Not discussed in polite company
If you think standing in a very long line at a sporting events or concert to get into the women's rest room is inconvenient, imagine if there was no rest room at all. In the backstory for the 2003 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, it was noted that there were no indoor facilities, male or female. As a result, a woman had to give a lot of thought to what she drank before and during a dance, such as the ball that Charles Bingley hosted at Netherfield Hall. I assume that most women judiciously sipped their punch throughout the evening. Of course, for the men, a nice bush would suffice. Pictured at right is a very pretty chamber pot from the Regency Era.
Circulating Library
During the Regency Era, books were very expensive, and few families, other than the very rich, were able to afford the cost of an extensive library. A solution to this problem was the circulating library. The first known lending library was established in the Strand in London in 1730 and was run by Mr. Wright, a bookseller. The idea was very popular, and by the beginning of the 19th Century, the number of libraries had grown to 26 . With an increase in literacy, these lending libraries proved to be an affordable way for people to read books. There was a flat charge for the initial subscription, and then a small fee would be charged for each book checked out. One of the more popular books of the Regency Era was Maria Edgeworth’s Tales of Fashionable Life and, I’m sure, The Complete Works of Jane Austen.
Seaside Bathing
From the 18th Century on, bathing resorts multiplied, especially along England’s southern coast. They included Brighton, Ramsgate, and Eastbourne, all mentioned in Austen’s works. In addition to enjoying the “bracing sea air,” people could bathe in the always chilly waters of the Channel by using a bathing machine (pictured at left). In order to assure a woman’s privacy, there were designated areas for members of each sex. After the bather entered the bathing machine, he/she would change out of their street clothing and into their bathing costumes, and then the machine would be rolled into the water. Some resorts hired “dippers,” who were strong and hardy souls who would help the bather into the sea and might possibly push a person into the water to enhance the bathing experience. More information is available at: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Bathing_machine.
"The London Season"
To reach the very top of London's elite society, it was necessary for an individual to secure a voucher to Almack's Assembly Rooms during the busy "season," a time when a whirlwind of activies took place in "town" (London). The Wednesday night balls featured simple repasts and lemonade (to avoid the excessive drinking so rampant in England's upper classes). A governing board made up of a group of ladies known as the haute ton determined who would receive these vouchers. Pictured above are dancers at Almack's doing the newly-introduced "quadrille." This sketch was made in the 1820s when men's fashion was at a crossroads. Note two dancers are in breeches while the other two are in trousers. Would Mr. Darcy and his middle-class wife have been included on the guest list? If it was up to Sarah Villiers, the Countess of Jersey, probably not. She was disliked, but feared, and as long as she was the Regent's mistress, she usually got what she wanted. Sarah is pictured below (the second from the left) in "Regency Fashion."
Letter Writing in Austen's Time
According to Joan Klingel Ray in Jane Austen for Dummies, "Letters in Austen's day looked like little books of folded paper containing four pages. On page 4, the back page, the writer left a rectangular space blank for the address..., and the addressee paid the postage due on the letter." This created a financial harship for some authors, especially those with enthusiastic female admirers, as was the case with Sir Walter Scott. Scott usually paid out more than 150 pounds a year for his correspondence, which I would estimate in today's money to be at least $1,000. The letter carrier with his leather mailbag would announce his arrival by ringing a bell. In many towns, mail was picked up at a local store or at a coaching inn where the mail coach would stop. In 1840, the Uniform Penny Post made its debut throughout the United Kingdom, and a postage stamp known as the Penny Black allowed the sender to prepay the cost of the post. But those changes went into effect 23 years after Jane's death. Jane's letters and business correspondence would have been written with a quill pen, which was constantly in need of sharpening and repair, and with ink that she may have made herself. It was a slow messy process, and just think how many drafts she wrote before perfecting her novels.
Brighton Pavilion - George IV
When Jane Austen wrote her first draft of Pride and Prejudice in the mid 1790s, George III was on the throne. By the time she published the novel in 1813, George III was in seclusion at Windsor Castle because of a mental/physical disorder, and his son was serving as Regent in his absence. The Regency Era saw great changes in London, most notably in its architecture, including Cumberland Terrace and Carlton House, the London home of the Prince Regent, whose size matched the Regent's ego, and was paid for by the British nation. Pictured at left is the Pavilion that George IV built in Brighton. Construction of the Pavilion as it exists today began in 1815, only two years before Austen's death, so this is not the Brighton of Lydia and Wickham (1813).
George IV/The Regent, Jane Austen Fan
In 1811, the British Parliament passed “The Regency Act” which transferred power from George III to his son, the Prince of Wales. This legislation was necessary because the king was believed to be mad as a result of a recurring malady that was later identified as porphyria. The Act declared that until such time as the monarch regained his wits the Prince of Wales would rule Britain and its expanding empire. Unfortunately for the king, but fortunately for his son, George III never did recover and spent his remaining nine years in seclusion at WindsorCastle. While the Prince of Wales had been waiting in the wings for his father to either die or to be found insane, the future George IV had been busy accumulating enormous debts, acquiring expensive mistresses, launching elaborate building projects and eating and drinking to excess. By the time of his ascendancy, the Prince had established himself as a mainstay of the tabloid press and a favorite of caricaturists who portrayed him as an elegantly dressed stuffed sausage. When not planning or attending balls and fetes or being fitted for a new uniform to display his elaborate collection of unearned military decorations, the Prince did have his quiet moments. At the end of a long day of self-indulgence, he would kick back with a good book, and one of his favorite authors was a writer who identified herself in her first novel, Sense & Sensibility, as “A Lady,” and in her second novel, Pride & Prejudice, as “The Author of Sense & Sensibility,” but who was to become known to posterity as Jane Austen.
Regency Fashion
With the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, French fashion crossed the Channel and became all the rage in England. In most film adaptations of Jane Austen's novels, the women are wearing the high-waisted Empire dress where the waistline fell just below the breasts. When Jane first came into society, the waistline would have been much lower. However, during her lifetime, the waist crept up, inch by inch, until it was directly under the breasts. White was the color of choice because it indicated that the lady was wealthy enough to wear a light-colored dress that would require cleaning or replacement. Men's fashion was influenced by the Regency dandy, Beau Brummel, and included breeches, dark waistcoats, and jackets with neck cloth. These early decades of the 19th century saw glimpses of the Industrial Revolution which was just on the horizon. Men of science, industry and trade were making their mark, and because of their wealth, were being received, albeit reluctantly, into the homes of the landed elite. These changes made possible the Darcy/Bingley friendship.
Napoleon and Wellington
Between the time Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811 and Pride and Prejudice in 1813, the epic retreat of Napoleon and his forces from Russia had taken place (think Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" and Tolstoy's "War and Peace"). Jane Austen had two brothers (both admirals) in the fight, but you would never have known from reading Jane's novels that Euope was being ravaged by French armies and the Allied armies fighting them. The presence of the militia in Meryton exists in isolation when, in fact, the regiment would have been encamped near Longbourn because of its proximity to London and a fear of a French invasion. Col. Fitzwilliam is an officer in the regular army but seems to have no military responsibilities. In reality, the colonel would probably have been fighting with Wellington's forces in the Peninsular Wars in Spain. In 1815, Napoleon was exiled to the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena and peace returned to Europe. However, none of these epic events creep into Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She wrote about what she knew best: her neighborhood and its inhabitants. Wellington could take care of Napoleon; Jane would see to Hertfordshire.
Woman With a Harp; Two Ladies in a Phaeton; Two Fashionable Regency Ladies; Lamplighter; Letter Carrier with Bell; Grand Staircase at Carlton House/London
