A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/700 (page 6)
    It is a lifelike portrait in which the English brutality of that time is depicted in all its various aspects. A few examples make this clear. In 1790 the London crowd took delight in every kind of bizarre pastime. Donkeys were baited; little pigs were thoroughly greased all over and dogs set on them; old dogs were made to fight a mad donkey. One pastime was held weekly throughout the winter in the fields: a small pig was shaved close with a razor, and its tail thickly greased—the game was to catch it by the tail and swing it round your head. The prize was a lace hat which was paraded on a pole, and the points of the game consisted in the falling of the fellows as they struggled to seize the tail, in the squealing of the animal and the shrieking applause of the crowd. The following notice shows the favourite pastimes of the lowest class of the community on Whitmonday: 4 A new hat will be the prize for men, a shift of dutch linen for girls—in a drinking competition: further there will be a ball-game for a fine ham, a sack-race for a pair of new trousers, wrestling for a big plum pudding, and for a guinea—to get a sound thrashing.' In Stepney a fighting bantam was matched against a 25-year-old raven, and the bantam lost. On the same occasion a donkey was baited by old dogs on a piece of waste land, and the barking of the dogs, the cries of the donkey and the shouts of the spectators combined to make a horrible concert. At the famous 4 Bartholomew Fair ' held in London for the enter- tainment of the lowest class, the star turn was a so-called wild Irishman—a fake of the stupidest kind. As a matter of fact, an Irish coal-heaver had been hired, stripped naked, smeared with tar and rolled in cow-hair; then he was fastened to a post by two big iron chains and exhibited to the gaping, credulous populace as a freak1. The following 1 J. W. von Archenholtz, Annals of British History. Hamburg, 1791 (in future quoted as Annals). Vol. V, pp. 390-391, 411. [6]