ABSTRACT
This chapter reconsiders what Charles Dickens labelled the ‘inexpressibly odious’ behaviour of the nineteenth-century execution mob. By analysing a series of specific execution events held in London after 1835, the chapter illustrates how contemporary depictions of unruly execution crowds were frequently ill-informed and impressionistic. Evidence is presented to show how execution crowds, on many occasions, could in fact be decorous and restrained in behaviour, more truthfully characterised by their social diversity, orderliness, and self-control.
