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British Art Students

If you read this article in British Art Studies, you’ll discover that young women were some of the first art students to be allowed into the Charles Townley gallery to view the sculptures (a number of which are statues of men in various stages of undress). In fact, the article contains images of paintings of women viewing the Discobolus (a marble statue of a fully naked discus-thrower). Oh, my! So I figured my sculptor heroine would almost certainly have been allowed to observe the gallery on her own.

What are you Wearing to Frost Fair?

As many of you Regency lovers know, London had some very cold winters, especially in 1814, when my new book is set. That was the year of the last Frost Fair. The Thames froze so hard for four days that an elephant was led across it. Merchants set up booths with food and drink right there on the ice and it had the usual fair-type fun. There was even ice skating. Many theories abound about why it happened (the Little Ice Age, the bridges having wider supports that blocked the flow of the water) and why it never happened again (climate change, differently built bridges, the way the Thames was embanked), but no one knows for sure. Some people drowned, however, when the ice broke … and that’s how I got rid of the duke my hero inherited the title from! Don’t worry—the other guy wasn’t a nice man, by all accounts.. My hero, on the other hand … well, you’ll have to read the book!

Thanks to the issues mentioned above regarding fairy tales, I had a bit of a problem when I wanted to reference one in Accidentally His. It was a Grimm fairy tale that no one had ever heard of in England until 1823. Except, of course, for people who had a facility for multiple languages (cough, cough, Rafe) or an uncle who traveled a great deal (also Rafe). Believe it or not, I had already chosen both of those things for Rafe’s character when I stumbled across the fact that the fairy tale I wanted to reference had never appeared in English in England. So, that was a nice bit of serendipity. Rafe’s facility for languages was related to his start as a spy with the Corps of Mounted … Wait, I already talked about that in a previous Regency tidbit. Oh, well. Until next time …

Bobbing for Apples

When I think of autumn and the Regency, I think of harvest fairs and harvest balls, brisk October winds, and lots of apples. But did you know that bobbing for apples was another of those romantic games where future romance was predicted? I didn’t, until I read this entertaining and thorough article about the origins of Halloween. Apparently, one variation was played the same way as it is now, except that names were carved into the apples so that whichever name was on the apple you seized was that of your future true love. Fortunately, the variation called “Snap-apple,” where a player had to seize the apple while it swung around on a pole with a burning candle at the other end of the pole, died out, or we’d not be enjoying trying to grab those apples quite so much!

Ballads

This has nothing to do with lipedema, but What Happens in the Ballroom (presently available on Kindle Unlimited, among other retail spots) has a scene where widow Eliza Harper Pierce sings several songs to entertain an audience. One of those, “The Suffolk Miracle,” is a ballad that Eliza uses to torment her papa (also in the audience) about a father who disapproves of his daughter marrying a man of a lower station. You can read the lyrics here, but I chose it by accident while looking for the ballad, “The Holland Handkerchief,” which I have on my folk albums. The two tell a nearly identical story, but “The Suffolk Miracle” is the title Eliza is likely to have heard for it. I happen to love ballads, and I learned long ago that most period ballads have multiple renditions, with variations in wording, title, and even ending. I only wish there was a version for this one with a happy ending!

Puzzles

I hesitate to mention any links, because shortly after my last newsletter, that Foods of England site I mentioned apparently went away. I wish I’d known it was going to do so, because I would have copied a few of the recipes. Sigh. This month’s subject is puzzles. I still haven’t put one in a book (that I remember). I can’t call them jigsaw puzzles (the jig saw wasn’t invented until the late Victorian age), but they did exist, cut out with marquetry saws. They were called “dissected maps.” Here’s an image of one. Apparently, puzzles go back to the 1700’s, when they were primarily maps cut along the borders of the countries/counties, etc. You can read all about the history of puzzles on a site called “Bob Armstrong’s Old Jigsaw Puzzles,” so I won’t bore you with it, but so help me, if that link disappears, I’m going to be convinced that my Regency tidbits are a jinx!!

At the Seaside

People in the Regency time period also liked to travel, and, as with now, they often went to the beach. For Accidentally His, I enjoyed researching and writing about a Regency seaside experience (it certainly made for good sensual scenes). Plenty of men swam in the nude and some women, too, which was facilitated by the fact that men and women had separate beaches. For the more modest, there were bathing gowns and the machines in which to change into them. I honestly don’t know why they called them “machines.” There’s nothing machine-like about them. They’re simply boxes/covered wagons that had openings at either end. You went in on one end, changed your clothes as the “machine” was being towed into the water, and then climbed down into the water on the other end. You can see pics of the bathing machines at Jane Austen’s World and my Pinterest page about the book.

Birdwatching

Y’all may or may not be aware that I’ve gotten into birdwatching from all my time spent writing on my deck. (I’d be there now except it’s all torn up as my husband gets it ready for spring.) That’s why I decided to give that hobby to Eliza. Also, Regency folks liked birds, too (no big surprise). I took her birdhouse from one that was actually from the period. Well, close to the period, anyway—1846. I had a hard time finding images earlier than the Victorian age, but the word “bird-seed” dates back to the 1700’s, and Regency era books abound for “bird-fanciers,” which tell you how to feed, house, rear, etc. birds of all types. Pet birds also appear in stories from the period. So I think I’m safe in saying Regency folks liked them!

Ballads

This has nothing to do with lipedema, but What Happens in the Ballroom (presently available on Kindle Unlimited, among other retail spots) has a scene where widow Eliza Harper Pierce sings several songs to entertain an audience. One of those, “The Suffolk Miracle,” is a ballad that Eliza uses to torment her papa (also in the audience) about a father who disapproves of his daughter marrying a man of a lower station. You can read the lyrics here, but I chose it by accident while looking for the ballad, “The Holland Handkerchief,” which I have on my folk albums. The two tell a nearly identical story, but “The Suffolk Miracle” is the title Eliza is likely to have heard for it. I happen to love ballads, and I learned long ago that most period ballads have multiple renditions, with variations in wording, title, and even ending. I only wish there was a version for this one with a happy ending!

Harp-Lute

If you haven’t heard of a harp-lute, that’s because it was invented by Edward Light in 1795 and was briefly a sort of fad among young ladies in the Regency. Regency ladies liked it because they could accompany their singing with it. Once the piano replaced it as the instrument of choice for that, the harp-lute fell out of favor. There is still interest in it as part of the development of the guitar, though, and you can find a host of images here. Here’s an image of one in the Metropolitan Museum.