Jane Austen gives us some idea of what the Regency upper class did with their free time. They played cards, danced, rode horses and went for carriage rides. Women practiced many forms of art, such as painting, needleworking, and playing instruments. But I did a little digging and found six lesser known, more unusual hobbies enjoyed by the Regency and Victorian ton. Check them out below.
- Shoe making
Yes, the rich could afford their own shoes, and, yes, shoemaking was a profession for the lower classes. But the rich discovered it sure was fun! They hired shoemakers to come to their drawing rooms to teach them to sew the slipper-style shoes that were fashionable—and simple enough for a beginner to make. Toolkits were also available for purchase.
One daughter wrote to her father that her mother was too busy to write to him. Her mother, she said, was “in so irresistibly attractive a part of the operation of sewing round her shoe, that she cannot tear herself from it, even to perform her conjugal duties.” Since performing said conjugal duties often led to death in childbirth in those days, I see the attraction of shoe making.
This site is ending, so I’ve moved this post. Read the rest here. (Dead animal art in the cover photo…still to come.)
Leave a Reply