Pre-Baihvay Life in London. 169 



Players was the match, at either of which the best talent, 

 amateur and professional, were sure to be present. 



In the autumn, gentlemen shot over dogs, and never 

 dreamt of selling their game, and they were the masters, 

 and the keepers were their servants. In the newspaper 

 world only a few morning papers and evening papers were 

 published in London. " Bell's Life " was almost the only 

 sporting paper. One or two scurrilous Sunday papers came 

 out, especially " The Satirist," edited by a very talented man 

 named Barnard Gregory, who was hooted off the stage, on 

 his attempt to play Hamlet, through the instigation of 

 ^' Stunning Joe Banks," of the Rookery, who kept a very 

 ^' rowdy " public-house in St. Giles's, a favourite resort for a 

 well-known Irish marquis and his companions when they 

 were out for a night's '' devilry." It was alleged tliat Mr. 

 Banks was hired by a foreign Duke to pack the gallery and 

 drive Mr. Gregory off the stage, and an action for conspiracy 

 was brought against the Duke and another, in which Mr. 

 Banks was examined, and swore that he packed the gallery 

 at his own expense in the interest of morality ! The judge 

 w^ho tried the case, and who lived in the parish of St. 

 George's, Bloomsbary, in summing up, told the jury that if 

 they believed the witness he should congratulate himself in 

 having such a moral neighbour as Mr. Banks! In 1846 

 came the railway mania, and then came chaos. All the 

 countr}^ towns were brought to London, and all England 

 gambled and went mad, and hundreds were ruined. 

 Millionaires arose, and not only took possession of the 

 world of fashion in London, but also of many of the country 

 seats, and classes got so mixed that it was difficult to un- 

 ravel the skein. A new description of people came into the 

 Legislature and the Government. Railways sprang up 

 ev^ery where, since which period telegraphs and telephones 

 have been introduced, and we boast almost of omnipresence 



