Risky Regencies

The English Year

Updated on June 7, 2013 by Myretta

In my second book, Just Say Yes, the hero participates in a village festival in which all the able-bodied men move a large stone in the village center in order to bring the village continued good fortune. This is something that actually took place annually in an English village. I ran across this odd activity in a book of English festivals, but I’ll be darned if I can find it now to give you the reference.

I was reminded of this recently when the wonderful Loretta Chase mentioned Hone’s Every-Day Book on her Two Nerdy History Girls Blog. This book describes itself as an “Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, sports, pastimes, ceremonies, manners, customs, and events, incident to each of the three hundred and sixty five days in past and present times.” In short, it’s the ideal place to look for an interesting tidbit to spice up your story. The 1827 edition comes in two volumes of which I only have the first (but remain hopeful for obtaining the second half of the year).

Bartholomew Fair 1825

It’s a delight to just page through the book and pick out an event. For example, on September 5, there is a long description of a visit to Bartholomew Fair in Stowe (or Smithfield as they appear to be interchangeable in this account) in 1825. The description encompassed many shows including the Largest Child in the Kingdom when young, the Handsomest Child in the World, The Persian Giant, The Fair Circassian with Silver Hair, The Female Dwarf, Two Feet Eleven Inches High, Two Wild Indians from the Malay Islands in the East… I could go on (and on).

You might learn that March 5 is St. Piran’s day (there are a lot of saints in this book, most described as “Romish”). St. Piran is, apparently, an Irish hermit who moved to Cornwall, had a grave made and then died in it. His day is reported to be a favorite with tinners as tradition has it that some secrets regarding the manufacture of tin was given by St. Piran.

The Every-Day Book covers everything from the laying of the first stone of London Bridge to Bastille Day. I can hardly wait to get my hands on volume 2.

More concise and focusing more on festivals, but less forthcoming about actual years in which they were celebrated is Yearbook of English Festivals. This might be where I got the stone moving ceremony, but I can’t find it right now. My copy of this one was published in 1954 and features some of the more esoteric festivals celebrated in England.

Modern-day well-dressing

According to the Yearbook, well-dressing, or well-flowering, is observed in many English villages in the summer, particularly in Derbyshire and Staffordshire. This event involves decorating wells or springs with flower petals, allegedly to give thanks for its purity. No one seems really sure where it originated. I love it nonetheless. And, it’s still going on today. Welldressing.com has an extensive calendar.

I heartily recommend these fascinating compendia of yearly events and festivals. Not only are they great sources for settings and scenes, they’re a lot of fun just to browse.

Posted in Risky Regencies | 4 Replies

Manly Pastimes and the Romantic Hero, or, Where Did You Get Those Bruises?

Updated on June 7, 2013 by Gail Eastwood

I’m so happy to be back again, blogging with the Riskies!! Thank you, gracious friends! I’ve been thinking about the subject of manly pastimes a lot recently as I work on my new book. (Yes, I am finally back working on it!) As I write this, my husband is downstairs watching the Bruins play hockey on the TV, providing a very fitting background of excited man-crowd sounds, punctuated by his own loud exclamations. Our Regency gentlemen had a wide range of diversions to amuse themselves and test their mettle, and just like men today, especially enjoyed the chance to compete with one another. In our beloved fictional Regency world, our romance heroes indulge in all sorts of activities, from gaming and watching horse races to the more athletic pastimes –riding, hunting, shooting, driving, fencing, wrestling, archery, rowing, skating, and, of course, fighting. I did one hero whose passion was sailing. I’m sure you can think of more.

What I wonder is, and I hope you’ll jump into the conversation, are any of these pastimes problematic for you as a reader formulating an image of the coolly elegant, romantic Regency man? The hero in my current work-in-progress is known to be one of the better card players in London, a big man who dresses well and does not make waves. He has another side to him, however –he excels at bare-knuckle fighting and is a member of a private fighting club made up of five aristocratic fellows who essentially have surpassed what Gentleman Jackson’s establishment can offer them. He is a character who first showed his face in one of my books ten years ago, but at that time I hadn’t realized he would someday claim his own story.

The vivid brutality of the fighting contrasts so sharply with the elegance that was also so admired in this era, I find sometimes I can’t wrap my brain around it. Is it too violent to be in a Regency romance? We know that historically, fighting, or “pugilism”, was extremely popular in the Regency period. But in our fantasized version of the Regency, is there room for both “bucks” and “bruisers” among our heroes? Would a hero who is both work for you?

As so often happens, there suddenly seem to be a number of authors who are all going in this direction.

Delilah Marvelle created quite a stir with her trailer for Forever a Lord (January 2013). If you didn’t see it, here it is:

I haven’t read it yet –looking forward to it, so discussion is fine but no spoilers please!

Sara MacLean –just mentioned at a workshop I attended last week that her upcoming book –I think it’s No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (coming November? 2013) –is about a hero who does bare-knuckle fighting.

(Sigh.) But we know they will all be quite different from each other. Have you read others? Or written them? Let’s get a conversation going in the comments. I’d really love to know what you think!

I will give away (by mail) a mint paperback copy of my 2002 release, The Rake’s Mistake, to one lucky poster. To be entered in the giveaway, you must give your email address and let me know you want to be entered! I’ll contact the winner to get a mailing address.

Gail
www.gaileastwoodauthor.com

Posted in Regency, Risky Book Talk | 16 Replies

Excerpt from WIP

Updated on June 6, 2013 by Janet Mullany

As my buddy Pam Rosenthal once said, the Regency makes fetishists of us all and here’s an example of it. H/h in hackney. Alone. After dirty dancing. Oooh.

“You are a gentleman,” she said with a fierceness that surprised her. “You were most kind to me tonight when you hardly knew me. You—”

“Perhaps, Mrs. Raine, I had a baser motivation than you credit me with.” His eyes were narrow, sensuous, and his gaze dropped to where her cloak had fallen away at her bosom.

She would not gratify him with any sort of virtuous rearrangement of the folds of her cloak. Indeed, she was tempted to thrust the velvet further back onto her shoulders, affording him a better view of her breasts, an impulse she suppressed immediately.

Still watching her, he raised a fingertip to his lips and bit into the soft kid of his glove, drawing it from his hand with deliberate slowness. She stifled a smile as he smoothed the glove and laid it over one muscular silk-clad thigh.

“I trust the evening’s exertions have not tired you, Mr. Giordano,” she murmured.

“Thank you, ma’am. I feel extremely refreshed. I do, in fact, have an excess of energy.” Off came the other glove to join its fellow on his thigh.

Two could play at this dangerous game. She unbuttoned her glove and drew it slowly, very slowly, over her arm and wrist, and worked her fingers free, sighing at the touch of the cool night air.

His hand tightened on the kid gloves at his thigh; so he thought to unsettle her but he did not expect her to reciprocate.

He leaned forward.

“May I assist you with the other?” His bare fingers skimmed over the crook of her gloved elbow.

The carriage jolted to a halt.

Leo snatched his gloves and pulled them on again, reaching hastily for his hat.

Posted in Risky Regencies, Writing | Leave a reply

Up In The Air

Updated on June 4, 2013 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

In looking around for a blog topic today, I found out that the first manned hot air balloon flight happened on June 4, 1783, by the Montgolfier brothers of France! Elena would know much more about this than I would (I just started looking into the event last night!), but I thought it was fascinating. And, as someone who almost had a panic attack the one time I tried hot air ballooning (in a tethered craft!) I deeply admire anyone with such courage as to leave the ground in a time when the horse was the fastest mode of transport.

Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etiene Montgolfier were 2 of the 16 children of a paper manufacturer in Annonay, France. The business did well, allowing Joseph to mess about with his dreamy, “impractical” ideas and the more business-like, practical Jacques to train in Paris as an architect. Until the eldest son died and Jacques was brought back to run the family business (which he made more efficient and modern, gaining a royal commendation)

In 1777 Joseph was watching laundry drying over a fire, forming pockets that made the sheets billow^. He started making a few experiments in November 1782 while living in Avignon. He was thinking about the possibility of an air assault using troops lifted by the same force that was lifting the embers from the fire, which might be of use to the French military in sieges. He built a square room 1×1×1.3 m (3 ft by 3 ft (0.91 m) by 4 ft) out of very thin wood, and covered the sides and top with lightweight silk. He crumpled and lit some paper under the bottom of the box, making the contraption raise up and collide with the ceiling. Joseph wrote to Jacques”Get in a supply of taffeta and of cordage, quickly, and you will see one of the most astonishing sights in the world.” The two of them built another, larger device and gave it a test flight in December 1782. The device floated nearly 1 and a half miles before it crashed and was destroyed after landing by the “indiscretion” of passersby.

The brothers decided to make a public demonstration of a balloon in order to establish their claim to its invention. They constructed a globe-shaped balloon of sackcloth with three thin layers of paper inside. “The envelope could contain nearly 790 m³ (28,000 cubic feet) of air and weighed 225 kg (500 lb). It was constructed of four pieces (the dome and three lateral bands) and held together by 1,800 buttons. A reinforcing fish net of cord covered the outside of the envelope.” (according to Charles Gillispie’s The Montgolfier Brothers, and the Invention of Aviation.)

On 4 June 1783, they flew this craft as their first public demonstration at Annonay in front of a group of dignitaries from the États particuliers. Its flight lasted over a mile for 10 minutes, with an estimated altitude of 5,200-6,600 ft. Word of their success quickly reached Paris. Étienne went to the capital to make further demonstrations and to solidify the brothers’ claim to the invention of flight. Joseph, given his unkempt appearance and shyness, remained with the family.

On 19 September 1783, the Aérostat Réveillon was flown with the first living passengers (a sheep,a duck, and a rooster, even though the king had proposed using a couple of comvicts…) in a basket attached to the balloon: a sheep called Montauciel (“Climb-to-the-sky”), a duck and a rooster. This demonstration was at Versailles, for King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and their court. The flight lasted approximately eight minutes for 2 miles, and landed safely after flying. I guess the passengers had no ill effects! In October, Jacques-Etienne became the first human to fly in a balloon. These early flights were a sensation. You could buy chairs with balloon backs, and mantel clocks were produced in enamel and gilt-bronze replicas set with a dial in the balloon. There was also china decorated with pictures of balloons.

The Montgolfier Company still exists in Annonay, France. In 1799, Jacques-Etienne de Montgolfier died and his son-in-law, Barthélémy Barou de la Lombardière de Canson (1774–1859), succeeded him as the head of the company, thanks to his marriage with Alexandrine de Montgolfier. The company became “Montgolfier et Canson” in 1801, then “Canson-Montgolfier” in 1807. They still produce fine art papers and digital fine art and photography supplies, sold in 120 countries.

Have you ever been in a hot air balloon?? What was it like? Would you have liked to see this first balloon launch?

Posted in Regency, Research, Risky Regencies | 4 Replies

Regency Wedding Redux

Updated on June 3, 2013 by Diane Gaston

Today the dh and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary and we want to take a little break to do something fun. So I’m recycling a 2008 blog I did on Regency Weddings.

We were married a gazillion years ago, before a bride would even DREAM of a wearing a strapless gown. Before I married, I’d never read Georgette Heyer or Regency Romances and it had been a few years since I’d read Jane Austen.

But take a look at my wedding dress.

It’s a little hard to tell here, but it has an empire waist, leg o’mutton sleeves, and ribbon trim. It’s a Regency Dress!

I’d never heard of the Regency, but somehow I picked a Regency dress.

Like me, Regency brides did wear white, but they didn’t have to. In the Regency, white gowns were popular for many occasions. Other colors like pale pink and blue were also worn at weddings. The older the bride, the darker the color. Wedding dresses were worn after the wedding, too. By the time Queen Victoria became a bride and wore white, the white wedding dress was well on its way to becoming a tradition.

Princess Charlotte, who wed Prince Leopold in 1816, wore a dress of silver lamé, embroidered in silver.

Sites that tell more about Regency Weddings:

Jessamyn’s Regency Costume Companion

Regency Weddings

Quick facts about Regency Weddings:

1. Weddings could take place after reading of the Banns, a license, or a special license. Banns must be read for three consecutive Sundays in the parishes of both the prospective bride and groom. A license, purchased from the bishop of the diocese, did away with the banns but the couple still had to be married in the parish church. A special license, purchased from the Archbishop of Canterbury, allowed the couple to be married in a location other than a church and without banns. Licenses were never blank; different names could not be substituted.

2. Scottish weddings went by different rules. In Scotland couples could be married by declaring themselves married in front of witnesses, by making a promise to marry followed by intercourse, or by living together and calling themselves married.

3. Weddings could not be performed by proxy. Both the bride and groom had to be present.

4. Ship captains could not perform marriages. Couples could be married aboard ship, but only by clergy. (How many times have you read that plot?)

5. Brides had wedding rings; grooms did not. The bride could give the groom a ring as a wedding gift, but it was not part of the ceremony and didn’t symbolize he was married.

Do you want a Regency Wedding? There are many sites on the internet offering custom made Regency wedding dresses:

Jane Austen Centre Giftshop
Fashions in Time

Or if you are handy, you could make your Regency gown:

Do you have any questions about Regency weddings?

Did anyone else have a Regency wedding dress?

A Reputation for Notoriety is now available as an ebook, if you are like me and prefer ebooks.

Posted in Risky Regencies | 6 Replies