Sunday, 4 November 2012

5th November 1786


Hail. I hear of a terrible accident that befell Frederick the son of Mr Mercury- a poor boy from a poor family- who was accidentally circumcised by a falling window sash. There was little blood.

It is the 10th anniversary of the murder and consumption of the balladeer “Singing Annie” by the Congleton Cannibal Thorley. I was in the market place in Congleton when Thorley’s cadaver was gibbeted. Of course there was a mishap when Fisher the Waggoner got drunk and lost the corpse on rutted lanes in the Delamere Forest but after the remains were found he was strung up much to the amusement and education of the boys of the local Grammar school.

On the subject of entertainment today is the commemoration of the discovery of the Gunpowder Treason and the occasion for bonfires and the burning of the effigies. As usual we will burn Pope Pius, but given the increase in canting Methodists amongst others I suggested that we burn a figure in crow black of John Wesley( I had occasion to threw a clod of earth at Wesley at Burslem  some years ago) and this course of action was agreed upon.

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