Read Online The Covent Garden Ladies: The Extraordinary Story of Harris's List by Hallie Rubenhold - Free Book Online
Authors: Hallie Rubenhold
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airing would have aroused interest from a variety of curious parties, Mother Ward would have had her own shortlist of especially wealthy, high-ranking customers already in mind to perform the two essential roles ahead.
No sexual experience was more coveted in the eighteenth century than intercourse with a virgin. A genuine maidenhead was a delicacy to the carnal connoisseur and commanded a hefty price. As untouched young women were not in the habit of wandering accidentally into disorderly houses, any bawd would know that the expense of procuring such treasures was considerable. The going rate for the privilege of spending the night with a chaste girl could vary from £20 to 50 guineas. Particularly skilful bawds with especially beautiful young recruits might even manage to raise this sum to £100. And it was not simply the selfishly erotic pleasure of introducing an innocent to the sin of fornication that commanded these fees; it was also the guarantee of what might be considered the only truly safe sexual encounter available. Whoever he was, Charlotte’s deflowerer was likely to have been comfortably wealthy, and certainly not of her personal choosing. As the author of the
Nocturnal Revels
would have his readership believe, with regard to the pawning of her daughter Mrs Ward’s devious reputation was not unfounded. Charlotte, it seems, was ‘passed off as a virgin’ several more times to the unsuspecting, undoubtedly for similarly exorbitant prices.
Upon her entrance into the profession Charlotte was passed around like a dish to be sampled by the ranks of her mother’s clients. Even one night with the brothel’s novice would have brought Mrs Ward a healthy ladleful of cash, in addition to gifts of jewels and other bits of frippery. Enticing as these first proofs of her success were, her mother sought the ultimate prize for her daughter; an offer to be placed in ‘high keeping’.
In the eighteenth century, all whores were not created equal. Some came into the profession by chance, others through a specific determination to scale the ladder of society. Those of the meretricious sisterhood ranged in rank from the destitute and diseased ‘bunter’ or ‘bulk-monger’ at the bottom, to the high-living, silk-and-jewel-bedecked ‘kept mistress’ (later more commonly referred to as a courtesan) at the top end. Like a luxury item, the company of an accomplished, charming and beautiful mistress might be borrowed for an exclusive price, but could be owned outright, at least in theory, if her lodgings and living expenses were covered by an admirer. If the admirer was very wealthy, a young woman fortunate enough to ‘enter into keeping’ could have access to any extravagance money could procure. In order to demonstrate his own financial prowess, fashion demanded that a gentleman of influence keep a mistress as lavish in her spending habits as he. Kept mistresses were given free rein with shop-keepers and dressmakers, at the gambling tables, taverns and theatres, placing all expenses on their lovers’ generous credit accounts. Much to the dismay of the era’s moralists, kept mistresses lived as well as the noble wives they mirrored, dressing in the same clothing, wearing the same jewellery and riding in the same private coaches. They lived at some of the most modish addresses, in lodgings decorated with gilded furniture and walls lined with damask. They kept entire households of servants, often attired in their own unique livery. They threw lavish dinners and parties and offered an alternative existence to the more staid world inhabited by virtuous wives and daughters. It was for this life that Mrs Ward was equipping her daughter, not for one of street-trawling, or even dependency upon a bawd. Prostitution of this sort presented the only means by which a low-born, illegitimate daughter of a whore might raise herself from the chamber pot of society, as it was not entirely unknown for devoted keepers in time to become
No sexual experience was more coveted in the eighteenth century than intercourse with a virgin. A genuine maidenhead was a delicacy to the carnal connoisseur and commanded a hefty price. As untouched young women were not in the habit of wandering accidentally into disorderly houses, any bawd would know that the expense of procuring such treasures was considerable. The going rate for the privilege of spending the night with a chaste girl could vary from £20 to 50 guineas. Particularly skilful bawds with especially beautiful young recruits might even manage to raise this sum to £100. And it was not simply the selfishly erotic pleasure of introducing an innocent to the sin of fornication that commanded these fees; it was also the guarantee of what might be considered the only truly safe sexual encounter available. Whoever he was, Charlotte’s deflowerer was likely to have been comfortably wealthy, and certainly not of her personal choosing. As the author of the
Nocturnal Revels
would have his readership believe, with regard to the pawning of her daughter Mrs Ward’s devious reputation was not unfounded. Charlotte, it seems, was ‘passed off as a virgin’ several more times to the unsuspecting, undoubtedly for similarly exorbitant prices.
Upon her entrance into the profession Charlotte was passed around like a dish to be sampled by the ranks of her mother’s clients. Even one night with the brothel’s novice would have brought Mrs Ward a healthy ladleful of cash, in addition to gifts of jewels and other bits of frippery. Enticing as these first proofs of her success were, her mother sought the ultimate prize for her daughter; an offer to be placed in ‘high keeping’.
In the eighteenth century, all whores were not created equal. Some came into the profession by chance, others through a specific determination to scale the ladder of society. Those of the meretricious sisterhood ranged in rank from the destitute and diseased ‘bunter’ or ‘bulk-monger’ at the bottom, to the high-living, silk-and-jewel-bedecked ‘kept mistress’ (later more commonly referred to as a courtesan) at the top end. Like a luxury item, the company of an accomplished, charming and beautiful mistress might be borrowed for an exclusive price, but could be owned outright, at least in theory, if her lodgings and living expenses were covered by an admirer. If the admirer was very wealthy, a young woman fortunate enough to ‘enter into keeping’ could have access to any extravagance money could procure. In order to demonstrate his own financial prowess, fashion demanded that a gentleman of influence keep a mistress as lavish in her spending habits as he. Kept mistresses were given free rein with shop-keepers and dressmakers, at the gambling tables, taverns and theatres, placing all expenses on their lovers’ generous credit accounts. Much to the dismay of the era’s moralists, kept mistresses lived as well as the noble wives they mirrored, dressing in the same clothing, wearing the same jewellery and riding in the same private coaches. They lived at some of the most modish addresses, in lodgings decorated with gilded furniture and walls lined with damask. They kept entire households of servants, often attired in their own unique livery. They threw lavish dinners and parties and offered an alternative existence to the more staid world inhabited by virtuous wives and daughters. It was for this life that Mrs Ward was equipping her daughter, not for one of street-trawling, or even dependency upon a bawd. Prostitution of this sort presented the only means by which a low-born, illegitimate daughter of a whore might raise herself from the chamber pot of society, as it was not entirely unknown for devoted keepers in time to become
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