PITCH IT INTO THE BITCH!, EXETER, 1845.

From The Western Times, 30th August 1845:

"WILLIAM  DAVIES and ANN POWELL were summoned by Mary Ann Phillips, for an assault upon her, on Wednesday night. The complainant, an elderly woman, lived with Davies for the last eleven years, at which time he being then a lodger in her house, she was transferred to him by her husband, with the consent of all parties;  her account of the matter was, "My husband agreed to give me up to Davies; he promised to take care of me, and I believe there was a trifle passed between them" but she did not say whether the trifle was paid as a bonus by the seller, or was the amount at which she was valued. However, the arrangement satisfied them all till her husband died two years ago; but lately Davies, tired of his bargain, and enamoured of  Mrs. Ann Powell, has taken, she says, to using her very cruelly, and some months since he kicked three of her ribs in.  

"On this occasion, she went to the Windmill Inn, where she found him sitting with Powell upon his knee.  The latter paid for some beer, and told him to drink it up, and pitch it into the -----. (complainant) Previous to pitching it into her, Davies asked her to drink; and when she said "No, you know I never drink,"  he struck her with much violence, driving her to his own door.

"This was her statement, but she called no witnesses, and Mr. Willesford, for  defendant, denied the whole story.  Dr. Barham dismissed the case, which he said was disgraceful to all of them.  He directed each party to pay his own costs, and advised them to separate."

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she was transferred:   This is the second selling of an Exeter wife of whichI know.   The other took place in public in 1839, six years prior to this one.   I think we can dismiss the Times' cruel  inference that Mr. Phillips might have paid to have his wife taken off his hands.  She must have been worth something. In the other case the seller received a shilling.

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The Windmill Inn:  in Exeter was situated where Bull Meadow Road meets Holloway Street on the road out to Topsham.

upon his knee:  This fascinated me.  It seems so right for the times and yet I have never in my life seen any man or boy take his partner on his knee in pub or park or wherever.   It must make it difficult to drink one's beer.   There was a dark damsel in the song  'There is a tavern in the town' , composed in 1883, who liked to sit on knees but otherwise?....  

pitch it into the -----:  The bitch in the title is my assumption but I would bet a guinea to a pinch of snuff that was the word used.

The apparent indifference of the Exeter magistrates to Mary Ann Phillip's accusations of cruelty seems very shocking these days.  This case does suggest that a man could kick in three of a woman's ribs and strike her with much violence with impunity.      

(NO) "SOUP AT THE PALACE," EXETER, 1845

In  August, 1845,  Queen Adelaide, the Queen Dowager, came to Exeter by a special train.  With her, on the train, she brought  Her Majesty's carriage of state and, presumably, the horses to pull it. On Sunday 7th August she attended the service in the cathedral.   The Western Times,(23rd August 1845.) reported:

"The  choir and aisles were of course crowded. The service was read by the Bishop, Chancellor Potts, and Archdeacon Stevens; and Bishop Phillpotts preached a sermon on the duty of christian charity from the text Luke x.,v. 29, "Who is my neighbour?"

"[Which the poor people who used to get soup at the Palace would like to be able to answer - but they cannot, for the Bishop shut it up five years ago - gives away no soup, hs kitchen chimney never smokes there, and he has  tried to get out of paying the poor rate upon it. 

"Who is his neighbour? Not the poor and the needy: for in London he lodges at a hotel, and at Bishopstoe he is perched on a lone crag of the sea shore, where the poor cannot approach him.  This is a short answer to the text.}

"Her Majesty went to the Cathedral again in the afternoon, and in the evening took a walk upon Northernhay, and round the Castle Walls, expressing herself much pleased with the beauties of the place...."

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The Queen Dowager: Adelaide, the widow of King William IV, had been, for seven years, Queen of England et cetera  and a successful and popular consort who outlived her 'Sailor King' by twelve years.  She travelled widely and when she visited Exeter she was fifty-three and within four years of her death.

Bishop Phillpotts: For our Henry to be preaching on the subject of charity was supremely ironic.  The Western Times had fun in highlighting the essential meanness of the man.   The lost soup kitchen at the Bishop's Palace has its resurrection in the van outside the West Door of the Cathedral that hands out food to the many homeless of Exeter every week.

The beauties of the place:  This I take to mean 'of the Northernhay Gardens' .  The Gardens are no longer beautiful, just a spread of turf and too much tarmac.  They could be!  Their neglect is evidence of the mindless philistinism of successive Exeter City Councils.  Once they were the pride of the city,  a place where you took kings and queens.

AN EXPEDITIOUS TRANSIT, EXETER, 1845.

 "SIR,

"Exmouth is the Port of Exeter - the District intervening between the two places is beautiful in the extreme. A Railway connecting the two places will be equally advantageous to each:  it will afford the Exonians an expeditious transit to the nearest point of the sea - and it will place the inhabitants and visitors of Exmouth within a half an hour's journey of the Railways of Exeter

"The advantage the Line will be to Topsham, Lympstone, &c., is equally obvious. The Line moreover will pass through a very populous as well as beautiful District - offering no engineering difficulties whatever.

"There is no Branch Line that has been named in Devonshire - there is rarely one in England - which can be fairly compared to the Line connecting Exeter with  its port, either in point of accommodation, public importance, or as a matter of Speculation for Capitalists.

"Great credit is due to the gentlemen of Exeter that they have started the scheme, instead of allowing it to fall into the hands of mere adventurers.  

"The interests of the projectors are so closely allied to the interests of Exeter and its neighbourhood, that they are one and the same - the one cannot be injured without seriously affecting the other: they, better than any other party, ought to see and know what is likely to benefit the city, its port and the public; and the proposed scheme is a proof that they are alive to those interests"

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This puff for an  Exeter to Exmouth railway appeared in a letter to the editor of The Exeter Flying Post (17th August, 1845,) that is to say in the heady days of  the 'railway mania'.   It was written by an anonymous writer who, clearly, had an interest in the matter.   The idea had been discussed by the gentlemen of Exeter since 1825.  The merchants always had difficulties dispatching and receiving goods.  The estuary was too shallow in early Victorian times for ships to trust the channels and even lighters came no closer to Exeter than Topsham.  As for those citizens who did not trade, and the children of Exeter, particularly those who had buckets and spades, they dreamed of a cheap and easy ride to the seaside.

In fact it was not until sixteen years after this letter was published that the railway was opened and by that time a goodly number of mere adventurers were involved.

Nowadays the line is called The Avocet Line, which is a good name, though the avocets prefer the western banks of the estuary.  The ride is still beautiful in the extreme, at least between Topsham and Exmouth.

Rarely one for scarcely one is curious, or perhaps not. 

An expeditious transit:  In 1845 the writer anticipated 'within half an hour'.  In 2026 the, slightly shorter, Avocet journey takes twenty-five minutes.   plus .ça change.....!