Another epiphany

It dawned on me today that reading David Coke’s beautfiul coffee table style book on the history of the Vauxhall Gardens has solidifed a very abstract idea for me.  Well not an idea more of a skill – a thinking skill.  I mean the ability to read an old document or source and discover things other than what the text actually says.

Coke’s book is written using the same archives that I researched in London and as I have been reading the light globe has gone on several times.  I have recalled reading a particular passage or fact or reference that Coke uses in his book and can see how he has drawn the conclusions that he has.

This mightn’t seem like that big a deal but for an apprentice Historian this is epic!

 

Learning in Second Life

I am sad to say that my History Uni semester is over.  This has been one of the most enjoyable units I have done to date.  Although the Witchie unit was also fabulous! (Helen –  imagine it in SL)  I have now added another addiction to my list (there’s a pattern here) 18th Century London AND Second Life.  Doing a history unit in a virtual world rather than a traditional text based manner appears to address many learning styles and the way the unit has been designed it also allows for differences within the range of learning styles.

Work from the 1980s defined these learning styles into 4 scales:

  • Sensory – Intuitive: Factual to conceptual
    We had regular lectures – like any other unit – were we learned many factual things couched in Enlightenment concepts.
  • Visual – Verbal: Seeing to hearing
    Obvisouly SL takes care of the visual you can’t really get more visual unless you dress up, go to London and pretend.  Even so London is not in the 18th C anymore but it can be in SL.  Interestingly though the role playing satisfied the verbal element, even though we were typing our dialogue – we could have used voice if we all had mics in our computers.  It was fun to use an 18th C vernacular and be mindful of the correct ways to address each other dependent on our position in the house and the situation.
  • Active – Reflective: Doing to thinking
    SL also took care of the doing.  We had things to do in the House and our SL events prompted us to think as we participated, as well of course as this reflectvie journal does.
  • Sequential – Global: Micro to macro
    History is the ulitmate sequential topic – enough said.  SL also does a fantastic job of the micro to macro.  The Strand Island has been setup to represent 18th C london – not just a couple of blocks or streets (although that is exactly what it is) but a cross section of London giving a nice big picture visually.  Through the flexibility in student assignments we also see a diverse range of topics including many macro concepts.  SL also caters for the micro.  I became quite obsessed with making the food for our dinner party, making sure that every detail was authentic even the crockery and cutlery.  You can’t get much more micro!

All in all an excellent unit that both educated and amused!  And as now added to my long list of addictions.  Bring on the Vauxhall Gardens.

Pirate Soosie - including Polly

Surgeons, Physicians, Apothecaries and Quacks

We had quite a peculiar tutorial last week – we attended a funeral in Second Life.  It was a strange occasion and somewhat sobering, particularly as deceased was the four year old son of Lord Isaac: George.  It was not  surprising that the youngest member of the family died as infant mortality rates in Georgian London were incredibly high, in 1806 30% of all deaths in that year in London were children under 2.  Yet this is a time and place where we see a dramatic rise in physicians, surgeons, apothecaries and general practitioners.  Even the specialist doctor evolves in this time, so why is infant mortality high?  There may have been a growing number of men in these professions but that doesn’t mean they were very good at it.

From reading Roy Porter it seems that as a whole the profession in London was more about climbing the social ladder and making money than any altruistic reagrdfor helping humanity.  The College of Physicians restricted its membership to gentlemen who had graduated from Oxford or Cambridge and who belongedo the Church of England.  Once separated from Barbers both legally and professionally The Company of Surgeons was a money making concern who gained rights and privledges to further their own wealth.  Neither of these still repsected insitutions contributed much to the improvement or discovery of medical knowledge or technique. 

Apothecaries weren’t above reproach either.  They were prevented to charge for any advice they proffered but could profit greatly from the medicines and elixirs they sold.  Medicine in the Georgian era is oft called “The Golden Age of Quackery” as one could make what ever claims they liked with very little recourse (other than being driven out of town).

Hospitals sprung up in London, but again not due to the medical profession but through the philanthropy of the middling classes; clergy and merchants who were appauledby the lack of access to health care for the general masses.  I still don’t think I would have gone to one of these hospitals though.  I have an English friend who has the mantra, "Never go to hospital, its full of sick people."   I think she was right, although setup with the noblest intentions the best that some could do was act as a quarantine to prevent the spread of disease adn I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be mentally ill.

It appears that Londoners got the raw end of the deal in this apsect of life as the Medical Profession ws not stagnant in other parts of the world.  Edinburgh and Leiden were truning out Physicians that were well educated and trained within an hospital internship.

Has much changed since then?  Medical knowledge and technology has certianly improved the life expectancy of the Western world but for those who don’t have access to it, it hasn’t changed anything including knowing that it is still unfair.

Crime & Punishment

As noted in a post a couple of days ago, executions were a huge entertainment for the lower classes of London.  So too were the activities at the Old Baily.  Executions were held regularly as capital punishment was the sentence for many crimes.

As consumerism and affluence grows during the 18th Century a trend towards property offences keeps pace.  Judging by the sentences given for theft it appears that a paranoia of covetousness takes hold of the middling and upper classes.  Interestingly though the jury system develops a counter for the severity of punishments through “pious perjury”.  Offences were categorised by the value of the items in question and juries often devalued goods to lessen the punishment.  A good system if your are young, or handsome/pretty, or charming/persuasive, or a girl but not so good if you are old, unattractive or even mentally ill.  At the beginning of the century there was no practice of defence lawyers let alone a court appointed one so defendant had to plead their own cases. So often it was your personality that saved you.

The Stocks

 

  

The Gallows

 

Newgate Prison

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

I am completely fascinated by the Pleasure Gardens of London, they are in effect the first Theme Parks and having been to a few modern ones, I know I would have prefered the Vauxhall Gardens to them.

The gardens had activities like strolling through the tree lined avenues, rendezvous and trysts in side lanes, watching the water cascade, people watching, dining in a private box, picnicking in the grounds, or sampling the food from the stalls.  You could see an exhibition of the latest paintings by Hogarth or listen to music by Handel or dance the night away.  Fireworks, balloon rides and other new inventions could be experienced.  The Gardens also had the same issues that large scale events of today do; traffic jams, long queues for the dirty toilets and poor quality but expensive food vendors.

I am so fascinated that I am going to do my next research project on them.  I am curious as to how the gardens worked socially.  It was open to anyone who could afford the entrance fee and as such attracted many levels of society.  And as you can see from the list in the last post there was a huge gap in what the lower to upper classes viewed as entertainment.  But that’s for next semester.

Painting by Thomas Rowlandson. Georgianna - The Duches - centre dressed in white.

Entertainments

The increasing affluence in London also leads to a commercial entertainment industry.  Before urbanisation people’s entertainments were linked with those suitable in the country environment of an Estate, as only the Upper Classes  had leisure time.  But as the middling classes evolve the demand for mass entertainment arises and affluence grows eventually even the lower classes need to be entertained with something other than Gin.

A list of entertainments in London for the lower classes:

Gin drinking
Animal baiting
Bare knuckle boxing
Football and cricket
Gangs
Rioting
The Pillory
Executions
Clubs
Gambling – including the Lottery

Mmmm.  It is no wonder that the middling classes wanted something else more genteel:

The sight of London – parks, tombs and Abbeys
Shopping
Museums
The Theatre – Drury Lane
Oratorios and Operas
Exhibitions
Balls
Pleasure Gardens.

I certainly know which ones I would prefer.

Shopping, shopping and more shopping

The influx of these wonderful goods lead to the development of a shopping culture.  Strips of shops with large glass bay windows displayed their goods for all to see and window shopping became a social event.  They were even lit by candles at night – it must have looked magical as it is commented on in several European travellers writings.

Shoppers also became discerning, knowing where to get the best deal, who gave the longest credit and most impotantly who had the best manners.  Retailers got the short end of the stick as they were always in danger of offending their clientele and often had to chase them for payment.  Credit was a way of life for several reasons, firstly there was a shortage of physical money and secondly wages and incomes were paid quarterly and/or annually.  No weekly pay cheques!  If the retailers didn’t extend credit they would never sell anything.

The question is though how did everyoine afford these luxury items?  There is much debate on the matter: was it a reduced birth rate, an increase in the average age of marriage, women choosing to remain single and childless, less time spent in production of food and goods, the desire for luxury and fashion often through sacrifice, longer working hours, the emulation of the upper classes or a combination of all facilitated by a growing urban London?  I vote for the combo deal.  I think that most paradigm shifts in history occur through a synchronistic interweaving threads of change.

Here’s my bay window shop in Charing Cross:

Consumerism

I am completely in love with Georgian London.  The more I create in Second Life the more I realise I was born in the wrong time as the 18th Century is filled with such beautiful things – well except for a few things like: women’s rights, sanitation and hygiene,  the legal system – death for theft is fairly severe, the food – not a salad or sashimi in sight, medical practices – one can only take so much leeching, transportation – I do like the sound of a V8 engine, obviously I’ve been married to a petrol head for too long and flying is quite convenient,  not to mention the lack of technology – although I loath phones I couldn’t live without my computer,  BUT besides all of that it was pretty cool.  Oh and you had to be wealthy and from the right class but just think of the things!

Georgian London was the shopping Mecca of the Universe in the 18th C – the growing Empire brought goods and consumables from around the New World supplying Londoners with the most amazing array of items.  Here are some from Phoebe’s room:

Phoebe sitting by the fire

 

On the mantlepiece is a beautiful enamelled Chinoiserie urn, a Wedgwood Jasperware vase ( a copy of the Portland Vase), an embroidered stand fan – to protect your face from the heat of the fire, a Cuaghley coffee pot and mugs,  Hogarth prints over the mantle and a Vauxhall Gardens print on the wall, a large Chinoiserie plate and desk and just out of view a intricately carved tea table.

Social Networking

Although there is little study done on the lower classes concerning Dinner Parties, there is certainly much evidence that they became an important social event for the middling to upper classes.  Hannah Glasse’s innovative method of recording recipe’s made her the “Queen of the Dinner Party” as she was the first to document recipes in a step by step manner making it easy for anyone to reproduce the dishes. 

The dinner party became important socially as it brought different networks of people together. With urbanisation the was a growing trend in the separation of your place of work or business to the home, in particular for the middling and upper classes, and the dinner party allowed these spheres to meet again.  It grew to such an extent that they developed into the charity events we know today. The Royal Academy of London owes much its existence to orchestrated dinner party, canvassing patronage and favours from the attendees. An invitation to one these dinner parties, was a mark of one’s social standing.

Hannah Glasse was the Masterchef celebrity of the time, her Art of Cookery was republished 20 times from 1747 to 1843.  She also published The Servants Directory and The Confectioners Handbook.

Dinner Party Protocol

Our Menu

Table is laid

First:
Crawfish Soup served by the Lord with Toasts by each male member of the party.

Second:
Ducks a la mode
Brace of Carp with gravy
Potatoes & parsnips
Ragoo of cucumbers
Forced cabbage
Asparagus
Baked custard

First two courses

The table would now be cleared of all items and reset for the second half of the sitting.

Third:
Roast Beef
Orange & Lemon tart
Curran Jelly
Whipt Syllabub
A grand trifle

Fourth:
Dried and fresh fruits
Nuts
Small cakes – Pepper cake, Gingerbread, Macaroons
Confections from the larder
Cheese

Next two courses
Syllabub and a Grand Trifle

At the conclusion of the meal the gentlemen would retire to his drawing room, library or his cabinet if the group where comprised of appropriate gentlemen. They would drink port or other fortified wines from the continent, smoke cigars, discuss politics or play games and gamble – or all at once.

The women would retire to her drawing room or parlour to do similar but in a much more ladylike manner. The would drink sweet dessert wines, play music, games or cards and importantly gossip.

Prior to the engagement the household staff would clean, clean, clean and clean some more! Food preparations would start very early in the morning and finish very late at night. Staff – be prepared for a very long day.