Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
"Whose Situation requires a temporary Retirement, may be accommodated with a genteel Apartment to lie-in, agreeably to their circumstances, their Infants put out to nurse, and humanely taken care of. The consolation resulting from this undertaking, to many of the most respectable families in this kingdom, by securing their reputation and character from the base censure of the world, and preserving peace and concord among relations and friends, is sufficiently conspicuous to be countenanced by the humane and sensible part of mankind. Care, tenderness, humanity, honour, and secrecy having been the basis of this concern for many years, may be relied on. Those regardless of reputation will not on any terms be treated with... [Editor: Only ladies who, quite out of character, made a bad mistake, and who are otherwise of a good moral standing will be accommodated, rather than those who are not worried about their reputation. The assumption is that families would not want their daughters to come into contact with or under the influence of women of 'bad character'.] An eligible country house, within a few miles of London, where Ladies may be accommodated with comfortable Apartments, is more agreeable than in town."
This establishment must have placed advertisements in the papers of provincial towns in the hope that the women of means with unwanted pregnancies would want to be accommodated far away from their local communities before their condition became known.
[Original editor: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2004]