Victorian Parlour Games: A Book Review By Cheryl Bolen

In today’s article, award-winning Regency romance author, Cheryl Bolen, reviews the book Victorian Parlour Games. As Cheryl tells us, despite its title, this book is a very useful reference for Regency authors who are planning to include the playing of games in their stories. Many of the games in this book were played long before the Victorian era and are quite appropriate to a novel set in the Regency.

Once you read Cheryl’s review, the existence of which game in our favorite period surprises you the most?

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Registration for Mini Conference & Soiree

Just a reminder that registration is open for the Beau Monde’s mini conference!

Quick details: The conference will be held Wednesday, July 23rd in San Antonio (kicking off the national RWA conference!). Registration includes breakfast, lunch (featuring our keynote speaker Vicky Dreiling) and delicious treats at the soiree, plus access to six Regency-themed workshops!

For more information (and to register) check out the link here: http://thebeaumonde.com/resources/annual-conference. Early Bird prices available until June 15, 2014. Full conference fees include breakfast, lunch and soiree (available separately).

We hope to see you there!

Fashionable Medicine   by Regina Scott

Regina Scott, whose latest print book is The Husband Campaign, shares with us some fads in medicine which held sway during the Regency. As she points out, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Regina’s article makes an interesting follow-up to Angelyn Schmid’s article on Sir Henry Halford, a fashionable Regency doctor, posted last week.

After reading this article, do you think you prefer medical fads from the Regency or those from modern times?

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Physician to the Regency   by Angelyn Schmid

In today’s article, Regency author, Angelyn Schmid, provides some details about Sir Henry Halford. A physician to the ton during the Regency, Halford was a real-life historical character who made an appearance in one of Georgette Heyer’s most delightful novels, Cotillion.

As you read Angelyn’s article, consider whether or not you would like to have Sir Henry Halford as your doctor.

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Prescription for Sagging Middles   by Cheryl Bolen

Award-winning Regency romance author, Cheryl Bolen, whose romance novel, A Lady By Chance, is part of the Scandalous Brides boxed set, offers some valuable writing tips. In today’s article, Cheryl shares some secrets from a prolific author on how to avoid those sagging middle sections which can bog down a great story.

Perhaps some of these tips will be just the thing you need to help you liven up the middle part of your book when your enthusiasm for the story begins to flag.

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Hay-on-Wye   By Ann Lethbridge

In today’s article, Regency romance author, Ann Lethbridge, whose latest romance is Falling for the Highland Rogue, gives us a brief virtual tour of a charming, ancient Welsh town. A town through which any book lover, history buff or Anglophile could ramble with pleasure for many hours.

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Coal:   Heat Source or Gemstone?

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

Both, actually.

Coal is just rock, after all. But a most interesting sedimentary rock, which is not only highly flamable, but it can be fairly easily carved and takes a high polish. However, by the Regency, coal was much more likely to be burned than worn. A concise chronicle of coal culminating in the Regency …

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Rule England, But You Still Can’t Study Painting by Regina Scott

On 1 April 2014, Regina Scott released her most recent Regency romance, The Husband Campaign. Today, she shares her research into the art education which was considered proper for young ladies, including the future queen of England, in the early nineteenth century. As Regina explains, options for expressing themselves in painting were very limited for the young women of the Regency, and continued to be for many decades thereafter.

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It’s Not Your Grandfather’s Clock

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

Well, by now, it might be. But there were no grandfather clocks anywhere during the Regency because the song by which they acquired their name had yet to be written. However, by the beginning of the Regency, nearly every affluent household, and some more prosperous middle-class households, were in possession of a very expensive, free-standing clock in a tall wooden case resembling a coffin.

This symbol of prosperity would begin to loose its status even before the debut of the song which changed its name. By the beginning of the reign of William IV, brother of the erstwhile Prince Regent, the Industrial Revolution had set its sights on that most complicated device, the clock. From about 1830, most clocks were no longer made by hand, they were made by machine. Other technological factors had also come into play which reduced the consequence of these once purposeful clocks.

The development and importance of the long-case clock during the Regency and how its name was changed …

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City of Laughter:   Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London   A Review By Cheryl Bolen

Cheryl Bolen, award-winning Regency romance author, today reviews an important historical reference with which most Regency authors and aficionados will want to be aware. As Cheryl point out, this book is most definitely not for children, but it is a treasure trove of previously unpublished images and information. She has added this book to her own Regency research library, and many other Regency devotees may very well want to do the same.

Continue reading City of Laughter:   Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London   A Review By Cheryl Bolen”

Puzzle Jugs in the Regency

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

A diverting drinking vessel which could be found in village inns and public houses for centuries had a resurgence in popularity in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These vessels had been made throughout England and northern Europe since at least the fifteenth century. Most commonly called puzzle jugs, they were also sometimes called teasing pitchers or wager jugs. It was a challenge to determine how to drink the liquor which they contained and wagers were often placed on the outcome of the attempt.

By the time of the Regency, puzzle jugs were being made not only for use in inns and taverns, but also for home use. Many gentlemen enjoyed entertaining their male visitors with drinking games using their own puzzle jugs.

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Educating Your Daughters — A Guide to English Boarding Schools in 1814   By Susanna Ives

In today’s article, Susanna Ives, most recently author of Wicked Little Secrets, gives us some insights into the education of young women two centuries ago. Compare the usual course of study which was typically provided to these young ladies to the education of young gentlemen which was shared with us earlier this month by Cheryl Bolen.

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Belgravia — Not a Regency Address

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

Unless you like living in a swamp infested with thieves!

Despite the use of Belgrave Square, Eaton Square, or other locales within Belgravia as the address for one or more characters in recent Regency novels I have read, Belgravia did not exist in the Regency. Wishing, or in this case, writing, cannot make it so. The area which encompasses Belgravia was known as Five Fields during the decade of the Regency, and for centuries before that. It was a marshy, muddy lowland and a known haunt of footpads and highwaymen. It was by no stretch of the imagination a posh address during the Regency. In fact, there were only a few ramshackle sheds in the fields, some used for bull-baiting or cock-fighting. Large sections of the fields were unhealthy as they were heavily saturated with brackish water.

When and how did this marshy wasteland become the address in London?

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How to Learn What Regency Gentlemen Knew   By Cheryl Bolen

Would you like to get inside the head of a Regency romance hero? Would you like to better understand his upbringing, education and what society would expect from him as a gentleman? In today’s article, award-winning Regency romance author, Cheryl Bolen, tells us about an instruction manual, written in the form of letters from a peer to his son, which explains what a young gentleman about town needs to know to succeed in life.

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Anastasius — The Novel Which Made Byron Weep!

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

With jealousy!   Because he did not write it.

Initially published anonymously in the last year of the Regency, this racy novel telling the tales of a young Greek’s adventurous travels through the Levant was a runaway best seller and remained in print for thirty years. Yet few today even know of its existence. It was originally attributed to Lord Byron, but in the second edition, published the following year, the shy yet cultured man who wrote it admitted his authorship. And practically no one believed him.

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Prisons in the Regency   By Ann Lethbridge

Today, Ann Lethbridge, Regency romance author, whose most recent book is Falling for the Highland Rogue, begins a two-part series on Regency prisons. In this article, Ann focuses on the famous, or perhaps, the infamous Fleet prison in London. The majority of prisoners held in the Fleet during the Regency were those who could not pay their debts. This may be difficult for many of us living in the twenty-first century to understand, since people are no longer imprisoned for debt in modern times. But it was a common practice during our favorite period, and Ann’s article will help us all better understand life in the Fleet during the Regency.

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Grosvenor House — Regency Treasure House   By Angelyn Schmid

Though it no longer stands, during the Regency, Grosvenor House held one of the finest collections of paintings in all of England. In today’s article, Regency romance author, Angelyn Schmid, shares her research into this remarkable house and the extraordinarily wealthy family that owned it, and the surrounding property. The question is, once you have read Angelyn’s article, would you want to live in this house?

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The Regency:   "So long, Long S"

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

As with many other curious things which have been chronicled here, the decade of the Regency saw the last lingering use of the Long S, at least in print. Most people continued to use it in those documents which they wrote by hand, regardless of its demise on the printed page.

The Long S, what it was, its origins, its rules of usage and how it passed into history … almost.

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Nighty Night …   By Regina Scott

What is your bedtime routine? How does the bedtime routine of a Regency lady compare with yours? Regency romance author, Regina Scott, whose latest print book is The Wife Campaign, gives us a glimpse into the preparations a Regency lady must make before she could retire for the night. Would you be willing to go throught that, every night?

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Of Lodestones & Smith’s Dust

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

Stones and dust hardly seem the things of romance. And yet the behaviour of these particular stones and this special "dust" is frequently used as a metaphor for the power of romantic attraction. However, that may not be immediately obvious to those of us living in the twenty-first century, because these are the names which would have been used in the Regency for naturally occuring elements. Today’s romance authors tend to use the modern-day names for similar, but man-made, versions of these objects.

Of lodestones and smith’s dust …

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