Regina Scott's Blog, page 6

Regency Fabrics, Part 36

 Here’s another post in our ongoing series on Regency fabrics.

As I have in previous posts, I’ll be examining actual fabric samples glued into several earlier editions of Ackermann’s Repository, samples supplied by the manufacturers and published by Ackermann in order to boost the British cloth-making industry at a time when exporting British goods to Europe was almost impossible because of the Napoleonic war. I'll give you a close-up scan of each sample, the published description if available, and my own observations of the color, weight, condition, and similarity to present-day materials, to give you as close a picture as possible of what these fabrics are like.

Today’s four samples are from the March 1812 issue of Ackermann’s Repository. The overall condition of my copy is very good: the page has been trimmed a little close on the outside, but the paper itself is not toned and has minimal spotting. All four fabric samples are present and in good condition, if a little creased in places.

Here we go!

No. 1. A figured Cisalpine washing silk, for evening wear; and is to be pur-chased of every colour and shade. This light article is adapted to the various seasons of the year, according to the trimmings with which it is ornamented. In winter the tunics and robes were consistently trimmed with fur or swansdown; in the more genial seasons, lace must be considered most appropriate; and in the ball or full dress, white beads or bugles have a very pretty effect. It is manufactured and sold by D. and R. Hodges, silk-manufacturers, No. 12, Henrietta-street, Covent-garden.

My comments: I love this one! It didn’t photograph very well, alas, but it’s a light ecru colored silk patterned with bars and bisected circles that remind me of coffee beans woven in, with the pattern being much more reflective than the background. It’s a very light, thin fabric, smooth and air, but I would be concerned about its fragility: fine for an evening or dinner dress, but I don’t think I’d want to dance in it!

 

No. 2. A printed checked cambric muslin, calculated for the more quiet order of decora-tion. There is no trimming that can give any advan-tage to this article, which should be formed in plain wraps, or high round robes, with long sleeves and frills of lace, or collars and cuffs of needle-work. To be purchased of T. and J. Smith, 4, Tavistock-street, Covent-garden. 

My comments: I wouldn’t call this checked (which makes me think of gingham) as the grid pattern is woven into the fabric, with the brown pattern a bit sloppily printed on (easier to see in real life than in this scan.) I think it would be more attractive without the print. It has a nice soft, supple hand and a soft sheen that again is not coming through in the scan, but again, not very sturdy.

 

No. 3. Is a pretty description of muslin adapted for morning wraps, spring pelisses, and children’s wear. This article we obtained from the house of Millard in the city, whose celebrity has often been a subject of discussion in our Repository, as well as of general notoriety with our fair fashionables at the west end of the town. Articles of every choice description, and of the greatest novelty, are dispersed to the various houses in town, and the various watering-places, from this extensive ware-house, so long renowned for the immediate sale of the Honourable East India Company’s goods; and we learn that the goods vended from their recent sale are of a superior description, and, from the deficiency of foreign trade, extremely cheap. Families purchasing pieces or half-pieces, are supplied by this house on the same terms as the trade.

My comments: Curiously, the scan of this is backward to what this looks like in real life: the woven-in square pattern (made of tiny loops of thread of a thicker, fluffier cotton thread) stands out from the background. Yes, a nice fabric for little dresses or boy’s skeleton suits…and now I feel that I have to go and research the vendor, Millard, because it sounds like there’s a lot of interesting history there…

 

No.4 exhibits a very striking and appropriate printed Marseilles for gentlemen’s waistcoats. There is scarcely any coat with which this animated article can ill accord, which accounts for its being so much called for by men of rank and fashion, who find it also so appropriate an article for the demi-saisons. It is sold by Messrs. Maund and Co., mercers and woollen-drapers, Cornhill.

My comments: It has always puzzled me why the fabrics considered suitable for men’s waistcoats of the time are always very thick and sturdy, when the fabrics for dresses are so light and often flimsy…but back to the matter at hand. This is a fairly heavy-duty wool woven in a diamond pattern and then overprinted with a design in orange, brown, and mint green that again reminds me of 1930s quilting cottons or feed sacks

 

What do you think of this month’s fabrics?

Nineteenth Century Christmas Wish List, 2022 Edition

So, what might Santa find the lover of the nineteenth century this year? Here’s a few things you might consider putting on your wish list.

Let’s start with something flashy, one of a kind, which will take a chunk of your savings. In fact, these Victorian earrings may be sold by the time you click that link. They are 9ct gold, carnelian with seed pearls. A mere $500.00. 

Need a classy way to keep track of the date? Here’s a calendar you might love. You’ll recognize the fashion print on the cover. It’s what Marissa and I use for the blog. Each month features a lovely fashion plate rendering.

 

And speaking of Regency fashion, try this Regency fashion coloring book for adults.

Every year there are more wonderful research books on the Regency, but this one caught my eye. It’s by historian Ian Mortimer and promises to include details about everyday life. The Time Traveler’s Guide to RegencyBritain: A Handbook for Visitors to 1789 to 1830 , published in April this year, is definitely on my wish list.

These next two are more for fun than anything else. Some enterprising soul has created a candle that promises to smell like Mr. Darcy’s Pemberley! The container alone might be worth the price. Jane Austen would approve of the dry wit.  

If you need some fitness inspiration, this is your T-shirt. Shouldn’t every lady run like Mr. Collins just proposed?

And if you’d like another gift, sign up for Marissa’s newsletter or my newsletter. We offer free exclusive stories to subscribers, and my Christmas story will go out on December 19. Don’t miss out!

This concludes my posts for 2022. See you in 2023!

All For In One

December. I am so not ready for December. Are you?

But there’s one thing I am ready for: the second Ladies of Almack’s omnibus! Marquis of Secrets: The Ladies of Almack’s Omnibus No. 2 releases today from Book View Café. It includes the fourth, fifth, and sixth novellas in the series: The Cursed Canvases (who is magically vandalizing the pictures at the Royal Exhibition? When art becomes artillery, the Ladies take notice); Turmoil on the Thames (when the King’s birthday celebration at Eton is crashed by uninvited guests who threaten to eat the students, it’s a good thing that the Ladies of Almack’s are at hand...); and An Event at Epsom (a horse is a horse, of course—or is it? Annabel and the Ladies must attend the races at Epsom to investigate a very unusual steed) together with all the accompanying author’s notes.

Marquis of Secrets will be widely available at the end of the month from all the usual online bookstores…but if you want a copy now, you can purchase it directly from the publisher, Book View Café, in both EPUB and MOBI formats. And (ahem) subscribers to my newsletterwill be receiving a coupon at the Book View Café bookstore…so if you want this set of the stories in one tidy package, now is a great time to do so. Happy reading!

 Now if you will excuse me, I must go find out where the second half of November went...

Guest Post: Concerts on the Rock by Alissa Baxter

I had the delight of reading an advance copy of Alissa Baxter's February 2023 book, so I happily invited her to share some of her research for her series on intrepid ladies with us at Nineteen Teen. Enjoy! Regina

I set the second book in my Linfield Ladies series, The Viscount’s Lady Novelist, partly on an estate near Bristol. It was fascinating to research the area as it is not a popular setting in Regency romances. During the course of my research, I found out about the concerts which once were held at St Vincent’s Rock. Here is an excerpt from Chilcott’s Descriptive History of Bristol, Ancient and Modern, Or, A Guide to Bristol, Clifton and the Hotwells by John Chilcott:

“To an observer on the Clifton side of the river, the opposite woods in summer present a most charming appearance: they contain almost every forest tree indigenous to this country; among which the broad-leaved sycamore, the majestic oak, the sombre ewe, the lofty elm, the graceful mountain ash, with many others, are seen blending their hues together, and forming a scene of foliage that for variety and exuberance is scarcely to be equalled. Here it is not uncommon, during fine summer evenings, for a band of musicians to assemble, at which time the opposite side is covered with an attentive crowd. The soft sounds wafted across the water are truly enchanting!”

And here's how it played out in The Viscount’s Lady Novelist:

As Oliver made his way across to her, strains of music began to waft across the river, indicating the musicians had begun their rehearsal. “Have you attended such a concert before, Miss Linfield?”

“Yes, indeed, my lord. You will find it quite remarkable.” She pointed in the direction of the trees. “Inside the recesses of that wood is a cave. On fine summer evenings, a band of musicians assembles within to play by torchlight. The music reverberates over the river in the most delightful way.”

The crowd hushed as the band performed their first piece. The notes carried across the water, multiplied by the endless echoes of the rocks.

“It’s truly enchanting!” Harriet’s glanced up at him, her expression rapt. “Do you not think so, my lord?”

He inclined his head. The venue and the talented musicians provided a unique experience for any music lover. An attentive crowd of men and women stood quietly amongst the rocks while the musicians played a range of melodies, from popular folk songs to more formally arranged pieces by Handel and Vivaldi.

As the concert drew to a close, Oliver murmured, “We are like so many Thracians, but Orpheus never performed so beautifully.”

Harriet smiled. “Indeed. Orpheus may have been able to charm all living things and even stones with his music, but our musicians must surpass even him in the sweetness of their playing.”

You can find The Viscount's Lady Novelist at fine online retailers such as

Amazon US 

Barnes and Noble 

Alissa Baxter wrote her first Regency romance during her long university holidays. After travelling the world, she settled down to write her second Regency novel, which was inspired by her time living on a country estate in England. Alissa then published two chick lit novels, The Truth About Clicking Send and Receive (previously published as Send and Receive) and The Truth About Cats and Bees(previously published as The Blog Affair). Many years later, Alissa returned to her favourite period with her Linfield Ladies Series, a trio of Regency romances that feature women in trend-setting roles who fall in love with men who embrace their trailblazing ways... at least eventually. Alissa currently lives in Johannesburg with her husband and two sons. She is a member of Regency Fiction Writers. Her website is https://www.alissabaxter.com/.

Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross…

I don’t know if her horse is white or what she might be wearing on her fingers and toes, but this is one fine lady in a Riding Dress from La Belle Assemblée, June 1816.

The original description reads

No. 2.—RIDING DRESS. Of fine blue Merino cloth, embroidered and ornamented round the bust and cuffs in a novel and unique style. This new equestrian costume, by fastening on the back of the shoulder, preserves all the contour of the form, which habits, in general, are apt to destroy. A full double ruff of fine Vandyke lace is separated from the shirt collar by a Chinese silk handkerchief of blue and white. Small round hat of fine beaver or of moss silk. Half boots of blue kid; with Limerick gloves worked and seamed with blue.”

A few points to discuss here…

While the embroidery and ornamentation around the bust and cuffs are described as “novel and unique”, that doesn’t actually say much. So did the engraver decide what that meant? I mean, “novel and unique” could also mean bright orange ostrich tips sewn down with gold thread, or rows of black bugle-bead fringe, or…well, take your pick!

Why is it that almost every riding habit I’ve seen in both La Belle Assembléeand Ackermann’s Repository is light blue?

I would like to know precisely how the habit fastens on the back of the shoulder. Does the front of the bodice come up like a bib and get pinned somewhere near the shoulder blades? Inquiring minds need to know.

The text refers to a “shirt collar” around which a silk kerchief is tied. I wonder if she is wearing a full shirt under the woolen habit, or just a collar? Seems a bit warm for June…but then again, this was 1816, the infamous Year without a Summer, so maybe a shirt was a good idea.

The hat. It’s adorable. That’s all.

Overall, though, this habit doesn’t do it for me; I think it’s the floral embroidery and kinda goofy frill around the neck. Give me this deliciously over-the-top military-inspired habit from Ackermann's Repository any day... 

 

And though most Victorian fashions are off-putting, I have to admit that later Victorian ladies’ riding habits are about as elegant as they come.

Any thoughts?

Launching a Lord

I have loved Petunia Bateman since the day she walked on screen as the youngest sister of Sir Matthew Bateman in Never Kneel to a Knight. She was outspoken, bighearted, and intrigued by the world around her. That hasn’t changed now that she’s all grown up and the heroine of her own story!

Spunky Petunia Bateman may be a commoner, but she is far from common. Anyone who cannot appreciate that is not worth her time. Then her best friend’s fiancé, the deposed crown prince of Batavaria, awards her a title, and the man she once loved decides she might be worth another look. Think again, sir!

Lord Ashforde had considered the lovely Miss Bateman for his bride three years ago. But his family history convinced Ash that cool heads and calm demeanors must prevail. There is nothing cool and calm about his feelings for Petunia, which have only grown since he rashly decided against her. But can he convince her, and himself, to give their love another try?

When the prince asks Petunia to persuade Ash to take up their cause to see their kingdom restored, the two are thrown together, and the enemies of Batavaria take note. Can love blossom amid skullduggery? Especially with an unlikely couple that might be made for each other?

The book is available in print and ebook at fine online retailers and soon a bookstore near you:

Smashwords 

Amazon (affiliate link)

Barnes and Noble 

Kobo  

Apple Books 

FYI—Marissa and I will be out November 22, celebrating Thanksgiving week with family and friends. Hope you have an opportunity to do the same. Be sure to catch Marissa’s post next week, and come back on November 29 for a special guest post by the amazing Alissa Baxter!

Shenanigans at the Shore?

In Betrayal at Brighton , the eighth and newest addition to The Ladies of Almack’s series, Annabel and the Lady Patronesses are in Brighton to do the unthinkable: investigate one of their own.

Annabel has, much against her inclination, agreed to spend a few weeks in Brighton with her fellow Lady Patroness, Frances Dalrymple, and Frances’s brother Lord Glenrick, now the Duke of Carrick. But much of the time she expects to spend investigating Frances’s alarming actions in Windsor gets taken up by playing companion to Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Prince of Wales…until her investigation and the Princess intersect in a shocking way. And then there are the bathing machines, the hundreds of ghosts in the cellar…and, of course, Lord Quinceton.

Betrayal at Brighton is considerably longer than the previous installments; it just kept getting longer and longer, rather to my bemusement, and so is a book rather than a novella. My apologies if you preferred the shorter format of earlier stories—it took me by surprise as well. But there’s a lot going on here, including discovering at last just what it is that Frances and her brother are up to. And did I mention Quin? 😊

Betrayal at Brighton can be purchased directly from the publisher, Book View Café, in both EPUB and MOBI formats as well as from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple, GooglePlay, Smashwords, and elsewhere. Print versions can be found at Barnes and Noble and Amazon...or ask your local library to carry it.

In addition, Countess of Shadows: The Ladies of Almack’s Omnibus No. 1 is available everywhere after its initial release only from Book View Café. You can still find it at Book View Café as well as from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, GooglePlay, Smashwords, and elsewhere, and in print from Amazon and Barnes and Noble or from your favorite local bookstore...and don't forget your library!

 

Baking Her Frontier Sweethearts

I have featured recipes and dinners—from elaborate multi-course events to simple fare cooked over a campfire—in many of my books. But Her Frontier Sweethearts, out now, was the first time I dreamed up an entire restaurant, complete with menus! I hope you’ll enjoy returning with me to the frontier of the Pacific Northwest in 1876.

Ciara O’Rourke learned to bake sweet treats from the best, her older sister. Now determined to step out on her own, she agrees to start the first cookhouse and restaurant at Wallin Landing, a tiny settlement north of frontier Seattle. But nothing goes as planned, from the local loggers, who seem more interested in courting than being paying customers, to the baby who’s thrust into her arms by a stranger who rides off whispering warnings. 

Kit Weatherly sailed away from his controlling family on a tea clipper to explore the world. He’s since found a true family in the Wallin Landing logging crew. That is, until the pretty new cook informs him he’s uncle to a niece he never knew he had! One look in little Grace’s face, and Kit knows he’ll do anything to protect her. And one taste of Ciara’s cooking has him wondering what he’d have to do to convince her to take a chance on them both.

“Her Frontier Sweethearts was a winner for me. I love books about protecting children and books about fake engagements so this was a special treat for me. A+” Hott Book Reviews 

You can find the story in print and ebook at fine online retailers such as

Smashwords 
Amazon 
Barnes and Noble 
Apple Books 
Kobo 

Make your reservation for a sweet treat today.

Blast from the Past: When Jane Austen Went Bump in the Night

 

I am fond of the topic of this post, because I've always thought the Gothic novel craze was both fascinating and fun--enough so that I played with the genre in The Vanishing Volume , the second installment in The Ladies of Almack's series. Enjoy!

* * *

Jane Austen must have enjoyed a good laugh. How else could she have created Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Marianne from Sense and Sensibility, and today's topic, Northanger Abbey?

Much of the divine Jane's early work was outright comedic, written to amuse her family; she especially seemed to have enjoyed parody, gently making fun of existing works and genres (her A History of England, a parody of Oliver Goldsmith's book of the same name and dedicated to her sister Cassandra, is pure silliness.) We've discussed the Gothic novel craze as a brief thing of the past, a temporary blip on the history of the English novel...but Jane experienced it in real time. And just as there are people who find today's vampire craze amusing, it's pretty clear that Jane got a chuckle from Gothic novels.

Northanger Abbey, though not published till after her death in 1818, is one of Jane's earliest major works: a first draft, entitled Susan, was probably written in 1798 or 1799. It's also the most explicitly literary of her major novels in that it's very much a book about books. The story begins with the introduction of the heroine: "No one who had seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her. Her father was a clergyman...and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters. Her mother was a woman of useful plain sense...and instead of dying in bringing [her] into the world, as anyone might expect, she still lived on...."

Jane is poking fun here at the convention in Gothic novels that the heroine be perfect and either orphaned or subject to the whims of a parent who has suffered a clouded past which will of course rebound upon his or her hapless child. The book continues in this vein with frequent authorial intrusions to point out how boring and normal Catherine and her life are...much to Catherine's dismay, for she is a devotee of books "provided they were all story and no reflection." Poor Catherine, with a head full of stories and a life full of commonplaces, for "There was not one lord in their neighbourhood; not even a baronet. There was not one family among their acquaintances who had reared and supported a boy accidentally found at their door; not one young man whose origin was unknown....But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way."

Of course Catherine does find a hero while visiting Bath. Handsome Henry Tilney and his sister invite her to visit their country home, Northanger Abbey, and Catherine is in raptures at the thought: will it be infested with the ghosts of murdered monks and inhabited by ancient retainers who know all the awful secrets of the family they serve? Jane has a field day with Catherine's visit: the Abbey is no crumbling, battlemented ruin but a comfortable, modern house; a dusty scroll hidden in a strange Japanese cabinet turns out to be an old laundry list. But then poor Catherine does indeed get a fright when the Tilneys' father, hitherto almost fawningly nice to her, suddenly turns cold and declares her visit at an end. Catherine learns that being the heroine in a dramatic story isn't as much fun as she thought it would be, but all ends happily: Henry Tilney follows her home and proposes, explaining that his rather money-grubbing father had thought her an heiress, but is told (falsely) that she was a penniless adventuress. Papa is brought round when he learns that Catherine has a respectable dowry, and all live happily ever after.

Northanger Abbey is probably the most light-hearted of Jane's books, with even its central love story being something of a joke (Henry Tilney takes no real notice of Catherine until he realizes she admires him enormously: "in finding him irresistable, becoming so herself." Read it, and laugh along with its author across the centuries.

 

P.S. Amusingly, it was thought that Jane Austen had made up many of the titles of Gothic novels mentioned in Northanger Abbey, until some scholarly detective work in the 1920s revealed that they had all, indeed, been realio, trulio published works.

 

Blast from the Past: Humphry Davy, Laughing Himself into History

I first published this post in June 2013, near the time of the release of The Courting Campaign, which featured a hero who was a natural philosopher, what we would call a scientist today. Since then, I’ve featured a natural philosopher hero and heroine in Never Vie for a Viscount and, of course, in The Regent’s Devices trilogy. In the latest book, The Lady’s Triumph, my heroine Celeste Blanchard and her dear friend Loveday Penhale (penned by the amazing Shelley Adina), join the Prince’s Own Engineers, which includes real-life scientist, Humphry Davy.

Born in Cornwall into a woodcarver’s family, Davy did extremely well in school and even considered becoming a poet before developing a fascination for experiments. That fascination nearly saw him blowing up his home several times as he was growing up. An old family friend apprenticed him to a surgeon, but that connection led him to a variety of learned gentlemen who furthered his interests in chemistry. One of these gentlemen, a Dr. Thomas Beddoes, was sufficiently impressed with young Davy that he offered him a position as his assistant at the Pneumatic Institution, a research facility for the study of the medical properties of gasses. Davy started working there, overseeing experiments, when he was twenty.

It was there that Davy became acquainted with nitrous oxide or laughing gas. He was convinced it could be efficacious for something, but many times he and his friends simply inhaled it for fun. It was said the large chamber constructed for his experiments was really built for such inhalation parties. On the other hand, he also conducted a number of experiments on galvanism, generating electric current through chemistry. That also ended up also having a nice sideline as a parlor trick.

Between patrons of the institution and trips to London, his circle of influential friends continued to grow and soon included the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Various friends brought him to the attention of the Royal Institution, that exalted haven of scientists. He was soon assistant lecturer in chemistry there, where he also directed the chemistry laboratory and helped edit the Institute’s journal.

Perhaps it was the poet in him, perhaps it was the fact that he was kind on the eyes, but his lectures proved extremely popular, with scientists and the public alike. At times he packed 500 people, many of them women, in the lecture hall. He was full lecturer by the time he was 23 and knighted when he was 34.  Here’s a satirical look at one such experiment and it’s rather rude results.

Shortly after his knighthood, he quit his position, married a widow of some means, and embarked on a Grand Tour, starting in France, where he was awarded a medal by Napoleon for his work in chemistry. They then travelled to Florence, Rome, Naples, Milan, Munich, and Innsbruck before the return of Napoleon from Elba forced them back to England. 

More studies followed, including the invention of a lamp to aid coal miners (and a cameo appearance helping my hero in The Courting Campaign). Davy is credited with discovering a number of elements, including sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron, barium, and chlorine as well as pioneering electro-chemistry. For his body of work, he was ultimately granted a baronetcy, the highest honor given a natural philosopher at that time. He eventually returned to Switzerland and died there of heart disease.  His last gift to the world was a book compiling his thoughts on science and philosophy, in which he spoke quite poetically and with touches of wry humor.

He never could stop the effects of laughing gas.