Chap-book Literature

The Elizabeth Caroline Grey Hoax

In my previous post on Edward Lloyd’s 1842 publication of Gentleman Jack; or, Life on the Road, I mentioned that the penny blood had somehow come to be associated with Elizabeth Caroline Grey, who appears in many catalogues of the eighteen-seventies and eighties as “Mrs. E. C. Grey.” Although her name never appeared on any title-page a large collection of Lloyd bloods have been attributed to her simply by following the “by author of” title-chains that did appear on title-pages. One example would be the penny parts work The Dream of a Life, which was “by the author of Vileroy; or, the Horrors of Zindorf Castle, The Ordeal by Touch, and Gentleman Jack” Before appearing in bound volume The Dream of a Life was serialized in Edward Lloyd’s People’s Periodical and Family Library, Vol. I No. 19, 13 February 1847.

It is hard to imagine that Elizabeth Caroline Grey, popular author of a large number of 3 volume silver fork novels, could have moonlighted as a penny-a-liner for Edward Lloyd. Helen R. Smith, in “New Light on Sweeney Todd, Thomas Peckett Prest, James Malcolm Rymer and Elizabeth Caroline Grey,” came to the conclusion that James Malcolm Rymer was the author of the string of novels confusingly attributed to Mrs. Grey, which I am in total agreement with. Rymer had an odd writing tell: the phrase “Pho! pho!” which appears in almost every one of his credited works, including Edith the Captive, The Dark Woman, Ada the Betrayed, Jane Brightwell, and Captain Hawke. “Pho! pho!” also appeared in Blueskin, a work usually attributed to Edward Viles, and in two works attributed to Mrs. Grey; Gentleman Jack and Claude Duval. It may seem silly, and it is still not proof, but it does buttress the idea that Rymer wrote Gentleman Jack and the other titles in the Grey title-chains.

Elizabeth Caroline Grey’s name never appeared in print on any of the Lloyd bloods, that attribution was made by a man named Andrew De Ternant in Notes & Queries in 1922. De Ternant even provided a ‘biography’ which has been repeated down the years so often that it has been reported as fact in reputable encyclopedias and Wikipedia to this day. My library’s catalogue entry for Gentleman Jack even provides Mrs. E. C. Grey’s DOB and DOD as 1798-1869.

Patrick Spedding has investigated the subject in a forthcoming work from The Papers of the Bibliographic Society of America entitled “The Many Mrs Grey: Confusion and Lies about Elizabeth Caroline Grey, Catherine Maria Grey, Maria Georgina Grey and Others,” in which he uncovers the fact that De Ternant was a notorious liar who invented in its entirety the “biography” of Mrs. Grey as told to him by a dead man who had worked for Edward Lloyd named Mr. Church. De Ternant provided much other dubious information on Lloyd authors including one story that I repeated myself in my recent post on Highwayman Literature, to wit; that Lloyd’s editor Thomas Catling, also deceased at the time, apparently told Andrew De Ternant he had seen John Frederick Smith, celebrated author of “Minnigrey,” working on the first fifty numbers of Black Bess in the office of Lloyd’s Weekly News at the rate of £3 10s.weekly. Thanks to Patrick Spedding this and all other statements by Andrew De Ternant in N&Q regarding penny bloods can safely be considered as malicious fabrications.

Ternant now joins a growing rogue’s gallery of hoaxers who have made life hell for historians and researchers of penny bloods; men like the Melbourne bookseller J. P. Quaine who sent collectors on a wild goose chase by inventing ‘ghost’ titles like The Skeleton Clutch; or, The Goblet of Gore, and Sawney Bean the Man-eater of Midlothian. The worst offender was popular anthologist Peter Haining who provided a spurious ‘biography’ of the fictional character Sweeney Todd, a story which spread like a virus on the internet, filled his Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack with invented newspaper stories to pad what would have been a short book without them, and hoaxed Romany scholars with fabricated gypsy incantation that he claimed came from the Grimorium Verum, apparently a real book which has not survived, for which he gave a publication date of 1517.

Another claim of Peter Haining's was made in his book The Vampire Omnibus (1995) which reprints "The Skeleton Count; or, the Vampire Mistress," purportedly written by Elizabeth Caroline Grey for The Casket in 1825. This one is currently under investigation but undoubtedly, since there was no 'real' Mrs. Grey, will turn out to be another Haining hoax, possibly even a forgery.

My Thanks to Patrick Spedding for allowing me to read a draft of his forthcoming article “The Many Mrs Grey: Confusion and Lies about Elizabeth Caroline Grey, Catherine Maria Grey, Maria Georgina Grey and Others” and generously granting permission to publicize his findings.

Gentleman Jack

“Pull slowly and quietly,” said Dick.

The bucket came up to the surface, and then Claude stretched out his hand and got hold of it.”

“All’s right,” he said, “I have it.”

He drew it towards him, and then, in a rather odd voice, he said --

“The light, Jack.”

Jack picked up the lantern from the floor and held it over the bucket, and then they all three looked in silent horror at what it disclosed to them.

Floating in the water they had got up from the well was a portion of an infant’s hand and arm, and a large piece of a skull with hair still upon it.

The water itself had a shiny, oily look, and upon its surface floated fatty globules, and what appeared to be pieces of half decomposed flesh.

“Horrible!” said Claude.

Jack turned aside sick and faint at the sight.

“Good God!” said Dick.

That was Sixteen-string Jack (the Gentleman of the title,) Claude Duval, and Dick Turpin, the heroes of Gentleman Jack; or, Life on the Road, published by Edward Lloyd in 1842. It was published weekly in penny numbers for a total of 544 pages, Nos. 2, 3, & 4 Gratis with No. 1. The title-page enlarged on the title; Gentleman Jack; or, Life on the Road, a romance of interest abounding in hairbreadth escapes and of the most exciting character. The fanciful woodcut illustrations were by G. T. R. Bourne.

Nine years later, in 1851, Abel Heywood, a seller of cheap literature in Manchester told a House of Commons committee that his best selling penny weekly numbers were Claude Duval (550), Gentleman Jack (400), Paul Clifford (350), and Three-Fingered Jack (350). “Gentleman Jack” was pirated by New York publisher Robert M. De Witt who published the entire serial in 100 page installments at twenty-five cents a volume. From the looks of the De Witt cover below even the colorful Bourne woodcut was copied for the cover.

Gentleman Jack was anonymous but over time the authorship came to be attributed to Mrs. Elizabeth Caroline Grey (a hoax). More recently Helen Smith has attributed authorship of the Grey/Lloyd titles to James Malcolm Rymer. A good chunk of the De Witt piracy of Gentleman Jack (wrongly attributed to Edward Viles) is on Google Books HERE. James Malcolm Rymer’s Ada the Betrayed, and Jane Brightwell, HERE.

Highwayman Literature

Highwayman literature crossed the boundaries between high and low literature. In the thirties and forties the penny-a-liner and the acclaimed literary author vied for the same audience, using the same subject matter. Each exerted a similar mutual organic influence on the other, leading on the one hand to the Newgate novel, and on the other to G. W. M. Reynolds’s “Mysteries of London” and Thomas Prest’s “Posthumous Notes of the Pickwickian Club.”

Highwayman literature was described in the Athenaeum in 1870 as “”vulgar, but not indecent. The Highwayman Literature, the Black Bess, Turpin, or Sixteen-String Jack books, the Jack Sheppard adventures, still had, and have, their public. The highwayman, who, with the rope round his neck, swore that a gallop across a common by moonlight was delicious, is a hero now, when commons and highwaymen no longer exist as of old, but are far enough off to have a stirring poetry and rough romance in their details.”

The first known work of highwayman literature in England was about the life and execution of Elizabethan highwayman Gamaliell Ratsey who disguised his features with an owl mask while carrying out his criminal endeavors. Two pamphlets were published shortly after Ratsey's death in 1605; “The Life and Death of Gamaliell Ratsey,” and “Ratseyes Ghost.” The trade in broadsides and chap-books increased mightily in the years that followed. No sooner was a highwayman caught and convicted than his exploits became the subject of a “Life,” usually hawked to the crowds while the miscreant was nervously standing under the noose pondering his last moments on earth. Jack Rann, commonly called Sixteen-String Jack, was the subject of an illustrated “Life” the same year he was caught and hanged in 1774, William Hawke, also in 1774, Claude Duval in 1669, James Hind in 1652, and Henry Simms in 1747.

Various criminal anthologies collected the lives of highwaymen. Captain Alexander Smith wrote “A History of the most Noted Highwaymen, Footpads and other Thieves” in two volumes in 1714. Charles Johnson produced “History of Highwaymen, Murderers &c.” in 1734. “An Account of Highwaymen” was written by William Jones in 1774 and Charles Whitehead’s “Lives and Exploits of English Highwaymen” appeared in two volumes in 1823.

For the educated classes there was ample highwayman material to be found in “The Newgate Calendar; or Malefactors’ Bloody Register,” published about 1774 and running to five volumes. Between 1824 and 1826 Knapp and Baldwin, attorneys-at-law, issued four volumes of “The Newgate Calendar comprising interesting memoirs of the most notorious characters,” and followed up with six volumes of “The New Newgate Calendar.”

The highwayman was not exclusive to Britain. French highwaymen like Duval, Cartouche, Louis Mandrin, and Macaire were celebrated in pamphlets and chap-books in England and on the continent. Italy suffered the banditry of Il Birarro and Fra Diavolo, Germany had Schinder-Hannes, whose real name was John Buckler, Spain hosted Jose Maria de Hinojosa and Polinario. “The Life and Actions of Lewis Dominique Cartouche who was Broken Alive on the Wheel at Paris,” attributed to Daniel Defoe, was published in 1722. “Authentic Memoirs of the Remarkable Life and Surprising Exploits of Mandrin” was published in 1754 and cost one shilling. G. W. M. Reynolds wrote “Robert Macaire in England” in 1840.

In 1830’s Britain the onerous stamp duty, or “taxes on knowledge,” imposed on any publication dispensing “news,” led many of the penny publishers to diversify with weekly miscellanies, comic periodicals, political pamphlets, song-books and sensational criminal literature. The visual use of front-page caricatures, portraits, and sensational woodcuts helped many of the penny periodicals to outsell their more expensive mainstream rivals.

The penny “blood” has often been presented as following closely in the footsteps of gothic literature but whatever influence there was would appear to be minor. Thomas Frost, who wrote bloods for Edward Lloyd and George Purkess explained the genesis of such literature in Forty Years’ Recollections: “It was the connecting link between the Monmouth Street Ballads and ‘last dying speeches,’ lives of highwaymen, and terrific legends of diabolism which constituted the favourite reading of the masses fifty years ago, and the more wholesome refined literature enjoyed by them at the present day.” And W. E. Adams wrote, in Memoirs of a Social Atom: “Mr. Lloyd was the legitimate successor of the old Alnwick printer -- Catnatch of the seven Dials. He began business as the printer of sheets that were hawked and sold by the “flying stationers” -- records of prize-fights, of murders, of executions, and of what purported to be “last dying speeches and confessions.””

In London in 1832 John Duncombe published “Lives and Adventures of the Most Remarkable Highwaymen, Footpads, Notorious Robbers, and Other Daring Adventurers,” an eight-page penny parts weekly with a front-page woodcut illustration. The publisher’s description promised “illustrated popular accounts of crimes that are narrated in a sensational manner,” and the pamphlet was re-issued in 1833.

William Harrison Ainsworth published his highwayman novel, “Rookwood A Romance,” in April 1834, the first use of the character Dick Turpin outside of the chap-books and penny periodicals. “The chief object I had in view was to see how far the infusion of a warmer and more genial current into the veins of Old Romance would succeed in reviving her fluttering and feeble pulses.”

George Augustus Sala (1828-1895) described “Rookwood” as an “interesting but unequal romance -- Turpin’s ride to York, as a piece of word-painting, has been rarely, if ever, surpassed in prose in the Victorian era.” Punch, the comic journal, called Ainsworth, “the greatest axe-and-neck romancer of his time.”

The publication of “Rookwood” had an immediate effect on popular culture. The penny dreadful and the melodrama worked arm in arm in popularizing the criminal hero and his steed, Black Bess. The Gentleman’s Magazine described Dick Turpin melodrama as “thieves’ literature dramatized.”

In December 1834 John Duncombe issued “Adventures of Famous Highwaymen and Other Public Robbers -- New Edition,” capitalizing off “Rookwood’s” popularity. In 1836 George Purkess published “The History and Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Murderers, Brigands, Pickpockets, Thieves, Banditti , and Robberies of Every Description” in 60 weekly parts. By the seventeenth number publishing was transferred to Edward Lloyd. “The History and Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads and Murderers” began Saturday, April 30, 1836 and ran until June 10, 1837 to a total of 60 weekly numbers. The material was borrowed from such works as “The Newgate Calendar; or Malefactors’ Bloody Register,” (c. 1774) and various criminal anthologies collecting the lives of highwaymen.

In 1837 William Clarke published “Annals of Crime; or, the Highwaymen of Old” in 59 nos. “Rookwood’s” popularity brought forth various penny parts works featuring Dick Turpin. George Purkess issued “Dick Turpin’s Ride to York” in 1839 and Henry Downes Miles wrote “The Life of Richard Palmer better known as Dick Turpin” the same year.

William Harrison Ainsworth’s “Jack Sheppard” commenced in Bentley’s Miscellany in January 1839 and came to a conclusion in February of 1840. Almost immediately there appeared a plague of Jack Sheppard melodramas. In 1839 the Examiner noted that “Jack Sheppard is the attraction at the Adelphi; Jack Sheppard is the bill of fare at the Surrey; Jack Sheppard is the choice example of morals and conduct held forth to the young citizens at the City of London; Jack Sheppard reigns over the Victoria; Jack Sheppard rejoices crowds in the Pavilion; Jack Sheppard is the favorite at the Queen’s; and at Sadler’s Wells there is no profit but of Jack Sheppard.” Schiller’s 1781 drama “The Robbers” was said to have had a similar deleterious effect on the youth of Germany.

Like Dick Turpin the boy burglar was celebrated on stage and in penny fiction. He was a major character in highwayman romances like“Edith the Captive; or, the Robber’s of Epping Forest” (1860) and “Blueskin: A Romance of the Last Century” (1863). He was re-imagined as “Charlie Wag, the New Jack Sheppard,” and as “Cartouche, the French Jack Sheppard.”

Mrs. Elizabeth Caroline Grey was the only known female author of highwayman bloods in the forties, although the attribution is questionable. “Claude Duval, the Ladies Highwayman” and “Paul Clifford” were attributed to her authorship. All her works were published by Edward Lloyd. Grey’s most popular title was “Gentleman Jack; or, Life on the Road,” which ran to 544 pages and featured Sixteen-String Jack, Dick Turpin, and Claude Duval operating in the same time period. “Gentleman Jack” was pirated by New York publisher Robert M. De Witt who published the entire serial in 100 page installments at twenty-five cents a volume.

Pierce Egan wrote “Captain Macheath; or, the Highwayman of a Century Since” in 17 numbers in 1842. “Cartouche: the Celebrated French Robber” was published in 3 volumes by R. B. Peake in 1844. James Malcolm Rymer wrote “Captain Hawke; or, May Boyes and the Shadow of Death” (1845) for Lloyd. George Purkess published a highwayman novel by Thomas Frost, “The Black Mask; or, the Mysterious Robbers.”

One of the most prolific authors of highwayman tales in penny parts was James Lindridge who wrote almost exclusively for George Purkess in 1845. He wrote “Tyburn Tree; or, The Mysteries of the Past,” “The Life and Adventures of Jack Rann, Alias Sixteen-String Jack the Highwayman,” and “Jenny Diver, The Female Highwayman.” “Tyburn Tree” was a mixed bag of characters, real and imaginary, featuring Blueskin, Jonathan Wild, Captain Jem Macleane, Captain Fury, Dick Flybynight and the Black Gang, Sal the Gonoff, Blackmoor, Captain Grawler, Gipsey Betty, Jenny Diver, Handsome Jack, Lawyer Doom, Beauty Ellis, Tramping Ned, Mother Sin, and the alchemist Dr. Trotter. “Tyburn Tree” was pirated in America by numerous publishers from 1850 to 1866 in 100 page volumes.

Most penny bloods were “always in print” and most of the titles mentioned were still available throughout the entire decade of the fifties. A few new titles were “Jonathan Wild; or, The Thief-taker’s Daughter,” by Ambrose Hudson, and “Tom King, the Life and Adventures of the Highwayman,” published by Lloyd.

“Edith the Captive; or, The Robbers of Epping Forest,” by penny-a-liner James Malcolm Rymer, was published by John Dicks in 1860. Rymer’s previous employer Edward Lloyd had dropped penny bloods for newspaper publishing and after a fallow period Rymer began contributing penny dreadful romances to Reynolds’s Miscellany, also published by John Dicks. Rymer catered to a mixed audience of males and females, the title of “Edith the Captive” attracted women, while the serial contained enough blood and thunder to satisfy the male reader.

The hero of “Edith the Captive” was Captain Heron, riding a horse named Daisy, who, in company with Blueskin and Jack Sheppard took on the villainous Jonathan Wild. In 1861 “Edith” was adapted to melodrama, beginning at the Victoria Theatre and soon taking over most of the low theatres and penny gaffs. “Edith” was still being staged as late as 1866 at the Bower Theatre. Rymer followed up with “Nightshade; or, Claude Duval, the Dashing Highwayman” in 1863. Nightshade was Duval’s well-trained horse. In 1866 Rymer wrote “The Dark Woman; or, The Life and Adventures of Sixteen-string Jack,” which was published by John Dicks.

In 1863 Edward Harrison published the most famous highwayman penny dreadful of them all, “Black Bess; or, the Knight of the Road, a Tale of the Good Old Times,” which was published anonymously. Black Bess ran to 254 penny weekly numbers and 2028 pages, each number consisting of eight pages of eye-straining type. At its peak it was selling 30,000 copies a week. “Black Bess” ended in 1866 and was succeeded by a ‘sequel,’ “The Black Highwayman, Being the Second Series of Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road,” which ran for a further two years. “Black Bess” was attributed to Edward Viles in 1888 by Robert Louis Stevenson, who may have gained his information from Walter Viles, Edward’s younger brother who he met through publisher James Henderson. Lloyd’s editor Thomas Catling, however, who was much closer to the source, apparently told Andrew De Ternant he had seen John Frederick Smith, celebrated author of “Minnigrey,” working on the first fifty numbers in the office of Lloyd’s Weekly News at the rate of £3 10s. weekly. The style of “Black Bess” changes so much throughout its long run that it probably ran through the hands of many writers.

The highwayman romances were often serialized in story papers and if successful made the rounds in penny weekly parts. Rymer, writing as Malcolm J. Errym, wrote “May Dudley; or, The White Mask” for Reynolds’s Miscellany in 1863, again appealing to female readers with a highway-woman heroine. In 1865 “The King’s Highway, A Romance of The Road 100 Years Ago,” featuring a young Paul Clifford, was published in the Miscellany. The writer was Edward Ellis, author of “Rook the Robber.” In 1866 Ellis contributed “A White face and a Black Mask.” Edward Ellis wrote “Ruth the Betrayer,” which was by the author of “Charley Wag, the New Jack Sheppard.” “Edward Ellis” was probably the pen-name of collaborators Charles Henry Ross and a fellow civil servant named Ernest Warren.

The serials of Rymer, Ross and Warren were written for an audience of mixed gender and appealed to adults, young adults and children. As the sixties wore on a large group of publishers in Fleet-street began publishing sensational penny dreadfuls and boys’ periodicals which were aimed at boy readers and often featured boy highwaymen, boy pirates and boy detectives. The Newsagents’ Publishing Company published a number of titles in 1864-65 including “Black Wolf; or, The Boy Highwayman” “May Turpin, The Queen of the Road, a Romance,” “Dick Turpin, a Romance of the Road,” and “Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild.”

Percival Wolfe’s “Red Ralph; or, the Daughter of Night a Romance of the Road in the Days of Dick Turpin” was published for the London Romance Company by the Newsagents' Publishing Company. “Starlight Nell, Queen of the Highwaymen; or, The Scarlet Riders of Hownslow Heath” by William L. Emmett was published by Temple Publishing Company, a precursor to Hogarth House run by the Emmett brothers. The NPC’s “Tales of Highwaymen; or, Life on the Road” was a serial weekly anthology of various sensational highwaymen fictions. In “The Blue Dwarf, a Tale of Love, Mystery and Crime” (1884) by Percy B. St. John, the dwarf of the title, Sapathwa, was joined by Dick Turpin and Tom King with adventures ranging from London through Scotland, Ireland, New York and the American west. Jonathan Wild was a character as was Rob Roy.

One reason for the longevity of the publics’ interest in Dick Turpin and the other knights of the road was explained by a writer on penny dreadful in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1882:

“Probably no living novelist has been rewarded by so extensive a circulation as is easily obtained by the boys “penny dreadful.” Many newsagents find the sale of these fictions the most lucrative portion of their trade. They keep files of back numbers, whereas with ordinary publications back numbers must be made the subject of a special order. There is a fortune in such books as that from which I have quoted. Some publishers grow rich on them. A good thieves’ romance will run through almost innumerable editions. “Blueskin,” “Black Bess,” and certain others, have been re-issued at the interval of a few months for over twenty years, and they are all of them announced for re-issue now.”

The highwayman dramas, which were staged as far back as the days of “The Beggar’s Opera,” had the advantage of spectacle with the use of real horses on the stage, even in the lowest of the “penny gaffs.” In 1859 the mare Beda played Black Bess in “The Life and Death of Dick Turpin,” “May Dudley; or, The White Mask,” introduced the celebrated horse, Black Eagle, “Cartouche, the French Jack Sheppard featured “a stud of beautiful and highly trained horses.”

“Cartouche”was the most successful of the continental highwaymen in the penny dreadfuls. The first version was published in the sixties by the Temple Publishing Company. In the eighties “Cartouche” was serialized in Fox’s “Boys’ Standard” and then issued in penny numbers by Charles Fox as “Cartouche, the French Jack Sheppard.” Collector Henry Steele wrote that it “may have been by Frank Mercer,” which was the pen-name of Walter Percy Viles, younger brother of Edward Viles.

In 1881 Alfred J. Isaacs and Sons, who were one of the publishers of the notorious ‘Anonyma’ series, issued “Ned Kelly: the Ironclad Australian Bushranger,” which was written by James Skipp Borlase. Occultist Arthur Edward Waite famously described the serial as “a Flatulent Farrago of Fatuous Fiction.” “Ned Kelly” veered widely from fact with the ironclad hero running into both Lola Montez and Charles Peace the burglar. Writing as J. J. G. Bradley Borlase had contributed “Bluecap the Bushranger the Australian Dick Turpin” to the “Boys’ Standard” in 1876.

How far did penny bloods penetrate onto the continent? The Journal des Debats noted in 1846 that “Mr. G. W. M. Reynolds’s “Mysteries of London” (First Series) have been reprinted in America; and translations have been published in four languages of Europe: namely, French, Spanish, Italian and German. The German Edition has sold to the extent of 8000 copies, of which great numbers have found their way into Russia in spite of the vigilance of the police. The book is literally devoured in Russia, and large sums are given for merely the loan of it.”

A late contribution to the penny dreadful was “Dashing Duvall; or, The Ladies’ Highwayman,” circa 1895, featuring Turpin, Tom King, Paul Clifford, Captain Blood and Van Vaughan the Vampyre. Illustrations were by the son of Robert Prowse, Robert Prowse Jr. The last substantial publishers of highwayman literature were the Aldine Publishing Company and George Newnes. Aldine’s “Dick Turpin Library,” which began in April 1902, ran 182 issues ending in 1904. Alfred Sherrington Burrage wrote the majority as ‘Charlton Lea,’ others were authored by Stephen Agnew. The painted cover illustrations were by Robert Prowse Jr.

The Aldine’s immediately began publishing a “Black Bess Library” which was taken over by George Newnes in January 1921. Newnes published a “Dick Turpin Library” which lasted from 1922 to 1930. The last of the Dick Turpin series was published by Pearson’s in 1935. They were reprints of the Aldine/Newnes material and lasted only six issues.

The highwayman never completely faded away, Dick Turpin and Claude Duval were picked up by British comic publishers, men who probably read the Aldines in their youth, and Ned Kelly and Dick Turpin were the subjects of motion pictures, but there is very little interest in highwayman literature today except among historians and penny dreadful collectors. Highwayman literature was a sub-genre of criminal literature from 1605 until 1935, a total of 330 years. The highwayman continues to appear sporadically in comics and literature but he is unlikely ever again to return to the level of popularity achieved in the nineteenth century.

*My thanks to Frederico Pagello for inspiring me to compile this brief incomplete history.

Ela the Outcast

Ela the Outcast; or, the Gipsy of Rosemary Dell. A Romance of Thrilling Interest by Thomas Peckett Prest, Illustrated by G. T. R. Bourne and engraved by Pickering. I believe the frontispiece below was drawn by a man named Horneygold, while the interior illustrations were by Bourne. London : E. Lloyd, 231, Shoreditch. Advertisement at top is from Cleave's Gazette of Variety for 26 Oct 1839.

Ela , The Outcast; or, The Gipsy Of Rosemary Dell. A Romance of Thrilling Interest. By The Author of “Angelina; or, The Mystery Of St. Mark’s Abbey;” “Gallant Tom; or, The Perils of a Sailor Ashore and Afloat;” “Ernestine De Lacy; or, The Robbers’ Foundling;” etc., etc. 104 Nos. London : Printed and Published by E. Lloyd, 231, Shoreditch. Although this book is in numbers the format is like a novel without the double columns usually associated with bloods.

PREFACE.

I cannot close the Romance of “Ela, The Outcast,” without expressing my most unqualified gratitude to the Public, for the extraordinary success with which they have been pleased to crown it,- a success, I will not presume to say it has not merited, for that would be an insult to the judgment of its numerous readers. Although it has been in the course of publication for two years, its sale has never, in the least, flagged; and, in proof of the deep interest, as a work of fiction, it has excited, I need only state, that its weekly sale has been thirty thousand copies, and the present is the eighteenth edition !Independent of this, the tale has been very cleverly dramatized by Mrs. Denvil, and performed at the Royal Pavilion Theatre, for nearly one hundred successive nights ! - And here I must take the liberty of complimenting that excellent actress, Miss Adelaide Cooke, for her very able delineation of Ela, in which she drew so largely upon the sympathies and applause of the audience. - To Mr. H. Denvil, the talented Lessee, infinite credit is also due, for the care, judgment, and spirit, with which he produced the Drama, and was enabled to achieve so great a triumph. Encouraged by the patronage bestowed upon “Ela, The Outcast,” “Angelina,” “Gallant Tom,” “Ernestine De Lacy,” and many others of my humble productions, I take the opportunity of informing my kind friends, that I have another tale in the press, to be completed in fifty-two numbers, and which, I trust, will be found equally worthy of favour, as my other efforts. The title of the new Romance will be duly announced, and, in the meantime, I beg to subscribe myself,

THE PUBLIC’S MOST GRATEFUL SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

March 15th, 1841.

ELA, THE OUTCAST;

OR,

THE GIPSY OF ROSEMARY DELL.

A Tale of Thrilling Interest.

CHAPTER I.

“If pity reigns within thy breast,

Oh ! let the houseless wand’rer in.” ANON.

A violent storm had succeeded a beautiful day, in the spring of the year 1791, and the Honourable Mrs. Wallingford was seated in the parlour of Wallingfoprd Hall (a noble edifice, situated in the north of England), endeavoring to abstract her attention from the horrors of the tempest in the innocent sports of her two lovely children, who were gambolling together at her feet. A cheerful fire blazed briskly in the grate, and the comfort and elegance of all within, presented a striking contrast to misery which reigned without. but nothing could tend to alleviate the heavy depression of spirits under which that amiable and lovely lady suffered, occasioned not only by the sympathy she felt in the fate of those poor, houseless wretches who were exposed to “the pitiless pelting of the storm,” but she was deprived of the society of her husband, the Honourable Edward Wallingford, whom business of importance had called from home for several days past.

The rain descended in overwhelming torrents, the thunder rolled in heavy peals, that seemed to shake the mansion to its foundation, and was succeeded by vivid flashes of forked lightning, which shot fantastically across the fine lawn fronting the house, and glared awfully in at the parlour windows that descended to the ground.

“What a dreadful night,” soliloquized the amiable lady, casting her eyes fearfully upon the dreary prospect; “alas ! what must be the lot of those poor creatures who are exposed to its horrors; hungry, hopeless, shelterless ! Heaven protect them !”

Overcome with her terrors, she was proceeding to summon her waiting maid, the simple but faithful Dorothy, when between the pauses of the thunder, a shriek long and piercing vibrated in her ears, which seemed to proceed from the direction of the lawn. She started, and hastened to the casement; for it was not yet so dark but that she could plainly distinguish objects at a considerable distance; but she had no sooner reached it, than a flash of lightning blazed across her eyes, and alarmed, she sank in a chair completely unable to move. A second shriek more loud and piercing than the first, again aroused her, and she started with the intention of ringing the bell for the attendance of her servant. Before she could do so, a loud kicking or knocking against the outer door arrested her purpose, and, immediately afterwards, the crying of a child was clearly audible.

Ever sensibly alive to the distresses of her fellow-creatures, Mrs. Wallingford immediately repressed her own terrors, and rang the bell violently. In a few minutes Dorothy appeared with astonishment and excitement depicted in her countenance.

“Oh ! madam,” exclaimed the maid, raising her hands and eyes, “do pray hasten to the Hall; there is such an occurrence.”

“What has happened to excite curiosity, Dorothy?” inquired her mistress; “explain to me the meaning of the violent knocking, and those cries of distress that I so lately heard.”

“Pray, pardon me, madam,” replied the simple attendant, “but I really am in such a flusteration that I cannot explain myself. Ah! I knew there was something going to happen by the dream I had last night. Do you know, madam, I dreamt -”

At this juncture the loquacious Dorothy was cut short in her speech, by the cries of a child again being heard.

“Oh ! do come, my lady,” importuned Dorothy, “ I’m sure you will pity it; poor little thing, it is so pretty, too, and has such lovely black eyes; but it is so ragged, and so wet, and its tale so pitiful. Now, do come, my dear lady.”

The humane Mrs. Wallingford needed no solicitation on the part of her domestic to urge her to the performance of an act of charity; it was enough for her to know that a fellow-being was in distress, to arouse all the energies of her benevolent heart, to render them assistance; she therefore put no more questions to Dorothy, but accompanied her to the Hall.

The object that struck her attention was a little girl, apparently about six years old, ragged, wet, and miserable. Its tattered frock of many colours, only just descended below its knees, and its legs and feet were entirely naked. An old straw hat barely covered the back of its head, from beneath which, and over her sunburnt shoulders, descended in wild but picturesque disorder, a rich profusion of natural black silken ringlets. its complexion was dark, but its features were peculiarly noble and expressive, and its fine black eyes, although suffused with tears, darted forth a luster which could not be looked upon without admiration.

Upon hearing Mrs. Wallingford approach, the little stranger raised her eyes, and gazed with the utmost impressive looks of supplication towards her.

“Poor child !” said the lady, “why did you not take her to the fire, Dorothy? How wet - how cold she is ! - Tell me, who are you, my dear?”

“I’m called little Fanny, ma’am.” sobbed forth the child - “but mamma will die, my poor mamma will die, and then what will become of me?”

“Where is your mother, child?” eagerly enquired the lady.

“Oh, ma’am,” answered the child, weeping violently, and wringing her hands, “mamma’s so ill; we have both walked such a long way, and we have had very little to eat; but at last poor mamma could not walk any farther, so she laid down all in the rain, just above here in the Dell; and I know she will die, ma’am, if you will not help her : oh, pray do, and I will bless your name whenever I say my prayers; do not let my poor mamma die.”

With these words the child threw herself on her knees, and looked up in the face of Mrs. Wallingford most piteously. That lady was deeply affected.

“Do not weep, my poor child,” she ejaculated, raising her gently from her knees, and gazing upon her compassionately, “I will render your unfortunate mother all the assistance in my power. Dorothy, desire Ralph, and two or three of the male servants to attend me directly.”

Dorothy curtseyed, and hastened to obey her lady with much alacrity, and Mrs. Wallingford taking the little stranger kindly by the hand, (whose intelligent eyes sparkled with gratitude), led her into the parlour and placed her before the fire.

Ralph having made his appearance was ordered with his fellows to provide themselves with torches immediately, and other things necessary, and hasten in the direction which the child had pointed out in quest of the distressed stranger, while a messenger was despatched to request the speedy attendance of a medical gentleman who was employed by the family.

Ralph and his companions evidently did not admire the task allotted to them, for the storm still raged with unabated violence, and it was some distance to Rosemary Dell; but ever ready to obey the order of their mistress, to whom they were all much attached, they stifled their objections, and having procured lighted torches, and what was requisite, they proceeded on their mission.

No sooner did the child behold the preparations for rescuing her unfortunate parent from the perilous situation she had described her to be in, than she wiped the tears from her cheeks, and hastening from the fire, prepared to follow them.

“What would you do, child?” asked Mrs. Wallingford, gently seizing her arm and arresting her design.

“Oh ! ma’am,” cried the poor girl struggling to escape, “I must go to my poor mamma; if she should be better, she would die with fright when she missed me from her side. Oh, pray, do let me get to her, that’s a dear, good lady. Besides, the men may not be able to find the way, and I can conduct them to the very spot without any trouble.”

At this Ralph looked ominously at his companions, shook his head, and whispered to them that it was his opinion that this child was the offspring of one of the numerous Gipsies who sometimes infested that neighborhood; and that this was nothing but a scheme to entrap them, and to be revenged for certain tricks they had played the last time they encamped in Rosemary Dell; besides, this was about the time that the tribe usually visited that spot, and he had seen several suspicious looking characters lurking about for several days past. In this sage opinion his companions, who boasted of rather less courage than himself, perfectly coincided, and their teeth began to chatter, and they evinced other symptoms of fear, which did not escape the eye of her mistress; but before she could remonstrate with them on their cowardice, her attention was withdrawn to the child, who, seeing the parlour window open, bounded suddenly from the hold of Mrs. Wallingford on to the lawn, and beckoning Ralph and the others to follow, flew along, totally regardless of the storm, with a speed that made the clowns puff and blow most immoderately to keep up with.

The tempest seemed rather to have increased than abated; and the frightful glare of the torches, carried in the trembling hands of the servants, only served to add to the horrors of the scene. The heavy torrents of rain that had fallen completely flooded the place, so that they were frequently above their knees in water : and it seemed to be a matter of impossibility for any human being to survive many minutes in the awful situation which the child had described her mother to be placed in. Mrs. Wallingford, in whose bosom the adventure had excited a deep interest, watched Ralph and his companions with anxious eyes, until, entering upon the Dell, they were hid from her view; she then hastened to give her orders for the reception of the unfortunate wanderer.

In the course of twenty minutes, the noise of Ralph and his companions convinced her they were approaching the hall, and hastening to the parlour, her conjecture proved to be correct, for the men were rapidly advancing towards the house, bearing something which appeared to be a human form, while the child hastened before them, every now and then turning around with affectionate solicitude and gazing upon the burthen they carried.

Ralph and his companions now entered the room, supporting the senseless form of a woman, who was completely saturated with the rain to which she had been so long exposed. She appeared to be about thirty years of age; her features were regular and handsome, her complexion was a bright olive , on which the cankerworm of care had set its destructive mark. The contour of her forehead and eyebrows was fine in the extreme. Her hair was black as the plumes of the raven, and flowed the long tresses over her shoulders. her figure was tall and powerful : and although somewhat attenuated, yet bore the remains of grace and elegance. Although she seemed to have moved in a far better sphere of life than her present appearance bespoke.

Her dress evidently marked her for one of the Gipsy tribe, and yet her handsome features bore that nobleness of expression which rendered her connection with them unaccountable. She was attired in a dark stuff gown, covered with patches of various colours, which seemed to be placed there by design rather than necessity. Her shoulders were covered with a short, scarlet cloak, and a coarse straw hat surmounted her head.

Soon after the wretched wanderer had been brought back to the hall, Dr. Hartley arrived, and after eyeing the form of the invalid with no small degree of astonishment, proceeded to apply such antidotes as his knowledge dictated. During the proceedings, the affectionate child clung around it’s unfortunate mother’s knees, and looked up in her pallid countenance with the utmost solicitude and anxiety; and when she beheld her again breathe more freely, although still insensible, she evinced her ecstasy in the most affecting manner.

In the course of some inquiries which Dr. Hartley put to the child, for although in other respects a worthy man, he was prone to inquisitiveness and suspicion, he elicited a confirmation of the woman being one of a gang of Gipsies, who had frequently taken up their abode in Rosemary Dell, much to the annoyance of the persons who lived around, that she had been on a secret mission to a distant part of the country, and was to join the rest of the gang at Rosemary Dell; but illness had overtaken her on the road, and, to add to her difficulty, upon reaching the Dell, she found that the tribe had not yet arrived : overcome with fatigue, illness, and disappointment, she had at length become insensible, as the child had before described, who, with a courage and presence of mind, remarkable at her age, hastened in quest of the nearest habitation in which she might obtain assistance.

The unfortunate woman evinced symptoms of slowly recovering, but she still remained unconscious of all that was going on around ; and Dr. Hartley, after prescribing what was necessary, having to visit another patient, was compelled to depart.

When the doctor was gone, Mrs. Wallingford, who felt an unaccountable interest in the fate of the stranger, paid her the most affectionate attention, and watched the progress of recovery with the greatest anxiety. She had just mentioned to Dorothy the propriety of placing their patient in a warm bed, when she breathed a deep sigh, and opening her full black eyes, fixed them with wild scrutiny upon the features of Mrs. Wallingford, and then round the apartment.

“Where am I ?” she exclaimed in a tone of voice that penetrated to the very soul of her auditors, and fixed them in mute attention and astonishment. “What vision of mystery is this? surely I dream. Ah! my child ! my darling, the only hope besides that of revenge which makes me cling to the wretched existence it is now my lot to bear ! - If it were not for thee, my loved one, oh, that this happy sensibility had lasted forever.”

“Mother, dear, dear mother,” sobbed forth the poor child, climbing on its parent’s knee, and looking into her care-worn face with indescribable love.

“My girl ! my own fond cherub ! Oh, amid thy wretched parent’s miseries, there is a joy unspeakable in knowing that thou really lovest me, that thou art yet unacquainted with that base hypocrisy which has made thy mother the despised, the degraded, abandoned being that she is.” And she hugged her child with frantic fondness to her bosom, and kissed her forehead, cheeks and lips vehemently.

“But how came I here?” she continued after a pause; “ what right now has the outcast Ela beneath the roof of luxury and splendour? - Is this done to mock me? - The barren wild, the rugged mountain, the shade of the oak for her canopy, the rude shelter of the Gipsy tent, and the sterile oak for her couch, are now all that Ela the outcast can expect. Tell me woman, why am I brought hither?”

As the mysterious woman thus spoke, in an authorative tone, she arose from her chair, and fixed her piercing eye sternly upon the countenances of Mrs. Wallingford and her maid. The lady was much alarmed by her behavior, but fearful of the consequences of revealing her fears, she endeavored to suppress her terrors, and in a voice of mild persuasiveness she replied :-

“Fear not, my good woman, I beseech you, believe me that here you are in the society of friends.”

“Friends !” almost shrieked Ela, in a tone of irony and contempt, which made Mrs. Wallingford tremble, while an expression passed over her strongly-marked features, which was almost terrific - “Friends !” she repeated, laughing hysterically; “Ha! ha! ha! base, infamous, accursed title; - the scorpion that bears a thousand stings; the basilisk that tempts innocence to ruin !- The honeyed poison conveyed by the tongue of treachery, which I have sucked deep into my veins, which rankles at my heart and scorches up my brain : which has made me what I am ! Lady, look on this emaciated form, this care-worn visage, this tattered garb; - this form, this face, were once fair as thine, and as costly garbs bedecked this person as those thou now wearest? what think ye then has wrought this change? I’ll tell thee, ‘tis that delusive phantom called a friend ! a shameless hypocrite who - fool? why should I thus waste words upon a subject that boots thee not, and for which thou mayest perhaps only mock, revile at me after, and call me madwoman? - Farewell, lady : this is no place for Ela !”

Mrs. Wallingford was so overcome by the affecting manner in which the mysterious woman pronounced this wild speech, that she was unable to utter a word. Ela, hastily grasping her child by the hand, was about to quit the apartment, when a sudden thought seemed to strike her, and turning back, she said in a more subdued tone :-

“Lady, I perhaps have been too hasty; thou has sought to do me a kindness, and I thank thee? I would know the name of her to whom I am indebted?”

“My good woman,” said Mrs. Wallingford mildly, “I have done no more than a simple duty towards a fellow creature : but if you should at any time need assistance, rest assured that Mrs. Wallingford -”

“Wallingford !” reiterated the woman, in a voice almost superhuman, and her eyes dilated, her bosom heaved, and her whole frame became convulsed with strange emotion, - “Wallingford ! - and - and - they - husband’s name, - tell me, speak !”

“’Tis Edward Wallingford;” faltered forth the affrighted lady, - for Heaven’s sake why do you grasp my arm so fiercely?”

The eyes of Ela appeared to flash fire, and she clutched the arm of Mrs. Wallingford with a vehemence that made her scream, while she looked into her countenance with an expression approaching to ferocity. “And have I then,” she cried in a voice hoarse with rage, “have I then once more wandered beneath the accursed roof of the villain Wallingford? Have I lived to see a kindness from her for whom I was abandoned, left to misery, degradation, shame? Oh, revenge, revenge, thou art now within my grasp, and -”

“Oh, mother, dear mother !” lisped forth the child imploringly, embracing her parent’s knees, and looking up to her with supplicating innocence; do not say such wicked words; do not hurt this poor lady, who has been so kind to us.”

“Mysterious awful woman,” ejaculated Mrs. Wallingford, while Dorothy was completely petrified with horror, and unable to move or speak; “what do you want with me? For mercy’s sake leave go your hold !”

“Ah ! woman,” exclaimed the Gipsy, with an aspect of alarming ferocity, - “well may ‘st thou shrink with me; I have cause to curse and hate thee and thine; thine head reposes in the bosom which has sheltered mine, and should do now, thine offspring enjoy that wealth and luxury, that by right belong to this poor child, yes, this child of my weakness, the child of thy husband, - thy Edward Wallingford ! - say that I am mad, - I am an outcast, a wandering vagrant, a despised wretch - who is it that has made me so ? Thine ! thine ! thy Edward Wallingford ! - But think not I covet him of thee- no ! I detest, I abhor him, curse him ! - when thou seest him again,- when thou pressest him to thine heart, , whisper in his ear that thou hast seen Ela; her whom he vowed to love, to protect - her whom he falsely deceived - betrayed ! Tell him that her broken-hearted father lived to pardon his wretched daughter, and that his latest breath was employed to heap a bitter curse upon the betrayer of his child. Tell him that Ela still lives for revenge; that as he has been her curse, so she has sworn to be his bane till death ! This, tell the villain Edward Wallingford.”

As the distracted woman uttered these words, she snatched her child up in her arms, and bounded through the open window on the lawn, and that moment a vivid flash of lightning darted across her form, and gave her rather the appearance of a spirit of evil than a human being.

Overcome with the power of her emotions, the unhappy Mrs. Wallingford screamed and became insensible, while the cries of Dorothy quickly brought the other domestics to the room, who conveyed their mistress to bed, and instantly sent for Dr. Hartley.

Continued in our Next...

Archibald Chasemore

William Harry Archibald Chasemore, who signed his work with a simple A.C., was a self-taught cartoonist born in Fulham, London in 1844. He was the pre-eminent cartoonist on Judy through its long run and his distinctive work appeared in boys’ story papers and comic papers until just past the turn of the century. Much of his earliest work consisted of cartoons for puzzle pages done in partnership with Charles Henry Ross.

He contributed to Judy, Fun, Punch, Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday, Beeton’s Boy’s Own Magazine, John Dicks Boy’s Herald, The Boy’s Own Paper, Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, Ladies Pictorial, Bow Bells, Every Week, Million, Dalziel’s Pictorial World, Queen, St. Stephen’s Review and the Sketch. The last work of his I find is in the comic paper Pick-Me-Up after 1900.

He and his wife Emma had three children, Archibald E. Chasemore (later an architect and surveyor,) Ida Chasemore, and Edwin Chasemore who became an actor. Chasemore senior was living in Barnes, Surrey in 1901 and seems to have retired about 1902 but his obituary date is so far unknown. Chasemore figures in the 1898 book At the Sign of the Brush and Pen by J. G. Reid.

Charles Ross, Jr. drew cartoons for Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday in a style strongly reflecting Chasemore’s and signed them Tootsie Sloper.

*Thanks to Steve Holland

Draftie

Draftie, a morale boosting comic strip from WWII ran from January 27 1941 to October 8 1945, daily and Sunday. From the start the strip was signed by William Juhre, Paul Fogarty was the script-writer. Juhre drew the Tarzan daily for a short period and on a comment on my previous post HERE, Jim J. recalled studying under the artist William Juhre:

"My parents wanted to give me art lessons as my 8th grade graduation gift. Call it fate or a predetermined course on my Life Path, but Artist Bill Juhre happened to live practically in my backyard in De Pere, WI. I was taken to his contemporary home on scenic Scray's Hill where he would review my portfolio and "interview" me to see if I would be accepted into his coveted watercolor class. I was a young kid and extremely nervous, but the elderly gentleman complete with his sterotypical snow white artist's goatee, immediately put me at ease with his gentle, soft-spoken demeanor. I couldn't believe I would spend the summer of 1973 pursuing my artistic passion, studying under tutilage of one of the original Tarzan illustrators - WOW! When the course was complete, Bill gave me an incredible gift - one of his prized black and white Tarzan comic books. The inscription read, "To an aspiring young artist - William Juhre." May his memory always live. "Thank you Bill", for sharing your incredible talent with me."

W. Heath Robinson

W. Heath Robinson self-portrait and signature courtesy of Don Kurtz. The advertisement below is from October 1920 in the Daily Mail.

Work Girls of London

A list of serials in the course of publication in penny and halfpenny weekly parts was listed in the Examiner during one week beginning January 2, 1864. The titles were Red-Handed Hugh; or, the Heir of Osmond Hall, The Man in Gray “by the author of The Woman in Black,” Sea-Drift; or, The Wreckers of the Channel, The Basilik’s Eye; Deeds of Darkness; or a Fight Against Fate, The Smuggler Chieftain; or, The Witch of Eccleston Moor, The Gipsey Buccaneer; or, Secret of the Sea, Claude Duval; or, The Dashing Highwayman, Gentleman Clifford and his White Mare Brilliant, or, the Ladies Highwayman, The Hunted Felon; or, a Wife’s Vengeance, “by the author of The Murdered Wife,” Oscar Bertrand, “by the author of The Black Band,” Cartouche; or, The Noble Highwayman, The Queen of Night; or, The Secret of the Red Lodge, Isabel’s Vengeance, a Romance of London Life, The Mysteries of Merlin’s Cave “by the author of Leonora; or, Crime of the Deepest Dye,” The Daughter of Midnight “by the author of Ruth the Betrayer ; or, the Female Spy,” Mazeppa; or, The Dwarf’s Revenge, Philip’s Revenge, a Story of a Lone Island, Sixteen-Stringed Jack; or, The Daring Highwayman, The New Mysteries of London (with illustrations by Phiz), The Women of London , Jenny Diver; or, The Lady Highwayman, Nan Darrell; or, The Highwayman’s Daughter, The Red Chamber, Confessions of a Ticket-of-Leave Man , Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road, Jessie, the Mormon’s Daughter, The Ghost’s Secret, a Tale of Terror, Blueskin, the only Romance giving the full adventures of Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard , and New Newgate Calendar, containing the Remarkable Lives and Trials of Notorious Criminals Past and Present.

This list is remarkable for containing no penny dreadful works published by the Newsagent’s Publishing Company, which is generally believed to have begun publishing in 1861 or 1862, except for Work Girls of London, usually dated 1865, and Confessions of a Ticket-of-Leave Man.

The stage melodrama and the penny dreadful had a symbiotic relationship, one catchpenny operation feeding off the other from the early 1830’s. The melodrama could be considered the equivalent of the modern cinema matinees while the penny dread was replaced by the pulps and comic books of the modern age. England’s popular heroes Jack Sheppard, Blueskin, Dick Turpin, the Blue Dwarf, Charley Wag and Spring-Heeled Jack all vaulted from the penny part to the theatre stage.

The woodcuts used on melodrama advertisements, posters and bills were borrowed from penny dreadful publishers. Frederick Wilton’s Britannia Diaries entry, for Wednesday August 12, 1863, read;

“To Mr. Dicks Publishing Office, 313 Strand, to get woodcut from Reynolds’s Miscellany for Ticket of Leave - lent grudgingly. Also to Ransom & Warren’s, 3, Bouverie Street, Fleet Street to get woodcuts from their Confessions of a Ticket of Leave - great difficulty to find Mr. Ransom, who when found, freely gave note to Printer for it. Block gone from Printers to Engravers - & Mr. R brought it himself to Theatre at night.”

Deeds of Darkness; or a Fight Against Fate was the title of a version of Ticket-of-Leave as published in Reynolds’s Miscellany. The serial was written by Charles Henry Ross and was published in penny numbers as well. Ransom & Warren are an unknown; Wilton may be referring to Henry Lea’s version of Ticket of Leave or the NPC version. The melodrama of The Work Girls of London followed on December 19, 1864, then a lull in dramatized NPC titles until Sept. 19, 1866 with Wild Boys of London and December 5, 1866 with Roving Jack, the Pirate Hunter. “Plenty of Woodcuts borrowed from Mr. Brett,” notes Wilton.

John Dicks indifferent attitude to lending woodcuts may have led to The Britannia turning to Edwin Brett and the Newsagent’s Publishing Company and Brett’s “boys of England” serials for much material in the 1860’s. Brett was probably still involved with the NPC during the period he started his numerous boy’s journals since Wilton’s diaries list a mixture of Boys of England and NPC serials in rotation. On November 27, 1866 Brett took over publication of The Boys of England which supplied raw material for a number of Britannia melodramas. Wildfire Ned; or, The Skeleton Crew appeared on December 19, 1866, Moonlight Jack by dramatist William Travers on June 19, 1867, and Wild Will; or, the Pirates of the Thames on Sept. 16, 1868.

*1864 The Work Girls of London; their Trials and Temptations London: Newsagents’ Publishing Company, 147 Fleet Street. Illustrated by Harry Maguire and Robert Prowse.

**The Britannia Diaries, 1863-1875: selections from the diaries of Frederick C. Wilton London: Society for Theatre Research, 1992.