Deadlight-Hall(69)

ITEM: 6d worth of arsenic, purchased by Mrs Trubb, housekeeper to Sir George Buckle.

PURPOSE OF PURCHASE: to get rid of rats at Boundary Hall, such being a pesky nuisance, and not fitting to a gentleman’s residence. Also for whitening solution for Lady Buckle’s hands.

ITEM: Belladonna and opium, one quarter teaspoonful, purchased by Mrs Trubb.

PURPOSE OF PURCHASE: to cure Sir George Buckle’s costiveness, it being a great trouble to him and everyone else, and not helped even by liquorice and rhubarb infusion or brimstone and treacle mixture.

Note by Mrs Maria Porringer: Mrs Trubb advised to allow Mr Porringer to make up a suppository from belladonna (atropa belladonna) and opium, by the addition of glycerin and theobroma oil, this method being a preferable method to a draught. Mr Trubb (butler to Sir George) shd be able to administer suppository, although must wash his hands very thoroughly both before and after the procedure. One bar lye soap added to order for this purpose.

‘Porringer,’ said Michael, staring at the page. ‘My God, we’ve found them. We really have. This was their shop.’

‘And,’ said Nell, ‘it sounds as if Maria was very much part of the set-up.’ She read the entry again. ‘What always fascinates me about the Victorians is their contradictions,’ she said. ‘That bizarre blend of extreme reticence – covering up chair legs and all the euphemisms they used for childbirth and sex – and then the robust way they’d describe what they used to call ailments. Poor old Sir George, though.’

‘Poor old Sir George’s butler,’ said Michael, grinning, and continued reading the book’s entries.

ITEM: pinch of hyssop (hyssopus officinalis), purchased by Ada Brittle.

PURPOSE OF PURCHASE: children’s cough, which is something chronic at this time of year, no one getting a wink of sleep, and Brittle having to be off to his work at Salamander House at half-past six of a morning.

Note by J. Porringer: Mrs Brittle advised to use only one small drop for each child, since hyssop known to cause convulsions or epileptic seizures if administered in larger quantities.

Note by Mrs Maria Porringer: Mrs Brittle told she would do better to feed her children on good wholesome food, not rubbishing pies from cookshop, with no nourishment in them, not to mention filling probably being made from all the unwholesome parts of the animal.

‘She doesn’t flinch from dishing out advice, does she?’ murmured Nell. ‘I’ll bet the customers in this shop used to pray she wasn’t around when they went in.’

‘It’s in her writing,’ said Michael, touching the page with a fingertip. ‘I recognize it from the letters in the Archives Office – and the papers Professor Rosendale had from Willow Bank Farm. The odd thing is that each time I’ve seen it, I’ve had a half-memory of having seen the same writing somewhere else.’

‘In Maria’s day most people would have written in very similar kinds of hands,’ said Nell. ‘All those pot-hooks and hangers they had to practise in copybooks. You’ve probably seen this style of writing quite often.’

‘I know. I wish I could pin down the precise memory, though.’

ITEM: Valve pump syringe purchased by Mrs Trubb.

PURPOSE OF PURCHASE: Administration of enema for Sir George Buckle (glycerin solution also purchased).

ITEM: Half teaspoon of ergot and rye, purchased by Polly Mabbley.

PURPOSE OF PURCHASE: Miss Mabbley refused to state the purpose, saying it was nothing to do with interfering old besoms, since her private life was her own affair, and what folks chose to write down in some silly book was up to them.

‘Ergot?’ said Michael, looking questioningly at Nell.

‘It was used to bring on a miscarriage, I think. Agonizingly painful though, and not necessarily effective. And it could be dangerous.’

‘There were a couple of girls called Mabbley mentioned in those statements,’ said Michael, opening his notebook again. ‘I remember the name. Yes, here it is – it’s the two girls who vanished from Deadlight Hall. Polly’s daughters?’

‘They might have been. Maybe she didn’t take the ergot and rye, or it wasn’t successful,’ said Nell. ‘And she produced a couple of bastards who were placed in Deadlight Hall. As for vanishing, it sounded more to me as if they’d simply run away. But whatever happened, this is a remarkable thumbnail sketch of village life, isn’t it? And I see Maria’s contributed to flighty Polly’s predicament again.’ She pointed to a further entry on the page.