Vices and Volumes: Tales from vintage books, with a little questionable history

Ever wondered how people survived winter before central heating? Spoiler: they didn't always.This episode takes you inside the Georgian and Victorian bedchamber, where staying warm could literally cost you your life. We're talking about warming pans filled with poisonous fumes, feather beds crawling with insects, and bed curtains so tightly drawn you could suffocate before morning. One household manual even suggested testing this theory with a caged bird at your bedside—which, unsurprisingly, nearly died by dawn.But the Victorians weren't just sitting around freezing. They were innovating. We'll explore the remarkable air-pump mattress of 1823—a proto-waterbed with valves, stop-cocks, and convenient tassels you could pull from your pillow to adjust firmness in the night. Imagine Victorian couples arguing at 3 a.m.: "Stop pulling the tassel, you're making it too firm!"Once you survived the night, you had to get dressed. Victorian winter fashion wasn't just about looking elegant—it was thermal engineering wrapped in seal-skin and given exotic names. We're talking about creations like The Diplomatt (with enormous sleeves and seal-skin trim), The Mexican (black cloth with embroidered white silk), and The Semiramis (named after an Assyrian queen because why not?). These weren't just fashion statements; they were survival gear with marketing departments.And then there's food. Winter soup was serious business, and we'll dive into a heated debate from 1880 about charity soup kitchens. Should soup for the poor contain actual meat, or would that spoil them? One writer insisted that if "starving poor" refused meatless pea soup, they should be "improved morally and physically by being kept without meat." His solution? Pig's head soup so greasy it would "quite equal to mock turtle." Delicious.Through readings from rare books—including my own battered, spineless copy of "A New System of Practical Domestic Economy" (1823)—we'll discover the elaborate rituals, surprising innovations, and occasionally questionable attitudes that defined Victorian winter survival.Features readings from:"A New System of Practical Domestic Economy" (1823, anonymous author)"The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine" (1861)Cassell's Family Magazine: "Winter Soups: How to Make Them" by A.G. Payne (1880)Modern life is easy. We complain about winter from heated homes while wearing fleece and microwaving soup. The Victorians had to earn their warmth through constant vigilance, specialized knowledge, and frankly, a shocking amount of work. This episode is a reminder to appreciate your electric blanket, your North Face jacket, and the fact that your mattress doesn't require a pump with decorative tassels.🎧 New episodes every second week | Follow @vicesandvolumes for daily historical discoveriesKeywords: Victorian history, Georgian era, 19th century, 18th century, vintage books, historical books, winter survival, domestic history, social history, rare books, history podcast, Victorian era, British history, Irish history, period history, household management, historical innovation

What if the two topics you could never, ever mention in polite conversation were yourself and your enemy? Welcome to Victorian feminine conversation, where your tongue was an "unruly member" requiring constant restraint.In this episode, we're diving into Matilda Ann Mackarness 1888 conduct book "The Young Lady's Book," where the chapter on conversation is actually a masterclass in silence. Discover why ladies withdrew to the drawing room after dinner to discuss only servants and babies while gentlemen debated politics and business. Learn which words—awfully, stunning, checky—threatened the very foundations of the English language in the Great Slang Crisis of the 1880s. And meet the young woman so paralyzed by conversational rules that when a gentleman tried engaging her, she could only manage two words in a grave monotone: "So you said."But here's the devastating irony: Matilda Mackarness herself violated every rule she prescribed. Widowed at 43 with seven children and "very slender provision" (Victorian speak for near-poverty), she had to write constantly to survive—producing over 40 books between 1849 and 1881. She couldn't afford to be silent. She couldn't worry whether discussing her hardships was "egotism." She had to speak, loudly and persistently, through every book and periodical she could sell.So why did she teach young ladies to bind their tongues? Was she protecting them? Believing in the rules? Or was she quietly handing over survival strategies for navigating a world where women had no power at all?We'll explore the economics of being "agreeable" (new books cost £150 in today's money), the divine surveillance of idle words ("a heavy reckoning will be demanded"), and why women's speech—like women's bodies—was considered fundamentally unruly and requiring external control.From pure springs flowing effortlessly to the tongue that required constant correction, this is Victorian feminine conversation in all its terrified, tongue-tied glory.Features readings from "The Young Lady's Book" (1888) by Matilda Ann Mackarness

Two hounds clung to each other all night on a hedge surrounded by freezing floodwater. When the water receded the next morning, they were found "closely clasping each other—without doubt, it was the friendly warmth which they afforded each other that kept both alive." This is Peter Beckford in crisis, showing his true character when his beloved pack faced disaster.Part 2 of our journey through the 1787 hunting masterpiece moves from literary art to practical animal care—revealing both Beckford's surprisingly advanced veterinary knowledge and the dangerous medical practices of his era. Discover his mange treatments: sulfur, whale oil (train oil), and turpentine created an effective, safe remedy still used today in some forms. But red mange required something stronger—quicksilver (liquid mercury) mixed with turpentine and hog's lard, rubbed directly onto the dog's skin for three consecutive days. It killed the parasites. It also frequently killed the dogs and likely poisoned the staff applying it without gloves (rubber gloves weren't invented until 1894).Learn about the distemper epidemic devastating kennels across Britain with 50-90% mortality rates, Beckford's experimental treatments (Peruvian bark with port wine, opium-based Norris drops), his proto-scientific approach ("I shall not recommend such as have not been tried with success"), and his surprisingly modern insight that fresh air, clean bedding, isolation of sick animals, and feeding multiple dogs together to encourage eating were the best defenses.But the emotional heart of this episode is the river crossing disaster: floodwater so deep horses nearly swam, current so strong it swept hounds downstream, freezing temperatures leaving survivors unable to walk. Beckford watched helplessly as his pack exhausted themselves trying to reach him, their "well-known tongues as such I had never heard before or without pleasure." The scene of two hounds spending the night clinging to each other on a hedge is genuinely moving.Yet here's the contradiction: a man who knew each hound by name, kept detailed performance records, and showed extraordinary compassion for animal suffering lived comfortably on profits from Jamaican sugar plantations worked by enslaved people he never met. Between 1780-1786, five hurricanes destroyed his income, his wife left him, his son gambled away fortunes, and by the end, he was selling estates and mortgaging what remained.Features readings from "Thoughts on Hunting" by Peter Beckford (1787), including kennel design, veterinary treatments, the river disaster account, and his philosophical comparison of hunting to other sports.

This is the book that inspired the entire podcast. In a Westport bookshop, six American tourists watched Avril read aloud from a 1787 hunting manual—amused by passages about dogs "emptying themselves" for kennel cleanliness. One woman turned back in the doorway and said: "You should do a podcast on old books." So here we are.Peter Beckford's "Thoughts on Hunting" (1787) has remained in continuous print for over 240 years, not because it's a simple hunting manual, but because it's a literary masterpiece. This educated gentleman—fluent in Greek, Latin, Italian, and French—elevated practical fox hunting instruction into elegant prose peppered with classical quotations. He would "bag a fox in Greek, find a hare in Latin, inspect his kennels in Italian, and direct the economy of stables in exquisite French."Discover the origin story: Beckford published anonymously until a disgruntled clergyman critic prompted him to release an expanded edition with his name attached, directly answering criticisms in footnotes throughout. Learn the rigid class hierarchy of Georgian hunting—Huntsman (leader/strategist), Whipper-in (tactical assistant maintaining pack discipline), and Feeder (essential establishment member). Read the most hilariously terrible character reference ever written: John G starts as "rides pretty well" and deteriorates into "voiceless, dishonest thief, drunk, notorious liar, half a fool, killer of horses."But the crown jewel is Letter 13—Beckford's fictional hunt that alternates between his prose and William Somerville's poetry, creating a breathless chase from "Hark! they're on the drag" through countryside, over hedges, across plains, until "Ha! they have him. Whoo!" It's Georgian literature at its finest—practical instruction transformed into art.Features readings from "Thoughts on Hunting" by Peter Beckford (1787), including the complete Letter 13 hunt sequence with William Somerville's "The Chase" (1735) poetry integrated throughout.

How can you tell if a woman will make a good wife? According to William Cobbett's 1829 advice manual, take her out for a mutton chop and watch her jaw movements. Firm, decisive biting indicates good character. Tentative squeezing indicates disaster.This episode explores one of the most entertainingly bizarre marriage advice books ever written by a man uniquely qualified to give it—not because he was a relationship expert, but because he'd been married to the same woman for 37 years through imprisonment, multiple exiles, financial ruin, and the time he dug up Thomas Paine's bones for a heroic burial that never happened. William Cobbett was a radical reformer who'd been sued for libel multiple times, imprisoned for two years, and fled countries on three separate occasions. But through it all, Anne Reed was there.Discover Cobbett's physical tests for detecting wife material: walking speed reveals capacity for love (quick step with heavy tread = good, sauntering = cold-hearted mother), jaw movements predict industriousness (watch her eat cheese for the truth), voice quality indicates laziness ("mawmouth women" who let sounds fall out are disgusting), and general "sobriety of conduct" (steady, serious, no capering). These weren't just Georgian superstition—they reflected widespread belief in physiognomy, the idea that moral character could be read from physical features and behaviors.But here's where it gets fascinating: Cobbett demands absolute wifely obedience (a henpecked husband should drown himself, apparently), yet his own behavior tells a completely different story. When Anne was 14, he sent her his entire life savings (150 guineas, roughly £22,000 today) and told her to spend it on comfort. Four years later, she handed it back untouched—she'd worked as a servant for £5/year and saved every penny. When they married, he spent entire nights walking barefoot through Philadelphia streets throwing stones at dogs so the barking wouldn't disturb her sleep. He helped with the baby, lit fires, boiled tea, and rushed home through thunderstorms because he knew she was frightened.The contradiction is remarkable: a man who insists on male authority while demonstrating extraordinary devotion. Who demands wives obey but spends his life serving his wife's comfort and happiness.Features readings from "Advice to Young Men and (Incidentally) to Young Women" by William Cobbett (1829), complete with his accounts of courtship, marriage, exile, and the devoted partnership that survived everything Georgian England could throw at them.