Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies
Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, published from 1760 to 1794,
Each edition contains entries describing the physical appearance and sexual specialities of about 120–190 prostitutes who worked in and around Covent Garden. Through their erotic prose, the list's entries review some of these women in lurid detail. While most compliment their subjects, some are critical of bad habits, and a few women are even treated as pariahs, perhaps having fallen out of favour with the list's authors, who are never revealed.
As the public's opinion began to turn against London's sex trade, and with reformers petitioning the authorities to take action, those involved in the release of Harris's List were in 1795 fined and imprisoned. That year's edition was the last to be published. By then, its content was cruder, lacking the originality of earlier editions. Modern writers tend to view Harris's List as erotica; in the words of one author[who?], it was designed for "solitary sexual enjoyment".[2]
Description
Introduction
The earliest printed editions of Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies appeared after Christmas 1756. Published by "H. Ranger", the annual was advertised on the front pages of newspapers, and sold in
It was not the first directory of sex workers to be circulated in London. The Wandering Whore ran for five issues between 1660 and 1661, in the early (and newly liberal) years of the
Content
Several editions of Harris's List opens with a frontispiece showing a mildly erotic stock image opposite the title page, which, from the 1760s to 1780s, is followed by a lengthy commentary on prostitution. This preamble argues that sex workers are of benefit to the public, able to relieve man's natural inclination towards violence. It describes the customer as a patron supportive of a good cause: "be your purse strings never closed; nor let the name of prostitute deter you from your pious resolve!"[10] Sex workers were generally scorned by 18th-century society, and the 1789 edition's preface complains "Why should the victims of this natural propensity ... be hunted like outcasts from society, perpetually gripped by the hand of petty tyranny", continuing: "Is not the minister of state who sacrifices his country's honour to his private interest ... more guilty than her?"[11]
At a basic level, the entries in Harris's List detail each woman's age, her physical appearance (including the size of her breasts), her sexual specialities, and sometimes a description of her genitals. Additional information such as how long she had been active as a sex worker, or if she sang, danced or conversed well, is also included.[12] Addresses and prices, which range from five shillings to five pounds, are provided.[13][nb 1] The types of sex worker the lists present vary from "low-born errant drabs",[10] to prominent courtesans like Kitty Fisher and Fanny Murray; later editions contain only "genteel mannered prostitutes worthy of praise".[10] The charms of a Mrs Dodd, who lived at number six Hind Court in Fleet Street, were listed in 1788 as "reared on two pillars of monumental alabaster", continuing: "the symmetry of its parts, its borders enriched with wavering tendrils, its ruby portals, and the tufted grove, that crowns the summit of the mount, all join to invite the guest to enter."[15] In the same edition, a similarly lurid description precedes the latter part of Miss Davenport's entry, which concludes: "Her teeth are remarkably fine; she is tall, and so well proportioned (when you examine her whole naked figure, which she will permit you to do, if you perform the Cytherean Rites like an able priest) that she might be taken for a fourth Grace, or a breathing animated Venus de Medicis ... she has a keeper (a Mr. Hannah) both kind and liberal; notwithstanding which, she has no objection to two supernumerary guineas."[16] Miss Clicamp, of number two York Street near Middlesex Hospital, is described as "one of the finest, fattest figures as fully finished for fun and frolick as fertile fancy ever formed ... fortunate for the true lovers of fat, should fate throw them into the possession of such full grown beauties."[17] More characteristic of Harris's List though, is the 1764 entry for Miss Wilmot, which tells of an amorous encounter with King George III's brother, the Duke of York:
He gazed on her a while with eyes of transport and fondness, and gave her a world of kisses; at the close of which, in a pretended struggle, she contrived matters so artfully, that the bed-cloaths having fallen off, her naked beauties lay exposed at full length. The snowy orbs of her breast, by their frequent rising and failing, beat Cupid's alarm-drum to storm instantly, in case an immediate surrender should be refused. The coral-lipped mouth of love seemed with kind movements to invite, nay, to provoke an attack; while her sighs, and eyes half-closed, denoted that no farther resistance was intended. What followed, may be better imagined than described; but if we may credit Miss W-lm-t's account, she never experienced a more extensive protrusion in any amorous conflict either before or since.[18]
The Duke of York was only one of many famous men to have been mentioned in the lists; others included Robert Walpole, William Dodd, James Boswell, Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey, Charles James Fox, William Hickey, George IV, Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover and many others.[19]
Commentary
The women's route into the sex trade, as described by the lists, is usually ascribed to youthful innocence, with tales of young girls leaving their homes for the promises of men, only to be abandoned once in London. Some entries mention
Elements of politicisation appear in some entries. The famed sex worker Betsy Cox's 1773 listing describes how, when refused entry to a gathering of polite society at the newly opened
A common complaint regarding sex work was the foul language used,
Possible authors
The identity of the lists' authors is uncertain. Some editions may have been written by Samuel Derrick,
Hallie Rubenhold's 2005 book The Covent Garden Ladies sets out her interpretation of the story behind Harris's List. She claims that John Harrison—otherwise known as Jack Harris, a savvy businessman and pimp who worked at the Shakespear's Head Tavern in Covent Garden—was the list's originator. Born perhaps around 1720–1730,[37] Harris apparently had expert knowledge of sex workers working in Covent Garden and beyond, as well as access to rented rooms and premises for his clients' use. He kept a record of the women he pimped and the properties he had access to, possibly in the form of a small ledger or notebook.[38] Derrick, having previously authored The Memoirs of the Shakespear's Head, and possibly also its companion piece, The Memoirs of the Bedford Coffee House, was probably familiar with the Shakespear's Head. The former book details "Jack, a waiter ... who presides over the Venereal Pleasures of this Dome", and its author likely studied Harris as he went about his business. Which of the two men first thought to produce Harris's List is unknown, but probably for a one-off payment Harris allowed his name to be attached to it. With his detailed knowledge of Covent Garden, and with help from various associates, Derrick was therefore able to write the first edition of Harris's List in 1760. As an aspiring author and social climber he preferred not to associate himself publicly with such questionable material, and his name therefore does not appear on any editions.[39]
Printed and published by the pseudonymous H. Ranger, responsible for such works as Love Feasts; or the different methods of courtship in every country, throughout the known world,
As the self-declared "Pimp General of All England", the swaggering Harris amassed a considerable fortune, but his indiscretion proved to be his undoing. Prompted by reformers, in April 1758 the authorities began to hunt down and close "houses of ill fame". Covent Garden was not spared, and the Shakespear's Head Tavern was raided. Harris was caught, locked up in the local
Later years
Johann Wilhelm von Archenholz claimed in 1791 that the lists were published by "a tavern-keeper, in Drury lane", and that "eight thousand copies are sold annually."[48] There is nothing to suggest that Hayes had any involvement with any edition other than that of 1769, and the list's authors following Derrick's death have not been identified. From the 1770s Harris's List changes focus, moving away from the women of Covent Garden, to their stories. Its prose becomes more genteel, lacking the euphemisms which had helped make it so popular. These changes are echoed by the front cover, whose frontispiece becomes more gentrified. Material from earlier editions is recycled, and little attention is paid to accuracy. The responsibility for some of these changes can be attributed to John and James Roach, and John Aitkin, who from the late 1780s were the lists' publishers.[49]
In 1795 the
Modern view
Harris's List was published for a city rife with sex work. London's
Whether any of these women could confirm their addresses for publication in Harris's List is something that author Sophie Carter doubts. She views the annual as "primarily a work of erotica", calling it "nothing so much as a shopping list ... textually arrayed for the delectation of the male consumer", continuing "they [the women] await his intervention to institute an exchange",
Not every commentator agreed with Colquhoun's estimate, which became "the most widely quoted sum",[62] but in the opinion of Cindy McCreery the fact that most people agreed there were far too many sex workers in London is indicative of widespread concern about the trade.[63] Attitudes towards sex work hardened at the end of the 18th century, with many viewing prostitutes as indecent and immoral,[64] and it was in this atmosphere that Harris's List met its demise. Books such as the Wandering Whore and Edmund Curll's Venus in the Cloyster (1728) are often mentioned alongside Harris's as examples of erotic literature. Along with the anonymously written Fifteen Plagues of a Maidenhead (1707), Garfield and Curll's works were involved in cases that helped form the 18th-century legal concept of "obscene libel"—which was a marked change from the previous emphasis on controlling sedition, blasphemy and heresy, traditionally the ecclesiastical courts' province.[65] No laws existed to forbid the publication of pornography; therefore, when Curll was arrested and imprisoned in 1725 (the first such prosecution in nearly 20 years), it was under threat of a libel charge. He was released a few months later, only to be locked up again for publishing other materials deemed offensive by the authorities.[66] Curll's experience with the censors was uncommon, though, and prosecutions based on obscene publications remained a rarity. Although their court action spelled the end for Harris's List, despite the best efforts of the Proclamation Society (later the Society for the Suppression of Vice), the publication of pornography continued apace; more pornographic material was published during the Victorian era than at any time previously.[nb 3][68]
References
Notes
- ^ Many of London's sex workers fetched customers back to the brothels they worked from, although most retired to lodgings, sometimes taking their clients there.[14]
- ^ This incident is also mentioned in Horace Bleackley's Ladies fair and frail: "Betsy Cox, a strapping young woman with a fine contralto voice, who was fond of appearing at the masquerades in male attire, had leapt into notoriety during the week that the Pantheon was opened by dancing in the cotillon, notwithstanding the interdict of the Master of Ceremonies."[25]
- ^ The Obscene Publications Act 1857 was the first piece of legislation specifically enacted to suppress the sale of such material, although this is no longer in force, having been amended by more recent legislation.[67]
Footnotes
- ^ Parsons & Dale 2022
- ^ a b c Rubenhold 2005, p. 119
- ^ Parsons & Dale 2022, pp. 460–1
- ^ Denlinger 2002, pp. 358, 370–372
- ^ Carter 2004, p. 54
- ^ Fraser 1984, pp. 413–414
- ^ Friedman 1993, p. 192
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 369
- ^ Linnane 2007, p. 84
- ^ a b c d Rubenhold 2005, p. 120
- ^ Denlinger 2002, pp. 375–376
- ^ Trumbach 1998, pp. 183–184
- ^ a b Thomas 1969, p. 120
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 362
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 378
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 379
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 359
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 373
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 299–301
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 292
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 126
- ^ McCreery 2004, p. 77
- ^ Rubenhold, 2005 pp 315-16
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 285–287
- ^ Bleackley 1909, p. 209
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 376
- ^ Arnold 2010, p. 147
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 385
- ^ Denlinger 2002, pp. 391–392
- ^ Denlinger 2002, pp. 388–389
- ^ a b Denlinger 2002, p. 371
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 295–296
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 75–76
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7536. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Boswell 1799, p. 527
- ^ Boswell 1799, p. 528
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 262
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 52–72
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 102–117
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 117
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 223–230
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 236–240
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 277
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 178–186
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 205
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 260–267
- ^ "The Piazza: Nos. 13-19 (consec.) Great Piazza with No. 13 Russell Street", Survey of London: volume 36: Covent Garden, british-history.ac.uk, pp. 89–91, 1970, retrieved 27 May 2011
- ^ Archenholz 1791, p. 197
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, pp. 277–280
- ^ Law Report. Court of King's Bench, 9 Feb.., Attornies., The King V. Roach for a Libel., The Times, hosted at infotrac.galegroup.com (subscription required), 10 February 1795, p. 3
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 372
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 280
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 285
- ^ Trumbach 1998, pp. 120–122
- ^ Carter 2004, p. 16
- ^ "Inner London through time: Population Statistics: Total Population", A vision of Britain through time, visionofbritain.org.uk, retrieved 17 May 2010
- ^ Colquhoun 1806, pp. 340–341
- ^ Carter 2004, p. 55
- ^ Denlinger 2002, p. 360
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 121
- ^ Rubenhold 2005, p. 295
- ^ Henderson 1999, p. 178
- ^ McCreery 2004, p. 41
- ^ McCreery 2004, p. 70
- ^ Sova 2006, pp. 70–71
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6948. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Feather 2005, pp. 127–129
- ^ Harvey 2004, pp. 37–38
Bibliography
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- Arnold, Catharine (2010), City of Sin, London: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-1-84737-351-9
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- Boswell, James (1799), George Birkbeck Norman Hill (ed.), Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a journey into North Wales, New York: Bigelow, Brown & Co., Inc.
- Carter, Sophie (2004), Purchasing power: representing prostitution in eighteenth-century English popular print culture, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., ISBN 978-0-7546-0629-1
- OL 20612604M
- Denlinger, Elizabeth Campbell (2002), "The Garment and the Man: Masculine Desire in "Harris's List of Covent-Garden Ladies," 1764–1793", Journal of the History of Sexuality, 11 (3): 357–394, S2CID 29449091
- Feather, John (2005), A History of British Publishing, Abingdon, Oxon and New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-30226-5
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- Friedman, Jerome (1993), The battle of the frogs and Fairford's flies, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-312-10170-1
- Harvey, Karen (2004), Reading sex in the eighteenth century: bodies and gender in English erotic culture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-82235-0
- Henderson, Tony (1999), Disorderly women in eighteenth-century London, Longman, ISBN 978-0-582-26421-2
- Linnane, Fergus (2007), London: The Wicked City, London: Robson, ISBN 978-1-86105-990-1
- McCreery, Cindy (2004), The satirical gaze, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-926756-9
- Parsons, Nicola; Dale, Amelia (2022), "Harris's List of Covent-Garden Ladies (1760–1794): New Copies and New Evidence regarding its History", The Library: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 23 (4): 458–488,
- Raven, James (1992), Judging new wealth: popular publishing and responses to commerce in England, 1750–1800, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-820237-0
- Rubenhold, Hallie (2005), The Covent Garden Ladies, Stroud: Tempus Publishing Limited, ISBN 978-0-7524-2850-5
- Sova, Dawn B. (2006), Literature suppressed on sexual grounds, New York: Infobase Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8160-6272-0
- Thomas, Donald (1969), A Long Time Burning, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
- Trumbach, Randolph (1998), "Sex and the Gender", Heterosexuality and the third gender in enlightenment London, vol. 1 (illustrated ed.), Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-81290-8
Further reading
- Cruickshank, Dan (2010), The Secret History of Georgian London, London: Windmill Books, ISBN 978-0-09-952796-1
- Freeman, Janet Ing (2012), "Jack Harris and 'Honest Ranger': The Publication and Prosecution of Harris's List of Covent-Garden Ladies, 1760–95", The Library, vol. 7th ser., vol. 13, Oxford University Press, pp. 423–456
- For a selection of entries from the lists, see Rubenhold, Hallie (2005a), Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, Stroud: Tempus Publishing Limited, ISBN 978-0-7524-3546-6
- For an online version of the 1786 edition see Harris' List of Covent Garden Ladies, 1786
- For an online version of the 1787 and 1788 editions see Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, Wellcome Library, retrieved 6 February 2019
- For an online version of the 1788 edition in plain text see Harris' List of Covent Garden Ladies, Gutenberg, retrieved 29 April 2016
- For an online version of the 1789 edition see Harris' List of Covent Garden Ladies, 1789
- For an online version of the 1793 edition see Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies Introduction to the Ex-Classics Edition, exclassics.com, 1793, retrieved 7 June 2014
- For the 1788 version mapped see Romantic London