Broadsides; Chapbooks; Street literature -- Great Britain
For the use of the first two wood cuts in our collection of “Cocks”
and “Catchpennies” we are indebted to the kindness of Messrs. Charles
Griffin and Co., of Stationers’ Hall Court, the present proprietors
of Mayhew’s _London Labour and the London Poor_--a work which, of all
others, gives by far the best description of LONDON STREET-FOLK;
and is of itself a complete cyclopædia of the condition and earnings
of--those that _will_ work, those that _cannot_ work, and those that
_will not_ work. We had intended to have used the originals of “Jemmy”
Catnach, but Mr. W. S. Fortey, his successor, writes to inform us that,
after a lengthened and active service, the cuts in question were worked
and worked until they fell to pieces.
With these remarks we now introduce our readers to a genuine Catnachian
“Cock,” and one that is said to have “fought well in its day,”
entitled, “Horrid Murder Committed by a Young Man on a Young Woman.”
[Illustration]
HORRID MURDER, Committed by a young Man on a young Woman.
George Caddell became acquainted with Miss Price and a degree of
intimacy subsisted between them, and Miss Price, degraded as she was
by the unfortunate step she had taken, still thought herself an equal
match for one of Mr. Caddell’s rank of life. As pregnancy was shortly
the result of their intimacy, she repeatedly urged him to marry her,
but he resisted her importunities for a considerable time. At length
she heard of his paying his addresses to Miss Dean, and threatened, in
case of his non-compliance, to put an end to all his prospects with
that young lady, by discovering everything that had passed between
them. Hereupon he formed a horrid resolution of murdering her, for he
could neither bear the thought of forfeiting the esteem of a woman who
he loved, nor of marrying one who had been as condescending to another
as to himself. So he called on Miss Price on a Saturday and requesting
her to walk with him in the fields on the following day, in order to
arrange a plan for their intended marriage. Miss Price met him at the
time appointed, on the road leading to Burton, at a house known by the
name of “The Nag’s Head.” Having accompanied her supposed lover into
the fields, and walked about till towards evening, they sat down under
a hedge, where, after a little conversation, Caddell suddenly pulled
out a knife and cut her throat, and made his escape, but not before
he had waited till she was dead. In the distraction of his mind he
left behind him the knife with which he had perpetrated the deed, and
his case of instruments. On the following morning, Miss Price being
found murdered in the field, great numbers went to take a view of the
body, among whom was the woman of the house where she lodged, who
recollected that she said she was going to walk with Mr. Caddell, on
which the instruments were examined and sworn to have belonged to him.
He was accordingly taken into custody.
J. Catnach, Printer, Monmouth Court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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