How Much I Know About the Regency

More than I used to. :)

I will never know everything, but part of the fun is finding out new things.

About six years ago, when I got it into my head the idea to write a regency, I looked for library books on the subject. One of the books I found was What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool.

I was in alt. Here was a list of lots of the things I read about in regencies, but had no idea what they were. Pounds and pence, Parliament sessions, Whitsunday and Michaelmas, quarter days and consols, pelisses, footmen and scullery maids. I was also totally confused. How would I ever remember all this stuff?

I recently reread the book. And, lo and behold, much of the information has become second nature. I guess I've learned a lot in the past few years.

Some will scoff at the book. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew covers both the Regency and the Victorian eras, so not everything is valid for the Regency. And the information is general. But the book is a good overview and has an extensive bibliography and a great glossary.

I will always make errors, and I hope my readers will be forgiving because I try to get things right.

Thank you all,
Linda

The picture is Carlton House, the Prince Regent's home during the Regency, from Wikipedia.

Robert Chambers's THE BOOK OF DAYS

I've always enjoyed the newspaper's This Day in History feature. Imagine my delight when I discovered Robert Chambers's The Book of Days.

The Book of Days: A Miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, including anecdote, biography & history, curiosities of literature, and oddities of human life and character (now there's a TITLE!) is This Day in History plus, a la 1864 England.

Organized by the days of the calendar, each entry provides multiple tidbits of interesting and sometimes abstruse information involving the English history of this day. First comes a list of those who were born and others who died on this day, followed by feast days. Then there are multiple articles on events that occurred on or near this day, or just for fun. For today, February 10, there are essays on Ash Wednesday, Dutch scholar Isaac Vossius, the riot at Oxford on February 10, 1354, the history of the umbrella, and an anecdote by Sir John Dugdale.

The two volumes of the book are available in Google books Volume 1 here and Volume 2 here, but an easier-to-read, online searchable version is here.

Although the book was written in 1864, much of the information is relevant to earlier eras and makes a good source for information on customs and legends.

So, enjoy. You can learn something new every day

Thank you all,
Linda