CHAPTER 6
79 Joshua Parsons was born . . . hardy perennials. Information about Parsons from census returns of 1861 and 1871 and from 'Dr Joshua Parsons (1814–92) of Beckington, Somerset, General Practitioner' by N. Spence Galbraith, in Somerset Archaeology and Natural History, issue 140 (1997).
80 physicians who specialised . . . perfect little devils from birth'. From 'Moral Insanity', in the Journal of Mental Science, 27 July 1881. In The Borderlands of Insanity (1875) Andrew Wynter wrote: 'It is agreed by all alienist physicians, that girls are far more likely to inherit insanity from their mothers than from the other parent . . . The tendency of the mother to transmit her mental disease is . . . in all cases stronger than the father's; some physicians have, indeed, insisted that it is twice as strong.' For writings by Savage and Wynter see Embodied Selves: An Anthology of Psychological Texts 1830–1890 (1998), edited by Jenny Bourne Taylor and Sally Shuttleworth.
81 an almost naked woman stabbing the boy in the privy. The idea that the killer had been naked was to recur – the Western Daily Press of 4 August 1860 pointed out that near the kitchen door, 'two taps of water could have been made use of to wash away any marks, if the person was nude'.
82 Objects could regain their innocence only when the killer was caught. For an account of the way that objects are infused with significance during a detective investigation, and returned to banality afterwards, see The Novel and the Police (1988) by D.A. Miller.
82 the original country-house murder mystery. The horrible circumstances in which Saville's body was found also played a part in establishing the conventions of this form. The corpse in a detective novel, wrote W.H. Auden in his essay 'The Guilty Vicarage: Notes on the Detective Story, by an Addict' (1948), 'must shock not only because it is a corpse but also because, even for a corpse, it is shockingly out of place, as when a dog makes a mess on a drawingroom carpet'. The classic country-house murder is an assault on propriety, an aggressive exposure of base needs and desires.
82 'sensitiveness . . . detective faculty'. In Villette (1853).
82 'reckoned' em up'. In 'A Detective Police Party', House-hold Words, 27 July 1850.
83 'If you ask me to give my reason . . . safe keeping of the swell mobsmen.' In 'The Police and the Thieves', Quarterly Review, 1856. 'Between the detective and the thief there is no ill blood,' wrote Andrew Wynter in the same article; 'when they meet they give an odd wink of recognition to each other – the thief smiling, as much as to say, "I am quite safe, you know;" and the detective replying with a look, of which the interpretation is, "We shall be better acquainted by and by." They both feel, in short, that they are using their wits to get their living, and there is a sort of tacit understanding between them that each is entitled to play his game as well as he can.'
83 'That was enough for me'. In 'A Detective Police Party', House-hold Words, 27 July 1850.
83 'I could even notice the eye . . . saw him busy.' From The Casebook of a Victorian Detective (1975) by James McLevy, edited by George Scott-Moncreiff, a selection of pieces from McLevy's autobiographical volumes Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh and The Sliding Scale of Life, both published in 1861.
83 The journalist William Russell . . . comparing both'. From 'Isaac Gortz, the Charcoal-Burner' in Experiences of a Real Detective (1862) by Inspector 'F', 'edited' by Waters.
84 'The eye . . . invisible to other eyes'. From 'The Modern Science of Thief-taking', House-hold Words, 13 July 1850. When Dickens accompanied Charley Field to a St Giles basement, he noted the detective's 'roving eye that searches every corner of the cellar as he talks'; he described the lanterns carried by Field's sidekicks as 'flaming eyes' that created 'turning lanes of light' ('On Duty with Inspector Field', House-hold Words, 14 June 1851). For a discussion of surveillance and the eyes of the literary detective, see From Bow Street to Baker Street: Mystery, Detection and Narrative (1992) by Martin A. Kayman.
84 He once arrested . . . pick pockets. From The Times, 4 June 1853.
84 The seemingly supernatural sight . . . theories of Sigmund Freud. For the fictional detective's ability to read faces and bodies as if they were books, see Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science (1999) by Ronald Thomas.
85 The standard text on the art of face-reading. Lavater's essays first appeared in 1789; a ninth edition was published in 1855. See Embodied Selves: An Anthology of Psychological Texts 1830–1890 (1998), edited by Jenny Bourne Taylor and Sally Shuttleworth.
87 Coolness was a prerequisite for an artful crime. Dickens wrote an essay about this: 'The Demeanour of Murderers', House-hold Words, 14 June 1856.
88 Even before Whicher's arrival . . . previous day's Daily Telegraph. Letters quoted in the Bristol Daily Post of 12 July 1860 and the Somerset and Wilts Journal of 14 July 1860.
88 A bump behind the ear . . . the seat of secretiveness. From the 1853 edition of George Combe's System of Phrenology.
88 This was probably the same. . . a tiger from a sheep.' Letter quoted in the Somerset and Wilts Journal of 14 July 1860.
CHAPTER 7
91 The warm weather . . . eclipse of the sun. From the Frome Times, 25 July 1860.
91 an odd episode that had taken place four years earlier, in July 1856. Account of the runaways episode of July 1856 from Whicher's reports to Mayne in MEPO 3/61, Stapleton's The Great Crime of 1860 and local newspaper stories.
92 In one newspaper . . . sister's affection.' Probably the Bath Express – the piece was reproduced, without attribution, in the Frome Times of 25 July 1860 and the Devizes Advertiser of 26 July 1860.
93 Another report . . . at the side'. Bath and Cheltenham Gazette, 23 July 1856.
93 'The little girl . . . mode of sitting.' In the piece reproduced in the Frome Times of 25 July 1860.
93 Emma Moody, fifteen . . . wool workers. From the census of 1861.
94 'I have heard her say . . . just the contrary.' This dialogue is reconstructed from Emma Moody's testimony at the magistrates' court on 27 July 1860.
94 According to Whicher's reports . . . in my place?' From report in MEPO 3/61.
96 'wonted sagacity'. From a report in The Times on 23 July 1860; 'knowledge and sagacity'. From a letter by Dickens of 1852; 'vulpine sagacity'. From 'Circumstantial Evidence' in Experiences of a Real Detective (1862) by Inspector 'F', edited by Waters.