STEHXES MAUDLIN SENSIBILITY. 



247 



-peaches on Mm, as the clerk makes j 

 out the poor rogue's ticket for New- 

 gate. Then the end comes. Tom 

 goes to Tyburn in a cart with a 

 cotiiu in it ; whilst the Eight Hon- 

 ourable Francis Goodchild, Lord 

 Mayor of London, proceeds to his 

 Mansion House, in his gilt coach, 

 with four footmen and a sword- 

 bearer, whilst the companies of 

 London march in the august pro- 

 cession, whilst the train-bands of 

 the city fire their pieces and get 

 drunk in his honour ; and oh, crown- 

 ing delight and glory of all, whilst 

 his majesty the king looks out from 

 his royal balcony, with his ribbon 

 on his breast, and his queen and his 

 star by his side, at the corner house 

 of St. Paul's Church-yard, where 

 the toy-shop is now. 



" How the times have changed ! 

 The new Post-office now not disad- 

 vantageously occupies that spot 

 where the scaffolding is on the pic- 

 ture, where the tipsy trainband- 

 man is lurching against the post, 

 with his wig over one eye, and the 

 'prentice-boy is trying to kiss the 

 pretty girl in the gallery. Past away 

 'prentice-boy and pretty girl ! Past 

 away tipsy trainband-maii with wig 

 and bandolier ! On the spot where 

 Tom Idle (for whom I have an un- 

 affected pity) made his exit from this 

 wicked world, and where you seethe 

 hangman smoking his pipe, as he 

 reclines on the gibbet, and views 

 the hills of Harrow or Hampstead 

 beyond a splendid marble arch, a 

 vast and modern city clean, airy, 

 painted drab, populous with nur- 

 sery-maids and children, the abodes 

 of wealth and comfort the elegant, 

 the prosperous, the polite Tyburnia 

 rises, the most respectable district 

 in the habitable globe ! 



" In that last plate of the London 

 Apprentices, in which the apotheosis 

 of the Eight Honourable Francis 

 Goodchild is drawn, a ragged fel- 

 low is represented in the corner of 

 the simple, kindly piece, offering 



for sale a broadside, purporting to 

 contain an account of the appear- 

 ance of the ghost of Tom Idle, exe- 

 cuted at Tyburn. Could Tom's 

 ghost have made its appearance in 

 1847, and not in 1747, what changes 

 would have been remarked by that 

 astonished escaped criminal ! Over 

 that road which the hangman used 

 to travel constantly, and the Ox- 

 ford stage twice a- week, go ten 

 thousand carriages every day ; over 

 yonder road, by which Dick Turpin 

 fled to Windsor, and Squire West- 

 ern journeyed into town, when he 

 came to take up his quarters at the 

 Hercules Pillars on the outskirts of 

 London, what a rush of civilization 

 and order flows now ! What ar- 

 mies of gentlemen with umbrellas 

 march to banks, and chambers, and 

 counting-houses ! What regiments 

 of nursery - maids and pretty in- 

 fantry: what peaceful processions 

 of policemen, what light broughams 

 and what gay carnages, what swarms 

 of busy apprentices and artificers, 

 riding on omnibus-roofs, pass daily 

 and hourly ! Tom Idle's times are 

 quite changed ; many of the insti- 

 tutions gone into disuse which were 

 admired in his day. There's more 

 pity and kindness, and a better 

 chance for poor Tom's successors 

 now than at that simpler period, 

 when Fielding hanged him, and 

 Hogarth drew him." 



STERNE'S MAUDLIN SENSIBILITY. 

 " Sterne (says Mr. Thackeray) 

 used to blubber perpetually in his 

 study, and finding his tears infec- 

 tious, and that they brought him a 

 great popularity, he exercised the 

 lucrative gift of weeping, he utilized 

 it, and cried on every occasion. I 

 own that I don't value or respect 

 much the cheap dribble of those 

 fountains. He fatigues me with 

 his perpetual disquiet, and his un- 

 easy appeals to my risible or senti- 

 mental faculties. He is always look- 

 ing in my face, watching his effect, 



