What was this landlady thinking of? Was whe more enamoured with the quality of the damask silk than her youngest child? Luckily, she was shamed by her neighbours into going to fetch the baby back. As it happened, the offspring had caused such a fuss, that its new owner had abandoned it!
“A few days ago, the wife of an innkeeper at Caistor, who is the mother of five children, actually sold the youngest of them, an infant about three months old, for a damask silk shawl, of the value of 20s., to a licensed hawker of drapery goods, &c. who accidentally called for freshment. The man took away the child, and hastened on his journey, apparently well please with the disgraceful contract! A few hours afterwards, the occurrence becoming generally known throughout the town, the neighbours were not sparing in uttering vehement and deserved reproaches for the conduct of the unnatural parent, which compelled her to attempt recovery of the hapless infant. For this purpose, accompanied by two female friends, she set out, and succeeded in finding the child at a house in Grassby, a village about three miles on the Brigg road, where the man had left it, the child having become excessively troublesome, from the want of its accustomed nourishment. The party returned safe home with the child, at one o’clock next morning.”
The Stamford Mercury, 30th August, 1822.