Gossip in the First Decade of Victoria's ReignAshton, John
History
Gossip in the First Decade of Victoria's Reign
Ashton, John
Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
On 19 Feb. the Queen had a monster cheese presented to her, “on which
occasion, she was pleased to express her satisfaction.” It was made from
the morning’s milking of 737 cows, prepared by the labour of 50 dairy
women, at West Pennard, Somersetshire, and it weighed 11 cwt. It was
octagon in shape, and its upper surface was decorated with the Royal
Arms, surmounted with a wreath of roses, thistles and shamrocks.
Unfortunately, although it had been made over two years, it was not
considered to be fit to eat for another eighteen months.
_Ecce iterum_ the irrepressible BOY JONES! Prison evidently had no
terrors for him; for, no sooner was he liberated from Tothill Fields, on
2 Mar., than he, almost immediately, set to work to repeat his former
escapades. On the day previous to his liberation, he was visited by Mr.
Hall, a magistrate, who tried to persuade him to go to sea; but Jones
made certain conditions which could not be acceded to, and he did not go.
This gave an opportunity for the _Satirist_ to come out with the
following appropriate lines:
“The impudent urchin, whom sure the devil owns,
And Government wants to send into the Navy;
Will not go to sea—and ’tis cunning of Jones,
Who, thus, may avoid his relation, Old Davey.”
He was then delivered into the care of his parents, with strict
injunctions to them to watch his actions; and, for some days, his conduct
was unexceptionable; he frequently attended a Methodist chapel, and
expressed his intention of joining a teetotal society. But the charms of
notoriety were too strong for him; and, again, he was drawn, as it were
by a magnet, to Buckingham Palace. Indeed, it possessed such attractions
for him, that, when required to pledge himself, before leaving prison,
not to visit the Palace again, he said he would not promise, as his
curiosity was so great.
On 15 March, shortly after 1 a.m., the sergeant of police on duty at the
Palace imagined, as he was going along the Grand Hall, that he saw
someone peeping through the glass door, and this turned out to be the
case; for, on his approach, Jones ran up against him, and was, of course,
immediately secured. In consequence of his previous visits, two extra
policemen had been appointed, whose duty it was, on alternate nights, to
watch all the staircases and interior of the building, and it was owing
to this arrangement that Master Jones was stopped early in his career, on
this last occasion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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