A Row at Covent Garden

Row at Covent Garden Theatre

The Sporting Magazine October 1805 at 4-5

On the night of Wednesday the 23d inst. a Naval hero, who is Captain of a man of war, and the brother of a nobleman, was brought before the magistrate at Bow-street, from the boxes of Covent Garden Theatre, where he had been kicking up a row. He was charged with violently assaulting a youth of fourteen, the son of a respectable citizen in Coleman-street, who was also at the Theatre, and now accompanied his son to the office. The noble commander had evidently been on a Bacchanalian cruise in the course of the evening, and had taken in a full cargo of Tuscan juice, as his upper works were a good deal deranged; in endeavouring to make way, he had heeled gunnel to at every tack. He was towed into the office between two of the Bow-street runners, with some difficulty; and had scarcely been on board the good ship Justicia, when he endeavoured to assume the whole authority of the quarter deck. The first salute to the bench was a whole broadside of damns and blasts; he b------d the eyes and limbs of the officers; vaunted of his extraordinary pugilistic prowess; boasted an intimate acquaintance with Belcher, Burke, Pittoon, Jemmy from Town, the Young Ruffian, Gulley, the Game Chicken, and all the celebrated bruisers; offered to box the magistrate, or any man in the room, for a thousand; swore great guns, that if he had with him his first lieutenant and his boat-swain, they three would clear the decks of every man there in two minutes, if the lubbers were twice as numerous as they were.

The magistrate, however, not being in a boxing humour, nor probably in training to meet such an antagonist in his own way, begged leave to propose a contre-projet for deciding the business, and was proceeding to examine the charge against the gallant commander; but this gave rise to a new bustle; he insisted, as an officer and a gentleman, on a private examination, and that all the lubberly sons of bitches present must go out of the room.—In this, however, he was not indulged, and the Bow-street officer, who saw the assault, proceeded to give his testimony, as well as he could, under a tremendous discharge of oaths, intermixed with threats of gangways, round dozens, and double irons. The officer stated, that the Captain had been extremely riotous in the Theatre, to the annoyance of the whole audience, and that he had violently assaulted a lady in one of the boxes, who from a very coarse illustration in the Captain own phrase, it seemed, was an old Cyprian acquaintance, who wanted to lure him to a fresh engagement, which he declined. He was therefore forcibly taken from his mooring in the boxes, and in his way assaulted every one he met, and amongst others the youth who now came forward.

The Captain was still vociferous and unruly. Finding, however, that he could not bring his guns to an effectual bearing in this way, he put about on t’other tack, and proposed to settle the matter with the magistrate over a bottle of Madeira.—The magistrate, however, objected to any decision by the influence of grape shot. The Captain again stormed, and said it was only a drunken frolic; but the magistrate, paying no deference to this plea of jure de vino, ordered the Captain into the bilboes at the Brown Bear till he should find bail.