Chapter 18 Chapter 16 Rotten Road

Of all the trendy parts of London's trendy city, there's none quite like the squishy, ​​muddy stretch of Hyde Park known as Lady's Road or Rothen Road.Every four o'clock on a fair day there are hundreds of men and women on horseback, all dressed in the best clothes of the day, glowing in the golden afternoon sun. It was a bustling scene: men and women on horseback huddled together, the women trotting behind with liveried pageboys, some on horseback by strict nannies, others accompanied by boyfriends.For all its splendor and fashion, the Rothendau scene was not entirely dignified.One observer wrote that it was not difficult to guess the profession of the fashionable horse-riding ladies who waved their whips or winked their eyes at half a dozen men, sometimes putting their hands behind their backs in spite of safety, Then gracefully turn away to listen to the courteous words of the walking admirer.

These women were courtesans of the highest order, and whether the well-born ladies liked it or not, they often found themselves competing for the male attention with these perfectly dressed courtesans.This kind of competition is not limited to Rotten Road, but also takes place in opera houses and theaters.Many young women noticed that their male companions were not staring intently at the stage, but drifted to certain high boxes, and the beautiful women in the boxes would openly eyeball them with interest. The Victorians declared their outrage at the intrusion of these prostitutes into dignified social circles and clamored for innovation and change, but these women continued to prosper for nearly half a century.Most people tend to think that these gaudy prostitutes in the Victorian era are just a special manifestation of the extreme hypocrisy of that society, and there is no need to go into it.But the problem is actually more complicated, and has to do with how women were viewed in Victorian England.

This is a time when men and women are distinctly different, regardless of dress, behaviour, attitude and mannerisms.Even the furniture and rooms in the house are classified as masculine or feminine, for example, the dining room is masculine, the reception room is feminine, and so on.It's all based on a fundamental biological assumption.Obviously, Alexander.Walker once wrote: Men have reason, masculinity, and the courage to use them, and they are enough to be protectors; women are irrational, weak and timid, and therefore need protection.Under such circumstances, men and women are naturally in a dominant position, while women should obey.

This kind of similar argument is repeated again and again: women lack reason, they do not calculate the consequences, they are dominated by their emotions, so more rational and calm men are required to take responsibility and strictly control women's behavior. Education reinforces the preconceived notion that women are mentally inferior, and many well-bred women look like smirking, frail fools in Victorian novels.A man cannot expect to share too many thoughts with his wife.British historian Mandel.Kritten wrote that he found women generally devoid of spiritual content, that they seemed to have no particular ideas and opinions, and that though the thought of teaching them might gratify their vanity for a while, it soon became tedious.Of course, at a certain age, when you have a house and so on, you feel that it is reasonable to have a wife, and you think a wife is quite desirable; but when men have ideas and want to talk to them, I doubt how many people will. Tell their wives first, or expect their wives to get it.

It is well documented that both men and women are turned off by this arrangement.Trapped in sprawling mansions full of servants, women vented their frustrations with all manner of hysterical symptoms of insanity: they lost hearing, speech, or sight, they would suddenly suffocate, faint, lose their appetite, and even memory.During these episodes, they may engage in intercourse-like movements, or contort their bodies so much that their heads touch their feet.These bizarre symptoms, of course, only reinforce the common perception of women as fragile. When a man is frustrated, he has another choice, which is to turn to a prostitute. The girls are usually lively, cheerful, and witty. These are qualities that are generally unimaginable for women.On a relatively simple level, men like to find prostitutes because when they get along with prostitutes, they can put aside the secular shackles of high society and relax in an unrestrained atmosphere.This freedom from bondage is at least as important as the release of sexual desire.And presumably because of this, the society generally accepted the existence of prostitutes and allowed them to venture into some of the more respectable sidelines of Victorian society, such as Rotten Road.

At the end of September 1854, Edward.Pierce began to talk to Elizabeth.Miss Tranter met at Rotten Road, and rode together.The first meeting was obviously a coincidence, but later, based on a certain silent understanding, it became a regular meeting. Elizabeth.Trant's life began to revolve around these afternoon appointments: She would spend the morning getting ready and the evening discussing; friends complaining that she kept talking about Edward; He said she seemed to feel that she needed at least one outfit a day, and preferably two. It had evidently never occurred to this ordinary young woman that Mr. Pierce had taken a fancy to her among the astonishing beauties of Rotten Road; she was completely captivated by his attentions.At the trial, Pierce succinctly described their conversations as light and trivial, and only recounted details of one of them.

It happened in October, 1854.It was a time of political turmoil, military humiliation, and British self-esteem suffered a severe blow.The Crimean War is slowly turning into a catastrophe.At the beginning of the war, the British writer J. B．Priest has pointed out that the war was greeted by the upper classes with joy as if it were a great picnic in some distant romantic land.It's almost as if the Black Sea has been opened up for sightseeing.Wealthy officers like the Earl of Cardigan decided to take their yachts with them, and some commanders' wives insisted on accompanying them, along with their own maids; civilians from all walks of life canceled their holidays elsewhere and went with the army instead. Watch the game.

The contest quickly turned into a rout.The British army was poorly trained, poorly supplied, and poorly led.The Lord Commander, Lord Raglan, was now sixty-five, and was said to feel older.Raglan often seemed to think he was still fighting Waterloo, calling the enemy the French, though this time the French were clearly his allies.Once he was so confused that he set up an observation post in the enemy's Russian army position.The old-fashioned atmosphere was growing, and by the summer even the officers' wives were writing home that no one seemed to know what they were doing. This folly in leadership reached its apogee in October in the assault of the Lord Cardigan's Light Horse Brigade.In this dramatic feat of heroism, three-quarters of his hussars' journey took the enemy's battery of artillery in the wrong position.

The picnic was apparently over, and almost all upper-class Britons were very worried.The Lords of Cardigan, Raglan and Lucan were the subjects of all talk.But on that warm October afternoon in Hyde Park, Pierce gently guided Elizabeth.Trent talked about her father. He was very nervous this morning.she says. Yeah?Pierce said that the two horses rode side by side and moved forward slowly. He gets nervous every morning when gold is due to be shipped to the Crimea.From the moment he woke up, he was a completely different person.Become very cold and preoccupied. I believe his responsibility is great.Pierce said.

Too much, and I fear he may have been drinking too much, said Elizabeth, and laughed. Hope you're kidding. Hey, his behavior is really weird.You know, he's always been the one against daytime drinking. I know, he was right to object. Well, Elizabeth went on: I suspect he has broken his own rules, because every morning when it comes to gold shipments, he has to go to the wine cellar alone, without a servant to help him carry the gas lamp.He insisted on going alone.Several times my stepmom blamed him, said he might have tripped on the stairs or something, but he just wouldn't listen.He would stay in the wine cellar for a while, and then go to work in the bank.

I think, said Pierce, that it doesn't make sense that he went to the cellar just to check the stock? It doesn't make sense, Elizabeth said: because of the storage and maintenance of the cellar, and decanting the wine before dinner and all that sort of thing, he'd always left it to my stepmother. Then his behavior is indeed strange, yes.Pierce said gravely: "But I don't believe the heavy responsibilities of the job are too taxing on his nervous system. I do too, replied Elizabeth, and sighed: It's a lovely day, isn't it? Very good, agreed Pierce: too good to describe, but not as good as you anyway. Elizabeth.Trent chuckled, and replied that he had the guts to compliment her so blatantly.This will make people suspect that you have ulterior motives.she said with a smile. Gosh, don't think so.To reassure her further, he reached out and gently pressed her hand, Pierce said. I am really happy.she says. I am also very happy with you.Pierce said.This is not false at all, because now he knows where the four keys are hidden.