Harry Furniss.
Flying visits online
. (page 5 of 11)
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with his pleasant, beaming countenance, meets
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SANCTITY AND HAi\fS. IO3
you at every turn, greets me as a fellow-
member of the T. P. C, and his dress is em-
blematical of that mystic club.
The only sign of commercial activity in
York, to the v^ ^^. x -n -. r . .
ordinary ob-^-t
server, seems
to be the
smoking
chimneys of
Rowntree's
manufactory.
Is this going
to spread its
branches,
and will York
at some
future date
bud out as
a commer-
cial centre ?
Are the gates
and bars to be transformed into entrances to
large factories, a district railway constructed
round the walls, and the Cathedral surrounded
and eclipsed by forests of chimneys ? Let us
hope not.
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York.
My dear M.,
Left Harrogate on Friday, after giving a
matinee there the day before; and am very sorry I
could not stop lofiger so as to do an article on it in
" Black and White'' I will have to leave it till next
visit. Thursday ivas a wretchedly rainy day, and
everybody was grumbling because they couldrCt get out.
Dont see why they should grumble ; they came there
for the waters, and they had got them / /
Despite Jupiter Pluvius, there was not standing
room — not even umbrella standing room — in the hall
at the Spa in which I endeavored to entertain the B,P. ;
indeed, I had to hand my chair down off the platform
to a young lady who had stood all through the first
part.
We stopped at the Queen Hotel ; very comfortable
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FLYING VISITS. 105
indeed, and most sociable — dancing in the evenings and
all that sort of thing. As this Jiotel stands back from
the road in wJiat I supposed were its own grounds, I
was surprised to see the faces of a small crowd of
natives flattened against the windows of the ballroom
intently watching t lie proceedings, but I afterward dis-
covered that there was a right-of-way past tJte front
of the hotel, and that the inhabitants used this as a
gratuitous peep show.
At six next morning I was roused from my slum-
bers by an imperious knock at the door. " What
is it ? " / asked, somewhat gruffly, rather ruffled at
having my dreams thus rudely dispelled. " Why, the
waters, sir I " came from outside the door, in tones
that betokened that the speaker was surprised at my
asking the question. " But I dorCt want my hot water
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I06 FLYING VISITS.
at this time of the morning! " "iVi?, sity the wa-
ters ; ifs time to get up and drink them ! "
/ tried hard to go to sleep again^ but it was of no
use ; so I got up and looked out of my window ^ when
I saw some people being carried off in what seemed to
me to be a prison van. I dressed my self ^ arid got down-
stairs just as they were returning. They were the
visitors who had come to drink the water s^ and the ex-
pressions on their faces made me feel glad that I had
not gone with them. I mean to take the first oppor-
tunity I have to come back to Harrogate. It is
true the waters are not very nice ; but then I don't
drink them, while the place and the people are both
charming. , . .
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FLYING VISITS, 107
By the way^ I am much obliged for the lecture you
gave me in your last letter about not taking sufficient
exercise. I believe you are right ; for I am getting
most alarmingly stout. Wish I had followed Dick
TurpifCs example^ and ridden lure. As I didrCt do
that, I did what seemed to me to be t/te next best thing
— / rowed when I got here. Mac and I got up at
some unearthly Jiour this morning, and made our way
down to tfie banks of the Ouse, where we found plenty
of rowing boats, but no one to hire t/iem from,
t/iough there was a barge moored close in shore, from
its curtained windows evidently tJie residence of the
proprietor of the boats round about it. We told each
other tJiat we were sorry for the proprietor : we must
wake him up ; but York is a sleepy place, and no efforts
of ours could rouse t/te somnolent inhabitant of the
barge. We yelled, we whistled, we sliouted, and finally
threw bricks on to tlie deck that constituted his roof,
but all to no purpose. However, we had come there
for a row, and a row zve were going to have, so we
determined to feloniously seize a boat.
I know you are fond of going " up the river ^ but I
think you would not have excu:tly cared about putting
in an appearance at Henley Regatta in the craft we
fnanaged to get hold of. The only boat we could get at
possessed two oars, but one was about three feet long
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I08 FLYING VISITS.
and the other about nineteen. This was rather a
drawback^ and they were the only two visible ; how-
ever, we stealthily undid the painter and shoved off,
I took stroke with the short oar, and, rowing about 4^
to Macs 3y we managed to keep the boat more or less
in the centre of t/te river j but she moved very slowly.
I was getting exercise though, and that was what I
had come for.
But there was an earlier bird than either of us up to
catch the worm — need I say an angler? He was
squatting on his heels on the bank in what I should
think was a very uncomfortable position, steadfastly
regarding his float ; and as we came churning along
he called out to us : " Naw, then, mak sharp / doatCt
fraaten all f fish awaa / " / was doing my best, for
I had increased my stroke to something like 60 a min-
ute ; but Mac, having a sympathy for anglers, put his
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FLYISG VISITS. IO9
back into it^ quite regardless of the steering^ and the
consequence was that just as we were abreast of the
angler we described a beautiful curve in tlie water y and
Mac got his oar mixed up with the line^ and the more
the frantic fisherman roared at us the more we rowedy
until we had completely circumvented his line and got
it knotted around everything in the vicinity. He fairly
danced with rage upon the bank, while we simply
roared with laughter in the boat. Eventually^ in our
endeavors to get free ^ my wretclied apology for an oar
slipped out of the rowlock^ and Mac^ giving a mighty
sweep with his at that moment^ we ran violently into
the bank^ with a sJiock that caused us to land in a
most unexpected a?id undignified manner y and at the
same time disentangled us from tlte litie; so we left
the disciple of Izaak Walton to claim salvage on the
boaty and walked back to the bridge we started fromy
where on the other bank we found a boat more worthy
of our aquatic power Sy so we had a row in the oppo-
site wayy " where the angler ceased from troubling
and the weary were at rest " — in bed ; for it was still
early y and we Jiardly saw a soul on either side of the
river. . . .
Taking a walk through the town while waiting for
breakfast y I passed an old hotel which was the hotel
last time I was in York. I donU know whether I ever
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no FLYING VISITS.
told you of a funny experience I had there once. I
was on a walking tour through Durham and York-
shircy and at the time I speak of I found myself in
York, ordering my dinner in the coffee-room of the —
let us say — " White Goose^' when I noticed at the bot-
tom of the wine list the name of the proprietor ^ and I
then recollected that I /lad met him in a hotel in Lon-
don, upon which occasion
he told me that if ever I
was in York I was not to
forget to go to the " White
Goose,'' of which he was
the proprietor y and where
I was to consider myself
his guest. As I don't
much care about being
? under obligations of that
kind, I zvas rather glad
than otherwise that I had
completely forgotten the invitation ; but the proprietor
had noticed my name on my handbag, and he promptly
came to me, reminded me of my promise , and insisted
on my having dinner with him in his private room.
The next day he drove me about in his dog- cart, ajid
showed me the race-course and other places of interest.
All this was very kind indeed, I thought ; so Judge of
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FLYING VISITS. Ill
my surprise when^ on leavings I found myself cJiarged
with two dinners in a private room and the hire of the
trap for the day ! It is a long time ago now^ and I
may have been charged for the driver — mine host.
No wonder he died rich. I was fairly, or rather un-
fairly, " boivled by a Yorker ! "
Returning over tlie bridge we met, to our surprise,
the Professor, who, with radiant face, was descending
the steps leading down from the walls. He informed
us that he had been to inspect the spot where Black
Bess dropped down dead, and had then spent a most
enjoyable hour among the tombstones in the cathedral
— this with the air of a man who considers Ju has done
a good morning^ s work. . . .
Yours, &c.,
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SHEFFIELD IN BLACK AND WHITE.
A Picture of Sheffield, Black— Another, White—" Aa know
that man, he cums fra' Sheffield ''—Endcliff Wood-
Puzzle, find the Queen.
^^^' ^ EATED at the
window of my room
in my hotel at
Sheffield, I turned
over the leaves of
my blotter, and
suffering I suppose
from ennuiy sat list-
lessly gazing at the
ink-bespattered
page. I joined a
line here and there
with my pen, to
make the strokes
look like chimneys,
and a few touches
were sufficient to transform the mass of
blots into a very truthful representation of
Sheffield ! I here reproduce it as an initial to
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SHEFFIELD IN BLACK AND WHITE. 113
this part of my article. Tearing out this page,
I came to a nice, clean, white one underneath.
/^/
with only a spot here and there ; this brought
me back twelve years, and I here seemed to
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114 FLYING VISITS.
see Sheffield as I saw it then, white with snow.
It was in the winter of '79, I think, that I first
visited the cradle of cutlery. I arrived on
Christmas Day, as a special artist for the
Illustraied London News, Although the town,
with its mantle of snow, was completely white,
things looked black.
The distress was terri-
ble, and I was brought
face to face with it in
my visits to the un-
employed, who looked
upon me with eyes of
suspicion, evidently
under the impression
that I was a bailiff
preparing for action.
It was, therefore, pleas-
ant to visit it again
: under more prosperous
aspects ; and whoever
nowadays sees a pros-
perous - looking man
of the type I show in
my sketch here, of razor-like sharpness, with
bristly tufted chin, and heart of steel, may
** know that man, he cums fra Sheffield.''
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SHEFFIELD IN BLACK AND WHITE. II5
I do not refer to the thousand and one
wonderful manufacturing concerns of the town ;
a description of these is a futile subject in
itself But during my brief visit I strolled out
to admire the beauties of Endcliff Wood,
which was given to the people as a memorial
of the Jubilee. All details can be gleaned
from an inscription upon a stone in the centre
of the park. And apropos of this stone, I may
remark that if the people of York have erected
a joke at the expense of their ex- Lord Mayor,
the people of Sheffield have, in their Jubilee
Stone, an unconscious joke at the expense of
a more august personage.
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Sheffield.
My dear J/.,
When I arrived at the hall last evening I
found a gentleman waiting to interview me. He was
a broth of a boy from the Emerald Isle — one of those
poor innocent^ ignorant men who spend their Saturday
pennies on buying the trash printed by the so-called
^^ National Press '^ to delude them. One of them might
well alter its title to " United Ignorance^ I won*t
charge the editor for this suggestion. The gentleman
in question arrived at the door of the hall armed with
his blackthorn^ and a varied and extensive vocabulary
of epithets which had beeji applied to me in the pages
of^^ U. I.'' from which he had culled them. ; and while
he " waited for me'''' he harangued the crowds and gave
them an entertainment they had not bargained for ;
but instead of the limelight he found the bulVs-eye of
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FLYING VISITS. II7
a policeman upon him, and he melted away like a dis-
solving view in the tender care of two burly Yorkshire
« bobbies:'
The weather has been awful ^ and we have wandered
from windoiv to window of the hotel in search of some
passing interest ; but all we could see through the rain
and the dense smoke was the cheering advertisement on
the walls, " Don't worry ; try Sunlight Soap ! " This
at first had a soothing effect upon us, and we lapsed
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Il8 FLYING VISITS.
into a more philosophic frame of mind ; but the con -
stantly recurring sight of " DotCt worry ' ' had in time
a quite contrary effect ^ and by the end of the second day
we hated tliat advertisement with a most fervent
hatred. It is all very well to be told not to worry
when you are in a rather perturbed state of mind;
but when you are quite at ease with yourself and every-
body elscy and not thinking of worryi^tg about anybody
or anything^ it is simply maddening !
The natives^ judging from their appearance^ did
not pay very much heed to the injunction of the adver-
tisement^ especially some ragged urchins who were
playing about the railings outside the hotel with a
lightheartedness only equalled by that of their contem-
poraries in Cockayne.
The Professor seemed quite surprised that we took
our walk out into the fresh and beautiful country ^ in-
stead of through the noisy streets. The town^ with its
overhanging smoke and gloom, was much more con-
genial to him ; indeed, so dismal did the place look
when we were there, that I am astonished the people
are always so bright and pleasant. They are evidently
not influenced much by their surroundings. . . .
. . • The Professor waxed quite eloquent about
the town^ and would have been a big success as an ora-
tor at the cutlers' feast, with his similes about wise
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FLYING VISITS, 119
sawsy double-edged remarks, hearts of steel, wrists of
iron, flashing blades, &c. ; and he seemed quite ag-
grieved when we told him that we had used up all those
, metaphors during our visits to the various cutlery
works. Then he said : " Ah ! but I don't think youve
been through Messrs, Ruddigore, Morgue and Go's
place?*' We said we'd never even heard of them.
This seemed to both surprise and delight him, and he
replied : " Why, that's where they make surgical ifi-
struments, pig-stickers, and — and " (this with a fiend-
ish grin) " the knives for the guillotine ! " I went there
late at night specially to see them making those, and
the manager, Mr. Colde Shudderer, showed me a
room full of ancient instruments of torture, from
thumb-screws down to the scissors they used to cut
criminals' ears off with. I haven't had such a treat
for years. . . .
Yours, &c.^
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THE HOME OF "YE PANTILES."
The Discoverer of the Waters — The Elixir of Life — Tunbridge
Wells as it was — Movable Dwellings — A Scene of Dev-
astation — Ye Pantiles of the Past—The Ancient Dis-
penser of Chalybeate — * * Feyther's lookin* ! " — A
Second Edition of " The Jumping Frog."
INCE Dudley, Lord
North, we are in-
formed by the local
guide book, was *' a
distinguished noble-
man and gay young
companion of Prince
Henry, the eldest son
of James I.,'* and
who first discovered
the waters that have
made Tunbridge
Wells famous, the
Kentish village has grown into one of the most
fashionable resorts in Great Britain. This gay
young sprig of nobility, we are told, had ruined
his constitution at the early age of twenty-four ;
so, like a bad boy, he w^as packed off into the
country, far away from his riotous companions.
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THE HOME OF " YE PANTILES:' 121
The chosen spot for the erring one's rustication
was Tunbridge. Passing through a wood while
out driving, he happened, naturally enough, to
feel thirsty, and his eager eyes catching sight
of a small bright stream running close to his
path, he alighted from his carriage for a closer
inspection. The chronicler does not say
that he drank any of the water, but merely
examined it, and, " fancying that it was
endowed with some medicinal properties, he
commanded his servants to bottle off some of
the water." This is proof positive that this
Lothario had at least one empty bottle in the
carriage with him. He took the specimen back
to London, and his physician declared it to be
medicinal water of inestimable value. He had,
indeed, discovered the elixir of life, for he
returned to the stream and drank of it for
three months, and this fortified him so that he
threw physic to the dogs, snapped his fingers
at the doctors ever afterward, lived a life of
gayety, and died at the advanced age of eighty-
five. We are told that the story of this mi-
raculous cure quickly spread. Now, had this
young Lord North lived in these days, he
would probably have made his fortune, with
the assistance of his groom and coachman, by
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122 FLYING VISITS. ^^
bottling the whole stream up and taking out a
patent. Indeed, another noble lord on whose
estate medicinal springs were discovered, seems
to have had an eye for business, and made the
most of his discovery. I suppose his heirs are
still reaping the benefit in ground rents. I
doubt that now many of the visitors are here
for the purpose of drinking the waters, nor is
Tunbridge Wells the elysium for the jeunesse
dorie that it was in those days when gamblers
played high at *' basset," and morris-dancers
disported themselves on the bowling-green ;
nor does the modern Beau Nash drive down
in his sumptuous equipage, with six grays, out-
riders, footmen, and French horns. Nowadays
the elite travel down from town within the hour,
and in the quietest of broughams roll off to
their country houses, built in the substantial
style of the Victorian era. I say substantial,
because in the early days of this watering-
place, the cabins occupied by the visitors were
movable, and were carried on sledges from one
part of the common to the other. These
sledges would not be of very much use just at
present ; for at the time I am writing, the
country round about, owing to the deluge
during the late tremendous storm, is one vast
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THE HOME OF " YE PANTILES:' 123
lake, the tops of trees and hedges alone sticking
up here and there to relieve the monotony of
this scene of devastation. I noticed several
carts on which hay had been placed to keep it
out of the wet, I suppose, before the flood had
attained its present dimensions, which were
completely abandoned, and derelict were
drifting aimlessly about this inland sea. If
this sort of thing was of frequent occurrence
in the old days, I hope, for the sake of the
visitors, that their movable houses took the
shape of house-boats or bathing machines.
Johnson, Boswell, Miss Chudleigh, Judge
Jeffreys, and other wits, notabilities of the
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124 FLYING VISITS.
time, may not have been surprised at the sight
of their fellow-visitors travelling about in their
movable houses ; but they would be rather
astonished, I should think, if they saw the
number of visitors who pour into the town
during the season from each of the numerous
trains that have made the Tunbridge Wells
stations very busy ones indeed.
Apropos of movable houses, the first thing
I saw on arriving at Tunbridge Wells was one
of those travelling dwelling-places on the road
by the common, one of those that Mr. Smith,
of Coalville, is always agitating about But
if Boswell, Johnson, and their contemporaries
have long ceased to grace Tunbridge Wells
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THE HOME OF " YE PANTILES:' 125
with their annual presence, the ancient nomen-
clature is still preserved in the case of ** Ye
Pantiles ; " and as I sat sketching this pictu-
resque spot from the very coign of vantage that
so many artists have occupied before me, and
watching the figures flitting to and fro, the
men, even the aged ones, garbed in riding
— u
0^ i-v_ j^r^_
dress or knickerbocker suits, and the fresh
young English girls in the graceful dress of
the present day, it struck me that allowing
for the romantic picturing of the chronicler,
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THE HOME OF ''YE PANTILES:' 12/
there must be very little difference between
the pretty Pantiles of the past and those of
the present. As I was making my sketch by
the well, every now and then a drinker of the
waters would arrive. There is a room in the
corner of the Pantiles in which is seated a
her on the wall is a large photograph of a very
ancient lady, who for something like 80 years
(or was it 180 years ?) dosed the visitors with
the water from the Chalybeate spring ; among
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128 FLYING VISITS.
Others, her daughter informed me, no less a
personage than Her Most Gracious Majesty.
When a customer arrives, this old lady trips
down a few stone steps, and takes a jug, which
she proudly shows you is perfectly yellow from
being continually dipped in the spring, fills a
glass, and you get this quantum of a very
pleasant and harmless non-intoxicating bever-
age for the small sum of one penny. During
the time I was at the well, I was amused to
find that three or four visitors were very much
disappointed because the water wasn't nasty
enough. I am afraid the good people of
Tunbridge Wells are too honest. Had I been
the purveyor of Chalybeate, and heard these
remarks, I would have immediately paid a visit
to the nearest ohemist's, and have taken care
that the next inquisitive tourist should not find
fault with the water upon that score.
Every town has its ** trade mark," so to
speak, either its Lover's Seat, or bottomless
well, or haunted oak ; and Tunbridge Wells is
not behind hand in this respect, for it has its
Toad Rock, its Parson's Head, and its Loaf
and Lion Rock. The observant tourist has,
I doubt not, been often amused at the fanciful
shapes and faces that rocks assume. A great
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THE HOME OF ''YE PANTILES^ 129
many are famous for their grotesque but un-
doubted resemblances to human beings and
animals, and the rocks at Tunbridge Wells
are not lacking in this respect.
I observed a young couple about to meet
at a rendezvous, ^
which I suppose was •w „ -^
a lover's seat, or 1 n.^/ '^
something of that \ yV^^ ^ ij/^
kind, when a dis- ^ \ / u
reputable u;
young rustic
of the nei
hood, rud
marked :
out there,
feyther's loot
The seat was
ling under
an over-
hanging
rock, and
looking up
at this I
saw the stern countenance of the irate
parent ; but as ** love is blind," according
to the old saying, I suppose the young
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FLYING VISITS.
\
couple did not notice it. But the Toad
Rock is one that each visitor feels him-
self or herself in duty bound to visit. This
lapidarian reptile has, we are told, been
upheaved from the bowels of the earth.
Perhaps, at some future date, there may be
another upheaval of the earth at this identical
^ spot that will
^ • supply the toad
with the neces-
sary impetus he
• has so long been
«. waiting for, and
may I be there
to witness this
second edition
of ** The Jump-
ing Frog."
But whether it
be spring, sum-
mer, autumn, or
winter, even if
the visitors are
disappointed in the anticipation of seeing
the toad jump, they will have had the
satisfaction of a sojourn in one of the
most healthy, bracing, fashionable, and
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THE HOME OF ''YE PANTILES:' 13 1
picturesque of health resorts to be found
anywhere. And the only place within reason-
able distance of London combining all these
desirable qualifications is undoubtedly Tun-
bridge Wells,
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Tunbridge Wells.
My dear M.,
Since writing you last I have' been to
Brighton to give two performances. You will see
what sort of weather we had from my sketch of
^^ Breezy Brighton'' in ^^ Punch'' We were fortu-
nately in the good " Old Ship^' which weathered the
storm capitally, and was splendidly provisioned. We
found plenty of amusement in looking out of the port-
holes and watching the people braving the elements^
and trying to tack round the corner of the street
against the gale ; and whenever I saw an old gentle-
man bring up suddenly against a lamp-post^ or take a
header into the arms of a fisherman^ or grind his
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SANCTITY AND HAi\fS. IO3
you at every turn, greets me as a fellow-
member of the T. P. C, and his dress is em-
blematical of that mystic club.
The only sign of commercial activity in
York, to the v^ ^^. x -n -. r . .
ordinary ob-^-t
server, seems
to be the
smoking
chimneys of
Rowntree's
manufactory.
Is this going
to spread its
branches,
and will York
at some
future date
bud out as
a commer-
cial centre ?
Are the gates
and bars to be transformed into entrances to
large factories, a district railway constructed
round the walls, and the Cathedral surrounded
and eclipsed by forests of chimneys ? Let us
hope not.
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York.
My dear M.,
Left Harrogate on Friday, after giving a
matinee there the day before; and am very sorry I
could not stop lofiger so as to do an article on it in
" Black and White'' I will have to leave it till next
visit. Thursday ivas a wretchedly rainy day, and
everybody was grumbling because they couldrCt get out.
Dont see why they should grumble ; they came there
for the waters, and they had got them / /
Despite Jupiter Pluvius, there was not standing
room — not even umbrella standing room — in the hall
at the Spa in which I endeavored to entertain the B,P. ;
indeed, I had to hand my chair down off the platform
to a young lady who had stood all through the first
part.
We stopped at the Queen Hotel ; very comfortable
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FLYING VISITS. 105
indeed, and most sociable — dancing in the evenings and
all that sort of thing. As this Jiotel stands back from
the road in wJiat I supposed were its own grounds, I
was surprised to see the faces of a small crowd of
natives flattened against the windows of the ballroom
intently watching t lie proceedings, but I afterward dis-
covered that there was a right-of-way past tJte front
of the hotel, and that the inhabitants used this as a
gratuitous peep show.
At six next morning I was roused from my slum-
bers by an imperious knock at the door. " What
is it ? " / asked, somewhat gruffly, rather ruffled at
having my dreams thus rudely dispelled. " Why, the
waters, sir I " came from outside the door, in tones
that betokened that the speaker was surprised at my
asking the question. " But I dorCt want my hot water
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I06 FLYING VISITS.
at this time of the morning! " "iVi?, sity the wa-
ters ; ifs time to get up and drink them ! "
/ tried hard to go to sleep again^ but it was of no
use ; so I got up and looked out of my window ^ when
I saw some people being carried off in what seemed to
me to be a prison van. I dressed my self ^ arid got down-
stairs just as they were returning. They were the
visitors who had come to drink the water s^ and the ex-
pressions on their faces made me feel glad that I had
not gone with them. I mean to take the first oppor-
tunity I have to come back to Harrogate. It is
true the waters are not very nice ; but then I don't
drink them, while the place and the people are both
charming. , . .
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FLYING VISITS, 107
By the way^ I am much obliged for the lecture you
gave me in your last letter about not taking sufficient
exercise. I believe you are right ; for I am getting
most alarmingly stout. Wish I had followed Dick
TurpifCs example^ and ridden lure. As I didrCt do
that, I did what seemed to me to be t/te next best thing
— / rowed when I got here. Mac and I got up at
some unearthly Jiour this morning, and made our way
down to tfie banks of the Ouse, where we found plenty
of rowing boats, but no one to hire t/iem from,
t/iough there was a barge moored close in shore, from
its curtained windows evidently tJie residence of the
proprietor of the boats round about it. We told each
other tJiat we were sorry for the proprietor : we must
wake him up ; but York is a sleepy place, and no efforts
of ours could rouse t/te somnolent inhabitant of the
barge. We yelled, we whistled, we sliouted, and finally
threw bricks on to tlie deck that constituted his roof,
but all to no purpose. However, we had come there
for a row, and a row zve were going to have, so we
determined to feloniously seize a boat.
I know you are fond of going " up the river ^ but I
think you would not have excu:tly cared about putting
in an appearance at Henley Regatta in the craft we
fnanaged to get hold of. The only boat we could get at
possessed two oars, but one was about three feet long
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I08 FLYING VISITS.
and the other about nineteen. This was rather a
drawback^ and they were the only two visible ; how-
ever, we stealthily undid the painter and shoved off,
I took stroke with the short oar, and, rowing about 4^
to Macs 3y we managed to keep the boat more or less
in the centre of t/te river j but she moved very slowly.
I was getting exercise though, and that was what I
had come for.
But there was an earlier bird than either of us up to
catch the worm — need I say an angler? He was
squatting on his heels on the bank in what I should
think was a very uncomfortable position, steadfastly
regarding his float ; and as we came churning along
he called out to us : " Naw, then, mak sharp / doatCt
fraaten all f fish awaa / " / was doing my best, for
I had increased my stroke to something like 60 a min-
ute ; but Mac, having a sympathy for anglers, put his
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FLYISG VISITS. IO9
back into it^ quite regardless of the steering^ and the
consequence was that just as we were abreast of the
angler we described a beautiful curve in tlie water y and
Mac got his oar mixed up with the line^ and the more
the frantic fisherman roared at us the more we rowedy
until we had completely circumvented his line and got
it knotted around everything in the vicinity. He fairly
danced with rage upon the bank, while we simply
roared with laughter in the boat. Eventually^ in our
endeavors to get free ^ my wretclied apology for an oar
slipped out of the rowlock^ and Mac^ giving a mighty
sweep with his at that moment^ we ran violently into
the bank^ with a sJiock that caused us to land in a
most unexpected a?id undignified manner y and at the
same time disentangled us from tlte litie; so we left
the disciple of Izaak Walton to claim salvage on the
boaty and walked back to the bridge we started fromy
where on the other bank we found a boat more worthy
of our aquatic power Sy so we had a row in the oppo-
site wayy " where the angler ceased from troubling
and the weary were at rest " — in bed ; for it was still
early y and we Jiardly saw a soul on either side of the
river. . . .
Taking a walk through the town while waiting for
breakfast y I passed an old hotel which was the hotel
last time I was in York. I donU know whether I ever
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no FLYING VISITS.
told you of a funny experience I had there once. I
was on a walking tour through Durham and York-
shircy and at the time I speak of I found myself in
York, ordering my dinner in the coffee-room of the —
let us say — " White Goose^' when I noticed at the bot-
tom of the wine list the name of the proprietor ^ and I
then recollected that I /lad met him in a hotel in Lon-
don, upon which occasion
he told me that if ever I
was in York I was not to
forget to go to the " White
Goose,'' of which he was
the proprietor y and where
I was to consider myself
his guest. As I don't
much care about being
? under obligations of that
kind, I zvas rather glad
than otherwise that I had
completely forgotten the invitation ; but the proprietor
had noticed my name on my handbag, and he promptly
came to me, reminded me of my promise , and insisted
on my having dinner with him in his private room.
The next day he drove me about in his dog- cart, ajid
showed me the race-course and other places of interest.
All this was very kind indeed, I thought ; so Judge of
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FLYING VISITS. Ill
my surprise when^ on leavings I found myself cJiarged
with two dinners in a private room and the hire of the
trap for the day ! It is a long time ago now^ and I
may have been charged for the driver — mine host.
No wonder he died rich. I was fairly, or rather un-
fairly, " boivled by a Yorker ! "
Returning over tlie bridge we met, to our surprise,
the Professor, who, with radiant face, was descending
the steps leading down from the walls. He informed
us that he had been to inspect the spot where Black
Bess dropped down dead, and had then spent a most
enjoyable hour among the tombstones in the cathedral
— this with the air of a man who considers Ju has done
a good morning^ s work. . . .
Yours, &c.,
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SHEFFIELD IN BLACK AND WHITE.
A Picture of Sheffield, Black— Another, White—" Aa know
that man, he cums fra' Sheffield ''—Endcliff Wood-
Puzzle, find the Queen.
^^^' ^ EATED at the
window of my room
in my hotel at
Sheffield, I turned
over the leaves of
my blotter, and
suffering I suppose
from ennuiy sat list-
lessly gazing at the
ink-bespattered
page. I joined a
line here and there
with my pen, to
make the strokes
look like chimneys,
and a few touches
were sufficient to transform the mass of
blots into a very truthful representation of
Sheffield ! I here reproduce it as an initial to
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SHEFFIELD IN BLACK AND WHITE. 113
this part of my article. Tearing out this page,
I came to a nice, clean, white one underneath.
/^/
with only a spot here and there ; this brought
me back twelve years, and I here seemed to
Digitized by
114 FLYING VISITS.
see Sheffield as I saw it then, white with snow.
It was in the winter of '79, I think, that I first
visited the cradle of cutlery. I arrived on
Christmas Day, as a special artist for the
Illustraied London News, Although the town,
with its mantle of snow, was completely white,
things looked black.
The distress was terri-
ble, and I was brought
face to face with it in
my visits to the un-
employed, who looked
upon me with eyes of
suspicion, evidently
under the impression
that I was a bailiff
preparing for action.
It was, therefore, pleas-
ant to visit it again
: under more prosperous
aspects ; and whoever
nowadays sees a pros-
perous - looking man
of the type I show in
my sketch here, of razor-like sharpness, with
bristly tufted chin, and heart of steel, may
** know that man, he cums fra Sheffield.''
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SHEFFIELD IN BLACK AND WHITE. II5
I do not refer to the thousand and one
wonderful manufacturing concerns of the town ;
a description of these is a futile subject in
itself But during my brief visit I strolled out
to admire the beauties of Endcliff Wood,
which was given to the people as a memorial
of the Jubilee. All details can be gleaned
from an inscription upon a stone in the centre
of the park. And apropos of this stone, I may
remark that if the people of York have erected
a joke at the expense of their ex- Lord Mayor,
the people of Sheffield have, in their Jubilee
Stone, an unconscious joke at the expense of
a more august personage.
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Sheffield.
My dear J/.,
When I arrived at the hall last evening I
found a gentleman waiting to interview me. He was
a broth of a boy from the Emerald Isle — one of those
poor innocent^ ignorant men who spend their Saturday
pennies on buying the trash printed by the so-called
^^ National Press '^ to delude them. One of them might
well alter its title to " United Ignorance^ I won*t
charge the editor for this suggestion. The gentleman
in question arrived at the door of the hall armed with
his blackthorn^ and a varied and extensive vocabulary
of epithets which had beeji applied to me in the pages
of^^ U. I.'' from which he had culled them. ; and while
he " waited for me'''' he harangued the crowds and gave
them an entertainment they had not bargained for ;
but instead of the limelight he found the bulVs-eye of
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FLYING VISITS. II7
a policeman upon him, and he melted away like a dis-
solving view in the tender care of two burly Yorkshire
« bobbies:'
The weather has been awful ^ and we have wandered
from windoiv to window of the hotel in search of some
passing interest ; but all we could see through the rain
and the dense smoke was the cheering advertisement on
the walls, " Don't worry ; try Sunlight Soap ! " This
at first had a soothing effect upon us, and we lapsed
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Il8 FLYING VISITS.
into a more philosophic frame of mind ; but the con -
stantly recurring sight of " DotCt worry ' ' had in time
a quite contrary effect ^ and by the end of the second day
we hated tliat advertisement with a most fervent
hatred. It is all very well to be told not to worry
when you are in a rather perturbed state of mind;
but when you are quite at ease with yourself and every-
body elscy and not thinking of worryi^tg about anybody
or anything^ it is simply maddening !
The natives^ judging from their appearance^ did
not pay very much heed to the injunction of the adver-
tisement^ especially some ragged urchins who were
playing about the railings outside the hotel with a
lightheartedness only equalled by that of their contem-
poraries in Cockayne.
The Professor seemed quite surprised that we took
our walk out into the fresh and beautiful country ^ in-
stead of through the noisy streets. The town^ with its
overhanging smoke and gloom, was much more con-
genial to him ; indeed, so dismal did the place look
when we were there, that I am astonished the people
are always so bright and pleasant. They are evidently
not influenced much by their surroundings. . . .
. . • The Professor waxed quite eloquent about
the town^ and would have been a big success as an ora-
tor at the cutlers' feast, with his similes about wise
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FLYING VISITS, 119
sawsy double-edged remarks, hearts of steel, wrists of
iron, flashing blades, &c. ; and he seemed quite ag-
grieved when we told him that we had used up all those
, metaphors during our visits to the various cutlery
works. Then he said : " Ah ! but I don't think youve
been through Messrs, Ruddigore, Morgue and Go's
place?*' We said we'd never even heard of them.
This seemed to both surprise and delight him, and he
replied : " Why, that's where they make surgical ifi-
struments, pig-stickers, and — and " (this with a fiend-
ish grin) " the knives for the guillotine ! " I went there
late at night specially to see them making those, and
the manager, Mr. Colde Shudderer, showed me a
room full of ancient instruments of torture, from
thumb-screws down to the scissors they used to cut
criminals' ears off with. I haven't had such a treat
for years. . . .
Yours, &c.^
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THE HOME OF "YE PANTILES."
The Discoverer of the Waters — The Elixir of Life — Tunbridge
Wells as it was — Movable Dwellings — A Scene of Dev-
astation — Ye Pantiles of the Past—The Ancient Dis-
penser of Chalybeate — * * Feyther's lookin* ! " — A
Second Edition of " The Jumping Frog."
INCE Dudley, Lord
North, we are in-
formed by the local
guide book, was *' a
distinguished noble-
man and gay young
companion of Prince
Henry, the eldest son
of James I.,'* and
who first discovered
the waters that have
made Tunbridge
Wells famous, the
Kentish village has grown into one of the most
fashionable resorts in Great Britain. This gay
young sprig of nobility, we are told, had ruined
his constitution at the early age of twenty-four ;
so, like a bad boy, he w^as packed off into the
country, far away from his riotous companions.
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THE HOME OF " YE PANTILES:' 121
The chosen spot for the erring one's rustication
was Tunbridge. Passing through a wood while
out driving, he happened, naturally enough, to
feel thirsty, and his eager eyes catching sight
of a small bright stream running close to his
path, he alighted from his carriage for a closer
inspection. The chronicler does not say
that he drank any of the water, but merely
examined it, and, " fancying that it was
endowed with some medicinal properties, he
commanded his servants to bottle off some of
the water." This is proof positive that this
Lothario had at least one empty bottle in the
carriage with him. He took the specimen back
to London, and his physician declared it to be
medicinal water of inestimable value. He had,
indeed, discovered the elixir of life, for he
returned to the stream and drank of it for
three months, and this fortified him so that he
threw physic to the dogs, snapped his fingers
at the doctors ever afterward, lived a life of
gayety, and died at the advanced age of eighty-
five. We are told that the story of this mi-
raculous cure quickly spread. Now, had this
young Lord North lived in these days, he
would probably have made his fortune, with
the assistance of his groom and coachman, by
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122 FLYING VISITS. ^^
bottling the whole stream up and taking out a
patent. Indeed, another noble lord on whose
estate medicinal springs were discovered, seems
to have had an eye for business, and made the
most of his discovery. I suppose his heirs are
still reaping the benefit in ground rents. I
doubt that now many of the visitors are here
for the purpose of drinking the waters, nor is
Tunbridge Wells the elysium for the jeunesse
dorie that it was in those days when gamblers
played high at *' basset," and morris-dancers
disported themselves on the bowling-green ;
nor does the modern Beau Nash drive down
in his sumptuous equipage, with six grays, out-
riders, footmen, and French horns. Nowadays
the elite travel down from town within the hour,
and in the quietest of broughams roll off to
their country houses, built in the substantial
style of the Victorian era. I say substantial,
because in the early days of this watering-
place, the cabins occupied by the visitors were
movable, and were carried on sledges from one
part of the common to the other. These
sledges would not be of very much use just at
present ; for at the time I am writing, the
country round about, owing to the deluge
during the late tremendous storm, is one vast
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THE HOME OF " YE PANTILES:' 123
lake, the tops of trees and hedges alone sticking
up here and there to relieve the monotony of
this scene of devastation. I noticed several
carts on which hay had been placed to keep it
out of the wet, I suppose, before the flood had
attained its present dimensions, which were
completely abandoned, and derelict were
drifting aimlessly about this inland sea. If
this sort of thing was of frequent occurrence
in the old days, I hope, for the sake of the
visitors, that their movable houses took the
shape of house-boats or bathing machines.
Johnson, Boswell, Miss Chudleigh, Judge
Jeffreys, and other wits, notabilities of the
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124 FLYING VISITS.
time, may not have been surprised at the sight
of their fellow-visitors travelling about in their
movable houses ; but they would be rather
astonished, I should think, if they saw the
number of visitors who pour into the town
during the season from each of the numerous
trains that have made the Tunbridge Wells
stations very busy ones indeed.
Apropos of movable houses, the first thing
I saw on arriving at Tunbridge Wells was one
of those travelling dwelling-places on the road
by the common, one of those that Mr. Smith,
of Coalville, is always agitating about But
if Boswell, Johnson, and their contemporaries
have long ceased to grace Tunbridge Wells
Digitized by
THE HOME OF " YE PANTILES:' 125
with their annual presence, the ancient nomen-
clature is still preserved in the case of ** Ye
Pantiles ; " and as I sat sketching this pictu-
resque spot from the very coign of vantage that
so many artists have occupied before me, and
watching the figures flitting to and fro, the
men, even the aged ones, garbed in riding
— u
0^ i-v_ j^r^_
dress or knickerbocker suits, and the fresh
young English girls in the graceful dress of
the present day, it struck me that allowing
for the romantic picturing of the chronicler,
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Digitized by
THE HOME OF ''YE PANTILES:' 12/
there must be very little difference between
the pretty Pantiles of the past and those of
the present. As I was making my sketch by
the well, every now and then a drinker of the
waters would arrive. There is a room in the
corner of the Pantiles in which is seated a
her on the wall is a large photograph of a very
ancient lady, who for something like 80 years
(or was it 180 years ?) dosed the visitors with
the water from the Chalybeate spring ; among
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128 FLYING VISITS.
Others, her daughter informed me, no less a
personage than Her Most Gracious Majesty.
When a customer arrives, this old lady trips
down a few stone steps, and takes a jug, which
she proudly shows you is perfectly yellow from
being continually dipped in the spring, fills a
glass, and you get this quantum of a very
pleasant and harmless non-intoxicating bever-
age for the small sum of one penny. During
the time I was at the well, I was amused to
find that three or four visitors were very much
disappointed because the water wasn't nasty
enough. I am afraid the good people of
Tunbridge Wells are too honest. Had I been
the purveyor of Chalybeate, and heard these
remarks, I would have immediately paid a visit
to the nearest ohemist's, and have taken care
that the next inquisitive tourist should not find
fault with the water upon that score.
Every town has its ** trade mark," so to
speak, either its Lover's Seat, or bottomless
well, or haunted oak ; and Tunbridge Wells is
not behind hand in this respect, for it has its
Toad Rock, its Parson's Head, and its Loaf
and Lion Rock. The observant tourist has,
I doubt not, been often amused at the fanciful
shapes and faces that rocks assume. A great
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THE HOME OF ''YE PANTILES^ 129
many are famous for their grotesque but un-
doubted resemblances to human beings and
animals, and the rocks at Tunbridge Wells
are not lacking in this respect.
I observed a young couple about to meet
at a rendezvous, ^
which I suppose was •w „ -^
a lover's seat, or 1 n.^/ '^
something of that \ yV^^ ^ ij/^
kind, when a dis- ^ \ / u
reputable u;
young rustic
of the nei
hood, rud
marked :
out there,
feyther's loot
The seat was
ling under
an over-
hanging
rock, and
looking up
at this I
saw the stern countenance of the irate
parent ; but as ** love is blind," according
to the old saying, I suppose the young
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I30
FLYING VISITS.
\
couple did not notice it. But the Toad
Rock is one that each visitor feels him-
self or herself in duty bound to visit. This
lapidarian reptile has, we are told, been
upheaved from the bowels of the earth.
Perhaps, at some future date, there may be
another upheaval of the earth at this identical
^ spot that will
^ • supply the toad
with the neces-
sary impetus he
• has so long been
«. waiting for, and
may I be there
to witness this
second edition
of ** The Jump-
ing Frog."
But whether it
be spring, sum-
mer, autumn, or
winter, even if
the visitors are
disappointed in the anticipation of seeing
the toad jump, they will have had the
satisfaction of a sojourn in one of the
most healthy, bracing, fashionable, and
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THE HOME OF ''YE PANTILES:' 13 1
picturesque of health resorts to be found
anywhere. And the only place within reason-
able distance of London combining all these
desirable qualifications is undoubtedly Tun-
bridge Wells,
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Tunbridge Wells.
My dear M.,
Since writing you last I have' been to
Brighton to give two performances. You will see
what sort of weather we had from my sketch of
^^ Breezy Brighton'' in ^^ Punch'' We were fortu-
nately in the good " Old Ship^' which weathered the
storm capitally, and was splendidly provisioned. We
found plenty of amusement in looking out of the port-
holes and watching the people braving the elements^
and trying to tack round the corner of the street
against the gale ; and whenever I saw an old gentle-
man bring up suddenly against a lamp-post^ or take a
header into the arms of a fisherman^ or grind his
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