What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew

by Daniel Pool

  peck—A measurement of dry goods equal to a quarter of a bushel or to two gallons.

  Peel—Sir Robert Peel. As home secretary he came up with the “bobbies” or “peelers,” i.e., the London police force. As Tory prime minister he saw to the repeal of the Corn Laws. He was killed in a freak accident when he was thrown from his horse.

  Peeler—The nickname given the members of the new Metropolitan Police Force (Scotland Yard and all that) which replaced the old Bow Street Runners. They were called peelers because they were founded in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel. For the same reason, they were also called bobbies.

  peer—A nobleman, that is, a duke, marquis, earl, viscount, or baron, all such titles being hereditary and entitling the owner to a seat in the House of Lords.

  peeress—Either the wife of a peer or a woman who had noble status in her own right.

  pegtop—A style of men’s trousers popular around the middle of the century. It was very broad at the hips and narrow at the feet, like the children’s spinning pegtop toy. The trousers were usually fastened under the shoes with straps.

  pelerine—A kind of collar that was like a cape, with hanging ends in front, worn by women.

  pelisse—A kind of overcoat worn by women over the thin frocks of the early 1800s, buttoning in front and usually about three-quarter length.

  Pembroke—A four-legged table with two sides that could be swung up and placed on additional legs.

  pence—The plural of penny, usually used to mean the amount of pennies, as in “that will cost you 3 shillings 4 pence,” whereas the actual physical units of payment were called “pennies,” as in “he dropped six pennies down the drain.” A shilling consisted of 12 pence, a pound of 240 pence.

  Peninsular—Relating to the Peninsular War, the campaign fought by the duke of Wellington from 1808–14 in Spain and Portugal to drive Napoleon out of that peninsula. Widely seen as a major turning point in the Napoleonic Wars, and for years the pride of the old veterans who had served there.

  pensioner—An ex-soldier or sailor. In-pensioners were old veterans resident in the Royal Hospital at Chelsea (army) or Greenwich (navy), while out-pensioners were veterans lacking such an official residence. At Cambridge University, pensioner had an altogether different meaning, referring to a nonscholarship student.

  perpetual curate—A parish clergyman basically equivalent to a vicar. To be distinguished from an ordinary curate, who did not have his own parish.

  petticoat—An undergarment worn by women in the 1800s over the basic underwear—the shift or chemise—and under the dress, sometimes, as in the middle of the century, in several different layers. At times petticoats were considered supplementary skirts rather than underwear, and it was not considered scandalous for them to be seen. Later on, at mid-century before the cage crinoline came in, sometimes as many as five or six were worn at a time.

  petty sessions—The periodic meetings between a local justice of the peace and one or more of his counterparts from elsewhere in the county to dispense justice in relatively minor matters.

  pewter—A material made of tin and lead much favored for mugs and dishes by the poor.

  phaeton—Basically, any light, four-wheel carriage with open sides drawn by one or two horses. Sometimes, the term was applied to a carriage that was driven by its owner rather than by a coachman.

  phial—A vial.

  physic—Drugs. To “take physic” was to take drugs the “physician” had prescribed.

  physician—The most prestigious member of the medical profession in the early part of the century, the physician dealt only in internal disorders, i.e., those things for which he could prescribe physic, as opposed to wounds, falls from horses and other things. For these the less socially prominent surgeon would be called in. There was an abundance of physicians in London, while other kinds of medical men (such as surgeons) were more likely to practice in the countryside. Physicians were generally called “Dr.” while a surgeon was simply “Mr.”

  pianoforte—The piano. Many young ladies were taught to play it, music being thought to be a suitable feminine accomplishment, although it was not considered gentlemanly for a man to know how to play. When he first encounters Jane Eyre, Rochester with his customary urbanity asks her to play and remarks with a subsequent snarl, “You play a little, I see; like any other English schoolgirl.” There were two subspecies of uprights, called the cottage piano (diagonal strings) and the cabinet piano (vertical strings).

  Piccadilly—A long, fancy street in the West End, said to have been named after a tailor whose shop there in the 1600s manufactured high ruff collars called piccadillies.

  pier glass—A piece of ornamentation popular in the early part of the century that consisted of a long mirror placed in between two windows.

  pigeoncote—See dovecote.

  pillar letter box—Cylindrical mailboxes that came into use in the 1850s. Anthony Trollope, a post office employee in addition to being a writer, claimed to have invented them.

  pillion—A cushion or saddle for women riding on a horse behind someone. At the beginning of Silas Marner we are told how social events were not brief, one-evening affairs in the days of long and arduous travel: “When ladies had packed up their best gowns and top-knots in band-boxes, and had incurred the risk of fording streams on pillions with their precious burden in rainy or snowy weather, when there was no knowing how high the water would rise, it was not to be supposed that they looked forward to a brief pleasure.”

  pinafore—Supposedly derived from “pin” and “before,” since it was a white coverall or apron that was at one time actually pinned over a dress in the front to keep it from getting dirty. These are the horribly proper white frilly aprons that all solemn little girls in late Victorian photographs are wearing over their dark dresses as they stare dubiously into the camera.

  pinchbeck—Phony or cheap.

  pin money—An allowance given to a woman upon her marriage—frequently bargained for explicitly as part of the marriage settlement between the families of a prospective husband and wife—to be spent on small household items or for personal adornment.

  pinner—Dialect for “pinafore.”

  pint pot—So called because that was what it held. Usually for beer.

  pip—A seed, or else one of the marks, e.g., a club, heart, etc., on a playing card, showing what suit and number it was.

  pipe—Wine was sometimes sold by the pipe, which was a unit of 105 gallons.

  pipe clay—Clay used for making pipes. Also used for cleaning pants in the army, whence the term “pipe clay” acquired the military meaning of making something spic and span.

  pipkin—A little clay dish of some kind.

  pippin—An apple grown from seeds or pips, and not from grafts.

  piquet (also spelled “picquet”)—A card game for two people played with thirty-two cards and no 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, or 6s, with the players trying to obtain the highest number of cards of one suit, a flush, three or four of a kind, and so forth.

  pitch and toss—A game where everyone threw a coin at a particular target. The person whose coin landed closest then threw all the coins up and got to keep the ones that came down “heads.” Then the person whose coin was second closest did the same with the coins that were left, and so on until no coins were left.

  plantation—Any area where trees had been planted.

  plate—Silverware. In the days when most personal property consisted either of land or tangible objects such as carriages or horses, and few people owned stocks or bonds, plate was especially valued. It was the butler’s job to look after it and he sometimes kept it in a safe and slept in the same room with it. When families left London, they sometimes left their plate in the custody of their banker.

  pleurisy—An inflammation of two sacs in the chest called the pleura that could produce a hacking cough or sometimes a sharp pain.

  Plough Monday—The first Monday after Twelfth Day and traditionally the day on which the new agricultural seaso
n was supposed to begin. Indeed, ploughing on “good” days in late autumn or early winter was desirable for a spring wheat crop. For Plough Monday, ploughboys blackened their faces and went through the village with their plows as the villagers called out “Speed-the-plough.”

  plums—There were real plums like damsons in England in the 1800s but they were not put into the famous Christmas plum puddings. The “plums” in Christmas plum puddings were raisins. Plum cake was also made with raisins. At other times of the year, confusingly, real plums might be used for some desserts like plum pudding.

  pluralist—In the good old days one could hold more than one benefice or living in the Church of England, a curate often being retained to discharge one’s duties in the parish or parishes where one was nonresident. In 1838 legislation was passed to put an end to this practice.

  poachers—The men who tried to take game from the property of private landowners. They were the targets of various harsh Game Laws which made some poaching punishable by transportation. Until 1827 landowners were legally permitted to have their gamekeepers set up man-traps and spring guns to catch, kill, or maim poachers.

  pocket borough—The name given to a parliamentary borough that was said to be so much under the control of some powerful individual that it was “in his pocket.” The Reform Bill of 1832 was meant to outlaw pocket boroughs.

  pocket pistol—A flask for alcohol carried in the pocket.

  pole—The long bar projecting from the front of a carriage to which the horses of a team of two or more were attached on either side. On single-horse vehicles the horse was constrained by the shaft on either side of him.

  police court—A local, “street” court in London run by a police magistrate (in effect, a paid justice of the peace) that could convict people for minor offenses without a trial, or, in the case of more serious offenses, direct that they be handed over to the Old Bailey for trial.

  police magistrate—The name given to justices of the peace in London who were made permanent, salaried officials, beginning in 1792, to cope with the growing amount of crime in the city. Until 1839 they supervised local constables from their “police office” as well as trying certain offenses there. After 1839 control of the police was taken from them, and their sole function was judging.

  police office—Before the advent of the bobbies in 1829, a police office was one of the local offices headed by police magistrates in London who heard cases and directed the work of the constables attached to that office. After 1839, the constables were put in separate local police offices or stations under the control of Scotland Yard, while the judging by the magistrates continued in what were now called police courts.

  polka—A dance from Czechoslovakia that became popular in fashionable English society by mid-century. The basic rhythm was one-two-three-AND. One version of its origins—polka means “half” in Czech—is that it was invented by a farmgirl in a very small room where she could only take half steps.

  pollard—A tree cut off above the bole so that it would grow in straight, thin shoots all around the area where it had been lopped off. This was frequently done to willows near rivers, apparently to obtain willow branches for making baskets and other wicker items.

  pomade—A kind of perfumed hair ointment, originally, apparently, made partly from apples.

  pony—Slang for £25.

  pony carriage—Ponies were frequently driven by ladies or by children, who were supposed to be incapable of managing horses. In the original, nonoptimistic ending of Great Expectations, which Bulwer-Lytton persuaded Dickens to change, Pip meets Estella driving down Piccadilly at the helm of her pony carriage.

  poorhouse—The name for publicly supported homes for the destitute, especially in the era before the workhouse began to replace it. Places of residence for the poor funded by private monies were called almshouses.

  Poor Law—The original Poor Law dated from Elizabethan days and called for the overseers of the poor in each parish to provide relief for the poor, the sick, the aged and needy children. The New Poor Law of 1834 aimed at making the workhouses in which the poor were sometimes lodged extremely unattractive to what it imagined to be hordes of lazy and undeserving poor. The consequent regimentation and grimness of life inside the workhouse soon became such as to make them a byword among the poor for misery. Under this new system, a central board of commissioners in London oversaw the work of local, elected boards of guardians that took the place of the overseers.

  poplin—A material that, like muslin, was popular for thin dresses at the beginning of the century. It was made of silk and worsted.

  porch—A building entrance that consisted of a covered passageway. “Hareton, drive these dozen sheep into the barn porch,” Heathcliff orders at the start of Wuthering Heights. It most generally turns up in references to parish churches, where it was often on the south, nonwindy side. “Porch” in this sense bears no relation to the wide, outside area for relaxing in the United States for private houses.

  porridge—A concoction of oatmeal and either milk or water, made by boiling the dry food in the liquid.

  porringer—A bowl or similar container out of which to eat porridge or something equally liquid and hot.

  port—A favorite after-dinner drink of the gentlemen when the ladies had retired to the drawing room after dinner. A sweetish Portuguese red wine.

  porter—There were two kinds of porters. First, there were the ones who carried things around, as the ticket porters did in London. They were called ticket porters because they were originally specially licensed, or ticketed, to do so. And then there were the men who slumbered in little gatehouses—basically doormen—at the entrances to various institutions such as the Inns of Court or Sue Bridehead’s training college at Melchester. The kind of dark beer that was favored by the former sort of porter acquired its name from them. It looked formidable but was not very strong.

  portmanteau—A traveling bag.

  post—Originally the system by which horses for the king’s journeys and mail were provided. Then it was realized that postboys could carry the mail for everyone else, too, which they began to do. In addition, the relays of horses used to provide fresh nags for postal carriers were rented out to members of the public who, say, did not want to take their own horses all the way from Bath to London. This renting of horses and/or carriages for long journeys split off from the mail service but, confusingly, also continued to be called the post. It was something only the well-off could afford; the pompous Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice travels post. One could substitute one’s own chariot for the rental post chaise, but, in any case, one rented the horses which would have to be changed at intervals along the way. They were steered by postillions, men who rode directly on one or more of the horses.

  postboy—The term given to the often lackadaisical boys who delivered the mail on foot or on horseback in the days before the crackerjack express mail coaches came along in 1784. The term was also applied to the postillions—usually extraordinarily superannuated for “boys”—who rode post-horses hired by travelers.

  post captain—In the early 1800s, the title was used to distinguish captains in the Royal Navy who held permanent positions as captain on ships of at least twenty guns both from acting captains and from officers of lesser rank such as commanders who might captain a vessel of inferior size.

  post chaise—A small, closed carriage used for traveling post.

  postern—A back entrance or back way in.

  postillion—Rich people who did not want to drive their own carriages over a long distance had two choices. They could hire a coachman, who drove the carriage from his seat thereon, or they could use a postillion, who actually rode one of the horses in order to direct the team. Post-horses were invariably ridden by postillions; the men sported red or blue jackets, pants, and colored top boots.

  post-obit—From the Latin words for “after” and “death”. A post-obit was a kind of bond, or promise to pay, wherein one agreed to pay someone
money upon the death of someone else from whom one was expecting to inherit money.

  pot—As in a pot of beer. The word meant something to drink out of—like a mug—and was also a rough measure of quantity, being in the neighborhood of a quart to a half-gallon.

  potboy—A boy at a tavern who brought drinks to tables and also delivered beer ordered by customers not on the premises.

  pothouse—A tavern or an alehouse.

  poulterer—A chicken retailer; also, he usually sold game, including hares, sometimes those illegally obtained by poachers.

  poultice—A warm, soft, gooey mass of bran or meal or herbs put onto a cloth like muslin and then applied to the skin to make a sore better or to warm someone.

  pounce—A fine powder made out of something such as the pulverized resin of the Moroccan sandarac tree, used either for stopping the spread of ink on paper or to get a parchment ready to be written on.

  pound—As a unit of money, the pound was worth 240 pence or 20 shillings. In addition, the pound as a location was the place where runaway cattle were detained or held if they had been seized for their owner’s debt.

  Prayer Book—The Book of Common Prayer.

  prebendary—Cathedrals were often endowed by donors. A canon or other cleric attached to the cathedral who received a prebend, i.e., money from such an endowment, was called a prebendary. The clerics often had stalls in the cathedral, the term “prebendal stall” coming eventually to refer to the actual grant itself.

  precentor—A cleric charged with conducting music at a cathedral; in some cathedrals, he was called a minor canon.