Category Archives: Regency Life

The Shocking Lyrics of Lavender’s Blue

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Sometimes you run into some really interesting bits when you fall down the research rabbit hole. Not infrequently, the delicious little tidbits don’t fit the story you’re trying to write, but they deserve to be shared nonetheless. Here’s the latest offering. So, picture the scene: I was just minding my own business, looking for a song my character might sing during a particularly emotional scene. (Sorry guys, no more spoilers than that, but you’ll know … Continue reading →

Taxed, smuggled and adulterated: Tea in Britain

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“Polly put the kettle on, we’ll all have tea.”~Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Barnaby Rudge   Since its popular introduction by Catherine of Braganza, in 1662, tea in Britain was an expensive commodity It was so expensive it was usually kept under lock and key, protected from pilfering by the servants. Both the cupboards and the tea caddies were locked and the key kept by the mistress of the household. Two primary types of tea were available, green and … Continue reading →

Hardwicke Marriage Act in Jane Austen’s World

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The Hardwicke Marriage Act laid out the path to the altar for regency couples Engagements in the regency era were generally brief, often only a few weeks long. Why the hurry? Since premarital sex was common and the birth of illegitimate children problematic for inheritance, parents preferred to see couples married sooner rather than later. Reading the banns or acquiring a license and having the marriage performed required a minimum of fifteen days to accomplish. If there was property or fortune involved, … Continue reading →

Regency Medicine: Betwixt and Between

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I’d like to welcome Kyra Kramer today as she shares a fascinating article on Regency Medicine and how it was more medieval than modern. There would be significant changes in health care in the later decades of the 1800s, with the emergence of germ theory producing biomedicine as we would recognize it by the Edwardian age. The Regency, however, was in some ways the last gasp of medieval medicine – a Tudor merchant would be more … Continue reading →