As I slowly wade my way through revisions today, be sure and check out my post from Sunday and make comments there or here–I will announce the winner at the end of the day! And “Taming” has a new review today….
And btw how great was Birdsong on “Masterpiece” last weekend?? It was sorta like the dark-dark side of Downtown Abbey…
Last week, I fell into some kind of odd time warp and did not grasp that the day I thought was Wednesday was, in fact, Thursday. It’s actually worse than that. On Wednesday, I thought it was Tuesday and dutifully wrote and scheduled my Wednesday Riskies post.
Now, I work from home Thursdays and Fridays. So there I am, all day the next day, working away at the day job thinking it’s Wednesday. Even though I am home.
Then later when I was done with the day job portion of my day, I checked the Riskies post for what I was sure would be MASSES of great comments on my awesome post. And what do I see? That witch Janet Mullany posted over me! On my Wednesday! Nobody wants to read Thursday material on a Wednesday. I mean come on.
Just when I was about to add a flashing neon green background to Janet’s post, I said to myself, wait a second. Is is possible that I have somehow made a mistake?
I looked at my watch which helpfully displays the time, date and DAY, and holy cow, it’s Thursday.
Oops. Sorry I missed my day last Wednesday. In my timeline it was Tuesday.
Monday for us here in the US of A was a holiday and that means that the Tuesday on which many Americans went back to work functioned a lot like Monday. But I remembered in time that it’s not Monday, it’s Tuesday, and here I am my fellow Risky-Readers!
Since the holiday was Memorial Day, I want to mention that my son’s middle name comes from my mother’s eldest brother. He was a WWII veteran who saw hand-to-hand combat against the Japanese in Papua New Guinea. He passed away several years ago, at far too young an age. He spoke exactly once about the war, all though one night to my mother and the woman he eventually married, and then never again. It was only when he died and his coffin was draped in an American flag that his children and grandchilden learned he was a veteran. I knew, because my mother had told me. His own children did not.
My uncle was a wonderful man and I wish he’d lived long enough to meet my son. I wish my son could know the man he’s named after. I think my uncle is one of the only reasons my mother survived what happened to her in her childhood and if he’d lived he would have continued to make the world a better, safer place.
Soldiers and veterans put their lives on the line for the rest of us and, as we are slowly coming to understand, there is always a price beyond the physical when we ask someone to be willing to kill on our behalves. And this is as true in 1800 as it is today.
Lastly, May 30th is my sister’s birthday, if you’re on twitter please send her a happy birthday tweet. @majrite
FYI: I am still compiling the Risky Answers To Your Questions. Look for that next week.
In the meantime, in my usual roundabout and convoluted way, I came across a truly fascinating book: The Journal of a Georgian Gentleman, The Life and Times of Richard Hall, 1729 – 1801, by Mike Rendell.
Rendell is a direct descendent of Richard Hall, and Hall, it seems, not only extensively journaled his life, he was what we might call a highly organized hoarder. And because of this Rendell found himself in possession of an amazingly well documented life. Not just in journals but in collected ephemera. Hall saved just about every bit of paper he encountered. Pamphlets, broadsides, you name it, he seems to have saved and documented it.
He’s published this book (it’s a beautiful hardcover) and though I’ve only just started it, it’s wonderful. There are insights into daily life that I just don’t think exist anywhere else.
I’m going to pimp his book hard. It’s about $20 US, and I think any hard-core historical researcher would get a lot of use from this book. It’s worth having. Amazon
Anyway, what I want to mention today is this:
Richard recalled in his later retrospective jottings that his father had told him that when his father, Thomas, was a young man and required a bride, he had no choice but to go out on horseback and ride to the various villages within a journey of one day, visiting the homes of suitable persons and introducing himself to those with daughters of marriageable age. His whole world consisted of those parts of Berkshire, Oxford and Wiltshire as extended for a distance of perhaps thirty miles from his home. ‘Amazing then,’ Richard wrote, ‘to consider that in my lifetime we have seen horizons extend so markedly that a man may catch the express stage from Oxford and be in London later that same day!’ Journal, p 6
The passage about how Richard’s grandfather introduced himself to families with marriageable daughters is, to me, a reminder of how important calls were. Not just fun or polite, but serious business. Young men and women needed to meet a diversity of potential partners (church would NOT have been socially and geographically diverse enough) and without carriages or the express stage, you walked or rode within the limitations of your legs or your horse.
But it’s that last quote:
Amazing then to consider that in my lifetime we have seen horizons extend so markedly that a man may catch the express stage from Oxford and be in London later that same day!
that reinforces, for me, how much we have in common with the people who lived during the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason. They experienced the same technology driven transformation of their lives, and they, too, were fully capable of feeling and appreciating the changes wrought.
I can just imagine them saying things like, why, in my father’s day, it was two days travel from Oxford to London and it was uphill both ways! I don’t know why anyone would want to go to London anyway. Nothing but thieves and cutpurses and men as like to rob you as tell you how to find the White Horse Inn.
It’s why this idea among some people that the men and women of the Regency were in some fundamentally inscrutable and unknowable way DIFFERENT drives me nuts. They weren’t.
Just like today, not everyone followed the rules. There were liars and cheaters and people who were honest, good and caring. There were bad girls and good boys and sex felt as good then as it does now.
There will always be people who reflect on the past and how immensely things have changed since those days.
Just for kicks, according to Google Maps, it’s about 60 miles from Oxford to London. If you drive, it’s an hour and 20 minutes. If you take the train, it’s an hour and 11 minutes. 400 years from now, I suppose it will take 10 minutes.
The next midnight beheld Ruth Tudor in the cave, seated upon a point of rock, at the head of the corpse, her chin resting upon her hands, gazing earnestly upon the distorted face. Decay had already begun its work; and Ruth sat there watching the progress of mortality, as if she intended that her stern gaze should quicken and facilitate its operation. The next night also beheld her there, but the current of her thoughts had changed, and the dismal interval which had passed appeared to be forgotten. She stood with her basket of food: ” Wilt thou not eat!” she demanded; ” arise, strengthen thee for thy journey; eat, eat, thou sleeper; wilt thou never awaken? Look, here the meat thou lovest;” and as she raised his head, and put the food to his lips, the frail remnant of mortality shattered at her touch, and again she knew at he was dead.
Published in 1826.
Check the contents:
This is the BEST BOOK EVER! I mean that.
Karl and his horse Nikolaus, a Mysterious Tale !
Oh, Karl, you naughty boy!
Sir Guy the Seeker?
Ulric the Bold?
I love a bold fellow. Ulric is awesome and you all know it.
The Black Rainbow or the Death of Charles the Bad.
I did some poking around:
From British Short Fiction in the Early Nineteenth Century, Tim Killick, Ashgate, 2008, page 160
Legends of Terror ! was clearly aimed at a general readership.
(I added the big font. Because it needs it.)
To which I say, booh-yah.
I’m writing a heroine who loves scary stories, I swear.
How do you feel about LEGENDS OF TERROR !
The Winner is:
Shelley B
Shelley, please email me so we can get in touch about your winnings….
carolyn AT carolynjewel DOT com
And a big thank you to everyone who wished me wonderful things!
Carolyn