Walking around the local lanes a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the hedges had been cut recently. Straight tops and sides, uniform height, all very neat. A bit like an ornamental hedge in the garden of a stately home!
Hedges now and then
English garden styles – Kent, Brown, and Repton
In the 18th Century, the formal style of garden for stately homes (described here) began to give way to a more natural style of gardening. Three men stand out in the transformation of the parks and gardens of the wealthy: William Kent, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, and Humphrey Repton.
Prize money in the Army
A version of this article was originally posted on The Coffee Pot Book Club website.
In Regency times, prize money was paid to both army and navy personnel. The money came from goods captured in action, and was shared out between the men (it was only men!) according to their rank. The blog post here explains how prize money was calculated and allocated in the Royal Navy. This article looks at the Army in the Peninsular War.
Sailing ships and sayings
We use many phrases in everyday speech that originated in the past and have often changed their meaning. For example, did ‘second rate’ always mean ‘second best’?
First rate or second rate?
Today, ‘first rate’ refers to something top quality, ‘second rate’ or even ‘third rate’ to items of lesser quality. Originally these terms referred to the number of guns on a warship, meaning that a first rate ship was only better than a second rate ship in terms of fire power. It said nothing about the quality of the ship in other respects.
Schools in Regency England 2: The middle and upper classes
This post follows on from the one on schooling for the poor. The photo shows the scholars’ dining hall at Eton College.
Schools in Regency England 1: The Poor
In Regency Britain, the only free schooling was provided by charities, and aimed at poorer children. Some of these schools were funded by church organisations, with the aim of allowing the poor to read the bible. When I was a child (of church-going parents), we had ‘Sunday School’ after a Sunday service, which was mainly Bible stories. The first Sunday Schools would have involved teaching children to read the Bible, not just telling them the stories. They did not necessarily teach the children to write, for why would the poor need to do that?
Regency money
Recently, on a facebook group for Regency authors and readers*, several readers commented that they never got the hang of the British money system in Regency times. And no wonder! Today we have pounds and pence, not that different to dollars and cents. But then… not only were there pounds, shillings and pence, but they were abbreviated as l, s and d (think Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds). And there were not only coins for the pounds, shillings and pence, but all sorts of multiples of them. And then there were the slang terms for some of these coins.
This is a penny coin from 1826. What do you notice about it? Unlike today’s coins, which have the value marked on them, there is no indication that this is worth 1d.
So here’s a table of the coins in circulation during the Regency (with slang terms in brackets), and their value.
[The Facebook group I referred to is Regency Kisses: Lady Catherine’s Salon – set up by a group of Regency Romance writers to talk about all things Regency, with a focus on the non-steamy kind of story.
Barrington Court, Somerset
My visits to gardens and historic houses have been severely curtailed this year, for obvious reasons. However places are beginning to open up again, partially, at least. The National Trust is opening many of its gardens, although sadly the tea shops (a highlight of many a visit) are operating a limited take-away service only.
We picked Barrington Court for a day out as it is just over an hour’s drive from home, it had a nice garden, and we hadn’t visited it before. I didn’t realise how many similarities it had to my imaginary Birchanger Hall.
English garden styles – early 18th Century
This post is based on a visit I made to Wrest Park last year, where much of the grounds are still laid out as they were in the early 1700s. Much of this article was previously published on the The Coffee Pot Book Club website.
In isolation? What to read…
So you have lots of time to read…but you have to pay for it and find some good stories!
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