Ladies, you know how we can’t fit more than a single tube of lip balm into the pockets of most of our clothing for reasons that remain unsatisfactory to us all?
Tonight I learned that, back in the days when women’s pockets were separate articles of clothing worn tied around the waist under the skirt, one woman was convicted of theft for PUTTING A WHOLE DUCK INTO EACH POCKET AND WALKING AWAY WITH THEM.
My jeans won’t even hold my keys comfortably. We have been robbed of the joy of surreptitiously stealing large and ungainly objects including waterfowl, dammit!
I found my note on that case!
Court case from 1777, Worcestershire. A woman “of bad character,” Jane Griffiths, was brought to trial for stealing two ducks from a man named Thomas Wainwright. She tried to steal them by stuffing them in her pockets and taking off running. (as quoted in Barbara Burman, Pockets of History).