Mercuriosities

Some strange goings-on in Henton. However, there appear to several places named Henton or Hinton, and we can’t be sure which one this was – or perhaps it didn’t really exist . . .!

“There is in the neighbourhood of Henton and its vicinity a population of about 200, and curious enough it is to hear the different tales of the people of the pranks played by this wonderful class of being. Some of the inhabitants sit up by night, three or four together, for several nights following. using some peculiar charm, instructed, they say, by the wise men of the west. There they sit praying to themselves, they must not hear each other speak, that the witch may not any longer have power to scratch the children, as they do by some invisible means; and about midnight they generally hear some terrible unearthly noises. One person has even attempted suicide under fear; some, they say are hag-ridden, other (sic) dream wonderful dreams, and have cramps, all of which are attributed to the same cause. One person asserts that she actually, at night, saw one of those wonderful beings come into her room three times.” – Sherbourne Journal. –

[Such is the condition of the West of England in the 19th centruy. Of course the People know nothing of Bishops and Clergy, and Bishops and Clergy know as little of the People! The fleece is the thing cared for, and not the flock.]

Stamford Mercury Archive, 28th September, 1849.

The death of the romantic poet was very sad news, although he had been in poor health and had recently lost his daughter, Dora. Most people will know at least the first line of his poem Daffodils. And what, I wonder, would Horace Rumpole have made of the news that his ‘dear old sheep of the Lake District‘ had died?

“On Tuesday, Mr. Wordsworth died at his house, Rydal Mount, near Ambleside. He was very well, and vigorous for his age, during the last autumn, and was, in some degree, recovering his spirits, which had suffered a severe shock in the death of his only daughter. About a month since he was attacked with serious illness, from which he never more than partially rallied, and at last he died – so far as such a man can die – on Tuesday, at noon. He had lately completed his 80th year. In losing him, the country lost one of the noblest minds which, in these times, have been devoted to poetry. In the present century, rich as its earlier years were in poetry, there has been no poet combining such purity with such elevation of thought as Wordworth. But he was, in every way, a valuable man – a man of strictly moral life and of noble simplicity of manners. Though his work in this world is done, and well done, we cannot but mourn the loss of so great a man.”

The Stamford Mercury, 23rd April, 1850.

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“Funeral of the Poet Laureate

The remains of Wordsworth were consigned to the earth, at the little church of Grasmere, on Saturday last. The funeral was intended to be as private as possible, but the attendance of ladies and gentlemen assembled to pay honour to the reamins of the illustrious dead was very large. There was a long procession of carriages and horsemen, and the church was filled with ladies and gentlemen of the neighbourhood, attired in deep mourning.” – Westmorland Gazette.

The Stamford Mercury, 26th April, 1850.

Long before the ‘speaking tubes’ used in the fictional Kingdom of Rubovia (you don’t remember it?! – click here), a similar invention was shown and demonstrated at the British Association by a Mr. Whishaw.

–“Good News for Pluralists –

At a recent meeting of the British Association, Mr. Whishaw exhibited the Telakouphanon, or speaking-trumpet; and in doing so said that speaking tubes of gutta percha were quite new, as were also the means of calling attention by them of the person at a distance, which was accomplished by the insertion of a whistle, which being blown sounded at the other end quite shrilly.  Attention having been thus obtained, you remove the whistle, and by simply whispering the voice would be conveyed quite audibly for at least three quarters of a mile, and a conversation kept up.  He then amused the auditors by causing the end of the tube, which was of the length of 100 feet, to be inserted into the mouth-piece of a flute held in a person’s hand, regulated the notes, and placing his own mouth to the other end of the tube, ‘God save the Queen’ was played at a distance of 100 feet from the person giving the flute breath.  Turning to the Bishop of St. David’s, he said that, in the event of a clergyman’s having three livings, he might, by the aid of three of these tubes, preach the same sermon in three different churches at the same time!”

The Stamford Mercury, 26th January, 1894.

Here is a landlord with a good eye to the wishes of his customers and`all the other people who have to work on Sunday. Steam is the powering force for bellows, bells and warmth, thus allowing them to spend more time in this Hotel. Even better if he can sell the patent for his invention!

“Mr. Whiteley, ‘mine host’ of the Star Hotel, Sowerby, near Halifax, informs us that he has invented a machine for ringing changes on church bells, warming the interior of the church, and blowing the organ bellows, by the aid of a two-horse power steam -engine. By his invention, he proposes to save that excellent class of persons, bell-ringers, from working on Sundays; at the same time that he releases the organ-blower from his bellows, and comfortably warms the toes of the congregation whilst the good clergyman is essaying to warm their hearts. And all these things are to be effected at an expense infinitely less than he believes he can sell the patent right for. If we undertand his letter aright, he contemplates making the ringers, organ-blower, and congregation of Sowerby church a present of his invention, if he can sell tha patent right for what he thinks it is worth; and, in return, they can do no less than make his hostelrie the first ‘Star’ in the firmament of Sowerby. – Leeds Times.

The Stamford Mercury, 19th January, 1849.

Disgruntled ‘commoners’ were not happy when (not for the first time) the Marquis of Exeter moved some fish from the River Welland to his own pond. Perhaps they didn’t understand – after all, they probably used the fish for food, rather than sport!

“The water in the river Welland at Stamford has been this week drawn off, and a large capture of fish has been made by men in the employment of the Marquis of Exeter. Formerly there was very good rod-fishing in this neighbourhood, but of late years the Marquis has coveted all the amusement for himself, and frequently has had the river dragged to supply the pond in Burghley Park. It is understood tha the recent netting has been to stock a pond on the premises at Ketton occupied by Lord Burghley. No one would wish to debar the young legislator from proper recreation, after the heavy fatigue consequent upon close attention to his Parliamentary duties; but those who are denominated the ‘public at large’ think it not quite the thing that they should be deprived of their share of recreation in order to increase that of a single individual.”

The Stamford Mercury, 12th April, 1850.

John Parry was a welsh harpist and composer, although in this performance at Stamford, he appears to be playing a keyboard. Attendees paid the large sum of four or five shillings for the evening’s entertainment.

“The entertainment of Mr. John Parry at the Assembly-rooms, Stamford, on Friday evening last, attracted a large and fashionalbe audience. It was at first thought that the prices of admission were too high for ‘free trade times,’ and that the soirée would be only moderately countenanced; but the reminiscences of Mr. Parry’s former entertainment in Stamford, and his increased fame, were too powerful to be resisted, and the consequence was a full attendance. And, however much some of those who paid 4s. or 5s. for admission may have grumbled before taking tickets, there was not a shadow of discontent or disappointment on their leaving the room : the performance was declared inimitable, the applause was general, and the gratification imparted seemed prefect. Mt. Parry’s illustrations of the power of music were as varied as they were astonishing : he passed ‘from grave to gay, from lively to severe,’ at one time eliciting roars of laughter, at another almost making the piano articulate word, and anon causing breathless suspense by describing the fearful character of an Alpine store, a tragic incident connect with it, driving as it were from his instrument reverberating peals of thunder, and then modulating the sound till it seemed to die away in distance. Every person present showed an appreciation of the extraordinaty acquirements of the performer, who it is said has amassed a respectable fortune by his profession.”

The Stamford Mercury, 12th April, 1850.

Tolthorpe Hall seems to have had a very interesting past as well as having a highly popular theatrical future.

“R. Harrison, Esq., of Tolthorpe Hall, near Stamford, has been recently employing some of the labourers in his parish (Little Casterton) to level a portion of the grounds on the west of his residence. In the course of their operations, the men turned up the massive keystone of a handsomely carved arched window – a discovery which it is supposed gives a clue to the site of a hospital and chapel founded on the manor in 1301. Tolthorpe was anciently a manor of some importance: in the reign of the Conqueror, it was in possession of Ausculf, one of the greatest barons of the age : subsequently it became the property of John de Oketon, or John de Tolthorpe, who built and endowed a hospital for seven poor men, and a chantry for the befit of his soul. In after-times, Tolthorpe belonged for some generation to the Brown family, one of whose ancestors was a draper at Stamford and a wealthy merchant of the staple. The advowson of the chantry or college of Tolthorpe is frequently mentioned in official documents during the reigns of the early Plantegenets. Wright, the historian of Rutland, mentions that the chapelry was transferred in the 50th Edw. III.; but Blore disputes the statement, though he believes it was dissolved before the reign of Edward VI., as it is not mentioned in an inquisition taken during that reign of one of the Cecils. Blore farther speaks of unsuccessful efforts to discover the site of the chapelry. If the keystone recently discovered formed a portion of the hospital, it is probable its situation was on the edge of the slope extending from the river Gwash to the plateau in the centre of which stands the existing mansion. The stone is too heavy to have been conveyed from any considerable distance for any other than a useful purpose. Portions of stone which were found neat the same spot, seem to have undergone the action of fire : hence it is not improbable the hospital and chapelry were destroyed by a conflagration.”

The Stamford Mercury, 19th April, 1850.

Stamford’s Assembly Rooms was built in 1727, leased from the Earl of Exeter. The theatre was built in 1766 – 8 and opened in March 1786. In 1969, the Marquis of Exeter suggested that three of his building in St. George’s Square could form a hub for the Arts and offered to rent them out at £5 p.a. 1972 saw the official opening of the Arts’Centre. Eventually, the Stamford Theatre Co. and the Arts’ Centre were merged. The centre underwent another refurbishment in 2o16.

“Very extensive alterations are being made in the Theatre at Stamford, at the joint expense of the landlord and the lessee (Mr. Caple.) A new stage is to be laid down, ata lower altitude than that of the old one; and the pit also is to be lowered, thus effecting a greater separation between the pit and the boxes. The entire house is to be re-decoration, and ample provision is to be made for rendering it warm and comfortable. Mr. Caple seemed determined to revive, if possible, the patronage of the drama in Stamford, as he has done in other towns which he hqas visited with his company.”

The dulness of the ‘long evenings before Christmas’ in Stamford is to be relieved on Monday and Tuesday next by the performances of a party of femail serenaders, for whom the banquetting-room at the Stamford Hotel has been engaged. ~We perceive that all the popular Ethiopian ballads and glees are announced in the programme, and that the “sable sisters of song” have published a broad sheet of favorable criticisms upon their performances.”

Stamford Mercury, 15th December, 1848.

Use up and down arrow keys to resize the meta box pane.

The lords enjoyed a lively debate about the National Exhibition, planned for the following year. There was ‘much laughter’!

House of Lords, Friday March 22.

“Lord Brougham, with reference to the National Exhibition of 1851, said tradesmen ought not to be called upon the subscribe towards it, as it would be predjudicial to their present interest, though in after years it might produce benefits. He though the nation should subscribe 50,000l. or 60,000l. He complained that at the Lord Mayor’s banquest, or, as he designated it, the meeting of the ‘House of Mayors,’ Lord Stanley had spoen of his (Lord Brougham) as being volatile. – Earl Granville defended the object of the exhibitions from the sarcasms of Lord Brougham; and Lord Overstone, in an admirable maiden speech, said that the sneers of the noble and learnéd lord at the assembly at the Mansion-house were unbecoming, and ill assorted with those principles by the advocacy of which Lord Brougham obtained political station and power. – Lord Stanley also replied to Lord Brougham, and remarked of him, ‘In point of quickness, of activity, or rapidity, and pungency, I think that sal volatile* is nothing to him. I defy any human power, I defy even the noble and learnéd lord himself, – to apply a stopper, whether of glass or any other material, to the intensity, the activity, the ingenuity, and the pungency of his mind. (Much laughter.) But for the future, in order to form a more correct estimate of the noble and learnéd lord’s character, I shall regard him, upon his own showing, as a grave, a serious, a plodding, proper, slow, heaavy individual, not apt to form a hasty judgement, still less to pass a hasty opinion, and never making use of an expression which it might be desirable to recall (laughter), but as one who, by intense labour and study, makes himself master of one subject at a time and no more, never venturing to speak upon any question until he has made himself thoroughly master of it. (Much laughter.)”

The Stamford Mercury, 29th March, 1850.

*sal volatile – a type of smelling salts.

Most people would pay anything to be rid of the dreaded tooth-ache, so Mr. Sweeting and his chemist associates probably made good money from sales of his wonderful elixir.

“My curse on your envenom’d stang,

That shoots my tortur’d gums alang,

And thro’ my lugs gies mony a bang,

Wi’ gnawing vengeance;

Tearing my nerves wi’ bitter twang,

Like racking engines.”

The TOOTH-ACHE Cured by SWEETING’s TOOTH-ACHE ELIXIR.

“This troublesome complaint, which has hitherto been considered incurable except by extraction, is now no longer so: my Elixir has cured up to this time at least 100,000 people. I beg most distinctly to state it is no matter how long or violent the pain may have been, or how many teeth decayed; the Elixir will be found to stop decay, and be a permanent cure in every case of real tooth-ache, without the least danger to the most delicate constitution.”

Knaresborough, 1849. MARTIN SWEETING.

“No 10, Bow Church-yard, London, Jan. 2, 1850.

“To Mr. Sweeting, – Please send as usual 72 dozen Tooth-ache Elixir at 1s. 1 1/2d., and 12 dozen ditto at 2s. 9d.

“For W. SUTTON and Co., G. JONES.”

Prepared only by Martin Sweeting, chemist, Knaresboro’, who has appointed W. Sutton and Co., London, and Jas. Drury, Lincoln; Robson, Louth; Strawson, Market Rasen; Cartwright, Horncastle; Noble, Boston; Bowden, Gainsboro’; Skelton, Grimsby; Ridge, Grantham; Gibson, Kirton Lindsey; E. B. Robinson, Nottingham; Cressey, Brigg; F. Milns, Spalding; Creasey, Sleaford; Mountain, Alford; Leach, Wisbech; Thew, Lynn; and Hattersley, Barton; in bottles at 1s. 1 1/2d. and 2s. 9d. each. – N.B. Any medicine vender who has not got it, will procure it on being applied to.”

The Stamford Mercury, 5th April, 1850.