A collection of descriptions and references to sounds drawn mainly from primary sources such as autobiographies, diaries and statutes, as well as novels written around the times they depict.
| Sub-category | 1st to 10th |
11th to 15th |
16th to 17th |
18th | Early 19th |
Late 19th |
Early 20th |
Late 20th |
| Pub life, music and song | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | |||
| City-wide celebrations | 3 | 2 | 3 | |||||
| Toasts, dinners and feasts | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Theatre and cinema audiences | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Music and song in theatres | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Public music and song outdoors | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Education: Oratory and debate | 1 | |||||||
| Gambling | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Sporting events | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Families at leisure | 1 | |||||||
| Dancing | 1 | |||||||
| Local celebrations | 1 |
Period referred to: 1920s
Sound category: Social > Gambling
Title of work: The Water Gipsies
Type of publication: Novel
Author: A. P. Herbert
Year of publication: 1930
Page/volume number: Chapter 7
Bookmakers at the Epsom races in the 1920s
They gazed in silence at the historic scene, the classic lunacy of the English race. The bookmakers snarled like animals in the rain; the caped policemen stood glistening in the rain, like rows of wet seals; the merry-go-rounds swung round merrily in the rain, and from across the dip came the blare of their wild, pathetic music [. . .]
They walked along the line of yelling bookmakers, the girls pointing and exclaiming as if the worthy gentlemen had been so many monsters in the Zoo [. . .] The happy Fred chose Bill Oates, of Wandsworth, a fatherly gentleman in a pink top-hat. He had white whiskers, a pale blue sash, a scarlet banner, and a smile which spelt goodness and loving-kindness, and in hoarse tones he constantly repeated that he was the 'Old Firm' and must not be deserted. Jane felt that it was a good action to be with this frail and deserving old man.
"Come along lady! Bless your pretty eyes! What's your fancy, lady? Lemonora? Thirty-three to one, Lemonora. Five shillings each way, Lemonora, thank you, lady. The Old Firm, the Old Firm, don't desert the Old Firm!"
Period referred to: 1860s
Sound category: Social > Gambling
Title of work: Notes on England
Type of publication: Travelogue
Author: Hippolyte Taine
Year of publication: 1861
Page/volume number: 28 May 1861
A Frenchman visits the Epsom Derby
It is a carnival, in fact; they have come to amuse themselves in a noisy fashion. Everywhere are gypsies, comic singers and dancers disguised as negroes, shooting galleries where bows and arrows or guns are used, charlatans who by dint of eloquence palm off watch chains, games of skittles and sticks, musicians of all sorts [. . .]
[ . . .] after three false starts they are off; fifteen or twenty keep together, the others are in small groups [. . .] It turns; one perceives the first group approach. 'Hats off!' and all heads are uncovered, and everyone rises; a repressed 'hurrah' runs through the stands.
Period referred to: 1660s
Sound category: Social > Gambling
Title of work: The Diary of Samuel Pepys
Type of publication: Diary
Author: Samuel Pepys
Year of publication: 1668
Page/volume number: 1 January
Samuel Pepys visits a gaming house
By and by I met with Mr Brisband, and having it in my mind this Christmas to go to see the manner of the gaming at the Groome-Porter's [. . .] they began to play at about eight at night, where to see how differently one man took his losing from another, one cursing and swearing, and another only muttering and grumbling to himself, a third without any apparent discontent at all [. . .]
And mighty glad I am that I did see it [. . .] for their heat of play begins not till about eleven or twelve o'clock; which did give me another pretty observation of a man, that did win mighty fast when I was there. I think he won £100 at single pieces in a little time. While all the rest envied him his good fortune he cursed it, saying, 'A pox on it, that it should come so early upon me, for this fortune two hours hence would be worth something to me, but then, God damn me, I shall have no such luck.'
Period referred to: Early 18th century
Sound category: Social > Gambling
Title of work: London in 1710
Type of publication: Published travel account
Author: Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach
Year of publication: 1710
Page/volume number: Not known
A German traveller witnesses a London cockfight
The people, gentlefolk as well as commoners (they all sit together), act like madmen and go on raising the odds to twenty guineas and more. As soon as one of the bidders calls 'done', the other is held to his bargain.
As soon as the cocks appear, the shouts grown even louder and the betting is continued. [. . .] There is nothing so amusing as when one cock seems quite exhausted and there are great shouts of joy and terrific bets and then, though he seems quite done for, he suddenly recovers and masters the other. When one of the two is dead, the victor never fails to start crowing and jumping on the other and it often happens that they sing their song of triumph before victory is assured and the other wins after all.
[. . .]
If a man has made a bet and is unable to pay he is made, as a punishment, to sit in a busker tied to the ceiling and is drawn up in it amidst mighty laughter.