Author Archives: Myretta

About Myretta

Myretta is a founder and current manager of The Republic of Pemberley, a major Jane Austen destination on the web. She is also a writer of Historical Romance. You can find her at her website, www.myrettarobens.com and on Twitter @Myretta.

Country Houses

Updated on March 23, 2013 by Myretta

Don’t we all eventually end up in an English country house? Today, I’m continuing the tour of my library with a look at some of the books I use when I’m writing about a country house – or just looking for a little escapist eye candy. These books all touch on the physical layout, structure and design of the house. What goes on in and around the house is a topic for another day.

Country Houses from the Air

Let’s start with an overview. Adrian Tinnswood’s Country Houses from the Air is just what it says. Not relegated to a single era, this book still gives an excellent picture of the English country house within its environs. Aerial photography and early architectural plans and prospects combine to provide a look at the origins and current state of the houses under discussion. The text provides some solid historical background and picks out notable features of the houses.

The English Country House in Perspective

While we’re airborne, let’s take a look at Gervase Jackson-Stops’s The English Country House in Perspective. I love this book It takes 12 country houses, provides a brief history and description, includes architectural layout of each house, some drawings or photos of the exterior and then – the payoff in this book, in my opinion – a cutaway view of the house showing the location and layout of various rooms in three-dimensional detail. It makes it so much easier to move characters around the interior of one of these houses and to imagine the interactions taking place inside.

The Pattern of English Building

Before we go inside, however, let’s look at the exterior of the buildings. In The Pattern of English Building, Alec Clifton-Taylor has written a detailed treatise on the construction materials used in various parts of England. He links the geology of the country to the building in its various locations. There is little in the book on the use of materials in the interior, but we can find that information elsewhere. This book identifies the stone and other materials available in each area and includes a geological map showing the type of rock prevalent in each area. This illustrates why it makes sense to have most of Bath built of that glorious Oolitic limestone that captures the afternoon light so beautifully, but also discusses how Bath stone was also among the first quarried stone to be shipped to other parts of the country. This is a detailed and well-documented book with lots of photographs that are unfortunately in black and white in my paperback edition.

The Regency Country House

I have several books on country house interiors, but for this post have picked the sumptuously illustrated The Regency Country House From the Archives of Country Life by John Martin Robinson. This is the best kind of coffee table book, full of photographs of interiors and categorized into “The Palaces, The Nobelman’s House, and The Gentleman’s House.” It includes photos of interiors, from grand stairways to tucked-away drawing room alcoves. The furnishings in these photographs are not all of our period, but the book is worth looking at for a sense of the rooms.

Design & The Decorative Arts – Georgian Britain 1714-1837

There are a lot of books on the interior design of the period. One of the most exhaustive is Regency Design 1790-1840 by John Morley. This book covers gardens. buildings, interior decoration, and furniture and weighs a ton. It discusses the impetus behind changing fashion and contains period illustrations of each of the various elements on which it focuses.

If you want something a little more focused, you might like Design & The Decorative Arts Georgian Britain 1714-1837 by Michael Snodin and John Styles. Although this is book surveys a longer period, it includes many illustrations of fashion leaders, decorative arts. and fashionable living.

I find picking up any one of these books inspiring and invigorating. There’s no telling where your next idea is going to come from. And if inspiration is not quick in coming, these books are good places to spend a few secluded hours just enjoying the atmosphere.

Posted in Regency, Research | 3 Replies

Mary Bacon’s World

Updated on March 15, 2013 by Myretta

I’ve been reading Mary Bacon’s World by Ruth Facer, a detailed look at the life of a farmer’s wife in 18th century Hampshire, taken from her personal ledger, which contained much more than financial entries. It’s a personal journal in which she has recorded many aspects of her life; truly an historians dream of source material.

Like those of many women of her generation, her journal includes things like recipes and the minutiae of farm life, all of which are interesting to anyone writing about the period. For example, when she and her new husband moved to their home at Aylesfield Farm, she meticulously recorded the expenses for needed repairs, including holdfasts (probably some sort of clamp or staple), brushes, Linseed oil, nayls (and also nails). In total they spent £43 15s. Quite a lot to get the farm in order, not mention chips, 5 cord of Grub wood (roots or branches lying on the ground). This was, probably for heating. She also includes a furniture inventory which indicates a level of prosperity for the new couple.

A farmer’s wife in her yard with chickens

Her ledger also includes a detailed picture of the life of a farmer’s wife, including stock, the weather, the care of animals, and cures for people living in or around the farm.

Mary seemed to rely on Culpeper’s Complete Herbal and English Physician for caring for her livestock. For example, to cure a bovine urinary tract infection:

Take a handfull of Hot Dung, half a pint of Rennet half a pint of Brine and a handful of mustard Seed Bruised Simmer it together and Give it to the Cow and let her Stand two hours without meat If one Drink fails Stop one Day & Give her another in the morning.

Sort of makes you glad you’re not her cow. She has equally interesting cures for human ailment, including piles, constipation, dental problems, and epilepsy.

Mary’s kitchen inventory gives a good picture of how she cooked and her ledger contains recipes, many copied from Hannah Glasse’s First Catch Your Hare, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, but also some of her own and those from her friends.

From the ledger, we also learn a lot about Mary’s reading material, including Almanacs, chapbooks, and newspapers. Among the things she copied out in her journal was a table of information about the West Indies (including, the length and breadth of each island, it’s principal towns and which country owned it) , in which she was apparently interested.

Her ledger includes her extensive book list. This includes, as well as Culpeper’s Herbal, many religious books, The Universal Parish Officer (containing the laws in force pertaining to parish business), The Gentleman’s Jocky & approved farrier, and a history of England.

I could go on. There is an incredible amount of useful material in this book, if you’re interested in the life of an intelligent and fairly prosperous farmer’s wife during the late 18th and early 19th century. I highly recommend it.

Posted in Regency, Research | 4 Replies

A Rainy Day in the Country

Updated on March 2, 2013 by Myretta

So, you’re at a house party somewhere in the country (because, where else would you host a house party?) and it’s raining. It’s been raining for days. There’s no chance of a walk, a ride, a little shooting. No impulse to sit in the garden. You’re sitting around the drawing room gazing at the other guests and trying not to yawn. If your hostess has prepared for such an eventuality (and one might hope she would), she will be able to offer you a selection of indoor pastimes.

Fish token

There is, of course, the inevitable card table. There were many types of games available to the Regency house party. And I’m sure the hostess would be able to provide fish (gaming tokens) so that you may gamble on the outcome.

Filigree tea caddy

Not into card games? Perhaps you’d like to do some needlework. Surely you brought yours with you. Or you can take up some that is undoubtedly provided for your sewing pleasure. Not into needlework? How about filigree (or quilling). You probably have to be better coordinated than I am to do this successfully. This is narrow strips of parchment, vellum, even paper, rolled in spirals and scrolls and edge-glued to a flat surface. These can present patterns formed by their exposed edges which remarkably resemble metal filigree. You can produce some pretty amazing things with this technique.

No doubt, the gentlemen are off in the billiard room, smoking and gossiping (although they’ll tell you they never gossip). Maybe you’d like to join them? It must be more interesting than needlework. Maybe they’ll teach you something you don’t know or let your try their cigar. It might be worth a visit.

Perhaps your host and hostess have arranged something special for this house party. Perhaps you and your fellow merry-makers are not sitting around yawning. Perhaps you’re rehearsing for the private theatrical to be staged later in the party. Is it Lover’s Vows as they were rehearsing in Mansfield Park before Sir Thomas came home and spoiled all the fun? Or something even more risque?

Of course, there will be dancing, there will be eating, there will be music. I’m sure Miss Bennington has a lovely voice and Mrs. Lesley is a virtuoso on the pianoforte. And if they’re not, they’ll perform for you anyway.

What would you be doing on a rainy day at the Earl’s estate? Billiards? Risque rehearsals? Or something quieter? Perhaps sneaking off to the library in search of a good book.

Posted in Regency | 5 Replies

Fun with Fashion Plates

Updated on February 23, 2013 by Myretta

I love Regency Fashion plates. Who doesn’t? We love our costumes, sometimes flattering, sometimes over-the-top. Going through the extant pages from Ackermann’s Repository or La Belle Assemblée, is not so different from watching the red carpet show before the Academy Awards or going through the best- and worst-dressed photos aver the event. Who gets it right? Who is setting a trend? What would we be wearing if we were there?

When we started on a site redesign at The Republic of Pemberley (Yes. I know, I’m always talking about Pemberley. But, in my defense, I spend a lot of my life there and it’s a major point of reference) in 2011, we decided to try to use era fashion plates as a guiding theme of the new design. In preparing for this, I discovered another wonderful facet of Regency fashion plates: their topicality. Of course, the clothes are the focal point of the illustrations and that’s why they were published, but a closer look reveals wonderful little vignettes in many of them. In general, it was the vignettes I focused on when looking for the appropriate image for each of our discussion boards.

Want to see some?

Emma

Who can forget Emma‘s many half-finished drawings and determination to take Harriett Smith’s likeness.

The sitting was altogether very satisfactory; she was quite enough pleased with the first day’s sketch to wish to go on. There was no want of likeness, she had been fortunate in the attitude, and as she meant to throw in a little improvement to the figure, to give a little more height, and considerably more elegance, she had great confidence of its being in every way a pretty drawing at last, and of its filling its destined place with credit to them both — a standing memorial of the beauty of one, the skill of the other, and the friendship of both; with as many other agreeable associations as Mr. Elton’s very promising attachment was likely to add.

And how lucky to find a plate (albeit French) of one woman drawing another.

Sense & Sensibility

“Dear, dear Norland,” said Elinor, “probably looks much as it always does at this time of year. The woods and walks thickly covered with dead leaves.”

“Oh!” cried Marianne, “with what transporting sensations have I formerly seen them fall! How have I delighted, as I walked, to see them driven in showers about me by the wind! What feelings have they, the season, the air altogether inspired! Now there is no one to regard them. They are seen only as a nuisance, swept hastily off, and driven as much as possible from the sight.”

“It is not every one,” said Elinor, “who has your passion for dead leaves.”

The fashion plate we found for Sense & Sensibility plays off Marianne’s sensibility, translating her passion for dead leaves into a stormy landscape featuring two women. For what is S&S but a story of the sisters?

Persuasion

Persuasion took us to the seaside as Anne Elliot, the Musgroves and Captain Wentworth traveled to Lyme Regis.

Anne found Captain Benwick again drawing near her. Lord Byron’s “dark blue seas” could not fail of being brought forward by their present view, and she gladly gave him all her attention as long as attention was possible. It was soon drawn, perforce, another way.

What would you take to walk on the cobb and examine the ships coming into port? A telescope, naturally.

Mansfield Park

Speaking of the sea, for Mansfield Park, we thought that we’d place our beloved Fanny Price at Portsmouth, her birthplace and the scene of one of distress and realization.

“I have to inform you, my dearest Fanny, that Henry has been down to Portsmouth to see you; that he had a delightful walk with you to the dockyard last Saturday, and one still more to be dwelt on the next day, on the ramparts; when the balmy air, the sparkling sea, and your sweet looks and conversation were altogether in the most delicious harmony, and afforded sensations which are to raise ecstasy even in retrospect. ..”

Northanger Abbey

For our last two novels, we chose, not vignettes but individuals. Northanger Abbey is Catherine Morland’s novel and the fashion plate we chose, a young woman from the back, makes me think of Catherine during her first visit to the Upper Assembly Rooms.

The company began to disperse when the dancing was over — enough to leave space for the remainder to walk about in some comfort; and now was the time for a heroine, who had not yet played a very distinguished part in the events of the evening, to be noticed and admired. Every five minutes, by removing some of the crowd, gave greater openings for her charms. She was now seen by many young men who had not been near her before. Not one, however, started with rapturous wonder on beholding her, no whisper of eager inquiry ran round the room, nor was she once called a divinity by anybody. Yet Catherine was in very good looks, and had the company only seen her three years before, they would now have thought her exceedingly handsome.

Pride & Prejudice

For Pride & Prejudice, who else but Fitzwilliam Darcy? I dare say that, when Pride & Prejudice is mentioned, not a one of us does not first think of Mr. Darcy. How could it be otherwise?

Mr. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women, with an air of decided fashion. His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report, which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.

The process of finding the right fashion plates for each of the discussion boards on the Republic of Pemberley site was a lot of fun and revealed things about the novels and about the fashion plates that we might not have noticed before. We also enjoyed finding just the right plate for each of our non-Jane boards.

I imagine we all have different images in our minds for Jane Austen’s settings and characters. What would you picked for each of the novels?

Posted in Jane Austen, Regency | Tagged fashion plates, Jane Austen, The Republic of Pemberley | 7 Replies

Jane Austen’s Letters

Updated on February 9, 2013 by Myretta

Megan has fallen and hurt her wrist, so you get me for another week. I had nothing prepared for you, I’m going to tell you about what I’m working on.

At The Republic of Pemberley, we are slowly working through Jane Austen’s letter. At least once a year, we read a tranche. Tomorrow, we embark on letters 76 through 91 (using the Chapman numbering system and Deirdre Le Faye’s excellent edition of her letters).

This is a great bunch of letters and particularly appropriate for the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride & Prejudice .

Letter 79, written on January 29, 1813 to Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra, is the one in which she talks about receiving the first copy of Pride & Prejudice from her editor (through her brother, Henry, who lived in London and dealt with the editor for Jane).

I want to tell you that I have got my own darling Child from London; — on Wednesday I received one Copy, sent down by Falknor, with three lines from Henry to say that he had given another to Charles & sent a 3d by the Coach to Godmersham; just the two Sets which I was least eager for the disposal of.

So, her brother Henry sent her the first copy and then sent the two others he had to her brothers Charles and Edward (at Godmersham). Jane apparently would rather have been consulted about where they were sent.

In this letter, in discussing the errors she had already found in the text, she says, “I do not write for such dull Elves. As have not a great deal of Ingenuity themselves.”

This group of letters contains some of my favorite Jane Austen quotes. In Letter 80, she tells Cassandra that Pride & Prejudice, “is rather too light & bright and sparkling” she goes on to say

…it wants shade; — it wants to be stretched out here & there with a long Chapter — of sense if it could be had, if not of solemn specious nonsense — about something unconnected with the story; an Essay on Writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Buonaparte — or anything that would form a contrast & bring the reader with increased delight to the playfulness & Epigrammaticsm of general stile.

she makes me giggle.

I could go on for quite some time excerpting from Jane Austen’s letters. They contain some of her most pointed quotations and are well worth the read. The Brabourne edition of the letters is not quite as complete and lacks the Le Faye’s wonderful notes, but it is out of copyright and, therefore, available to you on line. I’ve linked the Republic of Pemberley Brabourne pages above.

Or if you just want a taste here is our Famous quotes from the letters (or quotes that should be famous). Enjoy!

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Letters | 4 Replies