Commercial Schools--The Industrial Revolution and Education

At the beginning of the Regency era, in 1811, there were relatively few schools in Britain. Some dame schools existed, where lucky infants learned their letters. There were some Church of England primary schools, and some grammar schools. Across the country there were governesses and vicars with varying degrees of expertise teaching children a variety of subjects including the classics (for boys), needlework (for girls), a smattering of languages, a little deportment, and some history and religion.

For the gentry and nobility, there were boarding schools for both sexes. At these the girls were taught essentials of display and the basics of reading and writing. The boys were taught Latin, Greek and the gamut of classical literature and history.

For the lower classes, there was vocational training for both male and female children. There were apprenticeships with harsh taskmasters, and there was the household school of 'service' with equally grim butlers and housekeepers as teachers.

None of this education addressed the needs of the new industrial society. The Industrial Revolution was creating a new middle class. This middle class had money, a desire for standing among its peers, and a need for the tools which would help them succeed in business. A new sort of school grew up to fill this need--the commercial school. These schools flourished and multiplied right from the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Salisbury and Winchester Journal - Monday 11 July 1803

Hampshire Chronicle - Monday 15 July 1805

A telling sentence in the advertisement below makes clear the school's objectives:

"Its principal object is the qualifying youth for business."

Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser - Friday 17 January 1806

Leeds Intelligencer - Monday 22 June 1807

The objective of the above school is made very clear in its advertisement.

The sort of books from which the new subjects were taught are listed in this advertisment, below:

Bristol Mirror - Saturday 07 October 1809

Hampshire Chronicle - Monday 22 July 1811

As the decades advance, the word 'mathematics' becomes more prominent as above. This was the subject the new world of business most required.

Bristol Mirror - Saturday 09 January 1813

This school above attempted to be all things to all people (well, boys and young men, at least).

This advertisement below lists instruction in practical subjects at 24 guineas per annum and classical subjects at 4 guineas each per annum. The classics have become 'add-ons'.

Bristol Mirror - Saturday 17 July 1819

This is a brave new world indeed; a world of industry and business.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

Sources: http://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

The Serpentine - Hyde Park's River/Lake

Hyde Park once contained a river--the Westbourne--which formed ponds (originally possibly monastic fish ponds) in the Park. In 1730 Queen Caroline ordered that the Westbourne be dammed to create a long, narrow artificial lake as part of the Park redevelopment.

Detail of the 1746 Rocque map showing the newly constructed Serpentine. (Wikipedia)

The Serpentine quickly became a focal point for the Park and a centre, during the Regency, of newsworthy activity. At the beginning of the century the news was all bad.

Morning Chronicle - Saturday 30 May 1801

Saunders's News-Letter - Friday 03 December 1802

Oxford University and City Herald - Saturday 05 December 1807

 Skaters on the Serpentine in Hyde Park by Julius Caesar Ibbitson (1786)

 In 1808, however, some pleasant stories about the Serpentine appeared.

Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal - Friday 15 April 1808

Globe - Tuesday 27 December 1808

View of the Serpentine River, Hyde Park, looking from Kensington Gardens 1787

 The Serpentine's walk was the site of sporting events

Morning Post - Thursday 17 June 1813

 And research was aiming to make the Serpentine and other urban bodies of water safer places.

Bury and Norwich Post - Wednesday 08 December 1813

 Frost was always a problem and the lure of ice skating and sliding created many issues in 
 1816.

Morning Post - Saturday 03 February 1816

Morning Chronicle - Monday 23 December 1816

The great tragedy of the Serpentine was its use as a method of suicide. The desperate, too often young women, chose drowning as their escape from their troubles. 

Oxford University and City Herald - Saturday 25 June 1814

Sussex Advertiser - Monday 04 April 1814

In December 1816 Harriet Westbrook, the pregnant wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, was found drowned in the Serpentine. I cannot discover that the newspapers had anything to say about that event.

Despite its checkered past, the Serpentine is still a lovely feature of Hyde Park and a tribute to the vision of our Georgian forebearers.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

Patent Medicine -- Regency universal remedies

During the Regency era medical treatment, as we know it, was in its infancy. Establishments like the Medical Society of London and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh were beginning to disseminate medical information and train doctors, but it would be later in the 19th century before significant medical strides were made. Until then the care of those requiring medical aid was in the hands of the hard-to-find trained physicians and the under-educated barber-surgeons. Those who did not have access to these practitioners relied upon apothecaries and wise-women educated in herbal lore and experiential healing.

The Book of English Trades: And Library of the Useful Arts by John Souter
1818

The dearth of knowledge in the field of medicine led to the development of a huge quantity of 'patent' medicines, that is, herbal and alcoholic concoctions whose efficacy had no factual basis. Of course, patent medicines still thrive today, but at least we have agencies overseeing their ingredients, their claims, and their use.

During the Regency, there was no oversight. Patent medicines and the shops in which they were sold flourished.

Stamford Mercury - Friday 16 September 1803

Bell's Monthly Compendium of Advertisements for August 1807

Bristol Mirror - Saturday 28 April 1810

Manchester Mercury - Tuesday 09 September 1800

Birmingham Chronicle - Thursday 02 December 1819

Likely there were among the patent medicines some innocuous remedies that provided relief for some conditions. But too often they were adulterated, and worse, they were reliant on additives like alcohol, opium, and cocaine. These concoctions could have deadly results. This tragedy (below) occurred as a result of the use of an 'imitation' of a well-known cure-all "Godfrey's Cordial".

Aris's Birmingham Gazette - Monday 22 February 1808

It was common knowledge that patent medicines were dubious science. Even the cartoonists lampooned them:

T. Rowlandson and G. Woodward, 1801 (Credit Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images)

But the ultimate in chicanery came from one Dr. Sibly. The claims for his product were numerous, and culminated in an assertion that it could reanimate a person on the verge of death.

Chester Chronicle - Friday 06 November 1818

Leeds Mercury - Saturday 26 October 1816

 The sheer quantity of advertisements for patent medicines in publications of the Regency era indicates their availability, and their popularity. I just hope they helped more people than they injured.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

Source: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/