Dark side of the novelist
QUESTION Was the author D. H. Lawrence a proponent of eugenics?
EUGENICS sought to further the human race through controlled reproduction, sterilisation and genocide. We tend to associate it with nazi germany but it was, in fact, developed in Britain.
inspired by his cousin charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, sir Francis galton proposed the pseudo-science in his 1883 book inquiries into Human Faculty And its Development. in 1904, he established a laboratory at university college London. His vision of a bold new world filled only with beautiful, intelligent, productive people captured the imagination of the intelligentsia.
Birth control activist Marie stopes was an ardent eugenicist, as were literary lights including Virginia Woolf, T. s. Eliot, george Bernard shaw, D.H. Lawrence and W. B. Yeats.
Lawrence argued that ‘inferior stock’ should be eliminated. Anticipating the horrors of Auschwitz, he wrote in a letter to fellow author Blanche Jennings on October 9, 1908: ‘if i had my way, i would build a lethal chamber as big as the crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and a cinematograph working brightly. Then i’d go out in the back streets and main streets and bring them in, all the sick, the halt and the maimed.
‘i would lead them gently, and they would smile me a weary thanks; and the band would softly bubble out the Hallelujah chorus.’
in Lady chatterley’s Lover, paralysed sir clifford thinks civilisation should eliminate physical disabilities and hopes babies can be bred ‘in bottles’.
Charles Graham, Bristol.
QUESTION What is the origin of the phrase up the spout?
THIS term, meaning something is ruined or lost, has its origins with 19th-century pawnbrokers. The spout was a device used to send pawned goods to an upper level of the shop for storage. The likelihood of the item ever being redeemed was remote, so its owner tended to consider the item gone for ever.
The term is explained by Pierce Egan in his 1821 book Real Life in London.
Pawnbroking was, at times, illegal in Britain — and even when permitted, it was looked down upon, being seen as a way to fence stolen goods for cash.
The Pawnbrokers Licence Law of 1785 allowed a pawnbroker to set up business for £10 (£1,550 in today’s money) in London and £5 elsewhere.
Modern pawnbroking started with an 1800 Act of Parliament, which set the maximum interest rates that could be charged: one and two-thirds per cent per month, or 20 per cent per year. This would suggest up the spout was first used some time between 1800 and 1821.
The Act was put forward by Lord Eldon, who admitted to using pawnbrokers on occasion. He went on to become Lord High chancellor in 1801. Pawnbrokers would toast his health at their dinners.
colloquially, being up the spout referred to becoming pregnant and may refer to the loss of an unmarried girl’s honour.
Like an item that had been pawned, it was unlikely to be redeemed. The term was most commonly used in London.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.