by Daniel Pool
chapter—The group of canons, who, under the leadership of the dean, were in charge of the services in a cathedral and its physical upkeep.
charabanc—A big, light carriage that had two long seats facing forward.
charger—The horse that a cavalry soldier rode.
Charing Cross—The traditional center of London, located at the south end of Trafalgar Square. Named for the thirteenth and final cross which Edward I erected for the funeral procession of his wife to Westminster. To its east lay the City, to its west the West End.
chariot—The name for the fancy carriage used by the very wealthy, especially on long trips, or on state occasions. It was basically a stagecoach with the front half of the body cut off so there was only a single rear seat facing forward.
charity child—A child attending a school founded by a wealthy private benefactor. Charity children often had to sit in conspicuous places in church and wear special badges and colored clothing that proclaimed their status. They were often unmercifully mocked by other children. The charity boy Noah Claypole in Oliver Twist takes great delight in tormenting Oliver for being of a status, i.e., a “workhouse” child, more contemptible than his own.
charwoman—The root word for “char” is the same as for “chore.” A charwoman was someone who came in and did chores by the day—what today we would call a cleaning woman. In contrast to a maid, who did essentially the same work but lived in. There was a verb, also—to char; Betsy Martin, we are told in Pickwick, “goes out charing and washing, by the day.”
chase—A chase was unfenced land on which one had been granted the right to keep deer for hunting. It was distinguished from a park, which was the same thing but enclosed, and a forest, which was a game preserve for royalty.
chasuble—A piece of clothing worn by a clergyman at communion over the cassock and the surplice. It often bore a cross.
cheapjack—A peddler of cheap metal items like knives, watches, etc., whose skill and sales depended largely on his patter.
Cheapside—An old street in eastern London not far from the river. The name comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word that means to buy and sell.
Chelsea—An area of west London south of Mayfair that was not fashionable in the 1800s and was probably chiefly notable for housing the Chelsea Hospital for army veterans.
chemise—The fancy term for a woman’s long undergarment—basically like a nightgown—that was the only female undergarment other than the corset for much of the century. The term replaced the word “shift,” which was felt to be too indelicate, and which had itself replaced the term “smock.”
chemisette—A kind of partial shirt worn tucked down into the front of very low-cut gowns.
chemist—A druggist.
Chesterfield—At the very end of the century a kind of man’s coat. Before that, a very plushly upholstered sofa with no woodwork showing. The back and arms usually curved away from the sitter.
cheval glass—A body-length mirror mounted on a pivot.
chiffonier—A popular item of furniture, consisting of a sort of little sideboard.
chignon—A piece of hair, worn in a knot at the back of the neck, popular in the middle of the century. Sometimes the hair was false.
Chiltern Hundreds—A marvelously convoluted device for resigning from Parliament. One could not resign from Parliament while it was in session—but then neither could one hold any paid office under the sovereign. Accordingly, if one wanted to opt out of Parliament during a session one applied to become the steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, Chiltern being an area not far from London. One was appointed to this post—which meant one then had to resign from Parliament—and then once one was out of Parliament one quit the Chiltern post, too. After relinquishing a choice opportunity to speak in Parliament, the eponymous hero of Phineas Finn says, “I must perish . . . I shall apply for the Chiltern Hundreds in a day or two.”
chimney corner—The place to sit in the corner near a chimney or—in the very big, old-fashioned fireplaces—a corner or actual seat inside the fireplace, facing or next to the fire itself.
chimneypiece—A mantelpiece or an elaborate moulding all around the chimney.
chimneypot hat—A top hat.
chine—A term applied to the spine of animals like pigs when they were being chopped up for cooking.
chintz—A many-colored cloth with flowers and what-not all over it.
choir—The area of the church—generally in the westernmost part of the chancel—where the singers sat.
choker—Slang word for a big, stiff high collar that was especially favored for wear on fancy occasions or for the clergy’s attire.
cholera—A horrible disease that struck England in waves of epidemics beginning in the 1830s. It caused a burning thirst, diarrhea, cramps, and death, often within a day. It was caused by fecal matter in drinking supplies; cities, especially the poorer areas, were hardest hit.
chopping—A fox-hunting term for when the hounds snuffle their way into a covert and tear the fox to pieces instead of scaring him out into the open so that everyone can chase after him.
Christmas box—See Boxing Day.
christening—The ceremony of becoming a member of the Church of England as a baby, i.e., being given one’s Christian name, while godparents stood by promising to see that one was given a proper religious education. The minister was obliged to dip the child into water at the font in order to do this.
churchwarden—In local parishes, a one-year, unpaid job of some prestige. The churchwarden or wardens were responsible for seeing that the church was kept up and that the congregation behaved themselves. Henchard holds this post as well as the mayoralty of Casterbridge before his precipitous fall.
circulating libraries—When books were expensive and there were no public libraries—as was true in the early 1800s—people often subscribed to a circulating library for an annual fee which entitled them to borrow the best-sellers. The most famous was Mudie’s.
City—A term used to refer to the original city of London that was within the old, medieval city walls, running from the Thames on the southeast to the Tower and west to Temple Bar. Since the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange and other commercial activities were located there, “the City” also became, like “Wall Street” in America, a shorthand way to refer to the nation’s financial center.
civil list—At one time the list of all the expenses of the civilian branch of the national government. By the middle 1830s, it was merely the list of expenses for the monarch personally and his or her household.
civil service—As opposed to military service. The term first came into use in India for the administrative apparatus of the East India Company. It was later expanded to designate the entire nonmilitary bureaucracy of the British government.
claret—A type of red wine, originally from France, and a great favorite at Victorian dinner parties.
clerestory—The upper “clear story” of windows in a church that admitted light to the nave and transepts below.
clerk—A general term for almost any white-collar employee of an enterprise in the 1800s. The position could range from a low-level middle-aged man who copied documents all day to the equivalent of a general manager or international vice president. An “articled clerk” was a boy apprenticed in a lawyer’s office to become a solicitor. “Clerk” was also short for “parish clerk,” the layman who kept the parish register of births and deaths and sometimes assisted the clergyman at the services.
climbing boy—The child working for a chimney sweep who actually climbed up inside the chimneys to clean them.
clogs—Shoes with wooden or metal rims on the bottom used mainly by women, for walking in the rain or mud.
close—A kind of alleyway. Also, the name for the immediate area around a cathedral.
close time—With respect to a game animal, close time was the season during which it could not be hunted.
closet—Any kind of small room. We think of it as being a small place w
ith a door to hang clothes in, but Jane Eyre sleeps in one.
clubs—The great refuge of the middle- and upper-class male in London in the 1800s. Originating in the gatherings of men in certain coffeehouses in the 1700s, clubs acquired more permanent—and exclusive—quarters on Pall Mall and St. James’s Street. Among the more prominent were the Carlton Club, Boodle’s, the Traveller’s, the Athenaeum and the Army and Navy. In The Prime Minister, Trollope described a typical club as a place where “men dined and smoked and played billiards and pretended to read.”
coach—Basically, any four-wheel, enclosed vehicle for carrying passengers, whether private or, as in the case of mail and stagecoaches, public.
coal scuttle—The container in which coals were carried to a fireplace and stored next to it.
cob—A tough, sturdily built little horse, much favored for riding by fat people.
cockchafer—A big bug (also called the Maybug) that came out in May and made a big whirring noise when it flew around.
cockloft—A sort of super-attic even above the garret. When the Boffins are troubled by apparitions in Our Mutual Friend, they “went all over the dismal house—dismal everywhere, but in their own two rooms—from cellar to cockloft.”
coffeehouse—First popular in London in the 1700s, they were places for people to gather, drink coffee, converse and read the newspapers. By the 1800s they had often become dining places where one could also get lodgings and were probably among the classier of such accommodations. Septimus Harding stays and eats at such a place in The Warden; Arthur Clennam does the same in Little Dorrit.
coffee room—The term for a dining room, especially in a large hotel or inn.
college—One of the residential and instructional units around which the universities of Cambridge and Oxford were organized. The college heads collectively ran their respective universities. Prison was also called “college” in slang. “Little Dorrit’s lover, however, was not a Collegian,” says Dickens in the novel. “He was the sentimental son of a turnkey.” To be hanged was sometimes called “taking your finals at New College,” i.e., Newgate prison.
collier—Either a coal miner or someone who buys and sells coal, or else one of the boats used to transport coal.
colonel—The officer who officially commanded a regiment. And since the regiment was the core of the British army for most of the 1800s, a figure of no little military prestige. He ranked above a lieutenant colonel (who often actually ran the regiment day to day).
come out—“What causes young people to come out,” says Thackeray in Vanity Fair, “but the noble ambition of matrimony.” The term—used of young women—meant to become an official member of “society,” which meant that one was seventeen or eighteen and had been presented to the sovereign at court. One was thus officially available for marriage.
comforter—A big woolen winter scarf to wear around one’s neck if one couldn’t afford an overcoat. It is what Bob Cratchit wears—naturally, given what Scrooge pays him—in A Christmas Carol.
commander—A position in the Royal Navy with a rather awe-inspiring sound although in fact it was a rank below that of captain. A commander was typically a sort of captain-in-training who served under a permanent captain for a year or so before getting his own command.
commerce—Essentially an old form of poker. Each player got three cards down and then tried to get three of a kind, a three-card straight flush, a three-card flush, a pair, or “point”—the highest number of points.
commercial traveler—A traveling salesman. They often had their own gathering room at inns and were sometimes known as “commercials” for short. Also sometimes called “bagmen,” presumably because they carried their wares around in bags.
commit—To have someone put in jail, especially for a relatively short time, as when they were awaiting trial.
common—The area of land in a village that was used by all the members of the village collectively for grazing their sheep or cattle. Many of these lands were “enclosed” by parliamentary acts at the behest of local farmers or landowners who wanted to use them for their own private arable or grazing land.
commoner—An Oxford undergraduate who was not on scholarship. The equivalent status at Cambridge was that of “pensioner.” Also, of course, more generally, a commoner was someone without a title.
common law—One of the two types of law (besides church law) practiced in England in the 1800s. It was the oldest body of law, built up from countless decisions, custom and the accreted practices of many years. In London, common law decisions were handed down by the courts of King’s Bench, the Exchequer and Common Pleas. Equity was the other great type of law, always compared and contrasted with common law. Its home was the infamous Chancery Court.
Common Pleas—One of the three great common law courts. Only serjeants could argue in it; they were backed up by nonlitigating lawyers called “attorneys.” Common Pleas heard disputes between ordinary citizens. It is there that Bardell v. Pickwick is heard, for example. It was abolished in 1873 and merged into the other high courts.
Common Prayer Book—See Book of Common Prayer.
common room—The place where the fellows of a college went after dining and thus, by extension, such a group of fellows.
commons—The name given to meals eaten by students together in university dining halls. Not to get enough to eat was to be on “short commons.”
companion—Impecunious gentlewomen who did not want to govern or teach or keep a shop could sometimes find a post being a companion to the widowed or otherwise lonely.
company—The smallest unit of soldiers in the army, a subdivision of a regiment. Generally consisting of 60–100 men and commanded by a captain. “Company” with a capital letter would probably have referred in a London context to one of the ancient livery companies or guilds of the city which, by the 1800s, were turning into prestigious eating clubs.
competency—A term used to describe the sum of money that would allow someone to live independently and, depending on the circumstances, either handsomely or with only the bare necessities.
confirmation—The acceptance of an adult into full membership of the Church of England, in which the candidate, generally having mastered the catechism as a preliminary, “confirmed” the promises made on his behalf by his godparents at his christening to the effect that he would be a good Christian. Children were customarily confirmed in their teens; it was a simple ceremony requiring a laying on of hands by the bishop.
congé d’élire—When the monarch through the prime minister selected a bishop, he did so by formally authorizing the dean and chapter of the cathedral to actually make the selection, i.e., he sent them by letter a “leave to elect” or congé d’élire. However, this was purely a formality; the notice was always accompanied by a letter missive that told them whom they had to elect.
conservatory—A room in a house for growing plants.
consistory—The diocesan ecclesiastical court. There was one in London that was part of the Doctors’ Commons where David Copperfield studied to be a lawyer. Until 1857, such courts handled divorces and wills; thereafter only internal church matters.
Conservatives—The name, fittingly, used for the Tories after about 1830 as the party that in general opposed change and stood with the Church of England and the old ways. Its most prominent leader was Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.
console—A small side table with only two legs that was fastened into the wall with supporting brackets. It sometimes had a marble top.
consols—The term was short for “Consolidated Annuities,” which were government securities (in the form of annuities) created by combining or consolidating several securities in the 1700s. They paid an invariant 3 percent interest a year, and although one could buy and sell them, they could not be redeemed, like, say, U.S. savings bonds. In the days before a real stock market, they were one of the few things in which one could invest besides land.
constable—An ancient post of authority in
local parishes, its incumbent often recognizable by the staff he carried. The justice of the peace chose someone from the parish each year to fill this post, whose duties were to apprehend wrongdoers and keep the peace. In 1829 London made its constables salaried full-time permanent employees—the “bobbies.” The countryside was required to do the same in 1856, replacing Dogberry with the bumbling figure on his bicycle who makes his way through so many English murder mysteries—but still called “Constable.”
consumption—Pulmonary tuberculosis at an advanced stage. One wasted away, eyes glittering, skin shrunken around one’s bones and might be seized with a sudden final outburst of manic energy that engendered the legend that consumption spurred artistic creativity. A widespread killer in the 1800s.
conventicle—The term for a meeting of Dissenters.
conveyancer—A lawyer or copyist who specialized in real estate transactions, i.e., “conveying” or transferring a piece of property from one party to another.
convulvulus—A winding, twisting plant.
cony—An English rabbit.
cook—A fancy household preferred a male French chef; there was—then as now—a predilection for French cooking. Other families made do with a woman, usually addressed simply as “cook,” who might by origin be a scullerymaid or kitchenmaid who had worked her way up.
cooper—A man who makes or fixes barrels and similar wooden containers.
copybook—A book full of examples of good handwriting that pupils learning to write were supposed to “copy,” i.e., imitate.
copyholder—An ancient type of land tenancy with fewer rights than outright fee simple and more than that associated with a simple lease. Copyholders were so called because their names were supposedly inscribed on a copy of the rent rolls held by the lord of the manor.
coquelicot—A fashionable color for clothes at one point, imitating the poppy, and thus being sort of red and orange.