I decided it might be a bit whimsical to put up a pic of the mutt, but for anyone interested, she’s on this page along with my horses: http://www.carolinerance.co.uk/ponies.htm

Anyway, yes I did come across some very interesting sources about 18th-century surgery, and there are a few surgical procedures in the novel. Although I did lots of general reading about medical/surgical history, for these scenes I made a point of only referring to sources written at the time, so as to avoid the risk of later knowledge creeping in. Although instruments like the ones above do feature in the book, I don’t go into great detail describing them, because to the characters they are nothing unusual.

The main streets were paved, but there was a coating of filth on top – manure from horses and cattle, rubbish from the houses, mud brought in by coaches from the bad roads outside the city – which when mixed with rain turned into a rather insalubrious slush. There was an open drainage channel down the middle of each street to carry away sewage etc, but these easily got blocked. Householders were responsible for maintaining the paving and cleaning the area in front of their own property, but not everyone was very thorough about it. Having said that, Chester was considered healthier than other cities, because the Rows and City Walls allowed people to keep out of the dirt.

I will be intrigued to hear how the gruesomeness of the research and the mud are linked! Was Chester very muddy during this period?