The Birchen Bouquet is a work of pornography

Pornography

Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

 first published around 1770, reprinted in 1826 by George Cannon

George Cannon (publisher)

George Cannon was an English solicitor, radical activist and publisher and pornographer who also used the pseudonyms Erasmus Perkins and Philosemus....

, in 1860 by William Dugdale

William Dugdale (publisher)

William Dugdale was a publisher, printer, and bookseller of politically subversive publications and pornographic literature in England during the 19th century. By the 1850s he had become "the principal source of such publications in the country"...

 and again in 1881 by William Lazenby

William Lazenby

William Lazenby was an English publisher of pornography active in the 1870s and 1880s. He used the aliases Duncan Cameron and Thomas Judd...

 (when it was said to have been printed at Birchington-on-Sea

Birchington-on-Sea

Birchington-on-Sea is a village in northeast Kent, England, with a population of around 9,800. It is part of the Thanet district and forms the civil parish of Birchington. It lies on the coast facing the North Sea, east of the Thames Estuary, between the seaside resorts of Herne Bay and Margate.As...

). It consists of a compilation of flagellation

Flagellation

Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...

 stories, mainly of women by women, some taken from The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine

The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine

The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine was a magazine published by Samuel Orchart Beeton from 1852 to 1879, with a supplement written by his wife Mrs Beeton between 1859 and 1861: these supplements were later collected as her Book of Household Management. His intention was that it should "tend to...

(Marcus notes the curious fact that some material from this fashion magazine was reprinted verbatim in pornographic works). Henry Spencer Ashbee

Henry Spencer Ashbee

Henry Spencer Ashbee was a book collector, writer, and bibliographer, notorious for his massive, clandestine three volume bibliography of erotic literature written under the pseudonym of Pisanus Fraxi.-Life:...

described it as "very ordinary and insipid", expressing surprise at its frequent reprinting.