Room 2D

First in a four-part saga, from Blushes 6 As the usherettes queued up to get their issue of programmes, Cecilia was last in line, nearly late as usual. Her friends described her as ‘dizzy’. The front-of-house manager at the theatre where she worked in the evenings had warned her a couple of times about being ‘slapdash’: late reporting for work, gossiping with her colleagues, and on two occasions being short on her programme money. ‘But it’s only twelve pence.’ ‘It’s not the amount of money I’m worried about, Cecilia, it’s the principle of not managing to get your sums right when you’re giving change: you’re slapdash, you know.’ Roger, the manager, was fair to all the girls — most of them from the drama school not far from the theatre — and he preferred to use students as they were generally more reliable and even keen to do the work. They also didn’t complain about the less-than-generous wages the theatre paid. Cecilia’s t...

Part 2 from Janus 15 by Richard Manton Writer Richard Manton (the pseudonym of a well-known novelist) continues his recreation of just one day in the life of James Miles, the factual Master of the Hoo Union Workhouse at Rochester, Kent during the 19th century. This compelling, obsessive yet authentic account, closely based on records of the time, takes one deep into the world of workhouse discipline for girls and raises many topical questions relating to right-wing moves to get corporal punishment put back on the statute books.  Part one  of The Man with the Golden Rod appeared in Janus 14. When, as James Miles, you were acquitted at your trial, the justices were clearly on your side. Off you go, they said. Birch those young reformatory trollops long, hard, and often. Did you suspect that the justices had a vested interest in the verdict? No? What a trusting sort of chap you are. The French revealed the truth in such Edwardian hooks as  Etudes sur la Flage...

Part 1 from Janus 14 by Richard Manton In January 1841, James Miles made headlines for the first time in the  Morning Chronicle . When charged with excessive use of birch and cane upon the bare bottoms of girls in his care, the justices laughed the case out of court at Rochester sessions. Mr Miles went on from strength to strength, supported by disciplinarians, press, and the justices — traditionally allowed to come and watch girls under the birch. As late as 1897, his colleague, the Rev Marshall Vine, supported such disciplinary zeal. It was still customary to give 36-stroke birchings in reformatory institutions, Vine insisted. ‘And I have done so,’ he added proudly in his evidence to the Parliamentary Committee. In our own time there is a groundswell of opinion, in the polls and in parliament, which favours the return of judicial chastisement. What would it be like? How would the system work? Is it quite as edifying as its supporters suggest? Perhaps before we give it ou...