Category: Regency

Regency Football

Updated on February 6, 2013 by diane

This past Sunday, like millions of other people, I watched the Superbowl. Ordinarily I am not inclined to watch sports, but we were visiting my in-laws and they wanted to watch the game and I certainly didn’t mind. It could not have been a more exciting game. I had a stake in it, considering that the Baltimore Ravens are practically on our doorstep.

I got to wondering….Did they play “football” (meaning soccer and rugby or any ball games played on a field) in the Regency? The only Regency competitive sports I’ve ever read about were boxing, horse racing or carriage racing, but not team sports. Still, it stood to reason that team sports were played, at least in schools and at village fairs. After all, there is a famous quote that Wellington never said: The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.

Games using a ball and involving kicking have been around since ancient times and have existed in diverse cultures. In Medieval times games were played on Shrovetide, Easter or Christmas and often consisted on one mob of fellows from one village playing against a mob from another. The ball might have been an inflated animal bladder and the point of a game to bring it to one end of the field.

Between 1300 and 1600 games of football were banned in several parts of the British Isles. In 1349 Edward III banned games of football because it distracted men from practicing archery (and being prepared for war). In 1608 football was banned in Manchester because it created “greate disorder in our towne of Manchester…and glasse windowes broken yearlye and spoyled by a companie of lewd and disordered persons….” Sounds like some things don’t change much!

Except for holidays, the average man had no leisure time to play sports so the places where football flourished were the English public (meaning private) schools, like Eton, Winchester and Rugby. The English public schools were the first to codify football games, although the rules were often different with each school.

The first known sets of rules were those of Eton in 1815 (the year of the battle of Waterloo). And THAT did happen during the Regency!

Did you watch the game? What did you think of it?
Do you root for a favorite team?
Do you know anything more about team sports during the Regency?

Posted in Regency, Research | Tagged football, soccer, sports | 6 Replies

How Risky Would You Be?

Updated on February 5, 2013 by Laurie Bishop

Comment on today’s post for the chance to win a copy of Laurie Bishop’s January release, LORD RYBURN’S APPRENTICE. Comments may be posted to the end of today, Saturday, January 14th!

Whoa…here we are, near the end! I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of something half as intelligent as the other ladies, and I finally decided that, since we are about “Risky Regencies” after all, I should do something with Risky Characters.

It is almost expected that the characters of a traditional regency should be genteel—respectable if not of nobility. (Yes—I already hear the disagreement, but I’m speaking in general, not of the notable and exciting exceptions). Okey-doke. Let’s do this….

Here are some ideas for some Regency characters that would not typically make your average hero or heroine.

During the Regency, the poor were moving from the country to town largely due to the effect of enclosure, the law that gave ownership of the land to a few and therefore ended the common ownership of land by a community. With no land for sustenance farming, the city seemed the best place to survive. Of course, the conditions of the poor in the city were very bad indeed, BUT there were things you could do to make a living.

If you were at all educated with acceptable personal appearance, habits, and ambition, you might become a maid or manservant in a good household. These jobs were difficult, but there were much, much worse things you could do. Other jobs were as shop assistants, trade apprentices, street sellers, street sweepers, and joining the navy (voluntarily or otherwise). There were seamstresses who worked for long hours in poor conditions, rat catchers (who killed rats bare-handed, or sold them at the local pub for use in a rat-pit—to be the prey of ferocious dogs, for entertainment), and scavengers.

Still worse was the use of children in a variety of trades—children sold into trade as orphans or by their parents—and some of the uses children were put to could be very unsavory indeed. There were, of course, the chimney sweeps, which everyone has heard of. There were also children who were put into prostitution or to work as pickpockets.

Of course, many adults turned to illegal means to survive, of which prostitution and thievery were only two. I mentioned grave-robbing in an earlier post, for instance. Gambling was epidemic—men, and sometimes women, would bet on anything, even their own lives. And there was an assortment of scams—rather like an early version of the Internet.

One scam I can think of was one where a woman of ill repute teamed up with a male partner or two and would seduce a gentleman into coming to her chamber. Likely he was drunk, but be as it may, he would be assaulted, handily dispatched, and when he came to he would discover all of his possessions and his clothing gone.

Then there were characters who would live the life of a gentleman, charming their way through life with empty pockets, living on loans and outrunning their creditors, sometimes getting lucky at a gaming table and sometimes spending time in prison, sometimes seducing a daughter of some man of moderate fortune, and counting on luck to see them through.

We must not forget the high-class courtesans, of course…and some of them lived, and survived, very well—but many did not continue in good circumstances as age took its toll.

Let me get to the point of this monologue…a question. If you could chose your character from any walk of life except that of a well born someone…who would that character, male or female, be? Do you have any idea how your character might escape his or her position? It would be very difficult, but we have the means to find a way for our characters!

Alternate question: If you had to be one of these persons, who would you be? Or, who might you have been in a previous life?

Pick your poison…er, your question!

Laurie
LORD RYBURN’S APPRENTICE
Signet January 2006

P.S. You can still comment on earlier posts until the end of today, to win books by other Riskies. And don’t forget to enter the Treasure Hunt!

Posted in Giveaways, Regency | 18 Replies

Conversion Kit

Updated on February 5, 2013 by megan

Risky Regencies Blog Party! Comment on this post to get the chance to win a copy of Megan Frampton’s A Singular Lady. And don’t forget to enter the Treasure Hunt, too!

It’s a question that comes up over and over again on romance reader message boards, at booksignings, anywhere romance readers are likely to get into discussion: If you could choose just one book for a non-romance reader to read, which one would it be?

So I pose the question to you, only more specifically: If you could pick just one Regency romance to give to an interested, non-romance reading friend, which one would it be? And why?

Would it be Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen? Do you think Austen is ‘cheating’ since it’s a literary classic? Or would you dig out The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer from your keeper pile?
Perhaps you’d press a copy of Flowers From The Storm by Laura Kinsale into her hands (preferably the new un-Fabio edition). Or maybe you’d withdraw a Carla Kelly from the rare book vault, maybe Reforming Lord Ragsdale (my favorite) or Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand, but only if your friend handed over some stocks or the deed to her house to make sure she’d return them.

Since I’m writing this, and don’t have to choose just one, I’d pick either Mary Balogh’s The Notorious Rake or Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. Both are filled with passion, incredible, compelling characters, a believable, deep romance and page-turning drama.

So . . . what’s your pick? And why? And have you ever done it, and with what success?

Thanks for playing!

Megan
www.meganframpton.com

P.S. Don’t forget you can still comment on any of the previous posts this week to win books by other Risky Regencies. Also, be sure to enter the Treasure Hunt for the Grand Prize!

Posted in Giveaways, Reading, Regency | 21 Replies

New Year’s Resolutions of the Regency

Updated on February 5, 2013 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Comment on today’s post to win a copy of Amanda McCabe’s 2005 Regency The Star of India! (Plus a cover flat of A Tangled Web, the non-Hello Kitty version, thrown in)

By this time, nearly two weeks after the start of 2006, most people (okay, me) have probably already slacked off on their New Year’s Resolutions. I resolved to run every morning, go to more yoga classes, eat more leafy green veggies and less candy, read more “good for me” literature, spend less time online. Yada yada yada. Now, here I sit with a bag full of Hershey’s Nuggets searching for goodies on Ebay.

I’m not sure if resolutions were a big part of Regency life, but I did start wondering–if they were, what would all our favorite people of the period (fictional and real-life) resolve to do? For instance, some of Austen’s characters:
Elizabeth Bennett–resolve to be less proud (or prejudiced?) and emulate her sister Jane more in her dealings with people
Mr. Darcy–ditto (except for the Jane bit)
Emma Woodhouse–make no more matches. After she sees the new girl in town settled.
Mary Crawford–steer clear of clueless future vicars
Jane Fairfax–take a loooong, solitary vacation on the Continent, courtesy of her late aunt-in-law’s jewels
Catherine Norland–read fewer horrid novels and more Fordyce’s Sermons. Just as soon as she sees what’s behind the locked door in Chapter Ten…

Of course, this can be done for all manner of people. Caro Lamb–hmm, maybe she’d resolve on less waltzing, or maybe moving out of her in-laws’ house. Byron could resolve to stick to his diet of boiled potatoes (if only he had heard of Atkins…). Your task–should you choose to accept is–is to let us know what your favorite character/figure might have as their New Year’s resolution. For instance, Prinny maybe. Or Emma Hamilton and Admiral Nelson. Harriette Wilson, Prinny, the Patronesses of Almack’s, Sarah Siddons, Percy and Mary Shelley. What would they desire for 2006? (Or 1806, as the case may be!)

You can find more info on the prize at http://ammandamccabe.tripod.com

Posted in Giveaways, Jane Austen, Regency | 15 Replies

What’s YOUR Regency Fantasy?

Updated on February 5, 2013 by Cara King

BLOG PARTY DAILY CONTEST! The best comment on this post will win a copy of Cara King’s debut novel, MY LADY GAMESTER. Comments may be posted through January 14, and will be judged on thoughtfulness and enthusiasm.

Imagine this: you magically (or science fictionally, perhaps) find yourself transported back in time to Regency England. What’s more, you find yourself quite wealthy — perhaps a member of the aristocracy, or a fabulously successful writer, or anything else you can dream of.

Today’s question is: what would you most enjoy about your new life? What ultimate indulgence would be your personal favorite? What’s YOUR Regency fantasy?

Would it be your fantastically beautiful stately home? If so, why? What about your gorgeous new home would you particularly delight in? (Let your imagination run free here!)

Would your favorite thing be the grounds of your breathtaking new home? Gardens, fountains, statues, mazes, woods, rivers — what? Or would be be your library? (I love the one pictured here!)

Would your favorite part of your new life be the fact that so much of the land around you is NOT paved over, but instead is fields and farms and flowers and trees, with no Walmart or Tesco in sight? Would your walks in the English countryside be your favorite part of the day?

Or would it be the food? Everything fresh, cream right from the cow, fruit right from the tree, with a million recipes thick with butter and eggs? And of course, you have your own personal cook to make you anything you want.

How about having servants? Your servants, of course, will be delighted to come work for you (because you pay so well), and are all experts at their jobs. You will never have to scrub another oven, or wash another dish.

Or would you most enjoy hobnobbing with the amazing writers who populated the Regency? Imagine it: Shelley, Byron, Jane Austen, Keats, Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge… Or you could hang out with actors like Mrs. Siddons, or perhaps meet Beethoven. Whatever you want, is yours.

Or would you most delight in the lovely clothes you would wear — elegant creations in silk and velvet… If you’re a woman, would your favorite thing be all the men, so handsome in their flattering, form-fitting clothes? If you’re a man, would your favorite thing be all the women in their flowing, clingy gowns, their corsets giving them the memorable décolletage that Jennifer Ehle impressed you with in “Pride and Prejudice”?