Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain
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In 1870, when Lewis’s Bon Marché in Liverpool set up a separate, ‘snow’-filled Christmas Fairyland - which became an annual event - the emphasis on children became even stronger. In 1888 Roberts’ Stores in Stratford also had an annual Christmas grotto, with both Cinderella and Santa Claus appearing. The Draper’s Record said that 17,000 children had been to see Santa: this was, apparently, his first outing to a department store, but by 1889 he was making multiple appearances across the country, promoting shopping for children.59 By 1906 Gamage’s advertised that it held a stock of 500,000 toy soldiers, ‘but owing to the exceptional demand at Christmastime, customers are urged to give their orders as early as possible’.60 Gordon Selfridge claimed to have originated the phrase ‘Only—days until Christmas’,61 and if it was not he, and not first promoted in a department store, it ought to have been.
Advertisers without Christmas products to promote were not left behind. By the end of the nineteenth century, many ran seasonal advertisements anyway: Eno’s Fruit Salts had a picture of three people dancing, and the strapline ‘Happy Xmas. We feel jolly and well, Thanks to Eno’s Fruit Salts’; Pear’s Soap had a picture of a small child hiding under an overturned bathtub, with the heading ‘Oh! Here’s a Merry Christmas’.62 There were also a large number of marketing campaigns designed to get each company’s sales material into as many homes as possible. By the end of the century, Beecham’s Pills gave away a ‘Music Portfolio’ with December purchases, while Colman’s Mustard splashed the slogan ‘J. & J. Colman’s Xmas Greetings 1896. To their young friends all over the world’ across the front of copies of Little Red Riding Hood. Bryant and May matches produced almanacs printed with illustrations and quotations from Shakespeare, and Express Dairies’ promotion was a pop-up model of a kitchen, complete with nursemaid and children drinking milk, and giving more milk to a kitten. Borwick’s Baking Powder produced a series of cards that were folded to produce twelve pictures illustrating nursery rhymes. The Sen-Sen Cachou Co. was rather less domestic, producing ‘The Sen-Sen War Puzzle’, a board game in which players raced to be first to beat the Boers.63
This dose of ‘Empire’ was a visible eruption of the more generally invisible internationalism that went to make up a British Christmas: Germany had supplied the trees, the USA had exported both Santa Claus and mass advertising; the Dutch had provided the origin of Santa Claus’s name, and also their shoes to hold presents (even though somehow, in the transmission, the shoes had turned into stockings). By the end of the century the traditional Christmas, that luxurious moment of homegrown tradition, was produced by manufacturers, delivered by railways, advertised by newspapers and magazines. Christmas books, Christmas travel, Christmas pantomimes, Christmas concerts, Christmas exhibitions: Prince Albert’s ‘products of all quarters of the globe’, from which ‘we have only to choose which is the best and cheapest for our purposes’, had now been reshaped, reordered, repackaged and delivered to create an image not of the industrial age, but of the age of domesticity.
* * *
*Lord Amberley was at the heart of the British Establishment, although of heterodox views. He was the son of the prime minister Lord John Russell, and the father of the philosopher Bertrand Russell.
†Knecht [‘Servant’] Ruprecht was, in the German Christmas tradition, one of St Nicholas’s helpers - sometimes a demon who punished bad children, sometimes just a more general attendant.
*Which surely helped to spread the notion even further: the story sold 15,000 copies in its first year, and it went on selling throughout the century. Even those who did not necessarily read would have known of it: forty years after it was first published, nine stage versions appeared in London alone in one single year.15
*Calling him just this does his reputation a great disservice. Davies Gilbert (1767-1839) was an extraordinary character, a facilitator and administrator who influenced much behind the scenes. Born to a clergyman in Cornwall, Gilbert took a degree in mathematics and astronomy at Oxford, offering encouragement to a young scientist from Cornwall named Humphry Davy. His mathematical skills were used to look at the efficiency of the compound steam engine, the design of the rotary engine, and even Richard Trevithick’s high-pressure steam engine. Thomas Telford’s design for the Menai suspension bridge was adapted after Gilbert published his calculations on the relationship between the maximum tension in the chains and the depth of curvature of the suspension; his methods of calculating strength remained the norm for suspension bridges for the next hundred years.16
*Even at this date, there was not a carol in sight. Planché chose songs that were ‘principally old national melodies or ballads, and snatches from operas equally familiar to the general ear’, including ‘Se vuol ballare’ from The Marriage of Figaro and ‘Va, pensiero, sull’ ali dorate’ from Nabucco; the traditional songs ‘Begone Dull Care’ and ‘Cheer, Boys, Cheer’; and a ‘Gavotte de Vestris’, which was most probably, given Planché’s working relationship with her, a song from a show in which Mme Vestris was currently appearing.
*As with the workhouse parties, these celebrations were generally held in January of the following year.
*Sam Weller was looking at a middling kind of card. The price could be as little as 1/2d., or as much as 5s.38
*In the 1880s picture postcards were first produced and if the pictures were seasonal these too became ‘Christmas cards’.
Appendices
Appendix 1
Currency
Pounds, shillings and pence were the divisions of the currency. One shilling was made up of 12 pence; one pound of 20 shillings, i.e. 240 pence. Pounds were represented by the £ symbol, shillings as ‘s.’, and pence as ‘d.’ (from the Latin denarius). ‘One pound, one shilling and one penny’ was written as £1.1.1. or £1 1s. 1d. ‘One shilling and sixpence’, referred to in speech as ‘One and six’, was written 1/6 or 1s. 6d.
A guinea was a coin to the value of £1 1s (The coin was not circulated after 1813, although the term remained and tended to be reserved for luxury goods.) A sovereign was a 20-shilling coin, a half-sovereign a 10-shilling coin. A crown was 5 shillings, half a crown 2s. 6d., and the remaining coins were a florin (2 shillings), sixpence, a groat (4 pence), a threepenny bit (pronounced ‘thrup’ny bit’), twopence (pronounced tuppence), a penny, a halfpenny (pronounced hayp’ny), a farthing (1/4 of a penny) and a half a farthing (1/8 of penny).
There were many slang names for various sums of money: a pound was (and is) a ‘quid’, while a shilling was a ‘bob’, sixpence a ‘tanner’, and a £5 note a ‘finnif’ or ‘finnuf’. These were the most common, although there were many other terms, including the confusing ‘half a dollar’ for 2s. 6d. (A ‘dollar’ for 5s. seems to have been rather less common.)
Relative values have altered so substantially that attempts to convert nineteenth-century prices into contemporary ones are usually futile. As I am usually discussing the costs of everyday articles, some sense of the value of goods should be apprehended. However, if a more precise attempt to convert is wanted, the website http://www.ex.ac.uk/_RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html is useful.
Appendix 2
Department stores (and other large shops) and their opening dates
KEY
* Survives today
† Survived into the second half of the twentieth century Italics Not a department store
1776 Flint and Clark; in 1813 became Clark and Debenham, later Debenhams*
1790 Dickins and Smith; in 1835 became Dickins, Son and Stevens, later Dickins and Jones (closed 2006)†
1812 Swan and Edgar†
1813 Benjamin Harvey, later Harvey Nichols*
1817 Shoolbred’s
1821 Manchester Bazaar, from 1836 Kendal, Milne*
1826 Pullars of Perth
1830 Jolly’s of Bath*
1832 Lilly and Skinner*
1833 Peter Robinson†
1837 Marshall and Wilson; in 1848 became Marshall and Snelgrove† Bainbridge’s of Newcastle*
; 1839 The Scotch House (closed c.2004)†
1840 Heal’s*
1842 Maple’s†
1849 Harrod’s*
1851 Bax and Co., later Emary and Co., now Aquascutum*
1856 Burberry’s of Basingstoke, later Thomas Burberry and Co.* Lewis’s of Liverpool*
1858 Gorringe’s†
1862 Derry and Toms†
1863 Whiteley’s*
1864 John Lewis, Oxford Street*
1866 Civil Service Supply Association†
1867 Bentall’s, Kingston upon Thames* Handley’s of Southsea
1870 Barker’s† (closed 2006)
1871 Peter Jones*
1871 Army and Navy Cooperative†
1873 Pontings†
1875 Liberty and Co.*
The Irish Linen Co.*
1877 Bon Marché, Brixton
1879 D. H. Evans†
1882 Fenwick’s, Newcastle*
1883 Penberthy’s† Jaeger*
1887 Bobby’s, Margate
1894 Bourne and Hollingsworth†
1897 Calman Links*
1909 Selfridge’s*
Appendix 3
Holidays ‘kept at the Exchequer, Stamp-Office, Excise-Office, Custom-House, Bank, East-India, and South-Sea House’
From [Thomas Mortimer], ’Pholanthropos’, Every Man His Own Broker Or, A Guide to Exchange-Alley. (London, S. Hopper at Caesar’s Head, 1761; rev. ed. 1801)
1761 1801
January 1 (New Year) 1
6 (Epiphany) 6
18
25* (St Paul) 25
30 (King Charles the Martyr) 30
February 2 (Purification of the Virgin Mary) 2
3 (Shrove Tuesday)
4 (Ash Wednesday)
14 (St Valentine)
24 (St Mathias) 24
March 1 (St David)
20 (Good Friday)
23 (Easter Monday)
24 (Easter Tuesday)
25 (Lady Day) 25
April 23 (St George)
25 (St Mark) 25
26 (Duke of Cumberland’s Birthday)
30 (Ascension Day)
May 1 (Sts Philip and Jacob) 1
11 (Whit Monday)
12 (Whit Tuesday)
13 (Whit Wednesday)
17
29* (Restoration of Charles II) 29
June 4* (George III’s birthday) 4
10 (Princess Amelia’s birthday)
11 (St Barnabas) 11
24 (St John) 24
29 (Sts Peter and Paul) 29
July 15 (St Swithin)
25 (St James) 25
August 1 (Lammas Day)
12
24 (St Bartholomew) 24
September 2* (Commemoration of the Great Fire of London) 2
14 (Holy Rood)
21 (St Matthew) 21
22
29 (St Michael) 29
October 18 (St Luke) 18
25
26 (George III proclaimed king) 26
28 (Sts Simon and Jude) 28
November 1 (All Saints’ Day) 1
2 (All Souls’ Day)
4 (William III’s birthday) 4
5 (Guy Fawkes Day) 5
9* (Lord Mayor’s Show) 9
28 (Accession of Elizabeth I)
30 (Prince of Wales’s birthday) 30
December 21 (St Thomas) 21
25 25
26 26
27 (St John) 27
28 (Innocents) 28
Total 51 days a year 37 days a year
* Holidays with an asterisk are, if they fall on a Sunday, observed the following day.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
* * *
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS AND EPHEMERA
A number of collections of printed ephemera have been particularly useful: Bodleian Library:
The John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera
The Fillingham Collection (on pleasure gardens) British Library:
Playbills: London III: Miscellaneous Institutions, Societies and Other Bodies - 12 vols. 351-363; PB-MIC C13137 PLAYBILL 377 0-3; RAM 792.95; Daniel Lysons Collectanea, C.103.k.1112 and C.103.c.16; Sarah Banks Collection: L.R.301.h.2-11 and 937.g.96
The Pantheon: 840. m.30
Marylebone Gardens, 840.m.29
Ranelagh, L. R. 282.b.7; and 840.m.28
Vauxhall Gardens: Cup. 401.k.7
Garrick’s Stratford Jubilee: [Daniel George], c.61.e.2
Guildhall Library: Scrapbook of cuttings on Vauxhall Gardens, C.27
PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS
[House of Commons], Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Earl of Elgin’s Collection of Sculptures Marbles &c. (London, Murray, 1816)
1825: Committee on Petition of Trustees of the British Museum Relative to the Rich Collection, 1825; vol. 107
1836: Report from the Select Committee on the Arts, and their Connection with Manufacturers
1849: Accounts of Income and Expenditures of the British Museum, vol. 30
1850: Accounts of Income and Expenditures of the British Museum, vol. 33
1850: Royal Commission to Inquire into the Constitution and Government of the British Museum, vol. 34.1
1852-3: Select Committee on the National Gallery, 1852-3, vol. 35
1860: Report of the Select Committee on Public Institutions, vol. 16
1863: Return on Number of Visitors to British Museum Collections from the Date of its Establishment to March 1863, vol. 29
PRIMARY SOURCES
Anon., An Account of the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom (London, 1805)
——, ‘Advertisements’, Quarterly Review, 97 ( June and September 1855), 222
——, The Birmingham Saturday Half Holiday-Guide, with a Map (Birmingham, William Walker, [1871])
——, The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club for the Year[s] 1808, 1809, 1810 (3 vols., Edinburgh, T. & A. Constable, 1907-10)
——, Cassell’s Handy Guide to the Sea-Side. Illustrated. A Description of all the principal English sea watering-places, with their relative advantages to the tourist and resident (2nd ed., London, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, [1865])
——, The Christmas Book. Christmas in the Olden Time: Its Customs and their Origin (London, James Pattie, 1859)
——, The Christmas Tree: A Book of Instruction and Amusement for all Young People (London, James Blackwood, editions in 1856, 1858, 1859, 1860)
——, The Christmas Tree, A Present from Germany (London, Darton & Clark, 1844)
——, ‘The Circulating Libraries and Publishers’, Pall Mall Gazette, 59 ( July 1894), 3
——, The Crystal Palace: A Little Book for Little Boys (London, James Nisbet, 1851)
——, Cupid’s Garland, or, Love’s Annual Resource, A Collection of Original Valentine Verses, Written expressly for the Work, for Ladies to Declare their Sentiments to Gentlemen, in language pleasing and amusing (London, Thomas Hughes, [?1820])
——, A Description of Vaux-hall Gardens. Being a proper companion and guide for all who visit that place (London, S. Hooper, 1762)
——[W.T.], The Express and Herald Original Bath Guide, Historical and Descriptive (Bath, William Lewis, Express and County Herald, [1870?])
——, Fireside Facts from the Great Exhibition (London, [n.p.] [1851]) (no title page: information from British Library catalogue) (incorporates much material from Little Henry’s Holiday, below])
——, George Sandford; or, The Draper’s Assistant. By One who has Stood Behind the Counter (Edinburgh, Thomas Grant, 1853)
——, ‘The [Great Exhibition’s] Catalogue’s Account of Itself ‘, Household Words, 74 (1851), 519
——, ‘The Great Exhibition and the Little One’, Household Words, 67 (1851), 356-60
——, Hymen’s Rhapsodies, or Lover’s Themes, A Collection of Original Valentine Verse, Written expressly for this Work, for Gentlemen to Address Ladies in Sonnets, Superior to any other (London, Thomas Hughes, [?182
0])
——, Jimmy Trebilcock; or, the Humorous Adventures of a Cornish Miner, at the Great Exhibition, What he Saw and What he didn’t See (Camborne, T. T. Whear, 1862)
——, ‘The Labourer’s Reading-Room’, Household Words, 3 (1851), 581-5
——[‘by the author of “Pleasant Pages”’], Little Henry’s Holiday at the Great Exhibition (London, Houston & Stoneman, [1851])
——, Mama’s Visit with her Little Ones, to the Great Exhibition (London, [n.p.], 1852)
——, Mr Goggleye’s Visit to the Exhibition of National Industry to be Held in London on the 1st of April 1851 (London, ‘Tim Takem’in’, [?1851])
——, Mr Punch at the Seaside, as pictured by Charles Keene, John Leech, George du Maurier, Phil May, L. Raven-Hill, J. Bernard Patridge, Gordon Browne, E. T. Reed, and Others…([no place of publication], Educational Book Co., [n.d.])
——[T. MacKinlay?], Mrs Cornely’s [sic] Entertainments at Carlisle House, Soho Square (Bradford, Blackburn, [1840?])