Before Almack's

by Lauren Gilbert

Social activities, fashions, entertainment and more are all driven by “the next big thing.” This is nothing new. Throughout history, we can find examples of this. During the Regency era, Almack’s Assembly Rooms were THE place to be during the Regency era. A voucher for Almack’s conveyed more social impact than invitations to multiple private balls and parties. When Almack’s Assembly Rooms opened in February of 1765, Mr. Macall was in direct competition with Mrs. Cornelys’ assemblies at Carlisle House, and it was by no means certain that Almack’s would be “the next big thing”. A veritable Studio 54 of its time, the assemblies at Carlisle House were geared for the highest society and were quite something....

Who was Mrs. Cornelys? Teresa Cornelys, also known as the Empress of Pleasure and the Queen of Masquerades, was born Anna Maria Teresa Imer in Venice in 1723, the daughter of Giuseppe Imer, an opera impresario. Her mother Paolina was an actress. Teresa herself was a singer and dancer. She was described as beautiful, but I found no particulars.  She led an extremely interesting life: she was married to a dancer named Angelo Pompeati in Vienna but lived with him only a few months. She became a well-known opera singer, and courtesan; at age 17, she was desired by Senator Alvise Gasparo Malpiero; some sources say she was his mistress. (Malpiero befriended a young Giacomo Casanova, who was frequently at his home.) Teresa fell madly in love with Casanova, who may have been the father of her first child, a son named Giuseppe. Her husband did not acknowledge the child; however, many accounts do not list Giuseppe as Casanova’s son either. She subsequently had a daughter named Wilhelmine by a different lover, a daughter named Sophie by Casanova (most accounts do list Sophie as Casanova’s daughter), and another baby by someone else. Wilhelmine and the baby both died. She had numerous lovers and used multiple names. Despite her own singing career and income from her various lovers, she was jailed for debt in Paris. Casanova took their son to raise in 1759. Teresa and Sophie moved on to the Netherlands.

Teresa had first appeared in London at the Haymarket under the name Madame Pompeati, in an opera by Gluck, in 1746. The reviews were not good, and she returned to the continent. After her release from debtor’s prison, she was convinced to try England again by a wealthy man known as John Freeman (and John Boorder and John Fermor which name he used in England) who she met in Holland and who may have been her lover. Using the name Cornelys (after a lover named Cornelis de Rigorboos in Rotterdam), she presented herself as a widow, and apparently benefited greatly from sympathy for her widowed state as well as the expanded legal rights enjoyed by widows as opposed to single or married women. At this time, she was about 37 years old. When she arrived in London this time, Teresa apparently decided to be a producer instead of an entertainer. In April of 1760, with the financial backing of John Fermor (as he was now known), Teresa rented Carlisle House in Soho Square, which she subsequently purchased a few months later.

At one time the home of the 2nd Earl of Carlisle, Edward Howard, Carlisle House changed hands, and Teresa rented the house and its furnishings for 180 pounds per year from the owner, before she purchased it. She made extensive renovations to the house during her occupancy, adding several rooms (including a supper room and a ballroom/concert hall) which were connected to the original house by a Chinese bridge. She opened her business to provide entertainment to the upper classes by private subscription later in 1760, calling her membership “The Society.” By making her entertainments a subscription affair, she evaded licensing laws in effect at the time as well as making them private and exclusive since not everyone could get tickets and she indicated that the cost was merely to cover expenses. (The Licensing Acts of 1737 and 1752 were in effect at the time, regulating legitimate theatrical entertainment as well as places open for public entertainment in and within 20 miles of London and Westminster.) Initially confined to dancing and card playing, Teresa expanded the entertainments offered to include concerts, balls and masquerades. Her rooms became very popular, and were known as much for their size and beauty of architecture and decoration as for the quality of the entertainments themselves. Musicians of note played and directed the concerts at her rooms, including Johann Christian Bach in 1765. As time went on, her entertainments became known for their sexual overtones, and the rooms were becoming known as a place of secret meetings for sexual purposes.

Subscription ticket for Carlisle House

Thanks to the support of society friends, including Lady Elizabeth Chudleigh (who would become a principal in a notorious bigamy case, having married in 1744 Augustus John Hervey (who became the 3^rd Earl of Bristol) and then married Evelyn Pierpont, the 2^nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull in 1769), Mrs. Cornelys’ rooms became THE place to be.  In April of 1768, members of the Royal family and the Prince of Monaco,  and subsequently in August the King of Denmark,  attended entertainments at Carlisle House.  The quality of the suppers served and the elegance of the surroundings (including the light of many wax candles) all contributed to the popularity of these events as well as to the costs.  Teresa showed herself to be a shrewd business woman, advertising her entertainments shrewdly and maintaining her attendance for over a decade.  However, her business sense had never included the good management of money.  Her continual remodeling costs as well as her operating costs continued.   Even though she increased her subscription costs for special events, somehow she was never able to get out of debt and show a profit.

Ticket for Masque Ball at Carlisle House

Almack’s rooms opened in February of 1765. Although it worried Teresa, who did some more decorating, initially Almack’s did her no harm. What did cause a problem was Teresa’s arrest providing public entertainments without a license in 1771. (When she ventured into operatic entertainments, she was competing with the Italian Opera House, and information was laid against her.) She agreed to stop the entertainments, and was fined 50 pounds. Once the matter was resolved, she returned to her regular entertainments (apparently, however, without opera). However, in January of 1772, the assembly rooms at the Pantheon opened on Oxford Street (not far from Carlisle House) and targeted the same exclusive clientele that Mrs. Cornelys and Almack’s pursued. Teresa increased her redecorating to compete with the new rival, which only drove her further into debt. The offerings at the new Pantheon rooms provided novelty, and drew away many of her regulars, causing her debt level to increase.

Later in 1772, Teresa Cornelys was bankrupt. Her creditors seized Carlisle House and tried to auction off her assets, but did not succeed. It reopened, with different management, in hopes of making a profit. By 1776, Teresa was back in possession of Carlisle House but she could never achieve any level of success and she gave up in 1783, when she or her creditors tried to rent out the house and furnishings. By March of 1784, the house was empty. (Carlisle House was demolished in 1791.) She attempted other ventures under the name of Mrs. Smith that were equally unsuccessful, and she was finally confined in the Fleet Prison for debt. While in prison, Teresa was being treated by Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini (of questionable medical qualifications who advertised heavily) for a cancerous sore on her breast, but his treatment was unsuccessful. She died in Fleet Prison on August 19, 1797, age 74.

Sources include:

Chancellor, E. Beresford. MEMORIALS OF ST. JAMES’S STREET and CHRONICLES OF ALMACK’S. New York: Brentano’s, 1922.

THE LONDON ENCYCLOPAEDIA 3rd Edition. Ben Weinreb, Christopher Hibbert, Julia Keay and John Keay, authors. London: Macmillan London Ltd., 2008.

Darcytodionysus.com. “Personality of the Month: Teresa Cornelys” posted by Meg McNulty, August 3, 2010. HERE

GoogleBooks. Cruikshank, Dan. LONDON’S SINFUL SECRET:The Bawdy History and Very Public Passions of London’s Georgian Age. “At Home with Mrs. Cornelys.” Pp. 196-202. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009. (Preview)  HERE

GoogleBooks. DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY. Leslie Stephen, ed. Vol. 12. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1887. “Cornelys, Theresa (1723-1797)” by Warwick Wrote. Pp. 223-225. HERE

Googlebooks. THE GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE. Vol. 284. January to June 1898. London: Chatto & Windus, 1898. “Mrs. Theresa Cornelys” by Edward Walford, M.A. Pp. 451-472. HERE

GoogleBooks. GROVE’S DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS. In Five Volumes. Vol. 1. J. A. Fuller Maitland, M.A., F.S.A., ed. “Cornelys, Theresa” by H. R. Tedder, Esq. P. 606. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1904. HERE

GoogleBooks. Russell, Gillian. WOMEN, SOCIABILITY AND THEATRE IN GEORGIAN LONDON. “The Circe of Soho: Teresa Cornelys and Carlisle House.” Pp. 17-37. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. (Preview)  HERE

SusannaEllisAuthor.wordpress.com. “Romance of London: Mrs. Cornelys at Carlisle House” from ROMANCE OF LONDON: Strange Stories, Scenes and Remarkable Persons of the Great Town in 3 Volumes by John Timbs. Posted March 7, 2016.  HERE

TheLancet.com. “Quacks and hacks: Georgian Medicine and the power of advertising” by Adrien Teal. Vol. 383, February 21, 2014. Pp. 404-405.  HERE

Images: 
Subscription ticket HERE By Sharp, William, 1749-1824 [engraver] Incledon, Charles Benjamin, 1763-1826 [performer]Carlisle House ([London], England) [author] [Public domain or CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Masque Ball ticket HERE By Sharp [engraver] Sharp [artist] Incledon, Charles Benjamin, 1763-1826 [performer]Carlisle House ([London], England) [author] [Public domain or CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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About the author: Lauren Gilbert has been a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America since 2005.  Her first published work, HEYERWOOD: A Novel, was released in 2011.  Her second novel, A RATIONAL ATTACHMENT, is due out soon.  She lives in Florida with her husband.  Please visit her website HERE for more information.

So Why Pineapples?

by Helen Hollick

Have you ever noticed stone pineapples outside houses? Maybe to either side of the gateposts? Maybe freestanding in front of the house? The latter is not so common in the UK, it is more of a US thing, especially along the east coast, in Virginia, for instance.

It is a tasty, sweet, and healthy fruit to eat, but why pineapples? What is so special about them?

Until the latter part of the 17th century the pineapple was almost unique to the New World. It was discovered by that intrepid explorer, Christopher Columbus when he 'sailed the ocean blue in fourteen-hundred and ninety-two’.

An edible species from the Caribbean islands, it was a favourite food of the native Caribs (along with, if myth is to be believed, cannibalising humans!). Originally the fruit came from Brazil and Paraguay, traded by the sea-faring peoples in their dugout canoes. The plant was called ‘anana’ – excellent fruit. In English it came to be called Pineapple because of its spiky likeness to pine cones, the first reference to the name being in 1664. In Spanish they are called piña, again for the pine cone. You would recognise the name from the drink, piña colada.

Columbus came across this edible treat on his second voyage in 1493 when he landed on the volcanic island of Guadeloupe. Going ashore to explore a deserted native village he found the freshly gathered fruit piled ready to eat. He and his crew tried the feast out, and enjoyed the experience. (It is rumoured that they also found cooking pots with human remains inside. Fact or fiction? Who knows?).

Sweet fruits were rare in Europe, sugar cane was as rare – although become popular thanks to Sir Walter Raleigh and his like who followed in Columbus’s footsteps and returned home to England with all sorts of edible delights – and tobacco, which in hindsight from our view in the twenty-first century perhaps he should have left where it was. Because of its rarity, and the difficulty in keeping pineapple fresh during a long sea voyage, well into the 1600s the pineapple was regarded as the food of kings. It was also difficult to grow in our colder climate. 

So rare and uncommon was it that in 1665 Charles II had a painting commissioned to portray him receiving the first pineapple grown in England by John Rose, his royal gardener.

Life and living in the American Colonies had somewhat improved since the days of the first settlers. Towns, like Boston, Philadelphia, Annapolis, Williamsburg and Charleston were expanding rapidly. For the well-to-do, ‘visiting’ either for afternoon tea, or to dine, was one of the prime sources of entertainment. Social intercourse was a way to show-off what you had and an essential way to keep up with the local gossip and news. Status, and the ability to show it, was an essential element. Keeping up with the Joneses is nothing new! The Colonial hostess would seek subtle ways to brag about what she had and take great pains to out-do her neighbours. Elegant furniture, sumptuous and elaborate gowns, exquisite china and silver tableware, fine linens, expensive tea… food was displayed on platters and arranged in elaborate pyramid styles, often dripping with sugar. Dinner was a culinary delight and always extravagant. The laid table would be kept as a surprise, behind closed doors until the moment to reveal all came... Fresh fruit was a grand thing to be displayed, but topping it all would be the pineapple. It was rare, expensive, and wonderful to look at, touch – and eat. It was the crowning celebrity-status glory of the feast. To have one on display meant you’d made it to the top of the tree.

Preserved pineapple chunks were brought in by trade ships from the Caribbean – candied, glazed, packed in sugar, but the ultimate prize was the whole fruit. Only the fastest ships, the more capable captains and crew could get from A to B without the fruit rotting in the hold. To be able to display a fresh(ish) pineapple as your table centrepiece was the ultimate goal; it showed wealth, rank and resourcefulness. Getting hold of one from the confectioners’ stores was no easy task. But they were rarely eaten at these elaborate dinners – they were display objects only. Why? Because the hostess had probably not actually bought it. She had rented it. The confectioner would rent the fruit out by the day. One day for Mistress Holystone up at Fairings, the next, the Appleby’s at Four Chimneys, then on to Colonel and Lady Dawson at Whitegates… and no one was any the wiser, because who would be brave enough to commit social suicide by admitting to the fact?

The image of the pineapple standing proud atop its pyramid of fruit, or on a glass or china pedestal to be admired and ooh-and-ahed over soon began to symbolise a sense of hospitality, friendship, good cheer, delightful company, enjoyment and heartfelt welcome. Craftsmen soon cottoned on and throughout the Colonies pineapples carved from stone or wood, or moulded in copper, or even bronze, began to appear atop gateposts or alongside the front porch or door. They decorated public buildings, were used as weather vanes, appeared on door-lintels, as jewellery and trinkets, as tableware and embroidered on linen as tablecloths and napkins. Were used as pots, jars, lamps, cups…

Newport House B & B Williamsburg
you can just see the pineapple atop its plinth by the first
window to the right of the front door

here it is in close-up
(photos Cathy Helms www.avalongraphics.org

Displaying a pineapple today is nothing more than a quaint old-fashioned tradition, yet who can resist picking up a nice, fresh, pineapple from the supermarket shelves? I doubt you will be inclined to display it rather than eat it, though.

ADDENDUM: my good friend John F. Millar from Newport House has reminded me:
"Pineapple was the only tropical fruit that could (frequently, although not always) withstand a sailing voyage up to mainland North America (for example, bananas, mangoes, guavas and papayas could not survive, and so they were only consumed up north as jam or syrup). Pineapples came ripe only in December, so they were one of the first plants subject to modern genetic modification, such that they can now come ripe any time of year. That meant in the old days when pineapples reached North America they were usually considered to be connected with Christmas. Ship captains who had brought a few pineapples home with them would place a carved pineapple on a post in front of their house in order to show the neighbors that there was pineapple to be had, so they had better come in quickly to eat some before it was all gone. From there, pineapples became a symbol of hospitality, which they still are today, even if no one remembers why."
Thanks John.

resources

http://www.levins.com/pineapple.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple

Tobacco Coast - A Maritime History of Chesapeake Bay and the Colonial Era

Arthur Pierce Middleton (John Hopkins University Press)

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Helen Hollick lives on a thirteen-acre farm in Devon. Born in London, Helen wrote pony stories as a teenager, moved to science-fiction and fantasy, and then discovered historical fiction. Published for over twenty years with her Arthurian Trilogy, and the 1066 era she became a ‘USA Today’ bestseller with her novel about Queen Emma The Forever Queen (UK title A Hollow Crown). She also writes the Sea Witch Voyages, pirate-based nautical adventures with a touch of fantasy - pirates being her present passion!

Connect with Helen through her Website, Blog, Facebook, Twitter (@HelenHollick), and through her Amazon Author’s Page.