ORFANS Etchings of a Series of Punishments BY PENT Note 7 My late friend William Hogarth, Esq. did have great interest in our work with the orfan girls and oft did watch their punishments. To help bring in monies for the Orfanage he did make sketches of a girl as she was punished in different wayes and did then make etchings of them which he called: "The Painful Progress of the Idle Scholar" and they did sell to a wide public. The etchings did show the agonies of a girl being chastised ever more severely for mistakes in her school work and were akin to the series by Mr. Hogarth entitled "The Progress of the Rake". These fearsome pictures became widely used to hang in the school rooms of private houses as a warning to the pupils there of what does happen to girls who are lazy and inattentive to their studies. Mr. Hogarth did make a present to the Great Orfanage of all profits from the sale of these etchings which amounted to a large sum indeed. The punishment room in the Great Orfanage provided the setting for the pictures. Mr. Hogarth did make his sketches there on a Sunday so not to halt the regular spankings and the monies that accrued therefrom on the other six days of the week. Snow had fallen and 'twas late that Sunday morning before he did come with his charcoal and sketch paper. Mr. Hogarth had chosen an attractive girl of six as model for the pictures, out of all the girls then in the Great Orfanage. Her name Melissa and her appearance was truly angelic with her fair hair, rounded figure and clear white skin. I took no part myself but did stay and watch all. The part of school teacher was played by a Lady Frances; a minder and the janitor did attend for the whole day to serve Mr. Hogarth as needed in the punishment room while he did make his sketches. They did position the girl Melissa and her bindings and move furniture, as he directed. I found many years later that this minder and janitor were in fact the true mother and father of Melissa. They had been working at the Great Orfanage some six years before when the minder had given birth privily to Melissa and did give her up to the Great Orfanage, one of the last new-born infants to be admitted before the Great Orfanage became so exceeding short of monies. In this waye the following scenes of increasing painful bondage and punishment for the young girl Melissa of onlie six years were watched in their entirety by her mother and father, and must have given them untold distress as they watched the pain and torture suffered by their dear daughter and not able to help or comfort her in any waye. Melissa herself had no knowledge of their relation to her. The scenes depicted in the sketches were as follows: 1. Melissa's First Fault The six year old Melissa is sitting in a school room on a wood chair and tied to it by her wrists and ankles. Melissa's teacher, a severe-looking woman, stands over her with a thin cane in her hand. Melissa skirt is pulled towards her, away from her knees, and her thighs show the painful marks where the cane is beating her legs. Melissa is weeping and pleading with the teacher to stop, and she can not even wipe away her tears as her hands are tied. 2. Melissa Caned Again Melissa is standing bent over the back of the same chair with her wrists and ankles tied to the front and back legs. Melissa's skirt is pulled up over her back and her undergarments are down around her ankles. The picture shows Melissa's bare bottom which has many sore stripes from the cane across her two cheeks. The angry teacher is shown with the cane about to strike again the quivering cheeks of Melissa as she cries out in agony from the cuts she has already had and in terror for those she is next to receive. 3. The Lazy Student The blackboard has been removed from its heavy upright easel and Melissa is facing it with her wrists tied above her head. Her legs are spread wide and tied to the easel also. Her skirt has been pulled up and tucked in at the neck, front and back, and her nether garments have been removed. The teacher stands with the thin cane and its marks show on Melissa's bottom and the backs of her legs. Melissa is looking over her shoulder at the teacher with a face that is weeping and twisted in pain. 4. More Severe Punishment Melissa is now turned with her back to the easel and naked from head to toe. Her wrists and ankles are tied to the easel and she faces towards the artist. The teacher stands at one side with the cane coming down to cut again and again into the six-year-old Melissa's barely-budding breasts. Agonizing marks from the cane are across Melissa's chest and across her stomach too. Melissa's face is contorted in agony as the teacher's eyes do shine and her face gloats at the dreadful pain of her six year old pupil. 5. Tip-Toes Melissa is naked again and alone as she faces the easel once more but only her wrists are tied to it, not too far above her head this time. A bradawl used in cabinet making with a handle of well varnished wood, has its small metal blade slid down into the end of a piece of cane. The other end of the cane stands on the floor under Melissa's bottom while the smoothe round top of the bradawl handle is between the lovely white cheeks of her bottom and pressing up against her rosebud. Melissa stands as high as she can on her tip toes to stop the greased handle of the bradawl from pushing up into her bottom. E'en so, the pressure of the smooth round wood handle of the bradawl upwards against Melissa's rosebud is plain from the bend in the cane below her bottom. The bulge in the four-inch-long handle of the bradawl is plainly visible and is more than an inch across. The hands of a clock in the background show twelve Noon and the grimace on Melissa's face shows her pain at standing so long on her tip toes. 6. Tip-Toes No More The hands now show one o'the clock and Melissa's strength must have failed her: She now stands flat on her heels and only the lower end of the four-inch bradawl handle is showing from her bottom: The greased handle has pushed up into her bottom while her mother and father watched, unable to help her, as Melissa's strength failed and she dropped suddenly down with agonizing pain to her bottom, to have her heels on the floor again. At the moment when strength failed and her heels dropped to the floor, Melissa had screamed in terror as the bulging wood handle rammed its way inexorably into her rosebud, and the varnished handle slid all the way up into her bottom. The picture shows Melissa's head turned over her shoulder, with agony and fear plain on her face, and the end of the smoothe and sliperie wooden handle slightlie protruding from her bottom, its blade still in the cane which stands on the floor under her bottom. 7. The Cane Again The hands now show two o'the clock and the teacher has returned. She has removed the length of cane from under Melissa's bottom and the lower end of the bradawl is shown still protruding from her rosebud. The teacher is punishing Melissa on her bare bottom with her thin cane, while the handle of the bradawl is still up inside her bottom. The face of the six-year-old Melissa shows acute pain from the caning as it strikes through to the piece of wood inside her bottom. 8. Tip-Toes Again The hands show three o'the clock and Melissa is again standing on her tip-toes with an even larger varnished wood handle, well greased and pressing up against her rosebud. A length of cane stands as before on the floor under her bottom and it bends with the pressure upward of the wood handle against Melissa's rosebud. The sketch shows that the wood handle is visibly larger than before and will be much harder for Melissa to take up into her bottom. Melissa is shown dropping slightly on her heels and the cane bows more to help press the sliperie wood handle up into her bottom in a controlled waye this time, before that her strength does give out with standing on tip-toe. Melissa has her hips twisted so the well-greased wood handle presses to the side of her rosebud to help to open her bottom and have it enter easier. From the expression on the six-year-old Melissa's face, she almost does appear to enjoy the work to press the larger wood handle up into her bottom. 9. Flat on Her Heels The hands show four o'the clock and Melissa is standing flat on her heels again and only the lower end of the large wood handle can be seen. Her mother and father had been glad to see with this large wood handle that Melissa had managed to press it up into her rosebud at a speed that did suit her, before her strength should give out this time. To do this she had lowered herself slightly from her highest tip-toe position and moved her bottom from side to side so the sliperie wood handle had pressed on her rosebud in different directions. After some few minutes of these cautious movements, her rosebud had slowly opened to allow the big wood handle to move in until the very largest part was sitting right in her rosebud and she paused to savour this point of greatest opening to her delicate younge bottom, like a child with a toboggan who has climbed to the top of a snow slope and stops to enjoy the moment before the thrill of the rush down to the bottom. Melissa's mother saw her wait with an expectant look on her face for a few moments, then she nudged the widest bit of the shiny wood handle past her opening and her rosebud closed to make the huge knob rush up into her bottom and end by slowly nestling a long way up inside her as far into her as it could possibly go and she wriggled her bottom from side to side to enjoy the feel of having it up there all the waye inside her. Indeed the large wood handle had given far more pleasure than pain to Melissa's angelic six-year-old bottom. The sketch faithfully showed Melissa's mouth with a half-smile while she bends her knees slightly to push the sliperie wood handle even further up into her lovely bottom. 10. Upside Down Melissa is still naked but upside down. He shoulders rest on two large piles of books while her head is between them and looking towards the artist. Her ankles are tied to the blackboard easel well apart and firmly enough to stop her from falling. The end of the large wooden handle is still protruding from Melissa's bottom but her cunnie faces the artist and catches the eye more in this picture. The teacher has in her hand a riding crop with a tab of soft leather on the end and we can see the marks where it has beaten on the insides of Melissa's thighs and on her stomach and -it must have caused her great agony - against her little cunnie. The teacher has stopped her beating and stands lecturing Melissa about her bad behaviour while shaking the riding crop at her. Melissa's face, upside down between the two piles of books, shows a mixture of pain from the beating she has just received and, oddly, a mixture of dread and longing for the next beating that she is to get. But a beating was not the next punishment for Melissa . . . 11. "You Must Try Harder!" Melissa is naked, the wood handle of the tool no longer in her bottom, and she is tied face down to a wide school bench with firm bindings around her chest and waist and thighs and ankles so she can not even wriggle. Her arms also are pulled up beyond her head and bound to the bench also. The bench is held up by books at one end so Melissa's head is lower than her ankles. The teacher stands near the bench, on the side further from the artist, with an excited look in her eye as she tips a candle to pour melted wax down between the two cheeks of Melissa's bottom. Melissa is shrieking in agony and tugging with all her strength at her bindings. I thought it curious at the time that the minder and janitor did hold each other close and wept most copiously as Melissa bawled and struggled, frantic in her agony. 'Twas easy explained in later years when I came to know that they were indeed, Melissa's mother and father, who had to watch the torture of their dear daughter but ten feet away from them and no waye to help her or even to give words of comfort to their darling daughter in her extreme pain and anguish. The artist's sketch shows the pool of melted wax gathering between the two cheeks of Melissa's bottom, where they meet her thighs. Melissa is just plump enough that there is no opening between the tops of her thighs for the melted wax to run down between them, though she does tug and jerk to try make an opening there, and the pool of hot melted wax grows deeper - and deeper. The pool of melted wax on Melissa's tender bottom and legs gives her searing agony, and she yells in fear and pain as she weeps and pleads for her teacher to stop pouring the hot wax from one candle after another down to make the pool deeper between the cheeks of her bottom. But the teacher's face has a cruel expression and she only repeats over and over: "You must try harder, Melissa!", which is the title of the sketch, as she keeps tipping the melted wax from the candles down between Melissa's cheeks. The minder and the janitor now had their faces turned away from Melissa and clutched each other while their shoulders did shake in anguish at the pain borne by their darling daughter, but they were unable to help her in any waye. The artist's sketch shows the pool of melted wax can not get much deeper before it will overflow at the places where Melissa's cheeks meet her thighs, to run over onto the bench that she is tied to. The moulten pool of wax between the cheeks of Melissa's bottom will continue give her agonizing pain for a long time, before it has cooled and set hard. Four small drawings at the bottom right of the sketch show how the block of wax will be used, after it has cooled and set solid: First: The block stands flat side down, with the cusp pointing upwards, at the point where Melissa's two cheeks met her thighs. Next to that is the same block of wax with its edges cut to make four vertical sides to the wax. Third: Small boards are held with twine to make a box around the wax mould, and plaster is being poured into it. Finally: A plaster replica of Melissa's bottom is taken from the mould, about four inch square, just where her two cheeks meet her thighs. With the snow falling again outside, Mr. Hogarth did not wait for the wax to cool and set solid: he now had the sketches he needed and departed with them to his studio to make them into a series of etchings. Melissa was still tied to the sloping bench, weeping and crying out from the burning pain of the pool of hot wax where the cheeks of her bottom meet the tops of her thighs. Lady Frances who had played the cruel teacher, had been left by Mr. Hogarth to remove the block of wax from between Melissa's cheeks when that it had cooled solid. Most of the wax was still liquid and m'Lady, wishing to cool it faster, sent the minder to bring in a pail of fresh snow, and did place handfuls of it on top of the hot wax. Melissa's bottom was burning hot from the wax. Her skin just above the hot wax was now freezing cold from the fresh snow and her agony became even greater, and she shouted loud as she did tug and struggle against her bindings. The snow on her bottom did melt and the minder dried with a cloth while Lady Frances did heap more fresh snow on the hot wax. Melissa suffered fierce pain from the raging heat of the wax, and next to that on her skin, the freezing cold of the snow. At last the heat lessened and m'Lady did declare the wax cool enough to lift the block from Melissa's bottom. She pressed with her fingers into Melissa's tender cheeks and then on her painful thighs, until the wax had been separated in all parts from her flesh. The minder did untie the bindings that held Melissa to the bench at her ankles and thighs so m'Lady was able move Melissa's legs a little apart and the block of wax, moulded to the exact shape of Melissa's bottom and thighs, was free to move. M'Lady then carefully lifted the warm block of wax free from Melissa's bottom, and stood it flat side down on the floor. The plasterer did later take it from there and made the first set of paper weights and other things as I had told him. The minder did press snow down on Melissa's hot flesh newly uncovered, from where the melted wax had been on her bottom. This change from burning hot to freezing was exceeding painful to Melissa and the girl did howl and struggle e'en more against the bindings that still held her body and wrists to the bench. The six year old Melissa did at last calm and the minder did untie her bindings and then carry her with the janitor up to her bed, soothing her as they went, with: "Poor dear Melissa! Did it hurt you dreadfully? Well, you are alright now! We will look after you. I will use some special ointment that will make you feel in Heaven, you will see!", and more of the like. Melissa could not understand why the minder and the janitor both showed such particular concern for her: she knew nothing of their being her mother and father. With Melissa back on her bed the minder, her mother, gently applied ointment of laudanum with a finger up inside Melissa's bottom and over the parts where the melted wax and the freezing snow had burned her tender skin. The ointment did flood her body with a rosy pain-relieving cloud as the opium did take its effect. Melissa had barely time to drink a cup of beef broth, the only food she had tasted that day, before she fell sound asleep and did not awaken again until late on the following morning, sore from her bruises and burns, and was kept in bed by the minder for a long time to be gently rubbed with soothing balm, and she could not sit easy on a bench or chair for near a week after. Mr. Hogarth did inform me with much annoyance that Melissa had an unmistakable expression of pleasure on her face after that the larger wood handle of a carpentry tool had been slid up into her bottom, and he was not able to understand it. The etchings were to show severe pain and be called: "The Painful Progress of the Idle Scholar". As a result Mr. Hogarth did not use the sketches 8 and 9 where the young girl of six did look to enjoy so greatly the thrusting of a mighty large sliperie wood handle up into her bottom. The six-year-old Melissa was by way of being treated as a hero at the Great Orfanage after that the monies from the etchings began to come in from the sales to the public, which did attest to their wide use to terrify young students into working more diligently at their studies. Melissa herself remembered well the punishments shown in the etchings. Whenever she looked at them she was filled with a curiously wistful longing that she might have all of the punishments done to her again, and feel again their terrible pain and agony. These etchings did prompt me to set aside a small room where visitors could be taken after that they had witnessed the punishments of some girls, and see the etchings, and to buy if they so wished. Plaster replicas of Melissa's bottom were sold also, made as shown in the etching, from the wax impression taken of Melissa's bottom. Some were sold for use as a paper weight, others to hang as decoration on a wall; yet others were stood so the legs pointed upwards and a hole drilled so to take the end of a quill pen. To put a quill into the hole was like to insert a thermo meter of the Herr Doktor Fahrenheit into Melissa's bottom. Other things did come to be added for visitors to buy such as dildolls that had been much used for the girls, after that the varnish had been worn thin by use. Also canes and paddles and straps that had been much used upon the bottoms of the girls and did need to be replaced. These things that had been worn out by punishments to the girls of the Great Orfanage did all sell for very much more than the monies needed to replace them. The Great Orfanage will alway thank the late William Hogarth, Esq. for his great imagination in the punishments that he did conceive for the young Melissa and for the considerable monies that the etchings did generate for the Great Orfanage in the early days of my work there.