Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Flush and the
banditti
Dog-stealing in Victorian London
Philip Howell
The Victorians and other animals
On the first day of September 1846, the poet Elizabeth Barrett, who was at the time
making plans for her secret marriage to Robert Browning, stepped out of a shop in
Vere Street in London, and into her carriage, only to find that her beloved cocker
spaniel, Flush (see
Figure 2.1
), had been caught up from under the wheels and
spirited away by thieves. For the third and last time, Flush had fallen victim to the
dog-stealers who made their living from abducting pet dogs and holding them for
substantial ransoms. Elizabeth Barrett's reaction, as twice before, was a mixture of
alarm and resignation. There was nothing to be done except to pay the ransom the
dog-stealers were sure to demand; she would be informed that an 'intermediary'
might be able to locate her dog, and, for a price, his recovery might be effected. And
if not, she should expect the worst, as the dreadful tradition went in her
neighbourhood of one lady who had refused the dog-stealers' demands, only to find
her dog's head sent to her through the post. Elizabeth Barrett, who would
countenance neither her father's nor Robert Browning's advice to face down the
extortionists, insisted that all must be done to procure Flush's swift release. And in
the end it was she who made the extraordinary journey to the criminal underworld
of Whitechapel, to negotiate with a Mr Taylor, the head of the dog-stealing gang, or
the
banditti,
as she called them. It would be five long days before Flush was returned
to the Barretts' home in Wimpole Street, the 'archfiend' Taylor (Karlin 1989:306)
having extracted six guineas for his release. In all, Flush had cost his mistress some
twenty pounds' ransom. But safe he eventually was, and within a week of his return,
Elizabeth Barrett had married Robert Browning. Within another week she had left
Wimpole Street for ever, making her way with him to the continent and finally to
Italy, and to a new life, a world away from London and its dog-stealing fraternity.
1
What do we know of her spaniel in his captivity? Fortunately, we have Virginia
Woolf's
Flush: A Biography,
and her reconstruction of his traumatic experience in
the dog-stealers' lair:
