My ramble led me through a labyrinth of interior courts, andcorridors, and dilapidated cloisters, for the main edifice had manyadditions and dependencies, built at various times and in variousstyles; in one open space a number of boys, who evidently belongedto the establishment, were at their sports; but everywhere Iobserved those mysterious old gray men in black mantles, sometimessauntering alone, sometimes conversing in groups: they appeared tobe the pervading genii of the place. I now called to mind what I hadread of certain colleges in old times, where judicial astrology,geomancy, necromancy, and other forbidden and magical sciences weretaught. Was this an establishment of the kind, and were theseblack-cloaked old men really professors of the black art?
These surmises were passing through my mind as my eye glanced into achamber, hung round with all kinds of strange and uncouth objects;implements of savage warfare; strange idols and stuffed alligators;bottled serpents and monsters decorated the mantelpiece; while onthe high tester of an old-fashioned bedstead grinned a human skull,flanked on each side by a dried cat.
I approached to regard more narrowly this mystic chamber, whichseemed a fitting laboratory for a necromancer, when I was startledat beholding a human countenance staring at me from a dusky corner. Itwas that of a small, shrivelled old man, with thin cheeks, brighteyes, and gray wiry projecting eyebrows. I at first doubted whether itwere not a mummy curiously preserved, but it moved, and I saw thatit was alive. It was another of these black-cloaked old men, and, as Iregarded his quaint physiognomy, his obsolete garb, and the hideousand sinister objects by which he was surrounded, I began to persuademyself that I had come upon the arch mago, who ruled over this magicalfraternity.
Seeing me pausing before the door, he rose and invited me toenter. I obeyed, with singular hardihood, for how did I know whether awave of his wand might not metamorphose me into some strangemonster, or conjure me into one of the bottles on his mantelpiece?
He proved, however, to be any thing but a conjurer, and his simplegarrulity soon dispelled all the magic and mystery with which I hadenveloped this antiquated pile and its no less antiquated inhabitants.
It appeared that I had made my way into the centre of an ancientasylum for superannuated tradesmen and decayed householders, withwhich was connected a school for a limited number of boys. It wasfounded upwards of two centuries since on an old monasticestablishment, and retained somewhat of the conventual air andcharacter. The shadowy line of old men in black mantles who had passedbefore me in the hall, and whom I had elevated into magi, turned outto be the pensioners returning from morning service in the chapel.
John Hallum, the little collector of curiosities, whom I had madethe arch magician, had been for six years a resident of the place, andhad decorated this final nestling-place of his old age with relics andrarities picked up in the course of his life. According to his ownaccount he had been somewhat of a traveller; having been once inFrance, and very near making a visit to Holland. He regretted nothaving visited the latter country, "as then he might have said hehad been there."- He was evidently a traveller of the simplest kind.
He was aristocratical too in his notions; keeping aloof, as I found,from the ordinary run of pensioners. His chief associates were a blindman who spoke Latin and Greek, of both which languages Hallum wasprofoundly ignorant; and a broken-down gentleman who had run through afortune of forty thousand pounds left him by his father, and tenthousand pounds, the marriage portion of his wife. Little Hallumseemed to consider it an indubitable sign of gentle blood as well asof lofty spirit to be able to squander such enormous sums.
P.S. The picturesque remnant of old times into which I have thusbeguiled the reader is what is called the Charter House, originallythe Chartreuse. It was founded in 1611, on the remains of an ancientconvent, by Sir Thomas Sutton, being one of those noble charitiesset on foot by individual munificence, and kept up with the quaintnessand sanctity of ancient times amidst the modern changes andinnovations of London. Here eighty broken-down men, who have seenbetter days, are provided, in their old age, with food, clothing,fuel, and a yearly allowance for private expenses. They dinetogether as did the monks of old, in the hall which had been therefectory of the original convent. Attached to the establishment isa school for forty-four boys.
Stow, whose work I have consulted on the subject, speaking of theobligations of the gray-headed pensioners, says, "They are not tointermeddle with any business touching the affairs of the hospital,but to attend only to the service of God, and take thankfully whatis provided for them, without muttering, murmuring, or grudging.
None to wear weapon, long hair, colored boots, spurs or colored shoes,feathers in their hats, or any ruffian-like or unseemly apparel, butsuch as becomes hospital men to wear." "And in truth," adds Stow,"happy are they that are so taken from the cares and sorrows of theworld, and fixed in so good a place as these old men are; havingnothing to care for, but the good of their souls, to serve God andto live in brotherly love."For the amusement of such as have been interested by the precedingsketch, taken down from my own observation, and who may wish to know alittle more about the mysteries of London, I subjoin a modicum oflocal history, put into my hands by an odd-looking old gentleman ina small brown wig and a snuff-colored coat, with whom I becameacquainted shortly after my visit to the Charter House. I confess Iwas a little dubious at first, whether it was not one of thoseapocryphal tales often passed off upon inquiring travellers likemyself; and which have brought our general character for veracity intosuch unmerited reproach. On making proper inquiries, however, I havereceived the most satisfactory assurances of the author's probity;and, indeed, have been told that he is actually engaged in a full andparticular account of the very interesting region in which he resides;of which the following may be considered merely as a foretaste.
THE END
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1819-20
