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Monthly Archives: January 2008


The other morning I walked outside and it smelled like spring–damp and mild. Of course it was Mother Nature fooling around, but it has seemed recently, with the slightly longer days, that spring is on its way. So I started thinking about activities that might make spring seem a little nearer.

For the gardeners among us, the catalogues start arriving, to be seized with damp sticky fingers and fondled and pondered. That got me thinking about food–oh, to be honest, when am I not thinking about food–and so I thought I’d check out what was available in the Regency kitchen garden at this time of year. According to Samuel and Sarah Adams, you could have beetroot, broccoli, cabbage plants (as opposed to cabbage, best in May and all summer, and if someone would like to explain that, please do), celery, endive, leeks, parsley, parsnips, potatoes, and spinach (The Complete Servant, 1825). Not too bad–of course availability of many vegetables would depend on what the weather was like and how deep the ground was frozen–England was emerging from a minor ice age (hence the Frost Fair on the frozen Thames in 1814).

The Adamses don’t mention tomatoes at all at any time of the year, because the fruit/veg, whatever it is, was regarded with some suspicion in England. Allegedly, Hannah Glass’s cookbook of 1758 included a tomato recipe but until the end of the century cooks used them sparingly and mostly for flavoring soups. After all, the plant looked suspiciously like deadly nightshade. Others thought tomatoes might be aphrodisiacs, and the French referred to them as pomme d’amour (love apple). Italians, who adopted the new world oddity with enthusiasm, called them pomi d’oro (golden apple, suggesting that the first varieties to make it to Europe may have been yellow tomatoes).

This gorgeous illustration is of the African tomato from Basil Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis (1613)–you can see more of the prints from the work here.

What are you doing to prepare for spring? Are you dreaming of tomatoes or daffodils or beaches?

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Right now I’m deep in researching the details of my army brat hero’s background and one of my absolute favorite references is Life in Wellington’s Army by Antony Brett-James. It’s just full of the sort of detail that is missed in most history books, much of it gathered from journals and letters of soldiers and officers.

Life in Wellington’s army was no picnic. Read on if you are not too faint of heart…or stomach.

Consider this letter from Charles Napier to his mother: “We are on biscuits full of maggots, and though not a bad soldier, hang me if I can relish maggots.”

Or the story of biscuits (of American make) that were so hard and thick that Lieutenant Wyndham Madden of the 43rd Light Infantry suggested they could turn a bullet aside as he put one in his jacket. “Never was prediction more completely verified,” a fellow officer wrote, “for early in the day the biscuit was shattered to pieces, turning the direction of the bullet from as gallant and true a heart as ever beat under a British uniform.”

(The illustration is “Half Rations” from The Military Adventures of Johnny Newcombe by Rowlandson.)

As for living conditions, when they were not billeted in some village or other, the men often had to sleep in the open. Sometimes they used makeshift tents. In 1813 tents were made general issue but were only a marginal improvement. With twenty soldiers to one tent, it meant, according to Sergeant Cooper, that “none could turn without general consent, and the word ‘turn’ given.” Moreover, in the wintry conditions in the Pyrenees, “mountain gusts and drenching rain tore the wooden pegs out of the mud and left the soldiers to flounder in horrible, enveloping wet folds of canvas.” Brrrr!

(Sketch from The Wheatley Diary.)

I was raised doing all sorts of camping, spending weeks with my family hiking in the Adirondacks or canoeing in the Canadian wilderness. At least we had modern, reasonably waterproof tents. And of course, no maggot-ridden biscuits–although I learned to love Spam while camping. I don’t know how it is—I’ve since tried it at home and found it disgusting!—but frying it over an open fire makes it crispy, salty and delicious beyond words.

Much as I cherish the memory of those family camping trips, now I am married to a man whose idea of roughing it is staying at Day’s Inn rather than Marriott. I still like to hike and canoe, but now our “camping” involves something more like this. Even I have to admit there’s something to be said for modern plumbing!

So how about you? What have been your experiences in “roughing it”? Did you enjoy it? Or would you rather just read about it?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

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Welcome to another “meeting” of the Jane Austen Movie Club! This is where like-minded folk gather to discuss, debate, and dissect every adaptation of Jane Austen that we can get our hands on.

Today we’re talking about the new adaptation of Mansfield Park.

To aid the discussion, here are the major credits, with a few notes on some of the people involved.

DIRECTOR: Iain B. MacDonald

SCREENPLAY: Maggie Wadey

Maggie Wadey wrote the screenplay for the 1986 (creepy Tilney) adaptation of Northanger Abbey! She also wrote the 1991 Adam Bede and the 1995 Buccaneers.

CAST:

Douglas Hodge — Sir Thomas Bertram

Maggie O’Neill — Mrs. Norris

Jemma Redgrave — Lady Bertram

In case anyone was wondering exactly what the relationships are, Jemma Redgrave is the daughter of Corin Redgrave (who played Sir Walter Elliot in the 1995 Persuasion), the niece of Lynn Redgrave and Vanessa Redgrave, and cousin to Natasha and Joely Richardson.

Billie Piper — Fanny Price

Billie Piper, of course, is famous for Doctor Who. She also played Sally Lockhart in the adaptation of the Victorian-set Philip Pullman novel The Ruby in the Smoke, and its sequel, The Shadow in the North (which also featured Northanger Abbey‘s J J Feild).

Blake Ritson — Edmund Bertram

Does Blake Ritson look familiar? He played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Catherine Steadman — Julia Bertram

James D’Arcy — Tom Bertram

James D’Arcy is certainly a familiar face — he was First Lieutenant Tom Pullings in Master and Commander, Blifil in the 1997 Tom Jones, and Nicholas Nickleby in the 2001 adaptation of the same name.

Michelle Ryan — Maria Bertram

Michelle Ryan, in case you didn’t recognize her face from a million adverts and billboards, is the new Bionic Woman.

Rory Kinnear — Rushworth

Joseph Morgan — William Price

Joseph Morgan has played a sailor before — though his previous character had a less happy outcome. His William Warley, captain of the mizzen-top, didn’t end well in Master and Commander.

Hayley Atwell — Mary Crawford

Hayley Atwell played alongside Billie Piper in The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North.

Joseph Beattie — Henry Crawford

So…what did you think???

All comments welcome!

Cara
Cara King, who will give a puppy from Pug’s next litter to whoever can say what country dances they were doing

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I have virtually nothing to say today, so I opened one of my (newly rebound)Annual Registers and found this account from June 27, 1811, about what happened when the Prince Regent opened Carlton House to the public to tour the interior. I’m abridging it greatly!

Yesterday being the last day that the public were permitted to view the interior of Carlton-House, the crowd from an early hour in the morning was immense; and as the day advanced, the scene excited additional interest….The gates were only opened at certain intervals and when this was the case, the torrent was to rapid, that many people were taken off their feet, some with their backs toward the entrance, screaming to get out….Lord Yarmouth and the Duke of Gloucester appeared, and announced to the public, that the gates would not be again opened…this, however, had not the desired effect….Those behind irresitstibly pushed on those before, and of the number of delicate and helpless females who were present, some were thrown down, and shocking to relate, literally trod on by those behind without the possibility of being extricated. When at last the crowd got inside of Carlton-House gates, four females were found in a state of insensibility, lying on their backs on the ground, with their clothes almost completely torn off. One young lady, elegantly attired, or rather who had been so, presented a shocking spectacle; she had been trodden on until her face was quite black from strangulation, and every part of her body bruised to such a degree, as to leave little hopes of her recovery: surgical assistance was immediately had, but her life was not expected to be saved. An elderly lady had her leg broken, and was carried away in a chair; and two others were also seriously hurt, but on being bled, were restored to animation….The situation of almost all the ladies who were involved in this terrible rush was truly deplorable; very few of them could leave Carlton-House until furnished with a fresh supply of clothes; they were to be seen all round the gardens, most of them without shoes or gowns; and many almost completely undressed, and their hair hanging about their shoulders….

Can you imagine it?

Now there’s an exciting scene for one of our books.

Have you ever been in such a crowd where you feared being trampled? I’ve been at exhibits that were so crowded you couldn’t see what you came to see, but this Carlton-House visit was literally a crush!

Hope you all have a splendid week and that no one trods on you.

Just a reminder of the schedule for our “Jane Austen Movie Club” — where we meet online to discuss adaptations of Jane Austen’s works!

(And the occasional Film Of Interest To Austen Junkies.)

All meetings are on Tuesdays.

We always meet the first Tuesday of every month — plus, we have extra meetings when called for (and PBS’s Complete Jane Austen certainly calls for it!)

SCHEDULE

January 29: the new MANSFIELD PARK

February 5: MISS AUSTEN REGRETS

March 3: 1940 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Greer Garson & Laurence Olivier)

April 1: first half of the new SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

April 8: the rest of the new SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

And if you would like to participate in some of our previous discussions, it’s not too late! Just click on the link at the bottom of this post that says “Jane Austen Movie Club,” and you’ll see all of our discussions.

As always, we’d love to hear your opinion!

Cara

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