Gin Lane

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William Hogarth produced the twin engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane at the height of what became known as the London Gin Craze in 1751. They were printed at the same time as Hogarth's friend Henry Fielding published his contribution to the debate on gin: An Inquiry into the Late Increase in Robbers.

The gin crisis was genuinely severe, and Hogarth's paintings and prints were not as much caricature as one might assume. From 1690 onward, the British government had encouraged the industry of distilling, as it helped prop up grain prices, which were then low, and increase trade, particularly with colonial possessions. Indeed, Daniel Defoe and Charles Davenant, among other, particularly Whig economists, had seen distilling as one of the pillars of British prosperity in the balance of trade (although Defoe later changed his mind and argued in support of anti-gin legislation). However, there was no quality control whatsoever, and licences for distilling required only the application. By 1750, over one fourth of all residences in St Giles parish in London were gin shops, and most of these also operated as receivers of stolen goods and coordinating spots for prostitution as well (Loughrey and Treadwell, 14). Hogarth's Gin Lane is located in St. Giles, and the most shocking figure in it is the drunken mother. This mother is only a partial exaggeration, however, for, in 1734, one Judith Dufour had provided at least one model. Her two-year old child had been placed in a work house, and there it had been given clothing and tended. Dufour reclaimed her child, strangled it, and left the infant's body in a ditch so that she could sell the clothes (for one shilling, four pence) and buy gin (George, 41). The Dufour case provided a focus for anti-gin campaigners such as the indefatigable Thomas Wilson and the image of the neglectful mother became increasingly central to anti-gin propaganda. Sir John Gonson, whom Hogarth satirized in his earlier A Harlot's Progress, turned his attention from prostitution to gin and began prosecuting gin-related crimes with severity.

Like its companion piece Beer Street, Gin Lane appears to be an unambiguous warning against the horrors of gin. However, many commentators have claimed there is some ambivalence in Hogarth's message. Some years later the writer (and serial drinker) Charles Lamb described the engraving as "sublime". Other notable admirers of the piece included William Hazlitt and Charles Dickens (who noted that the real message of the piece was to warn against the horrors of poverty, not simply alcohol).

[edit] References

• Dillon, Patrick 'The Much-Lamented Death of Madam Geneva' London: Review 2002
• Gay, John. The Beggar's Opera. Bryan Loughrey and T. O. Treadwell, eds. London: Penguin Books, 1986.
• George, M. Dorothy. London Life in the Eighteenth Century. London, 1951.
• Warner, Jessica 'Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason' London: Profile 2002