Miss Braddon’s Favourite Mare
Miss Braddon’s Cottage at Lyndhurst
The weekly number of “Three Times Dead” was “thrown off” in brief intervals of rest from my magnum opus, and it was an infinite relief to turn from Garibaldi and his brothers in arms to the angels and the monsters which my own brain had engendered, and which to me seemed more alive than the good great man whose arms I so laboriously sang. My rustic pipe far better loved to sing of melodramatic poisoners and ubiquitous detectives; of fine houses in the West of London, and dark dens in the East. So the weekly chapter of my first novel ran merrily off my pen while the printer’s boy waited in the farm-house kitchen.
Happy, happy days, so near to memory, and yet so far. In that peaceful summer I finished my first novel, knocked Garibaldi on the head with a closing rhapsody, saw the York spring and summer races in hopelessly wet weather, learnt to love the Yorkshire people, and left Yorkshire almost broken-heartedly on a dull gray October morning, to travel Londonwards through a landscape that was mostly under water.
And, behold, since that October morning I have written fifty-three novels; I have lost dear old friends and found new friends, who are also dear, but I have never looked on a Yorkshire landscape since I turned my reluctant eyes from those level meadows and green lanes where the old chestnut mare used to carry me ploddingly to and fro between tall, tangled hedges of eglantine and honeysuckle.
Illustrations by Miss F. L. Fuller
READING GROUP GUIDE
1. How would you characterize the town of Slopperton and the river Sloshy? How do these two elements function as characters in the novel?
2. Along with Wilkie Collins and Mrs. Henry Wood, Mary Elizabeth Braddon is widely credited as a founder of sensation fiction. Drawing on the introduction, the biographical note, and the novel itself, how would you define this genre? What traits does sensation fiction have in common with today’s detective novel or mystery?
3. On this page, when Mr. Peters spells out NOT GUILT, Mr. Jinks dismisses his lowly assistant’s assessment of Richard Marwood. Braddon writes, “Mr. Jinks was a distinguished detective, and prided himself highly on his acumen; and was therefore very indignant that his sub and scrub should dare to express an opinion.” Over the course of the novel, how does Mr. Peters demonstrate his superior abilities? Why do you think Braddon chose to deny him the power of speech?
4. On this page, the Marquis de Cevennes tells Jabez, “You are a very clever fellow … but you would never have got Desdemona smothered. Othello would have seen through you—as I did!” How would you compare Jabez North to Shakespeare’s Iago?
5. How are women portrayed in The Trail of the Serpent? Consider Sloshy’s mother, Valerie, Kuppins, Isabel Darley, the old woman of Blind Peter’s Alley, Sillikens, and Mrs. Marwood. Which of these characters show strength in adversity? Which of them fall victim to “oppressive social forces” as described by Sarah Waters in her introduction?
6. Describe the unusual team of helpers that Mr. Peters and Daredevil Dick assemble to help them catch the true murderer of Mr. Montague Harding. What function do they serve in the novel?
7. Who should rightfully be blamed for the poisoning of Gaston de Lancy?
8. On this page, when Jabez North reveals his true relationship to the Marquis de Cevennes, his estranged father replies, “So, you are my son? Upon my word I thought all along you were something of that kind, for you are such a consummate villain.” According to Braddon’s narrative, what role does heredity play in a person’s destiny? Does nurturing affect the outcome of an individual’s moral fiber? Consider young Sloshy and his adopted father, Mr. Peters, as well as Jabez and his twin brother, Jim.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Dr. Chris Willis works at the Centre for Gender Studies at London Metropolitan University. Her co-edited books include The Fatal Marriage and Other Stories, The New Woman in Fiction and in Fact, and Twelve Women Detective Stories. She lives in London.
NOTES
I would like to acknowledge my debt to Jennifer Carnell’s The Literary Lives of Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Hastings: Sensation Press, 2000) and Robert Lee Wolff’s Sensational Victorian: The Life and Fiction of Mary Elizabeth Braddon (New York: Garland, 1979). I would also like to acknowledge the help of Jennifer Carnell, Stuart Egan, Jane Ennis, Wendy Hall, Rose Johnston, Les Kirkham, J. P. Lodge, Charlotte Mitchell, Ros Tatham, Ernest C. Willis, Peter Wood, the members of the Victoria List and Braddon List, and the staff of the Rare Books and Music Reading Room at the British Library. —Chris Willis
EPIGRAPH
1. The quotation is from “Paradise and the Peri” by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779–1852). “Paradise and the Peri” is the second of four “poetical tales” in Thomas Moore’s book-length poem Lalla Rookh (1817). It is about a “peri,” or spirit, who tries to gain admission to heaven. Braddon also cites “The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan,” the first “poetical tale,” which is about Mokanna, on this page (see also note 3 on p. 451). Braddon herself appeared as Lalla Rookh in a musical burlesque by Robert Brough, which was performed at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, in August 1858. (For details see Jennifer Carnell, The Literary Lives of Mary Elizabeth Braddon [Hastings: Sensation Press, 2000], 56, 339–40.)
BOOK THE FIRST. A RESPECTABLE YOUNG MAN
CHAPTER I. THE GOOD SCHOOLMASTER
1. laudanum: a mixture of opium and alcohol, used as a sedative.
2. Police Reports: reports of criminal activity circulated by the police or printed in the popular press.
3. thank Heaven that they are not as other men: a reference to the biblical parable of the publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:10–14), which warns against arrogance. “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner,’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” The story would have been familiar to most educated Victorians.
4. usher: an unqualified junior schoolteacher, usually very badly paid.
5. Allecompain Major: If two or more brothers were pupils in the same school, they would be known by their surnames plus a Latin suffix. The eldest Allecompain would be Allecompain Major, the second Allecompain Minor, and the third (if there was one) Allecompain Minimus.
6. organ of conscientiousness … phrenology: Phrenology was the “science” of making deductions about a person’s character from the shape of his or her skull. Different parts of the head were thought to correspond to different character traits. Most Victorians believed strongly in this “science,” which has now been discredited.
7. jack-towel: towel hung on a roller for communal use.
8. drab: prostitute.
9. copper-plate: a type of elegant handwriting taught in Victorian schools. A typeface based on copper-plate handwriting was often used for business cards.
10. Virgil: Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 B.C.) was a Latin poet, most famous for his epic poem the Aeneid, which recounted the adventures of Trojan hero Aeneas, who traveled the world after surviving the fall of Troy. The Aeneid was commonly used for teaching Latin in Victorian and early-twentieth-century schools.
11. construe: translate from Latin into English.
12. acid rock: Victorian term for what is now known simply as rock, or sea-side rock. It was traditionally made from sugar, water, and tartaric acid.
CHAPTER II. GOOD FOR NOTHING
1. East Indies: India, so called to distinguish it from the Caribbean islands, which were known as the West Indies.
2. half-caste: person of mixed race—in this case half-Indian, half-w
hite.
3. lacs of rupees: Rupees were the currency of India. Lac, or lakh, is a Hindi word for 100,000.
4. liver: In Victorian times, Englishmen who had spent many years in India were usually assumed to have liver problems as a result of drinking alcohol in the heat.
5. Anglo-Indian: Nowadays this term is used to denote a person of mixed race (Indian and British), but in Victorian times it meant an English person who had spent most of his or her life in India.
6. Havannah: cigar from Havana.
7. sea-coal: Today this term is only used to describe coal gathered from beaches, but during the nineteenth century it was often used to describe all coal.
8. still a little boy in a pinafore and frock: In the nineteenth century it was the custom for the English upper classes to dress boys and girls in the same way until the age of about seven, when the boy would be given his first pair of trousers.
9. Lascar: an East Indian soldier, sailor, or servant.
CHAPTER III. THE USHER WASHES HIS HANDS
1. smock-frock: a loose, baggy overshirt (usually white) worn by male farmhands and other countrymen.
2. gaiters: a leather or waterproof cloth covering for the lower leg and ankle, worn over shoes.
3. scratch wig: a wig covering only part of the head.
4. “Opium—Poison!”: There was no legal restriction on the sale of opium in the U.K. until 1868, and it was often prescribed by doctors as a painkiller. Opium-taking was not made illegal in the U.K. until the 1920s.
CHAPTER IV. RICHARD MIARWOOD LIGHTS HIS PIPE
1. sovereign: gold coin, with a value of one pound sterling.
2. commercial traveller: traveling salesperson.
3. cursed Jews: moneylenders.
4. writ: legal document demanding money.
5. organ of adhesiveness: See note 6 on p. 429.
6. bijouterie: jewelry or small, delicate trinkets.
7. Wictoria Theayter: the Victoria Theatre, in New Cut, in the Waterloo area of London. Showing mainly melodramas, the theater was notorious for its rough, noisy, working-class audiences. In 1861, John Hollingshead wrote, “It is a large, well-built house, and has been celebrated, in its time, for good acting; but it is now one of the ‘threepenny theatres,’ giving a very coarse kind of drama, suited to its audiences. The fittings are faded, the walls are smeared with greasy dirt, the pit floor is muddy and half covered with orange peel and broken bottles, and the whole place is a little cleaner than the courts and alleys at its back, but nothing more. The audience are worth looking at; and on the night of a popular drama, such as ‘Oliver Twist,’ or ‘Jack Sheppard,’ the gallery presents a most extraordinary picture. Half the evil, low-browed, lowering faces in London are wedged in, twelve-hundred deep, perspiring, watchful, silent. Every man is in his yellow shirt sleeves, every woman has her battered bonnet in her lap. The yell when Bill Sykes murders Nancy is like the roar of a thousand wild beasts, and they show their disapprobation of the act, and their approbation of the actor, by cursing him in no measured terms” (Hollingshead, John, Ragged London. London: Smith Elder & Co., 1861).
8. the ‘Suspected One,’ or ‘Gonsalvo the Guiltless’: These are evidently the titles of stage melodramas. There is no record of either title in the British Library Catalogue, so it is likely that either the scripts were never officially published or that Braddon invented the titles.
9. scrub: a person who is insignificant or of low social rank.
CHAPTER V. THE HEALING WATERS
1. after the manner of the mythic frog that wanted to be an ox: In Aesop’s Fables, the fable of the frog and the ox tells how a frog tried to inflate himself to the size of an ox, but burst in the attempt.
2. gentleman on the pale horse: from the Bible: “And behold, a pale horse, and he who sat on it, his name was Death” (Rev. 6:8).
3. Old Tom … Mountain Dew: alcoholic drinks.
CHAPTER VI. TWO CORONER’S INQUESTS
1. three-halfpence per line … penny-a-liners’ copy: Journalists on the cheap papers were paid per line of copy. “Penny-a-liner” was a disparaging term used to describe such writers.
2. merciful verdict—“Found drowned”: This verdict was often given in cases of suicide by drowning, to save the feelings of the deceased’s friends and family and to ensure that the body could be buried in consecrated ground.
CHAPTER VII. THE DUMB DETECTIVE A PHILANTHROPIST
1. “cakes and ale”: from Shakespeare: “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” (Twelfth Night II.iii. 106–7, Modern Library ed.)
2. yclept: named.
3. Dutch oven: either a large cast-iron pot with a tight lid, used for slow cooking, or a metal utensil open on one side and equipped with shelves, which would be placed before an open fire for baking or roasting food.
4. red herring: a herring that has been cured and smoked to a dark reddish color. During the nineteenth century this term began to be used to describe a false clue in a criminal investigation. This usage stems from the fact that a red herring drawn across a trail would put a hunting dog off the scent.
5. fondling: foundling, i.e., an orphan or illegitimate child.
6. brought up by hand: bottle-fed rather than breast-fed. In Dickens’s Great Expectations (1860–61) there are frequent references to the hero, Pip, having been brought up “by hand” by his foster parents.
7. high-lows: ankle-boots that fastened at the front.
8. pea-jacket: a coat of coarse woollen material, usually worn by sailors.
9. long-clothes: clothes worn by a very young baby, extending below the feet.
10. He who provides for the young ravens: a reference to a hymn by William Cowper (1731–1800). Written in 1779, the hymn begins “Sometimes a light surprises / The Christian while he sings.” The third verse ends:
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed
And he who feeds the ravens
Will give his children bread.
11. scragged: hanged.
CHAPTER VIII. SEVEN LETTERS ON THE DIRTY ALPHABET
1. contumacious: obstinate in resisting authority or refusing to obey.
2. rue: plant with bitter leaves, traditionally a symbol of repentance.
CHAPTER IX. “MIAD, GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY”
1. brain-fever: This mysterious, life-threatening ailment is mentioned frequently in Victorian novels. It is usually stress-related and occurs after a person has suffered a great trauma. Audrey Peterson (“Brain Fever in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Fact and Fiction,” Victorian Studies XIX, no. 4 [June 1976], pp. 445–64) suggests that it may have been a form of meningitis or encephalitis. An earlier definition can be found in The Working Man’s Model Family Botanic Guide; or Every Man His Own Doctor, by William Fox, M.D. (Sheffield, 1904), p. 149ff. Fox writes:
Typhus, Nervous, or Brain Fever.
Symptoms.— … stupor, this being the characteristic symptom of the disease; and it is also called Putrid Fever. The slow or nervous is distinguished from other kinds of fever by its effects on the nervous system, by a torpid state of the brain, prostration of muscular power, and more or less delirium. It is preceded by a slight indisposition for several days, succeeded by chills, debility, sighing, and oppression in breathing, with nausea, loss of appetite and an uneasy sensation at the pit of the stomach.
2. unmentionables: trousers.
3. under-coat: jacket.
4. Blue devils: depression, despondency.
5. whitlow: an inflammation of the fingernail or toenail.
6. divers: diverse.
7. green fat of the turtle: Turtle fat was used to make turtle soup, which was considered a great delicacy in Victorian times, and was often served as one of the first courses of a banquet.
8. I have won the battle of Arcola: The Battle of Arcola took place from November 15 to 17, 1796, in what is now northern Italy. Under Napoleon’s leadership, the French army defeated the Austrian forces
.
9. Napoleon the First: Napoleon Bonaparte.
BOOK THE SECOND.
A CLEARANCE OF ALL SCORES
CHAPTER I. BLIND PETER
1. chandler. Nowadays this term denotes a dealer in ships’ or boats’ supplies and equipment, but in the nineteenth century it was also used in a broader sense as an alternative word for “shop.”
The Trail of the Serpent Page 48
