Halloween in Regency Times. Yes? Or no?

The October Author interview-of cours... In the autumn of 1018…. Halloween, th...

Halloween in Regency Times. Yes? Or no?

zinctr

Devorlane Hawley : Hamsters? I am being interviewed by hamsters? I thought I had stopped taking hallucinatory things?

Sapphire : Well, to answer your question, I think it is very clear from the work of Robert Burns, Halloween was still alive and kicking in Scotland. In his poem Halloween he talks about stealing out alone and throwing blue hamsters…sorry, yarn into the cooking pot and winding it back to find the name of your future spouse.

SO I think we can say that that these kind of superstitions might be sort of acted out, depending on the household south of the border.

Let’s face it we all like love spells, now don’t we?

Devorlane Hawley : We might also have a bonfire. Burn a few things. What do you think Saff?

Sapphire : That would of course be more for Guy Fawkes, Dev. Lay off, You’re scaring the little things.

Devorlane Hawley : I’m just making sure you don’t steal one and put it in my pocket.

Sapphire. : Certainly.

Sapphire : Not exactly. No………… I think we were more in the burn and die category.

Devorlane Hawley : Now Saff, you’re doing the scaring. As you can see historical romance authors may set a lot of their stories at Halloween but we don’t really keep it. We are however very interested in gothic novels. Saff reads this kind of tripe all the time. ……

Devorlane Hawley : And if I look in my crystal ball, I can see that when it comes to future generations dressing up at Halloween, Regency times still has this to offer. ….

Devorlane Hawley: So we’re not a complete lost cause, here in Regency England.

Sapphire : Exactly. But Dev, we wouldn’t like to scare the little creatures out of their fur now would we, so I think we should leave them with a little something for their Halloween suppers……..

100g plain chocolate

5 tablespoons soured cream
125g chocolate biscuit crumbs

For decoration
5 tablespoons chocolate biscuit crumbs
5 tablespoons icing sugar
24 silver dragées (silver balls) for the eyes
25g flaked almonds
12 (5cm) liquorice strings

Melt the chocolate and combine with soured cream. Stir in 125g chocolate biscuit crumbs. Cover and chill until firm.
Roll by level tablespoonfuls into balls. Mould to a slight point at one end (the nose) to form hamsters.
Roll each hamster in chocolate biscuit crumbs. On each hamster, place dragées in appropriate spot for eyes, almond flakes for ears and a liquorice string for the tail.
Chill for at least two hours until firm.