Hackney

“ On the east lies the open flat valley of the Lea, which flows in several branches, and is bordered, immediately outside the confines of the borough, by the extensive reservoirs of the East London water-works. In these low lands lie the Hackney Marshes (338 acres; among several so-called marshes in the Lea valley) , and the borough also contains part of Victoria Park and a number of open spaces collectively called the Hackney Commons, including Mill Fields, Hackney Downs, London Fields, &c. The total area of open spaces exceeds 500 acres. ”

“ We maintain that hackney-coaches, properly so called, belong solely to the metropolis. We may be told, that there are hackney-coach stands in Edinburgh; and not to go quite so far for a contradiction to our position, we may be reminded that Liverpool, Manchester, ‘and other large towns’ (as the Parliamentary phrase goes) , have their hackney-coach stands. ”

“ In Hackney no one was qualified who dwelt not in a house valued at £40 a year; and Bloomsbury was so genteel that no man, however good his trade, was allowed to serve if he let any part of his house in lodgings. ”

“ The ordinary hackney coaches do not seem to have been provided with glasses. 'For want of Glasses to our Coach, having drawn up our Tin Sashes, pink'd like the bottom of a Cullender, that the Air might pass thro' the holes, and defend us from Stifling.'
By the 5 & 6 Will. and Mary, cap. 22, the number of hackney coaches was fixed at 700, and a tax was imposed of 4l. per annum each, 1l. to be paid every quarter day, besides a fine of 50l. for their first licence for 21 years; and 8l. per annum on stage coaches. ”

“ He drives a hackney-coach, and I use his stable every other morning. Me an’ my missus live out at Hendon, and I come in three nights a week.”
“But you mustn’t saddle these people with me. Let me get down at once!”
“Mustn’t I?” chuckled the waggoner. “I’ll take the blame then. We’re very near there; and dashed if that isn’t Jim on his way home to breakfast. Jim! Jim!”
And a hackney-coach, crawling leisurely along in front, was pulled up as the coachman turned round and recognised Butterfield. ”

“ Mr. Fawcett, as may be imagined, was not pleased at the manner in which his well-intended scheme was received by the telegraphists, but he met all criticism and all opposition with that unflinching courage of the philosopher which was his chiefest trait. An utterance made by him at this period, when speaking at Hackney, November 2, 1881, affords an interesting glimpse into his mind on this question. On that occasion he said, “All experience shows that the sense of wrong remains long after a grievance has been redressed and an injustice remedied.” ”

“ Clapton and Hackney became the centre of the various religious and philanthropic projects of the high-church party, and the coterie from which they emanated was called the 'Hackney Phalanx.' In 1811 the 'National Society' for the education of the poor was formed; it originated in a meeting at Watson's house at Clapton, consisting of three persons, Watson, Norris, and John Bowles. Watson became its first treasurer, and it grew with marvellous rapidity. ”

“ It was a properly certified copy of a marriage certificate, or purported so to be; but George, who was not too quick at his reading, had only time to note the name Quest, and the church, St. Bartholomew’s, Hackney, when she snatched it away from him and locked it up again.
“There,” she said, “it isn’t any business of yours. What right have you to come prying into the affairs of a poor lone woman?” And she sat down upon the sofa beside him, threw her long arm round him, rested her painted face upon his shoulder and began to weep the tears of intoxication. ”

“ His love also? That must be judged on the consequences.
“It is time for us to start for Cavendish Square, Emma, and the hackney coach waits,” says Greville, alert and clean-shaven, one bright May morning. “Romney is to study you for Circe to-day. Bring the white robe he desired.”
A fair dishevelled head looks round the door with dismay in its eyes.
“What, not ready yet? ’Tis most inconsiderate in you, especially when you are aware the coachman charges for his time. I hate unpunctuality.” ”

“ In 1664 he visited Cambridge, and was entertained at dinner in Catharine Hall. Baxter describes him as ‘an ancient, calm, reverend minister;’ Calamy speaks of his charity and the agreeableness of his conversation. He died early in 1666, and was buried at Hackney on 8 Feb. His only child, William, died at Hackney in March 1654, aged 9. His widow, Sarah became in 1669 the second wife of Anthony Tuckney [q. v.] He died intestate. He founded six almshouses for six poor widows at Hackney, which were finished in 1666, and endowed by his brother and heir, Henry Spurstowe, a London merchant. ”

“ He died suddenly at Hackney in 1772, aged 67 (Prohate Act Book, P. C. C., 1772; Bromley, Cat. of Engraved Portraits. p. 401) . In his will dated l8 Oct. 1771, and proved at London 26 March 1772, he described himself as 'of the parish of St. John, Hackney, watchmaker,' and desired burial 'in the same vault with my late dear wife' (registered in P. C. C, 91, Tavernor) . He left issue two sons, Edward and John, and three unmarried daughters, Deborah, Mary, and Elizabeth. ”

“ Against the ground we stand and knock our heeles,
Whilest all our profit runs away on wheeles.
10 “This,” we find him saying, on another occasion, “is the rattling, rowling, rumbling age, and the world runnes on wheeles. The hackney-men, who were wont to have furnished travellers in all places with fitting and serviceable horses for any journey, are (by the multitude of coaches) undone by the dozens.”
The bitter cry of Taylor and the Thames watermen may or may not have been hearkened to, but certainly hackney-coaches were prohibited in 1635. ”

“ There certainly may be some excuse made for those who dislike hackney coaches pulling up at their doors, when we look at the disgusting turn-outs of the London stands, at one time filled with drunken men and women, at others carrying diseased people to the hospital, or dead bodies to the Surgeons’ Hall. An English hackney coach is a type of misery, as regards the horses’ outsides, and a cloaca within ”

“ Tobias Hobson was the first man in England that let out hackney horses.—When a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where there was a great choice, but he obliged him to take the horse which stood next to the stable door ”

“ Those Hackney gentlemen who drive about the City and suburbs of London, have by their overgrown insolence obliged the Government to take notice of them, and make laws for their regulation; and as there are Commissioners for receiving the Tax they pay to the publick, so those Commissioners have power to hear and determine between the drivers and their passengers upon any abuse that happens: and yet these ordinary coachmen abate very little of their abusive conduct ”

“ Many of them had assured him, and with appearances of sincerity, which it would have been inhumanity to doubt, that they hated the life that they were leading; and that they should embrace with thankfulness any course of labour, which offered them security and food; and he was willing to make an experiment on a small scale, of what might be done towards recovering these outcasts of the world. Premises were taken in the parish of Hackney, and fitted up for the accommodation of seventy or eighty boys. ”

“ Motherly, we gentlemen whose occasional chariots roll, only, upon the four aces, are liable sometimes you know, to have a wheel out of order: Which, I confess, is so much my case at present, that my dapple greys are reduced to a pair of ambling chairmen: Now, if with your assistance, I can whip up this young jade into a hackney-coach, I may chance, in a day or two after, to carry her in my own chariot en famille, to an opera. ”

“ WATSON, JOSEPH (1765?–1829) , teacher of the deaf and dumb, born in 1765 or at the end of 1764, was educated at Hackney in the school of Thomas Braidwood [q. v.] Under the influence of his master he resolved in 1784 'to embrace the instruction of the deaf and dumb as a profession.' On the foundation of the asylum for the deaf and dumb in Kent Road, through the efforts of John Townsend [q. v.] , Watson assisted by counsel and advice, and on its completion was appointed headmaster. ”

“ R. A. Cooper, wholesale confectioner, of Queen Street. Police-constable Hook was struck by falling masonry, and sustained a fractured spine, from which he died in Hospital on the 10th.
12.—Mr. C. E. Cooke, of Litcham, sold his famous eight-years-old hackney stallion. Cadet 1,251, for £3,000 to Mr. Alexander J. Cassatt, president of the American Hackney Horse Society.
14.—Mr. Ben Greet’s company of pastoral players performed the garden scenes in “Twelfth Night” in the grounds of Mr. A. R. Chamberlin, the Grove, Ipswich Road, Norwich, in aid of the funds of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. ”

“ After his resignation of Hackney, he retired to Epsom in Surrey, where he lived for about three years without any charge, but was always ready to assist his brethren. In 1741, on the death of the Rev. ”

“ After the execution of the king, Hacket declared that he would never again set foot in London, but broke his resolution so far as to attend Lords Holland and Norwich when they were condemned to death. Some letters written about this time by Hacket to Dr. Dillingham, and preserved among the Sloane MSS., represent him as a 'sickly old man' who had fallen into bad health through grief of mind. He always appears, however, full of faith and courage, and with a firm belief in the certainty of the coming of the restoration. ”

“ An adventurer, surely, but down on his luck now, with a frayed and threadbare overcoat, a shabby hat, and deep lines about his gray eyes.
“Sit down, man!” Wickham Hackett repeated impatiently. “Here, have a [Pg 546] smoke. I have some news for you, Charley.”
“Can’t refuse!” said Charles Hackett, and he sat down, with one long leg over the arm of the chair. “That’s good!” he added, at the first puff of the cigar.
Wickham Hackett looked down at the papers on his desk, because the sight of this battered rover stirred him almost intolerably. ”

“ Hackert soon came in himself, and Berthold hastened to tell him of his meeting with this strange man. 'Ha!' said Hackert, smiling, 'do not take that to heart. That is a crabbed old man, who grumbles at every thing, and is pleased at nothing; I met him in the ante-room. He was born of Greek parents, in Malta, and is a rich, queer old fellow, and no bad painter. All that he does has a fantastic appearance, and this proceeds from the absurd notion he has about art, and from the fact that he has constructed a system which is utterly worthless. ”

“ Hackley's well-meant attentions with marvelous dexterity and success."
"Ah, you still don't take it seriously, I see. I'm going to make one more effort to frighten you to-day—but I'm afraid you are one of these terribly reckless people who think being safe is too tame to be interesting. What do you think of our poor little city, Mr. Varney?" ”

“ On one occasion a soldier entering his church presented a pistol at his breast and ordered him to stop. Hacket replied that he would do what became a divine, let the other do what became a soldier; and continued the service. He is said to have carefully committed the burial service to memory that he might use it without offending the puritans. He was at one time taken prisoner by the army of Essex and carried with them. Lord Essex used much persuasion to lead him to join the parliamentary side, but Hacket remaining obdurate, he ordered him to be dismissed. ”

“ In 1859 he was attached to the headquarters staff of the Austrian army during the Italian war; in 1861 he was raised to an hereditary knighthood in Austria; in 1864 he retired into private life, and died on the 6th of July 1877. Hackländer’s literary talent is confined within narrow limits. ”

“ Hackert is lodged very comfortably in the old castle—it is quite roomy enough for all his guests. Constantly busy with drawing and painting, he nevertheless is very social, and easily draws men around him, as in the end he generally makes every one become his scholar; he has also quite won me by putting up patiently with my weaknesses, and insists, above all things, on distinctness of drawing, and marked and clear keeping. When he paints, he has three colours always ready; and as he works on and uses one after another, a picture is produced, one knows not how or whence. ”

“ The two fliers crouched down near the door, shuddering nausea and weakness still holding them.
Norman found that Hackett was laughing weakly. "To think that twenty-four hours ago I was in New York," he half-laughed, half-sobbed. "On Earth—Earth—"
The other gripped his arm. "It's horrible, Hackett, I know. But it isn't instant death, and we've still a chance to escape. Hell, can damn frog-men keep us here? Where's your nerve, man?"
A voice beside them made them turn in amazement. "You are men from Earth?" it asked, in queerly accented English. "From Earth?" ”

“ When this war’s over, I shall send to a woman I know in Hong Kong to send me a boat-load of decent servants. I never had real-servant comfort but once in all my life—and that was in ’Frisco, where every maid we had was a Chinaman.”
“I doubt if they’d fit in in Harley Street,” Stephen said lazily. “I’d try ’em at Oxshott first, if I were you.”
“They’ll fit in anywhere; that’s the beauty of them. I’ll have them in both places—no fear! I’m not very sure that I like Harley Street—and there isn’t a nook, or a twist or a turn in our entire house. But I’m going to have Horace stick a roof-garden on.” ”

“ Its only merit is a certain dexterity in the application of the Latin language to a strange and awkward plot. It satirises at once the Jesuits, the friars, and the puritans as grossly immoral hypocrites. It was printed at London, 1648, 12mo.
Hacket was ordained by John King, bishop of London, 22 Dec. 1618, still continuing his tuition work at Cambridge. The reputation which he enjoyed as a scholar attracted the notice of Lord-keeper Williams, who invited him to become his chaplain. This was a sure road to promotion. ”