Arthur Sketchley (1817-1882). Mrs. Brown on the Royal Russian Marriage. London: G. Routledge and sons, 1874. B1746

Arthur Sketchley (1817-1882). Mrs. Brown on the Royal Russian Marriage. London: G. Routledge and sons, 1874. B1746

The News From Lake Ladoga... Arthur Sketchley is the pseudonym of English dramatist, novelist, and entertainer George Rose. His "Mrs. Brown" novels – 32 volumes in all – purport to be the slightly dotty ravings and rantings of an illiterate little old British lady of the lower middle-class who gossips about all the topics-of-the-day, and the Russian royals, of course, do not escape her watchful and highly prejudiced eye. In a News From Lake Woebegone style Sketchley would read parts of his Mrs. Brown monologues in public entertainments supposedly "all over the world," but we can find no evidence of his taking his shtick to the Borshcht Belt of Petersburg. He seems to have traveled mostly in English speaking countries: Australia, South Africa, India. In the absence of tomatoes in Russia – at least at this date – either for eating or for heaving at the entertainment, what would have been the missile of choice? Cabbages? Dumplings?

B1746