Vicky Dreiling's Blog, page 15

Trivial Pursuit: Regency Style

Hackney Coaches

Hackneys were the 19th century equivalent of the black cabs you see in London today. There were rules for passengers wishing to travel in Hackney Coaches. No more than four adults were allowed inside and one servant on the outside, with the exception of a child held in an adult's arms. If the coachman agreed to take more, he charged one shilling for each extra person. Passengers who used abusive language were fined, and if they defaulted on the payment, they were sent to a house of correction for seven days!

The Morning Toilet

Servants brought jugs of hot water to the lord and lady's bedrooms and poured the water into a wash-hand stand.  Squares of violet scented soap were used, although I found a reference to a more manly military cake. Shaving was done with a cut-throat razor (eek!) and sharpened on a strop or strip of leather. Readers, you may rest easier knowing your favorite Regency heroes and heroines would use toothbrushes and tooth-powder. Speaking of toilets…in case you were wondering, chamber pots were still used well into the Victorian era. I took photos of one at Warwick Castle. (My family is now certain I'm certifiably nuts). Our Regency lords and ladies also had water closets. By the way, a man by the name of John Harrington invented the first flush toilet in 1596 (Holy Shakespeare!), but apparently it was not as practical as the one invented by Joseph Bramah of Yorkshire who patented his water closet in England in 1778.

How to Write a Letter in Regency England in Eight (Relatively) Easy Steps



Before the invention of texting, our lords and ladies were reduced to using pen, ink, and paper (one step above the chisel and stone tablet). There were no envelopes, however, and paper was considered 'dear.' Here is the proper way to write and send a letter in Regency England.

Using a large sheet of paper, write the date and your current address at the top of the sheet. Be sure to write neatly on one side of the paper and fill it up.
Turn the paper 180 degrees and write upside down between the lines you previously wrote.
Now turn the paper 90 degrees (your choice of direction) and scribble at a right angle across the lines already written. Pray the recipient can read it.
The paper serves as the envelope. Fold the paper lengthwise on both sides so that the two sides meet in the middle.
Now fold this hot mess into three or four sections and leave some room at the top for a flap.
This is the tricky part. Heat some wax over a candle (be careful not to burn yourself) and let a few drops fall onto the flap. Now you press a seal onto the wax–we're high tech now!
On the unsealed side, write the address. If in London, put a street address. If in the country, just use the person's name and county as the letter will go to the village post office.
No stamps! The recipient pays for the letter!

Regency Beauty Treatments

Most beauty aids were home-made as imported French cosmetics were highly taxed. The juice of a green pineapple supposedly erased wrinkles, but if no pineapples were available, an onion could be substituted (Oh, dear, the aroma!). Another remedy for the complexion involved mixing rye bread crumbs, hot from the oven (I'm not making this up, I swear!) with the whites of four eggs, and a pint of white vinegar  used as a face mask!  To get rid of freckles, a desperate lady might add shredded horseradish to sour milk (these must have been some odoriferous concoctions!). For the gentlemen, powdered parsley seed was recommended to prevent baldness.

Here are the lovely names of some Regency cosmetics.

Royal Tincture of Peach Kernals
Carnation of Lilies
Liquid Bloom of Roses (rouge)
Powder of Pearl of India
Olympian Dew

Readers, I hope you enjoyed my edition of Regency Trivia. May the Magic Romance Fairies be with you!

Sources:

An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England, Venetia Murray, Penguin Books 1998

The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World, Margaret Sullivan, Chronicle Books, 2007

The Soanes at Home: Domestic Life at Lincoln's Inn Fields, Susan Palmer, Sir John Soane's Museum 2002

The ARCs for HOW TO RAVISH A RAKE Arrived

ARC stands for Advance Uncorrected Copy, so these books are released prior to the final proofing of the entire book. I'm so excited because the cover is gorgeous!

 

 

 

Here's another view!

 

Regency England: Links to Reference Books

A Twitter buddy mentioned she'd been hunting forRegency reference books, so I promised to post some that I own. Please note that some of these are expensive, and a great deal of information can be found on the web. I've been collecting these books for several years. You may also be able to get the used versions on Amazon, B&N or Abe books. Also, don't forget to check with your local Indie stores or libraries. Here are some of the reference books in my collection.

The Regency Country House: From the Archives of Country Life [Paperback] John Martin Robinson ($26.56)
An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England (Paperback) Venetia Murray  ($10.93)
Vauxhall Gardens: A History (Hardcover) David E. Coke  Alan Borg  ($73.58)
Regency Recollections: Captain Gronow's Guide to Life in London and Paris (Hardcover) Christopher Summerville $33.10
The Lady's Stratagem by Frances Gimble. A Repository of 1820s Directions for the Toilet, Mantua-Making, Stay-Making, Millinery & Etiquette ($70.82)
Jane Austen's Town & Country Style by Susan Watkins and Hugh Palmer (Hardback)  (Out of Print: See Amazon or AbeBooks for Used Version)
Fashion in the Time of Jane Austenby Sarah Jane Downing (Kindle $7.69 and Paperback $10.36)
The Soanes At Home: Domestic Life At Lincoln's Inn Fields by Susan Palmer ($7.92 AbeBooks)
Regency Furniture Designs by John Harris ($30.00 AbeBooks) Also available on Google Books
Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England by Carolly Erickson ($1.00 AbeBooks $5.00 Amazon)
Georgian and Regency Houses Explained by Trevor Yorke (Kindle Edition $7.99 and Paperback is $19.27)

Finally, I found a very helpful link this morning to Social Classes, Money, and Servants in Austen's Society. 
Do you have some favorite reference books or links to online sources for Regency England? If so, please share!
Cheers!

Lazy Sunday – Good Day to Read!

I decided to be a Lazy Lady today & spend all of Sunday reading. I might even watch a movie. Tomorrow I have to dive into the writing again as I owe several deliverables to my editor and agent by the first of the year. But I figured I'd earned a day of rest and relaxation. Today, I'm reading Mary Balogh's THE SECRET MISTRESS. So tell me what are you currently reading?

Regency England Links for Readers & Writers

Have you always wanted to know more about Regency England? I've collected a bunch of links over time and thought you might find them interesting.

Regency England – A Brief Introduction to the Era Actually a comprehensive site.

The Georgian Index – Great info on stage travel.

The Regency Collection – Includes information about the military, Waterloo, postal service, coaching, etc.

Galen Foley – History, clothing (lots of great explanations for men's clothing), and writing tips, too (be sure to explore the site)

1806 Map of London – Zoomable

The Regency Redingote – One of my favorite sites with info I've never seen anywhere else.

The Green Canister: Mrs Phillips's Covent Garden Sex Shop – Need I say more? LOL.

An Evening Card Party – Info on tables, cards, games, food.

Understanding the Society in which Jane Austen Sets Pride and Prejudice – From the Jane Austen Society of Australia.

Social Networking Study

Since I'm a former market researcher, I always find data fascinating. This new study of 60,000 social media users by the esteemed Forfester Research found that of the adults who use social media, 96% are using Facebook. Here is some interesting data by generation/social media site.

The next chart shows frequency of activities by generation & total US adult population.

Forrester's survey was conducted shortly after Google+ launched, so there is no data on that particular site. Note the difference in the base sizes for each chart. This essentially means that these participants were qualified (based on a survey question) to answer a particular question or a particular set of questions. Also interesting is that the youngest Generation – Gen Z (18-22) check their social networking sites at least weekly. Maybe they're hoping someone special will include them in their status update.

How frequently do you check your social networking sites?

Links for Writers

If you're a writer or just curious about the craft and business of writing, you might find some of these links helpful. Right click to open in a new window!

Romance Writers of America is the place to start if you're interested in writing for publication.

Roni Loren's blog for writers includes Fill Me In Friday weekly links. Click here: http://bit.ly/tVcez0

My Article on How to Write a Query Letter. The Pitch Begins with Premise

Romance University

Interested in Regency England? Here are some links with great information about the era:

The Regency Redingote

Great Fashion Info at Candice Hern's blog

Instructions for card games, writing letters, and recipes at The Jane Austen Online Center

Everything you always wanted to know about Hackney Cabs! (Includes how to behave!)

Nancy Mayer's site contains tons of information on Regency England.

Regency Christmas at Carlton House.

Stage Travel in Britain

Great article by my friend Cheryl Bolen on Courtship and Marriage Regency Style.

Do you have favorite writing links? Feel free to share! Cheers!

 

Win a Christmas Romance!

Check out my interview on Romancing Rakes & leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Mary Balogh's A CHRISTMAS PROMISE. Here's the link:

http://​romancingrakes.blogspot.com/​...

Cheers!

My Favorite Christmas Movie

I LOVE this movie and watch it every year. Tell me your favorite Xmas movie.

Back at the Hotel Proofing the Galleys

So what the heck are Galleys? They are the preliminary versions of books printed for final editing. Here's a photo of the ones I'm working on for HOW TO RAVISH A RAKE.

Here's a photo of what the printed galleys look like.

So you may wonder how I make corrections. Very carefully with a blue pencil. FYI: Erasers do not work very well on the paper, and there is very little space to write in corrections. However, the galleys have page and line numbers. To ensure the corrections are easy to follow, I create a Word document with each book that shows the correction by page and line number. (Did I mention I used to work for a F500 computer manufacturer? Writing anything by hand feels like chiseling a stone tablet to me.)

My favorite hotel for my writing deadlines is having a ton of Xmas parties. The bagpipers haven't showed up, but I'm holding out hope for tonight. If only I had known about the parties, I would have brought a sparkly dress and crashed them. The bellboy told me there were upwards of 700 guests attending those parties downstairs. Oh, well, I had work to do, and I stay in the hotel to avoid interruptions. By the way, the hotel has gone all out on the decor. Here is a photo of their Xmas decorations. Yes, that little Gingerbread House is floating in an indoor "lake" (and there are fish in it).

When I finish proofreading, I'll start working on a new proposal with new characters. I'm a little sad to say goodbye to Tristan & Tessa, Julianne and Hawk, and Will and Amy. But I'm very excited about my new idea and anxious to work on it.

May your holidays be safe and merry.

Cheers!