Regency England Research - post 5 - Dancing and Music in Regency Drawing Rooms

This is such a diverse subject, it warranted its own blog post.  

Shall we start with the famous Almack’s? I think so. A delightful place where the Ton could gather, admittance by voucher only, of a Wednesday evening. They were served dry, curly sandwiches (a bit like the old British Rail ones), and were under the watchful eye of the patronesses.  

Now, in this article it suggests the waltz and quadrille were introduced there in 1815. However, there are other sources which suggest the waltz was danced earlier, and I call artistic license on that one. However, we can all agree that it was only performed with permission from the ladies in charge, once they’d assessed the couples for good conduct – it was a very risqué dance, the waltz! It was in London from 1812 so I used it.  

There was a strict dress code enforced. Even the Duke of Wellington infamously got turned away one evening for wearing pantaloons and not the required breeches. 

Let us move away from Almack's though. Generally, there was a strict dance etiquette. Please note there’s a difference between dance and set. A couple to dance two sets together was basically announcing an engagement or intent thereof.   

In private ballrooms, the floor was often decorated with chalk. This was both pretty and practical. It acted as an anti-slip mechanism for exuberant dancers.  

 All this frivolity, of course, needed music. There’s a rather decent blog post on musicians and songs here.  

Young people were expected to perform at assemblies too. I was shocked when I discovered the lyrics to some of them. For a society so averse to swearing and leud behaviour, their songs didn’t hold back! It seems that one could get away with almost anything if it was sung in a Scottish accent – no, I don’t understand that either. Don’t try to work out the reasoning, it’ll only hurt!  

Jane Austen copied out a lot of music. She couldn’t afford to buy new sheet music. I’m not being mean; she simply wasn’t wealthy. There’s a fabulous archive and even a CD of Jane Austen’s Songbook 

Apparently, Miss Austen’s preferences extended to Ignaz Pleyel. I’d never heard of him, but found a delightful example on YouTube.  

See how nice I am? It took me HOURS to scour the internet for all that. I even contacted Chawton House (who gave me the link to the archive). And here I am, plonking it all in one handy little post for you. <3 nbsp="" span=""> 

Do you want to dicsuss music eras? It’s worth bearing in mind that any music upon its first release is considered pop music.  

Baroque Era – 1600 – 1750 

1678 – 1741 = Vivaldi 

1685 – 1759 = Handel 

Classical Era - 1750 – 1800  

1722 – 1809 = Haydn 

1756 – 1791 = Mozart 

1770 – 1827 = Beethoven 

1797 – 1828 = Schubert 

Romantic Era – 1800 - 1900  

1840 – 1893 = Tchaikovsky 

Musical Instruments 

Who hasn’t heard of the pianoforte? Have you even read any Regency romance??  

Most poor people would probably only really have opportunity to listen to this instrument at local gatherings. Other instruments and performances were expensive. Professional music was a blessing, a real treat to listen to.  It would inspire awe.

And fair enough, the pianoforte was the most popular instrument for young ladies to play, with the harp being favoured by the nobility.  

OK, some instruments at the time were: 

• Yes, the pianoforte 
• Flute
• Guitar (yes, the guitar!) 
• Harp 
• Harp-lute 
• Harpsichord 
• Lute 
• Lyre 
• Organ 
• Violin 

Quite a fun article and a pretty comprehensive one. 

And a note on music rooms – please note not all people (read hardly any) lived in brand new houses. So, most Regency ladies would have used their drawing room for music performances.  

Alrighty, that’s a lot of info. I’ll let all that sink in. Then we can move onto food in the next post. Yum? Hm, maybe, maybe not.  

Always in love and light, 

TL 

Lalala you can buy Regency Love – Reflections of a Young Lady, don’t forget (*innocently whistles*) 

Regency England Research - post 4 - Pasttimes, entertainments, hobbies and polite conversation

By now, one knows how to address one’s companions and dress to kill during the Season. But what did one do, and what were the topics of conversation? The hours between dressing and dining had to be filled with something.

 Needlework was number one for young ladies – it was practical and a key skill in their plethora of allurements. One had to have work about themselves at all times; it helped alleviate the tedium of long carriage journeys and was of great comfort whilst sitting in drawing rooms.

There were of course lessons in dancing, singing, numerous instruments (see dancing and music later), and painting. Essential talents, I’m sure! Household management was also topic of instruction at home. I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth repeating, that ladies had many responsibilities. See the duties of a duchess for examples.

The men had their sport (hunting), of course. Full A full list of what game was in season when, this is a pretty good indicator.

Books! Ah, yes, now we’re talking my language! One of my favourite sites, Historical Hussies has written about Hookhams Circulating Library – yes, Lady Anne visits there. One of my heroines, Jane Austen, was of course published. She gets a few little homages in my book. Well, my first and last scenes were written at her house; rude not to mention her, really. Some of the great lady’s works were published:

v  1811 – Sense & Sensibility 

v  1813 – Pride & Prejudice

v  1814 – Mansfield Park

v  1815 – Emma

v  1817 – Northanger Abbey and Persuasion

Fanny Burney “the mother of modern fiction”, who was “Keeper of the Robes” to Queen Charlotte in 1785, was well known for her satirical novels. I adore her books, as did Jane Austen’s family – it appears they effectively crowd-funded Miss Burney at one point. Her first book was published in 1778. She seems to have had an influence on Miss Austen. I was amused by a Miss Bennet appearing in Cecilia, and then in Pride & Prejudice, of course (the former my Fanny, the latter by Jane), so Ms Clark has included such a named personage in Regency Love.

She was also considered one of the finest weepers – apparently an admirable trait; weep on command to show one’s sensibilities (only at the appropriate times and for the correct amount of time though) – exquisite sensibility. Really? (*eye roll*)

If you are desirest of a fuller list of popular books at the time, do head over here.

I’ve mentioned magazines a few times on these blog posts, but more details can be found here and what they were about including the gossip columns. There’s an archive of newspapers too (but you only get a couple of free downloads).

Letter writing was of course important too. A world with no internet or even phones (*shudders*)!

There were parlour games and outdoor games as well. And even ladies partook in archery.

Jane Austen World is another great resource, and there’s a list of all games there.

Some ladies, such as Lady Anne enjoyed horse riding, but this was very subjective. Some did, some didn’t. Very rarely did ladies partake in a hunt. As there was a war on, most riding horses (different from carriage horses) were all shipped off for the army, so there was a shortage in London. Besides, stabling was expensive and difficult.

Whilst in London, there were many entertainments such as theatres , the parks (St James,

Hyde, Kensington on a Saturday, and Green being popular) and even Astley’s Circus (I HAD to send Lady Anne there – such fun!).

Vauxhall Gardens was rather lively. It features in works such as Vanity Fair, and of course, Regency Love. 😉

In the country, there were such things as house parties. And town people had the rather exuberant rout.

Of course, there were rules to being a good hostess of all these things. I’ll discuss dinner parties during a foody post.

Morning Calls

When one says morning, it’s not the morning we mean. They didn’t have lunch like us (more on that later). No, morning calls were made about two or three o’ clock in what we call the afternoon. The etiquette of these and other varying calls may be found here. One had to leave calling cards, of course.
But what did one discuss in company? Refined young ladies were encouraged to “hide their brains” – a ridiculous notion, but there it was. Thus, such heady topics such as politics, war (which was raging), riots (happened in the streets), s…e…x and money were all firmly off the list.
So, yes, gently bred ladies were left with gossip and fashion – riveting!?

Conversation etiquette is listed here.

There’s a rather amusing article here. And yes, there’s a few French phrases in my book, but I didn’t like to put in too many. I simply couldn’t bring myself to give Lady Anne a lisp though.

Whilst we’re on the topic of phrases, there’s many wondrous ones which have been lost in the annals of time (behave; there’s two n’s there!) 😉

The famous Georgette Heyer compiled a list of Regency slang but there’s plenty of others.  

Ladies were not permitted to swear. And the men had their comparatively mild oaths – damn and devil were considered the f bombs of their day!

Always in love and light,

TL

(*cough* look at my book: Regency Love – Reflections of a Young Lady )

Regency England Research - post 3 - Regency Fashions & Beau Brummell

One can hardly write a series of Regency research posts without mentioning fashion.

In my last blog post, I made mention of magazines such as La Belle Assemblée, The Lady’s Magazine and The Gallery of Fashion. Ackerman’s Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics (commonly referred to as Ackerman’s) was in circulation from 1809-1829 – a fashion plate from which forms my own book cover.

Regency ladies of Society were extremely fashion conscious. Trends would change all the time. If you’re looking for a particular year, you’re best off doing your own search as it can vary.

Fun fact; Jane Austen had a brown pelisse with a gold oak leaf design. This featured on my notebook for research notes, and it seemed fitting to then give Lady Anne this item of clothing too.

A wardrobe just for the Season would include numerous items: walking dresses, morning dresses, evening gowns, riding habits, shoes, boots, half-boots, gloves, stockings, undergarments (*blushes*), bonnets, shawls, parasols, fans, spencers, cloaks, pelisses, reticules, jewellery and headdresses – phew!

I’ll talk about money another time, but to put this into context, one item of each of the above would total around £400 in today’s money. And one couldn’t wear the same thing repeatedly, there’s standards, don’t you know. And the bridal clothes could cost £ thousands. Those papas really wanted to marry off their daughters!!

Queen Charlotte insisted on a hideous court gown for ‘Drawing Rooms’ (presentations at court). She liked the older styles, so demanded hooped skirts. But fashions were for an ‘empire line’ so they went outwards from under the bust; eurgh! To add insult to injury, this repulsive gown would cost around £500!

Ladies of Society seemed to endlessly have to change dress. Get up, sling on a casual morning dress, maybe change for breakfast, dress for a promenade or horse ride, change for morning calls, then formal evening wear would be prepared depending on venue, they even had full length bed clothes. Eurgh, exhausting!

For full details, I refer you to these wonderful blog posts on (because they’ve done it more justice than I can in one post):

Fashions
Jewellery
Gloves
Nightwear (not exactly your sexy negligée) 😉

Hang about, I've seen this chap before! Beau Brummell gets everywhere!

Let us not forget the men folk. Oh, they had their fashions too, and took them seriously. One could ruin themselves in buttons alone! Especially if trying to emulate the likes of Beau Brummel – the dandy. He is said to have started fine English tailoring.

The dandy set had to wear very tight, tight breeches (ooh err!). So tight that one’s valet (rhymes with carrot), may struggle to get you into them! Sitting was perhaps not a good idea.

Day wear would consist of a perfectly fitting dark blue coat with brass buttons (there were specific shops for buttons!). Leather breeches would compliment (can you imagine; leather trousers?!). A stiff white cravat (plenty of starch!) and top boots would complete this ensemble.

Beau Brummel, who was actually more middle class managed to befriend Prinny, so rose in popularity like nothing before. Viewing him about his toilette (dressing not going for a pee) was considered a privilege. What can I say? They clearly lacked actual entertainment!? Thank heavens for TV and Netflix, eh? 😉

He was so narcissistic that he infamously didn’t indulge in sexual activities (although there may be other reasons for this, but I venture no comment). His opinion could make or break the Season for young ladies; a smile of approval from him was a prized recommendation, but heaven help you if he raises his quizzing glass!!

Ever hear of “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it”? He’s quoted as saying that. And other such gems as “It’s my folly that is the making of me.”

To be perfectly honest, he sounds like a complete bore. Happily, he fell rapidly out of favour, supposedly in 1814 when he asked, “Alvanley, who’s your fat friend?” – that would be the Prince Regent. Let’s just say that he beat a hasty retreat to France after that, but he was facing ruin anyway. He was aged 38, in case you want to know.

You’re more than welcome to browse my Pinterest board by the way. There’s Regency Aesthetic, Regency Ballgowns and even Fancy Dress boards. Oh, and check out the Dreamcasting Board. The Regency section was created during my research for this book and will give you an insight into what Lady Anne’s world looked like.

Of course, Regency Love – Reflections of a Young Lady is available itself on Amazon and all good stores.

Until next time, I bid you a fond adieu.

Always in love and light,
TL

Regency England Research - post 2 - The Ton, The Season and their Beauty Regime

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.

There’s a fabulous outline of the courting process can be found here.

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.

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?

There’s an excellent blog post here for the Regency take on cosmetics.

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,

TL

lalala...my Regency Love – Reflections of a Young Lady book...lalala



Regency England Research - post 1 - Nobility; ranks of peerage

Hello there.

One has now finished and is publishing a rather spiffing Regency Romance, if I say so myself.

Should you require knowledge of that book, it may be found in your favourite online store.

However, that is not the purpose of this blog post. During my research for this splendid novel, I performed a mahoosive research project. I was paranoid about the use of correct terms which were in use in 1814.

("slightly" doctored photo of me - lol)

Instead of allowing all that amassed knowledge to go to waste now my book is done, I thought I’d run a series of blog posts, starting with this one, sharing what I discovered and links to sites I found most useful.
So, without further ado, let us begin our journey through Regency England.

When was the Regency period?

Well, strictly speaking, it ran from 1811 to 1820. Prince George (often referred to by comedians as “the fat one”), ruled Great Britain by proxy as Prince Regent whilst his papa, King George III went a bit mad (as portrayed in the marvellous film The Madness of King George, wot wot).

What happened then? Well, poor old King George III died, and his son became King George IV.

However, many Regency romances are set after this time, as the term became a more general one. In fact, it can span 1795 to 1837 (ending with King William IV). At that point Queen Victoria ascended the throne and launched the Victorian era, funnily enough.

Who was who?

Now, Prince George (aka Prinny) was rather a dissipated fellow who enjoyed cavorting, drinking and gambling. He was the leader of the Carlton House Set, who seemed to take hedonism to the extreme and ran up massive debt in their pursuit of fun. Incidentally, Beau Brummel, chief of the dandy crowd, was in their number.

You will often hear the Ton or Beau Monde mentioned in Regency romances. These were the hoy paloy / hoi polloi of Society (capital S – the important, wealthy people; the upper class!). See below for class structure.

Oh, and don’t forget the Duke of Wellington (aka Welly).

For posts on The Ton, try here and here.

Let us look into the nobility here. Now, most Regency romances will have young women of varying pedigree chasing after dukes. My own book features the daughter of a duke. However, these were not in abundance, despite all this.

In fact, during the Regency period, there were only about 30 dukes in the kingdom. Bearing in mind, many of these would be old and married already. But it’s fun to fantasise about these folk who are basically royalty, so please forgive us writers for using them.

Earls were far more common; there were around 140 of them. And 120 barons. These are rough numbers, but you get the idea.

If you want to there’s a list of real dukes listed here for you to view.

And don’t go thinking their life was all easy, either. Look here for a general idea and here for more detail on what duchesses had to do. Mind you, with a big house, servants and horses, I might not turn down the offer 😉

Peerage titles in Great Britain can get a trifle confusing, so let me list them in order for you:

Royalty – upper class
Referred to as “Your Highness”

Ø  King – wife is a queen

Ø  Prince

Members of the Peerage (allowed a seat in the House of Lords) – nobility 

       Ø Duke – wife is a duchess – referred to as Duke of… (title) or Your Grace

The following are referred to as Lord and Lady … (title)
       Ø Marquess – (marquis in Europe; I shan’t go into details as this gets confusing) – wife is a marchioness
       Ø Earl – wife is a countess 
       Ø Viscount – wife is a viscountess
       Ø Baron – wife is a baroness

Gentry (commoners; not nobles) – second class

      Sir (first name, surname - often addressed as Sir with only first name) and Lady (surname)

Ø  Baronet (hereditary, non-peer)

Ø  Knight  

Mr. and Mrs. (surname)

Ø  Landed squires

Ø  Gentlemen

Labourers
Third class   

Ø  Doctors

Ø  Bankers

Ø  Clergy

 Fourth class

Ø  Lawyers

Ø  Teachers

Ø  Ship owners

Ø  Artists

Ø  Builders

There is an excellent website with full details on how to address each of these here . I cannot recommend it enough. It was a vital page for me as I was writing.

And one can always consult Debrett’s who have long been established as the experts on such matters.

There’s a rather good summary here.

Inheriting the title is not as straight forward as you may think. And for those wishing to write first sons out of wills; just don’t. It was extremely difficult, if not impossible to do so. There’s a link to the procedure here for inheritance.

For fans of Pride and Prejudice

So, all those madly in love with Mr Darcy; he was an ordinary fella, a mere gentleman, hence the ‘mister’. 😉 He was a landowner, but a rich one. My Lady Anne wouldn’t even look at him twice – lol.

Interestingly, his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh (aka Lady Catherine aka that old cow; I may have made that last one up) must be of the nobility, given her use of full name and title. Whereas Lady Lucas has no first name, as she’s married to Sir William, a recently appointed knight.
I found putting them in this context help sort the muddle in my head.

It’s all jolly confusing. But then that’s why I wrote the little poem “The Naming of Aristocrats” at the beginning of my book. Yes, it was inspired by “The Naming of Cats” by TS Elliott 😉

 ---

Alrighty, that’s probably enough info for one post. I don’t want your head to ‘splode with all the stuffs.

More posts with points of interest shall follow soon.

Always in love and light,

TL

(psst...don’t forget to check out my Regency Love – Reflections of a Young Lady book!)

REVIEW - The Zen Detective - ooommmm

Date read: 4th August 2019

My rating: 4.5*

Genre I reckon: Detective Mystery

Buy link: Amazon






This book reads like an old-time smokey detective agency story, but with all mod cons. Marvellous!

Will was injured, well killed, on duty. Understandably, PTSD ensued. He's not undead or anything, by the way. They saved him; he just died for a moment.
He turns to Zen Buddhims, or at least meditation to help overcome said PTSD.

A mysterious woman seeks him out as he's on sick leave, and thus begins a most intriguing case.
Full of peril, drugs, a smidge of violence, prostitutes, mystery, cops...it's all here in wonderful detail.

Really well written. The author has really honed their craft in the making of this tome. Rounded characters that I felt invested in. Fab plot.

A 4.5* from me, along with a definite recommendation (obviously, as it's here on my blog; genuine recommend to a friend books only here).

Always in love and light,
TL