Maureen Waller

For chronicles of London life, I may switch my allegiance from Liza Picard to Maureen Walker. 1700: Scenes from London Life fits neatly in between Picard’s Restoration London and Dr. Johnson’s London, although obviously some of the same ground gets covered. Walker follows the life history of a typical Londoner – marriage, childhood, disease, death, fashion, amusements, etc. The book is full of pleasant little anecdotes:


* On the eternal working of the law of unintended consequences – show more because there was a tax on marriage, many (Walker estimates a third) of weddings were black market. (There was also a tax on bachelors and spinsters older then 25, so many of the couples involved in black-market weddings never saw each other again.) Because there was a tax on windows, most people bricked theirs up, not helping indoor air quality any.


* On some of the more gruesome results of difficult childbirth: Doctors had a variety of instruments designed to dismember a dead child in the womb so it could be extracted, and midwives were admonished to bury stillborn children (although not in a churchyard; they were not baptized) rather than just throwing them out a convenient window (hopefully, not one that had been bricked up).


* The “Bills of Mortality” provide insight into the number of ways you could shuffle of the mortal coil. “Ague and fever” (presumably malaria) was the second greatest cause of death (3676 in 1700) after “convulsions” (4613). Twenty-nine people were executed; 11 were murdered. Eighty-three died of “evil”, 5 of “grief”, 6 of “head-mould-shot” (?); 69 of “French pox”; 11 were “livergrown”; 189 of “spotted fever and purples”; 70 of “surfeit”, and 53 of “worms”. It was especially hard on children – 546 “abortive and stillborn”; 78 where the cause of death was “children or infants” (apparently no further explanation was necessary) and 69 “overlaid” (perhaps some of these were “postnatal abortions).


* The lack of sanitary plumbing made for interesting situations. Samuel Pepys went into his cellar one day to find that his neighbor’s cess-pit had collapsed into it. Pepys also recounts a conversation with Lady Sandwich that was carried on while the Lady used her chamber pot. In the dining room. During diner.


* The lack of street addresses made for some interesting business advertisements:


At Mr. Barnes and Mr. Appleby’s Booth, between the Crown Tavern and Hospital Gate, over against The Crossed Daggers, next to Miler’s Droll Booth, in West Smithfield, where the English and Dutch flags, with Barnes and the Two German Maidens pictures will hang out, during the time of Bartholomew Fair, will be seen the most excellent and incomparable performances in Dancing on the Slack Rope…


* General illiteracy made it necessary to use standard descriptive signs for businesses; some of these were obvious (Lock of Hair for wigmakers); others were not (Indian Queen for linen drapers).


* Coffee shops were ubiquitous; there were over 2000, and not a Starbucks to be had. They were exclusively male domains; women complained that coffee made men impotent, men countered that it decreased flatulence. Many became impromptu business offices; Mr. Lloyd’s coffee shop was used by ship owners and Mr. Lloyd began recording ship sailings on a chalkboard as a courtesy.


* The most notorious brothel was owned by Elizabeth Wisebourn, a clergyman’s daughter. She made sure that all her young ladies attended church every Sunday, and that they always lifted their skirts above their ankles when descending the stairs from the balcony. They got a lot of new customers that way.


* Hanging was a widely attended public spectacle. The condemned would stop at several taverns along the way from Newgate to Tyburn (one commented he would pay for his drink on the way back). The executioner got into the spirit of things as well; one got so drunk that he accidentally hanged one of the clergymen ministering to the condemned.



Well-illustrated with contemporary engravings; a nice bibliography (although there could be a better map). If there’s a flaw, the book ends a little too abruptly at the end of the chapter on crime and punishment; a little summing up would have been nice. show less

Sex-based discrimination and double-standards suck, but at least today, many parts of the world make this illegal. But back then, it was legal (and unfortunately still is in certain parts of the world today) to deny a woman so many opportunities taken for granted today just because of her sex. Education, land/property ownership, personal wealth, physical abuse, sexual abuse, etc. Even if all that was couched in 'well, that's how things were back then and many men (and women) did not even show more question that because they had never heard of feminism' it's still pretty awful and I am glad I did not live back in these times.

The six women in this book were all born into wealth and royalty. And as for men, wealth put them in a better position that someone of the same age/sex in poverty. However, that did not protect them against sex-based discrimination, and they were judged more harshly for things that men would have been able to more easily get away with, or accomplish. Hell, being royal/wealthy could, and would make them targets for manipulations and machinations (poor Jane Grey is a sad example) However anyone might have felt about any of these particular women, it's not hard to sympathize with the difficulties they had to deal with.

Even Victoria and Elizabeth II, who had more rights and opportunities than their predecessors, had their own share of sex-based problems to deal with. This book is certainly a far cry from the princess ideal held by so many little girls today. Being a Disney Princess might be just fantasy, but considering the reality, I can see why some adults love Disney Princesses too. This is honestly a fascinating and interesting history book, but some parts can be pretty sobering and depressing AF. show less

In the recent equal marriage debates when the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby announced that his and (some of) the Church of England’s opposition was ‘not, at heart, a faith issue; it is about the general social good’, I did wonder whether the House of Lords’ library carried a copy of Maureen Waller’s book. Perhaps if it, and the House of Commons library, had members would have been a little less sure about pontificating about the longevity of the institution and its show more unchanging nature since their female colleagues, constituents (and wives) had only just about achieved equal heterosexual marriage in the very late twentieth century. And although Waller does focus on devoted love and love enduring beyond death – the happiness and support Margaret Cavendish found with the older Duke of Newcastle, awful Pepys is quite upset by his wife Elizabeth’s death and Lady Susan Lennox finding a happy marriage after being dumped by George III - it is the horrors of marriage that remain haunting.

There are the terribly sad criminal conversation cases when servants turned on adulterous couples, inspected bed linen, peered through keyholes and took bribes. There is the truly barbaric case of Con Phillips, duped and raped and harassed by bigamy trials and legal battles throughout her life. She survived but only by her wits. The Countess of Strathmore’s case is justly famous but needs repeating again and again because of its awfulness and what was done to her reputation by a wicked man. Waller shines a light on these familiar stories by extracts from contemporary sources such as William Gouge’s Of Domesticall Duties, Hannah Woolley The Gentlewoman’s Companion, Lord Halifax’s Advice to a Daughter and The Hardships of the English Laws in Relation to Wives.

Why women risked the dangers of marriage when they faced such legal and economic dangers if it all turned out wrong is not entirely a mystery. A charming, dashing suitor could (and still does) sway the most astute of minds and the prospect of singledom was terrible for those who longed for something else. As Harriet Smith said to Emma Woodhouse ‘you will be an old maid! -- and that's so dreadful!’ ‘Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid,’ as Emma replied. show less

This isn't a bad book, and the writing style can be fun, but for a biography, some parts of the book are written in such a way that feel more... for lack of a better word, more novel-like. Which I am sure would make this a more engaging read for some people. The historical research and sources do well to balance it out, though.

There's a lot to be learned about history here, between the speculation into various people's minds, or the scenes she has written/created, so 3.5/5 stars for a show more informative and entertaining read. I do feel that the title is a bit too sensationalist, though. I'd have appreciated a more neutral title :) show less