de Saussure, A Foreign View of England
These two women show the penalty meted out for prostitution (at a time when the man paying the prostitute incurred neither punishment nor blame) at Bridewell, the prison for vagrant women (where Mary Toft, the ‘Rabbit Lady’ (see ‘Confidence Tricksters’), was also imprisoned for a short time, as was Sally Salisbury). The fact that the second woman is later observed by de Saussure looking like a duchess at the theatre illustrates the heights to which a prostitute might rise as well as the depths to which she could fall.
One of my friends, on the pretext of drinking a bottle of beer, asked me to go one day with him to Tottlefields [Tothillfields] Bridewell. We entered a big court, on one side of which was a low building containing about thirty or forty robbers, pickpockets, etc., male and female, occupied in beating out flax. Each of these unfortunate wretches was seated in front of a large block of wood, on which he beat the flax with a large and heavy wooden mallet. On one side of this room were the men, on the other the women, and between these two lines walked the inspector, or Captain Whip’em. This man had a surly, repulsive countenance; he held a long cane in his hand about the thickness of my little finger, and whenever one of these ladies was fatigued and ceased working he would rap them on the arms, and in no gentle fashion, I can assure you… In the women’s part we saw a fine, tall, handsome and well-dressed creature. Her linen was of the finest and so was her lace, and she wore a magnificent silk dress brocaded with flowers. The captain took great heed of her; he had made her arms quite red with the little raps he gave her with his cane. The girl received these attentions most haughtily and with great indifference. It was a most curious contrast, this handsome girl or woman in rich clothes, looking like a queen and having a mallet in her hand, with which she was forced to beat out hemp, and that in such a way that she was covered with large drops of perspiration, all this being accompanied with raps from the cane. I confess that this sight made me quite unhappy. I could not help thinking that such a handsome, proud, queenly woman should be at least spared the blows. We were told that she had been sent here the day before because she had stolen a gold watch from her lover, and that it was not her first visit, for she always stole everything she could lay hands on. At the opposite end of the room we remarked a young girl from fifteen to sixteen years of age, extremely beautiful; she seemed a mere child, and was touching to look at. We asked her why she was in this place. ‘Alas,’ said she, ‘because of my tender heart!’ She informed us that she was a prisoner through having helped one of her comrades to steal some guineas from one of her lovers; that the comrade had run away with the spoil, whilst she had been seized and brought to Bridewell; that her imprisonment should only have lasted a fortnight, but that she had now been three weeks in this place of misery, and that, as she could not pay the crown she owed for extra food, she expected never to leave it. She went on to tell us that she had eaten nothing but dry bread, the prisoners’ food, for three days past. The girl related all this sad history with tears and in such a touching way that I was sorry for her, and gave her a shilling. This did not escape Captain Whip’em’s eye, for he fell on her, snatched the shilling from her, rapping her at the same time with his cane to make her resume her work. Indignant at this piece of injustice, I ordered him to give the girl back the coin I had just given her, but he explained that the custom of the prison was that no money should be given to any prisoners, male or female, unless he was allowed to keep half of it for himself, and he thereupon returned the prisoner sixpence. My friend was so shocked and indignant at this treatment that without any hesitation he pulled a crown out of his pocket, so that she might be liberated at once from this house of horrors. The poor creature was so touched, so thankful for my friend’s generosity, that she threw herself at his feet, shedding tears of joy and scarcely able to speak for emotion. We exhorted her to lead a better life, and she vowed she would do so; but a couple of months later, being at the play, I saw this little creature in one of the principal boxes, dressed like a duchess and more beautiful than ever. Do not be surprised at this, for every night at the comedy or opera you see women of this class and profession occupying the best places.