Elijah’s Mermaid (53 page)

MARGATE SHELL GROTTO

The Grade 1 listed Margate Shell Grotto plays a relatively small part in
Elijah’s Mermaid
, being the underground ‘cave of shells’ in which Pearl first poses in darkness for the artist Osborne Black. But it has a great significance in terms of what her life is about to become – and it is the most fascinating place, which, again, you can visit and see today.

The history of the grotto is by no means certain. It was discovered in 1835 when, while attempting to dig a pond, a man named James Newlove and his son, Joshua, discovered a peculiar hole in the ground. When Joshua then crept inside he found no less than seventy feet of winding underground passages at the end of which was a much larger chamber and, within that, something that resembled an altar. What added to the mystery was the fact that the walls were all covered in cockle, whelk, mussel and oyster shells which form various mosaic designs – which some say depict the Tree of Life, phalluses, gods and goddesses, the horns of rams, a three-pointed star, as well as symbols of the sun and the moon.

Mr Newlove was soon to realise the commercial potential of his find. By 1837 the first paying visitors arrived – and the still ongoing debate commenced as to the origin of the caves. Some thought them an ancient temple, some the home of a secret sect, with others entirely adamant that they must be a Regency folly. But such follies were built on wealthy estates and Mr Newlove’s discovery existed beneath common farmland. And then, there is also the fact that had the grotto been constructed as recently as the 1700s then surely some record or map would remain – not least with regard to the enormous industry involved in excavating the passages and creating the exquisite mosaics, with shells numbered in the millions. And yet, there was no local knowledge at all regarding the grotto’s existence.

In 1999 English Heritage commissioned an investigation, but its only conclusion was that the grotto was unlikely to have been
built during the Victorian period. Carbon dating was a failure owing to the build-up of soot from the use of oil lamps for Newlove’s tours. And so the mystery remains.

BOBOLI GARDENS

The Boboli Gardens in Florence are truly glorious. First constructed in the sixteenth century and extending up a hill behind the Medicis’ Pitti Palace, they are adorned with grottos, fountains, lakes and pools. They feature many classical statues, including the dwarf on the back of a turtle that Pearl refers to in the book. However, some of the more valuable works such as those by Michelangelo have now been replaced by copies.

THE UFFIZI GALLERY

Also in Florence is the Uffizi Gallery, where an international collection of wonderful artworks and paintings was gathered by the Medicis. The permanent display contains Botticelli’s
Birth of Venus
, which Osborne views with Pearl at his side in a scene in
Elijah’s Mermaid
.

Other Themes In
Elijah’s Mermaid

VICTONAN PHOTOGRAPHY

When researching Victorian photography I visited the National Trust’s Lacock Abbey, set in the heart of Wiltshire. This country house with monastic roots was once the home to William Henry Fox Talbot, a pioneering contributor to the English art of photography.

When Elijah Lamb takes up the art I tried to imagine his work as being comparable to that of Julia Margaret Cameron, who created stunning portraiture and illustrative allegories which formed a natural link to those themes explored by the Pre-Raphaelites – among whom, as with many artists, there was a growing trend to refer to photographic work to capture the nuance of nature in paint, in all of its intricate detail.

When Augustus Lamb poses for Elijah I have taken the liberty of alluding to an actual Victorian photograph, ‘Don Quixote in his Study’: a glorious sepia albumen print taken by William Lake Price.

As far as Frederick Hall is concerned, with his exploits of sneaking up on his maid while she is still sleeping in her bed, I have echoed another real event, when Edward Linley Sambourne, the illustrator and cartoonist employed by
Punch
magazine, developed a passion for photography and took to capturing his household staff – and some, such as his maid, were quite unaware when he did so. Also, when his wife was out of town, he was not averse to hiring young female models from the Kensington Camera Club and inviting them into his home, where they posed somewhat provocatively – some in a manner that might well grace Frederick Hall’s riskier publications, for the growth in printing and photography in the Victorian era led to a huge surge in pornography.

STORIES IN MAGAZINES

During Victoria’s reign there was a flourishing trade in magazines and periodicals which supplied a regular supply of serialised fiction, social discussions and features on fashion and food – even the latest music to be played on the family piano or harp. Mrs Beeton’s
Book of Household Management
began as a series of instalments – as did the work of Dickens, who also edited a magazine which was known as
Household Words
, later becoming
All the Year Round
– the latter title adapted to create my
As Every Day Goes By
, a magazine owned by Frederick Hall, in the pages of which the young Elijah, Lily, and also Pearl, read chapters of
The Water-Babies
.

HEALTH, MEDICINE AND DISEASE

Wherever possible the medicines referred to in the pages of
Elijah’s Mermaid
are based on actual Victorian concoctions. Many of them really did contain potent measures of opium and/or cannibas. A bottle of laudanum could be found in every household medicine chest, and arsenic was readily available too – an ingredient in Fowler’s Solution which was used to get rid of unwanted hair.

Doctors still applied leeches for the ‘letting of blood’, and a popular treatment for bruises was to apply a paste based on a solution of crushed earthworms.

Without today’s more sophisticated means of classification and diagnosis an illness such as Augustus Lamb’s might leave a doctor at a loss to know what was causing the symptoms of shaking or loss of memory. In this fictional situation I have drawn on personal experience, a member of my family being afflicted with Parkinson’s disease – a terrible progressive condition for which there is still no cure, for which hydrotherapy (or water cures) would be entirely useless – although they were very popular and often prescribed for the treatment of various conditions. Florence Nightingale and Charles Darwin were
both said to be fond of this regime to build their strength and calm their nerves. But when meted out in asylums the method could be extreme and cruel.

As far as venereal disease is concerned, just as in parts of Africa today, where AIDS has become so prevalent, there were people in Victorian times who believed that men so afflicted might be completely cured if they chanced to have sex with a virgin girl, when sadly such an evil act might lead that innocent to her death.

BROTHELS IN VICTORIAN LONDON

In the mid-nineteenth century the age of consent was just thirteen, and with no compulsory education for girls until 1870. Women were idealised as ‘Angels of the Hearth’. A wife was her husband’s possession. If she left him, then, more often than not, she would be spurned by society, or demonised as ‘the fallen’.

At this time prostitution was rife, the city of London being the home for countless thousands in that profession (reports are variable but some say as many as 80,000) and for girls who entered the workhouse the fate could be more or less guaranteed.

There were various degrees of trade – those who were wickedly lured into the life (such as in the case of my own Isabella), those who led normal family lives but worked for money now and then, those who walked the streets alone, those who worked in communal lodgings under the ‘care’ of a pimp or madam, and those in high-class establishments such as the House of the Mermaids, who might hope to make ‘introductions’ and secure a permanent ‘love’, perhaps being set up in their own abode.

The risk of sexual disease was high, with treatments painful and primitive, with ‘Lock’ hospitals taking in the afflicted and keeping them in quarantine. The risk of venereal disease to the health of the general population was deemed to be so very great that in 1864 the first Contagious Diseases Act was passed in
Parliament, from then on making it legal to regulate the movements of prostitutes in cities, garrison towns and ports, where females could be arrested and subjected to brutal examinations. Of course, this freedom might lead to abuse, and indeed more than one ‘decent’ woman was subjected to great embarrassment.

In the final pages of
Elijah’s Mermaid
, where a contemporary newspaper report reflects on the House of the Mermaids being opened as a gallery devoted to the work of Osborne Black, I also make a reference to Lily Lamb’s philanthropic work, helping to rehabilitate prostitutes in Utopia House in Bloomsbury.

That institution is imaginary but its concept was inspired by the real Urania Cottage, where Charles Dickens and Angela Burdett-Coutts (a wealthy and generous heiress) set up a ‘redemption home’ where the fallen but ‘not lost’ could, hopefully, be led back to the righteous path.

VICTORIAN SLANG

In the earlier narrative of Pearl I have used quite a lot of Victorian slang; language she has learned from Tip Thomas and others who live in the House of the Mermaids. Below is a list of such words, along with their definitions, though hopefully most will be obvious from their usage within the story’s frame.