CHAPTER XXXIII.
Diversions of people of fashion—Daily life of the King—Children—Education—Girls’ education—Matrimonial advertisements—Gretna Green marriages—Story of a wedding ring—Wife selling—“A woman to let.”
THE ESSAYISTS of Anne’s time did good work, and left precious material for Social History behind them, when they good-humouredly made fun of the little follies of the day; and two satirical prints of Rowlandson’s follow so well in their footprints that I must needs transcribe them. “May 1, 1802. A Man of Fashion’s Journal. ‘Queer dreams, owing to Sir Richard’s claret, always drink too much of it—rose at one—dressed by half-past three—took an hour’s ride—a good horse, my last purchase, remember to sell him again—nothing like variety—dined at six with Sir Richard—said several good things—forgot ‘em all—in high spirits—quizzed a parson—drank three bottles, and loung’d to the theatre—not quite clear about the play—comedy or tragedy—forget which—saw the last act—Kemble toll loll—not quite certain whether it was Kemble or not—Mrs. Siddons monstrous fine—got into a hack—set down in St. James’s Street—dipp’d a little with the boys at hazards—confounded bad luck—lost all my money.’”
“May 1, 1802. A Woman of Fashion’s Journal. ‘Dreamt of the Captain—certainly a fine man—counted my card money—lost considerably—never play again with the Dowager—breakfasted at two, ... dined at seven at Lady Rackett’s—the Captain there—more than usually agreeable—went to the Opera—the Captain in the party—house prodigiously crowded—my ci devant husband in the opposite box—rather mal à propos—but no matter—telles choses sont—looked into Lady Squander’s roût—positively a mob—sat down to cards—in great luck—won a cool hundred of my Lord Lackwit, and fifty of the Baron—returned home at five in the morning—indulged in half an hour’s reflection—resolved on reformation, and erased my name from the Picn-ic Society.’”
This style of life was taken more from the Prince of Wales than the King, whose way of living was very simple; and, although this book is intended more to show the daily life of the middle classes, than that of Royalty, still a sketch of the third George’s private daily life cannot be otherwise than interesting. It was this quiet, unassuming daily life of the King, together with his affliction, which won him the hearts of his people.
Morning Post, November 7, 1806: “When the King rises, which is generally about half-past seven o’clock, he proceeds immediately to the Queen’s saloon, where His Majesty is met by one of the Princesses; generally either Augusta, Sophia, or Amelia; for each, in turn, attend their revered Parents. From thence the Sovereign and his Daughter, attended by the Lady in Waiting, proceed to the Chapel, in the Castle, wherein Divine Service is performed by the Dean, or Sub-Dean: the ceremony occupies about an hour. Thus the time passes until nine o’clock, when the King, instead of proceeding to his own apartment, and breakfasting alone, now takes that meal with the Queen, and the five Princesses. The table is always set out in the Queen’s noble breakfasting-room, which has been recently decorated with very excellent modern hangings, and, since the late improvements by Mr. Wyatt, commands a most delightful and extensive prospect of the Little Park. The breakfast does not occupy more than half an hour. The King and Queen sit at the head of the table, according to seniority. Etiquette, in every other respect is strictly adhered to. On entering the room the usual forms are observed, according to rank. After breakfast, the King generally rides out on horseback, attended by his Equerries; three of the Princesses, namely, Augusta, Sophia, and Amelia, are usually of the party. Instead of only walking his horse, His Majesty now proceeds at a good round trot. When the weather is unfavourable, the King retires to his favourite sitting-room, and sends for Generals Fitzroy, or Manners, to play at chess with him. His Majesty, who knows the game well, is highly pleased when he beats the former—that gentleman being an excellent player. The King dines regularly at two o’clock; the Queen and Princesses at four. His Majesty visits, and takes a glass of wine with them, at five. After this period, public business is frequently transacted by the King in his own study, wherein he is attended by his Private Secretary, Colonel Taylor. The evening is, as usual, passed at cards, in the Queen’s Drawing-room, where three tables are set out. To these parties many of the principal nobility, &c., residing in the neighbourhood, are invited. When the Castle clock strikes ten, the visitors retire. The supper is then set out, but that is merely a matter of form, and of which none of the Family partake. These illustrious personages retire at eleven o’clock to rest for the night, and sleep in undisturbed repose until they rise in the morning. The journal of one day is the history of the whole year.”
GROUP OF CHILDREN, 1808.
Children were, in those days, “seen and not heard;” and were very different to the precocious little prigs of the present time. The nursery was their place, and not the unlimited society of, and association with, their elders, as now. When the time for school came, the boys were taught a principally classical education, which was considered, as now, an absolute necessity for a gentleman. Modern languages, with the exception of French and Italian, were not taught. German and the Northern languages were unknown, and Spanish only came to be known during, and after, the Peninsular War. There was no necessity for learning them. As a rule, people did not travel, and, if they did, their courier did all the conversation for them; and there was no foreign literature to speak of which would induce a man to take the trouble to learn languages. The physical sciences were in their infancy, and chemistry, with its wonderful outcome of electricity, was in its veriest babyhood: so that boys were not cumbered with too much learning.
As to young ladies’ education, they had, as they must devoutly have blessed, had they the gift of prescience, no Girton, nor Newnham, nor St. Margaret’s, nor Somerville Halls. Their brains were not addled by exams, or Oxford degrees. Here is their curriculum of study, with its value, in the year 1800. “Terms:—The Young Ladies are boarded, and taught the English and French languages, with grammatical purity and correctness, history and needle-works, for twenty-five guineas per annum, washing included; parlour boarders, forty guineas a year; day boarders, three guineas per quarter; day scholars, a guinea and a half. No entrance money expected, either from boarders or day scholars. Writing, arithmetic, music, dancing, Italian, geography, the use of the globes, and astronomy, taught by professors of eminence and established merit.—Wanted a young lady of a docile disposition, and genteel address, as an apprentice, or half-boarder; she will enjoy many advantages which are not to be met with in the generality of schools. Terms thirty guineas for two years.”
FILIAL AFFECTION; OR, A TRIP TO GRETNA GREEN.
A few years of school, and then, how to get a husband—the same then, as it is now, and ever will be. Matrimonial advertisements were very common, and bear the stamp of authenticity; but the following beats all I have yet seen: “Matrimony—To Noblemen, Ladies, or Gentlemen. Any Nobleman, Lady, or Gentleman, having a female friend who has been unfortunate, whom they would like to see comfortably settled, and treated with delicacy and kindness, and that might, notwithstanding errors, have an opportunity of moving in superior life, by an Union with a Gentleman holding rank in His Majesty’s service, who has been long in possession of a regular and handsome establishment, and whose age, manners, and person, are such (as well as Connections) as, it is to be presumed, will not be objected to, may, by addressing a few lines, post paid, to B. Price, Esqre., to be left at the Bar of the Cambridge Coffee House, Newman Street, form a most desirable Matrimonial union for their friend. The Advertiser is serious, and therefore hopes no one will answer this from idle motives, as much care has been taken to prevent persons from gaining any information, to gratify idle curiosity. The most inviolable honour and secrecy may be relied on, and is expected to be observed throughout the treaty. If the Lady is not naturally vicious, and candour is resorted to, the Gentleman will study, by every means in his power, to promote domestic felicity.”
Marriage at Gretna Green was then in full force, and many were the Couples who went post on that Northern road, and were married by the blacksmith—as we see in Rowlandson’s picture. These Marriages, which were, according to the law of Scotland, perfectly legal and binding, provided the contracting parties avowed themselves to be man and wife before witnesses, were only made illegal by Act of Parliament in 1856, and now it is necessary for one of the parties married, to have resided in Scotland for twenty-one days.
A TRIP TO GRETNA GREEN (ROWLANDSON).
A curious story about a wedding ring is told in the Morning Post of the 3rd of December, 1800, under the heading “Clerkenwell Sessions”:
“The Prosecutor, a young man, lately out of his apprenticeship, and in very confined circumstances, applied, about a month ago, to the Parish of Shoreditch, and stated, that, it having been his wish to marry a young woman in the same street where he worked, but not having money sufficient to buy the wedding ring, and, his intended spouse being as poor as himself, he hoped their Worships would advance him a small sum to accomplish the purchase; and then added, that they had already been three times asked in Church, and the morrow (Sunday) was the day appointed for the ceremony.
“The Vestry taking into consideration the good character of the applicant, ordered five shillings to be paid him, and the defendant, who is overseer of that parish, was requested to furnish him with a ring, which he did, the same night about ten o’clock, and charged for it 7s. 6d. Before leaving the shop the purchaser said he hoped it was worth the money, when the overseer replied it was good gold, and added, you may pledge it at any pawnbroker’s in the town for 7s. The witness was then satisfied and departed.
“On the Monday following, the affairs of the newly married couple not having assumed the most flourishing aspect, the bridegroom was necessitated to resort to a neighbouring pawnbroker’s shop, when, to the surprise of the party, the ring was declared to be worth nothing, it being a metal composition gilt. Upon this discovery he made application to a Magistrate; the affair went before the Grand Jury, who found a true bill against the jeweller, and the matter was yesterday brought into Court, but in consequence of the absence of material witnesses, the further investigation of this business stands over to a future day.” I regret to say there is no further record of this case.
On this class, the marriage tie lay lightly, and a rough, and summary, method was sometimes used to dissolve it. In a book of mine[50] I have already mentioned the practice of wife-selling, as being in vogue at this time. What I then said, can be further confirmed by examples which come within the range of this book.
Morning Herald, March 11, 1802: “On the 11th of last month, a person sold, at the market cross, in Chapel en le Frith, a wife, a child, and as much furniture as would set up a beggar, for eleven shillings!”
Morning Herald, April 16, 1802: “A Butcher sold his wife by auction the last market day at Hereford. The lot brought £1 4s. and a bowl of punch.”
Annual Register, February 14, 1806: “A man named John Gorsthorpe exposed his wife for sale in the market, at Hull, about one o’clock; but, owing to the crowd which such an extraordinary occurrence had gathered together, he was obliged to defer the sale, and take her away. About four o’clock, however, he again brought her out, and she was sold for 20 guineas, and delivered, in a halter, to a person named Houseman, who had lodged with them four or five years.”
Morning Post, October 10, 1807: “One of those disgraceful scenes, which have, of late, become too common, took place on Friday se’nnight at Knaresborough. Owing to some jealousy, or other family difference, a man brought his wife, equipped in the usual style, and sold her at the market cross for 6d. and a quid of tobacco!”
In the Doncaster Gazette of March 25, 1803, a sale is thus described: “A fellow sold his wife, as a cow, in Sheffield market-place a few days ago. The lady was put into the hands of a butcher, who held her by a halter fastened round her waist. ‘What do you ask for your cow?’ said a bystander. ‘A guinea,’ replied the husband. ‘Done!’ cried the other, and immediately led away his bargain. We understand that the purchaser and his ‘cow’ live very happily together.”
Enough examples have been given to show that the French idea of wives being sold in Smithfield, and elsewhere, is founded on fact; indeed, there is no reason to disbelieve the writer of “Six mois à Londres in 1816,” when he describes a wife sale he saw at Smithfield—at which the lady was offered at the price of 15s., and, at that price, was eventually purchased, after due examination, “Comme il avait examiné quelques instans auparavant, une jument que je l’avais vu marchander.”
We must not throw stones at our grandfathers because this custom was in their midst. I could quote numerous instances of it, from time to time, down to our own days. Vide the South Wales Daily News, May 2, 1882, where, at Alfreton, a woman was sold by her husband, in a public-house for a glass of ale; and, again, in the Pall Mall Gazette, October 20, 1882, where it is recorded, that, at Belfast, a certain George Drennan sold his wife to one O’Neill, for one penny and a dinner.
But, before dismissing the social status of women of this class, at that time, I cannot help chronicling a singular custom, which, however, appears to be peculiarly local.
Annual Register, March 22, 1806: “A Woman to Let! There is a custom, which, most likely, is peculiar to a small district in the western part of Cumberland. A few days ago, a gentleman from the neighbourhood of Whitehaven, calling upon a person, at his house in Ulpha, was informed that he was not at home; he was gone to church; there was ‘a woman to let!’ On enquiry as to the meaning of this singular expression, it was thus explained:—When any single woman, belonging to the parish, had the misfortune to prove with child, a meeting of the parishioners is called, for the purpose of providing her a maintenance in some family, at so much a week, from that time to a limited time after delivery; and, this meeting (to give it the greater sanction), is uniformly holden in the church, where the lowest bidder has the bargain! And on such occasions, previous notice is given, that on such a day, there will be a ‘woman to let.’”
