The Swan Circle

We have all experienced that kind of day when we switch on the rolling TV news channels and find there is not much going on. A slow day for news we call it, and for the news channels it must feel like the silly season comes more than once a year. They have to scrape out the ridiculous, the ephemeral, the shallow vapid tales and make them newsworthy – persuade us we want them. The same goes for our daily newspapers, and it has to be said, the online news and blogs. Has that changed in three hundred years? Judging by the evidence derived from contemporary newspapers of the mid-eighteenth century, it appears that it has not. In 1764, it was thought worthy to add a paragraph to one London newspaper concerning someone's pet parrot who had laid four eggs over a period of ten days. Then there was some letter about the militia 'dancing' to music during exercises! Dotted interlinearly between the serious and the ridiculous are the stories, adverts and announcements that were considered of some importance to individuals, such as petty crimes and pleas for lost property, but to us, these may appear unintentionally amusing. And out of interest, what about Mr William Shakespear below? Doing his duty for poor old Isaac Elias – "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

"News"
'Northern climes have always been observed to be most favorable to population, but we seldom meet with so curious an instance as the following, communicated to us by a correspondent at St. Petersburgh. There now lives in the district of Schuiske, a villager of the name of Foedor Vassili, who, of two wives he married successively, has had a very extraordinary number of children. The first, in 27 years, made him father of 69, having had four at a time at four successive births, three at each of seven following lyings-in, and two at a time in 16 more. The second wife was brought to bed only eight times; at six of her births she had two at a time, and three in the two ones subsequent, so that the above two wives in 35 lyings-in, made him father to 87 children, four only of whom died young, and his family now consists of 83!'

'A Gentleman in Suffolk writes thus to his friend in London: "Whilst you have horse and foot patrolling to protect you from the poor Spitalfields Weavers that are up in arms thro' want of their daily bread; we have at Bury 500 of our Militia learning to dance, and march to the sound of the fife. The new recruits are exercising morning and afternoon, without arms, to teach them first to make use of their legs. Picture to yourself a very awkward country fellow, whose legs are always left half a yard behind him, teaching to move to music, and stand upright. The scene is better conceived then can be expressed: To me it is excessive droll; though I heartily pity the poor Serjeants, and think they need more patience than Pedagogues: but let me do the justice to those who have been taught the exercise, to say, they are quite equal to the regulars, and both officers and men do that credit to their country which a well disciplined Militia was intended for, and may serve every other good purpose of a standing army."'
 

'Chelmsford, Nov. 16.
Monday the Fair began here, and Cattle in general sold dear. At Night a Tradesman found his Son in Company with a common Prostitute, and on desiring him to leave her, was refused; on which the Father got a Warrant, took up the Woman, and carried her before a Magistrate, who ordered her to the House of Correction; but as the Constable was conducting her, some young Bloods knocked him down, and carried off the Nymph in Triumph. In the Fray the Constable lost his Hat and Wig.'
 

'Yesterday John Eason, a soldier, who was on a recruiting party at Walton upon Thames, Surry. was committed to the New Gaol in Southwark, by William Shakespear, Esq; for breaking open a room, and robbing Isaac Elias, a travelling Jew, of his box, containing money, jewel, plate, and other effects, to a great value.'

A Plea
'If the benevolent Author of a Pamphlet, called the History of a Gentleman cured of HEATS to his face, would be so good, as by a line in this paper, to be particularly explicit, how the drops of the medice he reats of called Red Speedwell, are made and how many are to be taken in the day, and where the herb is to be procured, he will oblige one who hopes for relief from the use of them, and to be indebted to them for the benefit.'

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Lost Property
'Left in a Hackney Coach that set a Gentleman down at Westminster-hall Gate, on Friday the 25th of February last, between Six and Seven o'clock in the evening, a Row of ARTIFICIAL TEETH. Whoever will bring the same to Mr Meckleson, dentist, in Coventry-street, Piccadilly, shall receive a Guinea reward.'

An Announcement
'This morning Laurence Richardson, esq; of Hampton Hedges in Leicestershire, was married to Miss Sally Essex, of Kensington; what renders the union remarkable is, that each of the parties have lost an eye, and were both born the 26th day of June, 1740.'

From the Gossip Column
'Two or three absurd paragraphs have crept into our paper within this day or two, fabricated with the elegant design of giving uneasiness to one of the few amiable and repectable Ladies of St. James's. It is needless to observe that the paragraphs alluded to were written in a female hand, and the orthography required no small degree of correction!'

Finally, this delightful piece of sarcasm about Sally the Small, subject of many articles on my other blog, Theatre History:

'Wonderful Intelligence. – "Sally the Small is as well as can be expected after her lying-in." To which we may add, by way of companion to this, that "yesterday died Jowler, only dog to Mr. Marrowbones, of Clare-market." – And now the public have information enough for one day!'

And that just about sums it up, only Yahoo OMG could do better. I must dash, having a hectic heat.

All stories taken from various London newspapers: London Chronicle, Morning Chronicle, Westminster Journal etc. between 1766-1795

The new fashion for the circular hoop petticoat was picked up by Parker's General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer on the 26 April 1783 in the following biting paragraph:

'The perfect hoop petticoat is to undergo a material alteration before the Summer commences, and is to be a perfect imitation of that magnificent one worn by the fair islanders of Myconia, which is perfectly circular, and of course furnishes that beautiful simile of comparing a woman to a star ; as then it may be truly said, that every lady moves in her own orb, and shines in her own sphere. There may indeed arise some objections to those kind of ornaments, viz. that a slender woman in such a dress stands upon a basis so exorbitantly wide, that she resembles a tunnel; and that a woman of low stature, when she moves, gives us a perfect idea of a child in a go-cart.'

Miaow.
 

MJ Holman

Last night I tweeted an appeal on Twitter for more information about Roley Poley. So far no one has responded so I thought I would post the full reference here and leave it open for suggestions. What do you think it means? (Or if you actually know enlighten me)

From Morning Post, 2nd April 1793

MJ Holman @mishjholman

Kew Green in 1810

It was 1809 and the patriarch was dead. Henry West was long gone and with him the little empire he had built at Kew was dying; the old Swan Tavern on the Brentford Ait had been surrendered by his wife in 1793 to Thomas Samuel Maycock and from him to Elizabeth Legh and her descendants; until finally Robert Hunter irritated occupant of the house opposite, made a complaint to the City of London about the noise. The island, he said 'was a great Nuisance to this parish and Neighbourhood on both sides of the river…,' it lured, enticed and encouraged the worst type of behaviour drawing debauched individuals to the 'House of Entertainment, which has long been a Harbour for Men and women of the worst description, where riotous and indecent scenes were often exhibited during the Summer months on Sundays'.
   Whilst under the proprietorship of the West family, the Swan Tavern had dazzled George IV and he had used it to plot his seduction of Mary Robinson, but by 1800 his father's court had drifted away to Windsor and old King George III paid his last visit to Kew in 1806. He did not return to this fond place of memories for his jubilee, but the remaining members of the West family including my great, great, great grandparents Henry and Henrietta would have joined in the celebrations on Kew Green:

   "The morning was ushered in by the firing of cannon, and the ringing of bells. The board of Artificers walked in procession to Church at ten o'clock. After divine service, Messrs. George and Henry Warren [local landowners and probably relatives of Henry West's chum Thomas Howlet Warren] entertained 100 persons with roast beef, plum-pudding. &c. in a spacious marquee, erected for the purpose, upon Kew Green. Porter, ale, and punch, were likewise plentifully distributed. On his Majesty's health being drank, 50 pieces of cannon were discharged. In the evening, the whole town was illuminated. A grand gothic arch was erected, from the centre of which the British Star was suspended, and underneath a striking likeness of his Majesty, with the motto of "Virtue, Honour, and Glory." The whole of the trees around the green were illuminated by variegated lamps, in radiant arches, wreaths, and columns, and the evening concluded with a rustic dance, and fire-works".

Surely even a fogyish stick-in-the-mud like Robert Hunter would not have objected to such a celebration on his doorstep.

MJ Holman

Sources:
An account of the celebration of the jubilee, on the 25th October, 1809; being the forty-ninth anniversary of the reign of George the third, collected and publ. by a lady, the wife of a naval officer
Kew Past, David Blomfield

Advert courtesy of the British Library

It was on a late winter's night in 1770, when Edward Wild a former lodger, broke into the warehouse belonging to his old landlord and stole some produce. He must have carefully considered his chances of being caught and based any decision to burgle the old man on his knowledge of the property, its layout and the family routine. He knew that the warehouse was separate from the dwelling and relied on the assumption that the family, asleep in their beds when he struck at midnight on 10th February, would not hear a thing.

But his former landlord was a canny, suspicious old devil and had kept his eye on Wild for quite awhile. The merchant's name was Francis Stevens and his was my 4x great, grandfather; he had lived through much of the 1730s through to the 1760s at Mayfair and at Piccadilly before moving to New Brentford in the late 1760s. The family house and warehouses were probably nearer to the old village of Hanwell where the family had a long association, than they were to Brentford.

Francis provided an account of the theft and its aftermath on the witness stand of the Old Bailey:

'I missed some cheeses; there being a great quantity, I cannot tell how many were missing. My servant seeing mark of feet upon some coals, told me of it I went into the cellar, and saw it myself; they led to the hole where the jack-weight went down. I went into my warehouse above, and saw marks of feet on some cheeses. The prisoner Wild had lived with me about two months, and had been gone but the Sunday before. I suspected him. I ordered the watchman, if he saw any body about there, to secure them. On the Monday, the watchman called me up before twelve at night, and told me, he had got one of them. He had got a boy. I examined him if he was not concerned with Wild? He said, No, he never was; but he had told him, he could get up a hole and get things; and he had received some nutmegs from him. Then I went with the watchman to the woman's house at the bar, where Wild lived, and called him to get up; he was some time before he did. When I charged him, he cryed, and desired to speak with me backwards. He then told me he had taken a cheese. Soon after he said he had taken two, and that they were in that house. We found one in the cellar cut in two, and about three pounds of it gone. The man of the house declared his innocence; he went up stairs to his wife. The other cheese was found in his bed-room, but I was not by at the time.'

  Elizabeth Boyce, wife of the 'man of the house' was charged with receiving stolen goods, but was acquitted. Edward Wild was found guilty and sentenced to transportation, probably to either Virginia or Jamaica.

The two cheeses were valued at 10 s.