A Find in room 7!
When you restore a historic building, something interesting invariably turns up, under floorboards or behind panelling for instance. While we were restoring Cathedral View we made an interesting find in room seven – that’s the big attic room at the top of the house.
When we were working on a piece of Georgian panelling, we found some crumpled pieces of newspaper stuffed behind. Newspaper has often been used in old buildings as extra insulation or to plug up gaps.
What we’d found was scraps from two copies of Bells Life in London, one dated Sunday 16th August 1835, the other from a Sunday in April, presumably in the same year.
After spending roughly 175 years behind the panelling, the pieces are quite dirty but for the most part still readable, giving an interesting glimpse into various aspects of life nearly two centuries ago. We see reports of a night-time fete in Vauxhall Gardens and advertisements for beaver fur hats and passages on steam ships. More sinisterly, the “Assizes Intelligence” column has the murders of the day including the arsenic poisoning of a Clara Ann Smith of Bristol by her landlady Mary Ann Burdock. Here’s a sample of some other stories!
“The Easter hunt to-morrow promises a splendid turn-out of Cockney sportsmen. The preparations for the accommodation of man and horse along the line of the road are upon an extensive scale. Several knackers’ carts have been placed at convenient distances to bring home the killed and wounded. The cats of the metropolis are in high glee at the prospect of abundance, as the market during the past week has been ill-supplied”
“THE FEMALE SAILOR- This eccentric individual arrived in Donegal by the Derry Mail on Friday last. As soon as it was understood who she was, a vast crowd collected to see her; but the sailor hurried to the house of her sister, in the back-lane, where she remains at present, we believe. We were fortunate enough to have seen the young woman, and certainly consider her admirably adapted to personate a sailor”
“FORGERY- At the Gloucester Assizes Mr. John Forbes, who is an architect of great celebrity at Cheltenham, and who among other works built the celebrated Pittsville Spa, was indicated for forging an acceptance of a bill of exchange, which was drawn upon William Prosser, jun. Of Tivoli, Cheltenham.-The prisoner was found Guilty, and sentenced to be transported for life”
This publication could be received by post 200 miles from London, so could have been ordered by those in Lincoln who wanted to keep up with what was going on in the metropolis and elsewhere. Alternately, a traveller staying at the Black Horse Chambers may have brought them with him from the capital to read on the long coach journey (upwards of three days with stops overnight!). Who knows!
