by Robin Blake
The general election of May 1741 went badly for Walpole. Although there were only 94 contests (two at Preston) for 558 seats, his support in the new House of Commons shrank drastically. By February 1742, after deaths and further defections, his majority had disappeared, and he resigned.
2. MONEY
Readers may wonder about the system of money in Cragg and Fidelis’s time. The smallest single unit of account was the farthing and the largest was the guinea. Values rose as follows: 4f. (farthings) = 1d. (penny); 12d. = 1s. (shilling); 20s. = £1 (pound). A crown was 5s. and a guinea 21s. Other common coins were the halfpenny, sixpence and half-crown.
The value of money is hard to express in modern terms. A boy could get 1½d. for an hour’s wood-chopping. A labourer earned between 10d. and 1s.3d. for a day’s work, while live-in servants earned £3.10s. to £5 a year, on top of their board and lodging. A shopkeeper might live on annual profits of about £30–50, also the sort of money earned by a craftsman in a high-value trade. A middle-class family would be quite comfortably off on £350, while anyone with £500 or more was regarded as rich. Government sinecures could draw £2,000 or more, out of which underlings were paid to do the work, if any was involved. A very small handful of super-rich landowners had incomes in excess of £25,000.
Here are a few prices I have picked up from various sources:
½d. – a pint of milk or half a loaf of bread
1d. – a day’s fee for a child at a dame school or charity school
3d. – postage on a one-page letter going 80 miles, paid by recipient
5d. – 1lb (500g) of butter or cheese
6d. – dinner of cold meat, bread and a pint of porter beer
6d. to 1s. – a pamphlet or paper-covered book for popular reading
1s. – a music lesson
1s.6d. – to dry-clean a coat
2/6 – 1lb of candles
4/6 – petticoat for a working woman
4/9 upwards – 1lb coffee depending on quality
5/7 – worsted stockings
6/6 – bridle for riding horse
7/6 – 1lb cheap tea or a new novel by Samuel Richardson
10/6 to £1.15s. – men’s wigs
16s. – silk stockings
£4 to £15 – a riding horse depending on age and condition
5gn. – a silver watch or half-length portrait by provincial artist
£22 – a year’s rent for a single man’s small apartment in London
£77.6s. – a new four-wheel coach
£350 – freehold on a house in Soho, London
£20,000 – lottery prize in 1769
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DARK WATERS. Copyright © 2012 by Robin Blake. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blake, Robin, 1948–
Dark waters / Robin Blake.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-250-00673-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-03148-8 (e-book)
1. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 2. Coroners—Fiction. 3. Great Britain—History—1714–1837—Fiction. 4. Preston (Lancashire, England)—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6102.L347D39 2013
823'.92—dc23
2013010682
First published in Great Britain by Macmillan, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
First U.S. Edition: August 2013
eISBN 9781250031488
First eBook edition: July 2013
