"AN OLD TAR", EXETER, 1845.

 Under this title The Western Times of 18th October 1845 drew the attention of its readers to 'Lake' thus:

"- There is an old man called Lake, residing at Atwell's new alms-houses, on the New North Road, who was on board the 'Culloden' on the first of June, 1791, Lord Howe's victory, and on board the same ship, in Earl St Vincent's battle on the 14th February, 1797, and on board the 'Neptune,' Captain Fremantle, in the battle of Trafalgar, 21st Oct., 1805."

Today being the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, it seems appropriate to remember this old man called Lake.  The paper does not tell us his Christian name nor anything of the nature of his long service to the navy other than that he was an old tar but at least he was remembered then and, lo, he is remembered still!

Atwell's new alms-houses:  These fine buildings still exist in Exeter and were only 5 years old in 1845.  The Charity after which they are named dates back to the sixteenth century (1588) when a Mr. Lawrence Attwill or Atwill or Atwell, a wealthy London skinner left 320 acres of land to the city of his birth for charitable purposes.   The 'old' Atwell alms-houses were in Northernhay Street   There is a portrait of Lawrence at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum.  

Lord Howe's victory: The Glorious First of June was fought , in fact, in 1794.  It was a rather inconsequential battle of the French Revolutionary Wars but  Admiral Lord Richard Howe (Black Dick!) was hailed as a victorious hero.  

Earl St. Vincent's battle:  Admiral John Jervis, (Old Oak!) fought the battle the Cape of St. Vincent from which he took his title.  It was a decisive battle which crippled the Spanish fleet.

The battle of Trafalgar:  Happy Anniversary!

THE TOUCH OF THE SHAKO, EXETER, 1845.

From The Western Times  of 18th October 1845:

"An awkward affair happened on Friday afternoon, on the verge which separates the military from the municipal power - at the very gate of the Barracks.  A young man, named Nevin, more rash than wise, purchased from ex-Sergeant Scott, keeper of the inn in Barrack-lane, a suit of cast off regimentals, to appear at the eighteenpenny fancy ball.

"In the pride of his trappings, he felt himself "every inch a soldier," and in he walked into the barracks, and accosted Adjutant Moore with a very correct salute.  But the quick eye of the officer saw his round shoulders and in-turned toes, and even the touch of the shako proved him a civil 'un;  so he took him into custody, as in duty bound, and was leading him off, when Nevin's friend, William Welshman, who had watched him go in, with no idea that "the lark" would prove so serious, interfered, and pushed by the officer  who thrust him into the road.

"Upon this, Welshman summoned Mr. Moore next morning before the magistrates, who, after hearing Mr. Sayer, a gentleman who was in company with the officer, and also a witness named Moore, on the part of Welshman, dismissed the complaint, cautioning Nevin to be more discreet in future."

The Barracks:  This must, I suggest,  refer to the  Exeter Higher Barracks:  (these days the housing estate called Horseguards) where the 1st King's Dragoon Guards were stationed at this time.  This is confusing when Barrack-lane is mentioned because there is now no such lane in Exeter and because Barrack Road, in Topsham once bore that name but the "shako" was the Dragoon's headwear, as alterative to the helmet, and the Dragoons, presumably, were in the Cavalry Barracks aka. the Higher Barracks.

The inn in Barrack-lane: This might be the earliest reference, not yet recognised,  to the inn which became The Retreat, an inn at the junction of Newell Road and Prison Lane.  As, perhaps, its first(?) landlord ex-Sergeant Scott deserves his place in Exeter's history.

The eighteenpenny fancy ball:  sounds fun!!

The touch of the shako: means Nevin's  'very correct' salute.  It was probably a disgrace,  not longest way up. shortest way down!,  and, I wager, was what gave him away  to Mr. Moore, the adjutant.

This silly story (hardly the Captain of Koepenick!) somewhat illustrates the nature of civil/military relations in mid-Victorian Exeter.  Young Mr. Nevin thought it proper to go to the ball in a contemporary uniform;  he thought it would be a lark to walk, did he march?, into the barracks;  his friend Welshman did not hesitate to challenge an officer on military ground and, when roughly handled, he was quick to take the adjutant to court; the city magistrates seem to have dismissed the behaviour of the complainant and his friend as  merely 'indiscreet'; there is no word of any apology to the military..

"THE FINGER OF ART," EXETER, 1845.

" WOOL"

"We cannot find language sufficiently full

To speak of the blessings afforded by "Wool""

Its benefits mighty, its wonderful worth

Are felt to the uttermost parts of the earth.

'Tis pleasing to view how the finger of art

Transforms this production at SOLOMON'S famed Mart:

Here the "Wool" which once coverered the back of the sheep

Is roll'd up and pil'd up in many a heap.

Give a call at this house, and behold what is done

With the produce of sheep by J.SOLOMON;

At SOLOMON'S famed warehouse, choice coats are displayed

In many a pattern and many a shade.

You'll find that the Show Rooms of SOLOMON are full

Of charming habiliments form'd out of "Wool;"

To heighten the blessings conferr'd by the sheep

J. SOLOMON & Co. make a rule to sell cheap.

Their purchase of "Wool" is at all times so large,

That they are able of course to diminish their charge;

Then pray do not wait for your purse to be full,

(For no one need find it a very hard pull,).

To purchase a garment of very choice "Wool.""

*

John Solomon was an ingenious outfitter.  He was a Jew and, during his time here, a generous supporter of the Exeter synagogue.  His Exeter premises extended from Waterbeer Street to the High Street.  He regularly advertised in bad verses.  I don't know who wrote them but I would like to think these particular verses were writtem by his 'shopman' whose name was Lamb!

The above is another example of Solomon's versifying which speaks for itself.  I am all for bad verses. I have written some.  I think more people should write bad verses;  they would lighten up what is becoming a Dark Age.  

John Solomon's candle gave a lovely light but lasted only a few years. He was a bankrupt at this time and his much puffed 'emporium' burned completely to the ground in 1847 and he and Mr. Lamb found themselves in the City Prison awaiting trial for arson.  I don't yet know the end of their story.

The prices of Mr. Solomon's woollen coats ranged between one guinea and four guineas.

Source:  The Western Times 11th October 1845.

"KNOCK HER DOWN!" EXETER, 1845.

"JAMES DENLEY was summoned for an assault on Robina Warren. 

"The parties had been drinking at Mrs. Knapman's in Rack-street, and a quarrel arose between Denley's brother and his wife, who is sister to the complainant.

"As Denley was encouraging his brother to "knock her down and serve her right," the complainant told him he had no right to interfere, upon which he struck her in the eye.

"On being asked if he admitted the charge, he said he had struck her, and he "thought it was his place to do it, because it was very hard a woman should be let to put out such expressions at her husband, and he never to touch her.  The magistrates, being of a different opinion, fined him 5s and expences."  

*

Men hitting women was a prevalent offence in 1845.   There is nothing special about this case except that James tells us quite clearly what was his motive.   James was out drinking with Mr. and Mrs. Denley  (his brother and his sister-in-law,) and with Robina Warren  (his sister-in-law's sister.)  He told his brother to knock his wife down for being cheeky.  Robina Warren told James he had no right to interfere. James thought it was his place to punch Robina in the eye and did so. 

Rack-street:  still exists and is between King St. and Preston St.  It was so named from the time when serge was being racked and stretched there.  There was a ragged school there.

Mrs. Knapman's was perhaps a kiddlywink.  There was no public house listed there in 1845.

Source: The Western Times,  4th October 1845.

WEAKER VESSELS, EXETER, 1845

"The other day Mr. Geo. Martin, the draper, having an ugly barricade before his door, placed up a sort of decoy  notice to ladies, that it was "safe to enter."   The ladies would not take his word for it, but kept on the public side of the barricade.

"Now Mr. Martin has removed the ugly barrier, and displayed to the public eye a most handsome shop front, lighted with magnificent plate glass. This gives to the goods a very enticing lustre of light, and now it is so unsafe to enter that ladies who get inside have great difficulty in keeping a single shilling within their purses.

"The husbands should to hold a meeting, to have the shop "put down," for its bold front does not give the weaker vessels half a chance of escape."

*

George Martin, was, in 1845, an enterprising Exeter draper with a shop at 233, High Street.  He was, in his own words, Linen and Woollen Draper, Mercer and Haberdasher, Silk Mercer, Hosier and Hatter and he held the largest, cheapest and best assorted stock of bonnets out of London.  His plate-glass window amazed the city.  The Exeter Flying Post  (2nd October 1845) commented: "The windows of this shop is fitted with panes of glass of such magnitude that each pane contains nearly forty square feet! being the largest sheets of glass which have been used for this purpose; and, we are told, a shop in th Quadrant , London alone being in this respect equal to it"

"Safe to enter":  a more considerate version of "Business as usual"!  " I liked this piece because it envisages an ordered world (it never existed!) of charming lady wives, too timid to enter Mr. Martin's shop, whose business in life was to spend on finery the shillings their kind husbands put into their purses.  I find ideas like this a soothing antidote to the realities of life in contemporary Exeter. 

Weaker vessels:  " Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life." (1 Peter 3.7.)

Should to hold:  Elegant?  I find it so.   Grammatial?  I don't think so.  Noteworthy?

Source: The Western Times,  4th October, 1845.

EXON'S LASTE BYSHOPPE. EXETER, 1845.

Under the title 'SYMPTOMS OF THE END,'  The Western Times (4th October 1845) published this remarkable report.

"The tomb of Leofricus, first Bishop of Exeter, bears the inscription: -

"Leofricus, first bishop of Exeter, lyeth here.

"It is reported that an ancient stone hath been brought to light, which states that.

"Exon's laste byshoppe shall lie everywhere.

"We have not seen the stone, but the simple people who place the last day on the 10th October are making a great fact of it, though in what way it bears upon the subject we do not exactly see.

"Prophesies , like dreams, go by contraries perhaps.

"It may therefore mean that the last Byshoppe shall be one of a restless disposition, constantly roaming through his diocese, and never resting from his apostolic toils. 

"In that sense, perhaps, the prediction may apply somewhere."

*

The whole is first and foremost another attack by the newspaper on Bishop Henry Phillpotts.  How much truth there is in the stone that was brought to life  I do not know.

Lyeth/ Here and everywhere:  It's a pun!   Get it?

Leofricus:  Leofric was Bishop of Cornwall and Crediton before, during and after the Conquest. That perhaps means he was something of a trimmer though he is remembered as a 'good' bishop.

The tomb of Leofricus:  is itself a fake in the sense that it was not constructed until some 500 years after the bishop's death and the inscription lieth when it states that he lyeth there because he lieth somewhere else.

The ancient stone: was surely another fake, if indeed it ever existed.  There is, in my opinion, too much of Ye Olde Tea Shoppe about the inscription for it to be anything other than Victorian.

The simple people:  It was a time of millennary fever.  Mountebank 'preachers' had, in Exeter, been foretelling  Second Comings, that kept coming and going.. Somehow the report of this stone was exciting the expectations of simpletons.  The next Second Coming was scheduled to take place the next week which, if it came, would make Henry Phillpotts Exon's laste byshoppe.

Apostolic toils:  Now comes the paper's laboured attack on Henry Phillpotts.  The prophecy, if that's what it was, predicted a bishop who, if that's what it meant, was busy doing the things a bishop should  do.  This could only be true of Henry, who shamelessly spent all his time playing the politician in London or living the high-life in Torbay, if prophesies go by contraries.

Whew!

  

 

"TRUNDLING HOOPS." EXETER, 1845.

Under this title The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette  of 27th September 1845 briefly reported the serious crime of William White who was brought to the Exeter Police Court by Mr. Charles Sclater:

"William White,  a lad, was charged by Mr. Charles Sclater, with trundling a hoop on the pavement in Sandford-street, New-town.

"Mr. Sclater stated that he frequently saw the public subjected to the annoyance arising from twenty or thirty boys trundling their hoops in the street at once, and the practice of using iron hoops was considerably more dangerous than of using wooden ones.

"The parents of the defendant having attended, and engaged both for his present penitence and future good conduct, the Magistrates dismissed him with an admonition, on paying for the summons."

Sclater: looks a more exotic family name than it is.  It is a form of Slater, i.e. it is a well-established  English occupational surname.

Mr. Charles Sclater,  Charley (as he was called) Sclater was one of a large Exeter family, a family whose sons seem all to have been nurserymen and/or seedsmen,  He was also at one time the city councillor for St. Sidwells and was the owner  of property in Newtown, Exeter.  His nursery was at Summerlands, near where now is the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.  He was unhealthily keen on litigation and particularly on bringing young people to court for misdemeanors.

Sandford-street: was a street in Newtown, perhaps where now is Sandford Walk.

Poor hoopless Willy White!  You can bet that none of the other kids in Sandford Street will have been deterred by Charley Sclater.

Trundling hoops:  this is the first reference I have seen in the local papers to hoops as a child's plaything but clearly they were a 'craze' in Exeter in 1845 and for many decades each way.  I suppose the metal hoops were barrel-hoops; they must have been noisy and, yes, painful if one was trundled into you!.