Victorian sex objects found after being hidden by 'prudish' staff

Victorian-era condoms crafted from animal intestines and concealed by “prudish” staff have been uncovered in a castle archive.

The three 19th-century contraceptives made from animal guts and fastened with ribbons were discovered at Warwick Castle.

The prophylactics date to 1853 and were owned by Henry Greville, the Earl of Warwick.

The risqué artifacts were located by historians cataloging 1,303 boxes from the Greville family archive.

Their findings illuminate the Victorian era’s approach to “safe sex,” though disease prevention frequently proved unsuccessful as many men repeatedly used the same sheaths.

Archivist Laura Orriss stated: “Previous prudish generations of staff kept them hidden.”

The 173-year-old contraceptives will now be exhibited publicly alongside an extraordinary collection of correspondence also found in the archive.

Included is a letter from Lady Eva Greville to her mother, Anne, detailing the exuberant celebrations following the birth of the future King Edward VIII in 1894.

Lady Eva, a lady-in-waiting to Mary of Teck, described waiting in a drawing room for the announcement before the infant’s father, Prince George, Duke of York, “fell about my neck and embraced me”.

She wrote: “In fact I think everybody embraced everybody else, champagne was at once sent for and we all at once drunk its health, and we all got very vague indeed.

“I am sure I drank about ten glasses, for as every fresh person came in we had to drink health over again.”

She subsequently characterized the future monarch as “rather a sweet” and a “very big child”.

Additional correspondence written by Lady Sarah Savile, who would go on to marry Henry Greville, disclosed a youthful romance with Regency fashion icon Beau Brummell in the early 1800s.

In one passionate letter, Brummell penned: “You are the only being who I ever really loved.”

“And the same sincere and devoted affection which I have ever cherished will remain undiminished whatever be its future fate.”