The Twopenny hangover "sleeping over a rope"

[smezenen]

LOL Harry I apreciate the humer and actually a double rope is in the plan based the Dickens description. his description sounds like a form of hammock.

[harry]

Smezenen,
Do not forget the double rope for couples that wish to sleep together,nor the half ropes for children under ten.Perhaps also you might try sleeping longwise,and include a knotted rope,for those you think ought to get knotted.Me for example.Ha! Ha!.And try to begin on April 1st.Yes I can be humerous at times.

[smezenen]

I think the same way about it being a waste of rope, so I wont be cutting mine however I am taking that bit from contemperary liturature and I have no reason to doubt the likes of Orwell or Dickens. I tend to believe that most would just untie it.

The Twopenny Hangover. This comes a little higher than the
Embankment. At the Twopenny Hangover, the lodgers sit in a row on a bench; there is a rope in front of them, and they lean on this as though leaning over a fence. A man, humorously called the valet, cuts the rope at five in the morning. -Orwell "Down and Out in London and Paris"

'And pray, Sam, what is the twopenny rope?' inquired Mr. Pickwick. 'The twopenny rope, sir,' replied Mr. Weller, 'is just a cheap lodgin' house, where the beds is twopence a night.' 'What do they call a bed a rope for?' said Mr. Pickwick. 'Bless your innocence, sir, that ain't it,' replied Sam. 'Ven the
lady and gen'l'm'n as keeps the hot-el first begun business, they used to make the beds on the floor; but this wouldn't do at no price, 'cos instead o' taking a moderate twopenn'orth o' sleep, the lodgers used to lie there half the day. So now they has two ropes, 'bout six foot apart, and three from the floor, which goes right down the room; and the beds are made of slips of coarse sacking, stretched across 'em.' 'Well,' said Mr. Pickwick. 'Well,' said Mr. Weller, 'the adwantage o' the plan's hobvious. At six o'clock every mornin' they let's go the ropes at one end, and down falls the lodgers. Consequence is, that being thoroughly waked, they get up wery quietly, and walk away!
-Dickens "The Pickwick Papers"

[Ally]

They wouldn't have cut the rope. Waste of rope.

[smezenen]

Bulldog,
Thanks for the advice. I have already gone over most of those sugestions and covered some of them in my above post and also on another thread. Unfortunatly im not going to be able to use the destitute and poor for my experiment becouse there just are not any around here this time of the year, still a bit cold for them however I figure me, my kids and hopefully some of their friends will do. (I will have to force the kids they think I'm nuts) Also as stated above I have read a few references on the subject but I havent seen any that refer to a kitchen. Most I have read describe a long room with rows of benchs or just rows of rope. And as I also stated in the above post all but one mention cutting or untying the rope to wake the sleepers and get them moving. This practice is said to have come about due to the fact that people would not move on in a timely manner in the morning unless forced. If you know of any sources that state otherwise please pass them along so i can add them to my reference list. Thanks.

[Bulldog]

Smezenen,

Good for you. To be fair, though, your test panel should be drawn from the poorest of the poor -- people whose only other choice would be sleeping outdoors. You also probably want to come as close as possible to replicating conditions in a 19th century doss house. To start, move your experiment to the kitchen -- that’s where the two-penny-a night lodgers usually slept. You’ll also want a long bench for your test panel to sit on.

Here comes the important part [ta-dum] the rope. Yes, the infamous two-penny rope. It should be heavy. Try for something about an inch in diameter. Then stretch it taut right in front of the bench. It should be about shoulder level of someone sitting down, and a little way in front of them. Now all they have to do is lean over and rest their head on the rope, using their folded coat or jacket as a pillow. That's all a two-penny rope was.

And Smezenen, don’t even think of cutting the rope and sending your test panel tumbling to the floor. That’s more fancy than fact. Doss houses were business establishments and two-penny-a-night lodgers were paying customers.

Good luck, and sleep tight. And don't snore!

Bulldog

[smezenen]

Im starting this thread today for the purpose of my experiment. Any of you that follow The People of the Abyss thread have no doubt read the discussion of weather this actuall happened or not. I will be posting to this during the week that i spend sleeping over a rope.

First of all I am trying to get a few people to join me but they all think im crazy. None of them dispute that it could be done they just claim to have more comfortable places to be. Anyone is invited to join me, Email me if you would seriously want to be a part of this experiment.


I have ran into many more descriptions of sleeping over the rope this week, the one true constant in all but one account has someone either cutting or untying the rope in the morning to wake up the sleepers. I will be testing more than one version to see what works best. I have already devised a way to string the rope across my den.

here is what i have learned thus far;
A thicker diameter rope will be more comfortable than a thin rope.
A towel or piece of rag wrapped around the rope gives some relief from the rope biting into you. Wading it up and placeing it on the rope is not as effective becouse it will move and possibly fall while sleeping.

I have yet to try to sleep but have decided on the positions I will try this coming week. More to follow.