I'm an Australian author of contemporary and historical romances, plus history non-fiction. My books range from sexy to erotic, late 1700s to the mid 1800s, and with a dash of Australia thrown into the mix. My heroes and heroines challenge tradition and my stories often expose the seamier levels of life. I now live in a sunny part of Australia after spending many years in developing countries in the South Pacific. My greatest loves are traveling, anywhere and everywhere, meeting crazy characters, and visiting the Australian outback. I hope my books bring history alive and you have fun adventuring with my roguish heroes and feisty heroines.
Drama and romance at the Duke Of Sherwyn’s snowbound country estate in the English countryside in December. Michael Brandon travels to introduce the woman he loves to family but is shocked when his missing brother, presumed dead for years, arrives at the country estate of the Duke Of Sherwyn where several people are stranded due to a severe snow storm. https://books2read.com/suziloveDS December Scandal, Book 3 Scandalous Siblings.
The Metropolitan Police, London Before 1829
Other Police organizations
1819 January Two Fashion Plates By Dean and Mundy For Mourning: Winter Carriage and Evening Dresses. High-waisted carriage dress, cuffs edged with white lace and trimmed with gray frog closures, matching plumed hat and shawl. Empire style evening dress with short sleeves and wide neckline trimmed with scallops of white lace, skirt trimmed with white rosettes, evening upswept hairstyle. Fashion Plates Published by Dean and Munday, 1819, London.
Mourning wear was worn in Britain during the regency Era, firstly for Princess Charlotte who died in England on November 6th, 1817, or then for Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III and grandmother of Princess Charlotte, who died on November 17th, 1818. All the fashion magazines featured numerous outfits in black suitable for mourning, followed by many for half mourning in colors of grey, black with touches of white, and later mauve or lavender.
Black was worn for full mourning with various other colors were worn during the months of half mourning, including grey and mauve. However, as black dresses, black tunics, and black lace shawls were popular throughout the Regency years, it is often hard to decide what was definitely made for mourning and what was simply fashionable wear.
After the death of H.R. H. Princess Charlotte on November 7th, 1817, official court mourning was ordered. ‘The ladies to wear black bombazines, plain muslin or long lawn crape hoods, shamoy shoes and gloves, and crape fans. The gentlemen to wear black cloth without buttons on the sleeves or pockets, plain muslin or long lawn cravats and weepers, shamoy shoes and gloves, crape hat bands, and black swords and buckles.’ Two months later, a change of mourning attire was ordered.
1805-1820 ca. Combination Shoe and Patten, Or Overshoe. Raises foot off the ground but still elegant enough to be genteel. Very practical but not to everyone’s taste. When Jane Austen and her family and friends went walking in the country, the ground was often very wet due to England’s high rainfall and snowfall so pattens were used to keep shoes and the hems of clothing out of the mud.
Only one of this pair of shoes survives. It effectively combines shoe and patten (overshoe) in one, so raising the foot off the ground but remaining sufficiently elegant to be considered genteel. This type of shoe was very practical but not to everyone’s taste. In 1840 The Shoemaker described it as going out of fashion partly because it looked ‘masculine for the chaster taste of the wearer’. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. collections.vam.ac.uk
1800s Typical Cold Collation Dishes served during the 1800s. These are the sort of dishes Jane Austen’s family would have eaten on a regular basis. Pigeon Pie, Raised Game Pie, Cutlets and Peas, Prawn Bouquet, Creamed Chicken, Plover’s Eggs, Lamb Cutlets, Stuffed Larks, Piped Ham, Boned Capon. From: 1860 Mrs. Isabella Beeton’s Book of Household Management.
1800s Typical Cold Collation Dishes Served In Households Like Jane Austen’s During The Regency Era. #Food #Regency #BritishHistory #JaneAusten
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1880s-1890s Bust improvers.In the late Victorian years, the emphasis was on the silhouette so sometimes ‘bust-improvers’ were used to provide extra padding to the bust shape.
What did an older lady do and wear in the Regency Era? Information & pictures for readers and writers of early 1800s history, nonfiction and fiction. books2read.com/suziloveOLD The older lady’s day usually started with her toilette in her bedroom, where her maid helped her dress for the day and styled her hair. After that, she would join her family downstairs for breakfast unless she preferred a tray with either tea or hot chocolate in her bedroom as she prepared for her busy day. Her day would be made up of speaking with the housekeeper and the cook about the week’s menus, assuring that the servants were all available that day and no one was ill, and checking the list of foods needed.
She would also enquire if the laundry was up to date and that they had enough good linen to make up all the beds before extended family members and guests arrived. If she was in the country and hosting a weekend house party, she would assign rooms to the guests on her lists and query that all was in readiness for their arrival.
What did an older lady do and wear in #RegencyEra? Information and pictures for readers and writers of #History #nonfiction #Regency. https://books2read.com/suziloveOLD Share on X
1800 ca. Tan Corduroy Breeches. Drop down front flap, or ‘fall’, with two buttons, three silver metal buttons at the waistband, watch pocket, corner pockets with buttons, pieced back with waist tie, saggy back with extra fabric to allow for easier movement when riding or sitting, four buttons and silk ties at knee. via Whitaker Auction whitakerauction.smugmug.com
These are the sort of breeches that Jane Austen’s male contemporaries would have worn.
Claridge’s Hotel – London’s Historic Places Claridge’s was founded in 1812, during the Regency Era, as Mivart’s Hotel at 51 Brook Street, Mayfair, London, UK.
Lord William Beauclerk leased the terrace house from the Grosvenor Estate with permission to turn it into a hotel run by James Edward Mivart, the anglicized name for French chef Jacques Mivart. By 1838, the hotel grew to buy five consecutive houses along Brook Street, knocking down the walls to create one large hotel and Mivart prospered by introducing English county families to subtle French cooking to replace their traditional stodgy fare. Mivart designed the hotel for guests who wished to stay longer, so apartments were let by the month to foreign royalty and nobility who enjoyed the ambiance of the well-run hotel yet had the privacy of their own suites. The Prince Regent, who succeeded to the throne as King George IV in 1820, had a suite of rooms permanently reserved for him so he could discreetly carry on his playboy lifestyle.
In 1827, The Morning Post noted that Mivart’s was the fashionable rendezvous for the high Corps Diplomatique. In 1854, the hotel was sold to Mr and Mrs Claridge who ran a separate hotel at 49 Brook Street. They combined the two operations to trade as “Mivart’s at Claridge’s” until, after Mivart’s death, the hotel changed its name to Claridge’s in 1856, adding “late Mivart’s” underneath.
In 1860, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited the Empress Eugènie of France, who had made Claridge’s her winter quarters, and Queen Victoria was so impressed that she wrote to her uncle, Leopold I, King of the Belgians, in glowing terms of Claridge’s. The hotel became so connected to royalty it was called an “extension to Buckingham Palace”.including the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia and King William III of the Netherlands, until by 1853, The Times decided London had just three first-class hotels- Mivart’s, The Clarendon in Bond Street and Thomas’s in Berkeley Square.
In 1881, William Claridge’s failing health forced them to sell to a consortium, but the hotel consisted of several private houses and couldn’t be upgraded to compete with purpose built hotels cropping up all over London. The Savoy for example, built in 1889, offered lifts to all floors, electricity, en suite bathrooms and the best chef in Europe, Auguste Escoffier. So in 1894, Richard D’ Oyly Carte, founder of the rival Savoy Hotel, purchased Claridge’s and commissioned CW Stephens, designer of Harrods, to rebuild the hotel from the ground up. The new Claridge’s opened in November 1898.
1897 Claridge’s Hotel, Mayfair, London, U.K. A perspective view of the new building showing the front entrance in Brook Street and the return front in Davies Street. Drawn by C. W. Stephens, architect.
After World War I, Claridge’s flourished due to demand from aristocrats who no longer maintained a London house and Carte’s son, Rupert D’ Oyly Carte, added a new extension. During World War II, Peter II of Yugoslavia and his wife spent their exile at Claridge’s until on 17th June 1945, suite 212 was ceded by the UK to Yugoslavia for a single day to allow their heir, Crown Prince Alexander, to be born on Yugoslav soil.
