Heather King's Blog, page 12
June 11, 2014
RIDICULOUS RESULTS!
The results are in...Sue Johnson and I have waded through all the entries, decided on a shortlist and re-read those... It was difficult to choose between the top ones and we had to get picky, but in the end, after copious cups of tea and several packets of biscuits, we came to a decision.
1st. A Night To Remember, by Keith Gillison
Many congratulations, Keith!
2nd. The Meeting, by Margaret Evans
3rd. Untitled, by Sarah Williams
Two runners-up prizes of Sue Johnson's Creative Alchemy go to Calvin Hedley and Brianne Hall.
Congratulations to all the prize winners and well done to all who entered. Give yourselves a pat on the back for trying! We hope to run another competition later in the summer, so watch this space!
Keep on reading, as below is the winning entry, A Night To Remember.
Keep Writing!
Heather
A night to remember
She did not need a looking glass to know she must look a fright. Nevertheless Judy couldn’t resist having another peek at the abomination on top of her head. It was her sister’s fault. Always going on about Karen and how well she was doing at Hairdressing College. What had she been thinking? Here she was just a few hours away from a first date with Mike and she looked like she’d just cut her own hair blindfolded with a pair of rusty shears. She only agreed to it to save money. The bills were piling up, the car was in dire need of a service and Charlie was eating her out of house and home. The sooner he finished his A-Levels and got a job the better.What could she do about tonight? Cancelling wasn’t an option. It had taken months of bugging her friend Carol to fix her up with Mike. A large hat perhaps? An excellent idea if she actually owned any hats. Judy frowned in thought. An idea presented itself. She picked up the phone and dialled Mike’s number.Judy checked her make-up in the rear-view mirror and adjusted her hair. It was obviously a wig but it still looked better than what was underneath. A mop head would have been an improvement on her real hair. Mike hadn’t been thrilled at her proposed change of plans for the evening. He was a quiet dinner kind of guy. Attending a party full of strangers wearing fancy dress for a first date was the exact opposite of the kind of guy he was. Reluctantly he agreed to meet Judy at the party, on the proviso he could wear his uniform. The car chugged into life as Judy turned the key in the ignition.‘Just get me there you rust bucket.’The party was on the other side of town. Judy’s plan was to leave the car there and get the train back the next day to pick it up. At least that was plan B. Plan A involved Mike being so overcome with lust they ended up back at his place. Her outfit was chosen with the express aim of seeing plan A reach a successful conclusion.It was about two miles into the journey when things started to go wrong. As the car was passing the notorious Treadwell Estate Judy noticed the lights on the dashboard started to dim. A few seconds later the engine joined in on the act and the car crawled to a standstill at the side of the road. Just for the sake of pointlessly going through the motions she turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. It was deader than progressive rock. Judy picked up her mobile phone and dialled a taxi firm. At least that’s what she would have done if her phone was actually receiving a signal. With as much fury as she could muster she slammed the car door shut and stormed off down the road, angrily holding her phone in the air. She stopped to consider her options. A pay phone, that’s what she needed. They used to be quite popular years ago. A quick glance around revealed a possible location for such an old-fangled device. On the opposite side of the road was a pub. Judy crossed the road and glanced up at the pub sign before entering. The Whippet’s Ankle. An estate pub. She took a deep breath, pushed the pub door open and marched towards the bar. She was halfway there before her brain finished interpreting the information her eyes were attempting to relay to it with a strong sense of urgency.‘Excuse me love,’ said the landlord, ‘we’re not open to the public tonight. Private party.’‘Wahey,’ shouted a man dressed as Superman. ‘The stripper’s here.’ Judy quickly scanned the interior of the pub. It contained a pool table, a jukebox, a number of tables and chairs and about thirty men dressed as superheroes drinking lager. Then she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror behind the bar. In her rage against the ineptitude of her technological possessions to perform their basic functions, Judy had completely forgotten that she was dressed as Wonder Woman. Deciding this wasn’t an ideal place to spend any time at all; Judy turned and walked towards the exit. It was blocked by a combination of The Incredible Hulk and Captain Marvel.‘Now then lads, play nice. Anyone touches the lady and you’ll have me to deal with,’ shouted the landlord.As if to strengthen his point the landlord reached behind the bar and retrieved a baseball bat decorated with numerous bloody nails. The occupants of the Whippet’s Ankle realised that despite being dressed as superheroes they were in fact not in possession of any powers that could outwit a baseball bat.‘Sorry about them,’ said Spiderman, as he stepped forwardwith his hand outstretched to greet Judy. ‘We’re having a stag do for Brian over there,’ he said pointing at Batman. ‘I'm Daniel, the best man. What’s your name love?’‘Judy.’‘What’s with the outfit?’Judy explained about her date with Mike, the bad haircut, the car breaking down and her mobile refusing to work.‘Yeah, it’s a nightmare round here if you’re not on the right network. There’s a phone out back you can use to call a cab.’Judy sighed with relief.‘Thanks,’ she said to Daniel. ‘I was worried there for a minute.’Daniel removed his mask and smiled warmly.‘We’rea harmless bunch really. I’m actually a solicitor. I’m staying sober tonight to keep this lot in order. Would you like to join us for a drink before your taxi arrives?’Judy smiled back at Daniel.‘Well, maybe just a quick one,’ she said, looking at her watch.‘What’s your poison?’‘Quadruple gin,’ replied Judy. ‘Just to take the edge off.’
An hour and three quadruple gins later, Judy decided that perhaps it was now time to call a cab. She’d thrashed Thor and Captain America at pool, beaten The Incredible Hulk in an arm wrestle and had started a conga that was still in full flow.‘One quick piggy back race and I’ll be on my way. You,’ she slurred loudly at Flash Gordon, ‘get Batman and Robin and meet me in the beer garden.’The superheroes lined the perimeter of the beer garden, raucously cheering encouragement and obscenities at the competitors.‘On your marks. Get set. Go,’ shouted Wolverine.Batman and Robin stormed into the lead and were almost across the winning line when a combination of the fresh air and a full days drinking caught up with Batman’s central nervous system. He staggered backwards, lurched into Judy astride Flash Gordon’s shoulders and the four of them came crashing to earth. Judy landed on her head. She was out cold.‘Is she dead?’ asked Thor. ‘Can I give her the kiss of life?’Groggily, Judy opened her eyes, sat up and looked around.‘Where am I?’
It was two hours of checks and scans in A&E before Judy was given the all-clear. As a head injury victim she was given the highest priority. Daniel drove her to the hospital and waited patiently for the news. ‘Plenty of rest and her memory should return soon. Bring her back in a few days if there’s no improvement,’ was the consultant’s verdict. Daniel had just escorted Judy out of the ward when her phone rang. The name Charlie appeared on the screen.‘Mum, it’s me. I’m in trouble. I went to this student party and, well, I’ve been arrested for impersonating a police officer.’
Sergeant Peterson walked purposefully towards the interview room. Another Saturday night, another hilarious student jape. He was supposed to be enjoying a quiet dinner in a nice restaurant with an attractive lady. Instead, his date had cancelled his dinner, invited him to a fancy dress party and then stood him up. He was actually relieved to get the call to come to the station at once. A group of drunks dressed as superheroes had started a riot in town. On his way to the station he had no choice but to arrest an inebriated student in police uniform who thought it was a good idea to stand in the middle of a busy junction and direct traffic whilst performing the dance moves to the song YMCA. Peterson entered the interview room and sat down. After a few seconds he pinched himself a couple of times to check he wasn’t hallucinating. This confirmed that he really was sat across a desk from Spiderman, a bedraggled looking Wonder Woman, and a swaying teenager dressed as a policeman.‘I’m the boy’s lawyer,’ said Spiderman, ‘and this is his mother.’Peterson leaned forward andstared in concentration at Wonder Woman.‘What the blazes?’ he bellowed, suddenly recognising her.Judy stared back at Mike, a confused look on her face.‘Have we met before?’ she asked. ‘You look awfully familiar.’
1st. A Night To Remember, by Keith Gillison
Many congratulations, Keith!
2nd. The Meeting, by Margaret Evans
3rd. Untitled, by Sarah Williams
Two runners-up prizes of Sue Johnson's Creative Alchemy go to Calvin Hedley and Brianne Hall.
Congratulations to all the prize winners and well done to all who entered. Give yourselves a pat on the back for trying! We hope to run another competition later in the summer, so watch this space!
Keep on reading, as below is the winning entry, A Night To Remember.
Keep Writing!
Heather
A night to remember
She did not need a looking glass to know she must look a fright. Nevertheless Judy couldn’t resist having another peek at the abomination on top of her head. It was her sister’s fault. Always going on about Karen and how well she was doing at Hairdressing College. What had she been thinking? Here she was just a few hours away from a first date with Mike and she looked like she’d just cut her own hair blindfolded with a pair of rusty shears. She only agreed to it to save money. The bills were piling up, the car was in dire need of a service and Charlie was eating her out of house and home. The sooner he finished his A-Levels and got a job the better.What could she do about tonight? Cancelling wasn’t an option. It had taken months of bugging her friend Carol to fix her up with Mike. A large hat perhaps? An excellent idea if she actually owned any hats. Judy frowned in thought. An idea presented itself. She picked up the phone and dialled Mike’s number.Judy checked her make-up in the rear-view mirror and adjusted her hair. It was obviously a wig but it still looked better than what was underneath. A mop head would have been an improvement on her real hair. Mike hadn’t been thrilled at her proposed change of plans for the evening. He was a quiet dinner kind of guy. Attending a party full of strangers wearing fancy dress for a first date was the exact opposite of the kind of guy he was. Reluctantly he agreed to meet Judy at the party, on the proviso he could wear his uniform. The car chugged into life as Judy turned the key in the ignition.‘Just get me there you rust bucket.’The party was on the other side of town. Judy’s plan was to leave the car there and get the train back the next day to pick it up. At least that was plan B. Plan A involved Mike being so overcome with lust they ended up back at his place. Her outfit was chosen with the express aim of seeing plan A reach a successful conclusion.It was about two miles into the journey when things started to go wrong. As the car was passing the notorious Treadwell Estate Judy noticed the lights on the dashboard started to dim. A few seconds later the engine joined in on the act and the car crawled to a standstill at the side of the road. Just for the sake of pointlessly going through the motions she turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. It was deader than progressive rock. Judy picked up her mobile phone and dialled a taxi firm. At least that’s what she would have done if her phone was actually receiving a signal. With as much fury as she could muster she slammed the car door shut and stormed off down the road, angrily holding her phone in the air. She stopped to consider her options. A pay phone, that’s what she needed. They used to be quite popular years ago. A quick glance around revealed a possible location for such an old-fangled device. On the opposite side of the road was a pub. Judy crossed the road and glanced up at the pub sign before entering. The Whippet’s Ankle. An estate pub. She took a deep breath, pushed the pub door open and marched towards the bar. She was halfway there before her brain finished interpreting the information her eyes were attempting to relay to it with a strong sense of urgency.‘Excuse me love,’ said the landlord, ‘we’re not open to the public tonight. Private party.’‘Wahey,’ shouted a man dressed as Superman. ‘The stripper’s here.’ Judy quickly scanned the interior of the pub. It contained a pool table, a jukebox, a number of tables and chairs and about thirty men dressed as superheroes drinking lager. Then she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror behind the bar. In her rage against the ineptitude of her technological possessions to perform their basic functions, Judy had completely forgotten that she was dressed as Wonder Woman. Deciding this wasn’t an ideal place to spend any time at all; Judy turned and walked towards the exit. It was blocked by a combination of The Incredible Hulk and Captain Marvel.‘Now then lads, play nice. Anyone touches the lady and you’ll have me to deal with,’ shouted the landlord.As if to strengthen his point the landlord reached behind the bar and retrieved a baseball bat decorated with numerous bloody nails. The occupants of the Whippet’s Ankle realised that despite being dressed as superheroes they were in fact not in possession of any powers that could outwit a baseball bat.‘Sorry about them,’ said Spiderman, as he stepped forwardwith his hand outstretched to greet Judy. ‘We’re having a stag do for Brian over there,’ he said pointing at Batman. ‘I'm Daniel, the best man. What’s your name love?’‘Judy.’‘What’s with the outfit?’Judy explained about her date with Mike, the bad haircut, the car breaking down and her mobile refusing to work.‘Yeah, it’s a nightmare round here if you’re not on the right network. There’s a phone out back you can use to call a cab.’Judy sighed with relief.‘Thanks,’ she said to Daniel. ‘I was worried there for a minute.’Daniel removed his mask and smiled warmly.‘We’rea harmless bunch really. I’m actually a solicitor. I’m staying sober tonight to keep this lot in order. Would you like to join us for a drink before your taxi arrives?’Judy smiled back at Daniel.‘Well, maybe just a quick one,’ she said, looking at her watch.‘What’s your poison?’‘Quadruple gin,’ replied Judy. ‘Just to take the edge off.’
An hour and three quadruple gins later, Judy decided that perhaps it was now time to call a cab. She’d thrashed Thor and Captain America at pool, beaten The Incredible Hulk in an arm wrestle and had started a conga that was still in full flow.‘One quick piggy back race and I’ll be on my way. You,’ she slurred loudly at Flash Gordon, ‘get Batman and Robin and meet me in the beer garden.’The superheroes lined the perimeter of the beer garden, raucously cheering encouragement and obscenities at the competitors.‘On your marks. Get set. Go,’ shouted Wolverine.Batman and Robin stormed into the lead and were almost across the winning line when a combination of the fresh air and a full days drinking caught up with Batman’s central nervous system. He staggered backwards, lurched into Judy astride Flash Gordon’s shoulders and the four of them came crashing to earth. Judy landed on her head. She was out cold.‘Is she dead?’ asked Thor. ‘Can I give her the kiss of life?’Groggily, Judy opened her eyes, sat up and looked around.‘Where am I?’
It was two hours of checks and scans in A&E before Judy was given the all-clear. As a head injury victim she was given the highest priority. Daniel drove her to the hospital and waited patiently for the news. ‘Plenty of rest and her memory should return soon. Bring her back in a few days if there’s no improvement,’ was the consultant’s verdict. Daniel had just escorted Judy out of the ward when her phone rang. The name Charlie appeared on the screen.‘Mum, it’s me. I’m in trouble. I went to this student party and, well, I’ve been arrested for impersonating a police officer.’
Sergeant Peterson walked purposefully towards the interview room. Another Saturday night, another hilarious student jape. He was supposed to be enjoying a quiet dinner in a nice restaurant with an attractive lady. Instead, his date had cancelled his dinner, invited him to a fancy dress party and then stood him up. He was actually relieved to get the call to come to the station at once. A group of drunks dressed as superheroes had started a riot in town. On his way to the station he had no choice but to arrest an inebriated student in police uniform who thought it was a good idea to stand in the middle of a busy junction and direct traffic whilst performing the dance moves to the song YMCA. Peterson entered the interview room and sat down. After a few seconds he pinched himself a couple of times to check he wasn’t hallucinating. This confirmed that he really was sat across a desk from Spiderman, a bedraggled looking Wonder Woman, and a swaying teenager dressed as a policeman.‘I’m the boy’s lawyer,’ said Spiderman, ‘and this is his mother.’Peterson leaned forward andstared in concentration at Wonder Woman.‘What the blazes?’ he bellowed, suddenly recognising her.Judy stared back at Mike, a confused look on her face.‘Have we met before?’ she asked. ‘You look awfully familiar.’
June 7, 2014
'Ridiculous' Story Competition
Thank you......for the huge amount of interest in the short story competition commemorating the release of
A Sense of the Ridiculous
and to those who sent in the amazing entries.
...and for waiting patiently!
Sue Johnson and I are currently reading and considering all the submissions and we will announce the results as soon as we can.
In the meantime...Here is a short story of 1000 words I have written starting with the same sentence. I hope it demonstrates the sort of things a judge is looking for - imagery, humour and sensory detail. I hope you enjoy reading it!
Stable Mates
She did not need a looking glass to know she must look a fright. Joanne sighed and pulled off her kingfisher-blue poke bonnet before flopping down on the arbour's marble seat. The milky stone struck cold through her white muslin gown although the day was warm. She had signed on as an extra for the newest version of Pride and Prejudice, being filmed at nearby Heathway Hall, hoping for a glimpse of the stars Colin Fernyhough and Jennifer Healey. So far she had spent hours baking in the July sun while the director and camera crew had lined up shots of the park and house; gained blisters from tramping across a field in the wake of Ms Healey's understudy and been further desiccated by a repetitive ride in an open carriage up the sweeping drive. She was pooped, her hair must look as though blackbirds had nested in it and not a sniff of an autograph.
She sighed again and plucked dispiritedly at the deep turquoise ribbon at her waist. Her great plan had gone to pot. She had hoped to net one or two signatures to raffle at the Riding Club auction for the equine charity StableMates. Swiping the back of her hand across her damp forehead, she inhaled deeply, catching the summertime scents of mown grass and honeysuckle. Behind her an insect buzzed a desultory refrain and in the distance she heard the staccato crackle of a loud-hailer.
Back to it, she thought. It hadn't been much of a lunch break and they had started at 8am. She leaned forward, preparing to stand, when there was a squeal, accompanied by crashing and shouting. Rapid hoof beats drummed the hard ground. Seconds later, a handsome bay colt emerged between two enormous rhododendrons, a well-chewed rope dangling from his leather head collar. His momentum checked as he spotted Joanne; snorting, he swung to face her.
Her movements deliberate and speaking softly, she rose. "Hello, boy. What have you been up to? Sorry, I haven't got any mints. No pockets, look!"
The horse blew through his nose as though he understood. Joanne tentatively reached out her hand. The colt backed away a step but didn't appear frightened. She edged nearer; he retreated again. Whistles and calls floated over the yew hedge bordering the shrubbery.
"Wickham!""Where the hell has he got to?"
"Wickham? Is that your name?" Joanne questioned the visitor.
His attention was on the voices; his skin quivered where a fly landed. A sheen of sweat highlighted his fine coat. Taking her chance, Jo stretched for the dangling rope. As her fingers closed around the sodden twist of multi-coloured fibres, a designer-stubbled man in jeans and a teenage girl with a long blonde pony-tail pushed through the gap made by the colt. Taking flight, the animal sidestepped Joanne and shot down the path leading to the lake. She was hardly dressed for restraining half a ton of horseflesh, but despite her skimpy Regency slippers skidding on the gravel, instinct made Jo dig in her heels and hang on to its head. Dragged through another yew hedge, her hair now billowing in walnut-coloured hanks about her face, she managed to capture the horse's nose and squeeze the upper lip.
The colt tried to evade her grip, but as the released endorphins worked their magic, heaved a sigh and came to a halt some yards from the landscaped mirror of water.
"Good boy," she murmured, gasping for breath but keeping a firm grip on rope and nose.
"Miss Eliza Bennet, I presume." The young man with the stubble, also panting, had slowed to a walk and approached with the easy gait of the horseman. He winked and grinned disarmingly. "You crafty bugger, Wickham," he crooned, holding out some feed. "I'll find a knot you can't undo if it kills me!" The horse whiffled and took the offering as gently as a bird. "Darcy Williams," he said in the same coaxing tone. "Call me Fitz. I owe you one. This guy's one talented performer, but he's too clever for his own good. He could've caused mayhem and got me sued into the bargain!" In seeming afterthought, he added, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine... Thank you. Are the horses in the film yours?"
"No." He stroked the colt's neck and fondled its ears. "Only this one. I'm hoping EquinePerformers will buy him. You an actress?"
"No." She smiled as she mimicked his short reply. "An extra.""You know horses, though?"
"I have two. Nowhere near his quality, but I love them."
"Fancy a career in films?"
"Not likely!" She grimaced. "I only did this to get autographs for a charity auction."
"The big-wigs will all be here on Friday. You'll catch them then."
"Oh, typical! I'm only here today."
"That's a pity. Well, I'd better be getting back. Thanks again... er..."
"Joanne."
"See you around." Giving her a thumb's-up, he led the horse back to where Blonde Pony-tail was waiting, feed bucket in hand.
Later that evening, as Joanne was tiredly climbing into her Fiesta, she was astonished to be accosted by the harassed-looking recruitment manager.
"I've got something for you," she said, handing over a folded note.
"What...?" Jo began to ask, but the woman had gone.
Inside the stationery was taped a key, a car registration number and the words, 'Sell the item on the back seat at your auction,' scrawled beside it.
When she eventually located an ancient tan Discovery, she nearly fainted. On the grubby leatherette seat, wrapped in a white sheet, lay an ornate mirror. Tucked in the frame was a business card: Darcy 'Fitz' Williams, Equine Training with Sense and Sensibility and across the glass, in flowing script, the signature 'Darcy'. A yellow sticky note proclaimed, 'Dinner tonight?'
Joanne reached for her mobile phone and keyed in a message. "To Mr Darcy, Miss Elizabeth Bennet would like to express her sincere gratitude for your benevolence. Please also be advised of her Persuasion to accept your kind invitation."
©Heather King
...and for waiting patiently!
Sue Johnson and I are currently reading and considering all the submissions and we will announce the results as soon as we can.
In the meantime...Here is a short story of 1000 words I have written starting with the same sentence. I hope it demonstrates the sort of things a judge is looking for - imagery, humour and sensory detail. I hope you enjoy reading it!
Stable Mates
She did not need a looking glass to know she must look a fright. Joanne sighed and pulled off her kingfisher-blue poke bonnet before flopping down on the arbour's marble seat. The milky stone struck cold through her white muslin gown although the day was warm. She had signed on as an extra for the newest version of Pride and Prejudice, being filmed at nearby Heathway Hall, hoping for a glimpse of the stars Colin Fernyhough and Jennifer Healey. So far she had spent hours baking in the July sun while the director and camera crew had lined up shots of the park and house; gained blisters from tramping across a field in the wake of Ms Healey's understudy and been further desiccated by a repetitive ride in an open carriage up the sweeping drive. She was pooped, her hair must look as though blackbirds had nested in it and not a sniff of an autograph.
She sighed again and plucked dispiritedly at the deep turquoise ribbon at her waist. Her great plan had gone to pot. She had hoped to net one or two signatures to raffle at the Riding Club auction for the equine charity StableMates. Swiping the back of her hand across her damp forehead, she inhaled deeply, catching the summertime scents of mown grass and honeysuckle. Behind her an insect buzzed a desultory refrain and in the distance she heard the staccato crackle of a loud-hailer.
Back to it, she thought. It hadn't been much of a lunch break and they had started at 8am. She leaned forward, preparing to stand, when there was a squeal, accompanied by crashing and shouting. Rapid hoof beats drummed the hard ground. Seconds later, a handsome bay colt emerged between two enormous rhododendrons, a well-chewed rope dangling from his leather head collar. His momentum checked as he spotted Joanne; snorting, he swung to face her.
Her movements deliberate and speaking softly, she rose. "Hello, boy. What have you been up to? Sorry, I haven't got any mints. No pockets, look!"
The horse blew through his nose as though he understood. Joanne tentatively reached out her hand. The colt backed away a step but didn't appear frightened. She edged nearer; he retreated again. Whistles and calls floated over the yew hedge bordering the shrubbery.
"Wickham!""Where the hell has he got to?"
"Wickham? Is that your name?" Joanne questioned the visitor.
His attention was on the voices; his skin quivered where a fly landed. A sheen of sweat highlighted his fine coat. Taking her chance, Jo stretched for the dangling rope. As her fingers closed around the sodden twist of multi-coloured fibres, a designer-stubbled man in jeans and a teenage girl with a long blonde pony-tail pushed through the gap made by the colt. Taking flight, the animal sidestepped Joanne and shot down the path leading to the lake. She was hardly dressed for restraining half a ton of horseflesh, but despite her skimpy Regency slippers skidding on the gravel, instinct made Jo dig in her heels and hang on to its head. Dragged through another yew hedge, her hair now billowing in walnut-coloured hanks about her face, she managed to capture the horse's nose and squeeze the upper lip.
The colt tried to evade her grip, but as the released endorphins worked their magic, heaved a sigh and came to a halt some yards from the landscaped mirror of water.
"Good boy," she murmured, gasping for breath but keeping a firm grip on rope and nose.
"Miss Eliza Bennet, I presume." The young man with the stubble, also panting, had slowed to a walk and approached with the easy gait of the horseman. He winked and grinned disarmingly. "You crafty bugger, Wickham," he crooned, holding out some feed. "I'll find a knot you can't undo if it kills me!" The horse whiffled and took the offering as gently as a bird. "Darcy Williams," he said in the same coaxing tone. "Call me Fitz. I owe you one. This guy's one talented performer, but he's too clever for his own good. He could've caused mayhem and got me sued into the bargain!" In seeming afterthought, he added, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine... Thank you. Are the horses in the film yours?"
"No." He stroked the colt's neck and fondled its ears. "Only this one. I'm hoping EquinePerformers will buy him. You an actress?"
"No." She smiled as she mimicked his short reply. "An extra.""You know horses, though?"
"I have two. Nowhere near his quality, but I love them."
"Fancy a career in films?"
"Not likely!" She grimaced. "I only did this to get autographs for a charity auction."
"The big-wigs will all be here on Friday. You'll catch them then."
"Oh, typical! I'm only here today."
"That's a pity. Well, I'd better be getting back. Thanks again... er..."
"Joanne."
"See you around." Giving her a thumb's-up, he led the horse back to where Blonde Pony-tail was waiting, feed bucket in hand.
Later that evening, as Joanne was tiredly climbing into her Fiesta, she was astonished to be accosted by the harassed-looking recruitment manager.
"I've got something for you," she said, handing over a folded note.
"What...?" Jo began to ask, but the woman had gone.
Inside the stationery was taped a key, a car registration number and the words, 'Sell the item on the back seat at your auction,' scrawled beside it.
When she eventually located an ancient tan Discovery, she nearly fainted. On the grubby leatherette seat, wrapped in a white sheet, lay an ornate mirror. Tucked in the frame was a business card: Darcy 'Fitz' Williams, Equine Training with Sense and Sensibility and across the glass, in flowing script, the signature 'Darcy'. A yellow sticky note proclaimed, 'Dinner tonight?'
Joanne reached for her mobile phone and keyed in a message. "To Mr Darcy, Miss Elizabeth Bennet would like to express her sincere gratitude for your benevolence. Please also be advised of her Persuasion to accept your kind invitation."
©Heather King
May 21, 2014
Meet My Main Character
This is the first time I have been involved in a Blog Hop, so a warm welcome to all visitors! My thanks to the wonderful Jen Black for tagging me.
1. What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or an historic person?My heroine is Jocasta Stanyon, the daughter of bluff squire Sir Thomas Stanyon. She is entirely fictional, but her personality has echoes of other characters, both real and imaginary.
2. When and where is the story set?A Sense of the Ridiculous is set during the extended Regency era, in 1817. The story takes place in the beautiful countryside surrounding the city of York in the glorious county of Yorkshire.
3. What should we know about him/her?Having lost her mother when still a child, Jocasta has had an unconventional upbringing, running semi-wild with her brother and his friends. She loves dogs and horses, is an excellent rider and is sometimes impetuous, which leads her into scrapes. She tries hard to be good, but at times is impatient of some of the restrictions placed upon her now she is a young lady. She is also frustrated by the dull gentlemen in the locality, one of whom she must endure as the suitor favoured by her father.
4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?Annoyed by the severe and unjust dressing-down she receives from her aunt for a minor indiscretion, Jocasta rebels... and plunges headlong into another world, where she must battle with her conscience. Then, having found her kindred spirit in innkeeper Richard Cowley, she is furious with her brother Harry when he precipitates her return and distraught when her father commands her to forget Richard.
5. What is the personal goal of the character?Her father wishes her to marry their neighbour, Lord Edward Rufforth, an alliance which will join the two estates and thus increase the family's importance and wealth. Jocasta longs for someone with whom she can share her lively sense of the ridiculous.
6. Is there a working title for this novel and can we read more about it?
There are some excerpts of the novel further down this Blog. A Sense of the Ridiculous is currently in E-book format and published by Musa Publishing at www.musapublishing.com and is also available from:
Amazon
All Romance Books
Barnes & Noble
Bookstrand
Goodreads
Google Books
Rainbow
Smashwords
I am honoured to be able to pass the baton to Sue Johnson for the next leg of this journey. Catch up with her at http://writer's-toolkit.co.uk . I hope you have enjoyed meeting Jocasta and thank you for joining me.
Heather
May 9, 2014
The Age of Gluttony
Regency Repasts
The Georgian era is famous ‒ or infamous ‒ for excess and nowhere is this more apparent than in the dining room. It was the Georgians who instituted the large dining table which remained in the dining room. Previously, folding tables had been brought in by servants, dining taking place in small groups with chairs set according to the number of diners. The affluent dined lavishly, with meals based around meat, while the poor rarely, if ever, enjoyed flesh or fowl, relying on cheese for the meagre protein in their diet. It was during the eighteenth century that cheese, for so long a locally-produced commodity, was transported to the towns and sold under the names of the places they originated, i.e. Cheddar, Gloucester, Cheshire, Stilton, Wensleydale et al. For the first time, the sale of cheese became a lucrative source of income for the farmers.
Milk was also sold in the towns, carried by carter from nearby farms, but without the benefit of modern refrigeration, it must have been rarely in summer that it was not sour. This, however, must have been preferable during the eighteenth century to that produced by town-kept cows. These unfortunate animals were kept in such dreadful conditions ‒ in filthy, dark and overcrowded byres ‒ that their milk was far from being the healthy food we are accustomed to today. By the Regency, this situation was somewhat improved as standards of hygiene improved, particularly in the country. In London, cows were a familiar sight to the populace as they grazed in St James’s Park (as well as several others) under the watchful eyes of their milkmaids or herdsmen, who would then hawk it through the streets in buckets suspended from a wooden yoke supported across the shoulders.
Eggs and butter were also brought daily to the capital, the finest being transported by sea from Yorkshire and East Anglia. Fish was also fetched upriver from the various landing sites. Vegetables were grown in the market gardens which lay a few miles beyond the city limits and sold at the markets or via barrows pushed around the streets. The servants of the Quality sought out the best produce at Covent Garden, which was also famous for its wide array of dairy products and fruit, while hawkers of such wares as potted eels, sausages, pasties, savoury baked pies and gingerbread strolled the precincts selling directly from trays balanced on their heads or around their necks. Many readers will be familiar with the names of other famous London markets, too.
Billingsgate was renowned as the largest fish market and of course Smithfield was the destination of the drover-driven herds of cattle and sheep, which were either slaughtered on site or sold to local butchers. Those streets called The Shambles in so many towns were thusly designated from the row of butchers’ shops and their slaughterhouses ‘out back’. Leadenhall market was originally a market for meat, poultry and game; milk, leather and cloth; tools and kitchen pans. After the Great Fire in 1666, it was divided into the Beef Yard, Green Yard and Herb market. Poultry was vended ‘on the toe’, which led to one singular character known as Old Tom. Tom was a gander which escaped his fate with 34,000 other geese and became a local celebrity. He was even fed at various inns in the locality. When he died, aged 38, in 1835, he was first laid in state before being buried at the market. The Fleet existed from 1736 to 1829 and was a general market where carcasses and cuts of meat changed hands, with an open air vegetable market at one end. It was moved to Farringdon in 1829 when the road was widened and became solely for fruit and vegetables. Newgate dated from before the Great Fire and was sited in Newgate Street, also selling butchered meat. By the 1840s, ‘pigs from the country’ were sold here, as well as ‘hog meat, game, fresh butter and eggs &c.’. The markets seethed with all manner of specimens, both human and bestial. They were dirty and noisy; alive with a myriad smells, many of them unpleasant. Rotten vegetables and fruit, squashed underfoot; the reek of fish; the blood, gore, offal and the stench of death of the cattle market. No wonder those who could afford to do so sent their servants!
Through most of the eighteenth century, breakfast (at least for the more well-to-do) had been partaken of at about ten o’clock, being a light repast of hot buttered bread or toast, perhaps with cheese and washed down with chocolate, coffee, tea or ale. It could last an hour or more if friends paid a visit. In the grander houses it might even be laid out as a buffet for those returning from a morning ride or a visit to the park or library. Those who dwelled in the country and those who worked for a living broke their fast at a somewhat earlier hour. By the turn of the nineteenth century a more substantial meal became the norm, with eggs, fish and meat being added to the menu. The hour of service crept forward too, leading to the necessity of a midday snack or nuncheon (literal meaning ‘noon drink’) which became confused with luncheon. Lunch was and is always eaten in the middle of the day, whereas a nuncheon might be taken at any time. To further add to the confusion, the poorer sections of society still ate their dinner around noon, as their working day began so early. They might then, as their forebears had for centuries, eat a supper of cold pie, meat or bread with a chunk of cheese before retiring.
A substantial lunch, such as Maria Edgeworth enjoyed when visiting Sir Walter Scott in July 1823, consisted of such dishes as cold roast chicken, ham, pickled salmon and ‘a cold boiled round’. A second course was hot and included poached eggs, toast, green vegetables, potatoes and trout, as well as ‘custard pudding, a goose berry tart and plenty of Highland cream’.
In contrast to the less privileged, dinner for the middle and upper classes was gradually served later and later as the eighteenth century progressed. A country family with social aspirations might come to table at two or even three o’clock ‒ it was noted by Richard Steel before1729 as being the latter ‒ and it was four o’clock by 1740. By 1779 the Rector of Aston, near Birmingham, entertained Catherine Hutton and the ladies withdrew at five o’clock, with the tea tray being called for at six when the gentlemen rejoined them. In 1789, Horace Walpole wrote that he was ‘so antiquated’ he still preferred to dine at four, but by the 1790s, seven seemed to be the fashionable hour. This was of course open to individual interpretation, depending on whether town or country hours were being kept. By the turn of the nineteenth century, when in town one might dine as late as eight or nine o’clock; in the country, perhaps five or six.
It was usual in fashionable houses to serve three courses for dinner. The first course was soup (if on the menu) with various mixed ‘removes’ (dishes replacing those that have been removed) which may have included fish, meat and game. The second course centred around meat such as beef, pork, mutton, poultry and game birds such as grouse, partridge and pheasant. Included in this course would have been sauces, vegetables and savoury dishes like pies and omelettes. The discovery that eating fresh greens and fruit could prevent scurvy had led to more people eating them by the Regency. Ingenious gravy boats gained in popularity, the Argyle having a concealed hot water chamber to prevent fat congealing on the surface of the gravy by keeping it warm.
According to Georgette Heyer in False Colours, a ‘small’ dinner might include, for its second course, cauliflower, peas, asparagus, French beans, a goose, a lobster and a basket of pastries, plus side dishes of a haunch of venison and a braised ham. A cold joint of roast beef was often on the sideboard in case of need, while such items as pickles and oat cakes stayed on table for the duration of the meal. The third, sweet course consisted of jellies, creams, ices, pastries, sweetmeats, cheese, fruit and nuts. Naturally, wine flowed throughout the meal and guests generally served themselves from those dishes closest to them, although footmen were on hand in grander establishments to fetch anything required which was not within reach.
Informal behaviour was sweeping in by the close of the eighteenth century and was remarked upon with disfavour by various foreign visitors, not least the Duc de la Rochefoucauld when he visited England in 1784. However, the formality of gathering fifteen minutes before dinner was still adhered to, as was the practice of the highest-ranked gentleman escorting the highest-ranked lady other than his immediate family and thus onwards through the company in order of precedence. During the first years of the eighteenth century, men sat at one end, the women at the other, but by the Regency it was customary for the sexes to alternate around the table.
A Table Setting
In aristocratic households, the butler, cook and housekeeper had the ordering of such practicalities as the laying of table and the placement of dishes, although the mistress was consulted with regard to menus. For the lady of aspirations but more humble standing or origins, there were many books available on the subjects of cookery and housekeeping, included therein diagrams of table setting. Soup tureens were set at the corners of the table and other dishes aligned along the sides in-between, hence the term ‘side dishes’. This was service à la française, which made a grand statement but had considerable drawbacks, not least that food quickly cooled. Renowned French chef Marie-Antoine Carême, who wrote L’Art de la Cuisine Française among other cook books, commanded a huge wage during his brief tenure as the Prince Regent’s chef de cuisine about the end of 1816. Carême hated everything about England, but although he was responsible for a grand banquet at The Royal Pavilion in Brighton, held on 15 January 1817 ‒ which boasted thirty-six entrées in a list of several dozen dishes across nine courses⃰ ‒ he could well have been instrumental in the adoption of the sequential system of service à la russe, which is familiar to the modern eye. In other words, soup, fish, meat and sweet courses, clearly defined as such, came to table one after the other. As Carême had once worked for the Russian tsar, it seems likely that he was the architect of an innovation which gradually became adopted throughout the British Isles. * Displayed in The Prince of Pleasure and His Regency JB PriestleyThe tea tray was called for when the gentlemen rejoined the ladies following their communion over the port and brandy; this consisted of not just tea, but coffee and cakes besides. Nevertheless, by around ten to eleven pm, the assembled were glad to indulge in a light supper. For a mere family occasion, this would consist of fruit, cold meats and wine. If guests were in attendance, however, hot food was often provided and side dishes such as ‘boiled soals’ or a goose pie. A sweet dish would be there too, a typical example being a confection of cream, eggs and sugar, flavoured with hartshorn, canary and orange-flower water and set in a hedgehog-shaped mould. The spines were then added in the form of almonds and its eyes were currants. This was termed a ‘middle dish’ but could have been made into a ‘grand dessert’ with the addition of other elaborate shapes.
Dishes for Breakfast
Hot rolls and bread with butter. French bread. Toast. Bath cakes (also good for Afternoon tea). Plum cake, honey cake, pound cake. Cold meats, including beef and ham. Eggs. Herrings, smoked, baked or fried. (Kippers were not so called until Victorian times). Tea, chocolate, coffee, ale.
A Luncheon Menu
In 1755 Dr Johnson described luncheon ‘as much food as one’s hand can hold’. This is no better illustrated than in that staple of the modern age, the sandwich. Remarkably, the sandwich first appeared in 1762 when John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, is said to have called for bread and meat, slapping the latter into the former so as to keep a hand free. Whether this was at his desk at the Admiralty or whilst playing cards in a gambling den, is lost to the annals of history, although apparently the first recording of ‘the sandwich’ occurred at the gaming table.
A cold collation of meats, bread and cheese. Cold fowl. Pickled herring or salmon. Potted mackerel, eels or shrimps. Eggs. Baked trout. Game pie. Salad vegetables such as lettuce, celery and asparagus. Jellies or creams. Batter pudding. Syllabub. Fruit tart.
Everlasting, or Solid, Syllabub
Mix a quart of thick raw cream, one pound of refined sugar, a pint and half of
fine raisin wine in a deep pan; put to it the grated peel and the juice of three
lemons. Beat, or whisk it one way half an hour ; then put it on a sieve with a bit
of thin muslin laid smooth in the shallow end till next day. Put it in glasses. It
will keep good, in a cool place, ten days.
A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Rundell
Tea To Drink Or Eat?
Tea as a beverage was introduced to Britain by Charles II and his bride, the Infanta Catherine de Braganza of Portugal. It became so popular it replaced ale as the national drink, by 1750 having become the English number one choice. It was originally drunk after dinner, in the drawing room. Afternoon tea thought to have been started by Anna, Duchess of Bedford, in the early 1800s. She invited friends to Woburn Abbey at five o’clock for an afternoon meal which included bread and butter, sandwiches, various sweetmeats and small cakes. Continuing through the summer, the engagement proved so well-attended that on her return to Town she sent out cards for ‘tea and a walking the fields’. Meadows still abounded within London’s limits in those days. The idea took off, copied by other hostesses and thus ‘tea time’ was established.
Low or Afternoon tea was traditionally taken by the aristocracy at four o’clock before the fashionable hour for taking the air in Hyde Park. It consisted of sandwiches with the crusts removed, biscuits and cakes. High tea was more substantial and eaten by those lower down the social scale, at five to six pm. It was more like dinner with additional bread, scones and cake. Dishes included in a typical meal were as follows:
Two types of bread, brown and white. Currant teacakes. Salad. Salmon or mackerel. Roast pork. Stand pie. Pound cake and chocolate roll. Sponge and walnut cakes. Lemon-cheese tarts, jellies and trifle. Curd tart. Cheese board.
A Pound Cake.
Beat a pound of butter in an earthen pan with the hand one way till like a fine
thick cream. Then have ready twelve eggs; but leave out half the whites; beat
them well; then beat them up with the butter, a pound of flour beat in it, a pound
of sugar, and a few carraways. Beat all well together with the hand for an hour,
or beat it with a wooden spoon. Put all into a buttered pan, and bake it in a quick
oven for one hour.
The two meals were identified by the height of the tables from which they were eaten ‒ side or coffee table as opposed to the dining table. Originally, tea was drunk without milk and sweetened with imported Jamaican sugar. The first record of milk being added is reputed to have been by the Marquise de Seven in 1680. As the nineteenth century progressed, crumpets toasted before the fire on a toasting fork and scones became a popular addition.
The Dinner Menu
Soups and Sauces
Many sauces in the Regency are familiar today ‒ lemon, parsley, hollandaise, onion and bread as well as tomato sauce and gravy. Some were Continental, such as Sauce Italienne, Allemande, Espagnole and Flammande. You could have Queen Sauce, green sauce and egg sauce; fennel, anchovy, lobster, oyster, shrimp and crab; cucumber, tarragon and sorrel; ketchups, curry and pickles.
A long-lasting sauce for fish and fowl came from one of the most popular recipe books of the Georgian era and required twenty-four chopped anchovies, complete with bones. To these were added lemon, spices, a quart of white wine, horseradish, shallots and a pint of water. Two ‘spoon fulls’ of this mixture were added to a pound of melted butter to make an excellent sauce for fish or ‘a pretty sauce for fowl, veal &c’. The base sauce apparently kept for an entire year!
Soups ranged from simple mutton broth to Soup à la Reine and portable soup; white soup, Scotch barley broth and Soup au bourgeois; chestnut, partridge and hare; cow-heel, ox-cheek and plumb porridge for Christmas (shin beef); eel, oyster and crayfish; asparagus, turnip and rice; hop-top, egg and milk soups.
Fish and Shellfish
Tench, perch, herring, mackerel, pike, sturgeon, turbot, eel, carp, salt fish, sole, flounder, salmon, lobster, oysters, mussels, chars, lampreys, cod, skate, haddock, whiting.
Baked Salmon.
Cut a piece of salmon in slices of an inch thick, and make forcemeat as follows:
take some of the flesh of the salmon, and the same quantity of the meat of an eel,
with a few mushrooms. Season with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Beat all
together till very fine. Boil the crumb of a halfpenny roll in milk, beat it with four
eggs till it be thick, then let it cool, and mix it. all together with four raw eggs.
Take the skin from the salmon, and lay the slices in a dish. Cover every slice with
forced meat, pour some melted butter over them, and add a few crumbs of bread.
Lay a crust round the dish, and stick oysters round it. Put it into an oven, and,
when it is of a fine brown, pour over it a little melted butter, with some red wine
boiled in it, and the juice of a lemon.
Meat and poultry
Pork, mutton, beef, venison, chicken, duck, veal, ham, bacon, brawn, lamb, turkey, goose, capon.
Devonshire Squab Pie.
Cover the dish with a good crust, and put at the bottom of it a layer of sliced
pippins,[apples] and then a layer of mutton steaks cut from the loin, well seasoned
with pepper and salt. Then put another layer of pippins, peel some onions, and
slice them thin, and put a layer of them over the apples. Then put a layer of mutton,
and then pippins and onions. Pour in a pint of water, close up the pie, and hake it.
Game
Hare, rabbit, pheasant, woodcock, partridge, bustard, pigeon, plover, guinea fowl, widgeon.
Roast Pigeon
Scald, draw, and take the craws clean out of your pigeons and wash them in
several waters. When you have dried them, roll a good lump of butter in chopped
parsley, and season it with pepper and salt. Put this into your pigeons, and spit,
dust, and baste them. A good fire will roast them in twenty minutes, and when they
are enough, serve them up with parsley and butter. See Sauces.
Pies
Savoury ‒ chicken, duck, pigeon, giblet, goose; calf’s head or foot, ham, veal, mutton; venison pasty, beef steak, ox cheek; game, hare, rabbit and partridge to eat hot, savoury patties made with beef suet and loin of veal; turbot, tench, trout, eel, carp, sole, herring, salmon, lobster and ‘muscle’.
Cheshire Pork Pie
Skin a loin of pork, and cut it into steaks. Season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg,
and make a good crust. Put into the dish a layer of pork, then a layer of pippins
pared and cored, and sugar sufficient to sweeten it. Then place another layer of
pork, and put in half a pint of white wine. Then lay some butter on the top, and
close the pie.
Sweet ‒ apple pie or tart, codlin pie [a cooking apple with long, tapering shape], cherry, gooseberry, orange or lemon tart, Tart de Moi, as well as other fruits in season.
Tart de Moi.
Lay round the dish a puff paste, and then a layer of biscuit; then a layer of
butter and marrow, another of all sorts of sweetmeats, and thus proceed till the
dish is full : boil a quart of cream, and thicken it with four eggs, and put in a
spoonful of orange-flower water. Sweeten it with sugar to the palate, and pour
it over the whole. Half an hour will bake it.
Savoury Dishes
Omelette, Hashed beef or mutton savoury, veal, braised lamb with savoury jelly, pigeon or chicken in savoury jelly.
Hashed Beef or Mutton Savoury
Take some onions and cut into slices, put a piece of butter into a saucepan, and
then put in the onions, with two spoonfuls of good gravy ; let them stew for ten
minutes, taking care to keep them of a good yellow colour. Take off all the fat;
cut the beef or mutton into thin slices, and put it into the sauce with a spoonful
of walnut ketchup, four spoonfuls of port wine, salt, white pepper, and add a little
gravy a short time before serving up.
Welch Rabbit
Toast a slice of bread on both sides, and butter it. Toast a slice of Gloucester
cheese on one side and lay that next to the bread, and toast the other with a
salamander; rub mustard over and serve very hot.
A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Rundell
Vegetables
Carrots, peas, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, asparagus, celery, onions, lettuce, ‘beet-roots’, turnips, potatoes, French beans and leeks.
Broiled Mushrooms
Clean fresh mushrooms with a knife, wash and drain them: make a case with
a sheet of white paper ; rub the inside well with fresh butter, and fill it with the
mushrooms ; season them with white pepper arid salt ; put the case containing
them upon a baking plate of cast iron (in the country called a back-stone) over
a slow fire ; cover them with the cover of a stew pot, upon which place some fire,
and when nearly dry, serve them up, with some rich cullis.
Desserts and Puddings
Nuts, fruits, sweetmeats, jellies, creams, ice cream, trifle, syllabub; tarts (see above) and puddings. Many puddings we still use today, such as plum, bread, rice, orange, lemon and Eve’s Pudding. Some are less well-known now, perhaps, such as Oxford Pudding, custard, prune or damson, biscuit, almond and apricot. Others sound interesting, if not intriguing: Hunting Pudding, Duke of Buckingham’s Pudding, Duke of Cumberland’s Pudding, Hasty, Quaking and Transparent!
Hunting Pudding.
Mix eight eggs beat up fine with a pint of good cream, and a pound of flour. Beat
them well together, and put to them a pound of beef suet finely chopped, a pound
of currants well cleaned, half a pound of jar raisins stoned and chopped small, two
ounces of candied orange cut small, the same of candied citron, a quarter of a
pound of powdered sugar, and a large nutmeg grated. Mix all together with half a
gill of brandy, put it into a cloth, tie it up close, and boil it. four hours.
Floating Island [Trifle]
Mix three half pints of thin cream with a quarter of a pint of raisin wine, a little
lemon juice, orange flower-water, and sugar: put into a dish for the middle of the
table, and put on the cream a froth, as will be directed in page 195, which may
be made of raspberry or currant-jelly.
A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Rundell
Ratafia Cream
Boil three or four laurel, peach, or nectarine leaves, in a full pint of cream;
strain it; then when cold, add the yolks of three eggs beaten and strained, sugar,
and a large spoonful of brandy stirred quick into it. Scald till thick, stirring it all
the time.
Another way, — Mix half a quarter of a pint of ratafia.
A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Rundell
Unless otherwise stated, recipes come from The London Art of Cookery, John Farley, 1811.
Heather King
The Georgian era is famous ‒ or infamous ‒ for excess and nowhere is this more apparent than in the dining room. It was the Georgians who instituted the large dining table which remained in the dining room. Previously, folding tables had been brought in by servants, dining taking place in small groups with chairs set according to the number of diners. The affluent dined lavishly, with meals based around meat, while the poor rarely, if ever, enjoyed flesh or fowl, relying on cheese for the meagre protein in their diet. It was during the eighteenth century that cheese, for so long a locally-produced commodity, was transported to the towns and sold under the names of the places they originated, i.e. Cheddar, Gloucester, Cheshire, Stilton, Wensleydale et al. For the first time, the sale of cheese became a lucrative source of income for the farmers.
Milk was also sold in the towns, carried by carter from nearby farms, but without the benefit of modern refrigeration, it must have been rarely in summer that it was not sour. This, however, must have been preferable during the eighteenth century to that produced by town-kept cows. These unfortunate animals were kept in such dreadful conditions ‒ in filthy, dark and overcrowded byres ‒ that their milk was far from being the healthy food we are accustomed to today. By the Regency, this situation was somewhat improved as standards of hygiene improved, particularly in the country. In London, cows were a familiar sight to the populace as they grazed in St James’s Park (as well as several others) under the watchful eyes of their milkmaids or herdsmen, who would then hawk it through the streets in buckets suspended from a wooden yoke supported across the shoulders.
Eggs and butter were also brought daily to the capital, the finest being transported by sea from Yorkshire and East Anglia. Fish was also fetched upriver from the various landing sites. Vegetables were grown in the market gardens which lay a few miles beyond the city limits and sold at the markets or via barrows pushed around the streets. The servants of the Quality sought out the best produce at Covent Garden, which was also famous for its wide array of dairy products and fruit, while hawkers of such wares as potted eels, sausages, pasties, savoury baked pies and gingerbread strolled the precincts selling directly from trays balanced on their heads or around their necks. Many readers will be familiar with the names of other famous London markets, too.
Billingsgate was renowned as the largest fish market and of course Smithfield was the destination of the drover-driven herds of cattle and sheep, which were either slaughtered on site or sold to local butchers. Those streets called The Shambles in so many towns were thusly designated from the row of butchers’ shops and their slaughterhouses ‘out back’. Leadenhall market was originally a market for meat, poultry and game; milk, leather and cloth; tools and kitchen pans. After the Great Fire in 1666, it was divided into the Beef Yard, Green Yard and Herb market. Poultry was vended ‘on the toe’, which led to one singular character known as Old Tom. Tom was a gander which escaped his fate with 34,000 other geese and became a local celebrity. He was even fed at various inns in the locality. When he died, aged 38, in 1835, he was first laid in state before being buried at the market. The Fleet existed from 1736 to 1829 and was a general market where carcasses and cuts of meat changed hands, with an open air vegetable market at one end. It was moved to Farringdon in 1829 when the road was widened and became solely for fruit and vegetables. Newgate dated from before the Great Fire and was sited in Newgate Street, also selling butchered meat. By the 1840s, ‘pigs from the country’ were sold here, as well as ‘hog meat, game, fresh butter and eggs &c.’. The markets seethed with all manner of specimens, both human and bestial. They were dirty and noisy; alive with a myriad smells, many of them unpleasant. Rotten vegetables and fruit, squashed underfoot; the reek of fish; the blood, gore, offal and the stench of death of the cattle market. No wonder those who could afford to do so sent their servants!
Through most of the eighteenth century, breakfast (at least for the more well-to-do) had been partaken of at about ten o’clock, being a light repast of hot buttered bread or toast, perhaps with cheese and washed down with chocolate, coffee, tea or ale. It could last an hour or more if friends paid a visit. In the grander houses it might even be laid out as a buffet for those returning from a morning ride or a visit to the park or library. Those who dwelled in the country and those who worked for a living broke their fast at a somewhat earlier hour. By the turn of the nineteenth century a more substantial meal became the norm, with eggs, fish and meat being added to the menu. The hour of service crept forward too, leading to the necessity of a midday snack or nuncheon (literal meaning ‘noon drink’) which became confused with luncheon. Lunch was and is always eaten in the middle of the day, whereas a nuncheon might be taken at any time. To further add to the confusion, the poorer sections of society still ate their dinner around noon, as their working day began so early. They might then, as their forebears had for centuries, eat a supper of cold pie, meat or bread with a chunk of cheese before retiring.
A substantial lunch, such as Maria Edgeworth enjoyed when visiting Sir Walter Scott in July 1823, consisted of such dishes as cold roast chicken, ham, pickled salmon and ‘a cold boiled round’. A second course was hot and included poached eggs, toast, green vegetables, potatoes and trout, as well as ‘custard pudding, a goose berry tart and plenty of Highland cream’.
In contrast to the less privileged, dinner for the middle and upper classes was gradually served later and later as the eighteenth century progressed. A country family with social aspirations might come to table at two or even three o’clock ‒ it was noted by Richard Steel before1729 as being the latter ‒ and it was four o’clock by 1740. By 1779 the Rector of Aston, near Birmingham, entertained Catherine Hutton and the ladies withdrew at five o’clock, with the tea tray being called for at six when the gentlemen rejoined them. In 1789, Horace Walpole wrote that he was ‘so antiquated’ he still preferred to dine at four, but by the 1790s, seven seemed to be the fashionable hour. This was of course open to individual interpretation, depending on whether town or country hours were being kept. By the turn of the nineteenth century, when in town one might dine as late as eight or nine o’clock; in the country, perhaps five or six.
It was usual in fashionable houses to serve three courses for dinner. The first course was soup (if on the menu) with various mixed ‘removes’ (dishes replacing those that have been removed) which may have included fish, meat and game. The second course centred around meat such as beef, pork, mutton, poultry and game birds such as grouse, partridge and pheasant. Included in this course would have been sauces, vegetables and savoury dishes like pies and omelettes. The discovery that eating fresh greens and fruit could prevent scurvy had led to more people eating them by the Regency. Ingenious gravy boats gained in popularity, the Argyle having a concealed hot water chamber to prevent fat congealing on the surface of the gravy by keeping it warm.
According to Georgette Heyer in False Colours, a ‘small’ dinner might include, for its second course, cauliflower, peas, asparagus, French beans, a goose, a lobster and a basket of pastries, plus side dishes of a haunch of venison and a braised ham. A cold joint of roast beef was often on the sideboard in case of need, while such items as pickles and oat cakes stayed on table for the duration of the meal. The third, sweet course consisted of jellies, creams, ices, pastries, sweetmeats, cheese, fruit and nuts. Naturally, wine flowed throughout the meal and guests generally served themselves from those dishes closest to them, although footmen were on hand in grander establishments to fetch anything required which was not within reach.
Informal behaviour was sweeping in by the close of the eighteenth century and was remarked upon with disfavour by various foreign visitors, not least the Duc de la Rochefoucauld when he visited England in 1784. However, the formality of gathering fifteen minutes before dinner was still adhered to, as was the practice of the highest-ranked gentleman escorting the highest-ranked lady other than his immediate family and thus onwards through the company in order of precedence. During the first years of the eighteenth century, men sat at one end, the women at the other, but by the Regency it was customary for the sexes to alternate around the table.
A Table SettingIn aristocratic households, the butler, cook and housekeeper had the ordering of such practicalities as the laying of table and the placement of dishes, although the mistress was consulted with regard to menus. For the lady of aspirations but more humble standing or origins, there were many books available on the subjects of cookery and housekeeping, included therein diagrams of table setting. Soup tureens were set at the corners of the table and other dishes aligned along the sides in-between, hence the term ‘side dishes’. This was service à la française, which made a grand statement but had considerable drawbacks, not least that food quickly cooled. Renowned French chef Marie-Antoine Carême, who wrote L’Art de la Cuisine Française among other cook books, commanded a huge wage during his brief tenure as the Prince Regent’s chef de cuisine about the end of 1816. Carême hated everything about England, but although he was responsible for a grand banquet at The Royal Pavilion in Brighton, held on 15 January 1817 ‒ which boasted thirty-six entrées in a list of several dozen dishes across nine courses⃰ ‒ he could well have been instrumental in the adoption of the sequential system of service à la russe, which is familiar to the modern eye. In other words, soup, fish, meat and sweet courses, clearly defined as such, came to table one after the other. As Carême had once worked for the Russian tsar, it seems likely that he was the architect of an innovation which gradually became adopted throughout the British Isles. * Displayed in The Prince of Pleasure and His Regency JB PriestleyThe tea tray was called for when the gentlemen rejoined the ladies following their communion over the port and brandy; this consisted of not just tea, but coffee and cakes besides. Nevertheless, by around ten to eleven pm, the assembled were glad to indulge in a light supper. For a mere family occasion, this would consist of fruit, cold meats and wine. If guests were in attendance, however, hot food was often provided and side dishes such as ‘boiled soals’ or a goose pie. A sweet dish would be there too, a typical example being a confection of cream, eggs and sugar, flavoured with hartshorn, canary and orange-flower water and set in a hedgehog-shaped mould. The spines were then added in the form of almonds and its eyes were currants. This was termed a ‘middle dish’ but could have been made into a ‘grand dessert’ with the addition of other elaborate shapes.
Dishes for Breakfast
Hot rolls and bread with butter. French bread. Toast. Bath cakes (also good for Afternoon tea). Plum cake, honey cake, pound cake. Cold meats, including beef and ham. Eggs. Herrings, smoked, baked or fried. (Kippers were not so called until Victorian times). Tea, chocolate, coffee, ale.
A Luncheon Menu
In 1755 Dr Johnson described luncheon ‘as much food as one’s hand can hold’. This is no better illustrated than in that staple of the modern age, the sandwich. Remarkably, the sandwich first appeared in 1762 when John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, is said to have called for bread and meat, slapping the latter into the former so as to keep a hand free. Whether this was at his desk at the Admiralty or whilst playing cards in a gambling den, is lost to the annals of history, although apparently the first recording of ‘the sandwich’ occurred at the gaming table.
A cold collation of meats, bread and cheese. Cold fowl. Pickled herring or salmon. Potted mackerel, eels or shrimps. Eggs. Baked trout. Game pie. Salad vegetables such as lettuce, celery and asparagus. Jellies or creams. Batter pudding. Syllabub. Fruit tart.
Everlasting, or Solid, Syllabub
Mix a quart of thick raw cream, one pound of refined sugar, a pint and half of
fine raisin wine in a deep pan; put to it the grated peel and the juice of three
lemons. Beat, or whisk it one way half an hour ; then put it on a sieve with a bit
of thin muslin laid smooth in the shallow end till next day. Put it in glasses. It
will keep good, in a cool place, ten days.
A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Rundell
Tea To Drink Or Eat?
Tea as a beverage was introduced to Britain by Charles II and his bride, the Infanta Catherine de Braganza of Portugal. It became so popular it replaced ale as the national drink, by 1750 having become the English number one choice. It was originally drunk after dinner, in the drawing room. Afternoon tea thought to have been started by Anna, Duchess of Bedford, in the early 1800s. She invited friends to Woburn Abbey at five o’clock for an afternoon meal which included bread and butter, sandwiches, various sweetmeats and small cakes. Continuing through the summer, the engagement proved so well-attended that on her return to Town she sent out cards for ‘tea and a walking the fields’. Meadows still abounded within London’s limits in those days. The idea took off, copied by other hostesses and thus ‘tea time’ was established.
Low or Afternoon tea was traditionally taken by the aristocracy at four o’clock before the fashionable hour for taking the air in Hyde Park. It consisted of sandwiches with the crusts removed, biscuits and cakes. High tea was more substantial and eaten by those lower down the social scale, at five to six pm. It was more like dinner with additional bread, scones and cake. Dishes included in a typical meal were as follows:
Two types of bread, brown and white. Currant teacakes. Salad. Salmon or mackerel. Roast pork. Stand pie. Pound cake and chocolate roll. Sponge and walnut cakes. Lemon-cheese tarts, jellies and trifle. Curd tart. Cheese board.
A Pound Cake.
Beat a pound of butter in an earthen pan with the hand one way till like a fine
thick cream. Then have ready twelve eggs; but leave out half the whites; beat
them well; then beat them up with the butter, a pound of flour beat in it, a pound
of sugar, and a few carraways. Beat all well together with the hand for an hour,
or beat it with a wooden spoon. Put all into a buttered pan, and bake it in a quick
oven for one hour.
The two meals were identified by the height of the tables from which they were eaten ‒ side or coffee table as opposed to the dining table. Originally, tea was drunk without milk and sweetened with imported Jamaican sugar. The first record of milk being added is reputed to have been by the Marquise de Seven in 1680. As the nineteenth century progressed, crumpets toasted before the fire on a toasting fork and scones became a popular addition.
The Dinner Menu
Soups and Sauces
Many sauces in the Regency are familiar today ‒ lemon, parsley, hollandaise, onion and bread as well as tomato sauce and gravy. Some were Continental, such as Sauce Italienne, Allemande, Espagnole and Flammande. You could have Queen Sauce, green sauce and egg sauce; fennel, anchovy, lobster, oyster, shrimp and crab; cucumber, tarragon and sorrel; ketchups, curry and pickles.
A long-lasting sauce for fish and fowl came from one of the most popular recipe books of the Georgian era and required twenty-four chopped anchovies, complete with bones. To these were added lemon, spices, a quart of white wine, horseradish, shallots and a pint of water. Two ‘spoon fulls’ of this mixture were added to a pound of melted butter to make an excellent sauce for fish or ‘a pretty sauce for fowl, veal &c’. The base sauce apparently kept for an entire year!
Soups ranged from simple mutton broth to Soup à la Reine and portable soup; white soup, Scotch barley broth and Soup au bourgeois; chestnut, partridge and hare; cow-heel, ox-cheek and plumb porridge for Christmas (shin beef); eel, oyster and crayfish; asparagus, turnip and rice; hop-top, egg and milk soups.
Fish and Shellfish
Tench, perch, herring, mackerel, pike, sturgeon, turbot, eel, carp, salt fish, sole, flounder, salmon, lobster, oysters, mussels, chars, lampreys, cod, skate, haddock, whiting.
Baked Salmon.
Cut a piece of salmon in slices of an inch thick, and make forcemeat as follows:
take some of the flesh of the salmon, and the same quantity of the meat of an eel,
with a few mushrooms. Season with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Beat all
together till very fine. Boil the crumb of a halfpenny roll in milk, beat it with four
eggs till it be thick, then let it cool, and mix it. all together with four raw eggs.
Take the skin from the salmon, and lay the slices in a dish. Cover every slice with
forced meat, pour some melted butter over them, and add a few crumbs of bread.
Lay a crust round the dish, and stick oysters round it. Put it into an oven, and,
when it is of a fine brown, pour over it a little melted butter, with some red wine
boiled in it, and the juice of a lemon.
Meat and poultry
Pork, mutton, beef, venison, chicken, duck, veal, ham, bacon, brawn, lamb, turkey, goose, capon.
Devonshire Squab Pie.
Cover the dish with a good crust, and put at the bottom of it a layer of sliced
pippins,[apples] and then a layer of mutton steaks cut from the loin, well seasoned
with pepper and salt. Then put another layer of pippins, peel some onions, and
slice them thin, and put a layer of them over the apples. Then put a layer of mutton,
and then pippins and onions. Pour in a pint of water, close up the pie, and hake it.
Game
Hare, rabbit, pheasant, woodcock, partridge, bustard, pigeon, plover, guinea fowl, widgeon.
Roast Pigeon
Scald, draw, and take the craws clean out of your pigeons and wash them in
several waters. When you have dried them, roll a good lump of butter in chopped
parsley, and season it with pepper and salt. Put this into your pigeons, and spit,
dust, and baste them. A good fire will roast them in twenty minutes, and when they
are enough, serve them up with parsley and butter. See Sauces.
Pies
Savoury ‒ chicken, duck, pigeon, giblet, goose; calf’s head or foot, ham, veal, mutton; venison pasty, beef steak, ox cheek; game, hare, rabbit and partridge to eat hot, savoury patties made with beef suet and loin of veal; turbot, tench, trout, eel, carp, sole, herring, salmon, lobster and ‘muscle’.
Cheshire Pork Pie
Skin a loin of pork, and cut it into steaks. Season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg,
and make a good crust. Put into the dish a layer of pork, then a layer of pippins
pared and cored, and sugar sufficient to sweeten it. Then place another layer of
pork, and put in half a pint of white wine. Then lay some butter on the top, and
close the pie.
Sweet ‒ apple pie or tart, codlin pie [a cooking apple with long, tapering shape], cherry, gooseberry, orange or lemon tart, Tart de Moi, as well as other fruits in season.
Tart de Moi.
Lay round the dish a puff paste, and then a layer of biscuit; then a layer of
butter and marrow, another of all sorts of sweetmeats, and thus proceed till the
dish is full : boil a quart of cream, and thicken it with four eggs, and put in a
spoonful of orange-flower water. Sweeten it with sugar to the palate, and pour
it over the whole. Half an hour will bake it.
Savoury Dishes
Omelette, Hashed beef or mutton savoury, veal, braised lamb with savoury jelly, pigeon or chicken in savoury jelly.
Hashed Beef or Mutton Savoury
Take some onions and cut into slices, put a piece of butter into a saucepan, and
then put in the onions, with two spoonfuls of good gravy ; let them stew for ten
minutes, taking care to keep them of a good yellow colour. Take off all the fat;
cut the beef or mutton into thin slices, and put it into the sauce with a spoonful
of walnut ketchup, four spoonfuls of port wine, salt, white pepper, and add a little
gravy a short time before serving up.
Welch Rabbit
Toast a slice of bread on both sides, and butter it. Toast a slice of Gloucester
cheese on one side and lay that next to the bread, and toast the other with a
salamander; rub mustard over and serve very hot.
A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Rundell
Vegetables
Carrots, peas, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, asparagus, celery, onions, lettuce, ‘beet-roots’, turnips, potatoes, French beans and leeks.
Broiled Mushrooms
Clean fresh mushrooms with a knife, wash and drain them: make a case with
a sheet of white paper ; rub the inside well with fresh butter, and fill it with the
mushrooms ; season them with white pepper arid salt ; put the case containing
them upon a baking plate of cast iron (in the country called a back-stone) over
a slow fire ; cover them with the cover of a stew pot, upon which place some fire,
and when nearly dry, serve them up, with some rich cullis.
Desserts and Puddings
Nuts, fruits, sweetmeats, jellies, creams, ice cream, trifle, syllabub; tarts (see above) and puddings. Many puddings we still use today, such as plum, bread, rice, orange, lemon and Eve’s Pudding. Some are less well-known now, perhaps, such as Oxford Pudding, custard, prune or damson, biscuit, almond and apricot. Others sound interesting, if not intriguing: Hunting Pudding, Duke of Buckingham’s Pudding, Duke of Cumberland’s Pudding, Hasty, Quaking and Transparent!
Hunting Pudding.
Mix eight eggs beat up fine with a pint of good cream, and a pound of flour. Beat
them well together, and put to them a pound of beef suet finely chopped, a pound
of currants well cleaned, half a pound of jar raisins stoned and chopped small, two
ounces of candied orange cut small, the same of candied citron, a quarter of a
pound of powdered sugar, and a large nutmeg grated. Mix all together with half a
gill of brandy, put it into a cloth, tie it up close, and boil it. four hours.
Floating Island [Trifle]
Mix three half pints of thin cream with a quarter of a pint of raisin wine, a little
lemon juice, orange flower-water, and sugar: put into a dish for the middle of the
table, and put on the cream a froth, as will be directed in page 195, which may
be made of raspberry or currant-jelly.
A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Rundell
Ratafia Cream
Boil three or four laurel, peach, or nectarine leaves, in a full pint of cream;
strain it; then when cold, add the yolks of three eggs beaten and strained, sugar,
and a large spoonful of brandy stirred quick into it. Scald till thick, stirring it all
the time.
Another way, — Mix half a quarter of a pint of ratafia.
A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Rundell
Unless otherwise stated, recipes come from The London Art of Cookery, John Farley, 1811.
Heather King
April 24, 2014
A Good Historical Novel...
...should take you to another world ~whether that be the Regency, the Middle Ages, the English Civil War or even the First World War. I hope this can be said of A Sense of the Ridiculous.
Excerpt From 'A Sense of the Ridiculous'
The inn had been quiet for less than an hour when a door creaked on the landing above. On the alert at once, he tiptoed to stand by the crockery cupboard. His eyes by this time being well accustomed to the darkness, he had no difficulty making out the dreamlike form when it came drifting down the stairs. It paused at the bottom for what seemed like an eternity before moving, one cautious step at a time, towards him.
“And where do you think you’re going?” he asked the wraith.
Jocasta squealed and threw the shoes she was carrying at him with some force before turning to run back upstairs.
“Ow! Damn it,” he cursed as one hit him. “Stop that.’Tis me, Richard.” He grabbed her by the wrist, curtailing her flight. “Just a minute, madam. I want a word with you.”
“Ouch,” she yelped. “You are hurting me. Let me go.”
He slackened his grip but did not release her. “I thought we had decided Ned and I would take the night watch.” Jocasta said nothing. “Do you wish me to lock your door?” He caught the movement of her hair as she shook her head. “Do you promise you will go back to bed?”
Still there was silence. The ticking of the clock was deafening—so loud, in fact, had he missed her answer?—and then finally she muttered in a little voice, “Very well.”
He let her go, and without another word, she turned and went back up the stairs. Pleased that he was beginning to get her measure, Richard followed the passage to the door into the yard. There he paused before retracing his steps to the entrance hall. It was not that he did not trust her, but… All was peaceful on the upper floor. He waited a minute or two and then, after a mental kick for his lack of faith, headed for the stables once more.
However, as he closed the yard door, a tiny sound somewhere above his head made him stop and listen. There was a rustle and a minuscule snap, as manifest as a gunshot to his ears—which were straining for the least sound—though he doubted he would have noticed it ordinarily. Holding his breath, he waited again. The night was cloudy and there was no moonlight, but he could make out the shape of the garden door as it very slowly began to open. She certainly did not lack courage, this girl. He stood with legs apart and arms folded across his chest, right in front of the door. He surmised that, expecting him to have gone to bed, she had climbed down the creeper which grew up the wall around her window.
Slipping through the garden door, she closed it behind her with a tiny click and turned straight into his chest. Her screech of alarm died in her throat, curtailed in an instant by his calloused hand over her mouth. As she pressed back against the rough wood of the door, her fear gave him a somewhat wicked satisfaction. He stepped closer in as menacing a manner as he could summon. Her chest heaved, indicating the rapid thumping of her heart, and she tried to edge along the wall towards the house. Grinning into the darkness, he barred her way with a brawny arm and leaned against the stone. Putting his hand in a similar position on her other side, he pinned her against the wall. Several seconds elapsed before he spoke. He did not want to frighten her, but she should realize the foolishness of this escapade.
If you enjoyed this extract and want to know what happens next, 'A Sense of the Ridiculous' is available in E-book form for kindle, mobile or pc from www.musapublishing.com or: http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Sense-Ridiculous-Heather-King-ebook/dp/B00GCTZAPI, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-sense-of-the-ridiculous-heather-king/1117301394?ean=2940148144618 https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-asenseoftheridiculous-1343258-162.html http://www.bookstrand.com/a-sense-of-the-ridiculous http://www.easons.com/p-2713793-a-sense-of-the-ridiculous.aspxhttp://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18932247-a-sense-of-the-ridiculous http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_Sense_of_the_Ridiculous.html?id=H5pNngEACAAJ&redir_esc=y http://prod-www.kobobooks.com/ebook/A-Sense-of-the-Ridiculous/book-K6BaNBLOiEG2Yd4B098llQ/page1.html https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/373203Also Overdrive and Rainbow, among others.
It does not appear to be obvious in some lists as there is another Heather King, so please shout about it! If you have read it and enjoyed it, I would love to hear your feedback and please tell your friends. It was written in unashamed homage (but in my own voice) of the Queen of Regency, Georgette Heyer, so if you love her books and fancy something new, do try A Sense of the Ridiculous.
Fun Quiz:
How many words can you make out of A Sense of the Ridiculous?
And don't forget there are just six days left until the closing date of A Ridiculous Short Story Competition!
Happy writing and reading. Love Heather.
April 2, 2014
Accessories ~ A Bit More About Bonnets
In the last decade of the eighteenth century, ladies' hairstyles were extravagant. Wide festoons of ringlets and soft curls were lightly powdered and crowned with wide-brimmed hats which were often fashioned from straw and trimmed with feathers and lengths of ribbon. Gradually coiffures became simpler, ranging from a twist or knot on top of the head - the Apollo knot was popular - to artfully arranged curls framing the face, to the close-cropped look of tiny curls as adopted by Lady Caroline Lamb. These latter were frequently adorned with a ribbon or bandeau; a silver or spangled fillet or a spray of feathers, those of the ostrich being particularly favoured.
Bonnets also evolved, as with the changing trends in hairdressing, more styles became both possible and eagerly sought after. Due to the political upheaval in France, it was dangerous to adopt any fashion which could be linked with the Court or the aristocracy. The outlandish creations worn by Marie Antoinette and Mme de Pompadour gave way to such short styles as a la Titus (also a gentleman's style) or a la victime (the hair brushed up at the back and then coaxed forward in wild disarray to resemble a victim of the guillotine). For the first time in many years, close-fitting turbans and caps were all the rage.
Morning CapUnder Napoleon's leadership, the dour years of Robespierre had once more given way to colour and rich textiles. Luxuriant shades of Pompeian red, blue, green and yellow came to the fore, enlivening the demure white muslin gown with a splash of vibrant colour when made up into redingotes and Spencers. Bonnets were often fashioned to match such jackets and capes; ladies enjoyed expressing their individuality through creating a new look, by trimming a favourite hat with ribbons, artificial flowers and even fruit.
In June 1799, Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra:
"Flowers are very much worn, and fruit is still more the thing. Eliz: has a bunch of strawberries, and I have seen grapes, cherries, plums and apricots. There are likewise, almonds and raisins, French plums and tamarinds at the grocers, but I have never seen any of them in hats..."
The jockey-style cap, which had made its way east across the English Channel in the 1780s, had originally been adopted from that worn in racing as sporting headwear for country gentlemen. Turned by the French into a fashion accessory for both men and women, it was brought back to England by ladies of the aristocracy, swiftly to become 'all the thing'. Made of silk or satin, the brim stiffened with wire, and embellished with ruched panels, twisted braid and perhaps a tassel or two - or even a feather - it was at once a dainty and elegant finish to an ensemble.
Jockey-style CapAnother style to come out of the Revolution, was the military helmet-inspired casquet a la Minerve, which was first seen in 1797 in an opera, La Caravanne du Caire. Remarkably like an upturned coal-scuttle, it was made of black velvet with three large ostrich plumes curling forwards over the crown, had a white or cream lining and a wide strap fastening beneath the chin. In 1798 Jane Austen wrote to Cassandra of trimming her Mameluke cap, "which was before too nidgetty to please me". Against her sister's advice, she retained "the narrow silver round it, put twice around without any bow, and instead of the black military feather shall put in the coquelicot one, as being smarter; and besides coquelicot is to be all the fashion this winter." Another such type of cap was available in coquelicot velvet in honour of Lord Nelson. The Nelson cap was just one of various items produced in commemoration of his achievements.
ShakoFurther military-style headgear was much in vogue following the Battle of Waterloo. Masculine apparel had already been adopted into lady's fashion in the form of the Spencer and the severely cut riding habit. Soon this latter item in particular was crowned with a hat similar to the Shako, a peaked cap 'shaped like a truncated cone', adorned with a plume, a ball or even a pompom. They were also trimmed with braid to match frogging on the bodice of a riding habit. The word 'shako' comes from a Magyar word meaning short. The Egyptian influence had already been seen in the early years of the nineteenth century, following the craze for the Oriental. This was, in its turn, superseded by Spanish styles as a result of interest in the Peninsula War, Spanish decoration being added to the gown still considered of classical design. Meanwhile, another eastern influence in hats came in the shape of the turban, particularly popular in Georgette Heyer's novels as the evening headwear of dowagers and matrons. Silk or satin were the fabrics of choice, a portrait from the late 1780s by A.W. Devis, picturing an elegant confection of blue satin picked out in silver, edged with gold and white striped gauze and topped with white ostrich plumes.
Prior to this, introduced at the start of the nineteenth century when 'all things classical' were increasingly becoming popular, the Grecian caul was adopted in the form of the hood. There were many different styles, usually of cloth or netting, which encased the hair in a snood-like fillet.
Poke BonnetThe poke bonnet, with its instantly recognizable wide, projecting brim, was tied beneath the chin with complementing ribbons. Many a Regency miss liked to tie a coquettish bow to one side or the other, as a genteel expression of her lively personality. Such a hat was often made of straw, especially for informal use, such as a morning stroll. Leghorn straw from Italy had long been the preferred material, but when trade was restricted during the hostilities with France, a method of splitting English straw was developed and thus the home-produced commodity became a worthy substitute. For visiting, afternoon shopping or promenades and evening wear, hats were constructed on wire frames and covered with a variety of fabrics, although silk remained the most favoured for balls and assemblies.
In the years following Waterloo, furbishment both of hats and gowns grew more lavish. Skirts flared more towards the hem, with layers of ruffles, frills, flounces or ribbon and hats were embellished in the same manner. Hemlines lifted above the ankle; gored panels were inserted into skirts; waistlines began to drop towards the natural place and became tighter; sleeves increased in size and extravagance and swags of applique silk flowers stiffened with muslin might well be stitched to an elaborate evening or ball gown. All of these changes led the fashion-conscious lady of the late 1820s inexorably towards the leg-of-mutton sleeve, wide skirts and bustle of the 1830s, along with the outlandishly adorned and somewhat ludicrous hats which went with them. It must have been a daunting sight for a gentleman wishful to steal a kiss!
March 10, 2014
A Sense of the Ridiculous ~ Regency Romance
Hello, folks!
In case you haven't come across Jocasta and Richard's romantic journey, here's a little taster:
Lost in a glorious memory of twinkling smoky-flint orbs and a heady masculine scent, Jocasta drifted off to sleep. She dreamed she was in an enormous ballroom with full-length mirrors along one wall and two rows of marble columns supporting the ceiling, which was adorned by a Renaissance painting of Venus and Cupid in a meadow, surrounded by bright flowers. At the far end of the room, opposite the heavy oak doors through which she had entered, arched glass doors opened on to a paved terrace. An orchestra was playing and a dozen couples were performing the steps of La Chaine Anglaise.Jocasta hesitated, surveying the scene. A gentleman was walking towards her. Attired in a maroon coat of watered silk, pale cream breeches and white clocked stockings, he was the picture of elegance. At first she did not recognize him, for his dark wavy hair had been tamed into a fashionable style. He bowed with perfect grace, but as he straightened, she saw the glint of humour in Richard’s slate-grey eyes. He held out his hand.“Do you care to dance, my lady?” he asked.Dropping a deep curtsey, she laid her hand in his. Even through her thin white silk gloves, the heat of his touch tingled in her fingers and prickled in her veins.Then the scene changed and she was on a stretch of moorland which in an odd way appeared familiar. She was wearing breeches and in the distance a man was riding in her direction...Jocasta awoke in a rush and flapped the covers on the bed. She was too warm. Sticky perspiration had gathered in her armpits and her heart was pumping faster than it should be doing. It was that strange dream. Had this sort of thing happened to her before? Was this how it felt when one found a gentleman attractive? She searched her memory, but still discovered no answers. With a sigh, she flopped back on the linen covered pillow. Who would have thought lying in bed could be so exhausting?Two days later, bored to distraction and feeling guilty for causing Meg extra work—she had not seen Richard again—she begged to get up. It was a fine autumn evening with a warm glow on the horizon from the setting sun, which she could just see from the small squarewindow of her room. She washed her face and hands in the spotless bowl in the satinwood washstand and then dried them on a towel, which was a little bit rough but had a lovely wind-blown freshness and made her skin tingle pleasurably.Having been made for a fuller figure than hers, the outmoded calico gown Meg had unearthed from a chest in the attic was a rather loose fit, but at least she was respectable. It was fashioned in a shade of green which almost matched her eyes. Guilt pricking her conscience, she glanced at the clothes she had worn during her escapade, folded in a neat pile on an oak chest at the end of the bed. What kind of a girl behaved in such a wicked fashion, to so publicly wear boy’s clothes? She studied her reflection in an old, spotted mirror. Her temple was swollen and the back of her head was sore, but the nausea had gone and she felt considerably better. She pulled her fingers through her tangled curls and headed downstairs.The staircase rose to the upper floor from the entrance hall. Pausing with one hand on the banister, she looked about her. An archway opened into the coffee room, and a narrow hall led to the back of the house. The entrance door was a wide oaken portal with a heavy iron latch. Hearing voices, she padded across the dun-coloured flagstones past a large crockery cupboard which stood against one wall. At the end of the passage was the door to the yard and close by, she presumed, those to the kitchen and scullery. Taking a deep breath, she eased open what proved to be the kitchen door. Richard and an older man sat at the large wooden table, and Meg was busy at the burnished range. A girl of about sixteen was washing utensils at a stone sink.“My dear,” Meg exclaimed, coming forward. “Come into the parlour. We were just about to eat. I will fetch you some dinner there.”“Please let me join you,” Jocasta begged. “It would be so much more comfortable than to be on my own in the parlour.”“But it wouldn’t be fitting, miss.”“Why ever not? I could be a…a weaver’s daughter.”Meg smiled. “I hardly think so. You are Quality-born, I would stake my life on it.”“In that case, please indulge my whim and allow me your company.”“Let her be, Mother,” Richard put in at that point. Muttering that it was inappropriate, Meg concurred with a frown and laid another place.
The girl, Alice, bobbed a curtsey. Quite a plain girl, she had a somewhat vacant look about her, which made Jocasta suspect she might be not too bright, but she smiled at the girl, who gave her a cheerful response. Richard and the ostler, Ned—a dour Yorkshire man of uncertain years—had both risen to their feet, and the former hastened to pull out the vacant chair. A strange quiver fluttered over her skin when his fingers brushed her back—by accident?—as she sat down. Their eyes met. His eyes crinkled at the corners as if amused… and also something more. She felt rather hot.
If you enjoyed this snippet, let me know! The e-book can be purchased from www.musapublishing.com for kindle, mobile and to download to your computer. It can also be bought from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, etc.
Start a discussion on my Goodreads page, or like my Facebook page, A Regency Repository.
http://www.facebook.com
http://goodreads.com
www.Amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00104PYPE
I look forward to hearing from you!
Love Heather
February 26, 2014
Creative Babble ~ The Online Writing Workshop
Great News!
Sue Johnson and I are collaborating on a new online creative writing blog! It is going to be a workshop, with articles and exercises for all writers, whether established or budding.Follow the link and have a go at my Sensory exercise. Who knows, you might create the start of your next prize-winning short story or novel!
I am currently editing my latest work-in-progress and awaiting news on various submissions. Very soon I will be starting work on the edits for An Improper Marriage, published by Musa Publishing (www.musapublishing.com) which is due for release late spring.
In the meantime, do let me know about your stories from my 'Welly Day' post.
Best Wishes,
Heather
February 11, 2014
Heather's Hotchpotch Of Writing Hints
So You Want to be Published? Writing The Book is the Easy Bit!
1. Never assume it will be straight forward, even when you have been accepted. The publishing world has a way of throwing googlies!
2. Don't get disheartened. No matter how good you are, there are hundreds of other voices out there, just as good and maybe better. It often comes down to the tone of voice the publisher is looking for.
3. Be prepared to rewrite, rewrite and rewrite. And rewrite again.
4. Equally, beware of over-editing or you can lose the freshness and soul of your writing.
5. It really does help to write every day, even if just for a few minutes composing an email.
6. Have pictures, postcards or a selection of words/phrases to use as 'triggers' if you are struggling with an existing piece, or to create a new one.
7. If it works for you, have more than one project on the go, then you can pick the one which suits your mood.
8. Explore different lengths of work and different genres to help develop your 'style'.
9. Beware overuse of 'qualifiers', i.e. adverbs. If it is your style to employ them, it can be a challenge to find alternatives. There are only so many ways you can say ' in such and such a fashion'!
10. Create a list of exciting and imaginative metaphors.
11. Collect pictures of people and places to use for descriptions of characters and settings.
12. Don't rely on internet information for research. Always aim to confirm facts through three different sources. If you are struggling in your garret while writing your masterpiece and are on a budget, try scouring the charity shops for books. It is astounding what you can find!
February 8, 2014
A 'RIDICULOUS' SHORT STORY COMPETITION
To Celebrate The Release Of A Sense of the Ridiculous SHORT STORY COMPETITION OPEN TO: UNPUBLISHED AUTHORS CLOSING DATE: 30 APRIL 2014 GENRE: ANY BUT HORROR WORD LIMIT: 1500 words JUDGES: SUE JOHNSON, HEATHER KING PRIZES: 1ST £50 2ND £25 3RD £15 ENTRY FEE: £5.00 OPENING SENTENCE:
"She did not need a looking glass to know she must look a fright."
Cheques made payable to Sue Johnson Double space entryPut contact details on separate sheetEntries will not be returned, so please do not send your only copy!
Only postal entries accepted. Please ensure correct postage! Send To: 'Ridiculous' Short Story Competition,c/o 2, Teme Close,Bromyard,Herefordshire.HR7 4TP
Good luck! Heather
