General Chat

DISTRESS OF THE WORKING CLASSES

Times, Feb 17 1847

Perhaps at no period within remembrance of the oldest inhabitant have distress and privation pressed more heavily on the working classes than at the present moment. The streets are crowded with paupers, most of them Irish, who have travelled from Manchester from Liverpool, in the hope of either obtaining employment, or sharing with others from the public bounty of the town.

A soup kitchen has been established, from which are distributed daily some 6,000 quarts of nutritious soup, with 1,000 loaves of bread. It is remarkable that of the recipients of this charity 9-10ths are Irish people. The operative classes employed in mills and manufactories (most of whom are working short time) seem to shrink from an application for charity, and prefer existence on the limited means derived from their labour.

In the midst of so much want and misery it is gratifying to observe that not the slightest evidence of insubordination has shown itself. The working people generally seem to be of the opinion that the distress from which they are now suffering has preceded from no causes over which our government has had control.


FAG ASH NOTE : ---- The Globe Feb 17 1847 has a lengthy report about the improvements to Windsor Castle. The refurbishments were extensive and costly!



A FOOLISH FAST

Sunday Times March 21 1847

Next Wednesday, then, is the day appointed by her Majesty’s Privy Council for the general fast and humiliation in consideration for the awful famine in Ireland. We have laboured hard to discover what connection exists between this child’s play of going-for-a-day-without-breakfast-dinner-and-supper and the real horrible starvation that is sweeping thousands to their graves in our unhappy Sister Country.

PROGRESS OF THE FAMINE

Sunday Times January 17 1847

Melancholy indeed are the latest accounts from all parts of the county of Cork. From Bantry, Skibbereen, Crookhaven , Castletown, and, Tracton, in Cork; and Dingle in Kerry; the reports present the same gloomy features.

In the parish of Kilmore fourteen died on Sunday; three of these were buried in coffins; eleven were buried without other covering other than rags they wore when alive. One hundred and forty died in Skibbereen workhouse in one month; eight have died in one day. It is stated that the work on the public roads is even more destructive than fever, for the unfed wretches have not energy enough to keep their blood in circulation, and they drop down from the united effects of cold and hunger, never to rise again.



A DOOMED POPULATION

Ballyshannon Herald

Reprinted in the Globe, Feb 1 1847

We have again to make known the devastating effects of the famine which is now carrying off by hundreds and by thousands the doomed population of this country. The coroners are unable to attend to all the calls made on them, and numbers of persons who died of starvation have been buried without inquests. Distress here is on the increase, and deaths are more numerous in the country (Donegal0 than in the fatal years of the cholera. Since the news of the ports being opened the markets have fallen about 10 per cent; but what relief is that to the poor.




Thank you Jet and Karen glad you like them :-)

i agree karen:)

come back fag ash lol

jetxx

PORTRAITS IN ANY WEATHER

Times 1847

Mr. CLAUDET’S COLOURED AND NON-INVERTED DAGUERREO-TYPE, portrait establishment, No. 18, King William Street, Strand, near the Lowther-Arcade.

As it is absurd to offer inverted likenesses in which the right is represented on the left, and the left on the right, Mr. CLAUDET begs to announce that he is able to take all his portraits non-inverted. This adds materially to the truth of the likenesses, and when the portrait is coloured by his improved process, the result is a most correct and pleasing miniature.

Successful portraits are taken in any weather, except during intense fog, and during the early hours of the day are more generally favourable. Ladies have the attendance of a respectable female in a separate room, and the whole establishment is fitted up in a most complete and convenient manner.




Fag Ash Note:- My OH is fortunate enough to have had one of these, of his GGGrandfather, passed down to him. It is in an ornate copper(?) frame.

n

Well....I found the pub the inquest was held at.....lots of Elizabeth Allen deaths in 1844 though.

The Coach and Horses in Bond Street looks a very nice venue for a Meet though...piccie on the site. Wonder if they hold records of the days of inquests. I know some have them.

http://fancyapint.com/pubs/pub327.html


A very nice little pub indeed, set in in rather posh surroundings, it has a well-looked after interior, with enough old bits remaining to give it a genteel sort of feel without it looking like a museum. As it's a Shepherd Neame place, the beer is pretty good and so is the rest of the booze and the prices aren't bad given where it is. There's a pretty extensive food menu, with vegetarians well catered for, again at decent prices and the service is excellent. Everybody seems to know everybody in this pub (including the bar people) and it doesn't take an Einstein to work out why they keep coming back. It can get rather crowded after work, towards the end of the week, understandable, but inconvenient if you're looking for a quiet pint. It's a pity it's not open on Saturday and Sunday - but then it's a pretty quiet around here at the weekends and it probably wouldn't have as much atmosphere. Although you can hire the pub at the weekend, so you could create your own.

hi Jet, lol...was breathing in while writing it.....

Yes, makes you wonder how many others died in the same way but have those words on the death cert.....rather a sweeping statement lol.......

Also.... in those days inquests were frequently held in the local, so liquid refreshments were more than likely the order of the day.....what a scene some of them must have been lol

will see if I can find her death reg....wonder if she is in the 1841 census.

hi lil sorry but “Died by the visitation of God”.
what?

well that explains it then, i think we all go that way one way or another lol


jetxx

A FINE YOUNG WOMAN

Times, August 12 1844

TIGHT LACING --- On Monday evening an inquest was held before Mr. HIGGS, at the Coach and Horses, Avery row Bond-Street, as to the death of Miss Elizabeth ALLEN, aged 22, a pupil of Madame DEVEY, of No. 75, Lower Grosvenor-street, the fashionable milliner. Mr Robert DRUETT, of No. 6 Bruton-street, surgeon, stated that he was called in to see the deceased on Friday afternoon, about 5 o’clock, and found her quite dead on the bed, and very nearly cold. He was of the opinion that she had died very slowly from the appearances about the mouth.

He could discover no traces of poison about her or in the room. He understood that she had gone up to her room about 2 o’clock, after eating a very hearty dinner. She was of very full habit of body, had come up from the country, and was one of the finest young women he ever saw. She had been found by the side of her box, and he heard she was subject to fits. He had no doubt the stooping posture and the tight-laced stays had brought on the congestion of the vessels of the head, which, no doubt, was the cause of death.

He had measured her corset, which was 1ft 11 ins round, and on her body it would not meet in the smallest part by 2 ins. He was not aware if that was the usual way they were made, but if so, it was certainly too much contracted. The jury returned a verdict of “Died by the visitation of God”.



Formerly Fag Ash Lil

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