There can be little doubt that, when you sat down to eat in Victorian London – and especially in the poorer parts of the metropolis – you quite literally took your life in your hands; or, to be more precise, your mouth.
Several culinary scandals had been covered by the newspapers throughout the century.
These included the poisoned ice cream case in Lambeth, which had occurred in 1885. Prior to that, there had been the poisoned lozenges case in the 1850s. A year after, the nation had been shocked by the poisoned Bath Buns scandal, which occurred in Bristol.
And, if all that wasn’t sufficient to turn the stomachs of your average Victorian as they sat down to their dinner table, there was the Leprosy scare of 1889, when a man suffering with the disease was found to be working in a London meat market.
On Saturday the 11th of August, 1888, The Langport & Somerton Herald published another tragic and disturbing article concerning another poisoning case:-
THREE CHILDREN POISONED BY EATING PUTRID FRUIT
At the Forest Glen Public-house, Forest Gate, London, an inquest was held on the bodies of Ellen Payne, aged eight, Hannah Payne, aged six, and George Payne, aged four, the children of William Payne, a labourer.
PURCHASED DAMAGED PLUMS
The evidence showed that a Mrs. Kelsey, a greengrocer in the neighbourhood, purchased some damaged plums at Stratford Market. and when she got them home she proceeded to pick out the good fruit, laying aside the bad to be buried.
THE DAUGHTER ATE SOME
Her daughter was assisted in this operation by a brother of the deceased children.
He saw his sister with some of the damaged fruit, and, on the advice of his mother, he threw away what he had himself, but, apparently, the others picked it up.
THE GIRL TAKEN ILL
Next morning Ellen complained of a sore throat, and vomited very much, as well as being purged.
As she got no better, a doctor was called in, and he administered some soda and chlorodyne, but the child died on the following night with symptoms of a choleraic nature.
THE OTHERS BECOME SICK
The other two children took ill with similar symptoms on the same night – Hannah dying the next morning. and George on the night afterwards.
THE CAUSE OF DEATH
Dr. Evans had attended them, and, in his evidence, he attributed death to the eating of putrid plums, which generated a poison similar to prussic acid.
The Coroner cautioned the Kelseys as to the care they should take with such putrid fruit as this appeared to be, and the jury returned a verdict that the children died from the effects of eating decomposed fruit.