19C Rumours from Britain January 20, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
In his search for Victorian urban legends, Beach has recently been chasing the word ‘rumour’ through the Victorian press. He did not find much in the way of urban legends but he did find lots of inexplicable international gossip. Of course, in the age of the internet the rumour that the Prince of Wales had drowned in Australia would rage up like a bush fire and then die down as quickly because the Prince himself would send a photograph from the beach. In the age of newspapers, as the 19 Cent most certainly was, there was no way to quickly scotch these kinds of stories: so tales could not be authoritatively put down in the public space. The best an editor could do would be to actually do the sums and work out whether it was realistic that someone down the road had advanced knowledge of, say, a Russian invasion of Canada through Oregon (see below). Today, the only type of rumour that would survive from this list are those involving specialist knowledge of private decisions among the good and the great. If, say, President X decides to resign to avoid impeachment then, of course, it is just conceivable that some information might leak out and into the news columns. Indeed, along with conspiracy theories, these privileged and typically fabricated insights into the decisions of our rulers are the best the internet can do with rumours.
12 Apr 1854 Russia planning to invade Canada through the US [Dundee Courier]
23 Oct 1863 Garibaldi dead [Cork Ex]
28 Dec 1866 Buffs Regiment (Kent) rebels and becomes Fenians [!!!] on their way to India [Montrose]
19 Nov 1867 Victor Emanuel II goes mad [Dub Dail Press]
9 Jul 1881 Prince of Wales drowned in Australia [Fife Free Press]
2 May 1883 Gladstone to resign [Dun Eve Tel]. Of course old Will went on till 1894
29 Sep 1883 Parnell, Irish nationalist leader assassinated by an Ulsterman [Herts Guardian]
15 Oct 1889 Jack the Ripper goes to Belfast and writes to the local paper [Dublin Daily News]
19 May 1893 Victoria about to abdicate [South Wales News]
3 Mar 1899 Kipling has bubonic plague [Port Eve News]
31 Oct 1899 Sir R. Buller [as Boer war began] murdered on arriving in Cape Town [South Wales Daily]
29 Jan 1900 Jameson (of Jameson raid) wounded at Ladysmith
27 Nov 1900 Pope dead [Dund Teleg]
