Category: Research

Posts in which we talk about research

Adventures and Discoveries

Updated on November 6, 2014 by Janet Mullany

In haste today since I have a visitor, and we’re going out for fun very soon. Here are some terrific things I’ve found online recently which are great for research or, as it is known, wasting time online:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened up its archives of images from the collection. Great stuff!

Here’s the VADS (Visual Arts Data Service) collection which takes some wading through since you can’t search by century. I particularly liked this collection of trades and services material.

oldandinteresting.com is a wonderful resource for the history of household items like Mrs. Tiggywinkle’s clotheshorse.

Want to make a Regency bonnet? Here’s a free tutorial.

And here are step by step instructions for making a Regency cap, which I may try in the next week for an event at which I have to put on the Regency drag. I haven’t sewed anything in years. It should be interesting. If it’s successful I may post about it. If you’re in the Washington DC area, check out the Afternoon of Austen Fashion on November 15 at Riversdale House Museum. Registration is still open.

Have you found any interesting sites online recently? Or, like me and the sewing, are you planning to revive any lost skills?

Posted in Jane Austen, Research | 2 Replies

Horse Guards

Updated on October 27, 2014 by diane

One of the stops on the Duke of Wellington tour was Horse Guards. Horse Guards was the office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces during “our” era, and it exists today as headquarters of two major Army commands: the London District and the Household Cavalry. We were there to tour the Household Cavalry Museum, but we were able to see the retiring of the guards.

When we first arrived, a guard on horseback was posted at the gate and the tourists were using him as a photo op, which bothered me. But I took a photo anyway.

Here’s a short video of the Guards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78PIWgzfrz4&feature=youtu.be

In Apsley House we saw this painting showing the Duke of Wellington leaving his command at Horse Guards for the last time. It is titled His Last Return From Duty. This is a drawing of that painting in the tunnel under the street between Apsley House and the Wellington Arch.

More lovely memories from my England trip!

Posted in Regency, Research, Risky Regencies | Tagged Horse Guards | 7 Replies

A Slapdash Post

Updated on October 3, 2014 by Elena Greene

Do you love the word “slapdash”? I do. It’s been another busy week so here are just a few highlights.

I’ve started research for a new series about the grown-up children from Lady Dearing’s Masquerade. Amanda recommended this wonderful book, The Making of Victorian Values by Ben Wilson. It’s been a huge help in thinking about the transition from Regency to early Victorian times. Thanks, Amanda!

I’m also working with my fellow Regency Masquerades contributors (Brenda Hiatt, Lynn Kerstan, Allison Lane, Gail Eastwood and Alicia Rasley) to launch this boxed set. This set releases on October 13–look forward to a week-long Regency Masquerades Ball, with fun and giveaways. You can also preorder now for 99 cents! (Kindle Nook Apple Kobo)

I also took a little time to enjoy the fall foliage and pick apples and late-season raspberries.

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How’ve you been spending your time?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Research, Risky Book Talk | Tagged Ben Wilson, Regency Masquerades, The Making of Victorian Values | 2 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