George Hanger

• Posted by mgr on March 14th, 2009 filed in Berühmte Dandys, HISTORISCHES
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Few characters better deserve a place in a collection like the present than the honorable George Hanger. Though the subjoined particulars of his life may not exhibit so many or so extraordinary traits of eccentricity as we have already had occasion to introduce in some of our narratives, yet it should be recollected that there are singularities which it is as impossible to describe, as it is for the painter to transfer to his canvass the rolling of the eyes, the play of the muscles, or the sudden changes which take place in the human countenance under the influence of pain or passion. With these deductions the life of George Hanger may perhaps appear more strongly marked with profligacy and improvidence than with eccentricity ; but, at least, his example may afford a useful lesson to others, to avoid the rocks of dissipation on which his fortunes were wrecked.

Scarcely any private individual of his day was more universally known than George Hanger ; nor can this be wondered at, for he himself informs us that ” he was early introduced into life, and often kept both good and bad company, associating with men and women of every description and of every rank, from the highest to the lowest, from St. James’s to St. Giles’s ; in palaces and night-cellars, from the drawing-room to the dust-cart.”

George Hanger was the third son of Gabriel, who succeeded to the honors of the barony of Coleraine. Speaking of his family, in the eccentric account of his life and adventures, he says, it may be well to mention by what means his father obtained a peerage. His sister Miss Anne Hanger was married to Hare, Lord Coleraine. “But my father was not in the most distant degree related to him, except by marriage. Lord Coleraine, however, dying without issue, or heir to the title, my father claimed it, with just as much right as the clerk or sexton of the parish. After the same manner as Jupiter overcame the beautiful Danae did he prove an undoubted right to the title, and was created a peer of Ireland. A lady of high rank, and of no inconsiderable influence in the days of that excellent king, George the Second, is supposed to have been benefited by one of those glistening showers.”

Our hero was born at his father’s seat in the country, and was first sent to school at Reading, in Berkshire. Here no persuasions could induce him to apply to his studies, and the consequence was that his master had recourse to severe methods. This gentleman, whose discipline was far from agreeable to young Hanger, is stigmatized by him—with what justice we cannot pretend to say—with the epithets of brute, tyrant and savage. The following circumstances are adduced to prove that he deserved them. Whenever he found out that two of the bigger boys had been fighting, he caused them to strip to their shirts in the public schoolroom. He then gave to each a ratan cane about three feet long, and ordered them to strike at each other with all their force, when he presided with a similar weapon, and whenever there appeared to be a relaxation of activity in either of the unwilling combatants, he compelled them by his own violent strokes to renew theirs. Again, if a boy had not washed his face very clean, he used to have it rubbed with the coarsest hair-cloth that could be made.

There ia often a greater portion of eccentricity in a man’s opinions and way of thinking than in his actions. By way of illustrating those of George Hanger, we shall quote his observations on the mode of treatment described above.—” A child of mine !” says he, ” yes—a child of mine shall be treated in a different manner. Instead of correcting him when he fights, his tutor shall be ordered to give him a crown every battle he delivers, and half-a-guinea if he is victorious in the combat; and should he beat a boy much bigger and older than himself, he shall receive a guinea. Yet at the same time he shall not be encouraged to fight for the sake of money to be awarded him, but only to resent injuries. Such principles, instilled into him at an early age, I am convinced, will teach him, in maturer life, to resent insults with a proper spirit, but will not by any means dispose him to be quarrelsome. Take two boys of equal age and equal dispositions ; let the one be kept under the master’s eye and never out of his sight; forbid him positively to fight, and let all those who strike or insult him be punished severely ; let the other mix with his school-fellows, and, if struck or insulted, resent the injury by instantly delivering battle—the former will contract tyrannical and cowardly habits, which will accompany and disgrace him through life ; and the latter will be bold and liberal, but by no means more quarrelsome than his neighbors.”

From Reading, young Hanger was removed, on the representation of his brothers, and was then sent to the Rev. Mr. Fountain’s, at Mary-le-bone, where he was treated with great kindness and attention. At this early age his mischievous disposition began to display itself. A dentist used to attend at certain times to examine the children’s teeth. He had drawn one of Hanger’s which gave him great pain, and proposed to repeat the operation on another, which the owner was far from approving. Finding persuasion ineffectual, he endeavored to effect his purpose by artifice. Concealing his instrument in his handkerchief, he prevailed on the boy to open his mouth, anil permit him just to feel whether the tooth was loose or not. No sooner had he placed his thumb on George’s lower jaw than he attempted to hold his mouth open by force, and had nearly fixed the instrument on his tooth, when the youngster gave him a violent kick on the shins, which somewhat deranged him, and at the same instant caught his thumb fast between his teeth, and gave the operator a small item to remember him by as long as he lived.

Eton was the next theatre of George Hanger’s studies. Here he made considerable progress in the Latin tongue, but to Greek he took such a decided aversion, that he never would learn it. From the moment he entered the fifth form, however, he studied every thing but his books. His vacant hours in the day were employed in the sports of the field, being already very fond of his dog and gun. By night game of a different kind engrossed his whole attention. Ovid’s Epistles were totally laid aside, for his Art of Love, in which our student made considerable progress ; and frequently did he risk his neck in getting over the roof of his boarding-house, to pass a few hours with some favorite grisctte of Windsor.

On leaving Eton, young Hanger resolved to embrace the military profession, to which a German education was thought best adapted. He was accordingly sent to perfect himself in those acquirements necessary for the career he had chosen at the celebrated university of Gottingen in Germany. After a year’s application to mathematics, fortification and the language of the country, he quitted Gottingen for Hanover and Hesse Cassel, where he spent the remaining two years which he passed on the continent, and formed an acquaintance with many distinguished characters. During his residence abroad, he held a commission as ensign in the foot-guards, and manifested the strongest attachment to the profession.

Soon after his return to England, our hero was engaged in an adventure which had well nigh been productive of fatal circumstances, and the very thought of which, he tells us, still fills him with alarm. It would considerably diminish the interest of the narrative, were we to relate it in any other words than his own.

” It was very much the fashion in those days,” says he, ” to walk on Sunday evenings, during the summer, in Kensington Gardens. They were much crowded and frequented by well dressed persons of all ranks and descriptions. A particular friend of mine came to me in the morning, and desired that I would be in the garden that evening, as he had something particular to mention to me, which he would impart when we met. I was there to my appointment, and joined him on the promenade. He then told me his reason for asking me to accompany him was, that he was anxious to have some conversation with a lady, who would be in company with a female friend, whose attention to what might pass between them he wished me to divert by my attention to her. We did not join them till near dusk, when, drawing off from the public-walk, we passed to that part of the garden, near to the palace, where formerly many of the walks were bordered with very thick and high yew-hedges, which, from the trees and shrubbery behind them, were rendered impervious to the view. It was almost dark, the night being much overcast. We were sitting on one of the garden seats, when, at some distance, we saw a man coming down the gravel walk. The women proposed getting up and retiring by one of the small passages between the yew-hedges into the shrubbery, lest the person approaching us might know them. It was now half past nine at night; and my friend and the two ladies retired into the shrubbery. I stood before the opening of the yew-hedge, as this man came opposite to me on the gravel walk; and when he was at the distance of six or seven paces, he made a dead halt, and faced about towards me. I spoke not a word for at least two or three minutes, while he kept walking, a few paces backwards and forwards, viewing me, and seeming as if he wished to see what was behind me. At length, quitting the centre of the gravelwalk, he advanced two or three paces nearer to me. It was then high time to decide what I should do. But before I proceed, it is necessary to mention, that I have very imprudently put my glove in my mouth to disguise my voice ; for, had I spoken to him in my natural tone, on perceiving I could not be the person he sought after, he might have gone away. On his advancing, I again said: ‘ Sir, you cannot pass this way’ —upon which he immediately put his hand to his sword, nor did I delay to draw mine; when I retired within the narrow passage of the hedge, to make sure, if he was determined to force an entry, that I should have the advantage of parrying a thrust from him, when he could not prevent my acting against him. He immediately advanced close to the hedge, with his sword half through it; at the same time grumbling - inwardly, and absolutely snorting and blowing with anger. I could have run him through the body with the greatest facility, in the disadvantageous situation in which he was; but instead of acting, I said; ‘ For God’s sake, sir, do not advance. You cannot want any thing of me. It is impossible that I should be the person you are looking for; but I swear, if you advance one step farther, I will kill you.’ At this moment my friend came up on one side of me, and, in a low voice, said: ‘ My dear George, for God’s sake don’t kill him.’ In those days I was much in the habit of fencing, and being very strong in the arm and wrist, I was ever prepossessed with an idea, that if I could, unobserved, change from one side of my adversary’s blade to the other, and beat on it, I should be certain of hitting the very best fencer. This was a favorite coup of mine; and I now put it in practice, with such velocity, force and success, that if it had not been for the hedge, into which I drove his sword, and in which it was for a moment entangled, I believe sincerely I should have forced it out of his hand. At the instant I beat upon his blade, I made a gentle bolt at him, slightly opposing my sword to his body, and just pricked him, at which he started back a couple of paces. I never advanced, but kept my position within the hedge, knowing that, from the advantage of it, I could do any thing with him I chose ; and had he advanced again, I was resolved not to attempt to run him through the body, but to gather his blade and attempt to disarm him. Notwithstanding my having made him lightly feel the point of my sword, he never spoke one word, but stood snorting and puffing with rage. I then said: ‘Sir, for God’s sake, go away; I do not wish to hurt you. You must be conscious that I could have run you through the body if I had been so disposed; let me therefore entreat you to go away ; I know you not; nor can you want any thing of me or of any person with me.’—At my solicitations and entreaties, he put up his sword, and walked back the same way he came; I watched him out of sight; but it may well be credited I did not follow him. Judge, reader, what picasure I must have felt when he was gone ! Reflect only on my horrid situation! Had I killed this man, one half at least of the censorious world, would have believed that my friend and I had assassinated him. If he had killed me, the consequences would have been very disagreeable to all parties ; the women and my friend, at all events, must have come forward. During the conflict, a thousand horrors and fears rushed into my mind and unstrung my soul. As to the matter of a duel, had it been in day-light, with a second, I should not have thought more than others on such an occasion, having fought three duels before I was twenty years old. I solemnly declare I was so dismayed, that, had it not been for discovering the women, and had I been there alone expecting to meet some kind fair one, I should have taken to my heels and have run away as fast as my. legs would have carried me. I have certainly been in some disagreeable situations in life since that period, but never in my days have I been so alarmed: it is not possible for me to describe what I suffered. To end this narrative—my carriage was waiting at the palace gate, and we walked down to the gardener’s house, and prevailed on him to let us out, for it was then past ten. We put the women into the carriage; they were set down in London, not at their own house, aa may be well imagined; and my friend and I walked home rejoicing on having escaped so well out of so ticklish a situation.”

After a few years’ enjoyment of every gratification which a life of pleasure, dissipation and extravagance could afford, Mr. Hanger, conceiving himself unjustly treated relative to a promotion, resolved, in spite of the remonstrances of his friends, to quit the guards. He then solicited an appointment in one of the Hessian corps, that were raising for the British service in America, where the war of the revolution was commencing. His application was successful; the landgrave of Hesse sending him a captain’s commission in his corps of Jagers.

Previous to his setting out for America, the extravagance of our captain had involved him in difficulties. His dress-clothes in one winter cost him, as he informs us, nine hundred pounds, and for the same article only for one birthday, he put himself to an expense of two hundred and sixty pounds. He never was fond of play, but in the pleasures of the turf he indulged to a very great extent. He accordingly found himself under the necessity of mortgaging an estate of about eleven hundred pounds per annum left him by his aunt, Lady Coleraine, and soon after his departure for America, the mortgagee procured it to be sold before a master in chancery by public auction, but the produce of it was not sufficient to discharge all his debts.

In America Captain Hanger was employed in various critical services, in which he displayed great courage and address. By General Sir Henry Clinton he was appointed major in the British Legion; but in the progress of the army under Lord Cornwallis to the upper parts of North Carolina, he had the misfortune to sicken of the yellow fever. This disease, added to the fatigue of travelling, reduced him to a perfect skeleton. He was so weak as to be unable to turn himself, but was forced to be moved by his attendants when he wanted, for ease, to change his posture. In this miserable situation he lay so long, first on one side, then on the other, and then on his back, that, as he assures us, the bones of his back and each hip came fairly through the skin. He had then no posture to lie in but on his stomach, with pillows to support him. The disorder at length fell into his legs, on which he began to recover, though it was a considerable time before he could dispense with the assistance of crutches.

On the conclusion of the peace, Major Hanger returned to Europe, and arrived in the Downs after an absence of nearly seven years. Previous to his leaving America, he had empowered Colonels Tarleton and Mac Mahon to attempt an arrangement of his affairs, as it was agreed that he should wait at Calais till he should hear how matters stood in England. Under these circumstances he experienced particular friendship from Mr. Richard Tattersall, who not only invited him to make his house his home, but promised to discharge any debts which he himself might be unable to pay. He now determined to return to England. The prince of Wales had by this time launched into public life, and Major Hanger was one of the jovial characters whom he selected for his associates. He also conferred on him the appointment of equerry, with a salary of three hundred pounds a year, which, however, Hanger lost on the retrenchments that were afterwards made in the household of his royal highness.

We shall subjoin, principally in his own words, an account of the remainder of the chequered career of George Hanger. The mixture of singularity and good sense that prevails in many of his ideas and expressions cannot fail to strike the reader.

“The year I came to England,” says he, “the contested election for Westminster (Fox, Hood and Wray candidates) took place. The walking travellers Spillard and Stewart; the Abyssinian Bruce, who has feasted on steaks cut from the rump of a living ox; and various others, who, in their extensive travels, have encountered wild beasts, serpents, and crocodiles; breakfasted and toasted muffins at the mouth of a volcano—whom hunger has compelled to banquet with joy on the leavings of a lion or tiger or the carcass of a dead alligator—who can boast of smoking the pipe of peace with the Little Carpenter and the Mail Dog—on having lived in terms of the strictest intimacy with the Cherokees, the Chickasaws, the Chocktaws, and with all the aws and ees of that immense Continent—who from the more temperate shore of the Mississippi have extended their course to the burning soil of India, and to the banks of the Ganges, from the Frozen Ocean to the banks of the more genial Po,—may boast their experience of the world and their knowledge of human life ; but no one, in my opinion, has seen real life, or can know it, unless he has taken an active part in a contested election for Westminster. In no school can a man be taught a better lesson of human life. There can he view human nature in her basest attire; riot, murder, and drunkenness are the order of the day, and perjury, walk hand in hand; for men who had no pretensions to vote, were to be found in the Garden in as great plenty as turnips, and, at a very moderate rate, were induced to poll. A gentleman, to make himself of any considerable use to either party, must possess a number of engaging, familiar, and condescending qualities: he must help a porter up with his load, shake hands with a fish-woman, pull his hat off to an oyster wench, kiss a ballad singer, and be familiar with a beggar. If, in addition to these amiable qualities, he is a tolerably good boxer, can play a good stick, and in the evening drink a pailful of all sorts of liquors in going the rounds to solicit voters at their various club’s, then, indeed, he is a most highly finished and useful agent. In all the above accomplishments and sciences, except drinking, which I never was fond of, I have the vanity to believe that I arrived nearer to perfection than any of my rivals.

“I should be ungrateful, indeed, if I did not testify my thanks to those gallant troops of high rank and distinguished fame, the knights of the strap, and the black-diamond knights (the Irish chairmen and coal-heavers), who displayed so much bravery and attachment to our cause. At that time I formed a great intimacy with them, which has continued to this day between us; for I never forget my old acquaintances whenever I meet them, or look upon my old friends with a new face, which is too much, in general, the custom of the world.”

For some years Major Hanger was employed in raising recruits for the East India Company; an occupation the annual profits of which he states at six hundred pounds. About the same time that he lost his salary as equerry to the prince, he was also deprived of this source of income, in consequence of a change which the government thought fit to make in the whole system of recruiting for the company’s army in India.

By the sudden privation of these resources, the major was reduced to the greatest distress. He now began gradually to measure his steps towards the King’s Bench. In June, 1791, he surrendered at that prison, where he remained till April, the year following, when a considerable sum of money, gained by a lawsuit, enabled him to come to a composition with his creditors.

He also proposed to form a corps from the convicts, showing how they might be provided for after the war, without being turned adrift again in the world. He suggested the permission for the militia to enlist into the regiments of the line two years before the act for that purpose took place; and likewise presented a proposal for drafting one thousand volunteers, at a small bounty, from the militia, and training them in the use of the rifle gun.

After having applied himself to trade, as a coal-merchant, and experienced a great vicissitude of fortune, he lived to enjoy the title and estate of Lord Coleraine.

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