COURT REPORTS SECTION - London Standard, Friday 5th August, 1892

WESTMINSTER. Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Cottell, the occupier of No. 24, Cheyne-row, Chelsea, formerly the residence for so many years of Thomas Carlyle, and renumbered since his occupation, was summoned by the Chelsea Vestry, under the Public Health Act of last year, for keeping between 20 and 30 dogs and cats on the premises, thereby occasioning a nuisance injurious to health. —Mr. Francis J. Smith, who prosecuted for the Vestry, said the Magistrate probably knew what the Chelsea sage thought of cats and dogs, but it would be difficult indeed to imagine his feelings if he could have contemplated his quiet old-world retreat converted into a sort of menagerie. The house was now in a most disgusting state, and a scandal to the neighbourhood.—Dr. Hy. Kenwood, who was acting as medical officer of health last July, and Grant, one of the sanitary inspectors, stated that they had made several visits to the house and been refused admission. Once they got in and found cats and dogs everywhere. The Inspector said be counted 19 dogs and six cats in the dining-rooms wandering about, and there were more animals upstairs, and a paroquet in addition. The place was indescribably filthy, and the effluvia was abominable. A long way off the offensive odour was noticeable.—A neighbour gave evidence of the horrible nuisance, and other witnesses testified that all the Vestry notices had been disregarded.—Moore, one of the warrant officers, said the Defendant was not in attendance, and he could not get the door opened to serve the summons. He had to put it through the window.—Mr. De Rutzen make an order of abatement and prohibition.—Mr. Smith said he asked for a penalty of 10 [shillings] as well, this being such a bad case.—Mr. De Rutzen: I will allow the Vestry five guineas costs to recoup them the expense they have been put to. And if the animals are not cleared out within forty-eight hours—the period of my order—come here again for penalties.

This “London News” was reported in numerous newspapers around Britain during the following week: - CARLYLE'S HOUSE TURNED INTO A MENAGERIE. Mrs Elizabeth Ann Cottell, Cheyne Row, Chelsea, the residence for many years of Thomas Carlyle, was summoned on Thursday for keeping between 20 and 30 dogs and cats the premises, thereby occasioning a public nuisance … (Edinburgh Evening News Midlothian, Scotland, 6 Aug 1892); THE MENAGERIE IN CARLYLE'S HOUSE. On Thursday last week Mary Elizabeth Cottell, elderly lady, who resides in the house at Cheyne Row, formerly occupied by Carlyle, was summoned for causing a nuisance by harbouriug a large number of dogs and cats the premises … (Edinburgh Evening News Midlothian, Scotland, 12 Aug 1892). Note: Mrs Cottell was a spiritualist who had bought the house from Carlyle.

CARLYLE'S SUCCESSOR AND HER ANIMALS - Gloucester Citizen 5 August 1892

Elizabeth Ann Cottell, who occupies Thomas Carlyle's old house in Cheyne-row, Chelsea, was summoned the Westminster Police-court, on Thursday, for causing a public nuisance. It was stated that the defendant, who did not appear, kept a number of cats and dogs in the house, a sanitary inspector discovering 25 animals in a dining-room. Mr. Rutzen ordered an abatement of the nuisance, and said if the animals were not cleared out in the 48 hours, the Vestry, which had instituted the prosecution, should come again, for penalties.

THE CONDITION OF CARLYLE'S HOUSE - Morning Post, 11 August 1892

On Thursday last Mary Elizabeth Cottell, an elderly woman, who resides in the house at Cheyne-row formerly occupied by Thomas Carlyle, was summoned at Westminster Police Court by the Vestry of Chelsea, for causing a nuisance which was injurious to public health, by harbouring a large number of dogs and cats on the premises. The evidence of the Sanitary Inspectors showed that the house was in a shockingly filthy condition, and, in the absence of the defendant, Mr. De Rutzen made an order for the abatement of the nuisance, with 5 guineas costs.— Mrs. Cottell attended at the Court yesterday morning, with a sheaf of newspaper reports of the proceedings, and asked the advice of the Magistrate as to the best way of contradicting the allegations contained therein. She said the evidence was all utterly untrue.— Mr. De Rutzen told the lady she should have appeared and stated that when the case was heard.— Mrs. Cottell : How could I, sir ? I was in Derbyshire. The summons was not served on me. It was put through a window.— Mr. De Rutzen said the case was properly substantiated, and was done with so far as the Court was concerned. He could not advise the applicant, who had better consult a solicitor if she imagined that she had a grievance.

Illustrated Police News, 13 August 1892

Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Cottell, the occupier of No. 24, Cheyne-row, Chelsea, formerly the residence for many years of Thomas Carlyle, and renumbered since his occupation, was summoned, at the Westminster Police- court, by the Chelsea Vestry, under the Public Health Act of last year, for keeping between twenty and thirty dogs and cats on the premises, thereby occasioning a dreadful public nuisance and one injurious to health. Mr. Francis J. Smith, who prosecuted for the vestry, said his worship probably knew what the Chelsea sage thought of cats and dogs, but it would be difficult indeed to imagine his feelings if he could have contemplated his quiet old-world retreat converted into a sort of menagerie of The house was now in a most disgusting state and a scandal to the neighbourhood, Dr. H. Kenwood, who was acting as Medical Officer of Health last July, and and was Grant, one of the sanitary inspectors, deposed that they had made several visits to the house, and been refused admission. Once they got in, and found cats and dogs everywhere. The inspector said he counted nineteen dogs and six cats in the dining-room, wandering about, and there were more animals upstairs, and a parroquet in addition. The place was indescribably filthy and the effluvia was abominable. A long way off the offensive odour was noticeable. A near neighbour gave evidence of the horrible nuisance, and other witnesses testified that all the vestry notices had been disregarded. Moore, one of the warrant officers, said that the defendant not in attendance, and he could not get the door opened to serve the summons. He had to put it through a window. Mr. De Rutzen made an order of abatement and prohibition, Mr Smith said he asked fora penalty of £10 as well, this being such a bad case. Mr, De Rutzen: I will allow the vestry five guineas costs to recoup them the expense they have been put to, and if the animals are not cleared out within forty-eight hours, the period of my order, come here again for penalties.

ANOTHER SCENE AT CARLYLE'S OLD HOUSE - Cardiff Times, 20 August 1892

At the Westminster police-court on Tuesday, Mrs Elizabeth Cottell, an elderly lady who is the present occupier of the house in Cheyne-row, Chelsea, in which Thomas Carlyle lived so many years, appeared to a summons before Mr de Rutzen, charging her with the illegal detention of her servant's clothing.—Mr E. D. Rymer, who prosecuted, said the defendant was decidedly eccentric in her ways, and, as his worship was no doubt aware by the Vestry proceedings, she kept a large number of dogs and cats. Complainant, through one of the animals, recently fell down a flight of stairs and broke two fingers on her left hand. Mrs Cottell on Monday morning last sent the young woman out on an errand and then refused to readmit her to give up her clothes, telling her through the letter-box that she had engaged someone else, who was able to work, which she (complainant) was not.—Emma Stanton, the young woman complaining, gave evidence in support of Mr Rymer's statement, and incidentally mentioned that defendant had about a dozen dogs still on the premises besides three cats —seven or eight had been taken over to Battersea. —Mrs Cottell said she had befriended Stanton for years, and bad overlooked many irregularities. The young woman was gone hours over an errand, which should have taken only a short time, and that was one of the reasons why she was dis- charged. The clothes she was quite ready to give up.—Mr de Rutzen ordered that they should be given up forthwith, and that the defendant should pay 23s costs.

THOMAS CARLYLE'S OLD RESIDENCE Montreal Daily Witness, August 25, 1892

THOMAS CARLYLE'S OLD RESIDENCE in Chelsea, over which Mrs Carlyle worried her life out in a vain effort to make it a place of utter quiet and silence for the irritable sage has been given over almost entirely to cats and dogs, over a score of which squall and snarl and fight and chase one another about within the rooms once devoted to the use of the searches after the eternal verities. The present occupant of the premises, now numbered 24 Cheyne-row, is Mrs Elizabeth Ann Cottrell [sic], who was summoned by the Chelsea vestry under the public health act "for keeping between twenty and thirty dogs and cats on the premises, thereby occasioning a public nuisance injurious to health." The prosecuting attorney invoked the shade of Thomas Carlyle to aid him in impressing upon the magistrate the enormity of the offence committed by the defendant. If a few cocks and hens in the neighboring yards constituted such a nuisance that the world was very nearly deprived thereby of some of the most enduring work of one of the greatest minds in it, what injury might not be expected from the presence of a score and a half of dogs in the ancient home of the Sage. This appeal, and the picture drawn by the attorney of Carlyle's "quiet old world retreat converted into a sort of menagerie," so affected the magistrate that he compelled the defendant to pay twenty-five dollars costs and clear out the nuisance within forty-eight hours, under pain of further penalties. Poor Carlyle himself did about as much grumbling and growling, and got his back up quite as often, probably, as all the dogs and cats together, and we do not doubt that many honest conservative people believe the Sage of Chelsea was a greater disturbing influence in his day and since than all the cats and dogs in the world. On the other hand, the numbers of those who regard him as one of the greatest teachers and one of the greatest merely human wielders of moral and intellectual force this world has ever seen are multiplying.

CARLYLE'S OLD HOUSE OVERUN WITH CATS AND DOGS - Reynolds's Newspaper, 4 December 1892

On Friday, at Westminster Police Court, Elizabeth Cottell, an elderly lady, of independent means, who occupies the house in Cheyne-row, Chelsea, where Thomas Carlyle lived, was summoned by the Chelsea Vestry, under the Public Health Act, for penalties incurred by keeping a large number of cats and dogs so as to be a nuisance, in defiance of an order of prohibition made by a Magistrate. Grant, one of the sanitary inspectors, stated that on the 18th inst. he succeeded in getting into Mrs. Cottell's house. In the dining-room, which was in a filthy state, he counted eleven dogs and six cats. The door opened, and so many animals trooped in from above and below, while others ran out, that he gave up counting for fear of making a mistake. (Laughter.) Since that occasion he had been refused admimission to the house. Mrs Cottell said she could not lot him in as it might disturb the dogs. Mr. Smith said the Vestry asked for the imposition of such a penalty as to effectually stop the nuisance. The liability of the defendant was £2 a day for 112 days - £224. Mr. De Rutzen said be hoped this Vestry would promptly stop this nuisance. He made an order on the defendant for £11 penalties and 23s, costs.

CATS AND DOGS IN CARLYLE'S HOUSE - The New York Times, December 18, 1892 (From the London Daily News.)

Mr. Grant, one of the Sanitary Inspectors of Chelsea, who was sent to Thomas Carlyle’s old house in Cheyne Row’ to take a census of the cats and dogs which Mrs. Cottell, the present occupant of the premises, keeps there in super-abundance, felt himself in the position of the shepherd ordered to count a flock of sheep, but who failed half way because one of them refused to stand still long enough to be numbered. When by stratagem he gained admission into the dining room he found eleven dogs and six cats. To count these was comparatively plain sailing. But the door of the apartment suddenly opened and in rushed mongrels and tabbies from upstairs and down stairs with a velocity that almost made the Sanitary Inspector’s head turn. He manfully tried to continue the census, but the animals refused to stand still. They ran in and out - barking, howling, yelping, mewing, and miaulling - in such inextricable confusion that the enumeration broke down and neither the police magistrate at Westminster nor the admirers or Mr. Thomas Carlyle will ever know the exact number of dogs and cats lodged under the roof of Teufelsdrockh. It was a task in which Napier, with all the aid or his logarithms, might have felt no shame to acknowledge defeat. But menageries in private houses, especially when neighbors object, and when the rooms are in a filthy condition, form a. luxury which must be paid for. Mrs. Cottell, who has been before the magistrate already for a similar offense, was ordered to pay a penalty or £11, 23s costs. As she is now liable to a fine of £2 per day while the nuisance continues, there is hope that the wraith of Carlyle will not be long outraged in this cat-and-dog fashion.

CAT ASYLUM IN CARLYLE'S OLD HOME - The Kansas City Star, Monday 26th December 1892

London Correspondence, New York Sun. The famous cat and dog asylum, to which Carlyle’s old home is devoted, will probably soon be abolished. For a second time Mrs. Cottell, the eccentric old woman who keeps the menagerie, has been fined for maintaining a nuisance. A sanitary inspector was sent to make a census of the animals Saturday. When by strategem he gamed admission to the dining room he found eleven dogs and six cats. To count these was comparatively plain sailing, but the door of the apartment suddenly opened and in rushed mongrels and tabbies from upstairs and down stairs with a velocity that almost made the inspector’s head turn. He manfully tried to continue the census, but the animals refused to stand still. They ran in and out, barking, howling, yelping, mewing and miaulling in such an inextricable confusion that the enumeration broke down, and neither the police magistrate at Westminster nor the admirers of Thomas Carlyle will ever know the exact number of dogs and cats lodged under the roof of Teufelsdrockh.

STARVING CATS AND DOGS CHELSEA. - Portsmouth Evening News, 19 June 1893
MRS. COTTELL'S ECCENTRICITIES. - CONVICTION FOR CRUELTY - London Daily News, 17 June 1893

At Westminster Police-court yesterday, Mrs. Elizabeth Cottell, said to be the widow of an Army surgeon and the occupier of Cariyle's house, in Cheyne-row, Chelsea, appeared before Mr. De Rutzen to summonses, issued at the instance of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, for illtreating dogs and cats by failing to supply them with sufficient food. Mr. T.D. Dutton prosecuted, and Mr. Dunn appeared for the defendant. The case has had to be adjourned more than once through the eccentricities of the defendant. Last week she was outside the Court in a cab till just before her case was reached, when she was driven away, to return hour or so later, after her solicitor had apologised for her conduct, and the Magistrate had threatened to grant a warrant. Yesterday Mrs. Cottell, half an hour late, found a place in a corner of the crowded Court and lying on the floor went to sleep, the seat of chair forming an extemporised pillow. Her position was not visible from the Bench, but it created no little sensation till a stalwart policeman, lifting her in his arms, carried her outside to one of the waiting-rooms.

Mr. Dutton said he did not think it much good going on, as Mrs. Cottell was drunk.
Mr. Dunn : Nothing the sort. She is 'very prostrate from overfatigue after a journey.
Eventually the defendant was allowed to be seated, and the case proceeded.

The principal witness was a laundress named Conolly, who intermittently acted as servant to the accused. She deposed that she last went to the house early in April, when the defendant was sold up. Mrs. Cottell had at that time four dogs and three cats in the house. For the first fortnight the animals lived on the best of tripe - — at 8d. a pound - but subsequently their inclusive allowance was reduced half-a-pound of cat's meat [slaughterhouse scraps]. Once when witness spoke to the defendant about the emaciated and dirty state of the animal- she said, “I can't help it. I have got nothing for myself." On cross-examination the witness said she complained to the magistrate in the first place because she could not get her wages. She was left in the place with the dogs.

By the Magistrate: She remembered when Mrs. Cottell kept as many 28 dogs and four cats at one time in the house. She always took the greatest care of them. Mr. Grant, one of the sanitary inspectors of Chelsea, said he called several times in May at Cheyne-row, and saw that the defendant's dogs were emaciated and filthy. The magistrate elicited from this witness that the vestry distrained on the defendant's chattels for large arrears of fines and costs incurred through keeping animals so as to be a nuisance. Defendant went to gaol before the money was paid.

An officer of the prosecuting Society and veterinary surgeon deposed that on the24th of May, when they saw the animals they were in a most exhausted state. The ribs and bones showed through the long coats of the Blenheim spaniels. The cats' meat man and other witnesses were called to prove that they left quantities of food by defendant's orders at her house.

Mr. De Rutzen said the defendant and her dogs had been before him on and off for nearly twelve months. He knew too much about it. He had a certain amount of sympathy for the defendant, because he had doubts whether on this particular subject she was right in her head. She was responsible for the cruelty to the dogs, but taking all things into account, he should order her to find a surety in £5 to receive judgment called upon, and pay three guineas costs.

THE CARLYLE HOUSE. The Queen, 23rd February 1895

The offer of the Carlyle House in Chelsea to the committee, who are raising the money for its purchase, is only open till the end of the month, and that only £1100 out of the £1750 needed has been subscribed. Beyond this of course, money is needed for repairs and maintenance [. . .] The house itself is only fit for a museum. Gloomy it must always have been, with its dark rooms and its dismal little patch of back-garden; and since the sage’s death it has been desanitised by the hordes of cats and dogs of its late owner. It has the further disqualification for a desirable residential property of being almost opposite a noted “thieves’ kitchen.”