Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it;
Not a penny was there in it,
Only ribbon round it.
This nursery rhyme has been taught to children for over 200 years. It’s included in some of the earliest Mother Goose collections of children’s poetry. In fact, the tune to which it was sung was borrowed for “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. So what, in the world, is it doing on TrashyLingerie.org? It’s introducing you to this week’s Tart of the Week, Kitty Fisher!
As you probably know, many nursery rhymes began as tongue-in-cheek commentary about the real people and situations of the day. In this case, Lucy Locket was a popular barmaid and prostitute at a public house called “The Cock” in London. Kitty Fisher was a courtesan and aspiring actress. There are two interpretations of the rhyme. The first is that, Lucy, hardworking waitress and good time girl, was poor, and that the wicked Kitty, who earned her money in the same way, except for the working part, was wealthy. The second explanation is that both of these ladies were popular courtesans of their day. Lucy had a wealthy benefactor; her “pocket”. Kitty Fisher wanted him. Kitty always got what she wanted. You could just ask her dear friend, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the portrait artist who made her the subject of four of his most famous paintings.
Kitty was probably born around 1738 and entered into the world’s oldest profession at an early age. To say she was acquisitive would be a gross understatement. She was absolutely mercenary, demanding the highest payment for her services and demanding the very best of everything from her gentlemen friends. Her beauty must have been remarkable, because she lived in splendor, with liveried servants and more than enough money to support her lavish lifestyle. All of fashionable London copied her gowns. She was very sure of herself and her popularity, claiming that she turned down the advances of Casanova, himself, because he only offered her 2/3 of her normal fee. Casanova, however, in a letter written at the time, claims that she offered, but he turned her down, finding her too common for his taste, since she only spoke English. It may have been Kitty Fisher who was the real inventor of the sandwich. Insulted by a gentleman’s offer of 1000 pounds for her services (she usually charged twice that much), she took the bank note, put it between two slices of buttered bread, and ate it to show her contempt. The Earl of Sandwich, who was a friend of hers, may have been inspired by her tantrum.
As happened frequently, Kitty lived hard and she lived fast. She eventually married a member of Parliament, and retired to his country home. She seems to have become a popular and generous lady of the manor in the end. She died in 1767, after less than a year of marriage, at the age of 28. Admiral Keppel’s infamous memoir of the time gave us this cryptic epitaph: “She died, a martyr to the cosmetic art.”
