Regency Accessories ~ Part 2

 

 

By the turn of the nineteenth century, the fashion for women (and in particular for ladies of the gentry and aristocracy) had become settled upon the robe en chemise, which later came to be known as the 'Empire' gown. High-waisted muslin, cambric or calico dresses, in white, natural or pastel shades and worn with heelless slippers, became synonymous with the Regency era. The whole effect was for a simple, classical elegance and ‒ especially when dampened by the daring ‒ the sheer fabric clung with the form-draping folds demonstrated by Greek statuary. The Merveilleuses, female equivalents of French counter-revolutionaries the Incroyables, employed an extreme style of dress which may have led to the suggestion, either real or not, of such wanton behaviour among the beau monde.

However, while being comfortable for the wearer in warm weather, the flimsier versions of these gowns, which tended to be of French influence, did little to hold off winter's chill. Stockings, in white or pink silk or cotton, were worn to offset the effects of a whistling wind, for pantalettes ‒ loose-fitting drawers of muslin, silk or cotton with frills at the base of each leg ‒ were not introduced until about 1804. Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Prince Regent, helped to popularize their usage as she was said to wear them in 1811, while the Duchess of Bedford had hers trimmed with Brussels lace. Pantalettes fastened below the knee with either ribbons or buttons and had no gusset. Draughty! There were even long-legged styles ‒ including feet ‒ for cold weather, as well as elastic India cotton for hunting and Opera or woollen stockinette for increased riding comfort.

     The prevailing fashion did not receive universal approval. Indeed, in March 1803, it was criticized in the Ladies Monthly Magazine.

"...a party of high-bred young ladies, who were dressed or rather undressed in all the nakedness of the mode..." "...had they been placed on pedestals or niched in recesses, they might have passed for so many statues very lightly shaded with drapery... as much a hazard of health as it was trespass against modesty..."

      So, to protect themselves and their modesty, ladies accessorized their ensembles with a variety of decorative and practical garments. for day and evening wear, a fichu (a triangular piece of muslin, lace or similar) or a tucker (linen, cotton or lace) could be worn around the neck to cover or disguise a low décolletage. A 'bosom friend' was another such item, being similar to a tippet. Scarves and shawls were extremely popular, especially, it would seem, with the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon. It is said she collected almost four hundred shawls, with each one priced in the region of 15-20,000 francs. Jane Austen, who was a deft needlewoman, stitched her own elegant adornments, including one of white muslin worked with satin stitch, dated about 1800. Norwich silk, cashmere and Paisley shawls were all popular with the beau monde and were produced in luxurious patterns and colours. The weavers of Norwich, Paisley and Edinburgh also copied the Kashmir wares with soft, British sheep's wool, originally with a small, simple pine cone design and later with larger, more complicated patterns. It became something of an art to drape a shawl in order to reflect good taste, or add a touch of sensuality or luxury to a simple gown. French mesdames, such as Madame Gardel in Paris, performed shawl dances and offered instruction in the graceful arts of such fashionable drapery.

For outdoors, a lady could choose from a fur tippet (a small cape or collar which had long ends dangling at the front), a Spencer, a pelisse, a redingote, a cape or a cloak. The Spencer was a long-sleeved jacket with a short waist which made its first appearance in the 1790s. It is purported to have been named for the 2nd Earl Spencer, George John Spencer, who supposedly was the first to wear one. Spencers were made from such fabrics as kerseymere, velvet, wool, silk and satin, sometimes with high, frilly collars and sometimes without a collar at all.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the pelisse was a cross between a coat and a cloak or tunic, with armholes or, more usually, long sleeves and a raised waist. Later it became a full-length, elegant garment with an Empire line style and fastened across the chest or all the way down the front. Made from velvet, wool, brocade, kerseymere or similar thick cloth for colder weather and lighter fabrics for summer wear, it was often trimmed to match a dress, frequently with sable, ermine or chinchilla. Collars varied in height and width, while sleeves were long, often reaching over the hand, and either trimmed at the shoulder with fur, gathered or puffed.

A redingote was a double-breasted type of overcoat similar to that worn by gentlemen and sometimes cut away at the front. It usually had a wide, flat collar. Cloaks, mantles and capes were generally made from warm materials such as wool, velvet or fur and were often trimmed or lined with fur as well. They fastened at the neck.

Hats, gloves, muffs and parasols

When indoors, most married ladies and spinsters of more mature years wore a cap to show their respectability and status. Jane Austen herself was given to wearing a cap, because, as she wrote: '...they save me a world of torment as to hairdressing.' Caps were made from satin, muslin and lace, in a variety of styles, trimmed with ribbon and often fastened under the chin. The Mameluke cap was described in 1799 by Jane Austen as being 'all the fashion now'. It was an Oriental-style turban with a feather in the brim. Many articles were created and worn to salute Britain's great naval commander and the Nelson cap, fashioned in Coquelicot velvet, was just one of them.

A hat was the essential item to complete a Regency lady's toilette. Many ladies bought plain hats and trimmed them to their own taste, practising economy where it was needful by changing the decoration for different outfits. Such embellishments included ribbons, feathers, flowers, fruit and braid.

Bonnets were made from straw, wood chip (such as willow), leghorn (a type of Italian wheat straw), velvet, tulle, silk, muslin or sarsenet and were habitually designed to match a certain gown or pelisse. They ranged from wide-brimmed sun hats to elegant day wear; from high crowns and neat peaks to the projecting brims of poke bonnets; and from military-style Shako hats ‒ which completed fashionable riding habits at the time of the Napoleonic wars ‒ to elegant turbans and headdresses for the evening. These latter, with the advent of shorter hairstyles, were sometimes no more than a bandeau or fillet to set off a head of cropped curls. A spray of ostrich feathers or a hood, similar to the modern snood, was introduced around 1800 to represent the caul of Grecian origin. Veils were fashionable and could be added to or removed from a hat as required. A pale complexion was, after all, considered entirely necessary in the lady of fashion.

Gloves were originally supplied by a glove maker and made from leather, but once such fabrics as cotton, silk, kid and wool began to be used, they were also produced by milliners. Chicken skin was believed to make hands white and smooth; kid gloves were popularly adorned in the late eighteenth century with hand painted scenes or printed patterns. Gloves were considered essential for both day and evening engagements. Colours were chosen to complement an outfit, white being at the top of the list, although neutral and pastel shades such as stone, buff, lilac and yellow were also popular. Black was considered acceptable only for mourning prior to the second decade of the century. Short gloves of York tan or kid were worn when driving, riding or walking out of doors, while silk gloves were chosen for visiting and other ladylike occupations. For evening, no lady was thought attired à la mode without a pair of long gloves of white kid. Ribbons or glove strings were used from the 1780s to tie the longer glove above the elbow, or the more affluent might choose a diamond buckle. After the Battle of Waterloo, as attitudes changed towards revealed flesh, gloves became almost arm length. In cold or inclement weather, whilst lacking the required degree of elegance, many a lady resorted to woollen gloves or mittens and for those in more straitened circumstances, cotton made an economical alternative to silk.

An alternative to gloves was a muff. Made from sable or ermine for winter wear, swansdown or feathers for warmer weather, a muff was a cylindrically shaped accessory for warming the hands. They were also made of other types of fur, cloth or sealskin; those for winter could be as much as two feet long. Carried by both sexes but mainly used by women, they were frequently matched to the edging of a pelisse or tippet. They could be used in place of a reticule to hold (or secrete) such items as a handkerchief, some pin money or a letter.

Another essential ‒ and fashionable ‒ adjunct to a lady's outdoor wardrobe was the parasol. Like chinoiserie furniture, bamboo and painted wallpapers, it originated in China and it became de rigueur for a lady to carry a parasol to protect her complexion when taking the air. These first parasols were made from silk in a variety of pastel hues which could then be matched with a gown, pelisse or reticule. Ladies held an unfurled parasol by its handle, whereas a gentleman would hold an umbrella (invariably green) in the centre. There were two types of parasol generally to be seen ‒ the 'pagoda' style and the fan or 'marquise'. The former was particularly fashionable. It had tasteful curves when open, the fabric extended on a frame of bamboo, cane or even the revolutionary steel sticks of telescopic design, and was frequently embellished with a knotted fringe. The 'marquise' style parasol was more reminiscent of a modern umbrella, being shaped like a fan, but the central pole was hinged, enabling the holder to position it vertically, either to display the decoration on its panels or as a screen. It was usually fashioned from either paper leaf or fabric. In May 1813, La Belle Assemblée featured a fashion plate of a walking dress, where the lady pictured carried a 'Johnston' parasol, which resembled a flattened circus top with little peaks and dips and was decorated with a fringe. Made of sky-blue silk, it had '...very recently made its appearance and is already a general favourite.'

Fans

Surprisingly, perhaps, to a modern viewpoint, fans had a variety of uses and were considered an essential part of a lady's evening attire. Aside from the practical use of relieving the owner during a ball or assembly which was over-subscribed and stuffy, a fan could be used to portray political messages, hidden signals to a lover, show to advantage a pair of pretty eyes or the owner's sophistication and taste, and disguise a naughty smile. Some were modest, simply painted with famous works, maps, botanical drawings or psalms; others were richly ornamented.

Fans were fashioned from a range of materials. Leaves were made from paper, silk, lace, chicken skin or lace and generally hand painted. The sticks could be of bone, metal or lacquered wood, but the more prized ones were made from mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell or ivory, the latter carved with intricate motifs. Vernis Martin fans, created by the brothers Martin in France using a varnishing (vernis) technique were particularly sought after, as were those by Angelica Kauffman, an artist much revered in the eighteenth century who died in 1807. The folding fan with many sticks, which is familiar still today, were also in great demand. These brisé fans were often most beautifully embellished, even though they had become reduced in size in the first years of the nineteenth century due to the increased popularity of the reticule. Having been used to celebrate victories by Nelson and no doubt Wellington to boot (sorry, could not resist), plus issue good wishes to King George III on his recovery from illness, those that pictured neoclassical motifs and scenes from the continental Grand Tour became much favoured. They were works of art in miniature, measuring, in the main, between 6-10 inches and opening out to about 120 degrees. From around 1808, 'cockade' fans became all the rage, since they opened into a complete circle. Some even contained a spy glass in the middle! From about 1817, crape fans came into vogue, featuring delicate embroidery of spangled silver.

Young ladies were taught the deportment of the fan so that they should hold and use them to the best advantage, thereby accentuating the grace and refinement of their hands.

The language of the fan

Touch right cheek ~ Yes

Touch left cheek ~ No

Fan slowly ~ I am married

Fan quickly ~ I am engaged

Open and shut ~ You are cruel

Presented shut ~ Do you love me?

Presented with handle to lips ~ Kiss me

Placed to left ear ~ I wish to get rid of you

Hide eyes behind ~ I love you

Closely examining fan ~ I like you

Fanning the left hand ~ Do not flirt with that woman

 

 

I hope you find this useful, all you established and budding Regency writers. Sorry there are no pictures. I will update this post when I can access my scanner again!

Best wishes, Heather

A Regency Christmas

Kissing Bough

　
In England, Christmas as a time of feasting had been celebrated from at least medieval times as an interval of cheer in the midst of winter. Oliver Cromwell, however, put a stop to the festivities in 1644 and for the poorer sections of society it became just another working day. Christmas as it is known today was developed by the Victorians, but the Georgians had already, with their flair for excess, reinstated many of the old traditions and customs.

Preparations began for the Christmas season, which extended in Georgian times from St. Nicholas Day (6^th December) to Twelfth Night (6^th January), with the country households of the gentry and aristocracy gathering winter greenery with which to ‘deck the halls’. Preparations also included stocking up the larder, cleaning the guest rooms and polishing the best tableware. The lady of the house would have ordered her gowns for the festive season months before, the more wealthy travelling to London to visit a fashionable modiste. Each gown could easily have cost her husband as much as £4000 in modern terms and been delivered well in advance, perhaps as early as the previous summer

The Georgians loved any excuse to party and Christmas was no exception. It was considered a time for games and feasting, for lively house parties, masquerades, balls, visiting and play acting. The rich salved their consciences at such blatant overindulgence by gifts of charity to the less fortunate. On many estates, servants were rewarded with a feast, although they usually partook of their own Christmas meal in the middle of the morning to enable them to wait on their employers and ensure the family’s festivities were perfect.

A Regency Christmas was mostly an adult affair, with children ‘out of sight, out of mind’ in the nursery. Any gifts tended to be given on St. Nicholas Day, while they might be expected to attend church twice on Christmas Day. The holiday became more geared towards family and children in the Victorian era.

Guests from nearby estates and sometimes farther afield would begin arriving soon after this, signalling the beginning of balls, parties and other entertainments. New arrivals would be welcomed with a warming glass of wine mulled with cloves, cinnamon and other spices, or a tumbler of rum punch. The gentlemen would indulge in hunting, shooting, billiards, political discussions and other manly pursuits, while the ladies would take the opportunity to gossip, exchange patterns and recipes, enjoy poetry, reading and music. Christmas Eve was the start of twelve days of religious reflection, for the Georgians were devout – outwardly at least – and it was traditional for an enormous Yule Log to be lit. It had to be large enough to keep burning for all twelve days, since it was considered unlucky for it to go out. The Georgians had not abandoned the long-held belief that the pagan plants still used today to decorate homes – holly, ivy and mistletoe – warded off evil spirits. The Yule Log also had its customs, in that it was thought bad luck for it to be touched by a barefooted woman or a visitor with flat feet!

Amidst the decorative garlands of fruit and foliage which festooned the house on every available prominence (with an eye for beauty and elegance, of course), there would be, except in the primmest of establishments, a ‘kissing bough’. This was a ball of greenery (including the wicked mistletoe!), which was suspended from the ceiling. It was constructed around a basket, then ornamented with ribbon and sometimes candles. Each time a kiss was claimed beneath it, a berry had to be removed, the kisses then supposed to cease once all the berries had gone. Most houses would not yet have had a Christmas tree, but although Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, popularised its use after a picture appeared in The Illustrated London News in 1848 of the tree he had installed at Windsor Castle, he was not, as is often thought to be the case, responsible for its introduction to Britain. That honour falls to George III’s wife, Queen Charlotte, who brought the tradition from her native Hanover at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Dinner was a grand affair right through the season, not just on Christmas Day itself. Composed of up to twenty dishes – and by the Regency partaken of between six and seven o’clock in the evening – the formally and symmetrically arranged pattern of dishes à la francaise was gradually giving way to the system à la russe. This latter, possibly brought from the continent by the Prince Regent’s famous French chef de cuisine, Marie-Antoine Caréme, consisted of dishes arriving at table in sequence, more as we would today. Thus soup, fish, meat and dessert courses would be defined as such and follow each other.

Regency Christmas fare included brawn, made from a pig’s head which had been boiled for five or six hours, the flesh and fat then pressed into a mould; Jerusalem artichokes, a cod’s head, asparagus soup, turtle soup, spices, fruit, blancmange, Madeira jelly, chocolate drops and a great deal of wine and spirits. It was a golden opportunity for the gentry to display their affluence and a chance for less well-favoured guests and family to enjoy the hospitality of their wealthier neighbours or relatives. Goose was the most traditional choice of main course, along with beef. Turkey had come from America in the sixteenth century, the birds fitted with boots and walked to London from Norfolk by drovers, but it did not become popular until Victorian times.

A particularly favourite way of showing prosperity was to have on the table a traditional Christmas pie. This was made from whatever birds were available on the estate and comprised a three to five bird roast which was then encased in pastry. A common combination was chicken, pheasant and pigeon, all of which were boned and then stuffed inside each other. Particularly in Yorkshire, this was often given as a gift.

A more elaborate version of this dish caused the great bustard to be driven to extinction in Britain by the 1840s. Great bustards were prized for their flavour and cost about two guineas each in the first years of the nineteenth century. French chef Grimod de la Reyniere included in his book of that time, L’Almanach des Gourmands, a now famous recipe incorporating the bustard. It began with an olive stuffed with capers and anchovies, which was pushed into a garden warbler. This was then put into an ortolan, followed by a lark, a thrush, a quail, a larded lapwing, a plover, a red-legged partridge, a woodcock, a teal, a guinea fowl, a duck, a fattened pullet, a pheasant, a turkey and finally the bustard, each time the whole being placed into the larger bird. The stuffed bustard was then cooked in a sealed pot with ham, carrots, onions, celery, herbs, spices and lard for twenty-four hours. It was the kind of dish which would have graced one of the Prince Regent’s grand banquets.

Two other dishes to appear on the groaning Regency Christmas table are more familiar to a modern eye. Christmas porridge was the traditional pudding, known from the fifteenth century, but was not the sweet affair we enjoy nowadays. It was made from chopped mutton or beef and mixed with breadcrumbs, onion, dried fruit, herbs, spices and wine, a savoury accompaniment to the other meat dishes, with the fruit added for depth of flavour. It was eaten all winter. However, the plum pudding was gaining in favour and eventually replaced the traditional version. Parson Woodforde, the celebrated diarist, recorded a grand dinner of 3^rd December 1776, when he gave his guests ‘…surloin of Beef roasted, a Leg of Mutton boiled and plumb Puddings in plenty…’

Mince pies were also a far cry from their modern equivalent. They contained minced meat – beef being the preference for the affluent – and fruit. Both Christmas pudding and mince pies contained less sugar than present day varieties.

So much food was required for a country house party, the cook and her staff were kept busy for days preparing as much as they could in advance. Black butter was mentioned by Jane Austen in one of her ‘Letters to Cassandra’, a ‘simple, uncostly and delightful conserve’ made from apples. Parts of a pig, such as the ears and feet, or those of another animal, were pickled – ‘soused’ – for use in cold dishes. Hot meals were augmented with cuts of cold beef, mutton, hare and venison. Sweet dishes included gingerbread, which has no religious connection, but was cooked by monks for spiritual festivals; cakes, jellies and puddings. Jane Austen mentions rice pudding and apple dumplings.

Twelfth Night, the feast of the Epiphany, was an excuse for revelry and games. Celebrations included masquerades and the drawing of characters to be played for the evening. Among other entertainments were card games and the popular ‘Snapdragon’ – snatching raisins from a bowl of flaming brandy. This was the forerunner of setting the Christmas pudding alight. The centuries-old ‘Blind Man’s Buff’ often took the evening into the early hours in a somewhat disorderly fashion.

The main dish of the evening was Twelfth Cake, a rich and expensive confection of icing sugar and fruit cake – Christmas Cake. The staff were invited to join in the fun, most of the guests having left by then and if they got a pea or a bean in their slice of cake, they were made king or queen for the night.

Carols have their origins in songs associated with round dances to celebrate anything from a birth to a wedding and singing at Christmas dates as early as the fifteenth century, when the ‘wassail’ was a salutation to good health. The wassail could have been sung about any celebration, even to a good apple harvest or cattle; ‘wassailing’ was the action of carousing, or going from house to house singing songs of good cheer and collecting gifts. Such carousals date from 1602, the carols or songs from 1650 and the Twelfth Night and New Year’s Eve drinking of healths from 1661, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Many of the best-loved carols – for example ‘God Rest You Merry Gentlemen‘, ‘The First Noel’ and ‘I Saw Three Ships‘– date from at least the sixteenth century, while others, like ‘Good King Wenceslas‘, have more contemporary words set to traditional melodies. Many of these evolved in the Victorian era. ‘Oh Come All You Faithful’ was composed by John Francis Wade in the 1740s and ‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing’ by Mendelssohn (1809-47).

So while you are enjoying your mince pies, chocolate yule log, Christmas cake and mulled wine, sit back by the fire and think of times of yore...


A Very Happy Christmas to you all! Seasons Greetings, Heather.

Regency Accessories ~ Reticules

I called this blog A Regency Reticule because I intended for it to contain a ‘pocket’ of Regency information and tales. Having a lifelong passion for horses, I have enjoyed my excursions into the world of the Georgian horse, particularly the putting together of a work entitled The Horse: A Regency Author’s Guide, which is yet to be published. However, for this post I thought it about time I featured reticules themselves.

When the high-waisted muslin and silk empire gown became fashionable, a need arose for an article in which a lady might carry any of the following: smelling-salts, lavender-water, some pin money, gloves, her fan, a handkerchief, her dance card and a pencil.

The reticule or ‘ridicule’ (so dubbed by the satirical press) therefore became that essential addition to a lady’s wardrobe, although ‘knotting bags’ had been carried in the latter decades of the eighteenth century, to all intents and purposes to hold the items required for a pastime considered de rigueur, yet clearly calculated to proclaim a lady’s needlecraft. Many ladies fashioned their own reticules, which were generally drawstring bags, decorating them with either embroidery or patterns composed of miniscule metal or glass beads, although some were created from lacquered or painted tin or even cardboard.

Designs were as varied as the personalities who conceived them. Some consisted of intricately worked depictions of garden flowers and leaves; others achieved stunning effects with a single flower in full bloom upon a dark background. Silk was invariably the fabric of choice of the beau monde, with velvet becoming ever more fashionable around the beginning of the Regency proper, from about 1810. Both types were artistically adorned with spangles, tassels and/or an exquisitely embroidered border around the neck. They came in various shapes: rectangular, oval, that of a lozenge or, more classically, a Grecian urn. During the wars with France, reticules even appeared in a style similar to the ‘sabretache’ (a type of satchel) used by cavalry officers. The ladies’ fashionable magazines featured patterns which were eagerly anticipated by those with a desire to be à la mode, while ready-made metal frames also became available, providing an excuse for further embellishment. A lady might create a reticule to match her gown, her cloak or spencer, her shoes and on occasion, her gloves.

Reticule, from Latin reticulum, meaning net.

Reticules were even used to make a political statement. During the 1820s, The Ladies’ Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves was responsible for the issue of indispensables made of silk, while The Female Society of British Negro Slaves in Birmingham produced literature which was inserted into workbags sewn from cotton, satin and silk for sale at markets and rallies.

Stocking Purse

For the purposes of carrying money, some ladies preferred the practicality of a stocking purse. This was a sausage-shaped bag with the opening in the middle, whereby coins could be slipped into either end. Two metal rings positioned on each side of the opening could then be pushed along the fabric to fasten one or both pouches. Ladies frequently made their own to suit their requirements, usually netting, knitting or crocheting the purse and decorating the ends as fancy or fashion decreed. Nevertheless, for those less dextrous and with the wherewithal to do so, such items could be purchased in milliners‘ shops, as well as establishments like Minster Yard in York and Bedford House in London.

Heather King Regency Romance Author Celebrates

 

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Love Heather

Look Out For 'A Sense of the Ridiculous'!

A Sense of the Ridiculous


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Your patience is about to be rewarded. Jocasta and Richard will be romping across your computers, kindles and other devices VERY SOON!!  In two days, in fact!  I'm so excited.

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Heather

Equestrian Pursuits 3

Riding and Driving in the Parks          

     Whilst horses were used for various forms of transport throughout the Regency and beyond, for many they were not only a status symbol, but a way to ‘take the air’ or an agreeable form of exercise. Riding was often the only manner in which a gently-born lady might enjoy vigorous exercise, or meet eligible gentlemen in an informal setting.

     Riding or driving in Rotten Row, in London’s Hyde Park, at the fashionable hour, was not just an amusement, it was a way for the ton to display the quality of their horseflesh, equestrian skill and, above all, affluence. The park hack had therefore to add to the overall appearance of eye-catching elegance, possess graceful movement and the most perfect manners.

     Rotten Row, originally ‘Route de Roi’ or Way of the King, has been so called from the time of William III. His gracious Majesty commanded the route from Kensington Palace to St. James’s to be lit with oil lamps for safety, for it was then a wide thoroughfare which encircled the inner boundary of the park. In Rotten Row, a Regency lady might ride with a gentleman with perfect propriety; two ladies could drive alone together; lovers could meet ‘by accident’ and dowagers were able to bow in dignified acknowledgement of friends and acquaintances. Because of the number of vehicles and pedestrians, riding was conducted at decorous paces only and it was severely frowned upon to flout this rule.

     A greater measure of freedom could be had in Richmond Park, where the undulating landscape of grass, woodland, gardens and groves made it ideally suited for the more adventurous horseman and woman. The largest of the royal parks at two and a half thousand acres and situated only twelve miles from St. Paul’s Cathedral, it was also the perfect destination for alfresco entertainments, including walking, driving and picnics.

     Keeping a horse in London was a costly business and the aristocracy therefore flaunted their wealth with the unabashed splendour of their hacks and equipages. Showy, high-stepping horses were chosen for single turnouts, while matched pairs (and teams) of prime cattle were in demand for sporting curricles, dashing high-perch phaetons and elegant barouches. Captain Gronow relates, in his Reminiscences, that Lord Petersham’s carriages were, ‘…entirely brown, with brown horses and harness’, and Lord Barrymore drove, ‘…four splendid greys, unmatched in symmetry, action and power.’

     Although favoured by sporting gentlemen for its slightly raffish appearance, ladies would sometimes drive a phaeton, but in general these were the lower versions pulled by ponies. Matched teams of cream, black and grey ponies were considered all the rage. Sir John and Lady Lade each drove a four-in-hand of stunning bays, whilst on occasion Sir John was to be seen on the box behind the Prince of Wales’ six highly-bred greys. During his later years, when he became somewhat stout, George IV could be seen taking his daily exercise in Windsor Great Park. Accompanied by his grooms, he drove a low phaeton drawn by two bay or brown horses, as depicted in an engraving by Melville and in another by Dickenson. This model came to be known as the George IV phaeton. 

     Of course, there were inevitably those few, intrepid ladies who thought nothing of driving both perch and high-perch phaetons. Georgette Heyer’s Grand Sophy wickedly drove the annoying Miss Wraxton down St. James’s Street, the bastion of male preserves, in her racy, high-perch version!

     

Equestrian Pursuits 2

Hunting


     If racing was an expensive and sometimes ruinous sport, the less affluent could still enjoy the thrill of equestrian chase. Hunting has existed in the British Isles since at least the Norman Conquest, but it is likely that packs were devoted solely to fox-hunting since the eighteenth century. It was towards the end of the seventeenth century when landowners – the main body of the hunting fraternity – started to notice that foxes provided better sport. The fox was craftier than either deer or hare, not as strong smelling as the one and could run for longer than the other.

     It was largely due to the patronage of royalty and members of the aristocracy, such as the Duke of Buckingham, that fox-hunting flourished. Buckingham’s estates were in the north of England; the Dukes of Berkeley hunted across lands between London and Bristol and the Dukes of Beaufort from Bath to Oxford. The necessary establishments to hunt such large areas were hugely expensive. With the Industrial Revolution came the new gentry, with new money, and subscription packs were set up to hunt smaller areas.
    
     Many packs were owned by an individual, whether duke, landed gentry or even an innkeeper with pretensions of grandeur. The nineteenth century was termed the heyday of hunting, but it came at a price. With little care for the land or the farmer whose crops they destroyed, enormous fields galloped great distances at a fast and furious pace, since there were no tarmac roads, barbed wire or artificial manures to slow up the chase. The fox-hunting season lasts from November to March, once harvesting is over and the leaves gone from the trees, continuing until the frost is but a memory and farmers ready to sow their fields.

     On the hunting field everyone, within reason, was equal. A farmer could rub shoulders with an earl; a magistrate could take a lead over a bullfinch from the landlord of the village inn. All types, shapes and sizes of horse and pony might be seen. From the squire and his lady, mounted on their quality animals, to reckless young bucks of the nobility on mettlesome blood horses; from farmers on their cobs or draught animals to grooms on steady hacks, the meet was a tapestry of the equine species. Children too young to hunt might attend the meet on the leading rein, mounted on one of the sturdy and sure-footed breeds native to the British Isles. Irish hunters were imported by many a discerning gentleman, for the bone, substance, staying power and scope (jumping prowess) of such an animal was greatly prized.

     Particularly in the fast, galloping country of the English shires, it was often the practice to employ a ‘second horse’. The owner would ride his best horse in the morning, then change to his ‘second horse’, which was fresh, for the remainder of the day. The groom followed the hunt quietly along the lanes and bridle paths until the spare horse was required.

     Packs of foxhounds have existed all over the British Isles for more than three hundred years. Some of the oldest are the Belvoir, the Berkeley, the Cottesmore, the Duke of Beaufort, the Pytchley, and the Quorn. The Pytchley, the Belvoir, the Cottesmore and the Quorn were all founded in the 1770s. The latter three are not only three of the most exclusive hunts, but also possibly the most famous.

     Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, is home to these renowned institutions and could be termed the headquarters of fox-hunting. Upwards of three hundred horses were reputed to be stabled in the town during the season, with many a hard hunting gentleman maintaining a string of hunters, since it was possible to hunt six days a week with the various packs. Melton Mowbray was described in a nineteenth century guide as ‘one of the brightest and busiest resorts’ when the wealthy and fashionable sportsmen poured into town. Many of the finest buildings are former clubs and hunting lodges. During the hunting season, these establishments played host to such diverse persons as royalty, high-ranking army officers, eminent politicians, rich young bloods and industrialists. Indeed, the Prince Regent, the Duke of Wellington and Beau Brummell were notable visitors, as were Winston Churchill and Edward VII when he was the Prince of Wales.

     Melton Mowbray is also reputedly the birthplace of the saying ’painting the town red’. Since hard days in the saddle were followed by hard drinking and wild deeds, it is not to be wondered at if the account labelling the eccentric Marquis of Waterford the precipitator of the phrase is accurate. It is said that, in 1837 the Marquis and his cronies celebrated in spectacular style, by rampaging through the winding streets armed with paintbrushes and tins of bright red paint.