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!

Although some fairs had started to die out, some still provided popular entertainment in the Regency. You may have heard of Bartholomew Fair, which took place in London in September, or Scarborough Fair, which occurred in Scarborough, Yorkshire, around the same time (although it closed for good in 1788). Both were among a group of several “charter” fairs, established by Royal charter centuries before our period. Like most of them, they combined sales of things like cloth, rugs, or farm tools with entertainment like games, puppets, acrobats, rides, and dancing. You can see the swings in the image below. A few fairs still go on! So we’ll try to replicate one at the Historical Romance Retreat.