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 — 39:30:

• 01:20: DICKENS' DREADFUL ALMANAC for today: A desperate butler tried to save his job by pretending to have been jumped by robbers … it didn’t work.
• 03:20: HANGED TODAY IN HISTORY: On January 16, 1813, 14 Luddites were scragged in a dreadful mass hanging, their punishment for having allegedly broken some machinery on purpose. It was the high-water mark of the “Bloody Code” under which one could be hanged for stealing a quartern loaf of bread! For more about this mass execution: https://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.com/2013/01/16th-january-1813-14-convicted-luddites.html and https://www.executedtoday.com/2013/01/16/1813-14-luddites-at-york/
• 09:30: SWEENEY TODD, THE BARBER OF FLEET-STREET, Chapter 80: Mrs. Lovett now decides the best policy is to flee the country at once. So she decides she is going to visit the stockbroker with whom her joint resources with Todd are deposited, withdraw them all (including Todd’s half, of course!) and, without returning to the pie shop or making any other delay, go straight from there to a seaport and quit the country before Todd even knows she’s gone. But when she gets to the stockbroker’s place, there is a nasty surprise awaiting her …
• 26:45: BROADSIDE BALLAD: An account, and long poem, about Ann Williams, a young maiden who in 1823 was murdered by her so-called sweetheart, William Jones, after that worthy learned he had gotten her pregnant.
• 31:30: THE LIVES OF THE HIGHWAYMEN: Jack “Mul-Sac” Cottington was the only highway robber to have cried “Stand and Deliver” to Oliver Cromwell himself! His was a short life and a merry one; but not as short as you might expect.

PART II: "THE TWOPENNY TORRIDS," 40:30 — 1:18:00:

• 42:00: BLACK BESS; or, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD (starring HIGHWAYMAN DICK TURPIN), Chapter 46-47: Turpin and King turn at bay under the shelter of the fallen oak tree. It’s the best possible place they could have found to fend off attack; but it’s eight to two, and one of the two can barely walk. Is this curtains for our felonious friends?
• 1:04:30: SOME STREET POETRY from an 1830s “broadside”: "The Bloom is on the Rye” and “The Cheerless Soul.”
• 1:07:45: A MILDLY NAUGHTY COCK-AND-HEN-CLUB SONG: “Cobbing a Stiff-un.”
• 1:12:00: 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.”)

GLOSSARY OF FLASH TERMS USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• HIGH SPICERS: Highway robbers.
• ACK PIRATES: Thieves who operate on the river.
• KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellows wandering amok in meadows and ditches, trying to stagger home.
• CORINTHIAN: A fancy toff or titled swell. Used here as a reference to Corinthian Tom, the quintessential Regency rake depicted in Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (usually referred to as "Tom and Jerry").
• CHAFFING-CRIB: A room where drinking and bantering are going on.
• SCRAGGED: Hanged.
• BEAKS: Judges and magistrates.
• BIRDS OF PREY: Lawyers and prosecutors.
• JARVEYS: Hackney-coach drivers.
• GRAVEL TAX: The contribution levied at pistol-point by a highwayman.
• BRUSH OFF: Leave quickly.
• DARBIES: Handcuffs or manacles.
• BUMMED: Arrested (a “bum” is a gaoler/jailer or turnkey).
• IN DURANCE VILE: In prison or gaol.
• CHARLEYS: Watchmen.
• SCREWS: Gaolers or turnkeys.
• BOARDING-SCHOOL: Prison.

There are more! But we’re out of space here. A full glossary of all the flash-cant terms used in this episode is at ⁠https://pennydread.com/discord⁠ in the "#season-5-episodes" thread.