![\"Georgian](\"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/1786-cutting-300x225.png\")
Scandal and entertainment<\/h2>\n
It also saw the print industry blossom, with newspapers, pamphlets,\u00a0 journals, magazines, plays, and novels. And the audience loved a bit of gossip.<\/p>\n
In January 1786, the Bury and Norwich Post<\/em> reported:<\/p>\n On Saturday, a man was brought before the Lord Mayor by his wife. He was at leasft feventy years of age, and his fpouse not lefs than fixty. The charge was that the old gentleman frequently played truant,<\/i> and particularly on the preceding night he had been found in bed with two girls, the elder not above feventeen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In Westmorland, the hunt was on for one James Holland,<\/strong> who had escaped from Appleby Gaol. A new prison was built at Appleby in 1771, which could accommodate 20 inmates, both men and women, in one communal cell. The police station on The Sands occupies part of the site today.<\/p>\n Holland was a weaver by trade, but had been following the \u2018trade\u2019 of quack doctor.<\/p>\n His description makes it sound like he\u2019d be easy to spot. He was about 5\u2019 6\u201d, with curly red hair, and his face pitted with smallpox scars. He had been wearing a long red and black coat, and a white coat with silver buttons, along with a velvet waistcoat with yellow buttons, nankeen britches (suggests yellow), and a pair of old striped trousers.<\/p>\n That and the leg irons must have made him stand out in Appleby, for anyone looking to apprehend him and claim the five guineas reward. Although as the main photo shows, men’s fashion was, er, colourful, I doubt many men in Georgian Cumbria followed the fashions of London and society.<\/p>\n Holland was caught at some point, but it didn\u2019t deter him. In July 1786, it was reported that he and a John Harrison<\/strong> had dug their way out of Appleby Gaol, with a two guinea reward offered a month later.<\/p>\n Also missing in January 1786 was an apprentice saddler, William Cumberland,<\/strong> aged 17. His mother Mary, of Penrith, asked anyone seeing him to treat him kindly and tell him she\u2019d squared it with his master: he didn\u2019t have to serve him any more. He might have been harder to spot. The only distinguishing feature listed is that he\u2019d recently lost his left thumbnail and it had yet to grow back.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, there was plenty of entertainment to be had in Georgian Cumbria. Whitehaven theatre-goers could see a comedy play with musical interludes called The Fashionable Lover<\/i>; a farce called All the World\u2019s a Stage<\/i>; a comedy called Conscious Lovers<\/i>; a musical entertainment called The Flitch of Bacon<\/i>; a recital of a poetical piece called Symptoms of Galloping<\/i>; another poetical piece called Tony Lumpkin\u2019s Ramble through Whitehaven<\/i>, and; another comedy, The Young Quaker.<\/i><\/p>\n If all that hilarity was too much, there was also to be a performance of Romeo and Juliet<\/i>, with A Solemn Dirge in the fourth act.<\/p>\nSo what was happening in Cumbria that month?<\/h2>\n
All the World’s a stage<\/h2>\n
![\"David](\"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/1786-david-garrick-as-Richard-III-300x259.jpg\")