EXCEEDINGLY PLEASANT MUSIC, EXETER, 1860.

 "THE COLOURED OPERA TROUPE. -  These sable artists gave a concert at the Royal Public Rooms, on Monday and Tuesday evenings, and dicoursed music which, if not classical was exceedingly pleasant. 

"The troupe consisted of four ladies and a gentleman.  The former numbering an excellent soprano and contralto voice, and the latter possessing a pleasing tenor, which with the accompaniment of a banjo, harmonium, bones and triangle, and a judicious programme produced an entertainment that gave general satisfaction."

The all too short column in  The Western Times of 5th  May 1860 reports this very early, touring foursome's visit to Exeter.  It was using the same name as a much larger 'groupe' based in London from 1857.  

Their coming here demonstrates considerable initiative on the part of some impressario or other and, it seems to me, it must have been quite a risky venture.  The comments of The Times', known for being acerbic most of the time,  are as generous as they could and should be: excellent - pleasing - a judicious programme from three ladies and one gentleman - and no insensitive jokes, although neither the name of the troupe nor the adjective sable would pass muster these days. 

HATBAND AND GLOVES, HEAVITREE, 1859.

"On Monday last the remains of the late William Sanders, Esq., of Whipton, were buried at Heavitree churchyard.  His funeral was very numerously attended.  Arrangements were made for the body to be in the yard precisely at two o' clock, and to make sure of punctuality the Rev Curate Cole had the earliest intimation of the fact, and concurred in the time, and gave his word to be in attendance that very hour, and was presented with hatband and gloves.

"For half an hour all were kept waiting in the yard under great anxiety.  Messengers were sent in all directions to get a rev. gentleman of christian feeling to officiate, and succeeded in getting the  Rev. --Warren at Heavitree, who promptly attended and performed the duties required.

"What do you think Mr. Editor?  Why, ten minutes to four, the Rev. Cole was seen just this side of Heavitree -bridge coming up the town flourishing his walking stick, as if he was practising military cuts.  So much for divine truthfulness. (Has Priest Cole returned the hatband and gloves, or has he  given them to Mr. Warren." 

The ancient custom of willing a hatband and gloves to the person who buries you seems to have been followed here.  A busy parson must have had quite a collection of black leather gloves and crepe hatbands! 

There would have been so much indignation generated in Heavitree churchyard  on that Monday that I dare say some of it is still floating about.  Whatever had happened to Mr Curate Cole?  Was this divine untruthfulness?  No!  He probably slept in late or just forgot.  It could happen to anyone!  Still it wasn't a good idea to be seen flourishing a walking stick in a military manner that same afternoon. 

The anonymous correspondent to the newspaper was feeding the anti-clerical flames of the times (and The Times!)   He clearly didn't enjoy hanging about Heavitree churchyard of a November day.

Priest Cole  has the feel of an insult.  Was he perhaps a despicable Tractarian?   Still, that nice Rev -- Warren comes out of this smelling of roses. 

Source: The Western Times,  3rd December, 1859. 

EDUCATION, EXETER, 1858.

In February 1858 Thomas Dyke Acland Esq. (whose statue in Northernhay Gardens needs immediate attention, which it will not be given ) gave an elaborate address on 'Middle Class Education" to the Exeter Literary Society in which he said:

"With regard to drawing, the Exeter School of Art was an honour to the city - (hear, hear,) and showed clearly what Exeter could do if its people would only work together - (Applause.)  And yet what was the actual state of things in the city?  They had a close library in the Close - (hear, hear, and laughter,) - they must pardon him for the unintentional pun - they had a great many private reading rooms in the back shops of the Fore-street - thay also had a room upatairs in their own institution;  there was also the Working Men's Room, near the Quay, which he had visited with great pleasure the previous evening;  but why was there no great city reading room?  why no great institution?  why, in a city of more than thirty thousand inhabitants was there no provision for the advancement or diffusion of science?  why no museum? no pubic library?  Was Exeter to take its place as the centre of the West of England if it did not apply itself to these subjects!"

By the end of Victoria's reign Exeter had public libraries, a wonderful museum and a university college right in te city-centre which blossomed.   Then somehow the city seemed to hit the buffers.  Of course there were two world wars.  There seems today to be a stand-off relationship with our distant, but beautiful, university campus where there must be so many excellent minds that could help improve the city.  (Wouldn't I like to see the university's gardeners and horticulturists given free rein over the city's gardens!) and, I may be wrong but, when I see the dead eyes and witness the attitude of some of the Exeter College thousands who stream up and down Queen Street I can't think these 'students' are living up to Sir Thomas's vision.  He might have approved of the coming of St Sidwell's Point Leisure Centre where one can walk without seeing a cow and row without a boat  and cycle without a bicycle and pump iron  all day and swim without seeing the sea but somehow I doubt it.   To play Sir Richard's game:  why in a proud city of more than one hundred and thirty two thousand inhabitants is there no Opera House?, why no Concert Hall? why no hard-standing for popular 'events'?,  (What happened to the Castle yard?)  why no Botanical Gardens? why so many plastic dustbins in view?  ( my favourite at the moment) why so much anti-social behaviour in the Cathedral Yard  (let us not call it green) and elsewhere? , why so much general squalour? .... ad infinitum?

Well, I know the it's easier to ask such questions than to do something about the miserable slide into shabbiness and mediocrity but the key failure is not due to lack of cash so much as lack of imagination and  it was partly because good men like Richard Acland registered their dissatisfactions publicly that something like progress was made in the nineteenth century..

  

A BEAUTY OF A PARSON, EXETER, 1858

 At a parochial meeting at Saint  Edmund's church,  Exeter, now the ruin on the medieval bridge, Mr Toby asked the Rev. Owen Owen, who was chairman of the meeting, whether or not he was prepared to abide by the decision of the referee in the dispute about the cellar.

"THE CHAIRMAN (pettishly) : That's not in the notice.

Mr. TOBY: You have staid away on purpose, sir.

THE CHAIRMAN (rising from his seat) : Good morning: good morning.

Mr. TOBY:  Stop a bit, sir.

The Chairman however left the room

Mr. TOBY : There's a beauty of a parson!  -  (Laughter.)

Mr. UPRIGHT said the minister had promised to pay one half of the expenses of the arbitration in the case of the cellar, the other being defrayed by the parish; and now he would not abide by his written agreement.  What confidence could they have in a minister who, after the parishioners had done their best, went from his written word.

On the suggestion of Mr. WORTHY, it was agreed that a special meeting should be held to take the subject into consideration."

The Exeter Flying Post of April 8th 1858 has as a title to this piece:  THE CLERGYMAN RUNS AWAY FROM THE BARK OF TOBY.  He was also running from WORTHY and UPRIGHT.  He clearly had no chance of prevailing!

In the city respect for parsons was already on the wane and the tide of faith drawing back.   

I only just learned that nobody (?) knew the bridge existed beneath St. Edmunds church until they came to pull it down in the nineteen-seventies. 

Does every schoolboy ( or schoolgirl - wokejoke!)  stll know that Toby is the archetypal name for an English dog, that Mr. Punch had his Dog Toby,  that Sherlock befriended a dog called Toby, that Cole Hawlings had his Toby dog,  that Tobias has a dog in the Bible story, hence the tradition?  - Rhetorical question. 

EXETER, EUROPEAN CITY OF SQUALOUR?, 2023.

EXETER, EUROPEAN CITY OF SQUALOUR?

Permanently-stationed, gaping waste-bins now line up at Northernhay Gate to welcome visitors to the city of Exeter and to the once-treasured Northernhay Gardens, courtesy of FIVE GUYS and Exeter City Council.

Exeter has too many 'commercial waste' bins standing around the city.  Why are not businesses required to hide their rubbish from public view in accordance with the city's own bye-laws?  If they cannot, it seems to me, they are in the wrong premises. 

Northernhay Gate, of all places, with its Victorian gates, its pillars, its paving, its greenery, its famous 'red-robin' and its listed buildings is a charming corner of old Exeter, beloved of college-students and citizens alike and too valuable to be turned into a dustbin alley. 

   

WELCOME TO THE CITY OF EXETER!

POLKAMANIA, EXETER, 1857.

 "JOHN WESTERN, a man in the employ of Mr. Vanstone, market gardener, Foxhayes, was charged with being drunk and creating a disturbance in Fore-street, on Saturday night.

"It appears when the defendant is tipsy he is afflicted with a kind of polkamania, and goes dancing about the streets.  On the occasion complained of,  he was accompanied by from 50 to 100 juveniles, whose amusement at his antics interfered with the ordinary course of business.  

"The defendant having been before the Bench for the same offence two or three times previously, he was sentenced to a week's imprisonment in default of paying a fine of 5s. and costs."

I blog this for the sake of the lively image of John Western on a Saturday night, a poor man who had perhaps drunk away the 5s. that would have kept him out of prison, dancing the length of Fore Street surrounded by 50 to 100 street urchins amused at his antics.  The boys and girls were dancing too I hope. 

Source:  The Exeter Flying Post, 12th  March, 1857.

A PASSIONATE PAUPER, EXETER, 1857.

William Webber was an able-bodied man who could find no work.  He had applied to Exeter's Relieving Officers,  Mr. Sparkes and Mr. Fildew, and they had found him work cracking stones.  William Webber did not like the work so he went to the offices of the Corporation of the Poor and asked to be admitted to the workhouse.  He was refused on the grounds that he was too able-bodied to be given an order.

William then made use of very bad language before picking up a large shovel and breaking five of the office windows.

In court at the Exeter Guildhall he was indignant:  He had taken a dislike to Sparkes and Fildew.  He shouted at them:

"You would starve a man to death.  You keep me cracking stones at a penny-ha'penny a day,  and I only wish that it was yours (pointing to Fildew) and Sparkes's heads, that I had to crack.   I don't wish to make  any secret of what I mean ."

William also said:  "that he been sent out into the streets in workhouse clothes, they had destroyed his own, so as to prevent him getting work.  He had had nothing to eat for three days;  he did not express sorrow for what he had done - his only regret was that he had not done more of it.  He'd bet a guinea he would make a good job next time; and Fildew and Sparkes should get something from him.

"Mr. Fildew - I must apply for protection from this man"

William Webber - "I'll give you protection, you ----"..... "I mean what I said.  I suppose I shall come out again some day; and then I shall pay you and Sparkes the same as I did the windows.  I have been an injured man, and slowly starved to death by you two vagabonds.   I should not mind being 'tucked up' for either of you.  I do not want to go into the workhouse, but let me have something to do so as I can obtain a livelihood."

Poor, passionate William had probably frightened the magistrates out of all sympathy. He had talked himself into being 'tucked up' for eight months', a horrendous sentence in the prisons of that time, one month of which was to be served at the crank.

The crank was a machine used in prisons.  It served no further purpose than punishment.  The prisoner turned a handle which caused four large cups to rotate and each in turn, to fill with and then to empty sand. By means of a screw the gaoler could make the handle more or less difficult to turn.

Source:  The Western Times, 10th October 1857. 

THE BRIGANTINE, 'BLACK CAT', EXETER, 1857

"The second vessel ever built at Exeter was launched on Saturday, by Mr. J.B. Mansfield, from the building yard lately occupied by Mr. Wm. Potter.  The ceremony of "christening" was performed by Mrs. Mansfield , in the following words: - 'I name thee Black Cat:  May God grant thee a safe release from this to thine intended element, and may success and prosperity ever attend those who may possess thee.'

"The bottle was then broken against the bows, and three cheers given by Mr. Mansfield and his men.  Orders having been given to cut the treenails, she glided like magic, and sat with swanlike appearance on the waters of the Exe, amid the cheers of the spectators.

"She will be rigged as a brigantine, is about 167 tons B.M., and will carry about 240 tons dead weight." 

I like Mr. Mansfield's choice of name for his vessel.  Ship's cats ought always to be black cats because, apart from killing rats, they bring good luck to ships and sailors.  I hope 'Black Cat' lived up to her name.  (N.B: nothing here to do with 'blackcatting'!)

I also like Mrs. Mansfield's address to the ship using the familiar pronoun and the scrupulously correct 'thine intended'.   That's clearly how ships like to be addressed.  I wonder if the Mansfields were Quakers.

'Treenail' is  a jolly name for a wooden peg.  Devon, and maritime, elision would surely bring about the  pronunciation 'trennel' which, with 'trunnel' is also in the dictionaries.

Source: The Western Times, 6th March, 1857.

WILD DUCK SHOOTING, THE EXE ESTUARY, 1857.

 From The Western Times of 3rd January 1857:

"This sport is carried on in a very methodical and business-like manner in the lower reaches of the river, by persons who regard profit before sport.  A watch for the ducks is kept up, and when it is known that a number have arrived in the river, boats constructed for the purpose are launched.  These boats are light, shallow, and broad in the beam, and pointed at both ends.  They bear a swivel-gun, of heavy calibre, loaded with many ounces of shot. 

"The sportsman lies flat in the boat and propels it by means of an apparatus fitted to it astern.  As these expeditions are made at night the boat is painted white to give it the same appearance as water and the sportsman carries a night glass with him to observe the movements of the bird.  

"Having discovered a covey, he approaches them cautiously, and when near enough fires his piece: on such occasions as many as twenty-five birds have been known to be killed with one discharge.  The covey rises and darts away, but by means of a glass their movements are followed, and when they are quietly feeding again, perhaps a couple of hours later, another shot might be had.  But the effect of this wholesale slaughtering  is to make the birds very shy, and to drive them to the upper marshes."

I blog this very methodical and business-like description of wild-duck-shooting on the Exe because several points are new to me.  viz:  that the duck-punts were painted white for camouflage; that the Victorian hunters carried 'night glasses' and that the boats had a crew of one and could be propelled by him or her (a woke-joke!) lying on the stomach and pedalling like billy-o.   

I imagine those, clearly the hoi polloi, who hunted in this way did not consider shooting duck to be a sport so much as a livelihood.

NEW TO EXETER, 2023

NEW YEAR'S DAY and new to Exeter:

Permanently-stationed, gaping waste-bins now line up at Northernhay Gate to welcome visitors to the city of Exeter and to the once-treasured Northernhay Gardens, courtesy of FIVE GUYS and Exeter City Council.

Exeter has too many 'commercial waste' bins standing around the city.  Why are not businesses required to hide their rubbish from public view in accordance with the city's own bye-laws?  If they cannot, it seems to me, they are in the wrong premises. 

Northernhay Gate, especially, with its Victorian gates, its pillars, its paving, its greenery, its famous 'red-robin' and its listed buildings is a charming corner of old Exeter, beloved of college-students and citizens alike and too valuable to be turned into a dustbin alley.