Setting the scene

……please picture a room full of – whole people, meeting together to exchange stories each month, with a table covered in vegan snacks & drinks, on a Thursday afternoon in 1856.

All in a time before cars, when bicycles were ‘high-wheelers’ or ‘penny-farthings, when flight was possible only in hot air balloons, when railways had not yet penetrated the City of London or the West End, and when most people would have arrived at the meeting on foot or in horse drawn carriages.

The room would have been lit by gas lamps or by oil lamps. It was 25 years later, in 1881, that the Savoy Theatre in London was the first public building in the world, to be lit entirely by electricity.

The Horsells’ monthly vegan meetings had become popular & had outgrown the space at the  ‘Vegetarian Depôt’ at 492, Oxford Street.

Remember also that, in 1856 there were still no vegetarian restaurants in London. Thomas Low Nichols opened the first one in 1879, ‘The Alpha’, also located in London’s Oxford Street. (In future posts we will share copies of some of the first reviews & the menu cards of  ‘The Alpha’.)

In this part of the meeting one Mr. Groves (first name not yet rediscovered) very graphically discusses his meetings with the London vegans & his decision to help his whole family to become fully vegan.

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Report of the – ‘Vegan Meet-up’ – Thursday April 3, 1856.

The Journal of Health & Phrenological Magazine – No. 9. Vol 5. Issue for May 1856 – excerpt from pages 213 & 214.

DIETETIC REFORM

The London Vegetarian Association held their usual monthly soirée at the National Hall, Holborn, on Thursday April 3rd.

Mr. GROVES related his own experience.

He had tried the old system, and he knew from experience what vegetarianism was.   (my note – ‘the old system’ = the flesh diet) 

He was an old teetotaler.

At first he had been induced to try vegetarianism for three months, and during that time refrained from the use of dead flesh; but he found he had a family growing up around him, and he considered that it was his duty to take care of his means as well as his health.   (my note – here – ‘means’ = money, financial resources.) 

He called at the Vegetarian Depot, at 492, Oxford-street, where he received some good instructions; among others, that it was not enough that he should give up the use of flesh, he should become a whole, and not a half man, and give up the use of tea, coffee, cheese, eggs, and milk.  (my note – the ‘Vegetarian Depôt’ was a project of William Horsell, Frederic Towgood & other friends. ‘whole man’ / ‘whole person’ = full vegetarian – vegan)

He resolved to do so.

At first his family felt some little inconvenience in entirely giving up milk, but they got out of it gradually.

He had also given over shaving, and had let his beard grow.  (my note – William Horsell was most definitely a ‘beard man’ – see photo at the top of this post.)

He had likewise abandoned the use of tobacco and snuff.

When a youth he was troubled with a pain in his side, and he had actually been whipped to smoke; but he did not long require whipping: he also took snuff.  (my note – tobacco was considered by some to be medicinal – this started to change after the isolation of nicotine from tobacco leaves in 1828. ……imagine parents ‘whipping’ their children to force them to smoke!)

Now he had entirely given up everything of the kind.

He now enjoyed his cold bath; and with his bread and apples, toast and filtered water, and plenty of jams and other good things, prepared from the corns and fruits, always enjoyed comfortable meals; and now at 45, as a vegetarian, he enjoyed as good health and mental vigour as he did at 21.

He could walk twenty to thirty miles a day with the greatest ease; and during the time he had been a vegetarian, he had enjoyed himself better than at any former period of his life.

From his own experience he could speak of the vegetarian system in the highest terms: he was deeply grateful to the vegetarians of London, and spoke in high terms of their untiring energy and self-denial.

He cordially recommended the system to all who had not tried it; and, in conclusion, recommended brown bread as being much preferable to white.

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 The original pages – click to enlarge them

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 This is the cover of Elizabeth & William Horsell’s July 1856 catalogue of vegetarian, animal rights & other books. Copies of the full catalogue will be emailed to anyone who requests one. The .pdf file size is approx. 10 MB.

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Notes

1) – Photograph of William Horsell, by Maull & Polyblank, London, c.1857 – The Museum of the History of Science has the original – see here – http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/collections/ search/displayrecord/? mode=displaymixed&module=ecatalogue& invnumber=17477&irn=936&query=

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcott_House

3) – To learn a great deal more about the early London ‘vegans’ see John Davis’ very excellent .pdf file: – World Veganism – past, present, and future – http://www.ivu.org/history/Vegan_History.pdf – here.