SIXTY YEARS AGO.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4800, 21 January 1925, Page 4

SIXTY YEARS AGO.

MODES AND MANNERS IN LONDON.

Gay and tragic sketches cf Victorian England are offered by Alfred Rosling Bennett in his “London and Londoners in tlte Eightcen-Fifties and Sixties.” The writer is a prominent English engineer. His descriptions of the period are largely from his own recollections; they certainly display remarkable powers of observation, and they form lively and agreeable entertainment. The author himself says that “many of these mental notes are the fruit of all the five years from 1855 to 1860, so that the memories recorded are those rather of a boy of ten than of five years. 7

The policeman of the time differed decidedly in appearance from hip successor of 1924. The old watchman, immediate precursors of the new police, had been called Charlies, and the modern force was already familiarly known by names still current — Robert. Bobby, Peeler, and Copper. The first three appellations were derived from Sir Robert Peel, who had conducted the Police Bill of 1830 through Parliament, and the fourtn from the slag verb to “cop.” In addition, the policeman was sometimes called a Bluebottle, by way of graceful allusion to the colour scheme of his uniform. The originator of the idea of the new police was not, however, Sir Robert Peel at all, but Vincent. George Dowling, editor of the sporting newspaper, “Bell’s Life in London,” who had suggested and advocated it years before. Had not popular opinion wrongly acclaimed Peel a« the author the new enemies of turbulence would probably have been baptised Georges or Dowlers. The new policeman wore a tall pot hat, built strongly of varnished leather and warranted to withstand all sorts of assaults and batteries; a brass-buttoned, bob-tailed, stiff-collar-ed coat and large-legged trouisers, all dark blue, although the writer recollects white trousers for summer wear. A black-varnished belt with truncheon, 1 lamp, and rattle completed the awe-inspiring get-up, which in winter was concealed under’ a long overcoat. The rattle, an inheritance from the old watchman, replaced in recent times by a whistle, was a noise-ci eating device consisting ol a tongue pressed by a spring against a wooden ratchet wheel, which, when swung round by means of a handle, gave out an ear-splitting and distinctive sountl. ylt told constables near ,and far that a comrade needed help. ■ In the police icourt records .of the eigbteen-fifties and.sixties the expression “the policeman sprung his rattle” constantly occurred. In the late sixties the leatherpot hat of the Dowler police was replaced by the pelmet of to-day. Her Majesty’s postman was a swell, and no mistake ! the .writer tells. He wore a bright scarlet coat of the frock, variety, with gay buttons and ornamental cuffs, with a shining pot hat, having a gold-coloured band round it. No wonder the servant maids looked

out for- the postman, and watched him flitting from gate to gate, like a dragon fly in bright -sunshine.! How isplendid and how appropriate they must have thought him for “Love’s harbinger” who had to deliver valentines by the ton every 14th February. The bulk of the youth of the present generation cannot know the beadle. In the eighteen-fifties he was- a civic functionary, and he formed an appurtenance of nearly every church. His laced, gold-embroidered, cocked hat, of enormous dimensions, which .ie was actually privileged Io wear in church, hijs long, gold-cdged red, blue, or green coat, canary or pucc-coloui-ed breeches, calves tremendous in miigniture and colour, and long, goldtipped staff, were the terror of naughty boys. Stalwarts usually filled the part; a little man accentuated the commicality of the' dross.

As the eighteen-sixties approached hoops attained marvellous dimensions, and were affected by all classes of women Croquet, the writer believes, was o-iginated or revived in the crinoline age—another instance of how hoops had seized the imagination. The Empress Eugenie was supposed to be.;he high priestess of the crinoline. Paris claimed to be the centre of light and leading in all pertaining to female dress. And the flowerwreathed bonnets, and their dexteiously knotted ribbons I and the Mantles and Paisley shawis I “But, laug i as we may about crinolines or poikpie hats, middle-class ladies of that period are entitled to respectful admiration on at least one count— they rarely indulged in rouge, powder, or lip salve, and vanity bags were unknown.” Manoeuvres- of the kind were considered essentially French, and unworthy of English womanhood. Girls wore dresses of (simple. materials, though flounced and bulgy, real flowers were worn in the hair, and aitlessness was the note struck. But they liked earrings, and piercing the ear for the ring was sometimes held to be good for the sight..

Gentlemen, after the middle eigh-teen-flltics, began to grow long beards and whiskens, the consequence, it was said, of experience in the trcnche.’ before Sebastopol. Lord Dundreary weepers were common. Sbop-Tvalkeis who could not grow them were not much in demand. Men wore cut-away coats, waistcoats, and trousers whici ultimately assumed the peg-top foim,. “As the ladies' dresses expanded from the waist downwards, so the men's diminitshed.” For a period waistcoats and trousers were made oi the same patterns and colour, the coat being usually of darker hue. Black velvet jackets were not irncommon for indoor use. Capes-and cloaks frequently replaced overcoats, and neckties and watch chains were more gorgeous and passive than those we know. Nightcaps were still .affected by many of the older folk, although beds in good houses were protected from draught by curtains that were made to draw. Little boys were usually miniature copies of their dads ; thej were < breeched late, and until that happened they wore petticoats. The pot hat was imperative for all

city men, and for their clerks, porters, and doorkeepers. Those who lunched in the city had to rely on the chop house or the humbler coffee house. There were the London tavern and i few others where millionaires could revel, but of regular hotels with grill rooms attached the writer doubts whether there was even one within the magic square mile. In the early eighteen-sixties, Lake’s luncheon establishment, in Cheapside, was reckoned very go-ahead, for there one could supplement one’s luncheon by smoko, coffee, draughts, dominos, and billiards. The.proprietary placed implicit faith in the honesty of its clients On coming out one detailed the items of a meal to an elderly pay clerk, who instantly and unerringly announced the total due.

'['he writer gives a hideous picture of the public execution of Eve foreigners for mutiny and murder in 1861. The Jmultaneosu hanging of five men was without parallel since the execution of the Cato Street conspirators in 1828, and immense crowds assembled and made the vicinity of Newgale a bear garden from the previous Sunday evening and onward through the night. Calcralt was tiie hangman, a short, thick-set shabby man, whose ' venerable white locks, beard, and sinister face belied the cringing and fawning deference of his behaviour. It was said that he had had two handsome marriageable daughters who never received any offers, and that a passenger, on recognising them in an omnibus, left so precipitately that he forgot to pay his fare. Mr Jonas, governor of Newgate, had general charge of the “spectacle.” It was well stage managed. There were five ropes on the gibbet, to which Calcraft brought out the culprits one by one. When all apepared to be ready a cry went round the mob, “Hats off 1” and a great groan arose when the drop fell, and left the five men struggling in the air. The fall th’en given was short; necks were seldom dislocated, and strangulation was the usual result. Owing .to the disturbances caused by mobs gathering oi, Sunday evening to be in time for Monday morning’s show, hanging d;iy was changed to! Wednesday early in 1865. Abolition of public executions was then pressed for in earnest,, with the result that four years later the reform received Parliamentary sanction. ■ The first person to take advantage' of the Act wais Alexander

u kay, so that, the writes says, Scotland was well to the front ais usual. He imagines that few Caledonians will willingly concede that he was ‘t he real Mackay.”