Georgian binge drinkingThomas Turner, a prosperous shopkeeper in East Hoathly, Sussex, writes in his diary (22nd February 1757):
"About four P.M., I walked down to Whyly. We played at bragg the first part of the even. After ten we went to supper, on four boiled chicken, four boiled ducks, minced veal, sausages, cold roast goose, chicken pasty, and ham. Our company, Mr and Mrs Porter, Mr and Mrs Coates, Mrs Atkins, Mrs Hicks, Mr Piper and wife, Joseph Fuller and wife, Tho. Fuller and wife, Dame Durrant, myself and wife, and Mr French's family. After supper our behaviour was far from that of serious, harmless mirth; it was downright obstreperous, mixed with a great deal of folly and stupidity. Our diversion was dancing or jumping about, without a violin or any musick, singing of foolish healths, and drinking all the time as fast as it could be well poured down; and the parson of the parish was one among the mixed multitude. About three o'clock, finding myself to have as much liquor as would do me good, I slipt away unobserved, leaving my wife to make my excuse. Though I was very far from sober, I came home, thank GOD, very safe and well, without even tumbling; and Mr French's servant brought my wife home, at ten minutes past five (probably upon his back)."
Regency road rageLord Byron writes to Tom Moore from Venice in (10th July 1817): "Last week I had a row on the road with a fellow in a carriage, who was impudent to my horse. He first shouted, in an unseemly way, to frighten my palfrey. I wheeled round, rode up to the window, and asked him what he meant. He grinned, and said some foolery, which produced him an immediate slap in the face, to his utter discomfiture. Much blasphemy ensued, and some menace, which I stopped by dismounting and opening the carriage door, and intimating an intention of mending the road with his immediate remains, if he did not hold his tongue… He held it."
Victorian vandalismRaymond Asquith writes to his father from Balliol College, Oxford (19th November 1899): "There is a great row going on now in College: on Wednesday our Rugby team played King's Cambridge, who came over for the match; after which they had a big dinner at 5pm and both teams were desperately drunk by half past six; they made hay of the quad, which irritated our dons, brawled in the streets, which drew down the Proctors on them, and they are also being prosecuted by the South Western Railway for wrecking a train and assaulting porters at the station; three have been sent down and the rest gated, but it is thought that favouritism was shown in the selection of victims, and the dons are more unpopular than they have ever been."
Regency road rageLord Byron writes to Tom Moore from Venice in (10th July 1817): "Last week I had a row on the road with a fellow in a carriage, who was impudent to my horse. He first shouted, in an unseemly way, to frighten my palfrey. I wheeled round, rode up to the window, and asked him what he meant. He grinned, and said some foolery, which produced him an immediate slap in the face, to his utter discomfiture. Much blasphemy ensued, and some menace, which I stopped by dismounting and opening the carriage door, and intimating an intention of mending the road with his immediate remains, if he did not hold his tongue… He held it."
Victorian vandalismRaymond Asquith writes to his father from Balliol College, Oxford (19th November 1899): "There is a great row going on now in College: on Wednesday our Rugby team played King's Cambridge, who came over for the match; after which they had a big dinner at 5pm and both teams were desperately drunk by half past six; they made hay of the quad, which irritated our dons, brawled in the streets, which drew down the Proctors on them, and they are also being prosecuted by the South Western Railway for wrecking a train and assaulting porters at the station; three have been sent down and the rest gated, but it is thought that favouritism was shown in the selection of victims, and the dons are more unpopular than they have ever been."
