Drury

“ O why should our dull retrospective addresses
Fall damp as wet blankets on Drury Lane fire?
Away with blue devils, away with distresses,
And give the gay spirit to sparkling desire!
II.
Let artists decide on the beauties of Drury,
The richest to me is when woman is there;
The question of houses I leave to the jury;
The fairest to me is the house of the fair.
p. 26III.
When woman’s soft smile all our senses bewilders,
And gilds, while it carves, her dear form on the heart,
What need has New Drury of carvers and gilders? ”

“ There was that in his face which answered, for no man looks like Drury who believes in the death of her he has loved, nor does he go with so light a step to his boat upon the beach.
John called to Simon, who stood a little apart, and said, “Simon, ’tis not true—she’s not dead. That lying Deborah has spoken to Drury, and he’s gone away with a bright face. Look!—look!”
And as they looked, Drury thrust off, and hoisted the sail, and waved to them joyfully as he sent his boat out into the weather tide which came in powerfully through St. Helen’s Pool and set down to the south-east. ”

“ DRURY, SIR WILLIAM (1527–1579) , English statesman and soldier, was a son of Sir Robert Drury of Hedgerley in Buckinghamshire, and grandson of another Sir Robert Drury (d. 1536) , who was speaker of the House of Commons in 1495. He was born at Hawstead in Suffolk on the 2nd of October 1527, and was educated at Gonville Hall, Cambridge. Fighting in France, Drury was taken prisoner in 1544; then after his release he helped Lord Russell, afterwards earl of Bedford, to quell a rising in Devonshire in 1549, but he did not come to the front until the reign of Elizabeth. ”

“ We now, therefore, pass Drury House, proceed up the lane by my Lord Craven's garden, and turn into Russell Street amongst a throng of cavaliers in flowing locks, and ladies with curls à la Valliere. Some of them are in masks, but others have not put theirs on. We shall see them masquing as the house grows full. It is early in the afternoon. There press a crowd of gallants, who have already got enough wine. Here, as fast as the lumbering coaches of that period can do it, dashes up to the door my lord Duke of Buckingham, bringing with him Buckhurst and Sedley. ”

“ But again, Audi alteram partem! which I had no chance of doing, for we, though living on terms of neighbourly intercourse with the vicar, were of the Drury faction.
I remember well an incident which may serve to illustrate the condition of “tension” which prevailed during those years in the little Harrow world. Mark Drury had two remarkably pretty daughters. They were in all respects as thoroughly good and charming girls as they were pretty, and were universal favourites in the society. ”

“ At noon the young people returned, full of enjoyment of their ride, and George escorted the two visitors to Fair Manor gate. All were eloquent in Miss Drury’s praise: her fine figure and easy grace on Maydew’s back; her light and kindly spirit; her admiration of their country, and familiarity with everything she saw. Ann loved her more and more for her love of her church, and of religion, without its formality. Letty was delighted with a boating excursion that Miss Heritage had proposed to-morrow, and tea on the great island, with only just themselves, Miss Heritage and Miss Drury. ”

“ John Drury on the day when he entered the House of Commons, and I remember very well how struck I was by his commanding presence and singularly beautiful face.
I use the word “beautiful” advisedly. It is a word we reserve mostly nowadays for the faces of women; but John Drury’s face impressed me immediately with a sense of its beauty—its strong, calm, honourable beauty.
210All I knew of him was, that he came from the colonies; that he was reputed to be wealthy, even very wealthy ”

“ That hardy annual known as The Drury Lane Pantomime is in full vigour this year, its flowers of a more brilliant colour than ever, and its leaves, as evidenced by the book of words, are fresh and vigorous. In no other sense, however, does the Drury Lane Pantomime bear any resemblance to "a plant." There is no "take in" about it, except that even big Old Drury is not capable of holding all who would be present; and so it happens nightly I believe, that many are turned away from the doors bitterly disappointed. ”

“ Drury kept a very sharp eye on every man who worked for him. He had a bailiff, or headman, who timed all the men as they arrived in the morning, and noted the exact minute down, and a half, or even a quarter of an hour, on any day was deducted at the end of the week. ”

“ George's Cathedral, was the son of George Dominic Drury, of the Company's Civil Service. His mother was Marianne Graham, the daughter of General Graham, who distinguished himself in the wars in South India during the latter part of the eighteenth century. The archdeacon was born at Pondicherry in 1823, and was sent home to be educated at Eton. Report said that the Duke of Buckingham, who was Governor of Madras in 1877, and also an old Etonian, had once been Drury's fag. ”

“ It becomes, therefore, a serious question to ascertain whether Drury was a real or a fictitious character, and his book what it pretends to be, or the speculation of some clever writer, envious of the fame and profit derived by Defoe from the publication of a similar work. ”

“ There was a sharp quarrel between Drury, our Military C.O. representing routine discipline, and our cooks and servants representing civilian ideas of liberty. It was mishandled and had reached such a point when I returned from the army that the men were on absolute strike, the work was disorganized and the patients were suffering. Drury was breathing fire and fury, which only made the men more obdurate. ”

“ Drury, Australian born, a native of Victoria, and one of those roving spirits one meets with sometimes, who seem to have, and care to have, no permanent place on earth’s surface, the wandergeist having entered into their very souls, and taken full possession thereof. ”

“ Stowe says, "Drury Lane, so called, for that there is a house belonging to the family of the Druries.1 This lane turneth north towards S. Giles in the field. From the south end of this lane in the high street, are divers faire buildings, hostelries, and houses for gentlemen, and men of honor, &c."
Nightingale tells us, "The west end of Wych Street was formerly ornamented by Drury House, built by Sir William Drury, an able commander in the Irish wars, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and who unfortunately fell in a duel with Sir John Burroughs, through a foolish quarrel about precedency. ”

“ A view from its doorway over the heath is as cheerful as that of an empty house to the actor who looks through the curtain at it on his benefit night!
Edmund Kean’s loss has not been supplied as Mrs. Siddons’s was, to a certain extent, and to that actress’s great distaste, by Miss O’Neill; but Drury Lane has flourished with and by its Christmas pantomimes. Audiences cannot be what they were in Mr. Planché’s younger days. They examine no coin that is offered to them. They take what glitters as real currency, and are content. ”

“ Thomas Drury,
Died
May 21, 1871,
Æ. 80 yrs.
75. In Memory of
Mrs. Mehitable,
Wife of
Maj. Thomas Drury,
who departed this life
Nov. 6, 1810.
Æt. 32 years.
Remember you are born to die,
Must turn to dust as well as I.
Your sun may set before 'tis noon,
The Lord knows when; He knows how soon. 76. Memento Mori. ”

“ Reminiscences
, vol. i. pp. 209 and 233} says that Drury was "passionately devoted to theatricals," and, with his friend Knapp, frequently drove up to London after school-hours to sup with Edmund Kean and Arnold at Drury Lane or the Hummums in Covent Garden. On one occasion they took with them Lord Eldon's son, then a school-boy at Eton. ”

“ Every artist is apt enough to flatter himself (and I amongst the rest) that their own ocular observations would have discovered more perfections, at least others, than have been delivered to them: though I have received mine from the best hands, that is, from persons who neither want a just understanding of my lady's worth, nor a due veneration for her memory.
Dr Donne, the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet of our nation, acknowledges, that he had never seen Mrs Drury, whom he has made immortal in his admirable "Anniversaries." ”

“ Hartwig I found at the “Métropole” awaiting me. He related how he had called at the flat in Albemarle street, and, by a judicious tip to the young valet he found there, had learnt that Mr Richard Drury was the son of old Sir Richard Drury, knight, the great ship-builder of Greenock, who had built a number of cruisers for the Navy. He was a self-made man, who commenced life as a fitter’s labourer in a ship-builder’s yard up at Craigandoran on the Clyde—a bluff, hearty man whose generosity was well-known throughout the kingdom. ”

“ He lamented the benighted condition of his bucolic neighbours, and was certain that he should show them all their deficiencies. Mr. Drury had, in the north, been a high authority, and he soon let it be known that it was the same Mr. Trant Drury, whose letters in the “Farmers’ Journal,” and in the York and Doncaster newspapers, on all agricultural topics were so well known. “Eh! so this is the great Mr. Drury of Yorkshire,” said Sir Roger Rockville, and Sir Benjamin Bullockshed, and Squire Swagsides, “that we have got among us: that is very fortunate.” Mr. ”

“ Mr Drury had seen the prospectus, and being struck with its extreme simplicity, had determined to find out the author and have a look at his poems. But the singular appearance of the poet must have surprised him even more than the peculiar style of his prospectus. "A man of short stature, keen eager eyes, high forehead, long hair, falling down in wild and almost grotesque fashion over his shoulders, and garments tattered and torn, altogether little removed from rags"—such is the portrait his biographer, Mr Frederick Martin, draws of John Clare at this time. ”

“ Falconer and Chatterton are meanwhile busy with a thousand details, but they wisely leave the management of the stage to their lieutenant-general, who has the honour of Old Drury at heart.
When a spectator takes his seat in front of the curtain, he is hardly aware that he is about to address himself to an entertainment, for the production of which nearly nine hundred persons—from the foremost man down to the charwoman—are constantly employed and liberally remunerated. ”

“ But of this climb Mark Drury had been incapable for many years, solely by reason of his immense corpulence. Naturally a small delicately-made man, with small hands and feet, he had become in old age the fattest man I think I ever saw. He used to sit in his study, and there conduct the business of tuition, leaving to others the work of hearing lessons in school. ”

“ Anyhow, I think old Barkston is to be envied. It is pleasant to be rich and to be a Cabinet Minister, but it is more pleasant to be the father of a man like John Drury.
Let me add that I think it is still more pleasant to be the father-in-law of a woman like John Drury’s wife.
I have often had the pleasure of meeting her since, and I can honestly say, that I think she is as clever as she is beautiful, and as good as she is clever. From which you will gather that so far as a man may be happy in this world, John Drury—for he kept to the name by which he had won his way to success—is a happy man. ”

“ I have followed the French authors in assigning Drury's insect to the Pyranthe of Linnæus, although that author describes his insect as having a discoidal red spot on each of the wings beneath. The species of this group are variable in the intensity of their markings, and the males are less strongly marked than the females; and as Drury's figure represents a male (distinguished by the bundle of hairs on the interior margin of the anterior wings) it may possibly be an extreme variety of the male of Pyranthe. ”

“ Drury tells us that he waited on Lord Carlisle, who wished to give some information about his ward's property and to inquire respecting his abilities, and continues: "On the former circumstance I made no remark; as to the latter I replied, 'He has talents, my lord, which will add lustre to his rank.' 'Indeed!' said his lordship, with a degree of surprise that, according to my feeling, did not express in it all the satisfaction I expected." ”

“ Ye might have almost said her body thought!
were not written on his wife, but on Elizabeth Drury, the only daughter of his patron and friend, Sir Robert Drury. She was the richest heiress in England, the wealth of her father being considered almost incalculable; and this, added to her singular beauty, and extraordinary talents and acquirements, rendered her so popularly interesting, that she was considered a fit match for Henry, Prince of Wales. She died in her sixteenth year.
Dr. Donne and his wife were maternal ancestors of the Poet Cowper. ”

“ The period was certainly unpropitious for any but a writer of fiction, and Drury seems to have anticipated no higher rank for his Treatise, in point of authenticity, than that occupied by the several members of the Robinson Crusoe school. He, however, positively affirms it to be "a plain honest narrative of the matter of fact;" which is endorsed in the following terms by "Capt. William Mackett:"
"This is to certify, that Robert Drury, fifteen years a slave in Madagascar, now living in London, was redeemed from thence and brought into England, his native country, by myself. ”

“ The Munster people sympathise with the rebellion.
Death of Drury, who is succeeded by Sir William Pelham.
The Earl of Kildare, who was probably anxious to avoid fresh suspicion, gave active help to the Irish government, ‘making,’ as Waterhouse testified, ‘no shew to pity names or kindred.’ He exerted his influence with the gentry of the Pale to provide for victualling the army, and he accompanied the Lord Justice in person on his journey to Munster. The Queen wrote him a special letter of thanks, and Drury declared that he found him constant and resolute to spend his life in the quarrel. ”

“ Nobody could convict him, and he was too shrewd to convict himself. The magistrates were compelled to dismiss him with a threat, and everybody said Mr. Drury had better have let Ned alone, he would do him some other ill-turn. And this soon appeared to be the case, for Mr. Drury’s field-gates were continually found wide open in a morning, and cattle and sheep let in or let out, and the greatest damage done. Sheep and cattle were found eating up and treading down the corn crops, and his horses [Pg 290] were gone off, and were discovered in some neighbouring parish. ”