VAN AMBURGH, EXETER, 1842.

"This celebrated lion tamer entered this city on Monday morning, with his collection of lions, tigers, leopards and other wild beasts, the whole forming a procession such as was never before witnessed in Exeter.

"At the head was a handsome open carriage, containing a band of musicians, drawn by eight fine cream coloured horses, and driven by Van Amburgh himself; a train of caravans containing the various animals followed and the performing elephant marched along with stately strides clothed in oriental style, and bearing a houda filled with aspiring young gentlemen, who eagerly seized the opportunity of having such an unusual ride.  The movements of the elephant were directed by its keeper who sat upon its head.

"A spacious and handsome pavilion for the performance was erected in a field by Summerland-street, and the accommodation afforded was altogether complete.

"The animals exhibited consisted of lions, tigers, leopards, monkeys, a white polar bear, and the stuffed skins of two giraffes.

"In the course of the exhibition Van Amburgh entered two dens containing lions, tigers and leopards, and performed various feats with them, showing that their fierce dispositions had been subdued by his discipline.

"The elephant performed a number of feats, exhibiting wonderful sagacity, and showing that its amazing powers were entirely under the control of its keeper.  -  The elephant left town last evening accompanied to the verge of the city by many hundreds of  the citizens with whom he had become amazingly popular, but less for his bulk than for the docility of his manners and the placidity of his mind. His luggage occupied but little space.  His bed would be found where he stopped, but he had his coverlid on his back and his trunk before him. -  This morning, Mr Van Amburgh drove out of town with wonderful eclat."

*

Mr, Isaac Van Amburgh is a Famous American and there is a full biography for him at Wikipedia.  Of course, he visited everywhere he could  and newspapers up and down the land wrote more of less the same report on his travelling menagerie.  Before he came to Exeter, he was in Sidmouth, and after he left he went to Ashburton to perform.  Two years later he wowed Queen Victoria!

But it is pleasant to think of him processing with all his caravans along the High Street in Exeter, and particularly to think of those happy, little Exeter lads who got to ride in the houda, and the hundreds of citizens who had a soft spot for the placid elephant,  his name was Tipoo Sahib!,  who went to the city's edge to wave him goodbye.

I'm afraid Mr Van Amburgh's training methods would have him up before the magistrates these days.  Still, they were clearly effective.  He is famous for being the first man to have stuck his head into the lion's mouth and taken it out again.  

The Times reporter, we know him by now, couldn't resist the trunk pun.  Coverlid  is a recognised variant of coverlet which I have never seen before. I wonder if it was/is a local usage.  In any case it is pleasing in being closer to the French origin.

Source:  The Western Times,  25th June, 1842.

STEAMING OUT TO SEA, EXE ESTUARY, 1842.

 "The St. George's Company having determined to afford their friends a holiday, last Saturday was fixed on for the day.  The steamer left Topsham at a quarter past nine, having a goodly company on board.

"The morning was lovely;  a gentle breeze rippled the soft bosom of the beautiful Exe - expanded by high-water to a most glorious lake, and tempered the severe heat of the day.

"No river in England surpasses the Exe in its single reach at high-water, from Topsham to its embouchure.  In passing down you have the appearance of a glorious lake with Exeter and the hills behind for its head;  the Cathedral rising proudly above the city - venerable by time, and a thousand goodly associations - As we are on a holiday trip we keep to the bright side of the prospect.

"Turning your gaze to either bank of the river, you have on the one side Powderham Castle with its verdant park, and umbrageous foliage.  The castle presents no aspect so baronial as that which you catch in various openings from the river.  Above it rises Mamhead, with its overhanging woods,  and its proud specimen of classic architecture, in which the particular beauties of the Tudor style have been developed with an undefiled taste, and an exhaustless treasury.

"Leaving its varied beauty, and passing from the heights of Dawlish, we have on the other side of the river the charming Lympstone, with the elegant seat of Sir Trayton Drake, crouching like a beautiful sea bird at the margins of the waters; thence we pass on to Exmouth , from which may be seen, nestlng beneath the heights of Woodbury hill, the picturesque place of our excellent representative, Mr. Divett.

"The steamer at length is passing over the bar, a secret which is indicated by the pallid faces of those who have not sea-going stomachs.  Many citizens are now qualmish, and various specifics are resorted to, all of a conservative tendency, with a view of quieting the constitution, keeping it on its present basis and enabling the inner man to hold its own.  Some resort to a dry biscuit - others fly to brandy - porter is with some a specific.

"'Oh Steward!'   'You'd better go to lee-ward ma'am'.

"As we are walking the waters for pleasure, let us turn from this scene." 

*

I suspect this piece was written by a cub reporter.   Ah well, we all have to learn!

The St George's Company was a serious shipping company that, in Exeter, had an office in the Cathedral Yard. 

This jolly day-party went out to sea in the steamship 'Zephyr' and the continuation of her voyage westward can be read in the pages of The Western Times of 18th June 1842.

There are no surprises here.  These days the splendid distant views of the cathedral are more or less everywhere obscured, although the views of it from corners along Cowick Street are still impressive.  Mr Divett's, Exeter's longest serving(?) M.P.'s, 'seat', Bystock Court, is no longer a 'view' but Powderham  Castle and Nutwell Court, (the seat of Sir Trayton Drake) are still impressive and Lympstone, from the river, despite the intrusive macmansions, is still charming.  Dry-biscuit, brandy and porter have given way to Kwells.  The mouth of the river is no longer its embouchure , an improvement surely, but the Exe when the tide is up is still second to none in its glory. 

  

  

A WITCH FENDER, NEWTON ABBOT, 1842

 "An extraordinary instance of superstition credulity and cunning knavery came to the attention of the Magistrates at Newton Abbot, on Tuesday.

"A young woman of Denbury, having been taken ill, her friends gravely came to the opinion that she had been 'witched' and took her to a man named Thomas of Teignmouth, by trade a shoemaker, but by profession a 'white witch,' or witch fender.

"This imposter confirmed their fears, and insinuated that the mischief had been done by a poor woman, their neighbour, at Denbury.

"One of the means, which he directed to counteract the evil, was to take the girl into a field and exercise her violently for two hours by running tound it, taking care to jump her and shake her about well at the four corners.  This the poor creature performed with such zeal that in a few hours after the girl died.

"The feeling now aroused in the village against the poor old woman, falsely accused, was such that she was obliged to apply to the Magistrates for protection.  They issued a warrant for the immediate apprehension of Thomas....

"....Evidence having been heard,  the witch fender, with the fear of the treadmill before his eyes, .... with the coolest effrontery acknowledged that all his pretended charms were impositions - much to the surprise, and we hope to the edification, of his former patients. some of whom were present, and clamorously demanded restitution of money paid in the purchase of them.

"The case ended in the man's dismissal."

*

It amazes us , perhaps, that belief in malign witchcraft and white-witches who can fend it off persisted, in Devon, so far into the nineteenth century  but this story, from The Western Times of 4th May, 1842, bade me recall how, in 2011, a wave of superstition, flowing from St. James's Palace washed away from our city the world's first Professor of Alternative Medicine and his researchers but not before they had done sterling work.  Superstition, credulity and cunning knavery are always with us! 

The term witch fender would seem to have had common currency in 1842,   Today the word fender seems to be restricted to boats, cars and fireplaces.  The word's meaning is subtly not the same as that of defender, from which it derives, but has clearly the sense of warding off.  

The court did well not to send Thomas to gaol; his treatments sound healthy enough and his former patients were perhaps wrong to want their money back.  Had they not heard of the placebo effect?  And, goodness me!;  what if, in our own time, all the surviving patients of cunning homeopaths were to clamour for their money back?

 

  

THE ROGUE'S MARCH, EXETER, 1842.

 "A man belonging to this fine regiment, named William Smith was, on Monday morning last, drummed out of the regiment, in conformity with the sentence of a court martial by which he had been convicted of repeated acts of petty theft among his comrades.

"The sentence was carried into execution in the usual manner, the prisoner being marched at the head of the regiment, without the confines of the barracks, with a large placard on his back, inscribed with the word 'thief' in large letters, and the band playing 'The Rogue's March.'

"The scene was witnessed by an immense number of spectators.

"The prisoner appeared to treat his disgraceful situation with a great deal of levity; when set at liberty, he tore the badge from his back and retreated into a neighbouring public-house where he regaled himself with a pipe and a half-pint of beer."

*

The 'fine regiment'  was the Scots Greys.  The report is from The Western Times of 7th May, 1842.

Ah!, to have lived in an age when the Army laid on free entertainment for the citizens of Exeter,  There were military funerals. military drummings-out, military reviews, military concerts of a Sunday, military parades, all colourful and lively and serving to please the people and to attract recruits to the service of the nation; even that thieving Bill Smith seemed pleased to contribute to the cause.  

There were many unofficial lyrics to The Rogue's March.  A contemporary one went:

"Fifty I got for selling my coat,/ fifty for selling my blanket./ If ever I 'lists for a sodger again/ the Devil shall be my sergeant."

'Got' and 'coat' is an admirable assonance;  'blanket' and 'sergeant' is just getting the rhyme wrong.  

It would seem that the light-headed, light-hearted, light-fingered Trooper Smith had not been flogged, not fifty lashes, not lately anyway.

   

MR EYRE KINGDON AND THE VAGABOND, EXETER, 1842.

"Mr. Eyre Kingdon," reported The Western Times in 1835, "is a well-meaning young gentleman, of considerable talent, and great zeal." by which The Times meant to convey that, in the newspaper's opinion, John Eyre Kingdon was a  somewhat foolish, young, Tory busybody. They expressed themselves carefully because he was the Mayor's son.

Seven years later, John, no longer so young but married and with a family, resided in one of the smart, new houses at Mount Radford (No. 4) and  seems still to have been a busybody albeit clearly a plucky one or perhaps, one should say that he was an early gentleman consulting-detective predating Sherlock Holmes by some 50 years. Anyway, The Times of April 29th was pleased to report this snippet of news:    

"Mr Eyre Kingdon is well known for his activity in aiding the police to apprehend thieves.  A vagabond went to him the other day, and said, for a pint of beer he would disclose where the spirits stolen from the Cattle Market Inn were 'planted.'

"Mr Eyre gave a quart, proud of the confidence reposed in him.  The fellow then said that the jars were planted in the river, and the thieves intended to fish them up at night.

"Mr. Eyre took his station at an early hour of the night, but the thieves never came to 'fish,' so that he lost his quart and caught a cold. It is possible that the thieves saw him, and would not go to the 'plant'."

*

The Cattle Market Inn was a 'commodious and well-accustomed public-house' in the Bonhay where could be found a 'dancing room' and 'girls of a loose character.'

Newspaper punsters seem to have been more subtle in 1842, 'caught' and 'quart' are so nicely juxtaposed.

A FLY AND A HALF, EXETER, 1842.

The Western Times of  16th April, 1842 reported:

"A man named Charles Wright, by trade a baker, was taken before the County Magistrates, at the Castle, on Monday last, charged with having attempted to administer cantharides, or Spanish flies, to a young girl, named Mary Wickett, living in St.Thomas.

It appeared that the prisoner had placed about a fly and a half in a broad fig, which he gave to a little boy who lived with the complainant, and told him to give it to Mary Wickett, without letting her mother know anything about it.

Fortunately, however, the mother of the girl intercepted the dangerous drug, and gave the man into custody,

After a full examination, Wright was ordered to find bail, himself in £50  and two sureties in £25 each, to appear at the next general Sessions to answer the above charge.

*

I hadn't heard about Spanish flies since I was in the Lower Yard at school.   We all knew all about them then.   A boy found a gurl and cleverly tricked her into eating a Spanish fly and she would instantly turn into a sex-mad predator who would certainly want to kiss him.  I don't imagine many of us had ever seen much of the creatures in question, flies or gurls, yet the reputably aphrodisiacal Spanish fly existed and doubtless still exists despite the fact that it happens to be a beetle.  These days, to parody Ogden Nash:  'flies get a rise/ but liquor is quicker', especially, when experienced by the something like ten-per-cent of the population whose drinks are 'spiked' from time to time.

The poor, lovelorn baker, Charles Wright, I suspect he was not much more than a boy, tried the experiment on little Mary Wickett but Mary's mum found the flies and recognised them for what they were.  A good thing too in so far that the fly and a half were more likely to make Mary ill than to make her amorous,  but rather severe on Charles whose offence was deemed by the magistrates at Exeter Castle to be serious enough  for him to face trial at the Assize. 

And what is a broad fig?

  

A BOAT MADE OF THE SLIGHTEST MATERIALS, SIDMOUTH, 1842.

 The Sidmouth correspondent to The Western Times of Saturday, 9th April 1842 reported: 

"On Friday, there was a large quantity of illicit brandy  landed about a mile to the east of this town, unperceived  by the coast-guard of the adjoining stations.

"The smugglers left behind them a boat used in landing their cargo from some larger vessel, and which was evidently made with a calculation as to its probable loss, it being made of the slightest materials, and not painted,  It is in the possession of the coast-guard, and marked with the broad arrow." 

For a second consecutive month (see my last blog!) the coastguard stations at Sidmouth and Weston did not notice a ship delivering a cargo of brandy to, on both occasions it can only have been, Salcombe Mouth.  The ship would have shown no lights and the crew would have made no noise and would perhaps have navigated by what the National Trust calls 'the day-mark', the great, white, man-made area of flint stones high on Dunscombe(?) cliff, which would also serve, most nights, as a night-mark.  (Does anyone know when this 'mark' was made?)

This is the first time I have read of smugglers using a cheap-and-cheerful, dispensable, unpainted boat 'made of the slightest materials' which could be abandoned on the beach to amaze and dismay the excisemen.  The boat must at least have been sturdy enough to serve as a lighter.

The customs officers of Sidmouth and Weston seem seldom to have found any kegs of illicit brandy to mark with the ordnance's famous crow's foot.    Does one sense a lack of urgency?