Hamlin Garland - "The Spirit of Sweetwater"

John Fox - "In Happy Valley"

Giuseppe Garibaldi - "Clelia"

Hugh Black - "Friendship"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II.

P >> Pierce Egan >> Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II.




At this moment, a mad-brained ruffian of quality, with a splendid
equipage, came driving by with four in hand, and exclaimed as he flew
past, in an affected tone,--"All! Tom, my dear fellow,--why where the
devil have you hid yourself of late?" The speed of his cattle prevented
the possibility of reply. "Although you see him in such excellent trim,"
observed Tom to Lady Jane, "though his cattle and equipage are so well
appointed, would you suppose, it, he has but just made his appearance
from the Bench after _white-washing?_ But he is a noble spirited
fellow," remarked the exquisite, "drives the best horses, and is one of
the first whips in town; always gallant and gay, full of life and good
humour; and, I am happy to say, he has now a dozen of as fine horses
as any in Christendom, _bien entendu_, kept in my name." After this
explanation of the characters of his friend and his horses, he kissed
his hand to her Ladyship, and was out of sight in an instant, "Adieu,
adieu, thou dear, delightful sprig of fashion!" said Lady Jane, as he
left the side of the carriage.--"Fashion and folly," said Tom, half
whispering, and recalling to his mind the following lines:--

"Oh! Fashion, to thy wiles, thy votaries owe
Unnumber'd pangs of sharp domestic woe.
What broken tradesmen and abandon'd wives
Curse thy delusion through their wretched lives;
What pale-faced spinsters vent on thee their rage,
And youths decrepid e're they come of age."

His moralizing reverie was however interrupted by her Ladyship,
who perceiving a group of females decked in the extreme of Parisian
fashions, "there," said she, "there is all that taffeta, feathers,
flowers, and lace can do; and yet you see by their loud talking, their
being unattended by a servant, and by the bit of straw adhering to the
pettycoat of one of them, that they come all the way from Fish Street
Hill, or the Borough, in a hackney-coach, and are now trying to play off
the airs of women of fashion."

Mrs. Marvellous now drew up close to the party. "My dear Lady Jane,"
said she, "1 am positively suffocated with dust, and sickened with
vulgarity; but to be sure we ~20~~have every thing in London here, from
the House of Peers to Waterloo House. I must tell you about the
trial, and Lady Barbara's mortification, and about poor Mr. R.'s being
arrested, and the midnight flight to the Continent of our poor friend
W----."

With this brief, but at the same time comprehensive introduction, she
lacerated the reputation of almost all her acquaintance, and excited
great attention from the party, which had been joined by several during
her truly interesting intelligence. Every other topic in a moment gave
way to this delightful amusement, and each with volubility contributed
his or her share to the general stock of slander.

Scandal is at all times the _sauce piquante_ that _currys_ incident in
every situation; and where is the fashionable circle that can sit down
to table without made dishes?--Character is the good old-fashioned roast
beef of the table, which no one touches but to mangle and destroy.

"Lord! who'd have thought our cousin D
Could think of marrying Mrs. E.
True I don't like such things to tell;
But, faith, I pity Mrs. L,
And was I her, the bride to vex,
I would engage with Mrs. X.
But they do say that Charlotte U,
With Fanny M, and we know who,
Occasioned all, for you must know
They set their caps at Mr. O.
And as he courted Mrs. E,
They thought, if she'd have cousin D,
That things might be by Colonel A
Just brought about in their own way."

Our heroes now took leave, and proceeded through the Park. "Who is that
fat, fair, and forty-looking dame, in the landau?" says Bob.--"Your
description shews," rejoined his friend, "you are but a novice in the
world of fashion--you are deceived, that lady is as much made up as a
wax-doll. She has been such as she now appears to be for these last
five and twenty years; her figure as you see, rather en-bon point, is
friendly to the ravages of time, and every lineament of age is artfully
filled up by an expert fille de chambre, whose time has been employed
at the toilette of a celebrated devotee in Paris. She drives through the
Park as a matter of course, merely to furnish an opportunity for saying
that she has been there: but the more important business of the morning
will be transacted ~21~~at her boudoir, in the King's Road, where
every luxury is provided to influence the senses; and where, by daily
appointment, she is expected to meet a sturdy gallant. She is a perfect
Messalina in her enjoyments; but her rank in society protects her from
sustaining any injury by her sentimental wanderings.

"Do you see that tall handsome man on horseback, who has just taken
off his hat to her, he is a knight of the ... ribbon; and a well-known
flutterer among the ladies, as well as a vast composer of pretty little
nothings."--"Indeed! and pray, cousin, do you see that lady of quality,
just driving in at the gate in a superb yellow vis-a-vis,--as you seem
to know every body, who is she?"

"Ha! ha! ha!" replied Tom, almost bursting with laughter, yet
endeavouring to conceal it, "that Lady of Quality, as you are inclined
to think her, a very few years since, was nothing more than a pot-girl
to a publican in Marj'-le-bone; but an old debauchee (upon the look
out for defenceless beauty) admiring the fineness of her form, the
brilliancy of her eye, and the symmetry of her features, became the
possessor of her person, and took her into keeping, as one of the
indispensable appendages of fashionable life, after a month's ablution
at Margate, where he gave her masters of every description. Her
understanding was ready, and at his death, which happened, luckily for
her, before satiety had extinguished appetite, she was left with
an annuity of twelve hundred pounds--improved beauty--superficial
accomplishments--and an immoderate share of caprice, insolence,
and vanity. As a proof of this, I must tell you that at an elegant
entertainment lately given by this dashing cyprian, she demolished a
desert service of glass and china that cost five hundred guineas, in a
fit of passionate ill-humour; and when her paramour intreated her to be
more composed, she became indignant--called for her writing-desk in a
rage--committed a settlement of four hundred a year, which he had made
but a short time previously, to the flames, and asked him, with, a
self-important air, whether he dared to suppose that _paltry_ parchment
gave him an authority to direct her actions?"

"And what said the lover to this severe remonstrance?"

"Say,--why he very sensibly made her a low bow, thanked her for her
kindness, in releasing him from his bond, and took his leave of her,
determined to return no more."

22~~"Turn to the right," says Tom, "and yonder you will see on
horseback, that staunch patriot, and friend of the people, Sir----, of
whom you must have heard so much."

"He has just come out of the K----B----, having completed last week
the term of imprisonment, to which he was sentenced for a libel on
Government, contained in his address to his constituents on the subject
of the memorable Manchester Meeting."

"Ah! indeed, and is that the red-hot patriot?--well, I must say I have
often regretted he should have gone to such extremes in one or two
instances, although I ever admired his general character for firmness,
manly intrepidity, and disinterested conduct."

"You are right, Bob, perfectly right; but you know, 'to err is human, to
forgive divine,' and however he may err, he does so from principle.
In his private character, as father, husband, friend, and polished
gentleman, he has very few equals--no superior.

"He is a branch of one of the most ancient families in the kingdom, and
can trace his ancestors without interruption, from the days of William
the Conqueror. His political career has been eventful, and perhaps has
cost him more, both in pocket and person, than any Member of Parliament
now existing. He took his seat in the House of Commons at an early age,
and first rendered himself popular by his strenuous opposition to a bill
purporting to regulate the publication of newspapers.

"The next object of his determined reprehension, was the
Cold-Bath-Fields Prison, and the treatment of the unfortunates therein
confined. The uniformly bold and energetic language made use of by
the honourable Baronet upon that occasion, breathed the true spirit of
British liberty. He reprobated the unconstitutional measure of erecting
what he termed a _Bastile_ in the very heart of a free country, as
one that could neither have its foundation in national policy, nor
eventually be productive of private good. He remarked that prisons, at
which private punishments, cruel as they were illegal, were exercised,
at the mercy of an unprincipled gaoler--cells in which human beings were
exposed to the horrors of heart-sickening solitude, and depressed in
spirit by their restriction to a scanty and exclusive allowance of
bread and water, were not only incompatible with the spirit of the
constitution, but were likely to prove injurious to the spirit of the
23~~people of this happy country; for as Goldsmith admirably remarks,

"Princes and Lords may nourish or may fade,
A breath can make them as a breath hath made,
But a bold peasantry their country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied."

"_And if this be not tyranny_" continued the philanthropic orator,
"_it is impossible to define the term. I promise you here_ that I will
persevere to the last in unmasking this wanton abuse of justice and
humanity." His invincible fortitude in favour of the people, has
rendered him a distinguished favourite among them: and though by some he
is termed a visionary, an enthusiast, and a tool of party, his adherence
to the rights of the subject, and his perseverance to uphold the
principles of the constitution, are deserving the admiration of every
Englishman; and although his fortune is princely, and has been at his
command ever since an early age, he has never had his name registered
among the fashionable gamesters at the clubs in St. James's-street,
Newmarket, or elsewhere. He labours in the vineyard of utility rather
than in the more luxuriant garden of folly; and, according to general
conception, may emphatically be called an honest man. "But come," said
Tom, "it is time for us to move homeward--the company are drawing off I
see, we must shape our course towards Piccadilly."

They dashed through the Park, not however without being saluted by many
of his fashionable friends, who rejoiced to see that the Honourable
Tom Dashall was again to be numbered among the votaries of Real Life in
London; while the young squire, whose visionary orbs appeared to be
in perpetual motion, dazzled with the splendid equipages of the moving
panorama, was absorbed in reflections somewhat similar to the following:

"No spot on earth to me is half so fair
As Hyde-Park Corner, or St. James's Square;
And Happiness has surely fix'd her seat
In Palace Yard, Pall Mall, or Downing Street:
Are hills, and dales, and valleys half so gay
As bright St. James's on a levee day?
What fierce ecstatic transports fire my soul,
To hear the drivers swear, the coaches roll;
The Courtier's compliment, the Ladies' clack,
The satins rustle, and the whalebone crack!"




CHAPTER IV

"Together let us beat this ample field
Try what the open, what the covert yield:
The latent tracts, the giddy heights explore
Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;
Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise."

~~24~IT was half past five when the Hon. Tom Dashall, and his enraptured
cousin, reached the habitation of the former, who had taken care to
dispatch a groom, apprizing Mrs. Watson, the house-keeper, of his
intention to be at home by half past six to dinner; consequently all
was prepared for their reception. The style of elegance in which Tom
appeared to move, struck Tallyho at once with delight and astonishment,
as they entered the drawing-room; which was superbly and tastefully
fitted up, and commanded a cheerful view of Piccadilly. "Welcome, my
dear Bob!" said Tom to his cousin, "to all the delights of Town--come,
tell me what you think of its first appearance, only remember you
commence your studies of Life in London on a dull day; to-morrow you
will have more enlivening prospects before you." "'Why in truth,"
replied Bob, "the rapidity of attraction is such, as at present to leave
no distinct impressions on my mind; all appears like enchantment, and
I am completely bewildered in a labyrinth of wonders, to which there
appears to be no end; but under your kind guidance and tuition I may
prove myself an apt scholar, in unravelling its intricacies." By this
time they had approached the window.

"Aye, aye," says Dashall, "we shall not be long, I see, without some
object to exercise your mind upon, and dispel the horrors.

"Oh for that Muse of fire, whose burning pen
Records the God-like deeds of valiant men!
Then might our humble, yet aspiring verse,
Our matchless hero's matchless deeds rehearse."

~25~~Bob was surprised at this sudden exclamation of his cousin, and
from the introduction naturally expected something extraordinary, though
he looked around him without discovering his object.

"That," continued Tom, "is a Peer"--pointing to a gig just turning the
corner, "of whom it may be said:

To many a jovial club that _Peer_ was known,
With whom his active wit unrivall'd shone,
Choice spirit, grave freemason, buck and blood,
Would crowd his stories and _bon mots_ to hear,
And none a disappointment e'er need fear
His humour flow'd in such a copious flood."

"It is Lord C----, who was formerly well known as the celebrated Major
H----, the companion of the now most distinguished personage in the
British dominions! and who not long since became possessed of his
lordly honours. Some particulars of him are worth knowing. He was
early introduced into life, and often kept both good and bad company,
associating with men and women of every description and of every rank,
from the highest to the lowest--from St. James's to St. Giles's, in
palaces and night-cellars--from the drawing-room to the dust-cart. He
can drink, swear, tell stories, cudgel, box, and smoke with any one;
having by his intercourse with society fitted himself for all companies.
His education has been more practical than theoretical, though he was
brought up at Eton, where, notwithstanding he made considerable progress
in his studies, he took such an aversion to Greek that he never would
learn it. Previous to his arrival at his present title, he used to be
called Honest George, and so unalterable is his nature, that to this
hour he likes it, and it fits him better than his title. But he has
often been sadly put to his shifts under various circumstances: he was
a courtier, but was too honest for that; he tried gaming, but he was too
honest for that; he got into prison, and might have wiped off, but he
was too honest for that; he got into the coal trade, but he found it a
black business, and he was too honest for that. At drawing the long
bow, so much perhaps cannot be said--but that you know is habit, not
principle; his courage is undoubted, having fought three duels before he
was twenty years of age.

Being disappointed in his hope of promotion in the army, he resolved, in
spite of the remonstrances of his ~26~~friends, to quit the guards,
and solicited an appointment in one of the Hessian corps, at that
time raising for the British service in America, where the war of the
revolution was then commencing, and obtained from the Landgrave of Hesse
a captain's commission in his corps of Jagers.

Previous to his departure for America, finding he had involved himself
in difficulties by a profuse expenditure, too extensive for his income,
and an indulgence in the pleasures of the turf to a very great extent,
he felt himself under the necessity of mortgaging an estate of about
11,000L. per annum, left him by his aunt, and which proved unequal to
the liquidation of his debts. He remained in America till the end of the
war, where he distinguished himself for bravery, and suffered much with
the yellow fever. On his return, he obtained an introduction to the
Prince of Wales, who by that time had lanched into public life, and
became one of the jovial characters whom he selected for his associates;
and many are the amusing anecdotes related of him. The Prince conferred
on him the appointment of equerry, with a salary of 300L. a year; this,
however, he lost on the retrenchments that were afterwards made in the
household of His Royal Highness. He continued, however, to be one of
his constant companions, and while in his favour they were accustomed
to practice strange vagaries. The Major was always a wag, ripe and ready
for a _spree or a lark_.

"To him a frolic was a high delight,
A frolic he would hunt for, day and night,
Careless how prudence on the sport might frown."

At one time, when the favourite's finances were rather low, and the
_mopusses ran taper_, it was remarked among the 60 vivants of the
party, that the Major had not for some time given them an invitation.
This, however, he promised to do, and fixed the day--the Prince
having engaged to make one. Upon this occasion he took lodgings in
Tottenham-court Road--went to a wine-merchant--promised to introduce
him to the royal presence, upon his engaging to find wine for the party,
which was readily acceded to; and a dinner of three courses was served
up. Three such courses, perhaps, were never before seen; when the
company were seated, two large dishes appeared; one was placed at the
top of the table, and one at the bottom; all was anxious expectation:
~27~~the covers being removed, exhibited to view, a baked shoulder of
mutton at top, and baked potatoes at the bottom. They all looked around
with astonishment, but, knowing the general eccentricity of their host,
they readily fell into his humour, and partook of his fare; not doubting
but the second course would make ample amends for the first. The wine
was good, and the Major apologized for his accommodations, being, as he
said, a family sort of man, and the dinner, though somewhat uncommon,
was not such an one as is described by Goldsmith:

"At the top, a fried liver and bacon were seen;
At the bottom was tripe, in a swinging tureen;
At the sides there were spinach and pudding made hot;
In the middle a place where the pasty--was not."

At length the second course appeared; when lo and behold, another baked
shoulder of mutton and baked potatoes! Surprise followed surprise--but

"Another and another still succeeds."

The third course consisted of the same fare, clearly proving that he
had in his catering studied quantity more than variety; however, they
enjoyed the joke, eat as much as they pleased, laughed heartily at the
dinner, and after bumpering till a late hour, took their departure: it
is said, however, that he introduced the wine-merchant to his Highness,
who afterwards profited by his orders.{1}

1 This remarkable dinner reminds us of a laughable
caricature which made its appearance some time ago upon the
marriage of a Jew attorney, in Jewry-street, Aldgate, to the
daughter of a well-known fishmonger, of St. Peter's-alley,
Cornhill, when a certain Baronet, Alderman, Colonel, and
then Lord Mayor, opened the ball at the London Tavern, as
the partner of the bride; a circum-stance which excited
considerable curiosity and surprise at the time. We know the
worthy Baronet had been a hunter for a seat in Parliament,
but what he could be hunting among the children of Israel
is, perhaps, not so easily ascertained. We, however, are not
speaking of the character, but the caricature, which
represented the bride, not resting on Abraham's bosom, but
seated on his knee, surrounded by their guests at the
marriage-feast; while to a panel just behind them, appears
to be affixed a bill of fare, which runs thus:

First course, Fish!

Second course, Fish!!

Third course, Fish!!!

Perhaps the idea of the artist originated in the anecdote
above recorded.

~28~~It is reported that the Prince gave him a commission, under an
express promise that when he could not shew it, he was no longer to
enjoy his royal favour. This commission was afterwards lost by the
improvident possessor, and going to call on the donor one morning, who
espying him on his way, he threw up the sash and called out, "Well,
George, commission or no commission?" "No commission, by G----, your
Highness?" was the reply.

"Then you cannot enter here," rejoined the prince, closing the window
and the connection at the same time.

"His Lordship now resides in the Regent's Park, and may almost nightly
be seen at a public-house in the neighbourhood, where he takes his grog
and smokes his pipe, amusing the company around him with anecdotes of
his former days; we may, perhaps, fall in with him some night in
our travels, and you will find him a very amusing and sometimes very
sensible sort of fellow, till he gets his grog on board, when he can be
as boisterous and blustering as a coal-heaver or a bully. His present
fortune is impaired by his former imprudence, but he still mingles with
the sporting world, and a short time back had his pocket picked, at a
_milling_ match, of a valuable gold repeater. He has favoured the world
with several literary productions, among which are Memoirs of his own
Life, embellished with a view of the author, suspended from (to use the
phrase of a late celebrated auctioneer) a _hanging wood_; and a very
elaborate treatise on the Art of Rat-catching. In the advertisement of
the latter work, the author engages it will enable the reader to "clear
any house of these noxious vermin, however much infested, excepting
only a certain great House in the neighbourhood of St. Stephen's,
Westminster."{1}

1 It appears by the newspapers, that the foundation of a
certain great house in Pall Mall is rotten, and giving-way.
The cause is not stated; but as it cannot arise from being
top-heavy, we may presume that the rats have been at work
there. Query, would not an early application of the Major's
recipe have remedied the evil, and prevented the necessity
of a removal of a very heavy body, which of course, must be
attended with a very heavy expense? 'Tis a pity an old
friend should have been overlooked on such an occasion.

~29~~"Do you," said Tom, pointing to a person on the other side of
the way, "see that young man, walking with a half-smothered air of
indifference, affecting to whistle as he walks, and twirling his
stick? He is a _once-a-week man_, or, in other words, a _Sunday
promenader_--Harry Hairbrain was born of a good family, and, at the
decease of his father, became possessed of ten thousand pounds, which
he sported with more zeal than discretion, so much so, that having been
introduced to the gaming table by a pretended friend, and fluctuated
between poverty and affluence for four years, he found himself
considerably in debt, and was compelled to seek refuge in an obscure
lodging, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Kilburn, in order to avoid
the _traps_; for, as he observes, he has been among the _Greeks and
pigeons_, who have completely _rook'd_ him, and now want to crow
over him: he has been at hide and seek for the last two months, and,
depending on the death of a rich old maiden aunt who has no other heir,
he eventually hopes to '_diddle 'em_.'"

This narrative of Hairbrain was like Hebrew ta Tallyho, who requested
his interesting cousin, as he found himself at _falt, to try back_, and
put him on the _right scent_.

"Ha! ha! ha!" said Tom, "we must find a new London vocabulary, I see,
before we shall be able to converse intelligibly; but as you are now
solely under my tuition, I will endeavour to throw a little light upon
the subject.

"Your _once-a-week man, or Sunday promenader_, is one who confines
himself, to avoid confinement, lodging in remote quarters in the
vicinity of the Metropolis, within a mile or two of the Bridges,
Oxford Street, or Hyde-Park Corner, and is constrained to waste six
uncomfortable and useless days in the week, in order to secure the
enjoyment of the seventh, when he fearlessly ventures forth, to recruit
his ideas--to give a little variety to the sombre picture of life,
unmolested, to transact his business, or to call on some old friend,
and keep up those relations with the world which would otherwise be
completely neglected or broken.

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