I have absolutely nothing to say today, so I thought I’d treat you to some Regency pictures in honor of St. Valentine’s Day.
All these pictures are from http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/rgnclfil.html
a site that will occupy you for hours.
How might our Regency Lady and Gentleman, budding lovers, occupy themselves on St. Valentine’s Day?
Maybe they will go up in a balloon
Or go ice skating
Maybe they will attend a ball and dance.
Or be very naughty and play some parlor games.
Our Regency Lady and Gentleman have great passion for each other, so they must share a lovely kiss.
And, last of all, maybe all this Valentine’s day activity will lead to a hasty trip to Gretna Green!
If I lived in the Regency, I would probably be too repressed for the parlor game and much too scared for the balloon ride. I’d be too cold ice skating, so that leaves me to dance! (And to dream of a kiss like the lovely one depicted here…and maybe an elopement to Gretna Green)
If you lived in the Regency, how would you like to spend your Valentine’s Day?
May all your days be filled with love,
Diane
I would spend the day waiting for my callers to arrive with their little tokens of their esteem. I would then reward them with paper Valentines I made for them.
That reminds me, I have to fish out my ‘If Fancy Be the Food for Love’ novella by Jo Beverley. In it the young ladies write their secret loves names on paper and toss them in a bowl of water and if it floats to the top, they are destined to be together forever. At least, that’s the way I remember it!
Now where did I put that anthology…..
Hi, Santa,
I love your Valentine’s Day activity.
And the novella by Jo Beverley sounds charming. I can just see some muslin clad young ladies giggling over the bowl of water.
I wondered about the ice skating there — I knew they didn’t have the fancy skates the Olympians use today, so I wondered what it is they wore, and that pic answered it for me. LOL 🙂
Well, I would like to think I would be doing the same thing that I am now, eatting chocolate, but if I”m not mistaken, I saw that chocolate candy didn’t actually come about until sometime after, which is why you read plenty of times the characters drinking their chocolate in the morning. . . though if I”m wrong hopefully someone knows? LOL 🙂
In any case, alas, no Valentine here, so no Gretna Greene or naughty parlor games, but give me my chocolate! 🙂
Lois
Top pick would be galloping over frosty ground to the sound of hounds.
What a godawful sentence! Moving on, the fox would get away, but I would not. ;-j
OOh, Lois, you are right. Chocolate candy was a later pleasure. Our ladies sipped their chocolate. Lois, fill you V day with Romance anyway! Read a Regency!
Jane George, I like that scenario! Our hero and his Lady Jane ride out together but the fox goes one way and they go the other!
Happy Valentine’s Day!!
Santa, love your Valentine’s Day idea.
I would be out and about during the day, walking with the dear one in the sunshine and brisk air.
Perhaps attend a lecture or a concert in the afternoon. A snooze on the sunny porch would be nice, too.
Dancing in the evening, perhaps. Parlor games… um, no.
A lovely dinner out. A walk by the beach under the stars would be nice. Chocolate…oooh, always nice.
These images are wonderful, Diane! Thanks so much for posting them. I would also be too scared to go up in a balloon (either in the Regency or now!), and I’m a terrible ice skater. But the elopement looks like fun. 🙂
Ah, nothing says “I love you” like going up in a balloon to scatter revolutionary pamphlets to the toiling masses…
What lovely drawings! Perhaps I’ll plan a balloon ride with my sweetheart next Valentine’s day.