The Fletcher’s Company Library at Guildhall Library

An illustration of an archer from Archery its Theory and Practice by Horace A. Ford

First established by the Worshipful Company of Fletchers in 1973, this unique collection of items relating to archery is one of our lesser known collections. It comprises of a variety of items on the history and practice of archery. While most of the items focus on the history of British archery, books on Japanese, Turkish, Arabic and Native American archery can also be found in the collection.

A copy of a painting of David, 4th Earl of Wemyss from The History of the Royal Company of Archers by James Balfour Paul

The word fletcher comes from the French word ‘fleche’ meaning arrow. Therefore, a Fletcher is a person who makes arrows, in particular the feathers attached to the end of the arrow which help keep it aerodynamic. A number of books in the collection contain illustrations of various arrow types in particular the different types of arrow heads.

Illustrations of the various types of arrow heads from Archery its Theory and Practice by Horace A. Ford

The Fletchers and Longbowstringmakers of London by James E. Oxley is an account of the history of the Fletchers’ Company. There is no mention of the company until 7^th March 1371 when the Fletchers petitioned to the Lord Mayor to separate the trades of Fletchers (arrow makers) and Bowyers (bow makers). With their petition granted, the Worshipful Company of Fletchers was founded. As far as we know the Company has never received a charter and is therefore a Company by prescription. A Grant of Arms was awarded to the company on the 12^th of October 1467.

The Fletchers Company Coat of Arms (MS 21116)

The military importance of the bow is a key theme running throughout the collection, in particular British battles in which archery played an important role. A good book to look at is The British Archer or, Tracts on British Archery by Thomas Hastings which lists some of the important battles which were won by British archers. It also lists some of the Monarchs killed by an arrow, such as William II who was accidentally killed whilst hunting in the New Forest and Richard I who was mortally wounded whilst besieging a castle in France, as well as a brief description of some of the monarchs who were noted to have had great skill in archery.

Illustrations of Henry VIII and Elisabeth I from The Book of Archery by George Agar Hansard

Another theme which runs through the collection is the story of Robert Fitzooth. More commonly known as Robin Hood, his story mentioned in several different books in the collection. Anecdotes of Archery by E. Hargrove, for example, includes a family tree of Robin Hood and explains why his name changed from Fitzooth to Hood. In the Ballads of Archery by James William Dodd a number of songs about Robin Hood, Marian and Little John.

 

The family tree of Robin Hood from Anecdotes of Archery by E. Hargrove

 

By Lindsey Keeling

Customer Services Apprentice

Guildhall Library

The Twelve Days of Christmas

To celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, this year we are bringing you some of the most intriguing Christmas items from our collection. We hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

On the first day of Christmas – we wish you a happy Christmas! A more traditional offering from a French published book of hours, 1509. These were devotional books containing prayers and psalms, popular in the Middle Ages.

On the second day of Christmas – enjoy Boxing Day! The tradition of the Christmas box either derived from the opening of alms boxes placed in churches so donations could be collected for the poor, or the practice of giving boxes of gifts to employees on the day after Christmas, which became known as Boxing day.

On the third day of Christmas…have a smashing time! This is the Fortnum & Mason Christmas Catalogue, 1934. ‘Dishes Ready to Serve’ included boar’s head at 5 shillings a pound. If that isn’t to your taste you could try Christmas cakes with the ‘the fattest and richest fruits’ raised pies, special hams, fruits in brandy, paradise cake and chocolate bacchanalia!

On the fourth day of Christmas…fun and games. Gamages Xmas Bazaar (1938) showcased a selection of Christmas toys available to buy that year. Hobby horses, pushchairs, typewriters and train sets were all the rage at Gamages.

On the fifth day of Christmas…nostalgia. Here are some Christmas specialities from 1936. This graceful representation of King George VI’s Coronation Coach provides a novelty of topical interest. Filled with iced animal and kindergarten biscuits. Each model packed in an attractive carton. All for 1/6.

On the sixth day of Christmas…still cracking on. Film merchandising is nothing new. Walt Disney’s ‘Snow White’ of 1937 may have influenced the toy selection in this brochure from Gamages Xmas Bazaar (1938). On offer inside these pages was a set of all eight characters (for 8 shillings and eleven pence) as well as Snow White jigsaws, games, crackers and books.

On the seventh day of Christmas… ‘a stellar Christmas’? The image is from Punch magazine 1954. We particularly like Father Christmas’ space helmet, which accommodates his beard!

On the eighth day of Christmas, we wish you a Happy New Year! This passage is taken from Charles Dickens’ Christmas story The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In (1844): ‘So may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on you! So may each year be happier than the last, and not the meanest of our brethren or sisterhood debarred their rightful share, in what our Great Creator formed them to enjoy.’ This image is of Trotty Veck, a character from the story.

On the ninth day of Christmas…continue with the festivities. This is ‘Bringing in the Boar’s Head’ by J. Gilbert, Illustrated London News, 22 December 1855, page 733. In past centuries, a boar’s head was the meat dish chiefly associated with the festive season. John Aubrey, writing in the 17th century, describes how in gentlemen’s houses at Christmas ‘the first diet that was brought to table was a boar’s head with a lemon in his mouth.’ The Boar’s Head ceremonies held at Queen’s College, Oxford and in London by the Butchers’ Company still preserve this custom.

On the tenth day of Christmas…still merry.  This image is ‘The Wassail Bowl’, drawn by John Gilbert (Illustrated London News, 22 December 1860, page 579). The beverage of choice for the wassail bowl was lambswool – hot spiced ale with toasted apples bobbing on the surface. Carol singers often went door to door with an empty wassail bowl, in the hope of cadging a drink off wealthier neighbours, but this does not seem to be the case in this particular illustration!

On the eleventh day of Christmas…last dance. Published by the Moore Brothers in the 1800s. The Moore Brothers were tea merchants based in King William Street, City of London, as indicated by the logo in the top right-hand corner.

On the twelfth day of Christmas…Christmas goes out in fine style! A festive party two hundred years ago with Lamb, Leigh Hunt, Wordsworth and Keats.

The Monster Globe

Introduction

The idea for the ‘Great’ or ‘Monster’ Globe was conceived by MP, Charing Cross map maker, & Geographer to the Queen, James Wyld (1812–1887).

Wyld originally intended the Globe to be displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851, but problems around the lighting and size of the exhibit and Wyld’s desire to use it as an opportunity to promote his mapmaking business, ended in his having to develop his idea as a separate scheme. The concept had been in his mind for some time but the announcement of The Great Exhibition convinced him to bring his idea to fruition.

James Wyld entered Parliament in 1847. As the Liberal MP for Bodmin he “rapidly acquired a reputation for independence and outspokenness, particularly in the discussion on the Public Libraries Bill when he roundly accused the agricultural interests of opposing public libraries because they feared that libraries might divert the poor from drinking and so decrease the nation’s malt consumption” (Hyde, 119).

Wyld seems to have been a contentious figure whose activities often ended in disputes, the ‘Globe’ venture being no exception, with legal wrangles ensuing with architects, builders, residents and creditors.

The plan is put into action

Wyld acquired a ten year lease on ‘garden’ land in Leicester Square for £3,000, (around £286,600.00 in 2014 values). In spite of local opposition, Wyld began to build the largest model of the Globe ever attempted. The original design was made by Edward Welch but this was later scaled down and substantially altered by H R Abraham. Welch’s design was thought unaffordable and perhaps unachievable.

The building which housed the Globe was 90 feet across, and the Globe within was 60 feet 4 inches in diameter. It was built over a statue of George I which stood in the square and by the time the statue was dug up again, some ten years later, it had suffered a great deal of damage. The Globe was lit by daylight from the centre of the dome and by gas at night, the latter being problematic for the Hyde Park site.

When news of the intended project emerged, there was enthusiasm as well as some incredulity and amusement. Punch suggested that before building commenced, a party of huntsmen should be hired to exterminate all the cats living in the square, they also suggested that neighbouring housetops could be used for a display of the solar system and that visiting foreigners could be accommodated inside the Globe with lodgings corresponding to their relevant countries. In fact some of this was not so very far beyond Wyld’s own ambitions!

Construction of the Globe began in early March 1851. Hyde records an eyewitness (unnamed) reporting that “Amongst the great ribs of the growing structure a number of gas jets flared brilliantly, and made the struggling grass and shrubs greener than ever before. A few men were mysteriously moving amongst the ribs which looked like the skeleton of some enormous fish lying stranded” (Hyde, 120).

“Mr Wyld’s Large Model of the Earth.” Illustrated London News (22 March 1851): 234.

Plaster modelling on the inside of these ribs depicted the earth’s surface. This ‘concave’ view enabled the visitor to see all the physical features of the world when viewed from a series of staircases and platforms.

The visitor experience/public reception

The public flocked to the Monster Globe when it opened on 2nd June 1851. Hours of opening were 10am to 10pm on every day except Sunday and the entrance fee was one shilling. The large circular building had four entrances on the four sides of Leicester Square. Upon entering visitors found themselves in a circular passageway filled with Wyld’s maps, atlases, and celestial globes.

The convex side of the Globe was painted blue with silver stars and much of the interior design was by the theatrical scenery designer William Roxby Beverley. The interior was navigated by stairs and galleries; the world surrounding the amazed visitor who could see the oceans, the snow topped mountains and erupting red topped volcanoes (cotton wool was used to suggest the smoke).

Wyld’s giant ‘Model of the Earth’ was a great success and the attraction was so successful that in 1852 Wyld tried to get an Act of Parliament to authorize him to retain the building in Leicester Square but failed.

After the Great Exhibition

Wyld tried a series of strategies to increase visitor numbers, especially after the Great Exhibition closed. It was promoted as an educational experience and descriptive lectures were given throughout each day. In 1853 Wyld and the Globe were the subject of a scandal involving a display of fake gold in his Australian gold fields diorama, which may or may not have been ‘engineered’ to increase public interest in the attraction. Wyld created several new displays for the Globe including a model of the Crimea during the war (1853-1856) showing the position of the troops, day by day. It was his most successful exhibit and thousands visited to follow the War’s progress.

Wyld’s struggle to renew the lease on the land at Leicester Square finally failed and in 1861 the Monster Globe was taken down and sold for scrap. Legal wrangles followed the closure when Wyld failed to restore the gardens as promised.

Reports, keepsakes and guides on the Great Globe at Guildhall Library

The Library holds guides, journal articles and keepsakes on the Great Globe including:

Notes to Accompany Mr Wyld’s Model of the Earth. Leicester Square. 1851 which was written by Wyld to promote the attraction (and his map business) and dedicated to HRH Prince Albert. The dedication celebrates past discoveries and the support for geographical research offered by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The ‘Notes’ are full of descriptions of countries, continents and oceans to accompany the exhibition as well as detail on the purpose and construction of the Great Globe itself.

This charming illustration below is from The Little Folks Laughing Library “The Model of the Earth” 1851 by F W N Bayley.

Having admired the alligator on his visit to Egypt, Jack exclaims:

“One enormous alligator

Kept me, I think, rather later;

For I thought he’d swallow me, bones and all,

And then I couldn’t have come at all!”

Frederick William Naylor Bayley (1808–1852) was the first editor of the Illustrated London News but also wrote verse for newspapers, popular song lyrics and fiction. He was nick-named ‘Alphabet’ and sometimes ‘Omnibus’ Bayley.   The volume is written in verse and dedicated to James Wyld Esq. MP

“For we’re told that a man uncommonly WYLD

Has built up a Globe there for every child”

Find out more

There were reports on the Great Globe which you can search online or read in hard copy at Guildhall Library. Our collections include contemporary periodicals including The Illustrated London News and The Builder as well as numerous guides to London published to co-incide with the Great Exhibition e.g. The British Metropolis in 1851: a Classified Guide to London: so arranged as to Show, in Separate Chapters, Every Object in London Interesting to Special Tastes and Occupations. London : Arthur Hall, Virtue 1851.

Jeanie Smith
Assistant Librarian

References

Bayley, F. W. N. (Frederic William Naylor) The Model of the Earth 2^nd ed. London : Published for the author by Darton and Co, 1851.

Hyde, Ralph. “Mr Wyld’s Monster Globe.” History Today 20.2 (February 1970): 118-123.

“Mr Wyld’s Large Model of the Earth.” Illustrated London News (22 March 1851): 234.

“Mr Wyld’s Globe in Leicester Square” Illustrated London News (29 March 1851): 247-248.
“Mr Wyld’s Model of the Earth.” Illustrated London News (7 June 1851): 512.
Timbs, John. Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the Most Rare and Remarkable Objects of Interest in the Metropolis; with nearly Sixty Years’ Personal Recollections. London : J. S. Virtue & Co, 1867.

[Wyld]. Notes to Accompany Mr Wyld’s Model of the Earth. Leicester Square. 1851.

 

The monster album

Working as a librarian you quickly become accustomed to books regularly being requested by a description, rather than a title. “I’m looking for a book, I saw it here before, I don’t remember the title but it was a small red book”. Happily, after a few probing questions, the relevant book can usually be located!

Indeed some books are commonly known by a descriptive title, for example, the ‘the blue book’ is the annual City of London directory & livery companies guide and the ‘white book’ is the legal publication Civil procedure.

Guildhall Library’s ‘hairy book’ has now been transferred to the archives at London Metropolitan Archives (search for Reference Code: CLC/313/B/012/MS25501 on LMA’s catalogue for more info! ), much to the relief of some of my more squeamish colleagues.

‘The bible’ is an indispensable (to Guildhall Library staff at least!) staff manual containing information about Guildhall Library policy and practice between 1930 and 1980.

Another book in Guildhall Library’s collection is best known by the description, ‘the big book’ or the ‘giant book’, or, as we have recently discovered, ‘the monster album’!

Here it is:

‘The giant book’ is the largest book in Guildhall Library’s collection. It measures 3 foot six and a half inches high and 5 foot 3 inches wide. It is 8 inches deep.

The cover of the book is so large and so heavy that it takes two people to open it – two handles are built into the cover of the book to assist with opening.

‘The giant book’ is unfortunately too large to be consulted or displayed in the Library. On the rare occasions it has to be moved it takes 8 (fairly strong!) individuals to manoeuvre it. However, you can sometimes glimpse ‘the giant book’ taking up a whole shelf in the Library’s book stores during our monthly ‘History and Treasures of Guildhall Library’ tours. (You can book for these tours via www.ghlevents.eventbrite.co.uk).

Here is what can be seen if you can find another person to help you open the book!

The end papers of this book are actually made of a vibrant pink silk, rather than paper. Another book is shown here along with a £20 note to give you an idea of scale.

And the contents of ‘the giant book’? Well inside this book is actually blank! The book is an album which was produced as an example of fine binding for the 1862 International Exhibition. It shows a range of types of binding, including this inlaid leather binding, tiny leather squares make up the flowers in a mosaic effect.

Recently while undertaking research for an enquiry I came across a reference to the ‘The giant book’ in the Report of the Librarian and Director to the Library Committee from 1941. This not only provides the additional information, not previously noted in our records, that this album was made by Mr Charles Rollinger, but also reveals it nearly came to a fateful end that year:

“One of the most inappropriate gifts ever made to this Museum was a monster album presented to your Committee after the great exhibition of 1862, made by Mr Charles Rollinger as a specimen of mosaic binding, and weighing about 700 lbs; it consists of nothing but blank paper of fine quality. In these days of shortage, I cannot think it is right to keep lying idle this quantity of material so greatly in demand, and I venture to suggest that, if the covers and the dedication may be preserved, the contents could be put to some useful war purpose.” (Report of the Librarian and Director to the Library Committee, 6 October 1941, page 242).

While sympathising that during wartime this album represented a ‘waste’ of fine paper, we cannot help but be pleased that, for whatever reason, Guildhall Library’s ‘giant book’ was not put to “some useful war purpose” and is still in the collection over 70 years later.

Rosie Eddisford
Assistant Librarian

 

Horticultural discoveries in Guildhall Library

One would think that a volume offering the results of a series of experiments on the nutritional quality of animal fodder would be a book for the interested minority – not so as I recently discovered on a visit to our underground store. A colleague was shelf checking items from the Gardeners’ Company Library and called me over to take a look at this remarkable volume:

Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis: Or, An Account of the Results of Experiments on the Produce, and Nutritive Qualities of Different Grasses, and Other Plants, used as the Food of the more Valuable Domestic Animals: Instituted by John Duke Of Bedford; By George Sinclair

This 1st edition copy was published at the Duke’s expense in 1816.

The title page tells us that it is “Illustrated with dried specimens of the plants upon which these experiments have been made, and practical observations on their natural habits, and the soils best adapted to their growth; pointing out the kinds most profitable for permanent pasture, irrigated meadows, dry or upland pasture, and the alternate husbandry; accompanied with the discriminating characters of the species, and varieties.”

It is an example of ‘natural illustration’ i.e. the volume is illustrated with 123 dried specimens and 35 samples of seeds mounted on blank leaves. The Latin and English names are printed on small labels and attached to the illustration. This was a common way of labelling natural illustrations as it was simpler to allow plenty of space on the mount for variation in the size of the plants across the volumes.

This ‘herbarium’ (collection of dried preserved specimens that document the identity of plants and fungi) is an early 19^th century ecological experiment. The work was directed by Sinclair and was highly regarded by Charles Darwin who made use of it for his Origin of Species.

It is difficult to assess the Duke’s expectation of interest and sales of the volume. The Duke’s herbarium was attractive but not economically viable and later editions were printed with conventional illustrations.

It is not surprising that the production and the subsequent preservation of this type of volume presented challenges for bookbinders and conservators. Common problems with herbariums are distortion of the binding owing to the thickness of the specimens, keeping the specimens attached to the mount and staining from the plants resulting in a transferred image on the facing verso.

Fortunately Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis is interspersed with tissue guards offering some protection to both plant and page. The tissue guards carry imprints from the plants and are also a feature of interest.

George Sinclair (1786-1834) was born in Berwickshire and his father and uncle were professional gardeners to the nobility. He superintended the gardens at Woburn Abbey for the Sixth Duke of Bedford for about seventeen years.

The sixth Duke went on to produce Salicetum Woburnense (1829) and Pinetum Woburnense (1839) with the assistance of his later Head Gardener, James Forbes.

George Sinclair went into business with Cormack & Son, nurserymen and seedsmen at New Cross. He became a fellow of both the Linnean Society and of the Horticultural Society.

The Library of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners has been housed at Guildhall Library since 1891. Library users are welcome to consult volumes from this library by signing in at the enquiry desk and showing proof of name and address (passport, utility bill, driving licence etc.) All of the Gardeners’ Library Collection can be found on the library catalogue at http://capitadiscovery.co.uk/cityoflondon/

Jeanie Smith
Assistant Librarian

A Complete Reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnets

On 23rd April 2014 Guildhall Library celebrated what would have been Shakespeare’s 450th Birthday with ‘A Complete Reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnets’. The 154 sonnets were read by a team of 60 enthusiastic volunteers. Despite there being no practice run or rehearsal for the reading, the audience were treated to a wonderful and varied reading.

Hearing all the sonnets read together was something of a revelation, at least to this member of the audience, as it was clear that the tone and emphasis changed quite radically, so that the final poems seemed very far removed from the earlier, perhaps more lyrical, sonnets.

Dr Roy Booth, Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, launched the event with an engaging and entertaining introduction to the poems and the sonnets were then read by volunteers including Guildhall Library customers, City of London Guides, Keats House Poetry Ambassadors and City of London staff.

In addition we were joined by some special guests including Damian Lewis, the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Homeland actor. Damian Lewis, who graduated from Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 1993, commenced the sonnet reading with the first five sonnets. He had previously prepared for this role by performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and starring in the BBC’s updated ‘Shakespeare Re-Told’ version of Much ado about nothing!

Damian Lewis’s participation was filmed for the City of London’s YouTube Channel, and you can watch the video online. The appearance of a Hollywood star as a sonnet reader received high profile press coverage, with the event reported by ITV News at Ten and ITV News Online, BBC London TV, the Daily Mail, City A.M. and The Daily Telegraph.

Other special guests included cast members from Grassroots Shakespeare London’s Othello: Nari Blair-Mangat (Othello), James Alexandrou (Iago), Boris Mitkov (Cassio), Emily Jane Kerr (Emilia), Adam Blampied (Roderigo), Helena Doughty (Bianca), James Law (Duke of Venice) and John McLear (Lodovico); Fiona Woolf, Lord Mayor of the City of London; Alderman Sir Roger Gifford; Alan Hollinghurst, Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Line of Beauty and The Stranger’s Child; Lucinda Hawksley, author and great-great-great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens; Lucy Inglis, historian and author; Kate Willoughby, actor and writer.

Despite the complicated logistics of coordinating 60 volunteers (not to mention the media who accompanied our first sonnet reader!), the event ran more smoothly than we could have even hoped. We were grateful to the two sonnet readers who stepped in on the day before the event to cover for two poorly readers who were forced to pull-out. On the day, we had only one no-show, and the three sonnets that became available were quickly snapped up by other readers!

The atmosphere at the event was enhanced by the sonnets being read alongside our ‘Shakespeare in Print’ exhibition with the First Folio, 1623, contemporary writers’ quartos, and later editions of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry providing a fitting backdrop to the event.

We were delighted to host such a fantastic, enjoyable and unique event that allowed so many individuals to get involved with celebrating the Bard’s Birthday in style.

Take a look at our photos from the Complete Reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnets on Flickr.

 

 

Incunabula project

INC34

Guildhall Library is currently working on an exciting project regarding some of the rarest items in our collection – our incunabula. The library holds 72 incunabula – books, pamphlets or broadsides printed in Europe before 1501 – in our historic collections. The majority of our collection is due to the generosity of individuals in the late 19^th century who donated them to our library.  We are in the process of adding our incunabula to the MEI Catalogue (Material Evidence in Incunabula), part of the Consortium of European Research Libraries.

INC13

At the same time, we are photographing the key features of each item and creating Pinterest boards for each, so they can be seen by all in their full glory. We are recording and photographing features of their previous ownership – such as bookplates, signatures, inscriptions – and looking at how the items were used and valued through the centuries by noting readers’ annotations, symbols, bindings and even prices. We are also adding these images to our own catalogue and to the MEI catalogue – we’re extremely proud to be the first library to add images to MEI!

INC5

The aim of this project is to make our incunabula information available to academics, fellow librarians and the public worldwide. The information we are adding may be used in various ways, for example, to assist researchers who are looking that into the historic library of an individual or organisation, to explore how a particular work was received by readers in 16^th century England, or even to investigate the going rate for incunabula in the 19th century. We hope that researchers might also be able to collaborate by assisting with transcriptions – in fact, we’ve already had one instance where a very faint signature was able to be read by one of the coordinators at MEI.

INC34

The project began at the start of this year and should run for about a year. Two incunables are brought up from the stores each Thursday and scoured for provenance marks and other points of interest. Two members of the project team then meet each Thursday afternoon to photograph the items. It’s always a bit of a surprise as to what we will see on any given Thursday.

INC33

Highlights so far have included a very cute manicule (pointing finger – seen above), some interesting bindings and clasps, some intriguing tri-foils and some lovely examples of rubrication. It’s been interesting to note that whilst some items have retained their original bindings (such as INC39), the owners have rebound others according their personal taste (for example, the rather lavish 19^th century binding of INC32 – detail shown below).

INC32

The prices sometimes scrawled inside the covers have also been fascinating to see. The price of £1, 1s, 0 pence on the inside cover of INC39 is approximately £109 in today’s money. The same book also features a title page with three different inscriptions – showing a chain of ownership through the centuries (pictured below).

INC32

We’re updating catalogue entries and adding new Pinterest boards as we go along so keep an eye out! All of the boards can be seen at: http://www.pinterest.com/GLincunabula/

If you have any comments, queries or can see some text that you can transcribe where we have not been able to, please comment below or contact us on guildhall.library@cityoflondon.gov.uk

INC33

The Unsolved Mystery of Elizabeth Canning

Today in Guildhall Library our Principal Librarian, Dr Peter Ross, gave the first in a series of lunch time talks we’re holding as part of English Tourism Week. This talk featured the unusual story of Elizabeth Canning, discussed in further depth below. If this piques your interest, we have another five talks over the next week, with topics covering the plague, Jack Sheppard, Shakespeare, Victorian ‘lad’s mags’ and Agnes Marshall’s ice creams. Further details are listed at the end of this post.

Amongst Guildhall Library’s more unusual holdings are some rare pamphlets in the remarkable collection of material relating to a genuine mid-eighteenth century crime mystery – the disappearance of Elizabeth Canning.

On 1 January 1753 Elizabeth Canning, a poorly educated maidservant, disappeared on her way home from visiting relatives and reappeared on 29 January 1753 at her mother’s house near St Mary Aldermanbury. According to her story, she had been abducted by two men in Moorfields, who dragged her to a house on the Hertford Road. There, an old woman solicited her to become a prostitute. When she refused, Canning was held prisoner for nearly a month, until she escaped through a window.

On 1 February a posse took Canning to Enfield, where, at the house of Mary Wells, Canning repeated her story, with notable inconsistencies. She picked a local Romany woman, a Miss Mary Squires as the one who had imprisoned her. Wells and Squires were arrested. The trial took place on 21 February 1753 at the Old Bailey.

Mary Squires said that she had been travelling in Dorset during Canning’s supposed imprisonment, and three witnesses supported her alibi. More witnesses had come to give evidence on her behalf, but the mob, incensed against the “Gypsy”, prevented them entering the courtroom. They were both found guilty and Wells was sentenced to branding on the thumb and six months in prison, whilst Squires was to be hanged.

Chief magistrate and Lord Mayor of London, Sir Crisp Gascoyne, however, was dissatisfied with the verdict. He opened his own enquiry, which resulted in several more witnesses supporting Squire’s alibi. Gascoyne appealed to the King who granted first a stay in execution and then a pardon in May of 1753. Canning was then indicted for perjury on 9 June 1753.

The resulting press frenzy was extraordinary. The two camps were called the Canningites and Egyptians (for “Gypsy”). Henry Fielding wrote the pro-Canning A Clear State of the Case of Elizabeth Canning (Guildhall Library A 8.6 no. 5 in 10) and two of his enemies wrote replies. Allan Ramsay wrote A Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of — Concerning the Affair of Elizabeth Canning (Guildhall Library Pam. 3226)  Gascoyne wrote An Address to the Liverymen of the City of London, from Sir Crisp Gascoyne (Guildhall Library Large pam. 580)  Gascoyne was physically attacked in his coach, and he received death threats.

Canning’s trial began at the Old Bailey on 29 April 1754 and there followed seven full days of evidence. She was eventually found guilty of corrupt and wilful perjury and sentenced to one month of imprisonment and seven years of transportation.

Canning was transported to Wethersfield, Connecticut where she eventually married John Treat, a great-nephew of a Governor of Connecticut and had five children. She died 1773 at the age of 38. During her later years in America, she never explained what had happened to her during her missing month.

John Trehern’s The Canning Enigma provides an exciting modern description of the real events, whilst Josephine Tey’s novel The Franchise Affair updates the story to a home counties town in the 1940s. Tey’s novel regularly appears in listings of the top 100 crime novels and was made into a film in 1951. 

Peter Ross, Principal Librarian

English Tourism Week talks at Guildhall Library
As part of English Tourism Week, Guildhall Library is holding a series of talks that take you beneath the surface of its collection and provide an insight into London through the ages. With a free mini-cupcake and the chance to win a great prize, what more could you ask for?
Each talk is free, requires no booking, and runs from 1-1.30pm

Monday 31st March 2014, The Bills of Mortality – Tissick, Tympany and Plague in 1665 
Each week in the 17th century, the Parish Clerks recorded the number of burials in the City and the causes of death. In doing so they have left us a remarkable and unrivalled record of disease.

Tuesday 1st April 2014, The Prison-Breaker triumphant – Newgate Prison 1724
Discover how, with his extraordinary escape from Newgate Prison on the night of 15 October 1724, Jack Sheppard, a 22-year-old burglar, became the most famous prison-breaker of all.

Wednesday 2nd April 2014, Shakespeare’s First Folio
The world would have lost 18 of Shakespeare’s plays had his friends not published the first collected edition in 1623. Discover the history of this remarkable book and find out why Guildhall Library’s copy is amongst the finest to survive.

Thursday 3rd April 2014, Buying under-the-counter ‘lads mags’ in Victorian London 
Our early Victorian ancestors may not have been as prim and proper as we imagine. Discover the contents of the soft-porn ‘lads mags’ they could buy in London’s Holywell and Wych streets.

Friday 4th April, 2014 Mrs Marshall: the queen of Victorian ice-cream 
Entrepreneur Agnes Marshall built up a highly successful kitchen equipment and cookery school business in late Victorian London. She specialised in creating extravagant ice-cream recipes and ice-cream machines that, today, influence the extraordinary creations of Heston Blumenthal.

18th and 19th century fight club: the beginnings of British boxing

Every so often, during the course of my work, I come across books that enthuse me with the passion of the age in which they were written, and it was with fascination that I embarked on research into the beginnings of British pugilism. Eighteenth century Britain was rocked by political instability and was a society of extremes of poverty and wealth; amusements ranged from gin drinking, animal baiting, gang warfare, general rioting, and the pillory to public executions. Boxing displays first came into public fashion in Britain around 1720.

Notable early boxers:

James Fig 1719-1734 was acknowledged as “Father of the Ring” as much distinguished as a cudgel and back-sword player than as a pugilist. Gentlemen sought him out to exercise with him. Captain Godfrey author of A Treatise on the Useful Science of Defence (1747) says of him ‘I have purchased my knowledge with many a broken head, and bruises in every part of me. I chose mostly to go to Fig and exercise with him: partly as I knew him to be the ablest master, and partly, as he was of a rugged temper, and would spare no man, high or low, who took up a stick against him.’ Fig’s popularity induced him to open a boxing academy in 1719 known as “Fig’s Amphitheatre,” in Tottenham Court Road.

Jack Broughton champion 1734-1750 is regarded as the founder of the modern art of self-defence. Henry Downes Miles in his work Pugilistica: being one hundred and forty-four years of the history of British boxing (1880), describes him:
“There was a neatness and quickness in his style which far distanced his competitors, and drew crowds to witness his exhibitions. He appears first to have introduced stopping and barring blows, then hitting and getting away; before him it appears to have been toe-to-toe work or downright hammering; at any rate, his method appears to have had the novelty of a discovery with his spectators and his antagonists. He stopped the blows aimed at any part of him with such skill, and hit his man away with so much ease, that he astonished and daunted his opponents…”

Daniel Mendoza One of the most elegant and scientific boxers recorded in the annals of pugilism, was born in 1763 of Jewish parents in the Whitechapel area. A reporter (Pugilistica 1880) describes a fight between Mendoza and Humphries in Stilton in 1789: “The first blow was struck by Humphries at the face of his antagonist, which Mendoza stopping with great adroitness, returned and knocked Humphries down. The second and third rounds terminated in precisely the same manner.

Astonishment at the confidence and quickness of Mendoza was expressed by every spectator…” Mendoza became a professor in the art of self-defence and he was highly successful as a pugilist professor exhibiting his talents to admiring and applauding audiences all over the country. Miles (Pugilistica 1880) said of him: “No man of his time united the theory of sparring with the practice of boxing so successfully as Daniel Mendoza; and hence, the “School of Mendoza” marks a period in the history of pugilism.”

Bill Richmond 1804-1818 was born of enslaved Georgia-born black parents in 1763 on Staten Island, New York. One of the British officers in New York City took him under his wing and sent him to school in Yorkshire, later apprenticing him to a cabinet maker in York. In York Richmond attracted attention out in the street because he prided himself on dressing smartly and cleanly after work, but he beat all the men who challenged him to fight including a York brothel-keeper, who had called him a ‘black devil’ when he saw him walking down the street with a white female companion.

Richmond turned professional boxer when he moved to London around 1804 and went on to a series of victories in 1805: notably over the Jewish boxer Youssop in six rounds at Blackheath on 21 May; and Jack Holmes, ‘the Coachman’, in twenty-six rounds at Cricklewood Green, near Kilburn Wells, on 8 July. However, Richmond was defeated by the future heavyweight champion Tom Cribb in a ninety-minute fight at Hailsham, Sussex.

The Science of Boxing

Among the diehard fans the art of boxing was regarded as a science. T. Hughes has plenty of advice for the aspiring pugilist. In his work The art and practice of self-defence; or, Scientific mode of boxing: Got up under the superintendence of a celebrated pugilist 1820, he warns against dropping, gougeing and shifting:

Dropping. ‘This is reckoned an unmanly shift…either done by falling on your breech, your knee, or your back, when your adversary strikes, or when you have struck at him, and wish to avoid the return. Every thing in boxing may be said to be allowable, except striking below the waistband of the breeches, scratching, gougeing, biting or tearing the hair, which are mean and unmanly practices; but one who drops cannot be considered a manly boxer, except it be to avoid his adversary’s closing in upon him, when he has reason to suspect such an intention, and distrusts his own strength.’

Gougeing ‘Is unmanly and barbarous, and introduced into the new school by a farrier, to take ungenerous advantage. This gougeing, is screwing your knuckles into the eyes of your adversary, and when practised at all, is generally done in closing, if you get his head under your arm…Gougeing, however, was more than once practiced both by Mendoza and Humphries, on each other, at the time of their contest at Stilton.’

Shifting ‘This mode is not accounted honourable by many, as the signification of the word is synonimous with running away. Shifting is nothing less in fact than running from your adversary whenever he attempts to hit you, or come near you, or when you have struck him, and is done with a view of tiring him out. It is rarely practised by good boxers…’

Recommendation before the fight: ‘On the morning of fighting, eat only one slice of bread, well toasted, without butter, or a hard biscuit, with a pint of red wine mulled, and table-spoonful of brandy…’

Defence of Pugilism Boxing, of course, had its opponents, but it was well equipped to defend itself from attacks, even with the pen. One of the most erudite pugilists of his day, Tom Reynolds born 1792 in the county of Armagh came to London early in life. He had received a good education, possessed a strong mind, and could write as good a letter as any of the “scribes” of the time:

“I must acknowledge the gentlemen of the Press are favourable to the cause of pugilism; and it is not surprising when we consider that the persons conducting it are men, in general, possessing a liberal education, and blessed with a greater share of brains than the average of the community. Yet there is no rule without an exception; for two or three of the London journalists, imitated by a few country flats, occasionally give us a ‘facer;’ though I am confident it is not from conviction, but because they think a little opposition to generally received opinions may suit their pockets better than the tide, where the brightness of their genius would not make them conspicuous. One of these worthies speaks of us as monsters that brutalise the country; another describes our poor little twenty-four foot ring as the only place in the three kingdoms where rogues and blacklegs spring up like mushrooms; a third says a pair of boxing-gloves debase the mind, and recommends the use of the foils as a preferable exercise; and a fourth, after a most violent philippic against the Ring, blames Government for not immediately putting an end to pugilism, and recommends, as a substitute, that Government should take into their wise consideration the propriety of giving greater encouragement to dancing assemblies. This idea is ridiculous. Certainly, if the editor does fill up his leisure hours as a hop-merchant, I do not blame him for putting in a good word for the shop, but what the devil has dancing to do with fighting? Can two men decide a mill by ‘tripping on the light fantastic toe’? The French dance every night in the week, and all day on Sunday, and what are they better for that? Are they better men? Can they boast nobler feelings than Britons? They certainly make graceful bows, and there is no doubt dancing has an effect on the heels, for Wellington has often scratched his head, and given them a left-handed blessing, for their quickness in giving leg-bail… The dancing Frenchman would shudder with horror at the sight of two London porters giving each other a black eye or a bloody nose and say ‘twas a brutal practice’; yet the same fellow, in his own country, would take snuff, grin like a monkey, and cry ‘bravo!’ at seeing two poor devils boring holes in each other’s hide with a yard of steel. So much for the consistency of the ‘Grande Nation,’ and the sense of the men who recommend dancing as a substitute for pugilism.”

Isabelle Chevallot
Assistant Librarian, Guildhall Library

Twelfth Night Cake

You may know that Christmas pudding and Christmas cake are part of a tradition that dates back to at least the early Victorian period, think of Dickens’s references to plum pudding in A Christmas Carol, but you may not have realised that both pudding and cake have a far more ancient ancestor – the Twelfth Night Cake. Twelfth Night is the evening of the 5th of January, the day before Epiphany, the feast celebrating the arrival of the Magi. Traditionally, it is the day on which Christmas decorations are taken down and the day to wassail your apple trees (drink a toast of cider to the trees, and pour cider over their roots).

In Britain, the Twelfth Night Cake was a large rich cake, often with a domed top, iced and decorated with ribbons, paper, tinsel and even sugar figures. A dried bean and a dried pea would be hidden in the cake and the man who found the bean would be the King; the woman who found the pea, Queen. If a woman found the bean, she got to choose the King. If a man found the pea, he got to choose the Queen. Servants were included in the division of the cake and if they got to be Kings or Queens even their masters had to obey. Just as Christmas inherited the traditions of Twelfth Night, Twelfth Night, in turn, had acquired all the role-reversals of the Roman Saturnalia (which was roughly the 17th of December.) The Romans had a tradition of placing a bean inside a cake at Saturnalia, and whoever found it became the master of ceremonies.

In one of his first diary entries Samuel Pepys recorded recorded a party in London on Epiphany night, 6 January 1659/1660: “…to my cousin Stradwick, where, after a good supper, there being there my father, mothers, brothers, and sister, my cousin Scott and his wife, Mr. Drawwater and his wife, and her brother, Mr. Stradwick, we had a brave cake brought us, and in the choosing, Pall was Queen and Mr. Stradwick was King. After that my wife and I bid adieu and came home, it being still a great frost.” (The Diary of Samuel Pepys: a new and complete transcription / edited by Robert Latham and William Matthews. Vol.1, 1660).In the Victorian era the custom was to buy a set of printed Twelfth Night Characters to accompany your cake. These were small humorous illustrations with a few lines of verse beneath printed on cards or on a sheet ready to be cut out. They were sold in small packets and, according to Hone’s Every-Day Book, “Twelfth-night characters sold by the pastry cooks, are either commonplace or gross—when genteel they are inane. When humorous, they are vulgar”. The Illustrations shown here are from a set of Twelfth Night Characters published in The Illustrated London News on 1^st January 1848.

Hone explains how the characters were used; each of the characters was folded and put into a hat or ‘reticule’ and passed around the party guests. The guests would draw a character, read out the verse and then have to stay in character until midnight.  The verses were meant to be amusing, but prints from the period show some guests taking offence, as if the host had intended some slight on the genuine characters of his guests. (William Hone, The Every-Day Book, 1830 pp. 49-62).

The following recipe for an enormous Twelfth Night Cake comes from Guildhall Library’s copy of John Mollard’s The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined (4^th edition 1808).  Mollard was proprietor of the London Tavern in Bishopsgate Street.  In an age before chemical raising agents, cakes relied on yeast or beaten eggs to give them a lift, which doubtless also gave these cakes their classic domed top.

Twelfth Night Cake

Take seven pounds of flour, make a cavity in the centre, set a sponge with a gill and a half of yeast and a little warm milk; then put round it one pound of fresh butter broke into small lumps, one pound and a quarter of sifted sugar, four pounds and a half of currants washed and picked, half an ounce of sifted cinnamon, a quarter of an ounce of pounded cloves, mace, and nutmeg mixed, sliced candied orange or lemon peel and citron. When the sponge is risen, mix all the ingredients together with a little warm milk; let the hoops be well papered and buttered, then fill them with the mixture and bake them, and when nearly cold ice them over with sugar prepared for that purpose as per receipt; or they may be plain.

The tradition of the Twelfth Night cake appears to have virtually died out towards the end of the 19^th century. Its decorative role shifted to the Christmas cake, whilst the hidden bean or pea transformed into the silver sixpence in the Christmas pudding.  However, in other countries, various cakes are still produced to celebrate Epiphany, King Cake in the southern states of the US, Roscón de Reyes in Spain and some, like the Galette des Rois in France, still contain a ‘fève’ or bean and come with a paper crown for the elected King or Queen.

Peter Ross, Principal Librarian