The Executioner by Katherine Pym

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A story of 17th c London, medicine & the theatre

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Executioners are interesting although it is not easy to find a lot of data on these guys.  I know of two who were completely different. One was thoughtful, the other a menace to the public... 

The Guillotine during the Fr.Revolution, a humane way to die.

Charles-Henri Sanson was the executioner during the French Revolution. He executed Danton, Robespierre, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Before Camille Desmoulins was guillotined, he handed Sanson a locket of his wife’s hair. “Please return this to my wife’s mother.” 

Sanson did. While he was at the Duplessis’ household, Camille’s mother-in-law learned her daughter would be executed. Afraid Sanson would be recognized as the one who guillotined Camille, and would execute Lucile, Madame Duplessis’ daughter, he dashed away from their house, mournful of his vocation. 

Charles-Henri Sanson

Due to the caste system of the time, the offspring of executioners in France were never allowed any other vocation but that of an executioner, and he must marry an executioner’s daughter, thus keeping their grisly profession within a lower social stratum, and within the family. (Everyone must have been related. How many executioners could there have been in France in a given year?)  

They were not allowed to live in town but at its outskirts. One of Sanson’s descendants was a known herbalist. People came to him for cures. Another Sanson, who could not bear a life of executing people, committed suicide. 

Another well-known executioner was Jack Ketch. English executioners were taught several ways to execute an individual; i.e., with fire, the ax, and the rope. I’m not sure if Ketch was very proficient in his vocation or a complete fool. He botched most of his executions.  

Jack Ketch, an ugly dude inside & out

The hanging knot is supposed to be placed on the side of the neck so that when the poor wretch is thrust off the back of a cart, his neck should break, but Jack liked to put the knot at the back of the neck. This meant long strangulation. Family members were forced to run under the Tyburn hanging tree, grab the wretch’s legs and yank down, hoping somehow for a quick end.

When Jack used the ax, he knocked the blade against the person’s neck several times before the head came off.  One fellow he tortured was Lord Russell. It took four strokes of the ax before the man was finally dispatched. Because of his cruelty, a hue and cry reached the king. Jack Ketch was forced to write a note of apology to the Russell family, which was published in 1683. 

The Duke of Monmouth expressly requested Jack Ketch make good use of the ax: “Here,” said the duke, “are six guineas for you. Do not hack me as you did my Lord Russell. I have heard that you struck him three or four times. My servant will give you some gold if you do the work well.” 

The Tyburn Tree where Jack did his job so well

There is no evidence if Ketch took the money, but he disregarded the duke’s request. In a brutal attempt to torture the victim, it took several strokes to finally behead the lad.

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Many thanks to Wikicommons, Public Domain &

Old and New London: A Narrative Its History, Its People, and Its Places, The Western and Northern Suburbs, Vol. V.,  1892, by Edward Walford

Cemeteries

I've always had a fascination for cemeteries. Ever since I can remember I liked walking around, looking at the names and dates. The older the better. I'm not sure where this fascination came from or why. 

 
I'm fortunate that my husband has accepted this strange quirk of mine and has taken me to several through the years. Once, while we were in his semi,  the cemetery was next to the truck stop and we were able to walk there. 
One of my favorite cemeteries is Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland,Ohio.  Many famous people are buried here - The most famous, of course, is President James A. Garfield. Architect George Keller designed the Garfield Monument, which was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1880. The Garfield Monument stands 180 feet tall. Around the exterior of the balcony are five, terra cotta panels by Casper Bubel, with over 110 figures all life size, depicting Garfield’s life and death.

The Memorial Hall includes rich, gold mosaics, beautifully colored marble, stained glass windows and deep-red granite columns. The stained glass windows and window like panes represent the original 13 colonies, plus the state of Ohio, along with panels depicting War and Peace. Standing in the main floor is a statue of the President sculpted by Alexander Doyle.

Venture up 64 steps from the lobby to the outdoor balcony. On a clear day you can see 40 miles of the Lake Erie shore. It's called Lake View Cemetery due to the magnificent view that one can see of Lake Erie from the outdoor balcony.

Another famous person is Eliot Ness as well as John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil Company of Ohio and first billionaire in the United States. 

The gardens are beautiful as well as the statues throughout. 

A smaller cemetery is in Twinsburg, Ohio - It was the setting in Trouble Comes

in Twos  Twins, Moses and Aaron Wilcox are buried there. They were reportedly so identical only their closest friends could tell them apart. They were lifelong business partners, held all their property in common, married sisters, had the same number of children, contracted the same fatal ailment and died within hours of each other. 
The sandstone vault standing sentry at the entrance of the cemetery was born out of necessity The earth proved too hollow during the winter so bodies lied in waiting until the ground thawed.

A much smaller cemetery was one we visited several times in Hocking County. I'm not sure it even has a name. It's next to a vacant wooden church (another thing that fascinates me). Some of the markers are so old you can't read them. There are only about 25 graves there (give or take).  We stopped there often on our way to and from the town of Nelsonville, when we vacationed in a cabin at Lake Hope State Park. There's something so peaceful about cemeteries. I'd often stop at the graves and wonder about the person who lived there. 

Strangely enough, I seldom visit the cemetery where my parents and two of my siblings are buried. I guess I'd rather remember them full of life.  

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Is letter writing redundant? by Priscilla Brown

 

Regretfully, no characters in these contemporary romances write personal letters.

 In future stories, maybe I should make sure they do!

https://bookswelove/net/authors/brown-priscilla-romance

Here, I am considering personal letters, not business or formal communications. In today's time-poor society (or perceived as such)  it's quicker and easier to phone, text, email or message. And there are times and situations where immediacy is essential.But isn't there something anticipatory about receiving a hand-addressed envelope? Open it, find a sheet of paper filled with handwriting - you know the writer has taken the time and effort to think of you.

Checking in my local newsagency I found several differently designed quality writing pads with matching envelopes, and boxed compendiums of attractive paper and envelopes. I asked the manager how the items sold. She told me that while the pads and envelopes on the whole were fairly slow sellers, those pads clearly designed for a child's use do sell, hopefully for the child to write thank you letters, and indicating that parents encourage children to write; others were bought mostly by women. The compendiums are popular especially close to Christmas, she assumes for gifts. And for writing thank you letters!

 So, other than thank you, why write? A few thoughts...


- reminisce on a good time you've had together
- someone you know, or sense, is in trouble, lonely, needs encouragement
- you've lost touch, want to repair a friendship
- forge a friendship with someone you know only casually
- take time to think things through, or apologise, clarifying comments that may be misunderstood in person or on the phone
- introduce a topic of mutual interest, leading to an epistolary conversation

- invite the recipient into the sender's world with descriptions of experiences, feelings, concerns
- recommend with details a book or movie
- with family, share thoughts and information which can be saved for future generations

Further to this, a nearby family is having a house built on previously vacant land. They are writing notes on their current lives to be dated, sealed in non-rusting container, and buried in what will become the garden. The seven-year-old wrote about his school; his four-year-old brother who could write his name dictated to the older child to write about his swimming lessons; for their two-year-old sister, Mr7 wrote her name, age and added kisses. Each parent will write notes to future parents.

Personalised and preferably handwritten letters are social currency with more of a human connection than is possible via technology. I believe such letter writing will not become redundant as long as we acknowledge a fundamental need to keep in touch on a deeper level.

As I cannot write personally to each of you, please imagine that I have handwritten (yes, you can read my writing!) on quality white writing paper using a blue pen, neatly folded into a matching envelope,  a letter bringing all good wishes for 2020. 

May the year be kind to you. And, of course, with lots of wonderful reading. 

Priscilla

 https://priscillabrownauthor.com

Harlots & Nightingales

Nightingale, her Lovers & Mozart

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 Buried in the depths of Hulu is a series based on Harris's Guide to the Ladies of Covent Garden, an erotic guide book to the prostitutes who worked the area. This little magazine was issued every year, at a cost 2 shillings + in London during the period 1757-1795. As the charms and specialities of each woman were described in sometimes graphic detail, it was titillating reading in and of itself. 

Having spent a lot of time imagining exactly that time period in the course of working on various novels, I was instantly drawn in. As befits a British production, the costuming and the opening street scenes on the poor side of town were thrillingly authentic, full of piss, drunks, poverty and danger. I confess, I'm completely addicted to Harlots, which has more engaging characters and more twists, turns and heart-breaks in one episode than some series contain in an entire season. 

Way beyond the soft core flash, Harlots is genuine women's history, served straight up. (!) It's written by women and a stern female gaze informs every scene and every line of dialogue. It made me realize, so much more than the tepid statement: "women had no property rights," that these women were property/chattel, just like their client's carriage horses. 

A woman belonged to her father until she belonged to her husband. If she was married off to a gross rich old man or to a violent young one, she might still be lucky enough to become a widow. Only then would she have a chance to control her own life. In a terrific scene at the end of the first series, an aristocratic woman confides that she doesn't care who killed her husband, but if his whore knows who did, she only wants to say "thank-you."

The best a harlot could hope for was a rich and congenial "keeper," a man who would protect what belonged (often by contract) to him. During Georgian times, in London, one in five women was engaged in the sex trade. There were many sociological factors bringing this heart-breaking statistic about, but whatever was the cause, young women flooded into town from impoverished rural families looking for work as domestics. Even if they were fortunate enough to avoid being recruited or even kidnapped for sex work, they were utterly dependent and could easily be forced into sex with their masters. The practice survives today, in the form of workplace sexual harassment.  

If you think those bad old days are over, take a look at the headlines in the past few years about the trials of women working in the entertainment (and the infotainment) businesses. This also happens in the course of ordinary employment, in offices, in restaurants, where tipped workers are paid (in my state $2.83/hr.) and in factories where women, in ever increasing numbers, have gone to work.  One reason for the vulnerability of working women is because even college educated women are not paid what men are paid for producing exactly the same work. Moreover, the color of your skin decides exactly how much less than a man you will earn. Poor women discover that they can make a great deal more "on the game" than working at a minimum wage job, so, if they are young or need to make their own hours because their children are young and daycare impossible because of cost, sex work might still seem to be the only option. 

My Mozart

The Viennese novels I've written are about the morally sketchy entertainment business, true then as now. Singers, actresses, and dancers enjoy fame and a bit of fortune while their looks and physical abilities last, but in the 18th Century they were never considered "respectable." Glamour and charisma brought wealthy men routinely into a talented woman's orbit. In a time when rich men routinely took mistresses, (and I'm sure it's not any different today) these talented women were collected by gentlemen as objects that proved status and virility--a virility often lodged only in their bank accounts.

My heroines, born poor and talented, Maria Klara and Nanina Gottlieb, live in a world where they always walk a cliff path way, the kind with a crumbling edge and an abyss beneath. Men take them for harlots simply because of their profession. Maria Klara is, quite literally, the property of a dissolute music-loving aristocrat. Her career as well as her comfort depend upon her powerful Count's good will and her ability to please him--both on stage and in his bed. Escape from her gilded cage seems utterly impossible.

Nanina, her family impoverished by the death of her father, barely escapes being turned out by her own mother. Lost virginity was the end of respectability, and, with that went the only other option for a woman in the 18th Century--marriage. Wife or Prostitute were woman's choices, unless she had money of her own sufficient to survive upon.  Artists like Mozart lived on the edge of this fast and loose theatrical world; Papa Leopold Mozart's letters are full of exhortations and warnings to his precious, susceptible son on the subject of whores, who might also be talented prima donnas, the kind of women who have passed through the hands of many men.

Mozart's Wife

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http://julietwaldron.com/books.htm

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~~Juliet