If we were in need of using the facilities at a modern day party, we might excuse ourselves to the bathroom/restroom/or whatever one wishes to call it. No need to explain. No need to wait.

However, that was not always proper etiquette in Regency times. What excuse might a guest offer to use the water closet – the facility – the chamberpot? What would one say to one’s host and in front of everyone at the table? Moreover, where did one go? I have heard/read many stories where after the ladies excuse themselves from the table and the gentlemen are free to smoke, etc., that there were chamberpots behind screens where they might relieve themselves, but I always wondered would not said chamberpots STINK?

In my opinion, a man would be equally as inconvenience as a lady in such a situation. It reminds me of my days as a school teacher. School teachers are known to suffer from kidney problems for they must wait until lunch or their planning period to seek the restroom facilities.

If any one left the table, a footman would be sent to escort them to the proper facility.

Now, I probably have you wondering … if a lady had to “go” at some point while at the party, would simply say, “Please excuse me.” Is that right? What does one say in such situations? Even in modern times, we are often put in the most awkward situations because of the call of nature. LOL!

Ladies still do not want to draw attention to themselves leaving the table to go to the toilet. As to the Regency, I think most waited until the ladies left the room and then went. The men often used the pot  in the room, so we have heard, as soon as the ladies left. Yet, when planning a plot point, this whole slipping away is problematic. A writer wants to do it accurately, BUT …

Do you know the tale of the astromer Tycho Brahe who died after a dinner party where he would not leave the table because manners would not permit him to do so? Tycho suddenly contracted a bladder or kidney ailment after attending a banquet in Prague. He died eleven days later, on 24 October 1601, at the age of 54. According to Kepler’s first-hand account, Tycho had refused to leave the banquet to relieve himself because it would have been a breach of etiquette. Some accounts of Brahe dead say his bladder burst. I imagine that is the extreme. Even having to hold one’s bladder for say an hour to an hour and a half should not cause someone death, that is, unless there was a pattern of one doing so. [Back to the school teacher tales again!!!!]

How Tycho Brahe Really Died?

We have come to believe that in Georgian England, it was one of those strict codes of behaviour that dictated not leaving the table once the meal was served, and that is why men and ladies separated right after the meal, not just for cigars and port, but also for that all-important chamber pot hidden in the cupboard. I assume the ladies had a somewhat more delicate solution. 

Bathroom etiquette is strange and interesting, even at the Royal Court. Apparently ladies in the Georgian courts were not allowed to leave the royal presence unless dismissed, which could take a very long time. They supposedly wore cups strapped under their gowns so they could go while standing in place. It kind of explains those hooped skirts. Still, think how carefully one must have moved so one’s cup did not, as they say, “runneth over,” I wonder how true this is. I am not, however, going down that research rabbit hole. I will permit another to correct or confirm that assumption on his own.