RESEARCHING THE REGENCY ERA: Looking for Her-story

By Lauren Gilbert

Anyone intending to visit an archive or library to conduct research this year has found their plans cancelled thanks to COVID-19. Between travel restrictions and facility closures, access has been suddenly and severely limited. However, all is not completely lost.

When looking for information about people or events in the past, it is astonishing how much material there can be. Many primary sources may now be available on-line, if only temporarily. Various biographies and numerous histories can be found, sometimes written by contemporary authors, more often by authors of subsequent generations. Many of the readily available sources are written by men, although there are currently a number of excellent female historians now writing.

If one is curious about contemporary female perspectives on past events or historical personages, finding materials can be a bit challenging. A female perspective is invaluable, especially when one is looking for information about women in the past. At present, my research is focused on the late Georgian/Regency era in the United Kingdom, and I have found a variety of materials available to me via archives and on-line searches. However, some of the most fascinating were not produced by the individuals themselves, but by their contemporaries. Published memoirs, diaries and collections of letters can be found. Mrs. Harriet Arbuthnot, Lady Frances Shelley, the Comtesse de Boigne and the Duchesse de Dino, all moved in the highest circles, politically and socially, and interacted with the movers and shakers of their day. The diaries and memoirs of these four women give feminine perspectives of the times and places, and frequently make observations about the people and events of their time that give a wider view. In addition to being informative, they have the advantage of being entertaining and easily available, either on-line or by purchase.

THE JOURNAL OF MRS. ARBUTHNOT

Harriet Arbuthnot by Thomas Lawrence-public domain

Harriet Arbuthnot was born on September 10, 1793 to the Hon. Henry Fane and his wife, the former Ann Batson. Mr. Fane was a connection of John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland, making her a relation of Sarah Sophia, Countess of Jersey, and member of Parliament. The couple had 14 children, of whom Harriet was second to the youngest. Her father died when she was 9 years old. Her mother received a generous inheritance in 1810, which eased matters for the family.

Harriet Fane married the Right Honourable Charles Arbuthnot on January 31, 1814. She was 20 years old to his 46. He had been and continued to be an active member of Parliament and had held numerous government appointments, including Ambassador Extraordinary to the Ottoman Empire between 1804 and 1807. He was a widower with children when they married. Her family was not pleased with the engagement, due to Charles’ age and to financial considerations. The amount her mother and brother Vere Fane (who worked for Child’s Bank, owned by Lady Jersey) were prepared to settle on Harriet did not please Charles, but the matter was eventually resolved, and the marriage celebrated. Through her marriage to Charles, Harriet became a part of the political and diplomatic world, which was a source of fascination to her.

Harriet formed a close friendship with Robert Stewart, Lord Castlereagh (later Lord Londonderry) which lasted until his death by suicide until 1822. Subsequently, she formed a lasting friendship with the Duke of Wellington, who was also a friend of her husband’s. Although there were suggestions that she was Wellington’s mistress, most sources conclude that she was not his mistress, but a dear and intimate friend who acted as his hostess when needed.

Harriet was only 41 when she died August 2, 1834 of cholera, leaving both her husband and the duke disconsolate. Interestingly, Charles Arbuthnot took up residence with the Duke of Wellington until Arbuthnot’s own death in 1850.

Her journal was edited by Francis Bamford and the 7th Duke of Wellington-supposedly published in their entirety with adjustments for style and readability. Her views were conservative and aligned with the Tory party. In her journal, her primary focus was political. (Although she did have some choice remarks to make about unfaithful wives and various ladies of her acquaintance.) Her journals cover the periods 1820 to 1825 (volume 1) and 1826 to 1832 (volume 2). Volume 2 contains multiple appendices containing various letters and an index to both volumes.

THE DIARY OF FRANCES LADY SHELLEY

Lady Shelley, from a miniature by G. Sanders, 

in the possession of Spencer Shelley Esq.

Lady Frances Shelley was born June 16, 1787 to Thomas Hinckley and Jacintha Dalrymple Hesketh. (Jacintha was a widow with 6 children when she married Thomas, and was the sister of Grace Dalrymple Elliot, a famous courtesan, whom Frances met once.) Frances was the only child of this marriage. Her mother died when she was about 15 years old. She then went to live with her half-brother Sir Thomas Hesketh. She was presented at court in 1805, and became acquainted with Lord and Lady Sefton.

Frances met Sir John Shelley through the Seftons. He was also a particularly close friend of Lord George Villiers (later Earl of Jersey, married to Lady Sarah Sophia Fane, mentioned previously). He was 15 years older than Frances, known as a gambler and a womanizer, and a member of the highest society. He had served in Parliament from 1804 to 1806, so had political acquaintances. Numerous ladies had set their sights on him, including Lady Jersey’s sister. Frances’ brother and family objected to the match. Time and the good offices of Lord and Lady Sefton won out and Frances married Lord Shelley on June 4th, 1807. She was shy and younger than the women in whose society she found herself, and it took time for her to adjust. They had 5 children. Sir John inherited an estate in East Essex, which assisted their financial situation.

Frances met Wellington at Peace Celebrations in 1814. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Shelleys journeyed to Paris where they became part of Wellington’s circle. She became a close friend of Wellington’s, and a close friend of Harriet Arbuthnot. Sir John Shelley returned to Parliament and served 1816-1831. Frances and the Duke of Wellington socialized and corresponded regularly. Both Wellington and Lord Shelley died in 1852. Frances continued her diary until she made her final entry at age 83. She intended to write an autobiography but did not.

Frances died on the Isle of Wight February 24, 1873.

Her grandson Richard Edgcumbe, who admitted to natural sympathies, and possible mistakes as he attempted to be impartial, edited her diary. She discussed her youth; she was much younger than her husband, and not comfortable with women who had flirted with him in the past. Throughout, she was not above tart comments about many of the women of her acquaintance. The diary contains personal as well as political observations. It was published in 2 volumes. Volume 1 covers 1787-1817, and volume 2 1818-her Last Words at age 83 (1870). There is an end note by the editor in which he concludes with her death. Each volume has an index.

THE MEMOIRS OF THE COMTESSE DE BOIGNE

Portrait of the Comtesse de Boigne by J. Isabey-Creative Commons

The Comtesse de Boigne was born Adelaide Charlotte Louise Eleonore d’Osmond on February 10, 1781, the daughter of the 4th Marquis d’Osmond (whose lineage extended back to the 10th century) and his wife Eleonore Dillon, the daughter of an Irishman. Her mother was lady-in-waiting to Princess Marie Adelaide and baby Adelaide was born and raised in Versailles. After the French Revolution broke out, the family relocated in 1790 to first Italy, then England.

While living in England, she and her family met General Benoit de Boigne, a wealthy man 30 years older than she, in 1797. They were married on June 11, 1798. While the marriage improved her family’s financial status, it appears to have been unhappy from the beginning. He had made his fortune in India, and he apparently neglected to mention that he had a native wife and children there. In 1802, he bought a chateau in his native town of Chambery, Savoy. The couple had no children, and separated permanently in 1804. Madame de Boigne returned to France in 1804, living with her parents in Paris. After the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, she and her family rose to prominence. Her father became ambassador to Turin, and subsequently to England. She accompanied her family. She became a close friend of Marie-Amelie, wife of Louis-Philippe.

Her father’s assignment allowed her to return to England in the spring of 1816, following her parents. Once back in France, the Comtesse de Boigne established a salon in Paris that became a popular meeting place for politicians and society elite, particularly between 1830-1848. She started writing her memoirs in 1835, although they were not published until 1907. She also wrote 2 novels. Comtesse de Boigne died May 10, 1866 in Paris.

Her memoirs contain her personal recollections of people and events. She seemed as interested in the people as the politics. Volume 2 in particular includes her observations on going back to London after 12 years, comparing her memories to current conditions, as well as her observations on personalities, including the Prince Regent and the leaders of society, and on social customs. I have a set of her primary memoirs in English in 3 volumes: Volume 1 (1781-1814), volume 2 (1815-1819) and volume 3 (1820-1830). Each volume has an index. When available, the complete set in French includes volume 4 which contains fragments from 1830-1839 and volume 5 that includes fragments from 1832-1848 with some unpublished correspondence.

MEMOIRS OF THE DUCHESSE DE DINO

Dorothea von Biron, Princess of Courland, Duchess of Dino, Talleyrand, and Sagan, was born August 21, 1793 to Anne Charlotte Dorothea von Medem, Duchess of Courland and her husband Duke Peter von Biron. (The duke had been married previously and already had three daughters.) The duke acknowledged Dorothea as his daughter. However, it is suggested that her father actually may have been Aleksander Batowski , a Polish statesman. She was the Duke’s fourth and last daughter. She was known as Dorothea de Courland or Dorothea de Dino.

In 1809, Dorothea married Edmond de Talleyrand-Perigord, a French cavalry officer who was the nephew of statesman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, in Frankfurt. The elder Talleyrand had promoted the match. The couple had two sons, Napoleon-Louis and Alexandre. In 1817, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord was made a prince and duke by Louis XVII of France. He turned over the duchy of Dino to Edmond, making Dorothea the Duchesse de Dino. The couple legally separated in 1818. They were unsuccessfully reconciled in 1820, finally separating in 1821.

Dorothea’s beauty and charm won the affection of the elder Talleyrand even though he was 39 years older. Accompanying him as his niece, Dorothea was present at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815. From 1815 on, Dorothea acted as his hostess at his home in Paris. Her husband, Edmond, died in Italy in 1822. Dorothea had other liaisons (and other children), but remained with Prince Talleyrand he died in 1838. She held Prince Talleyrand’s papers and personal archives, and is supposed to have been involved in the posthumous publication of his Memoirs. Subsequently she spent time living in Paris and finally in Sagan in Germany. Her relationship with Prince Talleyrand was the subject of much speculation. She was his niece by marriage, and gossip also identified her as his mistress. She was aware of this, and acknowledged the rumours in her memoirs. There seems little doubt that she was, in fact, his mistress even though both had other lovers.

The Duchesse de Dino died September 18, 1862 after a long illness.

Her memoirs were edited by her granddaughter, Princesse Radziwill. The Duchesse had told the princess that she was leaving her the materials with instructions and advice, and the princess completed the project with assistance from the late Duchesse’s executor. The memoirs are fascinating reading, consisting of diary entries with annotations and quotes from letters (or even whole letters). They are a fascinating blend of personal and political observations, with references to letters from other people. Her diary addresses events and people in England as well as France.

The memoirs were published in multiple volumes in French. The volumes contain appendices and biographical indices (which provide only brief paragraphs with biographical data). I have a reprint set comprised of volume 1 (1831-1835), volume 2 (1836-1840) and volume 3 (1841-1850), available in English, and pertinent to the periods I am studying. Other editions with volumes covering up to 1862 are available in French. (The numbers of volumes in the complete set seems to vary depending on in which language and edition they were published.) Volume 1 contains her diaries and memoirs of her time in London (starting in 1831). She became friends with Lady Cowper (later Lady Palmerston) and with Princess Lieven, and maintained her friendship and correspondence with both ladies for years.

While these memoirs and diaries do not replace original sources, such as wills, complete correspondence, and so forth, they provide valuable insight to this entire period, and particularly feminine points of view of the people, events and politics of the era. While there are inevitable biases and fact checking is (as always) needed, I found all of these sources to be eminently readable and helpful. In these difficult times when access to original source materials is so restricted, they are invaluable sources of information.

SOURCES INCLUDE:

Ziegler, Philip. THE DUCHESS OF DINO A life of Dorothea of Courland, mistress to Talleyrand. New York: The John Day Company, 1963.

Castlesandcoffeehouses.com “Talleyrand’s Chateau de Valencay. » Author not shown. Posted July 16, 2018. HERE

Chateaudelucy.com “The de Boigne Family » by Antoine de Galbert (no post date).

Guizot.com “Duchess of Dino.” No author or post date provided. HERE

Heritagealive.co.uk “The Iron Duke’s Lady” by HeritageAlive!, posted August 2 (year not shown). HERE

History.blog.gov.uk “Harriet Arbuthnot and the ‘vortex of politics’” by Dr. Stephen Lee, posted January 12, 2015. HERE

marie-antoinette.forumactif.org “Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne » by Mme. de Sabran, posted Saturday, April 9, 2016. HERE

thebeaumonde.com “The Journal of Mrs. Arbuthnot” by Cheryl Bolen, first published in The Quizzing Glass, December 2010, posted online with author’s permission January 23, 2012. HERE

VersaillesCentury.com “Born at Versailles: The Author Mme De Boigne” by David Gemeinhardt, posted February 12, 2017. HERE


Illustrations:

Lady Shelley: scanned frontispiece from my personal copy of THE DIARY OF FRANCES LADY SHELLEY 1787-1817.

Others from Wikimedia Commons.

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An avid reader, Lauren Gilbert was introduced to English authors early in life. Lauren has a bachelor of arts degree in liberal arts English with a minor in Art History. A long time member of JASNA, she has presented a number of programs. She lives in Florida with her husband. Her first book, HEYERWOOD A Novel, is still available. Recently released, A RATIONAL ATTACHMENT is her second novel. A long-time contributor to the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, her work is included in both volumes of CASTLES, CUSTOMS AND KINGS: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors. She is researching material for a non-fiction work. Please visit her website for more information HERE .

Black Britons in Georgian England

by Maria Grace

Although they they were a small minority population, Black Britons were definitely present in Georgian England.

The Earliest Black Britons

Evidence of Black Britons exists all the way back to Roman Britain. Archeological analysis of twenty-two sets of remains from Southwark, Roman London revealed at least one of them had African ancestry. Analysis of the ‘Ivory Bangle Lady’ burial in York suggests a mixed white/Back ancestry. Remains found in 1953 of Beachy Head Lady (dating to 245 AD) in East Sussex, and in 2013 in Fairford, Gloucestershire (dating between 900 and 1000AD) both appear to be of sub-Saharan African ancestry. Written evidence suggests the presence of residents in Roman Britain from Romanized North Africa (a section of the coast of modern Algeria, Libya and Tunisia).

During the Renaissance

As early as the beginning of the fifteen hundreds, Black entertainers could be found in Scotland and the royal courts. “They quickly became not only popular but fashionably essential in England as well.” (Gerzina,1995) Most historians though, suggest the 1555 arrival of five Africans in England to study English and facilitate trade as the start of a continuous Black presence in Britain.

During Queen Elizabeth I's reign, the Black population of London was mostly made of free individuals many of whom intermarried with native English people. Parish records suggest that many of the Black Londoners were servants, but some worked in local business establishments (Wood, 2012).

In Early Modern and Georgian England 

The Black population in Britain swelled exponentially during the 17th and 18th centuries, fed by the so-called Triangular Trade. Trade ships with goods from Britain exchanged goods for slaves on the coasts of West Africa. Slaves would be transported and sold for labor in plantations. Products of slave labor including sugar and rum would then return to Britain for sale.

Black communities began to develop and flourish in the port cities most associated with the slave trade, like Liverpool and Bristol. Early Black settlers in these cities included sailors in the merchant navy, soldiers and sailors in Britain's military, the mixed-race children of traders sent to be educated in England, servants, and freed slaves. During the American Revolution, slaves fleeing captivity often joined the British armed forces with the promise of freedom in Britain.

By the mid-18th century, Blacks accounted for somewhere between one and three per cent of the London populace. In 1768, some estimated the number of Black servants in London at 20,000, out of a total London population of 676,250. Others, depending upon the year and the source, put the figure somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000, although the accurate figure is probably closer to 15,000 (Gerzina 1995). Consequently, by mid-century Black men and women were a relatively familiar sight on the streets of London.

Slavery in Georgian England

Technically, the Cartwright decision of 1569 established that slavery was not legal in England. The 1706 ruling by Lord Chief Justice Holt supported the decision. However, these rulings were routinely ignored and slaves continued to be bought and sold throughout the 1700s.

Finally, the case of James Somersett a fugitive Black slave from Virginia in 1772 legally contested English slavery. Lord Chief Justice William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, ruled that a master could not force a slave to leave the kingdom against his will. Mansfield was clear that his ruling did not abolish slavery per se, and it was vague enough to allow Blacks to continue to be hunted and kidnapped in cities like London, Liverpool and Bristol then sold elsewhere.

Still, the decision helped foster the decline of slavery. The Slave Trade Act of 1807 finally abolished the slave trade, but not the practice of slavery which would wait until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 to be finally eliminated.

The Black Community of Georgian Britain

Even against this backdrop of slavery, particularly in London, a thriving Black community developed, one that evidenced concern for joint action and solidarity (Gerzina 1995).

“The word 'Black' itself was a loose term; those men and women in Britain hailed from many different tribes and regions of Africa. And they spoke several different kinds of English: some, brought up by their aristocrat owners, used refined language; others, educated at sea, used Jack Tar lingo, a stew of Cockney, Creole, Irish, Spanish and low-grade American. All this created great differences in their way of life, and social class played at least as important a role as color in their way of dealing with day-to-day vicissitudes.” (Sandhu, 2011).

These class differences played out in the Black community much as they did in the rest of England. There were those who managed to attain a comfortable, and even prosperous standard of living in the free Black community. Cesar Picton and George Africanus are just two examples of successful Black businessmen. There is evidence of alehouses with a predominantly Black clientele, and of the existence of Black social events. It is also clear that Blacks participated fully in the working-class culture of London.

Despite the existence of community, barely 20% of the Black population was female (Sandhu, 2011). In part because of these gender imbalances and in part because of its social and geographical diffusion, many Black men married local women (Emsley, et al, version 8.0). In general, mixed-race marriages were not viewed as problematic, mainly because they occurred among the lower working classes. This attitude “is visually clear in the prints and engravings of Hogarth and Rowlandson, among numerous others, as well as in novels and plays, and that race was secondary, to the working class at least.” (Gerzina 1995).

This working class made up the bulk of English society, and an even larger percentage of Black society. But where did working-class Black people find employment?

For some Black men, a life at sea offered more opportunities than one on land. Although most never advanced far in rank, Black petty officers were not unusual in late 18th-century Britain. These sailors were the exception rather than the rule. For most, domestic service and urban occupations like porters, watermen, basket women, hawkers, and chairmen were the main employments for lower working-class Black Londoners (Emsley, et al, version 8.0). But even for those who found such employment, the specter of poverty was never far away.

The Problem of Poverty

In 1731 the Lord Mayor of London ruled that "no Negroes shall be bound apprentices to any Tradesman or Artificer of this City". Due to this ruling, most were forced into working as servants (Sandhu, 2011).

During this same period, many former American slave soldiers, who had fought on the side of the British in the American Revolutionary War, were resettled as free men in London. Left without pensions or access to the system of poor relief established by the Old Poor Law, and often without skills, many of them became poverty-stricken and were reduced to begging on the streets. Thus the "Black poor" became a much-discussed social phenomenon in the final quarter of the eighteenth century (Gerzina 1995). In truth though, the itinerant of any race had little hope of steady employment and a way out of their situations.

Some poor Blacks found shelter in the areas of St Giles or Seven Dials, St Paul’s, Ratcliff and Limehouse, and along the Wapping riverside. Black people forced to live in such areas shared these unsanitary conditions with poor whites who made up the majority of the population. These were not ghettoes defined by race, but by situation, inhabited by those whose only recourse to starvation and death was often theft, prostitution and beggary. (Gerzina 1995)

Conclusion

Though the poor were often out of sight and out of mind of the upper classes, this did not mean that Black people were invisible. Even if one lived away from the active Black communities of Georgian England, audiences, both literary and theatrical, were accustomed to seeing Black people in the theatre as both subject and spectators. They also knew them as musicians and performers at fairs. Black Britons were an active part of British society during the Georgian and Regency eras.

This post only scratches the surface, just highlighting a few points in a broad and important topic. Some of the references below might be helpful in gaining deeper understandings.

References

“Black Lives in England.” Historic England. 2020. Accessed July 10, 2020. https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/the-slave-trade-and-abolition/sites-of-memory/Black-lives-in-england/

“Black people in late 18th-century Britain.” English Heritage. Accessed July 12, 2020. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/portchester-castle/history-and-stories/Black-people-in-late-18th-century-britain/

Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. “A Short History of Black people in Britain.” Worker’s Liberty. March, 23, 2006. Accessed July 9, 2020. https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2017-07-26/short-history-Black-people-britain

Edwards, Paul. “The History of Black People in Britain.” History Today. September 9, 1981. Accessed 7/1/2020. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-Black-people-britain

Emsley, Clive; Tim Hitchcock and Robert Shoemaker, "Community Histories; Black Communities", Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, July 12, 2020). https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Black.jsp

Gerzina, Gretchen, Black London: Life Before Emancipation, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1995.

Glover, Dominic. “The First Black Briton? 1000 Year Old Skeleton of African Woman Discovered by Schoolboys in Gloucestershire River.” International Business Times. October 2, 2013. Accessed June 30, 2020. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fairford-sub-sahara-africa-skeleton-gloucestershire-507102

Martin, S.I.. “African writers and Black thought in 18th-century Britain.” Discovering Literature: Restoration & 18th Century. June 21, 2018. Accessed June 30, 2020. https://www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature/articles/african-writers-and-Black-thought-in-18th-century-britain

Rebecca C Redfern, Michael Marshall, Katherine Eaton, Hendrik Poinar. "'Written in Bone': New discoveries about the Lives and Burials of Four Roman Londoners". Britannia 48 (2017), 253-277, doi:10.1017/S0068113X17000216. Accessed July 12, 2020. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/britannia/article/written-in-bone-new-discoveries-about-the-lives-and-burials-of-four-roman-londoners/F464D9E93FCE96341DDD7774C4C8CA10/core-reader

Sandhu, Sukhdev. “The First Black Britons.” BBC History. February, 17, 2011. Accessed 7/3/2020.http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/black_britons_01.shtml

Seaman, Jo. "The mystery of Beachy Head Lady: A Roman African from Eastbourne.” Museum Crush. May 4, 2018. Accessed July 12, 2020. https://museumcrush.org/the-mystery-of-beachy-head-lady-a-roman-african-from-eastbourne/

Wood, Michael. “Britain's first Black community in Elizabethan London” BBC News. 20 July 2012. Accessed July 5, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18903391

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Six time BRAG Medallion Honoree, #1 Best-selling Historical Fantasy author Maria Grace has her PhD in Educational Psychology and is a 16-year veteran of the university classroom where she taught courses in human growth and development, learning, test development and counseling. None of which have anything to do with her undergraduate studies in economics/sociology/managerial studies/behavior sciences. She pretends to be a mild-mannered writer/cat-lady, but most of her vacations require helmets and waivers or historical costumes, usually not at the same time. She writes gaslamp fantasy, historical romance and non-fiction to help justify her research addiction. 

Click here to find her books on Amazon.

For more on her writing and other Random Bits of Fascination, visit her website. You can also like her on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

An Accomplished Young Lady

by Maria Grace

During the Regency era, a proper education was crucial to a middle or upper class young lady’s future. Since a woman’s only ‘proper’ aspiration was to marriage, her education focused on making her noticeable to potential husbands. Her accomplishments enabled her to display cultural distinction and set herself apart from women who were merely ‘notable’—those who could only manage a household but not cultivate elegant socializing.

The number of accomplishments a young lady acquired reflected the financial state of her family and the level of sacrifice they were willing to make to improve her chances of marrying well.

Men of the middle and upper classes sought a wife who would be a social asset to them (in addition to a good dowry of course.) A "social asset" was to never be an intellectual threat to her husband, but to able to follow conversation, and perhaps more importantly to keep a conversation away from unpleasantries and steered toward good humor for all. She could understand what was being said around her, but did not have ready opinions or advice to offer.

Certain subjects were considered necessary for becoming that desired social asset.

Reading

No young woman could be considered accomplished without the ability to read. Not only was it necessary for basic household management and correspondence, but it formed a foundation for intelligent conversation and for reading aloud for the entertainment of others.

Though young ladies were not encouraged to read heavy subjects like philosophy and theology, serious books were considered appropriate as they enabled interesting conversation. Similarly, scripture to enable her to recognize passages and sermons, such as Fordyce’s, aimed at young women, were appropriate reading for an accomplished lady.

Writing

In this context, writing did not refer to a creative endeavour, but rather being able to create a letter with beautiful penmanship, correctly spelled and with excellent grammar. Young women would be schooled in the art of letter writing, with books dedicated to the topic and offering examples of good letters for her to emulate. She might even copy particularly pretty phrases out of these books for use in her own letters.

Arithmetic

No mistress could run a household or estate without a solid understanding of basic math. She had to be able to keep accounts, balance a budget, calculate how much food and others supplies needed to be bought, track expenses and even forecast trends in the use of supplies.
Few women would have exposure to advanced algebra or other pure mathematics. She had no practical use for them and would be dangerously close to challenging her husband’s expertise if she knew them.

Sciences and Social sciences

The natural sciences and social sciences were significant to young ladies only insofar as they facilitated the art of refined conversation. General awareness and rote memorization in areas of history, politics, geography, literature and philosophy were sufficient for ladies of quality.

A cursory knowledge of botany was common. Ladies who were more interested might also become learned in the use of plants as home remedies since the mistress of an estate was often the first one consulted in cases of injury and illness.

Languages

Despite the Napoleonic wars, a working knowledge of French was indispensable for a young lady. Italian and German, for singing and understanding sung performances were also useful, but conversational fluency was not expected. Greek and Latin, beyond a handful of commonly used phrases were the purview of men and not included in a young lady’s curriculum.

Music 

Though not expected to be virtuosos, quality young ladies were expected to be proficient musicians. Playing and singing were considered seductive to men since they displayed her body and bearing to potential suitors. Furthermore, once married, musical skills would be useful for long evening of entertaining both her husband and her guests.

Only a few instruments were considered appropriate for young ladies. Anything which needed to be blown into was a risk for causing a reddened face and heaving bosom, neither of which would be attractive, much less alluring, so they were out of the question. The violin, which required raised arms, was also inappropriate. The short bodied dresses of the era presented too many possibilities for embarrassing mishaps. Moreover, the violin required a higher level of expertise to perform and the potential for embarrassing oneself with a mediocre was greater.

The harp was the most desirable instrument, but most had to make do with the piano which had replaced the harpsichord in popularity. Some young ladies also learned the guitar.

Not only did girls need to be able to play and sing, but they had to be able to dance. The dance floor was the place for young ladies to interact with their suitors, a place where they could escape the watchful eyes of their chaperones and engage in somewhat private conversation and even touch, which was otherwise entirely forbidden. Skilled and graceful partners were highly desirable. Girls who danced poorly could expect to spend a lot of time without a partner.

Artistic endeavors

Girls were encouraged to draw and paint and given training in it whenever possible. Particularly talented girls might even exhibit their work at local or national levels, or teach other girls, all of which could be valuable if she failed to obtain a husband.

Filigree work, now known as quilling, and japanning, now called decoupage, were also encouraged as ways for ladies to display their artistic skills. Screens, small
chests and trunks and various bric-a-brac were frequently the object of their efforts.

Needlework (plain and fancy)

Needlework was one of the most practical subjects for a young lady. No matter what her future might hold, clothing, plain or elegant, would be a part of it. Clothing required mending and making. Even ladies who could hire out their own sewing would often engage in making garments for charitable cases in their parish. Fancy work included embroidery, cross stitch, knotting, netting and more.

Needlework need not be a solitary endeavor. Often, women would bring along their work baskets during social calls and work as they visited. If someone arrived without something to work on, a hostess might offer something from her workbasket to her visitor. Of course, the elegance of the project would reflect upon the seamstress and fancy projects were more desirable for working in company than plain.

Boarding Schools

Girl’s education was a bit of a controversial subject. Girls from wealthy and cultured homes were often educated by their mothers since they could hire enough help with the household work to have time to invest in their daughter’s education. They might enlist the aid of additional teaching masters for training in music, languages and dance. Alternatively, at the age of ten, parents might consider sending their daughter to a boarding school, sometimes for as little as a year or two to ‘finish’ their accomplishments. If the girls was in the way at home, she might be sent off for much longer.


Boarding school could be a risky proposition. Many girls' school were underfunded, badly managed, and were never quite respectable. Teachers frequently came from the ranks of clever, but poor former students, impoverished gentlewomen, poor relatives of the clergy or retired servants of the upper classes.

Subjects taught at these schools included decidedly nonacademic subjects like sewing and fancy needlework, drawing, dancing, music. Polite literature, including mythology, writing, arithmetic, botany, history, geography, and French formed the balance of the more academic studies. Rudiments of stagecraft and acting might also be taught as training in elocution and grace of movement.

Parents typically paid twenty to thirty guineas per year for these schools. Some of these subjects, particularly those which required additional masters to be brought in, like dance, might incur additional fees. Washing and the privilege of being a ‘parlor boarder’ who enjoyed extra privileges like eating with the mistress of the school and using the parlor, also incurred additional fees.

Armed with these skills, a young woman would be considered ready to enter society and engage in the all-important task of finding a suitable husband.

References

Baird, Rosemary. Mistress of the House, Great Ladies and Grand Houses. Phoenix (2003)
Collins, Irene. Jane Austen, The Parson's Daughter; Hambledon (1998)
Collins, Irene. Jane Austen & the Clergy; The Hambledon Press (2002)
Davidoff, Leonore & Hall, Catherine. Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850;  Routledge (2002)
The Female Preceptor. Essays On The Duties Of The Female Sex, Conducted By A Lady. 1813 and 1814
Fullerton, Susannah. Jane Austen & Crime; JASA Press (2004)
Harvey, A. D. Sex in Georgian England; Phoenix Press (1994)
Ives, Susanna Educating Your Daughters – A Guide to English Boarding Schools in 1814, March, 10 2013.
Jones, Hazel. Jane Austen & Marriage; Continuum Books (2009)
Lane, Maggie. Jane Austen's World; Carlton Books (2005)
Laudermilk, Sharon & Hamlin, Teresa L. The Regency Companion; Garland Publishing (1989)
Le Faye, Deirdre. Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels; Harry N. Abrams (2002)
Martin, Joanna. Wives and Daughters; Hambledon Continuum (2004
Selwyn, David. Jane Austen & Leisure; The Hambledon Press (1999)
Sullivan, Margaret C. The Jane Austen; Handbook Quirk Books (2007)
Watkins, Susan. Jane Austen's Town and Country Style; Rizzoli (1990)

This article is an Editor's Choice and was originally published June 10, 2014.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Though Maria Grace has been writing fiction since she was ten years old, those early efforts happily reside in a file drawer and are unlikely to see the light of day again, for which many are grateful. 

After penning five file-drawer novels in high school, she took a break from writing to pursue college and earn her doctorate. After 16 years of university teaching, she returned to her first love, fiction writing.

Click here to find her books on Amazon. For more on her writing and other Random Bits of Fascination, visit her website. You can also like her on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

Sex, Swearing and Humour in the Regency Period

By Caroline Miley

History is full of facts, but Catherine Morland is probably not the only reader who sometimes found them a little trying: “I read it [history] a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page.”(1) Facts are, of course, of primary importance. But it's one thing to discover, for instance, that the Duke of Wellington's birthday was May Day, and quite another to know how it would have been celebrated - and the way life was lived is often far more interesting, but harder to discover, than reigns and dates and public events.

Thomas Rowlandson ‘Soldiers on a March’ 1808

Fortunately, in the late Georgian era there's a mass of contemporary material, ranging from newspapers, letters, diaries, memoirs and military dispatches to essays and novels. Not only are these full of useful information, they show clearly how people used to write and express themselves.

There's an idea that the Regency was full of people saying 'Demme, m'Lud, I do protest..' and so on, but a glance at Jane Austen's prose shows that ordinary people didn't speak like that at all. One of the things evident in reading a wide range of contemporary material is that educated people often used two quite different modes of expression, depending on what they were writing. There's the everyday, which is plain and unadorned. Clear, elegant prose was what the Georgians aimed for. Military dispatches, for instance, are models of concise statement. Here is the Duke of Wellington (in recorded speech): “All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called 'guessing what was at the other side of the hill’.”(2) So too with letters, including those Jane Austen gives in her novels. But when describing scenery in memoirs, writers sometimes break into a special 'literary' form: 'When we attained the crest of the hill, what a vale of Elysian delight opened before us! Fair Venus herself would not disdain to dwell in the exquisite groves...' and so on. But they didn't talk like that. It was a poetic mode considered suitable for literature.

The real problem for anyone wishing to learn not only the facts but the feeling of an era, is the vast amount of material that never appears in print. At the forefront of this is sex and swearing. Neither subject is ever mentioned, although there must have been a great deal of both. We can know quite a lot about sex at the time, but less of how people talked about it, and therefore what they thought. It was not a subject for polite conversation, so remained hidden. Fielding’s novels (Tom Jones, The History of Moll Flanders) and contemporary plays show that, as might be expected, people were keen on sex and thought about it a lot. There are hints about sexual desire under the text of Austen’s novels and letters – Lydia’s elopement with Wickham, and other seductions, must have been motivated by libido, and there are occasional comments that ‘I could not like him in that way’. It is noteworthy that the Georgians were a great deal less squeamish about sex than the later Victorians. The fact of Colonel Brandon’s having an illegitimate daughter, for instance, doesn’t make him an unsuitable husband for Marianne. But when it comes to details of what people did and how they did it, if it were not for Fanny Hill (3) and Rowlandson's numerous, often very graphic erotic drawings, I don't know how we'd get on at all. As it is, these two sources provide almost too much information!

Swearing also doesn't appear in print, except the occasional genteel 'by G- sir!' Naval and military reminiscences give a few more clues - one of my favourites being the officer who recalled that he had been several days as a midshipman on his first ship before discovering that 'Damn your eyes!' was not a form of greeting. But I think it is safe to assume that there was a great deal of swearing among men and the lower classes of women, and that it centred, then pretty much as now, around the common ‘Anglo-Saxon’ sexual words in use today and blasphemy. In sharp contrast to today, though, a gentleman certainly did not swear in the presence of a lady.

Which brings me to the final category: humour. I've not been able to find any joke books of the period, but irony and satire there were in plenty, and I have to assume that broad fall-on-your-face humour was as likely to raise a laugh then as now. Again, the multitude of lampoons and caricatures of the period give us the best clues to this category. Thomas Rowlandson’s ‘The Stare Case’ depicts a crowd on the notoriously narrow staircase of the Royal Academy at Exhibition time. Plump ladies are tumbling down, their skirts hiked up to show their rounded bottoms (no underwear in those days), while some dirty old men (and the sculptor Nollekens) ogle them from the foot of the stairs. A similar idea animates his sketch of ‘The Line of Beauty (a concept in art), in which some Royal Academicians (4) have positioned themselves strategically to take in the more intimate charms of the nude model reclining before them.

Thomas Rowlandson  ‘R.A.s of Genius Reflecting on the True Line
 of Beauty, at the Life Academy Somerset House June 1, 1824’ 

There is a great deal of pictorial humour along those lines, as well as poking fun at stereotypes, such as fat greedy men shoving food into their faces and elegant dandies tight-lacing their corsets and padding their skinny hips. One of my favourites, ‘On the March’ which typically combines information with comedy, shows a line of soldiers and camp followers crossing a stream. All are burdened with various things; one man bears his wife on his back; a frolicking dog (a Rowlandson trademark) holds a bundle in his mouth, and at the rear a sturdy wife carries her officer husband, too refined to get his feet wet, on her back.

Thomas Rowlandson ‘The Stare Case’ 1811

But lampoons are not the place to find the more subtle wit that really characterised the age.  Here is Austen at her best, in her letters, where she spoke less guardedly than in her published works: “I do not want People to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”(5) And for a feast of raillery, as it was called, it’s hard to go past Sheridan, the noted wit and satirist, who thought that “There's no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature”(6). His plays are full of comedy, and he must have been a formidable opponent as an MP. To understand late Georgian humour, you can do a lot worse than to read contemporary plays. The wit is often surprisingly modern, my favourite being this riposte by Goldsmith’s Tony Lumpkin, when his mother suggests that he doesn’t want to disappoint his friends waiting at the tavern: “As for disappointing them, I should not so much mind; but I can't abide to disappoint myself.”(7)

These are not the great affairs of State (or affairs of Statesmen) that are the staple of so much history. But if we want to get inside the lives of ordinary people and find out what they thought and how they lived, then nothing is more important than humour, sex and swearing.


Notes
(1) Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, London, 1817, Chapter 14
(2) Quoted in The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D F.R.S, Secretary of the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830 (1884), edited by Louis J. Jennings, Vol. III, p. 276.
(3) Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland, London 1748.
(4) Plate 32 from Charles Molloy Westmacott's "English Spy" 1824. Each artist's easel is initialled for identification: B.R.H. for Benjamin Robert Haydon, M.A. Shee for Martin Archer Shee, T.L for Sir Thomas Lawrence, B.W. for Benjamin West, R.W. for Richard Westmacott, J.J. for John Jackson, J.F. for Joseph Farington, and F.C. for Francis Chantrey (courtesy Met Museum).
(5) Letter to her sister Cassandra, December 24, 1798.
(6) The School for Scandal, Act 1, Scene 1.
(7) She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, 1773, Act 1 Scene 1.

~~~~~~~~~~

Caroline Miley is an art historian and author of literary historical novels set in the late Georgian era. Her debut novel, The Competition, won a Varuna Fellowship and a Fellowship of Australian Writers award, and was selected by the Royal Academy of Arts for its 250th Anniversary celebrations. Her latest novel, Artist on Campaign, was inspired by wondering what would happen if a rake of an artist was obliged to put up with the British Army, and vice versa.
Her interests are art, both as a practitioner and a viewer, books, films, history, travel and gardens.

Social media
https://www.carolinemiley.com/
https://www.facebook.com/carolinemileywriter/

Traditional New Year's Celebrations

by Maria Grace

Illustration to Robert Burns' poem, Auld Lang Syne
By John Masey Wright (1777-1866, artist)
Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Although we often concentrate on Christmastime traditions, for some, New Years’ traditions can be as involved and every bit as significant. Many of the traditions focus around prediction the year’s fortune, repelling bad luck and inviting good.

New Year’s Eve

For some, New Year’s Eve meant thoroughly cleaning the house to start the new year clean. Old superstitions required the removal of ashes, rags, scraps and anything perishable from the house so that nothing was carried over from one year to the next. In this way, they would preserve their good luck was preserved and bad luck banished

Some celebrated with the family or a party gathering in a circle before midnight. At the stroke of the midnight hour, the head of the family would open the front and back doors to usher out the old year out the back and welcome the new year in the front.

In Yorkshire one traditionally says “black rabbits, black rabbits, black rabbits” as the clock is about to chime midnight then, as the clock strikes twelve, say “white rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits” as the first utterance of the new year. This will bring good luck.

First Footing

Some Scots and residents of northern England believed in ‘first footing’—the first visitor to set foot across the threshold after midnight on New Year’s Eve affected the family's fortunes. A tall, dark, and handsome male stranger without physical handicap was the best omen, especially if his feet were the right shape.

High-insteps implied that "water would run under"—that is bad luck would flow past. A flat foot meant bad luck, as did women in most cases. These omens were not fully agreed upon though. For some, blonde or red-headed, bare-foot girls were bringers of good luck, but not in Yorkshire where the first footer had to be male.

The first-footer entered through the front door. Tradition held that no one spoke until the ‘first-footer’ wished the occupants a happy new year. Ideally, the first-footer would come bearing traditional gifts: coin, a lump of coal, a piece of bread or shortbread, whiskey, salt and black bun—representing financial prosperity, warmth, food, good cheer, and flavor in the new year.

Once inside, the first-footer would be led through the clean home to place the coal on the fire and offer a toast to the house and all who lived there. Then the first-footer might be permitted to kiss every woman in the house. The first-footer would leave through the back door and take all the old year's troubles and sorrows.

Dark haired young men often made the rounds of the neighborhood houses, bringing good luck to the homes and to themselves when they were invited in for a holiday toast. Although in many places for the first-footer could be a resident of the house, it was imperative that they not be in the house at the stroke of midnight or they could not be considered a true first-footer. In Worcestershire, householders would take luck into their own hands, ensuring good luck by stopping the first carol singer who appeared and leading him through the house.


New Year’s Day

A variety of traditions for New Year’s Day suggested how one might discern or influence their fortunes for the coming year.

One custom was to hook a pancake on one of a cow’s horns, then sing and dance around the unsuspecting bovine. If the cake fell off in front of the cow, it foretold good luck, if behind, bad. (Of course I have to imagine not getting gored by a ticked-off cow would signal good luck, but that’s just me.)

In Radnorshire (Wales), Herefordshire and Hertfordshire farmers might participate in the Burning Bush custom. At sunrise on New Year's Day, a hawthorn bush would be burned in the straw on the wheat fields to ensure good luck and bountiful crops. The bushes sometimes hung in the kitchen until the next year.


Creaming the Well

In some regions (particularly Scotland), young women raced to draw the first water from the well in a practice known as ‘creaming the well.’ Possession of this water meant marriage with in the coming year if she could get the man she desired to marry to drink the water before the end of the day.

Others believed the water had curative properties and even washed the udders of cows with it to insure productivity.

In another attempt to predict their marriage partners, young women would drop egg whites into water on New Year’s Day. They believed that the first letter of the name of man they would marry would appear in the swirling goo. (I can’t quite imagine how you would see a letter in that, but that’s neither here nor there, right?)


News Years’ Gifts

Until the 18th century, gifts were exchanged on New Year's Day instead of Christmas or Twelfth Night (Epiphany). Food, money, and clothing were traditional gifts, with gloves being particularly popular.

In some places (especially Wales), on New Year’s day, children would sing door to door at the neighbor’s houses. In return (or perhaps simply to make them go away) they would be given coins, mince pies, apples and other treats. The singing must accomplished by noon or the singers will be called fools.

A Welsh New Years’ gifting tradition is known as Calennig. Gifts are exchanged particularly between family members. Food, money and other gifts might be given. Window sills and mantelpieces were often decorated with a calennig made from an apple stuck with three twigs to form a tripod, coated in spices, dried fruit and nuts and topped with a sprig of evergreen. These were seen as bringers of good fortune for the coming year.


Scottish Hogmanay

Hogmanay—a Scottish new year celebration dates back to Norse celebrations of the winter solstice. The custom of first-footing is strongly associated with Hogmanay. In fishing communities, first footers carried decorated herring. (Of course, now I’m wondering how does one decorate a herring—but I digress.)

A variety of parades and ceremonies involving fire were (and still are) popular. In northeast Scotland, fireball swinging remains popular. Balls of wire stuffed with flammables would be attached to wire, chain or nonflammable rope and swung around the carriers’ heads in a memorable display ending with the balls being cast into a large body of water. Other similar parades involved carrying torches or burning half-barrels on the bearer’s heads.

In the Highlands Hogmanay would be celebrated with the blessing of the household and livestock. Early on New Year's morning, water obtained from a river ford routinely crossed by both the living and the dead is first drunk by the householders, then sprinkled in every room of the house, the beds, and the inhabitants. Afterwards, the house is sealed and juniper branches lit on fire and carried through the house, the juniper smoke fumigating the home until everyone is coughing and sneezing. At this point, all the doors and windows are opened to allow in the fresh new year’s air. After a restorative from the whisky bottle, the household could sit down to its New Year breakfast.

Traditional New Year’s foods include: shortbread, venison pie, haggis, black bun (fruitcake wrapped in pastry) and rumbledethumps, similar to bubble and squeak or colcannon.

This seasonal favorite is an Editor's Choice and was originally published on January 2, 2018. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Though Maria Grace has been writing fiction since she was ten years old, those early efforts happily reside in a file drawer and are unlikely to see the light of day again, for which many are grateful. 

After penning five file-drawer novels in high school, she took a break from writing to pursue college and earn her doctorate. After 16 years of university teaching, she returned to her first love, fiction writing.

Click here to find her books on Amazon. For more on her writing and other Random Bits of Fascination, visit her website. You can also like her on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

Early Education of up-and-coming Gentlemen

by Maria Grace

"In all well-regulated states, the two principal points in view in the education of youth, ought to be, first, to make them good men, good members of the universal society of mankind; and in the next place to frame their minds in such a manner, as to make them most useful to that society to which they more immediately belong; and to shape their talents, in such a way, as will render them most serviceable to the support of that government, under which they were born, and on the strength and vigour of which, the well-being of every individual, in some measure depends." (Sheridan, 1756)

Although sentiments for the education of youth (read here, male youth; female education would not be considered worthwhile yet for quite some time), no one really argued for state-provided education for middle and upper-class children before 1850. (Brown, 2011) That was left entirely in the hands of the parents. Although considerable effort and activity went into educating these children, it was hardly standardized. How a young boy was educated depended entirely on the preferences and means of his family.

Early education

On the whole, early education in the home was preferred. Mothers and governesses would provide a boy’s first education, often teaching him the basics of reading and writing. Usually by the age of seven, he would graduate from being taught by women to being educated by men. There were no standards of how this worked though. The specific details varied by family and by social class.

A male tutor might be brought into the home to teach the child, preparing him for the next step in his education. This could continue for just a few years until the boy was deemed ready for a boarding school, or it could continue until he was ready for university study, depending on the educational philosophy of the family, usually the father. (Selwyn 2010)

Alternatively, a boy might be sent to a local scholar, often a clergyman, for lessons as a day student. Many clergymen also took such students on as boarders, running small schools to supplement their income teaching anywhere for half a dozen to two dozen students.

Preparatory Schools

These smaller schools which routinely took boys in the 7 to 13-year-old age range were often referred to as preparatory schools, preparing boys for the larger public schools that often preceded entry into the universities.

These schools were usually held in the schoolmaster’s home. Jane Austen’s father, Rev. George Austen conducted such a school out of the vicarage in Steventon beginning in 1793. His living as a vicar was £230 a year. He charged £35 per term for each of his student boarders. It is easy to see how taking even just a few students could substantially augment his family’s income. The work though did not fall on him alone. His wife cooked, cleaned, sewed, and mother-henned the boys in her care, much like a surrogate mother. (Sanborrn, 2016)

In larger schools where the teaching staff consisted of ordained clergymen, teachers could make as much as £200-400 a year, giving them a comfortable middle-class income. (Davidoff 2002) Headmasters in such schools, especially if scholars themselves, might enjoy a position of respect and distinction in local society. (Selwyn 2010)

By modern standards, preparatory school curriculum was very limited. It consisted mainly of Latin and Greek classical texts (both prose and verse), modern and ancient history, some mathematics, and the use of globes to locate nations. French and Italian might be taught as extras (for additional fees), along with handwriting, dancing, drawing and a smattering of scientific subjects. (Le Faye, 2002) No curriculum standards existed, so what might actually be taught varied widely and there was no guarantee that a particular teacher was actually well versed in the subjects he taught.

Teachers in these preparatory schools were most often clergymen or failed ordinals. There were far more men ordained than there were livings to provide for them. In 1805, it was estimated that up to 45% of those ordained never found a church living and were forced to work as (usually highly underpaid) curates for men who had a living or to try their hand at teaching or take up another occupation entirely outside the church (Southam, 2005). After their education in these preparatory schools, boys might then progress to a public school.

Public Schools

Public schools were public in the sense that boys were taught in groups outside of their private homes, not in the sense that these institutions were funded by public funds. A number of public schools existed, but the landed elite, in particular, chose to send their sons to a select number of these schools: Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Westminster, Rugby, Charterhouse and Shrewsbury. (Adkins, 2013) The exact timing and duration of a boy’s stay at school varied greatly. Some were sent as young as age seven and stayed until age eighteen. More commonly boys started public schools around age thirteen and stayed about five years.

Though Regency era education was very different from modern education, two factors, in particular, seem to distinguish it most from modern schooling: the curriculum taught and the lifestyle of the students.

What was Taught

In his 1693 treatise, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, John Locke recommended that instruction in foreign languages (beginning with a living language like French) should start as soon as a boy could speak English. Locke considered Latin and Greek to be absolutely essential to a gentleman’s education, enabling him to read classical literature. In addition, he endorsed the study of geography, astronomy, anatomy, chronology, history, mathematics and geometry. (Morris, 2015).

Based on Locke’s foundations, students were expected to know some Latin upon arrival to public school. “The first two years of their education was entirely a study of Latin–memorizing, reciting, reading, and answering set questions in that language, so pronunciation too.… Thus they learned to be confident public speakers, first in Latin, then in classical Greek and finally in English.” (Bennetts 2010) These studies also developed an understanding of the moral and philosophical issues brought up by classical thinkers and a literary appreciation of poetry and prose. Dancing, fencing, and other sports also featured in some curriculums.

What was notably absent from both public school and university educations were courses on anything the modern mind would consider practical. Since these establishments catered to gentlemen who were not destined to actually work for their living, courses like bookkeeping or land management that might equip them for jobs (oh the horror!) were relegated to schools that catered to the sons of men in trade. (Selwyn 2010)

Life in public school

Students at public schools either boarded at the school itself or in town at boarding houses known as ‘Dame’s Houses’ usually overseen by a ‘Dame’ or landlady. In the early 1800s, about thirteen such houses were associated with Eton. Although school life was very regimented, with school days running from six in the morning until eight in the evening, there was actually very little direct supervision over the boys. They were often left to fend for themselves. Once they entered public school, most boys spent the majority of their year at school, with only a few weeks of holidays spent back home during the year.

With a strong economic incentive to admit as many students as possible, public schools were often so crowded that even beds were shared by two or more boys at the same time. The same incentives also influenced the quantity and quality of food made available to the students. Those with pocket money frequently supplemented their rations at local shops. (Brander, 1973)

Under such conditions, it was no surprise that public school culture was wild. Almost no limits were placed to the amount the boys could drink, gamble, fight and indulge any sexual bent with maidservants, local prostitutes, and girls living in town. Even the institution of prefects (older boys in charge of younger ones) did little to curb the out of control behavior. “ … Most schools suffered occasional rebellions, or mutinies, resulting in mass expulsions or floggings. In 1797, Dr. Ingles, headmaster of Rugby, had his door blown open by gunpowder. The boys at Harrow were even more ambitious, setting up a roadblock and blowing up one of the governor's carriage.” (Brander, 1973)

Bullying and Brutality

Not only was dissolute, licentious behavior the norm, bullying and brutality were expected. Corporal punishment consisting of flogging with a birch, or caning with a rod until blood was drawn from the bare buttocks, was regarded as the normal and accepted punishment for transgressions. Such punishments were frequently delivered in public, adding additional humiliation to the experience.

Not only was brutality dished out from the masters to the students, older boys were put in charge of younger ones and permitted to order them about and punish them with beatings just as the schoolmasters did. Depending on the sorts of friends a boy did or did not make and how he got on with others, especially older students, a boy’s public school years could be very testing indeed.

Why was it tolerated?

If public schools could be so bad, why did not parents intervene? Why would a father who had suffered through such school days send his son into a place that brutalized him?

In short, such an environment was regarded as essential for inculcating the toughness and fortitude men needed to perform their social roles. “Educators and parents subscribed to the principle that one was fit to command only after one had learned to obey. And those young boys of the gentry and nobility were there to learn their place and destiny in England's highly structured society.” (Laudermilk, 1989)

So, even if a boy had been able to appeal to parents for help, he would have been unlikely to receive either assistance or sympathy. At a very tender age, he was literally on his own, to survive the experience in whatever way he could. Is it any wonder that the friends a boy made during his time in public school were often strong allies for a lifetime?

References

Adkins, Roy, and Lesley Adkins. Jane Austen's England. Viking, 2013.

Austen, Jane, and David M. Shapard. The Annotated Persuasion. New York: Anchor Books, 2010.

Bennetts, M.M. A gentleman’s education. M.M. Bennets. July 20, 2010. Accessed October 5, 2016. https://mmbennetts.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/a-gentlemans-education/

Brander, Michael. The Georgian Gentleman. Glasgow: University Press, 1973.

Brown, Richard. Educating the middle-classes 1800-1870. Looking at History. Accessed October 29, 2016. http://richardjohnbr.blogspot.com/2011/02/educating-middle-classes-1800-1870.html>

Davidoff, Leonore, and Catherine Hall. Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Day, Malcom. Voices from the World of Jane Austen. David and Charles, 2006.

Evans, Bronwen. Eton College During the Regency Era. Collette Cameron. May, 9, 2015. Accessed October 3, 2016. https://collettecameron.com/2015/09/eton-college-during-the-regency-era/

Glover, Anne. Regency Culture and Society: Harrow. Regency Reader. November, 15, 2013. Accessed October 10, 2016. http://www.regrom.com/2013/11/15/regency-culture-and-society-harrow/

Laudermilk, Sharon H., and Teresa L. Hamlin. The Regency Companion. New York: Garland, 1989.

LeFaye, Deirdre. Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels. New York: Abrams, 2002.

Locke, John. Some Thoughts concerning Education. London, 1693.

Morris, Diane H. “I Am Illiterate by Regency Standards.” Moorgate Books. Thursday, October 8, 2015. Accessed May 22, 2017. http://www.moorgatebooks.com/10/i-am-illiterate-by-regency-standards/

Sanborn, Vic. "19th Century Learning Academies and Boarding Schools: An Eyewitness Account" Jane Austen’s World. August 1, 20012. Accessed October 28, 2016. https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/tag/regency-schooling

Selwyn, David. Jane Austen and children. London: Continuum, 2010.

Sheridan, Thomas. British Education. London: R. and J. Dodeley, 1756.

Southam, Brian . “Professions,” in Jane Austen in Context edited by Janet Todd, p 366-376. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Sullivan, Margaret C., and Kathryn Rathke. The Jane Austen Handbook: Proper Life Skills from Regency England. Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books, 2007.

~~~~~~~~~~

Though Maria Grace has been writing fiction since she was ten years old, those early efforts happily reside in a file drawer and are unlikely to see the light of day again, for which many are grateful.

After penning five file-drawer novels in high school, she took a break from writing to pursue college and earn her doctorate. After 16 years of university teaching, she returned to her first love, fiction writing.

Click here to find her books on Amazon. For more on her writing and other Random Bits of Fascination, visit her website. You can also like her on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

Female Spaces: Circulating Libraries and the Regency era Novel

by Maria Grace

James Fordyce, in his Sermons to Young Women, counsels strongly against novels, the very sort of books offered by local and easily accessible circulating libraries. (Despite the face he had not read them, of course. But I digress…) He declared:
What shall we say of certain books, which we are assured (for we have not read them) are in their nature so shameful, in their tendency so pestiferous, and contain such rank treason against the royalty of Virtue, such horrible violation of all decorum, that she who can bear to peruse them must in her soul be a prostitute, let her reputation in life be what it will be. Can it be true . . . that any young woman, pretending to decency, should endure for a moment to look on this infernal brood of futility and lewdness? (Fordyce 176-177).

Jane Austen and the Circulating Library

Happily for all of us, Jane Austen did not seem to share that sentiment. Not only was she a subscriber to circulating libraries, her patronage was sought after. On December 18, 1798, she wrote to her sister Cassandra: I have received a very civil note from Mrs. Martin requesting my name as a Subscriber to her Library which opens the 14th of January, & my name, or rather Yours is accordingly given. My Mother finds the Money … As an inducement to subscribe Mrs. Martin tells us that her Collection is not to consist only of Novels, but of every kind of Literature, 8cc. &cc.- She might have spared this pretention to our family who are great Novel-readers and not ashamed of being so;-but it was necessary I suppose to the self-consequence of half her subscribers." (Letters 38-39). So while Austen was very accepting of novels, the local librarian realized the concern and tried to address it, even as she worked to drum up patronage for her business.

Austen imbued her many characters with a love for books and libraries as well.

Fanny found it impossible not to try for books again. There were none in her father's house; but wealth is luxurious and daring-and some of hers found its way to a circulating library. She became a subscriber-amazed at being anything in pro pria persona, amazed at her own doings in every way; to be a renter, a chuser of books! And to be having any one's improvement in view in her choice! But so it was. Susan had read nothing, and Fanny longed to give her a share in her own first pleasures, and inspire a taste for the biography and poetry which she delighted in herself. (Mansfield Park) 

Though is this case, she does have Fanny eschew novels as reading material for her sister.

Others of Austen’s characters, like Mr. Collins, clearly shared Fordyce’s disapprobation of novels:

By tea-time, however, the dose had been enough, and Mr. Bennet was glad to take his guest into the drawing-room again, and when tea was over, glad to invite him to read aloud to the ladies. Mr. Collins readily assented, and a book was produced; but on beholding it (for everything announced it to be from a circulating library), he started back, and begging pardon, protested that he never read novels. (Pride and Prejudice)

What made circulating libraries so important to not just Jane Austen, but Georgian era women in general and what was the role of the humble novel in the whole affair?

Libraries as refuges of the female middle class and gentry

During the late Georgian and Regency eras, there were few public spaces which could be enjoyed by women of good reputation, but limited means. Tea, coffee and chocolate houses might be enjoyed, if one could afford them. But women had no clubs like men did—a place to offer refuge from the day to day. They did though have the possibility of the circulating library.

Though libraries did require a subscription in order to rent books, one could go to the library whenever she wished without paying a fee beyond that subscription. Not surprisingly, circulating libraries became fashionable meeting places for women to see and be seen by others. They offering their patrons sitting areas were raffles and games could be played; some offered expensive (and often distinctly feminine) merchandise for sale. Perhaps most significantly, they offered women an opportunity to read on a large scale including histories, philosophies, biographies, travel, poetry, and plenty of fictional works. (Hilden, 2018) Austen seemed to use the character of Fanny Price to suggest that circulating libraries could ideally be a means for the intellectual liberation of women of small means. (Erickson, 1990)

Not everyone held such positive attitudes toward circulating libraries. Considering libraries largely originated as repositories of theological publications, one cannot escape the irony that by the end of the eighteenth century, circulating libraries drew criticism as sources of corruption. Critics, like Fordyce, suggested that the novels that made up the as much as seventy five percent of a circulating library’s business were responsible for encouraging idleness as well as corrupting the taste and morals of young ladies especially.(Kane, 2011) Many believed that reading novels would give impressionable (and somewhat irrational) young ladies unrealistic expectations about life. (Hilden, 2018)

Because after all, women were far too stupid to be able to tell the difference between a Gothic horror and real life. It is interesting how is seems Austen took this belief head on in Northanger Abbey in the character of Catherine Morland. Though for a bit there it seems as though Catherine might have been just a touch confused as she makes assumptions about General Tilney, by the end, Henry Tilney assures her that her instincts were right even if she got the exact details a bit mixed up.

Libraries and the Rise of the Novel

Publishers also registered concerns about the circulating library, afraid that it would negatively impact their business. But James Lackington, proprietor of the Temple of Muses, noted in the 1794 edition of his memoirs, “thousands of books are purchased every year, by such as have first borrowed them at libraries.” (Erickson, 1990) Moreover, publishers found that increasing numbers of their print runs were purchased by circulating libraries. In 1770, about forty percent of a novel’s print run were sold to libraries. That number increased into the early nineteenth century. (Erickson, 1990)

To economize somewhat, libraries ordered their books with the cheapest possible bindings. Home libraries usually ordered books in cloth or, more expensive, leather bindings. Circulating libraries used a conspicuous marble patterned paper binding that distinguished library books from all others as Austen noted in the way Mr. Collins identified a library book in Pride and Prejudice. These cheap bindings also meant the books lacked the durability of privately owned books and, surviving copies of some of the period's novels are very rare. (Erickson, 1990)

Libraries as publishers

In order to keep up with demand for new books, later in the 18th century, some of the circulating libraries began to take on the role of publisher as well. Although they lacked the broad distribution channels that traditional publishers had, they held a unique distinction.

Unlike traditional publishers, these smaller presses published many works by female authors, although these were often published anonymously to avoid prejudice by the reading public.

Minerva press

Minerva Press Circulating Library in London, created by John Lane, was the largest circulating library in the 18th century. The library advertised over 20,000 titles, compared to the 5,000 titles most libraries averaged, with 1,000 considered works of fiction. (Hilden, 2018) Minerva Press, became known for printing Gothic horror and sentimental romance novels, including The Mysteries of Udolfo by Mrs. Radcliffe (that Catherine Morland read during Northanger Abbey.)

Though some argued that were hurriedly written to a formula by obscure women writers, these publishers “changed to course of publishing and really opened the door to the social acceptability of female authors, as well as created a better variety of fictional novels.” (Hatch, 2014)

It is interesting to note how much the impact of circulating libraries on publishing resembles the transformation of the publishing industry in the first decade of the 2000’s with the advent of the e-reader and electronic publishing down to the criticisms offered toward authors and books published by them.

References

“British Newspaper History”. Accessed September 6, 2018 https://www.999inks.co.uk/british-newspaper-history.html

“Book Shops” Georgian Index. 2003 Accessed August 29, 2018. http://www.georgianindex.net/books/Hatchard.html

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Tor, 1988.

Austen, Jane, Terry Castle, and John Davie. Northanger Abbey; Lady Susan ; The Watsons ; Sanditon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Austen, Jane, Marilyn Butler, and James Kinsley. Mansfield Park. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Austen, Jane, Claude Julien. Rawson, and John Davie. Persuasion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Austen, Jane. Ed. R. W. Chapman. Jane Austen's letters to her Sister Cassandra and others. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Benson, Mary Margaret. “Parasols & Gloves & Broches & Circulating Libraries.” Persuasions # 19, 1997 Jane Austen Society of North America.

Erickson, Lee. "The Economy of Novel Reading: Jane Austen and the Circulating Library." Studies in English Literature, 1500-190030, no. 4 (1990): 573-90. doi:10.2307/450560.

Feather, John. The Provincial Book Trade in Eighteenth-Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985.

Fordyce, James. "From Sermons to Young Women." Women in the Eighteenth Century: Constructions of Femininity. Ed. Vivien Jones. London: Routledge, 1990. 176-79.

Glover, Anne. Regency Hot Spots: Bookseller Shops and the Subscription Library. Regency Reader. November 6, 2015. Accessed August 1, 2018. http://www.regrom.com/2015/11/06/regency-hot-spots-bookseller-shops-and-the-subscription-library/

Hatch, Donna. Circulating Libraries in Regency England. Historical Hussies. Friday, November 7, 2014. Accessed July 0, 2018. http://historicalhussies.blogspot.com/2014/11/circulating-libraries-in-regency-england.html

Hilden, L. A. Circulating Libraries in Regency England. L.A. Hilden. July 23, 2018. Accessed July 31, 2018. http://www.lahilden.com/index.php?categoryid=6&p2_articleid=206

Jacobs, Edward and Antonia Forster. "'Lost Books' and Publishing History: Two Annotated Lists of Imprints for the Fiction Titles Listed in the Circulating Library Catalogs of Thomas Lowndes (1766) and M. Heavisides (1790), of Which No Known Copies Survive." The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 89 (1995): 260-97.

Kane, Kathryn. Before the Call Number: The Pressmark. The Regency Redingote. January 16, 2015. Accessed August 29, 2018. https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/before-the-call-number-the-pressmark/

Kane, Kathryn. Regency Circulating Libraries — Why, How and Who? The Regency Redingote. October, 211, 2011, Accessed August 12, 2018. https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/regency-circulating-libraries-why-how-and-who/.

Manley, K. A. "London Circulating Library Catalogues of the 1740s." Library History 8 (1989) 3,74-79.

Mc Leod, Lesley Anne. Who Doesn't Love a Library? Lesley Anne McLeod. Wednesday, November 8, 2017. http://lesleyannemcleod.blogspot.com/2017/11/who-doesnt-love-library.html

Sanborn, Vic. The Circulating Library in Regency Resorts. Jane Austen’s World. August 30, 2010. Accessed August 15, 2018. https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/the-circulating-library-in-regency-times/

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Though Maria Grace has been writing fiction since she was ten years old, those early efforts happily reside in a file drawer and are unlikely to see the light of day again, for which many are grateful.

After penning five file-drawer novels in high school, she took a break from writing to pursue college and earn her doctorate. After 16 years of university teaching, she returned to her first love, fiction writing.

Click here to find her books on Amazon. For more on her writing and other Random Bits of Fascination, visit her website. You can also like her on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.