Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1920 — ROSE ABOVE HUMBLE STATION [ARTICLE]

ROSE ABOVE HUMBLE STATION

Thomas Britton a Curious Anomaly In English Social Life of Time of Queen Anne. » • - • One of the most curious anomalies of the social life of London during the time of Queen Anne —called the Augustan age because of Its great literary men —was a retail dealer in coal, named Thomas Britton, who was buried in Clerken well churchyard, London, on October 1, 1714. He exercised a humble craft, and occupied a habitation and wore a garb corresponding in plainness to his trade, and yet thia singular man contrived by his various talents, and more especially his musical tastes, to assemble around him the most aristocratic company in London, and to be admitted into their society on equal teisns. According to the practice of the time, he sold coal In small quantities, delivering it himself each morning. It Is related that having finished his rounds, he joined a distinguished company that met each Saturday at one of the booksellers to discuss literature and exchange opinions respecting the latest boohs. This company contained such distinguished and powerful persons as the duke of Devonshire and the earls of Oxford, Pembroke, Sunderland and Winchelsea. Britton’s house in Aylesbury street, Clerkonwell, was the meeting [dace of leaders In the fashionable society of London. On the ground floor was the warehouse for coal, and above, reached by breakneck stairs from the outside, was a low narrow room, in which the musical coalman entertained bis grand and elegant guests. A portrait of this remarkable man is in the British museum.