GO-GO-YOU BEGGARS!, SALCOMBE REGIS, 1845.

 "Not an hundred miles from the delightful vicinity of Salcombe Regis, a rev. gent., after preaching a sermon to the Friendly Society, was to be seen, standing, with hurdle in hand, superintending the rural sports of Whit-Monday and dispatching the young urchins for a prize with the following exhortation - "Go - go - you young beggars, if you break your necks the doctor's here to mend them." Afterwards figuring in the capacity of ring keeper, master of the dancing ceremonies, course clearer for the wheel-barrows, and assistant to certain ladies whilst running for a bonnet, and last, though not least, was busilly engaged in putting money into a tub of water, for the young 'uns to extract therefrom with their mouths, during which operation one of the competitors was nearly stifled by keeping too long under the water. The whole was finished up with a fight, to the evident satisfaction of that stately personage who adorns the white gown on a Sunday morning and according to his own account is the only person in the parish suited for the cure of souls." 

This is an attack on the jolly rev. gent. by The Western Times of 30th May, 1845,  not, as these days one might imagine, a laudation, the clue to which is the white gown that he wears of a Sunday.  He is clearly a beastly Puseyite wearing the much despised, by The Times, surplice.  As such nothing he says or does can be to his credit. 

This year the celebrated Country Fair at, still delightful, Salcombe Regis (16 miles to the east of Exeter)   will be the afternoon of 29th May.  (there's tradition for you!)  There will be none of the events of 181 years ago, no ladies running for a bonnet, no healthy sports, but lots of fun and, for the active, usually, at least a coconut shy.

I ask myself how an hundred was pronounced.  

THOUGHT-PROVOKING HAPPENINGS, EXETER, 2026.

Yesterday I personally experienced four thought-provoking happenings that seemed to me to be uncannily related.  These were:  the  television broadcast of the, May 9th, Victory Parade in Red Square, Moscow,  the results of the Exeter City Council Elections with Labour battered but still clinging to power, the too numerous turn-out for the Exeter Pride Procession into Northernhay Gardens, and this passage from an eighteenth century literary work which I just happened to be reading in the afternoon:

" O Pharnabazus, I must confess that the very circumstance which is the cause of so much mirth to the gentlemen that accompany you, is the reason for my fears.  On one side I see gold, and jewels, and purple in abundance; but when I look for men, I can find nothing but barbers, cooks, confectioners, fiddlers, dancers, and everything that is most unmanly and unfit for war.

"On the Grecian side I  discern none of these costly trifles; but I see iron that forms their weapons, and composes impenetrable arms.  I see men that have been brought up to despise every hardship and  to face every danger that are accustomed to observe their ranks, to obey their leader, to take every advantage of their enemy, and to fall dead in their places rather than to turn their backs. 

"Were the contest about who should dress a dinner, or curl hair with the greatest nicety, I should not doubt that the Persians would gain the advantage; but when it is necessary to contend in battle, where the prize is won by hardiness and valour,  I cannot help dreading men that are inured to wounds and labours, and suffering; nor can I ever think that the Persian gold will be able to resist the Grecian iron.

"Pharnabazus was so struck with the truth and justice of these remarks, that, from that very hour, he determined to contend no more with such invincible troops; but bent all his cares towards making peace with the Spartans, by which means he preserved himself and his country from destruction." (my emphasis.)

 l leave readers to find, or not to find, connections. 

Source: Thomas Day, The History of Sandford and Merton, 1783.

SOUL DEBASEMENT, EXETER, 1845.

"SARAH THOMAS, a diminutive girl, who said she was sixteen, and who from her appearance might have been younger, was charged by Hamlin with creating a disturbance in the streets, on the previous Satuday night.

"The defendant was one of that too numerous class, who infest our streets, and though so young in years seem to have got rid of all the modesty of her sex.

"We would adduce her to those to those well meaning individuals who are in the habit of subscribing their money to christianize savages, thousands of miles off, as an instance of how much profligacy, vice, and irreligion, how much ignorance and soul debasement may be found in our streets, and at our own thresholds.

"Hamlin said that very early on the Sunday morning about half past one, he heard a great noise in the Cathedral Yard, and found Thomas there crying murder and saying she had lost her bonnet. He took her into custody, but on her depositing seven shillings at the Station house, she was suffered to depart.  In her defence she said with great coolness, a gentleman had given her some money, and afterwards wanted it again, she refused to give it up, he knocked her down three times , took away her bonnet and she cried murder; she had left her father's home a week.

"A letter from her father was put in expressing a wish that she might be severely punished, her conduct was so bad.  It was stated in court, that the conduct of the father was likewise so bad that it was not to be wondered his child had become so thoroughly demoralised.

"The decision was postponed, as the bench intended to make enquiries."

*

It would seem from newspaper reports that, in Exeter, there was no shortage of little girls on the streets and in the parks who survived by, one way or another, persuading 'gentlemen' to part with shillings.  I surmise they were very often 'modest' enough not to deliver what the gentlemen were seeking which seems to be the case here with little Sarah Thomas whose gentleman wanted his money back.  

It is of course scandalous that the constable and the court showed little interest in the soul debasement of this gentleman who, if we believe Sarah's evidence, knocked her down three times and stole her bonnet.

Hamlin was a constable so well know to its Exeter readers that the newspaper needed only to refer to him as Hamlin.

Adduce: is being used correctly here to mean to bring forward for consideration.  The Times, though a liberal newspaper, clearly has noticed that there are savages and infidels enough in Exeter and considers that charity should begin at home.

The peace of the cathedral yard  in Exeter is still frequently disturbed.  I witnessed it yesterday evening.  Nobody, it seems, is ever taken into custody.  Is this to progress or to regress?     

 

Source: The Western Times, 10th May, 1845.