Looking for a HOT Regency Era read? Love revealed at a courtesan’s ball. Brenton, Lord Mallory, attends his first courtesan’s ball in ten years to appease his concerned friends, though he’d rather stay home and read to his motherless daughters.
‘The upper rooms? Are you mad? A lady cannot go prowling around the bedrooms. There will be couples in those bedrooms having…”
“I’m a widow, not a spinster. I do know what happens.” books2read.com/suzilovePHB
1826 The Cyprian’s Ball At the Argyll Rooms. A Regency Gentleman’s Life. From The English Spy By Robert Cruikshank.
Writing Regency Era Fiction Or Nonfiction? Need more information on Older Gentleman’s Day in early 1800s, or the Bridgerton family or Jane Austen’s Regency Era. A lighthearted overview of an older gentleman’s clothing, social life, and responsibilities in the early 1800s. Take a look at where an older man went, what he wore, and how he managed the family’s finances and his estates. Older Gentleman’s Day Regency Life Series Book 3 books2read.com/suziloveOGD
A portrait from 1810-1814 of Rudolph Ackermann, shop owner and founder of ‘The Repository Of Arts’ magazine, The Strand, London. via National Portrait Gallery, London. Plus, an image of Ackermann’s premises in 1809. His ‘Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashion, Manufactures, etc.’ was published from 1809 to 1829 with images of Regency London, Regency furnishings and grand homes as well as beautiful fashion prints and descriptions every month. Ackermann originally supplied artists, amateur and professional, with supplies for watercolor painting. In 1799, he began manufacturing and selling his own watercolor paint blocks which were supplied by other colourmen, although at least three colors were his own mixture – Ackermann’s Green, White and Yellow. From 1817, his eldest son Rudolph Ackermann junior was responsible for the watercolor manufacturing. Ackermann also trained as a carriage designer. He began publishing prints and colour-plate books like ‘The Microcosm of London’ and ‘Doctor Syntax’ in the early 1800s.
The Repository of Arts was one the most popular magazines in Jane Austen’s time as it displayed everything ladies wanted to learn e.g. history, important country seats and houses in England, music, current events such as theatre plays, plus fashion plates and embroidery patterns. Ackermann’s shop in The Strand, London, was one of the fashionable places to shop during the Regency Era. The Repository also included poetry, travel reports, society reports and upcoming lectures. It also included serious subjects e.g. politics, legal matters, medicine and agriculture, a meteorological journal and details of the London markets. In 1817, the price of the magazine was 4 Shillings, so quite expensive for the time.
In the first issue, published for January 1809, Ackermann included an ‘introduction to the history of the useful and polite arts’ which said: “It is universally admitted, that to cultivate a taste for the arts, and an acquaintance with the sciences, is a pleasure of the most refined nature; but to do this without regard to its influence upon the passions and affections, is to ‘tear a tree for its blossoms, which is capable of yielding the richest and most valuable fruit.’ The cultivation of this taste may and ought to be subservient to higher and more important purposes: it should dignify and exalt our affections, and elevate them to the admiration and love of that Being who is the author of every thing that is fair, sublime, and good in nature.”
Reader or Writer of Regency Era Books? Love the Bridgertons and Jane Austen? Nonfiction book, Older Gentleman’s Day, gives an overview of his daily life by Award Winning researcher and author, Suzi Love. A sometimes comical look at an older gentleman’s clothing, social life, and responsibilities in the early 1800s. Take a look at where he went, what he wore, and how he managed the family’s finances. Older Gentleman’s Day, Regency Life Series Book 3 books2read.com/suziloveOGD
Regency is the time period in England that began in 1811 when King George III had increasing bouts of madness and was finally declared mad. The Prince of Wales was officially named Regent, often referred to as “Prinny”, and the Regency period ran until 1820 when King George III died and the prince was crowned King George IV. The long Regency era is from the time of Jane Austen and the Napoleonic Wars until the time Queen Victoria ascended the throne.
Scandalous Siblings Series Books 1-3 Historical romance with science, history and mystery.
Embracing Scandal Book 1 Scandalous Siblings After Lady Rebecca Jamison, a mathematical genius, saves her family from financial ruin by secretly investing in railway stocks on the London stock exchange, a greedy syndicate, desperate for Becca’s calculations and predictions, murders her friend and threatens the Jamison family, forcing Becca to beg assistance from her childhood friend, Cayle St. Martin. The newly titled Duke of Sherwyn has returned to London after five years on the continent extending his family’s shipping interests. He’s shunned his privileged London life and his father’s unbending attitudes, and becomes committed to employing the spying tactics he learned on the continent to help Becca indict the syndicate – and using his skills as a lover to seduce her into his bed. But how will Cayle be able to convince Becca, a determinedly self-sufficient spinster, that he can be more to her than just a protector? https://books2read.com/suziloveES
Scenting Scandal Book 2 Lady Laura Jamison uses her extraordinary olfactory senses to sniff out her perfect match, a husband who fits all her scientific criteria. But after she evades an assassin’s bullets, twice, while attending her sister’s wedding, she is forced to accept the protection of their family friend, and her nemesis, the Earl of Winchester. Richard evades marriage with someone as beautiful and intelligent as Laura, fearing she’ll uncover his shameful childhood secret. The mismatched pair risks their wealth and reputations racing around London’s seedier areas in a desperate attempt to stop a madwoman before she recruits more criminals and rebuilds her illegal share trading syndicate. When they accept each other’s strengths and weakness, will Laura and Richard also discover a passion neither counted on? https:/books2read.com/suziloveSS
December Scandal Book 3 Michael Brandon travels to introduce the woman he loves to family but is shocked when his missing brother arrives. The Jamisons join the St. Martins at the duke’s country estate but a December snowstorm doubles guest numbers. https:/books2read.com/suziloveDS
1823 Hackney Cab, London, U.K. This small cabriolet was built by coach builder, David Davies, and licensed for public convenience. Name ‘hackney’ derived from village of Hackney, Middlesex, famous for horse drawn carriages. French word cabriolet was shortened to cab, hence ‘Hackney Cab’. In 1813, there were 1100 hackney coaches for hire in London. Designs changed constantly and in 1834 Joseph Hansom registered his design for a cabriolet named ‘Hansom Cab’.
1809 Wedgwood and Byerley showrooms for Wedgwood china, York Street, London, UK. Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s Repository of Arts. The premises of master potter Josiah Wedgwood in York Street, St James’ Square, London, U.K. Wedgwood china was known for its high quality, beautiful glazes and Wedgwood trademark printed on the back of each item. The London show-room was managed by Thomas Byerley, who also held a quarter share of the business. From 1790 to 1810 the firm was known as Wedgwood and Byerley. Josiah Wedgwood had smallpox as a child with left him with a weakened knee so he couldn’t work the foot pedal of a potter’s wheel. Instead, he concentrated on designing pottery and unique glazes. By 1763, he was commissioned by high ranking British people, including Queen Charlotte.
In 1780, his longtime partner died and Wedgwood’s left leg had been amputated so he asked Erasmus Darwin to help run the business and their children married. The Wedgwood inheritance allowed Charles Darwin to pay for being a naturalist. From 1786 to 1789, Wedgwood took on the project of duplicating the Portland Vase from the 1st century BD. His two sons took over the business and Josiah died at home in 1795. During his life, he helped invent modern marketing and direct mail, money-back guarantees, traveling salesmen, self-service, free deliver, buy one get one free and illustrated catalogs.
Young Lady’s Day is Book 4 in the Regency Life Series.
This book depicts the often-frivolous life and fashions of a young lady in the early 1800’s, but also gives a glimpse into the more serious occupations a young lady may undertake. Through historic images, historical information, and funny anecdotes, it shows how a young lady fills her day, where she is permitted to go, and who she is allowed spend time with. These light-hearted looks at the longer Regency years are 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.
https://books2read.com/suziloveYLD
Demolition of the old house, between the Strand and the River Thames, began in 1775 and continued in stages as the new Somerset House was constructed around it. When the new building rose from the rubble, the Royal Academy, which had been one of the last occupants of the old Somerset House, became one of the first occupants of the apartments which fronted the Strand, providing tangible continuity between the old and the new.
The Royal Academy of Arts
George III, described as an “enthusiastic if undiscriminating collector and patron of the arts”, provided invaluable patronage for the three learned societies. When old Somerset House was relinquished by the Crown, the King reserved to himself the right to appropriate sufficient space in the new building for the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquaries.
The Great Exhibition Room
The most important part of the building for the Royal Academy was its Exhibition Room. Situated at the top of the steep, winding staircase, it was roughly 53 x 43 feet and 32 feet high including the lantern, and was described by Joseph Baretti as, “undoubtedly at that date the finest gallery for displaying pictures so far built.” It was here that George III was given a preview of the first Royal Academy Exhibition held at his command in 1780.
Year by year, the exhibits increased. There were 547 in 1781, 1,037 in 1801, and 1,165 in 1821, so that the pictures had to be hung almost from floor to ceiling and with the frames touching one another. From 1832 onwards there was talk of the Royal Academy moving to more spacious rooms in what is now the National Gallery, which was being built at the north end of Trafalgar Square. Accordingly, the last exhibition at Somerset House was held in 1836.
When the Academy moved, the most valuable decorations were taken down and reused in their new quarters. Later they were moved to Burlington House, the Royal Academy’s present home, where the ceiling paintings by Benjamin West and Angelica Kauffmann can now be seen in the entrance hall. The Academy’s old rooms at Somerset House were occupied by the Department of Practical Art, or Government School of Design.
The Royal Society
In 1776, they discovered they were to share the building to the east of the Strand entrance with the Society of Antiquaries, and complained to William Chambers that the accommodation would be inadequate; that the library would be too small and that there would be no room for the Society’s museum.
One of the first discoveries announced to the Society in its new quarters was that of a new planet, first observed by William Herschel in 1781. He wished to call the new planet Georgium Sidus in honour of the King, but other astronomers disagreed and today we know the planet as Uranus. Fellows of the Royal Society were keen to prevent war and politics interfering with the advancement of scientific discovery.
During the Napoleonic Wars of 1796-1815, the President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, used his influence both in England and France to ensure that explorers of the two nations were not obstructed by the conflicting armed forces, and that French scientists should continue to be elected Fellows of the Society. When Sir Humphry Davy became president in 1820, the Society became oriented more towards pure scientific enquiry, to which ends, George IV founded two Gold Medals.
After the Royal Academy left Somerset House in 1837, the Royal Society remained there until 1857 when it joined the Academy at Burlington House.
The Society of Antiquaries
In 1776, the Antiquaries heard about the proposed new building at Somerset House, they decided to apply to George III, their Patron, for rooms there. After some intense lobbying by the President, the Reverend Dr Milles, the Society’s request for accommodation was favourably considered, and the King was, “most graciously pleased to order that the Society be accommodated with apartments in the new buildings at Somerset House.”
The resident Secretary of the Society was accommodated in the attic with three rooms “with deal dadoes, and Sienna marble and Sicilian jasper chimney-pieces”. The basement was hotly contested between the Royal Society and the Antiquaries, who were eventually allowed a kitchen, cellar, two vaults, and a privy. However, the lobby, originally intended for the footman in waiting, had to accommodate the Antiquaries’ porter as the Royal Society had taken possession of the Porter’s Lodge!
In the 1850s there was a proposal to move the Royal Society and the Antiquaries from Somerset House but, when the Royal Society moved out in 1857, the Antiquaries decided to remain, taking the opportunity to secure sole use of the disputed rooms, until they joined the other two learned societies at Burlington House in 1874.
The Navy Board
When the Admiralty moved into new premises in Whitehall in 1725, it was decided that the Navy Board, over whom the Admiralty had responsibility, should move to a site much closer; from Seething Lane behind the Tower of London to new offices at Somerset House. Chambers proposed to house the Navy Board on the west side of the south wing of the new building, in the part facing the river, with the Seamen’s Waiting Hall in the centre of the building providing an imposing entrance.
The related Sick and Hurt, Navy Pay, and Victualling Offices were to occupy the range of buildings on the west side of the courtyard. By 1789 the move was completed and, for nearly a century, more than a third of Somerset House was home to the various branches of the Navy Board.
General Register Office
In 1836 the General Register Office was created to set up a comprehensive system for the registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths and appoint the first Registrar General based at Somerset House. It was not until 1970, after slightly less than a century and a half at Somerset House, that the General Register Office moved out.
Principal Probate Registry
The Inland Revenue Stamp duty on documents, including newspapers, was only one of many revenue-raising methods administered by the Stamp Office, one of the government departments which moved to the new Somerset House in 1789. In 1834 the Stamp Office united with the Affairs of Taxes and in 1849 Stamps and Taxes joined the Excise to form a new Board of Inland Revenue. The Board of Inland Revenue today still occupies the east and west wings of Somerset House.
