Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies: Sex in the City in Georgian Britain

by Hallie Rubenhold

If you ever wondered what Jane Austen's Mr Darcy and his 'fellows' got up to on their numerous trips to London, read the book they would certainly have carried around ...

'Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies' was a bestseller of the eighteenth century, shifting 250,000 copies in an age before mass consumerism. An annual 'guide book', and published at Christmas time, it detailed the names and 'specialities' of the capital's prostitutes. During its heyday,(1757-1795) 'Harris's List' was the essential accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure.

Hallie Rubenhold has collected the funniest, ruddiest, and most bizarre entries penned by Jack Harris, 'Pimp-General-of-All-England' into this mischievous little book.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, London, Research, Reference, Georgian, British Literature

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hallie Rubenhold (author of The Five) provides the introduction to a bestselling book from the 18th century.
Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies gives us information on many of the prostitutes working in London at the time. Each lady is described extremely politely & respectfully, & there is little to offend even the most sensitive reader.
Rubenhold's introduction is concise & informative and, in some ways, more interesting than the actual book itself.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I was reading Michael Faber’s novel 'The Crimson Petal and the White' recently, I was struck by the frequent references to the infamous 'More Sprees in London', a little book detailing the different prostitutes available around the town, where to find them, what they charged and to which particular specialties each one would cater. The chief reason that I was so intrigued by the mention of this book is that, although Faber’s creation is fictional, such books did indeed exist. Perhaps the most famous example of such a volume is 'Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies' which is not Victorian but Georgian, updated each year between 1757 and 1795. During the time that it ran, it sold more than a quarter of a million copies (a huge amount for any book at the time), indicating quite how many men there must have been out looking for a good time in London. Rubenhold’s edition collects the most interesting and diverse entries from various editions of the List, focussing on the year 1793, and compiles them for the modern reader. It starts out with an informative and interesting introduction which puts the List into its historical context. Harris’s List was not written by a man named Harris at all, but by an Irish poet named Samuel Derrick who had fallen on hard times and needed to find a way to keep himself out of debtor’s prison. Jack Harris was a notorious London pimp who allowed Derrick the use of his influential name and his extensive list of contacts in return for a one time fee, and so he only became bitter while Derrick became increasingly wealthy.

The entries on each girl provide a surprising amount of detail, and they are often miniature character studies rather than just bawdy adverts promising pleasures. Obviously there is physical description and a summary of which particular tastes a girl caters to along with her prices (as a rule, the more specialised the tastes, the higher the price) but there are also details such as how she came into ‘the public life‘ as the List euphemistically terms it. In some cases, the writer expresses sympathy for a girl who has been led astray by a man and is forced to turn to this particular line of work, as in the case of Miss Char-ton: "This is an old observation, but certainly a true one, that some of the finest women in England are those, who go under the denomination of ladies of easy virtue. Miss C- is a particular instance of the assertion; she came of reputable parents, bred delicately, and her education far superior to the vulgar; yet the address of a designing villain, too soon found means to ruin her; forsaken by friends, pursued by shame and necessity; she had no other alternative, than to turn -, let the reader guess what. – She was long a favourite among the great, but some misconduct of hers, not to be accounted for, reduced to the servile and detestable state of turning common. She is a fine figure, tall and genteel, has a fair round face, with a faint tinge of that bloom she once possessed, is rather melancholy, ’till inspired with a glass, and then is very entertaining company." (pp. 56-57)

In others, girls appear to bring about their own falls through their lusty natures and to thoroughly enjoy doing so, like Miss Jo-es: "This lady was born in the country, but the circumstances of her parents, when she was sufficiently grown up, obliged them to send her into London to get a livelihood, she was not long before she got a place in St. James’s Market, where, whither, by being accustomed to see the poor lambs bleed, or rather a desire of becoming a sacrifice to the goddess of love, is left for the reader to judge, but she was shortly found stabbed to the heart in the most tender and susceptible part of her body, in short she was unable to withstand the powerful impulse of nature any longer, so was ravished with her own consent, at the age of sixteen; her mistress on the discovery, thought proper to send her going, for fear her good man should take it in his head to kill the lamb over again. She began now to show the bent of her inclinations, she listed under the banners of Cupid, and marched at the head, being of a courageous disposition, and always ready to obey standing orders, she had great success, and often made the enemy to yield, by which means she gained no inconsiderable share of spoil, but her charitable disposition, (being always ready to relieve the naked and needy) soon reduced her." (pp. 69-70)

As you can see, this book contains euphemisms a-plenty. At times it felt like reading one of Shakespeare’s dirtier plays, the amount of veiled references to sex, body parts, prostitutes and plenty of less orthodox sex acts there were. As a social and cultural historian this must be a fascinating book to examine. However, it might not come as a shock to learn that I am not a jolly Georgian gentleman out looking for a good time, and so consequently a lot of these descriptions started to blur into one after a while. They were interesting, and the book itself is fascinating because of what it is, but there were just too many of them without anything to break them up for it to be a riveting read. In the final section of the book which looks at excerpts from outside 1793 the girls are grouped together by type (red heads, foreign beauties, buxom etc.) and I think I might have enjoyed it more had the whole book been arranged like this with some sort of commentary from the author accompanying each section. I know Rubenhold has written two other books on the subject: 'The Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack' and the 'Extraordinary Story of Harris’s List and The Harlot’s Handbook, both of which sound as though they are more along those lines, using the List as a means of illustrating a point rather than as the raison d’etre of the book. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for these as this has proven to be an unexpectedly fascinating topic.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange little book. Basically a "who and how much" guide to the ladies of the evening, published in the 18th century. My most immediate thoughts on the book center on the many times that the author (of those long ago pamphlets) would say that such and such woman required say, five pieces of coin for her favors, but will accept 2 or 3 rather than lose the business. Cad! You've effectively lowered her price!

And then there's the times when it's stated that a certain woman in "kept" by somesuch man, but goes on to say that the lady is open for visits when that man is out of town. How, uh, interesting it would be to read that passage, if you were "that man."

And one passage where a woman is said to have so much education that she has actually achieved a semblance of intelligence. A semblance. Sigh.

But a jolly read nonetheless...a look at the time of the Grande Horizontales, written with a fair degree of mirth and with more respect for women than most literature of the time, and quite willing to take jibes at the list's very readers, the so-called Gentlemen of Sport.

[Stephen Goldenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reminded me of my early days as a law student. One of the first cases we studied was Shaw v. the DPP. Shaw was prosecuted for obscenity for publishing a booklet called The Ladies’ Directory in London in the late 1950s. Like Harris’s List, it advertised the services of prostitutes. Unlike Harris’s List, it used nude photos rather than poetic descriptions of the women with oblique references to the services they offered.
The book provides a fascinating picture of life in the drinking dens and brothels of Georgian London, concentrating on the individual stories of individual women and their pimps. As with The Five, Hallie Rubenhold is assiduous in explaining how so many young women were forced to survive by entering the sex trade and, while most of the more celebrated prostitutes she features led ultimately successful and lucrative lives, she is quick to point out that the vast majority suffered disease and early deaths.

[Rupert Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a curio. I would like to be able to read the original, but apparently very few exist. This short pamphlet style novel details the sanctum sanctorum of many a Convent-Garden Lady. Sex Workers who frequented the Soho area et cetera. What is interesting abou this book, is that websites have picked up where it has left off. I found the writing of Sam Derrick, who was the apparent literary stylist behind Harris's List to be intriguing in the sense that on the most part it described the services of each worker to the benefit of the worker, and thus culled perhaps unnecessarily clientele from knocking on their doors. Each Sex Worker is described as to her service and then her price is named.

The frequent mention of birch wood for spanking is amusing, and on particular description of a Sex Workers services towards the end is well worth the potter through the earlier pages. If the oldest 'business' in the world tickles your curiosity, I would say it is a fine petite edition to perhaps more extensive descriptions of working in the Sex Industry. As I said before, I sometimes am somewhat questionable about the validity of such edited curios simply because I fancy having a bit more premise behind what I am about to read especially if penned by numerous or dubious authors, I like a bit of foreword to lead me into the merit of the text rather then descriptive tattle before I nurture the neatly bound eccentric artefact - but this can only encourage one to dig a bit deeper into the history of our sexual anthropological selves.

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently watched a BBC2 programme on Covent Garden and I knew I had a book on the area somewhere. By chance, rather than by careful shelving, I came across it the other day and as the presenter had quite naturally touched on the ladies that lived in and around Covent Garden I thought I ought to read it. And I am delighted that I did for it is a superb study of the sub-culture that lived and worked in the environs of Covent Garden in the 18th century.

What I didn't realise was that the women who lived and worked around Covent Garden had their own, shall we say, trade directory. In the directory, their names were slightly disguised but their addresses were present and each entry was accompanied by the modus operandi of the lady in question!

When Dublin-born Sam Derrick arrived in London in the late 1740s he headed for Covent Garden, then recognised as the capital's hedonistic heart. He had great ambitions of being a poet of the first rank but he lost everything, not least his golden dream of success. However, sat on a stool in a bailiff's lock-up house, he had an idea. His indulgence in Covent Garden's carnal pleasures put him in touch with a certain Jack Harris, who was recognised as being 'the Piazza's reigning emperor of sin. He was the chief waiter at the Shakespear's Head as well as being the self-proclaimed 'Pimp-General of All England'.

And it was through this meeting that came across Harris's hand written handsome ledger containing more than 400 names of the capital's 'votaries of Venus'. This contained intimate details of the ladies in question including ages and prices charged for their services, which were amply described. Derrick saw potential in all this and somehow he engineered a deal with Harris to produce the list in published form, using the Harris name. Harris was later to regret his foolhardiness and tried to emulate the list, which went out under his name for 38 years, 1757 to 1795, and he produced his own version in 1765 entitled 'Kitty's Atalantis'. However, he lacked the sparkle of Sam Derrick's pen so the venture failed and there was only one edition of the work.

So Harris was free to produce his own listing untroubled and 'The Harris List of Covent Garden Ladies' was there to guide 'the desirous to the desirable'. The list's popularity grew with the years and at its height it was said to have sold 8,000 copies annually. Derrick was the sole editor up to his death in 1769 and he let it be known 'The list is not so much a tool of exploitation as an implement that provides otherwise impoverished women with an income, as well as opportunities to meet potentially generous lovers.'

It was only when he died that the secret of his authorship of the scandalous guide came out as he passed it on to his friend and one-time mistress Charlotte Hayes. Who Derrick's successors were as editors is unknown until in the late 1780s the publication of the work had been taken over by two brothers, John and James Roach of Vinegar Yard with help from a third party, John Bear of Aitken Street.

By then the list was 'becoming a slightly tired annual' and attitudes were changing. And in January 1795 the Roach brothers received a visit from the law and James was fined £100 and sentenced to a year in Newgate Prison. And in the moral march of the 19th century, editions were unearthed and committed to 'the hearth's lapping flames'. The unabridged 1793 edition which follows the most entertaining introduction to this book is the last known to be in public possession and alongside it are extracts from eight other editions that remarkably have survived the censure of the years.

The descriptions of the ladies and their services, while most entertaining, makes for amusing reading in this day and age; Miss M-chall of 52 Margate Street is for instance described as 'A fine tall elegant woman rather lusty, full eyes, she has the character of a spirited, spitefully bed-fellow ... her manners are easy and polite ... dresses very elegantly with a profusion of feathers in her head-dress, and a large bouquet in her bosom.' And it was said of Miss B-df-d of 44 Mortimer Street, 'Generosity she rewards, Meaness she despise' - this among other traits, of course!

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vaguely acquainted with Harris’s List from another of Rubenhold’s publications - The Harlot's Handbook: Harris's List – this slim volume found its way into my library as one of those spur-of-the-moment bargains. It’s been sat for about a month on the dresser between the works of Patrick O'Brian and Georgette Heyer , the main culprits for rekindling my interests in Georgian/Regency Britain… Since today was too cold to venture far beyond the duvet, this was conveniently close to hand. It also promised to be entirely irrelevant to the report I’m desperately avoiding. At 158 pages long, this made a dreamy companion for a few hours of procrastination.

Complete with a brief glossary of terms – it would have been nice if this had been expanded upon slightly - and an insightful introduction as to the List’s origins and publication history, we are treated to the Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, also known as the Man of Pleasure’s Kalender For The Year 1793, along with a selection of entries from earlier (1761-91) Lists.

Frankly, some of these entries are quite amusing. For example, Mifs Godf-y (pg. 31) is likened to a Boatswain as ‘every word is uttered with a thundering and vociferous tone’ and would therefore be ‘an extraordinary good companion for an officer in the army, as she might save him the trouble of giving the word of command.’.

Others, however, are a little bleak. There are several recitals of sad ‘origin’ stories. There’s even some bitchy slander, such as Mrs. Bi-d (pg 36) whom I cannot help but think has snubbed some advance made by the writer. Stating her to have no visible charms, admitting that her price of ‘money or love’ was unknown, it still openly accuses and declares her to be receiving others – and in great quantity no less. I can imagine that having his tastes questioned and the plausibility of his sole dominion there challenged, the C- H- whom ‘keeps’ her wouldn’t have been best pleased over this inclusion in so popular a publication! Another entrant is told that she would cease to be pleasing if she continued upon the current path of her lifestyle, and another is threatened to have details of her exploits published if she continued to engage inappropriately with other members of her sex… There is also, repeatedly, the shameful addition that various ladies would take less than their price, sometimes as much as half, than risk losing a customer… Information they certainly wouldn’t want known! This feels a bit like gossip-rag-meets-lads-mag for the late 18th Century gentleman; I just bet it did make their Christmases to receive a copy!

I have to admit some surprise at the contents. There’s an alarming volume of ladies available for the birching of their gentleman clients – and today people act as though works like Fifty Shades of Grey are so exotic – including Mifs Le- (pg.96), a Mrs Mac-tney (pg 122) with the longest entry in the book (dominating five and half pages of this title!) and one Nancy Burroughs from 1961, who ‘gets through more birch rods in a week than Westminster school in a twelvemonth’. I had happened upon Mighty Lewd Books: The Development of Pornography in Eighteenth-Century England, so was already aware of the 1770’s boom of flagellation pornography, but it was still an unexpected discovery for a quiet afternoon.

So, with Lascivious bodies : a sexual history of the eighteenth century now mentally earmarked for reading, I heartily recommend this as a way to while away a rainy day. It’ll produce far more questions regarding Georgian Britain than it will answer, but it’s never a bad thing to be inspired into random research tangents… However, this might ruin some of those high ideals regarding this period as a gloriously-polite golden age of good manners… Jane Austen certainly never covered such naughty topics!

All in: makes for interesting reading. Definitely something to dip in and out of – ideal to leave about the bathroom to baffle guests, especially if easily scandalised. However, I would have appreciated a slightly expanded glossary and the failure to enclose a segment on further reading lets the book down.

[Mark Farley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Hallie's other book, 'Lady Worsley's Whim', this is an excellent study of a period of time quite fascinating and in many ways contradictory to that of modern times, in all aspects of accepted social form, etiquette and moral outrage. In fact, it constantly makes you wonder if we have the right to be so forthright in our views sometimes when it comes to things like chastity and monogamy and what Hallie brilliantly does, and specifically in this book, is really open up an intense and fascinatingly welcome debate about our attitudes, not to mention wonderfully chronicle the naughty exploits of our Georgian forefathers and mothers. The story of the Harris List is quite remarkable considering the restrictions and the stance of the publishing industry of today. I was completely taken by the stories of these wonderful characters who seem to embody all that was stereotypical of the moment. The grimy streets, the fallen women, the intense atmosphere of the small are of central London is painted with a lot of skill and narration par excellence as we romp along with our numerous storytellers who regale us with captivating tales of almost cinematic adventure and intrigue. Immerse yourself in the time and period with this book. Highly recommended

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is why I love books. I'm talking actual real, dead-tree books. I picked this up purely for the fact it exists, a wonderfully compact and nicely designed hardback, reprinting an edited version of Harris's List, the prostitute guidebook to London, from 1793 (with a selection of other noteworthy entries from other years).

The brief history is entertaining but the majority comprises the often floridly poetic depictions of the ladies, their appearance and their preferences, both monetary and sexual. Sometimes subtle, sometimes less so, rarely vulgar, part of the joy is the wonderful language, euphemisms and slightly cryptic descriptions of various acts.

I applaud Hallie Rubenhold for recreating this and rescuing a curio of 18th Century life from the dustbin of time. Sadly, views of prostitution aside, the internet has pretty much made this kind of thing obsolete. A perfect book to put on the bathroom shelf and drop in and out of over time.

[Pete Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an odd little book. This is excerpted from several editions of a guide to London prostitutes in the late 18th century. What makes it so much more than that is that the author, who apparently stumbled onto this gig in a moment of financial desperation, has genuine talent. More than just a catalogue of whores, it's also a series of little vignettes describing, in a few deft strokes, each "priestess of Venus'" appearance and attributes, sexual habits and qualifications, and price. I found it fascinating that some relatively mild profanity is referred to in quaint euphemisms, while other bits, more transgressive to the modern way of thinking are laid out with shocking frankness. Occasionally, in addressing the how the ladies arrived in their circumstances, it is unintentionally poignant. An odd artifact of Georgian libertinism.

[Eveliina]

Men haven’t changed

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love history and I love this book too. This is a sort of guide book for men, presumably, although I suppose lesbians could use it too. This book lists Covent Garden (Ladies?) prostitutes - with their addresses, their specialities, and also what they look like, in face and body, and their demeanor and age.
Most of the girls are young, although there are mature ladies also. Some only ask for a guinea (I think that was about £1 and 1 shilling), but probably a lot in those days.
This book is fascinating to read. There were words then that we now use today, such as: clap, pimp, pox. Can you imagine using Mercury as a treatment for the pox - they must have died in agony.
This is a very informative history book of the Georgian time in Britain. 5☆

[Micah Genest · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great example of keeping history alive, one in which many are not aware of.

This small collection of 'poems' has some interesting excerpts of public prostitution in Georgian Britain, fabricated into a fashionable/entertaining product to make its subjects seem more like products.

The collection is well formatted and categorized, creating a sort of historical shopping list or preview magazine.

It is quite astonishing the realities many people shy away from, so I am thankful that there are books that 'reveal history' that many people shy away from, in which is still very alive to this day.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there is a goodreads error with how this book is set up. There are 2 books in total, one is the Harlots Handbook which is a small book with an introduction and then extracts from the Harris's list. Then there is a second book called The Covent Garden Ladies which is longer. Whenever you rate one it marks the two as read.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Commissioned by me at Tempus Publishing (now the History Press). Sold a huge number of copies and very rude...

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

For giggles!

[Pie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating/depressing insight into the lives of women & men around Georgian Covent Garden & further afield.

[Laura Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insight but I do wonder if any of the women mentioned thought about writing a book about their 'visitors'

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Fascinating subject, compellingly told. Particularly great was the section of listings from Harris' List, presented without comment or additional context. (So many hilarious and strange and wondrous 18th century euphemisms for vagina.) But in all seriousness very interesting for the complete picture it paints of all types of sex work and the lives of the women (there were men but this book focuses on the women) whose profession was sex work during this time.

[Marilyn Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both a surprisingly funny and sad book about prostitutes in the Georgian era of Britain. The writer was not Harris, a notorious pimp, but a wannabe poet. Reading between the lines, you get a glimpse of what women in that profession went through and their history.

[Linda Jeffries · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and sad in equal measure. If you enjoy social history you will find it an interesting read.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely an interesting read and peek in on 18th Century life. The book is mostly taken up by the 1793 edition with a mix of earlier lists at the end (1761-91). I think I preferred the earlier lists to the 1793 edition, however, though it's a shame that so many of the original copies were destroyed. Glad there was a bit of a history at the beginning, as well as a glossary. Certainly some amusing terms in there.

[Lisa Margarite · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best parts of this book are the first part which tells the history, and the last section which contains the descriptions of the ladies from the earlier part of the eighteenth century.
The middle comes from the 1793 version, which the author herself describes as not being near as bawdy as earlier editions.
This book inspired the Hulu series, Harlots. It is an amazing series about the exploits of the Georgian prostitutes from the lowest streetwalker to the courtesans of Golden Square.

[Patricia Burroughs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've owned this for a very long time but am delighted to see it on someone else's list and be reminded of it. It's shelved snugly amongst my research materials. It's the inspiration for the character in "Harlots," the 18th century-set tv series, who does 'list and review' the various 'Covent Garden Ladies' in London. Quite the enlightening and amusing look back in history that proves, as always, no--the world is not suddenly going to hell in a handbasket.

It always has been. [wink]

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book with very funny and sometimes very crude descriptions of the ladies and their talents.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hysterical look back into history :-)

[Millie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been wanting to read this for a while, when I finally got my hands on a copy disappoint! Very informative guide into the lives of these women