And fain discreeter conduct would have taught her.
Taught whom?
Miss Agnes Sophonisba Snell.
And who is she? Of course the Butcher's Daughter.
Did she deserve it? You shall see anon,
Nay, more than see, you'll hear it too. Go on.
-from "The Butcher's Daughter"
CONTENTS
PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION
THE CHARM
THE NIGHT SCHOOL
THE BEAUTIFUL JEWESS
THE BUTCHER'S DAUGHTER
MORAL REFLECTIONS
THE QUESTION'S FOR CASUISTS
BETSY THOUGHTLESS
APPENDIX-ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF FLAGELLATION
NOTES BY A SCOTCH DOCTOR
PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE BACKSIDE
EVILS OF EXCESSIVE WHIPPING
BEATING IN BROTHELS
LADIES' WHIPPING CLUB
WOMAN'S PASSION FOR WHIPPING
BRANTOME ON SAME
SCHOOL-BOYS AND THE MISTRESS
THE WHIPPING WIDOW
THE SCHOOLMASTER'S DINNER
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PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION.
The subject of flagellation, in venereal affairs, must appear altogether ridiculous and unintelligible to those who have not been initiated into this branch of the Eleusinian mysteries.
It is, however, a lech, which has existed from time immemorial, and is so extensively indulged in London at this day. that no less than twenty splendid establishments are supported entirely by its practice : nor is there amongst the innumerable temples dedicated to the Paphian Goddess, which adorn this immense metropolis, any one, in which the exercise of the rod is not occasionally required.
All females who piously devote themselves to the service of the public, ought to be acquainted with the philosophy of birch discipline ; for without that knowledge, they will lose the patronage of some of the most liberal slaves to erotic pleasure.
The men who have a propensity for flagellation may be divided into three classes:
1. Those who like to receive a fustigation, more or less severe, from the hand of a fine woman, who is sufficiently robust to wield the rod with vigour and erect.
2. Those who desire themselves to administer birch discipline on the white and plump buttocks of a female.
3. Those who wish to be neither passive recipients nor active administrators of birch discipline, but would derive a sufficient excitement as mere spectators of the sport.
Many persons, not sufficiently acquainted with human nature, and the ways of the world, are apt to imagine that the lech for flagellation must be confined either to the aged, or to those who are exhausted through too great a devotion to venery : but such is not the fact, for there are quite as many young men and men in the prime and vigour of life, who are influenced by this passion as there are amongst the aged and debilitated.
It is very true that there are innumerable old generals, admirals, colonels, and captains, as well as bishops, judges, barristers, lords, commoners, and physicians, who periodically go to be whipped, merely because it warms their blood, and keeps up a little agreeable excitement in their systems long after the power of enjoying the opposite sex has failed them ; but-it is equally true, that hundreds of young men, through having been educated at institutions where the masters were fond of administering birch-discipline, and recollecting certain sensations produced by it, have imbibed a passion for it, and have longed to receive the same chastisement from the hands of a fine woman. To the truth of this statement, two of the most experienced governesses now retired from business, Mrs. Chalmers and Mrs. Noyeau, can bear ample testimony, and that the propensity follows such parties through life, inasmuch, as however vigorous and capable they may be of sub-agitating a woman to her heart's content, yet they care little for the act, unless accompanied by their favourite sauce.
Those women who give most satisfaction to the amateurs of discipline, are called governesses, because they have by experience acquired a tact and a modus operandi, which the generality do not possess. It is not the merely keeping a rod, and being willing to Hog, that would cause a woman to be visited by the worshippers of birch ; she must have served her time to some other woman who understood her business, and be thoroughly accomplished in the art. They must have a quick and intuitive method of observing the various aberrations of the human mind, and be ready and willing to humour and relieve them. Such was the late Mrs. Jones, of Hertford Street and London Street, Fitzroy Square ; such was the late Mrs. Berkley; such is Bessy Burgess, of York Square; and such is Mrs. Pryce, of Burton Crescent.
The late Mrs. Berkley, or Charlotte Street, Portland Place, was a woman every way adapted for her profession. She possessed the first grand requisite of a courtezan, viz, lewdness; for without a woman is positively lecherous, she cannot keep up long the affliction of it, and it will be soon perceived that she only moves her hands or her buttocks to the tune of pounds, shillings, and pence. She could assume great urbanity and good humour; she would study every lech, whim, caprice, and desire of her customer, and had the disposition to gratify them, if her avarice was rewarded in return. Her instruments of torture were more numerous than those of any other governess.
Her supply Of birch was extensive, and kept in water, so that it was always green and pliant; she had shafts with a dozen whip-thongs on each of them ; a dozen different sizes of cat-o'-nine tails, some with needle points worked into them ; various kinds of thin bending canes; leather straps like coach traces ; battledores, made of thick sole-leather, with inch nails run through to docket, and curry-comb tough hides rendered callous by many years' flagellation. Holly bushes, furze brushes, a prickly evergreen, called butcher's bush ; and during the summer, glass and China vases, filled with a constant supply of green nettles, with which she often restored the dead to life. Thus, at her shop, whoever went with plenty of money, could be birched, whipped, fustigated, scourged, needle-pricked, half-hung, holly-brushed, furze-brushed, butcher-brushed, stinging-nettled, curry-combed, phlebotomized, and tortured till he had a bellyful.
For those whose lech it was to flog a woman, she would herself submit to a certain extent; but if they were gluttons at it, she had women in attendance who would take any amount of lashes the flogger pleased, provided he forked out an ad valorem duty. Among these were Miss Ring, Hannah Jones, Sally Taylor, One-eyed Peg, Bald-cunted Poll and a black girl, called Ebony Bet.
A machine was invented for Mrs. Berkley to flog gentlemen upon, in the spring of 1828. It is like an artist's easel and is capable of being opened out to a considerable extent. There is a print in Mrs. Berkley's Memoirs, representing a man upon it quite naked. A woman is sitting in a chair exactly under it, with her bosom, belly and bush exposed . she is manualiziny his embolon whilst Mrs. Berkley is birching his posteriors. The female acting as frictrix, was intended for Fisher, a fine, tall, dark-haired girl, whom all must remember who visited Charlotte Street at that day, as well as the good-humoured blonde Willis ; the plump, tight, frisky, and merry-arsed Thurloe; Grenville, with the enormous bubbies; Bentinck, with breadth of hip and splendour of buttock; Olive, the gypsy, whose brown skin, wicked black eye, and medicean form would melt an anchorite ; the mild and amiable Palmer, with luxuriant and well-fl-edged mount, from whose tufted honours many a lord has stolen a sprig; and Pryce, the pleasing and complaisant, who, if birch was the question, could both give and take.
When the new flogging machine was invented, the designer told her it would bring her into notice, and go by her name, after her death; and it did cause her to be talked of, and brought her a great deal of business. She died in September, 1836, having funded ten thousand pounds during the eight years she had been a governess. The original horse is among the models of the Society of Arts at the Adelphi, and was presented by Dr. Vance, her executor.
It is a great drawback on the business of any governess at this day not to possess a Berkley horse. Mrs. Brown was the first to have one made, next Mrs. Stewart, then Mrs. Pryce, and lastly, Mesdames Collet and Beverley ; but there is no doubt in the course of time they will find their way, not only into the boudoir of every flogging establishment, but will form a part of the furniture of every house of accommodation and entertainment in London : Mrs. Gale, for instance, ought to supply all her tenants with a Berkley horse, by way of adding to the custom of her houses, and let the Fountain and the Brunswick consider their best interest. Mrs. Berkley had also in her second floor a hook and pulley attached to the ceiling, by which she could draw a man up by the hands. This operation is also represented in her memoirs. Many persons feel disappointed at her promised memoirs being so long delayed, but the publication was suspended at the request of Dr. Vance, of Cork Street, her executor. His recent death, however, will enable the firm, who hold the copyright of her autobiography, speedily to put it to press.
About forty years since a volume of letters was published in Paris, purporting to be a selection from the portefeuille of a celebrated bawd, with a view of illustrating the wants, leches, whims, caprices, and multifarious debauches of the times. It would, perhaps, now be difficult to determine whether that volume was real or fabricated ; but the appendices to the forthcoming " Berkley Papers " will give rise to no doubt as to their genuineness and authenticity, because the parties being still alive, their language, style and sentiments will be instantly recognized by their associates and contemporaries, although no nobleman's or gentleman's name will be exposed. These letters will throw clearer light on the habits of the aristocracy and gay world in general, than any publication of the day.
As a specimen, one on the subject of flagellation is selected, from a gentleman who used to bring chains to fasten his neck, hands, and feet more securely to the horse. He is a very good-humoured and tolerant Catholic, and will excuse the insertion, because of the kind it is unique, and proves the strength of the passion.
Dublin, Jan. 1834.
Dear Madam, I am a most incorrigible " naughty boy, " and have been flogged by the most noted governesses in London, without having my vices scourged out of me. The gentleman who goes by the name of Hie Brunswick recommended me to Mrs. Brown, and she had a pretty strong arm. He they call " Bawdy Blue Eyes, " sent me to Mrs. Wilson, of Mary-la-bone, and she was no chicken at it. Old Jau-nay, of Leicester Square, the hotel-keeper, proposed Mrs. Chalmers, and she is a very experienced hand. Mr. Plume invited me to dine with the Stranger, and Mr. G. at the genteel and elegantly furnished residence of Madame Noyeau ; but even her tall and robust figure could not make a sufficient impression on my backside; he they designate as " Sheep Face, " wished me to try Jones, of London Street, but she and all her helps were loo drunk to break a rod on me. Captain Johnson insisted on my visiting Betsy Burgess, who is certainly clever, but who has left the Diable au Corps. Lord A-y sent me to Gordon, but she had lost Mrs. Potter's address, and was out of rods. Brookes, the bookseller, of Bond Street, gave me the card of Mesdames Collet and Beverley, and surely I found them as knowing dames as any in London; but even their united energies have left me unconquered. I have now, my dear Madam, got a recommendation from your very particular friend, the Earl of G-e, who has made my blood boil with delight, by describing your horse and charming apparatus, for tickling the lobys of us naughty boys. I shall be with you early in February, as the Earl and myself are coming over together, on our parliamentary duties; but to prevent any misunderstanding, I send you my terms beforehand:
1. To be well secured to the horse with the chains I bring.
2. One pound for the first blood drawn.
3. Two pounds if the blood runs down to the heels. U. Three pounds if it reaches my heels. o. Four pounds if it flows on the floor.
6. Five pounds if you cause me to faint away.
I am, my dear Madam, Yours most incorrigibly, TROBENIUS O'FLUNKEY.
To Mrs. Tukuksa Bkum.ky, 26, Charlotte Street, Portland Place.
Having given the foregoing letter, which is only one of some hundreds which will be published in the Berkley Papers, at the end of the autobiography, I have nothing more to say at present, but that little calipiga Jones, who used to take such a severe flogging at Berkley's is now an accomplished governess, and up to every move on the board, under the name of Griffiths.
M. W.
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VENUS SCHOOL-MISTRESS
O Venus! inspire me with those warm and lascivious thoughts which directed the pen of Marion ; deign also to direct mine, while describing the ecstatic sensations that thou impartest to thy proselytes, and particularly to the votaries of Birch Discipline. Assist me in portraying the lovely maid, or the pretty woman, armed with a bundle of green birch, flogging with the utmost severity the bum of a bold boy or wicked girl, and fainting with pleasure under her exertions.
Ye fair ones, arm yourselves with bundles of new birch, and whip without mercy the bums of those proud and imperious beings called men, who have arrogated to themselves a superiority over us ; humble them, and make them bow down, to pay that homage due to us, and force them to fly with redoubled ardour to sacrifice at the voluptuous shrine of your queen! And thou, oh, Flora I high priestess of Venus, whose worship has been too long neglected, come and assist thy lovely sisters in embellishing their pretty heads and swelling bosoms ; let thy sweet gifts prepare and refine the exquisite pleasures which the Goddess of Love bestows on her faithful votaries!
I was born at Chelsea : my father, whose name was Birch, was a drawing-master, and attended occasionally, in his profession, several young ladies' boarding-schools; he got acquainted with a young Frenchwoman, who was a teacher in one of them, and fell violently in love with her; she did not keep him long in suspense, for finding he was possessed of a little money, she married him after two or three months' courtship : she was at that period not more than seventeen, and my father about forty-five-elegantly formed and rather pretty; she had that je ne sais quoi, so captivating in French women ; but my father, from frequent debaucheries, and self-abuse, would have found some difficulties in getting her maidenhead (supposing she still retained it), had it not been for the assistance of a good birchen rod, that was forcibly applied to his posteriors.
Conscious of his inability, he hired a strapping Welsh girl, about sixteen, tall and far from ugly, and who, I believe, had eased herself of the burden of virtue before she came to town; by dint of presents and promises, he prevailed upon her to undertake the birchen operation upon him, when engaged with his bride in the amorous conflict. Having easily obtained the consent of my mother, two or three days after their mariage, the girl came early one morning to his bedroom, according to his direction, armed with a very large bundle of excellent birch, quite green. She immediately pulled down the bedclothes, when putting himself in a proper posture, she rolled his shirt up to his shoulders, and began flogging him with all her strength, while he continued stretched upon my mother. After he had received about fifty lashes, he found himself able to thrust his machine into her, the other still whipping him like a fury, whilst he was working away at such a rate, that he accomplished his wish, and got his bride with child of me, the only one he ever had ; so that I am as much indebted to the birch for my birth, as I am by nature to him. This story I had from the very girl above mentioned, as I happened to meet with her when I resided in Wales. She further added that she lived with my mother nearly two years ; during which period she officiated in her flogging capacity two or three times a week-thougli my mother would sometimes relieve her by flogging him herself : so that it is no wonder that, as I grew up, I have retained such a propensity for birch discipline, and even carried it to an excess, as the reader will find in the course of my narrative. As for my mother, I have strong reasons to think she had no dislike to it. My father, however, by his violent and repeated connections with her, killed himself in about two years after their marriage, as the girl also informed me.
My mother, who kept a day-school for children of both sexes, took, after his death, as a partner, a Miss Smart, who had been a teacher in the same school where she lived : the latter, without being a perfect beauty, was what is generally termed a fine woman; she was of the same age as my mother, and like her, elegantly shaped, with a beautiful neck and full bosom. As she was of a very amorous constitution, she could not brook any restraint, and had a decided aversion to marriage; she nevertheless contrived to enjoy the pleasures attending it.
They succeeded so well in their scholastic undertaking, that they were soon enabled to hire a small house, the situation of which was well calculated for intrigue, as it was in a kind of isolated spot : they managed matters with such precaution, that I never had but one opportunity of being privy to their tricks, as I am going to relate, and which made such an impression upon me, as I shall never forget it.
My mother, as well as her sweet partner, were very great advocates for the use of the rod, never adopting any other mode of punishment, as the generality of the children's parents preferred that kind of correction, indeed by far the best, as no sort of injury to the child can result from it, particularly when the birch is green, so it has been of late adopted in many schools for boys or girls instead of canes. Though my mother was well versed in the art of whipping, yet I think Miss Smart was a greater adept; for when she called out for any of the bigger girls or boys, she was so captivated wilh the birchen operation, that she could scarce let them out of operation, that she could scarce let them out of her hands again; and as I was very idle, I frequently underwent the birch discipline either by my mother or her, so that I can speak experimentally on the subject.
One day, when my mother was gone out, Miss Smart suddenly called me to her-I was then about nine years old ; the maid having been sent out upon some business. She told me to go and buy a couple of birch brooms at an oilman's, who did not live far from us, and who had received that day some particularly fresh and green. There happened at this time to be nobody at home but Miss Smart and myself, with a young girl about thirteen years old, who had been kept by the express desire of her aunt, an old pious woman with whom she lived, to be well whipped for selling her school-books, and for being in general of a dishonest principle. Returning with the brooms, I observed a man closely muffled up go in at a backdoor, where the children entered the school, and I overheard Miss Smart telling him to go softly. Ringing at the front door, I delivered the brooms to Miss Smart, who immediately shut the street-door and took the key with her; she then went into the kitchen, where she made out of one of the brooms two rods of a very large size, and directed me to tell Miss Wilson (the name of the young delinquent) to go up to her bedchamber, which was on the second floor, where my mother and she frequently exercised the birch on the bigger boys and girls. As the young culprit did not seem much in a hurry to go, for she was very obstinate, Miss Smart, tired with waiting, and foaming with rage, went herself and dragged her up to the room : like Manon, my curiosity was quite alive, and being particularly desirous of knowing for what purpose this man had made so suspicious an entry, I crept softly upstairs, and contrived to get privately into my mother's chamber, which was contiguous to that of Miss Smart, and had a high window to admit the light, as it was in a dark part of the house :-I got quickly upon a chest of drawers, where I could easily perceive, without being discovered, whatever was going on in Miss Smart's room, when I perceived her very busy in stripping the girl, and apparently in a great passion, for severity was pictured in her whole countenance. When she had got all her clothes off except her shift, which she rolled up round her, and fastened with pins, as high as she could, she tied her hands to one of the bed-posts, and began to whip her unmercifully : she had given her, I supposed, about forty cuts, when I perceived the man, whom I had just observed before, come quite naked from behind a folding screen, where he had concealed himself; and immediately tucking up Miss Smart's muslin gown, for she had no petticoat on, who bending herself down as much as she could, discovered a fine pair of buttocks. I saw him thrust his instrument into her by the back avenue, which appeared to me so big and so thick that I perfectly trembled with fear for her, and clasping her waist with both hands, he began pushing and driving with the greatest violence; as for poor Miss Smart, she continued in a bending posture, grasping with her left hand the bed-post, to which the girl was fastened, and with her right whipping her with unremitting fury. It was impossible for the girl to see any of these proceedings, as the curtains of the bed were drawn almost close to the post, and Miss Smart kept herself a little on one side. This lecherous scene lasted about ten minutes, the man all the while thrusting his engine as far into her as he could; as to her, she was all on fire, her breast violently heaving, out of breath, and still flogging away like a nun ; at last the rod dropped out of her hand ;-at that moment he pulled her to a chair that was near the bed, and made her sit on his knees, where they continued for some time, as if glued to each other. The rapturous moment being over, the man retired again behind the folding screen, when Miss Smart untied the girl, who, though she had been so severely whipped, had only some slight scratches on her bottom like those of a pin, as the rod, which was quite green, had merely raised the skin, which shows that green birch is far the best for correcting children. But to return to the man, as soon as the girl had put on her things, Miss Smart saw her out, and locked the street-door as before-she seemed to be too much engaged with her gallant to think of me; besides, I could easily have got out of the room without being seen if she wanted me.
As soon as she returned, the man, who appeared to be about forty, came out of his hiding-place, and smothered her with kisses :-he had during her absence put on his coat, but not his breeches. She then took out of a closet a bottle of wine, and some rich cakes, which they partook of together, he keeping her all the time with her backside bare on his naked knee. It was with some degree of astonishment that I observed that his machine, which had terrified me so much on Miss Smart's account, now appeared not much bigger than one's finger, and the more I endeavoured to elucidate what I saw, the more I was at a loss ; at last, after having devoured her beautiful neck and bosom with kisses, she rose in a seeming passion, and seizing the other rod, she ordered him with apparent sternness, to take off his coat, which he immediately did, and pretending to be her pupil, fell upon his knees, and asked pardon ; but brandishing at him her bundle of birch, she entirely disregarded his entreaties, and fastening his shirt up to his shoulders in the same manner as she had the girl's shift, she began flogging him at a line rate, exclaiming every now and then, I'll teach you, you great idle blockhead, I'll leach you to play truant with a witness-yes, yes, yes, yes, I'll whip you as you never was-will you, will you, will you, will you, will you, will you, ever absent yourself from school! tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, sirrah-take away your hands, for the birch seemed to pinch him very much, or else I will tie them, for you shan't save a bit of your skin. She immediately tied them before him with a ribbon, and continued whipping him without mercy, confining him under her arm like a boy or a girl of eleven or twelve years old-then she went on with her lecture, for I never forgot it. Now, my pretty gentleman, nothing will save your bum; and by heaven, I'll whip, whip, whip, whip, whip, whip, whip you to-day, as you never was whipped before, and make you feel, feel, feel, feel, feel, feel, feel, feel, feel this new birch. Will you ever provoke me to take the rod in hand, tell me, lazy fellow-(the other pretended to ask pardon)-No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I shan't forgive you, and will make you feel the smart of this green birch as long as I can hold it-you may plunge and wriggle as much as you please, you shan't lose a single stroke, believe me, I'll smart you, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll and lash, lash, lash, lash, lash, lash, lash your backside in such a manner, that you will remember this whipping for some time-yes, yes, yes, I'll make you learn your lesson, or else I'll flog, flog, flog, flog, flog, flog, flog, flog, flog, flog you every day, till your blood runs to your heels : at last, not being able to stand out any longer, and the rod being nearly worn out, for she had kept whipping him for nearly a quarter of an hour, she gave it up-I then discovered that his-(what do you call it, help me, fair reader) which had been concealed until this moment in the folds of her gown, had assumed a dreadful appearance as to its size. As soon as she had untied his hands, he took her by the waist, and throwing her on the bed, thrust again his weapon into her, and began working away, as if he would have forced himself up her body. " Oh! Oh!-I can't bear it-it is too much-I die! " were Miss Smart's expressions of ecstasy. As to her gallant, the excess of pleasure, I believe, had deprived him of the power of utterance, for he continued upon her speechless and motionless nearly ten minutes. I waited until he had put on all his clothes, and then went downstairs, and began playing with my doll, as if nothing had happened, though in reality all my thoughts were absorbed in childish reflections, but I soon forgot what I had just seen transacted.
This was the only good opportunity I had of witnessing any of Miss Smart's numerous tricks : but as to my mother, I never was present at any of hers, for as I grew up they became more cautious. I can just recollect that a woman, who frequently brought them nosegays, came one evening with two beautiful ones of enormous size, accompanied with a letter. As they were in the habit of going to Ranelagh, for we lived very near that gay place, and it was the fashion then for females, particularly young ones, to appear there with very large nosegays in their bosoms, I thought they were brought for that purpose, which was, indeed, in some measure true. I had likewise observed for some time that both my mother and Miss Smart had worn very large nosegays, even in the school, and particularly the latter, when she happened to whip any of the grown-up children. As soon as they had perused the letter, they went to dress, and came down shortly afterwards in beautiful white muslin gowns with long trains, and their large bouquets, fixed so high on the left side of their bosom, that they hid almost half their face.
There was a girl, about fourteen years old, rather fat, tall for her age, who resided with us, in the double capacity of servant and apprentice ; she had been detected one day in eating the remains of an apple-pie that my mother intended to have for supper, and being otherwise of a greedy disposition, and very indolent, had, in addition to her fault, denied any knowledge of it; in consequence of this double transgression, Miss Smart undertook to give her a hearty flogging, and with this view, was tying a monstrous rod, made with nearly half a birch broom, when a gentleman knocked at the door :-My mother opened it herself, and retired with him. Immediately Miss Smart called the girl, and ordered her, as usual, to her bed-chamber. As I thought my mother had gone to show the gentleman the school-room, I went directly to her chamber, for I had begun to conceive a strong predilection for the birchen operation, though I did not relish it on my own account, I got upon the drawers as before, and discovered Miss Shiart, foaming with rage, whipping the fat bottom of the girl with all the violence imaginable, having previously stripped her shift up to her shoulders; she was leaning on a table opposite the foot of the bed, and holding her tight under her arm, with her frock turned over her head-the curtains being drawn all round except at the bottom, when suddenly they became very much agitated, and the bedstead shook violently : from the situation in which I was, I could only perceive Miss Smart, who, with her face nearly buried in her monstrous bouquet, was lecturing and whipping the jade like a top; the culprit crying out all the time, as if her bum had been flayed (for the upper part of the rod spread so much that it covered the whole of her backside and the best part of her thighs), Oh! Miss Smart, Miss Smart, pray, pray, pray, forgive me-I shall never tell a lie again!-Oh God! Oh God!-I can't bear it I (Kicking and plunging like a little devil.)-You shall, shall, shall, shall, shall bear it, replied the other, laying on as hard as she could-yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I'll make you smart, and your fat arse shall feel this birch a little longer, I assure you-will you, will you, will you, will you, will you, will you, will you tell a lie again?-She went on in this manner for a considerable time ; however, having entirely subdued her lubricity, and set her buttocks in a gore of blood, she came down with the girl, and I imperceptibly followed them.
My mother soon after came with the gentleman, who went away as soon as he had given Miss Smart a burning kiss; when, after partaking of some refreshment, they both set off for Ranelagh, with their monstrous brooms in their bosoms, in search or further adventures. I was foolish enough to think the shaking of the bed and the rattling of the curtains had been occasioned by the violence with which the girl's correction had been administered and the struggles she made, and it was not until a few years after that Miss Smart told me they had often gratified that gentleman in that manner, whose propensity was to enjoy a woman, while another was engaged in giving a severe whipping to some wicked young girl, provided he was convinced that she really deserved the chastisement, and that he took a singular pleasure in having them dressed in white, with a very large nosegay in their bosom-that he had placed my mother on the bed in such a manner that, while he was upon her, he could see her flogging the girl, and that it was he who had sent these nosegays, which, from the quantity of moss-roses, carnations, jessamine, myrtle, etc., of which they were composed, must have been very expensive.
I began already to be very serviceable to my mother, in hearing the younger scholars read and spell, for I was grown very tall:-as I was allowed to give them a touch of the rod on the hands, when they were idle, or made a noise in the school, and it was the only punishment I was allowed to inflict, I made a pretty good use of that power, for I would order them to hold out their hands, and with a good bundle of fresh birch, twitched them in such a manner, as to leave the marks of the rod both on them and theirarms, giving them half-a-dozen hearty strokes on each.
Much about this time my mother received a letter from one of her friends in France, informing her that my grandmother was not expected to live ; she immediately made preparations for her journey, and left Miss Smart in possession of the school.-We immediately embarked at Brighton for Dieppe, and from thence went to Rouen, the place where she was born. A.t our arrival we found that the old gentlewoman had just expired, and left what little property she was possessed of to my mother who was her only child, and who, after turning everything into what money she could make, went to Paris, pretending to have some business there, but the fact was, with a view of living with a man she had got acquainted with during the voyage, and who had made her some very handsome offers. She left me with her friend, under the pretence of completing me in the French language, but rather that I should not be a spy upon her in her new situation. This woman kept a kind of free school, chiefly for the children of officers who had been killed in the service of their country; they were admitted at nine years old, and maintained there till fifteen or sixteen, at least till they either got into some situation-and some of them who were pretty-would sometimes find husbands at fourteen, nay thirteen; the trustees, with a view of getting rid of the incumbrance, being ready at any time to give their consent. Their education was generally such as to qualify them for teachers in schools or for ladies' maids. I was then about fourteen, but being very tall, could easily have passed for a girl of sixteen or seventeen; my complexion was very fair, with fine expressive blue eyes, and a very full bosom; as to my shape, it could not be more elegant; add to this, I had naturally, like Manon, a most severe and haughty look.
My mother left me with her friend as an English teacher, my predecessor having returned to England. I not only spoke and wrote the language correctly, but Miss Smart had taught me the various sorts of needlework generally in use, and, to do her justice; had spared no pains in improving my education. It is true, she was fond of a peep at my bottom, as she frequently gave me a sound whipping; but I am greatly indebted to her and my mother for their chastisement, as I was naturally stubborn, of a very idle turn, and particularly malicious.
The school-mistress, who was the widow of an officer, appeared to be about twenty-five, rather pretty, but corpulent, though nicely formed, possessing that dignity of aspect, which captivates while it awes, and confoundedly fond of whipping her scholars, in short it was her ruling passion, for when she flogged the bigger scholars who were pretty, she, as the Sister Grise mentioned in Manon's Memoirs, would thrust into her body a monstrous Dildoe, and then whip the culprit with a large birchen rod, as hard as she could, squeezing her between her thighs all the time, till a copious spending cooled her burning lust.
The number of boarders was confined to twenty-five, but we had several day-scholars, among whom were many boys; notwithstanding this, she never kept but one English teacher, and always very young, besides an old woman who acted in the capacity of housekeeper. I had scarcely been a week in the house, when I had occasion to complain to the mistress of one of the girls, about twelve years old, who was learning, but was extremely idle and inattentive; she told me with a lone of authority to flog her myself, and for the future, says she, I desire you will not complain to me any more, but punish them yourself; I expect my teacher to help me in correcting the children, as well as in teaching them, and you are big enough, Miss, added she, and strong enough for the purpose. She could not have given me a job I loved better, for like Manon, I had a particular itch for flogging. I learned also from one of the servants, that my predecessor, who was a young girl of about seventeen, exercised her flogging talents in such a manner as to give great satisfaction to the widow, for to gain her approbation in this respect, it was necessary to do it till you were out of breath, and the culprit's arse in a gore of blood.
But to return to the mistress's direction, I went immediately to her closet, where she kept her rods, and chose one of a tolerable good size, and stripping the girl, and tying her hands before her, as the widow always did, I flogged away for ten minutes at the least, with all my force, the governess watching me all the time, as if her eyes would start out of her head. When I had finished, that's the way, said she, I would have you flog-you will make in time an excellent schoolmistress. Indeed she was tolerably right; for though it was my first attempt, I left the girl's backside in a sad condition.
I was not a little proud of the liberty she gave me of whipping, for scarcely a day passed that I did not exercise the rod upon some delinquent or other.-There was a man she employed in bringing every Monday a regular supply of birch brooms for the use of the school, which he cut fresh from the trees. Sometimes she whipped the bigger scholars, particularly the boys, for we had several great boys on account of the English, behind a large folding screen, which was at the bottom of the schoolroom, and concealed the closet door, where she usually deposited her store of birch, and from which a back staircase led to another part of the house; sometimes in her bedroom, but more frequently in the school. I once saw her flogging a great girl, about fifteen years of age, who had taken some money privately out of one of her school-fellow's pockets; she gave it her for near half an hour; and wore out two large birchen rods, well steeped in vinegar, over her thighs and buttocks. She had that day more the appearance of a fury than a rational being; passion, lust, etc., by turns discovered themselves in her countenance. She used also a kind of cat-o'-nine tails,I or rather o' sixty tails, for it had about sixty lashes to it, of the length of the arm. It was made of thin slips of parchment, which had been first moistened, and closely twisted, with five knots at the end, but she only made use of it when she flogged the bigger boys or girls, and even then butrarely, preferring the bircli upon most occasions; and it was but once during my residence with her, that I saw her apply it to a girl who had been detected in frequent acts of pilfering.
I had nearly forgot to mention one of the bigger scholars, who frequently assisted me in hearing the younger ones in English, and who had permission to use the rod upon their hands, but nowhere else. She was very pretty, a great favourite with the widow, with whom she slept; sometimes she whipped the youngest girls, but it was only when she had particular orders from the mistress for that purpose. The widow received very often from one of the trustees of the school, an old friend of hers, and a consummate libertine, a large bouquet of costly flowers; as she was subject to the headache, she would sometimes make her favourite girl or myself wear it, though on certain occasions she would wear
I. These cats are used in some schools, and among a few mantua-makers, etc., to whip their apprentices, though in general birch is preferred, canes not being permitted on the Continent for the correction of children. it herself. I was, like Manon, passionately fond of having a large nosegay in my bosom to smell at, when I exercised the rod, as the fragrance of the flowers always excited in me the most pleasing sensations. One day that she had received a most beautiful one, almost as big as a broom, she insisted on my wearing it, and would tie it herself to my bosom, which she did so high, that the flowers shaded almost the left side of my face-that is the way, said she, a young girl should wear a nosegay. I flogged that day two grown-up girls, who richly deserved it, and in such a manner, that the governess was so well pleased that she gave me many kisses. When the school was over, she ordered me to flog a beautiful boy about thirteen, who had been kept for that purpose, and who was learning English, but of a very idle turn. His mother had desired that he might be forwarded as much as possible in that language, and particularly that the rod might not be spared. I told her I was ashamed to whip so big a boy; when she told me, with a great deal of nonchalance (for she at least thought me seventeen, though I was not yet fifteen), not to have that kind of mock modesty, and to do my duty; and as you are the English teacher, you are obliged to correct your scholars; but to tell the truth, I was dying for a fair opportunity of whipping a big boy; I was afraid I was not strong enough; but I nevertheless attempted to unbutton his pantaloons, but I could not affect it. I called Julie, the girl whom I have just mentioned, for she frequently helped me in holding such refractory scholars as I could not manage myself. We soon tied his hands, and as the mistress was in the school, he did not dare make any more resistance. I then stripped them down to his heels, and fastening his shirt up to his shoulders, began scourging his backside with an excellent rod, and with a degree of force that lust only could inspire. Oh! Mademoiselle Miss, cried he, for he thought that was my name as everybody in the house called me so, forgive me, pray forgive me, I will learn my task better for the future, I will indeed. I paid no attention to his entreaties, but kept flogging on, my face buried in my nosegay, till at last the rod dropped out of my hand. I remained for a few minutes in a kind of lascivious stupor, and confess that I felt that day such sensations as I had never experienced before-perhaps, too, the luxurious fragrance of my bouquet might have contributed to excite them, for I kept smelling at it all the time I scourged him ; I held him under my arm, resting upon a high table, and kept him closely shut up between my thighs-I am sure I gave him more than a hundred lashes, the widow crying out during the whole time, Don't let him go yet, whip him, etc. The birch appeared to pinch him very much, for he plunged and writhed his body in the most wanton manner. As soon as the boy was gone, the mistress, who had eyed me with a great deal of attention, and guessed very well what was passing within me, came to me-there were only ourselves in the school, as the children were playing, under Julie's inspection, in an adjoining court-and giving me burning kissesr as in the morning, she said, I am going into my bed-chamber, where I wish you would follow me in a few minutes, as I have something to say to you. She then left me, passing through the closet where the birches were kept. I could not possibly guess what she meant, but was still determined to go. Her chamber, I must observe, was on the attic story-I found her very busy in tying up a great bundle of birch, and as soon as I entered she locked the door-I began to be alarmed, thinking that she meant to give me a flogging; but my fears were soon dispeled, when she said, My dear girl (sitting on her bed, and pulling me after her), I have a favour to ask you : I am very much afflicted at times with rheumatism in my backside, and suffer a great deal from it-the physician has prescribed to me the use of birch I-will you do me the favour to give me a good whipping with this rod? I stood petrified, and really thought the widow out of her wits; she perceived my astonishment, but at last persuaded me to acquiesce. I told her I was ready
I. I have flogged many gentlemen with birch for the same complaint, who preferred it to flesh brushes. to do any thing to oblige her, but was afraid I should hurt her. On the contrary, said she, you will do me a deal of good. Then she began kissing me again, and smelling at my nosegay, or rather my sweet broom, the scent of which seemed to augment her lust : she passed her hands all over my body, and in fact acted with me as men do with women to excite their desire before they enjoy them. After this little preamble, she tendered me the rod. Forget, said she, who I am, and whip me as you whipped the boy just now; then placing herself upon her belly across the bed, and stripping herself as high as she could, she discovered to me a bum which might vie with that of the Venus of Medicis. I really think, if I had been a man, that I should have begun pushing away immediately in it. I took the rod, however, and began flogging her as if she had been a child. Harder, said she, harder-faster, faster-and by no means stop, till I say the word "enough. " I therefore whipped away lustily, at least as fast and as hard as I could. There was a large looking-glass opposite her, so that she could see how I laid on the while. I suppose I was at it a full quarter of an hour, and her beautiful arse only discovered red strokes, as the rod was not calculated to fetch blood, being made of very slender twigs of birch, quite green. She uttered half-broken expressions from time to time, as if sighing or out of breath, saying very often, Oh I my dear Miss Birch, forgive me, do, pray, pray, etc. At last she said the word enough. I immediately discontinue!, when turning towards me and stripping me, she drew me violently to her, and made me lie upon her with my bum on her private parts ; then, grasping me between her thighs, she gave a deep sob, and continued in this posture for some minutes;-the reader will easily guess that she had taken care to fix into her the Dildoe which she made use of, particularly when she flogged the bigger boys. As soon as she recovered herself, she got up, thanked me, and said, I suppose, Miss, it will be totally needless to advise you to keep this a secret, for you may depend upon it, if I ever hear it transpires, I shall find ways to be revenged. I assured her that she need not be alarmed on this head, and we immediately separated. When I was alone, I reflected upon the occurrence, and made no difficulty in concluding in my own mind, that the widow was a most complete libertine-it is net that she hated men, on the contrary, but she found in birch discipline the gratification of one of those arbitrary tastes, for which there is no accounting. As for myself, I acquired from that day a most ungovernable inclination for all sorts of sensual indulgencies, and particularly for flogging.
Among the pupils who were learning English, there was a tall young man, who received lessons from me about three times a week ; he was the son of the bookseller who supplied us with school-books. I think he was then about eighteen years old, well made, and rather handsome. I soon found that I had captivated him, and I was not a little fond of him, but had taken care to conceal it from him, for I always took a delight in teazing men; he was, besides, rather bashful. I frequently, instead of studying his lessons, detected him staring at my springing bosom, for I had a very full one. Upon these occasions, I used to give him two or three gentle boxes on the ear, which pleased him very much. Whenever I wore a nosegay, he was always smelling at it, and I discovered that he was passionately fond of seeing me with a very large one : he would frequently bring me one, and then help me to fasten it to my bosom, taking care to slide his fingers, as if by chance, over my bubbies. I then pretended to be very angry, in order to scold him and give him boxes on the ear; but his touches, far from displeasing me, procured me the most delightful sensations. Before we began our lesson, we sometimes went, with the widow's permission, to take a walk on the banks of the Seine, where he would make love to me, and tell me stories, like most lovers, that had neither head nor tail. The widow, who had perceived I had a great partiality for him, desired me to encourage his addresses, as it was, she said, an excellent match for me. One day lhat he had brought me a remarkably fine nosegay of a very large size, for it was the custom al that time, and I believe even now, for young girls of age to be married to wear enormous ones, always composed of the most odoriferous flowers, and to have their heads adorned with a wreath of the same,I as I had a most beautiful one just fixed in my bosom, which the widow had given me, and had just been gathered, he appeared very much annoyed, and requested me repeatedly to wear his. Lovers, like children, fret themselves for nothing, and this was exactly his case, and their mistresses would be doing them a great service, when they grumble for nothing, if they would give them a good hearty whipping; for since we are the mistresses of men, we should use our authority to some purpose. But to return to my lover; by way of frolic, I offered to untie my bouquet, and to mix the flowers of his with it, for mine was stuffed with a quantity of moss-roses, tuberoses, jonquils, myrtle, etc., and his chiefly with carnations, jessamine, etc., to make one out of the two. This proposition gave him apparent satisfaction. As soon as I had arranged it, and tied it up tightly, I attempted, or rather both of us tried, to fasten it to my side, but we could not effect it on account of its monstrous size ; but, however, with the help of two
I. People who have travelled in France and Italy, and particularly in Portugal, know perfectly well that I am not stating more than the truth. or three pieces of strong riband, I at last contrived to manage it-Here, said I to him looking at myself in a large glass, for I could not help remarking what a voluptuous and effeminate air a large bouquet gives to a woman, here is a nosegay fit for a duchess-how do you like it?-I hope it is big enough now, for you see it nearly covers the whole of my face, for the ladies on the Continent always wear their bouquets very high on the left side, so as to have the flowers to play with their cheeks.-Oh! a pretty girl like you, says he, cannot wear a nosegay too large.-So, a pretty girl, to please you, said I, must make herself ridiculous. One thing, how-ver, was true, that I had seen many young girls with a nosegay in their bosoms as large as the one I had on, and that I did not think it a bit too large.
As it was rather early, I requested the widow's permission to take a little walk with my lover, which she immediately granted, saying to me with a smile, you'll be taken for a young bride,I with your great bouquet in your bosom-don't, however, be late, for I sup in town to-night. I hope, said she, in jest, your scholar is diligent; and you know we have plenty of birch in the house for idle ones.
I. The girls on the Continent wear on their wedding-day, and generally for the subsequent month, an enormously large nosegay.
I was highly pleased to have an opportunity of exhibiting myself with my great nosegay, and my pride privately gratified in attracting the attention of the passing crowd, as I frequently heard people behind me say, Here's the jolie Anglaise-See, she is as beautiful as an angel. After we had taken a few turns, and been stared through and through, particularly by the men, we were returning home, when passing, by chance, close to the woman's house, whose son I had so soundly whipped, she happened to be standing al the door and invited me in lo refresh myself with a glass of wine, it being the trade in which she dealt, thanking me repeatedly for the chastisement I had given him. We accepted her invitation, and made my lover and myself drink several large glasses of good old Champaign, for we were both very thirsty; however, it tasted to me like small beer, and from not being accustomed to its strength, it made me more merry than usual. Then we left her to return to the school. The children were already in bed, and the mistress had taken Julie with her. My scholar and myself betook ourselves lo a kind of study, which was quile on the back part of the house, and where he and others generally read their lessons to me ; we rested a little while on a sort of settee, where the governess sometimes placed the bigger boys or girls, and fastened them on it, in order to flog them more at her ease. As he wished to kiss me, and take other liberties with me, I got up, and we sat down to a table to read; he performed so indifferently that I began to scold him, for he could not take his eyes from my bosom. I had told him to learn the verb " to love, " and in repeating it, he said, in the present tense, " I love you ; " and when he came to the future, " I shall love you for ever. " I did not appear to understand him, but said in a kind of joke, I have a great mind to follow the governess's direction, and fetch a good rod to make you more attentive. He began laughing, and said, " I'll wager twenty kisses that you may whip me as long and as hard as you can, before I'll tell you to leave off! " Done-let me try, I replied, for the wine had so far got into my head, that I neither knew what I did or said ; besides, I had grown, since I had whipped the widow, very bold and wanton. I rose to fetch a rod, and chose one of the largest and greenest I could select. During my absence he had pulled off his breeches, which I did not discover at my entrance, as he had on a long great-coat, which young men frequently wear on the Continent in summer-Come, said I, shaking the bundle of birch at him, come, young man, down with your breeches, and let me see what effect this birch will have upon you, I think it will make you more attentive. He immediately took off his great coat-I was not a little astonished at seeing him in his shirt; nevertheless, forgetting myself entirely, I lost no lime in tucking il up to his shoulders, and took him under my arm, as if he had been one of our scholars, and leaning against the table, I began flogging him like one of the children, with my face buried in the flowers of my nosegay, which almost overcame me by its odoriferous exhalations. Though he did not open his mouth wilh a complaint, I could see very well the marks of the birch on his backside ; but who is the man who would not have liked to be in his situation, and whipped by a pretty girl?-Oh! ye male readers, I think I see you smile-but it is no less true. I still kept on, that I might win the wager, but in vain-I had given him I don't know how many lashes, when I began lo feel his weapon, which was glued as it were to one of my thighs, for I had on only a thin muslin gown, swelling to a considerable size, and so stiff, that I began to reflect on my frolic, but it was too late; breathless with my exertions, I was obliged to yield. I then attempted to escape, but he had taken the precaution lo fasten the door and hide the key. As he had won his wager, he seized me, and smothering me with kisses, without losing a moment, he threw me on the settee, stripped up my shift, and in spite of the resistance I made, which only served to inflame his lust, got the head of his engine into my belly, grasping me closely all the while in his arms. He soon became ungovernable, tearing me without mercy, his thrusts growing more and more furious, and, after causing me a great deal of pain, he thrust it at last up to the very hilt, all the while sucking my neck, for I had turned my face, and buried it among the flowers of my sweet broom, that I might not see him. At last I arrived by degrees at excess of pleasure, through excess of pain ; and so keen was the sensation I felt, when I received the emission of his seed, that I scarcely knew if I had any life in me, and soon expired in the arms of the murderer of my virginity in an agony of bliss. As soon as we recovered ourselves, finding I did not speak, and had the appearance of melancholy, for I was greatly ashamed of what had just taken place, he broke the ice, by saying, I have made you a woman, but I swear by the love I have for you, that I will marry you as soon as you choose. As I was more to blame than he, I freely forgave him the outrage, and after mutually exchanging kisses, we separated like true lovers; and in order to give me incessant proofs of his affection, he hired at his laundress's, whom he bribed for the purpose, a small garret, and bought a neat bed, etc., where we frequently met in private to renew our libidinous gambols, which always terminated in luxurious coition.
Julie and I became very intimate : she told me in confidence that she often whipped the widow, with whom she slept, as mentioned before, particularly in the morning before they put their clothes on, and that after she would turn her upside down, press her in her arms, and at last die with pleasure under her. Al other times, she would fasten with belts round her waist a Dildoe, the flat hill of which covered her pretty slit; and that she had taught her to imitate the motions men make upon women in the act of coition, and by these means allay the burning fire within her. One day she was gone out, and by chance had left the key in the drawer where she kept it; Julie showed it to me, and I could not kelp admiring its contrivance : it was made of whalebone covered with velvet; the head had a kind of bladder over it, and in the middle of it there was a sort of small pipe. The construction was in such a manner, that in pressing the imitative balls that hung to it, she received through it a bedewing from a shower of warm milk contained in it. So when she flogged, particularly the bigger boys, she entwined their legs and thighs between her own and the smart of the birch would make them struggle and writhe in such a manner as lo cause at last the critical moment. I have brought a few of them from France, which I have often used, and still do use, whenever I whip the bigger girls or boys, even men, when I like them, who sometimes get themselves flogged without touching women.
One afternoon, when the widow and I had been flogging more than usual, a tall awkward girl, who was remarkably idle, and whom I had flogged that day most severely, for I believe I had given her more than a hundred lashes, though in general four or five dozen strokes, properly applied, were the common punishment of the school; as we always fastened to the side of the bigger girls a large bundle of birch, in lieu of a nosegay, to make them more ashamed, and as she could not bear this additional punishment, she got away from me just as I was going to lie to her bosom the birchen bouquet. I went after her-and as she had taken refuge on the other side of a long table which was near the folding screen, I got upon it in order to take hold of her; but what was my surprise at seeing, by the elevation at which I stood, the trustee, who was peeping through a crevice which was in the screen, observe what was going forward in the school. I did not, however, pretend to have seen him, and brought back the young slut; to whom I fastened, in spite of her struggles, her birchen nosegay.
I was some time after this an observer of a far more lascivious scene than what I have just described. I had been out to make a purchase, and at my return, as I did not see Julie in the play-ground with the children, I naturally concluded that she was in the school. I was going to open the door, but was prevented by finding it fast, which rather surprised me, and at the same time distinctly heard the birch applied with the utmost severity to a boy, who was bawling out as loud as possible; and in another part of the school I plainly distinguished a girl's voice who was undergoing the same chastisement. I had not the least doubt that the schoolmistress and Julie were both at work al the birchen business, and with a view of satisfying my curiosity, I went to the private staircase, which led to the closet where the birch was kept. The door of this also happened to be fastened; but as there was a small window over it which looked upon the school, and just admitted light into it, I got upon an old table that happened to be there; I then saw again, not without much astonishment, the trustee flat upon his belly, with a young girl under him, whose neck he was devouring with kisses, and who was also almost at full-length upon a table, which appeared to have been put there for the express purpose. She was stripped to her shoulders, and his weapon ingulphed as it were in her backside, his stones resting on her plump buttocks ; and he was peeping every minute through the hole in the screen, to watch the beautiful Julie, who was flogging a girl about twelve years old with all her strength, and the widow who had just whipped a boy about the same age, who was reading before her with his pantaloons down to her heels, keeping him between her thighs, and pressing with one of her hands, which was round his body, his naked arse upon her private parts, and holding a most tremendous rod in the other. This curious scene lasted, I suppose, half an hour, when observing the trustee retire his flaggy instrument from its hiding-place, I hastily withdrew. As soon as I saw Julie, I told her what I had seen, but we could never discover who the girl was, but she appeared to me to be very young, handsome, and with a most beautiful skin.
This last scene I had seen had in a great measure confused my ideas, for at that time I was not acquainted with the different propensities of men, and I thought that this way of being conducted with women was perhaps as natural as the other, and I had even an intention to try it with my lover. I had observed that the widow sometimes retired into her bedroom with the trustee, as well as with a cousin of hers, who was captain of a merchant ship. I did not suppose that it was merely to enftler des perles' (as the French say), as she stopped with them sometimes for hours together. I had ransacked my brains to find some way or other to see their sports, but to no purpose; for there was a kind of passage which led to the widow's bedchamber, and which was always fastened up on these occasions, so that it was impossible either to see Or hear what was going on in her room.
One day I was in my room, which was on the same floor with hers, musing on some method of
I. Enfiler des perles, to string beads, i. e. to trifle away time. gratifying my cusiosity, I perceived I could pass along the gutters from my room to hers, for there was a kind of parapet, which made it not only practicable but safe-I had also observed, when she expected a visit from any of these gentlemen, she would then wear the nosegay, or rather the sweet-broom, which the trustee sent her, almost every day. One evening I saw her go into her bed-chamber, with her bouquet up to her ear, by the private staircase, and the trustee following her on the tiptoe. I went directly into my room, and getting out of the window, I placed myself a little on the side of that of the widow's, who could not form the least idea that she was overlooked-the trustee was already before her in a supplicating attitude, and almost naked-the school-mistress, armed with nearly half of a birch broom, was fastening his shirt up to his shoulders-she ordered him to lie across the bed, before the glass, that he might contemplate her during the birchen operation; then she began to whip him like a Russian I school-mistress. When he had received about two hundred strokes, he got up, kissed her beautiful bosom, folded her in his arms, and placed her at last on the bed. After having stripped her, he began to gamahuch her.
1. In Russia birch discipline is carried to an excess-even husbands there whip their wives, whereas, here it is the wives that whip their husbands.
2. An expression used by the artistic Gauls, meaning lo lick the private parts of a woman. for some minutes. I thought he was going to serve her in the same manner as he had the girl behind the folding screen, but however I was deceived, for he got into the right channel, and began to work away like a Monk.
Another time I discovered by the same means her cousin, the captain, who was a portly gentleman, about thirty; she gave him also a severe whipping; but after she had worn out a famous bundle of birch upon his bottom, she took the cat o' sixty tails, and began flogging him with it, sometimes on the buttocks, sometimes on his back, for he was quite naked. She would now and then slop for a few minutes, and rub his nose with his shirt, saying to him, You dirty scoundrel, will you piss your breeches again? will you, will you, etc., flogging him again as violently as she could. After this tender preliminary, he placed her upon her belly, with her shirt stripped up to her shoulders, and I saw him thrust his Maypole into the widow's backside up to the very hilt. He continued in that posture for at least twenty minutes, working his arse up and down with all his force, and pressing his balls upon her beautiful buttocks.
All these pretty scenes caused the fire of lust to burn violently in my veins, but, fortunately, my lover, who was a vigorous young man, appeased in some degree the heat, or I don't know what I should have done. We met each other almost every evening before supper. He had begged me several limes to give him another whipping, for the one I gave him on the day of my faux pas had made such an impression upon him, that he was longing for another. With a view of gratifying him, I armed myself one evening with a very large rod, composed of fresh and tender twigs of birch, which I knew would twitch him very much, but could not do the least injury : he had sent me that evening, for it was my first, I a bouquet similar to the one I wore the day he got my maindenhead-I had on besides, a beautiful while muslin gown, almost as light and transparent as gauze, and instead of a wreath of flowers round my head, as I generally wore, as well as Julie, I had on a cap h la paysanne, which was then very much in fashion, and which made me look still more lascivious. I went rather early to our room, and laid on the bed, waiting for him-the emanations of the flowers of my beautiful nosegay, for I counted more than five dozen of moss-roses, and as many carnations and pinks, and other flowers, intermixed with a quantity of jessamine and myrtle, invaded voluptuously my senses-I was as if surrounded by an atmosphere of perfumes-I felt a sort of self-languor diffusing itself through my body, my heart as it were expanding, and while I was yielding to
I. On the Saint's day of which the party bears the name, it is usual for young females on the continent to wear ni their bosoms an enormous bouquet. the most delightful sensations, ideas of the most delightful sensations, ideas of the most pleasing kind pervaded and filled my soul. Oh! ye lovely maids, who think a large nosegay spoils your sweet bosoms, when on the contrary it adorns them with an irresistible charm, try the experiment when you are performing any of the rites of Venus, you will soon find that the sweet perfume exhaling from your bouquet will not only excite your desires, but aggravate very much venereal enjoyment, if you take care to wear it large and high enough to be able to snuff up its lascivious scent during the performance. I was in that voluptuous state, when I heard my lover walking up. As soon as he saw me he smothered me with kisses, and without losing a moment, extended me on the bed, and laying himself upon me, in a few minutes made me swoon with pleasure under him. He had brought with him a bottle of Champaign, which we immediately emptied, the effects of which made me soon ready for another engagement : before, however, we began our sport, by way of a treat, I took up my bundle of birch, which I had concealed under a table, and began playing the school-mistress with him with a vengeance, for I whipped him as hard as I could for a full quarter of an hour, which wound him up to such a pitch of lechery, that he was eager for another touch at me, and throwing me on the bed, he pushed his dart into me, as if he would have split me up, all the time devouring my bubbies. I kept the rod with me, and continued flogging, with my face, as usual, buried in my lascivious bouquet, till I was obliged to stop for want of strength-when on a sudden I felt such ravishing pleasure, diffusing itself into the innermost recesses of my body, accompanied with that clear delirium, intimating the delicious moment of dissolution, in which enjoyment itself is drowned, that I thought my existence was upon the point of being dissolved in bliss.
I had passed nearly two years in a continual succession of delight, when my lover's mother came one morning, overwhelmed with grief, to tell us that her son was drowned the evening before : he often went to bathe, and it was supposed the cramp had suddenly seized him, and being alone, he was drowned, without the power of receiving any assistance. I fainted at the intelligence; and when I came to myself, I felt all the weight of my situation, for I was then nearly three months gone with child by him-I remained for a considerable time swallowed up in grief and despair, but time and youth, by degrees, moderated the violence of my sufferings.
Some time had elapsed since I had received any letter from my mother, when one evening I saw her enter with a young lady of uncommon beauty-it was Manon, or rather Mrs. Duverger, who was going to embark at Havre with her husband for Philadelphia. My mother had got acquainted with her on her journey. As the ship was not quite ready to sail, she stopped very near a month at Rouen, and perhaps it would have been one of the most agreeable months of my life if it had not been for the recent death of my lover. As Mrs. Duverger's time of departure was now arrived, we parted with regret, for she entertained for me a particular friendship; and, to say the truth, some little gambols had passed between us, which I shall leave to the reader to guess. She made me several presents-among others, nine ostrich feathers of a most enormous size, and a monstrous winter bouquet of artificial flowers, which were so exquisitely perfumed that they retained their respective scents in a high degree, and when I wore it every one took them for real ones. She presented Julie with a similar one. She gave me also her enormous brown bear muff, as well as a copy of her Memoirs, to amuse me, she said, when I should have leisure to read them. As soon as she was gone, my mother made me a partial confidence of what had happened to her since our separation, adding that the person with whom she had lived had lost large sums by gaming, and had left her in great distress-that she intended to return immediately to England, to continue her school with Miss Smart, giving me the choice either of remaining at Rouen, or to accompany her to London. As Rouen, since my lover's death, had become disagreeable to me, I preferred returning with her, and we took our leaves of the widow, who paid me something more than our agreement, and of the beautiful Julie, whom I loved like a sister, and who was, perhaps fortunately for her, of a very cold constitution, for I often whipped her for pleasure, and even frigged her, but to no purpose-scarcely anything affected her. She had, however, a lover in the son of a writing-master, who attended our school; she liked him a little, she would say, but the little proud slut would scarcely let him kiss her pretty hand. One day the sweet fellow, for he was very handsome, and not much more than eighteen, attempted to kiss her sweet bubbies, and I am sure, if it had not been for shame, she would have whipped him, and she was very near doing it, for she took a rod and flogged his hands and legs with it as hard as she could, for daring, she said, to take such a shocking liberty with her. , As soon as we arrived in London, my mother went, after resting a day or two, to Chelsea, where she was informed that Miss Smart had parted with the school, and was gone to Ireland with a gentleman, as governess to his nephews and nieces, but rather to himself, as she informed me afterwards, for she flogged him almost as often as her pupils. About that time I was brought to bed of a daughter, the very image of her father ;-never shall I forget the great care and maternal affection which my mother showed me at that critical period, and I have and shall always give her proofs of my gratitude. We passed a year together, without following any particular business; but our pecuniary stock beginning gradually to decrease, my mother took a small haberdashery shop at Islington, and I, for the sake of the country air, went as a teacher to a girls' school in Wales, where I indulged almost every day my propensity for administering the birch discipline, and even carried it to an excess,I leaving my little girl under my mother's care. After spending some time in that school, I returned to London, and took lodgings in Westminster, with an intention to open a day-school, as my mother wished to continue in her little shop, and have still the care of my little girl, and I believe she would at that time have sooner parted with her life than with the little darling.
I took it into my head one day to go to Ranelagh, to see if I could meet with some friends; with this view I dressed myself as elegantly as I could-I went in the evening to a nursery, where I bought a quantity of all kinds of odoriferous flowers, in order to make what is called on the Continent an enormous bouquet de luxure,2 and for the first time I wore on my head the nine beautiful white feathers....
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I. See Manon's Memoirs, p. 82.
2. (r) Nosegays of lechery; so called on account of their supposed influence in venereal enjoyments. I had been
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...Madame Duvergerhad presented me with at Rouen. I had not been long there, when I was accosted by a gentleman, the same as mentioned in Manon's Memoirs, who was passionately fond of being whipped with green birch by young women elegantly dressed, and with a most enormous nosegay in their bosoms : at other limes he would make me dress as a lady of the Court, with a hoop of the largest size, and a beautiful muslin gown and train spangled with silver, and drawn up with festoons of natural flowers, for he had by him several gowns of the kind, which, with the enormous bouquet and high plume of white feathers, gave me a most lascivious look : I would then whip him for half an hour, personating a lady of the first order of beauty and haughty deportment; this pastime always finishing, on his part, in an agony of plaesure. I have known several gentlemen who had a similar penchant. I went out one evening with the monstrous muff Madame Duverger had also given me, for it was rather cold, with an intention to scold my shoemaker, who had neglected to send me a pair of shoes I had ordered-I had got partly upstairs, as he lodged at the top of the house, when I heard a young child crying out, Oh, pray, pray forgive me, aunt, do forgive me, and I will bind them directly. Discovering a large trunk in a corner near the door, told of a lord who used to enjoy his beautiful countess on her return from Court, before she undressed.
I got gently upon it, and saw through a small window over the door Madam Crispin, a tall, carrotty termagant, about thirty, rather pretty, with a monstrous bosom, tying up the best part of a birch broom, quite green, and a big girl about fourteen, upon her knees, supplicating for pardon-but in Yain; for as soon as she had tied the rod, she stripped the young slut, look her under her arm, and raising her a little from the ground, with her buttocks fully exposed, she flogged her till the blood ran down to her heels : she then locked her up in a closet, saying, Now go, you lazy hussy, and bind the shoes as I ordered you. Her husband, a tall brawny fellow about forty, who had been watching her all the time, with eyes full of lechery, suddenly left his work, and throwing her without ceremony on the bed, soon ingulphed his terrible weapon into her, for I never saw one of such a monstrous size, and worked her in such a manner, that she seemed nearly suffocated with lust and gorged with pleasure. Not wishing to interrupt them, I returned softly downstairs, without saying anything about my shoes. I had hardly got into the street, when I met a gentleman rather in years, who observing my great muff, for it was enormously large, begged my permission to see me home. As soon as we got into my bed-room, he undressed himself entirely, and begged me to tickle him with my muff all over his body, but more particularly about his private parts ; then leaning upon a table, he placed his tool upon the hollow of my backside, and moving and pressing his stones upon my buttocks, he soon discharged, squeezing me with all his force between his thighs, I standing all the while opposite a large looking-glass, with my neck exposed, and my hands in my muff.
Among the capriciosi who wanted "to rouse the Venus lurking in their veins," was a young lad. not above sixteen, from Westminster College :-I used to whip him with the utmost severity, with a very large bundle of fresh birch, for nearly half an hour, he quite naked, with his hands tied up, and I leaning on a table, and stripped up to my navel, and always with an enormous bouquet in my bosom ; when I fell his young staff threatening me, I would leave off, and untie his hands; he would then lay me on the bed, and make me feel unspeakable emotions. I used also to whip another in the character and dress of a nun, with a cat o' sixty-nine tails, till the blood ran down to his heels. A third took delight in putting his finger into my fundament, while I was handling his private parts. I should fill a volume were I to enumerate and enter into particulars relating to the various and strange propensities of some men.
My friend of Brompton had enabled me lo purchase a boarding and day-school, full of large girls and boys, in order to indulge with me in a number of birchen sports-he was particularly fond of enjoying me whilst I was scourging as hard as I could a big girl, selecting always for that purpose some grown-up wicked and lazy wench, with a fat arse, and whom I knew to be too stupid to take notice of what was going forward, or rather backward.
One day, as I was reading the Morning Advertizer, a paper I peruse every day, I saw an advertisement to this effect:-" If Miss R. B. (with a star after the letters) will write a line to J., mentioning where she can be heard of, etc. " I immediately recollected I had given Julie that direction, in case she should come to England, and could not find me; I answered it, and I had the pleasure of meeting again the beautiful Julie, who acquainted me she had married the son of the writing-master I mentioned, but that he killed himself in less than two years by his incessant connections with her. She also informed me that the widow had espoused the trustee, and some other little particulars. We now live together and whip like two little devils both young folks and old ones.
Adieu, readers of all descriptions, to amuse you with my juvenile gambols has been my object; you are the best judges if I have succeeded. If I find that your approve of this little bagatelle, I shall, perhaps, at a future period, bring forth another birchen production, as I have a great deal more to say upon that subject.
THE CHARM
THE CHARM a dialogue for THE "ENGLISHWOMAN'S CONVERSAZIONE ' matron.
"Your niece, Miss Hetty Hoyden's so improved;
She left her home ill-mannered and unsightly, Without a torn frock she rarely moved, And now so neat, and answers so politely! The change has been the talk of the whole town;
My girls are getting wild, I'm all alarm, Something must soon be done to keep them down.
How do you manage it? " spinster
(throws open a press.)
"Behold the charm! "
MATRON
(stares.)
"My, what a size! and she's full fitfeen. Still You're right, I have no doubt, tho' some folk doubt it, But you're so stout and have such strength of will.
Did she resist? Do tell me all about it. To whip my wild ones were no easy task, Nor should I tackle them unless I thought I Gould do without a servant. May I ask was your niece violent as well as naughty? "
SPINSTER.
"She would have been, no doubt, had I been weak.
When children see the apparatus near, And know you mean to whip them, they are meek;
In hopes to get it milder. You shall hear-That is, directly-Cake and curacoa Won't hinder, you can hear me while you're sipping."
MATRON.
"Thank you, that liquor is like velvet. Oh!
How nice to hear of an authentic whipping. Those stories in the Ladies' Magazines
re scarcely credible, that is lo say, They may be true, but brought behind the scenes, The sense of being there they don't convey; Now your experience I can count upon
To guide me when I'm whipping. Pray go on."
"I tied those twigs, then thicker by a third, In the clothes basket, muffled the deposit, And the next time that Henrietta err'd
I called her coolly to my dressing closet. Callous to reprimand, she followed there, Thinking that I, like her mamma, would scold her. With cool contempt she flopp'd into a chair."
"Get up!"
I said, and took her by the shoulder. I drew a stool the right height for correcting. And stood her by my knee-still unsuspecting. "Hetty,"
I said, "to talk to you were vain
While such an evil spirit doth bewitch you. To get it out will cause you grievous pain, It must be done, and now I mean to switch you." While thus I spoke, I lifted up the lid
And laid upon the floor the bristling branches, Then quick beneath her dress both hands I slid
And tried to pull the pants from off her haunches. Whereat, half insolent and half afraid.
She clutched my fingers like a greedy glutton; But when I threatened to call in the maid She blenched-and suffered me to slip the button, Down dropt the pants, up flew the skirts and shift, The plump posterior sprawling on my knee, I made the birches whistle o'er them swift
And-paused before I struck her for you see, A word of good advice, tho' always good, Is more impressive when the rods are ready :-" The pain," I said, " I'd spare you, if I could-"
"O Aunt, forgive me, and I'll be so steady. Boo hoo! I couldn't bear it on the bare-Those dreadful rods!-I know I've been in error-I'll never be so-
Mercy! Murder! Spare! "
Here she grew inarticulate with terror.
"Since you won't listen to my words, " I cried, " I'll make you feel the argument of licking. " With that I swept across the whole backside, Then such a shriek and cataract of kicking! Bouncing and bawling, redder than the rose Grew the fat flanks beneath the flashing switches : With beam so broad and birches like to those
I seemed to have illimitable riches; Now pressing heavily upon the clothes, Now forced to humour the impatient twitches; Pausing an instant poised upon the toes
To choose the most alluring of the flitches; Now slashing round, now watching the "expose"
And sweeping into the unguarded niches. After a dozen well-directed blows
I let her rise and button up her breeches.
"You ought to have beheld her altered mien!
The ruddy romp so riotous before Death pale and quivering with anguish keen, Who at my frown essayed to check the roar. The virtues of the Birch already told
To tame the temper that had been so bold. When her sobs ceased I bade her bring the rod, Showed her the press, and lock'd the tool within it; Now, when she's noisy, if I that way nod, She's on her good behavior in a minute, " This is King Solomons's attested Charm To cure the child, not mend its manners merely-A stout persuader, an uplifted arm, A full resolve to castigate severely. Without authority is back'd by pain
The reins of discipline will soon be slipping, The Scriptures indicate your duty plain, Besides, my dear-it's pleasant while you're whipping. The words of the Wise Man are precious pearls-" matron
(rising hastily.) " I'll go at once and give it to the Girls I"
THE NIGHT SCHOOL a
WEIRD PEEP INTO THE NETHER WORLD.
Dame Nature, tenderly prolific dam, Tempers the birch to beat the shorn lamb Birch-we will follow wheresoe'er they flee The leadings of the next apostrophe.
Birch, fiery woer that delights to kiss The shiftless end of master or of miss, Whose lewd embraces waken wanton strife While playing round the fount of love and life. In common cases much must needs depend On which has got the Rod by the right end. The precept which the wielder thinks so grand, The welled would prefer at second-hand, And scarce appreciates the motive kind
That prompts the delicate appeal behind.
Unlike the vulgar whackings of the cane, Birch blends artistic excellence with pain, And by insisting on a liberal show
Combines security with stinging woe, Howe'er it hurt the feelings 'tis a fact
Mix'd whipping charms, administered with tact, It stirs a certain something in the pair, A mutual consciousness of vision rare, " Louder" to look at than the " loudest" ball
Revealing more yet properer withal.
Not at Mabille alone are seen the tricks
That ought to be and are avenged in Styx.
The fate of "pandering partners " who would know
Must hear our spell and dive with us below.
At balls too oft
To music soft
The " pandering partner " flings.
So wide that he
The depths may see
Whence cunning Cupid stings.
And lolling back
Entranced (Alack!
That claret cup was rare!)
Lets the loose hand
At his command
Be guided-anywhere.
Bewitch'd by wine And twirling twine
To fondle what is there. Like Lo-re Ley, Who hears us play
The consequence must bear. Keep well in sight the fair seducer's sins For now the spell has wrought, her punishment begins. the reckoning night.
These palming Phrynes in Miss Nox's school Are all paraded at the whipping stool, Have you reflected on our meaning? Well, Conceive yourselves the subjects of the Spell, Lucky the man whom accidents lets see One toby tickled on the nurse's knee, Surely the same must feel as if bewitch'd With miles of Grownups going to be switch'd! By million bread and butter Misses scann'd, Birch bearing Vestals ready at command. Teachers innumerous, with one 'twixt two, Clutch the delinquents, eager to undo. Steps forth from Chaos, truculent and tall, A spinster fierce enough to flog them all. Who, while before her lowering looks they quail, Thus " points the moral and adorns the tale." miss nox.
"Where all of equal turpitude appear Tis hard to choose-
Perhaps Miss Chanticleer Deserves a bad preeminence, her size Makes her the more offensive to the eyes. Look at those breasts, their bulk alone's obscene, And not a particle of lace to screen. Notice the body, sloped express to show The middle distance lo the depths below. Take off her bracelets and those strings that twine Round her fat throat like pearls upon swine All ornaments, as previously agreed, To pay the rods, provided that they bleed. Dame Brownrigg's Ghost, in castigation skill'd, Is here to see the articles fulfill'd. (Stands by her side a female fell and foul, Grinning from graveyard like a greedy ghoul) Should my arm fail to pray the promised part. Hers, world renown'd, will supplement the smart. " ghost.
"You carn't well miss it, mum, lick low at just, And see the smock's up where they get it wust, A many of the tortured knows the trick : Great Proserpine she love to see me lick, And seldom 'tis she spares me out of hell, Which there continual I'm bound to dwell
Since the old days when, as the "Noogate" sailh, I flogg'd two female prentices to death. They hung me for it, him as done it-Lork! I drawed his entrails with a fiery fork." miss chanticleer.
" Oh! Oh' the bracelets are but pinchbeck-Zounds I To 'scape that Shape I'll forfeit fifty pounds. " miss nox.
"Have you the cash about you? " miss chanticleer.
"No, but soon-" miss nox.
'Bah I give an order on the Man i' the Moon. What is that row?
Miss Chatterton, Miss Hill, You two are always talking-backboard drill-Shut up, no insolence!
The strongest lock Your arms and drag that monster to the block; Pin up the forepart for the rods to reach." miss chanticleer
(holding down.) 'I Ock! Ock I before them all! Leave go, Vll screech! "
GHOST
(alarmed.)
"Hold hard, ye brimstone b-s, them is there That critter's cry would start to upper air! "
MISS NOX
(with dignity.)
"Not that way, ladies, turn her, I beseech. Have you secured it?
Good, then make her kneel, Keep down her head, and when I bid you, peel. Tho', like necessity, birch brooks no laws, Never expose the person without cause. Stand further back, this shoving need not be, 'Tis my desire that every one should see, Which can't be possible while thus you swarm; Let juniors jump on tables or a form And watch the whippings o'er the seniors' heads. Now then, Miss Styx, The springy one that spreads
GHOST
(aside.)
"The werry wun to do it, mum.-Lorsakel Don't be too teejus lest them there awake." miss nox
(aside.)
"They won't, the Spell is on them till first flake. "
(Advances and speaks aload.) " Be warned, my pupils, from this shocking case To shun the rod's keen anguish and disgrace. Two I shall have to whip to-morrow. Hill And Chatterton refused to go to drill, Ye did, I heard ye, Hill was pleased to say She'd see me-something'd. Won't she catch it, hey? Think ye, because you're in the Senior Class To'scape correction? Look at these, alas! The naked backs and bosoms that you see Alone deserve this painful task from me ; Far worse the things that wretch was seen to do, So vile I dare not even hint to you : Drunken with wine-" miss chanticleer.
"I wasn't, it's a lie!" miss nox.
"A what?
Ah, well! we'll settle that by'n by, Little I thought to see a child I trained Of such disgusting levity arraigned, Our sex disgraced before a sex impure-But stinging stripes shall make repentance sure;
She that could wantonly expose to man All that she dared, shall show us all she can, Pull up!"
The shoulders vanish, and they view Proh, pudor I podex et pudendum-heu I So big beyond the boldest fancy's flight The shadowy scourger trembles into-night. Miss Nox once moreadvancing the right toe She jigs the twigs, but fails to strike the blow. The Ghost of Brownrigg with derisive grin Points the lean paw and gibbers to begin. Just at the moment when the solar ray Is dragging the drugg'd sense to upper day The dreamer by a desperate dive recalls A monstrous vision of impending squalls. In weird fantastic attitudes the whole Retreat around the fast enlarging goal. The liberal arm rolls out to distance meet, Back smack the huge tormentors on the seat, Followed by such a shrill ear-piercing shock As starts the Spirites and wakens usthe cock
Eh-Quo me rapis? Whither have we been? O Bacchus, back us lo the present scene, The secrets of the prison house we see Inopportunely, being full of thee Ad pipes : as Horace saith so say to you I, " Quo me, backy, rapis, plenum tui?"
JEWESS IN THE BOUDOIR
A Melodrama. characters.
Mrs. Spanker.-Principal of a Ladies'Boarding School
Miss Becky Abrahams.-The Beautiful Jewess, a Pupil.
Mrs. Huggins.-The Matron.
Miss Monks.-A Junior Teacher.
Small Girl.-And many minute mute personages.
SCENE FIRST. The Schoolroom.-A Juvenile Class breaking up. small girl.
Whe re's Mrs. Spanker, anybody know? " The butcher begged me give this bill. " miss monks.
"Don't go.
I think small girl.
"What do you think, ma'am?" miss monks.
"Well, see here, There isn't likely to be sweet, I fear. I think I heard-but promise you won't tell. " all.
"Oh! never fear, not one of us will-Well?
(Here a stout dame, gorgeously attired, sails in and speaks at, not to the governess.) matron.
"Sarling, " she says to me in private talk, " That there Miss Monks will take'm out to walk
Di-reckly school is up. "
(Exeunt all but the Matron.) Which now, I guess Miss Oleclo's catching of it for her dress. She's eighteen off, nigh twenty I'll engage, But Missis whip 'em most of any age, And if twere worth my wiles to chance the key Not being turned too far, I'd like to see.
Of all that's in it, fifty at the least, I 'ates that Habrams wust, an aughly beast! Sich rial hairs and graces she put on, Which arf er air, I knows, is a she-non. When I cum nigh her, snorting of her nose And sniggering ever at my tasty clothes! If 'tain't too late when them blest brats is hout, I'll try it on, which I've no call to doubt; No Great Girls goes that way but them she'd send To meet her in her budder at the hend, Which that's convenient to the winding stair, And won't I relish seeing Becky bare!
SCENE SECOND A Lobby. Miss A., holding a door handle, soliliquises miss abrahams.
What demon instigated to deny
The romping match where twenty girls were by?
I needed but confess, and well I wiss
She had not dared to subject me to this;
Me, the head girl, the beauty wit-the fool
I was that might have left last half the school!
Nay, had Papa proposed a proper dower, Might have been safely married at this hour.
And now-
(Her hands slide beneath her dress.)
Too soon it will be rough with scars.
What day is this? All right, clean shift and draw'rs, And since there's little doubt I must lay bare, 'Tis well no mean surroundings should be there.
But is it-can it be? Whipt like a child!
Perhaps exposing everything when wild.
What scandal! me my privy parts to show
At eighteen years I I won't-the servants tho'-
Were I to hesitate she'd promptly call, And then this infamy be known to all.
The beast I it may be she's herself ashamed, First fault might then successfully be claimed-
No-a long course of cruelty and lust
Has seared her conscience till she thinks she's just, The laws of Medes and Persians-curse her cribs I
Were not more certain than the rod for fibs I
How can I face her? Her tremendous arm
A-like resolved and competent to harm.
Upon the naked flesh-what awful pain!
And goodness knows! perhaps with whip or cane-
Hardly-save Jones for tickle it in church
All say she uses only simple birch.
Simple-good lack!
(She peeps through the keyhole,) I see them, long and thin, And her broad back. Heaven help me! Tap!
"Come in." a voice.
SCENE THIRD.
Mrs. Spanker's Boudoir. That lady is of Herculean build; on a table before her are a small bottle and a big birch rod; in the middle of the floor a school form is ostentatiously placed. When Miss A. goes in, the Matron slips up the backstairs and applies her eye to the keyhole. mrs. spanker.
"I sent for you, Miss Abrahams, to-day
Wherefore it is superfluous to say, A glance upon the table shows the cause.
Your slight infraction of scholastic laws
You know would not have set us two at odds, Had you not lied, necessitating rods.
From any other fault your age would free, Here whip I must; and soundly whipt you'll be.
"Tis pain to tell you so, nor am I one, To joy in doing that which must be done.
While I admit your general conduct good, This crime by promptest means must be withstood.
Mercy were weakness, liars have their part, Scripture declares, in everlasting smart.
Only the giver absolution grants, The law I execute.
Let down your pants. " miss abrahams.
"I trust you'll pardon. This is my first fault And shall be last, my general conduct-" mrs. spanker.
"Halt!
Words are but waste of time, be quick, obey, And bear your punishment as best you may. Let down to heel, and take off all your skirts, Stoop on yon settle, stript for your deserts. Hoist higher yet, lie flat-
(Aside)
A glorious rump! Full room for whipping, brawny, broad and plump. Her skin is fine, dark olive in its hue, When the birch reddens it a charming view. She keeps her legs fast lock'd thro' shame no doubt, First touch of these will make her open out. For all her screwing, half an eye can see That virgin has attained to puberty.
(Aloud)
"Hand up your garters both. " miss abrahams.
"Please, please, don't tie. " mrs. spanker.
"Nonsense! You'll thank me for it by and by.
Few are so firm in body and in mind
To bear without a baulk Ten Skelps behind.
(After tying, Mrs. S. paws her victim, who thereupon begins to fidget.) Patience! 'twont hurt you more to be made nice. Now, ere I whip, a word of good advice. And not to put it in a form too blunt-Whate'er you do, don't turn up your front. Sore are the slashes on the " sacred skin, " But sorest surely when the ends get in. While thus advising you, I mean to fix So that the belly too may get the licks If you should chance to turn; a twister still Depending more upon the nerves than will. I'll pin you presently. " miss abrahams.
"Good heavens! get on, Have you no bowels? Half an hour gone And not begun! " mrs. spanker.
"You fancy I'm severe And cannot see there's real mercy here. While seeming to relieve, kicks set adrift Infallibly the merely upturned shift, Then in mid anguish culprits have to wait Till brought once more to a befitting state-You wish me to begin '
Phisp! Phisp I
You see
What madness 'twould have been to leave you free.
Had you been capable, no doubt you'd run
Soon as or sooner than the skelps begun.
In the pursuit I must have called a maid
And haply Huggins also to my aid.
Now, the impending penance may be known, Unless you shout, but to ourselves alone, Nor need your nakedness from knee to spine
Be visible to other eyes than mine.
That part the school mistress is bound to know
To her the pupil may, unblushing, show:
The pain's the same, but the alleged disgrace
Depends entirely on time and place.
Those flicks count naught, mere notice to prepare, The next will need your utmost pluck to bear, Look out!-
Whir-r-r. Whisp! " miss abrahams.
"Yarr! I can't bear the pain! " mrs. spanker.
"Whisp! Whisp!
You must, Whisp! Whisp! don't shout again. (She now settles to her work, inflicting each cut slowly with malice prepense, at the full sweep of her arm.)
Whisp! Whisp! Whisp! Whispl-whispH miss abrahams.
"Whurra I Whillaloo I Stop whipping, that's the Tenth I " mrs. spanker.
"The rod's in two.' Apparently you want the matter known To the whole house, shout on, the shame's your own. " miss abrahams.
"Ugh, ugh I I won't. Ugh! ugh! untie me, please. " mrs. spanker.
"Keep as you are-a-psheuch. If knew I'd sneeze-As usual, I hit a thought loo high, Take half a turn to right and show your thigh. Long cuts, this onemiss abrahams.
"Eyl Ey!" mrs. spanker. was fairly in; About an hour hence you'll have new skin, At present the whipt parts are raw and wet, You have not felt the " crusting over " yet, When every time you stir-but never mind, 'Tis time you buttoned up your bare behind.
Rise now and dress yourself. Ere you retire
Put all those bits of birch into the fire
(Hands her some Styptic in a phial).
Go to your room, wash lightly where it bled, Especially in front; then best to bed.
There, while you roll in restlessness and ruth, Reflect on this irrefragable truth-
Not jetty curls, pink cheeks, nor flashing eyes, Nor wit to set the table in a roar, Will save you from the consequence of lies. You may go now, your punishment is o'er. "
(She bows; Miss A. curtseys and retreats, but hearing footsteps outside, pauses in the doorway. Mrs. S. hastily constructs afresh weapon from the ruins of the first.)
SCENE FOURTH.
The Lobby again. The walking party, returning with wraps on arms, move towards a closet facing Boudoir : from this latter Mrs. S., birch in hand, then sallying suddenly, seizes one Small Girl. The rest scud off unseen, and peep from distant holes, like rabbits in a warren. mbs. spanker.
"I knew 'twas you peeped thro' the keyhole, miss. Swiftly and sweetly shall you pay for this. " small girl
"It warn't me, ma'am, please to let me go-(a desperate wrench). We're just come in, Miss Monks will tell you so. " mrs. spanker."
"We, who are we? "
The Small One stares askance, They all have tied. mrs. spanker.
"I'll give another chance. Where are your walking things, if truth you spoke? " small girl.
"Please, m'm, Bell Bolter has my hat and cloak. " mrs. spanker.
(Stamps and turns up her eyes.)
"Great heavens, how horrible! I'll need full swing
To rightly exorcise this hideous thing.
Hi! Huggins! Hurry hither, if you please, Tuck up and toss that brat across your knees.
(The Matron chuckling, tumbles up the stairs and settles herself in the window seat. But instead oj " tossing across, " she smothers in her lap the victim's head, and turns her tail to the spectators.) mrs. spankeb.
"Not room enough, girl growing, pants too small, Tug tighter till the fat parts let 'em fall. " This being settled to her liking, and having taken accurate aim, she commences in slow time, but quickly doubles-thusmrs. spanker.
(at full sweep). Swish! Swish I Swish! Sivish! small girl.
(from midlap) " O' Golly, golly gosh! " mrs. spanker.
(swaying swiftly).
Sha-wash-Shawash shawash shawash shawash!
(rising a tiptoe) Sha-wash I Sha-wash! Sha-wash I " There, miss, take that! And if you think it tight You'll get it tighter next. " matron."
"And serve ye right, Ye snake, a shoving of your snotty snout In other folks' consarns. G'long! Get out I " The Small One shouting, exits in disgrace, Hiding in pinafore her blubbler'd face ; Her heart is sorer than her rump, no wrong She's done, but bullies ever are too strong, While the hubbub brings seekers from all sides The Beauteous Jewess from the Boudoir glides. 'Tis vain lo state-This shan't be shown, no eye shall see the scar-Miss Becky's fate is fully known, as such things always are.
THE
BUTCHER'S DAUGHTER
Or did she deserve it? A QUESTION FOR CASUISTS
Mr. Mountwhackaway her grammar well, And fain dixcreeter conduct would have taught her.
Taught whom? Miss Agnes Sophonisba Snell.
Andivho is she? OJ course the Butcher's Daughter.
Did she deserve it? You shall see anon, Nay, more than see, you'll hear it too. Go on.
The quarterly small smacking match is o'er, The slaps, the yapps, the yells are heard no more.
Some half a dozen chubby bottom'd brats
Have leapt upon her lap like lively sprats :
Twas but a what, provocative of switches.
For which Mountvvhackaway's interior itches.
She rises ponderous, she glares around, None venturing to bandy glance or sound, She looks with an impassion'd gaze at Snell, Licks her lush lips, and snaps the kitchen bell. A tintinnabulum! and then in pairs The tread of trollops tramping up the stairs I While the awed audience wait the change of tunes The musicmaker with herself communes. Tho' much I fear Snell's character has been
Long past the power of birches to repair, It matters not, she's over seventeen, Plump, healthy, handsome; such a one is rare. Our butcher's dai'ghter, taken in exchange
For rounds of beef and volovongs of veal, A vulgar victim, quite beyond the range
Of lady-like forbearance-she shall peel. Her form so firm, like solid marble blocks, She'd stand more killing than a wiry fox. I couldn't kill, however hard I'd strike
With birches. How she'll holloa while I flay! For once I'll heat a Big 'lln as I like.
And strip-Oh, won't I strip in such a way! Both parents begged I'd flog her well, no fear Of prosecution for assaulting here. Should critics cavil that I lick for lust, Plenty can prove the punishment is just. Such her soliloquy, which please receive
As truth recorded by a prescient pen. In abstract essences you must " believe, "
The same not being " visible " to men.
And whether abstract or concrete, we swear This tale is true : it may or mayn't have happ'd
Exactly in the way recorded there, Mountwhackaway perhaps may not have slapp'd
The smaller fry, may not have stripp'd so bare The fairer culprit with the fouller trapp'd, May not have whipp'd at all the butcher's kid;
But being so recorded, some one did.
Two Kitchenmaids now stand beside the block, Birches beneath their ruddy elbowed arms; Thither the gaping governesses flock, Their eyes expressing more than mere alarms, Eager to witness, on another's skin, Purification of so foul a sin. Miss Fidgett saw the sinning, which, be sure, Won't make her less observant of the cure. She, scenting mischief, watched them o'er the wall, The Mistress fetch'd, and Doctor Fell advised, Doubtless the schoolboys caught it one and all, And one for all Miss Snell was well chastised; But when Mountwhackaway resolved to flog She should have stopp'd the spokes with earlier cog, The " Grecians " took it turn and turn to ride, One down and t'other up, till all had tried : Twenty in all. of them alone we speak. We mean the senior lads who learned Greek. Return we to the Ladies' School to trace
Snell's-undeserved or merited?-disgrace. The Mistress laps the nearest kilchen maid, Whereon the pair look guilty and afraid. " What brings ye here? Where's Pottleton and Prout?"
"Please'm, both Glindar and the holher's hout. "
A blacker shadow o'er her black brows cast, She mutters to herself, and says at last :-
"So be it then, for once I'll let ye come, But mind ye do your duty-"Thankee, mum"-
Which is lo strip and stoop and hold, she's strong. "
"We axes parding, mum, and won't go wrong."
One other episode attention needs
Before the proper punishment proceeds, The pupils, big or little as may be, Stare open-eyed or hesitate to see.
Ferocious Fidgett, plucking from a child
The veil, cries-Look I Don't tell me such a fib. But ma'am I did, the urchin answers, riled, I looked through this-a fissure in her bib. Fact was, Miss Rosycheeks would watch the show Without exhibiting her face a glow. Other two innocents, so quickly spreads Evil example, hide their curly heads. " Come forth from corners all," the Mistress cries. " Lower your pinafores and use your eyes. Misplaced is modesty, you're here to view And shun the chastisements to sinners due. If some be ignorant why stripes abound, Yet every-hum! shall tingle to the sound. " Now-whieh is Snell?
White muslin sprigg'd with green Close fitting jacket, olive velveteen, French-polished sidesprings; of one scarlet calf Under loop'd petticoat we see the half. Her hands, for which the split kid seem too small, Are somewhat coarse, her stature large and tall; Her waist is circled with a broad green sash So long, they must remove it for the lash. Her flesh is firm, and fair beneath the clothes As only butchers' daughters can expose. Braids of the blackest hue define her cheeks, Erst apple red, now paled to pinky streaks Like mottled beef, or like the blocks below Ere stinging stimulant shall make them glow. Her jetty eyes that wont to flash like spears All lustreless with overbrimming tears. Her narrow-bridg'd and straightly-chrseU'd nose Is-how to say it?-snuffly we suppose; There is a popular and patter word In good society but seldom heard. The ruby lips that pouted o'er the teeth, Now pale and parted, show the pearls beneath. Tho' palpably the while convulsed with dread, She strives to snort and toss a scornful head; Erect one moment, in the next the stoops, Chokes off a sob and pitifully poops. " Now, now, " the Mistress mutters to the maids, " Pounce on her while she'sstooping, quickye jades!" A tip toe tripping lest the tread give note, Swiggins and Swipes securing waist and throat, Propel her to the block, where hand on skirt, They wait till " Missis" has the means to hurt; Their clumsy fingers' neath the linen slipping Make just the first preparatives to whipping. The slops slide down so swift no flesh is seen, The hands then shifting t'other side the screen Attempt untying-lol to their surprise, The broad bow separates in hooks and eyes. Vainly the " vulgar victim" vents abuse, Wriggles her rear and roars to be let loose. Vainly she slaps behind her, vainly twists, Two brawny arms are lock'd across her back; Fidgett advancing grapples both her wrists, Saluting first her cheeks with double smack; Then fixing firm her feet against the block, She leans in readiness for ruder shock. Culling the sharpest switches in her reach The Mistress opens with aggressive speech; Sure way to aggravate address the third, As if by them alone your voice were heard. " Go on, unhook, loose all below the waist, Pull up behind (Nay, ladies, why that start? Whipping is whipping, they must be disgraced
Whose sins have destined them to birchen smart) The front as well, round that the rods are laced, Strip ye enough, I'll punish every part.
Bend up her bodice, stays she doesn't wear, And all the better, for we'll flog her fair. Twist tight the ends together round her neck, And don't allow 'em to descend, d'ye hear? Her scarlet stockings the low licks will check;
Back, belly, buttocks, see that all be clear. Down with her now, press on her shoulders stout And make her give it rightly rounded out. So hoi we women see her shame to-day, For showing it to men she'll sweetly pay. "
"I didn't show it to no men. "
"You lie.
Slocock was sloping in, his brother by Was-Tut! when lads are up to that, why then It matters little call 'em boys or men. Nor was it Slococks only saw your shame, Dear knows how many mounted ere we came! Your own words judge you, grammar tells you this, Two negatives concurring come to yes. Grammar and chastity you'll find no jokes. Swiggins, stand back!
Your leg will stop the strokes. And you, Miss Baggs, leave space for sweeping-so-Whish wish-Whip I Snick!
"You'll kill, you'll kill me! Oh I "
"Lash! Lash! Lash! Lash!
I'll smash, I'll smash the switch
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! across your croup, Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! [you b-
Your loins'll like it Slash! Slash! Slash .'-Snick!! (less, that's into ye, I guess.) Screech on, I'll screech ye! That one's limp and dead, (flings the rod from her) Lend me your waistbelt, Baggs. "
"Don't hit her head, The buck. "
The word is curtly cut in twain, The swift sweep forcing Baggs to back amain. " Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!
"O gosh, gommercy! Cr'roo!"
"Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Liv horj! Liv horf! It'rroo!"
"The buckle, ma'am, you'll kill her! Take a rod."
"Hand up, if this don't crack across 'tis odd. " Thrash! Thrash! Thrash!-Smash!!
Ha! What d'ye think o' that? That lick'ud snick thro' every fold of fat. Confound ye!
Stop your stamping, hold your noise! When next you calculate corrected joys You'll find the summary a trifle hot. Lower your shift and button up like shot. Flogging should show but fundamental pain, Cockchafering so, your-black enough is plain, Tis time for decency and darkness now
That all the school has seen-all that the rods allow."
Amid convulsive throbs, and fitful squalls
By the coarse contact caused, The Curtain Falls.
MORAL REFLECTIONS
BY
"BLINDAR, " THE UNDER HOUSEMAID.
Who ever would the Missis lick like that?
Belinda, sweeping, asks with anxious air.
Could it be Snell? I seen the way she sat
All gashly pale, and gashly black her hair;
I seen the Missis look at her-no doubts
"Twas hers I heard, them last and longest shouts.
Had I but guessed! What good is 'if I thought?
"Tis well beknown what thinking on it wrought.
Me kalky layJing on the smacks alone
To vex her wouldn't go and hold-Ohone!
Which Arrarbellar, led by me, ewades
And leaves it to them lumps of Kitchen maids.
Well, 'tis a lessson I won't soon forget, And mebbe rue the consequences yet.
"Collops " is big as me and older too-
I wonder what the dickens did she do.
So great a girl to come within the laws-
The Missis must have had sufficient cause-
A beauty too, which, let young ladies quiz, I won't deDy the Butcher's Daughter is-
What could she do? 'Twould be no common fault
Would warrant Missis to make such assault-
Them schoolboys-pheew!
Hard Fidgett whisper soft Was seen Sunday shinning up the loft-Collops her petticoats found full of hay-Be gum 'twas her! The werry selfsame day. Missis and Fidgett looking on-Ay well, Them two would took at it afore they'd tell. I'll av young Master Slococks when I see What way they done it.-Missis won't whip me? (Strokes her sleek satin sit upon, anon The fingers feel for-fie for shame! get on.) I wouldn't put it past her for to try Some day permiscuous with no one nigh; Which I'll stand up to her, if fair she fight, Her fourteen stone, me matching her in height; While Missis try what weight will bring to pass I'll have my hand in and stir up-
Alas!
To think such opportunity was mine, And let it pass, and risk the flog or fine! ' In whoppings ' 'tisn't merely what I see When linen's lifted, most amazes me. 'Tis-well, I think 'tis the contrairy will;
The one as likes it least gets larrup'd still. They fights, up goes, loud roarings rend the air Of D-it, don't! and Take it there and there! O'coorse I'd choose a big 'un and a whip, And liefer see the cocky gender strip. A Lady School it isn't like a Dame, Which ourn punish cock or hen the same! She birch the babbies on their boppies fat, And scurridge seniors with a sixtail'd cat. She med us mix too ere she guv the whacks, Great girls on boys, big boys on great girls' backs. Sich sight I won't see more, the more my loss, As cocks astriding of a girl for hoss; Nor feel, I've felt him fill, contrairy wise When I've been hossing boys, and rise and rise, Not all Dame Drubber's whack a backs would check, Till wet and warm he wobbled on my neck. They're thicker skinn'd than us, leastways than me, Which more I wriggle, wusser it would be. I've tried it fairly, gripping of the jackets, The lads that highst shoved under us in pockets. If Drubber axed the reason for to know, " To highst 'em higher, ma'am, " the'y say-" Jist so, "
She'd answer, glowering with sour sweet smile. A tickling Toby with the whips the while Us girls knew, the way they used to paw's, The lads they done it for another cause. Myself, with nakedness and tickler's tricks, Would feel like fuddled-till I felt the licks.
On right toe rising, she'd adorn our tails
Till breath-she's fearful fat-to flog us fails, And while we're thinking, when she carve the skin
Like that, she'd finish, she'd again begin.
Take that! she'd say, a flaking of the flanks, Which 'tis my dooty and ye owe me thanks.
"Tis little gratitude she'd got, I guess, From girls was being pinned behind the press;
Tho' well by tickle-kissing 'em the boys
That strup 'em strove to comfort 'mid the noise.
Ow wow J Her whippings was three-men-jus pain I
And yet I wished it was the Dame again.
Not but in schools that birches on the bare
It isn't jolly to be holder there.
Young ladies with their shifts up, screech and kick, It's worth beholding 'em and holding slick.
For me, the Missis dursn't have it known, Nor never would attempt it but alone;
When if she lifted, 'tisn't tight she'd whip
So slantingly I'd slope about and slip, A cut across the belly isn't nice, Tho' well the fun of it would pay the price;
And if I wrests the rods from her-Gurroo I
I'll pay it into her till all be blue.
When late she threatened like, I didn't speak, Leastways, I muttered.-Try it for a freak!
But ever more, be't switches, smacks, or Pandy, I'll watch the wallopings that makes me randy.
THE
QUESTION FOR CASUISTS.
The curtain having fallen, have ye yet Responded to the query first put here? That question puzzles us, videlicet, Did she deserve a flogging so severe? The Butcher's Daughter suffered twenty boys With her to revel in forbidden joys; That lady's lapses did the licking reach? She barely got a skelp and halj for each, Unwilling we politer ears to shock, Will merely ask impartial judge to say I f sixty seconds' switching on the block
Be not more genial, in a general way, T han purgatory's colder blooded curse I And mind-" you might go further and fare worse." Lex talionis, law of blow for blow, Is just as durable as sinners' fears. A great revenge-how great we do not know
May last a score, or might a million years. Eternity presents such dread expanse We cloud it with chimeras in advance.
BETSY THOUGHTLESS
You fleering harlot! I'll have a horse to leap thee, and thy base issue shall carry sumpters.-Come, lords, bring her along : we'll to the prince all, where her hellhood shall wait his censure ;-and if he spare thee, she-goat, may he lie with thee again! and beside, mayst thou lay upon him some nasty foul disease, that hate still follows, and his end a dry ditch! Lead, you corrupted whore.
Cupid's Revenge, Beaumont and Fletcher.
BETSY THOUGHTLESS
I became acquainted with this lovely girl during my visit to Cheltenham. She is the daughter of a rich commoner in the West of England, and we soon formed an intimacy of the sweetest and most agreeable kind. She was in her eighteenth year, with a form and face seldom equalled : her hair was of a lively brown, her skin perfectly white, and her face full of ardour and beauty. I discovered her secrets very soon after my introduction, by the recital of a warm and very libidinous story, which I had read in the French, and which I pretended to have witnessed. This won her confidence, and she confessed that she had been seduced by a young gentleman, a protege of her father's.
I lent the beautiful creature some luscious prints, tastily executed, and which made her almost mad, as she had never seen anything of the kind before. In return for these, which I afterwards gave her, she promised me, in writing, a memoir of the circumstances and causes of her seduction, and I cannot do better than give it in her own words :
To Miss Wilson.
My dear friend, 'Tis well that I am alone, for I blush to the ears in making a confession, even to you, of the wanton and naughty scenes which led to the first indulgence of my passions ;-passions the most ardent and glowing; but which, I am happy lo say, have met with a corresponding feeling in those of my lover;-but to my tale:
A youth had been brought up by my father from infancy. He was called my brother; and though we frequently remarked the want of likeness between us, and other circumstances, no suspicion that he was not my brother ever entered our minds until a few months since. This youth bore our family name ; was called Tom Thoughtless; was educated by my father liberally, and a midshipman's berth was obtained for him. In progress of time he became a lieutenant, and in that capacity, full of life, full of health and beauty, and at the glowing and impetuous age of nineteen, returned from a long station and came to see us.
Whether Tom had had any intimation of our non-relationship, I know not, but when he took me in his arms, his embrace was impetuous and boisterous, though tender : he dwelt upon my lips with a fervour, that made me thrill all over. He sucked my lips, he grasped my form to his, sighed, breathed short, and seemed full of emotion. Lord! what a tremor and flutter I was in; so new was the character of this embrace. " Oh, Betsy, " said he, full of agitation, " you are the first woman I have held in my arms for five years. "-" Am I indeed? " I replied, scarcely knowing what I said. I fluttered dreadfully and felt quite overpowered. So new was all this, and so much awakened my passions. I lay back in his arms : he put my ringlets away from my forehead, and kissed my brow, my eyes, and my mouth. Oh! what unhallowed kisses I then thought them ; flames wantoned through me and seemed to centre in one spot;-that spot which we keep so sacred, and which had scarcely been visited by my curious touch. " Oh! Betsy, " said he, " that we were not related. Let me at least for a moment indulge the sweet, the blissful idea. " I knew not what he purposed, but he thrust his tongue between my lips-itwasin my teeth-upon mytongue. This motion so strange, so unexpected, almost took away my breath. I tried to speak-to cry out. Alas! I could not, my feelings choked me. His right hand had been round my waist; he dropped it to my posteriors ; he felt them three or four times through my dress, then carried me to the side of the room, against which he placed me.
His body was now against mine; his knee separated my limbs; he stood between them as far as my garments would allow, and began heaving by short tilts his body against mine.
I cannot describe what I felt; I thought I should faint through excess of delight. This heaving motion continued ; it made me mad ; I-I-how shall I confess it?-I followed his example, and met his bobs with eager activity, sighing and crying out all the time, " Oh! Tom, Tom, my dear fellow, what are you doing? " But he evidently knew not; he was completely absorbed, and kept wriggling (he middle of his person against mine, and I intuitively followed his example-so seductive is passion. In the midst of this I felt him gradually lifting up my clothes : a cold shudder communicated this to me ; the next moment a looking-glass, that stood in a recess opposite to where we stood, revealed to me our shaking clothes and agitated persons. In this I saw that my legs were uncovered and part of my thighs!
This alarmed me dreadfully, and I immediately seized his hands, full of blushes and confusion, and burning with passion, exclaimed : " Tom, what are you doing? The servants will come in, we shall be discovered. " I slipped from before him, and at the same moment heard my father's voice, giving some directions. He very shortly after entered the apartment.
I will pass over the emotions this interview occasioned, though I dreamt that Tom was my husband, and was happy in my arms. My waking thoughts were of this dear fellow, and so impassioned were they, that I kicked down the bed-clothes, and pulling up my shift, all the lower beauties of my limbs lay open. I said to myself, " Ah? here is a pair of legs handsome enough, and a couple of round plump thighs ; there is a good sprinkling of curl about this mount; but what an unmeaning thing is this slit! Can this be what the men hunt us poor women for? I can easily imagine that man has something divine for us : something delightful to feel, to grasp, to handle, to look at. Oh! that I had it now-that it was just dividing these glowing, but opening lips. Tom, look at me-you want to deflower me-I know you do. Come then, I am ready to receive you-put it in-there, I feel it (and I pushed in my finger). Now it entered-Oh! how delicious-push, push-Tom, my dear fellow-Oh! I feel it-there, there. " With such expressions as these, and in working my fingers upon that susceptible spot we all possess, I soon dissolved in a flood of lascivious joy-
I dressed myself with peculiar care, and was complimented by my dear Tom on my good looks and beauty. After breakfast he proposed a walk, and I eagerly put on my bonnet, and taking his arm, proceeded through the park, in which my father's house stands. We were both in high spirits, and enjoyed each other's society. In passing a cottage, which belonged to the estate, we heard bustle and cries, and through the broken palings discovered the cottager's wife in pursuit of her daughter, a full grown girl. She caught her near where we were peeping, and putting her left foot on a washing tub, which was reversed, she pulled the girl across her knee, and drew from under her apron a birch rod; in a moment the girl's clothes were all gathered up, and her legs and limbs sprawling in the air. Her person was beautifully formed, and her skin particularly white, and rendered more so by her having on black worsted stockings. Not a moment was lost by the enraged mother, who began to flog away at the girl's posteriors like a fury, the violence of which might be seen by the redness which followed the strokes. The girl twisted and kicked about, but was obstinately silent, and after having received about twenty severe strokes, her petticoats were put down by her mother, who exclaimed, "There, that will teach you to stay on your errands, and then tell lies to excuse it. " She left the girl; but chancing lo turn her head before entering the cottage she observed the girl making faces at her. Roused by this, she darted at the girl, who was in a moment on her knee, and her clothes again flung up. The eagerness of the mother made her drop the rod, and we had time to inspect the glowing bottom of the girl, the cheeks of which were red with the recent punishment. The mother, mad with passion, now began to switch away at the thighs and buttocks of the girl; and it was evident that she made more impression, for the girl began to entreat for forgiveness; but the mother was inexorable : she kept rattling away without mercy, and after whipping her, for I am sure full a minute, till her bottom was the colour of crimson, flung her down and quitted her, saying, "You'll make faces at your mother again, you young harlot, I dare say."
Oh! how this scene affected me; it roused my passions to a pitch of frenzy, and had we at that moment been in a place of greater privacy, and I had been solicited, I should have fallen a victim to the excitement. I walked with my impassioned companion, who, after some artful interrogatives, drew from me an avowal, that I had not only enjoyed the whole of the scene we had witnessed together, but should dearly like to have been the administrator of the punishment if it had been inflicted on a girl so pretty as Sally Meadows.
We returned home. My father was out, and Tom asked me to show him my boudoir, which my father had praised for its taste the evening before. Ah! how pleased was I to do anything to give the dear fellow amusement or delight. He praised my taste in the disposition of the furniture and general arrangement; spoke of my drawings, the beautiful shrubs which adorned the large balcony of the only window in the room. " How beautiful, "he exclaimed, "how elegantly planned! what ample admirable chairs for courting, and what a voluptuous sopha. " He came to me, and kneeling close by me, pressed me in his arms. A voluptuous languor crept over me; he saw it, and drew down my face to his; he rapturously kissed my mouth, and when I least expected it, his impassioned tongue burst between my lips. What an electric thrill did this produce! I was absolutely filled with passion; but think, my dear Miss Wilson, what was my surprise when he produced from under his coat the identical rod with which the cottager's wife had whipped Sally Meadows. The sight of it made me giddy : I knew not what I did : I felt him lay his body across my thighs, his coat-flaps were thrown up, his trousers were entirely down, and nothing covered his naked posteriors but his shirt. His putting the rod into my hand had brought me to my senses. "Oh! Tom," said I, "it must not be-I dare not proceed-do not ask me. " He canted up his shirt, so as to leave his naked flesh entirely exposed to my view. " My dear Betsy," said he, " don't baulk your wishes, you said you should have been glad to change places with the (logger this morning-gratify me-indulge yourself-we are alone-treat me as a truant-think me an idle boy that deserves chastisement. "-" Don't look at me then," I said. He promised : I took the rod and began to exercise it gently on his white buttocks. Oh! the delightful sawing through the air, the whisking sound as it met his flesh, the knowledge that his breeches were down, that the secret staff of life was lying on my limbs-kept from my naked flesh only by my garments. All this conspired to fill me full of the most unchaste wishes.
"Do I hurt you, my sweet fellow?" said I, in a voice of extreme tenderness. "No, my love; use more strength-strike with more nerve-Ah! there-that's it-that's it, my sweet Betsy. " He now laid more in front of me, and I felthim falling in between my opening knees. As my clothes were down I did not heed this; indeed, my active strokes of the birch had changed the colour of the flesh cushions, and I entered fully into the spirit of the adventure. He kept jolting his person in front of mine, at every motion of the rod, and I, to hold him more secure, had worked myself nearer to him, and close to the edge of the sopha. One of his arms was round my waist, the other grasped me lower down; my clothes, by his working gradually, got higher, which he seemed to be aware of, for his workings increased, and his long strokes pushed them higher at every heave of his body. My strokes upon his bottom continued, and I found myself cutting him without mercy. Oh! what a delirium I was in : he was now entirely between my open thighs-they expanded to admit him-Oh! I shall never forget the momentnew, intoxicating and delirious. Something hard pressed against my thighs, then against my belly : it kept repeatedly bobbing against the most sensitire part of my body. I thought he was debauching me: I seemed to feel that he was really entering my-I had not power to prevent him; indeed, I found that I was spreading myself out, jutting up my body, and doing everything that I thought would facilitate his purpose.
I lost all sense of shame and of propriety : I urged him not to delay my happiness, that I was ready, and would bear anything for his sake. This I accompanied by an eager imitation of his motions. I met his thrusts : we went on in regular cadence : the rod fell from my nerveless grasp; my arms intuitively embraced his naked back: I cried, sighed, and fell back in a state of insensibility. I recovered : he was just in the act of getting from off my body. I now felt confused indeed, and jumped up and made my escape in the greatest disorderinto my bed-room.
Ignorant as I then was of man, I really believed that my virginity had been taken, and having bolted the door, I sat in a chair facing the looking-glass. I pulled up my clothes, and was surprised to find a very large portion of my shift completely wetted in front. This indeed, had saved me. I looked at the wet-with amazement, and exclaimed, "What a quantity-lam quite flooded-what an inundation-Heavens! if this had been deposited within my person! " This thought, which at first alarmed me, inflamed me more on consideration; and amid a thousand extravagancies, I eagerly proceeded to obtain all the gratification within my own reach.
When my intoxication had ceased, I found it necessary to change my linen, and I accordingly dressed for dinner, taking as much pains with my person as possible, for which I was again rewarded by the extravagant encomiums of the young sailor. When we were alone, he look occasion to remark that my father had informed him that he wished to have a conference with him before dinner on the morrow, as he had something of importance to communicate.
The morrow arrived; my dear fellow was at my side, and he again led me blushing and trembling to the boudoir. I had reassured myself into the supposition that he would not proceed to extremities with me, from fear of consequence, our fancied relationship, and from his pausing yesterday on the very threshold of happiness, and this made me bold, though excess of passion kept me weak and trembling. He again produced the rod; I tried to persuade him not to proceed. He heeded me not, but put down his trousers. He as kneeling on the sopha where I was sitting. He brought both my legs upon the sopha, against which proceeding I remonstrated, but could not prevent him. He now drew off his trousers, and kneeling between my legs, leaned forward to kiss me. It was impossible for me not to see his shirt bolstering out in front of him, and my imagination was instantly at work. His soul-thrilling kiss set me in a blaze. He seemed to wish lo uncover my neck : the removal of my neckerchief and half-a-dozen butlons undone behind, not only enabled him to lay my bosom entirely bare, but my shoulders also. He made the most wanton observations on their whiteness, size and beauty; called them a most charming pair of pouting bubbies, and said, he had no doubt my hidden beauties were equally voluptuous and desirable; but what could exceed my surprise and admiration, when he pulled up his shirt, and discovered to me that monstrous thing, about which I had so often dreamt and agitated myself, of a thickness and length perfectly frightful, as it stood in all its pride and stiffness. I devoured its shape, head and appendages, as it started in convulsive throbs before me. He then tumbled me backwards-I had not the power to resist him, though I felt that he was lifting up all my garments and exposing my most secret parts. An exclamation of joyful surprise broke from him, as he caught a view of my person. My native modesty had made me close my limbs, which were now perfectly naked, but his hands opened them to their fullest extent, in spite of entreaties. " How can you now, Tom, use me so? It's quite a shame to expose my person in this way. "-" I must, my dear, dear sister, " said he. " What a bright, transparent skin! What beautiful legs I what round, white, soft, fleshy and voluptuous thighs I what a rough and hairy concern you have got here! "-" Really, Tom, you are too bad ; you make my face burn like scarlet, " and I put both my hands over the spot he had named. They were soon, however, pulled off, and I found his fingers busily opening the hot and fiery cell of my virginity. I could not prevent him-I lay fluttering like a wounded partridge-the victim of lust. If I looked up, the truncheon of love was throbbing before me, and rendered me perfectly reckless of any consequences. Enjoyment I wanted ; and I facilitated all his endeavours for that purpose. He placed a cushion under me-I was completely exposed to his touch :-he opened the lips of the virgin slit; he touched the sensitive nerve; he laid down upon my body, and dividing the lips of my moss-rose, lodged the head of his capacious instrument between them. I still thought he meant to go no further; he put his arms round me-I clung eagerly to him, and abandoned myself to the transports of the moment. We kissed each other with fervour unceasingly. Have you ever been enjoyed, my sweet girl?" said he. "Oh! never," said I. " Why cannot we give each other pleasure?-you are ready for the amorous conflict-I am maddening for it. My instrument is throbbing against your eager avenue. Let me enter, my sweet girl-let me push it in but a short way. "-" Ah, no, no, " I exclaimed, " cannot you be satisfied to do as yesterday? "-" Oh! Betsy, " said he, " can I witness your impassioned look?-Can I look at these throbbing breasts heaving with desire, and not feel emotion?-Can I know that I am now standing stiffly, ready for the encounter, placed at the very entrance of the portal of love, and that portal a virginity?-no, no, impossible. I must-I must, by heavens-I must put it in! " A gentle movement of his bottom sent the instrument lip deep ; another, and the head was in ; a third, I found opening the rose leaves of my pucelage. He was on the high way to happiness; I felt him every instant making more way, penetrating by inches. He hurt me, but I heeded it not-I was maddened, intoxicated, and felt ready for sacrifice. He had placed me so advantageously for his purposes that his most trifling movement told. I felt distinctly the fibres of his instrument as he advanced and drew back. He kept up a short and steady rocking motion, which provoked passion, and made me, in spite of myself, reply to hie movements. Oh! with what rapture did I meet his thrusts! How loud were my sighs! how ardent my expressions of delight! "Oh, heavens! " I exclaimed, " what pleasure. This is beyond my hopes-beyond my expectations. Oh! Tom, my dearest Tom, I will ever love you ; do you love me, are you gratified? " Kisses long and ardent followed these expressions, whilst the mighty engine kept working its way within me. I felt that the narrow limit was filled : I felt the head of the instrument distinctly : I still kept up, working my loins to meet him, and had flung my head back and shut my eyes, to enjoy the full swing of the imagination. " Are you fainting, my sweet? " said he, " are you dissolving? "-" No, my dear Tom, " I returned, hiding my face in his shoulder, " but I think I soon shall. " He began to move faster-I kept pace with him-our movements were violent. I cried, laughed and sighed by turns, as I felt the intoxicating moment coming with furious haste upon me. " Oh! " said he, " my love-Betsy-my queen-sister-love-I am coming-I am coming-Oh! there! " At this instant I found shot into my very vitals that hot liquid, so maddening to the female-so exquisite in its administration; but so fatal in its consequences to the unmarried. I shrieked as the boiling juice was spouted into me ; another followed; but before I had received a third, I had lost all remembrance of the scene in an hysterie.
Upon my recovering, I found myself silting upright in the arms of Tom. My clothes were down certainly, but my bosom was entirely bare, and my hair, having got loose from the comb, hung over my naked shoulders, and I was in dreadful disorder. I threw my arms round the dear fellow's neck, and sobbed upon his bosom, for my heart was full of the tenderest love for him. I wished him to leave me alone, and he kindly complied, kissing me with a fervour that re-kindled my desires; had he pressed it, I should again have yielded-I felt I could refuse him nothing.
I went to my bedroom, and there found it would be necessary to change my chemise-lord! lord! how it was marked-the whole story of my virginity might be read upon its tail.
When I had dressed I went down to dinner, and learned with sorrow that Tom had been sent by my father to a neighbouring town, to bring some papers from his lawyer. This evening I passed in a feverish impatience, for he came not. He returned to breakfast in the morning. We met like lovers after a long separation. During the morning I was in my boudoir, when my father entered, leading in my sweet ravisher. I could perceive from the countenance of each that something of importance had passed between them, and my father undertook to explain the cause to me. " My sweet child, " said he, " you are now come to years of discretion, and I ought to explain a secret which, for motives not now necessary to give you, I have kept from your knowledge. Tom is not my son; but the child of an old college friend, whose finances were exhausted by play. You have hitherto looked upon him as your brother; perhaps, in a year or two you could prevail upon yourself to accept him as a husband, for I mean to share my fortune between you. " I could hear no more-I sunk into the extended arms of Tom, who kissed me again to life. When I came to myself, I turned my eyes on my fascinating seducer, " Did I hear aright? are we, indeed, strangers in blood? " A long kiss that half recovered me was the reply. We reeled to the couch-we both sunk upon it. I drew up my clothes (think how shocking that was!) to be ready. He was in the act of unbuttoning his trousers, when it occurred to me that the door was not fastened, and that papa might return. I told Tom of it; he hastened to bolt it, when he luckily heard some one coming; he gave me the signal; I jumped up, adjusted my clothes, and with a pair of old scissors began to trim the flowers in the balcony. My father entered, and was delighted to see me so completely recovered : the rest of the day he spent with us. What need I say more, my dear Miss Wilson? but during the happy fortnight of his stay, every moment we could pass in secret was devoted to passion. He left me only for a short time; he is to return next month, when I am to be a bride, and Tom is to go to sea no more. Think, my dear friend, how my young heart beats for that moment:-think of my impassioned dreams. I go over repeatedly all we have done together, and feel that I must love this dear fellow for ever. I remain, my dear friend, Yours very faithfully, Elizabeth Thoughtless.
March, 1839.
APPENDIX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN FLAGELLATION
Nature makes her own laws-peculiar and particular-without stopping to bother about the idiosyncracies of civilization or the virtues of society. We are simply animals, with a je ne sais qaoi added that is inexplicable, and that we can only realize in a weak, helpless, fumbling sort of way. Therefore, when we meet fellow-creatures with queer ideas of lubricity or sexual inversions, do not let us get excited, either with lust or indignation, but try to look the thing squarely in the face and think the matter out, wrestling with the monster, all sentiment thrown aside, and trampling on conventional can't.
We have all been taught that the marriage state with sober copulation in view of perpetuating the human race is the real ideal of sexual intercourse in this world, and that all other systems of voluptuous indulgence are illicit aud criminal, leading besides to eternal damnation.
This theory is like the basis of all religions, charming, consoling and too sweet to be true; it means good-will on earth, virtue and abnegation in both sexes.
All sensible people know that our passions prevent this Utopian state ever being attained and are obliged to confess that simple coition with a legal mate, sparing of forbidden caresses, and mysteriously carried out in darkness, is rarely satisfactory even to the most pure and ethereal couples.
Whether married or unmarried, the love of creation generally accompanies the Act with a peculiar set of antics which vary according to taste, age and climate, Very often these preliminaries and hors a'ceuvres are preferred by both parties, and in love's drama the prologue is sometimes more enjoyable than the denouement, To try and catalogue these aids to pleasure would necessitate alife-time, and although no doubt a universal dictionary of lascivious manias is wanting in every erotic library, the genius who could compile such a desirable work has yet to be born. Our task is merely to glance at a single branch of the prolific tree bearing the fruit of good and evil and say a few words about (r) flagellation as a help to enjoyment when man links his robust body with woman's sculptural frame.
Plunging boldly into the midst of our subject, we begin by stating the well-known fact that cruelty is inherent to the human race, but education stops our natural instincts, which we show as boys by our ill-treatment of dogs, cats and insects, until it is thrashed out of us and we are taught to know better. Enough of this feeling remains in some to create intense sensual excitement when holding under physical or moral domination a creature of the opposite sex.
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(r). ... Tu auras fait le mal a un etre humain et tu seras aime du meme etre : c'est le bonheur le plus grand que Ton puisse concevoir. _ *
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It is of course impossible to classify and catalogue the degrees of violence that cruelty applied to voluptuous passion contains, but it evidently ranges from downright horror and murder, as exemplified in Suetonius, down to the comedy of two lovers whipping each other in turns for fun. There is no doubt also that the voluptuary, who gives large sums to procuresses to ravish virgins, possesses also this mania, and the pain he inflicts upon his mistress of a moment lends additional zest to his enjoyment.
Some flagellants will only whip young girls and the (r) Mysteries of Verbena House _ will please all those who wish to know how boarding-school discipline is carried on.
The flogging desire is generally supposed to flou-
1. Les Chants de Maldoror, Paris et Bruxelles, chez tous les libraires, 1874, in-18. rish with extraordinary vitality in England and to be the pet vice of the Anglo-Saxon. Without seeking to exonerate this robust race, whose strong shoulders can well bear the burden, if true, we seriously think that all over the world the same pleasure of whipping and being whipped is to be equally found, and there is not a brothel in any city where rods and whips are not kept in reserve to use on the posteriors of the customers, or the delicate charms of the venal nymphs, according to wishes expressed and paid for.
References both serious and in jest will be found in all erotic librairies and " The Kama-Sutra " I gives chapters on various modes of striking, biting and scratching women. In all erotic books in every language there will be found episodes concerning all kinds of whipping lubricity.
There are women who like to be ill-treated, ranging from the prostitute who takes a black eye from her bully as a proof of love, to the patrician dame who begs her perfumed swains to pinch her plump arms and prick her soft skin with her own golden, bejewelled bonnet-pins.
Cruelty exists among Lesbians too, either wher jealousy is aroused or as a spur to mutual enjoyment. Some men experience pleasure in beating or being beaten and humiliated by their own sex, as shown
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1. London and Benares, 1883, 7 parts, 8vo. There are other editions in English and in French.
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by Krafft-Ebing.I Passive sodomites, too, ofttimes delight to be roughly handled by their partners.
But the commonest form of flagellation and mild cruelty is the voluntary submission of men to women. They love to he treated as if they were veritable slaves, and they generally pay dearly to be thus ill-used and themselves draw up a programme of the penances they wish to have inflicted. Severe flogging is often asked for, stipulating binding or strapping down, and sometimes they are satisfied with being insulted and forced (?) to perform repugnant tasks and obscene acts, such as is mentioned in" La Corruption Fin-de-Siecle," I where an individual of this type is delighted to lick the seat of a water-closet in a Paris house of ill-fame.
The philosopher must not be astonished at any vagary, however lewd, horrible and repulsive, or simply grotesque, when venereal passion forms the motive.
We hope these few foregoing words have proved what we wished to show, namely that there exist all over the world, a large number of men and women who delight to practise flagellation and cruelty in all its forms, as an accompaniment or as an inducement to love's paroxysm, and in our own enlightened times, obeying the fatal necessity of classification, we place Jack the Piipper at the top of the class and
I. Psycopalhia Sexualis, Paris, Carre, 1895, 8vo. I. Paris, Noirot, s. d. in-18. at the bottom the anonymous voluptuaries who answer advertisements of this kind in the newspapers of London and Paris :
"Electric Baths et Massage.-Nurse May and six lady assistants receive patients, 11 to 9, Sundays included. Rheumatism cured. Discipline treatment, (sic!)"
Sporting Times, London, May 8, 1897.
"Jeune femme, tres jolie, magnifique chevelure blonde, Venitienne, elegante et fine cravache, habitude aux hommageset agissant en mattresse absolue, desire union avec monsieur ais6, de preference age, soumis et sans volonLe. Ecrire, Altesse, " etc.
"Jeune femme, 25 ans, brune, joli type oriental, connaissant a fond l'dducation anglaise, cherche union ais6e avec personne s6rieuse, douce etsoumise. Ecrire a, " etc.
Le Journal, Paris, May 22, 1897.
The following is a copy of a reply sent by one of the above fascinating Parisian lady flagellants to a would-be client :
Paris, Dimanche.
"Nous verrons ce que valent vos belles protestations d'ob&ssance et de soumission lorsque vous viendrez demain, lundi, au rendez-vous que je daigne vous accorder. J'dprouverai un apre plaisir a vous humilier, a vous tenir subjugue, aneanti, sous mon fouet, dans le collier de chien qui vous attend; a satisfaire enfin sur tout voire etre devenu ' ma chose', les fantaisies les plus tyranniques de mon imagination.
A genoux, des votre entrde, vous me remercierez de l'honneur que je vous fais de vous recevoir comme esclave, et preparez-vous a subir, sans le moindre geste ou mot de nSvoIte, toutes les epreuves oil sombrera, sous ma volonte, voire fameuse dignite d'homme. Done, a demain, lundi, U h. 30 m. pricises, apres-midi.
Je vous crois deja assez obeissant pour etre exact.
Votre maitresse absolue, Alice de Villefranche. (Address, etc.)
We have left to the last a few remarks upon the medical side of the question, as flagellation is always to be found quoted as an aphrodisiac in treatises on impolency and sluggish veneral action. Meibomius in his well-known pleasantly-written little pamphlet: " A Treatise on the Use of Flogging in Venereal Affairs, " of which there are many editions in all languages, sums up as follows :
". ... Stripes upon the back and loins, as parts appropriated for the generating of the seed, and carrying it to the genitals, warm and inflame those parts, and contribute very much to the irritation of lechery."I
In"Aphrodisiaque Externe, ou Traite" du Fouel," 2 the same idea is stated.
We timidly put forth the following theory, as a personal opinion given for what it is worth and without pig-headed prejudice. If warmth and irritation applied to the back (posteriors?) and loins are conducive to copulation, would not more simple radical means answer the purpose? Friction with horsehair gloves and alcohol in mild cases; mustard plasters and blistering in others, should have the same effect, without the apparently childish and humiliating ceremonies which generally form the concomitants of erotic fustigation.
In" La Generation Humaine, " by G. J. Wit-kowski, 3 we find :
"Le Dr.Roubaud preconise la flagellation contre l'atonie des organes genitaux. 11 a fait construire, a cet usage, un balai m6tallique form6 d'une cen-taine de fils flexibles, qui par la diversite de leur composition (cuivre, laiton, fer, platine, etc.), dega-geraient une certaine quantite" d'electricite et don't Taction stimulante s'ajouterait a celle de la flagellation. "
Until proof of the contrary we think that this me-
I. T. C. Hotten's edition, London, 1872.
2. S. I. (Paris?), 1788, in-18, front. 8. Paris, Steinheil, 1884,8vo. flg. tallic broom would be most effective in the hands of a pretty woman. We have never yet heard of a used-up husband being secretly treated by a disciple of Dr Rou-baud, and then, fresh from the simulating electric effect of the flogging, rushing, a new man, Into the conjugal alcove, where his devoted wife is peacefully sleeping, ignorant of the learned preparation and the surprise in store for her. Such, we take it, should scientific flagellation be, if such exists at all.
So we venture to think that Meibomius and others following in his wake, wishing to air their views on this very fascinating and tabooed subject, in order to procure publication, were careful to lay stress on t he medical pedal to avoid the rigours of police censorship and reassure the casual reader.
Flagellation, we think, is useless without the adjuncts of lascivious exposure of the body and salacious subjugation; pain, shame and humiliation exciting to the highest point the nervous system of the givers and takers in either sex. This conviction is, we believe, presented for the first time here in print; but modestly, dubiously, and " with fear and trembling, " in the face of so many learned authorities and members of the medical profession.
Jean Jacques Rousseau, who is always quoted on this head, says in his " Confessions" :
...." J'avais trouvi dans la douleur, dans la honlc mgme, un melange de sensuality qui m'avait laisse plus de desirs que de crainte"....
(The italics are ours.)
The same transparent and excusable mockery is often met with in works bearing upon the vice of sodomy. The authors all begin by abusing the unfortunate creatures who are afflicted with the penchant pederastic, so as to be able to present their work without being branded as propagators of immorality. A little cynical frankness might be advantageous in such instances, and enable us once in a way to catch an old proverb tripping and touch pitch without being defiled. But from recent signs, however, we are pleased to see that these misleading attacks of false indignation are fast growing out of fashion, and nowadays we are beginning to write of vice, because vice exists. Is any other excuse necessary? It ought not to be, but as we pen these lines we are perfectly aware of the fact that we run the danger of being called " bloodthirsty floggers, " simply because we gossip about the whipping mania.
We have endeavoured to obtain the views and opinions of medical men on the subject of castiga-tion in re venerea, but some of our friends were too busily occupied with their professional duties, and others wrote stating their interest in the question, but begged to be excused owing to their inability to write for the press. This fear of putting the frank, honest thought to paper for lack of literary practice troubles precisely those people whose judgment is most worthy of appeal. The following " noles " were sent us by a doctor practicing in the " modem Athens " of the North, and we think they will prove of some interest to our readers. At first our friend, like others, declined.
Under date of March 13th, 1897, he wrote :-"With regard to the proposal mentioned in your letter that I should write an Article on Flagellation from a medical point of view, I feel that I must decline, not but that I would gladly do so if I could; but I have never written anything in my life except a letter and am no author, and therefore could not know how to set about it.
"It must, however, be a very interesting subject, as indeed is the whole subject of Flogging. It is much to be regretted that the Practice has so much gone out of fashion in these days, I believe in this country (Scotland), the boys will never under any circumstances get their bottoms birched-More is the pity. "
Two days later (March 15th) the worthy doctor wrote us again :-
"I have been thinking over your suggestion and have succeeded in putting on paper a few crude ideas which I herewith enclose.
"If they are of any use to you, you are welcome to them : if not, I should ask you to put them in the fire and burn them. Anyhow, if you use them or not, I must ask you to treat it as an anonymous communication and not to mention my name in any way."
We give the notes and the name of our correspondent is, as desired, withheld.
A FEW NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE subject of flogging as a stimulant to the SEXUAL PASSIONS.
"This is a subject which has engaged the attention of mankind from the earliest times. It was largely practiced in ancient Greece and also amongst the Romans : indeed, it may be said to have culminated to its greatest perfection during the orgies of Imperial Rome. It has gone on more or less in all countries to the present day, but notably perhaps in the 17th and 18th centuries, when in France especially, it was largely indulged in, women in all ranks of society taking a special delight in flogging the posteriors of their male admirers.
"It is a well-known fact that flogging the bottom of a man or a youth excites the most lascivious desires, so much so that many men like to be well whipped before they attempt connubial intercourse; and it is seen in the Animal World as well, for when a stallion cannot be got to cover a mare, a few sharp strokes with a whip across his loins will make him do his duty at once. Of course, most young lads, just entering puberty, are bursting with lust and desire, and have no difficulty, when opportunity offers, of proving themselves men; but there are some youths, eager for the fray, and yet all too shy, timid or modest to make the firsl attempt. For them a good sound birching on their bare bottoms will soon bring them to reason. I remember being told a rather whimsical story many years ago by a physician long since dead. One day, silting in his consulting-room, a young gentleman was shown in who said he wished lo consult him. He was a very good-looking and well-dressed young fellow, but seemed very shy. After a good deal of hesitation he said that he had been married just a week, and that he and his wife were slaying in a neighbouring hotel on their wedding tour, but that much to his mortification, he had never yet been able to have his wife properly, that he much wanted to, and that he knew what he ought lo do, but that he could not get an erection. The medical man listened to him intently and then said that, if he would put himself entirely in his hands and submit to a drastic remedy, he throught he eould cure him. The young gentleman promised implicit obedience lo his directions-whereupon the physician said,' I shall call upon you to-night just before you and your wife go to bed, and when you are in bed I shall come into your bedroom and then give you the necessary medecine.'-All this happened, and when the young couple were quietly in bed the doctor appeared with a ladies' small riding-whip in his hand. He rapidly pulled the clothes down and before the young man knew what was going to be done he found himself quietly turned over on his face, his night-shirt pulled up and a quick succession of stinging cuts raining down on his backside.
"This went on for some time until the doctor putting his hand underneath him found his patient's cock stiff and hard, when he said, ' Mount your wife at once, Sir, and do your duty like a man.' To his intense delight the patient found that he could do so, the doctor continuing the flogging all the time of copulation until the final act came. He then retired, after saying to the bride, 'My dear Lady, whenever you find your husband cannot do his duty, repeat this medicine, and you will find that it will never fail; in fact, I should advise you always to take a whip to bed with you.' Some few years afterwards, he said that he received a letter from his patient thanking him for his treatment and saying that he was the father of three children I
"Women have been known to take great delight in whipping the bottoms of both girls and boys, because it causes such lewd and lascivious feelings, and what is perhaps more extraordinary, it is a well-known fact, that many boys of all ages, young men, and men grown-up, take delight in having their bottoms well whipped, especially by a woman, as when a woman whips them it excites a randy feeling to a most marked degree.
"I was told once by a gentleman who kept a large establishment of servants, grooms and footmen, that he used to go into their bedrooms of a morning and call them, which he did in the most effectual of all ways, by giving them a good flogging, and that he invariably found that if their cocks were not ' standing ' at the moment he began, a few stinging cuts with a whip soon made them as stiff and as hard as possible, very often leading to the final discharge.
"Just a few words about the portion of the body so erroneously called ' the private parts. ' Up to 16 or 17 all boys' bottoms are very much the same, white and soft, round and firm and plump, but after about 17 they very often change, and seem to take on an individuality of their own.-Some always remain white and soft and plump although, of course, getting bigger; others gel red and beefy, others get hard and almost horny, and some, I have seen, almost covered wilh hair ; but, I may say that all feel the influence of being touched up with one or the other of the different implements in use-the birch, tawse, cane or whip, and of these four the last two are certainly the best.
"It is curious and at the same time very interesting to see their cocks gradually stiffen and get hard under the influence of a whipping, and there is no doubt that many boys and youths, so far from disliking it, really get fond of the discipline, and would ask for it for the sake of the pleasurable sensations which it causes.-I should be inclined to say that a lad's virile powers do not always depend upon his being strong, hearty and lusty. Some of the most lascivious youths that I have seen have been frail effeminate-looking creatures, that one would scarcely have supposed were capable of anything, but I think that they are the worst. When you see a lad with a big large bottom you may feel pretty certain that he is strong after women, and even if, as is generally the case, he has got a small cock, for it is a curious thing that you will find a large bottom generally associated with a small cock and vice versa; and as a rule it is the large-bottomed lad who soonest gets a woman in the family way.
One of the biggest bottoms I ever saw belonged to a young fellow (now a soldier) who had almost a tiny cock, and yet he could never touch a woman without getting her with child ; I suppose that it was the powerful muscles behind which did it. "
THE PHYSIOGNOMY of the human backside.
Our doctor's observations on the contour and formation of that most noble and necessary part of the human frame, the arse, are hardly original, while being exceedingly interesting. We quote the following from Pisanus Fraxi1:-
"Mr. Hotten cut out of the " Preliminary Address " two passages in which prints are mentioned, and suppressed in toto a curious and facetious letter (covering, in the original, four pages), in which a correspondent, " Philopodex, " communicates to the editor his opinions and advice respecting illustrations for " a very superb work to be forthcoming very soon, entitled, ' An Exhibition of Female Flagellants. ' "
"In the first place then (he observes), I hope (a hope the title seems to encourage me in), it will consist of a display of Female Backsides, for though I think a Lady's Bum uncovered an agreeable and diverting object, I would not give a farthing to see a man's A-, this I believe is only agreeable to persons of a certain description, too bad to be countenanced. But to see the representation of an agreeable young Lady
I. Index Librorum Prohibilorum (pages 245 et seq.), London, 1877. having her pelticoals pulled up, and her pretty pouting Backside laid bare, and seeming to feel the tingling stripes of a rod, is amusing enough : such is that excellent print of yours, the Countess Du Barry's Whim, which is nearly perfect in its kind-I would, therefore, have your book contain such subjects and such descriptions.-Now a word or two to the engraver. Let him portray the Lady's Backside, which no doubt will be the principal figure in the piece, round, plump, and large; rather over than under the size which the usual proportion of painters and statuaries would allow; let him in general present it full and completely bared to the eye; though in some plates for variety, he may give it us sidelong, or a little bit of the Lady's under petticoat or shift shading some part of it, and let it be remembered, that if he has that complete knowledge of his subject I imagine he has, and is a man of genius, a large field is open before him to display it in. He may show us several different sorts of Backsides, all of them natural, and proper ; all of them elegant, and handsome (for there is almost as much difference in tails as in heads), but not all alike; he certainly will not give the little round firm backside of fifteen to five and thirty, nor the full mellow bum of the middle-aged Lady, to the boarding-school Miss. "
"Philopo-dex " proceeds to give directions as to the implement to be used, not " a great wisp of something which they suppose will do to represent a rod, " but a stinging tickle-tail, the dread of naughty Miss-a tingling rod, which the admirers of this diversion might know to be made of their darling birch, " and he hints : " It is probable that in some of these prints there will be other figures besides the principal, the bare a-'d Lady; now, though we cannot have the satisfaction of seeing the pretty bums of them all, aningenious delineator might so contrive it, to heighten the lusciousness of the whole piece, that one by some careless posture might show her legs, another her breasts, and the dress of others might be so managed, as to give us the idea of a very large and full backside, concealed under the swelling drapery. Thus would each plate present us with a very beautiful and entertaining tout ensemble, and these little circumstances and adjuncts prove a seasonable relief to the eye, fatigued and overpowered by the blaze of beautyj from the naked a-e of the Lady enjoying the sweets of the Birch, darting full upon us, without the least bit of petticoat, or smock interposing, by way of cloud, to ease our scorched senses. "
"Philopodex " concludes in a P. S. : "I thought it unnecessary to advise you, that all the figures should be dressed ; every Lady should have her shift on at least; nakedness must always in these matters be partial, to give the highest degree of satisfaction. "
The second part of the " Exhibition of Female Flagellants " is similar to the first-a collection of anecdotes about birchings administered by female hands ; the use of flowers I in re venerea is dilated upon : " After she had done (whipping her) she took Miss N. to the garden, and picked for her a beautiful nosegay, but so monstrously large that she was almost ashamed to wear it. However, as her friend wore one of an equal size, she pinned it to her bosom. ' I see, my dear, ' said she, ' you are not acquainted with the secret influence, of flowers; know, my dear girl, that their sweet perfume has an uncommon effect on many men and women; but to have that effect on men they-most adorn a lovely bosom like yours. I " (p. 3)-According to the correct fashion the bouquet should be very large, and worn on the left side of the breast.
I. Refer on this subject to Mr. J. Davenport's "Aphrodisiacs and Anliaphrodisiacs" (p. 107), in which he quotes Cabanis to the following effect: " Odours act powerfully upon the nervous system, they prepare it for all the pleasurable sensations; they communicate to it that slight disturbance or commotion which appears as if inseparable from emotions of delight, all which may be accounted for by their exercising a special action upon those organs whence originate the most rapturous pleasures of which our nature is susceptible. In infancy its influence is almost nothing, as in old age; its true epoch being that of youth, that of love. "
THE EVILS OF EXCESSIVE WHIPPING.
It should not be forgotten that the fustigation may be carried to lengths that reason and nature alike reprove. For grown-up girls troubled with hysteria, or disobedient wives afflicted with flippancy, there is and can be nothing so necessary as a sound and vigorous smacking on the buttocks. But children should be treated with more care and leniency. The following remarks by a French doctor illustrate our meaning.
SMACKS ON THE BUTTOCKS. I
If flagellation, fustigation, pallelation (smacking the face of the hands with a leathern pallet), and other punishments of the same kind are no longer inflicted in our schools, there is an infantile correction still employed, not by school-masters, but by fathers and mothers themselves; we allude to smacks administered with the flat of the hand on the buttocks, the lumbar region and the back part of the thighs of juvenile delinquents. We must admit that this manner of operating is as injurious
I. Translated from " I'Onanisme chez I'Homme", by Dr. Pouillet. Deuxieme edition, Paris, Bataille et Cie. as were fustigation and palletation. Whether administered by the naked hand, or by the hand armed with a pallet, a cane, birches or rods, blows on the buttocks or on their neighbourhood have the same effect : they congestion the genital organs, determining in them heat; they excite and erect them and thus prematurely develop the idea of pleasure in beings who endeavour to profit by the discovery. In children everything may lead to evil, and parents ought to know it if they do not wish to become the iuvoluntary accomplices of the acts of their offspring.
BEATING IN BROTHELS.
The following adventure of Ned Ward, I is curious and affords us at the same time a picture of the brothels in his day. Being one night with his friend, at the Widows, Cojjfee-House, in conversation with the "Airy Ladies " of the establishment:-
"Who should grovel up Stairs, but, seemingly, a Sober Citizen, in Cloke and Band, about the Age of Sixty. Upon which the Old Mother of the Maids, call'd hastily to Priss, and Whispering, ask'd her if there were any Rods in the House? I sitting just by, I. Quoted by Pisanus Fraxi. overheard the Question : The Wench answer'd, Yes, yes, You know IJetch'dsix penny worth but Yesterday. Upon the Entrance of this grave Fornicator, our Ladies withdrew themselves from our Company, and relir'd like Modest Virgins to their Secret Work-Room of Iniquity; and left the Old Sinner, in the Winter of his Leachery, to warm his Grey-Hairs with a Dram of Invigorating Cordial, whilst we pay'd our Reckoning, were lighted down Stairs, and left the Lustful Satyr (to the Same of his Age) a Prey to the two Strumpets; who I believe, found himself in a much worse Condition than a Breech between two Stools, or Lot in Sodom, between the Merry Craks his Buxom Daughters. ... I ask'd him what was the meaning, when the Old Leachercame into the Coffee-Room, that Mother Beelzebub ask'd the Wench whether they had any Rods in the House? He smil'd at my Question; and told me he believ'd he should discover a new Vice tome which I Scarce had heard of. That Sober seeming Saint, says he, is one of that Classes in the Black School of Sodomy, who are call'd by Learned Students in the Science of Debauchery, Flogging Cullies. This Unnatural Beast gives Money to those Strumpets which you See, and they down with his Breeches and Scourge his Privities till they have laid his Leachery. He all the time begs their Mercy, like an Offender at a Whipping-Post, and beseeches their forbearance; but the more importunate he seems for their favourable usage. the severer Vapulation they are to exercise upon him, till they find by his Beastly Extasy, when to withhold their Weapons.
A LADIES' PRIVATE WHIPPING CLUB.I
These female foederates are chiefly matrons; who, grown weary of wedlock in its accustomed form, and possibly impatient of that cold neglect and indifference which, after a certain term, become attendant upon Hymen, determined to excite, by adventitious applications, those extasies which in the earlier period of marriage they had experienced....
The respectable society, or club, of which we now treat, are never less than twelve in number. There are always six down, or stooping down, and six up. They cast lots for the choice of station, and after a lecture which is every evening read or spoken extempore, upon the effects of flagellation, as experienced from the earliest days to the present moment, in monasteries, nunneries, bagnios, and private houses, the six patients take their respective situations, and the six agents placing bare those parts which are not only less visible, but less susceptible of material injury, and also most exquisite in point
I. By a concealed eye-witness. of sensation, begin the courses of practice. The chair-woman for the meeting accommodates each with a stout engine of duty, and being herself the Jugal-woman in the evolutions, takes the right hand of line, and pursues the manual exercise in what manner, and with whatever variety she pleases: the rest of rank keeping a watchful eye upon her performance, and not daring, under a penalty of a double dose of the same nostrum, which is sometimes more than the offenders can endure, either at. or after the ceremony (sic!).
Agreeably to the fancy of the chair-woman, sometimes the operation is begun a little above the garter, and ascending the pearly inverted cone, is carried by degrees to the dimpled promontories, which are vulgarly called buttocks'; until the whole, as Shakespeare says, from a milky while, " Becomes one red!! "
Sometimes the wanton, vagrant fibres are directed to the more secret sources of painful bliss! sometimes the curious, curling tendrils bask in the Paphian grove I and sometimes, as the passions of the fair directress rise, they penetrate even the sacred cave of Cupid!
There it is that the submissive patients generally, with one voice, cry out, " It is too much!" and rising from their stations, express in the most feeling language their several sensations.
The fair president now resigns her rod, the emblem and engine of her office, to whom she thinks the most adroit and capable, and together with the remaining five, take the several stations of their predecessors.
The course is recommenced with whatever additions and improvements the new performer pleases; sometimes the process is reversed, and beginning at the grove, and cave already mentioned, with gentle applications proceeds to the swelling mountains, where the strokes growing more fierce and frequent, the second file of patients cry out in their turn for mercy!
WOMAN'S PASSION FOR WHIPPING.
The passion for whipping in women is very great, and has often been remarked. The following lines I depict it with some vigour.
"To look at her majestic figure, " Would make you caper with more vigour!
"The lightning flashing from each eye
"would lift your soul to ecstasy!
" Her milk-white fleshy hand and arm, " That ev'n an Anchorite would charm, " Now tucking in your shirt-tail high, " Now smacking hard eacli plunging thigh, I. Mde Hirehini's Dance.
And those twin orbs that near 'em lie! They to behold her di'mond rings, Ev'n them you'd find delightful things! ' But above all, you'd love that other That told you she was your Step-mother I Then handing you the rod to kiss, She'd make you thank her for the bliss : No female Busby then you'd find, E'er whipt you half so well behind! Her lovely face, where beauty smiled, Now frowning, and now seeming wild! Her bubbies o'er their bound'ry broke, Quick palpitating at each stroke! With vigour o'er the bouncing bum She'd tell ungovern'd boys who rul'd at home I
BRANTOME ON THE GREAT LADIES.
"I have heard itsaid of a great Lady in the world, but very great, who, not being satisfied with her natural lasciviousness; for she was versed in harlotry and having been married had become a widow, was wont to undress her dames and maids, delighting much to see them thus, and would then with the flat of her hand beat their bottoms with many hearty smacks and vigorous bangs. Or, when the girls had done anything wrong, she had them well birched and her satisfaction was then to see them jump, moving and twisting their bodies and buttocks, which according to the strokes they received were very strange and diverting. Al times, without stripping them, she would make them lift their garments; and as they wore no drawers, she would smack or whip them on Ihe bottoms according to their offence, or to make them laugh, or else cry, and these visions and contemplations would so sharpen her appetite, that she would then often with good intent go and satisfy it with some gallant fellow both strong and robust. " I
SCHOOL-BOYS AND THE MISTRESS.
The following experience is extracted from a letter, dated March 13th, 1859, written by a gentleman whose name I am not at liberty to divulge, but whose veracity may be relied upon :-
"In my boyish days it was customary in preparatory schools to have boys and girls together under a woman, and where the rod was used on all occasions with the utmost severity. We used to be birched in the presence of each other, the girls across the knee, or held under the arm, the boys on the back of a maid-servant. This latter used often to come to our rooms, and play the school-mistress, so did most of the girls. I have a vivid recollection of
I. Brantdme, Vies des Dames Galanles. some extraordinary scenes in this line which have given me the perfect conviction of numerous women possessing the taste in question. In the school mentioned above, the female who always assisted the mistress was evidently most fond of seeing the operation, though she liked us all, and was herself a great favourite with the boys; but it was always with a giggle and a joke that she told several boys almost every morning that they were not to get up until Missus had ' paid them a visit,' or after seeing them in bed, telling them they were to keep awake until Missus should have had I a little conversation with them, ' that moreover she might be expected every moment with a couple of tremendous rods. This girl put us up to a great deal, and I fear developed our puberty far too precociously; she had a very large breast, and she arranged her dress so that, while being horsed, we had our hands completely slipped into, and feeling her bubbies; and the rocking and plunging used repeatedly to bring on emission. Many of the boys used to try to get whipped, merely to experience this sensation. Although 40 years have elapsed since all this, yet the remembrance is as vivid as if it had occurred only yesterday. "
THE WIDOW AND HER MAN-SERVANT.
"The following passage, " says Pisanus Fraxi, " which I extract from the Memoirs of John Bell, a Domestic Servant, London 1797, I is still more to the point:-
"The next service in which I found myself was that of a widow lady of fortune, whose family consisted of two nieces in their teens and a nephew-twelve years old. She had been a handsome woman, and had still a fine person. When she engaged me, she said she should expect me to assist her in anything that she required, which I at once promised lo do. What this ' anything ' was soon appeared, for when I brought in breakfast the next morning, she asked me whether I had ever been servant in a school, and helped to whip the children? I answered I had not, but had often whipt my brother, whom I had taught to read. Some half-hour after, her nephew ran against me when I had a plate in my hand, which fell to the ground and was broken. ' Now, John,' said she, ' hold that boy fast, while I get a good rod for his impudent bottom.' Which
I. I have not seen either of these volumes, but use the MS. extracts made by a gentleman who took a special interest in all matters connected with the Rod. she speedily produced out of a press, and handed to me, adding, ' Sit down, and give it him, as you did your brother.' I lost no time in stripping the little fellow and administered to him a proper correction, my mistress looking on with evident satisfaction. ' Very well,' she said, ' you see what that boy wants, and you can give it him whenever he deserves it, but only in my presence, mind that.' I now perceived she had a violent passion for seeing children whipt, but I own my astonishment was excessive, when, the same evening after tea, she ordered me to perform the same ceremony on the two nieces. It was indeed something novel for the young ladies of a house to be flogged by the footman, and to have their white thighs brought into contact with his red plush breeches. When my mistress perceived that I hesitated, she looked sternly at me and cried, ' Instantly, on that sofa, or you leave the place,' and pulling up the elder girl's petticoats, and pinning her shift high up, she pushed her towards me. I laid her gently across my knees, and though pretending to use force, tickled her so lightly that she was soon up again, more frightened than hurt. Not so the younger sister, who was short and stout, with a cross ugly face, but magnificent posteriors, which I am ashamed to say I lashed vigorously with far different feelings from those I experienced in chastising her slim and handsome companion. A slight second whipping for the boy closed the day's entertainmenl. I need not detail the various modes in which I executed my new and unexpected duties. In the morning she generally liked them whipt, while she sat at her work, counting the cuts and her stitches. In the evening she usually took it over her tea, sipping it out of her saucer, saying quietly, ' Please, John, a little more on that right buttock-that will do!' This occupation, however, took up so much of my time that I required the assistance of a page to get through my work. This my mistress at first refused, but acquiesced when I remarked that he would probably require a great deal of correction. So I chose a lad from the workhouse, sturdy and chubby, who, the master said, ' took a deal of hiding.' I made him sleep in my room, so that I could keep him always clean, and his backside fit to be exhibited to a lady. As he was hard to hold, four staples were, at my suggestion, driven into the drawing-room wall, to which he was attached like a spread eagle. These were concealed from notice, the two upper by pictures, the two lower by a footstool. You may imagine that a stout urchin of fifteen, inured to punishment, afforded my mistress more occasions for her favourite diversion than the three genteel young people put together.
"But these scenes, as for as I was concerned, drew rapidly to a close. Notwithstanding this lewd taste, my mistress was pratically a dragon of virtue, and, on discovering that a tender relation existed between her pretty waiting-maid and myself, she turned us both out of the house at a moment's warning, and at great discomfort to herself. How she got on afterwards I don't know, as another service took me into a distant part of the country. I heard, however, that my two pupils, having considerable fortunes, made good marriages. I have frequently seen them in their carriages in London streets, and thought how little their husbands knew of the part I had taken in their education. "
THE SCHOOLMASTER'S LITTLE DINNER.
Whilst Love Predominate-over our Souls, A Pox on Counsel from tedious Old Fools ;
Reproofs of the Church-men but whet us the more, Whilst liberty Teaches And appetite Preaches, No wealth like a Bottle, no joy like a Wh-.
Long Tales of Heav'n to fools are given, But we put in pleasure to make the Scale even ;
Thus Kissing, and Wenching, and Drinking, brave Boys, We drive out Collicks By nightly Frolicks, And drown short Life in a Deluge of Joys.
THE SCHOOLMASTER'S LITTLE DINNER
At the time I kept a school in the North Riding of Yorkshire, I was once invited to a " little dinner, " at the house of a neighbouring schoolmaster, with whom I had hitherto had little acquaintance. He had the reputation of a clever man, of amiable disposition, but with a decided taste for the birch and a fancy for using it in the, strangest ways. He was a widower, and his home was kept by a housekeeper who went by the name of Mother Birch, from her supposed ability in the fabrication of rods that had a fine sting in them. When I arrived, I found the party consisted of two other pedagogues and myself. The one, whom I will designate as Dr. S., was the Master of the large Grammar School in the town of B-t, which he conducted with great ability aud
I. From Pisanus Fraxi, who states that this little piece has not before appeared. severity, and which had the peculiarity that all the assistants had license to flog as well as the headmaster, and were encouraged by his example to indulge that license as far as possible. But the result was generally good, and as the boys were, many of them, successful at the Universities, nobody cared for the dunces whose posteriors passed from usher to usher on to the final arm of the Doctor himself, which he proudly asserted to be still the most vigorous in the school. The other guest, whom I will call Mr. T., was a younger man than myself, of a most agreeable exterior, but, from the shortness of his figure, the clearness of his complexion, and the curliness of his light hair, wearing an almost boyish appearance. He had been tutor in a noble family, who had enabled him to set up a small genteel school, and had entrusted their own children to his care. After the usual salutations, talk about the weather, and an enquiry of the Doctor, " whether he had had sufficient exercise in school this damp day; " lo which the sage replied, " only fifteen, and two of Ihem babies; "we entered the dining-room. It was a spacious apartment, and, looking round, I saw that, besides the lights on the table, there were four candelabras in the corners of the room, which appeared to be held up by four boys, with their faces to the wall, their trousers down to their heels, and their shirts pinned up to their shoulders. I never saw four chubbier or whiter bottoms. On a nearer inspection it was seen that their hands were so fastened as to give them the appearance of holding up the candles. As the master of the house made no remark on these singular pieces of furniture, and the servants took no notice except pricking them with a fork as they passed, we guests said nothing, though I observed the Doctor casting ogrish eyes on one lad who turned his head round with an expression of manifest terror. The conversation turned on ancient sculpture, and when the first course was removed, our host said," I am desirous to colour those statues of mine bright red, if these gentlemen will help me, " and the servant presented each of us with a long springy rod, decked with a hundred buds. The Doctor rushed at his choice, who reasonably shrieked at his approach. For some time no sound was heard but the swishing of the twigs, and the roaring of the twigged. The backsides consigned to Mr. F. and myself were only prettily striped; that of our host was well reddened; but the Doctor's was a mass of gore, and we tore him off from it with some difficulty. When the lads were let down, their schoolmaster sent them to bed, saluting the sore burns with a vigorous kick, telling those which had come off best that " he would make all even to-morrow morning. " We certainly sat down to our partridges with monstrous appetites, and Dr. S. crunched the bones with his teeth as if they had been those of the boy he had been flogging.
Nothing remarkable occurred till dessert, when four small plates were placed at the corners of the table, which were occupied by four charming boys of twelve or thirteen, dressed in light-blue jackets trimmed with silver-braid and very tight white trousers. These Acolytes or Ganymedes, or whatever you please, handed round the fruit, cake, and wine, and cheerfully partook of the portions given to them. I saw them, however, eye with anxiety a long pasteboard box at the end of the table, which our host now opened, saying, "These are the sweetmeats for which my housekeeper is justly famous, " and took out four most beautiful small rods, tied-up with blue riband. He then made over the biggest lad, his eldest nephew, to the Doctor's tender mercies, took the younger nephew to himself, and gave the other two, his own children, to Mr. T. and myself. They were across our knees in a trice : we smacked the tight white trousers for some time in an Epicurean way, before we untrussed them, while the salacious Doctor could not stand the covering for a moment, but got to the nakedness at once, and, setting to with the rod, had worked it to a stump, while we were still enjoying the urchins' struggles. The housekeeper now came to carry off the little fellows, sobbing and puling, and was highly commended by the Doctor : " He had never used a nicer rod; he should never be tired, if he could always get such rods; " and so on, till she offered him a present of a dozen, which he accepted with gratitude, adding, " that he should reserve them for his own children in the holydays. "
The conversation then naturally turned upon whipping : our host, an old Etonian, taking off the grotesque manner of Dr. Keate, and Mr. T. imitating the absurd contortions of a school-fellow at Winchester, which had the effect of making the master laugh so much, he could not go on flogging. "Ah! no wriggling would have slopped old Keate," ' said Dr. S., but said it would be great fun, to act what Keate would have done in such a case. " I've no objection, " said T., and helped our host to bring out a horse from behind the eurlain. " I should like you to try that horse," said he. " a boy is as comfortable on it as in bed. " T. was tied on, his breeches taken down, and the drama begun. His gestures and grimaces were most ludicrous; but it was soon evident from the marks on his skin that there was no fiction in the strokes of Dr. Keate. T. took a few cuts as part of the play, but as they became severer and showed no symptome of cessation, he took a serious tone and desired to be let down. Dr. Keate, however, took all this remonstrance as part of the performance, and Dr. S. and I., with great laughter, affected to do the same. " Let me Iry, " said Dr. S., " whether I can't stop this fellow's impudence-let him down indeed!
A pretty notion! won't stand it-won't he? we'll see that; " and, taking a fresh rod, he laid four or five dozen into him, without a comma : his handsome buttocks bled freely.
I now saw that the thing had gone too far. T. was furious at the pain and the trick : I therefore pushed the Doctor aside, and, with a new birch in hand, cried out : " It is my turn now. What say you, Master T., is this a joke or are you fool enough to be angry? "
"It's no joke, " said he, " as you all shall find to your cost. "-" Well, then, said I, " if it's no joke, do your worst, and I'll cut your arse off. " He looked in my face, and saw I meant what I said. " It is a joke, but a very bad one; untie me and I will say nothing about it. " I unfastened his right hand, made him shake hands with all of us, wiped his buttocks, and covered them with a napkin to keep his shirt from being blooded, pulled up his trousers, and set him on his legs again. As, after this incident, the talk did not flow very easily, we sat down to whist, and it was very ludicrous to see poor T. every now and then putting his hand behind him and then playing the wrong card. After a rubber or two, the party broke up, Dr. S. declaring he had never spent a more charming evening; but said, " he still hoped to whip a boy he had left to sit up to do an exercise, and who boarded in his house, before he betook himself lo his conjugal duties. " I told T., I hoped his fundamental experiences would make him merciful in his inflictions on others, and that I only regretted we had not had the Doctor in his place to complete the diversions of our "little dinner. "
