Men Behaving Badly: Sir John Riddle

Loretta reports:

The upper ranks were not renowned for good behavior.  Drunken "gentlemen" knocked over watch-boxes, broke windows, and assaulted women with impunity.  It was perilous to take action against a titled gentleman, as this story shows.

In 1797 a sentry named Thomas Davis arrested Sir John Riddle.  Here's Davis’s version of events:

“ . . . about half past ten, this gentleman came through the gate, into the Green-Park, he looked at me very hard, he turned up towards the Bason in the Green Park, he turned back, and looked at me again, I did not know what he meant; I was very dry, and I went up and asked the women if they would give me some clean water, or table beer; they gave me some, and that gentleman came up to the window, what conversation they had I do not know; I did not think it prudent for me to stop there; I went to my sentry-box, and laid down my firelock behind my box, and soon after that, the gentleman came up to me, and said, "soldier, should not you like to have connections with these girls?" I said, I should not mind it in the least, if I had one of them here, and he made no more to do than to take hold of my breeches, "sentinel," says he, "do your p-s stand?" no, says I, if I had them here, I don't know but they might; he opened the slap of my breeches, and took hold of my t-s in his hand, I had my firelock in my hand, I immediately seized hold of his coat, and said, what did he mean by that; I called out for assistance and then Sharman came up; I said, I insist upon your taking charge of this man, he accordingly took hold of him, he made a scusstle to get away; I called out again for assistance, and then there came up another man, and then Sir John was still, he put some money into my hand, and said, I will give you any thing before I will be detained; no, says I, I will take you a prisoner to the Guard-room . . . and I laid my charge, that this gentleman did so and so with me; I shewed the Colonel the money he gave me, and I was confined all night."

The baronet retaliated for being arrested by charging the soldier with robbing him.

Guess who was punished, and how severely.

You can read the full record of the case at Old Bailey Online.

Illustration: Anacreontick's in full song, by James Gillray, 1801. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Breakfast Links: Week of January 31, 2011

We've been on Twitter for a month now, and in those few weeks nearly 450 of you have joined us as followers! If you're one of them, then thank you so much for taking the plunge with us. If not, we humbly invite you to give it (and us) a try. Our weekly Breakfast Links are only a fraction of the other blogs, sites, news stories, and other curiosities that we're discovering each week and passing along to our friends via the Twitterverse. 
Now here's this week's serving of the freshest Breakfast Links:
• Virtually visit museums around the world: Google's Art Project launches today: http://www.googleartproject.com/

• Flame-throwers for snow removal? For real: Mayor Curley of Boston suggested it to MIT students in 1948: http://gizmo.do/fcpgTT

• This would be nice in our closets, too: the Museum of London   offers a rediscovered silken beauty: http://bit.ly/dI4Hrt

• "Most magnificent Georgian interiors in Britain": Newly restored rooms at Stowe: http://bit.ly/g9Xz8C

• Downton Abbey fans: remember Lady Sybil's scandalous harem-pants? Here's an original 'Persion' gown by Paul Poiret c1913: http://bit.ly/fFZWOt

• Three centuries of American broadsides and other printed ephemera: http://ow.ly/3PZUX

• For lovers of medieval art: Upcoming exhibition at the Walters Museum in Baltimore now online. View medieval reliquaries in 3D! http://ow.ly/3Nu52

• Amazing royal coincidences (or not): The Throne Clones: http://bit.ly/gAzGqI

• Lord Rochester's rival in writing & debauchery (& a spy too): At the Sign of Angellica: Playwrite Aphra Behn http://post.ly/1YpBZ

• A Visit to Stoneleigh Abbey Grounds in the company of Mrs. Austen, Part One: http://t.co/zSq

• How high for a duchess? Hanging 'Gainsborough & the Modern Woman' in San Diego: http://bit.ly/h6fMkd

• Name-game: Were these girl's names most popular in 1898 - or 1998? http://bit.ly/gJLcNt

• Fun gimmick: Move the cursor to see Boston then & now pix: http://bit.ly/e6dv4X

• Woodchuck triumph (w/ a good lawyer): For Ground Hog Day, a legend of young Daniel Webster & the woodchuck: http://bit.ly/hfhjb1

• Oh, we SO wish!:Rare opportunity to buy a magnificent Georgian house in historic Ampthill, Beds. http://bit.ly/i4dUjl

• Just in case you're invited to Buckingham Palace, here's everything you need to know, from bows to tiaras: http://bit.ly/epYMBs

• Yes, it’s a blog entirely devoted to moustaches of the 19th century: http://bit.ly/gWUoHl

• The risqué secret behind an 18th-century bestseller: http://ht.ly/3QaP1

• Hilarious royal wedding presents from 1922. A brass bell? A wooden box? Watch out, Will and Kate! http://thetim.es/hzV52h

Slideshow for the "Threads of Feeling" Exhibition

Susan reporting:

We've written several times about the exhibition of 18th c. orphans' textile tokens, Threads of Feeling, that is currently running at the London Foundling Museum. Look here for our first post with the background history of both the Hospital and show, and here for a follow-up about the exhibition catalogue.

Recently the Museum launched a slide show on-line featuring a selection of the tokens, all beautifully photographed. Accompanying the slide show is a heart-breaking medley of 18th c. folk songs, all of which have the same sorrowful theme of men making promises they did not keep and unfortunate women who loved too well. A powerful, emotional presentation that we highly recommend!

Left: Textile Token, Sleeve Blue and white strip'd cotton turn'd up with purple and white linen.' Photograph courtesy London Foundling Museum. 
Caption: A baby's sleeve made from cotton woven in stripes sewn to linen printed with flowers. Foundling number 220. A girl aged about three weeks, admitted 15 November 1745. Named Catherine Walton by the Foundling Hospital. Apprenticed 31 August 1757 to James West, watch case maker of Fleet Street, London.


Great minds think alike: Several friends & readers of the TNHG have recommended this slide show to us, including Jen, Karen, Lady Burgley, Julie Wakefield, Sarah Woodyard, & Amanda Vickery. Many thanks to them all.

Blog taking a short recess

As happens more than you'd suppose, both Nerdy History Girls have deadlines looming at the same time.

Since one of us can't fill in for the other, we will, for the next few days, be blogging only sporadically, if at all, and writing desperately so that our editors don't hate us and cast us out upon the cruel world to find a real job.

Please bear with us—and expect our regularly scheduled blogging to recommence on Sunday, with new, fresh breakfast links!

Fashions for February 1836

Loretta reports:

~~~

Fashions for the month of February, 1836.

 

[EVENING] DRESS*

 Of black velvet; the corsage drapé, with short full sleeves. The hat of black velvet with rose-colour feathers and blonde lappets, arranged as a cap with flowers round the face. Zephyr scarf of rose-colour. Earrings and chain of gold, set with carbuncles.

WALKING DRESS.

 A Pelisse of green velvet with circular cape, collar of blonde with cherry cravat, bonnet of white plush, trimmed with cherry and a fall of white blond.

EVENING DRESS.

 Of white satin, with a small cape of blonde, narrow in the centre and fastened with a bow of riband; short full sleeves and kid gloves. Turban of red and gold tissue, with a bird of paradise and an esprit plume.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON FASHIONS AND DRESS.

. . .

Evening dress robes continue to be cut very low round the bosom, and the majority made with short sleeves. These are now, for the most part, made close to the arm, but with two or three sabots of the same material or else of white tulle, the latter is most fashionable, and certainly it has a very light and pretty effect upon a robe of rich silk or velvet. We see also some sleeves with the first beuffant composed of the material of the dress, and the second in blond or tulle, terminated by a manchette. A third style consists of a single beuffant on the tight sleeve, which is made to descend nearly to the elbow, and ornamented with two ruches of tulle. Long clear white sleeves are also a good deal in request in evening dress ; some are surmounted by small round mancherons of the same material as the robe; others are set into a small tight sleeve of the material of the dress, which descends upon the shoulder.

—from The Court magazine & monthly critic and lady's magazine: & museum of the belles lettres, music, fine arts, drama, fashions, Volume 8, 1836.

*Misprinted as Morning Dress in description.