Wednesday, 15 January 2025

THE HAPLESS TENANTS OF THE YARD, EXETER, 1844

 From The Western Times of 13th April 1844:

"ST SIDWELL'S. - We are happy to hear that the Parish of St, Sidwell's, are at last about to settle with the Dean and Chapter, the purchase of a piece of ground behind the Church, to increase the burying ground,

"This extension has long been imperatively called for.  The present yard, from its crowded state, is not only a disgrace to the parish, but a nuisance to the city.  Its crowded graves frequently led to the most revolting exposure  of the half decomposed remains of the hapless tenants of the yard, and threatened to overwhelm the city with a pestilence, according to the statement of bodies of local knowledge and publically proclaimed before the Commissioners of Improvement." 

St. Sidwell's churchyard , it might be argued, is still a disgrace to the parish and the city but, at least, there are, as far as I know, no half decomposed remains to revolt the passer-by.  

There is a true whiff of Victorian Gothic about this description of the churchyard, don't you think?

The citizens of Exeter feared pestilence like the plague! (joke!)   They well remembered the horrors of the cholera epidemic of 1832 and the smallpox of 1837 and yet there were clearly dramatic examples of uncleanliness at St. Sidwell's and no doubt elsewhere.

 


Tuesday, 7 January 2025

NORTHERNHAY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, EXETER, 2025.

 Tomorrow the citizens of Exeter and visitors to Exeter will be permitted to walk in the Northernhay Gardens again.  The gates have been locked for the last seventy days, only being opened when the temporary owners of the people's park were ready and able to 'entertain' the many funfair-friendly.  Many of those seventy days the Gardens were a 'construction site' where none but members of the incomer workforce were permitted to enter even if wearing a hard hat.

It is a scanadalous irony that the overweight Mayor of Exeter and other civic dignitaries dressed up and marched in procession to the Gardens to set down their poppy wreaths with all due ceremony, solemnity, dignity and maybe a little pomposity, to confirm to the city and the world that 'we shall remember' the city's and the county's dead, this on Remembrance Sunday, only to lock the gates against the citizens before dawn on Remembrance Monday so that no-one could visit the memorial, except after weeks of 'construction' when they were allowed in to the overwhelming funfair to find Exeter's fine memorial closely guarded by plastic santas and rudolfs &c.

Seventy days is practically a fifth of a year and by the end of this year the Council will probably have closed the Gardens again; perhaps another street-food 'fest' (not on a street!) to take the bread out of the mouths of local traders.  These closures do the Gardens no good!  The damage done is heart-rending.  Exeter City Council lives up to its long-standing reputation as a gang of Philistines.

What's to be done?  The City, no doubt, needs a space for such 'events'  but not Northernhay which is the jewel in Exeter's crown.  Such events require hard-standing. The Castle Yard was once the place for balloon-ascents and other such jollities but, alas!, the Council has sold it.  There must be an answer!

(And, incidentally, I hold this conspiracy theory:  I suspect that the reason why the path through the Castle wall between Northernhay and Rougemont Gardens has not been opened for the last five years is merely because the City Council likes to lock whenever, wherever, whatever it can and because this closure makes it easier for damaging, polluting, lowest-common-denominator 'events' to be inflicted on Northernhay.   I suspect the whole 'unsafe walls' narrative might be fake news.)

This blocked passage between the Gardens is an injury and a reproach to the city. What is sad is that there is a failure of imagination when it comes to a unified Northernhay and Rougemont Gardens.  With the ancient castle walls and moats and the magnificent trees and the glorious lie of the land they really are a remarkable asset   No other city has anything like them.  

In today's Britain, gardens can be powerful magnets.  Already many people visit Exeter hoping to enjoy the Gardens. (and many were disappointed throughout the past 70 days).  If Northernhay were gardened and advertised as an attraction (A public garden since William Shakespeare was writing!)  ("The most romantic walk in all Europe!" as The Western Times was once able to claim) they would add to the reputation of the city and bring many thousands of visitors to Exeter of the kind who spend money freely on the High Street.  If the Council needs cash and the people need circuses there must be nobler ways to make money and to entertain the children than to trample Northernhay.  

Monday, 6 January 2025

A PRETTY GOOD DOSE OF PATRONAGE, EXETER, 1844.

The Western Times of  6th April 1844 set out, not for the first time,  to inform its readers that Henry Phillpotts, the Bishop of Exeter, (Exeter was then the seat of the bishop for Devon and Cornwall), was a decidedly worldly Christian:

     "....we beg to remind our readers , and the admirers and friends of Bishop Philpotts in particular, that admitting the efficacy of his prelatical labours they have been fitful in the extreme, when compared with his steady labours to reward & exalt the pious and exemplary members of his own family. 

" Lowe, it will be remembered, received the lucrative post of Precentor, on the nomination of Bishop Philpotts, and Bishop Philpott's son immediately stepped into two fat livings which Precentor Lowe had vacated.

"Nephew Philpott's hath a valuable living in Cornwall.

"Son Philpotts hath Stokeinteighnhead, and is also Precentor of Exeter Cathedral/

"Son-in-law Stephens is Sub-Dean and Vicar of Dunsford, and Son-in-law de Bouilli hath also the valuable living of Lawhitton.

"Here is a pretty good dose of patronage for people all talking about the primitive church, and declaring that we must recede more and more towards the primitive simplicity of the early Christian church.""  

The patronage continued far beyond 1844. It was the Cornish socialist historian, A.L. Rowse,   (A Cornish Childhood,  Jonathan Cape, 1943) who best summed up Phillpotts when he wrote that he was: "a nauseating character....a nasty political pamphleteer who recommended himself thus for ecclesiastical propmotion to the Tory reactionaries of before the Reform Bill, who recommended himself still more by marrying Lord Eldon's niece, a grabber of every scrap of church preferment he could lay hands on to serve his family -  he had seven sons in Orders and almost as many sons-in-law;  who kept clear of his cathedral city the whole time of the cholera, an oppressor of the poor, who built himself a fine marine villa at Torquay (now the Palace Hotel), from which he administered his diocese and went up to London to speak in the House of Lords on behalf of every bad cause." 

It is said that, when in the House, Phillpotts fulminated against every reform of the age in a manner that shocked even his fellow diehards and that when in his diocese, in the name of reform, he put fear rather than love into the hearts of his clergy.

The Times here consistently misspelled Phillpott's name. Perhaps they only did it to annoy because they knew it teased.

We still have nauseating bishops and we have 26 bishops in the House of Lords -   Lords spiritual, but not very! 




Saturday, 14 December 2024

HOLY SOIL, TEIGNMOUTH, 1843.

A letter to the Editor of The Western Times  of 16th December 1843 from F. Rice,  the Independent minister at Teignmouth,  described how the Rev. Walter Brunt, the curate at West Teignmouth and an ardent disciple of the Tractarian school of theology, tried to forbid him, F Rice, from walking across the Anglican churchyard:  

"Until within the last few years there was a public foot path through West Teignmouth churchyard, which, for convenience sake, some of the Independent dissenters availed themselves of to go to their chapel on Sundays; and since the public path was stopped, they have, till now, continued to go through the yard without hindrance, when the gates were open.

"In common with others, I did the same, unmolested, till the 15th inst. but on the morning of that day the curate saw me pass through the yard, and enquired who I was, and was told the Independent Minister.

"In the afternoon a message was brought me from the sexton to this effect - that the parson had ordered him to prevent me from going through the yard any more!! the pretext for this being that the ground is consecrated!!

Probably, sir, it may be necessary to re-consecrate the holy soil, or if not, to perform  some ceremony in order to remove the pollution which it has received from the heretical feet of the teacher of a 'conventicle.' 

How devoutly is it to be wished that this intolerant priest would pause awhile when he next reads the following petition in the liturgy - From all uncharitableness,  Good Lord deliver us.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

F. RICE."  

The next Sunday when F. Rice crossed the churchyard again, the curate came out,  he must have been watching for him, and followed him into the street.  The priest argued that the minister was a trespasser.  F. Rice felt he needed to write an account of their meeting to The Times again.  These petty squabbles were hardly edifying!

The Puseyite, Rev. Walter Brunt MA,  lasted less than another year in Teignmouth.  He became the curate at Helston where, in November 1844, he became famous for fifteen minutes when the complaints of his Cornish parishioners and the consequences thereof hit the national press.

I think and hope that a 'holy soil' story like this could not be in the news today.  It is surely progress much to be applauded that much of the silliness, as it seems now to the vast majority of citizens, of the Victorian Christian churches, orthodox or dissenting, has disappeared like the snows of yesteryear and it was a tough struggle for freedom of thought which should be remembered and taught in our schools with many a hero fighting against gammon and Bible tyranny.

Our leaders are cowards. There is still a lot of gammon about!  Islam in particular  gammons a lot of people.  It is a faith that is tyrannical and threatens all of us.  It prescribes all our our liberties and our leaders choose not to speak of it.  They do not speak out for the largely secular society that they represent and that wants none of the nonsense.  They are too fearful to act against the sillinesses, injustices and worse that Islam and perhaps other religions imply even though they recognise them.



Wednesday, 4 December 2024

PRIZE FIGHTING, EXETER, 1843.

 "We regret to see the brutal practice of prize fighting resorted to in this city, by the following statement of the contest between Mr. Long Cornish and Mr. Whiteway.

(From a correspondent.)

"The fancy of the neighbourhood have for the last week been on the qui vive, in consequence of a rumour that an affair was to come off between Long Cornish, a slaughterman, and the champion of the Butcher-row, and a man named Whiteway, who next to St. Crispin has been regarded as the patron saint and champion of the snobs.

"The origin of the fight appears to have been a squabble among the principals at the late wrestling match at the Mount Radford Inn, when Cornish being under the influence of Sir John Barleycorn,  Whiteway gave him a thrashing; but Mr. Long Cornish being a glutton in these things, the friends of both men endeavoured to get up an affair for ten pounds aside,  which it was stated was the amount for which they were to contend.  The thing was kept as snug as possible, in order to prevent the interference of the beaks, and on Sunday it was rumoured that those who were at Countess Wear Bridge, on Monday morning at ten o'clock, would be near the scene of action.

"The road from Exeter to Countess Wear Bridge was crowded, not only by pedestrians, but by almost every description of vehicle.  At the time appointed, both men arrived, Cornish and his friends in two flys; Whiteway and his friends came on foot.  About half past ten the ring was formed, in a marsh adjoining the bridge, and it was computed that there were not less than two thousand persons present.

"Whiteway was the first to enter the ring, he appeared in excellent spirits - but had too much flesh, his age too was against him, he being 47, and Cornish only 35 - but notwithstanding he was the favourite.  Cornish shortly after entered, attended by Tom Lane as second,  Jem Evans as bottle-holder.  Whiteway was seconded by Shapley.

"At a quarter to eleven, both men being ready, Whiteway addressed the spectators by saying 'that as it was to be a fair stand up fight, he hoped that no one would interfere, and that if either man went down without a blow,  the other should be at liberty to jump upon him.'  The company seemed pleased with this arrangement from the cheering with which it was received.

"The men then set to, and as soon as Whiteway came within reach, Cornish (who is left handed) hit him a most tremendous blow on the right cheek and he went down as if he had been shot.  He recovered and came again to the scratch to be served the same in the next round.  Twelve rounds were fought, in every one of which Whiteway was regularly knocked down by Cornish;  there was no wrestling or attempt at anything of the kind.  It was a regular give and take affair.

"After the second round it was evident that Whiteway had no chance; on two occasions when Cornish laid himself open, his opponent neglected to take advantage of it.  On time being called after the twelfth round, Whiteway's second gave in for him, and Cornish was declared the victor.

"The fight lasted about a quarter of an hour, and the work that was done in the time amply made up fot the short space that it occupied.  The knowing ones appeared to be taken in by the result."

Countess Wear would seem to have been a popular location for such events. 

This account is written in true Pierce Egan 'Boxiana' style  (he was still alive.  He died in 1849) with some  lovely cant words;  the fancy, snug, beaks, bottle-holder

A snob was universally understood to mean a shoemaker ( St. Crispin was a shoemaker.) and nothing else.

John Barleycorn, here created a Baron, was and remains, as every schoolboy and girl knows,  the personification of whisky and beer.


Source: The Western Times,  16th September 1843.


Tuesday, 3 December 2024

A BOY IN A BAG, EXETER, 1843.

 "A man has been observed on the streets, soliciting charity, with a bag on his back, from the mouth of which protruded a human head.  

"On Friday evening he was taken to the station house by one of the police, who found the bag to contain a young man about 18, crippled in both his legs and arms, whom he carried about to excite compassion.

"On being taken before the magistrates he was ordered to make himself scarce."

Which is all we are told by The Western Times  (9th September 1843)  of this horror story from mid-Victorian Exeter. 

This young man recalled to me the heart-rending, Ozymandias-reciting character, Harrison, played by Harry Melling in the Coen Brothers' Buster Scruggs.

It is amazing how little compassion the Exeter magistrates found for this wandering mendicant and the crippled teenager in his bag whom I suspect they saw as being less than human.   The man seeking charity was presumably told to pick up his bag and walk out of town.   The magistrates would no doubt have argued that they were only carrying out a prime duty, (neglected now?) to keep undesirable strangers from the streets of Exeter.

    

Wednesday, 27 November 2024

A CHASE IN A SULKY, EXETER ST. THOMAS, 1843.

"There was considerable consternation in St. Thomas parish, on Saturday, in consequence of one Mr. Salter, an omnibus proprietor, having been suddenly seized with a desire to emigrate.  The desire came upon him with all the force of monomania.

"He packed up his traps suddenly; he departed hastily, forgetting that there are some civil obligations which he ought to have discharged, one of which was the rent to his landlord, Mr. Nicholas Tuckett.

"Many other persons professed to have reminiscences of his abode in the district, in his patronage of their ledgers; but no one thought of arresting the progress of the infatuated man, and bringing him to the cloth, as it is called, before he might have enrolled himself as a citizen of the repudiating republic on the other side of the broad Atlantic.

"But it must be a sharp mad-man, or a brisk rogue, that can out-run Mr. Nicholas Tuckett;  he determined to see the mad-man before he got on board, to see if medical aid would reduce the symptoms of monomania, & leave him to reflect a little before he  took the rash step of bolting from his country with the goods of his neighbours.

"Mr Tuckett made for Ilfracombe as fast as a fleet horse and a light sulky would take him. On arrival he found there was a ship ready to depart for America.  He planted himself between that ship and the town.  The infatuation of the intending emigrant was , however, extreme; and as persons labouring under monomania exhibit a great deal of cunning, he had sent a scout forward to see if any of his anxious friends might be waiting to dissuade him from the precipitate step he was about to take.

"The scout reported that Mr. Nicholas Tuckett stood in the way.   Three several dodges were made by the monomaniac to get past, but to no purpose, and in one he was intercepted with a whole cartload of goods, and Mr. Nicholas Tuckett, by the summary jurisdiction which he assumed to have, did get out of him the whole amount of his rent due, returning to him on some principal which we do not comprehend, £5 as a testimony, it is to be presumed, of his gratitude to him for having been caught."  


This, typically verbose, Western Times' (1st September,1843) report of a citizen, the owner  of an omnibus!,  packing up his traps (trappings) jumping on a ship bound from Ilfracombe to The States and leaving his debts behind him, records a form of action which must have been very tempting to many in Victorian Exeter.  The decision to make a new life in what was still a very young world must have been exhilirating.   Of course a man could get to Australasia by simply killing a sheep but that was less fun.  I find myself taking sides again and wishing the brisk rogue, Mr. Salter, all good fortune in his new life.

Sulkies are called sulky because they are driven by sulky persons who do not wish to oblige their fellow men by finding them a seat.  There were, apparently, French carriages, v. Lawrence Sterne, called désobligeants on the same line of thought.  Sulkies were/are super fast!