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Post by Idris on Oct 5, 2008 23:04:47 GMT
A bit about our time period
The nineteenth century is an extraordinary time in British history. It is marked by rapidly accelerating developments in industry, technology, science and ideas, and great social change. The roots of this process can be traced back well before the beginning of the century. There had been an enormous growth in the wealth of the major European powers over the prior three centuries. The slave trade, abolished in Britain and its colonies in 1833, had played a major part in this. Sea trade stimulated developments in shipbuilding and technology, and the accumulation of capital from trade fuelled the British industrial revolution and promoted the growth of financial institutions such as banks, insurance and the stock exchange. By the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 Britain was left as the greatest naval power, able to exert expanding control over wide swathes of the globe.
While some made fortunes, the end of the Napoleonic wars also led to a collapse of rural economies as food prices slumped. With Britain in the throes of the industrial revolution, the world of work and traditional communities was turned upside down. For centuries London – the largest city in the world – had acted as a magnet, drawing people from the rest of the country. In the previous century the ports of Liverpool and Bristol had become rich from the slave trade. Now the industrial centres – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham - grew rapidly, as the wages paid by mills and foundries attracted the rural dispossessed, and factory production put self-employed workers such as weavers out of business. By 1851 Britain was not only the world’s first industrial society but the world’s first truly urban society, with more than half the population living in towns.
1851 was also the year of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations - Prince Albert’s vision of a celebration of modern industrial technology and design. It was held for six months in the extraordinary Crystal Palace, a giant glasshouse erected in Hyde Park for the purpose. The Great Exhibition became a showcase for mass produced consumer goods, not only to the rich and comfortable but, as the exhibition continued, to vast numbers of craftsmen and artisans and their families. During the course of the exhibition six million people – equivalent to one third of the British population – visited it, many of them on the new excursion trains organised by Thomas Cook. These ‘decent’ working people disproved the doubters among the upper and professional classes who had claimed that if the doors of the Crystal Palace were thrown open to the common people they would riot or deface the exhibits.
The surplus money from the Great Exhibition was used to found the Victoria and Albert, Science and Natural History Museums in South Kensington. This was part of a general movement to provide free museums and libraries for the public, to give them civilised and edifying activities, in complete contrast to the 18th century when exhibitions and libraries had been kept exclusively by and for the ruling class. Throughout the Victorian period there was a constant effort to wean the common people away from rough popular pastimes and towards organised sport, evening classes and so on. People also needed educating for the new industries, trades and businesses – in 1880 education had been made compulsory (though not free apart from the poorest) for 5 to 10 year olds, providing a workforce which could read, write and reckon, at least.
The 19th century was the great era of the reformer, and reports and investigations abounded into housing, health, crime etc although they too often came up against the dead weight of greed and convention when attempting real improvements. This is not to say that working people did not take their future into their own hands - trades unions, mechanics institutes and many other organisations were set up as the more politically aware workers in the cities began to realise the power of both education and combination.
Throughout the century there was an ever-increasing flood of inventions. The sciences developed rapidly, branching out into new forms such as archaeology, and challenging orthodoxies. Kelvin, Darwin, Mendel, Pasteur, Nobel, Mendeleev, Bell, Edison and many other researchers and inventors contributed to a new understanding of the way the world worked.
For the first time it seemed possible to change that world, challenging nature both external and internal, yet poverty, ignorance and superstition still ruled the lives of many. To some, humanity appeared about to enter a new phase – reaching for the stars while delving deep within its own psyche – but the implications were disturbing. There was increasing debate about how society should be controlled, increasing efforts to ‘improve’ the people and to purge unruly elements. The Metropolitan police force was formed in 1829 and grew year by year, becoming an accepted, though not always approved of, agent of social control. The mass media, too, became increasingly influential, inciting moral crusades by means of sensationalist reporting.
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Post by Idris on Oct 5, 2008 23:10:05 GMT
Our adventures begin in 1881 when Victoria has been queen for over forty years, and a widow for twenty – she has already become the little figure in mourning black who is ‘not amused’. According to one historian, at the start of the century British society was “vulgar, drunken, plain-spoken, unruly and sexually relaxed”, by the end it will be “prim, abstemious, euphemistic, conformist and sexually repressed.” This a sweeping generalisation of course, but the cleaning up of society is certainly the aim of influential members of the educating and controlling classes, with the queen as the foremost exemplar of ‘decency’.
‘Decency’ in 1881 is taken to mean thrift, honesty, hard work, abstinence from drink, and sexual morality. Certainly the much expanded middle classes and upper working classes pay a good deal of attention to appearing ‘decent’. But squalor and vice still exist. Rookeries such as the Old Nichol are festering slums. Alcohol blunts the sharp edge of poverty, and laudanum, like arsenic, can be bought over the chemist’s counter. Violence towards women is commonplace, both wives and children can legally be beaten. There are no restrictions on drinking, or on sexual activity, the official age of consent (raised from 12 to 13 six years ago) is negotiable for those who have the money. Opium dens, brothels, gambling establishments, cock-pits and fist-fights multiply in the city’s shadows.
The world portrayed in contemporary imaginative fiction reflects the reality of the times. It is an era of great contrasts, in which the light of reason and rationality illuminates uncanny and frightening things that have previously remained hidden in the darkness. Its heroes challenge and usually, though not always, manage to control or defeat the monsters.
The fiction of writers such as Rider Haggard, Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Wilkie Collins and Arthur Conan Doyle focuses on the impact of the progressive aspects – the detective using a scientific method to solve crime, the explorer pitting his modern understanding and weapons against the primitive tribes – set against the revelation of how deep the darkness goes. Stories throng with archaic mysteries, powerful relics, cults, cursed jewels, criminal masterminds, magic and monsters. Dark strangers, inscrutable Orientals and agents of foreign powers. Lost worlds and buried treasure. Credulous natives, secret societies, blood oaths and barbarism.
The further you shine the light the more scary things you can see lurking in the darkness!
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Post by Idris on Oct 12, 2008 22:51:01 GMT
People in the 1880s live without radio, television, cinema, recorded music or computers. A telephone exchange has recently been set up in London but only a handful of homes possess a telephone. They can have their photograph taken, but the equipment is expensive and process complicated so the skill itself remains the preserve of the professional or the keen amateur. Printed material abounds of course but there are many whose reading ability is less than perfect. However illustrated magazines and newspapers are increasingly popular, and the press is becoming ever more influential in shaping public opinion.
Without other forms of mass media, most Victorians have limited knowledge of the world outside their own class and culture. Education is hardly much help - for many the geography they learn in school consists of lists of the products of countries that mean nothing to them, and history of lists of dates of the reigns of kings and queens. Those who do go abroad as administrators, merchants or as the wives of men serving in the military have increasingly come to live within their enclaves and have less and less contact with native society. Increasingly too, as the Empire expands, the concept of the ‘White Man’s Burden’ informs the British – or more properly English - view of its subjects in other lands. According to this concept, it is an Englishman’s duty to bring the benefits of civilisation to benighted parts of the world by imposing his law and morals upon the inhabitants, the natives being too simple and childlike to rule themselves.
This view of other races, particularly those of Africa and the Pacific, is reinforced by the images of ‘natives’ in so many stories and illustrations – wild-haired dark-skinned persons, dressed in skins, often with a bone through the nose, caper about either waving spears or dancing like madmen to drums, while going in abject fear of the local witch-doctor. By contrast the cultures of India and the Middle East are portrayed as rich and complex, but also cruel and corrupt. Hinduism in particular – although acknowledged as an ancient and once sophisticated religion - is regarded as having become grotesque and depraved, with its strange idols, sacred cows, and practices such as sati, thugee, and in some temples, animal sacrifices.
Converting heathens to a decent religion is part of the white man’s duty of course - as David Livingstone believed, ‘commerce and Christianity’ are the bedrocks of British liberal imperialism. Missionaries are frequently among the first to enter newly ‘discovered’ parts of the world. They bring hospitals, dispensaries, schools and colleges, as well as churches, but never forget their primary purpose.
'From Greenland's icy mountains, From India's coral strand, Where Afric's sunny fountains Roll down their golden sand, From many a palmy plain, They call us to deliver Their land from error's chain'
as the Bishop of Calcutta wrote in the 1820s.
By the 1880s British missionary societies spend millions of pounds, and employ thousands of their workers throughout the world. Missionaries do gain unrivalled knowledge of the localities in which they work, recording ways of life and languages even as they themselves are elements of change. Missionary work also provides the opportunity for an exciting life and enhanced status. There are some, however, who travel to other lands without feeling called to carry the word of Christ to the heathens or impose English law on them. Men - and not a few women – who respect the cultures they come to live amongst, and desire to learn their languages, customs and history out of intense interest. Some adopt local dress, or even become part of the society they are studying.
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Post by Idris on Jan 13, 2009 23:45:43 GMT
The system used in Victorian Britain is rather complicated for anyone to follow who was not brought up with our British pre-decimal coinage. Here is some information which might give you an insight, or alternatively confuse you even more!
Pounds, shillings, and pence The pound sterling is the central unit of money. The pound is divided into twenty shillings and each shilling is divided into twelve pence. The pound is represented by £, the shilling by 's' and the penny by 'd'. Amounts above £1 are written £3-12-6d, but below it is written thus - 12/6 meaning 12s-6d. Ten shillings is written as 10/-.
An amount such as 12/6 is pronounced 'twelve and six' in casual speech, or more formally 'twelve shillings and sixpence'. Among working Londoners a shilling is often called a 'bob' as in 'it cost three bob'. But that is only used for whole shillings so it would be 'three bob' or 'three and six' but never 'three bob and six'.
The guinea A guinea is £1-1s-0d and written as 1gn or 3 gns. It is considered a more gentlemanly amount than £1. Tradesmen are paid in pounds but gentlemen in guineas. A barrister is paid in guineas but keeps only the pounds, giving the shillings to his clerk.
Coins The sovereign is a gold coin worth £1. The half sovereign, also of gold, is worth 10/-. There is no guinea coin minted by this time.
The crown is a silver coin worth 5/-. The half-crown is a far more common silver coin worth 2/6 or exactly one eighth of a pound. The florin is a silver coin worth 2/-, and often referred to as a two-shilling bit, or two-bob bit.
The shilling is also a silver coin as is the 6d (pronounced sixp'nce) and the 3d (usually pronounced thrup'nce and often called a thrup'ny bit)
Lower value coins are called coppers but are actually made of bronze. The penny is the standard coin for most people. There are also the halfpenny (1/2d) which is pronounced hape-nee and sometimes written ha'penny, and the farthing (1/4d) worth a quarter of a penny.
Banknotes The only common note issued is the £5 note - the white fiver - although it is possible to get higher denomination notes. Most people never use them.
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Post by Idris on Feb 15, 2009 23:28:06 GMT
While in London people do not need to carry a huge pile of equipment around with them – in the greatest city on earth virtually anything can be obtained provided one has enough money or influence. Working people have access to the tools of their trade, and other basic equipment such as rope or a lantern can be easily bought, borrowed, or stolen. Members of the Upper Class expect to be able to obtain goods on credit, although they may carry some small change for tips and so forth. Middle Class persons will pay for small purchases with cash, and will carry silver and a few sovereigns. The Lower Middle Class are generally struggling to keep up appearances, so are very wary of spending too much. Working people use cash and rarely carry more than a few shillings, unless for some special reason. The poor will likely have no more than coppers, if they have any money on them at all. Those in the underworld or on its edges have to be more discreet with their money, which will be tucked into corsets or bloomers, or sewn into the lining of clothes. Clothing Nineteenth century Europeans wear a great many clothes, even in warm climates. Not including the million workers involved in textile manufacture, an army of people are needed to keep the Victorian Englishman or woman properly turned out – tailors, dressmakers, shirt-makers, hosiers, milliners, furriers, lace-makers, hatters, glovers, boot and shoe makers, hairdressers, wigmakers, stay-makers, drapers, mercers, haberdashers, embroiderers, and the makers of buttons, of umbrellas and parasols, of shawls and of trimmings. All of these have their own shops in the city. The better off have their clothes made for them, but the trade in ready-made items has been increasing since the invention of the sewing machine in mid-century, supplying the expanding urbanised lower middle and working classes with cheap ready-to-wear clothing – which might be made in a large purpose-built factory or in a big city sweat-shop - and ready-made boots and shoes from the factories of Northampton. For many even this is a luxury, and they depend on second-hand clothes shops and market stalls for cheap garments and footwear, or on charitable organisations and individuals for gifts of donated items. In Victorian society clothes are routinely recycled – passed on to servants by their masters and mistresses, handed down to younger brothers and sisters in families, collected and redistributed by the rag-and-bone man, sold for farthings by the poor to those even poorer than themselves. Even rags can be turned into paper or used to make rugs by the enterprising housewife. Modes of dress indicate a great deal about a person. Small boys wear dresses until they are ‘breached’ ie. put into trousers. A girl wears her hair up to show she has left childhood behind. Corsets and bustles modify a woman’s figure to fit the current image of womanhood. The shirt of an office clerk has a collar, that of a manual worker does not. A widow is expected to spend at least a year in mourning black. Prostitutes wear the latest styles in cheap and gaudy materials, leave their hair uncovered, paint their faces and scent themselves with patchouli and musk. Hats – held on by long hatpins - and gloves are worn as a matter of course when out of the home. Of course not everyone follows fashion slavishly, even when they can afford to. Older people are more likely to wear the styles of the past. Those who have to accept second hand clothing will be unlikely to dress a la mode. And there will be some who are determined to keep up with the latest styles even on a limited income. For anyone who can afford it, clothes are changed with circumstances – there is great attention paid to wearing the right outfit for the time of day, and for the activity one is undertaking. Tweed in the country, flannel in the summer, tea-gowns, morning dresses and so on. There are special costumes for riding, hunting, cricket and other sporting activities. Useful information about dress and fashion can be found at - www.tudorlinks.com/treasury/articles/index.htmlwww.fashion-era.com/aesthetics.htmwww.costumes.org/classes/fashiondress/BustlePeriods.htmen.wikipedia.org/wiki/1880s_in_fashionen.wikipedia.org/wiki/1870s_in_fashionwww.knowlesville.com/vintage/getting-dressed.htmlPersonal ItemsMost women carry handbags, which are made of various materials to co-ordinate with different styles and decorated with embroidery, beads, ribbons and so forth. A woman’s handbag will often contain linen or cotton handkerchiefs, purse with money, pencil, penknife, keys, spectacles or pinz-nez or an old-fashioned magnifier, watch, pocket book (diary), scissors, button hooks in various sizes (for the large number of buttons fastening clothes and boots), thimble, pincushion, needle case, mirror, scent bottle, comb, smelling salts (sal volatile), bon-bon (sweet) box, cachou (breath-freshener) box, pill box and anything else that might be wanted during the day. A woman may also carry visiting cards in a case. This may be made of silver, ivory, papier mache or sandalwood, and inlaid with mother of pearl, lacquer work etc. Morning calls are made after lunch, and if the person called upon is not in, a card is left with the name of the visiter and a message such as p.r. (pour remercier) which means thanks for entertainment, p.c. (pour condoler) meaning condolences, or p.p.c. (pour prendre conge) before going away. Less substantial than a handbag is the sovereign purse, made of delicate metal chain or chamois leather with a metal fastening. A plainer version is the stocking purse – kitted or crocheted, and sometimes decorated with beads. The chatelaine bag is a plush bag hung from the wrist or belt, with a small pocket inside for a coin or ticket. The gothic revival has also brought the chatelaine itself back into fashion – this is a contrivance on the belt from which hang useful items such as a silver watch, an ivory pencil, a penknife, needle-working or domestic tools. For social occasions a lady will carry a reticule, a drawstring bag made of lightweight finely embroidered silk or satin, only large enough to contain her dance card, fan, handkerchief, scent, face powder and rouge. Or an opera bag to carry the same items plus opera glasses. Fans are an important women’s fashion accessory, for cooling the overdressed lady after exertion or in a crowded room, and have a sign language all of their own. Larger fans are currently in fashion, particularly those made of ostrich feathers with a tortoiseshell handle. Parasols are carried by women to protect them from the sun, for to have tanned skin is a sign of low status. In winter the hands may be protected by a muff, and sometimes these are made with an integral purse. Men carry personal items in their pockets, with which Victorian clothing is liberally provided. Apart from the obvious things such as cash, spectacle case etc, a man is quite likely to carry a pipe and tobacco, or if he can afford them, cigars. Cigarettes are expensive and exclusive being made by hand from Virginia, Turkish or Egyptian tobacco. Lucifer matches are carried in a vesta case, which may be plain or patterned, of cheap pressed tin or gunmetal, or of expensive silver or ivory, or decorated with enamel. Some are even made in novelty shapes – the most popular being a brass pig with a hinged head, also Mr Punch, skulls etc. A man might carry a snuff box, but snuff taking has to a large extent given way to smoking. A man will often wear an Albert chain, anchored at one end to a waistcoat buttonhole by means of a metal bar, and used to secure a watch at the other. The watch fits into a small pocket called a fob. Other items may be attached to the chain including small vesta cases, sovereign cases, pencils, compasses and emblems. Chains of this kind are worn by all classes of men apart from the very poor, the difference in class being reflected in the materials and workmanship. For travelling, a man will take a portmanteaux or Gladstone bag, made of leather with expanding sides & a flat base, and straps which can hold a folded coat or cloak and an umbrella. The female version of this is a carpet bag, of canvas embroidered with wool, across which a parasol can be laid when not in use. Of course on long trips any person of substance will need at least one metal bound trunk, and a lady will have her vanity case, with its matching silver topped bottles and jars, brushes and mirror. TransportThe poorer members of society use ‘shanks’s pony’ – in other words their feet, but the horse drawn omnibus (two decks, the upper one open to the elements) and horse drawn trams, running on rails, are cheap forms of public transport throughout the city. Handsom cabs and four-wheeled growlers ply for hire - even the well-off often use light horse drawn cabs rather than private carriages. Horses are everywhere, pulling carts and drays as well as buses and cabs, and jams are frequent. Horses are not the only form of transport however. Underground railways run under parts of the city, avoiding the congestion on the roads, transporting people too and from the railway termini and new suburbs that surround London. More people are cycling too, as the exciting but dangerous penny-farthing bicycle is being replaced by new smaller-wheeled models with chains and gears. Even ladies' models are available. WeaponsA wide range of weapons exists in 19th century England, and there is little control over their possession. An officer in the army or navy will retain his service revolver, a gentleman will keep shotguns at his country house, and most of those who travel or serve abroad bring back exotic weapons, while collections of swords and other antique armaments may be found in any castle. Most decent people walk the streets armed with nothing more than a heavy walking-stick or a sharp-pointed umbrella and long hatpins, despite regular panics about garotters, railway murderers and so on. Some may go so far as to carry a sword-stick, and a lady can, if she so wishes, hide a pearl-handled revolver in her bag – but these are rare. The police only use truncheons, and even those who live by violence will most likely carry a club or knife in preference to a gun, or just employ fists and boots.
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Post by Idris on Feb 20, 2009 23:47:36 GMT
The Dickens Dictionary of London, 1879 is a most useful publication. A copy can be downloaded at www.victorianlondon.org/publications/dictionary.htmIt covers all areas of London life, from churches to clubs to workhouses, and all kinds of interesting information about the city. Highly recommended (I shall certainly be using it) Id
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Post by Idris on Mar 20, 2009 23:34:05 GMT
Apprenticeships
APPRENTICE signifies a person who is bound by indenture to serve a master for a certain term, and receives in return for his services instruction in his master's profession, art, or occupation. Apprentices and masters are equally bound to perform their portion of the contract towards each other, and if the master neglect to teach the apprentice his business, or the apprentice refuse to obey his master's instructions, both are liable to be summoned before a magistrate to answer the complaint against them.
A master cannot legally compel his apprentice to work an unreasonable length of time. There is no specific duration marked out by law, but doubtless the habitual employment of an apprentice for more than twelve hours daily (exclusive of meal times) would be deemed unreasonable. Compelling an apprentice to work on Sunday is clearly illegal. On these points, however, justices have not the power to interfere where the premium paid exceeds £25.
When an assignment is made of a trader's effects, the apprentice may form part of the assignment and he is bound to serve him to whom he is transferred in all respects the same as his original master. Bankruptcy, however, is a discharge of the indenture. In cases of dissolution of partnership, the apprentice is bound to serve the remaining members of the firm, just as though the partnership remained intact. When the master dies the apprenticeship is at an end, for the contract is held to be a personal one between master and servant. But, by the custom of London, if a master die, the apprentice is bound to continue his services to the widow, provided she carry on the same trade.
Indentures may be cancelled by mutual consent; the safest and most economical mode in such a case is simply to cut off the names and seals of the parties in the indenture, and endorse thereon a memorandum, signed by all parties, to the effect that they give their consent to the cancelling of the same. If there be any covenant for maintenance in the indentures, the executor of the deceased master is bound to make provision for the same so far as the assets will allow.
A master may administer reasonable corporal chastisement to his apprentice, but he cannot discharge him. If any apprentice, whose premium does not exceed £19, runs away from his master, he may be compelled to serve beyond his term for the time which he absented himself, or make suitable satisfaction, or be imprisoned for three months, If he enters another person's service, his master is entitled to his earnings, and he may bring an action against the persons who enticed him away. An apprentice cannot be compelled to serve in the Militia, nor if impressed in the Royal Navy.
Apprenticeship indentures need not of necessity be legally prepared, but may be drawn up on printed forms designed for that purpose, and sold at the various law stationers.
APPRENTICING. As this step has the most important influence upon success in life, it ought to be exercised by parents and guardians with the most scrupulous care and discretion. In apprenticing a youth it is not alone sufficient that he should learn a trade from which good earnings may afterwards be derived, but that the trade selected should be in accordance with his taste, and also conformable to his mental and physical capacity. It may be said that a boy does not know his own mind, and that it is consequently idle to consult him upon a subject when his seniors are better qualified to judge. But in the majority of cases a boy will be found to give unmistakeable indications of the branch of mechanical employment upon which his mind is most bent and for which his hands will be consequently most fit. And if this evidence of a distinctive perception is disregarded, and the boy is apprenticed to a trade of a totally opposite nature to that for which be has a predilection, the incessant struggle between natural desire and constrained duty will frequently entail failure and disappointment, and irrevocably blight the youth s prospects in life.
Equally necessary is it that the mental and bodily faculties should be considered before apprenticeship. It is, for instance, manifestly unjust both to master and apprentice to place a youth of notoriously dull parts in a situation where a constant demand will be made upon him for mental labour which he is unable to supply. And it is also a species of cruelty to select for a youth of a weak and delicate constitution such a trade as is only adapted for the robust and hardy. Obvious as these deductions may appear, yet it is certain that they are continually being disregarded, and youths without number are apprenticed to trades for which they have neither the inclination, aptitude, or strength, simply because some relation or friend happens to be of a particular trade which seems to offer an excellent opportunity for advancement.
The moral character of the future master, together with his commercial reputation, should be strictly inquired into; for there are some employers whose only anxiety is to secure the premium, and when that is received to allow the apprentice to pursue his own undirected course as best he may. The wisest plan, therefore, when the particular trade is determined on is to place the youth with a person who has been, established for some years, and whose, deputation and ability can be testified to by former apprentices.
The premiums for apprenticeship are governed by no stated tariff but as a general rule they are proportioned to the wages which the trade affords. For instance, instruction in an art by which three pounds a week may be earned is as a matter of course worth more than that from which only five and thirty shillings a week can be gained. The amount of the premium, therefore, is a secondary consideration to the advantages which its outlay secures.
In apprenticing, another consideration is to be attended to, which is, that the trade chosen shall not be one which materially fluctuates, or that depends upon the caprices of fashion. That handicraft is the most reliable, which produces articles that are and must be as a matter of necessity always in request. Amongst these may be enumerated boot-maker, hatter, tailor, carpenter, engineer, plumber and painter, saddler, turner, watchmaker, &c.
The usual term of apprenticeship is seven years, namely, from fourteen to twenty-one years of age, but that period of probation is not always necessary, and, generally speaking, it is optional to determine upon a shorter term.
From 'The Dictionary of Daily Wants' 1858-59
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