The Victorian roots of VEGETARIANISM
Vegetarianism is anything but a recent arrival on British shores. Michelle Higgs tells the story of the pioneers who crusaded to convert the country in the 19th century
Vegetarianism was routinely ridiculed in the press in the mid19th century, being perceived as a fad and an example of ‘anti-everythingism’. For example, an 1848 issue of Punch included the lines: “We understand a prize is to be given for the quickest demolition of the largest quantity of turnips; and a silver medal will be awarded to the vegetarian who will dispose of one hundred heads of celery with the utmost celerity. We sincerely hope the puddings will not get into the heads of our vegetarian friends, and render them puddingheaded.” Four years later, a cartoon by John Leech in the same magazine depicted a Grand Show of Prize Vegetarians with the humans turned into vegetables. At the time, the British vegetarian movement was still in its infancy, despite the fact that our ancient ancestors had plant-based diets.
Christian Connection
Many Victorians saw vegetarianism as an extension of their religious faith, which was often nonconformist. They led a puritanical way of life, and were almost evangelical in their efforts to convert meat-eaters to their cause. For them, being vegetarian was part of a concern about the wider world, so they campaigned on other issues including social reform, temperance and teetotalism, humanitarianism, health and animal cruelty.
When the Vegetarian Society was founded in Ramsgate in 1847, it consisted of three distinct groups: the Bible Christians or ‘Cowherdites’ of Manchester and Salford who ate no meat but consumed dairy foods; members of the Alcott House Academy community in Richmond, Surrey, who only ate plants; and advanced teetotallers sympathetic to the vegetarian cause.
The ‘Cowherdites’ followed the teaching of Rev William Cowherd, who had established the Bible Christian Church in 1809 in Salford after breaking away from the Swedenborgian New Church. Cowherd insisted that his congregation abstain
from meat (and alcohol) because he believed that God was inside every living creature, so eating meat was sinful. In addition, it prevented individuals from receiving heavenly love and wisdom in the soul.
He also believed that slaughtering animals brutalised human beings, and that eating meat made people aggressive. In return for their commitment, Cowherd’s mostly workingclass followers received free vegetable soup, and access to medical help and a lending library. After Cowherd died in 1816, Joseph Brotherton became the church’s minister and was later a founder member of the Vegetarian Society; he was also the first MP for Salford. James Simpson, a philanthropist and reformer, was another important member of the congregation.
The Alcott House Academy, also known as the Concordium, was founded in 1838 by James Pierrepont Greaves, a merchant, socialist and educational reformer. Greaves died in 1842 but his utopian spiritual community and school lasted for a decade, led by William Oldham. Vegetarianism was at its core with a diet consisting mainly of oatmeal, porridge, bread, vegetables, fruit and water. There was also a garden to promote self-sufficient living, and the Concordium was open to the public. Sunday lectures, pamphlets, tracts and two journals, the Healthian and the New Age, helped publicise the cause. Indeed, the term ‘vegetarian’ was first used in the Healthian in 1842.
Teetotalism, Too
With similar ideals, advanced teetotallers were a natural group to link with vegetarians. William Horsell, a teetotaller and early advocate of hydropathy, became a vegetarian while researching his book Hydropathy for the People (1845). He and his wife ran a ‘Hydro-Vegetarian Establishment’, and Horsell published numerous journals promoting vegetarianism and teetotalism, including the Truth-Tester. He advocated an ‘advanced’ vegetarian diet that was essentially vegan, although the word was not generally used until 1944.
In September 1847, the Vegetarian Society was formally established. James Simpson became the society’s first president while William Horsell was appointed secretary and William Oldham was treasurer. Initially 150 members were enrolled; a year later, there were 265 aged 14–76. About half were from Cowherdite families. By 1853, membership totalled 889, and over half were tradesmen, mechanics and labourers.
Based in Manchester, the Vegetarian Society’s objectives were “to induce habits of Abstinence from the Flesh of Animals as Food, by the dissemination of information upon the subject, by means of Tracts, Essays, and Lectures, proving the many advantages of a Physical, Intellectual and Moral Character, resulting from Vegetarian Habits of Diet; and thus, to secure through the Association, Example, and Efforts of its Members, the adoption of a Principle which will tend essentially, to
True Civilisation, to Universal Brotherhood, and to the Increase of
Human Happiness, generally”. New members had to sign a declaration stating that they had abstained “from the Flesh of Animals as Food” for one month or more.
There were three main arguments used to promote vegetarianism: economy, health and animal welfare. The high price of meat meant that cheap vegetable diets appealed to the working and lower middle classes; they were often vegetarian through poverty, not choice. The idea of self-help went hand in hand, and a popular pamphlet entitled How to Live on Sixpence a Day (1871) by dietician and reformer Dr Thomas Low explained how inexpensive vegetarian meals could be.
In terms of health, the Victorian medical profession believed that cutting out meat altogether was harmful, and routinely prescribed beef-tea to build up convalescent patients. However, Vegetarian Society members regularly publicised their good health and (often) long lives in vegetarian journals. Of the 606 members who were polled in 1851, 202 had given up meat for a decade, 159 for 20 years, 94 for 30 years, 29 for 40 years, and 88 for their whole lives. In addition, any diet that avoided the consumption of bad meat was attractive.
The Animals Argument
The animal-welfare argument, which many Victorian critics called sentimental, was perhaps the strongest. Vegetarians objected to cattle and sheep being herded into towns and cities before suffering slow and painful deaths in unhygienic slaughterhouses. As one Vegetarian Society member explained: “The system of the slaughter-house must necessarily cause much cruelty and brutality, and if the flesh-eater once reflects on the sufferings of the animals which furnish his repast the pleasures of his table must surely be grievously diminished.” This concern for animal rights extended to campaigns against vivisection and the horrors of cattle ships, which transported live animals on transatlantic routes.
Members of the society promoted vegetarianism by holding meetings and lectures, distributing tracts and journals, and sending notices to the press. The movement was most active in London, the industrial north of England and the Midlands, and 19 English towns included associations run by secretaries. Although little progress was made in Ireland and Wales, in Scotland there were associations in Edinburgh, Thornliebank, Glasgow and Paisley.
After James Simpson’s death in 1859, membership of the Vegetarian Society dwindled because of a lack of funds; there were only 125 members in 1870. In 1874, associate membership was introduced for those unable to commit fully. By 1899, there were 3,972 full members and 1,823 associates. However, there may have been other vegetarians who weren’t members.
‘Cheap vegetable diets appealed to the working and lower middle classes’
From the 1870s, the vegetarians joined forces with temperance groups to establish food-reform societies to educate the working classes about cheap, nutritious meals; these organisations had a broader appeal across the UK.
Vegetarian Society members challenged the common preconceptions that vegetarian food was unpleasant and boring by holding regular public banquets. At one event in 1848, the savoury dishes were based around onions, parsley, beetroot and mushrooms while the desserts included flummery (a type of jelly), custards, plum pudding, nuts, dried fruits and cheesecakes.
Eating Out
Temperance hotels had provided meat-free food since the 1860s, but from the 1870s vegetarian restaurants were opened specifically to provide a taster of good, meat-free food. By 1881, there were 20 such restaurants across the UK: eight in London, three in Manchester and two in Glasgow. Liverpool, Birmingham,
Leicester, Burnley and Bristol all had one restaurant. Eight years later, the total had reached 52.
They offered dishes such as lentil cutlets and peas; macaroni and tomato omelette; savoury pie and parsley sauce; and sweet puddings, pastries and stewed fruits. By the 1880s, the health benefits of vegetables were more widely understood and vegetarian recipes appeared in mainstream cookery books, including Mrs Beeton’s. New vegetarian food stores provided substitutes for
‘Vegetarian restaurants provided food’ a taster of good, meat-free
isinglass (gelatin), refined bread and flour, meat and fish paste, and standard candles and soap.
In 1888, the more radical London Vegetarian Society was set up as a completely separate offshoot of the original Vegetarian Society. Both societies flourished into the 20th century, finally merging in 1969 and renamed the Vegetarian Society of the UK, while British vegetarians were part of a strong international movement with societies in the USA, Europe, Australia and India. Today, 1.2 million people in Britain are vegetarian.