---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: 28 November 2002 00:00 -0500
From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
To: Recipients of VICTORIA digests <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: VICTORIA Digest - 26 Nov 2002 to 27 Nov 2002 (#2002-326)
There are 21 messages totalling 671 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Sane and Insane
2. Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums (10)
3. Lily Maxwell
4. Orphanages (2)
5. Final words on 4/9d hat (3)
6. Not So Bad as We Seem
7. CFP: Victorian Sexualities (Jan 31 2002; April 26 2003)
8. Illegitimate Daughters
9. how to find prayers
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 04:06:15 EST
From: Judith Flanders <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Sane and Insane
In a message dated 27/11/2002 05:22:18 GMT Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> It may interest listmembers to hear that I have been told that Colney
> Hatch, the former Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum, has apparently
> been converted into residential units. Could this be a trend? I
> would love to hear from anyone with photos of Colney Hatch in its
> present state, or -- better yet -- anyone *living* there.
>
It certainly is a trend: I have friends who live in a converted asylum just
outside Guildford, in Surrey: can it have been called Brookwood? I'm afraid
I can't remember. But I have emailed them to find out the name, and if they
are agreeable, I will put you in touch.
Previously, they lived in a converted convent: a good indication of the
rising tide of residential conversions from Victorian institutions of one
sort or another.
Best
Judith Flanders
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 09:44:59 -0000
From: Chris Willis <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
Hi!
RA Cantrell wrote:
> I just listened to a book on tape of "The Professor and the Madman,"
> which I recommend to all. The author's name is Winchester, I believe, and
> the book is thoroughly enjoyable and very entertaining. It gives a slight
> insight into Victorian asylums, and a brilliant account of the birth of
> the OED.
I think it was published in the UK as *The Surgeon of Crowthorne* (by Simon
Winchester).
Personally, I'd treat it with caution - I was put off by his mind-boggling
statement (in one of the early chapters) that murder was a very rare crime
in Victorian London. Presumably this has been excised from the highly
condensed tape version.
All the best
Chris
================================================================
Chris Willis
[log in to unmask]
http://www.chriswillis.freeserve.co.uk/
"Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired
signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not
spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius
of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
================================================================
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 10:44:49 -0000
From: Tony Ward <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
Marilyn Kurata's chapter "Wrongful Confinement", in Kristine Ottesen
Garrigan (ed.) Victorian Scandals (Ohio University Press, 1992) discusses
the Bulwer-Lytton case, along with that of the spiritualist Georgina Weldon
(also featured in Judith Walkowitz's City of Dreadful Delight). A friend of
mine lives just off Stoke Newington common - if I find out anything about
Grove House I'll let you know.
Tony
Dr Tony Ward
Principal Lecturer in Law
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester LE1 9BH
Tel. 0116 207 8181
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 23:50:37 EST
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
Isn't Charles Reade's Hard Cash based on the real life story of a sane man
who was deliberately committed to an insane asylum (and Reade himself helped
get the man released, if I remember the author's preface correctly - it's
been a while since I read the novel).
-- Kathy Owen
Kathleen Owen, Ph.D.
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
"For the history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sewn
thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told
well is immortal."--Samuel Clemens
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 07:56:00 +0000
From: Albert Purbrick <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Lily Maxwell
According to the anniversary column of the London Times, on November 26,
1867, Mrs. Lily Maxwell became the first woman to vote in a British
parliamentary election. By chance Mrs. Maxwell's name had appeared on the
voters' register and, taking advantage of the opportunity, she voted for
the Liberal Jacob Bright in the Manchester by-election. When she was
discovered and her ballot denied, Mrs. Maxwell took her case to the Court of
Common Pleas; the court ruled against Mrs. Maxwell, stating that "every
woman is personally incapable" of voting.
==================
Albert Purbrick
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
==================
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 09:22:59 -0000
From: "Corrick, Georgia" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Orphanages
Dear list
Is there a standard text(s) on the history of orphanages and institutional
child care in the late 19th century? Looking particularly for detail about
London's East End.
(This enquiry is on behalf of my father, who's a novelist -
www.martincorrick.co.uk.)
Many thanks.
Georgia Corrick
[log in to unmask]
www.catswhiskers.fsnet.co.uk
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 05:29:36 -0600
From: "R.A. Cantrell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
on 11/27/02 3:44 AM, Chris Willis at [log in to unmask]
wrote:
> Personally, I'd treat it with caution - I was put off by his mind-boggling
> statement (in one of the early chapters) that murder was a very rare crime
> in Victorian London. Presumably this has been excised from the highly
> condensed tape version.
No, this cogent and well reasoned statement of fact, in spite of its impact
on certain sentimentalities, was thankfully not elided in the, may I repeat,
very enjoyable and somewhat informative taped version.
>
> All the best
> Chris
>
> ================================================================
> Chris Willis
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.chriswillis.freeserve.co.uk/
>
> "Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired
> signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
> fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not
> spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius
> of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
>
> Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
I too am an admirer of General Eisenhower
> ================================================================
--
All the best,
R.A. Cantrell
<[log in to unmask]>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 13:23:15 -0000
From: Andrew Mangham <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
Sensation novels are great for the fictionalising of this problem. In =
particular, I am currently reading Mary Elizabeth Braddon's _The Black =
Band_ which (so far) has featured two wrongful incarcerations in asylums =
- one of which is in an ancient Scottish castle. It may also form a link =
with Bulwer-Lytton because Braddon and he were close friends (her =
literary inspiration she says in her letters).
In sensation novels the asylum is generally used as a form of =
punishment/control for abberant women. Other recommendations include: =
Wilkie Collins, _The Woman in White_ and _Jezebel's Daughter_, Braddon's =
_Lady Audley Secret_ and Mrs Henry Wood's _St. Martin's Eve_.
As for secondary stuff I recommend Sally Shuttleworth, '"Preaching to =
the Nerves": Psychological Disorder in Sensation Fiction' in L.M. =
Benjamin (ed.) _A Quetion of Identity_ (Rutger's UP, 1993), which deals =
with the narrative of wrongful incarceration. Roger Smith's _Trial by =
Medicine_ (Edinburgh UP, 1989) looks into the shady relationship between =
crime and asylums; and of course Elaine Showalter's _The Female Malady_ =
has some good historical info but I suppose you have already considered =
this one.
* * *
Andrew Mangham
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sensation_novel
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 13:33:21 -0000
From: "Miller M (HaSS)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
Also, though perhaps less sympathically, in Collins' _Armadale_, Jenny
Bourne Taylor has written about the anxiety over female masturbation and the
observation techniques used with women in Asylums as being hinted at when
the (anti)heroine is incarcerated.
Meredith Miller
University of Glamorgan
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 07:38:40 -0600
From: Melanie Ulrich <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
Another Braddon novel that deals with incarceration of a sane woman is
During [or In?] Her Majesty's Pleasure - in that case, a kindly doctor
testified that the aggreived mother who shot her husband was insane, even
though he didn't properly believe it himself. Interestingly, nowadays she
would have pleaded temporary insanity, I think. From the novel I gather
that wasn't an option back then? Hence the doctor's dilemma and her
lifelong imprisonment.
Melanie Ulrich | Assistant Instructor | UTexas Austin | 512.837.2252 |
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 10:06:54 EST
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Final words on 4/9d hat
< This has been a fascinating item on the list. If all hats were 4/9 why
refer to it at all? Can one presume that the phrase 'a 4/9 hat' implied
simply an off the shelf product rather than a more expensive personally
made or fitted hat? >
I recall a certain Victorian, William Rackham, I believe, had a few thoughts
on buying a new hat. He was especially concerned with the price, too, and
how society would perceive his new headgear. This episode may be of
interest to you. The trouble is, you see, he just may be a fictional
character invented by Michel Faber. But perhaps that author has some notes
on the issue.
Matt Demakos
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 10:47:52 -0500
From: Daniel Hack <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Not So Bad as We Seem
According to my playbill for the May 13, 1852 performance in
Birmingham, the roles of Barbara and Rosina were played by Miss Fanny
Young.
Daniel Hack
--
Daniel Hack
Assistant Professor
Dept. of English
State Univ. of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY 14260
716-645-2575 x1038
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 15:52:29 +0000
From: Malcolm <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Final words on 4/9d hat
[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> I recall a certain Victorian, William Rackham, I believe, had a few
> thoughts on buying a new hat. He was especially concerned with the
> price, too, and how society would perceive his new headgear. This
> episode may be of interest to you. The trouble is, you see, he just may
> be a fictional character invented by Michel Faber. But perhaps that
> author has some notes on the issue.
Are you referring to the old new hat, or the new new hat?
Malcolm
--
Malcolm Shifrin
[log in to unmask]
A not-for-profit educational project
************************************************************
VISIT our website (augmented and updated monthly) at
http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/
Best viewed on Internet Explorer 4+
Non-pictorial information on the website, or from the underlying
databank, may be used freely in not-for-profit projects, as can any
photographs credited Shifrin.
Acknowledgement should be made to Malcolm Shifrin's Victorian Turkish
Bath website at:
http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/
************************************************************
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 16:09:40 GMT
From: Martin Willis <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: CFP: Victorian Sexualities (Jan 31 2002; April 26 2003)
VICTORIAN SEXUALITIES
The annual one day conference in Victorian Literature and Culture
hosted by the Department of Humanities at University College
Worcester
April 26 2003
Conference Organisers: Dr Richard Pearson and Dr Martin Willis
TOPIC:
Victorian scholars ahve long been aware that sexuality in the
Victorian period was performed, practiced and indentified in many
different ways and by many different individuals and groups.
Already a great deal of interesting work has been produced, for
example, on female sexuality and sexualities at the fin de siecle.
There have been fewer contributions to our understanding of, say,
masculine sexualities or sexuality in the early Victorian period.
This conference seeks to explore Victorian Sexualities in all their
varieties:
masculinity, femininity, heterosexuality, homosexuality,
adolescence, childhood development, sex and race, sex and
power, sexuality and the law, sexuality and class, marriage
courtship, conjugal rights, the lady, the gentleman, the femme
fatale, the dandy.
Sexual pathology, sex crime, sexual selection, eroticism, art and
photography.
By investigating these and other topics related to Victorian
sexualities the conference will provide an interdisciplinary space
where scholars working on a variety of Victorian subjects and in
different academic disciplines can share their interests and
expertise.
Papers are therefore invited on Victorian Sexualities: an abstract
on no more than 300 words should be submitted by January 31 to
the organisers on either [log in to unmask] or
[log in to unmask] (please keep the abstract in the body of the
email).
Conference Cost: 30/15 pounds sterling. Apply now for a place.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 17:23:51 -0000
From: Michel Faber <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Final words on 4/9d hat
In response to the question:
> If all hats were 4/9 why refer
> to it at all? Can one presume that the phrase 'a 4/9 hat' implied simply
> an off the shelf product rather than a more expensive personally made or
> fitted hat?
Matt Demakos wrote:
> I recall a certain Victorian, William Rackham, I believe, had a few
> thoughts on buying a new hat. He was especially concerned with the
> price, too, and how society would perceive his new headgear. This
> episode may be of interest to you. The trouble is, you see, he just may
> be a fictional character invented by Michel Faber. But perhaps that
> author has some notes on the issue.
My blushing thanks to Matt for this reference to my novel. The
relevant passage is the one where William, a foppish young man
who was once well-heeled but who is now in reduced
circumstances, visits Billington & Joy, a department store.
_____________________________________________________
Agnes?s willingness to save money on clothes pleases William
well enough, but he?s less pleased with having to buy his new hat
from Billington & Joy and pay for it on the spot, as if it were a
roasted chestnut or a shoeshine, rather than having it fitted at a
prestigious hatter?s and adding its cost to a yearly account.
Why, the top-notch gentleman visits his hatter every few days just to
have his hat ironed! How has it come to this? Penury, penury and
piecemeal disgrace, for a man by rights so rich! [...] And yet he,
William Rackham, heir to the Rackham fortune, must loiter around
hat stands, waiting for other men to replace hats he wishes to try on!
Can?t the Almighty, or the Divine Principle, or whatever is left now
that Science has flushed out the stables of the universe, see there?s
something wrong here?
_______________________________________________________
The intriguing detail about gentlemen having their hats ironed comes
from a haphazardly organised but valuable book called 'The
Victorian Gentleman' by Michael Brander (Gordon Cremonesi
Publishers, 1975). The rest comes from no individual source.
It is true that in the high-Victorian period, any item of clothing,
footwear, etc that had a price affixed was automatically tainted in the
eyes of the privileged classes. In that sense, it made no difference if
a hat was 4/9d or many times that sum -- as soon as its cost was
stated on a label, it was obviously being offered for sale to the sort
of people who had to worry about money. A true gentleman or lady
would have a long-standing account with a hatter, tailor, glover etc
and it was understood that they would settle up at the end of the
year.
In practice, more and more 'gentlefolk' were unable to settle such
accounts, as the century saw the inexorable transition from
traditional rural-based gentry to more ambiguous classes jostling
around in the swamp of urban capitalism. The number of hatters and
so forth who were willing to hand over goods on trust of a
gentleman's word declined as the decades went by.
Thus, increasingly, a gentleman or lady whose means were no
longer sufficient to secure endless credit could downscale into a
lower social bracket while pretending not to -- "After all these years,
my glover says he wants payment at once -- the cheek of him! I'll
teach him a lesson, and buy a pair of gloves in the next shop I see!"
The rise (and the allure) of modern shopping also helped to erode
the upper-class prejudice against price-labelled goods. Fashionable
ladies knew they "ought" to purchase their hats, etc, discreetly in
private, but their resolve was undermined by the bullish ingenuity of
the new department stores, which were designed as emporiums of
all that was glittery, sumptuous and desirable (deliberately modelled
on The Great Exhibition), and offered customers the opportunity to
be entertained and admired in public.
By the final quarter of the century, only the most disdainfully
conservative of the wealthy classes were able to resist. For the rest,
the appetite for "amusement" covered a multitude of social
misdemeanours. By the beginning of the 20th century, fashionable
upper-middle-class ladies were even discussing with each other
what sweet bargains they had managed to pick up when they were
last on the continent -- a shocking admission of wordliness and
bourgeois instincts that would have been inconceivable for a mid-
19th century lady.
Best wishes,
Michel Faber
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 11:53:44 -0600
From: Tracy Nectoux <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Illegitimate Daughters
Hello Nicole. This book isn't necessarily a primary source, but it may
lead you in the right direction for your research. Are you familiar
with "The Victorian Frame of Mind," by Houghton? I devoted a chapter of
my thesis to Elizabeth Gaskell's "Ruth" and Lizzie Leigh," and found
this book indispensable. I hope this helps.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0300001223/qid=1038419450/sr=
1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-2176225-2872721?v=glance&s=books
Peace,
Tracy
Tracy Nectoux, Instructor
Parkland College
Dept. of English & Critical Studies
2400 W. Bradley Ave.
Champaign, IL 61821
217-353-2626
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 21:34:49 -0000
From: lawfordpce <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
thomas campbell's second son was confined in an insane asylum for many
years. he was examined again after his father's death, in 1844 i think, and
declared "perfectly sane."
cindy lawford
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 16:38:41 -0500
From: Elisabeth Rose Gruner <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: how to find prayers
I'm posting this for my father, who's not on the list--
Can anyone point me in the direction of prayers by Anglican women? They
need not be 19thC, though I'm expecting many will be. I've found three by
Jane Austen and some hymns and poems by Anne Brontė, as well as prayers by
Christina Rossetti, but I imagine there must be more--by Charlotte Yonge,
perhaps?
Feel free to reply privately if it's not of interest to the list.
Thanks,
Libby
Elisabeth Rose Gruner
Associate Professor of English & Women's Studies
University of Richmond
Richmond VA 23173
Voice: 804/289-8298 Fax: 804-289-8313
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.richmond.edu/~egruner
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 08:58:21 -0800
From: Deborah Weiner <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
The original Bedlam was on the site of Liverpool St. Station. In Lambeth
is "New Bedlam."
Deborah Weiner
-----Original Message-----
From: VICTORIA 19th-Century British Culture & Society
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Lewis
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 7:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
The original Bedlam is now The Imperial War Museum. I wonder why?
Paul
Paul Lewis
web www.paullewis.co.uk
tel 07836 217311
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 15:34:27 -0600
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Sane and Insane - Victorian asylums
Dear Dr. Potter:
Yes. It is a trend! Over 20 such bldgs have been "saved" as
condominiums- erased of their past.
I have just completed an essay on the conversion of Colney Hatch to appear
in a forthcoming collection by Routledge. The NEW name is "Princess Park
Manor" set in 30 acres of park land. I took a tour as an "interested
buyer." Your comments would be of interest. The estate agent when pressed
admitted it had been a hospital!!!! but "after all, bricks are bricks."
Channel 4 did a not terribly good documentary on this subject about 2 yrs.
ago.
Deborah E.B.Weiner
School of Architecture
UBC
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 15:44:16 +1100
From: Ellen Jordan <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Orphanages
Workhouses were expected to take in all children who had no-one else to
care for them, to educate them and to prepare them for some sort of work.
Conditions however were still pretty grim long after Dickens exposed them
in Oliver Twist
There were also quite a lot of orphanages run by charities and by religious
orders, often for specialised groups like seamen's children. Entry to most
of these was by "election". Whenever there was a vacancy all those who
subscribed to the charity could put forward their own proteges or those of
their friends. Some of these sound pretty grim too. I don't think East End
children would have had much chance at these charitable ones until the
Settlement Movement at the end of century put these children in touch with
the kind of people who subscribed.
One of my favourite "waif" books, Patsie's Bricks by Lilian Staple Mead
(1905), is about an East End child in search of an orphange.
If you want to know more about the children sent out to the colonies Marion
Diamond's Emigration and Empire is very good.
Ellen Jordan
University of Newcastle
Australia
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
End of VICTORIA Digest - 26 Nov 2002 to 27 Nov 2002 (#2002-326)
***************************************************************
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
|
