A Georgian Era Lexicon – And Then There Were the Words Beginning with “Ba… to Be…”

In the singular form the lexicon of a particular subject is all the terms associated with it. The lexicon of a person or group is all the words they commonly use. As a plural noun, a lexicon is an alphabetical list of the words in a language or the words associated with a particular subject. To distinguish lexicon from a dictionary, it is an alphabetical list of the words in a language or the words associated with a particular subject.

These examples are a mix of what one might hear upon the lips of the aristocracy, as well as examples of Cant used upon London’s streets and those terms used by farmers and like in the country.

Regency Era Lexicon – And Then There Was “B”

babes in the woods – a criminal in the stocks or pillory

backboards – stiff, straight boards, strapped to a young lady’s back, to improve her posture

bacon – He has saved his bacon, meaning he has escaped.

bad bargained – one of His Majesty’s worthless soldiers; a malingeror (a military term for one who, under the pretense of sickness, evades his duties)

badge coves – Cant for parish pensioners

bag of nails – He squints like a bag of nails; i.e., his eyes are directed as many ways as the points of a bag of nails

baggage – a familiar and often derogatory epithet for a woman, as in “she is a cunning baggage”

bailey – the outside wall of a fortress or castle; the Old Bailey was the main criminal court in London

bakers dozen – fourteen; the number of rolls being allowed to the purchasers of a dozen [I know, like me you were thinking 13. According to Britannica, “There are a few theories as to why a baker’s dozen became 13, but the most widely accepted one has to do with avoiding a beating. In medieval England there were laws that related the price of bread to the price of the wheat used to make it. Bakers who were found to be “cheating” their customers by overpricing undersized loaves were subject to strict punishment, including fines or flogging. Even with careful planning it is difficult to ensure that all of your baked goods come out the same size; there may be fluctuations in rising and baking and air content, and many of these bakers didn’t even have scales to weigh their dough. For fear of accidentally coming up short, they would throw in a bit extra to ensure that they wouldn’t end up with a surprise flogging later. In fact, sometimes a baker’s dozen was 14—just to be extra sure.”

baker-kneed – one whose knees knocked together while walking, as in kneading dough

balderdash – adulterated wine (late 16th century (denoting a frothy liquid; later, an unappetizing mixture of drinks): of unknown origin

balderdash – senseless talk or writing; nonsense; gibberish; nonsense; claptrap; blather

ballast lighter – a boat the carried ballast to colliers in the Thames, who unloaded the coal

ballocks – the testicles of a man or beast; cant “His brains are in his ballocks,” indicating he is a fool

Banbury story (cock and bull story) – a round about, nonsensical story [Origin unknown. Folk history claims derivation from the rivalry between two inns in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England, one called “The Cock” and the other called “The Bull”, where travellers would congregate to hear fanciful stories told; one such story involved travellers destined for the city of Banbury. However, there is little evidence supporting this etymology. (Gary Martin (1997–), “A cock and bull story”, in The Phrase Finder.)

bandbox – a box used to carry and store hats and bonnets

bang up – something quite fine; well done; dashing

banging – great (as in “a banging boy, indeed”)

bang straw – a nickname for a thresher, but often applied to all servants of a farmer

bankrupt cart – a one-horse cart, said to be so called by a Lord Chief Justice, from their being so frequently used on Sunday jaunts by extravagant shopkeepers and tradesmen

bam – to impose on anyone by a falsity; also to jeer or make fun of someone

to bamboozle – to make a fool of another; to impose on him

banns – permission to marry; “reading of the banns” required the parish rector/vicar to read aloud the intention of the couple to marry; he must do so for three consecutive Sundays; the couple must marry within 3 months of the banns being read

The bark is a three-masted vessel with the foremast and mainmast square rigged and the mizzenmast fore-and-aft rigged.
The bark is a three-masted vessel with the foremast and mainmast square rigged and the mizzenmast fore-and-aft rigged.

bark – a three-masted ship

barker – the shopman of a bow-wow shop or dealer in secondhand clothes, particularly about Monmouth Street and deafens every passerby with cries of “Clothes! Coats! Gowns! What ‘ye want, gemmen?”

barking irons – pistols [Irish: comes from their explosive resembling the bow-wow of a barking dog]

Barnaby – an old dance to a quick movement

baron – the lowest level of the aristocracy; A baron is addressed as “Lord”; his baroness is addressed as “lady,” but his children are addressed as “Mr.” and “Miss”

baronet – a hereditary title; the bearer of which is referred to as “Sir”

barouche-landau – a small carriage with two rows of seats and a collapsible top; the seats faced one another

barrel fever – to drink oneself to death

barrow man – a man under sentence of transportation; the convicts at Woolwich were employed in wheeling barrows full of bricks or dirt

barton – farmyard

bastardly gullion – a bastard’s bastard

basting – a beating

batchelor’s fare – bread and cheese and kisses (the spelling is correct for the time period)

bathing machine – a large covered wagon attached to a horse who towed the wagon out into the water; women did not go swimming in the ocean; they would undress inside the machine and then swam or hung onto the machine’s rope within the constraints of the machine; men were separated from women because they often swam nude

batttle-royale – a battle or bout at cudgels or fisty-cuffs, wherein more than two persons are engaged: perhaps from its resemblance, in that particular, to more serious engagements fought to settle royal disputes

battue – large parties organized for shooting

bawbee – a halfpenny (Scotch)

Bayard of Ten Toes – to ride “bayard of ten toes,” is to walk on foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances.

beak – a justice of the peace or a magistrate; also a judge or chairman who presides in court

bean – a guinea

bear leader – a tutor

beard splitting – a man given to much wenching

beau trap – a loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and on being trod upon, squirts it up, to the great damage of white stockings; also a sharper neatly dressed person, lying in wait for raw country squires or ignorant fops

Put to bed with a mattock – tucked up with a spade, said of one that is dead and buried

Bedfordshire – “I am for Bedfordshire,” i.e., for going to bed

BethlemSteelEngraving1828

Bedlam – the Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem; an insane asylum

beef – to cry beef is to give the alrarm

Being Out – being of age to be “out” in Society; ready to become a wife

Belgrave Square – a posh area of London, south of Hyde Park; less fashionable than Mayfair, however

bender – a sixpence

Bergamot – a citrus tree; a fancy pear

Berlin – a four-wheeled carriage with a hood

beetle-browed – having thick, projecting eyebrows

beetle-headed – dull, stupid

beggar maker – a publican or ale-house keeper

beggar’s bullets – stones; throwing stones

Beilby’s Ball – He will dance at Beilby’s ball, where the sheriff pays the music; he will be hanged.

belcher – a red silk handkerchief, intermixed with yellow and a little black; worn around the neck

Bell, Book, and Candle – an allusion to the popish form of excommunicating and anathematizing persons who had offended the church

Luther burns the papal bull. (Detail from 19th century lithograph by H. Schile, after the original of H. Brüchner.) ~ https://www.canadianlutheran.ca/history-of-the-reformation-the-excommunication-of-luther/

To Bear the Bell – to excel or surpass all competitors, to be the principal in a body or society; an allusion to the fore horse or leader of a team, whose harness is commonly ornamented with a bell or bells

bellower – the town crier

bellowser – transportation for life; i.e., as long

belly plea – the plea of pregnancy, generally adduced by female felons capitally convicted, which they take care to provide for, previous to their trials; every gaol having, as the Beggar’s Opera informs us, one or more child getters, who qualify the ladies for that expedient to procure a respite

bell wether – the chief or leader of a mob; an idea taken from a flock of sheep, where the wether has a bell about his neck

betwattled – surprised, confounded, out of one’s sense

bever – dialectal, chiefly British, an afternoon’s luncheon

beaver – a fine hat; beaver’s fur makes the best hats

Felted beaver fur can be processed into a high quality hat that holds its shape well even after successive wettings, making it the material of choice for the hats worn by English gentlemen.~ https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/mens-fashion/beaver-hats-build-a-nation

Posted in British history, Great Britain, Living in the Regency, Regency era | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Could a Person Change His Name During the Regency Era?

Was it possible for someone to change his name during the Regency?

I recently purchased An Index to Changes of Name: Under Authority of Act of Parliament or Royal Licence, and Including Irregular Changes from I George III to 64 Victoria, 1790 to 1901 by William Phillimore and Watts Phillimore.

Book Blurb: The sources from which this index has been compiled are several. Primarily it is based on the Changes of Name by Royal licence. For this purpose the volumes of the London Gazette, and also the Dublin Gazette from 1760 to 1901 were examined, but it must be remembered that not all Royal licences are advertised in the Gazettes, though the vast majority are so advertised for obvious reasons of convenience, and often also in the Times and other newspapers. Registration at Heralds’ College only, is a sufficient compliance with the Royal licence granted.

According to many sources I researched, one was not supposed to change one’s first name because it was given at the sacrament of Baptism and established publicly at confirmation. However, it should be noted that the bishops sometimes changed baptismal names at confirmation if he found them displeasing. So, this means if Phoebe’s real name on “Friends” had been Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock as she claimed on the 14th episode of Season 10, the bishop might have taken umbrage at her name, and, certainly, he would have done so if Mike Hannigan, her betrothed, had been originally named “Crap Bag,” as he dares to make his point in the episode’s plot.

One could change his/her surname at any time and as informally as one wished as long as it was not done to cheat creditors or to commit bigamy, commit a crime, or the like. If it was a permanent change one would put a notice in the Times.

The official changes were listed in London’s Gazette.

Between the casual change of name that someone like an actor might do, or for other non-criminal reasons, there was change by royal license. A petition was prepared with the help of a solicitor and the College of Heralds and presented through the College.

There is a fee, of course This can run into the hundreds of pounds. If one changes the name for one’s own pleasure one paid £10. If a will or other document required it, the price went up to £50. Then there was the cost of the advertisements and recording the change in the College of Arms.

The College of Arms website tells us, “A change of name may be evidenced by a deed poll prepared by an officer of arms and entered into the official records of the College of Arms. The change of name is gazetted in the London Gazette. The person whose name is changed need not be a person entitled to arms. A deed poll which has been prepared elsewhere may also be entered into the College registers. 

“A surname may also be altered or changed by Royal Licence. Arms granted to one family can only be transferred to another person not in legitimate male line of descent from the original grantee by means of a Royal Licence, followed by an exemplification of the arms. A Royal Licence is usually granted, on the advice of the Secretary of State for Justice, where the petitioner is required by a clause in a will to assume the name and arms of the testator, in order to inherit a legacy, but voluntary applications are also entertained.

“A petition for such a Royal Licence is drafted by an officer of arms for signature by the petitioner. It is then submitted on his or her behalf by the officer of arms to the Ministry of Justice, who forward it to Buckingham Palace. A resulting Royal Licence and any subsequent exemplification of arms must be recorded in the official registers of the College of Arms to be valid.”

Were there actual people of the era who changed their surnames?

The Earl of Jersey’s title was created in 1697 for the statesman Edward Villiers, 1st Viscount Villiers, Ambassador to France from 1698 to 1699 and Secretary of State for the Southern Department from 1699 to 1700. He had already been created Baron Villiers, of Hoo in the County of Kent, and Viscount Villiers, of Dartford in the County of Kent, in 1691, also in the Peerage of England. George Child-Villers, 5th Earl of Jersey, was a Tory politician and served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household  and as Master of the Horse. Lord Jersey married Sarah Sophia (died 1867), daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, and his wife Sarah Anne (died 1793), daughter of Robert Child. Through this marriage the private bank Child & Co. came into the Villiers family. On account of the considerable wealth brought to the family through this marriage, in 1819, Lord Jersey assumed by Royal licence the surname and arms of Child, and since then the branch of the family has been known as Child-Villiers.

Lord Byron FAQ tells us how George Gordon became George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron. “In 1798, he inherited lands and title as Lord Byron, with the estate of Newstead Abbey in Nottingham and Baron Byron of Rochdale in Lancashire. A confusion arises because his title and surname are the same.

“He was addressed as The Right Honourable Lord Byron (by strangers and on the outside of letters) and as Byron (the title, not the name) by friends. Intimates seem to have actually called him ‘B’, but this may just be the convention of the time to abbreviate names to initials in writing, but possibly not in fact. Servants would have said ‘My Lord’ but an intimately beloved housemaid, Susan Vaughn, addressed her letters to ‘My Dearest Friend’ and his wife addressed a letter to him, ‘My Dearest Duck’.

When his mother-in-law died, a stipulation of her will was that, in order to inherit, her beneficiaries must take her family name. Byron added it to his and became George Gordon Noel Byron in 1822. He also added it to his signature.”

Other Sources: 

You might enjoy Nancy Mayer Regency Researcher‘s take on the subject of name changes. 

BBC History gives us “What’s in a Name?”

Roger Darlington also gives us a piece called “What’s in a Name?”

Victorian-era.org presents “Georgian Era Names”

FYI, if you are interested: Gov.UK gives specific directions on how to change one’s name by deed poll HERE.

I did a similar post previously that contains additional information (and some repeats). You may find it HERE

Posted in Act of Parliament, British history, Church of England, Georgian England, Georgian Era, history, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, research | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

A Georgian Era Lexicon – We Begin With the Letter “A”

In the singular form the lexicon of a particular subject is all the terms associated with it. The lexicon of a person or group is all the words they commonly use. As a plural noun, a lexicon is an alphabetical list of the words in a language or the words associated with a particular subject. To distinguish lexicon from a dictionary, it is an alphabetical list of the words in a language or the words associated with a particular subject.

These examples are a mix of what one might hear upon the lips of the aristocracy, as well as examples of Cant used upon London’s streets and those terms used by farmers and like in the country.

Regency Era Lexicon – We Begin with “A”

Abbey School – Founded in 1887, the Abbey School is currently to an independent selective day school for girls in Reading, Berkshire. The novelist Jane Austen attended Reading Ladies Boarding School within Abbey Gateway, circa 1785, which is commemorated by, and incorporated into the Abbey School’s crest.

Abbess – the mistress of a brothel

abigail – a lady’s waiting maid 

acceptance – putting one’s name on a bill of exchange; writing “accepted” across the bill meant one was liable to pay the bill

accounts – to cast up one’s accounts; to vomit

Act of Parliament – a military term for small beer, five pints of which, by an act of parliament, a landlord was formerly obliged to give to each soldier gratis

Adam’s ale – water

addle pate – an inconsiderate foolish fellow 

Admiral of the Fleet – the highest rank of a military naval officer – The Admiral of the Fleet is often reserved for wartime and ceremonial appointments. Frank Austen held the rank. As was customary, the admiral who was the oldest and held the most seniority was given that rank.

advowson – having the right to appoint someone to a benefice (a church office that provides a living for its holder through an endowment attached to it)

Ægrotat (Cambridge) – a certificate from the apothecary stating you are too “indisposed” to attend Chapel or Hall

affidavit men – false witnesses; they are said to attend Westminster Hall and other courts of justice, ready to swear upon being hired to do so any thing required

against the grain – unwilling

Age of Sensibility – During the Age of Sensibility, literature reflected a rational and scientific approach to religion, politics, and economics. The period is marked by a secular view of the world and a general sense of progress.

agog (All-a-gog) – anxious, eager, impatient (from the Italian word “agogare,” meaning to desire eagerly)

ague – a disease (originally malaria) marked by fever and chills

alderman – a member of the government from a municipal borough; elected by a council; were to support the mayor of the borough

alderman – slang for a roasted turkey garnished with a string of sausages (which were supposed to represent the gold chain worn of those types of magistrates)

ale post – a May pole

all-a-mort – confounded; struck dumb (likely comes from Shakespeare’s line in The Taming of the Shrew,  “How fares my Kate? What, sweet one, all-a-mort?” – possibly from French à la mort

all hollow – a decided thing from the beginning; he had no chance of winning

all nations – a composition of all the different spirits sold in a dram shop; collected in a vessel into which the drainings of the bottles and quartern pots are emptied

almshouse – lodgings for the poor, which were supported by private funds rather than public charity

Almack’s – a social club in London from 1765 to 1871; one of the first to admit both men and women; Almack’s came to be governed by a select committee of the most influential and exclusive of London’s haut ton: Ameila Stewart (Viscountess Castlereagh); Sarah Villiers (Countess of Jersey); Emily Lamb (Lady Cowper); Maria Molyneux (Countess of Sefton); The Hon. Mrs. Drummond Burrell; Dorothea Lieven (Countess de Lieven); Countess Esterházy

ambassador of Morocco – a shoemaker

amen curler – a parish clerk 

amiable – To be amiable was to be friendly and easy going

angling for farthings – begging out of a prison window with a cap or box, which is let down on a long string

annuity – A set sum paid out to the terms of a will or settlement; after the death of a husband, the annuity was the woman’s only source of income

to knock Anthony – said of an in-kneed person, or one whose knees knock together

antimacassar – early Victorian gentlemen applied macassar oil to their hair; to prevent it from coming off on the furniture, ladies pinned antimacassar (small white doilies) to the backs of chairs and sofas; the gentlemen could lean his head back on the furniture without staining it

apoplexy – a stroke

apothecary – the lowest ranking medical men in the social sphere – They dealt with selling their items; therefore, apothecaries were considered tradesmen.

apron – part of a bishop’s formal garb 

apron

apron string hold – an estate held by a man during his wife’s life

aristocracy – used to designate the peerage

arsy varsy – to fall head over heels

articles – breeches; coat; waistcoat

article – a wench; prime article; a handsome girl “She’s a prime article.”

articles of marriage – The family lawyer for a wife with a dowry would consult with the future husband’s man of business to draft the “marriage articles.” This marriage settlement stipulated how money was to be settled upon the man’s wife and children. The marriage settlements determined upon what the woman would live if her husband passed before her.

assembly room – In the 18th and 19th Century, assembly rooms were gathering places for member of the upper social class. For a ten-guinea subscription, a person could purchase twelve weeks of a weekly ball and supper.

Autem Quavers – Quakers

assizes – Outside of London, justice was dispensed by justices of the peace at petty or quarter sessions. Capital cases and other criminal cases were adjudicated by circuit-riding judges from the superior common law courts in London of Common Pleas, King’s Bench, and the Exchequer after they finished their regular terms. The semi-annual sessions were known as the assizes.

Other Sources:

Other Sources: 

Candice Hern

Donna Hatch

18th Century Vocabulary 

Georgette-Heyer: Regency Cant and Expressions 

Jane Austen Organization

Kathleen Baldwin

Messy Nessy Chic

Regency Reader

Sara Ramsey

Sharon Lathan

Posted in British history, Great Britain, Living in the Regency, Regency era, word origins, word play, writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

A Personal Salute to My Mother on What Would Have Been Her Birthday, along with a Look at Mothers, in general, from Jane Austen’s Stories

Today, would have been my mother’s birthday, but, sadly, I lost her in 2002. It is odd when I think of her. She was a “mighty” force, even though she was but 5’1″ tall and only weighed 97 pounds when I was born. By example, beyond how to cook and clean house, she taught me to love books and reading, always to do my best, and never to succumb to those silent whispers, which say, “You are not good enough.” I also learned to accept people without any conditions except that they accept me in return, how to care about others despite having my own issues, how to be a strong woman and manage all that life throws at me, to assist others where possible, to give more than I got, to notice life’s smallest details and to take joy in those moments, to work hard, and to love both the children in our lives, as well as our elders.

She was a single mother when being a single mother was NOT acceptable in society’s eyes, although, in reality, she was not single. She and my father were married until the day he died in 1972; however, he was never in my life (He was more of a Wickham, than a Darcy). She devoted her life to me. She did all this in a time when women’s lives revolved around their husband and their children—in a time when a woman rarely worked outside the home. Her teenage years saw the Great Depression. Her 20s saw World War II. In other words, she raised me as a single parent when divorce and dysfunctional families were not the norm and rarely looked upon with any sympathy. She carried me up and down stairs when I had rheumatic fever and was too weak to walk. She made me Halloween costumes and clothes for school. She taught me to love reading and dance and literature and art, all the things I most cherish in my life. She tolerated indignities so I might succeed. She was a woman both ahead and behind her time, and she remains a part of me forever. With every breath I exhale, her essence is released into the world.

She did all this without a “mother” of her own, for my grandmother died of cancer when my mother was about 15 years of age. My grandmother was one of 13 children, and so many of those “aunts” became mother to my mother. Such was the way things went in those days.

Thinking of my mother had me wondering of Jane Austen’s portrayal of mothers in her novels. Here are some of those I discovered.

Sense and Sensibility

Lady Middleton is said to have the “advantage of being able to spoil her children all the year round.” Then we are told, “Lady Middleton seemed to be roused to enjoyment only by the entrance of her four noisy children after dinner, who pulled her about, tore her clothes, and put an end to every kind of discourse except what related to themselves.”

Mrs. Jennings, on the other hand, is said to be an extraordinary matchmaker.“She had only two daughters, both of whom she had lived to see respectably married, and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world.” On the prospect of taking Elinor and Marianne with her to London, she suggests, “I have had such good luck in getting my own children off my hands that [your mother] will think me a very fit person to have the charge of you.” She also tells the sisters, “If I don’t get one of you at least well married before I have done with you, it shall not be my fault. I shall speak a good word for you to all the young men, you may depend upon it.”

Mrs. Ferrars insists that Edward marry well and is not beyond using her wealth to control her son’s choice of bride. She tells “him she would settle on him the Norfolk estate, which, clear of land-tax, brings in a good thousand a-year; offered even, when matters grew desperate, to make it twelve hundred.”

Meanwhile, Mrs. Dashwood is said to possess a “tender love for all her three children.”

Mansfield Park

Lady Bertram is a mother who is described often as “indolent” and was said “might always be considered as only half-awake.” She pays “not the smallest attention” to her daughters’ deportment or their education.

We learn much the same of Mrs. Price: “Her disposition was naturally easy and indolent, like Lady Bertram’s.” 

Mrs. Price spends her days “in a kind of slow bustle; all was busy without getting on, always behindhand and lamenting it, without altering her ways; wishing to be an economist, without contrivance or regularity; dissatisfied with her servants, without skill to make them better.” 

Mrs. Price, who has nine children, mind you is said to be  “a partial, ill-judging parent, a dawdle, a slattern, who neither taught nor restrained her children, whose house was the scene of mismanagement and discomfort from beginning to end . . .” 

Pride and Prejudice

Mrs. Bennet is on the look out for appropriate matches for her five daughters. When she learns of Mr. Bingley’s prospects, we hear, “A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” At the end of the book, with both Jane and Elizabeth married, we discover, “Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters.”

Lady Catherine de Bourgh describes herself as Darcy’s “almost the nearest relation he has in the world,” and she believes she is “entitled to know all his dearest concerns.”

Mrs. Gardiner serves as a surrogate mother, of sorts, to Jane and Elizabeth. She is said to provide “a wonderful instance of advice being given on such a point, without being resented.”

Jane Bennet’s prospects as a mother are assured when we read of her tending the Gardiner children, “The children, two girls of six and eight years old, and two younger boys, were to be left under the particular care of their cousin Jane, who was the general favourite, and whose steady sense and sweetness of temper exactly adapted her for attending to them in every way—teaching them, playing with them, and loving them.” 

Emma

In caring for Emma, Miss Taylor “had fallen little short of a mother in affection.”

Miss Bates speaks of her mother. “And, indeed, though my mother’s eyes are not so good as they were, she can see amazingly well still, … My mother does not hear; she is a little deaf you know.”

In speaking of Jane Fairfax, we learn, “By birth she belonged to Highbury: and when at three years old, on losing her mother, she became the property, the charge, the consolation, the fondling of her grandmother and aunt, there had seemed every probability of her being permanently fixed there; of her being taught only what very limited means could command, and growing up with no advantages of connexion or improvement, to be engrafted on what nature had given her in a pleasing person, good understanding, and warm-hearted, well-meaning relations.”

“Mrs. John Knightley was a pretty, elegant little woman, of gentle, quiet manners, and a disposition remarkably amiable and affectionate; wrapt up in her family; a devoted wife, a doating mother, and so tenderly attached to her father and sister that, but for these higher ties, a warmer love might have seemed impossible. She could never see a fault in any of them. She was not a woman of strong understanding or any quickness; and with this resemblance of her father, she inherited also much of his constitution; was delicate in her own health, over-careful of that of her children, had many fears and many nerves, and was as fond of her own Mr. Wingfield in town as her father could be of Mr. Perry. They were alike too, in a general benevolence of temper, and a strong habit of regard for every old acquaintance.”

Northanger Abbey

Mrs. Morland tells Catherine, “There is a time for everything—a time for balls and plays, and a time for work. You have had a long run of amusement, and now you must try to be useful.” 

“Mrs. Morland was a very good woman, and wished to see her children everything they ought to be; but her time was so much occupied in lying-in and teaching the little ones, that her elder daughters were inevitably left to shift for themselves; and it was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of fourteen, to books — or at least books of information — for, provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all. But from fifteen to seventeen she was in training for a heroine; she read all such works as heroines must read to supply their memories with those quotations which are so serviceable and so soothing in the vicissitudes of their eventful lives.”

“Her mother [Mrs. Morland] wished her to learn music; and Catherine was sure she should like it, for she was very fond of tinkling the keys of the old forlorn spinnet; so, at eight years old she began. She learnt a year, and could not bear it; and Mrs. Morland, who did not insist on her daughters being accomplished in spite of incapacity or distaste, allowed her to leave off. The day which dismissed the music-master was one of the happiest of Catherine’s life. Her taste for drawing was not superior; though whenever she could obtain the outside of a letter from her mother or seize upon any other odd piece of paper, she did what she could in that way, by drawing houses and trees, hens and chickens, all very much like one another. Writing and accounts she was taught by her father; French by her mother: her proficiency in either was not remarkable, and she shirked her lessons in both whenever she could.”

Although her character is deceased when the story takes place, Mrs. Tilney is remembered as, “A mother could have been always present. A mother would have been a constant friend; her influence would have been beyond all others.” 

Of Mrs. Thorpe, we learn, “This critique, the justness of which was unfortunately lost on poor Catherine, brought them to the door of Mrs. Thorpe’s lodgings, and the feelings of the discerning and unprejudiced reader of Camilla gave way to the feelings of the dutiful and affectionate son, as they met Mrs. Thorpe, who had descried them from above, in the passage. “Ah, Mother! How do you do?” said he, giving her a hearty shake of the hand. “Where did you get that quiz of a hat? It makes you look like an old witch. Here is Morland and I come to stay a few days with you, so you must look out for a couple of good beds somewhere near.” And this address seemed to satisfy all the fondest wishes of the mother’s heart, for she received him with the most delighted and exulting affection.”

Persuasion

Mrs. Musgrove takes care of the Harville’s children while Mrs. Harville tends to Louisa. She was “receive their happy boys and girls from school.” Mrs. Musgrove’s home is described as “a fine family-piece.” 

Lady Russell prevents Anne from marrying Captain Wentworth, assuming the late Lady Elliot would wish it to be so. “Anne Elliot, with all her claims of birth, beauty, and mind, to throw herself away at nineteen; involve herself at nineteen in an engagement with a young man, who had nothing but himself to recommend him, and no hopes of attaining affluence, but in the chances of a most uncertain profession, and no connexions to secure even his farther rise in the profession, would be, indeed, a throwing away, which she grieved to think of! Anne Elliot, so young; known to so few, to be snatched off by a stranger without alliance or fortune; or rather sunk by him into a state of most wearing, anxious, youth-killing dependence! It must not be, if by any fair interference of friendship, any representations from one who had almost a mother’s love, and mother’s rights, it would be prevented.”

In speaking of Lady Russell’s role in the Elliot family, we learn, “To Lady Russell, indeed, she was a most dear and highly valued god-daughter, favourite, and friend. Lady Russell loved them all; but it was only in Anne that she could fancy the mother to revive again.”

Posted in birthdays, book excerpts, family, heroines, Jane Austen, real life tales, war | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

And the Winners Are …

Amanda Kai is pleased to announce the winners from her recent blog post on this site.

Thank you again, Regina, for hosting me on your blog!  Here are the winners from the Miss Bingley and the Baron giveaway. Prizes are already in the hands of our winners.

Congratulations to Jennie Coleen Newbrand, winner of the Miss Bingley and the Baron Gift Package.

Congratulations to Sally Childs and Natalie Brynne Darger, who each won a paperback copy of Miss Bingley and the Baron.

And the final congratulations goes out to Laura Vranes and Miroslava Bajusová who each won an ebook copy of Miss Bingley and the Baron.

Posted in Always Austen, contest, giveaway, historical fiction, Jane Austen, Regency era, Regency romance, Vagary | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Very “Real” Estate: Vicars’ Close, Wells, Somerset, England

The oldest purely residential street in England is known as Vicars’ Close, which is located in Wells, Somerset, England, and dates from the mid 14th Century.  Planned by Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury, at one time it was 42 separate houses, built of stone from the Mercia Mudstone Group, a rock strata found in plenty in the English midlands. 22 houses were on the east side of the street and 20 on the west side. They line a quadrangle, which is visual delight because it appears longer than it actually is because the houses at the northern end of the quadrangle and nearest the chapel are nine feet closer together than those at the lower/southern end, which is closer to Vicars’ Hall. 

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Each house had two storeys, both approximately 20 x 13 feet. Both storeys had sport a fireplace. The latrine is outside the back door.  The date of some of the buildings is unclear but it is known that some had been built by 1363 and the rest were completed by 1412.

The street is comprised of Grade I listed buildings, nowadays consisting of 27 residences (some of the originals were combined when the clergy were permitted to marry), a chapel and library at the north end, and a hall at the south end, over an arched gate. It is connected at its southern end to the cathedral by way of a walkway over Chain Gate.  

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Choristers walking down Vicars Close – Wells Cathedral School ~ https://wells.cathedral.school/audition-chorister/

“The Close is about 460 feet (140 m) long, and paved with setts. Its width is tapered by 10 feet (3.0 m) to make it look longer when viewed from the main entrance nearest the cathedral. When viewed from the other end it looks shorter. By the nineteenth century the buildings were reported to be in a poor state of repair, and part of the hall was being used as a malt house. Repairs have since been carried out including the construction of Shrewsbury House to replace buildings damaged in a fire.

“The Vicars’ Hall was completed in 1348 and included a communal dining room, administrative offices and treasury of the Vicars Choral. The houses on either side of the close were built in the 14th and early 15th centuries. Since then alterations have been made including a unified roof, front gardens and raised chimneys. The final part of the construction of the close was during the 1420s when the Vicars’ Chapel and Library was constructed on the wall of the Liberty of St. Andrew. The south face includes shields commemorating the bishops of the time. The interior is decorated with 19th century gesso work by Heywood Summer and the building now used by Wells Cathedral School.”

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The Vicar’s Hall ~ commons.wikimedia.org

Wells Cathedral‘s website tells us, “The first building of the new College was the Hall, with its kitchen and bakehouse, where the vicars met and ate their meals. This was in use before the end of 1348, because, in her will dated 7 November 1348, Alice Swansee bequeathed a large brass pot for the use of the Vicars, together with a basin with hanging ewer and a table for the Hall, in memory of her son, Philip, a Vicar who had just died, probably of plague; the Black Death was raging in 1348. The east window, the fireplace and the lectern were added about a hundred years later.

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“On 30 December 1348, Bishop Ralph made over to the vicars ‘the dwellings newly built and to be erected by us for the use of the vicars, and ‘quarters with appurtenances built and to be built’. The houses were built in two rows running north from the Hall, and were completed by the time of Bishop Ralph’s death in 1363. The quadrangle was finally completed with the building of the Chapel at the north end in the early fifteenth century. The Chapel was dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Katherine, and it is first mentioned in a charter of 1479, but shields on the Chapel door carry the arms of Bishops Bubwith and Stafford, suggesting that the chapel was begun in the episcopate of the former and finished under the latter, giving it a date of c.1424-30. A room over the Chapel served as the Vicars’ Library.” 

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Resources: 

Bush, Robin.  (1994). Somerset: The complete guide. Wimborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press. pp. 221–222.

Wells Cathedral 

Posted in architecture, British history, buildings and structures, customs and tradiitons, England, Great Britain, history, medieval, research | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

William Strickland, the Man Who Introduced Turkeys to England

Tomorrow in the U.S., we will be all about the turkey and fixings and football and preparing for Black Friday sales, but in the U.K., turkeys are a more traditional dish for Christmas. Why might you ask? We can blame that particular fact on one William Strickland, a 16th Century navigator and explorer, who supposedly, in 1596, brought turkeys back to his home in Yorkshire from America. 

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The coat of arms of the Strickland family of Gilsland is Sable three escalopes argent, meaning “three silver scallops on a black field”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strickland_(surname)#/media/File:Strickland_of_Westmorland_arms.svg

Strickland was an English landowner, who reportedly sailed on early voyages to the Americas. In later life, he was an important Puritan Member of Parliament. The son of Roger Strickland of Marske, a Yorkshire gentleman and a member of the Stricklands of Sizergh faction of the family tree. The English surname Strickland is derived from the place-name Stercaland, of Old Norse origins, which is found in Westmorland to the south of Penrith. It has been used as a family name at least since the late 12th century, when Walter of Castlecarrock married Christian of Leteham, an heiress to the landed estate that covered the area where the villages of Great Strickland and Little Strickland are now. [Peach, Howard (2001) Curious Tales of Old East Yorkshire, p. 53. Sigma Leisure. Includes illustrations of Strickland’s coat of arms and the lectern.]

Strickland sailed with one of Sebastian Cabot’s [Son of the Italian explore John Cabot, Sebastian Cabot conducted his own voyages of discovery, seeking the Northwest Passage through North America for England. He later sailed for Spain, traveling to South America, where he explored the Rio de la Plata and established two new forts.] lieutenants. Strickland is credited with introducing England to the turkey. When Strickland was presented a coat of arms in 1550, it included a “turkey-cock in his pride proper” upon it. The official recording of the crest in the archives of the College of Arms is thought to be the oldest surviving drawing of a turkey in Europe. 

Supposedly, Strickland bargained for six turkeys by trading with Native Americans on his 1526 voyage. He brought them back and sold them in Bristol’s market for a tuppence each. 

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With the proceeds from his many voyages, Strickland purchased estates at Wintringham and at Boynton in the East Riding region of Yorkshire. He lived out the remainder of his days at Place Newton, the Wintringham property and is buried there, but he had the Norman manor at Boynton rebuilt as Boynton Hall. His descendants have resided there for centuries.  The church at Boynton is liberally decorated with the family’s turkey crest, most notably in the form of a probably-unique lecturn (a 20th-century creation) carved in the form of a turkey rather than the conventional eagle, the bible supported by its outspread tail feathers. The village church, in which William Strickland is buried, is adorned with images of turkeys. It has stone sculptures on the walls, stained-glass windows and a carved lectern.

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Although Sir William Strickland felt deeply honored that Edward VI allowed him to include turkeys on his coat of arms as a mark of his pioneering role in facilitating their importation, the ‘elite’ quality of turkey meat was impossible to preserve. Everyone wanted it. In 1560 laws had to be passed to prevent turkeys bred for slaughter from being allowed to roam through the streets of London and it was amid such turkey-based chaos that the bird began to emerge as an ‘aspirational’ staple of the Christmas dinner table.

According to Wikipedia, “In 1558, Strickland was elected to the Parliament of England as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Scarborough, and seems to have proved an able and eloquent advocate of the Puritan cause, earning such nicknames as “Strickland the Stinger” from his political opponents, though the anonymous author of the Simonds d’Ewes diaries described him sardonically as “One Mr Strickland, a grave and ancient man of great zeal, and perhaps (as he himself thought) not unlearned”.

“Strickland does not seem to have been particularly prominent in his first two parliaments, but came to the forefront in the parliament that met in 1571, in which the Puritan faction was stronger than previously. This time he found himself at the centre of a constitutional crisis, one of Parliament’s earliest assertions of its privilege to conduct its proceedings without royal interference with its members.

“Strickland spoke on both the first two days of the session, 6 April 1571 and 7 April 1571; on the second of these he put forward a motion to reintroduce six bills to reform the Book of Common Prayer, which had been defeated in the previous parliament; the Speaker allowed the bills to be read, but the Queen had previously directed that Parliament should not debate such matters, and this earned the house a royal reprimand. Then on the last day before the Easter recess, 14 April 1571, Strickland introduced his own bill to reform the prayer book – among other measures it proposed to abolish confirmation, prevent priests from wearing vestments and the end of the practice of kneeling at the Communion. The bill was given a first reading against the vigorous opposition of the Privy Counsellors present, but after further argument the House voted to petition the Queen for permission to continue discussing the bill before any further action was taken, and the House adjourned.”

Eventually summoned before the Privy Council, Strickland was forbidden to resume his seat in Parliament. Some reports of his imprisonment exist and some say rumors existed of his being brought up on charges of heresy. The members disapproved of Strickland’s removal unless by order of the House itself. Heated debates followed on how Strickland should be treated. The following day, Strickland was permitted by the Privy Council to return to his position, where he was promptly nominated to one of the committees. He was not reelected in 1572, but again knew success as MP for Scarborough in 1584. 

Other Articles of Interest Related to Strickland’s Tale 

BBC News: William Strickland, the Man Who Gave Us the Turkey Dinner

Christmas in Yorkshire: I’m From Yorkshire 

History Today: The Rise of the Turkey

Spartacus Education: William Strickland

The Telegraph : Are These Bones the Remains of England’s First Turkey Dinner?

Yorkshire Reporter: Yorkshire Man Credited with Our Traditional Turkey Dinner

Posted in British history, buildings and structures, Christmas, Church of England, customs and tradiitons, England, history, holidays, kings and queens, legends, Living in the UK, real life tales, religion, Thanksgiving | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Women’s Rights to Property During the Regency Era

Women’s rights to property plays out in several of my stories, including, Captain Stanwick’s Bride, therefore, I searched for minute details regarding whether women could inherit property after their husband’s demise. Although I thought I knew the answer, I wanted to check for some of the more obscure points in such a scenario.

Unfortunately, “informal” and “instructional” type blogs all over the web continue to proclaim that women in the time of the Regency, and decades after, had NO legal rights. It is repeated over and over that while a woman could inherit property, she could not control it. It is even said that if a woman inherits property that a male had to be in charge of it and could sell it or lose it, say in a gaming debt.

In reality, property laws were some of the strictest laws around, and even guardians of minors could be held responsible for what they did to a minor’s estate.

A female, who had reached her majority, meaning twenty-one years or older had as much right to own and control property as her brother.  It is true, however, that  legacies left to females often were further protected by conditions. This was not done in every case, but was executed in many. These conditions were not in place because the female could not have a say in her property, but, rather, to protect it from a MAN.  The worse condition of females at the time was that they almost ceased to exist after they married. Married women’s ability to own and control property was severely limited. Whereas, widows often had a very free hand. Such is the situation in my story mentioned above. The hero’s late wife despised the idea that her father could direct her to whom she should marry, and she despised asking for additional pin money from her husband, but she would have enjoyed the freedoms of being a widow his death would have brought her. Her brother says he “will protect her,” but the late Mrs. Stanwick refused. She wanted her freedom.

Most of the restraints placed on property inherited or deeded to women were not placed there because it was thought a female could not handle all there is to oversee any property, but to protect the property from a husband or brother or uncle, etc. 

There was no legal  process that would allow a man to take charge of an adult spinster’s property and sell it. The courts would have returned the property to woman and make the man disgorge the money.

Legally, when it was determined that the guardian exceeded his authority, property sold by the guardian of a minor—male or female—had to be returned and the money refunded after the minor came of age.

The situation and conditions of females was restricted and bad enough without presenting it as worse.

The Married Women’s Property act was not passed until the 1870’s. There had been agitation about this matter throughout the century. Caroline Norton did much to  change matters, but the story of Catherine Tilney Long (or Tylney-Long)—a great heiress–—probably  had as much influence. 

“Caroline Sheridan was born in London on 22 March 1808 into a grand but impoverished family. She was the granddaughter of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Her father died when she was eight years old, leaving the family with serious financial problems. So when George Norton, who was a Tory member of parliament for Guildford at the time, asked to marry Caroline only eight years later, Caroline’s mother was keen for the match to proceed. Against her wishes, but fearing for the well-being of her family, Caroline conceded.

“The marriage was an extremely unhappy one and Caroline was the victim of regular and vicious beatings. She found solace in her writing and the publication of her verses ‘The Sorrows of Rosalie’ (1829) and ‘The Undying One’ (1830), which resulted in her appointment as editor of ‘La Belle Assemblée’ and ‘Court Magazine’. With these appointments and publications came a taste of financial independence.

“In 1836, she finally left from her husband who, despite previously encouraging the friendship, now claimed that Caroline was guilty of adultery with the home secretary Lord Melbourne and sued Melbourne for seducing his wife. Norton lost the case but Caroline’s reputation was ruined. Norton refused Caroline access to her three children and her subsequent protests were instrumental in the passing of the Infant Custody Bill of 1839.

“Norton later attempted to take the proceeds of her writing. Her campaign to ensure women were supported after divorce included an eloquent letter to Queen Victoria, which was published. Caroline’s efforts were influential in the passing of the Marriage and Divorce Act of 1857.” (BBC History)

Now to the case of Catherine Tilney Long. . . 

“[Catherine Tilney Long] was the eldest daughter of Sir James Tylney-Long, 7th Baronet, of Draycot, Wiltshire. Her only brother James had inherited their father’s fortune but died just short of his eleventh birthday in 1805, meaning that the vast estates gathered by the 7th Baronet in Essex, Hampshire, and Wiltshire and financial investments in hand worth £300,000 devolved to Catherine. These estates were said to bring in total annual rents of £40,000. She thus became known in fashionable London society as “The Wiltshire Heiress” and was believed to be the richest commoner in England.

“Her suitors included the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, keen to pay off his great debts. She eventually chose William Wesley-Pole (b. 1788), who on 14 January 1812 assumed the additional surnames of Tylney-Long, changing his name by Royal Licence. The couple married on 14 March 1812, but his extravagance meant the marriage was an unhappy one.

William gained an appointment as Gentleman Usher to George IV in 1822 (rendering him immune to arrest for debt) and left Britain to escape his creditors around 1823. Whilst on the continent he began a relationship with Helena Paterson Bligh, the wife of Captain Thomas Bligh of the Coldstream Guards, eventually abandoning Catherine entirely. She died in 1825, leaving her children in the care of her two unmarried sisters, Dorothy and Emma. William had only had a life interest in Catherine’s property, although he was responsible for the demolition of Wanstead House in 1825 to pay off some of his debts and also unsuccessfully tried to gain custody of their eldest child William, on whom Catherine’s fortune had devolved.” (Catherine Tylney-Long)

Sarah Lady Jersey inherited a large part of her grandfather’s interest in a bank. She attended the board meetings. There is no record of Lord Jersey taking any part in the affairs of the bank, though his son did when he came of age. 

Property left to a woman as dowry was meant to be given to the husband when she married. It was never expected to be hers. If the property was included in the dowry, it often had a condition attached that it return to her father’s (or mother’s) family if she died without legitimate children. The husband could not legally sell or give away this property. It was being held to protect her future, providing her a home and income when her husband passed, and she must make way for her son’s wife. 

 All property and all money left to a female was not expected to be used as a dowry.

One of the purposes of a marriage settlement was to “protect” any unprotected property from being wasted, sold, or otherwise dealt with by  the husband.  He was supposed to be content with the income and any money his wife had.

I must say that one very weak point in this protection was that the husband seldom received more than a slight slap on the wrist for violations.

 

Caroline Norton

Catherine Tilney-Long

Posted in British history, family, Georgian England, Georgian Era, history, Inheritance, Regency era, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Women’s Rights to Property During the Regency Era

The Inventions of Thomas Jefferson Found in “Mr. Darcy and the Designing Woman”

Thomas Jefferson is best known for writing the Declaration of Independence, but what other “credits” might we attribute to him? He was also a scientist, an inventor, an architect, and even a philosopher. “The papers of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), diplomat, architect, scientist, and third president of the United States, held in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, consist of approximately 25,000 items, making it the largest collection of original Jefferson documents in the world. Dating from the early 1760s through his death in 1826, the Thomas Jefferson Papers consist mainly of his correspondence, but they also include his drafts of the Declaration of Independence, drafts of Virginia laws; his fragmentary autobiography; the small memorandum books he used to record his spending; the pages on which for many years he daily recorded the weather; many charts, lists, tables, and drawings recording his scientific and other observations; notes; maps; recipes; ciphers; locks of hair; wool samples; and more.” (Library of Congress)

If you have ever used a pedometer to count your steps (I do so daily.), you can thank Jefferson for improving the pedometer function.

We all likely know Leonardo di Vinci created a device that periodically dropped stones into a bucked to count distance. His “design was a device worn at the waist with a long lever affixed to the thigh with a ratchet-and-gear mechanism that recorded the number of steps taken during walking.” (Science Direct) Then, In 1525, a French engineer/artisan and physican to Catherine de Medici, used the oldest known pedometer to compute the size of the earth. According to Interesting Engineering, “Jefferson’s contribution to the history of the pedometer may have involved improving on then-current designs and taking learnings from existing devices. He probably introduced a mechanical pedometer obtained from France and may have modified the design. Evidence for his work on the pedometer is difficult to come by, as he did not apply for patents on any of his inventions.”

If you have ever set down to a bowl of macaroni, you can acknowledge Jefferson for the noodles. But what else might be accredited to the man? Essentially what Jefferson did was create a machine that could make pasta. It was a board with different holes spread about it that would produce small curved, hollow macaroni noodles as a crank was turned. This speed up the pasta-making process, helping turn it from a largely hand-worked endeavor into a far more automated one. (Interesting Engineering) “The best pasta in Italy,” Thomas Jefferson opined around 1787, “is made with a particular sort of flour, called Semola, in Naples.”

Jefferson also had a device he called a “polygraph,” not a lie detector (as we think of the word now), but, rather, a device that took its function from the meaning of the word: “poly” means “many” and “graph” has something to do with “writing.” Jefferson’s polygraph created “many writings.” Interesting Engineering tells us, “Jefferson first acquired a polygraph in 1804 and called it ‘the finest invention of the present age. It used the principles of the pantograph, a draftsman’s tool for reducing and enlarging drawings. The writer’s hand moves one pen, whose action is duplicated by a second pen, producing an almost exact copy. Its inventor, an Englishman named John Hawkins, assigned his American patent rights to Charles Willson Peale, and Jefferson was one of Peale’s most eager clients. Jefferson made many suggestions for how Peale could improve the design, which Peale took up.”

The Monticello Organization speaks to us of the Great Clock. It is a seven-day clock and can be found in two places at Monticello: the main entrance hall and on the east front of the house. Two cannonball-like weights keep the clock working. The gong to strike the hour is on the roof. The ropes carrying the weights descend on either side of the clock through holes in the floor to the cellar. Designed by Jefferson and built by Peter Spruck in 1792, the clock is still fully functional, even today. “The clock, with both an interior and exterior face, dictated the schedule of the entire plantation, inside the building and out. On the outside wall, the clock has only an hour hand, which Jefferson believed was accurate enough for outdoor laborers.  The inside face of the clock reveals much greater precision by offering not only hour and minute hands, but also a smaller dial for a second hand.”

007 might have admired this next invention. “The wheel cipher was a helpful tool devised by Jefferson for encoding messages with ease. It was a small circular device with 36 wooden disks on a spindle. Each disk had letters of the alphabet in different orders. When arranged in different patterns, you could create a ‘key’ and inscribe messages under a set cipher.” Jefferson basically abandoned the idea sometime around 1802, but it was revived around 1922 and used by the U.S. military to the beginning of WWII.

NSA/Wikipedia ~ https://interestingengineering.com/lists/7-things-you-wont-believe-thomas-jefferson-invented

And most importantly for the purpose of this post, was the dumbwaiter, or more appropriately, the dumbwaiters found in Thomas Jefferson’s house.

There was a dumbwaiter in the cellar upon which a wine bottle could be placed to be drawn upwards into the dining room. Guests could serve themselves in what at that time was known as the “French” style. Food was prepared in the kitchen, located under the south terrace and connected to the house by the all-weather passageway. The meal was then carried up a narrow and steep staircase, and stacked on rounded shelves attached to one side of the Dining Room door. The door rotates from the center instead of hinging on one edge. Once the shelves were loaded, [servants] would turn the door so that the food would be inside the Dining Room. From there, dishes would be placed on small tables with shelves called dumbwaiters. The dumbwaiters — some of which were built at Monticello — were on casters so that they could be wheeled to the table. A guest who dined at the President’s House during Jefferson’s tenure recalled: ‘by each individual was placed a dumbwaiter, containing everything necessary for the progress of dinner from beginning to end.'” [The Jefferson Monticello] You can see a video of the contraption HERE.

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Book Blurb:

Mr. Darcy and the Designing Woman: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary

“You do not know your place!” Elizabeth Bennet had heard those words time and time again from every man she encountered, with the exception of Mr. Thomas Bennet. Her dear father encouraged her unusual education, especially her love of architecture. 

Fitzwilliam Darcy finally could name the day his beloved Pemberley would know its renewal. For five years, he had denied himself the pleasures afforded the landed gentry in order to view Pemberley House rebuilt after a questionable fire had left it in ashes. He would now choose a wife as the next mistress of Pemberley and raise a family. 

When Darcy hires Elizabeth’s relation as his architect, they are thrown together in unexpected ways. He requires a proper Georgian manor to win the hand of an equally proper wife, but Elizabeth is determined only the house she has designed will do. The house of her heart for the man of her heart, even though she will never spend a day within. 

Excerpt from Chapter 9 (where Jefferson is mentioned for the first time):

It was nearly eleven of the clock when the carriage bringing Ericks, Luepke, and the two other men who would oversee the work on the house arrived. Though Mr. Nathan offered to greet the men, Darcy chose to do so himself. The surveyor, Mr. Bertram, and the builder, Mr. Campbell, accepted Darcy’s greeting, but quickly excused themselves to be about their own examinations of the site. Misters Ericks and Luepke asked Darcy to join them. 

As they walked about the perimeter of the present house, Ericks asked, “We are still in agreement for three storeys?”

“Yes, three,” Darcy responded. He noted how Mr. Luepke made notations of their conversation. 

Ericks pointed to a stand of burned-out timbers marking several rooms. “Some of the rooms must be razed, which will mean some of the walls still standing must also be brought down and rebuilt in order to have the proper load-bearing walls. As we are changing the size and shape of many of the rooms formerly in this part of the house, much removal and new construction will occur here.” 

“Understandable,” Darcy repeated, as he saw his former house with new eyes. 

Ericks smiled, “It is a bit daunting to think of how much has changed since your house was built in the late sixteen hundreds. If nothing less, think upon how much taller both men and people of the eighteen hundreds are in comparison to our ancestors. My brother Samuel jokingly says it is because the air is more filled with smoke and construction, and we must rise above it, but I believe it was God’s plan, which is ironic as I am the builder and he is the man of God. Nevertheless, I imagine a man of your height might, upon occasion, enter some rooms and be required to duck your head so as not to bang it on the door frame. Door frames, ceilings, and the like are higher than they once were, just as our beds are longer and sturdier, for they contain multiple mattresses. All these changes in the way people live change what we do as architects. While we are rebuilding your house, we should think a bit of the future. Sizes of the rooms should be a foot or two longer and the ceilings higher. Your three storeys will stand higher than your father’s did.” 

“Will that not look odd,” Darcy asked, “if this wing is taller than the other?”

“Perhaps, a bit,” Ericks stated, “but do you wish to give up modern conveniences to keep everything equal? Such can be done, but I would not suggest it. Obviously, eventually, you will be required to remodel the other wing. Buildings cannot stand forever against the elements, and the weather in Derbyshire can be quite harsh at times. Would you not agree?”

Darcy looked at the man suspiciously. “You are thinking I will hire you again sometime in the near future.” 

“Perhaps,” Ericks said with a laugh, “but I am attempting to be honest with you in all my estimations. Some you will enjoy hearing, others, not so much.” 

“So noted,” Darcy remarked. 

“Are you still satisfied with the number of pillars in the front? Not only do they mark the house’s greatness, but they serve as supports for different parts of the house. If you wish less, another means to support roofs, overhangs, and the like must be created,” Ericks explained. 

“I am satisfied.” 

“On another matter, all the surfaces must be covered in brick, meaning not only the new wing and the entrance, but also the older wing. There is no means of duplicating the color of the brick on the old wing of the house,” Ericks shared. 

“You are telling me, if I wish to remodel the wing I currently live in and have the house match in brick color, I should consider doing so sooner, rather than later,” Darcy said with a lift of his brows. “Could I not simply purchase more of the same brick and use them when I rework the other wing?”

“You could,” Ericks said with a grin. “The grey brick is currently readily available. It is generally easier to find if you are considering additional wings in the future. The yellow sandstone cannot be restored. It is too old and too worn. Again, we must consider the materials which will withstand both nature and time.”

“I assume you have brought samples,” Darcy said.

“Naturally,” Ericks said with a point of his finger to his drawing. “And a half storey on the top to be used as a drying room, extra quarters for servants, the movable table’s pulley, and storage. I provided you a view with and without the mechanism.” 

As Darcy studied the images before him, Ericks continued, “Do you know that fellow, Thomas Jefferson, the one who wrote the American independence document, has a number of such revolving shelves in his home. When he lived in France, Jefferson used portable serving stands when he hosted suppers at his home there. He put all the courses on the stands, which one actual servant could move about, even for a party of twenty or more people. 

“They say this Jefferson fellow has five such devices in his dining area at his home. He even has a spring-loaded turning shelf between the kitchen and dining room, which likely means it is all on the same floor, but the kitchen puts the plates on the shelf and then turns it so it appears in the dining room. After the meal, the empty plates are placed on the device to be returned to the kitchen. People say he had one just like it installed in the American president’s residence when he was there. When he wanted to discuss matters of national importance with those he dined, there were no servants about to overhear those secrets. I would have loved to have viewed it in person to see how it worked. 

“He also had some sort of lift mechanism to bring bottles of wine from the cellar to the floor above. Such is what I am thinking here.” Ericks pointed to the place on his drawing. “A system of weights and pulleys to move a variety of items through the house. Wine, as I have mentioned previously, food, smaller items, and even the laundry when it is to be dried on the lines in the garret. Naturally, nothing extremely heavy, for the lines would break, but strong enough for several pounds. As an added bonus, the shaft can assist with air flow throughout the house.”  

“Ingenious,” Darcy mumbled as he studied the diagrams from several angles and on several floors to have a better understanding of what Ericks spoke. 

“We will use a combination of dovetail joints, mortises and tenons and a post-and-beam construction.” 

“No wall studs from the sill of one storey to the second storey?” Darcy asked. 

“We will use whichever technique is most appropriate for the land upon which the house stands. Some parts are on solid rock and others on shifting earth. They cannot all be executed in a like manner, but the end result will be the same in the look of the rooms,” Ericks explained. 

“Let us revisit the garret when you come closer to that objective,” Darcy said. “I was looking at the dormers on Miss Elizabeth’s drawing, and I found them a very satisfying look.” 

“I will explore some other possibilities,” Ericks said with a slight frown, “but those decisions must be made quickly, as they will change other features of the house.” 

“Nevertheless, I would like the opportunity to make minor changes in your design if I see fit,” Darcy insisted. He could not quite let the house be built without a bit of Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s vision in it. Those changes would be his silent salute to the woman who had become quite essential to his view of the world. In years to come, he would look upon them and remember a remarkable woman. “I assume you either have such drawings available or can create them. I tend to be very ‘visual’ in such matters. I wish to know the end effect rather than to guess at the look of it.” 

“I understand perfectly, sir. I take the planning and construction of a man’s house as a sacred duty.” 

Purchase Links:

Kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CL2RKQK5

Available to Read with a Kindle Unlimited Subscription

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLKM4RV7

BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/books/mr-darcy-and-the-designing-woman-a-pride-and-prejudice-vagary-by-regina-jeffers

Posted in America, book excerpts, book release, British history, buildings and structures, eBooks, excerpt, Georgian Era, historical fiction, history, inventions, presidents, Pride and Prejudice, publishing, Regency era, Regency romance, research, Vagary, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

How to Rebuild Pemberley After a Fire? + the Release of “Mr. Darcy and the Designing Woman” + a Giveaway

Last Monday, my latest Austen-related book, Mr. Darcy and the Designing Woman, released. It has been the work of many days, and those of you who have read it already know there was a great deal of research involved to have the “special bits” of the story accurate.

Much of my research was on a variety of houses from the period, especially those standing in the Regency era. Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire influenced some of my choices for it was used as Pemberley in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie. Yet, I made a conscious effort not to duplicate the floor plan of Kedleston Hall when Darcy and Elizabeth rebuild Pemberley after a fire has destroyed part of Mr. Darcy’s house.

Kedleston Hall via Wikipedia

Hylands House in Chelmsford also made up some of my choices. In 1814, a Dutch banker named Pierre Labouchere bought Hylands, and completely redesigned the Queen Anne house, creating a symmetrical building encased in stucco (I purposely did not choose stucco for Pemberley), fronted by a huge neo-classical portico. He added a pleasure garden, stable block, and filled the house interior with classical statues. I particularly liked the idea of the two wings, with one being used for the Darcy family and the other for guests and entertaining.

Hylands House via Wikipedia

The final house which played a great deal upon my preferences was Audley End House, which sits outs of Saffron Walden in Essex. I particularly chose this house for the three storeys, which Mr. Darcy insists on in my tale. The impressive house that can be seen today is only about a third the size of the vast mansion created in about 1605–14 by Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk. It retains much of its original character, and contains fine Robert Adam (a favorite of Elizabeth Bennet in my tale) and Jacobean revival interiors. Moreover, on the English Heritage site, one might download a “blueprint” of the house, which was extremely helpful in writing the tale. I would like to share it with you, but that “blueprint” is copyrighted and cannot be share for such purposes, only for research.

The final source, which proved extremely beneficial, was found in one of the footnotes on a Wikipedia page about stone and building in the different shires. It is from the Historic England website. On the site there is a PDF entitled “Building Stones of England: Derbyshire and the Peak District.” This guide describes “Derbyshire and the Peak District’s local building stones in their geological context. It includes examples of buildings and structures where the stones have been used.

“This guide is one of a series for each English county. The guides draw on research and fieldwork with the British Geological Survey, geologists and building historians to compile the Building Stones of England Database. The guides are aimed at mineral planners, building conservation advisers, architects and surveyors, and those assessing townscapes and countryside character.”

A second source on the site is “Derbyshire and the Peak District: building examples and stone sources. I did my happy dance when I came across both these docs. This one provides examples of buildings, architectural style, building stone sources, a list of know (active and ceased) building stone sources (quarries, mines, delphs, etc.), plus additional information on stones such as grain size, sedimentary structure, weathering, etc.

Sample:

Mr. Darcy and the Designing Woman: A Pride and Prejudice Vagary

“You do not know your place!” Elizabeth Bennet had heard those words time and time again from every man she encountered, with the exception of Mr. Thomas Bennet. Her dear father encouraged her unusual education, especially her love of architecture. 

Fitzwilliam Darcy finally could name the day his beloved Pemberley would know its renewal. For five years, he had denied himself the pleasures afforded the landed gentry in order to view Pemberley House rebuilt after a questionable fire had left it in ashes. He would now choose a wife as the next mistress of Pemberley and raise a family. 

When Darcy hires Elizabeth’s relation as his architect, they are thrown together in unexpected ways. He requires a proper Georgian manor to win the hand of an equally proper wife, but Elizabeth is determined only the house she has designed will do. The house of her heart for the man of her heart, even though she will never spend a day within. 

Purchase Links:

Kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CL2RKQK5

Available to Read on Kindle Unlimited

BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/books/mr-darcy-and-the-designing-woman-a-pride-and-prejudice-vagary-by-regina-jeffers

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLKM4RV7

Giveaway: Comment on the post to be entered into a giveaway for eBook copies of Mr. Darcy and the Designing Woman. Two copies are available on Always Austen and additional copies on my blog Every Woman Dreams. Winners will be contacted by email.

Posted in architecture, book release, books, British history, buildings and structures, eBooks, estates, Georgian England, Georgian Era, giveaway, historical fiction, history, Living in the Regency, Pride and Prejudice, publishing, reading habits, Regency era, Regency romance, research, Vagary, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments