1801-1818 ca. ‘Diablo, or devil on two sticks’. Lessons In The Devil Series Plate 55: Man teaching a woman how to play diabolo, or devil on two sticks. via 1801-1818 Le Bon Genre, French. Gentleman in blue tailcoat, high white shirt and cravat, pants and black shoes. Lady in white dress with high frilled neckline, long sleeves and wearing green walking boots. Hand-colored etching. Published by: Pierre La Mésangère. Via British Museum, London, UK britishmuseum.org (PD-Art)
Jane Austen and Games: In Jane Austen’s times, games were a part of daily life. Families played all sorts of games, indoors and outside, to pass the time, especially at house parties or family gatherings.
Diablo, Or Devil On Two Sticks: Double cone type of yo-yo that is twirled, spun, tossed and caught on a string attached to two hand sticks. The toy, or Diablo, is kept spinning by manipulating it back and forth along the string and by tossing into the air. Numerous tricks can be performed e.g. toss, trapeze, cat’s tail and the umbrella.
Are you a Bridgerton fan? Love Jane Austen? Love history? Take a look at a Young Gentleman’s Day in the early 1800s. Light-hearted look at a young man’s day in the early 1800s. Depicts the ups and downs of a young gentleman’s day in the Regency Era, or Jane Austen’s years. Through historic images, historical information, and funny anecdotes, it shows how a young man about town fills his day, where he goes, and who he spends time with. This light-hearted look at the longer Regency years is an easy to read overview of what people did and wore, and where they worked and played. There is plenty of information to interest history buffs, and lots of pictures to help readers and writers of historical fiction visualize the people and places from the last years of the 18th Century until Queen Victoria took the throne. books2read.com/suziloveYGD
Music history from the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. Pianos, pianofortes, harps, viols, violins played during Jane Austen’s times. Musical Instruments were so important in most of the more affluent households in history that large industries grew all around the world to manufacture instruments, musical accessories, and to print sheet music. Musical instruction and encouragement could be found everywhere and both young ladies and gentlemen were encouraged to have musical appreciation. And of course, playing music was on the list of social requirements for all young ladies desirous of becoming a wife and homemaker.
London became Europe’s leading centre for the manufacture of scientific instruments and this led to the manufacture of more musical instruments as well as factories developed and rail transport helped the faster distribution of goods to regional areas. One of the first places that music was used to tell stories and to share enjoyment was in Christmas music. Because music was such an integral part of households, music was always a feature in Magazines. There were advertisements everywhere for musical instruments for sale, for sheet music, and for music lessons. And of course, of most interest to the ladies were the hundreds of fashion plates included in magazines where people were depicted with their musical instruments.
1810-1820 ca. Double Breasted Red Hunting Coat, English.
1810-1820 ca. Red Hunting Coat, English. Hunting was both a popular sport and an essential part of social success. Double-breasted tailcoat of woolen superfine, lined with sateen and cotton, M-notch lapels, nine gold buttons with heraldic crest, cuffs with three smaller matching buttons. via Collection from Castle Howard, Yorkshire, U.K. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. Hunting coats, or colors, often red coats called pinks, were worn by hunt masters and hunters. In Bridgerton and Jane Austen times, or the early 1800s, gentlemen wore red coats like this while riding to the hounds.
Historically, hunt members wore ‘colors’ to distinguish between types of hunters and their level of experience. Traditional red coats were worn by huntsmen, masters, former masters, whippers-in, regardless of sex, while other hunt staff members and male members invited by masters wore colors and hunt buttons as a mark of appreciation for their involvement in the organization and running of the hunt. After the Hunting Act in England and Wales, only Masters and Hunt Servants wore red coats or hunt livery. Gentleman subscribers usually wore black coats, with or without hunt buttons and in some countries, women wore colored collars on their black or navy coats to help them stand out from the rest of the field. Some hunts, including most harrier and beagle packs, wear green rather than red jackets, and some hunts wear other colors such as mustard.
1807 Game of Billiards By Louis Leopold Boilly, French. Ladies playing billiards as they did in Jane Austen’s time. via Heritage Museum, Russia ~ heritagemuseum.org
Light-hearted look at Young Lady in Jane Austen’s times, or early 1800s. A glimpse into both the frivolous and more serious occupations filling a young lady’s day in the lifetime of Jane Austen, or the Regency Era, or the early 19th Century. Historic images and historical information show her fashions and frolics. https://books2read.com/suziloveYLD
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.
The Lord of Misrule was generally a peasant, or sub-deacon, and the revelries followed the Pagan tradition of Saturnalia and was a time of drunkenness and wild partying. The Church’s festival with a Boy Bishop, the leader of children’s festivities in choir schools, was similar, but was abolished by Henry VIII in 1541, restored by the Catholic Queen Mary, but again abolished by Protestant Elizabeth I. On the Continent, the Council of Basle suppressed it in 1431 but the custom was revived in some places from time to time, even as late as the eighteenth century. After the death of Edward VI in 1553, the English court stopped appointing a Lord of Misrule.
From A Survey of London by John Stow: Reprinted from the text of 1603.
‘…in the feaste of Christmas, there was in the kings house, wheresoeuer he was lodged, a Lord of Misrule, or Maister of merry disports, and the like had yee in the house of euery noble man, of honor, or good worshippe, were he spirituall or temporall.’
During the late medieval and early Tudor periods in England, Lord of Misrule, also called Abbot Of Misrule, or King Of Misrule, was appointed to manage the Christmas festivities held at court, in the houses of great noblemen, in the law schools of the Inns of Court, and in many of the colleges at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
His reign lasted anywhere from 12 days to 3 months and his role was to direct the masques, processions, plays, and feasts. Although this was mostly a British custom, in ancient Rome from the 17th to 23rd of December, a Lord of Misrule took on the guise of Saturn for the feast of Saturnalia and the ordinary rules were changed so that masters became slaves and the offices of state were held by slaves. The Lord of Misrule presided and could command anyone to do anything. Our contemporary Christmas holidays seem to have originated from this idea of festive holidays.
The custom began in December 1551 when the Duke of Somerset, Edward VI’s uncle Edward Seymour, was in the Tower of London awaiting execution. He sent a note to the Master of Revels to appoint George Ferrers as Lord of Misrule. Ferrers was a courtier and poet who later contributed to A Mirror for Magistrates, described by Scott Lucas as a “compendium of tragic monologues” by a series of historical personages.
Scotland had the Abbot of Unreason (suppressed in 1555) as their equivalent to the Lord of Misrule and scholars believe both ideas came from the “king” or “bishop” who presided over the earlier Feast of Fools.
Christmas: Wassail Bowl History #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #Customs
The term wasseling refers to the jovial revelry and carousing that went on in historic England when all classes of society would gather around a common banquet-table and the wassail bowl and indulge in the most unrestrained joviality and merriment around.
Wassail Bowl: Most great houses had a wassel-bowl, or cup, frequently of massy silver. Toasts were “Drine heil,” or “Was hail,” from which the howl derives its name but were replaced around the nineteenth century by “Come, here’s to you,” or “I’ll pledge you.” Now, we toast with the simplified version of ‘Here’s to you’. As the hour of twelve approached, carol-singers would prepare and bell-ringers would place themselves at their post to usher in the morning of the Nativity with lots of rejoicing and with bands of music parading the towns.
In some parishes in the West of England, carol-singers adjourn to the church to sing in Christmas-day, a remnant probably of popery, as in Catholic countries there were frequently church-services held at this time. In the 16th century, Tusser prescribed for Christmas: good drink, a good fire in the hall, brawn, pudding, and mustard withall, capon, or turkey, cheese, apples, nuts, and jolly carols. In rich houses, a wassail cup would be filled with rich wine, sweet and spicy, and with roasted apples bobbing on the surface. In poorer houses, the cup would hold ale with nutmeg, sugar, ginger, and roasted crab apples.
At Christmas time, households had guests to stay and games were played to either fill in the time inside when the weather was too bad to venture out with sleds or skates, or to keep tradition. Blind man’s bluff, forfeits, and snap dragon were all played.
A list of some entertainments for Christmas…From The book Of Christmas by Thomas kibble Hervey. “jugglers, and jack-puddings, scrambling for nuts and apples, dancing the hobby-horse, hunting owls and squirrels, the fool-plough, hot-cockles, a stick moving on a pivot, with an apple at one end and a candle at the other, so that he who missed his bite burned his nose, blindman’s buffs, forfeits, interludes and mock plays :” — also of ” thread my needle, Nan,” ” he can do little that can’t do this,” feed the dove, hunt the slipper, shoeing the wild mare, post and pair, snap dragon, the gathering of omens….
Snap Dragon A favorite game was Snap Dragon, often played on Christmas Eve. Raisins were put into a large, shallow bowl and brandy was poured over them and then ignited. Lights were extinguished to increase the eerie effect of the blue flames playing across the liquor. The object of the game was to reach through the blue flames and grab as many raisins as possible from the flaming brandy and pop them into your mouth. The risk of burning yourself increased the excitement.
Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language in 1755 describes the. game as “a play in which they catch raisins out of burning brandy and, extinguishing them by closing the mouth, eat them”. According to an eighteenth-century article in Richard Steele’s Tatler magazine, “the wantonness of the thing was to see each other look like a demon, as we burnt ourselves, and snatched out the fruit.”
Snap-dragon was played in England, Canada, U/S.A, and probably other countries with British backgrounds. The words snap-dragon and flap-dragon can refer to the game, the raisins used in the game, or the bowl with brandy and raisins.
The first reference to Snap-dragon as a game is in Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1811. “Christmas gambol: raisins and almonds being put into a bowl of brandy, and the candles extinguished, the spirit is set on fire, and the company scramble for the raisins.” Snap-dragon as a Christmas parlour game was mentioned in 1836 in Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers and in 1861, in Anthony Trollope’s novel Orley Farm. Lewis Carroll, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There in 1871 describes “A snap-dragon-fly. Its body is made of plum pudding, its wings of holly-leaves, and its head is a raisin burning in brandy.”
Agatha Christie’s book Hallowe’en Party describes a children’s party during which a child’s murder causes Hercule Poirot to be brought in to solve the case and at which Snap-dragon is played at the end of the evening.
