As in the modern day keeping pets was popular in Marlow's past. Dogs were the most popular though a good many kept were used primarily as guard dogs, sporting animals or working dogs first and companion animals (if at all) second.
Sale adverts, court cases, recorded memories and dog show results tell us that Victorian Marlovians kept toy dogs, fox terriers, bulldogs, bull terriers, lurchers, greyhounds, cocker and other spaniels, retrievers, fox terriers, collies and Newfoundlands amongst other breeds.
Lurchers were primarily used for blood sports and poaching purposes.
In 1878 a spaniel puppy advertised in the Reading Mercury would set you back 10 shillings sixpence.
A Dog Tax applied 1796 to 1882. This was in addition to the cost of a dog licence for each animal kept except sheepdogs, imposed from 1867 onwards. I have found no local prosecutions for avoiding dog tax but those for failing to have a dog licence were two a penny. It has been estimated that nationally the compliance rate for having a licence in Victorian England was only around 50 per cent. Marlow's constables however were zealous in seeking out dog owners without licences, securing fines from them. In 1878 each licence cost 7 shillings sixpence, an eye watering amount for poor families and the obvious reason why virtually all prosecutions for not having a licence were of the poor. They often used their dogs for the night time poaching of rabbits, hares and pheasants. Ferrets were also used for rabbiting but the low number of Marlow prosecutions for that suggest that it was not as common.
Taking a dog out in the countryside could be risky. William Clayton Esquire had iron dog spikes all around his game preserve near Moor Common in the 1810s. A dog belonging to a Mr Deane [probably John Deane] accidentally entered this land when chasing a hare and was impaled. The poor animal died as soon as he was freed from the spike. It was the fifth dog to have so died in the space of a few years and Mr Deane took Clayton to court.
The estate staff of Clayton were evasive when questioned about how the spikes came to be present. The defence implied that they were intended only to kill foxes imported from aboard and let loose locally. Who was thought to be releasing such foxes does not seem to have been said. Though bringing in foxes to replace those slaughtered by the hunt did occur in this period releases would be into the protected and contained estates of hunt supporters not just into the countryside at random and I find no reference anywhere to the importation of animals from abroad for this purpose.
In any event the judge refused to except any version of events other than that Clayton had ordered the spikes put up in order to kill dogs. He savaged Clayton for this illegal practice and said a woman or child who mistook their way could just have easily been spiked. £15 in damages were awarded to Mr Deane.
Dogs themselves could be a danger of course. In 1882 three dogs at Bisham Abbey were attacked by an aggressive roaming dog, one receiving injuries so severe that it had to be put down. The same aggressive dog later gave a nasty bite to 13 year old village girl Annie May. The local constable found the animal and shot it.
That dog was fortunately not infected with rabies but the disease was a real problem for our ancestors. Rumours of sightings of mad dogs anywhere locally struck fear into the town. Searchers went out to try to find such dogs and shoot them before they could spread the disease to other animals or people. Outbreaks of rabies nevertheless occurred in Marlow and Turville in the summer of 1896 and in Marlow again in 1925. During such times the movement of dogs to other areas was banned and all dogs had to be muzzled in public. The requirement to have your dog muzzled was also enforced at other times, seemingly haphazardly.
In 1896 Edward Suthall a farmer of Handy Cross was jailed for refusing to pay a fine for having a dangerous unmuzzled dog which had repeatedly attacked the Marlow constable PC Tapping when he was on patrol up there. The judge did not believe the defendant's claim that the dog did not belong to him.
On a happier note dog owners could win prizes by entering them into local events such as the dog show held in the grounds of Spinfield House Marlow in 1883. Both men and women were prizewinners. Successful dogs included some wonderfully named individuals- Pork Pie, Rags and Tatters, Lord Edward, Hush Money, Naphill Scamp, Hughenden Daisy and Comet to name but a few. Spinfield was also the venue for a "pet party" - that is a fun pet show, in 1912. It was to raise funds to build the new church school (Holy Trinity) and included prizes for both the prettiest and ugliest animal contestants! Entered pets included toads, tortoises, ants and silkworms. (There was also a prize for human babies..)
While eating scraps from the family meal along with what additional meat could be afforded by their owners was normal for most dogs commercial dog biscuits could be bought in Marlow by the early 1890s. There were no pet shops then. Dog food was bought from ironmongers or agricultural suppliers. These businesses would also sell you worming and flea solutions and food for your poultry and pet birds.
The keeping of cage birds, canaries and linnets especially, as pets was popular with women. Virtually all agricultural shows had classes for them. Walter Lovegrove grocer of Marlow High Street was a frequent judge of pet bird and poultry classes throughout the area in the late 1800s. More about the tragic Walter here
No Marlow show in the 1800s had a cat class that I can discover though they were found in other Bucks shows as were classes for pet rabbits (as opposed to rabbits raised for meat) and even pet mice.
Guinea pigs were found as pets in Britain by the 1890s but don't feature in any local shows I can see.
There were plenty of feral cats in the town. Mr Cocks bred actual wildcats at his home near the river. His near neighbour Captain Marshall didn't stop there having a whole menagerie of exotic animals such as elephants and lions. Kathryn has written a whole post on that subject if you are interested here.
Richard Blake of West Street trained an "enormous" cat to turn tricks. More on him here.
In 1889 Colonel Wethered donated a female monkey to the Royal Zoological Society- perhaps a pet or why else did he have one?? (This monkey had been brought over from the Congo 3 years before the gift.) Mrs Coppinger of Thames Lawn certainly owned a "riotsome" monkey in 1890 and liked to take it out on her steam launch Eunice, to the amusement of passers by on the riverbank. Mrs Crashaw was rather astonishingly reunited in Marlow with a monkey she had lost some time before while living in Kent. Known as Jacko, it had apparently found its way into the hands of a pair of Italian youths who had come to Marlow coincidentally with it as a performing animal. Mrs Crawshay saw it in the street, recognised some markings it had and found the animal remembered the tricks she had taught him. Arrangements were eventually made for Jacko to be returned to its former owner. The youths were compensated for the 30s they had paid for the monkey. The seller had been a stranger whom they had met in Portsmouth, or so they said.
Sources:
Bazaar Exchange and Mart and Journal of the Household. Volume 47. 1892.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_licence
The Shooters Guide, Ninth Edition. By B Thomas.
Maidenhead Advertiser 1st February 1882 and Bucks Herald 8th February 1896 British Library via the BNA.
The Zoologist, A monthly journal of Natural History by Newman West 1881.
Slough, Eton and Windsor Observer September 3 1887, 26 July 1912. Slough Library.
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London - W H Fowler 1893.
©Marlow Ancestors. If using this research please credit this blog and link here (but you are welcome to use it). Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment