In Bed with the Georgians

by Rendell, Mike;

  These two examples of ‘love at first sight’ may or may not have been true, but they serve as a reminder of how important it was for a girl to get a ring on her finger before she succumbed to the blandishments of a man who was her social superior.

  Chapter Two

  The Alphabet of Sex, and More Besides

  Abortion: Historically it was thought that life began when a mother first felt her baby kick – known as ‘quickening’. This would usually happen between the sixteenth and twentieth week of pregnancy. At Common Law it was not illegal to have an abortion, provided it took place before the mother was ‘quick with child.’ A woman wanting a termination would have been faced with two choices – either by means of a surgical intervention in order to cause a miscarriage, or by taking plants known to have an abortifacient property. She might try plant extracts such as savin, obtained from a type of juniper, sometimes mixing it with black hellebore (highly toxic). She might try oil of hyssop (risky, as even a few drops were known to cause seizures and convulsions). Another favourite was Pennyroyal essential oil, even though it was highly poisonous and could be fatal to the mother as well as the child.

  In 1803 Parliament passed the Malicious Shooting and Stabbing Act, which provided for a penalty of fourteen years’ transportation for performing an abortion on a woman who was not yet ‘quick with child’ – and the death penalty if she was. The distinction lasted until 1837 when the death penalty was removed, and the distinction between late and early abortions was abolished.

  Adultery: see Crim. Con.

  Aphrodisiacs: Whether it was Casanova recommending fifty oysters at a sitting before snuggling up under the sheets, or tucking into stilton and red wine, the eighteenth century was full of ideas to boost a flagging appetite. Madame du Barry, the mistress of King Louis XV, set down her recipe for what might nowadays be termed ‘lust and lurrv’ based upon … cauliflower soup. Others swore by chicken broth (‘Take four cocks…’) or recommended a nice quince jelly to get the juices going.

  Bagnios: Originally, the term meant a bath house, but by the eighteenth century the term was often applied to a brothel. Sometimes they were genuine public baths at which men and, separately, women could bathe. More usually they were houses arranged with numerous bedrooms, where prostitutes plied their trade. Image 2 gives a view of the Turks Head bagnio, in a print published in 1787. Entitled Retail traders not affected by the shop tax it shows a trio of prostitutes waiting to invite male customers inside. Above the lintel are the words ‘Neat Lodgings for Men’, while the cat in the window is a symbol of female sexual desire.

  Bigamy: Marrying a second spouse while the first spouse was still living was a crime, but one which was not always clear-cut. Marriages were not required to be registered, and because divorce was only for the wealthy, couples frequently split up and went their separate ways, later entering a second marriage in blissful ignorance as to whether the original spouse was still alive. In addition, there was much confusion as to the validity of some earlier marriages, especially those entered into prior to Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753.

  Birth Control: Although the medical profession did not fully understand the menstrual cycle and exactly how insemination took place, women may have been using their own attempt at the rhythm method, no doubt using the pretext that it was ‘not appropriate’ to have sex on particular Saints Days when these coincided with times when she considered herself most at risk. A woman might also insist on coitus interruptus. Equally she might put her faith in a herbal abortifacient such as tansy, dittany or yarrow, all recommended by Nicholas Culpeper in his Complete Herbal published midway through the seventeenth century. The seeds of Queen Anne’s Lace, mentioned 2,000 years earlier by Hippocrates, were understood to prevent the egg attaching to the lining of the womb. The seeds would first have been harvested in the autumn, dried, then ground in a pestle and mortar and taken immediately after intercourse.

  By the eighteenth century various cervical suppositories were in use (intended to seal the entrance to the cervix) as well as mechanical barriers. Casanova was apparently a keen advocate of inserting half a lemon to act as a barrier – and others would use a piece of marine sponge soaked in liquid believed to have spermicidal qualities, notably when made from Peruvian Bark (i.e. quinine) and olive oil. Lemon juice and vinegar were also favoured, either on a sponge, or diluted and used as a douche after intercourse.

  Condoms (otherwise Cundums): These had been around for centuries, made from sheep intestines, but were mainly regarded as a protection for the wearer against the Pox, rather than because of concerns about getting a female pregnant. They were openly sold in shops such as The Green Canister in Half Moon Street in Covent Garden. Casanova called them ‘the English riding coat’ while the diarist James Boswell records various instances when he used ‘armour’, otherwise calling it ‘a machine.’ They could be bought, singly, for a few pence, with one end tied up in coloured ribbon, but the intended wearer had to allow time to nip off and soak the condom in water before use, in order to make it supple. Well into the twentieth century some condoms were regarded as re-usable. Early models, being made of porous animal tissue, were highly ineffective as a form of birth control. The French writer Madame de Sevigne, writing in 1671, had described the condom as a ‘spider’s web against danger’.

  Cosmetics: Known as ‘paint’, the wearing of make-up, particularly ‘French rouge’, was considered reprehensible by male writers. Prostitutes were especially considered likely to use make-up in order to enhance their sexual power. Paint was considered to be the tool of the devil, encouraging those female characteristics of vanity, pride, and duplicity. Jonathan Swift wrote a poem entitled The Lady’s Dressing Room in 1732 in which he ridiculed the tricks of the trade used by women to deceive and mislead males. In practice much of the make-up used in the eighteenth century was based on white lead and carmine – both highly toxic ingredients. Thomas Rowlandson’s Six Stages of Mending a Face appears as Image 11 and is a particularly harsh criticism of female trickery and deception. The bald-headed crone transforms herself (with wig, glass eye, false teeth and cosmetics) into an attractive young maid. The poor male of the species never stands a chance…

  Crim. Con. (short for ‘criminal conversation’): The common law tort of criminal conversation – which in effect was based on adultery – was abolished in 1857. It was an action, conducted at the Court of the Kings Bench at Westminster Hall, brought by a husband against a third party for compensation for breach of fidelity with his wife. An aristocratic cuckold could bring a suit demanding astronomical damages – sometimes as much as £20,000 – against a person debauching his wife. Grosvenor v Cumberland in 1769 shocked the nation because it involved the royal family, and is mentioned in Chapter Six. The actual evidence of the adulterous act was usually presented in the form of statements made by witnesses such as servants. Their testimony was often circumstantial, with much reference to squeaking bedsprings, crumpled sheets, and figures departing from bedrooms in the early hours of the morning. The public lapped up the trial reports, and books based on crim. con. cases were often titillating, voyeuristic, insights into the lives of the rich and famous.

  Having obtained an award of damages the cuckolded husband could then decide whether to get a formal separation, or even a divorce.

  Images 12 and 13 show how the satirists viewed crim. con. trials, with Crim. Con. Temptations setting out the measure of damages likely to be awarded according to whether the married female was a servant, a woman of low morals, a lady, and so on. Cross examination of a Witness mocks the value of hearsay evidence, with the lawyer asking the witness whether the lady cried out ‘murder’ or ‘further’.

  Cross-dressing: In an era which was so heavily biased against women, it is not surprising that many women dressed as men in order to avoid prejudice and stereotyping. There were a number of instances of women succeeding in a man’s world – in the armed forces, as doctors, as artists. Sometimes dressing as a man was a subterfuge used
to try and mislead other women into marriage.

  In July 1777, a woman going by the name of Ann Marrow was convicted at Guildhall for ‘going in man’s cloaths, and personating a man in marriage, with three different women … and defrauding them of their money and effects’. She was ordered to stand in the pillory and serve six months in jail. The infuriated crowd were so enraged that they pelted her with objects, leaving her blind in both eyes. A similar case involved a woman called Mary Hamilton, otherwise Charles Hamilton, who was alleged to have married no fewer than fourteen different women as she travelled around the country. Astonishingly some of the wives were unaware of the deception, one of them describing in court how she was deceived by ‘something of too vile, wicked and scandalous a nature’ (in other words a dildo). Mary was found guilty of fraud and in 1746 was sentenced to be publicly whipped in four different towns in Somerset; her story was written up by Henry Fielding under the title of The Female Husband.

  Charlotte Charke, a daughter of the poet laureate Colley Cibber, was a well-known actress and writer who gained infamy as a transvestite using the name Charles Brown. She went on to write one of the first autobiographies written by a woman, published in 1755 as A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Charlotte Charke.

  The Museum of London has a print entitled Mils Grahn alias Theodora de Verdion dated 1804, showing a person in a gentleman’s outfit. The text explains that ‘Dr. de Verdion was a woman from Berlin who dressed as a man. She worked in London as an exchange broker, secretary and a teacher of languages.’

  The sculptress Anne Damer, mentioned in Chapter Eight, was renowned for her male attire, while the diplomat Chevalier d’Éon intrigued London society for many years by appearing at all times as a woman.

  Cross-dressing was often encountered at masquerades, where the opportunity to escape from sexual stereotyping was too good to miss (see Masquerades).

  Dildos: In the seventeenth century most dildos originated in Italy, where they were known as dilettos, with expensive models crafted from ivory, or even silver. By the 1700s dildos from France, where they were known as consalateurs, became popular. Leather or wooden dildos could be bought openly in shops such as ‘The Green Canister’ off Covent Garden. Also known as a travel godmiche, they were available in a variety of sizes. The Science Museum has one example in the form of an erect penis made of ivory, capable of being filled with warm liquid which could be ‘ejaculated to order’ via a plunger mechanism. Later models featured a compressible ‘scrotum’ for the same purpose.

  Divorce: Whereas the ecclesiastical courts could grant an order for divorce ‘a mensa et thoro’ this was more like a judicial separation, enabling the parties to live apart, but not to re-marry. The only way of terminating a marriage (apart from death) was by a private Act of Parliament. This was slow, expensive and involved a very public exposure of the state of the marriage in front of all the Members of Parliament. The number involved was incredibly small – just over three hundred divorce bills were passed in the entire period from 1700 up to the passing of the Matrimonial Causes Act in 1857, and, of those, only four were cases brought by women. Divorce was a rich man’s privilege.

  Flagellation: The French reckoned that English males had a propensity for being flogged – and for flogging women – as a means of getting aroused. Flagellation features in a number of satirical prints, including Image 14 showing a man with his buttocks bared, being soundly thrashed by a woman wielding a birch twitch.

  The undoubted high priestess of flagellation was Mrs Theresa Berkley who operated out of 28 Charlotte Street, Portland Place. She was a ‘governess’ specialising in beating the living daylights out of wealthy patrons (known as ‘flogging cullies’) and was a veritable master of the art of inflicting pain for pleasure. It was said that she ‘possessed the first requisite of a courtezan, viz., lewdness; for without a woman is positively lecherous she cannot keep up the affectation of it, and it will soon be perceived that she moves her hands or her buttocks to the tune of pounds, shillings, and pence’. Her speciality involved the use of a wooden frame called the Berkley Horse. The punter would be tied in such a way that he (or even she) could be lashed in the chosen part of the body with the medium of choice – birch twigs, nettles, furze, holly or leather straps.

  Hurwood’s The Golden Age of Erotica makes it clear that Theresa was prepared to be flogged herself – if the money was right – and quotes one source as saying:

  For those whose lech it was to flog a woman, she would herself submit to a certain extent; but if they were gluttons at it, she had women in attendance who would take any number of lashes the flogger pleased, provided he forked out an ad valorem duty. Among these were Miss Ring, Hannah Jones, Sally Taylor, One-eyed Peg, Bauldcunted Poll, and a black girl, called Ebony Bet.

  When she died in 1836 Theresa left her very considerable estate, including her paraphernalia of torture, to her brother, a missionary. He was so shocked at discovering the source of her wealth that he renounced his inheritance and returned post-haste to Australia. The assets in the estate, amounting to £100,000, passed to the Crown.

  Foundling Hospital: The philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram opened the first refuge for abandoned children in Hatton Gardens in 1741. The purpose was to provide for the ‘education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children’. The Trustees had to cope with a flood of applicants, especially once great numbers of children from outlying country parishes started to be brought in. A ballot system was operated to determine admission. Applicants for admission had to be under twelve months old, and the intention was to give each child a good education, in which religious instruction was paramount, with a view to the person gaining an apprenticeship once old enough to leave. The hospital moved to larger premises at Bloomsbury in 1745. For thousands of unwed mothers it was the only prospect of securing food, lodging and a reasonable education for their unwanted offspring.

  Game of flats: A slang phrase used to describe lesbian acts, so called because playingcards were otherwise known as ‘flats’ and the sliding of two cards together was likened to females rubbing their genital areas together. See Lesbianism.

  Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies: The first printed version of the directory appeared in 1757, ostensibly based on the earlier handwritten list kept by John Harrison – otherwise known as Jack Harris – who was chief waiter at the Shakespeare’s Head Tavern in Covent Garden and who gloried in the title of ‘Pimp General of All England.’ The early printed editions are thought to have been the work of an impoverished hack called Samuel Derrick, who presumably paid Jack Harris a fee to acquire the list. Each edition started with a defence of prostitution, before listing over 150 prostitutes operating in the Covent Garden area, with their age, address, physical attributes, sexual specialities and so on. The entries were salacious, and appear to have been designed to arouse and titillate the male reader rather than just operating as a simple directory. There were many passages describing ‘snowy white orbs’ ‘tufted groves’ and ‘fonts of pleasure’. The entries were often embellished with descriptions of the girl’s drinking habits, whether she used profane language – and whether she had good teeth. In some cases the list also gives an account of how the lady became involved in prostitution, some having been raped, others seduced and abandoned, others widowed, while others ‘in high keeping’ were presumably bored and looking for more action, and more money, than they were getting from their protector.

  The list sold in considerable quantities, with the German traveller von Archenholz writing in 1791 that ‘eight thousand copies are sold annually’. No basis was given for the figure, but clearly the pocket-sized directory was extremely popular. Some nine editions are known to have survived from a period of over thirty-five years, with different authors and different publishers. The sequence came to an end in 1795 when prosecutions were brought against the publisher James Roach. The court took a decidedly dim view of what was described as ‘a most indecent and immoral publication’ saying that ‘an offen
ce of greater enormity could hardly be committed’. Roach was fined £100 and sentenced to a year‘s imprisonment in Newgate, and that was the end of Harris’s List. Image 15 shows the frontispiece for the 1773 edition, as well as a caricature by Richard Newton (Image 16) showing a punter arriving at a brothel with a copy of the List in his pocket, undecided as to which of the three whores he should favour with his custom.

  Infanticide: ‘Lying over’ upon an unwanted child was not uncommon, but hard to prove. Equally, an unwanted baby might be farmed out to a wet-nurse who would allow it to starve to death. Writing in 1727, Thomas Coram, who went on to found the Foundling Hospital in 1741, had campaigned against the ‘daily sight of infant corpses thrown on the dust heaps of London.’

  Jelly houses: These were not so much brothels as pick-up joints, dedicated to lust and liquor, where clients could develop their appetite for the forthcoming encounter by building up their strength and mutual ardour – by eating jelly. The couple would then go off and find a room where their passion could be assuaged… .