A Plague of Cats and Rats

Halloween! I always get the fun holidays. And as usual, when I dig around looking for a morsel of history, I turn up fascinating facts. Did you know that Oliver Cromwell’s hatred of witches was a serious factor in the particularly virulent outbreak of plague in England in 1665-6?

I was simply poking around, looking for any All Hallow’s Eve practices in the Regency era, when I stumbled across the fascinating bit about cats. It seems the superstitious believed cats were “familiars,” evil spirit guides for witches. Cromwell and his compadres had a decided Inquisition mentality and decided to eradicate witches...and cats. Honestly, I think the cats must have just looked smarter than Cromwell’s fanatics, which made the hunters paranoid--spooky cats will take over the world! Or suck your brains out. 

I do not even want to consider what kind of sport they made of all those poor London alley cats, but the ghosts of those cats got their revenge. Without cats, the rats escaping the ships in England’s ports spread like wildfire. And we all know that fleas from rats caused the plague. So thousands of people died from superstition. And kept on dying because once doctors figured out fleas caused the disease, they then condemned all cats and dogs to death because they carried fleas. Science and superstition, hand-in-hand, not a pretty sight.

Regency era Halloween was such a hodgepodge of customs, history, and muddled church and pagan rituals that most Anglicans simply celebrated Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th. Even then, the habit of begging for pennies or food—previously for prayers for the dead—became begging for pennies for fireworks. The Scots still had their good Celtic celebrations, but Jane Austen wouldn’t have been familiar with the pagan celebration of a night when spirits slipped through the thinning veil between the old year and the new one. It’s possible English girls had heard the superstition about eating an apple in front of a mirror in hopes of seeing their beloved, but those kind of tricks, and treats like flummery (usually a molded porridge) and barmbrack (a type of Irish raisin bread), wouldn’t be recognized as a holiday celebration in Jane’s home.

But Jane would have read the same kind of horror novels as we read today. The Mysteries of Udolpho play an important part in Northanger Abbey, so Jane was obviously aware of gothic horror stories. Frankenstein was published in 1816, so there was some chance she read that. “The Headless Horseman” came out in 1820 and too late for Jane, but certainly fair game to the characters in our favorite era.

I know as a genre, we play fast and loose with the actual dates of the prince’s regency. My new release in the Regency Nobles series, Irish Duchess, is set in 1821,(Book View Café, November 6) but the characters romp through earlier books and years, so I count them as Regency related.

Since we don’t have kids around our house, we’ve been slacking off on the Halloween traditions. What will you be doing this year?

Comments

[Elizabeth Seckman]

Great post. I love collecting information I may only ever be able to use in trivia games. Being good at trivia gives me great bragging rights!

[Patricia Rice]

I'm glad you have the memory to hold this trivia. My memory doesn't seem to go past the sixties.:) I have to research every darned thing, every time.

[nancy]

Didn't know that about Cromwell killing cats. Always knew the man was uo to no good. Of course the way cats multiply as well as how they sit and stare at people disconcerts some. Some people, besides the Egyptians, thought cats were good luck. Fortunately, people didn't decide to carry a cat foot around with them.
Read a description of a Bow street runner who was said to be wearing a cat skin waistcoat, I wonder if it were actually made of catskins or if that was just a name like our moleskin.
I agree that Halloween doesn't seem to have made much impression in England. A lot of the material I found was from SCotland. Also, there were many regional practices in England as well as class differences in customs.

[Patricia Rice]

If killing cats became a common practice, the guy just might have had himself a fur vest, shudder. That's sufficiently Halloween creepy right there.

Must wonder if all religious fanatics lack empathy or imagination, if fanaticism requires a severely limited mindset. Did Cromwell own no pets? Could he not see children playing with kittens? Human psychology is fascinating!

[Phyllis]

I just read a book about 17th century France, about the Affair of the Poisons, which was in Louis XIV's court and just a bit after Cromwell and the plague. Anyway, they had stopped persecuting witches for a while, but just about everyone not only believed in magic and witchcraft, but was buying spells and potions right alongside buying church indulgences.

And then people started dying because the witches were also the ones making poisons... And one of Louis XIV's mistresses might have been involved in Satanic rituals and been giving the king Spanish fly to win his favor.

(and B) I just read The Genuine Article and really loved it!)

[Patricia Rice]

oh yeah, I've researched that era and wish we had more books set in it. XIV's court was fascinatingly decadent! Just think what we could do with witches and poisons and royalty!

And thank you! I loved writing those small Regencies.

[Jenny Reid]

I'm afraid Halloween has never been big in my family, although I do know the date. Ref the runner in the catskin waistcoat. I believe there was a type of woollen material made to look like catskin so maybe it was that. but it could also have been real catskin. One of Georgette Heyer's characters (The Foundling) wears a catskin waistcoat. I have just remembered in my physics class in the 60s, we had catskins for use in the units on electricity. They are good conductors.

[Shannon McEwan]

The stuff about Anglicans & Guy Fawkes is really interesting. I had no idea!

When I was a kid (in Australia), there was no popular celebration of Halloween. The big thing was Guy Fawkes night. In recent times however, the whole dress-up-trick-or-treat thing has exploded here - much to my bewilderment.

I'd assumed it was straight out infiltration by American culture (sorry folks...), but perhaps perhaps it's also some kind of ironic case of Halloween filling the void left by the demise of Guy Fawkes night (Guy Fawkes night was killed off in Australia in the late 70s with the banning of sales of fireworks for domestic use).

[Anne Gracie]

Like Shannon, I grew up celebrating Guy Fawkes day, too, the star part of which was a huge bonfire with a "guy" stuck on the top. I adored it — the bonfire and the fireworks.
Halloween wasn't an issue.

But in the last few years the kids have started going trick or treating, lifted from American TV I assume — and who wouldn't adopt a practice that legalized the blackmailing of neighbors in exchange for sweets and chocolate. I never get it right — the times i remember to get some sweets in, I don't get visited by kids, and when I forget, it's a guarantee I'll disappoint them. This time there's chocolate left over. . . and I guess I'm going to have to eat it myself. sigh.

Some friends of mine were given a huge box of broccoli just before halloween this year, and each time kids came knocking on the door, trick or treating, my friend's husband yelled, "Give them Broccoli!" LOL.

[Patricia Rice]

LOL, Anne! Shame about that chocolate. We don't get many treaters so we go up to the mall and watch the kiddies run from store to store for their candies. Adorable.
And maybe that ancient tradition of All Hallow's Eve just won't stay away!

I couldn't tolerate not knowing about catskin so I did a quick search this morning. There's a Grimm's fairy tale about Catskin. The first reference to a catskin purse is in the late 1600s, so it could quite possibly be real cat, under the circumstances. But there are later references to catskin being an inferior silk for hats. Since the first top hats were beaver, I'm kind of wondering if that "silk" reference is wrong. Cheap hats might have been made of catskin instead of beaver. Shudder.

[LilMissMolly]

Your book sounds wonderful and exactly the type of book I enjoy reading. I love all things Irish!! Congrats on its release!

[Patricia Rice]

Thank you, Miss Molly. I'll send a newsletter with links and release dates shortly. (Sandy kind of delayed my promo team!) Nov 6 is the official date, keep an eye open...