The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London (73 page)

‘repeat performance’: dress and wooden frames: Bennett,
London and Londoners
, pp. 43–4; sticks: Sekon,
Locomotion in Victorian Britain
, p. 18;
Old Curiosity Shop
, p. 331; ‘The Streets – Night’,
Sketches by Boz
, p. 75.

‘with a pewter-pot’:
Nicholas Nickleby
, p. 228;
Dombey and Son
, p. 143; Miss Tox’s location is not pinpointed, but on p. 144 it is in the West End, although not a good house – ‘think of the situation!’ says Miss Tox, surely implying it lies in Mayfair.

‘on the town’: ‘The Amusements of the People (II)’,
Household Words
, 13 April 1850, in
Dickens’ Journalism
, vol. 2, pp. 195–6.

‘take gravy away’: ham-and-beef shop: Sala,
Gaslight and Daylight
, p. 5;
Martin Chuzzlewit
, p. 288; Badcock and Rowlandson,
Real Life in London
, vol. 1, p. 388; window display: A. Mayhew,
Paved with Gold
, pp. 81–2; newspaper and dishes: Callow,
Old London Taverns
, pp. 82, 292–3.

‘sit and eat’: hours: Yates,
Recollections
, p. 107; locations, Yates, ibid., and
London by Night, or, The Bachelor’s Facetious Guide to All the Ins and Outs and the Nightly Doings of the Metropolis ...
(London, William Ward [?1857]), pp. 44–6; Holborn oyster house: ‘Misplaced Attachment of Mr John Dounce’,
Sketches by Boz
, pp. 286–7.

‘its roller afterwards’: Scott’s: ‘Anonyma’,
London by Night
, p. 82, and Kirwan,
Palace and Hovel
, pp. 181–2; ‘lobsters, crabs’: Sala,
Twice Round the Clock
, p. 324.

‘their names suggest’: Sala,
Twice Round the Clock
, p. 147.

‘conducted houses’:
David Copperfield
, p. 335; ‘Refreshments for Travellers’, 24 March 1860,
All the Year Round
, in
Dickens’ Journalism
, vol. 4, p. 78; Pardon,
Routledge’s Popular Guide to London
, p. 48.

‘coming and going’: earthenware dishes: Smith,
Curiosities
, p. 255; thieving cookshops: Wright,
Habits and Customs
, pp. 216–17; Christmas Day: Forster,
Life
, vol. 3, p. 477.

‘twenty-four hours’:
Little Dorrit
, p. 283; Bethnal Green: Archer:
The Pauper, the Thief
, p. 17; pea soup: Bullen,
Confessions of a Tradesman
, pp. 40–41.

‘and doze indoors’: workers, newspapers: Carter,
Memoirs of a Working Man
, p. 186; Greville Street: Lovett,
Life and Struggles
, p. 88; Egan,
Life in London
, p. 181; Sala,
Gaslight and Daylight
, p. 15.

‘knife and fork’: number of coffee shops: Knight (ed.),
London
, vol. 1, p. 317, vol. 1, p. 140; working-class coffee house: ibid., vol. 4, pp. 317–18; customers bringing food: Hugh Miller,
First Impressions of England and its People
(London, John Johnstone, 1847), p. 354; ‘Night Walks’, in
All the Year Round
, 21 July 1860, in
Dickens’ Journalism
, vol. 4, pp. 155–6; footnote on hats: these references are in:
Pickwick Papers
, p. 397;
Oliver Twist
, pp. 30, 69, 202;
Nicholas Nickleby
, pp. 482, 672, 809;
Old Curiosity Shop
, p. 544;
Martin Chuzzlewit
, pp. 98, 630;
Little Dorrit
, pp. 321, 833; and
David Copperfield
, p. 455; the Sherlock Holmes story is ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ (1891).

‘particularly successful’: Brontës: Mrs Gaskell,
Life of Charlotte Brontë
, pp. 270–71;
Little Dorrit
, p. 68,
Our Mutual Friend
, p. 35; American newspapers: Wheaton,
Journal of a Residence
, p. 120; business connections: Tambling,
Going Astray
, pp. 283–4; Garraway’s and coffee-house boxes: Callow,
Old London Taverns
, p. 6; footnote on boxes: Dickens, ‘A Sleep to Startle Us’,
Dickens’ Journalism
, vol. 3, p. 52;
David Copperfield
, p. 754.

‘in such a place’: cigar divans: Masson,
Memories
, p. 124, and
London by Night: The Bachelor’s...
, pp. 50–52; Trollope,
The Warden
, pp. 226–7.

‘nothing at all: post-office clerk: Yates,
Recollections
, p. 80;
Our Mutual Friend
, p. 590; speed, and bread and cheese lunches: Sala,
Twice Round the Clock
, p. 140.

‘a fourpenny’: Yates,
Recollections
, pp. 80–81; beef with carrots: Callow,
Old London Taverns
, p. 84; Boiled-Beef House: Badcock and Rowlandson,
Real Life in London
, vol. 2, p. 158; ‘Which would you please’: ibid., vol. 1, p. 388; lesser houses: Knight (ed.),
London
, vol. 4, p. 314.

‘something like meat’: display and prices: Knight (ed.),
London
, vol. 4, p. 314; Raumer,
England in 1835
, vol. 2, p. 113.

‘down to eat’: menu: Hollingshead,
My Lifetime
, vol. 1, pp. 57–8; Old Fleece and Sun, and the Bay Tree: Callow,
Old London Taverns
, pp. 2–3, 29–30, and John Murray Fisher,
The World of London,
2 vols. (Edinburgh, William Blackwood, 1843), vol. 2, pp. 4–5.

‘the day before’: system of waiting staff: Seymour, ‘The Eating House’, in
Seymour’s Humorous Sketches
, [no page]; footnote on income and outgoings:
The Servant Girl in London: Showing the Dangers to which Young Country Girls are Exposed ...
(London, R. Hastings, 1840), pp. 34–6;
Bleak House
, p. 337; police-court report:
ILN
, 25 June 1842; Dickens, ‘Thoughts about People’,
Sketches by Boz
, p. 252.

‘quarter-hour break’: Edmund Yates,
After Office-Hours
(London, W. Kent and Co., 1861), p. 251;
Great Expectations
, p. 383; Reeves’ Luncheon Rooms: Pardon,
Routledge’s Popular Guide to London
, prelims.

‘sustained coo’: Yates,
After Office-Hours
, pp. 246–7.

‘its turtle soup’: menu: Knight (ed.),
London
, vol. 4, p. 313; specialities: Forney,
Letter from Europe
, p. 345.

‘the carving-knife’:
Bleak House
, p. 337;
Pickwick Papers
, p. 584.

‘implore or threaten’: location, description of Bell Alley, reputation: Callow,
Old London Taverns
, pp. 120–21; guidebook: Knight (ed.),
London
, vol. 4, p. 314; description: [Dickens with W. H. Willis], ‘A Popular Delusion’,
Household Words
, 1 June 1850, in Stone (ed.),
Uncollected Writings
, vol. 1, p. 120 and Callow, ibid., pp. 120–22.

‘civil and quick’: new Simpson’s: Callow, ibid., pp. 125–6, and Yates,
After Office-Hours
, p. 243; the Albion: Yates, ibid., p. 105.

‘box and all’:
Martin Chuzzlewit
, p. 767.

‘meat and drink’:
Old Curiosity Shop
, pp. 108–9.

‘of its time’: Postmaster General: Yates,
Recollections
, pp. 80–81; Reeves’ Luncheon Rooms: Pardon,
Routledge’s Popular Guide to London
, prelims.

12.
STREET THEATRE

‘a drunken man’: original opening for ‘The Prisoner’s Van’, in Butt and Tillotson,
Dickens at Work
, p. 44.

‘in my life’: Forster,
Life
, vol. 3, p. 141.

‘summoned a throng’: boys’ comments: A. Mayhew,
Paved with Gold
, pp. 333, 109; prisoners’ van jokes: ibid., p. 1; Bow Street prisoners: Sala,
Twice Round the Clock
, p. 215, also mentioned by Kirwan,
Palace and Hovel
, p. 175; mailcoaches, Wheaton,
Journal of a Residence
, p. 400, and Mayhew and Binny,
The Criminal Prisons
, pp. 19–20.

‘landlord’s men’:
Martin Chuzzlewit
, p. 829; Ritchie,
Days and Nights in London
, p. 257; Serpentine:
ILN
, 16 October 1869, pp. 379, 392;
Dombey and Son
, p. 790; Peel: Wey,
A Frenchman Sees London
, pp. 263–4; Clerkenwell eviction:
ILN
, 11 January 1843, p. 19.

‘part of a week’: the earthquake: from the
Era
,
Examiner
,
Morning Post
,
Observer
,
Standard
and
Morning Chronicle
, as well as some local papers:
Aberdeen Journal
,
Belfast News-Courant
,
Berrow’s Worcester Journal
,
Bradford Observer
,
Bristol Mercury
,
Caledonian Mercury
,
Cornwall Royal Gazette
,
Derby Mercury
,
Freeman’s Journal
,
Hampshire Advertiser and Salisbury Guardian
,
Hull Packet
,
Ipswich Journal
,
Jackson’s Oxford Journal
,
Liverpool Mercury
,
Manchester Times and Gazette
,
Newcastle Courant
,
Preston Chronicle
,
Sheffield and Rotherham Independent
between 2 March and 8 April 1842; Whitechapel Church ghost:
ILN
, 15 October 1842, p. 359.

‘the arrival itself’: Wyatt’s sculpture: Mrs E. M. Ward,
Mrs. E. M. Ward’s Reminiscences
, ed. Elliott O’Donnell (London, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1911), pp. 65–6; Hudson,
Munby
, p. 150.

‘crowd of 500’:
ILN
, 8 April 1854, p. 329, 7 October 1854, pp. 340–41.

‘easier to control’: 1814: White,
London in the Nineteenth Century
, p. 261; Crimean War: Creaton (ed.),
Victorian Diaries
, p. 39.

‘injuries and disease’: this paragraph and the next:
ILN
, 12 July 1856, p. 31. I am grateful to Michael Hargreave Mawson for attempting to instil in me some rudimentary knowledge of military terminology.

‘the civic dinner’: Schlesinger,
Saunterings
, pp. 90–92.

‘handsome walking stick’: Prince Regent: Joseph Ballard,
England in 1815: A Critical Edition of The Journal of Joseph Ballard
, ed. Alan Rauch (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 54; Prince Albert: Wyon, Journal, BL Add MS 59,617, 27 April 1855.

‘not impressed’: Charles Greville,
The Greville Diary
..., ed. Philip Whitwell Wilson (London, William Heinemann, 1927), vol. 2, pp. 14–15, 28, 41; footnote on Greville: Christopher Hibbert (ed.),
Queen Victoria in Her Letters and Journals: A Selection
(London, John Murray, 1984), pp. 237–8.

‘held his Barony’: Disraeli,
Benjamin Disraeli, Letters
, ed. M. G. Wiebe et al. (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1987, 1997), vol. 3,
1838–1841
, pp. 54–5, 67, 69, 70, 72.

‘ground of insanity’: German sausage: there are a number of broadsides with these songs. An example, ‘The Queen’s Marriage’, can be seen in Charles Hindley,
The Life and Times of James Catnach, Ballad Monger
(London, Reeves and Turner, 1878), p. 326, while James Hepburn,
A Book of Scattered Leaves: Poetry and Poverty in Broadside Ballads of Nineteenth-Century England
(London, Associated University Presses,
2001), vol. 2, p. 453, contains more. I am grateful to Suzanne Daly and Inktwala Meredith for pointing me in the direction of these volumes; Victoria’s wedding day: Greville,
Diary
, vol. 2, pp. 130–31; birth of Prince of Wales:
ILN
, 12 November 1842
,
p. 423; refusal to remove hats, and miser Neild:
ILN
, 25 March 1848, p. 201, and 18 September 1852, p. 222; amount of bequest: Stanley Weintraub,
Victoria, Biography of a Queen
(London, Unwin Hyman, 1987), p. 201.

‘opera went on’: 1840 assassination attempt: Greville,
Diary
, vol. 2, pp. 203–4; first 1842 attempt:
ILN
, 4 June 1842, pp. 49–50; fifth attempt: Beale,
Recollections
, p. 13.

‘all the trees’: Dickens to John Forster, ?30 November 1846,
Letters
, vol. 4, p. 669.

‘arriving in the capital’: Buckingham Palace notice: Elizabeth Longford,
Victoria R.I.
(London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964), p. 321; Shakespeare notice: in Agnes E. Claflin,
From Shore to Shore: A Journey of Nineteen Years
(Cambridge, MA, Riverside Press, 1873), p. 154. My thanks to Abigail Burnham Bloom for copying the pages of this book for me; Holborn Viaduct opening:
ILN
, 6 November 1869, p. 451.

‘station to another’: this paragraph and the next two: Hudson,
Munby
, pp. 149–52.

‘biscuit the Garibaldi’: Beale,
Recollections
, pp. 118–19; Hudson,
Munby
, pp. 186–9; McCarthy,
Reminiscences
, vol. 1, p. 133; footnote on Garibaldi:
ILN
, 16 April 1864, p. 374.

‘carried by rail’: the mailcoaches on the king’s birthday: Bradfield,
Public Carriages
, p. 21, Corbett,
Old Coachman’s Chatter
, pp. 43–4, Mayhew and Binny,
The Criminal Prisons
, pp. 19–20, Raumer,
England in 1835
, vol. 2, p. 52 and Thrupp,
History of Coaches
, p. 113.

‘this civic ritual’: Smith,
Little World of London
, p. 109; Holborn:
ILN
, 23 May 1857, p. 493.

‘danced round’: ‘They go about’: Southey,
Letters from England
, p. 78; ‘The First of May’,
Sketches by Boz
, pp. 205–8.