Notes and Queries, Number 48, September 28, 1850 | Page 3

recite one other incident of the riots that occurred in connexion with the attack on the King's Bench prison, and the death of Allen, which made a great stir at the time. The incident I refer to happened thus:--At the gate of the prison two sentinels were placed. One of these was a fine-built young man, full six feet high: he had been servant to my father. On the day Allen was shot, or a day or two after, he came to my father for protection: my father having a high opinion of his veracity and moral goodness, took him in and sheltered him until quiet was restored. His name was M'Phin, or some such name; but as he was always called "Mac" by us, I do not remember his name perfectly. He stated that he and his fellow-soldier, while standing as sentries at the prison, were attacked by an uproarious mob, and were assailed with stones and brickbats;--that his companion called loudly to the mob, and said, "I will not fire until I see and mark a man that throws at us, and then he shall die. I don't want to kill the innocent, {275} or any one; but he that flings at us shall surely die." Young Allen threw a brick-bat, and ran off; but Mac said, his fellow-soldier had seen it, and marked him. The crowd gave way; off went Allen and the soldier after him. Young Allen ran on, the soldier pursuing him, till he entered his father's premises, who was a cow-keeper, and there the soldier shot him. Popular fury turned upon poor Mac; and so completely was he thought to be the "murderer" of young Allen that 500l. was offered by the mob for his discovery. But my good father was faithful to honest Mac, and he lay secure in one of our upper rooms until the excitement was over.
Allen's funeral was attended by myriads, and a monument was erected to his memory (which yet remains, I believe) in Newington churchyard, speaking lies in the face of the sun. If it were important enough, it deserves erasure as much as the false inscription on London's monument.
As soon as the public blood was cool, "Mac" surrendered himself, was tried at the Old Bailey, and acquitted.
Should it be in the power of any of the readers of your interesting miscellany, by reference to the Session Papers, to give me the actual name of poor "Mac," I shall feel obliged.
SENEX.
September 9. 1850.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Cunningham, vol. i. p. 69., gives an interesting quotation from Strype respecting Worcester House, which gave the name of "Worcester Grounds" to Mr. Kitchener's property.]
* * * * *
SATIRICAL POEMS ON WILLIAM III.
Some years since I copied from a MS. vol., compiled before 1708, the following effusions of a Jacobite poet, who seems to have been "a good hater" of King William. I have made ineffectual efforts to discover the witty author, or to ascertain if these compositions have ever been printed. My friend, in whose waste-book I found them,--a beneficed clergyman in Worcestershire, who has been several years dead,--obtained them from a college friend during the last century.
"UPON KING WILLIAM'S TWO FIRST CAMPAGNES.
"'Twill puzzle much the author's brains, That is to write your story, To know in which of these campagnes You have acquired most glory: For when you march'd the foe to fight, Like Heroe, nothing fearing, Namur was taken in your sight, And Mons within your hearing."
"ON THE OBSERVING THE 30TH OF JANUARY, 1691.
"Cease, Hippocrites, to trouble heaven How can ye think to be forgiven The dismall deed you've done? When to the martyr's sacred blood, This very moment, if you could, You'd sacrifice his son."
"ON KING WILLIAM'S RETURN OUT OF FLANDERS.
"Rejoice, yee fops, yo'r idoll's come agen To pick yo'r pocketts, and to slay yo'r men; Give him yo'r millions, and his Dutch yo'r lands: Don't ring yo'r bells, yee fools, but wring yo'r hands."
GRENDON.
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SHAKSPEARE'S GRIEF AND FRENZY.
I have looked into many an edition of Shakspeare, but I have not found one that traced the connexion that I fancy exists between the lines--
_Cassius._ "I did not think you could have been so angry."
_Brutus._ "O Cassius! I am sick of many griefs."
or between
_Brutus._ "No man bears sorrow better.--Portia is dead."
_Cassius._ "How 'scaped I killing when I crossed you so!"
_Julius C?sar_, Act iv. Sc. 3.
which will perhaps better suit the object that I have in view. The editors whose notes I have examined probably thought the connexion so self-evident or insignificant as not to require either notice or explanation. If so, I differ from them, and I therefore offer the following remarks for the amusement rather than for the instruction of those who, like myself, are not at all ashamed to confess that they cannot read Shakspeare's