Janie’s father is suddenly taken ill

 Season 3, Episode 2.  April 18th-22nd 1882. In which our Fred tries to nail down a date for their wedding, and Janie’s father, James, is suddenly taken ill, and we take a look a Victorian chemists and the over the counter sales of dubious concoctions. 
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Ingrid Birchell Hughes

Transcript

[Intro]
Welcome back to My Love Letter Time Machine, Hi, I’m Ingrid Birchell Hughes, and I’m serialising the love letters of my great great Grandparents, Fred Shepherd and Janie Warburton. Travel 140 years back in time with me now where we take a look at Victorian history through their eyes and today Fred tries to nail down a date for their wedding, and Janie’s father, James, is suddenly taken ill.

[An opium overdose?]
After the drama of the coal miners fight last time, Fred’s letters at least, settle back down into a work as usual groove, where he continues to shine at the the North Easter Steel Company, and it looks as if, from his next, that it is not just Mr Cooper who is noticing:

21 Church Street, Middlesbrough
April 18th 1882.

My own darling Wife.

I was glad to hear that the usually monthly came off love, but I almost felt disappointed for I fully expected that it would not, but for your sake darling it is best as it is. 

I was very pleased to receive your letter this morning love, it was so good of you writing by return. I should have done the same but today I have been so busy preparing statements for the Directors meeting on Thursday. It is to be held in London + Mr Cooper leaves here tomorrow afternoon. I wish I was going with him + could stop at Sheffield, I should like to see you darling. It seems a lifetime instead of a week since I saw you.

We have had the auditors for a fortnightly checking the books, + they reported "that the books of the company were kept in a very efficient manner, + that they received every assistance from the one in charge”. This report will be presented to the Directors on Thursday. Mr Cooper says he is quite pleased with the result, + that it is a feather in my cap, + will go a long way towards establishing my position at the works. Don't you feel pleased my darling + proud of your husband, I feel six-foot at least now.

I am pleased that you prize the birthday card love, even if it was inexpensive, of course I know you would. That reminds me that you never told me whether the scissors were the proper size + whether they were good ones. I expect that other things prevented us trying them at Easter love.

I am glad that you agree with me to have a quiet time at Whitsuntide darling, I want to save the money for you my darling wife.

Kelsey is not usually quiet love, he is generally the other way about. I think Tom Hughes one of the best Nap players I have ever come across. I am afraid Tommy will think that I am taking advantage of his friendship in this way. We are going to buy some machinery from B.B. + D. + Mr Cooper asked me if I could get to know what it cost when new. I wrote to Tom for the particulars + when he finds that we are taking advantage of his information to pull down their price he will perhaps be offended. It was not a job that I cared particularly to do, but I could not very well refused to try when I was asked so pointedly. Do you think I could love?

Miss Gill and Blind George would no doubt derive great benefit from their meeting in the pigsty love wouldn't they.

It will my darling as you say, be better to have a good start when we get married, but we shall have now in any case love. We will not have any more outdoor business darling, it seems to be too great a strain. I am quite well now love, I hope you are better too, I am sorry that you have to suffer so much on my account wifie.

I scarcely think it was necessary for your Emma to stay in bed all the time she was waiting for the gathering to burst. I always think it is better for people to be up and knocking about, if they can anyway, it makes them forget their little ailments. It is a good job for the children that they are at your house love, but I should think that if she had to do for them she would be a deal better off. Never mind love, you won't have much longer to stay with your very amiable sister.

We have had some glorious walks down towards Woodhouse Mill my darling, as you say, we shall have some more glorious walks when I get you here wifey, and then we shall have some happy Sundays. I feel sure they will be happy darling, because you and only you can make me happy, and to be with you is happiness for me love.

I am sorry that you heard such a poor service at Woodhouse Church love, I always thought they had such a good service there. It is rather curious that you and I never got to either Treeton or Woodhouse, and we had intended going, when first we became acquainted, to both places. Do you remember love, we made an appointment to get there, and were prevented by the rain I think.

Is Tom Wortley and Miss Mills any nearer married than they were, I fully expected they would be by this love.

I am very much obliged to your good mother for her frequent presents to you love. I should think we shan't require much more crockery where shall we love? I saw a set of beautiful desert plates in a window here, I did not ask the price, as I thought I would leave all that until you came darling, and then you can suit your sweet self.

With respect to the taking of apartments, I am pleased to find that you would do even that for my sake darling. I think it will be a good plan, but we will talk it over at Whitsuntide darling, and then perhaps we can think of a better way.

I have not heard anything more about the lodgings here, I don't see much but just go about as though nothing was the matter. I only noticed the difference when I came back at Easter. I shall try to put up with it until our marriage love, because I don't like changing until I change for good with you as my darling wife.

It would be quite lively with the colliers and the bobby. I shall look at tomorrow's paper for a report of the trial.

We got a letter from our new secretary this morning, asking if I would go down and look at his house again. I'm going on Saturday afternoon, if it is a fine day I expect it will be very nice down there. I wish I was going to take you down my darling for a breath of sea air. I shall have to close now as it is 12 o'clock.

I remain my darling wife 
your loving, true, + faithful husband 
Fred.

FS 21 Church Street, Middlesbrough
April 20th 1882.

My own darling Wife.
I thought I would commence my letter tonight love so that I could finish it tomorrow after receiving yours, for of course I shall get one tomorrow from you darling.

We have had two easy days since Mr Cooper went, we have been able to get off this last two nights just after six. Excepting that it is not good to work late, I don't much care for getting done early the nights seem so long. So I do long for you my darling so much, it seems almost unbearable without you wifie. I shall miss you so much these summer nights love, because we had such glorious walks together and were thoroughly happy when we were together love. 

It was so pleasant to walk down the lane with my arms around your waste[sic] darling, and your head on my breast, and then at the gate your arms around my neck. It would be like heaven to have the time over again my little wife wouldn't it? But we shall have even a sweeter and happier time darling, when you come here. I am looking forward to the time when I shall see my darling wife every day, and give and receive a kiss when I come home. It will be blessed indeed wifie that won't it?

Marston was asking me today when the event was coming off, I told him about September; he said that he and his wife would be very glad to have your company for a fortnight before then, so that you could look around + get things ready for our marriage. What do you think darling, would you like to come and spend a fortnight here before then? I think it is very good of him proffering the hospitality don't you? It makes it rather awkward with Davis making the same offer beforehand, I don't know how to settle it at all, we shall have to talk it over at Whitsuntide love, with the other things that are to be left over. I wish it was Whitsuntide darling, it seems so long to wait before seeing you. 37 days now darling and then I see your sweet face again, I hope you will be in better health then my darling, you must not fret love with regard to the invitation you mention to Hathersage, I think I should go by all means love, if they can stay at home, and it is a desirable place to go. I think it would do you good my darling. When do you expect to go?

With reference to the excursion I mentioned to you, to Castleton, I only gave you what John Meays said. I shall certainly not want to go there. Because it is quite as hard work as Matlock and not so much to see, and then we should have to tramp from Attercliffe which I could not stand at all. I should not have any objections to going to Roche Abbey again, provided they come back through Handsworth, but only on that condition; although that would be rather expensive, but if you don't object to waiting until October it will give us a little more time and we should be able to make a fair start.

I shall be able to wait until October I have no doubt, so it will be dreary work waiting, I mention September as as being about the earliest time, you know my darling that I want to take you away as soon as I possibly can, because I think you would be happier here with me then you are at present. However, shall we decide on October wifie?

I should myself like a quiet Whitsuntide love, if we could manage it, and that is the reason why Roche Abbey would be better for us than Castleton, because we should be able to have a good talk together little wife.

I shall take good care not to work over when we are married love, because I shall not want to be away from you anymore then I can help.

I shall be agreeable to go to Polly’s on the Whitmonday if we don't go anywhere else love.

It will make you very busy love this next week with the Club feast and Rent dinner coming so close together, but you will I don't doubt make the best it is for the best love you know. I will now go to my virtuous couch and dream of you. Good night my darling (x) one kiss love!

Friday April 21st 1882

I was rather disappointed love at not receiving a letter from you, but I expect he would be busy yesterday. I hope nothing is the matter my darling. I shall look forward to a letter tomorrow morning. 

It is beautiful weather here now, being quite warm and mild. I wish I were going to take you to Redcar tomorrow love, it would be a treat. We are having another quiet day here – Mr Cooper does not return until Monday.

Has Carry come home from Harrogate? I find that the fair from here to there is only 6/6 return. Can't you be taken ill and + nothing cure you but the Harrogate water or Redcar sea air. I am sure either would do you good love.

I think I should go to the theatre tonight. It is so slow stopping in and not very interesting outside. You see we have to go so far before getting anything like country, and if we stay in I feel as though I was doing Mrs Gordon an injustice in burning her gas. I wish you were here love and then I should be quite content to stay in with my wife, that is, if she would let me and did not tire of my companionship. What do you think darling, do you expect to get tired of me?

I hope your father keeps well in health and your mother and Emma in temper, and then perhaps it will be bearable at home.

Remember me to Carry if she is at your house love, and thank your John for me for the loan of his pipe.

Trusting that you are well love, and that you love me as much as ever. 

I remain my darling wife, 
your loving, true and faithful 
husband 
Fred.

I’m rather stuck by the financial calculations that have gone on here and how there seems to been a trade off between going on an excursion at Whitsontide and getting married a month later. I think I’m reading this correctly — that Fred and Janie will have to push their wedding back to October if they wish to go on a trip with their friends. We won’t get to hear what Janie thinks about this for a while because their letters cross in the post, and for Janie there seems to be no let-up in the drama, when her father, James, is suddenly taken ill:

Handsworth 
April 21st 1882. 

My own darling husband
I received yours yesterday and was very sorry I could not give you a few lines in return, Polly came up to dinner with two children, but that would not have hindered me from writing darling but Annie Wortley came to tea and we were very busy after tea so I could not find time, you will forgive me won't you love?

Polly was quite as nice and full, fun as ever but as usual somebody generally spoils it, [Emma] got a little sup, I feel as if I could thrash her within an inch of her life today. Father has been very ill this week, he went to Sheffield on Thursday and was taken very bad with a kind of shivering fit, it came on quite sudden about half past ten, he had been in the bar after he came home and came out quite cheerful and said he would go to bed, just he was into room, he began trembling all over and would have fallen had I not taken hold of him, we got him in the armchair to the fire and put hot brown bags to him and then mother got him to bed he had a dreadful night we sent to the doctor Shaw on Wednesday he came about 2 o'clock, he said he had taken an overdose of Clorodine [sic - clorodyne] and we were to keep him quiet and warm and he thought he would come round again he was a little better yesterday and today, but our Emma has been getting it pretty freely today, and he is bothering himself to death about her, it is a shame that she goes on in this way, you don't know how I feel for him, to think what he has done for her, and to repay him in this way, I haven't patience to look at her, she was trying to make mother believe she cared about him on Wednesday night by squeezing a few tears, they are what I call crocodile tears I can't believe in them, she had had some drink then, I should give her a good talking to today but we are not private at all, you can't say a word without somebody hearing you and spreading it, I don't think it would do her much good, because there is no reason in her, she would only curse and swear at me. I don't wonder at men murdering their wives, if they are anything like her, she would provoke the best man living, but darling you will be tired of hearing about her, but don't you think it is a scandalous shame for her to do like this.

The directors meeting will be over by this, I wish you could have come on to Sheffield with Mr Cooper, I should've been delighted to see you darling, it does seem a long time since I saw you.

My darling I do feel both pleased and proud of my husband I feel 6 foot three in my stocking feet, as Mrs Shepherd in the future to think I shall have such a clever loving husband.  The reports of the very efficient manner in which the books have been kept will be a feather in your And I have no doubt but it will establish your position at the works love, we shall feel very great soon shan’t we love? In fact I think I shall have to do like the servant girl did that go a new silk dress, never look at anybody. 

I do wish I could kiss you darling you generally send good news, I read Polly just that piece of my letter and she said I was to tell you that she was going home feeling nonetheless having such a clever brother in law.

You could do no other than ask Tom about the machinery when you asked so pointedly to get to know.

The scissors do not fit my case love, I thought of keeping those in the leather case specially for your birthday present, they are a very handy little pair, the other pair I think will fit, they are both good ones. I will give you a long letter for Sunday darling.

I shall always be 
your loving true and faithful 
Wife Janie.

I’ve tried to find out exactly what hot brown bags were, but not been very successful. They were the sort of bags that dry goods were sold in - like wheat or flour, and so I’m imagining that they were warmed in the oven and then tucked around the patient like hot water bottles. Janie’s description of how she and her mother cared for James when he was taken ill, was one of those moments where you realise how much life has changed for the better since then. 

Robert Roberts in his book The Classic Slum writes “This was the heyday of quack medicines, a time when millions of the new literates were reading newspaper advertisements without the knowledge to gauge their worth. Innumerable nostrums, some harmless, some vicious, found ready sale amount the ignorant. One had to be seriously ill before a household would saddle itself with the expense of calling a doctor.”

The Wellcome Collection, the museum and library of the history of health, on their website puts it like this “Chemists were available for free whereas doctors were not, and most Victorians got their drugs over the counter, without a prescription. The wide range of drugs available at the time is intriguing.

"The Victorian chemist stocked not only patent and proprietary medicines, ready made, but nostrums made by himself, and raw ingredients for home remedies. There was laudanum for dysentery, chlorodyne for coughs and colds, and camphorated tincture of opium for asthma.

Opium pills were coated in varnish for the working class, silver for the rich, and gold for the very rich. Angelic children frolicked on the bottles of Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral, a mixture of alcohol and opium that would now be deemed a poison. Coca leaf, from which cocaine is now obtained, was advertised as a nerve and muscle tonic, to “appease hunger and thirst” and to relieve sickness."

You can see why someone might fall foul of an opiod overdose. Chlorodyne was invented by a Dr. John Collis Browne, a doctor in the British Indian Army and its original purpose was in the treatment of cholera. 

It was a mixture of laudanum (which is a tincture of opium) tincture of cannabis, and chloroform, and as such was  effective in relieving pain and treating diarrhoea. While it was sold under the branding of Dr J. Collis Browne’s, local chemists would make up cheaper generic versions for sale and the following is an ingredient list for one such formulation. “Mix chloroform 75, tincture of capsicum 25, tincture of Indian hemp 100, oil of peppermint 2 and glycerin 250 with alcohol (20 per cent) 450. Dissolve morphine hydrochloride 10 in the mixture. Add to it diluted hydrocyanic acid 50 and enough alcohol (90 per cent) to make 1000. 

Hang on I hear you ask, isn’t Hydrocyanic acid something to do with cyanide? Yes, yes it is.

I found an advertisement for Collis Browne’s in the Derby Mercury for Weds 26th April 1882, so is completely contemporary to the time that Janie is writing. The advert reads: 

Dr J. Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne is the true palliative in Neuralgia, Gout, Cancer, Toothache, Rheumatism. From Dr. B J. Boulton and Co., Hornastle. “We have made pretty extensive use of Chlroodyne in our practice lately, and look upon it as an excellent direct Sedative and Anti-spasmodic. It seems to allay pain and irritation in whatever organ and from whatever cause. It induces a feeling of comfort and quietude not obtainable by any other remedy, and it seems to possess this great advantage over all other Sedatives that it leaves no unpleasant after effects. 

Incidentally, the name of Collis Browne lives on in Britain in a mixture sold under the trade name "J Collis Browne's Mixture" for the relief of coughs and diarrhea. It still contains morphine and peppermint oil, the canabis having been removed during the 20thC and the morphine content is now massively reduced.

Sadly back in Handsworth, signs of James’ recovery are not yet evident in Janie’s next letter, where she seems rushed, judging by the switch to pencil halfway though, perhaps in an effort to get at least something in the post to Fred while juggling all of her responsibilities. 

Handsworth 
April 22nd 1882. 

My own darling Fred
I received your letter this morning, I was so sorry to disappoint you yesterday but I really could not help it love, I felt quite disappointed that I could not write, it is always such a pleasure to write to you my darling husband, I do love you. I did not quite finish answering the questions in your last letter, you asked if I thought Tom Wortley and Miss Mills was any nearer getting married I don't think so, I think Annie Wortley would only be too pleased if they would as Tom is not one of the best brothers. I should not like to exchange places with her. I told you and he came to tea on Thursday, she has got inflammation in her eyes. She told me that Mr Glover and her would be married just after next Christmas she thinks, so I shall have one old friend in the new world I am coming to.

I don't think we shall require any more crockery ware love it would be best to let the desert plates be for awhile darling and then as you say I can please my sweet self but I think we could do without them just at first.

It would be better to try and stop in the old lodgings until we are married love, if they are not very disagreeable you might change for the worse, should I send the dinner service now, I am only afraid it will be in your mothers way and I should not like to inconvenience them at all. I have not had a chance to go and see them this week, I shall walk down I think tomorrow. I wish I could have gone with you to Redcar this afternoon. I am sure a breath of fresh sea air would do me good after tea. 

[change to pencil] father is still very poorly he's been in bed since Thursday he has not been quite so well today as he was yesterday owing to that sister of mine I can hardly call her sister, he is quite low with worrying about her, she has not been in his room today. I should think she feels a bit ashamed.

We have had a walking match between William Barlow and Johnson + gardener, from the top of the Church Lane to the wood and back, Johnson has won it has made us very busy. I am sorry darling but I shall have to cut your letter short again today and I do like you to have a longer one for Sunday.

There’s no sign-off on that letter - again no doubt due to the rush caused by James being out of action and the influx of customers from the Walking Match. I’d never heard of Walking matches until I read this letter but then found out it was also known as Pedestrianism, a very popular sport in the 18th and 19th centuries and gave rise to the modern sport of racewalking,

Matches would be held for the prize money or for wagers and attracted many spectators, gambling on the outcome was a major aspect of their popularity. I didn’t find a newspaper report for this one in Handsworth, but oddly enough found one for May in Attercliffe, where one of the participants was called Kelsey. I’m going to try and find out if this is Fred’s old work colleague Kelsey and let you know what I find when we get to events in May. 

[outro]
But in the meantime, I’ll say thank you so much for listening to My Love Letter Time Machine. 

Next time Fred takes Janie to task about her harsh words regarding Emma, and Janie gives Fred interior decorating advice. 

Until then you can find me sharing excerpts of Fred and Janie’s letters on instagram at my love letter time machine all one word. As always it would be great if you would click on the ratings, leave a review or share the podcast with someone who you think might enjoy it, and you can write to me at my love letter time machine at gmail dot com.

Until next time, take care.
© Ingrid Birchell Hughes 2022