Pad
“The highway, or a robber thereon; also a bed. Footpads; foot robbers. To out upon the pad; to go out in order to commit a robbery.”
Category: Regency
Regency Word Wednesday
Fiddle Faddle
“Trifling discourse, nonsense. A mere fiddle faddle fellow; a trifier.”
A Luxury Hotel in Regency London
We’ve all stayed in hotels. Was it different during the Regency, or do some things really never change? Laurie Benson describes a stay at the Pulteney Hotel in London 200 years ago.
I’m trying to squeeze in one last trip before summer vacation is over, and I’m challenged with finding a charming place to stay. Today, going online to search for a hotel is relatively easy, and I am a bit obsessive about reading guest reviews to help me find the perfect place for us to rest after a busy day seeing the sights. All this research had me thinking about travel during the early nineteenth century. Where did the fashionable people stay if they were planning on spending a brief amount of time in London?
During 1814, London was full of foreign dignitaries who had come to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon at the Prince Regent’s Grand Jubilee celebration. When Napoleon sailed for Elba, France’s King Louis XVIII left Buckinghamshire for London and took rooms at Grillon’s Hotel on Albemarle Street. Another popular hotel among foreign royals staying in London was…
View original post 612 more words
Regency Word Wednesday
Fancy Man
“A man kept by a lady for secret services.”
Friday Favorite: Regency-esque Hairstyle
Have you ever marveled at hairstyles of Regency ladies? Wondered if you could get your hair to do something similar? In this week’s Friday Favorite, Joanna Haughton shows you how.
Regency Word Wednesday
Ewe
“A white ewe; a beautiful woman. And old ewe, drest lamb fashion; an old woman, drest like a young girl.”
Would Darcy Have Ridden a Bicycle?
The combination of this fantastic print and the discussion in the UK press recently about encouraging cycling and making it safer prompted this post. Unfortunately the “Pedestrian Hobby Horse” arrived in England soon after Jane Austen’s death – I’ve love to know if she’d have ever given one of her characters a ride. I can imagine Lydia Bennett, skirts flying, shrieking with laughter!
The print, from Ackermann’s Repository (1819) is entitled Pedestrian Hobbyhorse and the text says it was invented by Baron von Drais, “a gentleman at the court of the Grand Duke of Baden.” The baron apparently invented a horseless carriage powered by two servants but it proved heavy and expensive so was abandoned, much to the relief of the unfortunate servants, I imagine!
The baron went on to invent the hobbyhorse which he used for getting around large parks and gardens and it was introduced to London by…
View original post 469 more words
Regency Word Wednesday
Emperor
“Drunk as an emperor, i.e. ten times as drunk as a lord.”
Regency Word Wednesday
Red Rag
“The tongue. Shut your potatoe trap, and give your red rag a holiday; i.e. shut your mouth, and let your tongue rest. Too much of the red rag (too much tongue).”
What’s So Rotten About Rotten Row?
It’s that well-known place people go to see and be seen. Today it might be an expensive restaurant, exclusive nightclub or even a famous seaside town. But during the Regency Era one place English aristocrats went to strut their stuff was a bridle path in London’s Hyde Park known as Rotten Row. This pathway was the ultimate place to people watch. On any given day the Prince Regent, Beau Brummell, or Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire might promenade down the bridle path for all of London to see. Quite simply, Rotten Row was the place to be.
The show began around 5:00 in the afternoon when members of the ton would descend on Hyde Park for the fashionable hour. Beautifully turned-out men and women on horseback shared the bridle path with their finely dressed peers who rode in expensive carriages. One did not gallop on Rotten Row during the fashionable…
View original post 436 more words
Cora Lee, Regency Romance Author 