The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London (66 page)

‘filthy to a degree’: schedules: George Frederick Pardon,
Routledge’s Popular Guide to London and its Suburbs
(London, Routledge Warne & Routledge, 1862), pp. 44–5; onboard conditions: Revd A. Cleveland Coxe,
Impressions of England; or, Sketches of English Scenery and Society
(New York, Dana & Co., 1856), p. 37,
ILN
, 23 May 1846, p. 339, [Elias Derby],
Two Months Abroad: or, A Trip to England, France, Baden, Prussia, and Belgium, in August and September, 1843
, ‘by a Rail-road Director of Massachusetts’ (Boston, Redding & Co., 1844); Henry Morford,
Over-Sea, or, England, France and Scotland, as Seen by a Live American
(NY, Hilton and Co., 1867), p. 76, and Forney,
Letters from Europe
, pp. 360–61.

‘Ramsgate on Fridays’: names: Bennett,
London and Londoners
, pp. 108–110.

‘of manslaughter’: shoe-leather: Smith,
Curiosities
; the
Cricket
:
ILN
, 27 July 1844, p. 51.

‘may have died’: number of accidents: Barker and Robbins,
A History of London Transport
, vol. 1, pp. 41;
Our Mutual Friend
, p. 436.

‘by the City short-stage’: Schlesinger,
Saunterings
, p. 161; short-stage in 1825: Michael Freeman and Derek H. Aldcroft (eds),
Transport in Victorian Britain
(Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1988), p. 139;
Pickwick Papers
, p. 615;
David Copperfield
, pp. 563, 565;
Great Expectations
, ed. Charlotte Mitchell, intro. David Trotter (first published 1860–61; Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1996), pp. 186, 269.

‘seven or eight miles’: ‘A Dinner at Poplar Walk’ was retitled ‘Mr Minns and His Cousin’ when it was collected into
Sketches by Boz
, p. 367; Simond,
Journal of a Tour and Residence
, vol. 1, p. 17.

‘costing 2s’: personal service: Bradfield,
Public Carriages
, p. 38; Mr Minns: ‘A Dinner at Poplar Walk’,
Sketches by Boz
, p. 372; cost: G. A. Thrupp,
The History of Coaches
(London, Kerby & Endean, 1877), p. 121.

‘Bardell omnibus company’: bus speed and width of three-horse buses: Bradfield,
Public Carriages
, pp. 35, 37; seating capacity and number of horses, John Gloag,
Victorian Comfort: A Social History of Design from 1830–1900
(Newton Abbot, David and Charles, 1973), p. 128; footnote on library of books: Gordon,
The Horse-World of London
, p. 11; names of buses: Schlesinger,
Saunterings
, p. 161; the Bardell omnibus company: William F. Long, ‘Mr Pickwick Lucky to Find a Cab?’,
Dickensian
, Autumn 1991, pp. 167–70.

‘as they left’: number of box seats: Bennett,
London and Londoners
, p. 82; the author also notes their popularity, as do other writers of the period (Thrupp,
The History of Coaches
, p. 122, is the only one to describe them as ‘unpopular’, and he seems to be outnumbered in this); how to mount: Sekon,
Locomotion in Victorian London
, p. 33; the width: Garwood,
The Million Peopled City
, p. 204.

‘to the top’: the interior height:
ILN
, 12 August 1854, p. 130, but this may have been journalistic exaggeration. Certainly the height was limited, but no other source claims that those seated had to stoop. According to an earlier paragraph in the
ILN
, 1 May 1847, p. 288, a new design was being promoted, whereby passengers would be able to enter and exit ‘without stooping’: however, this doesn’t suggest that, once inside, tall men still needed to stoop; the Frenchman: Francis Wey,
A Frenchman Sees London in the ’Fifties
, ‘adapted from the French’ by Valerie Pirie (London, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1935), pp. 69–70.

‘own umbrellas’: drivers’ dress and manner, and leather covering: Schlesinger:
Saunterings
, pp. 163–4, 168; Bennett,
London and Londoners
, p. 81.

‘to the suburbs’: decline of the short-stagecoach: Barker and Robbins,
A History of London Transport
, vol 1, p. 26; incomes:
Penny Magazine
, 31 March 1837, cited in Freeman and Aldcroft (eds),
Transport in Victorian Britain
; suburban routes: Dyos,
Victorian Suburb
, p. 67; the 37.5 million passengers:
ILN
, 19 September 1857, p. 287.

‘along their routes’: dress: Bennett,
London and Londoners
, pp. 81–2, and Schlesinger,
Saunterings
, p. 164; cad’s step and behaviour, Bennett,
London and Londoners
, p. 82; the height of the step, Sekon,
Locomotion in Victorian London
, p. 33.

‘up to 9d’: ‘Omnibuses’,
Sketches by Boz
, p. 169; S. Sophia Beale,
Recollections of a Spinster Aunt
(London, William Heinemann, 1908), p. 20; impact of snow: Wyon, Journal, BL Add MS 59,617, f.29; increased costs:
ILN
, 7 January 1854, p. 3.

‘the increased work’: ‘Omnibuses’,
Sketches by Boz
, p. 169; driving on the pavement:
ILN
, 7 September 1844, p. 155; ignoring passengers: Watts Phillips,
The Wild Tribes of London
(London, Ward and Lock, 1855), p. 17.

‘emptied roads’: use of skids: Yates,
Recollections
, p. 35, and Schlesinger,
Saunterings
, p. 58–9; drivers strapped in: Sekon,
Locomotion in Victorian London
, p. 33; falling horses: Phillips,
Wild Tribes
, p. 17; boys skating: Bennett,
London and Londoners
, p. 98.

‘their own doors’:
Nicholas Nickleby
, p. 673; Smith,
Curiosities
, pp. 337–8.

‘begin in 1859’: this outline is drawn from Freeman and Aldcroft (eds),
Transport in Victorian Britain
, p. 145, and Alan A. Jackson,
London’s Metropolitan Railway
(Newton Abbot, David and Charles, 1986), pp. 14ff.

‘natural disaster’:
Daily News
, 23 June 1862, p. 5.

‘regained control’: locomotive explosion: Anthony Clayton,
Subterranean City: Beneath the Streets of London
(London, Historical Publications, 2000), p. 99; landslide: Jackson,
London’s Metropolitan Railway
, p. 23; Fleet Ditch disaster:
Daily News
, 19 and 20 June, 18 July 1862,
Standard
, 19, 20, 25 and 26 June 1862,
ILN
, 28 June 1862.

‘ventured underground’: VIP trip and photograph: ChristianWolmar,
The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground was Built, and How it Changed the City Forever
(London, Atlantic, 2004), pp. 37–8, 41; layout and lighting: Mayhew,
The Shops and Companies of London
, p. 150; fares and numbers of passengers:
ILN
, 27 December 1862, p. 687, 17 and 24 January 1863, pp. 57, 91.

‘passengers annually’: Kensington Canal: Hugh Meller,
London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer
(2nd edn, Godstone, Surrey, Gregg, 1985), p. 75; otherwise, this paragraph: Christian Wolmar,
The Subterranean Railway
, pp. 66, 71, 81.

‘at King’s Cross’: John H. B. Latrobe,
Hints for Six Months in Europe ...
(Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott, & Co., 1869); Anthony Trollope,
The Way We Live Now
, ed. Frank Kermode (first published 1875; Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1994), p. 696.

‘you are reduced’:
ILN
, 13 February 1869, p. 155.

‘besides six persons’: number of coaches: Long, ‘Was Mr Pickwick Lucky ... ?’, p. 167; broughams: Thrupp,
History of Coaches
, p. 118.

‘temper of the drivers’: American tourist: Charles Stewart
, Sketches of Society in Great Britain and Ireland
(2nd edn, Philadelphia, Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1835), vol. 1, pp. 93–4; ‘The Last Cab-driver, and the First Omnibus Cad’,
Sketches by Boz
, pp. 171–2; the driver’s breath: Fred Belton,
Random Recollections of an Old Actor
(London, Tinsley Brothers, 1880), p. 4.

‘in a hurry’: Schlesinger,
Saunterings
, p. 158; ‘Coach!’: ‘Hackney-coach Stands’,
Sketches by Boz
, p. 107; footnote: Mayhew,
London Labour
, vol. 3, p. 353; ‘I’m in a hurry’: Bradfield,
Public Carriages
, p. 49, is one example of this joke among many.

‘1 per 300 residents’: numbers and fares, 1830: Thrupp,
History of Coaches
, p. 118; hansom design, ibid.; Hudson,
Munby
, p. 147;
Pickwick Papers
, p. 290;
ILN
, 29 January 1864, p. 83; cab numbers: F. M. L. Thompson, ‘Nineteenth-century Horse Sense’,
Economic History Review
, 29: 1 (February 1976), p. 65; the number of black cabs today is given as 25,000 on the government’s official Transport for London website: http://www.tfl.gov.uk./businessandpartners/taxisandprivatehire/1364.aspx, accessed on 29 July 2011.

‘noise and dirt’: description of stands: [Dickens, W. H. Wills and E. C. Grenville-Murray], ‘Common-Sense on Wheels’,
Household Words
, 12 April 1851, in Harry Stone (ed.),
Charles Dickens’ Uncollected Writings from Household Words, 1850–59
, 2 vols (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1968), vol. 1, pp. 243–4, Smith,
Curiosities
, pp. 103, 105, and Phillips,
Wild Tribes of London
, p. 17; horse manure: Smith,
Curiosities
, p. 66.

‘checked outfits’: watermen’s dress:
Pickwick Papers
, p. 21,
Sketches by Boz
, ‘The Last Cab-Driver’, p. 178, and Diana de Marly,
Working Dress: A History of Occupational Clothing
(London, B. T. Batsford, 1986), p. 88; coachman’s dress: Cunnington and Lucas,
Occupational Dress
, p. 226, and Gloag,
Victorian Comfort
, p. 136.

‘to the pubs’: reputations of cabstands, and railway approach: Garwood,
The Million Peopled City
, pp. 180–81; watermen: Mayhew,
London Labour
, vol. 3, p. 353.

‘£46 a year’: economics of cabs: Garwood,
The Million Peopled City
, pp. 175–6, and James Greenwood,
The Wilds of London
(London, Chatto and Windus, 1874), p. 113.

‘between specific points’: bucks extorting fares: Garwood,
The Million Peopled City
, p. 176; Dickens, Wills, Grenville-Murray, ‘Common-Sense on Wheels’, p. 242; 1853 legislation: Sekon,
Locomotion in Victorian London
, pp. 76–9.

‘is a magistrate’: in snow: Wyon, Journal, BL Add MS 59,617, f. 29; Schlesinger,
Saunterings
, p. 159;
Dombey and Son
, p. 107.

‘Mayfair and Belgravia’: Trollope,
Phineas Redux
, ed. John C. Whale (first published 1873–4; Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 184, 212–13.

‘to need stables’:
Our Mutual Friend
, p. 249; ‘Anonyma’,
London by Night
, ‘by the author of ‘Skittles’ (London, William Oliver [?1862]), p. 52. The British Library catalogue suggests that ‘Anonyma’ may be the journalist W. S. Hayward; 10,000 carriages:
Mayhew and Binny,
The Criminal Prisons
, p. 55; builders and mews in 1860s: Freeman and Aldcroft (eds),
Transport in Victorian Britain
, p. 142.

‘treated as mendicants’: footnote: William Kitchiner,
The Traveller’s Oracle; or, Maxims for Locomotion: Containing Precepts for Promoting the Pleasures ... of Travellers
(London, Henry Colburn, 1828), vol. 2, pp. 78–9;
Martin Chuzzlewit
, p. 637; Schlesinger,
Saunterings
, p. 5.

‘cockade in your hat’: livery: Zachariah Allen,
The Practical Tourist ...
(Providence, RI, A. S. Beckwith, 1832), vol. 2, pp. 250–51, Cunnington and Lucas,
Occupational Costume
, pp. 182–5;
Martin Chuzzlewit
, p. 487.

‘control the horse’: descriptions, benefits and drawbacks of carriages and cabs: Thrupp,
History of Coaches
, pp. 82–3, 118, William Bridges Adams,
English Pleasure Carriages; Their Origin, History, Varieties ...
(London, Charles Knight, 1837), pp. 240–43, Ross Murray,
The Modern Householder: A Manual of Domestic Economy in all its Branches
(London, Frederick Warne and Co., [1872]), pp. 456ff.

‘of the hood’: lack of noise: Adams,
English Pleasure Carriages
, p. 241; number of street lights: John Hollingshead,
Underground London
(London, Groombridge, 1862), p. 199; mailcoaches’ lighting: Edward Corbett, ‘Colonel late Shropshire Militia’,
An Old Coachman’s Chatter, with some Practical Remarks on Driving
, ‘by a semi-professional’ (facsimile of 2nd edn [first published ?1894], Wakefield, EP Publishing, 1974), pp. 46–7; hansom’s light: A. Mayhew,
Paved with Gold
, p. 110.

‘one with a light’: carriage lamps: Kitchiner,
Traveller’s Oracle
, vol. 2, p. 100, and O’Dea,
Social History of Lighting
, pp. 76–7, which also contains the ‘harvest moon’ quote; Queen Victoria in Paris:
ILN
, 8 September 1855, pp. 308–9.

‘something altogether different’: Corbett,
Old Coachman’s Chatter
, pp. 46–7.

4.
IN AND OUT OF LONDON

‘glared away’:
Nicholas Nickleby
, pp. 89–90.

‘hours straight’: Dickens’ trip to Yorkshire: Ackroyd,
Dickens
, p. 265.

‘o’clock at night’: post-chaises and system: Hayward,
Days of Dickens
, p. 84; guidebook:
Leigh’s New Picture of London
(1819 edition), pp. 419–20;
Pickwick Papers
, pp. 122–5.