The Desolate Moorland and a Dreadful Murder

Classically in Victorian Literature, moorland is presented as a desolate and gothic place. A place where the sublime wilderness meets dangerous marshland. What I wanted to know is whether or not the moors had more use than just symbolically representing death and despair? 

Victorian novelists used the moors as the setting for their fictional tales of love and death. A key example of this is the presentation of the Yorkshire moors in Wuthering Heights. However, Bodmin Moor in Cornwall was the setting for a real life tale of love and murder. When Charlotte Dymond was murdered on Bodmin Moor in 1844, her body was not discovered for over a week. If people lived and worked upon the moors, why was her body not found sooner? 

The Moors

An image of Wuthering Heights 

As you can see from the image above, the desolation is clearly shown through the single woman (which is likely to be the character of Cathy from Wuthering Heights) stood alone. The artist also uses dark colours to represent the despair and obvious darkness of the moorland in the Victorian era. Pictures like this are created by an artist's imagination after reading the text. This clearly shows the author's intentions of the setting. Wuthering Heights opens with:

“I have just returned from a visit to my landlord–the solitary neighbour that I be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country. In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society.” (Brontë, 1)

This opening supports the idea of the moors being a place of beauty, but also a desolate place of solitude. Furthermore, it is made clear here that the community on the moor is very secluded. Even though Yorkshire Moor and Bodmin Moor were approximately 400 miles away from each other, through research, I have also discovered that Bodmin moor was similar in the fact that the community was quite secluded. Everyone within the community knew everyone else. 

Bodmin Moor can be seen as being more secluded because it is in Cornwall, which in the Victorian era was virtually cut off from the British mainland by the Tamar River (Munn, 14). It was not until 1859 that the Royal Albert Bridge that crosses the Tamar River was constructed. This created a railway connection between Cornwall and the rest of Britain. Throughout the Victorian era railway links were being developed. However, due to this lack of transport in the Victorian period, the majority of the poor and the working class would walk from place to place, often across moorland. The use of walking as a primary mode of transport is shown in chapter 4 of Wuthering Heights where Mr. Earnshaw says “I’m going to Liverpool to-day […] I shall walk there and back: sixty miles each way, that is a long spell!” (Brontë, 37) This shows how even though the character states how this is a long way to go, it is still not considered unusual to walk there.

A print from the original copy of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of The Baskervilles

Another iconic image of the moorland Dartmoor where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sets the famous Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of The Baskervilles. In this story, the moorland is terrorised by a giant hound and a roaming convict who has escaped from the prison. The fear of the moor is shown when Dr. Mortimer says "I assure you that there is a reign of terror in the district, and that it is a hardy man who will cross the moor at night." (Conan Doyle, 27). This fear is shown in the darkness of the image above. In this case, Dartmoor is the setting for a fictional murder whereas the real life murder of Charlotte Dymond happened further south west in Cornwall on Bodmin Moor.

The Poem and The Story

I have already briefly alluded to the murder of Charlotte Dymond. This murder is a key historical event in Cornish heritage, a story which is passed down through generations. The popularity of the story reached the poet Charles Causley who wrote “The Ballad of Charlotte Dymond” in the twentieth century. In his poem he clearly tells the events which led up to and followed the murder. Here is a summary of the events that happened on the 14th April 1844 and the dates following: 

On a Sunday evening, Charlotte Dymond, a domestic servant, and Matthew Weeks, a fellow live-in servant at Penhale Farm, left where they lived for a walk on the moor:

"[...] As she walked out one evening

Her lover at her side” 

(Causley, 11-12). 

Two eyewitnesses stated at the inquest that they saw a young couple which could be Matthew and Charlotte together walking across the moors. These eyewitnesses being on the moors shows how the moors was often walked on during the Victorian era. Later that evening, Matthew returned to the farm without Charlotte. This is shown in stanza seven: 

“Matthew, where is Charlotte

and wherefore has she flown?

For you walked out together

And now are come alone.” 

(Causely 25-28) 

Rough Tor Ford

This suggests Matthew is suspected of being guilty or at least knows some of the events that led up to her disappearance. Charlotte Dymond’s body was found several days later lying close to a small stream at Rough Tor, her throat slashed from ear to ear. (Sly, 44) Her body was found close to Rough Tor Ford. As you can see from the photo, the track bridge that goes over the ford suggests that it was often used for transport. Charlotte's body was discovered over a week after she originally went missing intact and with no sign of being eaten by wild animals or birds. Matthew has already gone to Plymouth to stay with relatives to escape speculation about his involvement. Due to The Tamar River separating Cornwall and Devon, Plymouth felt a long way away from the murder. My main query with this story of the murder of Charlotte Dymond is the length of time it took for her body to be discovered. If the moors were used as a thoroughfare and lived on by locals, why did it take so long for her body to be discovered?

Matthew was then arrested in Plymouth, found guilty and executed at Bodmin Jail. His execution is recorded in The Cornishman from the 22nd August 1878 in a list titled “Executions at Bodmin Since 1790”. When Matthew Weeks was executed, it us suggested that people walked miles to attend and watch the hanging. In one case, “at least one lady is known to have walked the eleven miles from Liskeard to Bodmin for the occasion.” (Munn, 145) The execution was reported to have brought in a massive crowd. This supports the idea that the poor and working class often walked to where they needed to go in the Victorian era. 

As well as being reported in regional newspapers, the murder was also mentioned in The Morning Post in London. On Wednesday 1st May 1844. This shows that even though Cornwall was considered to be cut off from the rest of Britain, what happened in Cornwall still reached London. The article, titled “DREADFUL MURDER in CORNWALL” begins "On Wednesday an inquest was held [...] in the parish Davidstow, on the body of Charlotte Dymond, aged nineteen years." This shows that even though the news of the murder reached London, there is still misinformation as it Charlotte Dymond died at eighteen (Munn, 100). The article then continues to give the reader a brief summary of what happened, but also shows how Weeks is guilty. The journalist has therefore written the report subjectively (from a specific viewpoint) instead of objectively (just writing the facts). 

 

The monument at the foot of Rough Tor

Due to how close knit the community of Davidstow Parish was, I believe Matthew Weeks was incriminated, as the people wanted someone to hold responsible. Evidence to support this is that Charlotte Dymond's death certificate states the cause of death as wilful murder by Matthew Weeks three and a half months prior to his trial (Munn, 100). Matthew was clearly not innocent until proven guilty. 

In conclusion, I believe that the only way for Charlotte's body to have not been found or attacked by the wild animals that inhabited the moors is that she was murdered elsewhere by another person and then her body moved. Matthew could not have done this as he was in Devon at the time the body was found. I think this because from what I have found, the moors were so commonly used in the 19th century it would have been near impossible for nobody to find her body. This murder is renowned in Cornwall and has a lasting legacy, this is partially because of the uncertainty over whether Matthew Weeks was truly guilty. It is now said that there have been many sightings of the ghost of Charlotte Dymond around the monument where her body was found (Sly, 44). It could be believed that this is because she knows of Matthew's innocence and cannot rest until the truth comes out. 

Work Cited:

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. London: The Great Writers Library, 1987.

Munn, Pat. The Charlotte Dymond Murder, Cornwall 1844. Cornwall: Bodmin Books Limited, 2010.

"Royal Albert Bridge". Wikipedia. Web. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Albert_Bridge>

Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur. The Hound of The Baskervilles. New York: Prestwick House, 2007.

Causley, Charles. "The Ballad of Charlotte Dymond". Cornwalls. Web. 
<http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/myths-legends/charlotte-dymond.htm>

Sly, Nicola. A Ghostly Almanac of Devon & Cornwall. Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2009.

"Executions at Bodmin since 1790". Cornishman. 22 August 1878. The British Newspaper Archive.

"Dreadful Murder in Cornwall". Morning Post. 1 May 1844. The British Newspaper Archive. 

Images Used:

BlackShadow, Vincent. "Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë". Online Image. 10 April 2006. <http://www.brownnoiseunit.com/books/wuthering_heights_emily_bronte/>

Paget, Sidney. "I saw the figure of the man upon the Tor". Online Image. 1891.  <http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/pagets/238.html>

Hairnicks. "Roughtor Ford". Online Image. 19 November 2003. <https://www.flickr.com/photos/hairnicks/8479886212>

Stratmann, Linda. "Monument to Charlotte Dymond". Online Image. 2012-2014. <http://www.lindastratmann.com/articles/the-murder-of-charlotte-dymond.aspx>

Victorian Cross-Dressing and Gaskell’s Cranford

Sex, Gender and Sexuality

Today distinctions are typically drawn between sex (which is considered an anatomical category), gender (which is thought of as a category of self- and/or social identification), and sexuality (a term used to refer to sexual desires and/or acts). (Dreger 183)

1792: Chevalier d'Eon
by Thomas Stewart,
after Jean Laurent Mosnier

When defined on paper, the three terms show clear distinctions between each other as to their contributions and limitations when describing a person. As described above, sex relates to the the physical anatomical attributes of a person (male, female, both), gender describes what the person’s identifies himself as (male, female, both or neither) and sexuality relates to the what gender/sex the person is attracted to (males, females, both, neither, etc.). As it is clear to see there is overlap amongst the three categories though they are meant to be recognised as three separate entities. Alan Sinfield explains while “gender identity is a force in its own right – linked with sexual identity, but experimentally and analytically separate from it – has only recently come into focus.” (Sinfield 154) During the Victorian era, and even up until a few decades ago, the reverse was apparent where gender “has been a prior concept, and same-sex passion has been presumed to be a subcategory of it.” (Sinfield 155)

Molly Houses and Oscar Wilde

One of the best  examples of this claim would be seen with the early 18th century molly houses, the most famous being that of Margaret Clap, more commonly known as Mother Clap. Molly houses were typically bars, taverns or coffee houses with private rooms where men, known as mollies, would meet to socialise with other like-minded men. When using the term men here, it is meant to be understood as the sex of the participants and not the gender. Mollies were cross-dressing men who took on the personas of females. There is a sense of ambiguity as to whether or not mollies were homosexual, transgender or a combination of the both. Because these were essentially the same thing during the Victorian era it is difficult to be able to find a definite answer. It can even be said that these men would not have been able to make the distinction classifying themselves, and they would probably describe themselves similarly to how the general population would.

One contemporary described mollies as:

so far degenerated from all masculine deportment, or manly exercises, that they rather fancy themselves women, imitating as the little vanities that custom has reconciled to the female sex, affecting to speak, walk, tattle, cur[t]sy, cry, scold, and mimic all manner of effeminacy (Sinfield 155)

Sinfield suggests that unlike modern day culture, the Victorians focused gender rather than sexuality ultimately seeing the two categories as one of the same. This can also be supported with a statement made by one of the young male prostitutes in the trial against the Victorian poet, Oscar Wilde, who stated:

I was asked by Wilde to imagine that I was a woman and that he was my lover. I had to keep up this illusion. I used to sit on his and he knees to play with my privates as a man might amuse himself with a girl. (Hyde 7-8)

The fluidity between gender and sexuality is clearly present. However, it is interesting to examine the way the the male prostitute makes his statement. While it is apparent that Wilde sees gender and sexuality as one, the prostitute exclaims that Wilde asked him to imagine that he was a woman during their sexual activity together. It can be argued that while some Victorians tended think similarly to Wilde, being that gender and sexuality are the same, others had a much more modern view of the two being separate, just as the male prostitute did.

Legality

British law, during the Victorian era, forbade sodomy, buggery or any sexual interactions between two men with the penalty being death which around until 1861. The law, however, was quite vague about what was considered sodomy and was recognised typically as any sexual act that was performed that did not lead to procreation – commonly regarded as any acts between two men or the act of beasteality. H. Montgomery Hyde explains that “[l]esbian behaviour has never been criminal in England, although an unsuccessful attempt was made in Parliament to make it so in 1921” (Hyde 6). Most theorists suggest that while men practised cross-dressing at molly houses and formed communities, cross-dressing women, commonly known as transvestites, practiced alone. While the term ‘transvestite’ is seen as quite derogatory in the modern age and typically is associated with a man in drag, Rictor Norton explains “that during the 18th and 19th centuries, [transvestites were] persons who passed as members of the opposite sex over long periods of time were mostly women” (Norton) dressing as men, usually for means of pickpocketing or joining male-exclusive professions such as the military.

It is worth noting that it was not until 1967 when the Sexual Offences Act repealed the decriminalisation of homosexual acts for men over the age of 21. However, the criminalisation of most homosexual acts were only considered illegal from around 1885 and some a little before 1828 (Hyde 9). During the medieval times there were sumptuary laws which prevented cross-dressing. These laws were actually not directly targeted towards cross-dressing and actually were in place to promote class division. Nonetheless, during these times most men who dressed in drag, typically for entertainment purposes, were exempt from these criminal offenses. All other forms of cross-dressing at this time would have been illegal.

THE QUEEN v. BOULTON AND OTHERS

Fanny and Stella, photographed in
Chelmsford by Fred Spalding,
c.1870

An analysis of Victorian cross-dressing would be incomplete without the mention of the infamous Stella and Fanny. Stella, familiarly known as Thomas Ernest Boulton, and Fanny, known as Frederick William Park, are two of the most famous Victorian cross-dressers. Their fame arose during their trial involving them and their intimate relationship with Member of Parliament and third son of the fifth Duke of Newcastle, Lord Arthur Clinton. H. Montgomery Hyde explains that “Boulton and Park were both transvestite homosexuals, who liked to play female parts in amateur theatricals and frequently appeared in public dressed as women” (Hyde 94). Both Boulton and Park had cross-dressed publicly numerous times and had been watched by police for about a year until their arrest in April 1870 whilst exiting the Strand Theatre. The police officer who had made the arrest stated in evidence:

When we got to the station I saw that Boulton has a scarlet dress and a muslin shawl over it. […] Boulton had false hair and chignon of fair colour, like ordinary hair I have seen females wearing. He had ornaments—bracelets, rings and lockets. […] He wore ladies’ white boots. the bosom was padded to make it appear very full. (Hyde 95)

Similarly, Park is reported to have been cross-dressing in similar garb. They were charged with the intent to commit a felony and were sent to trial without the option of bail. During this time Lord Arthur Clinton contracted scarlet fever and died before being tried himself. The trial was quite popular in the public’s eye and was followed closely through the newspapers. Boulton and Park were eventually released because of a lack of evidence against them supporting the notion that they were involved in acts of buggery. (Hyde 94-98)

Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford

Because of the unlawfulness of cross-dressing during the Victorian era, it it interesting to find evidence of it in contemporary literature. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell’s, a popular 19th-century English novelist, second novel, Cranford, examines the social life of the predominantly female-driven town Cranford, which is based on the  Gaskell’s childhood town of Knutsford in Cheshire, England.

In the novel, the narrator, Mary Smith, and her friend Miss Matty Jenkyns are reading through old letters and setting fire to the ones that are no longer important to them. When the two stumble upon a letter from Miss Matty’s estranged brother, Peter, she confides in Mary about her brother’s history of cross-dressing after assuring that her servants were sent away from her house.

As a young man, Peter was an honours student at the Shrewsbury School with the likelihood that he was to attend Cambridge later after graduating, however as Miss Matty recalls

The sole honour Peter brought away from Shrewsbury was the reputation of being the best good fellow that ever was, and of being the captain of the school in the art of practical joking. His father was disappointed, but set about remedying the matter in a manly way. (Gaskell 80)

Throughout the novel there is an evident struggle between gender and sex. Even in the language and ideologies of the women living in Cranford seem to be affected by it. When telling the story Miss Matty slips and uses the word ‘hoaxing’ which she immediately repeals and apologises for uttering deeming that it is too unladylike to use (Gaskell 81-82).

Miss Matty goes on to explain that Peter, due to his comedic behaviour, would dress as a woman and play jokes on their father. Eventually, Peter’s disguise is revealed and he is beaten by their father with a cane.

1917: Miss Matty and her brother Peter
from Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell 

Miss Matty explains that Peter did not always tell her about when he was going to cross-dress but states that “[h]e used to say the old ladies in the town wanted something to talk about; but I don’t think they did.” (Gaskell 82-83) This line allows for a lot of analysis as to why Peter dressed as a woman. On a basic analysis one could assume Peter as dressing in drag just for a laugh because of his eccentric character, however the possibility that he enjoyed cross-dressing because underlying homosexual tendencies or gender misidentity is apparent. This can also be supported with the fact that it is never mentioned if Peter ever marries whilst he is abroad in India. By not showing interest in women and running away after not being accepted for his true identity by his father it makes one question if Peter had ulterior intentions when cross-dressing. It could be said that he is concealing his true feelings because of his patriarchal upbringing in a society which shuns this lifestyle. As it is noted in the novel, Mary Smith states that his stories of traveling appear farfetched and tend to change based on who he is telling the story to. Without definitive support to claim anything about Peter's life abroad, excluding what is told through his stories which can be considered unreliable, it makes one question Peter's character.

References

Dreger, Alice. “Hermaphrodites in love: the truth of the gonads”. In Science and Homosexualities of a Lesbian Community New York: Routledge, 1993. Print

Gaskell, Elizabeth. Cranford. {Chapter 6, Poor Peter} 2013. Web page. 6 November 2015. <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/394/394-h/394-h.htm>

Hyde, Harford, The Other Love: An Historical and Contemporary Survey of Homosexuality in Britain London: Heinemann, 1970. Print

Norton, Rictor. Gay History and Literature {Some Thoughts on… Cross-Dressing, paragraph 6.} 2014.  Web page. 6 November 2015. <http://rictornorton.co.uk/though17.htm>

Sinfield, Alan “Transgender and les/bi/gay identities”. In Territories of desire in queer culture: Refiguring contemporary boundaries. Ed. David Alderson & Linda Anderson. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. Print

Images/Videos

Spalding, Fred. “Fanny and Stella”. Online image Essex Record Office. 21 February 2013. Web. 6 November 2015. <http:www.essexrecordofficeblog.co.uk/frederick-park-and-ernest-boulton-aka-fanny-and-stella/>

Stewart, Thomas. “Chevalier d'Eon”. Online image. National Portrait Gallery. 2015. Web. 6 November 2015. <http://npg.org.uk/research/new-research-on-the-collection/the-chevalier-deon.php>

Youtube. “Fanny and Stella, The Shocking Truth - Show Trailer”. Online video clip. Youtube. 14 May 2015. Web. 6 November 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la1_wU8rCUI>

Wikipedia. “Miss Matty and her brother Peter from Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell”. Online image. Wikipedia. 7 August 2011. Web. 6 November 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranford_(novel)#/media/File:Miss_Matty_and_Peter.jpg>

It's all fun and games

Many assume that the Victorian attitude to play was it was only done by children; and children were to be seen and not heard; and that was only among the rich, while children in the working classes were lumped into strenuous workhouse jobs. While this is wholly true, the activities made to accommodate children were seen to take a big growth during this period, each of which had fascinating effects on Victorian life. By the end of your reading, I think you'll have a sense of the Victorians being more fun than the dusty stereotype would allow.

Stories of the time clearly emphasise how peripheral children could be. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights shows young Cathy and Heathcliff being “permitted to play,” only on Sunday evenings “if [they] did not make much noise”. Much of the rest of the novel, they're seen to play out on the moors, a detail I won't touch on, since you're reading a blog on Victorian life, and are unlikely to go on a dangerous Gothic moor anyway.

While this isn't a fair or nice way to see the children in the Victorian era (fictitious or no), it was the opinion held by some. The Victorian era's industrial revolution saw the advent of factory built things on an enlarged scale. Now was the first time that toys were mass produced and distributed across the country. Common toys at this time were model trains commonly made from wood with fixed metal axles, painted in bold colours. I believe toys like this were aimed at inspiring the younger generation to invest in new technology. Other common boys toys were figurines of soldiers in recognisable uniforms, such as the Queen's Guard, or soldiers in the colonies. The popular image of the tin soldier came from since many of these soldier toys were made with tin or other metals; the image of them being often incomplete due to the factories not having enough metal to craft them with was also common – though I'd hope an imaginative boy would pretend that a soldier with a missing arm or leg was just a war casualty. While the trains encouraged boys to tinker, these soldiers could lead boys to help backing the shining British Empire.

As for girl's toys, the Victorian era saw the first lavish doll's houses being made. Upper class girls often had their own homes remade as the doll's house, to recreate their own daily lives, with intricate details like matching carpets in certain rooms, and like for like pieces in the tiny china cabinets. Adding to the common but (lack of a better word) weird detail about Victorian girl's toys was the detail in their dolls. They'd commonly have clothes stitched out of the same patterned fabric or even cut down alterations of their old clothes. The details of girls dolls gets more bizarre when the doll makers would add the girl's own hair to the dolls, for authenticity. To me, I think this had two functions for girls: this odd realism in their dolls would aid them in being mothers later on in life, and to instil in them a sense of vanity; if they could preen a tiny copy of themselves, they'd be all the more willing to keep themselves equally presentable in the future, with the intention of courting a husband.

As nice the image could be of the little ones on the floor of their bedroom on a Sunday morning; a boy marching his tin soldier army up to his sister's elaborate doll's house, there was a great and unforeseen danger. The vibrant colours of boys trains and details in a girl's doll's house often meant the children would be at risk from lead poisoning. Manufacturers of toys would use lead paint on wooden toys during this time for vibrant colours to make such toys appealing. While they did know the risks of lead ingestion, they also assumed that the poison would be no problem unless it was consumed. Many young children suffered from this lead paint as they only got the effects when the toys were licked. This certainly contributed to the rampant infant mortality rates across the country, despite the obviously contrasting intention.

While the children enjoy the toys in their bedroom, as quiet as possible to mirror young Cathy and Heathcliff, one has to wonder what the parents are doing. The Victorian parlour game has been a stable part of Victorian culture and the associated games have been boring us for Christmases ever since. Such games as Charades were commonly played as well as many other games I can't quite claim I've heard of. What follows are some of my top picks and how to play them.

The Messenger sounds very fun; to me, it sounds like a difficult version of Simon Says. One person comes in and gives the room an action to do, and one by one everyone does it. That messenger leaves and comes back, giving everyone a new action which they must do on top of what they're already doing. It builds until people can't do it anymore and are eliminated. It's been said that the game “will not fail to produce shouts of laughter” (Jackson, 127). I'm now endeavouring to try and make my own friends play it.

Blind Man's Buff was common, and a favourite of Tennyson. It involved a blindfolded person trying to catch one of the other players and guess who it is, to pass the blindfold onto them. It was best played when the blindfolded one was spun a little, and they all called out to confuse them. While it sounds fun, it could also lead to a disconcerted feeling and potentially broken furniture from multiple stumbles.

Shadows or Shadow Buff was a simple and fun game, played by many people who had the benefits of strong gas or electric lighting. The players would have a “white tablecloth or... sheet... suspended on one side” (Jackson, 127) while one person guesses who's casting their shadow from behind the sheet and if they guess rightly, that person tries to guess the next shadow. I imagine that when people didn't play this game in this way, they would perform shadow puppets for the children when they're finished with their incomplete soldiers and eerie, human hair dolls.

Another interesting game played in the parlour after tea was something called Pass the Slipper. Most of the time it was played with a slipper, but any small object works. One person stands in the middle, eyes closed, while the rest encircle them, passing the slipper around behind their backs. The middle person opens their eyes and guesses who's got the slipper. They swap places if they're right and the new middle person has to guess again.

It seems that a lot of Victorian games involved people standing around each other, singling out one person to do something; a classic way to arrange a game, I believe. If anyone around a drawing room table were feeling particularly lazy, they'd play one of the multiple common card games.

While games like Poker and Blackjack were first recorded in 1829 and 1570 respectively, it took a considerable time before they became as commonly played as they are today. Other games would have been played with the traditional deck of French-suited cards.

Whist was a particularly common game and “ acknowledged to be by far the best” (Jackson, 261), and went on to become Bridge in today's serious card playing circles. It's played by four people where everyone lays down a card at random, whoever plays the highest wins the “trick” based on whatever the trump card is; they then take the cards. The rules are very unclear and I don't entirely understand it.

Many think of the Victorian people to be dusty and set in the ways of formality and decorum, 

distancing themselves from their children. To me, the Victorians knew how to enjoy themselves, giving well made (though odd and potentially deadly) toys to their children, while the grown-ups played strange but fun sounding games in the next room. The Age of Enlightenment sounded very fun to me.

Jackson, Lee. Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth. London: Yale University Press 2014. Print.

Victorian Ghosts and Spectres

Victorian Ghosts and Spectres

by Sonya Lane

Adding supernatural elements to literature is not a recent thing. From Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, ghosts have played a major role in much of the well-known literature of the 1800s. It is no surprise that many of the great novels and stories are still widely read today, especially those that contain the element of supernatural horror, but why is this the case?

                The fascination with the supernatural world in the Victorian Era can be somewhat explained by the new technologies of the age. As Bown, Burdett, and Thurschwell say in The Victorian Supernatural, electricity, telegraph wires, and the speedy railway started to transform the world, making everyday life feel “uncanny”. Those technologies may seem normal today, but at the time it caused people to question what they knew about reality.

                Another explanation for the deep interest in spectres is human fear. In his essay, Supernatural Horror in Literature, Howard Lovecraft takes a psychologist’s standpoint by stating that the “oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Since the supernatural world can never be fully known, it is often accompanied by fear. Whether this alone accounts for the continued appeal of the supernatural or not, who can tell?

One thing is for certain; many Victorian writers leaned towards the Gothic style that opened literary doors for ghosts everywhere. Although it seems ghosts were already seeping through the walls. Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was published in 1820, a good 17 years before the beginning of the Victorian Period, but it contains similar aspects of Gothic horror as well as introducing one of the most notable ghosts ever written about. What child doesn’t get chills when talking about the Headless Horseman?

It may not be considered Victorian literature per se, but The Legend of Sleepy Hollow fits right in with thrilling supernatural works that came only a decade or two later. Washington Irving paved the way for novels like A Christmas Carol and other ghost stories such as The Signal-Man.

Charles Dickens is the first name on the list when it comes to experts on Victorian ghosts. He may be praised specifically for writing A Christmas Carol, but Dickens wrote ghosts and spectres into many of his novels and short stories. The Signal-Man in particular shows how eerie spectres can be. The narrator is an observer who becomes entangled in the story but is not the character seeing ghosts, which gives the story a believable tone. As the thrilling tale progresses the narrator wonders if the strange occurrences are truly the work of spectres, then the strong ending leaves no doubt in the narrator’s mind, and perhaps the reader’s mind also, that the supernatural events could be real. That uncertainty draws readers and keeps the supernatural genre alive.

Wuthering Heights is an example of using ghosts to create the right mood in a novel that does not have a supernatural focus. Brontë mixes the genre by periodically mentioning ghosts. First she uses it to paint a picture of the daunting Wuthering Heights manor that Mr. Lockwood visits. He stays in Catherine’s old room and has an encounter with the ghost of a child who might be Catherine (67). Even though ghosts are not the topic of the novel, they persist from that moment until the last page when a passing boy claims to have seen the dead Heathcliff and Catherine. It is uncertain whether the narrator believes the boy, but that uncertainty is exactly what keeps the reader from forgetting this novel too quickly.

The heavy use of the supernatural element in Victorian literature sets it apart. Ghost stories have existed as long as someone existed to tell them, and will continue to exist, but the gothic style of Victorian writers brought out superstitions and ghosts in droves. The reasons for this can be speculated on, as well as the explanation for mankind’s intense interest in the supernatural, but it might be more fun to remain uncertain. What makes people shiver when the lights go out? What causes the hair on the back of our neck to stand up? Is it the ghost stories everyone has heard, or is it instinct trying to protect us?

Bibliography

Bown, Nicola, Carolyn Burdett, and Pamela Thurschwell. The Victorian Supernatural. Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print.

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Penguin Books, 1847. Print.

Dickens, Charles. Three Ghost Stories: The Signal-Man. Project Gutenberg, 2013. e-book.

Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 1820. Digi-Media-Apps, 2013. Web.

Lovecraft, Howard Phillips. Supernatural Horror in Literature. Courier Corporation, 1945. Print.

http://churchofhalloween.com/the-headless-horseman/

http://www.tusitala.org.uk/dickens-the-signalman-commentary-and-new-analysis-you-must-suffer-me-to-go-my-own-dark-way-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde/

Brompton Cemetery

                                                  Brompton Cemetery

One of my favourite places to go for a walk is a cemetery near where I live called Brompton Cemetery, situated on Old Brompton Road next to West Brompton Station. Yes, I know a cemetery sounds like an odd and creepy place to go for a walk but it’s surprisingly very peaceful and beautiful. It’s huge, with several pathways lined by graves, tombs and mausoleums, set against a backdrop of trees and overgrown plants and flowers. Death and nature go together hand in hand and Brompton Cemetery captures this union in a tranquil space. The Victorians were obsessed with death, and their interest in the macabre revolutionised burials and the mourning process. This fascination, combined with the need for sanitation due to the outbreak of cholera and the surplus of dead bodies resulted in a new kind of cemetery, intended to still be useful to the public after the burial grounds were filled up. I decided to take a deeper look into Brompton Cemetery, and discovered it to be a treasure trove of Victorian history, including being the resting place for some famous Victorians.

During the nineteenth century there was a dramatic increase in the need for burial grounds. Urbanisation and overpopulation lead to a rise in the amount of dead people and less place for them to buried. This need was influenced by ‘the general social need for sanitation and public decency’ which was generated by the public’s disgust at the odour of rotting corpses and the work of grave robbers (Collins, 498). Thus the concern for hygiene and cleanliness in the enclosed, overcrowded city spaces resulted in a move from burials in churchyards, which had no more space for corpses. This struck up a financial opportunity, and privately owned garden cemeteries began to appear. These garden cemeteries were also known as garden necropolis, a word lavish and macabre enough to appease the Victorians.  It basically means a large cemetery from an ancient city. The first cemetery that was designed this way in London was Kensal Green in 1833, inspired by the Pere-Lachaise in Paris, the first garden cemetery of Europe. It was followed by Brompton Cemetery and West Norwood (1836), Highgate (1839), Abney Park (1840), Nunhead (1840) and Tower Hamlets (1841). This collection of garden cemeteries were known as ‘The Magnificent 7’ in London and were owned by stock companies.

Brompton Cemetery was opened by the West of London and Westminster Cemetery Company in 1840, although the plans for it first began in 1837. It was the largest of the garden cemeteries in London (a good 39 acres), but was sold to the Ministry of Public Building and Works in 1854. It was the first cemetery to be sold into state control. There were financial and architectural problems, and the cemetery wasn’t a success. Nowadays the cemetery is used as a public park and nature reserve, as well as preserving the history surrounding the souls in their resting ground. It is looked after by The Royal Parks and is the only Crown cemetery in England. It was constructed by the architect Benjamin Baud, and was made for public leisure as well as disposing of the dead. The architects of these garden cemeteries wanted the cemeteries to survive as public parks and reserves. They were also meant to be spiritually uplifting spaces designed to give the masses fresh air as well as a taste of class and culture. Walking around Brompton Cemetery, I see Baud’s wish fulfilled. When you walk around you see mothers and their babies in prams, runners, people of all ages enjoying the occasional stroll. Every now and then you see a man doing Tai Chi or meditating; squirrels run up the trees, you run into an occasional fox and birds chirp in the trees. Its atmosphere is wonderful come rain or shine.

Centre of Cemetery and Anglican Chapel and unfinished colonnade

Colonnade

The Victorian architecture of the cemetery showcases an eclectic mix of graves, tombs, mausoleums and monuments in a variety of grand and melancholy designs with obvious Gothic and Classical elements. There are carved figures, engravings, scriptures, and different types of stones used to create a resting place fit for a Victorian if they could afford it. The centre of the cemetery holds an Anglican Chapel, and unfinished colonnades, adding to the dignified yet sentimental vibe of the place. The Victorian graves stand out compared to the more modern graves during and after the world wars. You can see the effect the war had on people and track the progression of history due the changing movements and styles of society. Victorian tombs and structures are more elaborate in design, whereas the simplicity of the post-war graves signify the sad shock of the public to the horror of death and war. Death was no longer a fascination or a spiritual game, it became a cold hard fact of life.

The 'Time Machine'

Hidden amongst the graves and paths is a mausoleum that stands out on its own. It has no name assigned to it and is covered in strange markings. It always intrigued me as it seemed to be shrouded in mystery. Strangely enough, an old man who I’ve only seen there once, saw me looking at it and told me that it was called the Time Machine. Looking into it, I found a lot surrounding this story, including the blog of a modern witch in the UK, which is linked below. It is interesting to note that according to her Brompton Cemetery is unique in having no ghosts compared to other cemeteries, so the dead are resting peacefully, which you feel in the peace blanketing the garden necropolis. I felt this was worth a mention when you connect it to the Victorians belief in spirits and their hobbies such as seances. The tomb belonged to three spinsters, Hannah Courtoy and her two daughters, and was completed in 1853. They apparently provided funding for Samuel Warner, a Victorian inventor, who is buried in an unmarked grave near the mausoleum. Egyptologist Jospeh Bonomi is also buried in the vicinity and was supposed to be Warner’s partner in designing the tomb, or as the story goes, time machine. Bonomi’s gravestone bears carvings similar to the hieroglyphic-like markings on the mausoleum. The Victorians were captivated by the idea of time travel, and loved glittering gadgets and inventions. This is illuminated in the Victorian  science fiction novel The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. The idea that some of the Victorians might have tried to actually build one is not too out there. They believed that the ancient Egyptians might have known about time travel, which connects with the Egyptian markings on the tomb. The story about it being a time machine comes from a 1998 press release. To pique curiosity it is the only structure in the cemetery for which no key or plans can be found. 

Monument over Dr. John Snow's grave

The distinguished cemetery is also the eternal resting grounds of some notable figures from the Victorian era. This includes John Snow (1813-1858), a scientist and physician who contributed enormously to the history of public health and modern medicine. He is considered to be the father of modern epidemiology, due to discovering the source of the cholera outbreak. The cholera epidemic was one of the reasons church burial grounds were overcrowded and urged the building of these garden cemeteries. He was also a leading figure in anaesthetics. A monument was placed over his grave to honour his achievements.  Other noteworthy  Victorian figures are encompassed amongst the deceased, such as Sir Henry Cole (1808-1882) who played a role in organising the Great Exhibition of 1851. Brompton Cemetery is filled to the brim with Victorian history, and brings to life a culture whose influence still survives today. It is a captivating garden necropolis in the city that is definitely worth a visit. 

References:

Curl, James Stevens. ‘The Architecture and Planning of the Nineteenth-Century Cemetery’ Garden History Vol. 3, No. 3 (Summer, 1975), pp. 13-41 March 2015 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1586489> 

Penny, N. B.. ‘The Commercial Garden Necropolis of the Early Nineteenth Century and Its Critics’ Garden History Vol. 2, No. 3 (Summer, 1974), pp. 61-76 March 2015 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1586541>

Rowland, Collins L.. ‘Review: Review of The Victorian Celebration of Death by James Stevens Curl; Victorian Cemetery Art by Edmund V. Gillon, Jr.’ Victorian Studies Vol. 16, No. 4 (Jun., 1973), pp. 468-470 March 2015 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3826582> 

Richardson, B. W.. ‘The Late Dr. John Snow’ The British Medical Journal Vol. 1, No. 125 (May 21, 1859), p. 415 March 2015 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25193446> 

Lawrence, Sandra ‘London’s coolest gravestones’ <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/17/travel/london-great-cemeteries/>

Wells, H. G.. The Time Machine (England: Penguin Books, 2005)

 Friends of Brompton Cemetery Website <http://brompton-cemetery.org.uk/cemetery-history/>

Copy of the press release <http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:v1eglBjcP-kJ:archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/LONDON/2001-09/1001487299+brompton+cemetery+time+machine&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk>

UCLA Site on John Snow <http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html>

The Victorian Web and the pages used <http://www.victorianweb.org> : 

<http://www.victorianweb.org/misc/vwintro.html>

<http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/art/parks/brompton/2.html>

<http://www.victorianweb.org/art/parks/brompton/history.html> 

The witch’s blog <http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/10/brompton-cemetery-time-machine.html>

Blog on the ‘Time Machine’ <https://kwurki.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/15/>

The Royal Parks Website  <https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/brompton-cemetery/about-brompton-cemetery>

‘Definition of Necropolis’ Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/necropolis>

Images taken by me at the Brompton Cemetery.