Social Victorians/Timeline/1889

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Sometime in 1889
A. H. Macmurdo purchased 20 Fitzroy, London, and redecorated it memorably.

From the 1 January 1890 Morning Post: Equally the attempt of Mr. Gladstone to invent a brand new system of "electoral statistics," directed to the conclusion that he had in the minority the leadership of the only true majority, with the implication that the Unionists, if honest men, would immediately resign their trust, has been received with good-humoured incredulity. (Morning Post, Wednesday, 1 January 1890 (No. 36,675): p. 4, Col. G. British Newspaper Archive.

16 January 1889
A Jack the Ripper letter "refers to 'my trip to Bradford'" (Cornwell 296).

6 March 1889, Wednesday
Ash Wednesday.

10 April 1889, Wednesday
According to the summary of the weather in the 1 January 1890 Morning Post, there was "intense darkness from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m." "The Weather of 1889." The Morning Post, 1 January 1890 (No. 36,675): page 6 Col. C.

11 April 1889, Thursday
According to the summary of the weather in the 1 January 1890 Morning Post, the "intense darkness" of the day before returned "for a short time next day" "The Weather of 1889." The Morning Post, 1 January 1890 (No. 36,675): page 6 Col. C.

12 April 1889, Friday
Amy Levy and Elizabeth Pennell both attended what Pennell called a "converzazione" at the Fabian Society in the Bloomsbury Town Hall. Pennell says, "We went to the Converzazione of the Fabian Society in Bloomsbury Town Hall. A collection of cranks, native and foreign: young women in extraordinary costumes, one a perfect Burne-Jones, played the violin; young men with long hair and velvet coats. Most people were in evening dress so that a conspicuous figure was George Bernard Shaw in grey Jaeger get-up, flirting outrageously with all the girls in the room" (Linda Hunt Beckman, Amy Levy: Life and Letters, p. 179; posting on victoria@listserv.indiana.edu Linda Hunt Beckman , 20 October 2003, "Re: conversaziones at Berkeley Galleries; mourning customs").

19 April 1889, Friday
Good Friday.

21 April 1889, Sunday
Easter Sunday.

28 April 1889, Sunday
Jack Yeats attended the funeral of the Duchess of Cambridge, whose husband was Queen Victoria's uncle, and commander-in-chief of the British Army. She was a very popular woman; Jack described the event as 'more like a race meeting than a funeral'. Street touts sold 'memorium cards of the dear old Dutchie', and charged fourpence for standing room at the curbside. Griffin was with Jack (Bruce Arnold. Jack Yeats. p. 46)

May 1889
Sometime in May 1889 the The Inner Order of the Golden Dawn met at the offices of The Sanitary Wood Wool Co. (Howe 85 31).

Dinner planned in honor of James Whistler, with a long list of celebrities invited, including Arthur Collins, Equerry to the Queen, William Christian Symons, the recipient of a letter from Whistler's son, "Sir Coutts Lindsay (1824-1913), Bart., co-founder of the Grosvenor Gallery ..., and Edmond, Prince de Polignac (1834-1901), composer ...; diplomats, such as James Rennell Rodd (1858-1941), 1st Baron Rennell, poet and diplomat ...; lawyers, including Sir John Charles Sigismund Day (1826-1908), QC, collector ..., and Sir George Henry Lewis (1833-1911), society lawyer ...; and scientists, including Edwin Ray Lankester (1847-1929), Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy .... There are several men involved with drama and music, such as John Hollingshead (1827-1904), journalist and manager of the Gaiety Theatre ..., Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844-1901), impresario and property developer ..., and Pablo de Sarasate y Navascues (1844-1908), violinist ...; writers, such as Sheridan Ford (1860-1922), poet, critic, politician and writer on art ..., Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898), Symbolist writer and poet ..., and Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1855-1921), Symbolist writer and poet, and collector [more]. Art critics and editors include Theodore Child (1846-1892), journalist and art critic ..., Théodore Duret (1838-1927), art critic and collector ..., Henry Du Pré Labouchère (1831-1912), journalist and Liberal MP ...,William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919), civil servant and critic ..., and George Augustus Sala (1828-1895), artist, journalist and critic .... Nor surprisingly, there are many patrons and collectors, such as Alexander ('Aleco') Ionides (1840-1898), businessman ..., Alfred Chapman (1839-1917), engineer and collector ..., and Wickham Flower (b. ca 1836), solicitor and collector ...; some art dealers, such as Charles William Deschamps (1848-1908), art dealer ...; and, of course, many artists, including Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-1890), sculptor ..., Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834-1917), artist ..., John Lavery (1856-1941), painter ..., William Quiller Orchardson (1832-1910), genre and portrait painter ..., Théodore Roussel (1847-1926), painter and print-maker ..., Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), artist and writer on art ..., Francis ('Frank') Job Short (1857-1945), printer and print-maker ..., and John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), artist .... Finally, there are a few family members, such as Hon Charles Ernest Thynne (1849-1906), solicitor, husband of JW's niece Annie Haden ..., and William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900), physician, JW's brother ..." (http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence/people/display/?cid=5635&nameid=Collins_A&sr=0&surname=Collins&firstname=Arthur&rs=1#ms05635).

June 1889
The last meeting of the Men and Women's Club was held in June 1889 (Bland 41).

The "initial London performance of 'A Doll's House' was in June 1889 and was attended by Eleanor Marx, Clementina Black, and Amy Levy (Bernstein paragraph 12). Then Walter Besant wrote "The Doll's House -- And After." attacking Nora for the destruction of her family twenty years later. G. B. Shaw wrote another version in 1890, a sequel to the original as well, "Still After the Doll's House," attacking Besant's vision (Time [February 1890]: 197–208). Eleanor Marx and Israel Zangwill then wrote "A Doll's House Repaired," in which the door slamming is the one that locks Nora in (Time [March 1891]: 239–253).

5 June 1889, Wednesday
Derby Day at Epsom Downs.

According to the Morning Post, The Derby Day. / Lady George Hamilton's second evening party, at the Admiralty. / Lady Trevelyan's dance, instead of the 27th of May. / Lady Jane Lindsay's first dance. / The Hon. Mrs. Greville Vernon's dance. ("Arrangements for This Day." The Morning Post Wednesday, 5 June 1889: p. 7 [of 12], Col. 6B).

6 June 1889, Thursday
According to the year-end summary of the weather in the 1 Janaury 1890 Morning Post, there was a "grand display of lightning during the violent thunderstorm of June 6" "The Weather of 1889." The Morning Post, 1 January 1890 (No. 36,675): page 6 Col. C.

26 June 1889, Wednesday
There was apparently a regular celebration of Arthur Collins' birthday, 26 June, by Bret Harte, George Du Maurier, Arthur Sullivan, Alfred Cellier, Arthur Blunt, and John Hare (Nissen, Axel. Brent Harte: Prince and Pauper: 239. ). Choosing 1885–1902 as the dates because those apparently are the dates of the close relationship between Harte and Collins, ending in Harte's death in 1902.

27 July 1889, Saturday
Wedding between Princess Louise of Wales and the Duke of Fife at Buckingham Palace (http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/25962/pages/4311/page.pdf).

6 August 1889, Tuesday
"The Savoy Hotel on the Thames Embankment opened by a company, 6 August 1889; the directors included the earl of Lathom, Mr. R. D'Oyly Carte, and sir Arthur Sullivan" (Hayden's Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information Relating to All Ages. Ed., Benjamin Vincent. 23rd Edition, Containing the History of the World to the End of 1903. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904. Page 1105. Google Books, retrieved 23 February 2010.)

26 August 1889, Monday
Summer Bank Holiday.

30 August 1889, Friday
"The American house of Lippincott's, based in Philadelphia, had sent one of their men, J.M. Stoddart, over to England to search out some new talent. Lippincott's published a monthly magazine in both countries, and their policy was to include a complete story in each number. Stoddart called upon James Payn, editor of The Cornhill, and Payn recommended him to try Dr. Conan Doyle of Southsea. The result was the celebrated dinner for four at the Langham Hotel, Portland Place with Stoddart, Doyle, Oscar Wilde, and an Irish MP called Gill. ... Dr Doyle has left on record his impressions of Wilde" (Stavert 148). For Lippincott's Doyle wrote A Study in Scarlet, which has "a character patterned after Oscar Wilde, and the Langdon Hotel gets a mention" (Stavert 149). Stoddart was looking for novels Doyle's A Study in Scarlet was published in the February 1890 number, and Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray in the July 1890 one.

30 August 1889, Friday
W. A. Ayton and Anne Ayton were initiated into the Inner Order of the Golden Dawn (Gilbert 86 140).

October 1889
In October 1889, Jack the Ripper's signature and some vandalism in the form of drawings and commentary shows up in the guest book for the Lizard Hotel, Lizard Point, Cornwall (Cornwell 283).

31 October 1889, Thursday
Halloween.

5 November 1889, Tuesday
Guy Fawkes Day

13 November 1889, Wednesday
According to the Morning Post (2 January 1890), there was a disturbance during a performance of The Gold Craze at the Royal Princess's Theatre: The Marquis de Leuville appeared yesterday at Marlborough-street Police-court, to answer a summons obtained by Mr. H. Cummings for inciting persons to create a riot at the Royal Princess's Theatre on November 13. Mr. Geoghegan stated the case for the complainant, and examined Thomas Vincent Kiely, who said that the Marquis had given him money to engage men to hiss and make a disturbance at the performance of "The Gold Craze" at the Princess's, in which the Baron de Fleurville was upposed by defendant to be [col. E/F] intended for himself. The hearing was adjourned. "London, Thursday, January 2, 1890." The Morning Post, 2 January 1890 (No. 36,676): page 4 Cols. #-F.

7 December 1889, Saturday
Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers, Or the King of Barataria opened at the Savoy.

25 December 1889, Wednesday
Christmas Day

26 December 1889, Thursday
Boxing Day

"Mr. F. J. Horniman's museum at Forest-Hill was open to the public on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Christmas week, and about 4500 persons of all classes availed themselves of the privilege of inspecting the various objects of interest and the magnificent collection of natural history and art specimens." (Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, January 04, 1890; pg. 6; Issue 2646, Col. B)

27 December 1889, Friday
Horniman Museum open, second day (Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, January 04, 1890; pg. 6; Issue 2646, Col. B).

28 December 1889, Saturday
Horniman Museum open, third day (Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, January 04, 1890; pg. 6; Issue 2646, Col. B).

31 December 1889, Tuesday
Robert Browning's funeral in Westminster Abbey: Bret Harte attended (Axel Nissen, Bret Harte: Prince and Pauper. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2000: 216). The mortal remains of Robert Browning, the great poet, were yesterday laid among the relics of other famous bards and writers in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, with every appropriate demonstration of honour and regret for the departed. Among the attendant mourners were many of the great of the land and a host of others, whose reverence for the poet was shown by their demeanour. The Morning Post, 1 January 1890 (No. 36,675): 4 Col. F.

From later in the Morning Post: With manifestations of sincere respect and fond remembrance the remains of Robert Browning were yesterday consigned to an honoured resting place in Westminster Abbey. The funeral procession, which included 10 mourning carriages, left the house in De Vere-gardens, Kensington, soon after eleven o'clock, and reached Westminster Abbey just after the hour of noon had struck. Long before that time the choir and transepts reserved for mourners and friends were full, with the exception of a few seats under the Lantern set apart for the relatives and pall-bearers. The north transcept and a portion of the nave were crowded with the general public. Gloom and mist pervaded the Abbey, rendering the use of artificial light imperative. Tall tapers were burning upon the footpace before the undraped altar, and the seven-branched candelabra at the entrance of the sacrarium shed a flickering light within. In the uncertain light it was difficult to discern and identify the occupants of the choir and transepts, but now and again some well-known representative of art and letters could be recognised passing to his allotted seat. Just before noon the Dean, Canons Prothero, Duckworth, Westcott, and Fruse, Minor Canons Troutbeck and Cheadle, and the choir assembled at the western entrance of the nave in readiness to meet the body. Some 10 minutes afterwards the solemn and familiar strains of Croft and Purcell's music indicated that the Burial Service had commenced, and, with slow and measured steps the long procession passed up the nave into the choir, where choir and clergy took their places in the stalls. The coffin, covered with a violet-coloured pall, upon which were placed two floral wreaths and a cross of violets, was placed upon trestles in the open space under the Lantern where the lectern usually stands. The pall-bearers, ranged on either side, were the Hon. Hallam Tennyson, Dr. Butler, Sir Fitzjames Stephen, Sir Theodore Martin, Archdeacon Farrar, Professor Masson, Professor Jowett, Sir Frederick Leighton, Sir James Paget, Sir George Grove, Mr. G. M. Smith, and Professor Knight. [new paragraph] When the mourners had taken their places, the Burian Service proceeded in the usual manner, the 90th Psalm being chanted to Purcell's setting, while the Dean read the Lesson from his stall. The anthem or hymn which is usually interpolated between the two sections of the service was yesterday preceded by a "Meditation," in which some touching verses by Elizabeth Barrett Browning were set to equally touching music by Dr. Bridge. Rendered by the choir with excellent skill and reverent feeling, this interlude formed the most striking feature in the whole service. The anthem which followed was Wesley's, "All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." At its conclusion the procession reformed, and the coffin, preceded by clergy and choir, passed through the south transept to the familiar Poets' Corner, where, at the foot of Chaucer's tomb, the grave had been dug. On the wall above, suspended from Cowley's monument, was a noble wreath of laurel, bound by a broad ribbon of white silk bearing the name of the poet in golden lettering, the memorial tribute of the Municipality of Venice. The final prayers at the graveside were said by the Dean, and the service fitly closed with Dr. Watts's hymn, "O God, our help in ages past," to the time-honoured tune, "St. Anne," which was very generally taken up by the congregation. As the Dean was reading the touching prayer of committal, the rays of the winter sun glinted through the Te Deum window in the transept, shedding rainbow hues on wall and pillar, and partially dismissing the prevailing gloom. Then the strains of the Dead March pealed forth from the organ, clergy and choir retired, and friends pressed forward to take a farewell glance. [new paragraph] Among them were noticed the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of Rosebery, Bishop Barry, the Dean of Windsor, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir Lyon Playfair, M.P., Captain Walter Campbell (representing the Queen), Mr. Stuart-Wortley, M.P., Mr. Mundella, M.P., Mr. Leonard Courtney, M.P., the Hon. and Rev. E. Carr Glyn, Dr. Martineau, Canon Benham, Mr. Alma Tadema, Mr. Lecky, Mr. Oscar Wilde, and Mr. Huxley (representing his father). The relatives and immediate friends were Mr. and Mrs. R. Browning, Mr. Octavius Moulton Barrett, Mr. George Moulton Barrett, Captain Charles Moulton Barrett, Mr. Henry Moulton Barrett, M. Dourlane, Miss Christine Browning, Captain Altham, Rev. Mr. Altham, Sir James Carmichael, and Miss Carmichael. Wreaths of exquisite beauty and in almost countless numbers were sent from friends far and near, and many of them bore touching inscriptions, as for instance, that of Sir F. Leighton, "In remembrance of 36 years' friendship." Among others may be mentioned Lord Tennyson, Earl and Countess Brownlow, Lord Vernon, Lord and Lady Edmond Fitzmaurice, Lady Lindsay, Lady Martin, Sir Henry Thompson, Sir John Millais, Miss Cobbe, Mrs. Jeune, Mr. and Mrs. Alma Tadema, Mr. and Mrs. Whistler, Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Flower, Mr. Henry Irving, Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, and the Browning Society. The coffin, made in Venice, was of yellow pine, designed somewhat in the modern casket form, and bore the simple inscription, "Robert Browning, born May 7, 1812, died December 12, 1889." "Funeral of Robert Browning." The Morning Post, 1 January 1890 (No. 36,675): page 5, Col. F.

At the Royal Institution, Albemarle-street, yesterday afternoon, Professor Rücker delivered the second of his course of six simplified lectures on electricity. The theatre was again well filled. Before taking up the threads of his subject at the point where they were broken off last Saturday, the lecturer briefly recapitulated the remarks made on that occasion relative to the subject of the "lines of force." The rest of the report describes the experiment used to demonstrate the answers to particular questions about electricity. The report ends with this sentence: "The third lecture takes place to-morrow," i.e., 1 January 1890. "Lectures on Electricity." The Morning Post, 1 January 1890 (No. 36,675): page 6 Col. C.