Dr Johnson's Dictionary

So I am a bit beside myself, having found 4 perfect volumes of Dr Johnson's dictionary, printed in 1805 and true to the original.Complete with descriptives of each word and a sentence to show you how to use the word.
I'm going through it slowly and finding words we no longer use and what they meant.
Today was Bellygod and Benting time
Bellygod: (from the belly of god)  A glutton, one who makes a god of his belly.! and
Benting time: the time when pigeons feed on bents before peas are ripe. Of course!

These books are wonderful and I think I may well be blogging more words I find that we no longer use.!

G'night eveyone
Pepys the pigeon

The Map of London Peculiars

Hello everyone,

Well, as some of you may have noticed we've just finished and had published our Map of London Peculiars, which is now available to buy for a snip at £3.50 (inc P&P) via our site  http://www.londonpeculiar.co.uk/

It's taken quite some time to get this map onto paper and I can tell you, we've walked for miles and miles in the research and making of it.
It all started when , whilst wandering around the outside of St Pauls, we came across this beauty, carved into the wall...

A lovely piece of 18th century graffiti, most to likely to have been done by one of Wrens builders!
So we thought, what other magical, curious little secrets are sitting around our city waiting to be spotted ?
So the map of London Peculiars was born.

Through out the whole of the summer we'd set off at the crack of dawn, often before, to walk the streets between Soho and the Tower.

Early (6am) at St Pauls one morning, whilst studying more graffiti on the walls, I was spotted by one of the cleaners waiting to go inside...as she watched me with my face up close to the walls she asked what I was up to, so I showed her...how amazed was she that after working there for many years hadn't spotted the wonderful carvings on the church of peoples names and dates from the 1700's.

We'll be filling you in as to how we found some the curious things on the map over the next few weeks,
but in the meantime, enjoy the wonderful late summer sun and nab yourself a copy of the map and have a wander!
A very proud
Pepys

Richard Turpin, executed for horse stealing.

Hello all,

We are very excited here at London Peculiar this week as we finally have all 6 volumes of the Newgate Calender from the early 1800's.
Needless to say there is a lot to read, but I went striaght to the Richard Turpin page and I must say learnt quite a lot.

His early career was house breaking.He and his friends would knock on the door of someone they knew had something of worth to steal and , whilst two held or distracted the owners, the other would raid the house.
On one occassion, Turpin put a lady onto the fire to 'compel her to reveal her treasure'! Nasty.

The gang raided and ransacked many houses until finally they were reported and a reward of £50 was placed on Turpins head, the King guaranteed freedom to any gang member willing to reveal his whereabouts.
No one came forward and Turpin and gang continued robbing and terrorising people in their homes.

The reward was raised to £100 for his capture and at this point, around 1737 he became a highway robber.
He was becoming more notorious and more wanted than ever.
In May 1737 he committed murder for the first time (the second he actually killed his companion,who after being shot by Turpin cried out..'Dick you have killd me'!).shooting dead one of the keepers of Epping Forest.
Again the reward was raised to £200, and a promise of a pardon to any accomplicies that shall discover him!

There were many attempts to take Mr Turpin into custody, but they all failed.
Turpin had now fled to Suffolk where he changed his name to John Palmer and stole some horses.
The magistrates caught up with 'John Palmer' and imprisoned him in York for sheep and horse stealing.
Turpin/Palmer, after four months being imprisoned , wrote a letter to his brother asking for help..Unfortunatly the letter had no stamp and Turpins brother would not pay the postage, so, it was returned to the post office, and was seen by a once school master of Turpin...who, although the letter was signed 'John Palmer' recognised the hand immediatly as Richard Turpins...! Oh dear.

Once word got out that Turpin was inprisoned in York, people flocked from all parts to take a view.
On April 10th 1739, Dick Turpin was executed in York for horse stealing, although he had commited two murders and many many robberies as well!

Poor Dick Turpin...and poor old woman on the fire too!
Bye for now

Pepys

Seven noses of Soho mystery...

Hello all,

I've been looking for the alleged 7 noses of Soho for some time now and today I am very happy to say I have found them all...
It is also alleged that you recieve infinite wealth if you find them, so I'm hoping for a huge bag of seeds any day soon!
There is a but though...I've actually found 8 noses.They are all proper noses but they are two different styles...some big, some small..so I'm wondering just how many there could be and what is the story behind them...
I shall keep hunting for more and keep you all posted if anything else comes up nose wise!
All the best and happy Sunday..

Pepys

weird and wonderful London street names.

Hello all,
Just a quick one, as I have some friends to meet on Nelsons column, but, during my travles around London I do noticed some very strange street names.
All the wat up in N3 there's a road called Crokked Usage, for example.
There's also Quaggy Walk in Blackheath and of course tiny little Tweezers Alley just off the Strand.

Houndsditch , a very well known road and it is believed was named after the ditch where often all sorts of stuff, including dead dogs, were thrown.
Soho, as we all know was once a hunting ground, and the Square, originally Kings Square, was named after a hunting cry.
The Aldwych is a Saxon word meaning Old Village and Crutched Friars derived from Crossed Friars, a Roman catholic religious order from the 13th century.
There's many more,but thats start..if you have any interesting ones do send me a message.

Bye for now
Pepys

London's underground and the old style advertising

Being a pigeon I don't get to use the tube very much at all..but through my searchings for unusual and interesting London things I do come across some lovely vintage and antique underground related items and have noticed how very stylish and well designed they were.

The London underground was the first underground train system in the world...wow...and opened on January 10th 1863 .We have some underground 'railways' maps from as long ago as 1898, right through the 1900's, 20's 30's 40's, you get the picture...and they are all wonderful.We also have a small number of publicity items on the site which are slightly harder to come across.Here is just a few I thought I'd share with you.

This wonderful display card was produced in 1907 and advertised the Hampstead tube. These are very scarce nowadays so I'm very pleased we have this one.

I love the style of the cover of the booklet, which was produced in 1947 and describes how London transport 'carried on' during the war and the blitz. It's a fascinating booklet showing images of the destruction caused by the war and what Londoners did to cope.

This is a classic, produced in May 1968 and lets you know what you can do and how to get there using the buses or underground, with a bit of spare time, if you have it whilst you're in London.Simple really is often best.

And finally, this super flyer advertising the Victoria Line, 'London's new tube' as they called it, in 1969.This little leaflet lets you know how to use the automatic gates, how much the fares are and how quick the journey is.
Oxford Circus to Walthamstow cost 2/6!

So there you are, lovely old fashioned advertising...pity they don't revive them!

cheerio all,

Pepys

reviving the old...

Hello all,

For us here at London Peculiar, seeing an old document or piece of paper all tattered, worn and un cared for can be a bit sad...especially if it was once quite important, or interesting or simply a bit querky!
We see it a lot...and once we got over being cross about it we decided to do something constructive.
So here is our first little rivival project.

This wonderful little booklet was produced about 7 months before the start of the 2nd World War.
It was classified information and only to be released to people with an official position in his majesty's service.

The book is full of intelligence and security information ,censorship, how to understand aerial maps and reconnaissance photography  and so on.

There is also a small section called 'conduct of British Prisoners of war' which reads:

'under internation law every prisoner of war is bound to give his name, rank and number..the duty of a British soldier is to refuse any information to the enemy except these details.He must not reveal any information about his uniform or badges.A prisoner of war cannot be punished or disadvantaged for giving limited or false information. Beware of pseudo prisoners who will be planted to listen in to prisoners conversations.A prisoner who has commited treachery will we liable to severe disciplinary action on termination of hostilities.'

Pretty scary stuff
This little book is a fascinating piece of wartime history and deserved to be looked after and revived.
The cover design is taken form the map within the book.
This little piece of history will go onto the site very soon.

bye all,
Pepys.