London’s dystopia

Wright described a metropolis populated by grave robbers and skewered entrails

When in London, Wright was confronted with grim visions of death, both human and animal. The overcrowded burial plots of the capital’s churches were not only disturbed regularly for fresh interments, but were also plundered for valuables, or for anatomical research.

Among other secrets of the necropolis, Wright heard of a gravedigger working seven or eight feet below the surface, when “suddenly the headless corpse of a woman fell upon him, its clammy arms throwing themselves about his neck”. A former sexton “had disinterred this woman, stolen her coffin and her head and sold them… then covered up the trunk in its shroud at a slight depth”.

And then there was the appetite of the living for meat. Estimating that, at “Smithfield on Monday morning” there were “not less than three acres of solid, compact sheep”, Wright added that, “by Tuesday morning they will be hanging in thousands of butchers’ shops… skinned nicely all except their heads, which are left on with their eyes open and the blood trickling from their noses”.

Come the following Monday morning, “London has made an end of all this – has swallowed its mutton chops and licked its wolf chops, and is ready for another three acres of sheep”. Down at the bottom of the meat trade, Wright saw men hawking skewered entrails to the cry of “C-a-t’s meat!”. “A very poor woman lodged in a garret or cellar will cheerfully spend a farthing or halfpenny a day on her beloved cat.”