A Regency Bicentennial: The Servant Tax

Hair powder, windows, carriages and coaches, and carriage and saddle horses were not the only luxuries which were taxed during the Regency. Many people also had to pay taxes on the servants they employed. But the tax did not apply to all of their servants. Only their male servants and only those which held specific positions within their households or on their estates were taxed. This tax can be blamed first on those pesky, rebellious American colonists, but its continuation during the Regency can be laid squarely at the door of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Two hundred years ago, this year, the British Parliament significantly re-worked the servant tax, ratcheting up the rates in order to increase revenue to support the war on the Peninusla. So, let us trace the origins of the servant tax, its rates and regulations during the Regency, and the impact those regulations had on the households of England.

Of Hanging Sleeves and Leading Strings

"I knew how to do that before I was out of leading strings!"

"Don’t treat me as if I were still in leading strings!"

"She manages the poor man as if he were back in leading strings!"

We have all read some variation of at least one of these remarks in at least one Regency romance novel. The first time I encountered the phrase was in Georgette Heyer’s novel, The Nonesuch, so it will always be cataloged in my mind as a "Heyer phrase." But just what were leading strings, when and how did they evolve, who wore them, when, how, and by whom were they used?

Subtlties: From Dining Table to Dressing Table

Or mantle-shelf.     Or curio cabinet.

Ceramic, usually porcelain, figurines have figured in a number of Regency novels which I have read over the years. Angry heroines throw them at the hero, oftentimes smashing them to bits. A cruel stepmother might deliberately break one which the heroine, or the hero, treasured as a special memento of loved one they had lost. A particular figurine might serve as the key to solving a mystery or revealing a secret. But what was the origin of all these charming, yet fragile, porcelain figures? Surprising as it may seem, they trace their origins to the ornate decorations made of various foodstuffs which were fashionable on aristocratic medieval dining tables during grand feasts.

A Lock on Love

Over the past few weeks I have seen several Tiffany advertisements posted around the Copley Square area, here in Boston. Among them was one which featured several padlocks in various shapes and sizes. They were of brushed or polished metals, some were engraved, some embellished with keyhole escutcheons in metals of contrasting colors and some were set with small diamonds. Yet again, proof there is nothing new under the sun. Jewelry in the shape of padlocks was quite popular during the Regency, particularly with romantic young ladies in love. But the various padlocks rendered in precious metals and gem-stones were more prevalent and more ornate than those which Tiffany conjured up for the 2011 gift-giving season.

How padlocks got a lock on love during the Regency …

1811: The Year in Review

Many of the news programs have devoted time during their broadcasts this week to reviews of various aspects of the past year. Since this rapidly-ending year marks the bicentennial of the beginning of the Regency in England, I thought it appropriate to review some of the events of 1811 before we move on to 2012, which is, of course, the bicentennial of the second year of the Regency.

And so, some highlights of 1811 …

Dancing the Easter Carols

Christmas is now just two days away, so you think I meant to title this article "Singing the Christmas Carols" didn’t you? But the thing is, you see, that came much later, long after the ancient origins of the music we now know as carols. In fact, only barely in time for our Regency ancestors to begin to enjoy them during their Christmas celebrations.

The carol, from pagan dance to popular Christmas music …

Happy Birthday, Jane!

The Jane to whom I offer my birthday wishes today is, of course, Jane Austen, whose six much beloved novels were all published during the Regency. Today is the 236th anniversary of her birthday and I would like to mark it with some remarks about the world into which she was born that long ago December day.

The day Jane Austen was born …

London’s Bond Streets: Old and New

During this season of shopping it seems an appropriate time to shed a little light on the history of one of the main shopping streets of Regency London. Though Bond Street is generally referred to as a single street today, in the Regency many people still made a distinction between the old and the new, though by then the pair of streets was already nearly a century old.

A stroll through the history of the Bond Streets …

Biblio for Books

Biblio, more precisely, Biblio.com, was not in existence during the Regency. Yet I do feel an article about it has a place here, for a considerable portion of the books in my personal research library have made their way to me via Biblio over the last several years. It seems unfair to keep the secret to myself.

Why I like Biblio . . .

Snow in the Regency

Even though Christmas is still a month away, it is not too early to discuss snow, since here in New England we had "appreciable" snowfall across most of the area just before Halloween. (And if that is the last flake I see all season, it will be just fine with me.) However, the way this recent New England snowfall was handled is very different from how appreciable snowfalls were handled in old England during the Regency. Our Regency ancestors would be quite surprised, even shocked, by the time and effort we put into snow removal in the twenty-first century and even more so by people who venture outdoors while a snowstorm is in progress.

Attitudes and practices for living and dealing with snow in the Regency . . .

From Hasteners to Roasters — A Regency Cooking Convenience

This past summer, I posted an article here on some of the contraptions which were used for cooking during the Regency. But some of those contraptions have a more complex history and therefore merit more direct focus on their development. One of those is the tin roaster, which was actually developed in the early nineteenth century, and came into common use in many English kitchens during the Regency.

In honor of all those turkeys which will be roasted this coming Thanksgiving, the origins of the tin roaster …

Sand: A Regency Cleaning Agent?

Today, most people would be much more likely to clean sand up than they would be to clean with it. But during the Regency, as it had been for centuries before, sand was a commonly-used household cleaning agent. And the man who supplied the sand used for cleaning to most households across Britain would, by the time the Regency ended, be passing into the realm of myth and folk tale, having acquired special powers, certainly in the eyes of most young children and their parents. Like so many other things discussed here, the ways in which sand was used for cleaning were beginning to change during the Regency, though they would not die out completely until the twentieth century.

The shifting, and sifting, sands of the Regency …

The Wearing of Costume

Yet again, I have come across another unique and fascinating book while browsing at my local library. A book which I think many authors of Regency novels will find quite informative. This book is about exactly what the title says it is, how to wear the costumes of days gone by. The author’s stated purpose in writing the book was to provide information for actors in movies and plays, and for readers of historical novels, to help them imagine how the characters in the book they are reading would move, based on the constraints of the clothing of the time period in which the story is set. It would seem to me that this book would also be of use to writers of historical novels, as well as to those who enjoy re-enacting historical events.

Some of the more intriguing aspects of the wearing of clothing in England in times past …

A Regency Bicentennial: Sense and Sensibility Hits the Press!

Two hundred years ago this Sunday, Jane Austen saw her first novel published, though not under her own name. Sense and Sensibility was not the first novel she had ever written, nor was it the first book she submitted to a publisher, but it was the first of four novels she would see published in her lifetime, followed by two which would be published posthumously, all six of them during the Regency. For many people, the novels of Jane Austen define the Regency, or at least, what they think it ought to have been. Ironic, perhaps, since Jane Austen very much disapproved of the man whose title gave this short period in which her books were published the name by which we know it today.

The sinuous saga of Sense and Sensibility, from inspiration to publication …

Regency Circulating Libraries — Why, How and Who?

Ah, the circulating library. Without doubt, one of my favorite settings for a scene in a Regency romance novel. All those long bookshelves, filled with rows and rows of lovely books, in between which the hero and heroine can snatch a brief, private moment. Or, perhaps the villainess lurks within the shadowy labyrinth, eavesdropping in the hope of hearing some juicy bit of scandal she can spread among the beau monde. Sadly, however, both of those scenarios would have been quite impossible in a real Regency-era circulating library. Though there were various types of these circulating libraries in the Regency, operating on different principals, they all had essentially the same roots.

The origins of the circulating library, its Regency variations and the exposure of the shameful statistic so many sought to suppress …

Regency Three-Deckers: On the Cusp of Monopoly

In this case, I do not mean the British ships of the line which had three full gun decks and were commonly known as "three-deckers." But the particular books about which I will write this week were named after those powerful battleships. And in their way, those books became as powerful in the circulating libraries as the naval three-deckers were at sea, and in fact, outlived their namesakes by several decades. But what was to become a virtual monopoly on modish fiction publishing first began to solidify during the Regency.

A few facts about fashionable fiction publishing during the Regency …

The Making of Regency Books

Wednesday, 30 October 1811, is generally accepted as the official date of publication of Jane Austen’s first novel, Sense and Sensibility. Though it was not the first novel Austen wrote, it was the first one she would see in print. In honor of that momentous bicentennial, for both fans of Jane Austen and the English Regency in general, this October has been designated book month here at The Regency Redingote. During this month will be published articles about how books were made, about the special form in which the novel was published, and the libraries in which Regency books were housed, to culminate in the story of the publishing of Sense and Sensibility itself.

And so we begin, with an outline of the handcraft of Regency bookmaking …