"EDWARD TANNER was summoned for keeping open the Black Dog to an unreasonable hour. The case was proved by Policeman Perriam - an officer invaluable for his acute hearing. In passing over the Iron Bridge once an hour from nine in the evening till four in the morning, he could distinguish every time well known voices in the tap-room of the Black Dog; he could hear them, during the whole of the night, 'tossing for three glasses of gin and water, which made eighteen pence;' and at twenty minutes to four two neighbours living just above came out in a pretty fresh state.
"The Mayor said he had received frequent complaints from the injured wives of the neighborhood, whose domestic happiness had been ruined by the Black Dog; men who would have been the best of husbands, returned late and intoxicated to their anxious families, and all owing to the Black Dog.
The defendant was fined 40s. and expenses"
A night-policeman's stag of duty would seem to have lasted seven hours, seven hours of pounding the beat with nothing happening! Policing Exeter is more exciting these days.
The Black Dog was in Holloway Street, well beyond the South Gate of the city and a long way from the Iron Bridge. There must be clearly some very funny joke here with reference to the acute hearing of Policeman Perriam but it is all either lost in time or far too subtle for me.
The Mayor of Exeter, Henry Hooper Esq., just like his predecessor, William Page Kingdon Esq, protests intimate knowledge of the humbler classes. One wonders how genuine were these protestations.
A pretty fresh state for tipsy is pleasing.
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