I was searching on Google for horsey items (friend's daughters birthday) and this lady's name came up in the search. I hadn't heard of her so I did some research.
So who is Theresa Berkley I hear you say.
Theresa Berkley was a British Dominatrix of the 19th century and The Berkeley Horse, was designed for or by her and earned her a fortune flogging both wealthy men and women of that time and is still used in some BDSM establishments to this day. An adjustable flagellation table on which her clients could be secured and placed in various positions for maximum erotic pleasure. She also maintained a hook and pulley for hanging up her clients for their.
According to an account by Henry Spencer Ashbee (aka "Pisanus Fraxi") It is capable of being opened to a considerable extent, so as to ring the body to any angle that might be desired. There is print in Mrs Berkley memoirs, representing a man upon it quite naked. A women sitting in a chair exactly under it, with the bosom, belly and bushy exposed: she is manualizing his embolon, whilst Mrs Berkley is birching his posterior.
She also ran a very high class flagellation brothel in London which specialised in chastisement, whipping, flagellation and much more. An expert with all instruments of torture, her talents became highly sought after by the aristocracy. A master of the art of inflicting pain for pleasure, and practised absolute privacy to protect her clientele.
Quote again by Henry - "Her instruments of torture were more numerous than those of any other governess. Her supply of birch was extensive, and kept in water, so that it was always green and pliant: she had shafts with a dozen whip thongs on each of them; a dozen different sizes of cat-o'-nine-tails, some with needle points worked into them; various kinds of thin bending canes; leather straps like coach traces; battledoors, made of thick sole-leather, with inch nails run through to docket, and currycomb tough hides rendered callous by many years flagellation. Holly brushes, furze brushes; a prickly evergreen, called butcher's bush; and during the summer, a glass and China vases, filled with a constant supply of green nettles, with which she often restored the dead to life. Thus, at her shop, whoever went with plenty of money, could be birched, whipped, fustigated, scourged, needle-pricked, half-hung, holly-brushed, furze-brushed, butcher-brushed, stinging-nettled, curry-combed, phletbotomized, and tortured till he had a belly full".
"She also enjoyed a certain amount of torture inflicted on her by her clients, given that they were willing to pay her price, but she also employed a number of women for that task if indeed her clients wished to inflict more pain than she was willing to take herself."
Shame that no photographs or portraits of her is know to have survived. There have been occasional reference to her being attractive but that's all.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by here and commented yesterday on LOL Day and a big hug and thank you to Bonnie for organising it and Hermione for all the work she put in.
Love,
Ronnie
xx
