On the evening of October 7th, 1777, as fighting on Bemis Heights subsided,
Harriet Acland came to General Burgoyne with a startling request.byGeneral John Burgoyne
Henry Mayhew, co-founder of ‘Punch’, tells two anecdotes about the Victorian cabbie.
ByHenry Mayhew1812-1887
1874
In the Time of
Queen Victoria1837-1901
Back to text
All that Glisters is not Gold
From the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source
X
A Hansom cab stands outside the Royal Albert Hall in the heart of London, in 1904, three years after Queen Victoria died and her son Edward VII ascended the throne. Hailing a cab in Victorian London was apparently a risky business, on both sides. “Sherlock Holmes was right,” said Psmith regretfully. “You may remember that he advised Doctor Watson never to take the first cab, or the second. He should have gone further, and urged him not to take cabs at all. Walking is far healthier.” Though in Rupert Psmith’s case, it was 1915, the cab was a yellow taximeter cab in New York, and he was being kidnapped at the time. See ‘Psmith Journalist’, by P.G. Wodehouse.
Back to text
Enlarge & read more...
From the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
A Hansom cab stands outside the Royal Albert Hall in the heart of London, in 1904, three years after Queen Victoria died and her son Edward VII ascended the throne. Hailing a cab in Victorian London was apparently a risky business, on both sides. “Sherlock Holmes was right,” said Psmith regretfully. “You may remember that he advised Doctor Watson never to take the first cab, or the second. He should have gone further, and urged him not to take cabs at all. Walking is far healthier.” Though in Rupert Psmith’s case, it was 1915, the cab was a yellow taximeter cab in New York, and he was being kidnapped at the time. See ‘Psmith Journalist’, by P.G. Wodehouse.
‘London Characters’ was a tissue of light-hearted observations on everyday life in the capital written by Henry Mayhew, co-founder of the satirical magazine ‘Punch’. Mayhew made a career out of satisfying the middle classes’ curiosity about the working man, something the working man did not always appreciate.
IMPRANSUS Jones* did a neat thing the
other day. He got into a cab, when, after a bit, he recollected that
he had no money, or chance of borrowing any. He suddenly checked the
driver in a great hurry, and said he had dropped a sovereign in the
straw.* He told the cabman that he would go to a friend’s a few doors
off and get a light. As he was pretending to do so, the cabman, as
Jones had expected, drove off rapidly. Thus the biter is sometimes
bit.
There is a clergyman in London who tells a story of a cabman
driving him home, and to whom he was about to pay two shillings.* He
took the coins out of his waistcoat pocket, and then suddenly
recollecting the peculiar glitter, he called out, “Stop, cabman, I’ve
given you two sovereigns by mistake.” “Then your honour’s seen the
last of them,” said the cabman, flogging into his horse as fast as he
could. Then my friend felt again, and found that he had given to the
cabman two bright new farthings which he had that day
received, and was keeping as a curiosity for his children.*
A pseudonym, possibly for the author: one of the sections in ‘London Characters’ is supposedly written by a Mr Jones. Impransus is Latin for ‘dinner-less’, and was frequently used in the Victorian era and before as a humorous way of saying ‘broke’. Dr Johnson once signed a letter to his publisher with ‘Impransus’.
A sovereign is a gold coin worth one pound sterling. Although they are not normally used today, sovereigns remain in circulation and are still minted at the Royal Mint in Wales and under licence in India. A dropped sovereign in 1880 was roughly equivalent to a mislaid £91 in 2017. See Measuring Worth.
On Britain’s former coinage, prior to decimalisation in 1970, a shilling was one twentieth of a pound, or twelve pennies (a pound was 240 pennies). A fare of two shillings was roughly equivalent to £9 in 2017.
A farthing was a quarter of a penny: two farthings made a ha’penny. A penny in 1880 would be around 37p in 2017. So the cabman gave up £9 (two shillings) in the belief he had got away with £180 (2 sovereigns), whereas in fact he had about 18p (two farthings).
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author
aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that
strike you. How do they help the author communicate his
ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you?
How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939)
by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at
Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn,
Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University,
USA.
Précis
Henry Mayhew told two anecdotes about
cabbies in Victorian London. One told how a Mr Jones
avoided paying his fare by pretending he had dropped
a sovereign, so the cabbie would take off without
asking questions. Another told how a cabbie drove off
thinking he had been overpaid with two sovereigns,
whereas he had been underpaid with shiny farthings.(59 / 60 words)
Henry Mayhew told two anecdotes about
cabbies in Victorian London. One told how a Mr Jones
avoided paying his fare by pretending he had dropped
a sovereign, so the cabbie would take off without
asking questions. Another told how a cabbie drove off
thinking he had been overpaid with two sovereigns,
whereas he had been underpaid with shiny farthings.
Edit | Reset
Variations:
1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words.2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words.3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: despite, if, just, must, not, ought, since, unless.
Suggest answers to this question. See
if you can limit one answer to exactly
seven words.
Why did Impransus Jones stop his cab?
Suggestion
Supposedly, to look for a dropped sovereign.
(7 words)
Variations:
1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words.2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words.3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
JigsawsBased on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single
sentence, using different words as much as possible.
Do not be satisfied with the first answer you
think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Jones took a cab. He found he had no money. He thought of a way to avoid paying.
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1Hurry.Then.You.
2Again.Do.Have.
3Bright.Peculiar.Receive.
Variations:1.include direct and indirect speech2.include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who3.use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane,
from time to time you could
buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a
Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed
to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a
Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and
there is no need to register.
Related Posts
The Character of Captain James Cook
ByDavid Samwell
Captain Cook’s friend and ship’s surgeon David Samwell gives us his impressions of the great explorer.
