COLLECTING SIXPENCES, EXETER, 1845.

The Western Times of 8th February 1845 published a letter from a correspondent living in the village of Bow, eight miles west of Crediton of which this is an extract:

"A small farmer of Morchard Bishop has a son who for two years has been subject to fits, and having consulted many medical men in Exeter, without receiving any benefit, was advised a short time ago to go to the "white witch"  the cognomen of a person who lives in Exeter.

This swindling vagabond told the poor man to procure fifteen sixpences from females living in three adjoining parishes, and to bring them to him in Exeter on a certain day, when he would let him have a silver ring for his son to wear on his finger, which he pretended would completely cure him.

"One day last week I met the silly dupe in this parish, collecting the sixpences which he intended to carry to Exeter the next day, and which no doubt ere this the Doctor has pocketed.  On my questioning the man, he told me that the "white witch" or high priest of his order, has a very extensive practice among men of his class, that in fact it is his only business, and that he lives in a very good house in Exeter.

"I should like to see this impudent imposter punished, a very fit subject for lynch's law.  If he were ducked in your river once or twice, I have no doubt 'twould cure him."

This newspaper correspondence is regettably all hearsay and  does not identify the full-time white-witch nor does it inform us where in Exeter he lived.  But it is surely remarkable, if true, that an impudent imposter could find enough gullible Devonians on whom to practice white-witchcraft and thereby to maintain a very good house.

The method of the imposture rings true;  only sixpences would serve,; there had to be fifteen of them, no more, no fewer,  and they had to come from females and they had to come from three different parishes and be delivered by a certain date.  You can imagine a poor bumpkin struggling with all the crazy conditions anxious that if he made a mistake the charm would miscarry.

This story made me remember a great man called  Edzard Ernst, a professor who lost his job, and of his team whose critical evaluation of alternative medicine at Exeter University was aborted in 1993 largely because of our present king's faith in an impudent imposture called homeopathy - still, you can't duck a king in the River Exe, not even once!

Lynch's law is fun for lynch-law.  Everyone seems to agree that it was in Virginia, USA and in 1780 that lynching was launched.  A Charles Lynch competes with a William Lynch for the honour.  My 1895 Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary has:  lynch, v.t.  said to be derived from the name of a Virginia farmer, who took the law into his own hands by tying a thief to a tree and then flogging him.  I'm for the unidentified farmer and for it being an earlier usage.   

                                                                     

GETTING GLORIOUSLY DRUNK, EXETER, 1845.

 "Incredible as the followig circumstance may appear, it is nevertheless strictly true. - On Sunday, a person living in Sherman's Court in this city,  having occasiion to draw off some soft water from the cock, was surprised to see it of a reddish brown colour, and still more, on tasting it, to find it very good beer, though it had evidently been very lately brewed.

"He could not conceal his good luck, the news of which soon spread, and other cocks were tried with the same result, and on Sunday and part of Monday the denizens of "the Quarter" made the most of the chance by getting gloriously drunk.

"How to account for it is, at present, not easy, but some brewer in the neighbourhood must have suffered, and the beer must have been drawn off by the pipes which were only designed to bring water in.  At present no brewer can be found who will confess to having lost his beer.  Perhaps the same pipes that emptied his vats of their contents, have by this time filled them again with the aqua pura of the resevoir."

"The Quarter" signifies Exeter's West Quarter,  the busiest part of the city within which, at one time, it is said there were forty public houses, many, possibly all, of which brewed their own beer. 

Sherman's Court was a small court or tenement off West Street. 

No doubt The Gazette was making the best of the story but, nonetheless, free beer on a Sunday from the 'cocks' must have seemed a small miracle to the person living in Sherman's Court and his neighbours.

Cock for a faucet or a tap has all but disappeared.  We still have stop-cocks of course.   For Shakespeare it was simply a spout and therefore to hand for bawdy puns. 

Source:  The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 1st February, 1845.

EASY LESSONS, EXETER, 1845.

Under this title The Western Times of 25th January 1845 published a correspondent's curious attempt at humour in the matter of the perceived shift towards the much feared Church of Rome of Henry Phillpotts,  Bishop of Exeter. The passage is in the style of a Victorian child's first 'reader',  hence the hyphens between the syllables.     

"Har-ry Phill-pots of Ex-on was a sad naugh-ty lad.  He did not wish to say his pray-ers right, and he was a bad boy in the Church.

"The Queen did tell him he must wear a gown, but he did not like to wear it.  What a sad boy was he to try to cast off the gown which his Queen did tell him he must wear. 

"Har-ry was like the dog in the man-ger.  He did not want the gown him-self and he did not wish oth-ers to wear it; but if he does not take care, they say the Queen will make him give his gown to some good boy who will like to wear it, and she will al-so take away his big wig, of which he is so proud.

"Har-ry did shake a paw with a sly Pus-sey; but one day Pus-sey will put forth his sharp claw, and will scratch him, and will bite him too if he does not mind, for Pus-sey is ve-ry sly!!"

By Pus-sey, of course, is meant Edward Bouverie Pusey, a leader of the Tractarian Movement at Oxford, and his Puseyite followers.

The writer of the above piece had no reason to fear that Henry Phillpotts might lose his big wig. Phillpotts was, in fact, to be the longest serving English bishop since the fourteenth century, driving his many enemies mad by his continuance in office until 1869.

The Western Times and its correspondents, seem never to make up their minds how to spell Phillpotts.  One suspects they only do it to annoy because they know it teases.

Dog in the man-ger: do young people still know their Aesop?

The title 'Early Lessons' may be an echo of the title of a chapbook, popular, 1830 - 1839, viz. The First Book or Step to Learning.  Short and \Easy Lessons for Children, by R. Elliott, of Hereford.

 

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY, EXETER, 2025.

 A lot of people  went to a lot of effort to make Remembrance Sunday 2025 a relative success.    The service was well conducted and  more dignified than in former years.   Nevertheless, I am re-blogging my comments of Remembrance Sunday 2024 because, within 48 hours the gates of the city's Gardens were again been locked against the citizens. This annual disrespect to the veterans of many wars is a scandal and I am not the only veteran in Exeter who thinks so.  This is the time of year when citizens throughout the nation remember.  The wreaths so sincerely inscribed and so solemnly laid will not  properly be seen again until Christmas by which time, if they survive, they will hardly be in any condition to remind the nation of it's debt to dead servicemen. 

The irony is that the motive behind this civic disrespect is shortage of funds.  Ironic because if the Exeter City Council only gave sensitive thought how to make these unique, historic Gardens more attractive to visitors, i.e. to promote them as 'gardens' rather than as a field wherein to mount 'events', they would do far more for the reputation and the prosperity of the city than they now do with the vulgar abuse to which the Gardens are exposed.   

From the archive:

On Remembrance Sunday, 2024, in Exeter there was no ceremony to remember the dead of Devon at the County war-memorial in the Cathedral Yard.   This was just as well for the Sons (and Daughters) of Mammon had built their houses (The Christmas Market!) so close to the Devon war-memorial that they had not left room for the Lord-lieutenant to lay his wreath.

Respect for those Devonians who gave their lives for the causes of this nation was therefore registered, subsumed, in the moving ceremony that took place in the Northernhay Gardens, Exeter's sacred corner, its Valhalla and the jewel in the city's crown, where stands the very fine Exeter war-memorial executed by the Devon sculptor, John Angel, and where also is a rather sad war-memorial raised to those who have lost their lives in more recent conflicts.  A larger crowd than usual, therefore, turned up to see the Mayor of Exeter and other dignitaries, civil and military, lay wreaths to the memory of the fallen.

The following day, yesterday as I write, was Armisitice Day and the gates of Northernhay Gardens are once again locked against city folk and county folk and all.  None will have access to the Gardens until 22nd November.  The wreaths lie at the war-memorials in what has officially become a 'construction site' with only the 'constructors' to see them.  They will inspire no remembrance. Exeter's will be the war-memorial least visited in the kingdom. The Lord Mayor, who so sincerely bade us remember the sacrifice of so many, and his Council, have rented out the Gardens to be once again a 'Winter Wonderland' which is to say a rather tatty and harmful, to the Gardens, funfair.

The Gardens, for Health and Safety reasons, are now denied to the public.  When they are opened again the city's war-memorial wil be surrounded by all the fun of the fair and by plastic 'rudolfs', 'santas' and such.  Not much thought will be given to the glorious dead. 

There will be a further week of Health and Safety closure while the 'Wonderland' is packed away.  Shortly before Christmas the people of Devon and Exeter will have their war-memorial back, the wreathes, so 'respectfully' laid will have wasted, degraded by the rains and winds of winter and much of Northernhay Gardens, no doubt, will exhibit swathes of the mud that one associates with Flanders Field.

A SMART, ACTIVE, INTELLIGENT SOLDIER, EXETER, 1845.

 According to The Western Times of 18th January 1845, the young Puseyite clergymen of Exeter were in the business of  slandering those citizens who disapproved of them.  One such victim of their foul weapons  was George Augustus Moore, a worthy and respectable member of society and an Exeter auctioneer who lived opposite St. Sidwell's church:  The newspaper was quick to nail the libel:

"He is charged with havng been flogged, and drummed out of the army.  This atrocious falsehood, originating in pure and incomprehensible malice, and circuated for the gratification of the most diabolical feelings, puzzles almost as much as it disgusts one.

"We are at a loss to contrive how it can possibly serve the cause of the surplice, Divine right and Apostolical succession, to invent so black a falsehood against a harmless and unoffending, and comparatively humble man.

"What is stranger still, is that Mr. Moore has not taken any active part in the meetings.  He has neither spoken nor acted at them in any way to excite observation.  He happened, however, to leave the church, on Sunday morning last on the Rev. Perpetual Courtenay going into the pulpit in his surplice.

"In the afternoon Mr. Moore stood at his own door, opposite the church, and observing the crowd proceed to follow the clergyman, actually interfered for his protection.  For this service he is rewarded with this atrocious slander.

"And now for the slander itself.  Mr Moore, at the age of between fifteen and sixteen, left his apprenticeship, (his father having paid £100 premium) and enliisted in the 6th Light Dragoons (subsequently the 16th Lancers).

"Mr Moore having entered the army for love of military adventure, became a smart, active and intelligent soldier.  He was generally employed as an orderly, a duty always bestowed on picked men, and rapidly rose to ne Serjeant. He was orderly to the Duke of York, at Bushy Park, to the Marquis of Anglesea on the field of Waterloo, saw him wounded, and assisted him to the litter.   He was then tranferre to General Sir John Vandeleur, who took the command after the Marquis was disabled, in which service Mr. Moore lost his horse from under him.  Having been rehorsed, he subsequently saved the life of his Captain (Wayland) at the expence of a sabre and lance wound in his right arm, which service Captain Wayland handsomely acknowledged by a gratuity.  Mr Moore was offered to be made Regimental Clerk and Serjeant on the field, in consequence of the death of the Regimental Clerk, but he preferred active service in the ranks, and respectfully declined.  The day after the battle,  Mr Moore was dispatched with secret orders to Capt. King, of the 16th, who was at the rendezvous of the allied Generals, at Amiens.  This service through the retreating forces of the Frrench required courage, tact and fidelity, and would not have been entrusted to any man who had not acquired the  esteem and confidence of his superiors.

"On his return to England, Mr Moore, having been made Serjeant, - served as orderly in Ireland, to Earl Wentworth, the Lord Lieutenant, and afterwards to Earl Talbot, the Lord Lieutenant, and finally,his friends purchsed his discharge from the regiment in which he had served six years.

We have his discharge and his Waterloo medal now lying before us.  The former bears testimony to his good conduct,  the latter speaks for itself."

I felt it was right and fitting that I found myself reading this account of George Augustus Moore's honourable military service on Remembrance Sunday 2025. 

Wearing the surplice was one of the symbols of the retreat to the old Roman Catholic forms of worship much feared and hated by Anglicans in Exeter.

George was 49 in 1845.  He died 20 years later at Devonshire House, Heavitree, later known as. Heavitrree House  This had been the picturesque house, the home of the famous traveller and writer, Sir Richard Ford, who had died in 1858.   The house had a celebrated Spanish Garden.  I like to think of George enjoying it.

George was married and had issue.  His wife, Maria, died, back in Verney Place, St. Sidwell's, in 1881. 

George Augustus Moore witnessed the Marquis of Anglesey, who was still very much alive in 1845, losing his leg, which, so goes the anecdote, occasioned the memorable exchange beteen the Marquis, then Lord Uxbridge, and the Iron Duke: :

Uxbridge:   "By God , sir, I believe I have lost my, leg!"

Wellington:  "By God, sir,  so you have!" 

A DECEASED PIG, EXETER, 1845.

 "The carcase of a deceased pig was detected on Saturday, in the market, by Ellicombe, the warden of the shambles, who combines the experience of a practical butcher with the acute scent of a policeman

"The owner of the carrion, Charles Clements of Cheriton Fitzpaine, was admonished by the Mayor and the pig sentenced  to be burned.

"The execution of the sentence took place in the waste spot near the City Prison."

*

The word shambles, meaning a butcher's' row, according to Eric Partridge, derives curiously from a shambling  or unsteady walk.  Shamble is an obsolete word  meaning an (unsteady?) bench, especially one used by butchers to chop meat.   Hence the shambles becomes the  meat market and hence also a place of slaughter where gobbets of flesh are to be found lying around and the occasional deceased pig.  Ellicombe was the warden of the shambles at the Market  in Exeter.  Artificial Intelligence seems to think shambles derives from an anglo-saxon word fleshammels meaning flesh shelves.  Others derive shamble, a bench directly from the latin scammel, a bench,

The City Prison stood where now the Mercure Rougemont Hotel stands.  I am told there are still traces of the prison in cellars beneath the hotel.  The County Jail was not opened until 1853.

I imagine the burning of the diseased deceased to have been publicly executed outside the city wall to the amusement of young and old.

Source: The Western Times, 11th January 1845.

THE SON OF A CLERGYMAN, EXETER, 1845.

 "Mr. JOHN ADNEY was charged witha assaulting a girl of the town, named Anne Woodbury.  The defendant answered the summons, and said his solicitor, Mr. Laidman was there.  The Court having waited for him, however, for some time, the defendant rquested the Magistrates to "be quick," adding that "he was not very well, nd considerably annoyed at being called there."  He expressed his wish not to wait for Mr. Laidman and the case proceeded.  

"The complainant stted that Mr. Adney came up to her in High-street, about eleven at night, and invited her to walk with him.  They went down towards the Theatre, where he attempted indecent liberties.  She resisted , and he knocked her down, tearing her dress in the mannner she displayed.  Policeman Thomas Deacon stated that he heard a scuffle, and on coming up, saw the defendant with his fists knock the woman down.  Mr. Adney here exclaimed,  "You lying blackguard - you d---d liar!"  

"The MAYOR - "Don't you interrupt the proceedings , sir, or I shall commit you." 

"Mr. HOOPER -  "Remember sir, you are before a Bench of Magistrates; your conduct here is the best proof that you would be guilty of such a thing as is laid to your charge - the son of a clergyman too, to make use of such language!"

"Defendant - "Well, sir, it is a lie what he says."

"The watchman repeated his statement adding that when the girl fell Adney ran away, but was afterwards stopped; he had evidently been drinking.

"The defendant being called on, stated that he walked with the girl, and she wanted him to treat her.  He refused and was about to leave her, when she caught him by the coat tails, on which, in self defence, he was obliged to throw her on the road.  Striking her he denied,"

"The Mayor - There can be no doubt you have been guilty of an assault, and we think under aggravating circumstances.  Though your conduct in this Court has been most improper,  we shall not visit that upon you;  but for the assault we fine you 20s. and expenses.  

"The defendant, before leaving the Court, asserted that the girl had received a sovereign from his father, on condition that she should not appear against him; but this she earnestly denied.

 "[The Bench fined the working man 20s. and costs, the other day, for interrupting the police, who had apprehended his son, for sliding on the pavement.  Not very even-handed justice when compared with this case.]"  

*

The opposite of the even-handed justice which The Western Times promulgated in 1845 is that two-tier justice about which we hear much today.   The father of the sliding boy was the working man; John Adney who used his fists to knock down Anne Woodbury was a gentleman by virtue of being the son of a clergyman.  They could hardly expect to be treated equally.  The Mayor and magistrates call John Adney 'sir' although he was probably a very young fellow.  To the Court and to the newspaper he was Mr. Adney.  Anne Woodbury was the woman.   The fine was nothing to Mr. Adney.  He said his reverend father had already bribed  Anne Woodbury to silence with a sovereign.  I hope he had and she enjoyed the spending of it.

The pattern of interaction between 'girls of the town' and 'gentlemen' was established.  "Will you walk with me?" was the common question.  These interactions were common on the streets and in the public gardens.  The girls were sometimes as young as nine.  Twelve was, for what it mattered, the age of consent.  Of course there were 'girls' of all ages. The girls expected a treat, either in the form of money or something to eat and drink.  How the encounter progressed depended on circumstances.  Sometimes, not often, the gentleman lost his purse or his pocket-watch. Sometimes, as here, there was violence. Sometimes there was sex -  but only sometimes.

Source:  The Western Times,  4th January 1845

COMELY, ENGAGING AND GAY, EXETER, 1844.

 J. SOLOMON and Co.,  City Tailoring and Oufitting Establishment at at 193, High Street Exeter, were responsible for these truly pathetic verses published in The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette of 14th December 1844:

At a season like this when the juvenile folks

Are beginning to count on their holiday jokes,

When numberless glad preparations appear,

To welcome the season of Christmas with cheer;

J. SOLOMON feels inclined to impress

The importance of buying their "Juvenile Dress."

If parents and guardians wish to be suited

With garments whose value was never disputed,

If they wish for their youths to be clad in a way

Which makes them look comely, engaging and gay

Let them purchase at once of J. SOLOMON

Those suits which such marks of approval have won.

The "Juvenile Dresses" of SOLOMON are made

In the newest of Fashion, with beautiful braid;

The dresses are formed just to suit tender age

And therefore your children are sure to engage:

You'll not find them made in an old fashion'd style,

Which often makes persons with ridicule smile;

Their taste and their elegant neatness have won

Ten thousand approvals for J. SOLOMON,

These garments are made in a manner so firm,

That really we're quite at a loss for a term.

Your children may join in the juvenile sport,

But they'll hurt not their garments so firmly they're wrought.

Then hasten this season , as thousands have done,

For the juvenile clothing of J. SOLOMON."

It is not easy to compose verses for commercial purposes. - I write assuredly as one who was once recruited to supply "poems" to an advertising campaign selling Life Insurance! - and J. Solomon & Co. have done their best.

I like the image of the little Victorian boys and girls being fitted out at Solomon's by proud parents and guardians, anxious that their children should be fashionable and beyond ridicule.  The bespoke posh kids and the aspiring ready mades.  

The composer, however, of these verses was not forgetting that this was a business matter and adds a couplet under the title: "OBSERVE."

"In figures plain we mark the prices paid,

And no abatement can of course be made."

I have not read or heard comely for a while.  The OED says the word  "as used of persons, implies a homelier style of beauty, which pleases without exciting admiration"

It is still the case that people in Exeter go to great pains to make their little children comely, engaging and gay but it is also apparent that, these days, parental influence very soon wanes. 

A GUNNER IN THE NAVY, TOPSHAM, 1844.

 Below is a death notice from The Exeter Flying Post, of 7th November, 1844, that caught my eye:

"Oct, 28, at Topsham, Mr. Thomas Dodd, gunner in the Navy, aged 95.

"He was nearly 40 years in active service, and received upwards of 30 wounds.  He was one of those who escaped at the blowing up of the "Amphion" at Plymouth, in 1796; one of Captain Macbride's crew at the taking of the Count d'Artois and one of Sir R.Pearson's crew in his engagement with the noted Paul Jones.

"He was a man of the most industrious habits and abstemiousness."

*

I don't know that Thomas Dodd is forgotten but it seems to me he is worthy of remembrance.  Only twelve people of the three hundred and twelve aboard the Amphion survived the explosion.  Thomas, was forty-seven at the time.  The explosion was blamed on a drunken gunner, one of his messmates.

At the taking of the Count d'Artois  in August 1780, Thomas was aboard the Bienfaisant,  The prize money would have been significant.

In 1779, Thomas was aboard the Serapis when she met a French and American Squadron under Paul Jones.  Captain Richard Pearson held off the enemy long enough for the convoy which he was escorting to sail to safety, then he surrendered his ship, for which he was hailed as a hero and knighted.

I have lately met a couple of young English people who had never heard of Horatio Nelson  - not their fault, poor young things! -  but their ignorance, which I don't imagine is exceptional, seems to contrast sharply with the awareness of British naval history illustrated by this 1844, deaths-column notice.   

 

 

A GLARING SOURCE OF CORRUPTION, EXETER, 1844

"John Wotton the landlord of the Mermaid Inn, Exeter, was summoned for allowing Card playing on his premises.  

A lad named Davey aged 14 stated that on Tuesday 5th  Nov. inst, he and several boys spent several hours  at the defendant's house playing at bagatelle and cards.  Witness was also there on the next night playing at cards in the tap room with several other lads.  The landlord himself played with them. - Witness brought the cards with him in his pocket, they played for beer.

His Worship the Mayor, after consulting with his brother magistrates, addressed the defendant in very strong terms upon the immorality (as well as illegality) of his conduct in encouraging youths to gamble.  The Bench were determined to stop the card playing in public houses which had now become a great and glaring source of corruption to the boys of the city of Exeter, the robberies so frequently committed upon masters and employers were solely the result of public house gambling.  The defendant was fined 50s. for each offence and 12s. expenses.  ordered to pay within a week, or distrained upon for the amount."

Card-playing was  seen as a prevalent offence.  Five pounds, twelve shillings was a hefty fine in 1844.  It would buy four donkeys!  I hope John Wotton found the cash.

The Mermaid was a famous, ancient, Exeter hostelry between Combe Street and Preston Street.

Bagatelle canot have been illegal per se because the tables were installed in many public-houses but it seems card-playing was - and you needed to bring your own cards in your pocket.  The gambling for beer though was certainly deemed not only illegal but a great and glaring source of corruption. Of course the age lacked social scientists to test such assertions.

The lad named Davey was fourteen, some of the other boys were perhaps younger. I imagine them with little old men's faces sitting round the pub-table knocking back the beer, smoking and gambling, - a hand of cards with the landlord, -  laughing and joking and thinking themselves very grown up. 

Nowadays, as perhaps an equivalent,  one can see, behind the plate-glass, alarmingly young-looking cocktail-sippers sitting around tables in the  Queen Street gin-palaces, each one intent on his or her own mobile-phone,  -  privately playing online poker perhaps! 

Source: The Exeter Flying Post, 21st November, 1844.

THE IDENTITY OF THE CABBAGES, EXETER, 1844.

At the Castle of Exeter on Friday 15th November 1844, a man named Dinham, who five months before had been taken up by the constable of the parish of St Thomas, Ratcliffe for stealing cabbage plants at Alphington, came to court accusing the constable of malpractice.  

Dinham swore that the day after he was arrested....

"....Ratcliffe came to him in the lock-up house and offered to cut off the ends of the stumps so as to destroy the identity of the cabbages, if Dinham would give him 5s.  This he could not do; but he said his wife should bring him a pawn-ticket for a watch, which was done the following morning before he went to the Magistrates at the Castle.

"The tale was to be corroborated by the evidence of Dinham's wife, but she was contradicted.  Ratcliffe did not deny he had the ticket,  but he proved that he took it honestly for his expenses after this case was dismissed, as it was from not one of the stumps fitting.  Who cut the stumps, however, remans a mystery.  The bench dismissed this complaint," 

This altogether bizarre case defeats me.  Here was Dinham, virtually admitting to the Great Cabbage Robbery by saying he had bribed the constable with a pawn-ticket to cut the stumps off the 'evidence.'  This, presumably, because the prosecutor in the cabbage-case depended on evidence collected in the cabbage-field by trying to match the cut cabbage stumps to the stumps still in the ground. (an interesting image!)   

The constable, Ratcliffe, still held the pawn-ticket and Dinham's watch was still in the pawn -shop.  Dinham's alleged cabbage-stealing had been dismissed for lack of stump-evidence.  Ratcliffe somehow convinced the Magistrates that the pawn-ticket came his way legitimately.   It is hard to imagine how.  

The Gazette avers that the stumps had been cut but that who had cut them remained a mystery.  The bench dismissed the complaint.  

Curiouser and curiouser!  

Source:  The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette,  16th November, 1844.

A SHIP-BOY, EXETER, 1844.

"On Tuesday, Frederick Bodley, the master of a trading vessel lying in the basin was summoned to the Guildhall by the mother of a boy whom he had taken from Exeter as a ship-boy on his last voyage  (but who had been left at Dover), for payment of a sum of money, as wages for one month and twenty-eight days, the period the lad was on board the ship, in order to get him home.

"It appeared that the defendant took the lad on board, having agreed to give him what he was worth at the conclusion of the voyage;  but the youth was ill from sea-sickness all the while, it being his first trip out to sea.  His shoes being worn out, he applied to the defendant to buy him a new pair; but he replied he had no money.  It was not clear whether the boy absented himself from the ship at Dover, or was unable to continue on board.

"The Bench suggested that Bodley should give ten shillings to the mother; but this he refused, saying it was much more than the boy was worth, and the summons was enlarged until the boy came back, which the mother said should be next week, if she "distressed herself of the last thing to do it.""

As so often, I find myself wishing for more information than is given by the report  (The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 2nd November, 1844).  How old was this boy?  What was his name?  &c.  Nevertheless I blog him as an example of  ship's boys of the mid-Victorian age and  of the notorious mistreatment of them by "cruel" skippers.  There must have been responsible, even generous, masters of trading vessels but Frederick  Bodley was clearly not one of them.   By the sound of it he took this 'boy' to sea for two months and then stranded him in Dover with no money and no shoes to his feet and was not prepared to give the 'distressed' mother any help to recover her child.  The Exeter magistrates seem not to have remonstrated with him!

LIKE THE SKINNED EELS, EXETER, 1844.

 "Yesterday morning, as the Half Moon Railway Omnibus was standing in front of the Star Inn, the horses started off, and galloped at a furious rate down Fore-street Hill, across Exe Bridge and into the shop of Mr Bond, cooper, at the corner of  Okehampton-street, St. Thomas.

"As the accident occured so early as four o'clock, it may naturally be supposed that the happy inmates must have been rocked, not only out of their slumbers but absolutely out of their beds,

"Let it not surprise our readers that such was not the case;  in fact the worthy cooper, like the skinned eels, has become so used to such occurences, that although he thought them cruel in the first place, he is now quite quiescent under the infliction -with the proviso, of course, that the damaged glass be replaced.

"The horses, as well as the shop windows, received but little injury; and what renders the incident more interesting, is the fact that a lady and a gentleman were inside the "buss," and they also came off unharmed." 

This report of little import, from The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette  of 26th October, 1844, is another example of how the 'new' omnibuses were perceived to be monsters causing havoc in Exeter.

The Half Moon Hotel was a prestigious coaching-inn on Exeter High Street.  The Star Inn was on Fore Street, opposite the Tuckers Hall.  

The reference to skinned eels is from a popular book, Thoughts upon Hunting, written by Sir Peter Beckford, and published in 1781.   Beckford meets a girl skinning live eels.  He asks her if she does not think this cruel.  She replies:  "O, not at all, sir, they be used to it."  Clearly his skinned eels had become idiomatic by 1844.   Later, Winston Churchill uses the phrase idiomatically at least twice.  Lost now?  Bring it back!

It is interesting to see the diminuative "buss" already in use.  Soon to become bus. perhaps to distinguish it from buss meaning kiss.  (My father could not resist writing 'bus with the apostrophe.)

I can imagine the lady and gentleman hurtling down Fore Street Hill in an empty bus.  I dare say they were clinging to each other -  but not bussing I think!

, 

THAT WOSH LIKELY!, EXETER, 1844.

"On Tuesday, at the Guildhall, two girls in the employ of Lewis Barnett, a Jew slop-seller residing in Goldsmith-street, were charged by their master with appropriating money realised by selling goods in his shop.

"He stated that on Friday he was out of town and whilst his wife was at market the girls sold a "Jim Crow" cap for 7d, and a boy's cloth cap for 1s. 4d. to a person who had come from the country.  They informed Mrs. Barnett when she returned that they had sold a "Jim-crow" for sixpence for which she blamed them, as it was not the proper price.

"On Tuesday, however, the purchaser of the articles brought back the cloth cap to be exchanged for a smaller one, and the transaction was discovered.  The cap cost Barnett two shillings, and his anger and astonishment at the wrong which had been done him may be readily conceived; nor was his desire expressed during his immediate interview with the magistrates "to sharve them out" any more than natural.

"The mistress of the girls stated, that when she went to market on Friday, she said to them "Now girls, don't refuse any money."  The girls in their defence, said that she added,- "and keep it for yourselves;"  to which Barnett replied with a sneer, "That wosh likely!"  It did transpire, however that the complainant owed them ten shilling for wages......

....The complainant was advised to discharge his girls without a character; and in case they sued him in the Courts of Requests for the wages, to set up the transaction of the caps in answer to the action:  to which the Jew, with a keeness that could only be imitated not felt in the enactment of Shylock, promised faithfully - "Yes, your vorship, I vill,- I vill, immediately." 

This report, from The Exeter and Plymouth Gazetter  of 12th October, 1844, gives us a glimpse of how, I imagine, most citizens of Exeter saw their Jewish neighbours at the time.  Not surprisingly Shylock is the model, wanting his pound of flesh.  Jews are essentially money-grubbing and mean but also they are 'funny'.  They are comic characters with their strange speech and foreign ways.

Slops are ready-made clothes.  Respectable people visit tailors and hatters but the humbler classes use slopshops.  Victorian sweatshops, where cross-legged tailors sewed their lives away, produced the goods.  Many of Exeter's Jewish community were slopsellers.

To (sharve) serve somebody out,  meaning, says Dr. Brewer, to punish, to get revenge, to get one's own back, is hardly to be found these days.   

The girls were probably younger than 16, otherwise they would have been young women.  The fair sex had to grow up quickly in an age where 12 was the age of consent.

Jim Crow had the popular meaning, a black man.   Clearly, everybody knew what a Jim Crow cap looked like.  I don't. 

The Court ruling might seem severe but at least the girls escaped prison.  

There is one sentence omitted which I considered to be of little interest.  

SPLASH TUMBLER PIGEONS, EXETER, 1844.

"At the Guildhall yesterday, George Brannen, 17 years of age, and presenting an appearance of great emaciation, was committed for trial at the Exeter Michaelmas Sessions, for stealing two splash tumbler-pigeons from the dwelling of Charles Wills in Quay Lane.

"The prisoner had been shown the pigeons in an excess of innocent vanity, and must have watched him afterwards, as ingress had been obtained to the pigeons by unlocking the house-door with a key. which had been secreted by the prosecutor about the window when he went out.

"The prisoner sold the pigeons to Mr. Ford  (Jennings and Ford) of this city for 2s.6d. The prisoner said he had been induced to steal the pigeons from hunger, having had nothing to eat for four days, and that his father, who resided in Magdalen-street, had turned him out of door necessitous, and he was not allowed to return.  He had been formerly apprenticed to a tailor, form whose service he had run away."

Here is more evidence, if it were needed, of poverty in mid-Victorian Exeter.  A poor teenager, the emaciated, necessitous runaway-apprentice, George Brannen, had been in Quay Lane.  He had not eaten for days.  He was probably thinking only of food.  His father had kicked him out from the family home.  Charles Wills invited him in to admire his splash tumbler-pigeons. Young George stole them and sold them to Mr. Ford for half-a-crown.  He must have known that Mr. Ford was something of a pigeon fancier.  Now he was facing, at the least, a prison sentence.    

Jennings and Ford  was an estabished firm of carriers in South-street, Exeter.

Splash is still in use to describe a form of colouring in tumbler pigeons.  As far as I can make out they can be either splash or grizzle but not necessarily exclusively. 

For once a Gazette reporter, here in the second paragraph, is having trouble with his style.  These days,  O tempora O mores!, newspaper journalists abuse the English language as a matter of course.

Source:  The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette,  5th October, 1844.

 

THEM POACHIN CHAPS, AXMINSTER, 1844.

 "I wish ked stap them poachin chaps, they've bin out gen ta night:

With theck ther nit that they've a got, an they've catch'd sich a zight.

Why dont 'em tek a rod and line an try ta git a dish,

But not ta g'out wi nits an traps an distroy all tha vish.

"We've tried ta stap et times enough, bit all that ther's na good:

If constabels did g'oot by night, wy than ya noo they cood.

Bit ther' I don't think voks da kear if they da git a dish,

How they w's cotch'd er wot becoms ov al the tother vish.

 

"Th' ginlmin wot coms bout here, ta vish in our river,

Da mek complaints all bout th' town, that they can't ketch noan niver.

No moore I don't spose that they can, wheniver they mid g'out;

The reysn's clare ver they ther' chaps da burk maust all the trout

"An all th' vish them chaps da git they zulls 'em by the poun,

An what they cant they drows away, zoonder than they'd be vound.

But now I think tis maust a time ta zee ta that ther's work,

Er els' wi all the vish bout here, they'l  play the vurry turk"

'Clericus'  was, one might guess, an Anglican clergyman ministering in Axminster.  According to The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette he was the author of a work entitled Rural Sketches in the Dialect of.East Devon   Of him and his book(?) I can not yet find any further trace.  The newspaper published the above sample of his dialect verses under the title Lines to Mr. Piscator in its poetry-corner on  28th September, 1844.

It's pretty crude writing (not very consistent) and how reliable an idea it gives as to how East Devonian countryfolk spoke in the middle of the nineteenth century is hard to say but 'Clericus' was clearly making an effort.

It would have been the salmon that the poachers were principally after but it's easier to find a rhyme for trout.

It's interesting that the word burk turns up, here perhaps meaning quietly to put out of existence .  It had only entered the language fifteen years before when William Burke was executed in Edinburgh.  He had made a business of suffocating people and then selling their bodies for dissection by surgeons.

I remember there was still much mutual ill-feeling with the licenced net fishermen and the line fishermen of the Exe in the nineteen-seventies.  

The Axe fishing would appear to have been an attraction to piscatorial ginlmin.  I don't believe they ketched noan niver.

A LOT OF FINE FAT SHEEP, EXETER, 1844.

The Exeter Flying Post  of Thursday 19th September, 1844 reported to its readers the following life-affirming story:

"On Friday last, as Messrs. Darke, butchers of this city, were driving to their slaughter-house a lot of fine, fat sheep which had been purchased in the market that day, when near the Island Bridge, from the passing of some Omnibusses, &c., the animals were frightened, and one of them sprung on the parapet wall, jumping at once off into the Exe Island below.

"Singularly though, the animal escaped the least injury, which from the height might have been expected.  Several of the others jumped on the parapet also, but turned back again."

*

I blog this not so much for the sake of the daredevil leaping sheep as for the sake of the omnibuses. The quaint plural form and the capitalization reflect the extent to which  'Omnibusses' were still a novelty in 1844.  The very first omnibuses apparently were to be found in the city of Nantes as late as 1826.  Hence the concept and the Latin part of the name, voiture omnibus, are importations from the French. 

The meeting of sheep and horse-drawn omnibuses on the Island Bridge is a neat instance of the old world meeting the new in Exeter.  It would seem that there were still  troops of domestic animals being driven about the streets. Darke's slaughter-house, I think, was in Smythen Street.  Generally the omnibuses, as newcomers, were taking the blame for congestion and dangerous driving but they were to prevail.

Sprung as the past tense of spring, like rung as the past tense of ring, was deemed correct by The Flying News.  It sounds very Jane Austen!

I'm very pleased the bold sheep was not damaged by her momentous leap from the bridge, - just a pity she was on her way to Messrs. Darke's slaughter-house! 

THE FURY OF BACK, WOODBURY, 1844.

 "On Wednesday, Perram, a sheriff's officer residing on St. David's Hill in this city, went with his father to the house of Richard Back, labourer, at Woodbury, to distrain.

"Having taken possession in the absence of Back, they proceeded to take an inventory of the goods, when Buck hastily entered, and uttering a vindictive expression of recognition, snatched the poker from the hearth and belaboured Perram so unexpectedly as to render both his arms powerless, and then struck him on the head with such violence as to produce an effusion of blood from the ear, and render him insensible.

"The fury of Back then vented itself on Perram's father, whom he knocked down by a blow on the nose, which cut it open.

"The sister-in-law of Back, who lived in a contiguous house, tendered some assistance to Perram, who lay, apparently dying, in the doorway, for which her brutal relative kicked her so severely as to fracture a portion of her ribs."

For these outrages Back has been summoned to appear at the Castle of Exeter on Friday, when the case will be investigated."

The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette  (14th September, 1844.) clearly does not let the fact that there is a case yet to come to court restrict its telling of this story.   The vindictiveness of Richard Back's expression, his violence,  fury and  brutality, are literally prejudicial assessments although they are probably true enough.  I don't, however, believe Perram was dying, not even apparently.  

The life of a sheriff's officer was never easy and leaving the civilized world of St. David's, Exeter, in order to visit wild Woodbury clearly held dangers for one and for one's 73 year old parent.  Indeed, old Mr. Perriam   (The name is Perriam not Perram.) died only a fornight later. He died of natural causes said the coroner although violence such as the deceased was said to have been subjected to might have accelerated it. The Gazette, 29th September.)

Sisters-in-law are always spoiling one's fun. 

  

A JOHNNY RAW, EXETER, 1844.

"Elizabeth New, a lady of the pave, was brought up in charge by Perriam, of the night police, having been taken into custody about a quarter before 1 o'clock that morning in West-street, under the following circumstances as detailed by a young man named George Farrant of Budleigh Salterton, carpenter and joiner, - a sort of johnny raw, - now residing in Preston-street, in this city.

"He had been spending the evening at his brother-in-laws's on Quay Hill, where there had been a bit of a jollification and good supper, and of course the party got a little swipy.  At the hour mentioned however, he was on his return to his lodgings, when he encountered in West-street Elizabeth New with several other damsels.

"New ran to him, caught him round the waist, using much endearment, and saying "this is the man for me."  Poor Farrant, in his innocence, was astonished, he had never been so tenderly treated before, but still he was perfectly horrified that any woman should thus act, and piteously entreated that she should let him go.  Thus gently and piously urged she yielded to his earnest request, but, he was no sooner liberated from her powerful grasp, than he discovered his watch was gone.  he then at  the top of his voice sung out "watch" and, as before stated, Perriam came to his assistance.

"The watch was gone sure enough, the silk guard, round his neck to which it had been suspended having been dexterouly severed with a knife; an implement such as was found on the prisoner after she was brought to the Hall.  New, however, protested her innocence - (having meanwhile urged her companions to "cut.")   - nor was any watch found in her possession.

"Farrant, on the question being put from the Bench, said he could not say the prisoner had taken his watch.  And this not being deemed sufficient ground for her further detention, New was cautioned and directed to be liberated, and the case was dismissed.

The Flying Post's court-reporter, as so often, invents as much as he reports.  The naivety of  George Farrant,  the strength of Elizabeth New's arms, the (not proven) dexterous severing of the silk guard,  the crying of "watch" (a horrible pun!?) &c. cannot be more than assumption; still, it makes the story more entertaining.

There must be more slang terms to describe an excess of alcohol than anything else.  I had not met swipy/swipey before but I learn that Dickens uses it and it derives from swipes, another slang term,  once used  to mean thin, tasteless, washy beer and, according to my wonderful Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 1895, cognate to a Danish word: svip.  (there's many a svip twixt cup and lip!!)

There was a constable to hand!!!

I'm irrationally pleased that Elizabeth New was not sent to prison or worse.  Even if, as seems likely, she did steal George's watch, she sounds a jolly sort of young woman,  the kind one finds with her damsel mates roaming Exeter these days at a quarter to one any morning of the week. 

Source: The Exeter Flying Post, 29th August 1844.

THE SECRETARY ON HORSEBACK, EXETER, 1844.

 "TEMPERANCE PROCESSION. 

"The Members of the Temperance Society and the Independent order of Rechabites, a friendly society entirely composed of teetotallers, walked from Exeter the field near the Station, which is alluded to in another place, in procession. In addition to the Members residing at Exeter, there were several visitors from Teignmouth, Taunton, Bridgwater and Tiverton, came to Exeter for the double purpose of taking a holiday for the Railway Festival, and making a temperance demonstration. We may just remark here that Mr. Knott chemist, of Exeter, who is firm advocate of temperance, sent as a present to the members at their place of rendezvous, several dozen bottles of soda water and lemonade." 

"PROCESSION :  Was marshalled on Northernhay at half-past nine, and proceeded through St. Sidwells to the Black-boy turnpike, back again, and through High-street, Fore-street, Bridge-street, Bartholomew-street and Yard, North-street, and St. David's Hill to the Station. An idea may formed of extent of the procession, when we say that it reached from Pratt's London Inn to the top of Summerland-street St. Sidwell's. It was marshalled as follows. 

"The Secretary on horseback. 

"THE MAGNET COACH, Drawn by four horses, decorated with evergreens, and ornamented with Banners having the inscriptions, Temperance promotes education," "Touch not —taste not —handle not," Come with us and we will do you good." 

"BAND OF MUStC. Members of Temperance Society two and two, wearing their sashes and medals. 

"A FLAG, Bearing the inscription God save the Queen." 

"Members two and two. 

"The Banner of the Exeter Total Abstinence Society, having the arms of the Society richly emblazoned. 

"Members two and two. 

"The Banner of the Exmouth Total Abstinence Society. 

"Members two and two. Two white and pink flags. Members two and two. 

"The Taunton Total Abstinence Society's Banner of crimson silk, having the arms of the Society beautifully painted upon it by Mr. Havill, of Taunton. 

"Members two and two. 

"A banner, emblazoned with a large regal crown, and a dove descending towards it. 

"Members two and two. 

"Banner, with motto, "Faithful unto Death." 

"Members two and two. 

"Banner, motto, Religion our support."

"Members two and two. 

"A large white Banner, bearing the motto, "Temperance in youth prevents poverty in old age." 

"Members two and two. 

"Banner, motto, " No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of Heaven." 

"Members two and two. 

"Banner, Total Abstinence is beneficial to all; hurtful to none." 

"Members two and two. 

"Banner of the members of tbe Juvenile Temperance Society. 

"Members two and two. Banner, motto, " Buds of Promise." THE EXMOUTH BRASS BAND. 

"The members of the Independent order of Rechabites of the Tents of Exeter, Tiverton, Taunton and Teignmouth. 

"The Union Jack. 

"The Banner of the Exeter Rechabite Tent.

"Members two and two. 

"The Banner of the Taunton Rechabite Tent. 

"Members two and two. 

"The Chief Ruler Wearing the sash and insignia of his degree, supported by officers bearing emblematical Banners The moon and stars." 

"The Deputy Ruler, Wearing the sash and decorations of his degree, and supported by officers bearing banners —the Sword and the Cornucopia. 

"The Tent Keeper, In full costume, bearing his banner—the Crimson Tent. The Stewards, In full costume, with their Banners, Coiled Serpents and Doves Motto, Be ye wise as serpents, but harmless as Doves.

"The Outside Guardian, In full costume, with his Banner, the Lamb and Eye. 

"The Inside Guardian, In full costume, with his Banner, the Beehive. 

"The Levite, With his Banner, the Golden Sheaf.

"Officers of the Tent, With the scrolls of the Rechabite Laws. The Elders, In full costume, each one bearing his Shield, with emblems of Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, Faith, Hope, Charity, Peace, and Plenty. Members two and two. The procession excited much attention, and was followed by a great concourse of persons through the city, and to the Station."

Every age has its causes.  I watched the Pridies' parade pass through Northernay a few weeks ago with its larding of men dressed in women's clothes and young people 'asserting themselves' with their bodies, their bling, their piercings and their tattoos and with every kind of 'let it all hang out', kitschy costume.  There were many banners but none, I contend, flying as well-intentioned nor with the dignity and sincerity of those of the teetotalers and Rechabites of 1844. 

Source:  The Western Times, 4th May, 1844. 

  

FURIOUS DRIVING, EXETER, 1844.

"Thos. Loder was charged with furiously driving an omnibus in the High-street, on the 30th of July.-  Mr Willesford attended for the defendant,  Loder, on the day in question was driving an omnibus from the Half Moon Inn to the Railway Station,  taking his route down High-street and Fore-street into St.Thomas; and the furious driving was witnessed by the Mayor and others; also by Wm. England, of the night police, B. Twiggs, &c.

"On the other hand, Mr Willesford called John Hancock, a guard on the railway, who was on the front of the omnibus, and Thomas Hawkins, the conductor of it, who differed materially from the other witnesses as to the rate at which the carriage passed the Hall, and ascribed this - (such as they admitted it to be,) - to be one of the horses having attempted to turn into Queen-street, the way it had been used to go, as also it did, after passing the Hall, towards the Globe Hotel by Broad-street; and gave it as their opinion that the skill of Loder alone prevented accident - Mr. Blackall delivered the judgement , saying, the Magistrates have no doubt that at the time spoken of, the man was furiously  driving this omnibus, he is therfore convicted, and fined the sum of 20s. and expenses , making 7s 0d. more.

"Mr. Blackall continued.  Having delivered the judgement of the Court in this case,  I have no hesitation in saying that it was most clearly proved, and I would advise the drivers of these omnibuses to be more careful in this respect in future than they have been in times past, as the lives of the inhabitants of this city must not be allowed to be endangered, because they may happen to be a little too late.

"The Mayor said, the case was now closed, and therefore he had no hesitation in saying in the face of his fellow citizens , that he had never before seen in the streets of Exeter an instance of such furious driving as this was; and further, he was continually receiving letters and personal communications on the subject of the fierce driving of those omnibuses through the streets.  With Mr. Blackall then, he would recommend these drivers to be careful in future." 

The Half Moon Inn, at 22 High Street, was a coaching inn and busdriver Thomas Loder was, no doubt, trying to ensure that his passengers caught their train from the railway station.  It was unwise of him to pass the Guildhall, where the Mayor and the Magistrates saw him whizz past, and he should, perhaps,  have followed the wise horse that wanted to take him down Queen-street. ( I assume already an alternative route. (?))

He was driving furiously. The word, together with its adjectival form, occurs four times in this report. It was, I feel sure, the much quoted  passage in the King James' Bible:  and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi for he driveth furiously, that caused this to be the word used by Victorian writers. A modern rendering has he drives like a maniac.  These days, though, we mostly drive dangerously.    

Source The Exeter Flying Post,  15th August, 1844.