DOI Heft:
July to December, 1851
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16608#0035
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 23
Emotion of our Friend Sibthorp on Reading in a Public Print the
Proposal that the Crystal Palace should remain in Hyde Park.
THE EGGS-EMPLARY HUSSARS AND LANCERS.
Certain gallant officers of the 15th Hussars and 16th Lancers are, at
the present time, withstanding a tremendous siege. They are sum-
moned by Justice to surrender ; but they hold themselves impregnable
in their contempt of equity. It is enough for them—gallant fellows !—
that one Henry Erazer Dimsdale, a youth, should take his trial for
their common act of gallantry, when, on the Oaks Day, on their return
from Epsom, they added another achievement to the brilliant onslaughts
of the British army, by pelting men, women, and children with
fetid eggs.
Young Mr. Dimsdale—"from a feeling of honour"—says his
counsel—
" Refused to give up the names of several officers belonging to the 15th Hussars and
the 16th Lancers, who were vastly his seniors, and who were the principals in the
cowardly and outrageous affair."
This is, doubtless, very chivalrous on the part of Mr. Dimsdale ;
but we must also pay a due tribute to the determination of those gallant
men, who, in defiance of every summons of generosity, continue to hold
themselves in a condition of siege; refusing to capitulate. " No
surrender " is the heroic motto that at the present hour surrounds, as
with a halo, the men who officer the 15th Hussars and 16th Lancers.
And even as in a warlike siege, in a real battle, where whole regiments
bear the shock of an attack, or make a terrible onslaught, even as then
the acquired glory is associated with the whole body,—so, at the
present hour, is every individual officer of the 15th and 16th an object of
peculiar interest, as sharing in the renown of the eggs of the glorious
Oaks. As gunpowder perfumes a whole corps, so does the odour of
those pelted eggs sweeten every such officer in the nostril of Public
Opinion. But then, what is Public Opinion in the serene and lofty
thoughts that elevate a military mess ! What a poor, paltry, squint-
eyed, pig-nosed, bandy " snob " is Public Opinion, despised and laughed
at by the withering scorn of Lancers and Hussars !
Therefore, let young Mr. Dimsdale comfort himself as he may in
the Queen's Bench Prison, the while his companions in eggs, leave him
—says his counsel—
u To bear the whole of the brunt and odium of the disgraceful offence, while they wers
the principal actors, and never contributing one single shilling to the expenses already
incurred by Me. DimsdaleI"
They joined—these fine fellows—in firing the eggs—but since then
have permitted Mr. Dimsdale to pay his own and their shot. It is
one thing to find foul eggs for the (persons of women and children,
another to supply money—the sinews of law as of war—to barristers
and attorneys.
Mr. Peat, the army-saddler in Bond Street, may in like manner
contemplate the generosity and heroism of the picked officers of the 15th
and 16th. Mr. Peat—guileless, trustful man!—on the day of the
Oaks, when the officers, with all their shell practice, were in the
hands of the vulgar and insolent people, peppered and reeking with
the shot of the assailants—Mr. Peat stood between the mob and
the officers. He—
" asked the gentlemen, if he pledged himself to be. accountable for them, they would
attend on the following day ? and they all declared they would; and Mb. Dimsdale
was among them. They did not appear."
Doubtless, they were too modest: they waived the solemnity oi a
public triumph. The victors' car (the probable police van) they wooLd
not mount. John Collins gave it in evidence,—
" That on the evening of the Oaks day he was returning from Epsom, with his wife
and children, and on reaching Lower Tooting, he was pelted with eggs by the gentle-
men on a four-horse coach."
Collins was, moreover, unmercifully whipped by these heroes in
the shell; whereupon, to appease the mob, Mr. Peat gave his word
for the appearance of the officers, in the confidence of their pledge.
Mr. Peat is forthcoming: the gallant 15th and 16th still hold themselves
impregnable in their barracks. It should be enough for them that
youthful Dimsdale has been consigned to the walls of the Queen's
Bench. Dimsdale only breaks his egg to be put into a cage ; but the
eaglets of the 15th and 16th crack their shells to soar above the world
and the world's opinion,
May we suggest to the Horse Guards, that, in default of the surren-
der of the heroes, the respective flags of the 15th and 16th should hence-
forth carry as emblems, a broken egg, with the word and figures—
"Oaks, 1851."
And as regiments, in their pacific march, have been headed, some by
an ostrich, some by an elephant, some by a goat,—so the gallant 16th
Lancers and 15th Hussars should, in memory of Epsom, have hence-
forth driven before them a certain number of cocks and hens.
PAXTON'S ATMOSPHERIC HOSPITAL.
" Here comes another candidate for the Orange Grove." This, says
Basil Hall, is the frequent greeting given by the wags of Madeira to
the consumptive Englishman, who, with death in his face, lands at
Punchal; the Orange Grove being the church-yard of the island.
Mr. Paxton—if his plan of, what we venture to call, an Atmospheric
Hospital, be adopted—will deprive the jocose people of Madeira—an
island, no doubt, famous for fun as for fennel—of the time-honoured
jest. For Mr. Paxton proposes to have Madeira in London; not to
import its sunlight in air-tight tin canisters—but to have a Madeira of
metropolitan manufacture.
At the late meeting in the matter of the projected Consumptive
Hospital in the East of London, Mr. Paxton exhibited his design of a
Sanitarium, which secures to the patients the same atmosphere both in
winter and summer. Mr. Paxton shows how London, in its worst
winter, may have its fogs filtered and warmed; how London smoke
may be purified into an atmosphere that shall feed and sustain the rarest
plants known to give out the greatest quantity of oxygen ; such atmo-
sphere being continually supplied in its best freshness and purity to
replace that consumed by the lungs of the patient. This Atmospheric
Hospital will be constructed of glass ; and, at a very small additional
cost, make—in fact—a Madeira in Shoreditch or Whitechapel.
Who, then, need land at Funchal, with the Orange Grove in the
distance P Who, delaying the time of departure from home and
friends, until the separation be almost inevitably final—who will take
ship, when he may take a cab for a delicious climate ? It may no
longer be said, "Poor fellow, he went to die in Madeira; he is laid in
the Orange Grove," but, "He gave the fogs the slip, and though
feeding his lungs in the thick of London, he found health and strength
in Paxton's Atmospheric Hospital."
THE GREAT NEEDLE CASE.
There was a short discussion the other night in the House of
Commons, on what may be called the Great Cleopatra's Needle-case.
It seems that Mehemet Ali has given to the British nation the cele-
brated Needle of Cleopatra; but the Government, looking at the
Needle with an eye to economy, and coming directly to the point, have
decided that it would not pay to bring the affair home; and, indeed,
when we hear that it would cost several thousand pounds, we do not
wonder at the reluctance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
incur the responsibility. We certainly cannot advocate such an enormous
outlay for the transfer of the Needle to England, and we should suffer
severely from the pricks of conscience, if we were any party to sticking
it into the public to the frightful extent that would be required. We
are rather surprised that the veteran economist, Mr. Hume, who is
generally as sharp as a needle in all matters where the outlay of the
national money is concerned, should have departed, in this instance,
from his usual course; and should have been the first to recommend
our pinning ourselves to this Needle at an expense for carriage that is
quite fearful to contemplate.
■
Emotion of our Friend Sibthorp on Reading in a Public Print the
Proposal that the Crystal Palace should remain in Hyde Park.
THE EGGS-EMPLARY HUSSARS AND LANCERS.
Certain gallant officers of the 15th Hussars and 16th Lancers are, at
the present time, withstanding a tremendous siege. They are sum-
moned by Justice to surrender ; but they hold themselves impregnable
in their contempt of equity. It is enough for them—gallant fellows !—
that one Henry Erazer Dimsdale, a youth, should take his trial for
their common act of gallantry, when, on the Oaks Day, on their return
from Epsom, they added another achievement to the brilliant onslaughts
of the British army, by pelting men, women, and children with
fetid eggs.
Young Mr. Dimsdale—"from a feeling of honour"—says his
counsel—
" Refused to give up the names of several officers belonging to the 15th Hussars and
the 16th Lancers, who were vastly his seniors, and who were the principals in the
cowardly and outrageous affair."
This is, doubtless, very chivalrous on the part of Mr. Dimsdale ;
but we must also pay a due tribute to the determination of those gallant
men, who, in defiance of every summons of generosity, continue to hold
themselves in a condition of siege; refusing to capitulate. " No
surrender " is the heroic motto that at the present hour surrounds, as
with a halo, the men who officer the 15th Hussars and 16th Lancers.
And even as in a warlike siege, in a real battle, where whole regiments
bear the shock of an attack, or make a terrible onslaught, even as then
the acquired glory is associated with the whole body,—so, at the
present hour, is every individual officer of the 15th and 16th an object of
peculiar interest, as sharing in the renown of the eggs of the glorious
Oaks. As gunpowder perfumes a whole corps, so does the odour of
those pelted eggs sweeten every such officer in the nostril of Public
Opinion. But then, what is Public Opinion in the serene and lofty
thoughts that elevate a military mess ! What a poor, paltry, squint-
eyed, pig-nosed, bandy " snob " is Public Opinion, despised and laughed
at by the withering scorn of Lancers and Hussars !
Therefore, let young Mr. Dimsdale comfort himself as he may in
the Queen's Bench Prison, the while his companions in eggs, leave him
—says his counsel—
u To bear the whole of the brunt and odium of the disgraceful offence, while they wers
the principal actors, and never contributing one single shilling to the expenses already
incurred by Me. DimsdaleI"
They joined—these fine fellows—in firing the eggs—but since then
have permitted Mr. Dimsdale to pay his own and their shot. It is
one thing to find foul eggs for the (persons of women and children,
another to supply money—the sinews of law as of war—to barristers
and attorneys.
Mr. Peat, the army-saddler in Bond Street, may in like manner
contemplate the generosity and heroism of the picked officers of the 15th
and 16th. Mr. Peat—guileless, trustful man!—on the day of the
Oaks, when the officers, with all their shell practice, were in the
hands of the vulgar and insolent people, peppered and reeking with
the shot of the assailants—Mr. Peat stood between the mob and
the officers. He—
" asked the gentlemen, if he pledged himself to be. accountable for them, they would
attend on the following day ? and they all declared they would; and Mb. Dimsdale
was among them. They did not appear."
Doubtless, they were too modest: they waived the solemnity oi a
public triumph. The victors' car (the probable police van) they wooLd
not mount. John Collins gave it in evidence,—
" That on the evening of the Oaks day he was returning from Epsom, with his wife
and children, and on reaching Lower Tooting, he was pelted with eggs by the gentle-
men on a four-horse coach."
Collins was, moreover, unmercifully whipped by these heroes in
the shell; whereupon, to appease the mob, Mr. Peat gave his word
for the appearance of the officers, in the confidence of their pledge.
Mr. Peat is forthcoming: the gallant 15th and 16th still hold themselves
impregnable in their barracks. It should be enough for them that
youthful Dimsdale has been consigned to the walls of the Queen's
Bench. Dimsdale only breaks his egg to be put into a cage ; but the
eaglets of the 15th and 16th crack their shells to soar above the world
and the world's opinion,
May we suggest to the Horse Guards, that, in default of the surren-
der of the heroes, the respective flags of the 15th and 16th should hence-
forth carry as emblems, a broken egg, with the word and figures—
"Oaks, 1851."
And as regiments, in their pacific march, have been headed, some by
an ostrich, some by an elephant, some by a goat,—so the gallant 16th
Lancers and 15th Hussars should, in memory of Epsom, have hence-
forth driven before them a certain number of cocks and hens.
PAXTON'S ATMOSPHERIC HOSPITAL.
" Here comes another candidate for the Orange Grove." This, says
Basil Hall, is the frequent greeting given by the wags of Madeira to
the consumptive Englishman, who, with death in his face, lands at
Punchal; the Orange Grove being the church-yard of the island.
Mr. Paxton—if his plan of, what we venture to call, an Atmospheric
Hospital, be adopted—will deprive the jocose people of Madeira—an
island, no doubt, famous for fun as for fennel—of the time-honoured
jest. For Mr. Paxton proposes to have Madeira in London; not to
import its sunlight in air-tight tin canisters—but to have a Madeira of
metropolitan manufacture.
At the late meeting in the matter of the projected Consumptive
Hospital in the East of London, Mr. Paxton exhibited his design of a
Sanitarium, which secures to the patients the same atmosphere both in
winter and summer. Mr. Paxton shows how London, in its worst
winter, may have its fogs filtered and warmed; how London smoke
may be purified into an atmosphere that shall feed and sustain the rarest
plants known to give out the greatest quantity of oxygen ; such atmo-
sphere being continually supplied in its best freshness and purity to
replace that consumed by the lungs of the patient. This Atmospheric
Hospital will be constructed of glass ; and, at a very small additional
cost, make—in fact—a Madeira in Shoreditch or Whitechapel.
Who, then, need land at Funchal, with the Orange Grove in the
distance P Who, delaying the time of departure from home and
friends, until the separation be almost inevitably final—who will take
ship, when he may take a cab for a delicious climate ? It may no
longer be said, "Poor fellow, he went to die in Madeira; he is laid in
the Orange Grove," but, "He gave the fogs the slip, and though
feeding his lungs in the thick of London, he found health and strength
in Paxton's Atmospheric Hospital."
THE GREAT NEEDLE CASE.
There was a short discussion the other night in the House of
Commons, on what may be called the Great Cleopatra's Needle-case.
It seems that Mehemet Ali has given to the British nation the cele-
brated Needle of Cleopatra; but the Government, looking at the
Needle with an eye to economy, and coming directly to the point, have
decided that it would not pay to bring the affair home; and, indeed,
when we hear that it would cost several thousand pounds, we do not
wonder at the reluctance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
incur the responsibility. We certainly cannot advocate such an enormous
outlay for the transfer of the Needle to England, and we should suffer
severely from the pricks of conscience, if we were any party to sticking
it into the public to the frightful extent that would be required. We
are rather surprised that the veteran economist, Mr. Hume, who is
generally as sharp as a needle in all matters where the outlay of the
national money is concerned, should have departed, in this instance,
from his usual course; and should have been the first to recommend
our pinning ourselves to this Needle at an expense for carriage that is
quite fearful to contemplate.
■