GRUB STREET. 



221 



present, she instantly rushed back 

 through the flames, and, to the 

 general joy, soon appeared with 

 the child in her arms. While she 

 was expressing her gratitude, the 

 light of the lamps fell on its face, 

 and she perceived, to her inexpres- 

 sible horror, that she had saved 

 the child of another woman that 

 her own had perished ! It may be 

 imagined what were the feelings of 

 the company. A subscription was 

 immediately begun. Almost every 

 one had liberally contributed, when 

 a nobleman, who could have bought 

 the whole party, turning to Mrs. 

 Hannah More, said, "Madam, I 

 will give you " every expecting 

 eye was turned to the peer, know- 

 ing him to be unused to the giving 

 mood : the person addressed joy- 

 fully held out her hand, but drew 

 it back on his coolly saying, " I 

 will give you this afflicting inci- 

 dent for the subject of your next 

 tragedy." 



PERFUMED GLOVES. 



In the computus of the bursars 

 of Trinity College, for the year 

 1631, the following article occurs: 

 "Solut. pro fumiffandis chirothecis." 

 Gloves make a constant and consi- 

 derable article of expense in the 

 earlier accompt-books of the col- 

 lege here mentioned ; and without 

 doubt in those of many other socie- 

 ties. They were annually given (a 

 custom still subsisting) to the col- 

 lege-tenants, and often presented 

 to guests of distinction. But it 

 appears (at least, from accompts of 

 the said college in preceding years), 

 that the practice of perfuming 

 gloves for this purpose was fallen 

 into disuse soon after the reign of 

 Charles the First. (Warton.) 



Stowe'a coutinuator, Edmund 

 Howes, informs us, that sicect or 

 perfumed gloves, were first brought 

 into England by the Earl of Ox- 

 ford, who came from Italy in the 

 14 Ih or 15th year of Queen Eliza- 



beth, during whose reign, and long 

 afterwards, they were very fashion- 

 able. 



They are frequently mentioned 

 by Shakspeare. Autolycus in The 

 Winter's Talc, has among his wares, 



" Gloves as sweet as damask roses." 



FIELDING'S "AMELIA." 

 Andrew Millar, the bookseller, 

 gave Fielding a thousand pounds 

 for his Amelia; but showing the 

 MS. to Sir Andrew Mitchell, after- 

 wards ambassador to Prussia, he 

 was told that it was much inferior 

 to Tom Jones, and advised to get 

 rid of it as soon as he could. Mil- 

 lar soon thought of a stratagem by 

 which he could at least push it off 

 to the trade, if he could not make 

 it popular. At a sale made to the 

 booksellers previous to the publi- 

 cation, Millar offered his friends 

 all his other publications on the 

 usual terms of discount ; but when 

 he came to Amelia, he laid it aside 

 as a work in such demand, that he 

 could not afford to deliver it to the 

 trade in the usual manner. The 

 ruse succeeded ; the impression, 

 though very large, was anxiously 

 bought up, and the bookseller re- 

 lieved from every apprehension as 

 to the popularity of Fielding's 

 Amelia. 



GRUB STREET. 



"Grub Street," says Pennant, 

 " has long been proverbial for the 

 residence 'of authors of the less 

 fortunate tribe, and the trite and 

 illiberal jest of the more favoured.' " 

 This character it seems to have ob- 

 tained so far back as during the 

 protectorate of Cromwell, when a 

 great number of seditious pamph- 

 lets and papers, tending to exas- 

 perate the people against the ex- 

 isting government, were published. 

 The authors of these writings WI-H; 

 generally men of very indigent cir- 

 cumstances, who were compelled 

 to live in a cheap or obscure part 



