Judge Thumb

Many of us have heard/used the phrase, "rule of thumb."  Some may even know the phrase's notorious origin.  It is yet another phrase, still used today, that we can thank 18th century England for.

Sir Francis Buller at the age of 32 was the youngest justice ever appointed to the King's Bench, a mere six years after he was called to the bar.  You may think this would mean his actions as a  judge to be just and good but that wasn't necessarily the case.  He was known to be bull-headed and impulsive in his judgments.  Justice Buller was most known for his stance on domestic abuse.  Supposedly, he believe there should be a "rule of thumb," that is, a husband could beat his wife, as long as it was with a stick no longer than his thumb.  This rule was never adopted legally.  As silly as the rule sounds now, it sounded just as foolish in 1782.  James Gillray especially thought so and dubbed Justice Buller, "Judge Thumb," making him quite the laughing stock of the justice system.

Ironically, Buller was one of the judges which presided over Mary Eleanor Bowes' extreme case of domestic abuse.  However, Mary's horrid husband, Andrew Stoney's abuse shocked even Judge Thumb who was disgusted by Stoney's actions and threw him into prison.  So although he was a bit medieval in his ideas on domestic felicity, Buller wasn't a complete misogynist!

Yay or Nay? Madame Regnault De Saint-Jean D'Angely

Well Guy Johnson, you broke our streak and ended up with a Nay.  The combination of English and native American clothes was not fashion-forward and, like Robespierre, your day job did not help.  Time for a change of scenery.

Francois Gerad paints Comtesse Regnault de Saint-Jean d'Angely (1798) in her simplistic green empire gown.  Yay or Nay?

[The Louvre]

The Tower

An essential tourist attraction to first-time visitors to London is the Tower of London.  Hoards of people visit to see the city's castle which has a long list of famous prisoners.  The same was true of tourists in the eighteenth century.  The Tower was rarely used to house prisoners and, like today, it housed the crown jewels which were on display for the public.  For a small fee you could view the royal jewels, which seems quite daring in the days before CCTV and bullet-proof glass.  A renewed interest in the medieval period and the Gothic also brought visitors into the Tower.

Something that eighteenth-century visitors did get to enjoy that we no longer do in the present age was the Tower's menagerie.  The Royal Menagerie at the Tower had been there for centuries and had an array of amazing animals through its many monarchs such as elephants, leopards, lions, and even a polar bear.  For the small price of 3 half-pence you could gain admission but if you didn't have that kind of money, a cat or dog would suffice.  Why a cat or dog? Well, what else were the lions going to eat? Yikes; I surely wouldn't be there during feeding time, how traumatizing!

Quotables

"Whoever she is, I wish she would mind her own affairs: I don't know what the devil a woman lives for after thirty: she is only in other folks way."

-Lord Merton, in Fanny Burney's Evelina