This story of gallivanting painters,'wicked' wives and offended husbands, which was reported in The Western Times 1st September 1832, leaves many questions unanswered but seems to me remarkable for the vocabulary the report uses and for the acceptance of violence it manifests.
"Caution to Gallivanting Painters. -
"A couple of Swells, both in the putty line, were caught, on Sunday night last, at a house in St.Thomas, breaking the seventh commandment; the husband of one of the wicked women, set on her hapless paramour and towelled him as if he were made of board instead of flesh and blood, and then let him go; but such was his fear of a second edition that he would not venture out of the house till three o'clock in the morning - so well had the injured husband peppered him. He is not likely to transgress again.
"The other one being a married man was turned over to the vengeance of his lawful wife, the severest punishment that can be inflicted in such cases."
The excellent Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 1893, gives only one definition of towel used as a verb: "[From the phrase "to rub down with an oaken towel"] to beat with a stick, to cudgel."
Peppered is used in the sense of being done for as by Shakespeare, (Mercutio to Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.)
In the putty line, I guess, defines the 'painters' as housepainters rather than artists. Swells, of course is ironic. This is low-life.
Is there not something cosy about the way in which the reporter can assume that his readers, believers and unbelievers alike, will know their bible well enough to recognise his reference to the commandments? There's Culture for you!
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