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 )