The above book came to light during this year’s stock check. It is subtitled An Unconventional Handbook and was published by Charles Dickens, Office Of All The Year Round in London. The book cost one shilling when first published and is a very interesting read. It not only informs the reader of interesting places to visit but of colloquial expressions, charities, clubs, churches, hospitals, a list of Holy Days, doctors, omnibus routes, courts, pillar boxes etc. The following excerpts are just a few of the interesting entries.

The expression A1 – “This has become a common expression synonymous with perfect or excellent and is spoken throughout nearly the whole civilised world. This term comes from Lloyd’s and is used in the register to indicate the character of a vessel”.

Ashes – “No vegetable or animal refuse ought to be thrown into the dustbin. It should all be first dried under the kitchen fire and then burned”

Balloon ascents – “Balloon ascents frequently take place from the grounds of the Crystal and Alexandra Palaces”.

Buckingham Palace – “It is not nor can ever be a really fitting town palace for the sovereign of England. There are some few good pictures but no regular collection. The part of the establishment best worth seeing is the Royal Stables.”

Carriage Thieves – “No vehicle should ever be left with windows open…. Ladies should be especially careful of officious persons volunteering to open or close carriage doors. In nine cases out of ten these men and boys are expert pickpocket”.

Milk – “London milk – sellers are supplied partly from cowsheds in London itself, partly from numerous farms in all parts of the country brought within easy reach by the railway system. Milk is unfortunately often the source of or means of spreading, serious epidemics of typhoid, diphtheria and scarlatina”.

Opium Smoking Dens – “The best known of these is that of one Johnstone who lives in a garret off Ratcliffe Highway and for a consideration allows visitors to smoke a pipe which has been used by many crowned heads in common with poor Chinese sailors who seek their native pleasure in Johnstone’s garret. This is the place referred to in the ‘Mystery of Edwin Drood’ ”

Prisons – “The prisons and session houses of London are known by the following cant name:
Central Criminal Court – The Start
The Old Bailey – The Gate
Sessions House, Clerkenwell – X’s Hall
House of Correction, Clerkenwell – The Steel
House of Detection, Clerkenwell – The Trench
Surrey Sessions House – The Slaughter House
The convict and other prisons are commonly called Jugs”.

Servants – “Vary even more than most commodities. The best way to get one is to select from the advertisements in the daily papers….insist upon a personal character. Written characters are not worth reading……”

Sunday – “is not a pleasant day for a stranger in London”.

The front and end papers of the book are full of advertisements. The most interesting is for the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association whose president was the Duke of Westminster. This august body provided “free supplies of water for Man and Beast in the streets of London”.
There were 391 fountains and 399 troughs. More than 1,800 horses, oxen, sheep and dogs used the troughs and it was estimated that 300,000 people drank from the Fountains daily in summer. “More than 8,000 having been known to drink at one Fountain in a single day many of whom are working men who would otherwise be compelled to resort to the public house to quench their thirst”

You can find this interesting book in the Butler’s Pantry.

Janet C. Senior, Assistant Librarian