Regency Era Lexicon – We’re Up to the Letter “L”

£ – symbol for the pound, a monetary unit

Ladies’ Mile – a road in Hyde Park set aside for women

Lady – used in the following manner: colloquially used for a man’s wife; the wife of a baronet or a knight; the wife of a peer below the rank of duke; the wife of a younger son of a duke or marquis; the daughter of a duke, marquis, or earl

ladybird – slang for a prostitute

Lady Day – March 25; a quarter day; until 1752, it was the start of the year for official business; the day the Angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary

lady’s maid – the woman who tended to the mistress’s clothes and grooming; was an upper servant in the household

Lambeth Palace – the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury

landau – an open carriage with four wheels; had a hood at each end and two seats opposite

larder – where perishable goods were kept in a great house

laudanum – opium in a solution of alcohol

lawn – a fancy linen

league – a measure of distance that was not precise; somewhere between 2 and 4 miles

levee – a formal reception for presenting men to the sovereign

liberty – an area outside the formal city limits but was still subject to the law’s representatives of the city

license to marry – there were three different licenses/means to marry: common/ordinary license, which was purchased from a clergyman and the couple married in the parish in which one of them lived; calling of the banns, in which the intention to marry was announced over a period of three consecutive Sundays – the couple could marry within 90 days of the last calling of the banns; a special license could only be afforded by the wealthy and those of the haut ton, but they permitted the couple to marry at any time and place

lifeholder – land/property leased for a period of time equivalent to the life of the leasee

life peerage – meant the title died with the holder; not a hereditary title

Limehouse – an area in east London near the docks

linen – a generic term for fine shirts and underwear

link – torches carried by “linkboys,” who ran ahead of a carriage to light its way through the city streets at night

linsey-woolsey – material made of wool and linen

list – a cloth’s edge from which slippers were sometimes made

from the PBS website for “Manor House” http://www.pbs.org/
manorhouse/thepeople/
charlie_duties.html

livery – the uniform worn by the servants of a house

living – a benefice

London Corresponding Society – founded in 1792 to oppose the war with France, fight hunger, and compel parliamentary reform; comprised mainly of small craftsmen

London Riots of 1795 – London Corresponding Society stoned the coach of George III as he traveled through London’s streets to open Parliament; later they rioted to pass acts forbidding Seditious Meetings, etc.

loo – a card game; must win the trick with the high card or the trump card

lord – member of the peerage; also a form of address; also a courtesy title given to the eldest sons of the peerage and to the younger sons, but only if the Christian and surnames were added (Lord James Landry)

Royal arms of Aragon, lozenge-shaped and crowned.
CC BY-SA 3.0

lozenge – the shape of the coat of arms on a carriage for a spinster or a widow (rather than the shape of a shield used by the male heir of a line)

Low Church – people who did not practice the rituals of the Church of England (for example, the Evangelicals); stressed the Church’s Protestantism; tolerated Dissenters; supported Latitudinarianism or latitude within the church

lych-gate – a covered gateway at a church entrance where people attending a funeral would wait for the minister before moving the coffin to the graveyard