in one instance, seemed to think that they
should still continue so. Having composed a very dull opera, and
the town disapproving and consigning it to a merited oblivion, the
Doctor asked Foote what was his opinion of it; "for," added he, "I
really think there is a great deal of good in it." "There is, my dear
fellow," replied the wit; "there is a great deal too much good in it;
but, setting aside its goodness and piety, there never was
anything more justly damned since damning came into fashion."
[145] There may be those who will object to a banner flouting
the sky in a barn; let such consider that the roof is not above half
thatched, and their objections will vanish. These breaches in the
roof will throw a new light upon the line.
[146] Let not this humble situation be considered with
contempt. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the loyal inhabitants
of Shrewsbury, expecting that her Majesty would pass through
their town in one of her northern perambulations, prepared to
entertain her with a play, which was to have been performed in a
dry marl pit in the quarry; but the Queen's highness did not
come.
 [147] This gentlewoman has generally been considered as
intended for the ghost: from her employment, I rather think she
is the representative of tragedy:
"Death in her hand, and murder in her eye."
The sage Melpomene herself could not go through the business
with more philosophic indifference.
[148] By the halter near them, it may be conjectured that these
balls were intended to represent bullets, and designed to hint that
some one of this noble company might on a leisure evening, in
humble imitation of the heroic Captain Machcath, endeavour to
turn his lead to gold; and, like that very great man, be in
consequent danger of making an exit with a rope round his neck.
[149] We are told by John Milton, that cannon were invented
by the devil. We are told by Alexander Pope, that stage thunder
was invented by that great critic John Dennis; and so jealous was
Dennis of his bolt being wielded by an improper hand, that being
once in the pit at Drury Lane Theatre, when the company were
performing Macbeth, he, on hearing the bowls rattling over his
head, started from his seat, grasped his oaken stick, and
exclaimed, with an emphasis that drowned the voices of the
players, "Eternal curses light on these scoundrels! they have
stolen my thunder, and don't know how to roll it!"
[150] Our royal theatres have sometimes neglected and
violated the costume. We have seen the head of Cato covered
with a periwig that emulated Sir Cloudesley Shovel's; a Prince of
Denmark decorated with the order of St. George; Othello habited
as a captain of the foot guards; and Kent, the tough old Kent, as
a Chelsea pensioner.
[151] In the second act of Oedipus is the following stage
direction:—"The cloud draws that veiled the heads of the figures
in the sky, and shows them crowned with the names of Oedipus
and Jocasta written above, in great characters of gold."
[152] That these representatives of royalty sometimes meet
with such accidents, appears by the following letter from a late
lecturer upon heads, at a time when he belonged to a company
of comedians at Yarmouth:—

"Yarmouth Gaol, 27th May 1761.

 "Sir,—When I parted from you at Lincoln, I thought long
before now to have met with some oddities worth
acquainting you with. It is grown a fashion of late to write
lives: I now, and for a long time, have had leisure sufficient
to undertake mine, but want materials for the latter part of
it; for my existence now cannot properly be called living,
but what the painters term still life, having ever since
March 13th been confined in this town gaol for a London
debt. As the hunted deer is always shunned by the happier
herd, so am I deserted by the company, my share taken
off, and no support left me except what my wife can spare
out of hers:
'Deserted, in my utmost need,
By those my former bounties fed.'
"With an economy which till now I was ever a stranger
to, I have made a shift hitherto to victual my little garrison;
but then it has been by the assistance of some good
friends; and, alas! my clothes furnish me this week with
my last resort; the next, I must atone for my errors upon
bread and water.
"Themistocles had many towns to furnish his tables, and
a whole city had the charge of his meals. In some respects
I am like him, for I am fed by the labours of a multitude. A
wig has kept me two days; the trimmings of a waistcoat as
long; a ruffled shirt has paid my washer-woman; a pair of
velvet breeches discharged my lodgings; my coat I swallow
by degrees, the sleeves I breakfasted upon for three days,
the body, skirts, etc. served me as long; and two pair of
pumps enabled me to smoke several pipes. You would be
surprised to think how my appetite, barometer-like, rises in
proportion as my necessities make their terrible advances.
I here could say something droll about a good stomach,
but it is ill jesting with edged tools, and I am sure that is
the sharpest thing about me.
"You may, perhaps, think I am lost to all sense of my
condition, that while I am thus wretched I should offer at
ridicule; but, Sir, people constitutioned like me, with a
disproportionable levity of spirits, are always most merry
when most miserable, and quicken like the eyes of the
consumptive, which are brightest the nearer the patient
approaches his dissolution. But to show you that I am not
 lost to all reflection, I here think myself poor enough to
want a favour, and humble enough to ask it. Then, Sir, I
could draw an encomium on your good sense, humanity,
etc. etc.; but I will not pay so bad a compliment to your
understanding as to endeavour by a parade of phrases to
win it over to my interest. If at the concert you could make
a gathering for me, it would be a means of obtaining my
liberty.
"You well know, Sir, the first people of rank abroad
perform the most friendly offices for the sick; be not
therefore offended at the request of the unfortunate.
"George Alexander Stevens."
[153] On the spirited style in which the late Miss Catley, of
melodious memory, performed this character, the following lines
were written; but I do not recollect having seen them printed:—
"Hail, vulgar goddess of the foul-mouth'd race!
(If modest bard may hail without offence),
On whose majestic, blush-disdaining face,
The steady hand of Fate wrote—IMPUDENCE!
Hail to thy dauntless front, and aspect bold!
Thrice hail! magnificent, immortal scold!

"The goddess, from the upper gallery's height,

With heedful look the jealous fishwife eyes;
Though early train'd to urge the mouthing fight,
She hears thy bellowing powers with new surprise;
Returns instructed to the realms that bore her,
Adopts thy tones, and carries all before her.

"From thee the roaring Bacchanalian crew,

In many a tavern round the Garden known,
Learn richer blackguard than they ever knew:
They catch thy look,—they copy every tone;
They ape the brazen honours of thy face,
And push the jorum with a double grace.

"Thee from his box the macaroni eyes;

With levell'd tube he takes his distant stand,
Trembling beholds the horrid storm arise,
And feels for reinhold when you raise your hand;
At distance he enjoys the boisterous scene,
And thanks his God the pit is plac'd between.

"So, 'midst the starry honours of the night,

The sage explores a comet's fiery course;
Fearful he views its wild eccentric flight,
And shudders at its overwhelming force:
At distance safe he marks the glaring ray,
Thankful his world is not within its way.

"Proceed then, Catley, in thy great career,

And nightly let our maidens hear and see,
The sweetest voice disgust the listening ear,
The sweetest form assume deformity:
Thus shalt thou arm them with their best defence,
And teach them modesty by impudence."
 [154] The late Lord Orrery was a singularly formal character. Sir
Anthony Branville, in The Discovery, was intended for his portrait,
and exhibits a strong likeness. It was sometimes the wish of Mr.
Garrick to play upon the suavity of this old nobleman, and induce
him to contradict himself. This power he exerted very successfully
on the following occasion:—Lord Orrery wrote a letter from
Ireland to Mr. Garrick, requesting that Mossop might be engaged.
The request of a man of rank was, to the manager of Drury Lane,
a command, and Mossop was engaged. When, some months
afterwards, the peer came to England, he took an early
opportunity of breakfasting with Mr. Garrick: the moment he
entered the room, he began his favourite subject.
Orrery. "David, I congratulate you: I inquire not about the
success of your theatre; with yourself and Mossop, it must be
triumphant. The Percy and the Douglas both in arms, have a right
to be confident. Separate, you were two bright luminaries; united,
you are a constellation—the Gemini of the theatric hemisphere.
Excepting yourself, my dear David, no man that ever trod on
tragic ground has so forcibly exhibited the various passions that
agitate, and I may say agonize, the human mind. He makes that
broad stroke at the heart which, being aimed by the hand of
nature, reaches the prince or the peasant, the peer or the
plebeian. He is not the mere player of fashion; for the player of
fashion, David, may be compared to a man tossed in a blanket:
the very instant his supporters quit their hold of the coverlet,
down drops the hero of the day. However, as general assertions
do not carry conviction, I will arrange my opinions under different
heads, not doubting your assent to my declarations, which shall
be founded on facts, and built upon experience. First of the first,
—his voice; his voice is the vox argentea of the ancients, the
silver tone, of which so much has been written, but which never
struck upon a modern ear till Mossop spoke,—'then mute
attention reigned.'"
Garrick. "Why, my Lord, as to his voice, I must acknowledge
that it is loud enough; the severest critic cannot accuse him of
whispering his part; for, egad, it was so sonorous, that the people
had no occasion to come into the theatre: they used to go to the
pastrycook's shop in Russel Court, and eat their custards, and
hear him as well as if they had been in the orchestra: 'he made
the welkin echo to the sound.' No one could doubt the goodness
of his lungs, or accuse him of sparing them; but as to—"
 Orrery. "What! you have found out that he roars! you have
discovered that he bellows!—Upon my soul, David, you are right;
he bellows like a bull. We used to call him 'Bull Mossop'—'Mossop
the Bull;'—we had no better name for him in the country. But
then, David, his eye is an eye of fire; and when he looks, he looks
unutterable things: it is scarce necessary that he should speak,
for his eye conveys everything that he means, and excepting your
own, David, is the brightest, most expressive, most speaking eye,
that ever beamed in a—"
Garrick. "Why, my Lord, with the utmost submission to your
Lordship, from whose accurate taste and comprehensive
judgment I tremble to differ,—does not your Lordship think there
is a—a—a dull kind of heaviness,—a blanket, a—"
Orrery. "What! you have discovered that he is blind?—Egad,
David, whatever his eye may be, nothing can escape yours. He is
as blind as a beetle. There is an opacity, a stare without sight, a
sort of filminess, exactly as you describe. But, notwithstanding I
allow that he bellows like a bull, and is blind as a beetle, his
memory has such peculiar tenacity, that whatever he once
receives adheres to it like glue! he does not forget a syllable of
his part."
Garrick. "Upon my honour, my Lord, if his memory was what
you describe in Ireland, he must have forgot to bring it with him
to London; for here, the prompter is obliged to repeat every
sentence, and a whole sentence he cannot retain: there is
absolutely a necessity for splitting it into parts."
Orrery. "What! you have found that his head runs out. Upon my
soul, it never would hold anything: Lady Orrery used to call him
'Cullender Mossop'—Mossop the Cullender:' the fellow could not
remember a common distich. But, notwithstanding this, his
carriage is so easy, his air so gentleman-like, his deportment has
so much fashion, that you perceive at a glance he has kept the
best company; and no one who sees him conceives him a player.
He looks like one of our house: he has the port of nobility."
Garrick. "As to his port, my Lord, I grant you that the man is
tall, and upright enough; but with submission, the utmost
submission to your Lordship's better judgment, don't you think
there is an awkwardness, a rigid, vulgar, unbending sort of a—a
—. We had fencing masters, dancing masters, and drill sergeants,
but all would not do; he looked more like a tailor than a
gentleman."
 Orrery. "What! you think that he is stiff? By the Lord, David,
you are right,—nothing escapes you: he is stiff—stiff as a poker:
we used to call him 'Poker Mossop;'—we had no better name for
him in the country. But however his body might want (as I must
acknowledge it did) the graceful, easy bend of the Antinous, his
mind was formed of the most yielding and flexible materials: any
advice which you gave him, he would take; from you, I am
persuaded, a hint was sufficient."
Garrick. "Why, in this, my Lord, I must be bold enough to differ
from you in the most pointed and positive terms; for of all the
obstinate, headstrong, and unmanageable animals I ever dealt
with, he is the most stubborn, the most untractable, the most
wrongheaded. I never knew one instance where he followed my
instructions in any the smallest degree. If I recommend him to
dress a character plain, he comes upon the stage like a
gingerbread king; if I advise him to be splendid in his apparel, he
endeavours to get a Quaker's habit from the keeper of our
wardrobe; and in everything, he—more than I thought belonged
to human nature—had that impenetrable, that—that—that—"
Orrery. "So!—you think him obstinate? Upon my soul he is—as
obstinate as a pig; he has more of that animal's pertinacity than
any man I ever knew in my life. But yet, David, with all these
faults, he is—I have not time to enter into particulars.—Be what
he will, you have engaged him? I sincerely wish you may agree
together, and am, my dear fellow, your most obedient. Say no
more.—Farewell.—To Mrs. Garrick present my compliments."
[155] In an ode to the memory of Le-Stue, cook to the late
Duke of Newcastle, this was whimsically parodied by a Mr. Shaw,
the writer of a monody addressed to Lord Lyttleton:
 "When Philip's fam'd, all-conquering son,
Had every blood-stain'd laurel won,
He sigh'd that his creative word,
Like that which rules the skies,
Could not bid other nations rise,
To glut his yet unsated sword.

"But when Le-Stue's unrivall'd spoon,

Like Alexander's sword, with flesh had done,
He heav'd no sigh, he made no moan;
Not limited to human kind,
To fire his wonder-teeming mind,
He rais'd ragouts and olios of his own."

[156] When a gentleman, whose industry and integrity have

raised him to the rank of an Alderman of London, was apprentice,
he one Sunday afternoon took a walk with several of his friends
to Islington. Considering smoking as a manly accomplishment, he
put a pipe in his mouth. A respectable citizen who knew his
master, meeting him in the fields, with a grave face accosted him
as follows: "How now, Tom! smoking tobacco! pray who was your
teacher? If you mean to be rich, unlearn it as fast as you can, for
I never knew a man worth a guinea who stuck a pipe in his
mouth before he was twenty." "The d—l you did not," replied the
boy, "then I will never smoke another." He dashed his clay tube to
the ground, and adhered to his resolution.
[157] The sign by which this circumstance is intimated was at
first inscribed Goodchild and West. Some of Mr. Hogarth's city
friends informing him that it was usual for the senior partner's
name to precede, it was altered.
[158] Madame Pompadour, in her remarks on the English taste
for music, says "they are invariably fond of everything that is full
in the mouth."
[159] The inscription must remind every reader of Pope's lines,
—
"Where London's column, pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully rears its head, and lies," etc.
The Duke of Buckingham's epigram on this magnificent pillar is
not so generally known:
 "Here stand I,
The Lord knows why;
But if I fall—
Have at ye all!"
[160] To mark the midnight hour, each of the watches is a
quarter after twelve.
[161] This reverend gentleman is said to be intended for Mr.
Platell, once curate of Barnet.
[162] A copy of this figure on a larger scale is engraved by Mr.
Bartolozzi.
[163] The following whimsical notice, written by a believer in
transmigration, was a few years ago sent to several country
gentlemen, accompanied with a request that the contents might,
if possible, be communicated to all the fish and fowl, birds and
beasts, in their respective manors:—
"A WARNING TO BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES.

"Bustards, pheasants, woodcocks, widgeons,

Wild-ducks, plovers, snipes, and pigeons;
Every fowl of every sort,
To your native haunts resort.
Turbot, salmon, herring, soles,
Plunge into your native holes.
Bucks, and does, and hares, and fawns,
Speed ye to your native lawns.
Each to your closest covers haste!
Beware! beware the man of taste!
All that can escape, away!
You're surely slaughter'd, if you stay,
For Monday next is Lord Mayor's day."
[164] This scene is laid in the cellar of a house near Water
Lane, Fleet Street, then known by the name of the "Blood Bowl
House;" which curious appellation was given it from the various
scenes of riot and murder which were there perpetrated.
[165] This has been supposed to be intended for the same
prostitute whom we have before seen exhibited in a garret and a
night-cellar: I do not discover the least resemblance.
[166] I have been told that the dealers in perjury at
Westminster Hall, as well as the Old Bailey, consider this little
circumstance as a complete salvo for false swearing.
 [167] A solemn exhortation was formerly given to the prisoners
appointed to die at Tyburn, in their way from Newgate. Mr. Robert
Dow, merchant tailor, who died in 1612, left £1, 6s. 8d. yearly for
ever, that the bellman should deliver to the unhappy criminals, as
they went by in the cart, a most pious and awful admonition. An
admonition of the same nature was read in the prison of Newgate
the night before they suffered.
[168] A man that some persons now living may remember by
the name of Tiddy Doll.
[169] Notwithstanding the boasted humanity of our laws, I am
told more criminals are annually executed in this little island than
in all Europe besides.
[170] I believe it was customary to despatch a second pigeon
at the moment the criminal suffered.
[171] Numerous as are the executions, they are not sufficient
for the anatomical students. It is not more than four or five years
since one of those necessary assistants to the art of chirurgery,
called resurrection men, being employed in his vocation of
stealing a dead body from a churchyard in the neighbourhood of
London, was discovered by a patrole, and shot in the grave. To
prevent his employer being disappointed of a subject, and to
show her reverence for that art which her husband had lost his
life in endeavouring to improve, and save the idle expense of a
funeral, his afflicted widow, with the fondness of an Ephesian
matron, three days afterwards sold the body of her murdered lord
for sixteen shillings, to the very surgeon in whose service he had
suffered!
[172] When Oliver Cromwell, attended by Thurlow, once went
to dine in the city, the populace rent the air with their
gratulations. "Your highness," said the secretary, "may see by this
that you have the voice of the people as well as the voice of
God."—"As to God," replied the Protector, "I will not talk about
Him here; but for the people, they would be more noisy, and
more joyful too, if you and I were going to be hanged."
[173] He is somewhat like a porter butt, with a head on it. In
the Straits of Thermopylæ he would have been pressed to death;
but dead, he might stop a breach better than a better man.
[174] In the second volume of Wood's Body of Conveyancing,
p. 180, is a London lease; one of the clauses gives a right to the
landlord and his friends to stand in the balcony during the time of
"the shows or pastimes upon the day commonly called the Lord
Mayor's Day."
[175] In the General Advertiser for March 9, 1748-49, it was
thus announced:
"This day is published, price 5s., a Print, designed and
engraved by Mr. Hogarth, representing a PRODIGY which lately
appeared before the gate of Calais,
'O the Roast Beef of Old England!'
"To be had at the Golden Head in Leicester Square, and at the
print-shops."
[176] At this election a man was placed on a bulk, with a figure
representing a child in his arms: as he whipped it, he exclaimed,
"What, you little child, must you be a member?" This election
being disputed, it appeared from the register book of the parish
where Lord Castlemain was born, that he was but twenty years of
age when he offered himself a candidate.
SEASON 1874.
 A LIST OF BOOKS
PUBLISHED BY

C h atto & W i n d u s
(Successors to John Camden Hotten),
74 & 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W.

THE FAMOUS FRASER PORTRAITS.

MACLISE'S GALLERY OF
ILLUSTRIOUS LITERARY CHARACTERS.
With Notes by the late WILLIAM MAGINN, LL.D.
Edited, with copious Notes, by William Bates, B.A., Professor of Classics in Queen's
College, Birmingham. The volume contains the whole 83 Splendid and most
Characteristic Portraits, now first issued in a complete form. In demy 4to, over
400 pages, cloth gilt and gilt edges, 31s. 6d.; or, in morocco elegant, 70s.
"What a truly charming book of pictures and prose, the quintessence, as it were, of
Maclise and Maginn, giving the very form and pressure of their literary time, would
this century of illustrious characters make."— Notes and Queries.

THE PRINCE OF CARICATURISTS.

 —————
THE WORKS OF
JAMES GILLRAY,
The Caricaturist,
With the Story of his Life and Times, and full and
Anecdotal Descriptions of his Engravings.
Edited by THOS. WRIGHT, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.
Illustrated with 90 full-page Plates, and about 400 Wood
Engravings. Demy 4to, 600 pages, cloth extra, 31s. 6d.;
or, in morocco elegant, 70s.

BEAUTIFUL PICTURES
BY BRITISH ARTISTS.
A Gathering of Favourites from our Picture Galleries, 1800-1870. By Wilkie,
Constable, J. M. W. Turner, Mulready, Sir Edwin Landseer, Maclise, Leslie, E. M.
Ward, Frith, Sir John Gilbert, Ansdell, Marcus Stone, Sir Noel Paton, Eyre Crowe,
Faed, Madox Brown. All Engraved in the highest style of Art. With Notices of the
Artists by Sydney Armytage, M.A. A New Edition. Imperial 4to, cloth gilt and gilt
edges, 21s.; or, in morocco elegant, 65s.

Uniform with "Beautiful Pictures."

COURT BEAUTIES OF THE

REIGN OF CHARLES II.
From the Originals in the Royal Gallery at Windsor, by Sir Peter Lely. Engraved in
the highest style of Art by Thomson, Wright, Scriven, B. Holl, Wagstaff, and T. A.
Deane. With Memoirs by Mrs. Jameson, Author of "Legends of the Madonna." New
and sumptuous "Presentation Edition." Imp. 4to, cloth gilt and gilt edges, 21s.;
or, in morocco elegant, 65s.
"This truly beautiful and splendid production is equally a gem among the Fine Arts
and in Literature."— Quarterly Review.

Companion to the "History of Signboards."

Advertising: its History , in all Ages and Countries, with many

very Amusing Anecdotes and Examples of Successful Advertisers. Crown 8vo,
 with numerous Illustrations, coloured and plain, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.
[In preparation.

Are You Engaged? If so, get

Advice to Parties About

to Marry. A Series of Instructions in
Jest and Earnest. By the Hon. Hugh
Rowley. With Humorous Illustrations.
Price 3s. 6d., elegantly bound, and
enclosed in tinted wrapper, beautifully
scented by Rimmel.
⁂ Before taking the "awful plunge" be
sure to consult this little work. If it is not
a guarantee against life-long misery, it
will at least be found of great assistance
in selecting a partner for life.

American Happy Thoughts. The finest collection of

American Humour ever made. Foolscap 8vo, illustrated covers, 1s.
[Preparing.

Anacreon. Illustrated by the Exquisite Designs of

Girodet. Translated by Thomas Moore. Bound in vellum
cloth and Etruscan gold, 12s. 6d.
⁂ A beautiful and captivating volume. The well-known
Paris house, Firmin Didot, a few years since produced a
miniature edition of these exquisite designs by
photography, and sold a large number at £2 per copy. The
Designs have been universally admired by both artists and
poets.

Armorial Register of the Order of the Garter, from Edward III, to the Present
Time. The several Shields beautifully emblazoned in Gold and Colours from the
Original Stall Plates in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. All emblazoned by hand. A
sumptuous volume, bound in crimson morocco, gilt, £20.

ARTEMUS WARD'S WORKS.

Artemus Ward, Complete. The Works of Charles Farrer Browne,
better known as "Artemus Ward," now first collected. Crown 8vo, with fine
Portrait, facsimile of handwriting, &c., 540 pages, cloth neat, 7s. 6d.
 ⁂ Comprises all that the humourist has
written in England or America. Admirers of
Artemus Ward will be glad to possess his
writings in a complete form.
—————————

Artemus Ward's Lecture at the

Egyptian Hall, with the Panorama. Edited by
the late T. W. Robertson, Author of "Caste,"
&c., and E. P. Hingston. Small 4to, exquisitely
printed, bound in green and gold, with
numerous Tinted Illustrations, 6s.

Artemus Ward: his Book. With Notes and Introduction by

the Editor of the "Biglow Papers." One of the wittiest books published for many
years. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, 1s.
The Saturday Review says:—"The author combines the powers of Thackeray with
those of Albert Smith. The salt is rubbed in by a native hand—one which has the gift
of tickling."

Artemus Ward: his Travels among the Mormons

and on the Rampage. Edited by E. P. Hingston, the Agent and Companion of
A. Ward whilst "on the Rampage." New Edition, price 1s.
⁂ Some of Artemus's most mirth-provoking papers are to be found in this book. The
chapters on the Mormons will unbend the sternest countenance. As bits of fun they
are IMMENSE!

Artemus Ward's Letters to "Punch," Among the

Witches, and other Sketches. Cheap Popular Edition. Fcap. 8vo, in illustrated
cover, 1s.; or, 16mo, bound in cloth extra, 2s.
⁂ The volume contains, in addition, some quaint and humorous compositions which
were found upon the author's table after his decease.

Artemus Ward among the Fenians: with the

Showman's Experiences of Life at Washington, and Military Ardour at
Baldinsville. Toned paper, price 6d.

Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers in

the Civil War, 1642. Second Edition, Considerably Enlarged and Corrected.
 Edited, with Notes, by Edward Peacock, F.S.A. 4to, half-Roxburghe, 7s. 6d.
⁂ Very interesting to Antiquaries and Genealogists.

The Art of Amusing. A

Collection of Graceful Arts, Games,
Tricks, Puzzles, and Charades, intended
to amuse everybody, and enable all to
amuse everybody else. By Frank
Bellew. With nearly 300 Illustrations.
Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d.
⁂ One of the most entertaining
handbooks of amusements ever
published.
——————————

Awful Crammers. A New

American Joke Book. Edited by Titus A.
Brick, Author of "Shaving Them." Fcap.
8vo, with numerous curious
Illustrations, 1s.
A F ine E dition is also published, in
crown 8vo, printed on toned paper, and bound in cloth gilt, at 3 s. 6 d.
"Rarer than the phœnix is the virtuous man who will consent to lose a good
anecdote because it isn't true."—D e Q uincy .

Babies and Ladders : Essays

on Things in General. By Emmanuel Kink. A
New Work of Irresistible Humour (not
American), which has excited considerable
attention. Fcap. 8vo, with numerous Vignettes
by W. S. Gilbert and others, 1s.

Bayard Taylor's Diversions of the Echo Club. A

Delightful Volume of Refined Literary Humour. In 16mo, paper cover, with
Portrait of the Author, 1s. 6d.; cloth extra, 2s.
 Uniform with Mr. Ruskin's Edition of "Grimm."

Bechstein's As Pretty as Seven , and other Popular

German Stories. Collected by Ludwig Bechstein. With Additional Tales by the
Brothers Grimm, 100 Illustrations by Richter. Small 4to, green and gold, 6s. 6d.;
gilt edges, 7s. 6d.
⁂ One of the most delightful books for children ever published. It is, in every way, a
Companion to the German Stories of the Brothers Grimm, and the tales are equally
pure and healthful. The quaint simplicity of Richter's engravings will charm every lover
of legendary lore.

The Biglow Papers. By James Russell Lowell. The Best Edition,

with full Glossary, of these extraordinary Verses. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, 1s.

Uniform with our "Rabelais."

Boccaccio's Decameron.
Now fully translated into English, with
Introduction by Thomas Wright, F.S.A. Crown
8vo, with the Beautiful Engravings by Stothard
which adorned Pickering's fine Edition,
published at £2 12s. 6d. This New Edition is
only 7s. 6d.
⁂ A faithful translation, in which are restored
many passages omitted in former Editions.
Book of Hall-Marks ; or, Manual of Reference for the Goldsmith
and Silversmith. By Alfred Lutschaunig, Manager of the Liverpool Assay Office.
Crown 8vo, with 46 Plates of the Hall-Marks of the different Assay Towns of the
United Kingdom, as now stamped on Plate and Jewellery, 7s. 6d.
⁂ This work gives practical methods for testing the quality of gold and silver. It was
compiled by the author for his own use, and as a Supplement to "Chaffers."

Booksellers, A History of. A Work giving full Accounts of

the Great Publishing Houses and their Founders, both in London and the
Provinces, the History of their Rise and Progress, and descriptions of the special
class of Literature dealt in by each. Crown 8vo, over 500 pages, with
frontispiece and numerous Portraits and Illustrations, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.
"In these days, ten ordinary Histories of Kings and Courtiers were well exchanged
against the tenth part of one good History of Booksellers."—T homas C arlyle .

Booth's Epigrams : Ancient and Modern, Humorous, Witty, Satirical,

Moral, and Panegyrical. Edited by the Rev. John Booth, B.A. A New Edition. Pott
8vo, cloth gilt, 6s.

"Is our civilization a failure, or is the Caucasian played out?"

 BRET HARTE'S WORKS.
Widely known for their Exquisite Pathos and Delightful Humour.

Bret Harte's Complete Works , in Prose and Poetry. Now

First Collected. With Introductory Essay by J. M. Bellew, Portrait of the Author,
and 50 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 650 pages, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.

Bret Harte's Luck of Roaring Camp , and other

Stories. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, 1s.

Bret Harte's That Heathen Chinee , and other

Humorous Poems. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, 1s. 6d.

Bret Harte's Sensation Novels Condensed.

Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, 1s. 6d.
⁂ A most enjoyable book, only surpassed, in its special class, by Thackeray's
Burlesque Novels.

Bret Harte's Lothaw ; or, The Adventures of a Young Gentleman

in Search of a Religion. By Mr. Benjamins (Bret Harte). Price 6d. Curiously
Illustrated.

Bret Harte's East and West. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover,

1s.

Bret Harte's Stories of the Sierras , and other

Sketches. With a Wild Story of Western Life by Joaquin Miller, Author of "Songs
of the Sierras." Illustrated cover, 1s.
NEW EDITIONS OF SIR DAVID BREWSTER'S WORKS.

Brewster's More Worlds than One , the Creed of the

Philosopher and the Hope of the Christian. Eleventh Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth,
very neat, 4s. 6d.

Brewster's Martyrs of Science : Galileo, Tycho Brahe,

Kepler. Crown 8vo, cloth, very neat, 4s. 6d.

Brewster's The Kaleidoscope Practically

Described. Crown 8vo, with numerous Illustrations, cloth, very neat, 4s. 6d.
Brewster's The Stereoscope Practically
Described. Crown 8vo, numerous Illustrations, cloth neat, 4s. 6d.
⁂ This was the great philosopher's last contribution to practical science.

Bright's (Rt. Hon. J., M.P.) Speeches on Public

Affairs of the last Twenty Years. Collated with the best Public Reports. Royal
16mo, 370 pages, cloth extra, 1s.
⁂ A book of special interest at the present time, and wonderfully cheap.
COLMAN'S HUMOROUS WORKS.

Broad Grins. My Nightgown and Slippers, and other Humorous Works,

Prose and Poetical, of George Colman the Younger. Now first collected, with Life
and Anecdotes of the Author, by George B. Buckstone. Crown 8vo, 500 pp., 7s.
6d.
⁂ Admirers of genuine English wit and humour will be delighted with this edition of
George Colman's humorous works. As a wit, he has had no equal in our time; and a
man with a tithe of his ability could, at the present day, make the fortune of any one
of our so-called "comic journals," and bankrupt the rest.

NEW BOOK FOR BOYS.

The Conquest of the Sea : A History of Divers and Diving,
from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. By Henry Siere. Profusely Illustrated
with fine Wood Engravings. Small crown 8vo, cloth extra, 4s. 6d.

Uniform with the 2s. Edition of his Works.

Carlyle (T.) on the Choice of Books. With a New

Life and Anecdotes of the Author. Brown cloth, 1s. 6d.; paper cover, 1s.

Chips from a Rough Log. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated cover, 1s.

Christmas Songs and Ballads. Selected and Edited by
Joshua Sylvester. A New Edition, beautifully printed and bound in cloth, extra gilt,
gilt edges, 3s. 6d.

Clerical Anecdotes and Pulpit

Eccentricities. An entirely New Gathering. Square 16mo, in
 illustrated paper wrapper, 1s. 4d.; or cloth neat, 1s. 10d.

The Country of the Dwarfs. By Paul du Chaillu. A Book of

Startling Interest. Fcap. 8vo, illustrated with full-page Engravings, in fancy
wrapper, 1s.

Cruikshank's Comic Almanack. First Series, 1835-43. A

Gathering of the Best Humour, the Wittiest Sayings, the Drollest Quips, and the
Best Things of Thackeray, Hood, Mayhew, Albert Smith, A'Beckett, Robert Brough,
&c. With about One Thousand Woodcuts and Steel Engravings by the inimitable
Cruikshank, Hine, Landells, &c. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, a very thick volume, price
7s. 6d.

Cruikshank's Comic Almanack. Second Series, 1844-53,

Completing the work. Uniform with the First Series, and written and illustrated
by the same humorists. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, a very thick volume, price 7s. 6d.
 ⁂ The two volumes (each sold separately) form a most extraordinary gathering of
the best wit and humour of the past half-century. The work forms a "Comic History of
England" for twenty years.
THE BEST GUIDE TO HERALDRY.

Cussans' Handbook of Heraldry; with

Instructions for Tracing Pedigrees and Deciphering
Ancient MSS.; also, Rules for the Appointment of
Liveries, &c., &c. By John E. Cussans. Illustrated with 360
Plates and Woodcuts. Cr. 8vo, cloth extra, gilt and
emblazoned, 7s. 6d.
⁂ This volume, beautifully printed on toned paper,
contains not only the ordinary matter to be found in the
best books on the science of Armory, but several other
subjects hitherto unnoticed. Amongst these may be
mentioned :—1. Directions for Tracing Pedigrees. 2. Deciphering
A ncient MSS., illustrated by A lphabets and F acsimiles . 3. T he
A ppointment of L iveries . 4. C ontinental and A merican H eraldry ,
&c.
VERY IMPORTANT COUNTY HISTORY.
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