Join host Corinthian Finn, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John 18th Baron Dunwitch,* for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of old London!

PART I: "THE HA’PENNY HORRIDS," 0:00 — 49:00:

• 01:10: TODAY’S TERRIBLE TIDBIT — Jan. 8, 1851: A little chimney-sweeper boy who suffocated in the factory chimney he was cleaning, because the proprietor did not let it cool completely before sending him in, on Jan. 8, 1851. From Dickens’ Dreadful Almanac, a book by Cate Ludlow, 2010.
• 02:50: HANGED TODAY — Jan. 8, 1813: A new Ha’penny Horrid feature! January 8, 1813, three Luddites were hanged for murder after allegedly ambushing and killing industrialist William Horsfall on the high road at Crosland Moor. More details: https://www.executedtoday.com/2013/01/08/1813-yorkshire-luddites-william-horsfall/ .
• 05:20: SWEENEY TODD, THE BARBER OF FLEET-STREET, Chapter 78-79: You’re going to think we’ve gotten our Horrids and Torrids mixed up. In Chapter 78, Arabella pours her heart out to Big Ben regarding her feelings of guilt and shame for having put Johanna up to the secret-agent-in-Todd’s-shop wheeze. He, unfortunately, misinterprets her statement as a confession that she has gotten pregnant somehow, and we get some much-needed laughs out of that! And then in Chapter 79, Colonel Jeffery gives us all a fantastic demonstration of how to screw up a confession of love, when he tries to get Arabella to take him on as a boyfriend.
• 36:00: BROADSIDE BALLAD: A “catchpenny” account of an entitled squire who lusted after a maiden who belonged to another, and, finding himself alone with her in a quiet place, escalated his suit to violence, then double-murdered his way out of the ensuing difficulty when her beau came on the scene. From Curiosities of Street Literature, a book by Charles Hindley, 1871.
• 40:15: HIGHWAYMAN CULTURE (THE NEWGATE CHRONICLES): In the 1600s and 1700s, the roads of England were plagued with banditti, and the most surprising people, from shopkeepers to members of the King’s Guard, chose a life of violent crime. James Whitney (hanged in 1694) is a great example. (Image: Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, via romantic-circles.org, a peer-reviewed scholarly Website devoted to Romantic-period literature and culture. More on highwayman Whitney: https://romantic-circles.org/gallery/image/trwe-effigies-james-whitney-notorious-highwayman .

PART II: "THE TWOPENNY TORRIDS," 50:00 — 1:28:30:

• 50:20: BLACK BESS; or, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD (starring HIGHWAYMAN DICK TURPIN), Chapter 45: Dick and Tom flee, hotly pursued by the officers, who chase them all day. They just make it to a forest, which they plunge into. Unable to shake their pursuers, they turn at bay behind a great fallen tree and draw their swords. But Tom has been hit and has lost a lot of blood. Things are looking bleak for our heroes!
• 1:11:00: SOME STREET POETRY from an 1830s “broadside”: "The Blooming Lady,” a ballad of a fancy toff’s bride, worth £500,000 on her own, who ran off with a handsome servant … and her £500k.
• 1:14:30: ONE OR TWO VERY NAUGHTY COCK-AND-HEN-CLUB SONGS: "Noses to Faces and Tails to Arses” (about a frustrated farmer who finds his village parson is taking too great an interest in “prayer services” with his pretty wife)
• 1:18:50: A FEW MILDLY DIRTY JOKES from what passed in 1830 for a dirty joke book: "The Joke-Cracker."

*The Barony of Dunwitch is located in a wood west of Arkham (where, as H.P. Lovecraft put it, “the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut; there are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”) Actually it is a good 3,000 miles west of Arkham.

FLASH TERMS:

A full glossary of the flash-cant terms used in this episode at https://pennydread.com/discord .