SHOW NOTES

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MINISODE 20 (Season 5)

(MARCH 5, 2026)

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EPISODE 5.20: The skeletons in the vault. — A golden age of highway robbery and crime! — A very naughty song about sailing on “The Open C—.” (Segment 2 — The “Twopenny Torrids.”)

NOTE: The full show notes, including images and links, can be accessed at https://pennydread.com/discord

01:20: THE LIVES OF THE HIGHWAYMEN: A little scene-setting of what life was like during the Golden Age of Britain’s criminal underworld, and some theories about what caused such a startling outbreak of violent crime.

17:50: BLACK BESS; or, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD (starring HIGHWAYMAN DICK TURPIN), Chapter 56-58: The ghostly mystery solved, the two highwaymen start exploring the house. They soon find a locked door that apparently is Sir Ernest’s room; it has a seal stamped over the lock hole with sealing-wax. Somebody really wanted to keep people out of that room … our friends have their work cut out for them, but by the end of the day, they’ve figured out why.

46:45: STREET POETRY: From a broadside ballad: “Stock and Wall” and “Low-back’d Car.” (Early 1800s).

51:40: TWO RATHER NAUGHTY COCK-AND-HEN-CLUB SONGS: "The C—” (about naughtybits, of course) and “Oh, do it, dear charmer, again.”

54:40: A FEW MILDLY DIRTY JOKES from what passed in 1830 for a dirty joke book: "The Joke-Cracker" by Martin Merryman, Esq.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• SWAG: Stolen property.
• BULLY: In this context, a brothel muscle-man there to protect the girls and make sure they get paid as agreed.
• FIDDLER: This word was used to mean a sixpence piece, a whip, a con artist, and sometimes a lady’s reproductive bits.
• FLASH CRIBS: A hospitality house of ill repute, often a brothel.
• FANCY GIRLS: Sporting ladies, provocatively dressed.
• KINCHIN: Child.
• LINK-BOY: A lad with a link or torch, hired to light the way.