Nibbling Our Way Down New Bond Street

We’ve talked about the center of London shopping in the early nineteenth century before, for example here and here. Bond Street called to young ladies and gentlemen, offering the latest and finest in everything from clothing to housewares and literature. It was also the home of Gentleman Jackson’s boxing emporium and Angelo’s fencing school. But recently I became aware that Bond Street also featured any number eateries, and some of their wares sound downright yummy.

Take Barker’s Repository of Confectionery, at No. 106. They provided “sweets from the Indies” according to The Epicure’s Almanack, a guide to eating and dining from the period. I have been trying in vain to determine what these might have entailed, with little luck. Perhaps rum cake, cookies with coconut, and pastries with mango. Regardless, the shop was said to be popular with the ladies, as the proprietor gave out samples. The shop also supplied sweets to the Royal Family.

Then there’s Owen and Bentley’s Fruit Shop, near the corner of Oxford and New Bond Street. The shop was said to boast every sort of fruit grown in Britain as well as items imported from around the world. It also sold jellies, ices, and liqueurs.

Henster and Company, a littler farther down, displayed all sorts of fish, including sturgeon, trout, and carp. I love their title. It simply rolls off the tongue: Fishmongers to His Majesty and the Royal Family.

Lambe’s, also suppliers to the Royal Family (do you sense a theme, here?), had a large warehouse of bottled spa and mineral water. I had no idea this could be purchased away from the spas.

I must notify the Spa Corporation in Grace-by-the-Sea. Perhaps they can broker a deal.

Of Audio Books and Print Giveaways

I learned this week that the audio book for Never Borrow a Baronet, the second book in my Fortune’s Brides series, is now live and available for purchase. Huzzah! It is narrated by the talented Jannie Meisberger. An audio book reviewer recently said Jannie’s voice reminded her of the wonderful Dame Julie Andrews. Such praise! If you missed my interview with Jannie, you can find it here. 

Not an audio book fan? You might want to enter the giveaway I’m hosting to celebrate the launch of my Grace-by-the-Sea series and The Matchmaker’s Rogue. One winner (U.S. only) will receive an autographed print copy of all six of the Fortune’s Brides books. The giveaway is open until January 29, 2020.

Enjoy!

Such Language! Part 25

More lexigraphic levity and laughter, courtesy of the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Enjoy!

Bottle-headed: Void of wit. (I was so tongue-tied when introduced to that handsome young earl at Almack’s last night that I could scarce utter a word, and I’m sure he thinks me completely bottle-witted.)

Trap sticks: Thin legs, gambs: from the sticks with which boys play at trap-ball. (Uncle Simon’s tailor is so skilled at making trousers that he can even make uncle’s trap sticks look shapely and muscular.)

Clunch: An awkward clownish fellow. (My new horse is such a clunch that I don’t dare ride him in Rotten Row, lest my friends all mistake him for a circus pony.)

Scaly: Mean, sordid. (Great-aunt Agatha’s tips are so scaly that there’s not a single crossing-sweeper in London who’ll sweep a way for her.)

Long Meg: A jeering name for a very tall woman: from one famous in story, called Long Meg of Westminster. (My statuesque friend Alice complains that the worst part of being such a Long Meg is that her dresses need an extra half-yard of fabric and therefore cost more than everyone else’s.)

Gilly Gaupus:  A Scotch term for a tall, awkward fellow. (Fortunately, Alice’s betrothed, Lord Maclathy, is not only himself a Gilly Gaupus, but also a very wealthy man.)

Laid up in lavender: Pawned. (This is the seventeenth time my brother’s watch-chain and fobs have been laid up in lavender; I think he’s run out of friends to help him retrieve them.)

Nineteenth Century Heroines: Still No Bones About It

I originally posted this in November 2009, but I recently ran across a few more interesting facts and thought it a good time to update. And so, I give you anew, Mary Anning, fossil collector.

Mary was born in 1799 in Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast of England, not far from my spa town of Grace-by-the-Sea. Her father Richard was a cabinetmaker by trade, but he loved to spend his free time collecting fossils, and he took Mary and her older brother Joseph with him. The cliffs near Lyme Regis are riddled with remains from the Jurassic period—the area is now called the Jurassic Coast. But those cliffs are also legendary for landslides and sink holes. Mary spent her youth clambering over these dangerous cliffs and collecting “curiosities” that her father sold to tourists in front of his shop on Bridge Street. Jane Austen even visited. Here’s a sketch.

Sadly, Richard Anning died of consumption when Mary was only 11, and the family struggled to eke out a living by selling the fossils they found. That same year, Joseph uncovered a massive head of what he thought was a fossilized crocodile. Between tides and the weather, it was another year before the children could get back to it, and it was Mary who uncovered the entire skeleton: the first complete ichthyosaur!

Now, you’d think such a find would attract considerable attention, but Mary only earned £23 when she sold the fossil to the Lord of the Manor of Colway. He in turn exhibited it in William Bullock’s Museum of Natural History, and it wasn’t until 1814 that the Royal Society (the premiere scientific organization in England at the time) published a description in its Transactions (with little mention of Mary, thank you very much). The Annings were doing so poorly, in fact, that a professional fossil collector, Lieutenant-Colonel Birch, auctioned off his collection and donated the proceeds to them. The total amount raised was £400 (enough for a family of three to live on for a year or two). 

By the time Mary was in her twenties, she was the head of the family’s fossil collecting business. In 1824, she discovered the skeleton of a plesiosaurus. She sold it for over £100 to the Duke of Buckingham himself. That discovery put her on the map, so to speak, but many scientists were skeptical that Mary was the person making these spectacular finds. For one, she was a woman, and for another, she had only attended school a short period in her life. Yet when they came to talk to her, they could only scratch their heads at her vast knowledge of the creatures she was uncovering. One of her visitors credited her skills to divine providence. 

Even though Mary discovered a pterodactyl in 1828 and an even larger ichthyosaurus in 1832, it wasn’t until 1838 that the scientific community was willing to grant her any official standing. That year the British Association for the Advancement of Science awarded her an annuity. In 1846, she was made an honorary member of the Geological Society (honorary because women were not admitted until 1904). She died in March 1847 from breast cancer. Only after her death did the Royal Society acknowledge her, by donating a stained-glass window to her memory to the Parish Church at Lyme Regis.

It’s never easy being a nineteenth century heroine, no bones about it.

Smugglers and Spas and Romance, Oh My!

I am delighted to announce the publication of the first book in my new Regency series: Grace-by-the-Sea, where romance and adventure come home. Grace-by-the-Sea is a spa town, like Bath and Lyme Regis, where people come to see and be seen. I had so much fun figuring out the shops and shopkeepers, the local gentry and aristocracy, and all those fascinating visitors. But there’s more to this sleepy little town than many dream…

Polished Jesslyn Chance has one of the most enviable positions in the little Regency coastal village of Grace-by-the-Sea. She is the hostess of the spa, arranging introductions and entertainments and playing matchmaker to the ladies and gentlemen who come to take the waters, promenade through the shops, and dance at the assembly. But when a rogue returns from her past, Jess finds herself suddenly at sea.

Always an adventurer, Larkin Denby left Grace-by-the-Sea to right the wrongful death of his father. Now he’s back on a mission: to identify the mysterious Lord of the Smugglers who allegedly sails from Grace Cove and takes England’s secrets to France. But Grace-by-the-Sea is the perfect little spa town, run by the still oh-so-perfect Jesslyn Chance. When the village’s future is threatened, Jess must work with Lark to solve the mystery and protect the town’s own. In doing so, the matchmaker of Grace-by-the-Sea may just find that the best match for her is the rogue who stole her heart years ago.

The Matchmaker’s Rogue is available at fine online retailers as an e-book and at Amazon as a print book (as of the writing of this blog post, it hadn’t linked with the ebook, but you can find it here). Here are the other links for your convenience:

Smashwords  

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble 

Apple Books 

Kobo 

Grace-by-the-Sea: I hope you’ll want to visit often. 😊

Regency Fabrics, Part 27

Here’s another post in our ongoing series on Regency fabrics.

As I have in previous posts, I’ll be examining actual fabric samples glued into several earlier editions of Ackermann’s Repository, samples supplied by the manufacturers and published by Ackermann in order to boost the British cloth-making industry at a time when exporting British goods to Europe was almost impossible because of the Napoleonic war. I'll give you a close-up scan of each sample, the published description if available, and my own observations of the color, weight, condition, and similarity to present-day materials, to give you as close a picture as possible of what these fabrics are like.

Today’s three samples are from the November 1812 issue of Ackermann’s Repository. The overall condition of my copy is excellent; the page itself is free of foxing and is hardly toned. Two of the three samples show some discoloration where they were glued to the page, but overall they’re in very good condition.

Here we go!

No. 1 and 2 is an entirely new article for white beds and other furniture, which we have been favored with from the house of Millard in the city; it has a beautiful effect in the piece, and produces a rich appearance when made up. This handsome manufacture will be found desirable to persons who have large establishments to furnish for, as it wants no lining, and is sold by the piece at a very reasonable price; this and various other fashionable articles at Millard’s, being disposed of on a liberal plan. We understand considerable purchases of curious foreign articles have been made by this house at the late great Custom-House sales.

My comments: Interesting fabric—alternating stripes of plain weave and twill weave, with an overall jacquard botanical pattern overlying the stripes. An intermediate weight cotton (my guess), with a light glazing like chintz. It would definitely make handsome window draperies or bed curtains.

No. 3 is a specimen of a new and beautiful manufacture for ladies’ winter dresses, from the above house, where it may be obtained in any quantity, and of various colours. It does not exceed mediocrity in price, although it possesses the useful property of never creasing in the wear; added to which, it resembles the genuine China crape, by its falling naturally into the most graceful folds.

My comments: Another interesting fabric, and not just because it’s orange with black polka-dots. 😀 I’m trying to figure out the fiber content: wool/silk maybe? It definitely has a crepe-like texture, twill-woven with slightly uneven threads. I can see that it would drape well; it’s also opaque, though for a winter dress a lining would be preferred.

No. 4 is a pattern of a chaste and elegantly figured sarsnet silk, for a lady’s evening dress. It is of a most pleasing colour, of neat fabric, and of a very delicate texture. It is sold by Messrs. George and Bradley, the Golden Key, Holy-well-street, Strand.

My comments: I’ll have to agree with Mr. Ackermann’s assessment of this “article” as being elegant and delicate. Finely woven silk in a handsome diamond pattern, of a pale mauve-ish pink—it’s difficult to tell if there has been any fading or other color alteration over the centuries. Curiously, the scan doesn't show that the diamonds are actually of white satin-stitch weave with pink centers. Because of its delicacy, it would probably need to have been worn over a slip. Lovely!

What do you think of this month’s fabrics?

Spa Day!

I’ll say it right up front—I’m not a spa person, at least not today’s version of a typical spa. I don’t do facials; massages make me uncomfortable. But I would have loved visiting a Regency spa.

A number of cities during the early part of the nineteenth century in England had risen to the position of being considered a spa, either because of the opportunity to bathe in the sea or the opportunity to partake of mineral waters, or both. While the prominence of the city of Bath in Somerset waned as the century wore on, it was still one of the most popular. Bath had the benefit of having actual hot water baths, built in Roman times. It also boasted the Pump Room where you could drink the water and visit with friends. With assembly rooms just up the hill and parks for promenading on a sunny day, Bath would seem to have everything one could want in a spa.

Though Jane Austen is often associated with Bath, a family favorite was Lyme Regis in Dorset. The town along the seashore also had a fine set of assembly rooms and saltwater bathing. It also featured shops, tearooms, and bookstores. You can see why Jane liked it. 😊

Scarborough in Yorkshire had the best of both worlds, with saltwater bathing and mineral waters to drink. It also had a nearby castle being used as a barracks for soldiers. That red uniform can go to a girl’s head!

Other towns also made a play for the title of spa. Before he went mad, King George frequently took his family saltwater bathing at Weymouth in Dorset, and his son, Prince George, was inordinately fond of Brighton in Essex. 

Come back next Friday when I will tell you about one more special spa that I hope you’ll want to visit again and again, for I’m starting a new series set there!