Norway Neckcloth
“The pillory, usually made of Norway fir.”
New Posts
This Week In History: February 2-8
February 2, 1812: Russia establishes a fur trading colony at Fort Ross, California.
February 3, 1783: Spain recognizes United States independence.
February 4, 1794: The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic.
February 5, 1810: The siege of Cadiz begins.
February 6, 1819: Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.
February 7, 1856: The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the second piece of legislation anywhere in the world providing for elections by secret ballot.
February 8, 1693: The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a charter by William III and Mary II.
Friday Favorite: Regency Turns 80
Our Favorite this week is a celebration! Eighty years ago Georgette Heyer published her first Regency romance novel, and The Beau Monde is commemorating the anniversary with a series of articles. Pieces for Regency Buck (written by Alina K. Field) and An Infamous Army (by Shannon Donnelly) are already posted, with more to come throughout the year for each of Heyer’s Regency romances and some of her non-Regency historicals. Check them out and sigh over your favorites, find new-to-you gems to read…or remind yourself which titles are already on your TBR list 😉
Cora’s TBR Challenge Check In
Okay fellow readers, we’re one month in–have you been a tortoise or a hare?
I seem to have averaged the two. I didn’t do any reading at all over the holidays, and that lag lasted a couple of weeks into the new year (hangover from spending all that time with the family 😉 ). I also made a point to finish a series of new-to-me books I’d started because the first one was so good (the Daughters of Erin series by Laurel McKee, in case you were wondering).
But then I completed a whole book from the old TBR mountain in one day. I also recently started two others that are more historical fiction + romance than just historical romance–the writing style is different, the story is a bit more densely packed, and the cast of characters is larger. These are going to take some time for me to get through, but they’ve both been waiting a couple of years, so the least I can do is give them a thorough read 🙂
How has your reading month been?
Regency Word Wednesday
Ponk
“A nocturnal spirit; a hag.”
This Week In History: January 26-February 1
January 26, 1788: The British First Fleet sails into Port Jackson to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement in Australia.
January 27, 1785: The University of Georgia is founded, becoming the first public university in the US.
January 28, 1813: Pride and Prejudice is first published in the UK.
January 29, 1856: Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.
January 30, 1826: The Menai Suspension Bridge connecting the Isle of Anglesey to north coast of Wales is opened.
January 31, 1747: The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
February 1, 1793: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Quote of the Week
Friday Favorite: P&P Supreme Court Citation
Our Favorite this week is a bit of an odd duck. Whoever thought that the United States Supreme Court would be citing Pride and Prejudice in one of its decisions? Well, on January 13, 2015 it did.
It was a case where a bank robber fleeing from the scene broke into a woman’s home and “guided a terrified Parnell from a hallway to a room a few feet away, where she suffered a fatal heart attack.” This bank robber (Whitfield) was convicted of (among other things) forcing the woman to accompany him–which increased the penalties he’d face. He was appealing based on the definition of the word “accompaniment”, which is used in the statute he was convicted of violating.
This is (in part) what the Court decided:
In 1934, just as today, to “accompany” someone meant to “go with” him. See Oxford English Dictionary 60 (1st ed. 1933) (defining “accompany” as: “To go in company with, to go along with”). The word does not, as Whitfield contends, connote movement over a substantial distance. It was, and still is, perfectly natural to speak of accompanying someone over a relatively short distance, for example: from one area within a bank “to the vault”; “to the altar” at a wedding; “up the stairway”; or into, out of, or across a room. English literature is replete with examples. See, e.g., C. Dickens, David Copperfield 529 (Modern Library ed. 2000) (Uriah “accompanied me into Mr. Wickfield’s room”); J. Austen, Pride and Prejudice 182 (Greenwich ed. 1982) (Elizabeth “accompanied her out of the room”).
Interesting, isn’t it? 😀
You can check out the full text of the decision here.
Regency Word Wednesday
Beau-Nasty
“A slovenly fop; one finely dressed, but dirty.”
This Week In History: January 19-25
January 19, 1812: After a ten day siege, the Duke of Wellington orders British soldiers of the Light and Third divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.
January 20, 1783: Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the American War of Independence.
January 21, 1793: Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.
January 22, 1506: The first contingent of Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.
January 23, 1849: Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded an M.D., becoming the first female doctor in the US.
January 24, 1857: The University of Calcutta is founded.
January 25, 1858: Queen Victoria’s daughter Victoria marries Friedrich of Prussia, using Felix Mendelssohn’s The Wedding March as part of the ceremony.
Cora Lee, Regency Romance Author 