Bits and Pieces

FEMALE PUGILISM.

The Sporting Magazine February 1796 at 276-277

A FEMALE boxing match took place on Monday, near the Elm Tree leading from Chelmsford to the Barracks: the battle having been agreed upon for several days previous, it became generally known, and a number of persons, among whom were several well-known amateurs, attended. The combatants met, and after several well-dealt blows, the eyes of one of them were closed. By this time the officers of justice being apprised of the matter, arrived; and so quick were they in their exertions, that although one of them was endowed with the nimbleness of a Bird yet they secured and caged her. The other by some mysterious means made her escape. The Bird has been since taken before a magistrate, and committed to the house of correction, there to sing till the next quarter sessions.

The Sporting Magazine June 1807 at 149

At Bines-Green Fair, West Grinstead, a pitched battle was fought between two Amazonian fair ones, in which no small degree of courage and scientific skill were displayed.—Twenty sharp rounds were fought with various success, but at the end of the twenty-first round, a knock-down blow gave the victory to the youngest, an active damsel of twenty-four years of age; her antagonist, who appeared about forty, though second-best in this affair, displayed great bottom, and was much applauded for her style of fighting by the amateurs present. These women, like the fistic professors of the other sex, were unencumbered by clothes from the waist upwards; they were attended by their seconds and bottle-holders, and exhibited in a well-kept ring of very large dimensions.

Advertisement for a Show from Jan. 8, 1816 Morning Post:

Just arrived, the Astonishing MONKEY from Paris, in addition to the Wonderful DOGS from Italy. Signor Girardelli has the honour to inform the Nobility and Gentry that he has engaged Monsieur Garnier, with his sagacious MONKEY. This animal is three feet and a half high, and well known by the name of General Jackoo, now exhibiting with the DOGS, at 349 Strand, between Exeter ‘Change and Catherine-street.--This animal will go through various ablutions, among which are the following: The Dressing scene, Jackson will take a looking-glass, and go through the ceremony of dressing himself in the costume of a General; Manual Exercise of the Horse and Foot Solider, with wonderful ability; after which his Master will ask him for his passport, when the General will put his hand in his pocket and give it to him with submission; a Game at Cards. Here General Jackoo will offer the Cards to the Company, who may chuse one, and the Monkey will astonish the beholders by picking it out from the whole pack; Changing of Glasses, or a Health to the Company &c.--Also the stupendous PELICAN, the most beautiful Bird ever exhibited, will pay her respects to the Company and engage General Jackoo in a ludicrous battle &c. The performance to conclude with the well known Wonderful DOGS. The Wonderful Leaper. This Dog will surprise every one by springing over his Master’s arm at a great height, and various other leaps. And a Country dance by the Dogs. After which Mademoiselle Manette will pay her respects to the Company, in testimony of her gratitude. Constant Fires are kept. Hours of performing, 12, 2, 4, 6 and 8 o’clock each day. Admittance 1s. Performance to private Families at a few hours notice.

New Arrangement of Patches–Reprinted from the July 1799 Lady’s Monthly Museum at pages 48-49

Dear Editor,

I do myself the honour, through the medium of your elegant and widely circulated MUSEUM, of informing all the Fair Ladies in Great Britain, that I have formed a selection of Characteristic and Secret Patches, which I design for their service. It will save them and others an infinity of trouble, and I shall, with pleasure, shew them where to place them with effect, if they will apply at my Miroir Salle in Bond Street. The following is a specimen of my Catalogue and Arrangement of Characteristic Patches:

CATALOGUE, &C. OF PATCHES.

The Impassioned—at the corner of the eye.

The Gay—upon the fold or dimple which the cheek forms in laughing.

The Gallant—on the middle of the cheek

The Kissing—at the corner of the mouth

The Dashing—Upon the nose

The Coquette—Upon the lips

The Languishing—under the left eye

The Secret—Upon a pimple &c.

But I shall engage to instruct Ladies to form a perfect Secret-graph by the arrangement of Patches; a single one on a particular spot shall be an hieroglyphic of no small significance. By this they shall form assignations, with the when and the where—they shall break them off, with the why and wherefore, and express a disappointment without a tear or a sigh.

I am in strong hopes through patronage, matronage and mis-age to obtain a patent for the Patch or Secret Graph.--THE FLAPPER

November 1807 Literary Panorama

Cupid’s telegraph–At a very considerable provincial town we learn that a new system of signals has been introduced, which are rendered subservient to the affections of the heart and the obligations of parties: for example, if a gentleman wants a wife, he wears a ring or diamond on the first finger of the left hand;--if he is engaged, he wears it on the second finger;-if married, on the third; and on the fourth, if he never intends to be married. When a lady is not engaged she wears a hoop or diamond on the first finger; if engaged, on the second finger; if married on the third; and on the fourth if she intends to die a maiden. When a gentleman presents a flower, a fan, or a trinket to a lady with the left hand, it is on his part an overture of regard;--if she receive it by the left hand, it is an acceptance of his esteem, but if by the right hand it is a refusal of the offer. Thus, by a few simple tokens explained by rule, the passion of love is expressed, and, through the medium of “Cupid’s Telegraph,” kindred hearts communicate reciprocal information.

An Interesting Wedding reprinted from Le Beau Monde, June 1808

At Otley, after a disconsolate widowhood of three months, Mr. Geo. Raistrick, of Hawkesworth, aged 78, to Mrs. Mitton of Barley-wood-head, aged 60, making the fourth visit paid by the husband, and the third by his fair bride, to the altar of Hymen. In compliance with a vulgar notion, that the wife being married in a state of nudity, exonerates her husband from legal obligations to discharge any demands upon her purse, the lady, with much sang froid, began to disrobe herself at the altar, and did not desist till her chemise remained her only covering; thus having attained the very summit of the nude ton, the marriage ceremony commenced, and it was not until the whole had been deliberately gone through that the parish sexton, in the capacity of waiting woman, began to dress this blooming daughter of Eve, and to revive, by the genial heat of warm clothing, that spark of hymeneal fire, which a chilling air and humid atmosphere had nearly extinguished.

The Examiner April 9, 1809

A circumstance has occurred in the neighbourhood of a large town in Hampshire, which has occasioned much conversation. A young lady, 23 years of age, who will inherit a large property at her father’s death, was recently discovered by him to be pregnant; and on the enraged parent’s demanding to know who had been her seducer, she, to his utter astonishment, answered, it was her MAID HARRIET.--Harriet was immediately called before him, and an examination took place, when it appeared that the young lady, during a visit last June, at a friend’s house, near London, became acquainted with a handsome youth, who was shop-lad at a circulating library, of whom she became enamored, and a secret marriage was the consequence; but, fearing her father’s anger at such an unequal match (the youth being poor), the idea of being obliged to part, gave birth to the following stratagem:--The youth assumed the female habit, and accompanied his fair bride to her father’s house, where he was, until lately, figured away as her maid. The old gentleman, however, is now reconciled to the loving couple.

The Examiner February 4, 1810.

At Monkwearmouth, Mr. R. of Monkwearmouth Shore, tailor, to Miss D. of Southwick. No sooner was the ceremony over than the fair one seemed to demur, and strange as it may appear, she has not yet deigned to place herself in that situation in which a man’s rib ought to be–in plain English, she has not gone home.

December 17, 1808 National Register.

In the Sheriff’s Court on Friday, a Jury was assembled to assess the damages in a Crim. Con. Woods v. Matthews. The Defendant is a baker, in the Borough, the Plaintiff a shipwright, who, on coming home one night, was surprised at finding his house closely locked up and his family in bed; and with the assistance of a watchman he forced his way into the back window, and found his wife and the baker fast asleep in the same bed. The watchman sprung his rattle, which aroused the lovers, who, leaping from their bed, fled out of the room naked as they were. The neighbours assembled, and interposed between the enraged shipwright and the faithless pair, and the baker was suffered to return home to meet the friends of his enraged wife. A conversation took place between the friends of the contending parties, and a verdict of 30l., was taken, the Defendant agreeing to drop his action for a debt due to him of 200l.

The Examiner July 10, 1808

A Gentleman hearing Mrs. ________, who has not the most agreeable breath, sing at a private concert, was asked by a Lady how he liked it? “The voice, Madam,” said he, “is excellent; but the air is intolerable.”

Marriage notice published May 1, 1808 in The Examiner.

On Sunday, Mr. Edw. Bignal to Miss Margaret Wilson, both of Chapellerton, and on the following morning the blooming bride presented her lord and master with a fine chubby boy. For a moment we hesitated whether the births or marriages ought to be honoured with this article, but our choice was soon determined by the reflection that marriage ought, in all propriety, take the precedency.

January 1804 notice of a marriage from the Universal Magazine

At Gretna Green, Mr. Simpson of Crookham, near Brampton, to Miss Warwick of Scarr Irthington. The Carlisle paper says that the bridegroom, being a minor, was locked up by his father; but, impelled by Love, he ascended the chimney, and escaped to his mistress, so covered with soot, that it was some time before she could recognise him.

March 3, 1808 National Register

A dashing spinster of forty-five eloped from the house of her father, a retired soap-boiler in Tottenham Court-road, on Tuesday night, from the window of a first floor, with a recruiting serjeant, belonging to a regiment of light dragoons The Lady possesses a fortune of 600l., per annum, and she was originally the playmate of her paramour, whose father was a shoe-maker in that road. No tidings as yet been heard of the fugitives.

National Register, February 7, 1808

A young woman bound for Gretna Green, in a flying leap from a back parlour window into the garden on Wednesday night, at the west end of town, unfortunately fell and broke her leg.

The Sporting Magazine, August 1809

Bullock v. Brothel.--During the present month, at North Shields, a bullock broke loose from some butchers, and ran through the street in a furious manner, but his progress was at length stopped by his taking down the Hole-in-the-Wall quay, which was scarcely wide enough to allow him a free passage. To the astonishment of the spectators, when he came to the door of the Hole-in-the-Wall, which was opened by a sudden twist of his body, he entered the house, and walked majestically up stairs into the kitchen, where the scene of uproar and confusion that ensued is indescribable; the bullock was heard bellowing, the women screaming, and the furniture breaking in pieces; in the midst of which confusion, the floor yielded to the ponderous weight of the animal, who, however, disengaged himself by a desperate plunge, and, breaking down a partition, entered the grand chamber of the Lady Abbess, where he also laid some valuable furniture under his feet, and then thrust his head through the window, whence he loudly bellowed defiance to his pursuers. He was at last secured, and is, perhaps, the first male visitor that ever got out of that stew without having his pockets lightened.

London Chronicle, March 6, 1811

On Wednesday last, a young girl about 16, in boy’s attire, went on board the Valiant in Cawsand Bay, to offer herself as a servant, and requested to see the commanding officer. On being introduced to the officers in the ward-room she unfortunately dropped a curtsy instead of making a bow, which causing a general laugh, so discomposed her that she was nearly fainting, but on being encouraged and assisted by the officers, she soon recovered herself, and informed them of her desire to be a sailor. On learning her abode, a messenger was sent to her brother, who immediately came with her clothes, thanked the officers for their polite treatment and returned with her the same evening to her friends in Millbrook.