Tumblety's London address

[A.P. Wolf]

Tumblety ran a series of advertisements in the Liverpool press in 1875 touting his book and patent medicines, but the address he gave was a London one.

'53 Margaret Street, Cavendish-square'.

Which is interesting as in June of 1877 the following advertisement appeared in the classified columns of The Times:

'RE-ENGAGEMENT required, by man, age 30, 5ft 10ins, as attendant to a gentleman mentally afflicted. Willing to travel. Good references.
James East, 53 Margaret Street, Cavendish-square.'

Had the dog lost its master?
Or bone?

[Chris G.]

Hi AP

It occurs to me that this Marylebone address might actually have been just a post drop in both instances. Isn't the area mainly one of businesses?

Chris

[A.P. Wolf]

That is of course always a possibility, Chris, but I have my doubts as some years later in 1894 the great 'Ulster the Palmist' actually gave readings at 53 Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, as advertised in the 'The Era' of that year... which would seem to indicate that the address was a residential one rather than a post box address.
The fact that several charlatans used that same address is interesting though.
That the immediate area was a residential one is attested to by the fine residence of the famous Seymour family just up the road at No. 65 during the Victorian period.
Yes I do mean the Seymour family that supplied fresh blood to the mad monarchs of ye olde England; and this family was distinguished in the Victorian period by having a few declared lunatics in the fold, bringing us neatly back to James East and his quest to find a new gentleman lunatic to look after.
I am looking into the possibility that Saunderson, the young lunatic who later murdered a prostitute and wrote letters as 'Jack the Ripper', was intimately connected to the Seymour family as a cousin or similar.

[Joe Chetcuti]

It was reported that a Ripper suspect had emerged from the Pall Mall clubs. When Tumblety was interviewed in January 1889, he wasn't shy about adding fuel to this fire. The 'doctor' boldly claimed that he frequented the best London clubs, and he specifically named the Carlton Club. (The whole premise about a Ripper suspect 'embarking out of a Pall Mall club at midnight' was initiated by a military member of the Carlton Club.)

When the time came to write an autobiography to express his Whitechapel innocence, the 'doctor' daringly addressed this issue once again. Tumblety printed a poem in the second edition of A Sketch of the Life of Dr. Francis Tumblety (1893). It can be found on page 110.


THAT LITTLE CLUB

There's a little club across the way
Whose doors are open night and day;
In and out the members go.
And not a man of them I know.
Yet my opinions never vary
That all these men are literary -
Not by their flowing locks of hair,
Not by the shabby clothes they wear,
Not by their hours' unseemly lateness,
Not by their air of latent greatness,
Not by the manuscripts they bring,
Not by the cultured songs they sing,
But by the swift persistent way
They rush the growler night and day.


English slang always slows me down. Would a "growler" be a horse-drawn carriage?

[Nemo]

Hi Joe

I was going to say that it refers to female genitalia - not sure if that interpretation was in place in the 1800s

I don't know whether you have heard of the American jug called a growler

I found this reference which may be of some use...


[Q] From Mia Shinbrot: There’s an old drinking song that goes like this: ‘There was a little man who had a little can, and he used to rush the growler. He stuck his head in the barroom door, and he heard somebody holler, “No beer today! No beer today! You can’t get beer on Sunday. No beer today! No beer today! Just bring around the can on Monday.” ’ I have long wondered what rush the growler means. I suspect it may be a Prohibition reference, but I don’t know what it means. Can you help?
[A] I can help to some extent. To rush the growler (sometimes to roll the growler and other forms) was to take a container to the local bar to buy beer. The growler was the container, usually a tin can. Brander Matthews wrote about it in Harper’s Magazine in July 1893: “In New York a can brought in filled with beer at a bar-room is called a growler, and the act of sending this can from the private house to the public-house and back is called working the growler”. The job of rushing the growler was often given to children.

Found here...

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-rus1.htm

Probably a reference to their drinking but I suppose it could be a double-entendre

Also, in old English a "growler" referred to a certain size meat pie

[Robert Linford]

Yes, I think Nemo's right. There's a Times aticle which refers to an American phrase "running the growler" which meant getting one's container filled. I suppose the poet was saying that all literary men like their booze.

[Joe Chetcuti]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/growler

It seems that either definition #2 or #3 was put into play in Tumblety's poem That Little Club.

Of course, Tumblety had a history of being very sly when it came to ambiguous writing.

[Nemo]

You're correct Joe

I never heard a carriage called a growler before

there is a reference to them on this page

http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/Transport/horse/hdv.htm

It states that Hansom cabs had 2 wheels and a growler had 4

I think "Rushing the growler" would still refer to the beer though...

[Robert Linford]

There's a lot in the US papers about this including one very long article which I'll send to anyone interested (How's bandwidth). Here's a short one, Milwaukee Daily Journal Mar 8th 1890.

[Paul]

A 'growler' was a hansom cab which had four wheels and could comfortably seat four people. It's official name was a Clarence. More common hansom cabs were two-wheeled and sat two people side-by-side. A 'growler' was also glass-fronted and could carry baggage.

[Sam Flynn]

A 'growler' was a hansom cab which had four wheels and could comfortably seat four people. Thanks for the definition, Paul.

Incidentally (he said, revealing his ignorance), on the subject of cabs, does anyone know how "brougham" was pronounced? I've never quite known.

[Nemo]

I always pronounced it like "browem" - but it appears to be "broom"

IN BRIEF: n. - A sedan that has no roof over the driver's seat; Light carriage.

Tutor's tip: The butler used the "broom" (implement used for sweeping) to sweep out the "brougham" (carriage), then drove away in the "brume" (mist or fog).

[Sam Flynn]

I always pronounced it like "browem" - but it appears to be "broom"Thanks, Nemo. Me - I thought it was "bruffem"; perhaps I was brainwashed by listening to old recordings of "Educating Archie" with Peter Brough.

BTW, it only occurred to me the other day that "Burgho" was an anagram of "Brough" (Edwin Brough, of course, being the dog's owner). To think it took so long for me to work that out... :)

Sorry for being off-topic. A bit of trivia, that's all.

[Nemo]

The bloodhounds are one of my favourite (pet) subjects

I posted a picture I have of "Burgho Champion" over at Casebook
If I ever get around to writing a dissertation, I think it would be on this subject

[Simon Wood]

Hi Chris,

Your post about Tumblety's London address possibly being a mail drop reminded me of something I meant to post aeons ago.

There is a person on the web whose name I dare not utter, for she brings forth olympian gusts of righteous indignation from Ripper posters of somewhat limited exposure to other members of the human race. In fact, so deadly is the utterance of her name that, at a time when I didn't know any better, posts of mine on Casebook were summarily erased.

But I digress.

In embroidering the Royal Conspiracy with all sorts of shenanigans involving Sir Edward Jenkinson, JG Littlechild and the C5 she postulated the existence in Cleveland Street of an unofficial post office known as Kelly's Library. And in support of this she posted on her blog a small-ad cutting from the Evening Standard, Friday 5th October 1888, in which one of the entries reads "Letter awaits you Kelly's Library. Friday, Oct 5th—KITTIE."

All well and good at first glance, and very compelling, but what "she whose name must not be uttered" neglected to tell us is, that if you enter the keywords Kelly's Library into The Times archive between the years 1855 [long before MJK was born] and 1900 [long after MJK died] you will get 168 hits.

Kelly's Library was a widely-used poste-restante service which started out at 89 Lisson Grove, St Johns Wood, North London, before moving to the more prestigious Vigo Street [off Regent Street] in central London.

Besides readers of The Times, medical people often used Kelly's Library in advertisements for jobs in The Lancet, and George R. Sims mentioned it in his 1900 book "In London's Heart".

So all the foregoing is by way of suggesting that Tumblety might have used Kelly's Library if he had wished to disguise his actual address.

Regards,

Simon

[SirRobertAnderson]

I don't know whether you have heard of the American jug called a growler


It's a half gallon of beer or as I call it, a serving portion.