YOUNG FELLOWS IN EPAULETTES, EXETER, 1842

 "Why don't the Tory tradesmen who supported Sir W. Follett so handsomely, memorialize the learned knight to get the head quarters of the regiment stationed here fixed in Exeter?

"The head quarters being here would cause the circulation of a great deal of money - cavalry officers are generally gay.   They accept of invitations, and make liberal returns.  The young ladies of the great houses, make up parties to meet them, and make excuses to come into Exeter a-shopping, and don't break their hearts if they encounter any of the light hearted aggravating young fellows in epaulettes.

"The servant maidens content themselves with the rank and file, but the ladies are not less fond of the society of the officers, and this general attachment of the damsels of all grades to the killing fellows, high and low, causes a circulation of money very serviceable to a country town.

"The tradesmen must, therefore, feel the advantage of having the head quarters here.and we wonder how it is that they have not bestirred themselves in the matter. 

"The head quarters were decapitated, it is generally believed, from this city because Bishop Philpotts would not let the band play on Sundays.  Could they not come to a compromise, and play psalm tunes?"

*

This from a column in The Western Times echoes a general opinion in the city that the headquarters of the cavalry should have been Higher Barracks in Exeter and not, as it was, in Dorchester.

Note the wonderful social distinction: ladies for the officers, servant maidens  for the rank-and-file.  It was unthinkable that there might be other outcomes.

It is a shame that soldiers and royal marines don't get to strut about Exeter in their number-one uniforms any more.   It is said that the wearing of uniform in public was suspended for health-and-safety reasons at a time when the IRA were up to mischief.  We have become a nation of angst-ridden pansies.  

I happen to know that the custom of inviting officers to social evenings persisted in the United Kingdom at least until 1961 when the regiment in which I was serving received a request to supply 'two subaltern officers' to a dinner party from a local father of 'young ladies'.  It was a charming custom, satisfactory to all parties.  I doubt it happens now.

There seems some evidence that Bishop Henry Phillpotts, wrongly spelled above, really did cause Exeter to lose the headquarters by objecting to the Sunday concerts.  In any case most of the readers of The Times were willing to believe anything written to his discredit.

Source:  The Western Times, 26th February, 1842.

NO WORTHIER WOMAN, EXETER, 1842.

"A decent looking woman, named Charlotte Clark, was charged at the Guildhall, on Monday, with intermarrying with Joseph Bryant;  her husband, William Clark, being still alive.   Both marriages were clearly proved, the first to have taken place at St. George's Church in Dec. 1835, the second at St. Mary Major's in August last year

"It seemed that Clark had been living away from his wife for between two and three years, working on the railroad, where he had lost an arm, and now on coming back, finding she had married another was resolved to prosecute her.

"Bryant, the second husband who is a blind man living in St. Thomas, said he had been informed by a man that Clark was dead, and that there was not a worthier woman than the prisoner in the City of Exeter. 

"She was committed for trial."

*

What a tragedy is here! - what a plot for George Eliot  or Thomas Hardy! -  and what a lot of questions!  These were poor, ignorant people but Charlotte was a decent looking woman than whom her blind second husband thought there was no worthier woman in the city of Exeter and William Clark had been working on the railroad and had lost his arm and his wife.  Had she believed William to be dead?   Did he not communicate with his wife?

The City Assize Court, two weeks later, showed little mercy.  Charlotte was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment with hard labour.  By now she was looking sickly and the governor of the prison was asked to  employ her in the kitchens.   In a sense she was lucky, - not to have been transported.

To which husband did Charlotte return after prison, to the one-armed man who had prosecuted her or to the blind man who, it seems, truly loved her? 

Sources: The Western Times, 5th March & 19th March, 1842. ( I have to add that The Exeter Flying Post of 3rd March gives a  differing report in which Charlotte appears somewhat less worthy, )

SNEAKING, EXETER, 1842.

 In The Western Times of 12th February 1842 is found the following brief notice to the citizens of Exeter:

"SNEAKING.- The class of depredators, professionally termed "sneaks" are busy in this city.

"Mrs Chapple, of South Street, had her own and daughter's work-box sneaked off from the back parlour whilst Miss Chapple was writing at the front.  The door was inadvertantly left open."

*

The origin of the verb to sneak, says  Eric Partridge, is the Old English word snicen, to creep.     Snakes and snails are also creepers, i.e. sneaks.   Here a sneak creeps into your back parlour while you are busy in your front parlour and steals from you.  We still use the term sneak-thief  but these days sneaks tend to tell tales to teachers and sneakers tend to mean footwear.  

THE SORRIEST JADE, EXETER, 1842.

On Saturday 22nd January 1842,  John Carter, who owned a cab, was sued by William Camden, who had been his "cad",  that is to say he had been the driver of Carter's cab.   Camden was suing for wages earned but not paid.  Camden told the magistrates how he came to leave Carter's service:

" the horse being in a very crippled state, and only half fed, he was constantly tumbling down, and was altogether unfit for work, there being, in fact, "no  go" in him. Disgusted with the service he quitted Carter's employment, and applied for the payment of the wages due to him; but finding that also to be "no-go" he summoned Carter for the amount.

"Carter said complainant had quitted his service without notice and had frequently neglected his work; he also denied that his horse corresponded to the complainant's description - said his horse was well-fed, and his carriage in complete order; but Mr. Canning, inspector of police, said the animal was the sorriest jade he had ever seen, and the Mayor reminded complainant (sic) that on a recent occasion he had sent his fly to his house with one of the glasses broken, which obliged his worship to send it back.

"The Bench after telling Carter that he was liable to an action for working such a crippled and ill-used animal, ordered him to pay the amount, with costs.

*

There is a sentence in Sketches by Boz (1839) as follows:  "We are not aware of any instance on record in which a cab-horse has performed three consecutive miles without going down once.  What of that?  It is all excitement."   Even allowing for Dickensian hyperbole this is an alarming comment but perhaps in Exeter, as opposed to London, it was only John Carter whose horse was constantly tumbling down.   I think I remember Anna Sewell's  Black Beauty (1871)  also had a bad time with the London cab-drivers.

"Cad" is clearly being used in Exeter for a cab-driver.  The word seems to derive from "cadet".  Cadets, younger sons,  I suppose, being junior were by a perverse extension seen as inferiors, hence, as here, as servants and essentially low and vulgar persons.  The conductor on the horse-drawn omnibuses was known as the cad.  These days, I think, you have to be posh to be a cad.  Like Cardew Robinson or the chap who went into the jungle to live with a female gorilla.  (Nothing queer about Carruthers!)

It was clearly a bad move to send a cab with one of its glasses broken to the house of His Worshipful, Exeter's Chief Magistrate!

Source: The Western Times, 22nd January 1842.

NORNY AND SOUDNY, EXETER, 1842

The Western Times of 8th January 1842 published a spurious letter from 'one of the pretty servants of Southernhay'.   The background events seem to have been true enough.   Someone in Southernhay had been stealing watches.   The Southernhay servants were suspected.  The thief turned out to be a housemaid whose master dismissed her but did not bring her to court.  The other servants in Southernhay were said to be furious and some bright spark at The Times contrived this 'complaint' and presented it to the readership as a genuine letter-to-the-paper. 

Sir,  

"- Sarvis be no harytig and them as lost their karytur lost ther aul.  Sir Pleas to Contredik that I tuk the gentylmens wach - I Wundur the poleiss did not bring the nasty Ussey b Four the Wurshipfool justics Binch & exposed her person to the wid Wurld for the Benny Fit of wee pore inocent Sarvants to Soudnay wot be most presumshusly suspekted in the dirty bisnis.   Muster F-----, esqr noss hoose wikid survunt it was for he turned her to doors instantanous and wi doant he cum fowurd lik a gvntylman and releave us pore suspektid innosense from the degraydid suspektification.  

"ANNE HOUSEMAID                                         

"Sectry of the feemail Sarvant Assocyvashion,   Soudney."

*

I blog this silliness chiefly because of 'Soudny'.   This is the first time I have seen the contraction 'Soudny' for Southernhay although 'Norny' for Northernhay was common and not just for the dialect speaking Exonians.  I like to think of Exeter people speaking and writing of Soudny and Norny.  We seem to have lost something jolly!

I have noted before how disgraceful was the manner in which the literate mocked the illiterate in Victorian England.  This 'liberal' newspaper, The Times, was the worst offender.

It took me a while to read 'harytig' as 'heritage', if indeed that is what is meant.

A SCRAM'D HAND, TOPSHAM, 1842.

The Western Times of the first of January, 1842 published this letter to the editor from an 'old subscriber' who 'gave his name and address':

"A short time since a young woman of Topsham, who had for some time been suffering from (what  her mother called) a scram'd hand so bad that she could not work; she got a recommend to the Hospital  -  when she had been there a short time her hand became well;  at the end of three weeks she was discharged, and went home, when on her arrival at her mother's house her hand became in the scramed or contracted way again;  the good folks of Topsham said she was overlooked, and advised her to one Fouracres, of Budleigh, a wise man, who it is said can do the wonderful; the mother and daughter went to him  -  the old man at first refused to act for her, saying he had not done anything in that way for some time, but by the importunity of her mother the old man gave her something to give her ease.

"The girl returned home and her hand got righted, but she still felt dreadful prickings like those of needles.  She went to Mr.Tothill, of Topsham, who extracted the astonishing number of ninety-five needles, of various sizes,  from her hand, and there are still more to be felt in her arm.

"I have seen the needles, and you, sir, may see them also   by going to Mr.Tothill, surgeon,, Topsham, who kindly showed them to me.  But how came they in her  is what we should be glad to know;  Mr. T. says she must have swallowed them  -  if so, "would they have found their way to her hand, and all gone the same way?"  The mother says she is sure she never did swallow them.  The needles are very black, but not rusty  -  some are large stocking needles.  

"I should like to know what you think of so (to me) an mysterious affair."

*

I can't find scram'd, scramed in any of my dictionaries.    Its meaning would seem to be stiffness rather than contraction.  It would seem the word was well used, maybe still is, as a dialect word in Devon.

The whole story seems preposterous but there must have been some substance to it.  If it had been April the first not January one might dismiss it outright.

This letter, however,  demonstrates again how persistent in Devon was the belief in witchcraft, black and white.  I find it fascinating that the good folk of Topsham in 1842 believed this young woman had been 'overlooked',  which word here means 'looked upon with the evil-eye,  bewitched,  - and therefore could best be cured by a 'wise man'.  What's more, 'the good folk' knew where there was such a wise man,  Mr. Fouracres, albeit superannuated, in Budleigh Salterton who could 'do the wonderful',  - a long way to go for an uncertain cure.

As for the ninety-five needles in the young lady's hand,  black but not rusty, and the few more in her arm, they are to me, as they were to The Times' correspondent,  'so an mysterious affair'. 

A BIT OF THE MARVELLOUS, EXETER, 1841

"We are told that there is now living in Bartholomew Street, in this city, an old midwife, upwards of ninety years of age, who has actually assisted at the birth of eleven thousand children.   Our informant says that she has carefully registered the names of the mothers."  

This brief report in The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette was not believed by its 'cotemporaries' and so the following week The Gazette felt obliged to inform its readership:

"In these days of refined taste, we can scarcely venture upon a bit of the marvellous, however true, without chapter and verse being demanded for our authority; and as it is our wish to be kind and obliging to our cotemporaries,....we beg to inform them that the midwife alluded to is Mts. Elizabeth Hole, now residing in Bartholomew street, who is still upon the books of that excellent institution, the Exeter Lying-in Charity, as the senior Obstetric,  and our medical informant tells us that he has heard the old lady say that seven or eight years since, in the month of January, she attended 39 women, who gave birth to 40 children; and that, on one occasion, in 14 hours she assisted at 8 births!

"We cannot vouch for the truth of these statements , but the incredulous now have the means of inquiring for themselves; and we further understand that Mrs Hole does nor consider her case to be at all marvellous, for she says that her predecessor in the Lying-in-Charity (Mrs. Weekes) beat her by odds, having assisted at 12,633 births; and that the first and the last attended her funeral - the one being an old man upwards of 60 and the other an infant carried in arms.

"Mrs Hole is not of that advanced age mentioned in our last, but is between eighty and ninety years of age." 

*

 Mrs. Elizabeth Hole and Mrs. Weekes clearly had very long working lives.  It would seem that Mrs. Weekes' midwifery had lasted more than 60 years and that she was still working until shortly before her death. The 'marvellous' statistics could well be true.   

Many another poor old Exonian must have worked literally until she or he dropped. 

 I have the feeling Mrs. Hole was no Sairey Gamp.  She sounds very efficient, delivering babies day and night, no doubt, and keeping a record of the thousands of mothers she had assisted.

Cotemporary looks like a typographical error but it is a good dictionary word.

Source The Exeter and Plymouth Gazetter, 2nd and 9th January, 1841