Stilton Cheese (for Abigail)   by Susanna Ives

Susanna Ives, author of Wicked Little Secrets, provides us with two different sets of instructions for making Stilton cheese, one from the Regency and another from the early Victorian period. This quintessentially English cheese now enjoys protected status by the European Commission based on its location of origin. But before the twentieth century, Stilton was made at many farms across much of England, certainly in the north. Once you have read these instructions for Stilton, would you make some yourself, or might you have one or more of your characters make it in an upcoming novel?

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Some Secrets of Sash Windows

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

Over the course of many years, I have had occasion to visit and/or study a number of historic buildings. Many of these structures were built prior to or during the English Regency, and thus the design and construction of their windows would have been known during that decade. Most buildings today incorporate windows which are downright dull and boring when compared with the complexity of windows to be found in Regency buildings. In the hope that one or another of these idiosyncratic window treatments might one day feature in a novel with a Regency setting, I offer some of the more interesting here.

And so, secrets of sash windows for the edification Regency authors and their readers …

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Addressing Younger Sons of the Peerage   by Ann Lethbridge

Those who enjoy Regencies look forward to meeting all those titled characters who inhabit that world. But for those of us not born into the nobility, keeping track of members of the family beyond the main title-holder can be very confusing. Fortunately, in today’s article, Regency romance author, Ann Lethbridge, whose latest romance is Falling for the Highland Rogue, gives us a primer on how to address the minor nobles who may make an appearance in the next Regency romance we read, or, perhaps, write.

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The Picture of London

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

"You can’t think I’m going to totter all over London looking at a lot of buildings I don’t want to see! Very happy to take you driving in the Park, but that’s coming it too strong, my dear girl!   … Besides, I don’t know anything about these curst places you want to see! Couldn’t tell you anything about ’em!"

     — Mr. Freddy Standen to Miss Kitty Charing

"Oh, but that need not signify! Look, I purchased this book in Hatchard’s shop this morning, and it tells one everything! It is called The Picture of London, and it says here that it is a correct guide to all the Curiosities, Amusements, Exhibitions, Public Establishments, and Remarkable Objects in and near London, made for the use of Strangers, Foreigners, and all Persons who are not intimately acquainted with the Metropolis!"

     — Miss Kitty Charing to Mr. Freddy Standen


Dialog from Chapter 9 of Cotillion by Georgette Heyer.

I re-read Cotillion recently, many years since I last read it in high school. This passage caught my eye this time around, because I now know how thoroughly Heyer researched her novels. Did she invent the guidebook which Kitty purchased for her London adventure? Hatchard’s was a real bookshop in Regency London. Was The Picture of London a real guidebook of the city?

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