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The Eloping Lord Chancellor
On the 18th November, 1772, a twenty year old university student called John Scott crept along Sandhill on the bank of the Tyne in Newcastle under the shadow of the castle. He was equipped with a...
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Banns or Licence? Ways To Marry in Georgian England
After Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1753 the Georgian couple in England and Wales had three ways of getting married: by banns, by common licence or by special licence. (There was actually a fourth...
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Walking the Dog in Georgian London
It was this delightful French print of a dog groomer that started me wondering about Georgian Londoners and their pet dogs and looking through my print collection to see what I could find. The Tondeur...
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The Road to Waterloo Week Six –“The Belgians Undergo the Most Lively...
By Monday April 3rd the book publishers had jumped on the Napoleonic bandwagon and advertisements began appearing in the newspapers – “Letter to a noble lord on the present situation of France and...
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The Road to Waterloo Week 11: Voter Apathy Hits Napoleon, London Debates...
Despite everything that was happening politically, and the threat of war, Paris remained at the cutting edge of fashion as these delightful bonnets from Le Journal des Dames et des Modes show. (see...
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The Road to Waterloo: Week 17. The Battle is Fought, The Tourists Arrive,...
So much has been written – and is being written – about the battle of Waterloo itself that this post is not going to go into any details but will concentrate on what was known to be happening in...
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A Flutter of Fans – A Very British Romance?
Watching the first episode of Lucy Worsley’s fascinating A Very British Romance last night I was inspired to look at my collection of 18th and early 19th century fans to see how they treat romantic...
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Electrical Sparks, Icy Draughts and Pendulous Parts – Dr James Graham and the...
Catherine MacauleyPopular science has always attracted the gullible and those who prey on them and a combination of sex and science is an almost infallible recipe for making money. Or so the notorious...
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A Most Scandalous Lady
When I was researching Knightsbridge for my last post I came to Kingston House (shown below in a Victorian print) and read about its extraordinary first owner, Elizabeth Chudleigh. I write historical...
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The Earl of Wittering Goes to the Seaside: Part 11 Porrett Saves the Day!
The Georgian SeasideThe Earl of Wittering, his wife, son and daughter in law and grandchildren are all at the theatre, accompanied reluctantly, by Porrett the Earl’s secretary who is in the throes of a...
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A Tenant For Life – the Georgian Husband
The two illustrations of courtship and the unwanted baby below are details from a fan dated 1797 entitled The Lady’s Advisor, Physician & Moralist which takes a sharp look at everything from...
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A Ceremony Never Omitted Among the Vulgar
“It is the ceremony…never omitted among the vulgar, to draw lots, which they term Valentines, on the eve before Valentine Day. The names of a select number of one sex are, by an equal number of the...
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St George’s Hanover Square – and Its Remarkable Neighbour, Trinity Chapel
A marriage between the aristocratic hero and his true love in St George’s Hanover Square forms the climax of many a romantic historical novel, and I’ve used that scene myself. The church, completed...
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A Valentine Gift?
I have a tiny enamel box, just 4cm by 2cm high, that was surely given as a love-token, perhaps for Valentine’s Day. It is almost certainly a Bilston enamel patch box and, although the lid has suffered...
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The Sailor Prince & the Society Lady – a Canadian Scandal
My surprise is down to my ignorance, obviously, but when I visited the Maritime Provinces of Canada last month I was intrigued to find myself bumping into two of George III’s sons at what seemed like...
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How Romantic Was An Elopement?
The romance and drama of an elopement is a popular theme in the historical love story, but it must have been an uncomfortable and expensive procedure, even without the risk of the rope ladder giving...
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Cupid’s Proclamation to the Two-penny Postmen
I have just bought a bound volume of the Lady’s Magazine for 1815 and was curious to see whether St Valentine’s Day is mentioned. It is, but only in this “Proclamation” by Cupid, addressed “to the...
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Leap Year Proposals?
This postcard is from well outside my usual time frame, but I thought it too good not to share today. It was sent by a female friend in London in October 1910 to one of my grandmother’s cousins. So it...
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The Road to Waterloo Week Six –“The Belgians Undergo the Most Lively...
By Monday April 3rd the book publishers had jumped on the Napoleonic bandwagon and advertisements began appearing in the newspapers – “Letter to a noble lord on the present situation of France and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Road to Waterloo Week 11: Voter Apathy Hits Napoleon, London Debates...
Despite everything that was happening politically, and the threat of war, Paris remained at the cutting edge of fashion as these delightful bonnets from Le Journal des Dames et des Modes show. (see...
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