The World of William Hone: A New Look at the Romantic Age in Words and Pictures of the Day

Folklore, Annual, 1998 by Gillian Bennett

The World of William Home: A New Look at the Romantic Age in Words and Pictures of the Day. Compiled, introduced and annotated by John Wardroper. London: Shelfmark Books, 1997. 330pp. 80 illus. Pbk [pounds sterling] 12.95; hbk 28.50 [pounds sterling]. ISBN (pbk) 0 9526093 2 0; (hbk) 0 9526093 1 2

William Hone (1780-1842) is an enigmatic figure; bookseller, radical, pamphleteer, antiquarian. He was prosecuted for blasphemy in 1817 for a parody of the Lord's Prayer, and acquitted after defending himself for up to thirteen hours at a time over the course of three gruelling days. Though his health was wrecked by the experience, he returned to the fray two years later, after the infamous Peterloo massacre in Manchester, with his most popular (and scathing parody), "The Political House that Jack Built." With verses by Hone, and drawings by his friend George Cruikshank, the pamphlet excoriated the Government, the Home Secretary, and especially the Prince Regent ("This is the man all shaven and shorn/All cover'd with orders and all forlorn;/The dandy of sixty, who bows with a grace/And has taste in wigs, collars, cuirasses and lace .../Who spurn'd from his presence the friends of his youth, / And now has not one who will tell him the truth ..."). Wishing, however, "to be quiet and out of the way of politics," Hone began on the works for which he will be remembered by folklorists, The Every-Day Book, The Table Book, and The Year Book.

Though these are what are nowadays remembered of his work, they made him no money. The rights to the successful Every-Day Book were sold to the Cheapside publisher Thomas Tegg to cover his debts, the Table Book folded after a year, the Year Book, though Hone's inspiration, was actually owned and published by Tegg. Hone lurched from financial crisis to financial crisis (some of the work for the Every-Day Book was done while he was in a debtor's prison), and he died at the early age of 61 leaving his family almost destitute. Wardroper's informative and sympathetic Introduction charts the course of this turbulent but not unhappy life. Portraits by Landseer and Cruikshank show a plump, attractive man with clear eyes, curly hair and a snub nose, and a quotation from Hone's own words are set as a motto with the frontispiece: "I have been a lover of the world and its pleasures, a curious observer of men and manners, an insatiable reader in search of truth, and anxious inquirer after happiness."

The main body of the book is a selection from The Every-Day Book, The Table Book, and The Year Book. Wardroper says he has "passed over hundreds of items of antiquarian, historical, topographical and botanical lore," and has "favoured what is somewhat obscured among them, the pieces that show us the life of his time or within living memory" (p. 19). Though, at first glance, this might seem perverse, it actually works very well: the result is by no means as twee as it might be (or as the subtitle and chapter headings make one fear). Though all the items are highly readable and entertaining, folklorists will specially enjoy "A calendar of customs" (pp. 99-144), "Small earners, big earners" (pp. 243-82), and "Twelve days of Christmas" (pp. 283-312). The illustrations, mainly by Samuel Williams, but with a few by Cruikshank and others, are superb (taken from the originals, not copied from Hone). I have only one quibble, and that is that the items presented are not documented: I should have liked to know where exactly they came from so that I could look them up in their original context.

That's a small criticism, however. I found this an immensely enjoyable book. It's a nice addition to a folklorist's bookshelves and would make a very attractive gift. At only 12.95 [pounds sterling] the paperback is a specially good buy.