When talking about the Royal London Parks in the Regency, the first thing to remember the word “park” held different meanings from how we (especially Americans) typically think of them today. So get those visions of benches, swing sets, picnic tables and those box-shaped grills on metal posts out of your head, because our Regency…
With fireworks in the night skies this week as both Canada and the US celebrate their birthdays, I got to thinking about Vauxhall Gardens where fireworks were a common entertainment in the Georgian and Regency periods. During the Regency, the relatively cheap price of admission (about 3 shilling and sixpence during the early 19th century)…
If you’ve ever come across the phrase “She was at sixes and sevens” in a historical novel and wondered what it meant, you may be surprised to learn it originated from the game of Hazard and generally is used to mean in a state of chaos or agitation. This popular dicing game has been around…
Many historical romance novels feature card rooms at balls, clubs or dinner parties and gaming hells where rakes wager over the turn of a card or toss of a dice. Many games that are no longer familiar to us are rattled off: hazard, piquet, faro, and whist. Often, the games chosen have meaning for the…
In the last entry in the Regency Primer Series we learned three ways to tie a Regency era cravat. This week, we’re going back in time to the last last frost fair. The last time the River Thames was frozen solid and the ships stood still and Londoners organized an impromptu festival in the middle…
The last entry in the Regency Primer Series wrapped up our look at Twelfth Night and Wassailing which signaled the end of Christmastide during the Regency Era. This week, we’re going to take a closer look at some ways to tie a cravat. Three knots in which a gentlemen (or his gentleman’s gentleman or valet)…
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…
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…
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…
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…