No. 548.

A DAY AT BAYFORDBURY. THE pleasure derived from a visit to Welwyn and its neighbourhood in 1873, encouraged a second excursion to this beautiful part of England at the end of May in the present year. On this occasion, the summer was further advanced; and what with trees in full leaf, park-scenery, birds, and flowers, Hertfordshire seemed more glorious than ever. In addition to the chorus of nightingales in early morning and at nightfall, we had all day long the note of the cuckoo sounding from every grove and thicket. To chilly east winds had succeeded the balmy atmosphere of an inland English summer; every circumstance being suggestive of walks and drives in winding green lanes environed by hedgerows gay with blossom. Among the places visited, there was one we shall specially mention. It was Bayfordbury.

A day was devoted to the purpose. The route chosen was through Tewin Water Park, which was in a blaze of beauty. The hawthorn trees scattered about the sloping banks were in masses of white flower, looking at a distance as if powdered with snow. A passing visit was made to Mardon Hill, a modern mansion, having in front a long avenue between lofty trees, reminding one of a prodigiously extended Gothic archway. Hereabouts, tall yews and cedars are agreeably interspersed in the lawns, and from their great bulk we can fancy that the soil is peculiarly favourable to their growth. Continuing the drive southwards through Panshanger Park, and crossing the Mimram at the village of Hertingfordbury, we, after two or three turnings, reach Bayfordbury, situated about three miles to the south-west of Hertford. It occupies the top of a rising ground, from which there is an extensive and richly wooded prospect southward. The mansion of Bayfordbury is of the Georgian eraa long drawn-out edifice in the Grecian style, with a broad flight of steps leading up to the doorway, amidst a row of pillars. After belonging to successive proprietors of note from the time of Elward the Confessor, the estate was purchased, about a century ago, by Sir William Baker,

PRICE 1d.

Knight, who had been Lord Mayor of London, and has been inherited by his descendant, Mr W. R. Baker. The family is connected by relationship with Jacob Tonson, the eminent bookseller at the conclusion of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, from whom have been handed down the portraits of the famous Kit-Cat Club. We had come to see these pictures, which are perhaps not generally known to form a unique collection in a country-seat in Hertfordshire; at least, we were unaware of the circumstance until arriving in the neighbourhood. Before walking into the spacious dining-room in which the collection is arranged, we may say a few words of the club, now a thing of some historical interest.

This celebrated association originated in London in 1703. It consisted of from forty to fifty noblemen and gentlemen who professed to be favourable to the succession of the House of Hanover, and, so far, it had a political bond of union. More ostensibly, its object was the encouragement of literature and the fine arts; though, whether it had any material influence in this direction, is not clearly demonstrated. Tonson, its founder, who was the son of a barber-surgeon in Holborn, began business as a bookseller about 1677, and brought himself into notoriety by being one of the early publishers of Milton's Paradise Lost, and other poems, also publisher-in-chief for Dryden. It has been stated of Tonson that he was of an avaricious and overbearing character. That he had many squabbles with Dryden and others about 'copymoney,' seems pretty evident; but, when did irritable authors speak of publishers as anything but a set of unconscionable sharks? Jacob was perhaps no better than his neighbours; yet there must have been a degree of munificence, as well as geniality about him, otherwise he could not have surrounded himself with a body of men of letters and artistic tastes, and moulded them into a club for social and political purposes. To him we are clearly indebted for the Kit-Cat.

The way the club got this grotesque name is very simple. Its members had their meetings for some time in the house of Christopher Cat, a

pastry-cook and pie-baker in Shire Lane, near Temple Bar. There they gathered together to eat a tasty kind of small mutton-pies, and discuss the prospects of the Protestant succession. Hence, from the familiar name of the pie-baker, Kit Cat, came the droll designation of the club. It would now be a rare sight to see such a gathering. According to the fashion of the period, all gentlemen were well shaved, both as regards face and head, the natural hair being superseded by a highly frizzed and powdered periwig, flowing over the shoulders, and reaching half-way down the back. Then there was the richly embellished coat, of black, or of delicate purple velvet, with wide sleeves, and a blaze of buttons and embroidery on the ample cuffs. Some who no longer aimed at being beaux of the first water, silently protested against the wig, and adopted a cap, or loose sort of cowl, of coloured velvet. With two or three of such exceptions, of which Tonson was one, the members of the Kit-Cat maintained the grandeur of periwigs; and when seated round the table at their pies, custards, cheese-cakes, and flasks of Burgundy, Canary, and so forth, must have presented a sight worthy of looking at.

It has been alleged that in moulding the club into shape, and ministering to the tastes of the members, Tonson, with an eye to business, ingratiated himself with the different writers, and procured their works for publication. All envy and detraction! Jacob was a jolly tradesman above the ordinary run of booksellers, not to be spoken of in comparison with his rival Lintot. In the publishing world, he founded the practice of concentrating poets and wits of various capacities in his backroom and some crack tavern, where, indulging in the news and gossip of the day, new ideas in the literary line could be struck out. On the whole, Tonson, while an intense Whig and keen tradesman, was a capital specimen of a true-born Englishman, ready to give and take, and stand up for fair-play in public as well as private transactions. Judging from his portrait, he had a florid capacious countenance, with that species of double-chin which is indicative of good-living. Unfortunately, we do not make out the whole of his figure from the Kit-Cats. Stopping half way down, or a little below the waist, we are not favoured with a view of the lower limbs. It has been said that, instead of a right and left, he had two left legs, which could not but give him a shambling gait in his locomotion. Perhaps this physical oddity, by raising jocular emotions, helped to popularise him among the light-headed eccentricities of Queen Anne's reign. It certainly did him no harm. A man of any mark with a hitch in his gait, does not in the least suffer in public estimation.

We are not to suppose that there was much gravity in the deliberations of the Kit-Cats. They recited verses, talked politics after a light fashion, and were great in their Toasts.' Every year, there was a fashionable beauty chosen by ballot, as the Toast for the ensuing twelve months, and her name was engraven with a diamond on the drinkingglasses. Poems were written by members of the club on these various beauties, by Garth, Addison, Maynwaring, the Earls of Halifax, Dorset, and Wharton, and others. How curious it would be to see these tributes on crystal to the beauties of a hundred and sixty or seventy years ago!

The club having grown in numbers beyond the capacity of the establishment in Shire Lane, Mr Cat was induced to remove to the Fountain Tavern in the Strand, where there was superior accommodation, and no falling off in the pies and confectionery. Here the club attained its zenith, while at the same time Tonson grew in wealth and social importance. One of his successful enterprises was the publishing of a splendid edition of Cæsar's Commentaries, under the editorship of Dr Clarke, in 1712 At this time, so poor was Eng. land in the arts, that Tonson had to go to Holland to procure paper, and get engravings executed, for the work. Rising to fortune by his assiduity and enterprise, he purchased an estate at Ledbury, in Herefordshire. It must have been chiefly as an investment of spare cash, for he continued to reside in London, until, like most wealthy citizens, he discovered that it would be agreeable to have a house out of town, and he acquired a countryhouse at Barn Elms in Surrey. This acquisition was highly approved of by the Kit-Cats, for it afforded them occasional entertainments in the rural retreat of their secretary and patron. Here, the versifying, the bon-mots, and the toasting, went on with fresh zest. The idea was also struck out of all the members getting their portraits painted, with the view of presenting them as a lasting and friendly memorial to Tonson. Such being resolved on, Jacob, in grateful acknowledgment of the gift, had a room specially built for the reception of the pictures. By a slight mistake, the ceiling was made rather low. It was accordingly found necessary to limit the size of each portrait to thirty-six inches in height by twenty-eight inches in breadth. Sir Godfrey Kneller, as one of the Kit-Cats, and the most eminent artist after his predecessor, Sir Peter Lely, was appointed painter of the portraits. These he executed with a taste and delicacy which evoke admiration. Each picture, as soon as painted, was presented to Tonson, and hung up by him in a progressive series, with the respective names on the lower part of the gilt frame.

The painting of these pictures was a happy thought. It has given us the likenesses of some of the more remarkable personages from the reign of William III. to that of George I. In 1720, Tonson transferred his business to his nephew, after which, he lived principally on his estate in Herefordshire; and this change of residence, along with advanced age, rendered any regular attention to the club impracticable. The association, therefore, dwindled, and its original political mission being now fulfilled, there was no longer any necessity for its existence. It appears to have been dissolved previous to 1725. Jacob Tonson's life was drawn out to 1736, when he died, at probably eighty years of age. His nephew predeceased him by a few months, when the business passed to his grand-nephew and residuary legatee. The pictures of the Kit-Cats, as already mentioned, have come by inheritance into the possession of Mr W. R. Baker, a relative by descent of the Tonsons. And now let us have a look at them.

Entering the dining-room of Bayfordbury, they are all at once before us, hanging in two rows round the apartment, uniform in dimensions, each in a gilt frame. There are no other pictures in the room. The number of portraits is said to have been forty-eight, but we are shewn only forty-three.

The discrepancy perhaps arises from the fact, that several portraits were left unfinished, and none in this condition appears. In the number presented, there are two exceptions to exact uniformity. Thomas Holles Pelliam, Duke of Newcastle, and Henry Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, are represented seated at table in one picture; and the portrait of Kneller is of a small cabinet size. These two pictures occupy the space over the chimney-piece. One thing immediately strikes the visitor. It is the singular similarity of aspect in the portraits. The faces, with their fine eyes, and handsome noses, set in huge periwigs, have a general resemblance; and we would say the aspect of the different individuals is decidedly feminine. The uniformity is still further maintained by the richly embellished dress, as well as in the circumstance, that in each case one of the hands is shewn, holding a book, a staff, or a glass, or pointing to some object argumentatively. The sentiment of beauty in form and expression is very marked in nearly all. The face of Sir Richard Steele is characteristically Irish, and that of Tonson would fairly represent a self-sufficient bon-vivant. Limited to three feet in height, the canvas does not take in the figure much below the waist, or small of the back; but all that is shewn, except in the picture of Kneller, is life-size, as in ordinary half-length portraits. From this has arisen the term kit-cat, as ordinarily applied to portraits of this dimension.

We can only run over the names. The Duke of Newcastle and Earl of Lincoln, in one picture, as already mentioned; Charles_Seymour, Duke of Somerset; Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond; Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton; William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire; John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough; John Montague, Duke of Montague; Evelyn Pierepont, Duke of Kingston; Charles Montague, Duke of Manchester; Lionel Cranfield Sackville, Duke of Dorset; Thomas Wharton, Marquis of Wharton; Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset the Dorset so finely commemorated by Pope :

Dorset, the grace of courts, the Muse's pride, Patron of arts, and judge of nature, died : The scourge of pride, the sanctified, or great; Of fops in learning, and of knaves in state. Yet, soft his nature though severe his lay; His anger moral and his wisdom gay. Blest satirist! who touched the mean so true, As shewed vice had its hate and pity too. Blest courtier! who could king and country please, Yet sacred keep his friendship and his ease. Blest peer! his great forefathers' every grace Reflected and reflecting in his race; Where other Buckhursts, other Dorsets shine, And patriots still or poets deck the line. Algernon Capel, Earl of Essex; Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle; Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington; James Berkley, Earl of Berkley; Richard Lumley, Earl of Scarborough; Francis Godolphin, Earl of Godolphin; Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax; James Stanhope, Earl of Stanhope; Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington; Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham; Charles Mohun, Lord Mohun; Charles Cornwallis, Lord Cornwallis ; John Vaughan, Earl of Carberry; John Somers, Baron of Evesham; Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford-prime-minister of George II. bold, coarse, but keenly alive to the national welfare, who prac

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tised corruption systematically as a public duty, and was accustomed openly to maintain that all men had their price, and that all the world was governed by self-interest; Sir John Vanbrugh-holding a pair of compasses in his hand; Sir Samuel Garth, M.D.; Sir Richard Steele, Knight; John Tidcomb, Esq.; William Pultney, Earl of Bath; Joseph Addison, Esq.; George Stepney, Esq.; John Dormer, Esq.; Edmund Dunch, Esq.; William Congreve, Esq.; Charles Dartiquenave, Esq.; Thomas Hopkins, Esq.; Edmund Hopkins, Esq.; Arthur Maynwaring, Esq.-who assisted Steele in The Tatler, and wrote various political pamphlets and poetical jeux d'esprits; Jacob Tonson; and Sir Godfrey Kneller. Those portraits that were unfinished, and do not appear in the collection, need not be mentioned.

After walking round the room several times, scrutinising as remarkable an assemblage of portraits of eminent individuals as can be shewn in England, and which collectively must be of priceless value, we departed, carrying away the most pleasing recollections. Adjoining the diningroom there is a small apartment with cabinet and smaller pictures, having a window to the lawn on the south side of the edifice. Stepping from the window, which opens to the ground, we loitered a short time beside some splendid cedars, which, from an inscription, appear to have been planted as commemorative of a birth in 1765. The drive homeward, by way of Hatfield, revived the memory of last year's peregrinations over that magnificent domain of the Cecils, Marquisses of Salisbury. So ended a day at Bayfordbury, and an interview with the sprightly shades of the illustrious Kit-Cats!

MAD DOGS.

W. C.

THE metropolis appears to have been lately under some perturbation regarding mad dogs, probably on no sufficient grounds, for the occurrence of only one or two cases of rabidness is apt to spread alarm, and raise a general war against the canine species. While such may be the common feeling, there are persons inclined to doubt the very existence of hydrophobia. We have heard a noted veterinary surgeon declare that this disease, as so called, was a delusion, and that, when it occurred in human beings, it was some other disorder-meaning, possibly, a variety of tetanus, The medical profession is certainly at a loss concerning the actual character of the disorder, and there are also differences of opinion as to its mode of treatment. It is conclusive, however, that call it what we may, there is a rabid condition incidental to dogs, wolves, and cats, Jackals in India are also said to be liable to the disorder. In the rabid condition, the saliva of the animal is of a poisonous nature; and the virus may be communicated by inoculation to the human being, and prove fatal to life. To communicate the disease to our system, it is not essential that the animal should bite; it will be quite sufficient if it lick any scratch or laceration on the hand or any other part of the body. That the inoculation affects the blood, is exceedingly obvious, for the action of the heart is disturbed, and death ensues more

from a stoppage of the circulation than from any other perceptible cause.

Among the writers on pathology and surgery who have given close attention to the disease ordinarily called hydrophobia, we may mention Cæsar H. Hawkins, Sergeant-surgeon to the Queen. Some years ago, he delivered a lecture on this particular disease at St George's Hospital, which has just been printed with his other works. It is the most lucid and comprehensive account of this frightful disorder which we have yet seen. He begins by telling the sad story of a boy of thirteen years of age, who had the misfortune to be bit on the right hand by a spaniel dog, which he was driving from the house. The dog was tied up by its master, to keep it from doing harm, but it died four or five days after inflicting the injury. The wound was small, and having healed, the boy felt nothing wrong for several weeks. He then complained of pains in his shoulder, and when his mother attempted to wash him, he felt a choking sensation, and ran away with dread. Admitted into St George's Hospital, he was treated with certain medicines to allay spasmodic convulsions in the throat; but without avail. The convulsions and a difficulty in swallowing were only symptoms of a mysterious disorder throughout the system. At length he became furiously delirious; then the violence subsided, and he died calmly without a struggle, little more than fifty hours from the first time that any spasm had been observed.

The remarks made by Mr Hawkins are worth quoting: In this case, the actual hydrophobia, or dread of water, was very great during most of the time; but this horror is by no means constant, and forms no essential part of the disease. I have even seen patients glad to swallow frequently, with much effort and exertion of the will, it is true, but still they did it, on account of the comfort they derived from the act, probably by washing away the viscid secretions of the throat. The spasms were principally of the muscles of the fauces, throat, and neck, and are generally confined to these parts.' The examination of bodies after death does not reveal any great derangement, except a certain degree of congestion in the stomach and blood. In the present case, as in others, the symptoms partly resembled those of tetanus; and from want of accurate observation, it seems likely that tetanus is often mistaken for hydrophobia. There is this important dissimilarity, however, between the two ailments: Traumatic tetanus may arise from any kind of injury whatever, a burn, a wound, a dislocation without any wound, a splinter inserted in a nerve or fascia, a mere laceration, a mere scratch; in hydrophobia, on the contrary, there must be inoculation from the saliva and other secretions from the mouth of a rabid animal.' Hydrophobia would thus almost appear to be a kind of blood-poisoning superadded to tetanus. Mr Hawkins says it is probable that the poison is formed in the tough viscid secretion of the fauces, which gives so much distress to the patient, those parts being invariably much altered in colour, and the glands enlarged. With this fluid of the mouth, whether mucous or salivary,

or both, repeated experiments have been made, and have constantly succeeded in producing the disease in the inoculated animal.'

There is some consolation in knowing, that of

those who are bit by rabid animals comparatively few die of the injury. Pretty much as in the case of contagious disorders, the virus acts only where there is a certain susceptibility in the person inoculated. Many, again, who are bitten, and might be in a state for it, do not receive the poison, because it is wiped off by the clothes, or because several have been bitten successively. I remember an account of a physician, a Dr Ingelhong, who was engaged in some experiments with ticunas poison, and accidentally let the knife he was using drop down on his foot, on which he sat down, and said: "In five minutes, I am a dead man." two or three minutes had elapsed, however, the doctor thought he might as well wipe his foot, and shortly found that he was not dead, and that the poison had been arrested by the clothes. The disease is, in fact, from these and other causes, much more rare than the public fears would lead one to imagine.'

When

There is a curiously mistaken notion regarding hydrophobia. It is generally thought that the disease takes its name from a fear of water in rabid animals. Mr Youatt, an eminent naturalist, has pointed out that there is no hydrophobia in the dog. In a rabid state, his thirst is excessive, owing to the uncomfortable viscid condition of his mouth and throat. Instead of running away from water, he plunges his face into it up to the very eyes, and assiduously, but ineffectually, attempts to lap. Mr Hawkins adds: 'I may observe as to this point how completely the symptom of hydrophobia generally present in the human species is vulgarly transferred to the dog. I actually remember it being stated, that a London magistrate ordered a suspected dog to be taken to the pump, and there trying to drink, it was immediately turned loose again, with perfect confidence that it was not mad, after this very satisfactory test!' On being bit by a dog presumedly rabid, the best thing to do is to make an excision of the part, or, at the very least, to apply lunar caustic. Mr Youatt told Mr Hawkins, that a great many persons, in consequence of his peculiar practice, applied to him after they had been bitten by dogs, and that he always used lunar caustic, which he had employed upon himself and his servant every time, and in round numbers, perhaps four hundred others, and that, out of this number, one had died of fright, but none had had hydrophobia. This is a considerable number, of whom many must have been bitten by really mad dogs; and, on the whole, I am rather inclined to favour the argenti nitras, than the potassa fusa, if it can be got, to every suspected part.'

Instances occur of many persons being bit by a dog in a rabid condition, and of the virus taking effect in only one of them; so much depends on predisposition and other circumstances. Fright and irritability of constitution may act very injuriously, and placidity of temper under the application of remedies is much to be commended. If the virus has taken effect, the disorder will usually manifest itself in from five to six weeks after being bitten. Whether a person in a state of hydrophobia can give it to another, has not been proved.' Cases, however, are produced of hydrophobia being