John Platts

CURIOSITIES IN HISTORY, ETC.—(Continued.)

Peeping Tom of Coventry—Long absent Husband returned—Curious Historical Fact—The most Extraordinary Fact on Record.

Peeping Tom of Coventry.—The following are the particulars of the event which, it is said, gave birth to the above appellation.

The wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia, with her husband, founded a monastery, for an abbot and twenty-four Benedictine monks, at Coventry, in 1043; which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, and St. Osburg. Leofric and his Lady, who both died about the latter end of the reign of Edward the Confessor, were buried in the church of the abbey which they had founded. The former seems to have been the first lord of Coventry, and the latter its greatest benefactress, as will appear from the following extraordinary and indeed romantic tradition, which is not only firmly believed at Coventry, but is recorded by many of our own historians:—The earl had granted the convent and city many valuable privileges; but the inhabitants having offended him, he imposed on them very heavy taxes; for the great lords to whom the town belonged, under the Anglo-Saxons, had those privileges, which cannot be exercised at present by any but the house of commons. The people complained grievously of the severity of the taxes, and applied to Godeva, the earl’s lady, a woman of great piety and virtue, to intercede in their favour. She willingly complied with the request; but the earl remained inexorable! he told his lady, that were she to ride naked through the streets of the city, he would remit the tax; meaning, that no persuasion whatever should prevail with him, and thinking to silence her by the strange proposal: but she, sensibly touched by the distress of the city, generously accepted the terms. She therefore sent notice to the magistrates of the town, with the strictest orders that all doors and windows should be shut, and that no person should attempt to look out on pain of death. These precautions being taken, the lady rode through the city, covered only with her fine flowing locks. While riding in this manner through the streets, no one dared to look at her, except a poor tailor, who, as a punishment, it is said, for his violating the injunctions of the noble lady, which had been published with so pious and benevolent a design, was struck blind. This tailor has been ever since remembered by the name of Peeping Tom; and in memory of the event, his figure is still kept up in the window of the house, from whence, it is said, he gratified his curiosity. The lady having thus discharged her engagements, the earl performed his promise, and granted the city a charter, by which the inhabitants were exempted from all taxes. As a proof of this circumstance, in a window of Trinity church are the figures of the Earl and his Lady, and beneath the following inscription:—

“I, Luriche, for the love of thee,
Doe set Coventre toll free.”

To this day, the love of Godeva is annually commemorated on Friday in Trinity week, when a valiant fair one rides, not literally like the good countess, but in silk, closely fitted to her limbs, and of colour emulating her complexion. The figure of Peeping Tom, in the great street, is also new dressed on the occasion. Mr. O’Keefe has produced a musical entertainment on this subject, written with all the delicacy the subject would admit.

The Long Absent Husband returned: (From Dr. King’s Anecdotes.)—“About the year 1706, I knew,” said Dr. King, “one Mr. Howe, a sensible well-natured man, possessed of an estate of £700 or £800 per annum; he married a young lady of good family, in the west of England; her maiden name was Mallet; she was agreeable in her person and manners, and proved a very good wife. Seven or eight years after they had been married, he arose one morning very early, and told his wife he was obliged to go to the Tower to transact some particular business: the same day, at noon, his wife received a note from him, in which he informed her that he was under the necessity of going to Holland, and should probably be absent three weeks or a month. He was absent from her seventeen years, during which time she never heard from him or of him. The evening before he returned, while she was at supper, and with some of her friends and relations, particularly one Dr. Rose, a physician, who had married her sister, a billet, without any name subscribed, was delivered to her, in which the writer requested the favour of her to give him a meeting the next evening, in the Birdcage-walk, in St. James’s Park. When she had read the billet, she tossed it to Dr. Rose, and laughing, said, ‘You see, brother, old as I am, I have got a gallant.’ Rose, who perused the note with more attention, declared it to be Mr. Howe’s hand-writing: this surprised all the company, and so much affected Mrs. Howe, that she fainted away; however, she soon recovered, when it was agreed that Dr. Rose and his wife, with the other gentlemen and ladies who were then at supper, should attend Mrs. Howe the next evening to the Birdcage-walk: they had not been there more than five or six minutes, when Mr. Howe came to them, and after saluting his friends, and embracing his wife, walked home with her, and they lived together in great harmony from that time to the day of his death. But the most curious part of my tale remains to be related.

“When Howe left his wife, they lived in a house in Jermyn-street, near St. James’s church; he went no farther than a little street in Westminster, where he took a room, for which he paid five or six shillings a week, and changing his name, and disguising himself by wearing a black wig, (for he was a fair man,) he remained in this habitation during the whole time of his absence! He had two children by his wife when he departed from her, who were both living at that time; but they both died young, in a few years after. However, during their lives, the second or third year after their father disappeared, Mrs. Howe was obliged to apply for an act of parliament, to procure a proper settlement of her husband’s estate, and a provision for herself out of it, during his absence, as it was uncertain whether he was alive or dead; this act he suffered to be solicited and passed, and enjoyed the pleasure of reading the progress of it in the votes, in a little coffee-house which he frequented, near his lodging.“Upon quitting his house and family in the manner I have mentioned, Mrs. Howe at first imagined, as she could not conceive any other cause for such an abrupt elopement, that he had contracted a large debt unknown to her, and by that means involved himself in difficulties which he could not easily surmount; and for some days she lived in continual apprehension of demands from creditors, or seizures, executions, &c. But nothing of this kind happened; on the contrary, he did not only leave his estate free and unencumbered, but he paid the bills of every tradesman with whom he had any dealings; and upon examining his papers, in due time after he was gone, proper receipts and discharges were found from all persons, whether tradesmen or others, with whom he had any manner of transactions or money concerns. Mrs. Howe, after the death of her children, thought proper to lessen her establishment of servants, and the expenses of her housekeeping: and therefore removed from her house in Jermyn-street, to a little house in Brewer-street, near Golden-square. Just over-against her lived one Salt, a corn-chandler. About ten years after Howe’s abdication, he contrived to form an acquaintance with Salt, and was at length in such a degree of intimacy with him, that he usually dined with Salt once or twice a week. From the room in which they sat, it was not difficult to look into Mrs. Howe’s dining-room, where she generally ate, and received her company; and Salt, who believed Howe to be a bachelor, frequently recommended Mrs. Howe as a suitable match. During the last seven years of this gentleman’s absence, he went every Sunday to St. James’s church, and used to sit in Mr. Salt’s seat, where he had a view of his wife, but could not be easily seen by her. After he returned home, he never would confess, even to his most intimate friends, what was the real cause of such a singular conduct: apparently there was none; but whatever there was, he was certainly ashamed to own it.

“Dr. Rose has often said to me, that he believed his brother Howe would never[23] have returned to his wife, if the money which he took with him, which was supposed to have been £1000 or £2000, had not been all spent: indeed, he must have been a good economist, and frugal in his manner of living, otherwise his money would scarcely have held out; for I imagine he had his whole fortune by him; I mean what he carried away with him in money and bank-bills: and he daily took out of his bag, like the Spaniard in Gil Blas, what was sufficient for his expenses.”

A Curious Historical Fact.—During the troubles in the reign of Charles I. a country girl came to London, in search of a place as a servant maid; but not succeeding, she hired herself to carry out beer from a brewhouse, and was one of those called tub-women. The brewer, observing a good looking girl in this low occupation, took her into his family as a servant, and, after a short time, married her; but he died while she was yet a young woman, and left her the bulk of his fortune. The business of the brewery was dropped, and the young widow was recommended to Mr. Hyde, as a skilful lawyer to arrange her husband’s affairs. Hyde, (who was afterwards the great Earl of Clarendon,) finding her fortune considerable, married her. Of this marriage there was no other issue than a daughter, who was afterwards the wife of James II., and mother of Mary and Anne, queens of England.

The following is said to be The most Extraordinary Fact on record.—In the appendix to the Rev. John Campbell’s Travels in South Africa, is recorded one of the strangest occurrences in the moral annals of mankind. It will be recollected, that some years ago the Grosvenor, East Indiaman, was wrecked off the coast of Caffraria, (a district divided from the country of the Hottentots by the Great Fish River,) and that nearly the whole of the passengers and crew perished on the occasion. It was, however, discovered, that two young ladies had survived the miseries of this dreadful event, and were resident in the interior of a country uninhabited by Europeans. Mr. Campbell does not relate this occurrence from personal evidence, but we cannot doubt the extraordinary fact.

The Landdrost of Graaf Ragrel had been deputed by the British government to pay a visit to the king of Caffraria, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there were any survivors from the wreck of the Grosvenor. Finding there were two females, he succeeded in procuring an introduction to them. He saw them habited like Caffre women; their bodies were painted after the fashion of the native inhabitants; and their manners and appearance were altogether anti-European. The Landdrost, however, sought to obtain their confidence by a liberal offer of his best services to restore them to their country and friends. But they were unmoved by his solicitations. They stated that they had fallen into the hands of the natives after they had been cast ashore from the wreck; that their companions had been murdered, and that they had been compelled to give themselves in marriage; that having affectionate husbands, children, and grand-children, their attachments were bounded by their actual enjoyments. Upon being repeatedly urged to depart with the Landdrost, they replied, that probably at their return to England they might find themselves without connections or friends, and that their acquired habits ill fitted them to mingle with polished society; in short, that they would not quit Caffraria.

Such, then, is the powerful influence of habit! Two young ladies, highly educated, and in all probability lovely in their persons, are taught by habit to forget those scenes of gaiety they were so well calculated to ornament, and the anticipated enjoyments of high matrimonial connections; to forget their parents, their relations, the accomplished companions of their youth, and all the refinements of life! Among a savage people, they acquire congenial feelings, and their vitiated nature ceases to repine: they love the untutored husbands given to them by fate; they rear their children in the stupidity of Hottentot faith; they designate their wretched hovel with the sacred name of Home; they expel memory from their occupations; and regret no longer mingles with their routine of barbarous pleasures. Is this, in reality, a picture of the human mind, with all its boasted attributes, its delicacies, its refinements, its civilized superiority? Yes! for custom is a second nature.

This fact is also related by Vaillant, in his Travels in the interior parts of Africa. He says, volume i. page 286, “I was told, almost six weeks prior to my visiting that coast, that an English vessel had been wrecked on these barbarous shores; that being driven on the sands, a part of the crew had fallen into the hands of the Caffres, who had put them all to death, except a few women, whom they had cruelly reserved.”

Unfortunate Artificer.—There was an artificer in Rome, who made vessels of glass of so tenacious a temper, that they were as little liable to be broken as those that are made of gold and silver: when therefore he had made a vial of the purer sort, and such as he thought a present worthy of CÆsar alone, he was admitted into the presence of their then Emperor Tiberius. The gift was praised, the skilful hand of the artist applauded, and the donation of the giver accepted. The artist, that he might enhance the wonder of the spectators, and promote himself yet further in the favour of the Emperor, desired the vial out of CÆsar’s hand, and threw it with such force against the floor, that the most solid metal would have received some damage or bruise thereby. CÆsar was not only amazed, but affrighted with the act; but he, taking up the vial from the ground, (which was not broken, but only bruised together, as if the substance of the glass had put on the temperature of brass,) he drew out an instrument from his bosom, and beat it out to its former figure. This done, he imagined that he had conquered the world, as believing that he had merited an acquaintance with CÆsar, and raised the admiration of all the beholders; but it fell out otherwise, for the Emperor inquired if any other person besides himself was privy to the like tempering of glass? When he had told him, “No,” he commanded his attendants to strike off his head, saying, “That should this artifice come once to be known, gold and silver would be of as little value as the dirt of the street.” Long after this, viz. in 1610, we read, that amongst other rare presents, then sent from the Sophy of Persia to the king of Spain, were six mirrors of malleable glass, so exquisitely tempered that they could not be broken.