The Devil's Breath (32 page)

 

Craven Street:
Benjamin Franklin lodged in a house here between 1757 and 1775, while he was mediating between America and Britain. Today it is open to the public.

 

treatises on meteorology and ocean currents:
Benjamin Franklin wrote several papers on these subjects.

 

St. Martin’s:
The church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, just off Trafalgar Square.

 

Drury Lane:
A notoriously riotous street, known for drunkenness and prostitution.

 

Garrick:
David Garrick was the most famous actor of his day.

 

 

loo table:
Originally designed for the card game loo, it was a table with a round or oval top that was hinged to facilitate storage when not in use.

 

refined soot:
In his book
Modern Husbandman
(1750), William Ellis recommended that soot and coal ashes, as well as cows’ hooves, hogs’ hair, and even pigs’ trotters, should be ploughed into the soil to improve its fertility.

 

 

testicular cancer:
Also known as soot wort, this was a form of occupational cancer that was initially identified by Percival Pott in 1779.

 

barber’s shop:
Barbers also acted as dentists, regularly pulling teeth.

 

sores:
A symptom of primary syphilis. The sores, or chancres, resemble large bug bites and are often hard and painless.

 

prostitution:
An estimated one in five women in London was engaged in the sex trade at this time.

 

 

electricity:
A number of scientists were conducting experiments into electric charges at this time, including Benjamin Franklin and the preacher John Wesley.

 

 

brig:
A two-masted, square-rigged ship.

 

pepper pot dome of Christ Church:
Sir Christopher Wren designed the famous dome of the Oxford college.

 

 

undertaker:
By the middle of the eighteenth century undertaking was an established profession in London and soon spread to the provinces.

 

 

caves at West Wycombe:
Impoverished local villagers were paid a daily wage of one shilling to tunnel underground. The caves were all excavated by hand and the chalk was used to make a major road connecting the area to London, Oxford, and Gloucester. They became known as the Hellfire Caves when the eponymous club began to hold meetings in them. Such was the club’s reputation for orgies and black magic, however, that it had disbanded by 1763 (according to church records). After this the caves began to fall into disrepair.

 

Battle of Trenton on the Delaware:
Washington ordered a field hospital to be set up near the crossing point in 1776. Today you can visit Thompson Neely House, where many of the troops were treated. It forms part of Washington’s Crossing National Historic Landmark.

 

 

bathing room with smoldering coals:
An ancient method of execution was to shut the criminal in a bathing room with smoldering coals until he suffocated to death, although the mechanism of death was not understood until the mid-nineteenth century.

 

storms:
Hampshire naturalist Gilbert White wrote of “tremendous thunder-storms that affrighted and distressed the different counties of this kingdom.” One correspondent in the
Gentleman’s Magazine
(August 1783) proposed that there was “no year upon record when the lightning was so fatal in this island as the present.”

 

firework displays in London:
Several parks and pleasure grounds held displays at this time.

 

praying in the streets:
Preacher John Wesley wrote at the time: “Men, women and children flocked out of their houses and kneeled down together in the streets.” At Sunday service he reported the church was full—“a sight never seen before.”

 

 

Gothic entrance:
Built after 1752, the flint entrance was designed to look like a Gothic church to be seen from West Wycombe Park, just across the valley.

 

River Styx:
According to Greek mythology, the river separated the mortal world from Hades. The subterranean position of the Inner Temple directly beneath St. Lawrence’s Church was therefore thought to represent the divide between Heaven and Hell.

 

 

developed sores:
Eight out of every ten sheep are thought to have died, while half of all horses and cattle perished.

 

the weavers at nearby Cholsey:
Shortages meant grain was being sold at 30 percent more than its pre-fog price, sparking riots. At Halifax in Yorkshire, men from the surrounding weaving villages gathered to force merchants to sell their corn at old prices.

 

a great ball of fire:
On August 18, 1783, what was known as the Great Meteor was seen crossing Britain from the North Sea down to the English Channel. The most notable account of the episode was given by Tiberius Cavallo, an Italian natural philosopher who was a guest at Windsor Castle at the time, in volume 74 of the
Philosophical Transactions.

 

a sign: The General Evening Post
reported on August 26, 1783, that “a Methodist preacher in his sermon on Sunday, informed his audience that the meteor seen a few evenings ago, and which went over their heads, was a warning gun, but they might resort assured that the next which came would not fly so high, but blow their brains out.”

 

 

Judgment Day:
On a visit to Witney, Oxfordshire, in 1783, the Methodist preacher John Wesley wrote that during a thunderstorm, “those that were asleep in the town were waked and many thought the day of judgment had come.” He went on to record: “Men, women and children flocked out of their houses and kneeled down together in the streets.”

 

 

Chancery:
The Court of Chancery exercised wardship jurisdiction, but it was notoriously inefficient and was finally abolished in 1875, although the Chancery division remains to this day.

 

 

panniers:
Worn under the heavy skirt of a Georgian lady, it was a device designed to support the material.

 

 

many believed Judgment Day was upon them: The Morning Herald, and Daily Advertiser
published an account from Honiton, Devon, on December 21, 1783. It stated: “About three hours ago we were all struck with a panic too dreadful to be described; a universal terror seized the whole town, and most people believed the world was at an end, for that the moon was falling from heaven.” The Hampshire naturalist Gilbert White wrote, “There was reason for the most enlightened person to be apprehensive.”

 

Psalms:
“And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”

 

 

a ward of court:
A person under twenty-one who was the subject of a wardship order, ensuring the court has custody. As long as the minor remains a ward of court, all decisions regarding his or her upbringing must be approved by the court.

 

an enemy territory:
England officially declared an end to hostilities in America on February 4, 1783, but the Treaty of Paris was not signed until September 3, 1783, and not ratified until January 14, 1784.

 

 

sage juice and honey:
According to John Wesley’s
Primitive Physick,
these were beneficial to a patient who spat blood.

 

horehound:
An herb used for centuries to alleviate chest conditions.

 

Peruvian bark:
A source of quinine.

 

exorcism:
The most famous exorcism at this time was carried out in 1778 on George Lukins, a tailor who for eighteen years had been subject to atypical fits. Seven Methodist ministers performed an exorcism after which he reportedly returned to normal. An article in
The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle
criticized the account, stating that Lukins actually suffered from “epilepsy and St. Vitus’s dance.”

 

“Come sinners to the gospel feast”:
The hymn was composed by Charles Wesley in 1747.

 

St. Vitus’ dance:
A brain disease that causes involuntary movements or spasms.

 

 

Tree of Knowledge:
According to the Book of Genesis, this tree grew in the Garden of Eden.

 

Salem:
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693.

 

 

Isaac:
According to the Book of Genesis, God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to prove his loyalty.

 

fowler:
A hunter of birds.

 

musket:
In 1770 British hunters coined the word “sniper” to designate a great marksman—one who could shoot a tricky flying bird such as the snipe with a fowling piece.

 

 

Rahab and Mary Magdalene:
According to the Book of Joshua, Rahab was a woman who assisted the Israelites in capturing the city of Jericho. Most English translations describe her as a harlot or prostitute. Mary Magdalene was branded a prostitute by Pope Gregory in his homily on Luke’s gospel in 591.

 

lock-up:
A small temporary jail remains in Church Loft, West Wycombe to this day. A whipping post can be seen nearby.

 

 

Montgolfier brothers:
The first public flight of their famous balloon was on June 4, 1783, in France.

 

Flax and Cotton Bill:
“An Act for the more effectual Encouragement of the Manufactures of Flax and Cotton in Great Britain” was debated and passed by the House of Lords in July 1783.

 

 

a physician’s cane:
The head of the cane was perforated and contained certain vinaigrettes and aromatic powders that could be inhaled as a method of preventing contagion while treating patients.

 

atropa belladonna:
Often associated with the treatment of intestinal disorders, the plant was used for centuries as a treatment for asthma and hay fever because of its antispasmodic properties.

 

rue:
As well as its many medicinal purposes, rue is also known as “Herb of Grace” because it has been sprinkled in exorcisms.

 

wormwood:
Also known as absinthe, mugwort, and
Artemisia absinthium,
it comes from the Aster/Daisy family of plants and has hallucinogenic qualities.

 

magnetic test:
silver is not magnetic.

 

 

gates of Newgate:
Newgate Prison was badly damaged in the Gordon Riots of 1780, but was rebuilt by 1782. The following year the site of the London gallows was moved from Tyburn to Newgate. Public executions outside the prison—by this time, London’s main prison—continued to draw large crowds. The gates dating back to this period can be seen at the Museum of London.

 

Day of Judgment:
John Wesley, writing about his stay in Witney, Oxfordshire, during the period of violent and frequent thunderstorms said, “those that were asleep in the town were waked and many thought the day of judgment had come.”

 

 

colors in the western sky:
The description is based on writings by Luke Howard, known as the father of meteorology. He witnessed the incredible events of 1783 as a boy and is thought to have been greatly influenced by what he saw. In southern England two weeks after the Great Meteor there are several reports of aurora sightings, described in the
London Chronicle
(September 7, 1783) as “one of the strongest Aurora Borealis ever seen in this country.”

 

great dragon:
A report in the
Morning Post And Daily Advertiser
(August 21, 1783) relates that “A Methodist preacher, who saw the aerial phenomenon on Monday night last, described it the following evening in his sermon thus: I saw heaven open, and lo! a prodigy! a revelation! in flames, a huge beast with seven heads and ten horns: seven crowns and ten comets issued; and like a wounded whale, gasped in the vacuum for the period of one hour, till at last the great mystery suddenly fell! Michael prevailed, and hurled the dragon down head-long.”