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Options & Information for Writers
Vol. 1 Issue I
August 9, 2004
Table of Contents:
Internet Resources
Writer’s Toolbox
History
Picks from Gutenburg
Featured Library
Miscellaneous
Dictionaries
Articles
The Coroner’s Function in England (Particularly in the 19th Century)
The Origin of the Barber’s Pole
Did You Know?
Complimentary Week for Regency & Research Libraries
Internet Resources:
Writer’s Toolbox
Zuzu’s Literary Petals
http://www.zuzu.com/
"10,000 links to resources for writers"
Writing World
http://www.writing-world.com/
This used to be Ink Spot.
Articles on various aspects of writing; writing markets; workshops and more.
Wordwide Freelance Writer
http://www.worldwidefreelance.com
This site provides a free newsletter, writing news, free database of writing
markets, specialized market lists, and a collection of very useful articles on
topics such as Freelance Writing 101, Queries, writing fiction and non-fiction.
Online Writing Lab Reference & Research
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/sourceofinfo.html
This site provides links to various dictionaries, thesaurus, Biographical
Dictionaries, The Elements of Style, WebGrammar, A directory of Academic
Websites arranged by topic and discipline and more.
History:
Historical Maps of England
http://www.old-maps.co.uk
Picks from Project Gutenberg
Beeton’s Household Management
http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/1/3/10136/10136.txt
19th Century Domestic Economy, includes information on keeping house, servants,
home remedies, cooking and more.
London’s Underworld by Thomas Holmes (1912)
http://www.gutenberg.net/etext98/lndwd10.txt
Featured Library
Michigan Electronic Library
http://www.mel.lib.mi/us/
Miscellaneous
This site has a very extensive collection of historical maps.
I’ve done research for a number of authors and have had a request for wilderness
survival several times and have seen this request on research lists numerous
times. Here is a link to a free copy of the U.S. Army’s Field Survival manual
which is a great source of information if you have a character who has to
survive in the wilds.
http://www.nsm88.com/training/armyfieldmanuals.html
There are several manuals here besides the Field Survival Manual that cover
various topics including intelligence gathering and aviation.
Archaeological News
http://www.archaeologica.org/NewsPage.htm
This site provides the latest headlines from the world of Archaeology, arranged
in date order and updated daily. It is a rich source of ideas. It provides
global coverage, and recent headlines include information on the funerals for
the crew of the Hunley submarine (April 17, 2004).
Dictionaries
Archaic Medical Terms
http://www.paul_smith.doctors.org.uk/ArchaicMedicalTerms.htm
A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary by John R. Clarkhall
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oe_clarkhall_about.html
A Concise Dictionary of Middle English
http://library.case.edu/ksl/ecoll/titles/MiddleEnglish.html
Roget's Thesaurus
http://www.bartleby.com/110/
P.W. Joyce English as We Speak it in Ireland
http://indigo.ie/~kfinlay/Joycenglish/joyceindex.htm
Dialect of the West of England particularly Somersetshire with a Glossary of
Words Now in Use there (1863)
http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/etext05/7deng10.txt
Dictionary of Americanisms
http://www.merrycoz.org/voices/bartlett/AMER01.HTM
1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/etext04/dcvgr10.txt
Articles
The Coroner’s Function in England.
The office of coroner is a very old one. It is thought to have been around since
1194. For hundreds of years in England coroners were elected by freeholders of a
county who assembled in a county court for this purpose. Eventually the position
became that of a paid civil servant and the appointee was either a qualified
legal or medical expert or practitioner. The appointment of coroner was for
life, unless this person decided to become sheriff or was removed by the lord
chancellor because of inability or incompetence. There were three types of
coroners:
1. Coroners that are that simply because of the public office they hold. An
example of t his is the Lord Chief Justice of the King’s bench. He was the
principal coroner in England. Puisne judges of the King’s bench were also
coroners (called sovereign coroners).
2. Coroners who are coroners by charger or commission.
3. Elected coroners. These are the coroners of the county and burroughs. Until
1888 coroners were elected by freeholders as stated above. In 1888 the Local
Government Act gave the county council the authority to appoint a “fit” person
to be coroner. Excluded were the county aldermen and councilor. From 1843 to
1860 coroners were paid by fees but in 1860 legislation was passed abolishing
this system of payment and instituting in its place payment of a salary that was
calculated by using the average amount of fees, mileage, and allowances usually
given to a coroner for a five year period. The exceptions to this were boroughs
that had separate court of quarter sessions and populations of over 10,000.
These boroughs had their town councils appoint their coroners and they were
continued to be paid by fees.
The county coroners had to reside within their jurisdictions (although they
could live 2 miles outside of it).
The duties of the coroner as put forth in early legislation were very broad:
4 Edw. Ist.
“A coroner of our Lord and King ought to inquire of these things first, when
coroners are commanded by the king’s bailiffs or by the honest men of the
county, they shall go to the places where any be slain, or suddenly dead or
wounded, or where houses are broken, or where treasure is said to be found and
shall forthwith command four of the next towns, or five or six to appear before
him in such place; and shall inquire in this manner, that is, to wit, if it
concerns a man slain, if they know where the person was slain, whether it were
in any house, field, bed, tavern, or company, and if any, and who were there,
etc. It shall also be inquired if the dead person were known, or else a
stranger, and where he lay the night before, and if any person is said to be
guilty of the murder, the coroner shall go to their house and inquire what goods
they have, etc.”
The coroner could also lock someone up for suspicion of committing a violent
crime before the Coroner’s Act of 1887 was passed. That Act limited the
coroner’s authority given above to an inquiry into the death of people within
their jurisdiction when the deceased was suspected of violent, unnatural or
sudden death with no apparent cause. The act also required that the coroner view
the body before proceeding with the inquest and that at the inquest, all
testimony and evidence be taken under oath. Any suspect in a crime was given the
right to produce evidence at the inquest. The Coroner’s Act of 1887 also gave
the coroner authority to call medical experts as witnesses and to direct autopsy
on the body of the deceased. A verdict in a coroner’s court had to be rendered
by a jury of twelve. If a person were found guilty at the inquest of murder or
homicide, the coroner would commit them for criminal trial and certify the
evidence that would be presented at that trial in criminal court. They could,
however, give bail to the defendant in a manslaughter case, so that they would
be free while waiting for criminal trial. If after a criminal trial, a person
were executed, the coroner would be responsible for an inquest over the
execution too.
Even though the 1887 law continued to give coroner’s authority over inquiries
into treasure finds, it limited his other investigative powers to felonies that
involved homicide and inquisition of accidental death, sudden death, and
suicide.
In London, the City Fire Inquests Act of 1888 also gave the city coroner the
responsibility to hold inquests into fires that resulted in loss or injury
within the city of London.
In Scotland, the person who has the same authority as a coroner in England is
called the procurator-fiscal.
From the Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition (1910-11)
Origin of the Barber’s Pole
The Barber’s Pole is still a sign in country towns, and in many villages near
London. It was stated by Lord Thrulow in the house of peers on the 17th of July,
1797, when he opposed the surgeon’s incorporation bill that, “By a statute still
in force, the barbers and surgeons were each to use a pole. The barbers were to
have theirs blue and white striped, with no other appendage; but the surgeons,
which was the same in other respects, was likewise to have a gallipot and a red
flag, to denote the particular nature of their vocation.”
The origin of the barber’s pole is to be traced to the period when the barbers
were also surgeons, and practiced phlebotomy. To assist in this operation, it
being necessary for the patient to grasp a staff, a stick, etc., a pole was kept
by the barber-surgeon, together with the fillet or bandaging he used for typing
the patient’s arm. When the pole was not in use, the tape was tied to it, that
they might both be together when wanted. On a person coming in to be bled, the
tape was disengaged from the pole, and bound round the arm, and the pole was put
into the person’s hand; after it was done with, the tape was again tied to the
pole, and in this state, pole and tape were often hung at the door, for a sign
or notice to passengers that they might here be bled; doubtless the competition
for custom was great, because our ancestors were great admirers of bleeding,
they demanded the operation frequently. At length instead of hanging out the
identical pole used in the operation, a pole was painted with stripes round it,
in imitation of the real pole, and its bandagings, and thus came the sign.
That the use of the pole in bleeding is very ancient appears from an
illumination in a missal of the time of Edward I., wherein the usage is
represented. Also in “comenii Orbis pictus” there is an engraving of the like
practice. “Such a staff,” says Brand, who mentions these graphic illustrations,
“is to this very day put into the hands of patients undergoing phlebotomy by
ever village practitioner.”
Excerpted from Wm. Hone’s EveryDay Book Vol. 1 1827, Cols. 1254-73 from a larger
article on Barbers.
Did You Know?
The United States National Guard has had units operating since December 13,
1636.
*****
This week in Regency & Research Library
Regency Library is continuing to serialize the following books:
Laws Regarding Women (1768). We are now in the Chapters which explore the
criminal law as it regards women.
The Naturalists’ Diary. (Weather conditions, flora and fauna for the various
months. March/April and May are covered this week.)
Research Library continues to serialize The History of Gambling in England; and
London Past & Present.
It is complimentary copy week. If you or someone you know would like
complimentary copies of the Regency or Research Library, please email suchen@mindspring.com
You may freely pass this newsletter to anyone you think would benefit from its
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