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BurdensomeCount

Thou Shalt Read BC's Writings!

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joined 2022 September 05 16:37:04 UTC

The neighborhood of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a series of events which seem to run on lines parallel to those of what was known to the writers of headlines and "The Kensington Horror," or "The Stabbing Woman," or "The Woman in Black." During the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath. In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that they had been with a "bloofer lady." It has always been late in the evening when they have been missed, and on two occasions the children have not been found until early in the following morning. It is generally supposed in the neighborhood that, as the first child missed gave as his reason for being away that a "bloofer lady" had asked him to come for a walk, the others had picked up the phrase and used it as occasion served. This is the more natural as the favorite game of the little ones at present is luring each other away by wiles. A correspondent writes us that to see some of the tiny tots pretending to be the"bloofer lady" is supremely funny. Some of our caricaturists might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the reality and the picture. It is only in accordance with general principles of human nature that the "bloofer lady" should be the popular role at these al fresco performances.


				
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BurdensomeCount


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Thou Shalt Read BC's Writings!

				
				
				

				

					6 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 16:37:04 UTC
				


				
					

					
The neighborhood of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a series of events which seem to run on lines parallel to those of what was known to the writers of headlines and "The Kensington Horror," or "The Stabbing Woman," or "The Woman in Black." During the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath. In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that they had been with a "bloofer lady." It has always been late in the evening when they have been missed, and on two occasions the children have not been found until early in the following morning. It is generally supposed in the neighborhood that, as the first child missed gave as his reason for being away that a "bloofer lady" had asked him to come for a walk, the others had picked up the phrase and used it as occasion served. This is the more natural as the favorite game of the little ones at present is luring each other away by wiles. A correspondent writes us that to see some of the tiny tots pretending to be the"bloofer lady" is supremely funny. Some of our caricaturists might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the reality and the picture. It is only in accordance with general principles of human nature that the "bloofer lady" should be the popular role at these al fresco performances.



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have standards you know...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ah, I refuse to have anything to do with the Daily Fail.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


One of the most famous cases in British criminal law history involved a farmer who had been burgled by some traveller youths




A much stranger episode in Engligh civil law history also involving gypsies has to be Attorney-General v Corke [1933] Ch 89. The case itself doesn't mention whether the "nomadic caravan dwellers" were Irish travellers or Romani but it doesn't really matter. What matters is that a landowner of a brick field near a town allowed them to camp on it for a while. The expected happened and they dumped shit and caused general mayhem in the surrounds outside the landowner's field. The locals were, as you can expect, not amused. Knowing that suing the "nomadic caravan dwellers" was pointless the local authority decided to go after the landowner instead.


They won in court. But the twist was that it wasn't for nuisance or some other everyday tort like that. Instead the judge ruled that this was a situation which came under Rylands v Fletcher. This is a little known rule of English law which holds that:




The person who for his own purposes brings on his lands and collects and keeps there anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, must keep it in at his peril, and, if he does not do so, is prima facie answerable for all the damage which is the natural consequence of its escape.




Normally this tort applies to things escaping due to unnatural use of land, so stuff like fire, water, gas or other dangerous substances (the original case was one relating to a water reservoir breaking and flooding a neighbour's mine) leaking out and carries strict liability, so there's no easy defense for the landowner. Mr. Justice Bennett, in his infinite wisdom, decided though that inviting gypsies to live on your field constituted an unnatural use of land likely to cause mischief if they escaped, and the landowner was accordingly held liable. Now that's something you don't get to see every day!


Of course there's no way such a claim would succeed in the same terms today, this is a bygone relic from an era where English judges were still Based.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


They belong to an unusual population called Irish Travellers with which few non-British or Irish are particularly familiar.




Why am I learning this particular fact right now on TheMotte when this story has been all over the media and Reddit for the last 3-5 days?