Hi again. So, in my last post I shared the definition of the
Regency period and the titles of peerage.
And now, we take a look at the Season...
The Season
At the beginning of my book, Lady Anne enters the marriage
mart, so I thought a brief explanation of The Season may be in order.
Men returning to London for the sitting of parliament after
Easter would often take their families with them. Their sons or daughters of
marriagebale age would then enter The Season (the time when London would come
alive with entertainments and opportunities for the young people to mingle).
This is what the marriage mart was, really.
I might as well make mention here, as I shan’t be talking
much of parliament. The Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in Great
Britain was brought into effect in 1807 – huzzah!
Of course, one is speaking of the Beau Monde or The Ton
here. The poor people are sadly neglected in my pages here; sorry. My research
focussed on the nobility as that’s of whom one was writing. Although, there
will be a post on servants later.
Incidentally, the marriageable age could be when a young
lady showed signs she was ready to breed i.e. when her period started – yes, I
know, it’s all rather distasteful and I blush to mention it. But, we must face
facts here. The age of consent was just twelve years old (*shudders*). This was
brought into practice in 1275. It was raised to thirteen in 1875 and then taken
up to sixteen in 1885, where it has remained ever since in Great Britain. If
you’re writing about Ireland, you may want to check further as they had
slightly different laws.
Whilst I’m on the topic of periods, there’s an article here on
early sanitary wear; tampons were sort of a thing. It’s quite surprising and
informative. However, most young ladies (who wore no knickers by the way)
seemed to have gone without. Some may have used old rags tied on, as per Queen
Victoria. But in the Regency, letting it run free was stomach-churningly
common. But, bear in mind, thanks to a poor diet, their flow wasn’t as heavy as
ours.
Right, enough yuck!
Courting
Happily, the Regency folks had started marrying off their
daughters more towards the age of twenty.
But, there were many rules and guidelines, of course. One
didn’t merely meet a random boy at a party and shack up. But nor were these
formal marriages necessarily the arranged ones of the previous generation. Love
had started to be accounted for (*gasp*), so long as it was to a person of
appropriate standing, of course.
With such strict guidelines, one was not able to openly
flirt with the hotties. So, the youth formed their own secret code. Fans
and parasols
or umbrellas
had their own language for flirtations.
Around this time, flowers
began to be given meanings, but the Victorians went on to develop this further.
Bouquets
were a bit different, but a suitor would be expected to produce one, or at
least a posy.
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| Fun fact; this Sir Thomas Lawrence painting was my Lady Anne inspiration |
Beauty and Cosmetics
Well, one must look at one’s best whilst attending balls and
gatherings. The Georgians before the Regency period had cottoned onto the fact
that their make-up was killing them – literally! Oops! The heavy white paint
used previously contained lead along with horse manure and vinegar – eww. Mercury
was put into lots of things too. Oh dear!?
So, out went the dangerous make-up and in came the ‘natural
look’. Pale complexion; those bonnets kept the sun off as well as looked
pretty, with slightly pinked lips and cheeks were in vogue. Perhaps a slight
darkening of the brows.
Ladies and their maids would buy periodicals such as La
Belle Assemblée, The Lady’s Magazine, or the super rich could subscribe to the
one Queen Charlotte did, The Gallery of Fashion. Some housekeeping books also
were in circulation. Most of these would contain recipes for the maids to make
cosmetics. The first Woman’s Own or Good Housekeeping mixed with Cosmopolitan,
eh?
But those wishing to look further back can see the
Georgian’s regime here or one can hop forwards to the Victorians.
Be warned – they did not use the term “make-up” until around
1870. They had cosmetics and embellishments. I was very cruel and gave Lady
Anne a spot just so I could use some of these intriguing concoctions. Am I
weird for finding this fascinating? Perhaps it’s only natural, as I’m a trained
beauty & holistic therapist.
Shampoo
was coming in, and I was delighted to discover Pears soap had just been
invented (I love the smell of this stuff!).
Hair was no
longer made too big to fit carriages. Again, this was more natural. Ringlets
looked cute about the face whilst wearing bonnets. And it was quite pleasant to
wear plaits whilst dancing. There’s a hair style article and a hair accessory blog for you.
Fed up with teeth falling out, tooth brushes made of boar bristles and an ivory handle (noooo!!!
Why did they not think of the elephants??? *sobs*). Funny how we learn things
through history, eh? Sometimes, we humans learn lessons.
Now, these tooth brushes were not as wonderful as today, and
their diet was quite rich (more on that in a later blog). One’s breath could
still be left a little wonting for freshness (*heurgh*). So, there were breath-freshening tablets (cachous) available. All sorts of
pleasant flavours were used, such as cardamom, musk (deer!), ambergris
(whales!), rose, cinnamon and liquorice. Lady Anne favours violets. That may or
not be because her author likes Parma Violet sweets. 😉
Sadly, deodorant and antiperspirant were still a ways off.
And dancing was really quite an active affair. With no air-conditioning in a
crowded hot room. Am I painting a picture? Quite whiffy!
So, men would wear cologne
to help mask the err…let’s face it, stench. They used ingredients such as
bergamot, rosemary, clary sage and orange blossom. Yum! More on this can be
found here.
The women would use things such as more violets and rose, but would also use
some of the same items from men’s cologne in their perfumes.
They even started to do keep-fit exercises. They weren’t obsessed with being thin, by any means. A young
lady should be well-rounded. But the Regencies were carrying everything to
excess, and the first reducing diets started to creep in (*sigh*).
That’s one’s appearance sorted. Time to end this blog post
and think of the next.
Always in love and
light,
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