25 Kirkland

Between Yard 23 Kirkland and 29 Kirkland (27 Kirkland is part of the same building).

Curwen, 1900 p 165-166

After passing Yard No. 23, in the illustration of which will be noticed an iron bracket hook for supporting one of the ancient oil lamps, you come to an old house, on the three leaden spouts of which are cast the arms of the Lamberts of Watch Field, viz.: - Argent, a chevron Gules, between three lambs Sable, a chief cheque Azure and Argent. In the middle of last century (that is in the mid 1800s), one William and Charlotte Lambert lived here.

The late T. Bindloss, twice mayor occupied these premises and resided over the shop, until he built his residence at Castle Green in 1848. Here, in former days, Thomas Braithwaite carried on the business of ironmonger until his death in 1822, and with him lived his sister, Margaret, "dispensing blessings unnumbered by her genuine Black Drop." Thomas' brother, John Airey Braithwaite, a surgeon at Lancaster, claimed to be the original inventor of this Westmorland and North Lancashire drug and "specific for all ills," and after his death the secret receipe and manufacture passed unto his sister Margaret's hands; and after her decease it became the property of her niece, Hannah, whose will caused so much commotion.

One curious circumstance attaching to this great cure-all, capable of allaying all pain and of stimulating the drooping energies, as well as the reverse process of reducing excessive activity when unduly excited, is the fact that it was manufactured solely by Quakers, whose chief characteristic is quiet placidness.

Ann Todd, a Quakeress rival, residing in an old house up some steps in a yard behind the "Commercial Inn," advertised in 1811 that she "has long been in possession of the original receipe, and continies to prepare and sell 'The Genuine Quakers Black Drop' at Kendal at 1s 6d a bottle, being about one-tenth the price and superior in quality to the article advertised by a member of the Royal College of Surgeons."

Poor Ann Todd died in 1820 at the age of 72 years, and in the following year another rival turns up in Hannah Backhouse - also a Quakeress - who advertises "The Original Black Drop," prepared by her from a receipe of a medical practitioner - a Friend - who resided at Bishop Aukland a hundred years ago, and which has been in the family for over 60 years.

It seems to have been a very concentrated drug, one drop being equal to four of laudanum, and generally consisted of opium, 4 ounces; juice of quinces, 4 pints, digested with gentle heat for three weeks; then with the addition of saffron, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon (an ounce each), it was allowed to digest a week longer, be strained, and the liquor evaporated to the consistency of syrup. This simmering process must have been very uncongenial work, for the fair women had to wear masks to preserve the secret, it had mostly to be done at nights, when servants had gone to rest and neighbours did not call to interrupt. Weird and witch-like in the gloom, these masked figures in grimy gowns flitted about and tended for four weeks to their, as Macbeth has it, slowly boiling "hell-broth" charm. No wonder, then, that the "original Original and genuine Genuine Quakeress' Drop" was sold at 10s for a small phial of about four onces, with an additional 1s. for duty.