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Steampunk Ladies of Pleasure, or a tale of Victorian Horse-Breakers & Taffety Punks
“If you weren’t born rich, you better be born beautiful”.
The Ladies of Leisure were born into the aristocracy and landed gentry, a fortunate accident of birth by any standards. However, some women of less elevated social class were able to lift themselves to a life of wealth and status far beyond their birth right by dint of their other more natural, physical blessings. These women are the Ladies of Pleasure, London's horse-breakers and taffety punks, and provide a rich, story-telling seam of inspiration to mine for Steampunk character styling.
Showgirls, actresses, and courtesans, belonged to the ‘demimonde’, a 19th Century French name meaning a class of women considered to be of doubtful social standing and morality on the fringes of polite society, supported by wealthy lovers. But being ‘not quite of society’ was no barrier to success in Victorian London. Or Belle Epoch Paris, or New York, or indeed anywhere else - as long as you had three things going for you. You needed to be beautiful, you needed to be good at your ‘work’, and you needed to be discrete. With these skills and qualities it was possible to achieve fame and fortune as ‘companions’ and mistresses to the titled and wealthy gentlemen of the Victorian elite.
The Victorian London demimonde had several remarkable women who had all the desirable attributes, but none more so than Catherine ‘Skittles’ Walters. Skittles was described as the last great courtesan of Victorian London. Her gentlemen friends and benefactors are rumoured to have included intellectuals, leaders of the political parties, even a Prime Minister, Lords, Earls, Dukes and even a member of the Royal Family, no less. Not bad for a Liverpudlian lass, who rode like a gypsy and swore like a navvy, and started out life as the daughter of a Customs Officer in the Liverpool dockyards.
Skittles was generally considered pretty in her youth but wasn’t exactly a classical beauty by any means, described by one journalist as having an ‘exceedingly plain face’. She also had a Liverpool dockyard accent with the vocabulary to match, and didn’t hold back on using it on anyone she thought was pretentious. This undoubtedly added to her unique charms. However, she did have the two most advantageous attributes for a lady of pleasure in Victorian London – she had a perfect body, with an 18 inch waist, giving her the most desirable of hour glass shapes; and, perhaps more significantly, she was a phenomenally good horsewoman.
Being a superb horsewoman was tremendously important in society London. In that era, London society would parade themselves every day during the season on horseback, and in open carriages, along Hyde Park’s Rotten Row. It was the place to show off and be seem. Skittles was one of many of the London demimonde courtesans who rode out on horseback to garner attention from the rich and influential in the 1860s. Though these 'not quite of society' women were known as ‘horse-breakers’, many like Walters were accomplished equestrians. On top of this, they were almost indistinguishable from the Ladies born into the aristocracy. They wore the very best clothes, in the latest styles and most risqué of cuts, and they rode the best thoroughbred horses, supplied by the livery yards of the Hyde Park stables. The 'horse-breakers' (or as one historian noted, "mounted tarts") were in effect the sexy advertising super models for the super cars of the day. The aristocratic ladies noted, and copied, their fashion and style, and all the gentlemen were besotted.
Catherine ‘Skittles’ Walters stood out far and beyond the rest of the horse-breakers though. She wore exquisitely tailored skin-tight riding dresses, skirts and shirts, all made for her by Henry Poole & Co of Saville Row. Her outfits were so close fitting she wore them without underwear. No VPL for this thoroughly modern miss. And she could really, really ride. Really ride. How a Liverpool lass from the dockyards learnt to ride so proficiently is stuff of myth and legend. Was it in the fields of Tranmere with the travelling Romany kids as a child? Did she as a young teen take up with up with a Lord from the Cheshire Hunt? Or did she, as some say, run away with the circus, becoming a bareback rider for her keep? No one really knows but as a Steampunk you can choose your own legend. And what a legend!
Catherine soon had the elite gentlemen of society falling like nine pins all around her. Perhaps that is how she got her nickname? Skittles. When she was just 16 years old Lord Fitzwilliam set Catherine up in London, then settled £2000 on her and £300 annual pension when they parted company. At 19 years old, Skittles became the mistress of Lord Hartington who installed her in a Mayfair townhouse and furnished her with a stable of thoroughbreds. He too settled a £2000 annuity on her for life when the affair cooled. Skittles also picked up further lifetime annuities from King Edward VII, in grateful appreciation for the return of some 300 of his love letters. In addition to her final address at 15 South Street, Upper Mayfair, London; she owned two hotels - one in England and one in France. She clearly was very good at her work, and an astute business woman as well. In 1879, the then 40-year-old courtesan took up with one final grand passion, the 19-year-old Gerald de Saumerez, who inherited her estate on her death in 1920. What a life!
Liverpudlian circus rider, horse-breaker, courtesan, socialite, and King’s confidante. And as rich as Croesus, business owning cougar to boot … now that's my kind of Steampunk!
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