Mercuriosities

Since our last post about shorthand writing (or phonography), we have found a letter pubished three months later which very strongly disputes the usefulness of the system. However, we now have the benefit of nearly two hundred years of knowledge and many people who use Sir Isaac Pitman’s method find it most useful, quick and easy to use. Once practised enough, it is very easy to master writing and reading the thin/thick strokes and heavy/light dots. So this piece sounds like either sour grapes or a student complaining about a system he or she cannot be bothered to learn properly.

Of course, there are many different shorthand systems in use now and also many other electronic options available to record the spoken word. But the journalists at the Stamford Mercury still stick to their spiral-bound notebooks.

“Pitman’s Phonography is distinguished only forits (sic) fine sounding-name, its unusual paretension, and its being, with all its boasted originality, based on an idea first broached by another, Dr. Arnott, in his elements of Physics. The combinations of the characters used in Phonography are often extremely awkward and unsightly; and the subtle distinction of thick strokes and thin, heavy and light dots, of whole and half-sized characters, however pleasing to an amateur, is a kind of nicety which it is impossible to produce in the hurry of reporting. Yet this distinction pervades the whole system of Phonography; and if not unerringly pursued, the labour of hours is converted into an unmeaning scrawl. – From the Student, or Young Man’s Advocate.“

The Stamford Mercury, 2nd, May 1845.

Christine Mahany came to Stamford in 1966 and carried out many excavations in the area. The most well-known was the site of Stamford Castle (below the ‘bus station), which took place between 1972 and 1976. Another was at St. Leonard’s Priory. Here, she is interviewed about saxon finds at a dig in Water Street.

“More traces of the Saxons found at Stamford

Although little more evidence of the lines of the old Saxon defences have come to light on the Water Street archaeological site at Stamford, the director of excavations (Miss C. M. Mahany) said this week that traces of saxon timber buildings were beginning to show.

Pottery finds

A fine example of a 14th century stone barrel-vaulted cess-pit has yielded a collection of pottery of that period.

One of the most interesting facts about the find, Miss Mahany said was that there was no Stamford ware among them.

This indicated that Stamford ware had died out by this time, probably around 1250.

The two main pots in the collection are a large cooking pot, thought to be from Bourne, and a polycrome jug imported from Western France.

Only six others

Miss Mahany explained that the jug could be dated so closely (1275 – 1300) because the French potteries where they were made had been excavated and no more pots were made after that date.

The jug has a matt surface decorated with boldly-painted birds

Only six similar pots have been found in England, and those mainly in costal areas.”

The Stamford Mercury, 1st March 1968.

A roast goose appeared on a Counsellor’s table with only one leg. His cook tried to cover up the what had really happened to the missing limb.

“-‘Bless my heart! why this goose has but one leg,’ exclaimed Counsellor Bethell, while carving the Michaelmas bird for a few choice friends; ‘call up the cook.’ Paddy Flinn, factotum general, and generally cook to the Counsellor, had been visited that day by his own sweet cousin german*, Judy Makirk, married a month, and of course in the way in which ‘Ladies wish to be who love their Lords.’ Now poor Paddy thought he saw Judy throw a longing eye on the dexter leg of the goose, so savoury and brown at the fire. Judy confessed her desires, and Paddy couldn’t resist the impulses of his good nature to gratify them; so off went the leg, and up went the dismembered goose. Paddy appeared to the call of ‘the quality,’ when the following curious dialogue took place :-Counsellor B.: ‘Ah! then, Paddy, where the devil’s the right leg of the goose?’ – Paddy : ‘Isn’t it sticking in your fork, your honour?’ – Counsellor B.: ‘My fork! I think that’s in the left leg, as the other appears to be gone away. Come, Sir, account for this impertinence.’ – Paddy : ‘O, Sir, that I can asy enough, your honour : a big Lawyer knows but little of geese. Why, Sir, devil a goose in Dublin has more than one leg at this minute, I’ll be bail, any how.’ – Counsellor B.: ‘What? – are you drunk, Sirrah; otr what do ye mean?’ – Paddy : ‘Och, be pleased to step out to the hen-house, and I’ll make your honour sensible in a minute.’ – Away they went, and Paddy pointed out the geese at roost; and, indeed, apparently with but one leg, as that bird generally tucks in the other while reposing. The Counsellor, who likes a joke, good humouredly exclaimed, ‘Pretty well, Paddy; but see how soon I’ll upset your logic by one word;’ and then clapping his hands, he cried, ‘Wshe!’ and the geese ‘to a man’ produced another leg. Paddy was still not at a perfect non plus; but scratching his head, he exclaimed with a leer, ‘Och, see that now! If your Honour had but the since to cry ‘Wshe!’ at dinner time, see how soon ye’d a seen the leg that wasn’t in it.'”

The Stamford Mercury, 31st October, 1823.

*i.e. a full or first cousin.

The bus driver is the first in a series of ‘Other People’s Jobs’ focussing on local people’s occupations. It ran weekly in The Stamford Mercury from 1934 to 1935.

“Friend of Kiddies and Older Folk.

And Messenger of all!

How would you like to be a bus driver? Leaving apart the purely technical side of driving, his knowledge of the engine and of what to do when things go wrong, or the arm-aching job of ‘swinging it’ on a cold morning, he has one of the most fascinating occupations of any of us.

A least, that’s how it seems after a run to Oundle and back, chosen haphazardly from the many services operating from Stamford by Mr. W. H. Patch’s Cream Buses.

All along the route the Cream bus is a familiar thing, and the driver a man respected. It may be Tom Helstrip one day, or Joe Colston another, but either is a well-known figure behind the wheel – the friend of kiddies and older folk and messenger of all!

These fellows have some queer jobs commissioned from, say, either Wittering, Wansford, Yarwell, Nassington, Fotheringhay or Tansor, through which they pass four times a day on their journeys to and from Oundle. When they set out from opposite the George Hotel, Stamford, they never know what they may be asked to do during the day or who they may be carrying.

Of course, they do know that each week-day morning of the year there is a parcel for Wansford, and a morning paper for Thornhaugh. There they have found that, by driving the bus near the cabin – simply by leaning out, unlatching a window, and passing the paper through to a table!

QUEER CARGO

Sometimes, their passengers a people who enjoy a remarkably pretty run who like to learn of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay, or of the old church at Tansor, with its original pews from Fotheringhay church. Then your driver becomes a historian.

At other times, an anxious parent entrusts an inrfant to their care – ‘and be sure he gets off at so and so!’

Sometimes there are jolly fishing or picnic parties aboard, or passengers to the Burghley gold course, sightseers to Wittering aerodrome, visitors to the Wansford riding school, or schoolboys for Stamford.

But it is in dealing with messages and parcels that these drivers excel. Often they are asked to fetch cigarettes, and accumulators from the charging depot. In the summer-time they bring as many as 70 or 80 cream cheeses from Thornhaugh to Stamford, and, frequently, for a Wansford hostelry, they get requests to fetch a barrel of beer from an Oundle brewery.

It is quite a common thing, too, for housewives to ask them to bring their groceries, to order the Sunday joint, to visit the doctor’s surgery for a bottle of medicine or to call at the veterinary surgeon’s for something to cure an animal.

And all the time they have between entering and leaving Oundle in which to undertake these tasks is 15 minutes! Here, at least, is one of those ‘other people’s jobs’ nicely spiced with the spirit of adventure.”

The Stamford Mercury, 7th December, 1934.

When children were evacuated from our major cities during the second world war, that was not the end of it. They needed to be provided for in terms of clothing and schooling. And it was not known for how long this assistance would be required. Various charitable bodies joined forces to help.

“EVACUEES FROM THE CITIES

INFLUENTIAL APPEAL

Evacuation of mothers and children from the danger zones of our cities has brought out, in a forcible manner, the urgent need for clothing of all kinds for many of the evacuees owing to changed conditions of life and for comforts for mothers in the emergency maternity hospitals. Unless this need can be supplied, the advent of wintry weather will exact a heavy toll.

There are, of course, others in the poorer districts of town and country who require assistance in a like manner, and who would, so far as is possible, be helped.

The matter is one of close concern to Lincolnshire and Rutland, where temporary homes have been found for many women and children evacated from the poorer quarters of various populous centres.

The national Council for Maternity and Child Welfare, representing the more important national societies concenred with mothers and children, is issuing an appeal on behalf of expectant mothers and children under five. The Council is receiving many applications for help and advice, and it is known that a vast amount of voluntary aid is at present unused because, while many people are anxious to give service in making garments, they are held back by lack of money with which to purchase materials. This is particularly the case with many women’s organisations and working parties throughout the country.

EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION

Money received will be expended in obtaining materials at as low a cost as possible with the co-operation of the Personal Service League and the distribtuion of garments will be made in consultation with local maternity and child welfare authorities or responsible local organisations. This will ensure a just distribution and secure that garments will reach only those in genuine need, for whom they are intended, and not families who should be able to provide for their own requirements.

Their Majesties the Queen and Queen Mother have graciously contributed to the fund. Its needs are very urgent, and contributions of any amount marked ‘Material Fund,’ will be welcomed by the honorary treasurer of the National Council for Maternity and Child Welfare, Carnegie House, 117, Piccadilly, London, W.1.

The appeal is issued over the signatures of Sir Bruce Bruce-Porter, chairman of the Clothing Appeak Committee; Dame, A. Louise McIlroy and Lady Cynthia Colville, of the National Council for Maternity and Child Welfare; Mr. Reginald R. Garratt, hon. treasurer of the National Council for Maternity and Child Welfare; the Right Hon. Margaret G. Bondfield, of the Women’s Group on Problems arising from Evacuation; and the Hon. Mrs. Sydney Marsham, of the Personal Service League.”

The Stamford Mercury, 19th January, 1940.

Sir Isaac Pitman was a lifelong advocate of reforming the spelling of the English language. From this came the creation of phonetic writing. This ‘shorthand’ was published in a pamphlet in 1837.

“On Tuesday evening last, an interesting lecture and explanations were given at the Temperance Library, by Masters Wm. Green and Holland Brown, of the Phonographic Corresponding Society, Phonography, a new art of improved writing, invented by Mr. Isaac Pitman, of Bath. The redundancy and deficiency of the common English alphabet, and the absurdity of the method of writing and spelling usually adopted by the British nation, were clearly exhibited, and the completeness and adequacy of the phonetic alphabet distinctly proved. Several diagrams of the phonographic character were explained, and specimens of the facility of writing and deciphering it were given, the speakers reading it quite as fast as the long English. After the lecture, a very spirited conversation took place, and questions put by the company were satisfactorily answered by the two youths. We think this science is likely to be more available than any similar one yet invented, it having distinct marks for every sound uttered by the human voice; and if generally introduced in lieu of the common alphabet, would be a valuable boon to all classes of society, and innumerable benefits might accrue from its acquisition. We would heartily recommend and encourage youth to practise this art, on account of its great simplicity, and its being so very legible when written, unlike the old tedious forms of shorthand hitherto used. We hear that the subject is to be resumed next Tuesday evening, when more practical specimens are to be given on the spot, of the applicability of this new way of ‘talking on paper’ in all the languages of our babbling earth.”

The Stamford Mercury, 7th February, 1845.

This is the last sentence of the article in Pitman’s shorthand. With many thanks to Elaine Allwood from Carlby for transforming it.

The bodies of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were re-interred in the Basilica of St. Denis and the Bourbons were restored for a while, following the fall of Napoleon in 1814.

‘RE-INTERMENT OF THE BODIES OF LOUIS XVI. AND MARIE ANTOINETTE.

“Paris, Jan. 21.–To-day, at six in the morning, the different regiments of the garrison of Paris were on foot. At seven they occupied the posts assigned to them. The mourning coaches, and the funeral car destined to receive the remains of the King and Queen arrived between seven and eight at the cemetery of the Magdalen. Monsieur, and the Princes his sons, arrived at eight precisely, in the same carriage, and were immediately followed by the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Bourbon. Every thing being in readiness for the august though melancholy ceremony, the two leaden coffins were placed on the funeral car, and the procession commenced. It was led by several Generals, with a detachment of light horse, and was followed by numerous bodies of military ; next came the Ministers, Grand Dignitaries of the Kingdom, Bishops and other ecclesiastics, and the chief officers of the palace, to which succeeded the carriages of the Princes of the Blood ; Monsieur, the Duke of Angouleme, and Duke of Berri, were in the mournful procession. Last came the funeral car, on which all eyes were fixed, and which contained the object of our eternal regret and repentance. The car was surrounded by a detachment of the Swiss. On the right and left marched a long line of poor of both sexes, bearing torches. Numerous detachments of the body guards closed the whole. Cannon were fired at intervals. At the gate of St. Denis the clergy were in waiting for the procession, which arrived at mid-day. The great gate of St. Denis was hung with black, and exhibited a simple and touching Latin inscription, in large characters.–The procession advanced towards the church. The coffins being taken down from the car, were placed under a catafalque, surmounted by a royal mantle and crown, surrounded by wax lights. The church was entirely hung with black, and at intervals were suspended the arms of France, surrounded with palms in silver. The nave and the gallery were filled with a crowd of persons in mourning.–Soult and Oudinot held the pall over the coffin of Louis ; the Presidents, Barthelemy and Laine, the pall over the coffin of the Queen.–At two o’clock the Bishop of Troyes delivered the funeral oration. The ceremony, during the whole of which minute guns were fired, was terminated at half-past four. The weather was cold and cloudy, but the assemblage of the inhabitants of the capital was immense all the way from Paris to St. Denis : no noise, not a word disturbed this religious ceremony ; all appeared impressed with the feelings it was calculated to excite.

“It is intended that a form of prayer shall be introduced into the French Liturgy, in commemoration of the martyrdom of Louis XVI., similar in principle to that read in the English Churches for the martyrdom of Charles I.

“A celebration of the day on which Louis XVI. lost his life, was ordered by the Emperor of Austria, at the request of Talleyrand, to take place at Vienna, on the 21st January, the Emperor and his family intending to assist in it. The other Sovereigns it was likewise thought would be present.”–Moniteur.‘

Stamford Mercury, 3rd February, 1815.

Louis XVI’s body was supposed to be buried in a mass grave, covered in quick-lime, according to Decree of the National Convention, and dissolved so that no trace of him was left on earth. The exact spot of his burial was also supposed to be unknown but the Curé of La Madeleine knew exactly where Louis was buried and waited until the fall of Napoleon to reveal all. Only, was it Louis XVI’s body or was it really Robespierre’s that was exhumed?

‘Twenty-two years have elapsed since the mild and martyred Louis XVI. perished upon a scaffold : Saturday last was the anniversary of his execution. It has been generally believed that Louis XVI. after his murder, was thrown into a grave, and his body consumed by quick-lime ; that the precise place of his interment could not be pointed out, and “not a stone tells where he lies.” But this is not the fact. In the Rue d’Anjou St. Honore, not far from the Madeleine, at Paris, there is a small nook, which escaped the notice of the enemies of religion and humanity, and which will now be revered as the ancients revered places that had been struck by lightning. In this nook are buried Louis XVI. and his Queen.

On the 21st January, 1793, the body of the martyr was conveyed, without pomp or escort, to the church-yard of the Rue d’Anjou. A Decree of the Convention ordered a quantity of quick-lime to be thrown into the grave, in order that there might remain no trace upon earth of the King. The silence of terror reigned round the grave–no one dared approach it. Humanity hid the tears she shed, and turned away her eyes–Religion alone braved every danger. In the night of the 21st January, the Cure of la Madeleine, with his Vicars, came to say over the body the prayers for the dead, and sprinkle the grave with holy water. All these facts are attested by M. Descloseaux, who is still living.

In the September of the same year, Marie Antoinette, condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris, intreated her butchers to deposit her body near Louis XVI. This demand was granted ; for the prayers of the dying have an ascendancy over the hearts even of barbarians ! The remains of Maria Antoinette were deposited in a grave near that of her husband. In digging the grave for the Queen, it was found that the coffin of Louis XVI. was entire, and that the quick-lime had not consumed the mortal remains of the august victim.

Twenty-two years have elapsed since Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. have reposed in the church-yard of the Rue d’Anjou–no monument has been erected to them–the God of the Seasons has alone taken care of the royal tombs which man had abandoned : the humble patica, the modest forget-me-not, a few other plants, and grass, cover the bodies of a powerful Monarch and of a Queen who formed the charm and ornament of France.

The tomb of Louis XVI. is placed in an angle of the wall the north of the church-yard ; a few paces further is a vast grave, in which were buried pell-mell the Swiss and French who perished on the 10th of August.

And now, one naturally asks, where rest the ashes of Madame Elizabeth, the sister of Louis XVI. and of the hapless orphan Louis XVII. who died in the prison of the Temple? The infant Monarch, who lived a moment but to suffer, is lost in the crowd of dead : no one can point out the place of his interment. Madame Elizabeth, whom nothing could separate from her brother in life, does not rest by his side. She was buried at Mousseau.

A few days after the King of Prussia entered Paris, he visited and knelt by the grave of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette ; and the spot is shewn to all where the yet mourning Duchess of Angouleme threw herself on her knees, to bathe with her tears the sod that covers the unconscious bones of her murdered parents.’

Stamford Mercury, 27th January, 1815.

The Peterborough to Syston railway (which came through Stamford) was opened in May 1848. Thank goodness the plans reported here were changed or we should have had the railway line going right across the town meadows and two bridges across the river Welland! The station was to be in Wharf Road, which was to be blocked. A temporary station was built in September, 1846 and the cutting under High Street, St. Martin’s then commenced. The building of Station Road was started in July 1849.

“The Syston Railway – On referring to the plans left with the Parish Clerks, we find that the line, after passing through Uffington meadow, proceeds about 10 chains* south of Hudd’s-mills, crosses the Welland, and proceeds through the bottom part of Earl Brownlow’s gardens, close at the back of the gas-works, to the Station in Wharf Road, (which road will be stopped up,) and thence along the site of the houses now occupied by Messrs. George, Bunning, Pinney and Eayrs; then again crosses the Welland and passes through the centre of the path between the Lammas and George bridges, and thence along the Broad meadow to Breadcroft, in the parish of Tinwell, Tinwell meadow, to Ketton, &c.”

The Stamford Mercury, 3rd January, 1845.

*10 chains = 220 yards (approx. 201 meters)

Following on from our recent piece about the joy of reading old newsapapers, this book carries a stark warning of what can be lost when technology (in this case in the form of microfiche) takes over. Luckily, at the archive we have a virtually complete run of The Stamford Mercury from the middle of the eighteenth century (complete from the 1780s). We still have the microfilm, too, and use it to avoid handling the newspapers too much.

“Libraries need to move with the times, but too confident a step in the wrong direction can lead to calamity. A famous, notorious example was the decision of lending libraries to first film, then jettison, their collections of historic newspapers. The advantage was obvious, as newspapers take up an enormous space and tend to degrade; but the chosen rescue technology, microfiche, proved equally transitional. Within a few decades the microfiches were functionally unusable, and the newspapers long gone. Eventually the microfiche readers were themselves removed from the reading rooms, tomorrow’s technology now redundant.”

From The Library: A Fragile History Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen.