Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/492

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xn. DEC. is, 1915.

In 1837, when Thackeray's story * The Professor ' first appeared in Bentley's Maga- zine, there was an allusion to Dando. 11 occurs almost at the end of the story " 'What a flat you are,' shouted he, in a voice of thunder, ' to think I 'm going to pay ! Pay ! I never pay I 'm Dando.' "

In Trevelyan's ' Life of Macaulay ' under the date 27 April, 1850, there is this refer- ence :

" To Westbpurne Terrace, and passed an hour in playing with Alice. A very intelligent and engaging playfellow I found her. I was Dando at a pastrycook's and then at an oyster-shop."

To this paragraph Sir George Trevelyanhas appended a note as follows :

"A generation has arisen of whom not one in fifty knows Dando ; ' the bouncing seedy swell,' who was at least twice in every month brought before the magistrates for having refused to settle his bill after over-eating himself in an oyster-shop." Macaulay's ' Life,' 1881, p. 539.

The term " bouncing seedy swell " which Sir George Trevelyan uses was taken from one of Catnach's street ballads called ' The Life and Death of Dando.' Two verses run :

His Sunday dress went -up the spout ;

His shoes let water in and out ;

His stockings, too, seem'd in despair

Like portholes, they let in fresh air.

For prisons he 'd not care a pin,

He was no sooner out than in ;

For something good he 'd always smell

Dando, the bouncing seedy swell.

One day he walk'd up to an oyster stall

To punish the natives large and small ;

Just thirty dozen he managed to bite,

With ten penny loaves what an appetite !

But when he had done, without saying good-day

He bolted off scot free, away ;

He savag'd the oysters, and left the shell

Dando, the bouncing seedy swell.

So shickery, trickery, rum turn bawl. Sponging and lounging on victims all ; Death collar'd Dan in Clerkenwell Dando, the bouncing seedy swell.

There are four other verses, in one of which

his appearance is partly described :

An old white hat slouch 'd over his eyes, And a flounder mouth for mutton pies. His coat was rusty, holey, and fat, His hair was like an old door mat, &c.

In The Times, 20 Aug., 1830, p. 4, there is a full report of one of the many cases in which Dando was charged with " bilking." The details appear to me so amusing that I beg permission to quote them in full as a typical Dando Police Court scene :

" UNION-HALL. Yesterday, a man named Dando., who has been frequently at the bar of this office, to answer complaints made against him by tavern, eating-house, and coffee-shop keepers

for dinners and other refreshments furnished him which he afterwards refused to pay for, was brought up again on a similar charge. The prisoner was convicted some tune ago, and com- mitted to Brixton : while in gaol, the keeper was compelled to place him in solitary confine- ment, in consequence of his having robbed some of his fellow-prisoners of their allowance of bread and beef ; in fact, so ravenous was his appetite while in prison, that nothing in the shape of food, belong to whom it might, could be left within his reach, that he did not devour, until it was at length found necessary to separate him from those whom he deprived of their victuals.

" The magistrate, on seeing the prisoner, ex- claimed, ' I suppose you are brought here again for gormandizing, and not paying for it ? '

Prisoner. ' I had a few oysters, it is true, your worship.'

" Here a man named Mason, who keeps an oyster-stall, stepped forward and said that Dando walked up to the stall that morning and desired him to open a few oysters, and asked for a slice of bread and a pat of butter. He commenced eating, and never stopped until he had devoured 11 dozen of the largest-sized oysters, together with a half a quartern loaf and 11 pats of butter, and at the conclusion of the meal he put his hand into- his pocket, and, pretending to examine for money merely said, * Really, Mr. Oysterman, I have no cash about me ; I must pay you the next time I pass this way.' He was walking off with his hands in his breeches pocket and whistling a merry tune, when the oysterman stopped, him and said, ' But stop, sir', you are not going off so easily after eating my 11 dozen of oysters and half a quartern loaf, without paying,' adding, that he could not expect such a thing. ' But, my good fellow,' answered the prisoner, ' what am I to do if I have not got the money ? As the saying is, you can't draw blood from a stone, and where is the use in detaining me and preventing me from going about my business ? ' The pystennan then expressed his determination of giving him into custody, upon which Dando made a vigorous effort to get away, and would have succeeded had not a policeman very opportunely come up at the time, into whose charge he was given.

" Magistrate. ' Imprisonment seems to have very little effect upon this fellow, who makes a practice of going about devouring at the expense of persons who can ill afford it. What have you bo say to this charge ? ' inquired the magistrate.

" Dando. ' Nothing, sir, but that 1 was very hungry, having walked up the .whole way from Guildford, and had nothing to eat on the road except a little bread and cheese and beer, which I purchased with a shilling that was given to me on leaving gaol.'

" It was here stated that the prisoner had been committed to the above-mentioned gaol as a rogue and a vagabond, having been taken to a x>lice-office on a charge of the above nature, applicable to that offence.
 * he magistrate convicting him under the Act

"Mr. Staples said, that the last time he was

rought to that office was on a charge of going:

nto a coffee-shop, and eating and drinking at

one meal as much as amounted to between 5s.

and 6s.

" The oysterman said, that had the prisoner been at all moderate in his appetite, and eaten a