Q: "travelling lady"?

[Robin Hamilton]

From: "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>

> Wikipedia reveals that there was a
> Killmainham or Kilmainham Gaol (the spelling in the article is probably
> Killmainham, but some of the letters are blurred).

Kilmainham Gaol was to the west of Dublin, and well known in the late
eighteenth century, especially as a place where convicts were hanged.
Larry, in 'De Nite afore Larry was stretch'd', tips the prison chaplain "a
Kilmainham look", and of course the title of his perhaps alter ego's poem is
'Luke Caffrey's Kilmainham Minit' [or minuet].  The area, but not the gaol
itself, also crops up in the related 'Lord Altham's Bull' -- "But when we
came to Kilmainham lands, / We let de mosey rest awhile."

[See Andrew Carpenter, _Verse in English from Eighteenth-Century Ireland_
(Cork University Press, 1998), pp. 430-445, passim.]

Robin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Laurence Horn
> Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 5:53 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Q: "travelling lady"?
>
> At 1:17 PM -0400 10/15/10, Baker, John wrote:
>>         The story is also reported in the London Daily Advertiser
> (Sept.
>>25, 1736), where it says that the sheriff handed M'Cullogh "to a Carr,
>>and was his Guard to the House call'd the Ware; from whence he sent him
>>that Night, together with his travelling Lady (who had bravely stood
> all
>>the Fires) and the rest of the Prisoners, under a strong Guard to his
>>Majesty's Goal at Killmaisham."  This is from Access Newspaper
> Archives;
>>the scan is not the best, so there may be an error somewhere (the
>>spelling "Goal" is clear, though).
>>
>>         I at first thought that "travelling lady" would be a courtesan
>>or adventuress, but I don't think there is any evidence that a
>>travelling lady in the eighteenth century was anything other than a
> lady
>>who travels, so I think this is simply a reference to the captain's
> wife
>>or consort, likely the former.  It sounds like the lady was in the
>>castle with the captain, if she bravely stood all the fires, so the
>>travel may simply be to the Goal.
>>
>>
>
> Well, there's the evidence from the eponymous Leonard Cohen song--
>
> And why are you so quiet now
> Standing there in the doorway?
> You chose your journey long before
> You came upon this highway.
>
> Traveling lady, stay awhile
> Until the night is over.
> I'm just a station on your way
> I know I'm not your lover.
>
> I'm still puzzled by the "Goal" for "Gaol", though, especially since
> the OED doesn't provide the former as a variant spelling of the
> latter.  The Ballad of Reading Goal?
>
> LH
>
>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf
>>Of Jonathan Lighter
>>Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 12:44 PM
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: Re: Q: "travelling lady"?
>>
>>You mean you think they were an item?
>>
>>Regardless, it may be that by 18th C. standards her prison confinement
>>was
>>not considered very different from confinement as a PW - perhaps an
>>especially wicked one for her close association with her boss.
>>
>>JL
>>On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net>
> wrote:
>>
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>>  Subject:      Re: Q: "travelling lady"?
>>>
>>>
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>>-------
>>>
>>>  I would think more than a laundress.  Why would a servant, and only
>>>  this one, be especially mentioned as taken to prison?  And if she
> was
>>>  the only woman in the castle, would she not have been someone
>>>  special?  The only other persons of M'Cullogh's party mentioned are
>>>  "the rest of the Garrison", many of them wounded, who were made
>>>  "prisoners of war".
>>>
>>>  Joel
>>>
>>>  At 10/15/2010 11:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>  >Laundress and attendant?
>>>  >
>>>  >JL
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  >On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 11:23 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net>
>>wrote:
>>>  >
>>>  > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  > > -----------------------
>>>  > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>>  > > Subject:      Q:  "travelling lady"?
>>>  > >
>>>  > >
>>>  >
>>>
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>>-------
>>>  > >
>>>  > > In 1736 Ireland, a Capt. M'Cullogh forcibly, with arms, resisted
> a
>>>  > > sheriff trying to serve a "writ of restitution" to remove him
> from
>>a
>>>  > > castle he was resident in.  When he was captured, he, "together
>>with
>>>  > > his travelling Lady", was sent to his Majesty's Goal.  [From a
>>Boston
>>>  > > newspaper.]
>>>  > >
>>>  > > Does "travelling lady" have any meaning beyond the notion of a
>>woman
>>>  > > who travels?  Here M'Cullogh is not described as travelling;
>>rather,
>>>  > > the newspaper article is entirely about the siege of the castle
>>and
>>>  > > the capture of Mc'Cullogh.
>>>  > >
>>>  > > Joel
>>>  > >
>>
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