[The following is largely in regards to the gin craze that swept Great Britain in the 18th century.]
Drinking was out of control, which was something that was very frightening to those who were meant to control society – the upper classes. There was a chap called William Bird who had a nice house in Kensington. He also had a maidservant called Jane Andrews. One day in March 1736, William went out and left Jane in charge of the house. Jane, being a responsible girl,
*shut up his doors, and went to Kensington Town to a Gin-shop she usually frequented, and there found a drummer of the guards of her acquaintance, a chimney-sweeper, and a woman traveler. She invited [them] home to her master’s house where they drank plentifully from ten in the morning till four in the afternoon, when Jane Andrews proposed to the company… that they and she should all go to bed together; and thereupon they shut up the doors and windows, and tho ‘twas but about four o’clock in the afternoon, they stript, and all four went into one bed together (as the Maid called it to ring changes) and lay there till a mob, hearing of this affair, surrounded the door, and disturbed the happy pairs.*
Source:
Forsyth, Mark. “The Gin Craze.” A Short History of Drunkenness. Three Rivers Press, 2017. 161-62. Print.
Further Reading:
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