200 Magazine Edition 1 June 1822 2022

THE NEAREST THING TO TIME TRAVEL YOU’LL EVER MANAGE - NEWS FROM ANOTHER CENTURY AS IT HAPPENED

200

#1

JUNE 1822 / 2022

MAGAZINE

IRELAND FACES FAMINE AND DISEASE

FARADAY CALLED IN TO TACKLE POLLUTION

BEETHOVEN, ROSSINI GO FACE-TO-FACE

After a winter of violence, Ireland now faces a summer of starvation and epidemic.

But relief work is boosted by fund-raising in England. p3

‘Copper smoke’ is causing big environmental damage in south Wales. But can Davy’s former assistant Michael Faraday find a solution? p6

The Maestro finally agrees to meet his rival as Rossinimania sweeps Vienna. But it’s a difficult encounter and the Italian is shocked. p24

HISTORIC ENGLAND PHOTO LIBRARY | FROM THE WELLINGTON COLLECTION AT APSLEY HOUSE, CARED FOR BY ENGLISH HERITAGE

Seven years later, news of Waterloo is still breaking news David Wilkie’s painting of reports of the battle reaching Chelsea pensioners is all the rage at the Royal Academy's summer show. See pages 11 and 16.

NEWS FROM 1822 - WHITE PAGES

ONLINE ONLY, ALWAYS FREE

VIEW FROM 2022 - BLUE PAGES

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EDITOR'S COLUMN AND MAGAZINE GUIDE

INTRODUCING 200

W

henever I go into a bookshop or a library, I am always slightly dejected at quite how many of the history books are about the two world wars of the last century, Hitler, Churchill, increasingly Stalin and Russia, Henry VIII and the first Queen Elizabeth.

This magazine looks at another past, sufficiently long ago to feel strange, different, often cruel and unfeeling, sufficiently recent to sometimes find itself in our family trees, and hand-me-down pictures and books. Critically, it is a time reported by newspapers, some independent, and where public opinion is beginning to matter.

200 will report events from two centuries ago as if they are happening now, making use of newspapers, magazines, paintings, maps, and other sources from the 1820s. Our blue ‘back’ section will highlight what is available now in relation to events covered from the time, whether visitor attractions, exhibitions, books, magazines or websites.

200 will be using the language of 2022 to cover the news and events of 1822. But everything in our news pages (3-12 this month) is an accurate report of what was happening 200 years ago, and with just a few devices to help readers now.

This - о - means that there is explanatory text at the very top of the page, like when a place is known by another name now, and to help with converting money to today's values. (Like others, I have adopted a very general rule that £1 then equals £100 now.) Green text confirms what is written is right - like place-names in general usage in the1820s, but not now. is a recommendation. And there are plenty of underlined words or phrases, with links to websites and more information. Illustrations have been tricky in this final era before photography. I have used where possible pre-1823 paintings and drawings, and indicate when later works are used. Huge thanks are due to galleries and museums who treat their collections as being in the public domain, or usable in not-for-profit publications like this under Creative Commons licenses.

Please email 200 with any comments, questions, mistakes spotted (so they can be corrected), praise, or criticism. The email address is to the right.

Thanks for reading, John

CONTENTS THE NEWS FROM 1822

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Front page Ireland facing summer of starvation and disease

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Home News

Rural crisis, royal tragedy, Peterloo fall-out, pollution, new railway, grand houses for sale

08

International News Greek independence massacre, African home for exslaves, Spain struggles against rebel forces

09

What happened when Day-by-day, when events became news so far in 1822

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Science, invention & exploration Navy gets first steam-ship, Telford's new bridge build underway, latest from the Arctic expedition

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The Arts and sport Rossini meets Beethoven, Wilkie's Waterloo painting wows London, Royal win at the Derby

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Old Fox’s Journal In our diary column: veteran Whig MP marries 50 years his junior, PM's money-spinning second 'job', Cobbett to ride again.

THE VIEW FROM 2022

13

Robert Poole Author of ‘Peterloo’ on the reformers on the back foot

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1822's People | Notes from Now Profiles: Faraday, Tussaud and the Carliles Observations from 2022: The Titanic of the East, famine fund-raising, and oysters that shouldn't be there.

John Evans is a former BBC journalist and editor. He is a factchecker for BBC History Magazine and is a member of the Royal Historical Society. From 2019-22, he live tweeted news from 200 years ago, initially to mark the bicentenary of the Peterloo massacre.

The British Newspaper Archive is the raw material of much of 200's reporting, as well as the online archives of the Times, the Guardian & Observer (all of which are often available through local libraries), Welsh newspapers (free) and the British Library.

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Resources | Further reading Books, websites, visitor attractions, videos, films and broadcasts that help make sense of events in 1822. .

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News from Now National Trust's Seaton Delaval rises from the ashes of 1822 fire, Irish famine museum to re-open in July

Contact us at feedback@200livinghistory.info

о £1 IN 1822 = ROUGHLY £100 IN 2022

FRONT PAGE

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Ireland facing summer of famine and disease A

winter of sporadic violence in Ireland’s southern and western counties has become a spring and summer of hunger and starvation, illness and epidemics.

Attacks on landlords, property owners, well-off farmers, and churches by agrarian secret societies have declined as communities have struggled to prevent deaths after last autumn’s potato crop failed, partly because of bad weather. The economy is suffering a post- war depression, with food prices up, and a lack of employment.

The Prime Minister, the Earl of Liverpool, insisted in April that government interference was more likely to cause famine than provide relief. But ministers have since rushed legislation through parliament to give Marquess Wellesley, the Viceroy in Dublin, greater freedom to divert money towards relief efforts and allocated a further о £50,000 for public works projects.

But John Smith, the Whig MP heading the London Tavern Committee’s relief fund, insists

Reports reaching Dublin in the last few days paint a shocking picture.

In Co. Leitrim, families are having to sell spinning wheels, bed-clothes and women’s cloaks to buy food. The blood of cattle is being mixed with meal to provide sustenance.

In Co. Mayo, a report has warned that typhus is spreading rapidly and people are emaciated and living off wild flowers and seaweed.

In Co. Galway, an inquest returned a verdict of death by starvation on a weaver found at the side of a road.

In Co. Kerry, ‘swarms of beggars’ are filling the streets of Tralee. A soupshop is being set up, but the cries of hungry children are said to hardly ever cease.

In Co. Cork, farmers who were comfortable in 1821 are said to be begging for food.

not enough is being done. His latest information indicates that almost 100,000 people in the western county of Clare are relying on charity, and

in Co. Cork, 132,000 people are in need of urgent aid to avoid starvation. Limerick MP Thomas Spring-Rice says there is an urgent need for

more work for the poor to enable them to buy food. He is warning that while legislators are deliberating, people are perishing. >Resources and further reading

YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, PAUL MELLON COLLECTION

Under-fire PM opens his wallet Three senior ministers, led by the Earl of Liverpool, moved fast to back the emergency relief fund for Ireland set up in May at the City of London Tavern, the Bishopsgate hospitality and events venue.

THE PRIME MINISTER, THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL

In what seems to have been a co-ordinated move, the prime minister was joined by the Chancellor, Nicholas Vansittart, and Robert Peel, the Home Secretary, in making identical donations of о £200 to the London Tavern Committee’s fund within hours of its launch.

Tory ministers hope their very public support for private relief efforts will encourage others to contribute, but may also think this will defuse criticism of their response to the hunger and disease crisis in Ireland.

They have also removed the need to pay for

postage for letters containing donations.

By mid-June, the London fund has raised £79,000. It has been praised for the speed with which it is getting relief supplies to distressed areas. The fund, chaired by Whig MP John Smith, is supported by bankers, merchants, bishops, and politicians of all parties. Fund-raising groups have been set up across Britain, with donations from churches, schools, regiments and door-to-door collections. King George attended a gala fete in London, said to have raised £4,000 for the fund.

Sixty-five tons of potatoes from the London Committee arrived in Cork last week, with 80 tons reaching Kinsale. A relief committee in Plymouth has sent 35 tons of potatoes and 20 quarters of oats for the poor in south-west Ireland. > Old Fox's Journal

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HOME NEWS

GEORGIOS KOLIDAS/ADOBE STOCK.COM

Recession hitting hard in English countryside

Duchess’s health in peril after miscarried twins The Royal Family remains concerned about the ‘precarious’ health of the Duchess of Clarence two months after she miscarried twins who would have taken a leading place in the line of succession to the throne.

The death of two sons at Bushy Park in April was the latest misfortune to befall the duke and his wife. In 1819, a baby girl lived only a few hours, and another child miscarried, while a daughter, Elizabeth, died aged three months in 1821.

Princess Adelaide is recuperating with Prince William at Walmer Castle in Kent, at the invitation of the prime minister, who is also lord warden of the Cinque Ports. If the duchess’s health is good enough, they are expected to go to her native Germany for the summer.

The King’s brothers, the dukes of York and Clarence remain first and second in line to the throne, followed

by Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent.

YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, PAUL MELLON COLLECTION

T

he government is under renewed pressure to do more to ease the plight of farmers and rural workers affected by the crisis in the countryside.

The number of petitions to Parliament about agricultural distress shows little sign of decreasing, with 30 received in May, and seven more this week. One from Kent is not unusual in linking the issue with the need for reform of the way MPs are elected.

Observers say the rural economy is facing a series of challenges which have combined to present problems for both farmers and landlords, and agricultural workers and their families. But their interests are not necessarily the same.

Prices of crops have slumped since the end of the Napoleonic wars, with wheat, barley, oats, beans and peas selling for a third of their 1812 prices, and an even bigger drop for rye. Wool and livestock prices are also in decline.

This has led rural employers to cut back on numbers of servants and labourers, and reduce wages.

On the Holkham estate in Norfolk, owned by the agricultural reformer and Whig MP Thomas William Coke. Rent

THE FARM SALE (1820), BY RICHARD BARRETT DAVIS

arrears have risen ten-fold in three years, while reports from Sussex say it is proving hard to attract new tenant farmers.

This 'perfect storm' of rural problems has been compounded by the drought in 1818, heavy summer rains last year, a brief glut in yields, and the difficult transition from a war to peace economy.

Some critics are also targeting the 'Corn Laws' passed by the Tory government in 1815. These tariffs and trade restrictions are being blamed for keeping food prices high, and negatively impacting trade with Europe. The legislation has blocked the import of cheap corn, even when food supplies are short.

The East of England has seen the most serious protests, but these have not yet reached the seriousness of the rioting in 1816 in Littleport and Ely. However, two Waterloo veterans were executed in Norwich in April for arson after machinebreaking attacks in February.

London's new church

The most expensive new centre for worship In London since the re-building of St Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire of London is complete. St Pancras New Church cost £76,679 and can seat 2,500 people. It will serve an increasing population near Euston Road and in the well-todo district of Bloomsbury. >Resources and further reading

Essex and Wiltshire stately homes face sell-off after cash crises The future of two of England's grandest private homes is in doubt, with their owners struggling to overcome big financial problems.

An auction of the contents of Wanstead House in Essex has begun. Thousands flocked there in May to see the property, and items to be sold, including

furniture, glass and chinaware, books and sculptures.

The house was left to teenage heiress Catherine Tylney-Long in 1805. After marrying Tory politician William WellesleyPole, they spent heavily on home improvements. Mr Pole-TylneyLong-Wellesley, who doubled his already double-barrelled

surname when he married, has run up big debts on carriages, horses, entertainment and other women. He borrowed о £32,000 to secure election as MP for Wiltshire in 1818, but could not afford to stand in the 1820 election and fled to France to escape debtors.

William Beckford financed the

lavish transformation of Fonthill Abbey between 1795 and 1813 from his inherited income as a plantation and slave-owner in Jamaica. But Mr Beckford’s attempts to avoid a sale appear to have failed and he may also have to auction off the contents of his Wiltshire home. >Resources and further reading

HOME NEWS

GEORGIOS KOLLIDAS/STOCK.ADOBE.COM

The number of lives lost following the violent dispersal of the prodemocracy meeting in Manchester almost three years ago has risen to 18.

William Bradshaw, from Whitefield, south of Bury, suffered a deep sabre wound to his head after volunteer and regular soldiers on horseback rode into a crowd at the meeting at St Peter’s Field. Local media say he was trodden underfoot as the rally was broken up. He died of his injuries on 29 April.

More than 600 people were injured, in addition to the 18 dead, when cavalry broke up the Manchester rally as it was being addressed by Henry Hunt. The violence against unarmed demonstrators led to an autumn of protests.

Gaol baby for radical Carliles The wife of the editor of the radical Republican magazine has given birth to a girl at the Dorset prison where the couple are serving sentences for seditious and blasphemous libel.

Richard Carlile said his wife Jane had a painful pregnancy and lingering labour because of being confined to a single room at Dorchester gaol. The baby will be named Hypatia, after the female philosopher of the late 4th and early 5th centuries.

Richard Carlile, jailed for three years in 1819, is editing the paper from their cell. Jane Carlile then handled production in London until she was jailed last year. His sister Mary took over, then she too was jailed.

Over 150 people connected to the magazine have been imprisoned. > 1822's People

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No freedom or pardon for Hunt

GEORGIOS KOLLIDAS/STOCK.ADOBE.COM

Peterloo death toll rises to 18

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MPs reject move to free ‘Orator’ as Peel signals no change in Tory stance.

HENRY HUNT

I

t now looks certain that Henry Hunt will serve the full prison sentence imposed on him for his role in the events at St Peter’s Field in Manchester in 1819.

An attempt by Radicals and progressive Whigs to free ‘Orator’ Hunt from prison in Somerset with more than six months left of his 30 month sentence was defeated in the House of Commons by 223 to 84.

The move was led by Radical MP Sir Francis Burdett (Westminster). He said that the sentence imposed in 1820 was one of great severity. He said Mr Hunt had been subject to ‘scandalous, degrading and disgraceful’ restrictions in what the convicted radical leader has dubbed the ‘Ilchester Bastille’. He had not been allowed his servant, his eyesight had been affected, and he had initially been put in a cell with a half-witted rogue.

The Home Secretary, Robert Peel (Oxford Univ.), said Parliament should not interfere in punishments imposed by the courts. In Mr Hunt’s case, he felt it was commensurate with the offence of sedition of which he had been convicted.

Mr Peel's comments have been taken as indicating no softening of the government’s attitude towards reformers, despite the replacement of the hardline Lord Sidmouth at the Home Office in January.

Earlier in the debate at Westminster, Mr Peel’s junior minister, George Dawson (Co. Londonderry), said Henry Hunt had been provided with a comfortable feather bed and had been satisfied with conditions at Ilchester gaol in Somerset. But this all changed when magistrates banned Mr Hunt’s mistress, Catherine Vince, from visiting him.

Mr Dawson called their relationship ‘grossly immoral’ but cabinet minister Charles Williams Wynn (Montgomeryshire) went even further, saying that, if Mrs Vince was allowed in, magistrates could not in common fairness refuse to allow other prisoners to bring in prostitutes.

Sources close to the leading reformer have insisted that he wants a full pardon, not early release, and suggest that he is unhappy that the proposal was raised.

But he is said to be pleased with the support he has received from MPs on the opposition benches in his long-running dispute with the Treasury over the production and sale of his ‘breakfast powder’. This grain-based drink was marketed as a cheap alternative to highly-taxed coffee in a move by reformers to hit government income in protest at the events in Manchester in August 1819. >Resources and further reading

RUSSELL SEES HOPE IN DEFEAT

Best pro-reform vote in decades

Campaigners for the reform of Parliament say they are encouraged, despite losing a vote in the House of Commons on 29 April by more than 100.

MPs voted 269-164 against a Whig call, supported by Radicals, but this was the biggest vote for reform since 1785.

Proposing change, the rising Whig star and moderate reformer, Lord John Russell (Huntingdonshire), said the Commons no longer had ‘the esteem and reverence of the people’ and stubborn resistance to reform would lead to disaster.

Lord John said 100 seats should be re-allocated from small and sometimes corrupt boroughs to larger towns and counties.

Tories accused over press advertising Ministers have again been accused of placing lucrative official advertising in papers that back the Tories, ignoring publications that do not.

Radical MP Joseph Hume (Aberdeen) complained that the government had failed to provide data on which papers were used for advertising. Mt Hume said they were ignoring England’s best-selling paper, the Times, the first to report the Peterloo massacre. The Chancellor, Nicholas Vansittart, has insisted that no instruction has been issued not to advertise in any particular paper. But the Times says an official toured government offices with a verbal instruction to that effect.

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HOME NEWS

Tees rail build starts, Stephenson at controls This is what a locomotive operating on the new railway line in the north-east of England could look like.

It was pioneered by the new railway’s engineer, George Stephenson, to haul wagons carrying coal at Killingworth colliery, north of Newcastle.

The rails are 4 feet 8 inches apart, using the same gauge as at Killingworth.

George Stephenson, 41 this month, is from near Newcastle. He worked in a local pit from the age of 10.

The family was too poor for him to go to school and he only became literate at the age of 18, after paying to study reading, writing and arithmetic at night school.

In 1815, he developed a safety lamp for use in mines, rivalling that invented by Sir Humphrey Davy.

PICTURE: Samuel Smiles, Lives of the Engineers, Project Gutenberg

A PLAN PUBLISHED THIS YEAR OF THE RAILWAY OR TRAMROAD FROM STOCKTON

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he first rails have been laid and construction is underway of a railway or tramroad linking Stockton, Darlington and the collieries of Co. Durham.

If completed, this is set to be heralded as the first public rail service in the world. It is expected to be heavily used to carry coal to and from mines in Co. Durham. Original plans were for the line to be horsedrawn but it is understood that the committee behind the plan now want the option to use mechanical locomotives, and to carry passengers. This would require enabling legislation

passed in Parliament last year to be amended.

The case for using locomotives has been pushed by George Stephenson, an experienced engineer appointed in January. He has worked on transporting coal at Killingworth pit near Newcastle and designed a colliery railway at Hetton in Durham. This service is due to open later this year.

The first rails were laid on 23 May by the Stockton and Darlington company’s chairman, Thomas Meynell.

Church bells rang and bunting was flown as Mr Meynell

and civic leaders went to St John’s Well in Stockton for the inaugural ceremony. A royal salute was fired, and the national anthem played.

Up to 300 construction workers carrying spades and axes joined the procession, and were fed with bread, cheese and ale in the afternoon before official guests dined in the evening.

ROUTE MAP (TOP): Science Museum Group Collection © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

>Resources and further reading

Scottish Whig politician James Stuart has been sensationally cleared of a murder charge after shooting dead former Tory MP Sir Alexander Boswell in a duel in Fife.

The jury at the High Court in Edinburgh returned its verdict at 5am after a single day’s evidence, without even leaving the courtroom.

Crowds that remained in Parliament Square throughout the night loudly cheered the news that Mr Stuart had been found not guilty and freed.

The two men had fallen out in a political row over articles published by a newspaper in Glasgow. James Stuart said they were offensive, calling him a bully and a coward. He challenged Sir Alexander, son of Dr Samuel Johnson’s friend and biographer, to a duel when he was revealed to be the author.

When they met in March near Kirkcaldy, Sir Alexander Boswell deliberately fired wide, but Mr Stuart, who had never handled a gun before, hit the collarbone of his opponent, who died the next day.

James Stuart fled to France to avoid being imprisoned pending a trial, but returned for the hearing. The defence said that Mr Stuart had acted under ‘a great moral necessity’ to satisfy his honour and cited legal precedents for acquitting men who killed opponents in duels.

Two dukes were unhurt after abandoning a duel at Kensington Gardens, London.

The Tory Duke of Buckingham challenged the Whig Duke of Bedford over remarks he made at a county meeting in Bedford, calling him a

JAMES STUART OF DUNEARN

‘borough proprietor’ engaged in a corrupt traffic of seats in the House of Commons. Neither man aimed at the other and, when the Duke of Bedford said he meant no personal offence, they shook hands and called the duel off.

NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND, CREATIVE COMMONS CC BY NC

Whig Stuart walks free after killing political opponent in duel

о £1 IN 1822 = ROUGHLY £100 NOW

HOME NEWS

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‘Copper smoke’ pollution blights Swansea STEFANO BIANCHETTI / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

What Swansea’s visitors saw, and said “In the neighbourhood of Swansea there are some very extensive copper works, which are situated in a hollow, and immediately about them there is not a blade of grass, a green bush, nor any form of vegetation: volumes of smoke, thick and pestilential, are seen crawling up the sides of the hills.”

Richard Ayton, A Voyage Round Great-Britain, 1813 “The volumes of smoke continually rising from the numerous and extensive works that are established here, render many parts unpleasant, if not insalubrious, even to those who live at some distance.”

John Feltham, A Guide to All the Watering and Seabathing Places, 1806.

MR. VIVIAN'S COPPER PLANT IN SWANSEA, WALES (UNDATED, UNKNOWN ARTIST)

O

ne of the country’s emerging scientists has been called in to investigate serious environmental problems in Wales’s second town.

Michael Faraday, a former aide to chemist and inventor Sir Humphrey Davy, is to visit Swansea in July at the request of copper magnate John Henry Vivian, along with Royal Society fellow Richard Phillips.

Complaints are growing over the impact of copper production on the environment and the health of the town’s 10,000 residents, second only in Wales to Merthyr Tydvil.

There are fears damage

caused by ‘copper smoke’ could harm the town’s expansion, as it aims to stay ahead of rivals Newport and Cardiff, and harm what remains of Swansea’s reputation as a bathing resort.

Reports in Welsh and London newspapers have spoken of vegetable and animal life being destroyed by arsenic and other chemicals from copper smelting. Mr Faraday saw the problem himself in 1819.

A prize is on offer for ideas to tackle the problem, but critics say the owners are really concerned by the risk of legal action by their neighbours.

The Vivian copperworks are among the latest to be set up in Swansea, where the first copper plant opened in 1717.

The industry has boomed since the end of the Napoleonic wars, with production doubling locally in a decade, and Swansea becoming the major producer in the world’s top smelting nation.

Coal comes from Welsh mines, with copper ore brought by sea from Cornwall. Civic leaders have been trying to strike a balance between industrial expansion and the town’s role as a Regency resort to compete with Bath. >Resources and further reading

News in brief: Navy sloop and packet ship lost in black weekend off Irish coast SHIPWRECK: More than 160 people died when gales hit Ireland’s south coast in late April. All 120 crew perished when Royal Navy sloop HMS Confiance was wrecked. The vessel ran aground near Cove, Co. Cork, was re-launched but sank near Mizen Head. Four local people trying to retrieve debris from the ship also died.

An estimated 45 crew and passengers died when the packet ship Albion, sailing from

New York to Liverpool, went down off Co. Cork. The disaster may raise questions about the safety of the scheduled packet services carrying cargo and passengers between the UK and US. These have become popular since the Black Ball line, owners of the Albion, began operating in 1818.

Gold worth о £3,000 has been retrieved, but seven crew of a salvage vessel added to the death toll a few days later.

FATAL MIX-UP: The Anglican primate of All Ireland has died after a tragic accident at his London home. The Archbishop of Armagh, William Stuart, 67, swallowed laudanum which his wife thought was liquid medicine but was wrongly issued by an apothecary. The Archbishop was buried at the family’s country estate, Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire. He was the son of the Earl of Bute, prime minister in 1762-63.

EXECUTIONS: Twelve people were publicly hanged in May in England and Scotland. They died at Ilchester, Chester, Newgate (London), Jedburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, for offences of burglary (7), stealing in a dwelling house (2), murder (2), housebreaking (2), arson (1), rape (1). and highway robbery (1). Source: Capital Punishment UK thanks to Richard Clark and Dave Mossop.

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INTERNATIONAL

BREAKING NEWS:

The authorities in the US state of South Carolina say they have foiled a plan for a slave revolt.

Officials in the state’s largest city, Charleston, say informants had warned them of a rebellion planned for 16 June. As a result, security and patrols have been stepped up across the city in the last week. South Carolina’s state militia has been mobilised to reinforce local law enforcement.

Reports from Charleston say 10 slaves were seized on the day the uprising was due to begin. Court hearings are due in the next few days.

MORE IN JULY'S 200 Reports from the western coast of Africa say that a settlement has been established as a home for freed ex-slaves from the USA. The land near Cape Mesurado was bought for the American Colonization Society.

Thousands die, enslaved in Greek island massacre E

uropean support for Greek independence is expected to grow as news sinks in of the scale of the brutal Ottoman military action on the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea.

It is now believed that fewer than 20,000 people may be left on Chios, which is close to the Turkish coast. Latest estimates say 25,000 civilians were killed and as many as 45,000 women and children shipped into slavery after the Easter onslaught.

This is said to be bloodiest episode yet in the Greek war for independence from the Ottoman Empire. The conflict was already notorious for violence against noncombatants.

Ottoman forces took action after a landing on Chios in March by Greek irregular forces, and are said to have been told to lay waste to the Greek Christian island.

As well as those killed

© 2020 RMN-GRAND PALAIS (LOUVRE MUSEUM) / ADRIEN DIDIERJEAN

Slaves held over American rebellion plot

о LARGER THAN COLOMBIA NOW, INCLUDING TERRITORY OF PANAMA, VENEZUELA AND ECUADOR

GREEK FAMILIES ON THE ISLAND OF CHIOS, EUGÈNE DELACROX (1824)

or enslaved, thousands of civilians headed for the west coast in the hope of rescue by sea, creating a huge humanitarian crisis.

The latest act of violence to shock European diplomats has been the beheading of 10 hostages. The British Ambassador, Lord Strangford,

has said the Ottoman violence ‘makes humanity shudder,’ sentiment likely to raise awkward questions in Westminster about Britain’s neutrality, and European nations’ non-intervention in this conflict on their doorstep. >Resources and further reading

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK

United States poised to recognise first South American rebel nation The first new South American nation that has been fighting for independence from Spanish colonial rule is expected to be recognised by the United States in the next few days.

Manuel Torres, who has been representing the interests of о Colombia in the US has been told to be on standby to meet President James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, his Secretary of State, at the White House, a meeting that would signify official recognition.

But sources in Washington say recognition of a second independent nation, Mexico, has been delayed after the proclamation of army

PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE

commander Agustin Iturbide as emperor in May. Recognition has appeared inevitable since President Monroe told Congress in March that five states of Spanish America were “in the full enjoyment of their independence”. His message led to a protest from the Spanish ambassador.

The authorities in Madrid insist that King Ferdinand VII’s feelings towards the colonies are not of anger but “as a father who wishes to act as a pacific mediator in the dissensions of his children”.

at Bombona in April.

Only Upper Peru remains a Spanish stronghold and this is expected to be a target soon for Simón Bolívar and his Argentine counterpart, José de San Martín.

о In the latest blow to Madrid in the Spanish American wars of independence, rebel forces have taken control of the key administrative centre of Quito after defeating the colonial army at the battle of Pichincha in May on the slopes of an Andean volcano.

The victorious commander, Antonio José de Sucre, has now been joined in Quito by Simón Bolívar, the leader known as El Libertador, who himself saw off Spanish forces

о The Chilian fleet, led by Scottish-born Lord Thomas Cochrane, has arrived in Valparaiso, after supporting independence movements in Peru, Colombia and Mexico.

Admiral Cochrane has already been congratulated by Chili’s head of state, Supreme Director Bernardo O’Higgins, with Patriot flags adorning homes across the city, 70 miles north-west of Santiago. >Resources and further reading

о BATAVIA = JAKARTA; DUTCH EAST INDIES = INDONESIA

DIARY DATES

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THE EVENTS THAT HAVE MADE THE HEADLINES SO FAR IN 1822

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN..

KING GEORGE

JANUARY

APRIL

3: Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland is severely damaged by fire. >PAGE 16 15: New Coast Guard service comes into operation to tackle smuggling.

17: Lord Sidmouth quits after 11 years as home secretary, replaced by Robert Peel.

24: Fire at orphanage in Philadelphia in United States kills 23 children.

4: Four smugglers hanged at Penenden Heath near Maidstone after clash with Coast Blockade forces at Marsh Bay, near Margate, in September 1821.

7: Battle of Bombona in south America sees victory for proindependence forces led by Simon Bolivar against Spanish colonial army. >PAGE 8 8: Twin sons of Duke and Duchess of Clarence, King George’s brother and second in line to the throne, are still-born. >PAGE 4 13: Ottoman soldiers invade island of Chios near Turkish mainland. Thousands of Greek Christian residents are killed or enslaved, others flee island. >PAGE 8 13: Waterloo veterans Noah Peak and George Fortis are hanged in Norwich for setting fire to three haystacks near Diss in machine-breaking disturbances in February.

18: Rioting in Bradford leaves one dead and fifty injured.

21: HMS Confiance lost at sea off Irish coast. All 113 soldiers and crew die. >PAGE 7 22: Pioneer packet ship Albion wrecked off Cork coast, 46 dead.

24: Proposal to release Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt from gaol in Somerset, where he is serving a thirty month sentence for sedition, defeated in the House of Commons. >PAGE 5 25: MPs reject Whig call for reform of composition of House of Commons. >PAGE 5 25: American settlers found new settlement on coast of west Africa as home for freed slaves. >PAGE 8 29: Lives lost as a result of Peterloo massacre in 1819 increase to 18. >PAGE 5

FEBRUARY

GEORGE CANNING MP

THE DUKE OF YORK

KING GEORGE IV (Jan): Photo

by Birmingham Museums Trust, licensed under Creative Commons 0, Public Domain.

GEORGE CANNING (April) Georgios Kolidas/stock.adobe. com DUKE OF YORK (May), Wellcome Collection

5: King George opens new session of parliament. He says he is was deeply concerned that a spirit of outrage exists in Ireland. They should consider immediately if existing laws were adequate to protect loyal and peaceable subjects from agrarian secret societies.

6: Radical and progressive Whigs attack Tory legislative plans. Radical Sir Francis Burdett says ministers and their friends flourish alone amid general distress and ruin.

6: Chinese junk Tek Sing sinks off Dutch East Indies en route to о Batavia carrying porcelain kitchen-ware, oil lamps and ornaments. As many as 2,000 people die. >PAGE 14 7: New Insurrection Act gives viceroy and government in Dublin greater powers to crack down on violence by agrarian secret societies in Ireland.

27: Start of machine-breaking riots in Norfolk over rural grievances.

MARCH

27: Former Tory MP Sir Alexander Boswell dies after duel with Whig James Boswell in Fife. >PAGE 6

30: Tory former cabinet minister George Canning (pictured left) introduces bill that would remove legal restrictions on Catholics sitting in parliament.

MAY 2: Tory Duke of Buckingham and Whig Duke of Bedford are unhurt in a duel in Hyde Park, London. >PAGE 6 3 and 4: Disturbances at Bilston (Staffordshire) and in Monmouthshire. Troops are called in and the Riot Act read at both locations.

10: House of Commons passes George Canning's Roman Catholic emancipation bill with a majority of 12. House of Lords will debate bill later in June.

23: First rails laid for line connecting Stockton, Darlington and industrial centres in northeast England. >PAGE 6 23: HMS Comet launched, first naval steam-ship. <PAGE 10 23: Epsom Derby won by Moses, owned by the Duke of York (pictured left) >PAGE 11 24: MPs back new law that would ban ill-treatment of cattle and horses.

26: Fire kills at least 113 at church service in Grue, Norway.

JUNE 4: MPs vote 117-101 for review of penalties under UK law. Whig Sir James Mackintosh says capital punishment can only be justified in absolute necessity.

11: Paddle steamer Aaron Manby makes first seagoing voyage by an iron vessel. <PAGE 10 11: Scottish politician James Stuart acquitted of murder after killing former Tory MP in duel. >PAGE 6

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SCIENCE, INVENTION AND EXPLORATION

T

he first steam-powered vessel commissioned for the Royal Navy has been launched, and is expected to go into active service soon.

P.S. AARON MANBY

onlookers.

The Aaron Manby arrived in Paris on its first voyage on 11 June, carrying a cargo of clover seed and cast iron.

This is being hailed as the first seagoing voyage by an iron steamship. The sight of it is reported to have caused

Construction starts on Telford’s new Welsh bridge Building work on engineer Thomas Telford’s latest project has begun, with the laying of the first stone for the new Conway Bridge in April.

The new structure linking the towns of Conway and Llandudno adds to Mr Telford’s already considerable construction portfolio in Wales.

He is responsible for the new road from London to Holyhead, and another suspension bridge over the Menai Straits, linking the Welsh mainland with the island of Anglesey.

The bridge project, for which funding of о £41,000 was approved last year, is to be in the same style as the Menai bridge, and is intended to fit in with the appearance of Conway Castle. It will be a suspension bridge using wrought-iron chains manufactured by the Shrewsbury ironmaster William Hazledine. He has worked with Mr Telford on bridge and aquaduct projects over the last 20 years.

CONWAY CASTLE IN NORTH WALES, PAINTED IN 1809 BY ISAAC WELD

The resident engineer for Conway's bridge will be William Provis, who is acting as assistant also for the Welsh section of the 'new road' and the Menai bridge. This will allow Mr Telford to supervise all his projects, travel and negotiate for new work.

The publicly-funded road to Holyhead is designed to improve and speed up communications and travel between London and Dublin following the Act of Union in 1800. Some observers are describing it as the biggest road-building scheme in

surprise and disbelief in the French capital.

The ship’s hull was built at the Horsley iron works at Tipton in Staffordshire, which is owned by the engineer of the same name. It was reassembled at Rotherhithe, and uses an oscillating engine.

Parry mission hoping to move The captain of the expedition to find any Arctic route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans says he is optimistic that the two navy ships may be able to move in the next few days.

HMS Fury and HMS Hecla have been unable to sail on because of low temperatures and persistent ice during the spring at their winter base south of the Arctic Circle. The 118 crew have been working in the last fortnight to create a canal to get to open sea.

Capt. William Parry, who also led the 1819 Northwest Passage mission, says nature is 'being more than usually tardy in rendering her assistance'.

THOMAS TELFORD

Britain since the Romans.

Thomas Telford is hoping that his Caledonian Canal connecting Scotland's east coast at Inverness with the west coast near Fort William will finally be open before the end of this year. Construction began in 1804.

CAPT. WILLIAM PARRY (1827)

PARRY: NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON. CREATIVE COMMONS CC BY-NC-ND

TELFORD: SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, CREATIVE COMMONS CC BY NC

YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, PAUL MELLON COLLECTION

HMS Comet, a wood-hulled paddle tug was built at the royal shipyards at Deptford on the Surrey/Kent border.

Comet was designed by Oliver Lang, master shipwright at the Woolwich dockyard, and built by the firm set up in 1775 by businessman Matthew Boulton and engineer James Watt.

The 239 ton vessel, estimated to have cost £14,000, will mainly be used to tow HM ships in the rivers Thames and Medway.

More steam tugs are being commissioned for use at Plymouth and Portsmouth. о The launch of HMS Comet in May came seven days after an iron steamboat, the Aaron Manby, made its first appearance on the Thames.

It was inspected by naval officers and engineers, and prompted astonishment among

BLACK COUNTRY SOCIETY

Steam firsts for Royal Navy and merchant vessel

о £1 IN 1822 = ROUGHLY £100 NOW

THE ARTS AND SPORT

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ROYAL SOCIETY OF MUSICIANS OF GB, CC BY-NC-ND GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1824)

T

he rising star of European music, Giaochino Rossini has met classical music’s greatest living figure, Ludwig van Beethoven, in Vienna for the first time. But sources close to the Italian operatic specialist suggest it was an awkward encounter.

JUST PUBLISHED

Published in Edinburgh and London, more than 7,000 copies were bought from the London outlet of publisher Archibald Constable on the first morning.

The Waverley books are published anonymously, but Mr Constable has close links to the writer Sir Walter Scott.

productions of eight Rossini operas, including the newly premiered Zelmira.

The Beethoven-Rossini meeting was brief and always likely to be tricky because of language issues, and the German’s hearing problems which force conversations to be partly written down.

Herr Beethoven, 51, was polite and praised the Rossini comic works known as opera buffa and, in particular, his 1816 composition, The Barber of Seville, and urged him to keep writing in the same style.

But the Beethoven camp is understood to regard them as frivolous, sensuous and very quickly produced.

Sig. Rossini’s popularity is challenging Herr Beethoven’s domination in Europe, but he is an admirer of the German and familiar with his works. >Resources and further reading 1 June: The new book by US writer Washington Irving, an expat in Britain since 1815, is Bracebridge Hall. It is set in a manor house modelled on Aston Hall in Birmingham. It will inevitably be compared with Rip Van Winkle, written in the Midlands town in 1819.

LAST YEAR’S RA SUMMER SHOW

Wilkie wows with Waterloo widescreen for Wellington David Wilkie’s depiction of the news of victory at Waterloo in 1815 reaching Chelsea pensioners is already being called the painting of the year.

It has attracted huge crowds to Somerset House for the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition, which runs until 13 July. A barrier is in place to stop admirers damaging the painting, a step never before necessary.

The 5ft-wide painting was commissioned by the Duke of Wellington, but the idea of the pensioner reading the despatch was Mr Wilkie’s.

Even readers of the Sporting Magazine have been urged to turn their attention from the attractions of the turf to marvel at exhibit no. 126. >PAGE 16

Royals flush after Derby win The Duke of York’s horse Moses won a thrilling Derby {23 May), giving Prince Frederick his second win in Epson’s big race in seven years. Jockey Tom Goodisson won his fourth Derby, and trainer William Butler a second for his royal employer.

The duke is reported to have won о £25,000 betting on the 6/1 shot, as well as the official prize money. Reporters on the course say that the lower orders cheered him and cried out, “God

bless you - may you live long and happy - we wish you joy!”

In an effort to diversify the sport after disappointing crowds before Derby day, a £25 purse was offered for a fight between Dick Curtis and Cooper the Gypsy. Curtis, 20, won the contest after 22 minutes, with much science displayed.

Hundreds of elegant females were among the crowd.

Observers say there was as great a show of beauty and fashion as ever seen.

MOSES PASSES THE WINNING POST AT EPSOM A HEAD CLEAR OF FIGARO.

ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST / © HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2022

29 May: The 15th book in the Waverley series of historical novels set mainly in Scotland is The Fortunes of Nigel, but its action takes place in London in the 1620s, featuring King James and the Scottish community.

Signor Rossini is said to have been shocked at the German’s living conditions, with friends of the Italian composer describing his rooms as a 'dirty hovel'. Sig. Rossini, 30, is reported to be trying to raise money to improve Herr Beethoven’s accommodation, but leading figures in Viennese society are unsympathetic because of his reputation for being difficult.

Vienna is at the centre of a Rossini fever that has taken over the city’s three-month mid-year opera festival.

Enthusiasm for his operas is said to have reached the level of near hysteria with the Italian being followed in the street by admirers. He is in demand at social occasions, with the Austrian Chancellor, Prince Metternich, among his fans.

The Vienna festival, which ends in July, has seen

ARCHIVIST | ADOBE.STOCK.COM

Classical greats meet, but Rossini shocked by LvB home

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о £1 IN 1822 = ROUGHLY £100 NOW / 1 SHILLING = 5P

Old Fox’s Journal

THOMAS WILLIAM COKE MP

The Earl of Liverpool’s kindly gesture in letting the ‘heartbroken’ Duke of Clarence and his wife, Adelaide, stay at Walmer Castle in Kent as she recovers from her double miscarriage (p4) has drawn attention to the considerable benefits the prime minister gets from his untaxing second job as lord warden of the Cinque Ports. Apart from a home (his predecessor William Pitt lived there), Lord Liverpool also receives an extremely generous salary of о £3,000 a year. For doing what exactly?

society had Lfromondon barely recovered the shock of

finding out that ‘Coke of Norfolk’ was to be married to a woman 50 years his junior, when they learned that the happy couple were expecting a child later this year.

Thomas William Coke, 68, an MP first elected in 1776, and his new wife married suddenly in February after a potential romance between Lady Anne Keppel, 18, and Thomas Coke’s nephew and heir, William, fizzled out. The veteran Norfolk MP, an elder statesmen of the opposition Whigs, is said to have exclaimed, “By God, if you won’t marry her, I will marry her myself!”

The news was greeted with astonishment at Westminster and in some sections of the press. The marriage has been called ‘absurd’, the result of a ‘breezy love-fit’ by Mr Coke, pictured left. The couple honeymooned in the rural Middlesex village of Paddington before returning to the family’s stately home, Holkham Hall, and Thomas Coke’s duties as a landowner, agricultural reformer, and Norfolk MP. As we report (p4), Mr Coke is one of those taking Tory ministers to task over the distressed state of rural areas,

Rural rider William Cobbett (above) will soon be off on his travels again. The journalist, politician and farmer has twice had to flee to France and the United States, fearing arrest, and did spend two years in Newgate for treasonous libel. After his return from America in late 1819, he stood unsuccessfully in Coventry in the general election of 1820, but hasn’t abandoned hopes of success in the future.

For now, William Cobbett is campaigning on an issue close to his heart, and started a series of horseback journeys last October to find out and record the mood of rural communities. These were published in his Weekly Political Register and Mr Cobbett is determined to publish them in book form.

Later in June, after five months out of the saddle, he will travel through Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. More trips are planned for later this year.

Madame Tussaud clearly knows she is on to a good thing in the north-west of England. Having exhibited her wax historical figures in Wigan, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Warrington for more than a year, Madame Marie (pictured below in 1803 after her arrival in Britain) is set to open this month in Chester’s Assembly Rooms.

JOHN T. TUSSAUD | INTERNET ARCHIVE

BOROUGH COUNCIL OF KING’S LYNN AND WEST NORFOLK

Introducing 200’s diary, digging out the news of the doings of those who are shaping (or mis-shaping) Georgian Britain

Our latest intelligence

The Liverpool and Manchester shows alone are said to have attracted 90,000 paying customers. For о one shilling, visitors in Chester will see a tableau of George IV’s coronation in a venue dressed like the throne room at Carlton House, the King’s London palace. Perhaps curiously, the show will also depict the crowning of Napoleon in 1804. > 1822's People

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T

he early summer of 1822 finds the radical reform movement at a low ebb as the economy enters its third year of recovery.

Trade unions remain illegal, while the new powerloom mills which threaten the livelihood of the handloom weavers, so active in the radical movement in 1819, are being built apace in Lancashire. Thanks to Henry Hunt’s agitations in Ilchester gaol prison reform is moving up the agenda, but none of the reformers of 1819-20 released from prison in the last year seem to want to risk going back there.

Things are so quiet that on 6 April 1822 the radical Manchester Observer complains to its readers about the lack of news. Debate in parliament is ‘barren’, save for the occasional failed attempt to disenfranchise the worst rotten boroughs in Cornwall and give the seats to Manchester, Leeds or Birmingham. Abroad, the wave of Latin revolutions of 1819-20 has blown itself out; even to report foreign news would be ‘a wanton waste of readers’ time’. Fortunately, however, ‘any thing which has even the remote connection with the events of the fatal

© THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Three years after the Manchester massacre, reformers are behind bars and losing politically and in the courts.

Professor Robert Poole, author of ‘Peterloo: the English Uprising’, assesses their prospects at a difficult time.

FORCIBLE DISPERSAL OF A REFORM MEETING IN ST PETER'S FIELDS, MANCHESTER, 16 AUGUST 1819

What’s happened to the reformers?

16th of August, must ever more powerfully excite the feelings of the people.’

The Manchester Observer, still soldiering along on a circulation of a few hundred a week, is now carried on by John Saxton, the former chief reporter who had narrowly escaped being run through at Peterloo.

Yet despite its continued enthusiasm for the cause of justice for the victims, Saxton’s Observer hardly bothers to cover the third Peterloorelated trial.

At Lancaster spring assizes in early April, the Middleton reformer Thomas Redford, who received sabre wounds at Peterloo, was being backed by leading Whig reformers to sue for damages four members of the Manchester Yeomanry: Captain Hugh Hornby Birley, Alexander Oliver, Richard Withington,

and the notorious trumpeter Edward Meagher. Among the witnesses was Mary Dowlan, a charwoman of Lad Lane, Deansgate. ‘I dressed fourteen wounded men in my house, and took them in’, she testified. ‘My house was liker to a slaughterhouse, than to a christian’s house, with human blood.’

In sheer numbers of witnesses, Redford v. Birley has topped them all: 96 witnesses, mostly for the reformers, seventy of them not having appeared at either the John Lees inquest or the York trial of Henry Hunt and others. The Observer however saw it as a misguided exercise in attempting to claim compensation. It had a point: the special jury acquitted all the defendants on the direction of the judge, Justice Holroyd.

Peterloo, he insisted, had been an unlawful assembly; it had

been legally dispersed; and no-one hurt as a result of the dispersal had any grounds to complain. This duly asserted in law the view of Peterloo which the government had been trying, with limited success, to promote. It was the radicals’ final legal defeat, but it also left a powerful legacy of evidence that would vindicate them in the court of history.

MANCHESTER OBSERVER ARCHIVE

Robert Poole is professor of history at the University of Central Lancashire. He is author of Peterloo: the English Uprising (2019) and co-author of the graphic novel Peterloo: witnesses to a massacre (2019).

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1822’S PEOPLE

Fast facts on news-makers from 200 years ago

Michael Faraday, Scientist

b: 22 Sept 1791, Newington Butts, London | Age now in 1822: 30 d: 25 Aug 1867, Hampton Court, London, aged 75 | Buried: Highgate Cemetery, London

Chemist and physicist | One of the most influential scientists in history | Admirers included Albert Einstein who bracketed him with Shakespeare, Newton and Goethe | Assistant to Sir Humphrey Davy in 1810s | Discoverer of electromagnetic induction | Inventor of electric motor | Founded Christmas lectures for young people

Wikipedia National Portrait Gallery Royal Institution RI Christmas Lectures Royal Society of Chemistry (including video) Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge Books: Faraday, The Life / James Hamilton

Marie Tussaud, Artist & Sculptress

b: 1 Dec 1761, Strasbourg, France | Age now in 1822: 60 d: 16 Apr 1850, London, aged 88 | Buried: St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, London

French-born founder of Madame Tussaud’s wax museum | Produced first wax model (of Voltaire) in 1777 | Art tutor to Louis XVI’s sister | Imprisoned as royalist during French revolution | Made death masks of its victims, including Louis and Robespierre | Moved to UK in 1802 | Toured Britain for 33 years before establishing permanent exhibition in Baker Street

Wikipedia National Portrait Gallery, London Madame Tussauds, London Science Museum, London Books: Waxing Mythical, The Life & Legend of Madame Tussaud | Kate Berridge Madame Tussaud | Leonard Cottrell Memoirs of Madame Tussaud (1878), Internet Archive

Richard & Jane Carlile, Campaigners

Richard Carlile: b: 8 Dec 1790, Ashburton, Devon | Age now in 1822: 31 d: 10 Feb 1843, London, aged 52 | Buried: Kensal Green Cemetery, London Jane Carlile: not known

Richard Carlile was a journalist, publisher and campaigner who with his wife Jane produced The Republican | He sold and published works of Thomas Paine | Scheduled to speak at Peterloo meeting and published one of first eyewitness accounts | Richard spent nine years in prison for political activities | Couple are both in gaol in June 1822 with Jane giving birth | Advocate for freedom of speech & religion

Wikipedia National Portrait Gallery, London The Republican - editions in 2nd half of 1822 (Hathi Trust) National Secular Society

NOTES FROM NOW

Observations about the news from 1822

I

n 2022, the sinking of a ship with the loss of approaching 2,000 lives would make global headlines quickly. In 1822, it took 10 months for news of the disaster in February that befell the Tek Sing in the South China Sea, off modern Indonesia, to reach Britain, via a report carried in the Calcutta Gazette in May. The Tek Sing, a century later (for obvious reasons), would become known as the 'Titanic of the East'. It was carrying 1,600 Chinese migrants. and a huge cargo of porcelain from China.

The wreck site was discovered in 1999, and about 350,000 pieces of porcelain salvaged.

Two centuries later, a Google search shows just how many of these still are available to buy, even on eBay. Thankfully, 200 or so survivors were rescued by a British vessel, the Indiana and a Chinese junk. Indiana's captain, James Pearl, remarked, "It was not for me to enquire who they were. They were in distress and must perish but for my aid."

The famine hitting Ireland's western counties in summer 1822 was a tragic portent of the much bigger disaster to come in the 1840s, remembered in the revamped Irish National Famine Museum due to re-open in July. Much less well-known is how relief efforts and fund-raising in Britain saved lives and out-stripped what was done by the government, the UK administration in Dublin, and fund-raising there. Little has been written about the events in 1822, but Gerard MacAtasney's excellent account of the 'other famine' in Co. Leitrim, does fully acknowledge the role of the London Tavern Committee which we report on page 3.

A porcelain box from the Tek Sing, showing a flowering orchid and two-line inscription

Oysters in June?

An aquatic anachronism, say the fact-checkers of 1822.

It is reassuring to know that fact-checking, if not pedantry, was alive and well in 1822. When David Wilkie's painting of the news of Waterloo reaching London in 1815 was first shown in May 1822 at the Royal Academy's summer exhibition, approval was universal. Well, almost. A columnist in The Englishman newspaper said he would not be petty and would 'pass unnoticed' (but then mentioned) the 'glaring inconsistency' (shown above) of making oysters a feature of a picture showing an event in June. It seems they should only be eaten from September to April. An 'even greater absurdity,' he said, was giving the 'sturdy veteran' a fork.

ILLUSTRATIONS: TOP: © TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM | CREATIVE COMMONS (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) LICENSE | BOTTOM: HISTORIC ENGLAND PHOTO LIBRARY | FROM THE WELLINGTON COLLECTION AT APSLEY HOUSE, CARED FOR BY ENGLISH HERITAGE

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RESOURCES AND FURTHER READING HOME NEWS | PAGES 2-7 Ireland: The Other Famine: The 1822 Crisis in County Leitrim, by Gerard MacAtasney (THP Ireland, 2012) Amazon "Don't get the idea that this is just about one very small Irish county. It provides an excellent overview and fair reflection of relief efforts in Britain."

London Tavern Committee report, 1823 Internet Archive Royal deaths King William IV, by Philip Ziegler (Collins, 1971) Amazon Who was Queen Adelaide?, National Trust website Rural crisis The East Anglian Agrarian Riots of 1822, Paul Muskett (The Agricultural History Review, 1984) JSTOR Free registration Foxearth and District Local History Society, Newspaper Archive - Norfolk Chronicle 1822 "Stunning website containing huge quantity of fascinating material going way beyond the immediate area of this village on the Essex/Suffolk border."

New London church St Pancras Church website

St Pancras Old Church website

Stately homes Wanstead House, East London's Lost Palace, Hannah Armstrong (LUP/Historic England, 2022) Liverpool University Press Peterloo Peterloo, The English Uprising, by Robert Poole (Oxford University Press, 2019) Amazon Peterloo, Witnesses to a massacre, by Polyp, Eva Schlunke, and Robert Poole (New Internationalist, 2019) New Internationalist "Deservedly, these two very contrasting accounts of the tragic events in Manchester in August 1819 will last as definitive histories."

Stockton and Darlington Railway The First Railways, by Derek Hayes (Times Books, 2017) Amazon Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway website The Railway Station blog Swansea pollution Intelligent Town, An Urban History of Swansea, 1780-1855, by Louise Miskell University of Wales Press Early Tourists in Wales Project - Chemical Pollution Activities: Copper Jack boat trips Friends of Hafod Morfa Copperworks free guided walks INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 8 Greek War of Independence The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe, by Mark Mazower (Penguin, 2021) Amazon The Massacres of Chios - private website (Christopher Long) Charleston uprising Denmark Vesey, the Buried story of America's largest slave rebellion and the man who led it, by David Robertson (Alfred a

Knopf Inc, 1999) Amazon Charleston Gaillard Center - upcoming events to mark Denmark Vesey Bicentenary (an event may be recorded for streaming later) South America Liberators, Latin America's struggle for independence, 1810-1830,

by Robert Harvey (John Murray, 2000) Amazon The Wars of Spanish American Independence 1809–29, by John Fletcher (Osprey, 2013) Bloomsbury Collections SCIENCE, INVENTION AND EXPLORATION | PAGE 10 Thomas Telford and Conway/Conwy Suspension Bridge Man of Iron, Thomas Telford and the Building of Britain, by Julian Glover (Bloomsbury, 2017) Bloomsbury Conwy Suspension Bridge - National Trust website Parry Arctic mission Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, William Parry (John Murray, 1824) Hathi Trust website Barrow's Boys, a stirring story of daring, fortitude and outright lunacy, by Fergus Fleming (Granta, 1998) Amazon THE ARTS AND SPORT - PAGE 11 Beethoven and Rossini Beethoven, by Barry Cooper (Oxford University Press, 2000) Amazon The Unheard Beethoven Project - Beethoven 200 years ago OLD FOX'S JOURNAL - PAGE 12 Thomas William Coke Coke of Norfolk 1754-1842, by Susanna Wade Martins (Boydell Press, 2009) Amazon Holkham House website OTHERS Dover Museum has a 'stairwell' exhibition about smuggling in Kent, including the 1820s, running until mid-July.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS 200 Magazine is researched and written by John Evans.

He gratefully acknowledges the help of Jane Evans, Jude Painter, Red Rocket Studio, Robert Poole, Terry Dunne, Barry Thompson, Caroline Hardie, Michael Freeman, Andy Pearson (Swansea Council), Hannah Armstrong, Anna Tallon (National Trust), Eddie Bundy (British Newspaper Archive), British Library, Cambridge University Library, Central Bedfordshire Libraries.

General comments: feedback@200livinghistory.info Copyright issues/takedown requests: please contact john@ freehistoryproject.uk marking your email 'urgent'.

Amazon links, where given, are included because of the detail, reviews and purchasers' comments provided. Secondhand copies of books can be obtained using www.bookfinder.com We aim for 100% accuracy, but please check with visitor attractions before travelling to any mentioned in these pages.

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© NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES | COLIN DAVISON PHOTOGRAPHY

National Trust Upcoming events Hall and Estate map Directions - Google maps The Avenue, Seaton Sluice, Northumberland, NE26 4QRW

has been tackled, and 21st

century improvements added, providing disabled access, toilets, a cafe and play area.

Now Seaton Delaval is open to visitors again from 22 June, providing unprecedented access to a house designed by Sir John

THE SOUTH SIDE OF SEATON DELAVAL HALL

T

he fire that devastated Seaton Delaval Hall, 10 miles from Newcastle-uponTyne, on a January afternoon in 1822 was so fierce that it looked like a brilliant sunset to sailors off the Northumberland coast.

The east and west wings of the stately home were saved, but the central block was wrecked, with molten lead

raining down from a roof that remained open to the elements for the next 40 years, and an extension so badly damaged it was demolished.

A £7.8m project funded in part by a £3.7m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund has addressed some of the hall's most urgent needs.

Fire damage and wear and tear during the past 200 years

Vanburgh, the architect of Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace, and finished in 1728.

The house was home then to the 'gay Delavals', a family whose antics would fill the columns of newspapers today, with wild parties, 'riotous living', theatrical performances, pranks, gurning contests and competitions to bite the

Famine museum to re-open in July

IRISH HERITAGE TRUST

Ireland's National Famine Museum is set to open its doors again in early July, after a €5 million renovation project to transform it into a state-ofthe-art facility.

The Irish Heritage Trust, which manages the property in the north-western county of Roscommon, promises that the revamped museum will offer an immersive experience, blending local and national information about the great famine of the 1840s.

The Great Hunger, as it became known, led to more than 1m deaths and mass emigration from Ireland. The island's population still has not reached its 1841 peak of 8m. The scale of later events hugely overshadowed the shocking food

shortages 200 reports this month from 1822.

The museum is set in the grounds of the 18th century mansion, Strokestown Park.

The estate's tenants were impacted by the famine, with many dying or emigrating.

Strokestown's notorious landlord Maj. Denis Mahon was shot dead in 1847, a

iNSIDE THE REVAMPED NATIONAL FAMINE MUSEUM

killing that shocked Britain and is credited with hardening opinion against further spending on Ireland.

Wellington's home for Wilkie's art Scottish painter David Wilkie's people-packed depiction of the news of victory at the battle of Waterloo reaching Chelsea pensioners in London is one of the star exhibits at Apsley House, the Hyde Park Corner home that the Duke of Wellington bought in 1817 as a base to pursue his political ambitions. (In 1822 he is a

THE HALL'S CANTILEVER STAIRCASES

heads off sparrows.

Seaton Delaval Hall was acquired by the National Trust in 2009, opened to the public in 2010, closed during the pandemic, but remained open in part to allow visitors to see renovation and conservation in progress.

This has included work on two stunning cantilever staircases and on paintings, re-roofing of the west wing, fitting a new heating system, using breathable paint to return stone colouring to something like the original, and re-planting gardens. But very visible signs of the fire remain on the hall's structure to remind visitors what happened 200 years ago.

Irish Heritage Trust video "Strokestown House home to time capsule of the Great Hunger" - Irish Times Doagh Famine Village, Co. Donegal Irish Famine exhibition, Dublin

member of Lord Liverpool's Tory cabinet.) Exhibits also include Sir Thomas Lawrence's famous portrait of the duke, and George Dawe's of his Waterloo ally, Field Marshal Prince Von Blücher of Prussia.

Apsley House - Wellington Collection History of Apsley House English Heritage The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle - 1822 David Wilkie and the summer Exhibition’s first blockbuster - Mark Hallett YouTube video

© NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES | COLIN DAVISON PHOTOGRAPHY

National Trust re-builds from ashes of 1822 fire