SMUGGLING, SIDMOUTH, 1842.

 "SIDMOUTH. - Smuggling. - At an early hour on the 4th inst, there was a considerable quantity of illicit foreign brandy landed between Sidmouth and Salcombe coast guard stations, which appears to have been done in a cool and business-like manner, as it has been clearly ascertained that the smugglers brought their waggons convenient to  the place of landing, and fed their horses prior to their departure.

"When the occurence came to the knowledge of the coast guard they went in pursuit, but without success."

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It's impossible to resist blogging a report on smugglers even when it is as brief and unsatisfactory as this from The Western Times of 12th March 1842.

By Salcombe is meant Salcombe Regis.  The Salcombe coastguard station was farther to the East at Weston Mouth.  I guess the waggons brought to a place convenient to the place of landing must have used the old quarry track above Southcombe Farm but, wherever, the brandy must still have been worked up the cliff.

Why is waggon a so much more satisfying word than wagon?

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?"

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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."

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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."

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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.

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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.