19th Century Early Men’s Trousers as worn by the men in Jane Austen’s family and life. Textured cotton woven with small dash motif. Wide waistband double row five ivory bone buttons, fall front bone buttons plus button centre front, two large pockets, full width flap with buttonholes and with wide legs. via Meg Andrews, Costumes and Textiles. Meg-andrews.com
Typical Meals Served for the upper classes in the Georgian and Regency Eras. For the Upper classes in the 18th and through to the end of the 19th century, meals were elaborate affairs. and served by well-trained staff anticipated their every need. Women prided themselves on hosting dinners for 50-60 people which often consisted of numerous courses, and all served with the best wines and followed, for the men at least, by expensive port.
An older lady usually controlled the servants and the serving of meals. For more about this, take a look at Older Lady’s Day Regency Life Series Book 5 by Suzi Love. Overview of what an older lady did, wore, and how she lived in the early 19th Century. Information for history buffs and pictures for readers and writers of historical fiction. books2read.com/suziloveOLD
1820 ca. Collection of Reticules, or Purses. Silk silver gauze, netting, fine crochet. Bags have drawstrings, chains and tassels. via Ruby Lane Auctions.
Definition Of A Reticule; Bag or purse, often with a drawstring to pull closed and usually made of cloth or covered cardboard and often decorated with beading or embroidery. A reticule, or purse, or handbag, was usually carried by a woman during the Regency period to carry all their daily necessities. Earlier, women used pockets that tied at the waistline and were hidden in the folds of their skirts. Empire style, or early 1800s, high-waisted dresses made it impossible to either sewn in a pocket or to tie on a pocket, so women began carrying small, decorated bags called Reticules, or ridicules, which generally pulled close at the top with a drawstring. These Reticules, or bags, were the forerunners of our modern day purses.
1826 An Affair Of Honor Decided With Pistols In Hyde Park London, U.K. A Regency Gentleman’s Life. From The English Spy By Robert Cruikshank. By the Regency Era, dueling was outlawed, yet duels still happened because the courts were made up of peers who were reluctant to charge another peer with murder as a result of a duel. Gentlemen considered a duel a matter of honor and death was preferable to being labeled a coward.
Duels had a code of honor and were fought not so much to kill the opponent as to gain satisfaction and restore honor by demonstrating a willingness to risk your life. Originally dueling was only for the male members of nobility but then extended to all members of the upper classes. At first, duels were fought with swords but by the Regency Era, duels with pistols were more common. Some duels were also fought between women.
Favorite dueling grounds near London included Hampstead Heath, Chalk Farm and the common land that extended south of the Thames over modern Battersea, Putney and Wimbledon. The windmill there was a popular landmark beneath which duelists often agreed to meet. These locations were convenient for their proximity to the city, yet also sufficiently remote to avoid interruption and in the event of a fatality, attractively close to potential getaway routes on the roads out of London.
1826 An Affair Of Honor Decided With Pistols In Hyde Park London, U.K. A Regency Gentleman’s Life. From The English Spy By Robert Cruikshank.
1810-1850 ca. Cotton Corset With Whalebone Busk, American. Straps tie at the front. Center front has a busk Chanel to insert a whalebone to keep the corset stiff and in place. There is extra stitching on the corset to give more shape and extra reinforcing to keep the corset upright and the dress worn over it smooth and flat. Marking stamped on the lining, ‘Jane Laney’ and Mrs. Bishop, Corset Maker, 108 Hudson St., New. York, USA. via Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. metmuseum.org
Surviving stays, or corsets as they became to be called in the nineteenth century, show that both longline and shorter corsets were worn and that they were made of cotton, silk and sateen. A lot of these corsets were front fastening, plus many were laced at both the front and the back so our aristocratic fictional heroines could indeed dress and undress themselves without the assistance of a maid.
Definition Busk: Central panel in a corset to give it extra shape. Made from wood, bone which was usually whalebone, ivory, and in the latter 1800s from metal.
Do you need more factual and visual information for your historical fiction? History of fashion, music, peerage and customs in 18th and 19th centuries. Non-fiction series full of gorgeous pictures and engraved fashion plates. A visual history of fashion, music, peerage, social manners and customs from late 1700s to late 1800s, or 18th and 19th centuries.
Travel and Luggage By Suzi Love History Notes Book 10. How did people travel in Jane Austen’s times. In past centuries? What did they take with them to make their long journeys easier? Travel by road, ship, canal, or railway all took a long time and had dangers so people learned to prepare. And then, in the nineteenth century, road improvements, inventions, and scientific developments made travel more pleasurable. books2read.com/SuziLoveTravel
What salads were served in Jane Austen and the Bridgerton households?
Salads
“Persons in health, who feel a craving for salad, may indulge in the enjoyment of it to a great extent with perfect impunity, if not with positive benefit.
Oil, when mixed in salad, appears to render the raw vegetables and herbs more digestible.
Vinegar likewise promotes the digestion of lettuce, celery, and beet-root.
“Endive is very wholesome, strengthening, and easy of digestion; but when strong seasoning is added to it, it becomes an epicurean sauce. — Mayo.”
Recipe for a Winter Salad, by the late Rev. Sydney Smith.
Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve, Unwonted softness to the salad give, Of mordent mustard add a single spoon;
To add a double quantity of salt;
Three times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown,
And once with vinegar, procured from town.
True flavor needs it, and your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs.
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, scarce suspected, animate the whole;
And, lastly, on the flavored compound toss
A magic teaspoon of anchovy sauce.
Then, though green turtle fail, though venison’s tough, And ham and turkey are not boiled enough,
Serenely full the Epicure may say,-
Fate cannot harm me—I have dined to-day!
The Spanish proverb says four persons are wanted to make a good salad: a spendthrift for oil, a miser for vinegar, a counsellor for salt, and a madman to stir all up.
1859 Hints for the Table by John Timbs.
1800s Typical Salads: Cucumber, Beetroot and Potato, Macedone Salad, Tomato Salad, Jellied Russian and Italian Salads, Prawn Salad, Egg and Lettuce, Lobster Salad and Salad Dumas. From: Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management. via Google Books (PD-150)
What did the lady of the house use to pen notes in Bridgerton and Jane Austen’s years? What sat on the desk of Jane Austen’s male contemporaries when they managed household and estate accounts? books2read.com/SuziLoveWritingTools. Writing Tools, History Notes Book 13.
