Today we are on the road, on our way to visit relatives in Georgia. The book is done. Not polished but done and sent in. (Breathe heavy sigh of relief) Remind me never to do this again. I’ll take time management courses. Anything. Maybe even make myself write every day, no matter what.
I got to thinking…What would our trip be like if we were in Regency England?
My husband prefers driving himself to public transportation so we’ll be traveling in our own vehicle. We’ve had considerable discussion on whether to take my Prius with its great mileage or the more comfortable Acura. The Acura won.
In Regency terms, I figure this means we’ll be driving the curricle, drawn by two horses, instead of the curate cart. My husband, by the way, has always wanted a high-perch phaeton, but I’ve put my foot down. It’s impractical.
We’ll make the trip in two days (and coming home, it only takes us one day—because we are always eager to get home again). In Regency times the same distance would be like traveling from Brighton to Loch Ness, about 600 miles, and it would take about week at least. I suspect our butts would be rather sore in our little curricle all that way.
We’ll stop along the road only for gasoline, meals, bathroom breaks, and to spend the night, but our Regency selves must stop every twenty miles or so to change horses. Instead of McDonalds or a Perkins (no relation!) restaurant, we’ll be stopping in coaching inns, probably eating mutton stew and drinking ale. (which doesn’t sound so bad!)
At night we’ll stop in a motel—one with internet access, of course. Our Regency selves will stay in one of those coaching inns and we might travel with our own bed linens just to be certain we don’t pick up any bedbugs.
It used to be a bit of a culture shock to visit the Georgia relatives, but now the area has been built up with all the shopping centers of home. The Regency “we” are Londoners. Our normal pastimes are visiting the shops or walking in the park. Up by Loch Ness, however, there might be only one or two shops and plenty of places to walk.
I’ve heard there is even a monster in the Loch
But……no internet access.
Okay, if you were on vacation in REGENCY England, where would you go? What would you want to see?
(and thanks again for all your support and encouragement!!!)
I’d make a special trip to London- if I weren’t already there to see the 1814 Frost Fair!
Well, since I live in a city, I’m going to make me live in London for this. . . I’d go on a trip to Bath. 🙂
However, on the flipside, if I lived in the country, I’d so want to go to London. 🙂
So, have all angles covered. LOL 🙂
Lois
Oh, and congrats on finishing the book! 🙂 And have fun on the road trip!
Lois
Big congrats on finishing the book, O Divine One. Enjoy your trip and safe journey.
Let me know about those time management courses. I’ll take them right along with you! Writing every day. What a concept!
If I lived in the Regency, I would want to travel to Brighton and Bath, assuming I lived in London. A country house party at Chatsworth would be nice as well. I think it would be a closed carriage for me with deep-cushioned seats.
Clearly, I too am a “Londener” in this scenario. I’d love to do the The Grand Tour (Paris, the Alps, Venice, a boat down the Rhine, a tour of the Mediterranean . . .). A trip to see the Lakes or the Scottish Highlands might be nice too. To be frank, I’d want to ride rather than drive (so much for comfortable as long as it’s not raining).
I’m a homebody, so I would live in London and pretty much stay there. But I do like nature, so I would take a lot of walks in Hyde Park.
Linda Banche
Congratulations on finishing, Diane! We knew you could do it. Now you have to send me the good finish-the-manuscript vibes, OK?
As to Regency travel, I’d want to live on a gorgeous country estate. For vacation, it would depend on what I haven’t done recently. I could go tramping through Scotland or to London or the Continent. Mode of travel would depend on the season and my company. It would be shocking but I’d love to ride. An open carriage would be the next best thing for going through scenery. Then again, if with the hero of my choice, perhaps a closed carriage would be more fun. 🙂
Congrats on finishing, Diane!
If there’s anything that would keep me from traveling in time back to Regency days, it would be lamb stew. I’m not a finicky eater, but I detest lamb! Ignoring that, however, I’d be a country girl anyway. And I’d want to travel up into the Peak District, or perhaps the Cotswolds or Cornwall. Scotland would be high on my list, and through the Lake District while getting there. I’ve already been th London and Bath, of course. And all of that would be set aside if this infernal war would just end so I could do a Grand Tour of the Continent.
Hmm. I like to think Regency Susan would be an intrepid sort, possibly married to a handsome officer. I would follow the drum in order to not be long separated from my hero, and so I’d be living kinda rough in Portugal and Spain rather than England.
But if Regency Susan had a more mundane life, I’m sure I’d like to go to the Lakes and/or the Highlands. I’ve always loved mountains.
When I was a teenager, I once did a road trip with some friends where the convertible car roof got stuck in the down position–so i know I wouldn’t like to go long distances in a curricle. 🙂 (BTW, I thought your Prius was very comfortable!)
If I was planning a summer vacation in the Regency, I think a journey like Elizabeth Bennet’s to the Peaks would be nice. Or like Catherine Morland’s to Bath.
Congrats on being FINISHED! I’m sooo envious; way too much work remains until I’ll get to that happy place.
If I were to take a vacation, residing in London with a country estate in Kent, I would go to Edinburgh (since I’ve never been and would love to see it) Exploring the Great North Road would be fun, even with the lamb stew.
Enjoy your vacation!
I would love to go to Bath, too for the hot springs.
If I were a Regency Londoner, I’d wait till the war was done, then take a year and go see Italy and the Alps. And Paris, too, while I’m at it!
And congrats on finishing the draft!
Cara
Whew! Congratulations Diane.
And have a fabulous road trip.
Hmmm, I think I’d like to go to Somerset and the Cotswolds, maybe a bit through Wales, then down to Cornwall and over to Devon.
Mostly on horseback!
I have to ‘fess up. I wrote my blog ahead of time, confident at my ability to finish my last chapter.
And I did it. I finished Chp 21, the last chapter. I stayed up all night in the hotel to finish it, only falling asleep for about 2 hours. By 5:00 am I was done.
The last task was to copy and paste my chapters into a whole manuscript. I got all the way to Chp 21 and with the wrong clicks in the wrong documents, I replaced Chp 21 with the text of Chp 20.
Then I closed the file….Then I realized what I had done. It was gone.
My husband spent about 3 hourse trying to retrieve it, but it was gone.
I had no choice but to email my editor and tell her. She was nice about it and I have a little more time. Again.
So if I were in Regency England, I’d have to take a trip to Bedlam.
Tomorrow I’m staying in the hotel to write….and right now I’m going to sleep!!!
Oh Diane!! Stupid computers!
I wouldn’t travel to Bedlam if I were you but I think a week in the Lake District would do the trick! That’s where I would go after I’ve gone to London. Then I’d make my way to Bath. Of course, I have no idea if I am going in the right directions or not but they’ve always been places I’ve wanted to go.
Sweet dreams, my dear. Invest in a flash drive. It may save any future leanings towards Bedlam.
Argh!!!!!!!!!
How insanely frustrating, Diane!!!!!!!!
Cara
The current Me and the Regency Me would be interested in being nosy about how the wealthy lived. So a trip to visit all the great homes in the Lake District would be on order.
I’d prefer to travel is a well-sprung closed carriage instead of a curricle, i.e., an SUV or a minivan, instead of Diane’s Accord.
Diane, so sorry to hear your computer woes!! That’s horrible!
It does you no good now, but here are a couple of suggestions for the future:
1. There are programs called “revision control systems” or similar things; they save your changes without erasing the old version, so you can always undo anything. My information about this is a bit out of date, but I think such things still exist.
2. If you use Word, it has a feature called something like “track changes” that does the same thing. So, again, you can always undo anything.
Lots of sympathy! I’m sure you’ll get it done again soon!
Todd-who-hates-when-things-like-that-happen
If I lived during the Regency I’d probably want to live in London. So I’d visit the country–the Lakes, in particular, before the huge mobs of tourists, and the great country houses of the aristocracy. And some of the other beautiful cities of the period, like Bath and Edinburgh.
Of course, there are pleasures in having a country house of your own, even if it’s not a vast mansion, and I daresay it would be cleaner and the food would be fresher. Maybe the best choice would be to have a country place in Surrey or somewhere like that, not too far out of town so you could get the latest books and visit the shops and public places.
And I agree with Kalen–I’d rather ride than be driven in a carriage with lousy springs and no rubber tires on bad roads.
This is all assuming that I belong to the gentry…though the odds, I fear, would be that I’d be some servant or laborer instead.
Todd-who-prefers-to-imagine-being-lucky