Mercuriosities

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.

Quite how mermaids could be taught to spin, having no feet to work the pedals of a spinning machine?! However, we have seen mermaids in wonderful films over the years, so they must exist.

“The appearances of mermaids to human sight have been, ‘like angels’ visits, few and far between;’ indeed some savans have doubted than any such creature ever existed, except in the regions of fancy or the gull-traps of fraud. No doubt here, as in weightier matters, craft and credulity have acted sp as tp ,ale ,amy think the whole race of mermen and maidens fabulous. In the few accounts on record of the capture of various specimens of these animals, there is much of the marvellous intermixed; for instance, we are told that one which was caught in Holland in 1430 was taught to spin by some young girls, and derived from them some notions of the Deity, and made its reveremnces very devoutly whenever it saw a crucifix.’ An extraordinary mermaid that, and ‘very like a whale,’ as the saying goes. But there is now exhibiting in Regent-street a mermaid, which, though it pretended to no notions of a deity itself, was regarded as one by some natives of South America, who caught it in the Rio de la Plata, and prepared it after a rude manner for presevation. From them it was puchased, the exhibiter states, by two travellers, for the British Museum, the authorities of which have given him special permission to show it for a time. The same authority gives the following description of this ‘mermaid, or siren of the sea,’ as it is designated:- ‘The features are both pleasing and interesting; its teeth are of a snowy whiteness, without any grinders, with cartilaginous gums, tongue, and roof to the mouth. The two arms, which are short, terminate with short webben fingers, each having the appearance of a nail at the end. The bust is perfectly that of a woman. the back is nearly covered with fins, placed in opposite directions, in front of the body. An inspection will certainly confirm this statment; and as naturalists have not condescended to define what a mermaid is under its proper class – mammalia – we may venture perhaps to pronounce this to be as good a one as ever was seen. After being submitted to the view of the Queen and Prince Albert, this ‘siren of the sea’ is to be present at Birmingham during the approaching music festival, a fearful rival to each biped songstress there, who in competition with this fish-woman or woman-fish, will find herself vox et preterea nihil.*

The Stamford Mercury, 15th September, 1843.

*voice and nothing more/sound without substance

The Marriage de Figaro had caused a sensation written, as it was at a time of revolution. Its subject matter – of servants rising up and outwitting their masters – outraged the aristocracy. This caused the play to be banned in many cities, including Vienna, where Mozart was based at the court of Emperor Joseph II.

However, one performance proved to be more outrageous. The cast had to remain stoical and keep going until the bitter end. Unfortunately, being about a barber (Figaro), among the properties was a razor, put to grusome use by one of the actors.

‘German phlegm.–On the representation of the Marriage de Figaro, at the Cassel Theatre, on the 2d of March, M. Pistor, who performed the part of Bartolo, varied the accustomed action of the piece by cutting his throat with a razor, while standing before a glass, without evincing any extraordinary previous emotion to lead to a suspicion of his dreadful intention. The other performers do not seem to have been too violently affected by the event, as, without any interruption to the scene, another person was substituted for the deceased, and at the close of the performance apologized for M. Pistor’s absence, on the score of his having killed himself !’

Stamford Mercury, 9th May, 1828

This short paragraph epitomises exactly what all the wonderful volunteers here at the Stamford Mercuy Archive believe. We have over three centuries of newspapers carefully stored in acid-free boxes on roller-racking shelving.

“Many people take newspapers, but few preserve them; yet the most interesting reading imaginable is a file of old newspapers. It brings up the very age, with all its bustle and every day affairs, and marks its spirit and its genius more than the most laboured description of the historian. Who can take a paper dated half a century ago, without the thoguht that almost every name there printed is not cut upon a tombstone at the head of an epitaph?”

The Stamford Mercury, 3rd November, 1843.

You may not know, but members of the public are welcome to visit the archive by appointment to make a search of the Stamford Mercury via our microfilm. Use of the archive is free for personal research; but we do make a small charge for images (scans or photographs; A4/A3 which cost £1 each).  Our opening hours are Tuesdays 10.30 am – 1 pm, Thursdays 9.30 – 11.30 am and Fridays 1.30 – 4.00 pm. As the archive is not completely indexed it will be helpful to you if you have an idea of the dates you want to search.

Please visit the contact page of our website for details on how to contact us at the Stamford Mercury Archive, and the Using the archive page for more details on enquiries.

Quite different to our piece about the paupers of Stamford, this is the festive season as enjoyed by the general public, tradesmen and the gentry, including the annual Christmas Ball.

“M.U.I.O.F.Spalding. THe ANNUAL BALL, in aid of the widows’ánd orphans’ fund of the Welland Lodge, will take place on Wednesday, the 27th inst., in the Lodge Room at the VINE INN. Tickets 2s each may be had at the Bar.

MARKET DEEPING TRADESMAN’s BALL

THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS BALL will be held in the Large Room at the Black Horse Inn, on Thursday 28th December inst. Tickets 2s 6d each. – Dancing to commence at 8 o’ clock. Market Deeping, Dec 20, 2843.

SIX BELLS INN, BOURN

THE ANNUAL BALL and CARD ASSEMBLEY will take place on Tuesday, January 2d, 1844. Dancing to commence at 8 o’clock. Tickets, 2s 6d each, to be had at the Bar.

GRANTHAM’S NEW-YEAR’s BALL

That the preparations for the above BALL may not interfere with Sunday’s Duties, the Patrons, Mrs. Manners and the Rev. Wm. Potchett, have appointed it to take place, with the permission of the Mayor , in the Guildhall, Grantham, on Tuesday the Second of January, 1844.

As the necessities of the objects of this Charity, viz., Mr. Thos. Wilson and the ill-paid Mistress of Hurst’s Charity School, remain unabated, it is hoped that the Charity will continue to receive the liberal support of the Town and Neighbourhood; and the Belvoir Band has been engaged, for the gratification of those whose good taste leads them to take pleasure in the innocent, graceful, and exhilarating exercise of dancing.

The Company will assemble at Half past Eight, and Dancing will commence at Nine o’clock precisely.”

“LE BEAU MONDE-from communication to the London Papers. The Duke of Rutland, whose health has during the last week considerably improved, is surrounded by a family circle at Belvoir Castle.

The Duke and Duchess of St. Alban’s have been passing the Christmas at Redbourn-hall, near Brigg. Yesterday (Thursday) the Earl of Yarborough’s hounds met at the hall.

The Duke and Duchess of Bedford have been entertaining at Woburn Abbey, during the week, the Duke of Richmond and Lady Caroline Lennox, Earl and Countess of Chesterfiled, Hon. Col, and Mrs. Anson, Mr. and Lady Caroline Sandford, Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence, &c. Lord and Lady John Russell have arrived at Woburn, from Minto House.

Lord Wm.Russell, formerly Ambassador to the Court of Berlin, arrived in town at the close of last week from the Continent, to be present at the approaching alliance of his son, Mr. Francis Hastings Russell, with Lady Elizabeth Sackville West, eldest daughter of the Lord Chamberlain, Earl Delawarr.

The Earl of Wilton is entertaining a party of sporting friends at Egerton Lodge, Melton Mowbray, where his lordship and family will pass the recess.

The Dowager Countess of Leicester and Mr. Ellice are passing the Christmas at Naples, where his Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge, attended by the Hon. Capt. Mcdonald, has arrived from Corfu, onb a short tour of the Two Sicilies.

Lord and Lady Newark are wintering in the south of Europe.

The Countess of Dysart and Lord Huntingtower have left town for Bath.”

The Stamford Mercury, 29th December, 1843.

This is a report of a local custom near Raleigh (home of the bicycle manufacturer) in Nottinghamshire of listening to subterranean church bells on Christmas Day morning. We wonder if this charming tradition still happens? Or perhaps they were bicycle bells!

“Subterranean Christmas Bells._Near Raleigh, Notts, there is a valley, said to have been caused by an earthquake several centuries ago., which swallowed up a whole village, together with the church. Formerly, it was a custom for people to assemble in this valley on Christmas day morning, to listen to the ringing of the bells of the church beneath them. This it was positively asserted might be heard by putting the ear to the ground, and hearkening attentively. Even now it is usual on Christmas morning for old men and women to tell their children and young friends to go to the valley, stoop down, and hear the bells ring merrily.”

Stamford Mercury, 22nd December 1843

There was a Christmas day gathering to celebrate a wedding in Lincoln in 1843 where celebrations could be heard for an aged couple. The paper reports that they were saluted, by crowds including young urchins, with shouting and old tin cans.

“On Christmas morning there was a great stir in the High-street, on the occasion of the marriage of an old coal-porter named James Thacker, to Mrs. Bennett, a widow well stricken in years. The street was lined with spectators, and crowds of young urchins saluted the happy pair with shouting and the music of old tin cans.”

Stamford Mercury, 29th December 1843

Winter weather conditions must have made life harder for the paupers of Stamford town. In 1850 it almost had its own white Christmas due to a snowfall. This gave opportunity for skating on the river Welland.

Festive cheer was provided to the paupers in the Union-house when they were given the ‘opportunity of making merry on Christmas Day.’

“Among the various classes who had an opportunity of making merry on Christmas-day, were the pauper inmates of the Union-house Stamford. The Guardians entered into a subscription among themselves to provide festal fare, and each man, woman, and child in the establishment was regaled with roast-beef, plum-pudding, and ale, to the complete satisfaction of all. The number of those who participated in the feast was 201, viz. 32 able-bodied and 36 aged men, 42 able-bodied and 7 aged women, 42 boys, 41 girls, and 11 infants. The usual board-meeting of the Guardians was not held this week.”

“The heavy fall of snow which Stamford was visited on Thursday morning on the 19th inst., when the ground was covered to the depth of six inches in about three hours, was very partial, none having fallen ten miles north of the town, and very little at a distance of six miles in a southern direction. It was suceeded by a thaw and heavy rain, which caused the river Welland to overflow, and a severe frost having followed, there was plenty of skating on Saturday and Monday last.”

Stamford Mercury, 27th December 1850