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Category: Regency

Playing Dress-up

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I’ve been loving this thread about places, and definitely want to return to it! But since I just got done sorting through my summer photos, I thought I’d share this one of some of us during the Beau Monde conference in Reno.

I’m the one in the middle. That’s Cara to my left, looking very cute. (Sorry Cara, you are cute! And I envy your skill at Regency dances. And your left foot, a left foot that actually knows it’s your left foot and not your right…) To the right is our good friend Regina Scott aka Regan Allen (www.reganallen.com). I miss that rakish dandy Sir Reginald Scott, who has made appearances at previous soirees, but I have to say Lady Regina is most elegant! As for me, although the high-waisted Regency style doesn’t highlight the real waist that I do have (honest, it’s under there somewhere) and anyone who knows me can tell I’d had a few glasses of merlot by that point, I don’t care!

It was fun, though looking at the pictures from the soiree did make me think about why we like to dress up in period costume.

It isn’t as if anyone is actually going to mistake me for Elizabeth Bennett on the dance floor. Maybe more like Mr. Collins, occasionally coming close to bumping into the other dancers and messing up the entire figure. Though of course real Regency folk would have many more opportunities to practice, it’s not as easy as they make it look in the movies!

It is actually a good learning experience to don somewhat-accurate period clothing and try to recreate period activities (though I hasten to say I am not a purist and did not have my costume hand-sewn, as I’ve heard some Civil War reenactors do).

But I think the bottom line is some of us never really outgrow the urge to dress up. I figure inside me there’s still a five-year-old who clumps around in her mother’s pumps, a necklace swinging way past her belly-button.

It’s just fun.

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE – an RT Top Pick – available now
www.elenagreene.com

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Hornblower, Aubrey and Nelson!

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This is Horatio Nelson’s flagship, Victory. If you have a chance to visit Portsmouth, you can even tour it! It’s fantastic. (Though very popular — the first time I took a daytrip to Portsmouth we arrived by noon, and all the tours were already full for the day! And this was a Wednesday. Though for all I know one can now book a place ahead of time…)

I don’t know why Regency warships are so beautiful! They were highly functional, yet somehow their lines are just gorgeous. That’s one reason I love the recent Horatio Hornblower television productions (starring the oh-so-nice Ioan Gruffudd, who also makes a hunky superhero) and the film “Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World” (starring the also very delicious Russell Crowe.)

Are there any other fans of Hornblower or Aubrey here? Of the films, or the books by C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian? What do you like or dislike about the books or the cinematic productions? Or have you buy any chance toured the Victory? What did you think?

Share your thoughts!

Cara
Cara King, www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER, Signet Regency 11/05

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St. George’s Hanover Square

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In Regency romance lore, St. George’s Hanover Square is the church where many society couples married during the Regency. Located in Mayfair, it’s a lovely “little” church (little compared to something like St Paul’s Cathedral!) which looks a bit like St. Martin-in-the-Fields. You can still see St. George’s Hanover Square today. Here are some photos I took last time I toured Mayfair. (They were doing some repair work at the time, as you can see!) There’s isn’t a huge amount of Regency Mayfair still standing (St James’s is much better preserved) — Almack’s is gone, and so much else — but there are some gems left (like this one!) Here are a couple more pictures:

I do love taking pictures of churches and cathedrals — they photograph so well!

If anyone wants to see more pictures of Regency London, let us know! (There’s a lot more where these came from . . .)

Cara
Cara King, www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER — Signet Regency, November 2005

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One of my favorite places–William Herschel Museum, Bath

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I find a lot of people don’t know about this museum in Bath, so naturally whenever I get the opportunity I spread the word. It’s the home of the astronomer William Herschel, and where he discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 (I mean, through a telescope. He didn’t find a major planet lying around among the old newspapers, which is the sort of thing, on a less celestial scale, that happens in my house). Herschel’s story is fascinating. He was a refugee from Hanover and a musician (you can buy recordings of his works), and traveled around England for a time as an itinerant music teacher before settling in Bath. There, one of his pupils paid him with a telescope, and he figured out he could make a better one. So he did. His sister Caroline joined him in England and was also an astronomer, and after the discovery of Uranus many famous names flocked to his observatory at 19 New King St. Eventually King George III invited him to move near Windsor to continue his work there.
The house is gorgeous and intimate–on a much smaller and modest scale than the houses of the Royal Crescent, for instance, and beautifully restored (I kidnapped a pic of the music room–note the “wall to wall” carpeting–actually long strips of carpet, and the intricate wallpaper) and full of Herschel’s books, furniture, and telescopes. His laboratory still features the cracked flagstones from a mishap of 1781. There’s also a charming garden, with a replica of his telescope.
I only discovered this museum the last time I visited Bath and I’ve been in love with it ever since.
Anyone else care to share their favorite place?
Janet

Posted in Regency, Research | Tagged , , , , | 13 Replies

Why the regency?

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I’d like to share why I like this period, and why it’s so rewarding to read-write about.
First, the clothes. Yeah, I know this sounds really superficial, but it was a period of about twenty years when women were not corseted and constricted, and I think that’s very significant. Stays were for support more than shaping. If you look online on costume sites, you can see that some stays were virtually like sports bras. Women could actually move–look how often Jane Austen’s heroines stride across-country. The men’s clothes are a tribute to beautiful, athletic male bodies–hideous on overweight slobs, of course, but then what fashion isn’t–and those tight pants–well, say no more…consider too that women wore no underwear. Oh, the possibilities.
There was so much happening in the early years of the 19c–terrific architecture, music, and literature, the abolitionist movement, and great political change. There were women writers, musicians, and artists, and at least one female astronomer. England was considered a sort of maverick country by the rest of Europe–its monarch, under the control of Parliament, was not a despot; there was a very high level of literacy and many regional newspapers, each issue of which was read by several people, and although a small minority (of men) could vote, the public held the effective and powerful tool of the petition.
And of course the fairy-tale world of the Ton, which I guess I do have to mention. I have to admit a few aristocrats go a long way with me, although I find the concept of great families and their politicking fascinating–one of my favorite books is “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Phillippa Gregory, which is rather like the Sopranos at the Tudor court. And generally my heroes are motivated by family honor and duty to the family name, which leads to some tremendous conflict.
So, what about everyone else?

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