Dear reader,
The exciting thing that happened to me this week was that my book: 'Half a Pair of People' was published. If you would like to order a copy put : Patricia Huth into Amazon Books and they will send it to you.
It is a 1980s memoir of me, a former debutante, who fled an unhappy marriage to live in Oxford. Re- singled at 41, I tell of comical adventures while often being vulnerable and poor. I hope it is amusing and if you buy it I hope that you enjoy it.
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The original Newgate prison was built in 1188 but was rebuilt in 1770. After being badly damaged during the Gordon Riots in 1780, George Dance was commissioned to design a new prison at Newgate. The King often used Newgate as as a holding place for heretics, traitors, and rebellious subjects brought to London for trial. The prison housed both male and female felons and debtors. Prisoners were separated into wards by sex.
The name passed into infamy as a by word for despair: an oubliette from which the hangman's rope was often the only way out. Towards the end of the eighteenth century all public executions were moved to Newgate and this coincided with a greater use of the death penalty, even for crimes previously considered too minor to merit the ultimate sentence.
Newgate Prison was finally demolished in 1904, ending its seven hundred year reign as the blackest hole inn London.
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Wash Day
It is early spring, about 4.am
when I dress myself,
shiver in the ice cold air,
pull my red shawl around my shoulders
creep downstairs.
I gather up piles of laundry
pick up a new bar of soap
and hurry down to the river,
find a large flat stone,
knead and pummel
my master's white breeches,
my mistress's ruffs,
cuffs, petticoats and collars.
Hours later in the warmth of the
afternoon sun I spread the clothes
out to dry on a camellia bush.
I see my hands are
sore and bleeding.
Wearily I lie down under
an oak tree, a southerly wind
whistles softly in my ear,
and I sleep.
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With best wishes, Patricia
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