Clifford Morsley - News From The English Countryside

[dem bones]

Clifford Morsley - News From The English Countryside: 1750-1850 (Harrap, 1979)

Rowlandson, News-sheet Sellers, c. 1819.

Blurb:

Lord Macaulay once declared that "the only true history of a country is to be found in its newspapers‘. Clifford Morsley, who was born and bred in East Anglia, decided to compile a book from old newspapers, to give a ‘true history‘ of the English countryside, and chose the period from late George ll to early Victoria in which to do so. The result is a riveting document, including stories of murder and smuggling; witchcraft and old customs; rustic characters and a fair amount of good country humour.
National events are covered, but only to demonstrate how much, or how little, they influenced the lives of country people between the years 1750 and 1850. Nearly all the stories are compiled from provincial papers, and with a proper concentration on the varied activities and interests of different regions.

The years immediately following the coronation of George Ill came to be known as the industrial Revolution. This, coupled with the advent of crop—rotation and the Enclosure Acts of the 176Os, provoked an exodus of small farmers and labourers from the land and into the expanding cities. Those who remained worked hard for little return. Eventually the pressure became intolerable, and a wave of rick-burning and riots swept the country. Smuggling became a way of reinforcing poor wages, and reports of desperate skirmishes between soldiers and ‘free-traders‘ became daily news. The situation only improved with the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846.

It is against this background that Clifford Morsley has selected these many extracts reflecting country life in his chosen era. Each one gives a glimpse of that life; and the whole exudes a marvellously rich, earthy, bucolic essence.


True to title, a compilation of newspaper reports and articles from English local presses. Despite a distressing absence of ghost, there is much for forteans, folklorists, Selwynists and lovers of the bizarre and macabre to appreciate. From May through to September 1751, the Northampton Mercury ran comprehensive coverage of a "Witch" trial at Tring which saw "inoffensive" pensioner, Ruth Osborne, perish during a ducking in the village pond. Thomas Colley, the Matthew Hopkins of the piece, would later swing for her murder (the Mercury report concludes with Colley's unlikely 'declaration' which begins;

"Good people!
I beseech you all to take Warning by an unhappy man's suffering that you be not deluded into so absurd and wicked a conceit as to believe there are any such Beings on Earth as Witches.
It was that foolish and vain Imagination, heightened and inflam'd by the Strength of Liquor, which prompted me to be instrumental (with others as mad-brained as myself) in the horrid and barbarous Murder of Ruth Osborne, the supposed witch, for which I am now so deservedly to suffer Death ..."

The countryside seemingly came under near constant animal attack; Ravens Kill Man on Christmas Day; Strangled By Sheep; Starling Nests in Murderer's Body; Man and Horse stung to Death; Drunken Labourer attacked by Rats. Occasionally, a human turned the tables - Cow Killed by Lady's Hat, Cat eaten by Boy, etc - but this was very much the exception to the rule.

Sport was horror. The Northampton Journal for 5th and 19th of August, 1765 reported a riot at a West Haddon 'FOOT-BALL PLAY.' James Males, respectable farmer, died of blood loss having been struck full on the nose by a cricket ball during a match at Lord Dacre's Park in August 1825.

Correction; just about everything was horror.

A Gruesome End for Chimney-sweep’s Boy

Bristol
Last week a young Lad who had lately run away from his Master, a Chimney-Sweeper, in this City, went to ask for Employment in a Gentleman's House the other Side of the Passage; just as he entered the back Part of the House, a Pack of Hounds fell upon him, and tore his Bowels quite out before any Assistance could be got.
The Oxford Journal, 8 September 1753

Drunken Labourer Attacked By Rats

The dangerous consequences likely to result from sleeping in an outhouse during a state of intoxication were singularly exemplified on Thursday last. A labourer in the employ of Mr. Laybourn, of Witney, near Oxford, having retired greatly inebriated, to recover from a debauch, was attacked by some rats. The liquor and sleep had so overpowered the unfortunate man that he was incapable either of repelling them. or calling for assistance. He continued in an agonising state for two hours, when his groans attracted the attention of a person passing the door, and who, on entering, found a number of rats of a large species assembled round the feet of the sufferer, seven of whose toes were entirely devoured by these ferocious animals.
The Observer, 25 June 1809.

Starling nests in Murderer's Body

About ten days ago a starling's nest, with young ones, was taken from out of the breast of Watson, who hangs on the gibbet on Brodenham Common, near Swaffham, for the murder of his wife, which was witnessed by hundreds of people as something very singular and extraordinary.
The Lancaster Gazetteer, 27 June 1801

Putrification in Thirty Minutes

During the thunderstorm on Wednesday se'nnight, a fat bullock belonging to Mr. Barnes of Beeston, was struck dead by the lightening, whilst drinking at a pond. No marks of violence were found on the carcase, but in less than half an hour it was in a state of complete putridity.
The Bury & Norwich Post, 15 July 1801.

So many sensational reports collected in a 320 page volume; Horned Visitor at Midnight (a burglar in Herne drag); Man Dug up dead Wife; Foiling of Body-snatchers; Hen Alive five weeks after Burial; End of a Pauper ("eaten to death by maggots"); Search for Mermaid: Threat to Burn Luton (it's never been popular); the roly-poly laying to rest of The Corpulent Mr. Lambert; Mr Thomas Tebbit of Soham and his Gigantic Gooseberry; Beware of the Female Turnip Stealers ...

The even better news is, there is a sequel (1851-1951), which we may well return to over coming week.

[helrunar]

Kev, what a marvelous find! I feel positively giddy with the sensation of holiday cheer exuded by the headline Ravens kill man on Christmas Day. Hodie gaudeamus!

I need to look up "Selwynist."

With newspapers such as this available all over the country, it's a wonder that the "penny dreadful" genre ever took off.

cheers, Steve

[Dr Strange]

George Augustus Selwyn (1719-1791) MP, Hellfire Club member, and aficionado of public executions.

hauntedpalaceblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/george-selwyn-the-gentleman-sadist/

[helrunar]

Thank you Dr Strange, you are a perfect darling! I recall reading about Selwyn and I think one reference had him describing in somebody's drawing room his physical response to witnessing a hanging. Ah, the glorious Age of Enlightenment...

H.

[dem bones]

Dec 13, 2020 20:23:06 GMT Dr Strange said:

George Augustus Selwyn (1719-1791) MP, Hellfire Club member, and aficionado of public executions.

hauntedpalaceblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/george-selwyn-the-gentleman-sadist/

Dec 13, 2020 21:07:43 GMT helrunar said:

Thank you Dr Strange, you are a perfect darling! I recall reading about Selwyn and I think one reference had him describing in somebody's drawing room his physical response to witnessing a hanging. Ah, the glorious Age of Enlightenment...

H.

"The pornography of the time is directed at two distinct groups of readers, the floggers and the flogged. Those with fond memories of their schooldays were more often found amongst the victims; the successors to the Regency bucks, the rakes, the sharps, were the floggers. Like those who flocked to public hangings and anything special in the way of open-air public entertainment, they were connoisseurs of suffering. Many of them divided their time between the flagellation brothels, the scaffold, the cocking main, the rat-pits, the prize ring, and the race-course. They were known as the fancy, and the more sophisticated of them traced their pedigree back to George Selwyn (1719-91) with his ‘morbid interest in the details of human suffering, and, more especially, a taste for witnessing criminal executions’. Selwyn would travel to Paris to witness executions, often disguised as a woman to escape notice. In the nineteenth century he became a cult figure to the French amateurs."

From the glorious wallow in Victorian vice, vileness, depravity and perversion that is Ronald Pearsall's Night's Black Angels, (Hodder & Stoughton, 1975)

Sample half-page from News from the English Countryside 1750-1850. Fans of Man Bites Man: The Scrapbook Of An English Eccentric. George Ives among those likely to appreciate Mr. Morsley's compilation.

[bluetomb]

Dec 14, 2020 9:35:38 GMT dem bones said:

Dec 13, 2020 20:23:06 GMT Dr Strange said:

George Augustus Selwyn (1719-1791) MP, Hellfire Club member, and aficionado of public executions.

hauntedpalaceblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/george-selwyn-the-gentleman-sadist/

Dec 13, 2020 21:07:43 GMT helrunar said:

Thank you Dr Strange, you are a perfect darling! I recall reading about Selwyn and I think one reference had him describing in somebody's drawing room his physical response to witnessing a hanging. Ah, the glorious Age of Enlightenment...

H.

"The pornography of the time is directed at two distinct groups of readers, the floggers and the flogged. Those with fond memories of their schooldays were more often found amongst the victims; the successors to the Regency bucks, the rakes, the sharps, were the floggers. Like those who flocked to public hangings and anything special in the way of open-air public entertainment, they were connoisseurs of suffering. Many of them divided their time between the flagellation brothels, the scaffold, the cocking main, the rat-pits, the prize ring, and the race-course. They were known as the fancy, and the more sophisticated of them traced their pedigree back to George Selwyn (1719-91) with his ‘morbid interest in the details of human suffering, and, more especially, a taste for witnessing criminal executions’. Selwyn would travel to Paris to witness executions, often disguised as a woman to escape notice. In the nineteenth century he became a cult figure to the French amateurs."

From the glorious wallow in Victorian vice, vileness, depravity and perversion that is Ronald Pearsall's Night's Black Angels, (Hodder & Stoughton, 1975)

Sample half-page from News from the English Countryside 1750-1850. Fans of Man Bites Man: The Scrapbook Of An English Eccentric. George Ives among those likely to appreciate Mr. Morsley's compilation.

On the matter of historical flagellants and flagellation, it amuses me endlessly that well heeled literary imprint Chatto & Windus was born out of the demise of John Camden Hotten, great lexicologist, swindler and smut peddler, and his eponymous publishing house which brought to eager Victorians such sure classics as The Romance of the Rod, Flagellants and Flagellation, and my particular favourite title, Lady Bumtickler's Revels.

[dem bones]

Clifford Morsley - News from the English Countryside, 1851 - 1950 (Harrap, 1983)

Blurb:
Clifford Morsley's previous book, News from the English Countryside, 1750 - I850. was widely and most favourably reviewed on publication (see below). This companion volume traces, through old newspaper reports. a further hundred years from the days of the Great Exhibition to the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, from the early tide of Victorian expansion and optimism to a country victorious but totally exhausted after five years of world war.
The early decades still contain descriptions of strange and bizarre incidents, but as time goes on, national events impinge increasingly on country life, and this is reflected in these anecdotes drawn mainly from provincial papers. But, as a reviewer commented about Mr Morsley's previous book, this new compilation ‘exudes a rich, earthy, bucolic essence and tends to bear out Lord Macaulay's dictum that "the only true history of a country is to be found in its newspapers”. Mr Morsley supplies editorial comments on extracts where appropriate, and the book includes an index of all the newspapers from which extracts are taken.

Opens with a report on Witch finding at Rudwick (Sussex Express/ Ipswich Journal 3 May 1851), yet despite so promising a beginning, this second volume offers significantly less by way of the strange and terrifying than it's predecessors. Mitigating circumstances. There's no question two World Wars spoiled things. That provincial scribblers should often be distracted by matters of greater import than female turnip banditti and enormous cucumbers is perfectly understandable, and we can be only be grateful that some occasionally found time to report glorious tales of improbable everyday melodrama and the uncanny; A Man Gnawed by Pigs, A disgraceful Funeral, Supposed Infanticide - the Body devoured by a Dog, Horse dies of excitement, Public Sale of Wife, Bees against Bailiffs, Accident through Crinoline, A horse committing suicide, A fearful Death, & Co. The 'Supernatural' is still out of fashion - reported 'ghost' sightings in Devon and Southport are dismissed as figments of terminally credulous Wurzels and molesters of livestock - though what to make of this sober account, concerning what appears to be an outbreak of poltergeist activity in the East Midlands?

Astounding Doings at Lonely Lincs. Farm

A series of mysterious happenings at a lonely farmhouse in the Lincolnshire wolds has brought about in the neighbourhood a firm belief in the resuscitation of witchcraft. The Walk Farm, at Binbrook, in the occupation of Mr. White, is the scene of its manifestations. A few mornings ago, when Mrs. White's maid was at work in the farmhouse kitchen, she felt that her back was being burned between the shoulder blades. She was not near the fire, and there was no possibility of a spark or a live coal reaching her. The girl, who firmly believes "a witch did it" was considerably burnt and had to be surgically treated. The dress was shown to a Press representative. There is no doubt about the burn. The first suspicion of something uncanny came one morning last week, when several fowls were found in the fowlhouse with their legs broken. A watch was set that night, but though no one came near the fowlhouse, more hens were found with broken legs next morning. The next day, when Mr. White and his family and a neighbour were at dinner, a flower pot on the window sill was seen to be wildly whirling round. Mr. White ran to the window, but there was no one near, and there was no wind, and yet the pot was still whizzing round.
Pans jump up and down on shelves, chairs move jerkily across the floor in broad daylight while no one is near them, brooms dance, and household utensils move while being watched. Such are the stories current in the village and Mr. White, who was seen on Friday by a Press representative, confirms them.

The Peterborough Express
25 January 1905

Cover photo is, of course, reason alone for purchase.