Mother female brothel keeper
Mr Lushington a drunkard
Mrs Delany a bluestocking known for her interest in gardening as well as other aspects of what we might now call ‘lifestyle’
muff a woman’s sexual organs. Women beginning a new relationship or getting married were toasted, ‘To the well wearing of your muff.’
Mussulman Muslim
nantz brandy from Nantes
nap/nab catch/get
necessary house lavatory
New Buildings new developments in the area around Marylebone niaiseries foolishnesses
nose spy
nuns prostitutes in a brothel
ogles eyes
Old Harry the devil
Old Scratch the devil
one of us a prostitute
ottomised dissected (corruption of ‘anatomised’)
Pam, Pamphile the Knave of Clubs
panney house
parish settlement the right to reside in a parish or to receive parish assistance partie de plaisir enjoyable outing peach, to to ‘grass someone up’
pelisse type of cloak
perruque earlier version of ‘periwig’ (modern English, ‘wig’) phiz face
pièce de résistance (in this context) finest achievement pike (off) ‘do a runner’
plump currant ‘in the pink’
plus ça change the more things change (the more they stay the same) pomade hair dressing
poor’s hole/poor’s pit type of communal grave in which the coffins of the poor were stacked three or four deep posset drink of alcohol mixed with milk or cream and spices prad horse
priggers thieves
prink oneself beautify oneself
provocatives aphrodisiacs
pushing academy brothel
put one’s finger in one’s eye feign grief/force oneself to cry
queer culls sodomites
Queer Street a tricky situation, especially financial Quel dommage! What a shame!
ragoo ragout
Ranelagh a fashionable pleasure garden readies ready money
Receiving House early kind of post office, often based at an inn red-headed friend menstrual period
resurrectionist grave-robber
revenons à nos moutons let’s get back to where we started (literally: ‘Let’s return to our sheep’, an allusion to a fifteenth-century play) riding St George sex with the woman on top ridotto gathering with music and dancing rig fun, game, trick
Romeville London
rose (never blown upon) a virgin
rout fashionable evening party or reception rum good, fine, desirable
sacque style of dress
sal salivation caused by mercury treatment (for syphilis) scrag, to hang (a person)
seraglio continental type of brothel, considered more upmarket Sex, the with a capital ‘S’, this means ‘women’
shiv knife
simpkin simpleton
Sisterhood, the prostitutes
small, a the corpse of a child
sot drunkard
sotto voce spoken so as not to be overheard Spanish fly cantharides, an aphrodisiac sparrowgrass asparagus
Spitalfields silk silk of London manufacture, from the parish of Spitalfields sprain one’s ankle become pregnant
squaretoes old-fashioned person
stand bitch act the hostess, pour tea sugar stick penis
supper evening meal
sweating mercury treatment for syphilis
take the King’s Shilling join the army Tarocco Tarot
tarse penis
tendresses ‘tendernesses’. Here, intimate talk and other sounds from the bedroom three-legged mare the gallows
toby see high toby
toddle leave, run away
togs clothes
toilette grooming, self-presentation ton, the the fashionable nobility touché ‘You win that one’
tray in cards, the three of any suit trepan to kidnap, usually into slavery (trusty) Trojan trustworthy person, confidante
Uncle pawnbroker
Upright Man gang leader
wap fuck
ware hawk! look sharp!
ware trap watch out for the police
warm(er) (more) sexually explicit/arousing whelp young man (literally ‘puppy’) whipping culls customers seeking flagellation Wilkes, John republican, political writer and libertine wiper handkerchief
wolf cancerous tumour
wrapper 1) dress made by winding fabric about the body 2) a dressing-gown
Zedland the West Country
Select bibliography
To acknowledge one’s sources is not to present oneself as a historian.
Arnold, Catherine City of Sin
Ashton, John The History of Gambling in England Baines, Paul The Long Eighteenth Century Boswell, James Journals
Boswell, James The Life of Johnson
Brumwell, S. and Speck, W. A. Cassell’s Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain Burnett, John A History of the Cost of Living Cahill, Katherine Mrs Delany’s Menus, Medicines and Manners Clarke, Norma Queen of the Wits
Cockayne, Emily Hubbub
Colquhoun, Kate Taste
Cruickshank, Dan The Secret History of Georgian London Cunnington, C. W. and P. C. Handbook of English Costume in the Eighteenth Century Douglas, Alfred The Tarot
Equiano, Olaudah The Interesting Narrative George, M Dorothy London Life in the Eighteenth Century Grose, Francis Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Harvey, A. D. Sex in Georgian England
Horn, Pamela Flunkeys and Scullions
Jacobs, Harriet Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Moore, Wendy Wedlock
Olsen, Kirstin Daily Life in Eighteenth-Century England Peakman, Julie Lascivious Bodies
Picard, Liza Dr Johnson’s London
Porter, Roy London: A Social History
Porter, Roy English Society in the Eighteenth Century Rubenhold, Hallie Harris’s List of the Covent Garden Ladies Rubenhold, Hallie The Covent Garden Ladies Russell, Gillian ‘Faro’s Daughters’ (article) Sands, Mollie Invitation to Ranelagh
Sitwell, Edith Bath
Smith, Virginia Clean
Thomas, Hugh The Slave Trade
Vickery, Amanda Behind Closed Doors
Vickery, Amanda The Gentleman’s Daughter Wardroper, John Lovers, Rakes and Rogues Warner, Jessica Craze
White, Jerry London in the Eighteenth Century Wroth, W. W. and A. E. The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century
The story of Fortunate’s capture and enslavement draws upon the account given in Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative. That the word ‘fortunate’ is one possible translation of ‘Olaudah’ is pure coincidence, since my character took shape, complete with name, long before I came across that book. The coincidence itself seemed fortunate, so I have left the name as it is.
Betsy-Ann’s songs ‘Sometime I am a butcher bold’ (chapter 4) and ‘Moll of the Wood’ (chapter 15) are authentic; the other songs are
of my own invention.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to my agent Annette Green (as ever) and to all at Faber, particularly my editor Sarah Savitt whose clarity has been invaluable.
An earlier incarnation of this book included much more material on both folk music and gambling. I am grateful to C. J. Bearman who patiently answered my queries on Cecil Sharp, and to Professor Gillian Russell of the Australian National University who responded generously to an email from an unknown writer, supplying me with useful materials on eighteenth-century women gamblers. Historical errors and deliberate distortions are of course my own responsibility.
My friends and fellow writers of the RABS group are an unending source of support, encouragement and the occasional bucket of cold water when I need it. My thanks and love to you all.
Lastly I should like to thank Ruth Borthwick of the Arvon Foundation, whose offer of work at a crucial time enabled me to complete this novel. May Arvon go from strength to strength.
About the author
Maria McCann is the author of As Meat Loves Salt (Fourth Estate, 2001) which was an Economist Book of the Year and The Wilding (Faber, 2010) which was longlisted for the Orange Prize and chosen for the Richard and Judy Book Club. She has also contributed to various anthologies, most recently to Why Willows Weep (2011) and Beacons (2013).
By the same author
As Meat Loves Salt
The Wilding
First published in 2013
by Faber and Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
This ebook edition first published in 2013
All rights reserved
© Maria McCann, 2013
The right of Maria McCann to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–29760–3
Table of Contents
Title page
Table of Contents
Dedication
Note on Language
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
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51
Glossary
Select bibliography
Acknowledgements
About the author
By the same author
Copyright
Maria McCann, Ace, King, Knave
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