G. Basset
Isle of Wight Observer August 18, 1860
More 1860s tales from the newspapers
DISFIGURING A SEAT ON THE ESPLANADE
On Thursday afternoon some mischievous wretch, infatuated with a love for his name, and thinking perhaps that if imbecility kept it from the world one way it should give it in another, deeply cut in legible characters “G Basset”, on the seat near the Marine Baths. However much such a cognomen as “G Basset” might grace a certain celebrated “Calendar”, we can assure the owner of it that neither one nor the other would be considered an ornament to the seats around by the community of Ryde. What particular pleasure the miserable asine biped derived from the performance cannot possibly be known to any but himself, but perhaps that admirable corrective, solitary confinement, would have a more salutary effect upon this monomania for name etching than idling away hours by the seaside, so we recommend the friends of G Basset to act upon the hint, or perhaps the officers of the law might aid in a manner less creditable if more notorious!
