Category: Georgian era
-
Good For What Ails You: Boozy Medicine In Regency England
“Did people back then just drink their illnesses away?” This question came to my mind when I started reading regency literature and ran across tinctures, elixirs and cordials. I had a vague idea that a cordial was a mild alcohol, and no idea whatsoever about tinctures and elixirs. What were these things, anyway? It turns…
-
They Would Not Have Said That! Words that Didn’t Exist in the Regency Era
This post has moved here: https://bethanydellemanwriter.com/they-would-not-have-said-that-words-that-didnt-exist-in-the-regency-era/
-
A Year Without Summer, a Guest Post from Ann Hawthorne
Imagine a year without summer – and one haunted by apocalyptic portents, at that. It sounds nightmarish – and yet that was exactly the kind of year Jane Austen had lived through in 1816, not long before her own departure from the world. So, what caused it? On the 10th of April 1815, Mount Tambora…
-
A Night at the Theatre
Hello, hello, hello! I hope everyone had a beautiful weekend and I am so pleased to help you start your week. This weekend was a whirlwind for me as I had three overlapping events (one that I just had to skip completely in order to make it through the others) and homework that was due…
-
Fresh Thoughts on the 2024 AGM
It is ever so difficult to characterize an annual general meeting (AGM) of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA). There are so many different elements—local tours, specialty events, sometimes a major evening event, the plenary speeches open to all attendees. Multiple breakout sessions go simultaneously for two days so that no one person…
-
Regency Thrills and Chills
My two favorite holidays are Thanksgiving, for family and American-style football, and Halloween. The first has never caused another to even blink in surprise; the latter has caused more than one arched brow of consternation, given that I’m a wuss of the highest order. While none can convince me that IT is not waiting for…
-
Housemaids and Early Hours in Edinburgh
Recently I was reading about Regency housemaids and their chores and salary. I’ve looked up details about servants before, but this time I stumbled across an article with the National Trust for Scotland that chronicled the actual schedule and budget of a Regency/Georgian era family in Edinburgh. It was fascinating. The housemaid for the Lamont…
-
Autumn in the Regency Era, a Post from Ann Hawthorne
Now that autumn is upon us, we are all awakening to the delights of crispy fallen leaves and misty mellow mornings. However, for Jane Austen’s contemporaries, especially those living in the country, the changing of the seasons would have meant far more than that. Ash trees, which were considered a great adornment of any country…
-
A Walk to Meryton
Hello, Delightful Readers! It has been a whirlwind month or two and I love these calmer moments when I can share a bit of my WIP with you. I hope you are enjoying this story and hope to have publishing information for you in the coming months. In the meanwhile, for those of you just…
-
Absolutely Scent-sational!
Continuing the stillroom theme, I decided to dig more into making scented waters. I wanted to know how likely it was that households of moderate means could make these wonders. It turns out that it was not only possible but likely, for they were made from three essential ingredients: I discovered that it was not…