Sapphire Lebesque's Blog: Margin Notes, page 2
August 3, 2024
Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens
I wish I could time-travel to see it. The brainchild of entrepreneur Jonathan Tyers, Vauxhall Gardens opened in 1729 as a place where London residents and families could enjoy a natural setting away from hot and dirty streets.
One in Chelsea opened in 1742, and Marylebone was another famous one, but Vauxhall was the best known, immortalised in great novels like Vanity Fair (W. Thackeray) and featured in works of art by Canaletto and the satirist, William Hogarth.
It is said that Charles Dickens and Italian playboy Casanova, were amongst its more famous frequent visitors. A place where individuals could get lost in fantasy and dreams.
Tyers created a large Roman-style piazza with classic colonnades and avenues of trees, amongst other themed scenarios. Coloured paper lanterns were lit at night, in the tree-lined paths, creating a fairytale word.
It must have been an enchanting experience, indeed.
One in Chelsea opened in 1742, and Marylebone was another famous one, but Vauxhall was the best known, immortalised in great novels like Vanity Fair (W. Thackeray) and featured in works of art by Canaletto and the satirist, William Hogarth.
It is said that Charles Dickens and Italian playboy Casanova, were amongst its more famous frequent visitors. A place where individuals could get lost in fantasy and dreams.
Tyers created a large Roman-style piazza with classic colonnades and avenues of trees, amongst other themed scenarios. Coloured paper lanterns were lit at night, in the tree-lined paths, creating a fairytale word.
It must have been an enchanting experience, indeed.
July 23, 2024
Exotic Foods in Georgian England
Luxury and expensive food features in the lives of the gentlemen and ladies of 3 Titled Gentlemen Find Love Series, and below stairs, the household staff generally ate better than the working class or poor.
Gunter's ice cream parlour (and tea rooms) of London, is mentioned in many Regency novels and was famous among society of the ton looking to go out for a treat or be seen in fashionable places. Flavours were more varied than we know today, including sweet and savoury, such as Parmesan Cheese! Unusual sweet flavours included Elderflower, Muscadine (Grape) and Currant.
Gunter's logo was a pineapple, a prohibitively expensive and difficult to obtain fruit. A pineapple centrepiece was a must-have status symbol of any dinner-party hostess trying to impress and were passed from hostess to hostess until they rotted.
A common cure-all was seawater mixed with milk. The seawater probably made the unfortunate drinker sick, but they didn't know that at the time.
Lady Madeleine is taken to Gunter's Tea Rooms by one of her suitors. She has pineapple and elderberry ice, he has vanilla and strawberry (One scoop of each). It's the most romantic experience she's ever had... so far.
Gunter's ice cream parlour (and tea rooms) of London, is mentioned in many Regency novels and was famous among society of the ton looking to go out for a treat or be seen in fashionable places. Flavours were more varied than we know today, including sweet and savoury, such as Parmesan Cheese! Unusual sweet flavours included Elderflower, Muscadine (Grape) and Currant.
Gunter's logo was a pineapple, a prohibitively expensive and difficult to obtain fruit. A pineapple centrepiece was a must-have status symbol of any dinner-party hostess trying to impress and were passed from hostess to hostess until they rotted.
A common cure-all was seawater mixed with milk. The seawater probably made the unfortunate drinker sick, but they didn't know that at the time.
Lady Madeleine is taken to Gunter's Tea Rooms by one of her suitors. She has pineapple and elderberry ice, he has vanilla and strawberry (One scoop of each). It's the most romantic experience she's ever had... so far.
July 17, 2024
Getting About in Regency Times
Transport? It was driven by horsepower, literally, or Shanks' pony (a euphemism for walking, if you didn't know, but Sapphire never misses a chance of a pun), or by boat. However, a gentleman could make a statement with his carriage, or multiples-if money was no object. Here are some types of carriages you find in Georgian and Regency historical fiction.
Phaeton: Came in two sorts, crane and perch. 4 wheels, owner-driver carriage with 2 or 4 horses. A crane phaeton was built with a sturdier skeleton than the perch, which was lightweight. They were generally open carriages, with a folding hood that could be raised. A high-perch phaeton (or perch high) was a racier version with larger wheels. The driver of a high perch phaeton was called a high-flyer. Was that where the term came from?
Curricle: This was a racier, two-seater (driver and one passenger) open-topped carriage pulled by a pair of horses abreast, and was a favourite of gentlemen who liked to drive their own pair and was de rigeur for a lady being courted, if she was to avoid gossip about her reputation.
Gigs: A gig is an even lighter carriage drawn by a single horse.
There were many variations on horse-drawn carriages, including landau, brougham and town coaches. Never mind comfort, some were more luxurious than others, but modern vehicle suspension and shock absorbers hadn't been invented and combined with poor, pot-holed roads and cobbled streets, more often than not, they made for a bumpy ride!
Phaeton: Came in two sorts, crane and perch. 4 wheels, owner-driver carriage with 2 or 4 horses. A crane phaeton was built with a sturdier skeleton than the perch, which was lightweight. They were generally open carriages, with a folding hood that could be raised. A high-perch phaeton (or perch high) was a racier version with larger wheels. The driver of a high perch phaeton was called a high-flyer. Was that where the term came from?
Curricle: This was a racier, two-seater (driver and one passenger) open-topped carriage pulled by a pair of horses abreast, and was a favourite of gentlemen who liked to drive their own pair and was de rigeur for a lady being courted, if she was to avoid gossip about her reputation.
Gigs: A gig is an even lighter carriage drawn by a single horse.
There were many variations on horse-drawn carriages, including landau, brougham and town coaches. Never mind comfort, some were more luxurious than others, but modern vehicle suspension and shock absorbers hadn't been invented and combined with poor, pot-holed roads and cobbled streets, more often than not, they made for a bumpy ride!
July 15, 2024
Tortuous Tales of Georgian Romance
I have 2 titles published of my newest series, 3 Aristocrats Find Love. The stories take place in 1794, 1795 and 1796. Book 1 is Kissing The Contessa, Book 2 is Winning Lady Madeleine.
It's a fascinating decade of history in the aftermath of the French Revolution in 1789, which the includes the rise of Napoleon and the Peninsula wars with England pitted against France.
Ladies and gentlemen's fashion went through upheavals as well. The frills and flounces and big skirts of earlier were on their way out and the French Revolution inspired a less fussy, plainer look for ladies.
New weaving techniques made lighter fabrics available for ladies gowns, including the sprigged muslin so popular from 1800. For men, fussy buckled shoes started to give way to leather boots, and men's fashion became more rugged and masculine, though the famous dandy still held his own.
On the social scene, coffee houses became places to be seen and Gunter's famous tea shop in London's Berkeley Square rose to prominence for its ices.
It was not fashionable to marry for love and a man could be ridiculed if the gossips discovered he was in love with his wife. Partnerships were made on a business basis and much historical fiction deals with those themes, but where's the fun in that? There's a reason why Regency Romance is so popular (and Georgian Romance).
I haven't finished with the decade and I have one more book to complete, Romancing Ava Russell. It'll be released later in 2024.
Winning Lady Madeleine: A Georgian Romance
It's a fascinating decade of history in the aftermath of the French Revolution in 1789, which the includes the rise of Napoleon and the Peninsula wars with England pitted against France.
Ladies and gentlemen's fashion went through upheavals as well. The frills and flounces and big skirts of earlier were on their way out and the French Revolution inspired a less fussy, plainer look for ladies.
New weaving techniques made lighter fabrics available for ladies gowns, including the sprigged muslin so popular from 1800. For men, fussy buckled shoes started to give way to leather boots, and men's fashion became more rugged and masculine, though the famous dandy still held his own.
On the social scene, coffee houses became places to be seen and Gunter's famous tea shop in London's Berkeley Square rose to prominence for its ices.
It was not fashionable to marry for love and a man could be ridiculed if the gossips discovered he was in love with his wife. Partnerships were made on a business basis and much historical fiction deals with those themes, but where's the fun in that? There's a reason why Regency Romance is so popular (and Georgian Romance).
I haven't finished with the decade and I have one more book to complete, Romancing Ava Russell. It'll be released later in 2024.
Winning Lady Madeleine: A Georgian Romance
July 10, 2024
Romances of The Chivalrous
Announcing my new fantasy romance series, in which fair maidens and their chivalrous knights inhabit a world where true love & honour wins. Some heroes are princes and some heroines princesses.
This romantic fantasy series is set in an imaginary medieval world where maidens are feisty and brave, and warriors are handsome, noble knights who will sacrifice everything for the queens of their hearts.
Introducing Book 1, Princess Rio, committed to an arranged marriage to Crown Prince Geoff, a man she's seen but hardly knows, for the sake of her father's military alliance. Books 2,3 and 4 each tell the story of Rio's sisters.
Like all my stories (with a few exceptions), they are exclusively on Amazon.
This romantic fantasy series is set in an imaginary medieval world where maidens are feisty and brave, and warriors are handsome, noble knights who will sacrifice everything for the queens of their hearts.
Introducing Book 1, Princess Rio, committed to an arranged marriage to Crown Prince Geoff, a man she's seen but hardly knows, for the sake of her father's military alliance. Books 2,3 and 4 each tell the story of Rio's sisters.
Like all my stories (with a few exceptions), they are exclusively on Amazon.
Margin Notes
Welcome reader! Explore the enchanting worlds crafted by Sapphire Lebesque, a fiction writer specialising in historical romance and fantasy romance. In medieval times and beyond, parchment and paper w
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