History

Image of wassailing

A Regency Primer on Twelfth Night & Wassailing

The Twelve Days of Christmas Conventionally on the Western Christian calendar, the twelve days begin the day after Christmas, on Boxing Day. When the tradition began, days were counted from sundown to sundown. So Christmas evening is First Night. This means that last night, January 5th, is what has been known as Twelfth Night since…

A 19th Century Christmas Tree

A Regency Primer on Christmastide & New Year’s

Christmastide Christmastide (the Christmas season from Christmas Eve or First Night through Twelfth Night and Epiphany) during the Regency Era seems to be more easily defined by the differences in traditions and what they didn’t have or do at the time rather than the specifics of what they did or didn’t. A quick survey of…

Writer’s Toolkit and Resources

Last week, my accountability group talked about what we’d like to add to our writer’s toolkit and resources, so this week, we’re going to share our top three tools and resources — what helps us write and keeps us inspired, beyond our accountability group, which we weren’t allowed to list even though it’s the single…

"The Rush to the Bar" from from page 31 of 'Ballads of the Bench and Bar; or, Idle Lays of the Parliament House. 1882.

A Primer on Lawyers in the Regency Era

The topic of lawyers in the Regency Era often raises lot of confusion along with the privileges of peers in the British Legal system. It wasn’t until quite recently that the historical differences between what type of lawyer you were dictated where you could practice, what types of cases you could take and even if…

Regency Era Currency: One pound note, Bank of Jersey, 1813.

A Primer on Regency Era Currency

This week’s Regency Primer Series entry focuses on Regency Era currency and how people referred to money as opposed to what it could purchase. The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated. Denominations of Regency Era Currency The basics that were in use at the time of…

One of George Cruikshank's chariacture's of the servant class.

A Primer on Regency Era Servants

During the Regency, anyone who wanted to portray themselves as having an air of middle-class respectability employed domestic help. To our modern thinking, live-in servants seem an extravagant luxury. However, prior to the advent of electricity and indoor plumbing, the amount of manpower to maintain a modest home — keeping it lit, heated and clean…

Portrait of King George III of England, Queen Charlotte and their family

A Primer on the Regency Era Royal Family

Before we meet the members of the Regency Era Royal Family, I should really explain what is meant by “The Regency”. In last week’s post about Regency Peerage and Precedence, and indeed the rest of the Regency Primer Series, I apologize for assuming that everyone just knows what’s meant when I say, “The Regency”. Formally,…

A copy of Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage

A Primer on Regency Peerage and Precedence

I had trouble narrowing down today’s post. On one hand, Allison Lane covered everything related to the peerage so wonderfully and succinctly in her page on Common Regency Errors, that trying to summarize it or embellish it seemed a waste of effort. So, if you’ve ever wanted British nobility explained or wondered who outranked whom…

Regency

A Primer on Regency Era Men’s Fashion

Last week’s post covered Regency Era Women’s Fashions. So this week we’ll focus on Regency Era Men’s Fashion. These lists aren’t exhaustive and represent fashions men of the upper classes rather than working class wore. However, they should help you recognize what an author means and why they’re so focused on their characters being fashion…

A Primer on Regency Era Women’s Fashion

A Primer on Regency Era Women’s Fashion

This week and next, we’re going to take a look at how people dressed in the Regency Era. This week we’re going to focus on Regency Era Women’s Fashion and all the different pieces of apparel they were changing in and out of multiple times per day. This list isn’t exhaustive by any means and…