Lover of Jane Austen and the Regency Era fashions? History Notes Book 25. #JaneAusten #RegencyFashion #HistoricalFashion books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1801-1804
1826 Cartoon: A squeeze at Carlton Palace in Bridgerton and Jane Austen times. From Regency Social Life. #JaneAusten #Bridgerton #Cartoon #England https://books2read.com/suziloveYGD
I love these snippets from Captain Gronow’s Recollections 1864. Even though they were written after the Regency, they give us fun bits of information about Almack’s Assembly Rooms, the Prince Regent or later King George IV.
“Good society at the period to which I refer was, to use a familiar expression, wonderfully “select.” At the present time one can hardly conceive the importance which was attached to getting admission to Almack’s, the seventh heaven of the fashionable world. Of the three hundred officers of the Foot Guards, not more than half a dozen were honoured with vouchers of admission to this exclusive temple of the beau monde; the gates of which were guarded by lady patronesses, whose smiles or frowns consigned men and women to happiness or despair. These lady patronesses were the Ladies Castlereagh, Jersey, Cowper, and Sefton, Mrs Drummond Burrell, now Lady Willoughby, the Princess Esterhazy, and the Countess Lieven.
Almack’s: Exclusive temple of the beau monde. The gates of which were guarded by the lady patronesses,The Ladies Castlereagh, Jersey, Cowper, Sefton, Willoughby, Princess Esterhazy, and Countess Lieven.
From Captain Gronow’s Recollections 1864.
The most popular amongst these grandes dames was unquestionably Lady Cowper, now Lady Palmerston. Lady Jersey’s bearing, on the contrary, was that of a theatrical tragedy queen; and whilst attempting the sublime, she frequently made herself simply ridiculous, being inconceivably rude, and in her manner often ill-bred. Lady Sefton was kind and amiable, Madame de Lieven haughty and exclusive, Princess Esterhazy was a hon enfant, Lady Castlereagh and Mrs Burrell de tres grandes dames.
Many diplomatic arts, much finesse, and a host of intrigues, were set in motion to get an invitation to Almack’s. Very often persons whose rank and fortunes entitled them to the entree anywhere, were excluded by the cliqueism of the lady patronesses; for the female government of Almack’s was a pure despotism, and subject to all the caprices of despotic rule: it is needless to add that, like every other despotism, it was not innocent of abuses.
Almack’s
The fair ladies who ruled supreme over this little dancing and gossiping world, issued a solemn proclamation that no gentleman should appear at the assemblies without being dressed in knee-breeches, white cravat, and chapeau bras.
From Captain Gronow’s Recollections 1864.
1815 The First Quadrille at Almack’s Assembly Rooms, London. Left to Right: Marquis of Worcester, Lady Jersey, Clanronald MacDonald and Lady Worcester. “It was not until 1815 that Lady Jersey introduced from Paris the favourite quadrille, which has so long remained popular. I recollect the persons who formed the very first quadrille that was ever danced at Almack’s: they were Lady Jersey, Lady Harriett Butler, Lady Susan Ryde, and Miss Montgomery; the men being the Count St Aldegonde, Mr Montgomery, Mr Montague, and Charles Standish.” From The Reminiscences of Captain Gronow 1810-1860. 1811-1820 Snippets of Regency Life By Captain Gronow. #RegencyEra #Almack's #PrinceRegent https://books2read.com/suziloveROver Share on XRL_1_D2D_Regency Overview RetailerLinks
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1810 January 1st. West India Docks, London. By Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Charles Pugin. Printed in 1810 By Rudolph Ackermann in Microcosm Of London, or London In Miniature. Volume 1. Aquatint showing warehouses at quayside and several West Indiamen moored alongside. Warehouses held thousands of tons of cargo, including sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, spices and hardwood. Docks were constructed by powerful group of businessmen led by Robert Milligan, wealthy merchant and ship-owner outraged at losses suffered due to theft and delay at riverside wharves. via National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, U.K. ~ collections.rmg.co.uk
East and West India Docks London’s Historic Places
The East India Docks was a group of docks in Blackwall, east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. In 1607, the East India Company decided to build its own ships and leased a yard in Deptford. In 1614 the East India Company ordered William Burrell to begin work on a bigger yard for repair, construction and loading of out-going ships. The site selected was at Blackwall, which was further down river and had deeper water, allowing laden ships to moor closer to the dock. During the early 17th century, the site was enlarged repeatedly. Later in the 17th century, the East India Company reverted to its practice of hiring vessels, although many owners who chartered their vessel to the East India Company had them built at Deptford and Blackwall.
Before 1800, the Thames river was overcrowded with ships. They carried cargoes of tea, china and cloth in their lower parts along with casks of water, salted meat, beer, wine and rum for their crews. Brandy, wine, and tobacco were also shipped and stored in the warehouses. In 1800, the London Dock Company was formed and the planned docks in Wapping went ahead in 1801. The first was the West India Dock. In 1806, the East India Company opened their own docks to the north-east of the West India Docks after deciding that the Brunswick Dock at Blackwall, where ships were fitted out, was unsuitable for storing cargo.
The Brunswick Dock, which had originally been connected directly to the Thames to the south, became the Export Dock. To the north the company built a larger 18-acre (7.3 ha) Import Dock. Both were connected to the Thames via an eastern entrance basin. The number of ships discharged in the docks rose from 354 in 1804, to 598 in 1808, and to 641 in 1810. In 1808, the warehouses were full, as blockades prevented the re-export of goods. The dock company calculated that the almost total prevention of theft made possible by the building of the docks was saving West India merchants almost £400,000, and the Exchequer about £150,000 each year. During the 1840s and early 1850s, shipping and tonnage handled at the East and West India docks increased so much that dividends of 5 and 6 per cent were paid.
The East India Docks didn’t have many warehouses because cargoes were taken straight to their warehouses in the City. So instead of building warehouses, the company built private toll roads like Commercial Road and East India Dock Road to carry traffic to and from the docks.
The company made large profits on tea, spices, indigo, silk and Persian carpets. The tea trade alone was worth £30m a year. Spice merchants and pepper grinders set up around the dock to process goods. Although the East India docks were smaller than the West India Docks, they handled up to 250 ships at one time and East Indiamen of 1000 tons but larger ships and steam power reduced the importance of the dock.
The West India Docks were a series of three docks, quaysides, and warehouses built to import goods from, and export goods and occasionally passengers to the British West Indies. In 1802, the first dock opened on the Isle Of Dogs. When they closed for commerce in 1980, the Canary Wharf development was built around the wet docks by narrowing some of their broadest tracts.
The docks were constructed in two phases. The two northern docks were constructed between 1800 and 1802 for the West India Dock Company and were the first commercial wet docks in London. For 21 years, all vessels in the West India trade using the Port Of London had to use the West India docks by a clause in the act of Parliament that had enabled their construction.
In 1838 the East and West India companies merged. The southern dock, the South West India Dock, later known as South Dock, was constructed in the 1860s and in 1909 the Port Of London Authority took over the West India Docks,
The docks played a key role in the Second World War as a location for constructing the floating Mulberry harbours used by the Allies to support the D-Day landings in France. Following the Second World War, in which all the docks were badly damaged, the East India Docks were confined to occasional Channel Islands traffic and to the maintenance of dredger equipment.
The docks were the first London docks to close, in 1967. Today the docks have been mostly filled in. Only the entrance basin remains, as a wildlife refuge and an attractive local amenity. The area is predominantly residential with several major developments around it.
Riding For Ladies During the Regency and Early Victorian years. How did they ride sidesaddle? What did their saddles look like? What did they wear?
From 1850 Hints To Horsekeepers By Henry William Herbert via Google Books (PD150)
Why Every Lady should learn to ride: EVERY lady should learn to ride; not at a mature age, when her frame has become exhausted by a sedentary life and consequent ill health; nor even when, her school-days being over, she is thought to have leisure for wholesome exercise; but in childhood, when her will is strong and her body obedient to it. Particularly in our large cities, too little care is given to the physical culture of young girls. Their minds are engaged, not often with energetic mental work, but with idle thought for dress and show, while no other exercise is taken than a measured daily walk, and occasional dancing and waltzing.
‘Where household labor is disdained, and no opportunity can be afforded for floriculture or any other agreeable out-door occupation, there is no substitute so good as horseback riding. But for the country girl it becomes indispensable. Not her health, perhaps, but her happiness demands it. No woman ever rides so well as one who from childhood has loved her pet colt. She has chased him, perhaps, for hours around a ‘ten-acre lot:’ and when, his frisky mood over, she has been able to take him coaxingly by the inane and lead him to a mounting place, great was the triumph of her wild ride. And no training or care can give the freedom and skill of this youthful practise.
RIDING CLOTHING
Few ladies know how to dress for horse exercise. A head dress should shade form the sun but fit well enough that it needs no adjustment, as the hands are needed for the reins. The Whip, an essential element of the lady’s riding outfit, should be stiff and substantial, without being heavy.
The hair should be arranged in the firmest manner possible. If suited to the style of the lady, it may be plaited at the back and looped across, in a manner which will support the hat and present a very comely appearance. Or it may be found pleasanter to turn all of the back hair to the top of the head, where a high hat is used. All loose arrangements of the hair, except short curb, when they are natural, should be avoided. But few hair-pins should be used, and those long and firmly woven into the hair. The recent fashions of wearing the plumes or feathers of the ostrich, the cock, the pheasant, the peacock, and the kingfisher, in the riding hats of young ladies, are highly to be commended.
Ladies habits are usually made too long and become cumbersome. A foot longer than an ordinary skirt will be sufficient if the material is suitable. Light Cloth will be found the most appropriate for the skirt, if the color be becoming and sufficiently dark. The fashion of a waistcoat of light material for summer, revived from the fashion of the last century, is a decided improvement, and so is the over-jacket, of cloth or seal-skin, for rough weather. It is the duty of every woman to dress in as becoming and attractive a manner as possible; there is no reason why pretty young girls should not indulge in picturesque riding costume so long as it is appropriate.
Many ladies entirely spoil the set of the skirts by retaining the usual impedimenta of petticoats. The best dressed horsewomen wear nothing more than a flannel chemise with long, colored sleeves, under their trousers. If ladies prefer, a quilted skirt, not too full, may be worn. It should be lined with silk or glazed muslin, and will be found no impediment. Long boots are a great comfort and protection in riding long distances.
All ladies who desire that riding should be to them a healthful exercise, must take great care that their dress be perfectly easy in every part, particularly over the chest and around the ribs. Let the boots be easy, and their gloves, which should be leather gauntlets, large and soft, and all elastic bands very loose.
Ladies’ trousers should be of the same material and color as the habit, and if full, flowing like a Turk’s and fastened with an elastic band round the ankle, they will not be distinguished from the skirt. In this costume, which may be made amply warm by the folds of the trousers, plaited like a highlander’s kilt, fastened with an elastic band at the waist, a lady can sit down in a manner impossible for one encumbered by two or three short petticoats. It is the chest and back which require double folds of protection during, and after, strong exercise.
LADY MOUNTING A HORSE
The lady in mounting should be assisted by two persons, one to hold the horse, standing directly in front of him, and holding by the check pieces of the bridle, above the bit, and the other to assist her to her seat.
Having taken the reins and whip in the right hand, she will stand with her face towards the horse’s head, and with her right hand on the left pommel or the saddle. In the left hand she will hold her skirt, in such a manner as to enable her to raise it clear of the ground. The gentleman will stand, facing her, and opposite to the horse’s shoulder, with his left hand holding by his mane, this steadies the horse when the lady springs. The gentleman will now stoop and take the lady’s left foot, which has been raised fifteen inches from the ground, in his right hand, clasping it firmly under the instep. The skirt having been raised to clear the foot, is now dropped, and the lady places her left hand on the gentleman’s right shoulder, giving a spring to straighten the left knee.
During this spring the gentleman will simply keep his hand still, supporting the lady’s weight, but not raising her until the knee is fairly straightened, when he may lift her to the required height, but without trying to push her over on to the saddle. She will find her seat more easily without such assistance, which would often tend to throw her over the horse, rather than on his back. Being seated with her right hand still on the pommel, the lady will, with her left hand, adjust the folds of her skirt. She will then remove her hand from the pommel, and place her right knee over it; when the gentleman will place her foot in the stirrup, and then aid her in taking proper hold of the reins and whip. When this is accomplished, the attendant at the horse’s head steps out of the way, and the lady assumes the control. Fortunately, the operation is less tedious than its description.
LADY DISMOUNTING A HORSE
A lady dismounts with perfect ease. After the groom has taken his place in front of the horse and secured him, by releasing her hold upon the bridle and stirrup and lifting her right leg over the pommel, which she now holds with the right hand, while the left, on the shoulder, or in the hand of her gallant, affords her sufficient support in slipping to the ground.
THE SEAT IN THE SIDESADDLE.
The lady should, by exercises similar to those recommended for gentlemen, endeavor to acquire a perfect independence of the rein-hold in the security of her seat She should be able to lean far to the right or to the left, or lie back on the horse’s haunches, or forward on his neck, and to regain her position without disturbing her seat in the saddle, and without holding by the reins. With the use of the leaping-horn it will be more easy for her to attain perfection, in this respect, than it will be for the man, who must depend in a great measure on the clip of his legs. The rider should be erect, directly over the horse’s spine, the shoulders at an equal height. and the elbows near the sides.
Ladies, particularly those with very small hands, will often find it burdensome to hold their reins both in one hand, as is universally taught in our riding-schools. The best way for a lady is, if her hand be light, to knot up the snaffle and let it rest within her reach, in case of accident to the other rein. Or, if her touch be not delicate enough for the curb, let her hold it lightly and depend on the snaffle. The Whip and the Left Heel are valuable aids to a lady in the saddle. By a proper use of them she is enabled to retain a much freer hold upon her reins. Particularly in stopping and turning they are invaluable. Also, in starting.
ACCIDENTS.
Ladies, of course, should never ride horses which are in any manner vicious. But the best animals are not faultless, nor the most sure-footed always reliable. The lady should therefore be prepared for critical situations. Remember that with a long skirt about her feet, and with little experience in such exercise, it is always unsafe for lady to leap from her saddle. She may disengage herself quickly, but carefully. In a runaway, her place is close down in the saddle, holding the four reins low on either side, and giving an alternate tension to the curb and snaffle, steadying her horse in the road and saving her strength to force him to run long after he would gladly stop.
How many dukes were there in England in 1804? The number varied from year to year, depending on which titles became extinct etc. From: 1804 Kearsley’s Complete Peerage via Google Books (PD-200)
1804 Nine Princes of the Royal Blood, some of whom are Dukes.
Prince of Wales, Duke of York, Duke of Clarence, Duke of Kent, Duke of Cumberland,
Duke of Sussex, Duke of Cambridge, Duke of Gloucester, Prince William.
1804 Eighteen English Dukes, excluding the Prince Royals holding the title of ‘Duke’.
Norfolk, Somerset, Richmond, Grafton, Beaufort, St. Albans, Leeds,
Writer Or Reader Of Regency Era?What did Jane Austen and friends wear? Women’s clothing changed dramatically in early 1800s. New silhouette copied simplistic styles of Greeks and Romans. High-waisted white dresses and flowing skirts with color and warmth added by outerwear and accessories. Fashion Women 1801-1804 History Notes Book 25 https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1801-1804
Definition Empire Style Dress: High-waisted white gowns defined women’s fashion during the Regency Era. ‘Empire’ is the name given to the period when Napoleon Bonaparte built his French Empire. High-waisted, loose gowns were adopted by the aristocracy as a symbol of turning away from the elaborate clothing worn in the 1700s. This sort of high-waisted dress would have been worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries in England.
Definition Shawls: The shawl started off in India as a fine wool garment for men that could be worn as a scarf, turban or as a mantle: the word comes from the Persian shäl. Originally imported from the East, European Kashmir shawls were made first in Norwich and Edinburgh in Britain in the late 18th century. Shawls were an essential item in the early 1800s to cover the thin gowns women wore. They were made of muslin, gauze, silk, wool, and velvet, though cashmere shawls were the softest and most prized.
Love the Bridgerton family and Jane Austen? Reader Or Writer of Regency Era stories? Mourning and riding fashion, dresses, hats, shoes, reticules or bags, underclothing and fashion accessories. books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1815-1819
History Notes 28 Fashion Women 1815-1819: This book looks at what was fashionable for women in the Georgian Era and at the end of the Regency Era in Britain and the reconstruction in Europe after the wars. Lifestyles were freer and fashions expressed this by becoming the focus of most women’s lives. A wardrobe full of opulent accessories was requisite. Includes mourning and riding fashion, dresses, hats, shoes, reticules or bags, underclothing, and fashion accessories.
