Join host CORINTHIAN FINN (a.k.a. Finn J.D. John 18th Baron Dunwitch*), for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of early-Victorian London!

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For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see ⁠⁠pennydread.com/discord.⁠⁠

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IN TODAY'S "TWOPENNY TORRIDS" EPISODE:

• 01:45: STREET POETRY: From an 1840s broadside ballad: “Please Your Wife” and “Making Love by Moonlight.”
• 06:10: BLACK BESS; or, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD (starring HIGHWAYMAN DICK TURPIN), Chapter 75-79: The highwaymen, as they approach Durley Chine, are unaware that there’s still a hyperactive manhunt on for both of them, and that was what the dragoons were up to. Luckily, as they approach Durley Chine, it’s gotten dark, and they observe a dozen or so men with lanterns spreading out around the gates of Durley Chine. King puts the pieces together and realizes the highwaymen are the subject of an intensive manhunt. They’re guarding Durley Chine to nab them when they try to break out, if they’re hiding inside. But Black Bess is in the park! How are they going to get her out? Will they escape capture by the soldiers?
• 44:45: INTRODUCING OUR HOSTESS: MISS LITTLETON, of No. 3 Salisbury-street, Strand. One of the “ladies of the evening” listed and described in Harris’s List of Covent-garden Ladies, a directory for bucks and bloods out on the town in the early 1800s. “A fine plump girl,” the anonymous author writes, “with dark hair, large eyes, and dark eye-brows.”
• 48:00: A RATHER NAUGHTY COCK-AND-HEN-CLUB SONG: "The Frenchman,” a frisky song about a traveling Frenchman who, inquiring with a heavy French accent about his lost “snuff-pox,” everyone thinks he is asking them if they have The Pox.
• 50:30: A FEW MILDLY DIRTY JOKES from what passed in 1830 for a dirty joke book: "The Joke-Cracker" by Martin Merryman, Esq.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• DRAW-LATCHES: (from intro) House burglars.
• DIMBER MOTS: (ibid) Pretty girls.
• GRAVEL-TAX COLLECTORS: (ibid) Highway robbers.
• CORINTHIAN: (ibid) Sporting man of rank and fashion, most famously represented by Corinthian Tom from Pierce Egan’s “Life in London,” the story of the adventures of a wealthy Regency rake named Tom and his country cousin Jerry as they rampage through the streets of London on a continual spree.
• CYPRIANS: (From the introduction to Hostess Miss XXX) Ladies of easy virtue, a classical reference to the island of Cyprus, supposedly peopled with sexually frisky ladies.
• BLOODS, PINKS, BUCKS: (ibid) High-spirited young rich men of what today we’d call college age.
• SPORTING THEIR BLUNT: (ibid) Throwing money around.
• BUMPER: (ibid) Liquor glass.
• BINGO: (ibid) Hard liquor, usually gin.
• SLUICE YOUR IVORIES: (ibid) Take a big drink.
• THE POX: (from cock-and-hen-club song, “The Frenchman”) Syphilis; or, in a heavy French accent, a box.
• MORRIS OFF: (from outro) Run away at top speed.
• BEAKS ON THE NOSE: Police detectives or magistrates on an investigation.
• DIDDLE COVES: Bartender or landlord in a gin palace or dram shop.
• DAFFY DOXIES: Racy ladies who enjoy drinking daffy (gin).
• CAPTAIN LUSHINGTONS: Habitual drunks.
• BOOZING-KEN: Drinking den.
• SMITHFIELD: In the early 1800s a notoriously crowded and dangerous neighborhood in which a very unsanitary open-air livestock market was regularly held until the 1850s.

* The Barony of Dunwich is located in a deep forest glade west of Arkham (where, as H.P. Lovecraft put it, “the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut; there are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”) Actually it is a good 3,000 miles west of Arkham. It is not to be confused with Dunwich, the English seacoast town that fell house by house into the sea centuries ago, or Dunsany, the home until 1957 of legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.

SHOW NOTES

— for —

EPISODE 5 (Season Six)

(June 7, 2026)

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Join host Corinthian Finn, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John 18th Baron Dunwitch,* for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of early-Victorian London!

This show cycles through four themes over a four-week cycle, one show per week. This is the GRAANUM GOTHIC theme show, featuring Varney the Vampyre and other Gothic drama. It will be followed by ...

• The “Twopenny Torrid” theme episode, coming next Sunday;
• The “Sixpenny Spooky” theme episode, coming two Sundays hence; and finally—
• The “Ha’penny Horrid” theme episode, coming three Sundays from today.

For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see ⁠⁠pennydread.com/discord.⁠⁠

• 01:45: ON THIS DREADFUL DAY (June 7, 1854): A tradesman, apparently seized with madness, suddenly turned upon his mother-in-law with a poker. He was subsequently convicted of murder.
• 05:00: VARNEY THE VAMPYRE; or, THE FEAST OF BLOOD, Chapter 58-59: Jack Pringle arrives, very drunk. They give him the rest of the gin, hoping he will pass out and be quiet, which he does; but they soon have cause to regret that, as Varney tries again to sneak into the house. The admiral seizes him by the leg, but he slips away leaving the admiral holding the boot. Then someone throws a tree through the window, which the admiral gets tangled up in; and while he is freeing himself a spectral form rises above the balcony and issues a spooky warning: “Beware of the dead!”
• 35:10: CATCHPENNY BROADSIDE: A maudlin cautionary tale of an elderly couple who conspire to murder a boarder for his money, only to discover that he was their long-lost son, who’d gone to sea years before. This type of story seems to have been something of a street-literature trope back in the day.
• 40:20: THE LIVES OF THE HIGHWAYMEN: Introducing Old Mobb, a highwayman with a legendary wit and flair for the dramatic. We’ll be exploring Old Mobb’s career in the next two episodes of The Lives of the Highwaymen.
• 49:50: A FEW SQUEAKY-CLEAN DAD JOKES from the early-1800s' most popular joke book: "Joe Miller's Jests; or, The Wit's Vade-mecum."

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• NATTY LADS: Well-dressed young pickpockets.
• RUM BUFFERS: Jolly hosts.
• KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellows wandering amok in meadows and ditches, trying to stagger home.
• CORINTHIAN: A fancy toff or titled swell. Used here as a reference to Corinthian Tom, the quintessential Regency rake depicted in Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (usually referred to as "Tom and Jerry").
• CHAFFING-CRIB: A room where drinking and bantering are going on.
• GRAANUM GOLD: Old hoarded money.
• SHE-LION: A shilling.
• GENTRY COVES: Gentlemen of rank.
• AUTEM BAWLERS: Parsons.
• CLANKER: Pewter drinking-pot usually used for ale.
• ENGLISH BURGUNDY: Strong old ale.
• PIKE OFF: Run away.
• RED WAISTCOAT: The traditional uniform of the Bow-Street Runners, London’s first real professional police force.
• GAMMONERS: Swindlers or gamblers who cheat.
• ROMONERS: Fake occultists and fortune tellers.
• SHARPS: Swindlers.
• OLD ST. GILES: The neighbourhood of St. Giles in the Fields parish, which in the early Victorian age was a notorious slum.
• RUM TE TUM WITH THE CHILL OFF: The very best.

* The Barony of Dunwich is located in a deep forest glade west of Arkham (where, as H.P. Lovecraft put it, “the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut; there are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”) Actually it is a good 3,000 miles west of Arkham. It is not to be confused with Dunwich, the English seacoast town that fell house by house into the sea centuries ago, or Dunsany, the home until 1957 of legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.

SHOW NOTES:

(For complete show notes, including art and links, go to pennydread.com/discord and look in the Season 6 feed)

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01:40: HANGED TODAY IN HISTORY (June 2, 1621): Former fishmonger John Rowse came into a small fortune, which he squandered so completely that his wife and two young daughters were in danger of being made to beg. He decided that rather than going back to work as a fishmonger to earn a living for his family, he’d solve the problem by murdering them. (Special thanks to executedtoday.com, at which much more about this story can be found)

09:45: SWEENEY TODD, THE BARBER OF FLEET-STREET, Chapters 103-105: Todd returns to his shop all smiles, and Johanna is convinced he has murdered Mrs. Lovett. Meanwhile, over at that worthy’s pie-shop, she has hired a neighbour to watch the place, and put the captive cook off with a bottle of wine and a promise to free him within 24 hours after the 4:00 batch of pies goes up. The cook, after seeing the letter, eyes the pie elevator speculatively, seeming to be hatching a scheme … what’s he got in mind, do you think?

52:15: HORRID BROADSIDE: “The Execution of James Bloomfield Rush.” (April 23, 1849) The crime, trial, and execution of a murderer whose scheme to get title to his landlord’s property by murdering the whole family and blaming the relatives with which they were feuding collapsed when his would-be victims recognized him through his false beard and wig.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• FLY MOTS: Cool chicks.
• MILLERS: Prizefighters.
• KNIGHTS OF THE BLADE: Swaggering companions who are boastful of their prowess and may also claim a military rank — Captain, Major, Colonel — that they don’t really have a right to.
• SNICKER: Large liquor glass.
• OLD TOM: Top-shelf gin.
• PRATE ROAST: A loquacious fellow.
• PINKS OF FASHION: Sharp-dressed men.
• GRAANUM GOLD: Old hoarded money.
• TIP OUR RAGS A GALLOP: Run away as fast as we can.
• GRABS: Law enforcement personnel.
• TOUCH, or PUT THE TOUCH ON: To arrest.
• HELL CATS: Dangerous ladies who frequent the “hells” (gambling dens).
• BLACKLEGS: Professional gamblers who cheat to win.
• SPICE ISLANDERS: Swindlers. A double pun: Mace is a spice; a mace-man is a swindler; so a Spice Islander is, as it were, a resident of Swindle Island.
• SPEELING-CRIB: A “hell” (gambling den).
• COVENT GARDEN: London neighbourhood that was, in the Regency and early Victorian, famous as a place where bloods, bucks and choice spirits went to sport their blunt. Upscale gambling hells and brothels were conveniently close by the Royal Opera and Drury-lane Theatre.