Things That Go Bump in the Manor House

Happy Halloween!  Will you be dressing up today for work or play?  Perhaps escorting little ones around for treats?  Telling spooky stories or watching horror movies?  Well, as we’ve discussed before, Halloween might not have been a typical celebration in nineteenth century England, but that didn’t mean the lads and lasses back then didn’t enjoy a good scare!

Every town, it seemed, boasted its local ghost or grisly creature.  Black dogs, either evil or kindly, were popular.  Take the story of the Mauthe Doog, from Peel on the Isle of Man.  The large, curly-coated spaniel was said to haunt Peel Castle, to the point that it would come into the guard room each night and settle by the fire.  The tale was immortalized by Sir Walter Scott in Peveril of the Peak in 1823, only he made out the dog to be a large mastiff.  Either way, hundreds of tourists flocked to the castle for a chance to see the fearsome pet.

Most of the great houses had resident specters.  At Arundel Castle, the Blue Man haunts the library, looking for a good book.  (Does it never end?)  Residents of Kenilworth Castle have spotted the ghost of a little boy in the stables as well as ghost horses and, ahem, ghost chickens!

Be careful out there tonight.

Not Quite Trick or Treat, but Almost

I was in a large party supply store a week or so ago looking for napkins. I found them, eventually, after wading through the front two-thirds of the store that was entirely given over to Halloween-related goods, from 15-foot tall inflatable lawn ornaments to every conceiveable costume--for children, yes, but especially for adults. Am I the only one to notice that over the last several years, Halloween has morphed from a children’s holiday to one just as popular among grown-ups? I guess some things never change, because people in the 19th century loved dressing up in outlandish costumes just as much…only they didn’t do it at Halloween.

The 19th century was undoubtedly the century of the costume ball. Their popularity in England probably grew with our friend Prinny, the Prince Regent, who adored “dressing up”, first in military uniforms, then later in Scottish dress as he fell in love with the romanticized Scotland of Sir Walter Scott’s novels…and from there, it was a logical progression to adoring costume balls. A few years later, his niece Victoria was equally addicted to costume balls up until the death of the Prince Consort in 1861, and they remained popular at court (though she no longer participated) and in society at large right into the 20th century. Historical and cultural themes for costumes--dressing up as someone from the past or from a different land--were probably the most usual, especially earlier on, but as you'll see shortly, costumes weren't limited to Queen Elizabeth or romantic cavaliers.

Here are a few costumes from the first part of the century for your Halloween inspiration (a post on the costume balls of the later 19th century would require its own post, as another Prince of Wales, Victoria’s bad boy son Bertie, also loved to play dress-up). Enjoy!

This first one is a "Danish Fancy Dress Worn at the Prince Regent's Fete", from La Belle Assemblee, August 1819:

And a "Fancy Ball Dress" also from La Belle Assemblee, August 1820. Perhaps she was going for the milkmaid look?

The young lady on the left is dressed as one of the waiting women of Mary Queen of Scots in this March 1833 print from The Court Magazine:

I'm not sure what these costumes are supposed to represent, though the one on the right seems to have a somewhat Russian feel, with her vaguely slavic headdress and fur-edged boots (this from a French publication, Petit Courrier des Dames, March 1837):

Medieval themes were popular, as we see in this couple from 1838...interesting to see a male costume, and how a 14th century "gates of hell" surcoat could be adapted to a 19th century corseted silhouette (Journal des Modes):

Last are a pair of costumes from 1838...first, these from La Mode--perhaps a musketeer and a revolutionary?

And last, these "15th and 16th century" costumes, also from La Mode:

Are you dressing for Halloween? Would you want to borrow any of these costumes?

Fashion Forecast: 1825

What was the well-dressed young woman wearing in 1825?

She might step out for the evening in this gorgeous purple Evening Dress (January, Ackermann’s Repository). Full sleeves caught in with ribbon are making an appearance again this year; here they’re pulled in just above the wrist. Though you may not be able to see it here, her belt is decorated with a cameo clasp, and her hat is a turban of lavender and yellow striped silk. Very distinguée!
Remember those huge muffs of the earlier years of the century? They’re still around, as we can see in this Promenade Dress from February’s Ackermann’s. This one appears to be made of something like Persian lamb, as the texture is curly. The skirt of the dress is ornamented with woven trim in the same color as the fabric…and what a hat, worn over a ruffled cap!
The Ball Dresses of this year seem curiously unfit for dancing in…just look at the enormous rouleau at the hem of this Ball Dress from March’s Ackermann’s Repository! Don’t you think that would get in the way of a lively country dance? However, the rest of the dress is charming in pale pink with faux lacing up the front of the bodice and ribbon applique on the sleeves:
Here’s a simple but handsome Morning Dress in a lovely purplish blue, with a lace scarf crossed over the bust and tied in back. She’s wearing a rather large and heavy-looking cross necklace as well as a quizzing glass…all the better to read The Times with! (May, Ackermann’s Repository):
It looks like there was no rest for weary moms, even in 1825. Perhaps she was having a last snuggle before venturing out in this Evening Dress in sky blue decorated with delicate lace ruffles and appliques on the skirt, with a matching lace ruffle around the neckline. And that could be either a boy or girl child—clothes were pretty unisex until about the age of 4 or so. I’m wondering if the child’s red bead bracelet isn’t a teething ring—coral beads were popular for that purpose. (May, Ackermann’s Repository):
Here’s another crazy Ball Dress from July’s Lady’s Magazine, with the original description: Dress of yellow striped gauze over white satin, with a very broad full border, bouilloné, of gauze, confined by wreaths of full-blown roses; the centre rose much larger than the others; the wreaths are placed rather in a zig-zag direction. Corsage of yellow satin, with a bouffont drapery of gauze across the bust. Sleeves very short and full, and adorned next the shoulder with a bouquet of roses. The hair arranged in full clusters of curls, interspersed with bouquets of roses and silver wheat ears. Necklace, formed of three rows of fine pearls. Pear-pearl ear pendants, gold bracelets, fastened with a clasp composed of a large topaz, set round with pearls. The above dresses were furnished us by Miss Pierrepont, Edward-street, Portman-square:
This Dinner Dress from August’s Ackermann’s Repository is a curious mix of styles: the striped sleeves and bodice, with slashing and puffs of an underdress poking out, hearken back to the Renaissance, while the skirt is a blend of modern and Renaissance. Note the sleeves tied off close to the wrist as in the Evening Dress above:
I couldn’t resist including this charming muslin Morning Dress from September’s Ackermann’s. Note the large collar, or pelerine—these will grow to enormous sizes in the dresses of the 1830s—as well a waistline that seems to be dropping ever closer to the natural waist. And what about the child’s costume—a nod to the craze for all things Scottish that had started to sweep society, thanks to the Prince Regent’s fascination with Scotland and the popularity of Sir Walter Scott’s novels:
We’ll finish up with a Garden Costume—whatever that is!— from November’s Ackermann’s. This dress hearkens back to 15th century houppelandes, but with the 1825 sleeves caught in at the wrist and what looks like a white eyelet underskirt. And I adore her parasol!
What do you think of 1825’s fashions?

Books, Part II: Fordyce's Sermons, Mad Monks, and Silver Fork Novels

So what did a well-brought-up young lady read?

Well, there was frequently a difference between what she was expected to read and what she wanted to read. Reading material was supposed to be uplifting and improving, so the Bible was always a safe choice, as were other religious works. The most famous of these was James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women, published in 1766 but still read (and eventually laughed at) well into the 1800s. They emphasized the weakness and delicacy of young women and preached subordination to men in all things, and were dreadfully sentimental in tone to boot. So it can definitely be surmised that many a young lady may have concealed other books inside their copies of Fordyce to fool watchful parents and governesses… books like:

Evelina: Fanny Burney was a reader to Their Majesties George III and Queen Charlotte, and was evidently inspired by her job to try her own hand at penning books. Evelina, Cecelia, and Camilla were stories about young women entering society and learning to distinguish between rakes and reputable men. Nothing racy, but nowhere near as improving as Mr. F.

The Monk: This 1795 novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis (who was forever after known as “Monk” Lewis) was racy stuff, involving a young woman disguising herself as a monk and entering a monastery for love of the monastery’s abbot…except that she turns out to be a demon in disguise. If you were caught with this novel tucked inside your Fordyce, you were in BIG trouble.

The Mystery of Udolpho: Ann Radcliffe wrote several spooky, over-the-top dramatic gothic novels in the late 1790s that were extremely popular. They generally featured beautiful young heroines being somehow endangered by sinister but handsome villains in exotic locales and eventually rescued by equally handsome but noble heroes. Definitely not Fordyce-ish. Other of Mrs. Radcliffe’s titles include The Romance of the Forest, The Castle of Wolfenbach, and The Italian, or The Confessional of the Black Penitents.

Not everyone was swept up in the Gothic novel craze, with their fevered plots and supernatural overtones. Walter Scott’s 32 Scottish historical novels, the first of which, Waverley, came out in 1814, were enormously popular and actually still readable today. Those were books you might not have to hide behind Fordyce. Ditto for the novels of the divine Jane Austen, which were also very popular, from Pride and Prejudice to Northanger Abbey, which makes fun of gothic novels.

In the 1830s and 1840s, Charles Dickens was, of course, everyone’s favorite novelist. But also popular were so-called “silver fork novels”, a series of glitz-and-glamour, lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous type novels released by publisher Henry Colburn, complete with mention of product names like Macassar Oil (and you thought the recent uproar over Cover Girl product placement in books was a new phenomenon?). By the time these were popular, though, Fordyce was mostly a thing of the past…which in a way was too bad. He’d been frightfully useful to hide other books behind.

Poodle Skirts and Pet Rocks...Nineteenth Century Style

It’s easy to assume that crazes--mass obsessions with the same thing (bobbed hair, CB radios, Beatlemania, American Idol) are a modern phenomenon. But the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by no means have a monopoly on them. As far back as the middle ages there were dance crazes, religious fervor crazes (one of which led to the so-called “Children’s Crusade”), and even botanical crazes (the extravagant demand for tulip bulbs in 17th century Holland which led to a country-wide financial crisis).

The nineteenth century was by no means exempt from crazes. The world of fashion seemed especially craze-prone, though fashion crazes were often sparked by something quite unrelated to dress. For example, the publication in 1814 of Walter Scott’s first Scottish historical novel, Waverley (we talked about it a few weeks ago, if you recall) led to a passion for all things Scottish. Tartan fabrics were all the rage, as you can see from this young miss at the right.

But the Scottish craze didn’t end there. Especially smitten young female fans began to carry sporrans--the furry bags Scots wear in front of their kilts--instead of the dainty reticules that had previously been in vogue. So great was the demand for these bags, commonly made from badger fur, that Highland outfitters could hardly keep up and badgers were hunted mercilessly. Nor was that the only problem; the badger hides were often hurriedly and inadequately cured, and in time the Prince Regent banned them at court events because of the overwhelming stink that would arise in overheated ballrooms from be-sporraned guests.

Fashion wasn’t the only place where crazes arose. As the British Empire expanded, products from all over the world began to appear in British markets. India was a major source due to the spread of British rule and influence over the sub-continent, and curries, chutneys, and other foods slowly gained an enthusiastic audience. One short-lived but intense craze for an Indian import was betel-nuts. They took London by storm for a few months in mid-1838 after the attendance of two fabulously wealthy and be-jeweled maharajahs from the Princely States at Queen Victoria’s coronation. Betel-nuts are a mild stimulant (they give about the same buzz as a cup of coffee) and very popular in their native Asia, but their popularity was not long-lasting in England because of the need to spit out their chewed remains…and the fact that they stain the mouth red. However, legend attributes them with fertility-boosting powers--so perhaps the Queen’s brief flirtation with betel-nut chewing has something to do with her family of nine children.