FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7
I know it's grasping at straws, but considering the week we've had, I'll take any bit of good news. Rasmussen says that 65% of Republicans consider her the frontrunner for the the 2012 GOP nomination. It's not going to amount to a hill of beans unless WE do something about this unholy mess that is the GOP. 
The weather has finally turned cold. I'm not all that happy about it. I'm not a cold weather person. When I am as tired as I am tonight, it's even worse. I've been up since about 6AM (4 hrs sleep) and am too tired to write anything else tonight. I've been playing with the Wordpress blog, and hope to have it ready to migrate either Sun or Mon!
My friend James Wright has a comment about the disgusting mess going on near the Alamo. Since he's from Texas, this is as close to spitting on the flag as you're going to get.
THE CHAMBERS BOOK OF DAYS
Born: William Stukeley, antiquarian, 1687, Holbeach, Lincolnshire; Leopold Frederick, Count Stolberg, miscellaneous writer, 1750, Bramstedt, Holstein.
Died: Caius Cilnius Maecenas, patron of literature and art, 8 B.C.; Sir Martin Frobisher, naval explorer, 1594 A.D., Plymouth; Gaspar Tagliacozzi, celebrated surgeon, 1599, Bologna; John Kyrie, 'The Man of Ross,' 1724; Jean Andre Deluc, geologist and natural philosopher, 1817, Windsor; Karl Gottlieb Reissiger, composer (Weber's Last Waltz), 1859, Dresden.
Feast Day: St. Prosdecimus, first bishop of Padua, confessor, 2nd century. St. Werenfrid, priest and confessor. St. Willibrord, confessor, first bishop of Utrecht, 738.
TYBURNDied: Caius Cilnius Maecenas, patron of literature and art, 8 B.C.; Sir Martin Frobisher, naval explorer, 1594 A.D., Plymouth; Gaspar Tagliacozzi, celebrated surgeon, 1599, Bologna; John Kyrie, 'The Man of Ross,' 1724; Jean Andre Deluc, geologist and natural philosopher, 1817, Windsor; Karl Gottlieb Reissiger, composer (Weber's Last Waltz), 1859, Dresden.
Feast Day: St. Prosdecimus, first bishop of Padua, confessor, 2nd century. St. Werenfrid, priest and confessor. St. Willibrord, confessor, first bishop of Utrecht, 738.
This celebrated place of execution, which figures so prominently in the records of crime, is said to have been first established in the reign of Henry IV, previous to which 'The Elms' at Smithfield seems to have been the favourite locality for the punishment of malefactors. The name is derived from a brook called Tyburn, which flowed down from Hampstead into the Thames, supplying in its way a large pond in the Green Park, and also the celebrated Rosamond's Pond in St. James's Park. Oxford Street was, at an earlier period, known as Tyburn Road, and the now aristocratic locality of Park Lane, bore formerly the name of Tyburn Lane, whilst an iron tablet attached to the railings of Hyde Park, opposite the entrance of the Edgeware Road, informs the passer-by that here stood Tyburn turnpike-gate, so well known in old times as a landmark by travellers to and from London.
The gallows at Tyburn was of a triangular form, resting on three supports, and hence is often spoken of as 'Tyburn's triple tree.' It appears to have been a permanent erection, and there also stood near it wooden galleries for the accommodation of parties who came to witness the infliction of the last penalty of the law, such exhibitions, it is needless to state, being generally regarded by our ancestors as interesting and instructive spectacles. Consider-able disputation has prevailed as to the real site of the gallows, but it now appears to be pretty satisfactorily ascertained that it stood at the east end of Connaught Place, where the latter joins the Edgware Road, and nearly opposite the entrance to Upper Seymour Street. A lane led from the Uxbridge Road to the place of execution, in the vicinity of which, whilst excavating the ground for buildings, numerous remains were discovered of the criminals who had been buried there after undergoing their sentence.
Among remarkable individuals who suffered death at Tyburn, were the Holy Maid of Kent, in Henry VIII's reign; Mrs. Turner, notorious as a poisoner, and celebrated as the inventress of yellow starch; John Felton, the assassin of the Duke of Buckingham; the renowned burglar Jack Sheppard, and the thief-taker Jonathan Wild; Mrs. Brownrigg, rendered proverbial by her cruel usage of apprentices; and the elegant and courtly Dr. Dodd, whom pecuniary embarrassments — the result of a life of extravagance and immorality—hurried into crime.
The last malefactor executed here was John Austin, on 7th November 1783, for robbery with violence. At that period the place of execution for criminals convicted in the county of Middlesex, was transferred from Tyburn to Newgate, where, on the 9th of December following the date just mentioned, the first capital sentence, under the new arrangements, was carried into effect. We are informed that some opposition was made by persons residing around the Old Bailey to this abandonment of the old locality at Tyburn, but the answer returned by the authorities to their petition was, that ' the plan had been well considered; and would be persevered in.' Our readers do not require to be informed that the place thus appointed is still the scene of public executions, now happily of much less frequent occurrence than formerly.
Those curious documents, called Tyburn Tickets, were certificates conferred under an act passed in the reign of William III, on the prosecutors who had succeeded in obtaining the capital conviction of a criminal. The object of the enactment was to stimulate individuals in the bringing of offenders to justice; and in virtue of the privilege thus bestowed, the holder of such a document was exempted 'from all manner of parish and ward offices within the parish wherein such felony was committed; which certificate shall be enrolled with the clerk of the peace of the county on payment of 1s. and no more.' These tickets were transferable, and sold like other descriptions of property. The act by which they were established was repealed in 1818, but an instance is related by a contributor to Notes and Queries of a claim for exemption from serving on a jury being made as late as 1856 by the holder of a Tyburn ticket.
The conveyance of the criminals from Newgate to Tyburn by Holborn Hill and the Oxford Road, afforded, by the distance of space traversed, an ample opportunity to all lovers of such sights for obtaining a view of the ghastly procession. A court on the south side of the High Street, St. Giles's, is said to derive its name of Bowl Yard, from the circumstance of criminals in ancient times on their way to execution at Tyburn, being presented at the hospital of St. Giles's with a large bowl of ale, as the last refreshment which they were to partake of on this side of the grave. Different maxims came ultimately to prevail in reference to this matter, and we are told that Lord Ferrers, when on his way to execution in 1760, for the murder of his land-steward, was denied his request for some wine and water, the sheriff stating that he was sorry to be obliged to refuse his lordship, but that by recent regulations they were enjoined not to let prisoners drink when going to execution, as great indecencies had been frequently committed in these cases, through the criminals becoming intoxicated.
One of the most vigorous drawings by Hogarth represents the execution of the Idle Apprentice at Tyburn—a fitting termination to his disreputable career. Referring to this print, and the remarkable change which has taken place in a locality formerly associated only with the most repulsive ideas, Mr. Thackeray makes the following observation in his English Humorists: 'How the times have changed ...
On the spot where Tom Idle (for whom I have an unaffected pity) made his exit from this wicked world, and where you see the hangman smoking his pipe as he reclines on the gibbet, and views the hills of Harrow or Hampstead beyond—a splendid marble arch, a vast and modem city—clean, airy, painted drab, populous with nursery-maids and children, the abodes of wealth and comfort, the elegant, the prosperous, the polite Tyburnia rises, the most respectable district in the habitable globe!'
The gallows at Tyburn was of a triangular form, resting on three supports, and hence is often spoken of as 'Tyburn's triple tree.' It appears to have been a permanent erection, and there also stood near it wooden galleries for the accommodation of parties who came to witness the infliction of the last penalty of the law, such exhibitions, it is needless to state, being generally regarded by our ancestors as interesting and instructive spectacles. Consider-able disputation has prevailed as to the real site of the gallows, but it now appears to be pretty satisfactorily ascertained that it stood at the east end of Connaught Place, where the latter joins the Edgware Road, and nearly opposite the entrance to Upper Seymour Street. A lane led from the Uxbridge Road to the place of execution, in the vicinity of which, whilst excavating the ground for buildings, numerous remains were discovered of the criminals who had been buried there after undergoing their sentence.
Among remarkable individuals who suffered death at Tyburn, were the Holy Maid of Kent, in Henry VIII's reign; Mrs. Turner, notorious as a poisoner, and celebrated as the inventress of yellow starch; John Felton, the assassin of the Duke of Buckingham; the renowned burglar Jack Sheppard, and the thief-taker Jonathan Wild; Mrs. Brownrigg, rendered proverbial by her cruel usage of apprentices; and the elegant and courtly Dr. Dodd, whom pecuniary embarrassments — the result of a life of extravagance and immorality—hurried into crime.
The last malefactor executed here was John Austin, on 7th November 1783, for robbery with violence. At that period the place of execution for criminals convicted in the county of Middlesex, was transferred from Tyburn to Newgate, where, on the 9th of December following the date just mentioned, the first capital sentence, under the new arrangements, was carried into effect. We are informed that some opposition was made by persons residing around the Old Bailey to this abandonment of the old locality at Tyburn, but the answer returned by the authorities to their petition was, that ' the plan had been well considered; and would be persevered in.' Our readers do not require to be informed that the place thus appointed is still the scene of public executions, now happily of much less frequent occurrence than formerly.
Those curious documents, called Tyburn Tickets, were certificates conferred under an act passed in the reign of William III, on the prosecutors who had succeeded in obtaining the capital conviction of a criminal. The object of the enactment was to stimulate individuals in the bringing of offenders to justice; and in virtue of the privilege thus bestowed, the holder of such a document was exempted 'from all manner of parish and ward offices within the parish wherein such felony was committed; which certificate shall be enrolled with the clerk of the peace of the county on payment of 1s. and no more.' These tickets were transferable, and sold like other descriptions of property. The act by which they were established was repealed in 1818, but an instance is related by a contributor to Notes and Queries of a claim for exemption from serving on a jury being made as late as 1856 by the holder of a Tyburn ticket.
The conveyance of the criminals from Newgate to Tyburn by Holborn Hill and the Oxford Road, afforded, by the distance of space traversed, an ample opportunity to all lovers of such sights for obtaining a view of the ghastly procession. A court on the south side of the High Street, St. Giles's, is said to derive its name of Bowl Yard, from the circumstance of criminals in ancient times on their way to execution at Tyburn, being presented at the hospital of St. Giles's with a large bowl of ale, as the last refreshment which they were to partake of on this side of the grave. Different maxims came ultimately to prevail in reference to this matter, and we are told that Lord Ferrers, when on his way to execution in 1760, for the murder of his land-steward, was denied his request for some wine and water, the sheriff stating that he was sorry to be obliged to refuse his lordship, but that by recent regulations they were enjoined not to let prisoners drink when going to execution, as great indecencies had been frequently committed in these cases, through the criminals becoming intoxicated.
One of the most vigorous drawings by Hogarth represents the execution of the Idle Apprentice at Tyburn—a fitting termination to his disreputable career. Referring to this print, and the remarkable change which has taken place in a locality formerly associated only with the most repulsive ideas, Mr. Thackeray makes the following observation in his English Humorists: 'How the times have changed ...
On the spot where Tom Idle (for whom I have an unaffected pity) made his exit from this wicked world, and where you see the hangman smoking his pipe as he reclines on the gibbet, and views the hills of Harrow or Hampstead beyond—a splendid marble arch, a vast and modem city—clean, airy, painted drab, populous with nursery-maids and children, the abodes of wealth and comfort, the elegant, the prosperous, the polite Tyburnia rises, the most respectable district in the habitable globe!'
Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres.
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