Reynolds wrote, under the name
of Henry Herbert, notices of contemporaneous events, such as a scene at
the Cockpit, the trial of Thurtell (a very powerful article), &c. That
delightful punster and humorist, with pen or pencil, Tom Hood, sent to
the _London_ his first poems of any ambition or length--"Lycus the
Centaur," and "The Two Peacocks of Bedfont." Keats, "that sleepless soul
that perished in its pride," and Montgomery, both contributed poems. Sir
John Bowring, the accomplished linguist, wrote on Spanish poetry. Mr.
Henry Southern, the editor of that excellent work the _Retrospective
Review_, contributed "The Conversations of Lord Byron." Mr. Walter
Savage Landor, that very original and eccentric thinker, published in
the extraordinary magazine one of his admirable "Imaginary
Conversations." Mr. Julius (afterwards Archdeacon) Hare reviewed the
robust works of Landor. Mr. Elton contributed graceful translations from
Catullus, Propertius, &c. Even among the lesser contributors there were
very eminent writers, not forgetting Barry Cornwall, Hartley Coleridge,
John Clare, the Northamptonshire peasant poet; and Bernard Barton, the
Quaker poet. Nor must we omit that strange contrast to these
pure-hearted and wise men, "Janus Weathercock" (Wainwright), the
polished villain who murdered his young niece and most probably several
other friends and relations, for the money insured upon their lives.
This gay and evil being, by no means a dull writer upon art and the
drama, was much liked by Lamb and the Russell Street set. The news of
his cold-blooded crimes (transpiring in 1837) seem to have struck a deep
horror among all the scoundrel's fashionable associates. Although when
arrested in France it was discovered that Wainwright habitually carried
strychnine about with him, he was only tried for forgery, and for that
offence transported for life.

A fine old citizen of the last century, Joseph Brasbridge, who published
his memoirs, kept a silversmith's shop at No. 98, several doors from
Alderman Waithman's. At one time Brasbridge confesses he divided his
time between the tavern club, the card party, the hunt, and the fight,
and left his shop to be looked after by others, whilst he decided on the
respective merits of Humphries and Mendoza, Cribb and Big Ben. Among
Brasbridge's early customers were the Duke of Marlborough, the Duke of
Argyle, and other men of rank, and he glories in having once paid an
elaborate compliment to L