Punch or The London charivari: Punch or The London charivari (2.1842)

PUNCH, OR TEE LONDON CHARIVARI. 2S&

THE RISING YOUNG MAN,

George Fitz-Byron Moore—The Poet.

EORGE Fitz-
Byron Moore is
a lineal descen-
dant of theMoores
of Moorgate, who
came in with the
Normans. and
walked out with
the Benefit of the
Act, which was
administered to
Ephraim Moore
in the summer of
1829, with great
solemnity before
a full Court in
Portugal Street

The admission into partnership of Russell and Wright, both of whom
are mere men of business, without any appreciation of the beauties of!
poetry, caused young .Moore to be removed from the Temple of the Muses
—a place into which Warren had ingeniously converted his wash-house—-
to the counting-house, where he remained, devoting his fine talents tu
no other writing but that involved in signing the labels which are used for
pointing out the blacking as " genuine."

OBJECTS OF ART IN THE METROPOLIS.

/ our sketch went
familiarly by the
name of Young
Moore among his
early playmates,
and there was
perhaps some-
thing almost prophetical in the designation thus given him, for he has
since earned by his writings the full right to be considered as " Young
Moore," the worthy successor of the author of the Melodies. Young
Moore, for such we shall now continue to call him, was distinguished for
the accuracy with which he repeated the lovely little metrical romance of—

One—two,
Buckle my shoe.
Three—four,
Shut, the iloor.

And it may truly be said of him that " he lisped in numbers, for the num-
bers came."

He was little more than eight years of age, when, sitting at the dinner-
table of his father, he observed a leg of pork at one end, aud, taking hold
of his fork, he ejaculated

'• Pork !
" Fork!-'

with remarkable emphasis ! From this moment his destinies were fixed—
the paternal praises nourished the seeds of genius, and our hero, for such
we shall henceforth designate "young Moore,1' became a confirmed poet.
The first care of his parents was to have him re-christened by the name
of Fitz-Byron, and after this time we hear nothing of him until we find him
aspiring to the honour of a niche in the poet's corner of the Nic Nac, a
small periodical that had been started under the auspices of Brown, Jones,
and Robinson. We do not believe that anything from our hero's pen ac-
tually appeared in the Nic Nac, but the Notices to Correspondents prove
that he was by no means an idle contributor. We gradually trace him
through several numbers, being occasionally " declined with thanks,"
and advised to " try again," until the autumn of thirty-one, when we
observe that the editor announces " Fitz-Byron in our next" as a pro-
mised treat, upon which he otfered his readers a week's time to deliberate.
On looking for the ensuing number, we find that the Nic Nac stopped sud-
denly ; and old book-worms tell us that the back numbers were soon
resorted to by the buttermen as envelopes.

" Our hero " was, however, wholly undaunted by a disappointment
which might have powerfully affected a weaker mind ; and we hear of
him again in the year 1835, assisting in the editorial department of the
Call, in which his father, for the sake of developing the poetical talents of
his son, had been induced to take a pecuniary interest. The Cab soon
came to a stand, and our hero continued to fill up his leisure hours in pre-
paring ballads, with a view to nothing in particular, most of which have
perished. We have been favoured, however, with the following-—

Fragment, written on the Label of an Old Blacking Bottle.
There's not a boot throughout the land,

Like that on which is set
The polish found at Thirty, Strand,

[n Warren's matchless jet.
The knights of old their stories told,

In armour's glittering suits,
But list, while I my love-tale sigh
In highly-polish'rl boots.

Chorus.—Boots ! Boots !

Highly-polished Boots !
Our hero now obtained an introduction to Warren, and was patronised
by that great man, who went to great expense in illustrating our author's
works, one of which—the beautiful little fable of the Horse-Guard and
the Looking Glass—was embellished with a design that would have done
credit to Wilkie.

No. 2.—At.dgate Pump.
The plan of this Pump, which is one of the oldest that the metro-
polis can boast, was suggested by one Smith, who kept a small shop
in the city.

As it is usual to treat public buildings as the work of the Sove-
reign in whose reign their erection took place, we may say of Aid-
gate Pump, that it was begun by Queen Anne, but it was not until
the rise of the Whig party, on the accession of George the First,,
that we find the Pump possessed of a handle, which has bee:i erro-
ThTsubject of neousLv supposed to have been made by

WAT TYLKJl.

The spout, which is of exquisite workmanship, is of comparatively:
modern date, for it was knocked off by an omnibus during the Reform-
agitation, in the early part of the reign of the fourth William, who we
find, from chronicles of that remote period, was called the Sailor King,
and spent the whole of his time—at least so we are bound to sup-
pose—in fighting the naval battles of his country. lie is said to
have been present at the Nile, and personally to have reefed the
stu'nsail of the ship he was on board of at the moment of victory.
A spot on the quarter-deck is still pointed out, immediately abaft the-
binnacle, on the larboard quarter, from which His Majesty, then a
midshipman, is supposed to have issued the characteristic command
of " Go it, Ned ! " to the gallant Codrington, who afterwards built
Navarino House, which has since fallen into the hands of an exten-
sive linen-draper.

We have, however, naturally enough lost sight of the Pump in the
Sailor King, and must beg leave to heave-to our recollections from
the " deep, deep sea" and Aldgate. The Pump is supposed to have
originally stood upon one of the embankments thrown up by Cfesar
to protect his rear on liis celebrated march from Bow to Islington,
and it was on his way to the latter place that he fell in with the in-
auspicious omen of a Stcan icith two Neck?, which caused him to give-
battle to the enemy rather unexpectedly. It is supposed that the
bank on which Aldgate rump is built was the very hank upon which
the invading Romans were in the habit of drawing for supplies, and
it is believed that they received a check therefrom the early Saxons,
who were eventually put to the sword, or rather the sword was put
to them—in the most shocking manner.

The round ball on the top of the Pump is copied, in shape, from a
similar object under the arch way leading to the Vatican,and the handle
is a beautifully'wrought specimen of what may be done by the adapta-
tion of art to smith's work in general, and blacksmith's work in parti-
cular. The building vests in the Lord Mayor for the time being, who
maybe said to represent the Pump for all public purposes. The whole-
of the water is the property of the citizens, and there is a custo'r
which is no where mentioned in Domesday Book—of drinking it.

1 The rose shall cease to blow," as the caterpillar said to the rose-bud.
- What's the use of -i. Inn- ? ' hi the spavined horse said to the roarer.