Victorian Servants, A Very Peculiar History

However, for Henry Taylor of London , it was the death of him.

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In , he was performing his duties at the graveside on a wet day. The ground was slippery, so to avoid embarrassing accidents, mourners were requested to access the grave on foot to lighten the load on the funeral carriage.

The coffin was removed from the hearse and was being carried gingerly by six pallbearers in solemn fashion. As they approached the grave, the pallbearers were ordered to turn so that the coffin would be facing the right way when it was lowered into the ground. As the six men shuffled around in a circle carrying the coffin, a rather heavy one by all accounts, Taylor slipped on the muddy ground, upsetting the other pallbearers in the process.

To prevent themselves from falling, the others let go of their burden, and the coffin fell full-force on top of Henry Taylor, killing him.

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People have always been willing to suffer to be fashionable , but for the Victorians, there were few lengths to which people would not go in order to look their best. After Empress Eugenie wore a stunning green dress to the Paris Opera in , green was in. Everyone who was anyone wanted to be seen in the same emerald green shade as the princess. It was unfortunate that that particular shade of green was created by mixing copper with arsenic. The color became so popular that it was used in fabrics everywhere.

As its lethal properties were public knowledge, it is not, perhaps, surprising that when Louisa Cruikshank decided to kill herself, she thought of the colorful substance. In , at just 18 years old, Miss Cruikshank purchased the poison without any difficulty from an art supplies shop and died swiftly but painfully soon afterward. The Victorians, alas, did not have the monopoly on stupid people.

And stupid drunk people are apt to behave in the same way today as they did then. But, in an age when people had to make their own amusements, some found greater scope for doing ridiculous things. Take Londoner Walter Cowle, for instance. In , while enjoying a night out, he bet his friends that he could put a billiard ball in his mouth and close his lips around it.

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At the subsequent inquest, the landlord of the Carlisle Arms Tavern maintained that when he provided Cowle with a billiard ball, it was on the understanding that he would not actually put the ball in his mouth but only appear to do so, while using sleight of hand to palm the ball in his pocket. For some reason, however, perhaps in some way connected to the large number of drinks that the landlord at the tavern had served, Cowle did indeed put the ball in his mouth, whereupon he immediately began to choke.

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Both his drinking companion and the landlord tried to remove the billiard ball, even holding Cowle upside down and slapping him on the back, but nothing worked. Though, at the inquest, his friends maintained that they had seen Cowle perform this trick several times, the landlord of the tavern had nothing else to say on the matter.

10 Really Peculiar Victorian Deaths - Listverse

And neither, of course, did Cowle. Marion Hillitz died in after a long, entirely normal illness, her friends and relatives gathered to pay their respects ahead of the funeral. The series takes famous literary classics and retells them in a graphic novel format. Each title is an abridged version of the original book, and is designed to engage young readers through the use of simplified narratives and colourful visual aids. Titles in the series include:.

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The series is intended to interest adults and young people in history by compressing many facts and curiosities into pages. The books are designed with multiple entry points fact boxes, lists, recipes etc. The emphasis is on highlighting little-known and bizarre stories and facts while covering the known history of the subject and debunking popular urban myths. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. To include a comma in your tag, surround the tag with double quotes. Skip to content Skip to search. Victorian servants, a very peculiar history: Language English View all editions Prev Next edition 1 of 3.

Check copyright status Cite this Title Victorian servants, a very peculiar history: Physical Description 19 p.

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Series Very peculiar histories Cherished library Subjects Household employees -- England -- History -- 18th century -- Juvenile literature. Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, -- Juvenile literature. Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Juvenile literature. Target Audience Juvenile Notes Includes index.