This curious little book, printed in 1709, sets out to show “The religion of the Calves Head heroes”. It is the 7th edition with “large improvements”. It also contains an “annex” which is a “vindication of the ROYAL MARTYR King Charles 1st”

The club met every 30th January, the day Charles 1st was beheaded, at different houses. In 1709 they were celebrating their 30th anniversary and one of these is described. The proceedings formed a kind of service. An axe was hung on the wall . The main dish was calves heads which were dressed in different ways. One had a pike in its mouth to represent tyranny and one had a cod’s head in its mouth to represent the person of the king and all those who had suffered with him. After the meal an “eiken basilike” was burnt on the table whilst anthems were sung. Then a copy of Milton'’ Defensio Populi Anglicani was produced. Everyone laid their hands on it and swore an oath. The company were mainly Independents and Ana Baptists with the priest for day being Jerry White former chaplain to Oliver Cromwell. After grace had been said the table cloth was removed and an anniversary anthem sung. A calf’s skull was then filled with wine and a toast made to those worthy patriots who had killed the tyrant. A collection was taken!

The author of the book is not very happy about the proceedings which he calls “shameful assemblies” and in the following chapters he sets out his arguments against the club. Firstly he deals with the “character of a calf’s head clubman” and he does not mince his words: “he is the spawn of regicide – hammered out of a rank Anabaptist hypocrite – his father beget him by the fat of sequestered lands upon a bed stolen from an honest cavalier. His villainous principles he imbibed in his mother’s womb, nourished them when born with her infectious milk and is an incorrigible rebel by instinct of nature……he is a republican monster so full of passion and prejudice that he is blind to all truth and deaf to all reason etc”

This tirade is 6 pages long! It ends with the following words: “he loves nothing so well in this world as a calves head upon the 30th of January but the next time he sits down to one in derision of the sufferings of the royal martyr I heartily wish that the devil choke him”

Then follows several pages of anthems which the writer criticises. The 1690 anthem begins as follows –

Now let us sing, carouse and roar
The happy day has come once more
For to revel
Is but civil
As our fathers did before
Who, when the tyrant would enslave us
Chopped his calves head off to save us.

The next ten years offerings are not much better except for the 1696 offering which is very amusing and deserves fuller coverage.

There was a king of Scottish race
A man of muckle might a
Was never seen in battles great
But greatly he would sh- -- a
This king begot another king
Which made the nation sad a
Was of the same religion
An atheist like his dad a

He swore he’d make each mother’s son
Adore their idol steeple
But they perceiving his designs
Grew plaguy shy and jealous
An timely chopt his calves head off
And sent him to his fellows

Old Rowly did succeed his dad
Such a king was never seen a
He’d lie with every nasty drab
But seldom with his queen a
Restless and hot he rolled about
The town from whore to whore a
A merry monarch as ever lived
Yet scandalous and poor a

At last he died we know not how
But most think by his brother
His soul to royal tophes went
To see his dad and mother
The furious James usurped the throne
Topull religion down a
But by his wife and priest undone
He quickly lost his crown a

Our critic does not approve of any of the anthems from a poetical point of view as well as from their content.

1690 -“Of all the Smithfield jingles that ever any persecuted ear underwent the penance of the foregoing madrigal is certainly the poorest stuff”
1693 – “The diabolical principles and inveterate malice of these rebellious miscreants cannot well be rendered more odious to the public”
1694 – “The drift of the rhyming secretary in all his rebellious ballads is much the same with little variation of thought”

There are two engravings included in the book. The first is a representation of a calves head club meeting. The axe is on the wall. On the table are 3 plates. One has the fish, the second has some calves heads and the third has a boars head. A satanic figure looks through the door. The second engraving is supposed to represent a cabinet meeting at the time of Oliver Cromwell. The central figure is the devil.

The book ends with a spirited defence of Charles I.

Janet C. Senior, Assistant Librarian