[72] Swell-mobites who steal from the compters in shops, while their confederates make some trifling purchase. These thieves often contrive to empty the till. [Reynolds’s note.]
[73] Persons who pass false money. [Reynolds’s note.]
[74] Persons who pass forged bank-notes at races, fairs. [Reynolds’s note.]
[75] Common cheats. [Reynolds’s note.]
[76] Gentlemanly—agreeable. [Reynolds’s note.]
[77] Hands. [Reynolds’s note.]
[78] The Adelaide Gallery, which was situated at the northern, or St. Martin’s Church, end of the Lowther Arcade, was started as a science “show.” Its principal attractions were Perkins’s steam-gun, which discharged a shower of bullets, but was never adopted in serious warfare; and the gymnotus, or electrical eel, a creature which emitted shocks on its back being touched. Parents and persons in charge of youth were great patrons of the Adelaide Gallery, which flourished until a rival institution appeared in the shape of the Polytechnic, in Upper Regent Street, which speedily and completely took the wind out of the sails of the original establishment.” Edmund Yates, His Recollections and Experiences, 1885 [chapter on 1847-1852]. In 1852, it became the Royal Marionette Theatre. (Footnote courtesy of Lee Jackson’s Victorian London website.)
[79] Saint Giles’s: the infamous Rookery of St. Giles’s, in Westminster. A maze of streets and alleyways, of which only Bainbridge Street and Dyott Street remain, once including Church Street, Bickeridge Street and George Street. It was known as the worst place in England, and certainly the parish of St. Giles was the poorest in England. The houses were run together, with passages and tunnels leading everywhere, so that a criminal could evade capture there for years. In effect it was a no-go area for the police. The poverty and filth were appalling, and it was pulled down in the mid-1840s to make way for New Oxford Street.
[80] Hanging. [Reynolds’s note.]
[81] Inform, give warning. [Reynolds’s note.]
[82] Sovereigns. [Reynolds’s note.]
[83] Flash houses. [Reynolds’s note.]
[84] A thief who frequents theatres. [Reynolds’s note.]
[85] Pulpit. [Reynolds’s note.]
[86] A Jew fence: a receiver of stolen goods. [Reynolds’s note.]
[87]1s. 6d. [Reynolds’s note.]
[88] The drop. [Reynolds’s note.]
[89] A watch seal. [Reynolds’s note.]
[90] Served to deceive the unwary. [Reynolds’s note.]
[91] Pocket book. [Reynolds’s note.]
[92] Watch. [Reynolds’s note.]
[93] Jack Ketch. [Reynolds’s note.]
[94] Utterer of false sovereigns. [Reynolds’s note.]
[95] A convict returned from transportation before his time. [Reynolds’s note.]
[96] Hanged. [Reynolds’s note.]
[97] A juvenile thief. [Reynolds’s note.]
[98] Privately whipped in prison. [Reynolds’s note.]
[99] This song is entirely original. [Reynolds’s note.]
[100] James Greenacre, executed at Newgate, 2nd of May, 1837, for murdering and mutilating Hannah Brown.
[101] Daniel Good, executed in 1842 for the murder of Jane Good, alias Jane Jones. The body had been so extensively mutilated and destroyed that another count charged him with the murder of an unknown woman, it not being entirely sure that it was Jane Good/Jane Jones.
[102] Francois Benjamin Courvoisier, executed 6th of July, 1840, for murdering Lord William Russell while sleeping in his house in Norfolk Street, Park Lane.
[103] John Pegsworth, executed in 1837 for the murder of John Holiday Ready.
[104] Robert Blakesley, executed 1841 for the murder of James Burden.
[105] William John Marchant, a young footman, who was hanged for murdering a housemaid in a magistrate’s drawing-room, at 21 Cadogan Place, Chelsea. The “high-society” setting of the murder made it a great favourite in the press at the time; and Marchant’s claim that, as he walked around town, he thought he was followed by the ghost of the murdered Elizabeth Paynton, made it an instant classic.
[106] toko for yam: a stiff sentence.
[107] St. Sepulchre’s Church was the nearest to Newgate prison, and its bell was used to time executions. In former days, when prisoners were carried to Tyburn for hanging, it was customary to stop at St. Sepulchre’s and give them a drink of beer. The bell-man of St. Sepulchre’s traditionally read a sermon outside the prison walls the night before an execution.
[108] Sir Peter Laurie was a real person, who was born in East Lothian, Scotland, in 1780. Barrister-at-Law, Magistrate for the City of Westminster, and, as Reynolds mentions, Alderman for the City of London, Sir Peter lived in some style at 24 Park Square, Marylebone, just south of Regent’s Park.
[109] In 1848, a letter to the Home Secretary accused Reynolds himself of precisely this crime. It was sent by a Captain Andrew Atkinson Vincent, of Walmer, in Kent, a friend of Reynolds’s godfather, Duncan McArthur. Whether it was true, and Reynolds used the experience here, or whether Vincent took it from the Mysteries, is unclear.
[110] The Ordinary: the chief Anglican chaplain of Newgate. He had the right to publish the ‘Ordinary’s Account’ of the last days and sufferings of condemned criminals, from which he made a great deal of money.
[111] Gustavus IV of Sweden. One of this king’s first acts was to supervise the public impalement of Ankarstrom, who had assassinated his father and predecessor Gustavus Adolphus, despite the latter’s having publicly pardoned the killers.
[112] John Sheppard, known as Jack (1702-1724) housebreaker and thief, but a popular hero on account of his brilliant and daring escapes from Newgate and the Round-House. He was betrayed by Jonathan Wild and hanged at Newgate on 16 November 1724.
[113] Richard Turpin, known as Dick (1705-1739), highwayman, murderer, horse-thief, and chicken-killer. Born in Hempstead, Essex, Turpin was apprenticed to a butcher in Whitechapel, before taking to a career of crime which has been told too many times to need repeating here. A disgusting, vicious criminal, Turpin became, almost beyond belief, the most popular criminal figure since Robin Hood. The final form of the legend was given to him by W. H. Ainsworth in Rookwood (1834), but it had been in circulation long before. Turpin was finally arrested for shooting a neighbour’s cockerel; by his handwriting he was recognised as the infamous Turpin, and he was hanged at York on 7 April 1739.
[114] Church Street: now the eastern part of Bethnal Green Road, before its junction with Brick Lane.
[115] Tyssen Street: now the northern part of Brick Lane, after its junction with Bethnal Green Road.
[116] Turk Street: formerly, a continuation of Tyssen Street.
[117] Now Columbia Road, leading up to the City Farm.
[118] George Robins, celebrated auctioneer and huckster, one of the early advocates of ‘salesmanship’ as an art in itself.
[119] A prize-fighter’s expression: he took Sir Rupert in an arm-lock around his neck, and hit his head repeatedly.
[120] Following Markham’s route north from the Dark House, we have reached roughly the vicinity of Wellington Road, which is still there, though mightily changed. In the previous chapter, Reynolds describes Wellington Road as ‘(bordered by a ditch of black mud) and several vile streets, inhabited by the very lowest of the low, the most filthy of the squalid, and the most profligate of the immoral.’ From this, it is not a bad guess that the Resurrection Man’s house is in Wellington Road.
[121] Probably a reference to the murder of ‘the Italian Boy,’ in 1831, by Bishop, Williams and May. For a fascinating account of this, see Sarah Wise, The Italian Boy (London: Jonathan
Cape, 2004). Nova Scotia Gardens, where the murder took place, was only a few yards from Wellington Road.
[122] Burst it open. [Reynolds’s note.]
[123] Surgeon. [Reynolds’s note.]
[124] Being servants of the Crown, Members of Parliament cannot resign their positions. Instead, they apply for an office of gain under the Crown, which disqualifies them from being Members. The usual office is the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, from which they immediately resign.
[125] A promise to pay on the death of someone.
[126] Dover Street runs off Piccadilly, but is more properly in Mayfair. For those unused to the semiotics of London, it is a very desirable street indeed: the very opposite of Wellington Street, Brick Lane.
[127] William Pitt, father and son. William Pitt the Elder (1708-1778) was Prime Minister in 1761, and again from 1766 to 1768. He was made Earl of Chatham. His son, William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) was Prime Minister, at the age of 24, from 1784 to 1801, and from 1804 to 1806.
[128] William Cobbett (1762-1835), English Radical politician and writer.
[129] Thomas (Tom) Paine (1737-1809), Radical politician. The son of a Norfolk Quaker, he was briefly a customs man in Reynolds’s home-town of Sandwich. A prolific writer and pamphleteer, his Common Sense is reputed to have sparked the American War of Independence. He went to France, became a naturalised French citizen and was elected to the Assemblée Nationale; but he opposed the execution of Louis XVI, and was imprisoned during the Terror. He returned to America, where he died.
[130] Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822), Secretary for War (1805-1809), and Foreign Secretary (1809). An intensely unpopular minister, his death moved Byron to song: ‘Posterity will ne’er survey/A nobler tomb than this,/Here lie the bones of Castlereagh;/Pause, Traveller; and piss.’
[131] A generic term for a hangman. The original of the name was John Price, called Jack Ketch; although himself a hangman, he was hanged for the murder of Elizabeth White, an elderly pastry-seller, whom he beat to death in the street. He was executed in Bunhill Fields on 31 May, 1718.
[132] William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne (1779-1848), Prime Minister in 1834, and from 1835 to 1841, he was the political mentor of Queen Victoria.
[133] John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792-1878), Prime Minister from 1846 to 1852 and from 1865 to 1866; also Foreign Secretary, from 1852 to 1855 and from 1860 to 1865. He was a radical Free-Trader, opposing all restraints on finance and business, whatever the social cost. Reynolds and Russell clashed personally on at least one occasion, which is described at length in The Household Narrative of Current Events, June 1850, p. 136.
[134]Henry Temple, Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865) was Foreign Secretary from 1830 to 1831, and from 1846 to 1851. He was Prime Minister from 1855 to 1858, and again from 1859 to his death in 1865. Staunchly pro-business, his anti-French and anti-Russian policies helped to bring about the Crimean War. He is most famous nowadays for his apocryphal last words: ‘Die, Doctor? That is the last thing that I shall do.’
[135] Constantine Henry Phipps, Marquess of Normanby (1797-1855), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1835-1839. He was briefly Colonial Secretary and Home Secretary in Melbourne’s government. A liberal Whig, he gained much respect for his support of Catholic Emancipation.
[136] The author begs it to be fully understood that his own sentiments relative to courts and court etiquette, &c., must not be identified with the opinions of these ladies who are now conversing together. [Reynolds’s note.]
[137] This and the following are all perfectly true, and a matter of public record. Hannah Lightfoot was born 12 October 1730 in Wapping, London. On 17 April 1759 she married George, Prince of Wales, in Keith’s Chapel, Curzon Street, Mayfair. Two years later George married Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, without Hannah dying in the meantime, and without the formality of a divorce. Hannah went to America, where she died in Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1778. There is no doubt that she was George’s legitimate wife, and that his marriage to Sophia was bigamous; and, thus, that his subsequent children were illegitimate.
[138] Four-penny piece. [Reynolds’s note.]
[139] “We have not gone to bed.” [Reynolds’s note.]
[140] dress-house: a brothel.
[141] The causes which produce prostitution are as follows:
I. Natural causes:—1. Licentiousness of inclination. 2. Irritability of temper. 3. Pride and love of dress. 4. Dishonesty, and desire of property. 5. Indolence.
II. Accidental causes:—1. Seduction. 2. Inconsiderate and ill-sorted marriages. 3. Inadequate remuneration for female work. 4. Want of employment. 5. Intemperance. 6. Poverty. 7. Want of proper looking after their servants on the part of masters and mistresses. 8. Ignorance. 9. Bad example of parents. 10. Harsh and unkind treatment by parents and other relations. 11. Attendance on evening dancing schools, and dancing parties. 12. Theatre-going. 13. The publication of improper works, and obscene prints. 14. The countenance and reward given to vice. 15. The small encouragement given to virtue.
The proportions amongst those females who have deviated from the path of virtue may be quoted as follows:—
1. One-fourth from being servants in taverns and public-houses, where they have been seduced by men frequenting these places of dissipation and temptation.
2. One-fourth from the intermixture of the sexes in factories, and those employed in workhouses, shops, &c.
3. One-fourth by procuresses, or females who visit country towns, markets, and places of worship, for the purpose of decoying good-looking girls of all classes.
4. One-fourth may be divided into four classes:—1. Such as being indolent, or possessing bad tempers, leave their situations. 2. Those who are driven to that awful course by young men making false promises. 3. Children who have been urged by their mothers to become prostitutes for a livelihood. 4. Daughters of clergymen, half pay officers, &c., who are left portionless orphans. [Reynolds’s note.]
[142] The old Houses of Parliament were burned down in 1834.
[143] “The process of parliamentary reporting, and the qualifications of those by whom the task is performed, cannot be adequately described within the narrow limits of this article; but it is hoped that the reader may be enabled to form some idea of both from the following brief outline. Every publication not copying from or abridging any other, but giving original reports, keeps one of a series of reporters constantly in the gallery of the lords, and another in the commons. These, like sentinels, are at stated periods relieved by their colleagues, when they take advantage of the interval to transcribe their notes, in order to be ready again to resume the duty of note-taking, and afterwards that of transcription for the press. A succession of reporters for each establishment is thus maintained; and the process of writing from their notes is never interrupted until an account of the whole debates of the evening has been committed to the hands of the printer. There are only seven publications for which a reporter is constantly in attendance; and these include the London morning papers, from which all others that give debates are under the necessity of copying or abridging them. The number of reporters maintained by each varies from ten or eleven to seventeen or eighteen. They are for the most part gentlemen of liberal education—many have graduated at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Dublin; and they must all possess a competent knowledge of the multifarious subjects which come under the consideration of Parliament. The expedition and ability with which their duties are performed must be admitted by every one who attends a debate and afterwards reads a newspaper, while the correctness and rapidity with which their manuscript is put in type and printed, has long been a subject of surprise and admiration.”—The Parliamentary Companion. [Reynolds’s note.]
[144] Sir Robert Peel (1788-
1850), Conservative Chancellor from 1834-35, and Prime Minister from 1841-46. He is most famous for introducing the Metropolitan Police Force in 1829, and for repealing the Corn Laws in 1846. He effectively split the Tory Party, and after his death his liberal followers left and joined the Liberals.
[145] Sir James Graham (1792-1861), Home Secretary under Peel from 1841-46. He was extremely unpopular, not least because of the scandal when he was found to be detaining and opening letters sent in the Royal Mail. Criticised after the Crimean War for his part in that fiasco, he resigned from office in 1857.
[146] Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799-1869) First elected as a Whig, he broke with them over what he considered their radical policies and went into opposition with (among others) James Graham. He formed a minority Tory government in 1852.
[147] Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), Irish politician. Widely celebrated as ‘the Liberator,’ and as the chief mover of Catholic emancipation, O’Connell in fact achieved the right of Catholics to sit in Parliament; and since an MP was necessarily a wealthy man, the achievement was limited. After emancipation (1829) he tended towards conservative politics, and was a particular bugbear of the later Chartists such as Feargus O’Connor.
The Mysteries of London Volume 1 Page 141