Category: History

Austen, balloons, mystery purchase

Updated on October 22, 2014 by Janet Mullany

Who else is planning to watch Death Comes to Pemberley next Sunday? I thought the book was not one of PD James’s best, but quite often not so good books make good tv, so I’m cautiously optimistic. Here’s the preview. What do you think of Matthew Rhys/Anna Maxwell Martin as the dynamic duo?

More Austen news–I attended the JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) AGM in Montreal a couple of weekends ago and here are a few pics:

An amazing bonnet, with a booklet on how it was made, being offered at silent auction. It would be the sort of item that, if you could afford it, would have to be placed reverently under glass and gazed upon:

The view from my hotel room, early in the morning:

We gather, most of us all dressed up, for a banquet and ball (there were French officers [!!!] with very interesting headgear in attendance, but you’ll have to take my word for it because naturally I didn’t get any pics of them):

Old Montreal on a lovely sunny day:

And back to the topic of tv, did you see the amazing edition of NOVA this evening, Ben Franklin’s Balloons, in which French people, some of whom were descended from the Montgolfier brothers, and most of whom wore very stylish scarves, successfully duplicated early balloons and flights. You can view the preview here.

And now for the mystery household purchase:

Class Five Flushing Technology Provides Tremendous Bulk Waste Flushing Performance And Best-In-Class Bowl Cleanliness

Pure poetry.

And can you explain why not so good books make the best tv?

Posted in History, Jane Austen, TV and Film | Tagged hot air balloons, montgolfier, NOVA, PBS | 3 Replies

Stratfield Saye

Updated on October 6, 2014 by diane

One of my favorite stops on the Duke of Wellington Tour was at Stratfield Saye, Wellington’s country house. Like when Amanda and I visited the house in 2003, the weather was incredibly beautiful.

Here’s a view of the house from the back. It is so beautiful!

After the victory Waterloo, a grateful nation gave Wellington the funds to buy a property commensurate with his status as a duke and the hero who finally vanquished Napoleon. What was envisioned was something along the lines of Blenheim Palace. It was supposed to be called Waterloo Palace. Wellington liked Stratfield Saye because it was near enough to London and close to the property of a friend, but he ultimately abandoned plans for the Waterloo Palace because of the expense. He did improve the house, adding central heating and water closets….but not until after his wife passed away.

We could not photograph the inside of the house, but that was okay with me, because the house is still a family home. The present Duke of Wellington, who is 99 years old, still lives on the estate in another residence. His grandson and grandson’s family live in the house at present. As you go through the house you can see evidence of this fact, including a desk with stacks of paperwork, pens, and sticky pads on it.

Front of the house:

Another sign that this is a country home still in use, was the sight of horses in the paddock.

No visit to Stratfield Saye would be complete without a visit to Copenhagen’s grave. Copenhagen was Wellington’s horse during the battle of Waterloo. The Duke rode Copenhagen during the entire battle. Copenhagen retired to Stratfield Saye and, after his death at 28 years, was buried under a beautiful oak tree on the property.

In the stable buildings are exhibits of memorabilia from Wellington’s life. Also on display is Wellington’s funeral coach, made in part from the iron of cannon from the battle of Waterloo. It is a Victorian monstrosity that the Duke would have hated, but it was lovingly created by teams of workers and seamstresses in a remarkably short period of time.

In the room housing the funeral carriage a recording of the accolades recited at Wellington’s funeral plays over and over. When I first heard this recording in 2003, I burst into tears, realizing that, in a way, I was in the presence of a truly great man.

Ever since that time, I’ve been a Wellington groupie and remain in armed combat with Kristine Hughes as to which of us is Wellington’s favorite!
(I am….)

Posted in History, Regency | Tagged stratfield saye | 8 Replies

Basildon Park

Updated on September 29, 2014 by diane

One of the stops on The Duke of Wellington tour was Basildon Park–not because the historic house has any connection with the Iron Duke, but because it was nearby, open, and a treat to see.

Basildon Park also represents the rise and fall of fortunes which so often inhabit our Regency books.

It was built between 1776 and1783 for Sir Frances Sykes, the son of a yeoman farmer who made a huge fortune in the East India Company and was friends with Warren Hastings and Clive of India. It was built in the Palladian style by John Carr and its interiors were in the style of Robert Adams.

Almost as soon as Sykes purchased the house his fortunes began to decline and had diminished by his death in 1804. His grandson, the third baronet, became a part of the Prince Regent’s set, further depleting the Sykes fortune. After a scandal involving his wife, Sykes had the humiliating distinction of being the model for Charles Dickens’ “Bill Sikes,” the villain in Oliver Twist.

Sykes sold the house in 1838 to James Morrison, a self-made Victorian millionaire, who wanted it to display his huge art collection. After his death, his daughter inhabited the house and upon her death in 1910, the house’s fortunes again turned bleak. The nephew who inherited the estate again depleted his funds and had to sell it in 1929 to a man who wanted the land, not the house. This man tried to sell the house, even offering to dismantle it and rebuild it if some wealthy American would pay the price for it.

The house continued to decline, even suffering a fire, until 1953 when it was purchased by the 2nd Baron and Baroness Iliffe, who lovingly restored it to its present glory. Here is some of the beauty they rescued:

Entry Hall

Stairway

Upper rooms

Dining room ceiling

The original dining room had been sold and now exists as the Basildon room of the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

Basildon Park has played Netherfield Park in the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice, and, more recently, Grantham House in Downton Abbey. It became a National Trust property in 1978

Posted in History, Research | Tagged Basildon Park | 2 Replies

The Regency Town House

Updated on September 22, 2014 by diane

As part of our Duke of Wellington tour, we visited The Regency Town House in Hove.

The Regency Town House was built in the mid-1820s when sea bathing became popular and the Prince Regent made nearby Brighton fashionable. It was conceived much like vacation properties are conceived today. The investors and the builder created the project, Brunswick Square, pre-designed town houses built around the square and in sight of the sea, and then they sold each unit.

The result is a beautiful of example of Regency architecture at its finest.

One of these beautiful houses is being restored to how it would have appeared to those first buyers. It is both a historic site and a restoration project in process. I visited the project in 2003 so this project is a very long-standing one, limited only by the funds available to do the work.

The drawing room has been restored to its original Regency colors and I’m sure you will be a little surprised. The decades and centuries of paint were carefully sanded away until reaching the original paints. Minute samples of these paints were analyzed chemically and then recreated.

The restoration is far from complete, as you can see in this photo of the stairway. But some of the glory of the original house can be imagined.

In another unit on the square, the lower level of the town house is being restored. This is the “downstairs” that the servants inhabited and it is complete with housekeeper’s room, wine storage, servants’ dining room, and the kitchen.

The kitchen is in the far back and is illuminated by skylight, which also serves to draw the heat up and out of the kitchen.

One of the most interesting parts of this level was the meat locker, which may be the most intact meat locker of this era. The walls are a sort of screen that allows air to circulate but protects the meat.

Here are some more photos:

The kitchen and the servants stairs:

The hall floor tiles and a view of the front door from the stairway:

After our visit to The Regency Town House we went on to the grandest beach house of all time–The Royal Pavilion!

Unfortunately, I could not take photos inside the Pavilion, but it is not to be missed. You can see some images of the interior here.

(Gosh, I miss being in England!)

Posted in History, Regency, Research, Risky Regencies | Tagged Brighton, Hove, The Regency Town House, The Royal Pavilion | 5 Replies

Water, water everywhere

Updated on September 4, 2014 by Janet Mullany

Something broke in our infrastructure here a couple of days ago and the area where I live is now under a boil water alert. We have to boil any water we intend to use for cooking, handwashing dishes, drinking, or cleaning teeth (I’ve forgotten already a couple of times) for one minute, or use bottled water. It’s an annoyance but not impossible. No ice, though, unless I hunt down some ice trays, which I think I got rid of some time ago.

I can’t even compare it with Georgian London, which was a horrendously dirty city.

If I would drink water, I must quaff the mawkish contents of an open aqueduct, exposed to all manner of defilement, or swallow that which comes from the River Thames, impregnated with all the filth of London and Westminster.
Tobias Smollet, 1771.

After the hasty and inadequate rebuilding of London in the previous century following the Great Fire, the city grew and grew. The water available became undrinkable. The wealthy could afford to buy spring water from street sellers. For everyone else, gin was a cheap substitute that would quench both thirst and misery. It’s said that the widespread availability of tea in the mid nineteenth century saved lives, since water had to be boiled.

Even by the end of the nineteenth century London water was suspect. Here’s a water seller from 1900 in Cheapside.

It’s ironic when you consider that London was once a city of many rivers, some lost, and some like the River Fleet, now completely underground. It went from being a healthy spring, making the suburb of Hampstead something of a spa resort, to an open sewer, to a river that is now almost completely invisible. But this print of the Fleet in the area of St. Pancras in 1825 shows how comparatively rural London was at this time, before the huge expansion of the Victorian age. If you want to know more, there’s a book which promises hours of fun, London’s Lost Rivers by Paul Talling. If you visit his website, londonslostrivers.com, there’s a fascinating slideshow of photographs. More about the Fleet here.

Some other links:

London’s lost rivers: the hidden history of the city’s buried waterways

Secret London: Lost Rivers

In search of London’s lost rivers

and the London rivers action plan to restore the rivers.

There are walking tours of the lost rivers (and of the London sewers should you be so inclined. I wonder if Risky Diane has that on her itinerary?) Yet another thing to do in London. Is there something out of the ordinary you’d like to do or visit in London?

Posted in History, Research | Tagged Fleet, London, lost rivers | Leave a reply