Hidden Killers of The Victorian Home

©Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. The Pharmacy at Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire.

BBC4′s hour-long documentary Hidden Killers of The Victorian Home  has been one of my recent television highlights. Dr Suzannah Lipscomb reveals some of the hidden horrors lurking in a typical, middle-class, Victorian home.  Joining Dr Lipscomb in her quest to uncover these invisible dangers were a whole host of experts including:  Judith Flanders; Dr Suzy Lishman; Prof. Andrew Meharg; Colin King; Matt Furber; Sarah Nicol; Dr Matthew Avison; Nathan Goss and Max Wagner.

The Victorian era was a time of rapid change. The Industrial Revolution enabled many to prosper, leading to greater social mobility for some and the emergence of the new middle-classes. Dr Lipscomb states that as a result of Industrialisation, by the end of the Victorian era, 25% of the population were categorised as middle-class. The middle-classes, with their disposable income, were looking to splash their cash. Gadgets for domestic use as well as decorative items for the home were a particular favourite and the Victorian consumer was spoilt for choice. However, in this unregulated, pre-trading standards era, the margin for human catastrophe was huge.

Arsenic and lead were two particular toxins that caused many, often unexplained, deaths. In a time before health and safety dominated our everyday lives, danger, sometimes death, was never far away and could be found in the most unlikely of domestic items. Vivid green pigments in wallpaper contained traces of arsenic, children’s toys were coated with lead paint and feeding bottles for babies were breeding grounds for all sorts of diseases making them one of the leading contributors towards infant mortality in Victorian Britain.

©Come Step Back in Time. Tiny waists, a fashionable Victorian look. Exhibit from the Fashion Museum, Bath.

The fashionable silhouettes of the hour-glass shape or ‘wasp’ waist meant that corsets were very tightly laced and vital organs became misshapen. In the BBC4 documentary there featured a liver specimen from a lady whose tight-lacing habits had put so much pressure on her rib-cage that indentations appeared on the organ itself.

©Come Step Back in Time. Exhibit from the Fashion Museum, Bath.

Whilst researching this article, I found the following which appeared in a newspaper from 1895. The piece discusses both trends and dangers of tight-lacing as well as the gradual move towards dress reform – The Rational Dress Society was established in London in 1881. Although, I do get the impression from reading this article that dress reform is viewed by the author with some degree of suspicion: ‘..The dress reformers who are determined to abolish all waists, no matter how sylph-like or how divine..’ The aesthetic for a tiny waist seems to appeal to the author :

Fads in Corsets – Longer in the waist, but not to be laced so tightly. The dress reformers who are determined to abolish all waists, no matter how sylph-like or how divine, will wax indignant when they learn that the latest news of the corset market is the appearance of the longest waisted corset yet offered to women. Heretofore “five clasps and a half” has been considered “extra long”. This gave what the corset experts call a three-inch waist. Women whose anatomy demanded something even longer-waisted than that have had corsets made to order. But now in a few days there will appear a six-clasp corset, and the waist measure thereof will be about four inches – not four inches around, but four inches on the length of the corset bones. This measure of the waist is a term with which most women are not familiar. It means that in bending the corset top and bottom together there is a springy motion which commences a certain distance above the lower edge of the corset. That is the lowest edge of the waist. The point near the top of the corset where the springy action practically ends is the top of the waist. Short-waisted persons may only measure two inches. Four inches indicates that the wearer must either be as slim as a rail or else intend to crowd and crush her vitals into a space that would be almost fatal to a constant wearer after a few years. There is a tendency, however, which all manufacturers and dealers in corsets notice; to wear corsets looser than ever… They [dressmakers] say the ambition of a young woman is to show an hour-glass figure. When she wears tight sleeves and narrow shoulders she laces to secure the hour-glass effect. With the immense sleeves giving such breadth of shoulders it would be perfectly ridiculous to lace into a wasp waist. So the dressmakers claim that the big sleeves are saving many women from death by corsets badly worn. The fact that corsets are worn less tightly laced is partly responsibly for this new six-clasp, four-inch waist style.

(The Western Mail, Saturday 11th May, 1895)

Following marriage, increasing numbers of middle-class women found themselves in charge of running a household for the very first time. A great many of these women had little or no prior knowledge of what this new responsibility entailed. It was to this demographic that domestic goddess, Mrs Isabella Beeton (1836-1865), targeted her famous tome, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1861). Apart from multiple chapters containing recipe suggestions, the book also includes advice on hiring and firing staff, first aid, household legal matters as well as a chapter on the ‘Management of Childhood’.

Particularly relevant to this article is Mrs Beeton’s advice on what to do should a poisoning occur in your home.  (please do not follow this advice in modern-day cases. For suspected incidents of poisoning, you should seek professional medical help IMMEDIATELY. Extract featured is purely for historical interest.):

When an alkali is the poison, give drinks of weak vinegar or lemonade. When an acid, chalk and water, whiting plaster from the walls, or white of egg; if a narcotic, give strong coffee, and do everything to keep the patient awake, walking him about, opening the windows wide, applying cold water to his face, and so on. (p.1874)

©Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. The Pharmacy at Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire.

Until The Pharmacy Act of 1868, the sale, dispensing and compounding of poisons was, to a large extent, unrestricted. Arsenic was used as rat poison, sheep dip and on fly papers and thought to be an effective treatment for malaria, asthma, skin problems, rheumatism and even morning sickness. (Victorian Pharmacy: Rediscovering Forgotten Remedies and Recipes by Eastoe, J. and Goodman, R., 2010, p.121, Pavilion Books). In the early decades of the Victorian era, people were largely ignorant of the harmful effects of ingesting, touching or being close to products containing arsenic. The symptoms of arsenic poisoning (fever, chills and sweating) resembled those associated with cholera, which was one of the nineteenth century’s biggest killers, hence mis-diagnosis and incorrect treatment for arsenic poisoning being commonplace.

Mrs Beeton also gives advice on bottle-feeding, which she refers to in her publication as ‘rearing by hand’. Using feeding bottles during the Victorian era was a very popular alternative to breast-feeding. Some of the bottles were earthenware, made in Staffordshire, others were glass.  They were very difficult to clean and although bottles were supplied with long-handled brushes to help with the task, these receptacles became silent killers due to the fact that fatal germ deposits gradually built-up over time. This led to bottles earning the nickname, ‘killer bottles’. (please do not follow this advice at home for cleaning your baby bottles, follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Extract is featured purely for historical interest). Mrs Beeton recommends:

There are two methods that may be employed in this artificial system of feeding – the one is to give the child its meals from a spoon, the other is to allow it to suck from a bottle. Of these the latter is preferable. It is most essential to the success of this method of feeding that the bottle or bottles be kept scrupulously clean, as dirty bottles frequently give rise to “thrush”. The best form of bottle to use is the boat-shaped one, with a rubber nipple fixed to the end or neck. No bottles with rubber tubes should be used, since milk sticks to the inside of the tube, and cannot be removed. This milk when decomposed will set-up diarrhoea. The bottle and teat must be scalded after each meal in hot water and soda, the teat turned inside out, and both rinsed in cold water. They then should be allowed to stand in cold water in which a little boracic acid has been dissolved. (p.1914)

I came across in the course of research so many interesting newspaper articles reporting incidents of domestic tragedy from this period. Sometimes death was averted and other times not. Quite a few of the articles specifically relate to the consumption of food that unwittingly contains toxic substances.  Since I am currently writing a publication on the history of blancmange, I have chosen here two extracts that relate to the potential hazards of consuming this seemingly innocuous desert:

A Providential Escape – A few days ago one young family of the Hon. A. Ellis, residing at Bognor, were, together with the governess and two maids, nearly poisoned, owing to their having eaten some blancmange, a part of which was coloured a bright light green; very fortunately this green part had an unpleasant taste, which prevented their eating more of it. The medical man who analyzed the remaining quantity found it to contain a verdigris powder. Whilst he had it in a liquid state he dipped into it a knife, which became instantly covered with this green copperas, and he asserts that there was a sufficient portion of this poisonous powder in the quantity analyzed to kill six persons. As it is, the two maids and governess and one of the children are still suffering from its dangerous effects. It appears this powder for colouring the green part had been purchased from a pastrycook in london but it is to be observed that such an article ought never to be sold for such purposes, and this has been inserted as a caution to the public.

(The Blackburn Standard, 18th February, 1846)

Poisoning at a public dinner – great excitement has existed at Northampton, in consequence of the sudden illness of 20 out of about 60 persons who attended a public dinner at the New Hall, which followed the ordination of the Rev. G. Nicholson, B.A., as the minister of the Ring-street dissenting chapel, in the room of the Rev. T. Milner. The viands were of the usual substantial kind, and before the cloth was removed some of the gentlemen were seized with sickness and vomiting, while others were taken ill at a later period of the entertainment. One of them, Mr Cornfield, an accountant in the town, expired at five o’clock on Thursday morning. The dinner was provided by a Mr Franklin, at whose house the whole of the cooking utensils were seized by order of the magistrates. At the inquest held on the body of the deceased, the medical witnesses stated that they had detected copper in the green colouring stuff which coated the blancmange used at the dinner. A verdict of “Manslaughter” was accordingly returned against Mr Franklin, by whom the dinner was provided, and against Randall, the cook.

(The Examiner, 17th June, 1848)

©Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire.

©Come Step Back in Time. Doctor’s House and Surgery. Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire.

©Come Step Back in Time. Interior of the Doctor’s House and Surgery, no. 2 Furnace Bank. Rebuilt brick-by-brick, a majority of one Duke of Sutherland’s cottage built on Wellington Road (no.15), Donnington, Telford. 1862. Opened on site 22nd October, 1986.

On my recent trip to the excellent Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire, I wandered in and out of the many shops and cosy cottages with their glowing ranges and welcoming costumed inhabitants. I tried to imagine what life must have really been like for those living in an industrial town during Victorian times. It is all too easy to foster a rose-tinted view of Victorian life.

©Come Step Back in Time. Inside the Doctor’s House and Surgery, Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire.

©Come Step Back in Time. Inside the Doctor’s House and Surgery, Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire.

Documentaries such as Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home are a stark reminder, to anyone interested in the social history of the period, to look for the truth behind the social myth.

©Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire.

Blists Hill is not actually a real town, it has been developed over a number of years by The Ironbridge Gorge Trust and covers an area of fifty-two acres. Its purpose is to immerse visitors in the atmosphere of a small industrial town at a pivotal time in British history – the period between 1890 and 1910, late Victorian early Edwardian.

©Come Step Back in Time. Inside McClures General Draper and Outfitters, no. 3 Canal Street, Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire. An original building from Stafford Place, Oakengates, Telford (exterior and shop front only). c.1880. Opened on site on 4th April, 2009.

©Come Step Back in Time. Grocery and Provisions Shop (A.F. Blakemore & Son), no. 7 High Street. An exact replica of Owen’s Grocer’s shop and warehouse, Market Street, Oakengates, Telford, Shropshire. c.1890. Many of the items on display in the shop are from Chester’s Salopian Stores, Westbury, Shropshire. The shop opened on site on 14th July 2000.

In 2013, Blists Hill celebrates its 40th anniversary. Many of the buildings on the site are original and are from other parts of the region but have been saved and reconstructed to create the Victorian Town you see today. What is remarkable about the site is the fact that in the 1960s when historic buildings were being swept away to make room for modern constructions, the forward thinking Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust stepped in and managed to rescue some of them, ensuring that our heritage is now preserved for future generations to enjoy and study. After this initial period of rescue and reconstruction, the focus of Blists Hill shifted toward turning the site into a Victorian Town:

…the focus of Blists Hill shifted as people and not processes became the new priority. Efforts turned to recreating a coherent environment in which visitors could experience what it was like to live and work when Britain was the Workshop of the World at the very end of the 19th century. Blists Hill Open Air Museum became Blists Hill Victorian Town.

But Blists Hill has never been just a museum of buildings and old things. When the decision was made in the 1980s to put museum staff into Victorian costume, carefully replicated from original patterns, a new standard of interpretation was born. The site came to life. Since then, professional actors have added another dimension to street life, and special themed events have helped emphasise the significance of customs and traditions in the lives of ordinary working class Victorians.

(Blists Hill Victorian Town Souvenir Guidebook, 2011, p.51 & 53, Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust)

If you were a fan of the BBC’s Victorian Pharmacy (2010) then you may will recognise Blists Hill’s Bates & Hunt’s Pharmacy and Chemist’s shop as being the location used for the series. I could have spent hours in Bates & Hunt’s Pharmacy examining all the pills, potions and lotions that have been superbly re-displayed.

©Come Step Back in Time. Interior of the Pharmacy at Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire.

The Pharmacy is based on an original building which was located at the corner shop, Constitution Hill, Wellington, Telford in Shropshire. The date of the store is c.1890 and the contents come from West Cliffe Pharmacy (latterly Pars & Co.), Poole Hill, Bournemouth. The Pharmacy has been at Blists Hill since 9th July, 1984.

• For more information about and to plan a visit to Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire, CLICK HERE;
• For more information about events at Blists Hill and the other Ironbridge museums, CLICK HERE.
  

  ©Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire.

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Mr Watt, Grumpy Man of Metal Exhibition by Jon Mills at Enginuity, Ironbridge, Shropshire

 

©Jon Mills. Mr Watt, Grumpy Man of Metal, Exhibition by artist Jon Mills at Enginuity, Ironbridge, Shropshire.

Mr Watt, Grumpy Man of Metal, is an exhibition by blacksmith artist Jon Mills, currently running until 31st August 2013 at Enginuity Design & Technology Centre, one of the ten Ironbridge Gorge Museums in Shropshire. The exhibition features fun and whimsical sculptures showing the many adventures of Mr Watt, Grumpy Man of Metal, the central character in a series of illustrated books that appeal to both young and old alike. Jon has written a short article on his blog about the exhibition which includes some nice images of the metalworks in situ.

©Jon Mills

 

©Jon Mills

Mr Watt lives in a curious metal world and makes many unusual metal objects, such as a crab’s bicycle, a flying machine and a new kind of trumpet. Other sculptures on display include the runaway train from the book On the Wrong Track; the parson and his church from Under Wear and Tear; the witch from A Brush with Evil and the astro-barrow from Space… the Final Front Door. The artist has created a short video (2011) showing Mr Watt being made at his Brighton-based workshop. Filming and soundtrack by Arthur Mills.

©Jon Mills

Gillian Crumpton, Curatorial Officer at the Museum commented: “Jon’s work is technically outstanding and visually fascinating. We are sure that visitors will love looking at the many sculptures and following Mr Watt’s adventures.” To view sample pages form the book of Mr Watt’s adventures, CLICK HERE. I found this exhibition to be a complete delight when I visited it last month. The quality of craftmanship in Jon’s work is exquisite and a closer inspection is highly recommended. The metal vignettes do have an air of quirkiness about them and reminded me of some of the creations by film-maker Tim Burton.

©Jon Mills

©Jon Mills

Mr Watt, Grumpy Man of Metal’s creator, Jon Mills, was born in Birmingham in 1959 into a family of metalworkers and studied 3-Dimensional Design BA (Hons) at Wolverhampton before helping to found Brighton’s Red Herring Studios in 1983. In the mid 1980s he honed his skills at brazing, forging, laser-cutting and welding and exhibited work at One Off, Ron Arad’s London workshop and gallery.

In 1988, Jon created a music machine for a Terry Jones/Monty Python film, Erik the Viking (1989). You can view the original music machine sketch on the artist’s blog, CLICK HERE as well as the finished item, CLICK HERE.

In recent years, Jon has been involved in major architectural commissions, inventing exciting structures that engage with their surroundings whether in cities or in the countryside. His output is extraordinarily diverse and charmingly subversive. He makes dangerous toys and automata, dysfunctional furniture and an amazing range of sculpture with themes that are witty, whimsical, and sometimes darkly Gothic. Jon’s vast body of work has been shown extensively in Great Britain as well as in the USA, Europe and Japan.

Mills is very much a hands-on maker, preferring to produce one-off designs. Occasionally clients have ordered repeats on a similar theme, but Mills has tended to resist mass or batch production, opting instead for a more spontaneous approach – the evolving of ideas through the making process, be it cupboard or bridge. He has undertaken numerous residencies in schools, normally in conjunction with a specific commission, often incorporating elements of the children’s work into the finished piece.

(Quote taken from Artist’s own website, CLICK HERE)

Enginuity  is the perfect setting for Jon’s work to be exhibited. It is a fabulous and fun environment that brings together history and technology. Different zones – Energy, Green and Design – encourage visitors to interact with exhibits which enhances their understanding of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics behind objects, past and present. This ‘hands-on’ approach works extremely well and creates a vibrant, educational space that has a cross-generational appeal.

Create ‘Sticky Critters’ at Enginuity – Easter Holidays, 29th March-14th April 2013

In my view, the educational facilities at Enginuity are quite some of the best I have seen offered by any Museum. They include a vast warehouse style area with plenty of space for you and your family to get creative. When I visited last month, the workshop area was full of objects, old and new, to help inspire your artistic endeavours.

During the Easter school holidays this year, Enginuity are hosting a great fun family event. Use your imagination to design and create fun ‘sticky critters’ from craft materials inspired by the suction capabilities of an octopus, then discover how long they can cling to an upright glass surface. Paper, card, plastic and other materials will be used to make the designs based on frogs, geckos and octopus or any other creature of your own invention. The drop-in Nature’s Engineers family workshops will be held from Friday 29th March until Sunday 14th April, between 10.30am and 3.45pm.  Activities will vary from day-to-day and some additional costs will apply.

Museums at Night (Thursday 16 – Saturday 18 May 2013) – Julian Wild’s sculptures

Recently, The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Shropshire beat-off stiff competition in the national Connect10 Competition, to secure international artist Julian Wild to work with the Ironbridge Gorge Museums during the Museums at Night event in May. The Connect10 Competition is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Museums at Night (Thursday 16 – Saturday 18 May 2013) is a national initiative by Culture 24 that encourages museums to remain open after hours for one night a year, allowing as many people as possible to visit their local museums. Across the country the public have been voting to send ten different artists to ten varied museums to work on a variety of inspirational projects.

Anna Brennand, Deputy Chief Executive Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust commented; “We are really grateful to everyone that voted for us in this competition, it is wonderful to know that in their busy lives our supporters found the time to vote for us. We are thrilled to be welcoming an artist of Julian Wild’s calibre to Enginuity in May and hope that everyone will come along to help him make an amazing sculpture from glow-in-the-dark pipes during the Museum at Night event”. The Museum will publish full details of the event in the coming weeks on www.ironbridge.org.uk.

Julian Wild’s sculptures are often based on the history of a site and resemble three-dimensional doodles. His vision for the sculpture at Enginuity is that members of the local community will help him create a giant work of art, inspired by structures in the Gorge, from pipes.

Ironbridge – 2012 Most Highly Recommended UNESCO World Heritage Site in the UK According to  TripAdvisor®

On Come Step Back in Time, over the coming weeks, I am delighted to be able to share with you a series of fascinating feature articles that I have written about The Ironbridge World Heritage Site, its museums and world-class collections. Ironbridge Gorge has been voted the 2012 most highly recommended UNESCO World Heritage Site in the UK according to the TripAdvisor® traveller community. It also takes second place in the world behind the Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa, China and ahead of the Egyptian Pyramids and India’s Taj Mahal. It was not hard to see why Ironbridge had received this accolade. When I visited last month I found it to be truly worthy of its status as a national heritage treasure.

• Enginuity is open 10am to 5pm and is one of the ten Ironbridge Gorge Museums;
• A great value Annual Passport Ticket  allowing entry into all ten museums, valid for twelve months and unlimited return visits, costs £23.25 per adult, £18.75 for the 60 plus, £15.25 for students and children and £64 for a family of two adults and all their children aged up to 18 years in full-time education (terms and conditions apply); under 5s free;
• Individual museum entry tickets are also available;
• Activities and workshops vary day-to-day and some carry an extra charge in addition to the museum admission fee.
  

  ©Jon Mills

 

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Heath Robinson Exhibition – St. Barbe Museum & Art Gallery

‘The Fairy’s Birthday’. Pen, ink and watercolour by Heath Robinson published in Holly Leaves, December, 1925, p.21. Heath Robinson’s goblins appeared in the Christmas Numbers of a variety of magazines between 1919-1929. They are distinguished by their homely and somewhat bumbling appearance. They may be short-sighted, overweight and suffer from pains in their joints or shortness of breath. They may have a rustic quality and may well have been based on the characters that Heath met in and around Cranleigh. © William Heath Robinson Trust. St. Barbe Museum & Art Gallery.

I was delighted to be asked to review an exhibition showcasing a collection of precise ink drawings and delicate watercolours by William Heath Robinson (1872 – 1944) which is currently on at St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery, Lymington, Hampshire until Saturday 20^th April, 2013. The Heath Robinson exhibition is supported by Rathbones investment management services. This exhibition, from the William Heath Robinson Trust, showcases illustrations he produced for works by William Shakespeare, Hans Christian Anderson and Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) as well as for his own books. There will also, of course, be a number of his much-loved designs for eccentric contraptions and humorous drawings.

Heath Robinson has become a byword for the eccentric and rickety inventions which he created. In the 1930s, he was known as the ‘Gadget King’, a remarkable title given that in real life Heath was not very practically minded. He had only ever been abroad once, towards the end of the First World War, when he illustrated scenes from the western front. At the beginning of his career he was ranked with Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) and Edmund Dulac (1882-1953) as one of Britain’s foremost illustrators.

Heath counted among his friends, authors H.G. Wells (1866-1946) and Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), Heath illustrated Kipling’s A Song of The English (1909, published by Hodder & Stoughton), which celebrated Edwardian pride in the Empire. Heath visited Kipling in Sussex to discuss the book. Illustrations from the publication feature in the exhibition.

Heath was born on 31st May 1872 at 25 Ennis Road, Stroud Green, London. His father Thomas Robinson (1838-1902) chief illustrator of Penny Illustrated Paper and his mother, Eliza Heath (1849-1921), an innkeeper’s daughter. The Robinsons had seven children, Heath was their third child. Heath’s elder brothers Thomas (1869-1953) and Charles (1870-1937) also became well-known book illustrators.

Heath attended Miss Mole’s dame-school, Holloway College from 1880 to 1884 and Islington proprietary school from 1884 to 1887. He did not thrive in education, a fact which his father recognised removing him, aged fifteen, from the proprietary school and sending him instead to Islington Art School, where he remained for five years. He won a studentship to the Royal Academy Schools, graduating in January 1897, aged twenty-five. Whilst at the RA, Heath had become an accomplished landscape painter but subsequently struggled to make a living selling his artworks. Heath’s passion for painting remained with him for the rest of his life, in his spare time he continued to produce landscapes, experimenting with effects of light and colour, as well as figure studies in watercolour.

In order to further his artistic career he decided to join his brothers who were already working as illustrators. Although being an illustrator was a respectable profession, it could be notoriously difficult to make a living from. However, Heath had real talent for humorous art which made him much in demand, especially in the world of advertising. He also took the occasional commission for book and magazine illustrations (The Sketch, The Bystander and The Tatler).

Some of Heath’s earliest book illustrations were published in 1897 and by 1900 he had illustrated editions of The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, Fairy Tales From Hans Christian Anderson (1899, published by J. M. Dent) and The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (1900, these illustrations were influenced by the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898)). Copies of the Poe publication are extremely rare, a limited edition of only seventy-five copies were produced, printed on Japanese vellum. He illustrated Anderson’s Fairy Tales with his brothers, Thomas and Charles.

‘The Aeronaut’ by Heath Robinson © William Heath Robinson Trust. St. Barbe Museum & Art Gallery.

Heath’s fortunes improved when he illustrated his own fantasy for children The Adventures of Uncle Lubin (1902, published by Grant Richards). He wrote about this publication in his biography, My Line of Life (1938, published by Blackie & Son): ‘The story is episodic in form, telling the tale of Uncle Lubin, a little old man in a tall hat and long coat, as he attempts to retrieve his nephew, Baby Peter, from the clutches of the wicked bag-bird.’

This book was particularly important, although not a best seller, it did earn Heath enough money to enable him to marry Josephine Constance Latey (1878-1974), the daughter of newspaper editor John Latey, on 30th April, 1903, they set-up home in Holloway Road. As luck would have it, a Canadian by name of Chase Ed. Potter had read Lubin and commissioned Heath to illustrate some advertisements he was writing for Lamson Paragon Supply Company. Heath was paid, in cash, for each drawing.

In 1903, Heath embarked upon his most ambitious project to-date, The Works of Mr Francis Rabelais, commissioned by Grant Richards. The book contained two hundred and fifty-four illustrations, a hundred of which were full-page illustrations, the rest smaller ones. The book was published in 1904 in two large quarto volumes to critical acclaim. Unfortunately, Grant Richards went bankrupt in November 1904 leaving Heath short of the monies that he had hoped to earn.

Heath moved to Pinner, Middlesex, in 1908 and lived there with his family until 1918, residing at Moy Lodge from 1910. Following his move to Pinner and until 1914, Heath continued to produce book illustrations as well as cartoons for The Sketch and The Strand Magazine, amongst other periodicals. He moved to Cranleigh in Surrey in 1918 remaining there until 1929, when he relocated to Highgate, London. In Highgate, he first lived in Shepherd’s Hill and later 25 Southwood Avenue, close to where he had spent a majority of his childhood.

‘Rough sketch for doubling Gloucester cheese’ by Heath Robinson.
© William Heath Robinson Trust. St. Barbe Museum & Art Gallery.

One of Heath’s finest achievements as an illustrator were forty-one pen and ink drawings for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1914, published by Constable & Co). A contemporary review, in The Times Literary Supplement, described the publication as: ‘The most complete and beautiful specimen before us of an illustrated book as a single work of art…’. A copy of the publication is on display in the exhibition. There is an inscription in the front of this book, which is on display in the exhibition, from Heath to his mother: ‘To my good mother with very best wishes from her affectionate son, will.’

In 1915, Heath produced illustrations for The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) (published by Constable & Co). The edition was originally planned as a lavish gift book but due to the economic climate at the end of World War One, it was published as a modest octavo volume. The illustrations are some of Heath’s finest and show a clear influence of Japanese prints. The Japanese style influenced an entire generation of illustrators.

At the end of World War One, despite the market for lavishly illustrated gift books having all but disappeared, Heath’s talents were still in demand. He obtained a number of commissions for illustrations to appear in advertisements and magazines. Between 1903 and 1942, he produced about a hundred advertising drawings for a wide range of products including Mackintosh Toffees, biscuits, asbestos cement roofs, whiskey and paper. He had a particular talent for parodying the processes by which the various products were made as well as contrasting some of the more desirable qualities of these products. The drawings often took the form of ‘before and after’, i.e. unhappy scenes where the product was absent and happy scenes where the product’s inclusion made everything appear better. A campaign of particular note was for Hovis bread.

‘German breaches of the Hague Convention – Huns using siphons of laughing gas to overcome our troops before an attack in close formation.’ Pen, ink, watercolour and bodycolour. Published in The Sketch, August 1915. © William Heath Robinson Trust. St. Barbe Museum & Art Gallery.

Between 1920 and 1936, Heath produced over two hundred drawings for Connolly Bros. (Curriers) Ltd, a majority of which are still in the company’s possession. These collection of drawings were published by the firm as Heath Robinson on Leather, to commemorate the company’s 50th anniversary, in 1928, and were reissued to mark the company’s centenary in 1978. The exhibition includes examples of Heath’s illustrations for both Hovis and the Connolly Bros. (Curriers) Ltd. A particularly delightful illustration for the latter is ‘William the Conqueror appreciates the comfort of leather when crossing the Channel’, pen and ink, 1933.

In January 1921, Heath was commissioned by Jonathan Cape to produce colour illustrations for a complete works of Shakespeare. He completed the drawings in June 1922.  Unfortunately, only a handful of these colour illustrations still exist, several rare examples of which are in the exhibition. Jonathan Cape could not find an American partner to share the cost of publication and because of the continuing decline in the market for illustrated books, the edition was never published.

In 1927, Heath produced sixteen designs in full colour, based on popular nursery rhymes, which featured on a range of nursery china for Soane & Smith, Knightsbridge. The china was produced by W. R. Midwinter of Burslem, Staffordshire. Examples from this range can been seen in the exhibition. The attention to detail in the frieze of children’s faces is exquisite. This frieze appeared on the inside rim of cups, bowls and around the outside edge of plates and porringers.

Other characters featured included: goblins; Jack Spratt and his wife; Tom, Tom the Piper’s son and the old woman who lived in a shoe. The range was extensive and ran to cereal bowls, saucers, jam pots, sugar bowls, mugs, egg cups and even a tureen.  The service was so popular that it was later sold through a variety of outlets, although the later designs were simplified with the frieze of children’s faces replaced by a simple band of dark blue or pale green.

One of my favourite drawings in the exhibition is a pen, ink and watercolour sketch produced by Heath in 1930 for the luxury trans-Atlantic liner, RMS Empress of Britain (1931) operated by Canadian Pacific Steamship Company which was built in Scotland. The sketch is divided into two parts, the top features a suggested design for ‘The ‘Knickerbocker’ Cocktail Bar’ and the bottom half of the sketch is a design for ‘The Children’s Room’. A closer look at the drawing for the Cocktail Bar reveals some of Heath’s humorous touches. This illustration draws its inspiration from experiences of drinking a cocktail, which according to Heath make you affectionate, give you courage, nerve and produce human kindness. There is also a Cocktail Bird, A Pleasant Surprise and Cocktail shaking in the East.

The Empress of Britain operated from 1931 until 1939 as a steam passenger liner designed to carry 1,195 passengers (465 first class, 260 second class and 470 third class). During the summer months it sailed along the England-Canada route. In 1939, it was requisitioned for war work and became a troop carrier. It was torpedoed on 28th October, 1940 by a German U-boat (U-32) on the northwest of Bloody Foreland, County Donegal, Ireland. Mystery still surrounds the cargo it was supposed to be carrying at the time. It was thought to have been a shipment of gold, bound for North America, a fact that has never been proved.

Another intriguing pen and ink drawing, which I last saw whilst an art history undergraduate, is from How To Live In A Flat (1936), by W. H. Robinson and K.R.G. Browne, published by Hutchison & Co. ’The One-Piece Chromium Steel Dining Suite’ makes a striking social statement about the popularity of flat-dwelling in the interwar years and contains humorous touches by Heath. In the following extract from the publication, explanation is given for another of Heath’s illustrations: ‘A vote of thanks, therefore, is due to Mr Heath Robinson for demonstrating that a certain amount of quiet fun can be extracted even from the last word in geometrical carpetry. Carpet draughts, they tell me, is just the thing for the long winter evenings, and as it can be played sitting-down – will keep the old folks happy and amused while the young people are out at the movies.’ (Robinson & Browne, 1936, p.42).

In 1944, Heath underwent exploratory surgery, following which he returned home to Southwood Avenue, Highgate, where he died of a stroke on 13th September, later on in the same year. He is buried at St. Marylebone cemetery, East Finchley. This quality exhibition is a delight for both children and adults, it is guaranteed to make you smile and raise a chuckle.

Tickets to the Heath Robinson exhibition and St. Barbe Museum, which is open between 10am and 4pm, Monday to Saturday, cost £4 for adults, £3 for senior citizens and students, £2 for children aged five to 15, and £10 for a family of two adults and up to four children; under fives are admitted free of charge. For more details visit www.stbarbe-museum.org.uk or telephone 01590 676969.

• Thursday 11th April, 2013, 10.30am-3.30pm there is a Heath Robinson themed Family Explorer Day at St. Barbe Museum. The Museum’s Explorer Days are engaging and fun hands-on creative activities for children and their family, including the opportunity to handle museum objects. Price is included in admission. Day ticket: Adult £4, Concession £3, Child £2, Family £10. For further information, CLICK HERE.
  

  Arts & Crafts selling Exhibition featuring work by regional artists, currently on at The Old School Gallery, St. Barbe Museum, Lymington until 13th April, 2013.

Arts & Crafts Exhibition – 9th March until 13th April, 2013

The Old School Gallery – St. Barbe Museum

An added bonus when you visit the Heath Robinson exhibition, is the Arts and Crafts Exhibition currently on at The Old School Gallery, located in the same building as the Museum. This is the Museum’s first selling exhibition, showcasing arts and crafts by regional artists:  Carol-Anne Savage (contemporary jewellery); Victoria Garland Prints (Prints); Mrs Ollie Chappell (Raku Ceramics); Sue Baker (papier mâché fish); Paul Reeves (beautifully turned wooden objects made from wood found in and around the New Forest or from dead or fallen trees) and Michael Turner (stainless steel sculpture). The range of items for sale is excellent and of an exceptionally high standard.

Sue Baker’s papier mâché fish looked striking hung on the white-washed walls of The Old School Gallery. Her inspiration for the fish comes from when she lived in Cornwall: ‘I’ve always enjoyed messing about with paints and drawing, and enjoy the point where craft and art overlap. I fell into the papier mâché interest over twenty years ago. Having tried a few experiments following ideas in a book. I decided I preferred to do my own thing. The fish theme developed from there. Living in Cornwall, where I was born (I moved to Dorset ten years ago), the fish were an obvious choice I suppose. I started making imaginative fish; but the demand for realistic fish grew, so I seem to make them exclusively now.’

Sculptor Michael Turner’s steel lion looking majestic in the entrance of St. Barbe Museum, Lymington. The lion is for sale. Price on application.

A stainless steel lion by Lymington based sculptor Michael Turner, which is positioned in the Museum’s entrance, proved to be a big hit with both adults and children on the Saturday I visited. If you have travelled through Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 in recent years, you may well have seen Michael’s lion on display there. The lion is for sale, price on application.

Michael describes his work thus: ‘I have been a sculptor for over fifteen years now. I enjoy using recycled stainless steel. In our throw away society, it’s great for me to be able to take discarded material and turn it into something beautiful, and every project takes on a new challenge. My inspiration mainly comes from nature in all its forms. I am especially fascinated by insects which I never tire of reproducing, experimenting constantly with different types of finishes on the basic stainless steel. I use polishing, paint and heat effects to produce a unique piece every time. My work is exhibited in selected galleries and recently featured in Harvey Nichols’ London and Edinburgh stores, as well as the Royal West of England Academy.’

• The Arts & Crafts Exhibition continues at St. Barbe Museum, until 13th April, 2013.

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Charmed Life: The Solace of Objects – Exhibition at Winchester Discovery Centre

Unstrung – wax on mirror back series, 2011.© Felicity Powell

It seems that the soul… loses itself in itself when shaken and disturbed unless given something to grasp on to; and so we must always provide it with an object to butt up against and to act upon.

(Michel de Montaigne, Essais, 1580)

I recently visited the exhibition, Charmed Life: The Solace of Objects, currently on at The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre until 14th April, 2013. Free admission. Charmed Life is a touring exhibition of three hundred and eighty amulets from the Wellcome Collection, London in partnership with Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford and curated by artist Felicity Powell. The exhibition was originally part of the Miracles & Charms programme, exploring the ordinary in the everyday, organised by the Wellcome Collection and which opened on 6th October 2011 and ran until 26th February 2012.

Conjuring coral – wax on mirror back series, 2011. © Felicity Powell

Charmed Life is beautiful and challenging. If you are interested in social history and visual art, this exhibition is the perfect combination of both and suitable for children too. Whilst viewing Charmed Life, a number of families arrived, the children were fascinated by the bizarre array of objects on display, the mole feet amulet proved particularly popular.

Amulets have appeared throughout history and across cultures in a variety of forms. They are tiny embodiments of the anxieties we feel and their assumed powers often draw on the dark arts of superstition and magic. Those on display range from simple coins to meticulously carved shells, dead animals to elaborately fashioned notes. The objects in the exhibition were collected by the banker and obsessive folklorist Edward Lovett (1852-1933) who scoured London by night, buying curious objects mostly from the East End.

Edward Lovett lived in Croydon and his huge collection grew from his fascination with folklore, charms, amulets and superstitions. He worked as a banker at the Bank of Scotland in the City of London and ‘..in his leisure time he took great pleasure in his collecting trips to the working-class areas of London. He acquired a wealth of material from sites such as herbalist shops, the barrows of costermongers and the city’s dockyards, collecting from people neglected by most historians.’  (Felicity Powell, Charmed Life, booklet, 2011).

In 1916, at the Wellcome Collection (formerly known as the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum) he curated the exhibition The Folklore of London and in 1925 he published a book, Magic in Modern London. In this publication he describes the strange little mole feet that amused the exhibition’s young visitors: ‘The front feet of a mole are permanently curved for digging, and this curved appearance is so suggestive of cramp that these feet are carried as a cure for cramp. (I have also found this superstition quite common on the continent).’

Blue glass beads, displayed in a perspex, wall-mounted cabinet, also caught my eye. Lovett writes about these in Magic in Modern London: ‘In the year 1914, I heard of a remarkable case of prejudice, or superstition, as to the wearing of blue glass beads by children as a cure for, or rather, a prophylactic against bronchitis. They are put on the necks of very young children and never taken off, not even when the wearers are washed or bathed. They are not taken off even at death.’

Lovett had a particular fascination with these blue glass beads and set-out to create a map of London showing exact locations where the beads were being sold. ‘I made a rough outline sketch of a map of London taking in…. 26 districts. I took it quite easily by devoting one day to each of these places…the shops where I made my enquiries were of two classes; viz: A poor class shop..[and] a better class of shop…every shop of the low-class recognised the blue beads as a cure for bronchitis, but not a single shop of the better class knew anything about it, or if they did would not admit it.’ I know several people who wear a St. Christopher around their neck and never remove it for anything or anybody, in case its protective properties should disappear.

Runaway tree – wax on mirror back series, 2009. © Felicity Powell

A majority of amulets, selected by Felicity from Lovett’s Collection, appear as a river of objects in the exhibit, ‘The Table’ which is a perspex, horseshoe-shaped display case located at the heart of the gallery. Felicity explains: ‘Lovett collected stories as well as objects. He was passionate about collecting. Horseshoes were thought to protect the person against night nerves.’

I was transfixed by Felicity’s taxonomy of amulets which had been so carefully and precisely arranged. Although curated with precision, these objects lost none of their beauty by being repositioned in a different context. A context which no longer consigns the object to a concealed existence as a harbinger of sympathetic magic. These amulets, now protected by their perspex shell, have been freed to create new narratives, drawing the viewer into the powerful world of belief. ‘The ebb and flow of objects across the table introduces us to a visually led taxonomy that links the amulets materially, thematically and by association, allows for insights that emerge across the groupings…Each object speaks of a physical relationship to the world and most particularly to our bodies.’ (Felicity Powell, Charmed Life, booklet, 2011).

The categories of objects displayed in ‘The Table’ include: against nightmares; on concealment, flesh and bone; against lightning; thunderbolts; plants;  nail, tooth and claw; foodstuffs and journey; game charms; a parade of shoes; on glass and artifice; of the sea and sailors; against the evil eye; pressed metal; votives and shrines; varied hearts; on roundness; stones with holes; fossils, crosses and phalluses and key attachments. The amulets range from obvious symbols of protection (such as a crystal and silk thread to be hung from your umbrella, protecting you against a lightning strike) to the more grotesque and macabre (the tip of a rabbit’s tongue against poverty). I was particularly drawn to a tiny little pot, which had the inscription ‘rice thrown for luck at a wedding, Caterham, September, 05′ [1905], the owner of this miniscule keepsake obviously hoping that the good ‘luck’ would rub-off onto them wherever they carried it.

Felicity tells me: ‘Amulets would have been concealed upon a person and have meant something to the individual who carried them. Each amulet has their own fascinating story to tell, particularly about the human need to connect to objects which transcends time periods, cultures and classes. During the course of my research I became fascinated by ‘touch-pieces’. In the original 2011 exhibition, we had Dr Johnson’s touch-piece from The British Museum. This type of coin was believed to be imbued by the divine touch of a monarch and would be worn around the owner’s neck as a cure for individuals suffering from scrofula, a disease of the lymphatic system, from which Dr Johnson himself suffered. The coin was given to him by Queen Anne in 1711. Occasions where these coins were given-out were huge theatrical events. Dr Johnson wore the touch-piece around his neck for the rest of his life.’

Heart-shaped late medieval bronze heart found in the grounds of Hyde Abbey.©Winchester City Museums.

A clever curatorial twist in the exhibition was the inclusion of two archaeological artifacts local to Hampshire. Felicity tells me: ‘I was presented with a choice of six artifacts from Winchester City Museum. I chose two objects whose provenance I felt to be in-keeping with the other amulets in the exhibition. A Roman lead curse and a late medieval heart-shaped amulet of bronze that had been found in grounds of Hyde Abbey, near Winchester.’

The lead tablet is from the Roman town of Silchester (4th Century AD) and was originally folded but is now opened-up to reveal a curse which interestingly contains named individuals. The curse reads: ‘Him who was stolen, let the god give a nasty blow.’ The folded section of the tablet is where the names were concealed. This amulet is not designed to offer protection.

Roman lead curse (4th century AD).©Winchester City Museums.

Charmed Life also contains new pieces and videos by Felicity Powell including an etched coin (‘Against insomnia, for sleep, against amnesia, for memory’ 2011) and eighteen small-scale wax artworks, part of a larger ongoing series, that relate directly to amulets in the Lovett collection. The hauntingly beautiful music featured in both videos is by composer William Basinski. The video, Sleight of Hand, shows part of the process of making the wax artworks. ’Powell filmed the making of her own small-scale works in wax with an overhead camera, revealing how they take shape, and playing with the sense that making and engaging with objects is in itself rather like being under a spell. The scale of the projection offers a counterbalance to the intricacy of the waxes themselves and allows the possibility of revealing things that are otherwise hard to see with the naked eye.’ (Felicity Powell, Charmed Life booklet, 2011). The translucent, white and red wax pieces have been modelled in low relief on the backs of mirrors with the imagery worked out directly on the mirror surface. The basic shape is laid down in wax applied with the fingers and then details are refined with dental tools. The wax on mirror back series is full of delicate imagery that appears to be in a constant state of flux, which Felicity describes as ‘morphing between states of being.’

Bees – wax on mirror back series, 2009. © Felicity Powell

The second video, Scanning, is based on MRI and CT/PET scans of the artist’s body, overlaid with images drawn directly from the Lovett collection. In one sequence an image of a transparent rotating torso with the heart at the centre is gradually encircled with the inward-spiralling text of the Lord’s Prayer as written by George Yeofound on his amulet of 1872.

‘On 9th September, 1872 in Southampton, Hampshire the eighty-eight year old George Yeofound wrote the Prayer in ink on both sides of a small disc of paper, the size of a small coin, that is really only legible when magnified. The edges of the paper are cut into points in order for it to wrap around the edge of a coin. This amulet is one of Felicity’s favourite in the exhibition. It is known that this object was part of Lovett’s collection of mascots and amulets carried by soldiers in World War I. This particular prayer was carried by a soldier of the Middlesex Regiment in 1917, but who he was and what happened to him are unknown.’ (Felicity Powell, Charmed Life, booklet, 2011).

Felicity explained to me why this amulet became so special to her: ‘I didn’t realise how important this object was to become to me as I worked with it over time. I traced Yeofound’s handwriting and found it to be urgent in style but formed into a perfect spiral, the text just kept going. In retracing his writing, it felt as if his hand reached across a century and a half. I found working on piece to be meditative, I felt I had a real connection with George and the object’s history. The object’s point of focus is its time and place in the mapping of life and events. This tiny piece of paper had travelled through time before it came to light.’

Tentacled – wax on mirror back series, 2006. © Felicity Powell

I asked Felicity about the type of wax that had been used to create the wax on mirror back series and were any special measures required to conserve them? ‘The wax is standard white modelling wax, light in colour so that pigments can be added, it also contains a lot of powder filler. I lay down the basic shape in wax using my fingers. The wax is lovely to work with and retains its translucency. Wax is easy to conserve as it is a very stable medium which holds its own over time. In The British Museum’s medal collection there are a number of eighteenth century wax and slate models made by the Hamerani family. All of which are still in good condition.’ I was also intrigued to find-out the reasons behind Felicity’s choice of modelling tools, why dental? ‘I know of a lot of artists who use dental tools for modelling, shaping and making marks. They are very good to hold in the hand too. The instruments also come with a wide range of different ends.’

Charmed Life continues at The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre until 14th April, 2013. Free admission. It is excellent and well-worth a trip to Winchester to view.

Deep water – wax on mirror back series, 2009. © Felicity Powell

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Food Glorious Food – ITV

Food Glorious Food (ITV) Judges (L-R) Anne Harrison, Loyd Grossman, Carol Vorderman, Tom Parker Bowles and Stacie Stewart. Wednesdays, 8-9pm, ITV 1. © Optomen / Syco

I am delighted to tell you about a major new British television series just started on ITV 1, Food Glorious Food. If you love heritage food then this is the programme for you. Do not be swayed by the critics who have been unnecessarily harsh on what is actually a great show put together by a world-class production team (Optomen International and Syco tv). Contrary to what you may have read, the series is NOT trying to copy BBC’s Great British Bake Off neither is the aim of the show to find the next Masterchef. 

On Food Glorious Food, over the coming weeks, you will see a fascinating and engaging series that brings together food and family like never before. A judging team of four passionate food experts travel the country in search of the very best home cooked recipes. Behind every treasured recipe there is an interesting back story which is often bursting with family history and nostalgia.

I can reveal to you now that one of my aforementioned ‘secret media projects’ has been my involvement with Food Glorious Food. My passion for making blancmanges, in particular using my great, great grandmother’s Wedgwood mould as well as researching the history of this long-forgotten dessert, led me to being selected to take part in the show. My judge was the delightful Tom Parker Bowles and we shared a number of interesting conversations about Mrs Beeton and other luminaries from the annals of food history.

I am also in the cookbook that accompanies the series (see below for details) and if you turn to page 86 you will find my recipe for vintage lavender and lemon blancmange which I hope you have as much fun recreating as I did experimenting with it. How far did I progress in the show? Well, I am not able to tell you that at the moment but if you tune-in to ITV 1 on Wednesday 20th March (South-East regional heat) you can watch me begin my Food Glorious Food journey. What I can tell you is that it was a jolly good adventure and has left me with many memories that I will treasure forever.

I recently launched my new website, Viva Blancmange, which celebrates retro food as well as being a platform from which I will continue my campaign to revive the blancmange. My aim is to put this long forgotten dessert back onto the British menu within the next year. (CLICK HERE). My loyal band of readers need not panic, Come Step Back in Time will continue to go from strength-to-strength (so many fabulous history articles coming-up, sadly not enough hours in the day to finishing all the writing). In the future, Come Step Back in Time will feature a lot less retro food and lifestyle articles as these will now appear on Viva Blancmange.

Food Glorious Food’s presenter is Carol Vorderman and joining her on the show’s culinary quest is food historian and writer Tom Parker Bowles, globe-trotting gastronome Loyd Grossman, Women’s Institute vice-chair Anne Harrison and baker Stacie Stewart. Each judge has their own area of interest. Stacie, owner of online company the Beehive Bakery, is on the hunt for an amazing cake or pudding that the nation will fall in love with, food writer royalty, Tom is scouring the land for a great British recipe with culinary heritage, Loyd is hunting for a new favourite to match that much-loved dish, the curry, and Anne is championing traditional home cooking. At each of the six regional heats the team of experts come armed with rosettes which they hand out to dishes that meet with their high standards.

The Food Glorious Food team has been inspired by the show to reminisce about their own childhood food experiences. Carol’s cooking career began when she was a schoolgirl, she cooked for her family, “I used to make tea every night when I was at school. My mum was working as a school secretary so I’d be home from school before her. I loved laying the table and getting everything ready.” For Carol and her family it wasn’t typical 1970s cooking the family dined out on – thanks to her Italian stepfather, “In the ‘70s it was very unusual to cook with proper Italian produce. Back then, you’d buy olive oil from the chemist to get the wax out of your ears! Parmesan cheese was dried in cardboard tubes and smelt like sick. Whereas we had the proper stuff because we used to go to Italy every year. We had canned olive oil from my stepdad’s brother’s farm, we’d bring back Parma ham that my aunties had cured then use a bacon slicer at home to cut it.”

Food historian and writer Tom is keen to find a regional recipe or traditional British dish with real history. “I’m obsessed with the history of food and I want to find a great British recipe with a fascinating culinary heritage. I was quite late to cooking. I’ve always eaten, being a greedy pig. My mum’s a good cook and my dad was a farmer but I didn’t really get into cooking myself until after university. I certainly wasn’t at my mother’s apron strings when I was growing up – I was far too lazy.”

Loyd’s a self-confessed foodie and says childhood experiences first sparked his interest, “I just loved food. I was very lucky: I travelled a lot as a kid; my parents were interested in food and restaurants so I was exposed to a lot of good food. I grew up in New England where there were both farms and fishing so I saw all the fabulous produce first-hand. I always remember how exciting it would be to go down to the harbor in the morning and see the fishermen unloading their catch.”

Anne’s foodie beginnings came from her farming background. “My parents were farmers and my father was killed in the Second World War. My mother didn’t go out to work, she and my grandmother always cooked. In those days, you didn’t go out to buy anything. I was always keen to have a go at cooking myself, I suppose I absorbed their knowledge and I’ve always been used to home cooked food. Later, I went to boarding school and excelled at what they called domestic science. That led me to teaching.”

For Stacie, a recipe with a strong family connection will also win points with her. “I like to see people cooking recipes that have been handed down through generations because that’s how I learnt to cook. Stacie’s grandmother is responsible for her passion for baking, and cooking stems from her childhood. “My mum can’t boil an egg so my nana taught me how to cook. Every Saturday without fail our mams went to bingo, our dads went to the pub, our grandad sat in the front room and watched the horse racing and my nine cousins and I were in the kitchen with our nana. It’s a great memory and, now, all my cousins cook as well as I do. I also like to see innovation, taking something you’ve been taught how to do and making it better. Just because something was done one way many years ago, it doesn’t mean that it has to be done that way now. If that were the case, we’d still be walking around like cavemen. There has to be progression. My nana used to make scones with lard and water, because that’s all she could afford. It doesn’t mean they were the best scones in the world.”

Each of the first six episodes feature a different region of the UK (South-West, South-East, North-East, London and The Midlands). The judges eat their way through plenty of pies and puds, to find six amazing recipes and contestants to take through to the semi-final stages, where two will be picked to battle it out to win a place on the shelves of Marks & Spencer and a prize fund of £20,000. The winning dish will be decided by shoppers and sold exclusively by Marks & Spencer stores across the country with 40p from each dish sold going to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The first episode aired on Wednesday 27th February, 8pm, ITV1 and will continue for a further eight episodes, culminating in The Grand Final which, at the time of writing this article, is due to be aired on Wednesday 24th April. If you missed the first episode, then it is now available to view on itvPlayer. The series continues on Wednesday 6th March, 8pm, ITV1.

Out now, to accompany the series, is a superb anthology, published by Mitchell Beazley, containing some of the best recipes featured in the programme. Divided into regions, it is full of delicious dishes for you to try as well as information about the dish’s creator. All the finalists’ dishes and the winning recipe are included.  Old favourites like Bread and Butter Pudding, Cornish Pasties and Bakewell Tart feature alongside new and inventive fusions of flavours that simply have to be tasted. Some dishes will incorporate quirky twists – for example, an extra ingredient that was originally added by chance – while others will stick to time-honoured techniques handed down through multiple generations of the same family.

Some of my favourite dishes in this beautifully illustrated cookbook include:

• a secret recipe Devon apple cider cake (p.52). In 1983 Sandy Gilbert brought a former bakery with her husband and as part of the deeds they were required to buy this recipe along with the property;
• bonfire stew with cannonball dumplings. Publican Tony Leonard cooks this dish with the South Street Bonfire Society every year and serves it in his pub, The Snowdrop Inn, Lewes, East Sussex, at the start of the Lewes annual bonfire night on November 5th (p.70);
• Henry’s Malay jungle curry (p.84). Rachel Kelly’s father learned to make this dish when he was in the army in Malaya in the 1950s, do also check-out Rachel’s excellent food blog Marmaduke Scarlet it is packed full of great recipes and food photography;
• Laura’s fiery ginger cake (p.94). I can vouch for the fact that Laura Wiles’ cake is delicious. My husband and I tried it at the South-East regional heat in Brighton;
• Nettle cake (p.139). Marcelle Burden’s cake comes from her French grandmother, who used all sorts of wild plants in her cooking;

As well as the featured recipes, there are thoughtful reflections on Britain’s food heritage and the nation’s love affair with home cooking. This is the definitive guide to the nation’s best recipes, written for the people of Great Britain, by the people of Great Britain.

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Frank Oates – Victorian Explorer of The Natural World

Taken on the African expedition, 1873-5. Top Row (L-R) W. E. Oates (William, Frank’s brother), Mr Gray, Mr Buckley. Bottom Row (L-R), Thomas Bell (William’s servant), Frank Oates with his favourite pointer, Rail. On display as part of The Oates Collection, Gilbert White’s House and Garden, Selborne, Hampshire.

Francis [Frank] Oates (1840-1875) was born on the 6th April, 1840 at Meanwoodside, near Leeds, Yorkshire. His nephew was Antarctic explorer Captain Lawrence Oates (1880-1912).  Gilbert White’s House and Garden Museum in Selborne, Hampshire, contains a unique range of exhibits known as The Oates Collection. The Collection reflects both Lawrence and Frank’s interest in the natural world as well as background information on their respective overseas expeditions.

In 1954, the former home of naturalist Revd. Gilbert White (1720-1793), was bought by public subscription, augmented by a large donation from Robert Washington Oates (1874-1958) a cousin of Lawrence. The property opened as The Oates Memorial Library and Museum and The Gilbert White Museum in 1955. At the time, the Library was reported to amount to forty thousand books.  Recently, I had the pleasure of being shown around The Oates Collection by the Museum’s General Manager, Miriam Tong.

Frank Oates (1840-1875). The image is by Mr Francis Holl from a photograph by Gowland of York.

Frank Oates Gallery details the explorer’s fateful expedition to Africa, begun in 1873, together with displays of various artefacts and specimens he collected during his trek from Durban, through Natal, Transvaal and finally to Matabeleland and the Victoria Falls. He was the first European to see the Victoria Falls in full flood since Dr David Livingstone (1813-1873) had reach the same location on the 17th November, 1855. Prior to this expedition, in 1871, Frank visited the Americas. On display in the Gallery is a stunning array of birds that he collected throughout Central America.

Frank Oates was the quintessential Victorian explorer. He had ambition, an enquiring mind, a desire for overseas adventure, a keen interest in ethnography and most importantly a fascination for the natural world. The latter he inherited from his father who was himself a keen, amateur, naturalist. Frank was the second of three sons born to Edward and Susan Oates. Frank’s brother, William, joined the early stages of the African expedition (1873-5). His other brother, Charles George, facilitated the publication of  Matabele Land and The Victoria Falls: A Naturalist’s Wanderings in the Interior of Africa (1881).

Charles acted as the book’s editor and the contents were compiled from Frank’s letters and journals written in Africa between March, 1873 and January, 1875. A second, enlarged, edition of the book was published in 1889 with appendices on the natural history collections by a range of experts. It is important to point-out here, that Frank did not intend his writings to be published. They were, as Charles highlights in the first edition’s Preface, ’suggestive guides to memory.’

In 1860, Frank entered Christ Church College, Oxford, to read Natural Sciences. He enjoyed many of the usual athletic pursuits on offer to a young Oxbridge undergraduate including: swimming; cricket; rowing; shooting; fencing and his favourite, riding. Although due to poor health, he was only able to participate in these activities intermittently. He was also an accomplished artist, a talent that served him well on expeditions, when he as able to make detailed and accurate observations of the wildlife in his sketchbooks.

Klipspringer (Oreotragus Saltatrix), a type of antelope that Frank saw on his African expedition. The image is based upon one from Frank’s own sketchbook.

However, Frank’s academic career was cut short, when in the spring of his first year at Oxford he suffered a serious chest infection. His ill-health prevented him from returning to Oxford for the summer term. By the autumn, he was still not fully recovered and decided to spend time in Italy where the climate was dry and warm. Unfortunately, his chest ailments returned during the Easter vacation. While convalescing at the family home in Yorkshire, he wrote of his frustrations at being confined to his childhood bedroom once again, in a letter dated the 23rd April, 1862:

I see the tree-tops tipped with green, and hear the thrush’s voice, telling me of old times, and asking me why I keep house, and I’ve no doubt spring is here. So, I want to be out again, and to greet her as an old friend.

(Matabele Land and The Victoria Falls: A Naturalist’s Wanderings in the Interior of South Africa, (1881), Oates, C.G., (Ed.), published by C. Kegan Paul & Co, p. xxii)

Eventually, he recovered sufficiently to return to Oxford on May 9th, 1862. In time, good health was to elude him once more and he had no choice but to leave university. Frank did matriculate from Christ Church College on 9th February, 1861 but when he eventually left in 1864 he did so without a degree.  Frank had a tendency to overwork himself which had also not helped with his recovery.

Following his time at Oxford, Frank spent a number of years as an invalid, the chest infection having left him with a reduced lung capacity. He occupied his time studying and reading about natural sciences as well as partaking in a number of nature rambles throughout the British Isles including Wales, the Lake District and Ireland. He continued to document his observations of nature on each occasion. He also reflected on his predicament and the restrictions it placed upon him not being able to travel overseas. In one letter he wrote during this period, he warns his brother of the consequences of overworking:

Let me advise you earnestly not to try to do too many things. I killed the goose with a vengeance, and got no golden egg. I was expecting in a few weeks [when taken ill] a degree with honours, and a good start in life, and had to leave Oxford without even an ordinary degree, which I knew more than enough to have taken the Easter before, if it would have satisfied me.

(Ibid. pp. xxvi and xxvii)

Eventually, his health did improve sufficiently for him to embark upon his first, major, overseas expedition to Central and North America, which he did for one year, between 1871 and 1872.  The trip was initiated partly on health grounds, friends advised him that a dry, warm climate would help him recover. During this expedition, he collected many bird and insect specimens, particularly in Guatemala. On display at the museum there is a stunning range of birds collection by Frank from throughout Central America. A number of these specimens represent birds that are now extinct.

From a very young age, Frank had been an admirer of the art and writing of John James Audubon (1785-1851). Audubon was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist and painter whose illustrations of American birds in their natural habitat, were published as The Birds of America (1827-1839). Charles wrote of his brother’s fascination with Audubon’s work: ‘The plates of Audubon’s Birds, when access could be had to them, were turned by him with feelings little short of reverence.’ (Ibid. p. xiii) To view The Birds of America online, CLICK HERE. For more information about the National Audubon Society. CLICK HERE.

Central American bird specimens collected by Frank Oates in 1871-2, now on display in The Frank Oates Gallery. By kind permission of Gilbert White’s House and Garden, The Oates Collection, Selborne, Hampshire.

Whilst travelling through the mountains of California Frank spent a number of weeks sleeping rough under canvas, an experience that would have served well as preparation for his future adventures in Africa (1873-5). Following his return to England in 1872, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Frank now concentrated his efforts on organising his most challenging expedition yet, to Africa.

Victoria Falls (Western Extremity) from a water-colour drawing by Frank Oates. After seeing the Falls, he wrote in his journal: ‘After breakfast I visited the Falls – a day never to be forgotten.’ (New Year’s Day, 1875).

On 5th March, 1873, Frank and his brother William sailed from Southampton, Hampshire to Natal, South Africa. William returned to England at the end of 1873. The plan for the African expedition was to reach the Zambesi River from Natal and continue on to the unexplored country to the north of that river.  Frank wanted to collected as many animal and plant specimens as was possible, to bring back to England for further study. However, quite a number of these specimens were destroyed, in Frank’s lifetime, at Shoshong, by an unroofing, during a gale, of the hut where they were stored. Other specimens were also lost following  Frank’s death on 5th February, 1875. According to Charles, some spirit jars of reptiles and beetles were afterwards left behind when the collections were conveyed to England.

From a display in The Frank Oates Gallery, Gilbert White’s House and Garden, Selborne, Hampshire. Illustration by R. Mintern.

Frank also collected various ethnographical objects during the course of his travels.  One particular curio that is mentioned quite a bit in his journals, is the ostrich egg. He commented that the eggs themselves were delicious fried with a little meal or made into a pudding with maizena and particularly popular in the region of Seruli. The empty shells were used to carry water. Whole, the eggs were used as currency in local trade and could be exchanged for a cheap knife, mirror, or handkerchief.

From a display at The Frank Oates Gallery, Gilbert White’s House and Garden, Selborne, Hampshire. Illustration by R. Mintern.

Frank was also successful in finding a number of species of flora and fauna that were new to science. His journals contained details of the precise location where the specimens had been collected. This enabled future generations of naturalists to compare historical with modern records, allowing for a greater understanding of ecological changes that took place in South Eastern Africa. The specimens Frank collected that were found to be new to science were given the specific classification oatesii. Examples of which include: a snake, Dryiophis oatesii and a heather, Erica oatesii. This heather can be seen growing in the gardens at the museum during the summer months.

Dryiophis oatesii. From a display in The Frank Oates Gallery, Gilbert White’s House and Garden, Selborne, Hampshire. Illustration by R. Mintern.

On 16th May, 1873, Frank left Pietermaritzburg and spent a period of time in Matabele, a country to the north of the Limpopo River. On 25th September, 1873, at the home of missionary Mr Thomson, Nr Gubuleweyo, Frank wrote:

I cannot give you a detailed account of my stay of nine days at the King’s Town. It is really to a stranger a most curious place. The king, Lobengula, lives in royal state. He is absolute monarch, and feared and obeyed far and wide. The people inhabiting the country we have passed through in coming here are altogether of an inferior race. At Bamangwato there is a king, but he is thought nothing of. I called on ‘Bengula, accompanied by Fairbairn, the day I arrived here, and found him the picture of a savage king, just as one might have imagined, and coming quite up to the standard. The day I first saw him he was nearly naked, and lying on a skin inside his hut, to enter which you have to crawl in on your hands and knees through a little aperture in the front; in fact it is like a beehive entrance. He took me by the hand, and placed meat before me, and asked a few questions about my journey. I told him I should come again next day. Of course I had to make him a present, and I knew he would expect it next day, after which I should ask his leave and assistance to go through his country to the Victoria Falls if possible. I gave him a gun and ammunition, which pleased him very much, and he has done everything he could for me.

It appeared that I was still in time to reach the Falls by going on foot, after leaving my waggon at the place marked on the map as Inyati. The king said it was possible to get to the Falls in ten days, and I suppose at my rate of travelling it ought to be done in a fortnight or three weeks at most, and the king says I have still two months of favourable weather, but so anxious is he that no white man should come to grief in his country, that he has been urging on me all possible haste from the moment the subject was first mentioned.  He has given me two excellent men as guides; these two, having the king’s authority, will carry all before them.

I left Gubuleweyo last Night, and came on as far as here, the house of Mr Thomson the missionary, for my first trek. Mr Thomson has kindly interested himself in me, and done all he could to assist me. He has a nice wife and children, and this morning I have had the luxury of a civilized breakfast, including tablecloth, bread and butter and eggs, and milk to one’s coffee – things that I don’t often see now. I am now availing myself of one of his rooms to write to you in.

(Ibid. pp.63-64)

On February 24th, 1874, Frank wrote to his brother, William, from Tati:

It is quite a pleasure to get a letter from you, I mean the one you left for me here. I shall get no more now for five or six weeks, when I expect to be in Mungwato. I am sorry that wretched old croaker, Palmer, put you in a funk about me. He says it would be a good thing for people travelling to have ‘portable coffins’. I am thankful to say my health is excellent. I did not, as doubtless you know by this time, get to the Zambesi. I believe the king was the at the bottom of it (not of the Zambesi; but excuse grammar). I took my waggon fifty miles on the way, as far as Inyati, and then put all out for fifteen carriers to take. It was a fortnight’s walk through ‘the fly’ to the Falls. After waiting nearly a week, it transpired that no boys were forthcoming as promised. Partly, I think, they were afraid of fever, and partly of the natives, with whom they are at war; partly also they wanted to get in time to cultivate their gardens. However, I believe I could have got them myself easily, had I not trusted to the man given me by the king.

(Ibid. p.141)

Before Frank finally reached the Victoria Falls on 31st December, 1874, he suffered three aborted attempts due to both difficult weather conditions and hostilities amongst the local people towards the expedition. After seeing the Falls, he wrote in his journal: ‘After breakfast I visited the Falls – a day never to be forgotten.’ (New Year’s Day, 1875). This proved to be one of the last journal entries Frank ever wrote. During his journey back from the Victoria Falls he contracted a fever, possibly malaria. After being ill for twelve days, he died near Makalaka Kraal, eighty miles north of the Tati River, on February 5th, 1875. He was buried the next morning. Dr A. Bradshaw, who happened to be in a neighbourhood, attended Frank in his final hours and made all the arrangements for his interment as well the safe return of his belongings and important specimen collections to England.

Frank had two dogs that travelled with him in Africa, ‘Rock‘ and ‘Rail’,  the latter being his favourite. It is here that I end with a touching tale of an animal’s devotion to its master. After taking care of the burial arrangements for Frank and beginning the return journey back from Makalaka Kraal, Dr Bradshaw and the rest of the team noticed that Rail had gone missing. Several of the team members retraced their steps and searched in vain for the pointer. In due course, they found themselves back at Frank’s grave where there, laying by his master’s head-stone, was Rail, a sole mourner. Both Rail and Rock eventually returned to England with Dr Bradshaw. However, five year’s after his master’s death, Rail died on 5th February, 1880 and three week’s later his companion, Rock, also passed away.

He had deeply endeared himself to a wide circle of private friends by his genial, manly character, and, had he lived, would have added largely to those fields of distant inquiry and research for which his ardent love of travel and adventure peculiarly fitted him.

(Extract from a obituary for Frank Oates, Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday 29th May, 1875)

• Gilbert White’s House & Garden and The Oates Collection is located at The Wakes, High Street, Selborne, Hampshire. For details of opening times and admission charges for 2013, CLICK HERE.

Rail, Frank’s favourite dog, guarding his master’s grave. Display in The Frank Oates Gallery, Gilbert White’s House and Garden, Selborne, Hampshire.

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Gilbert White – The Parson Naturalist of Selborne, Hampshire

View of the gardens and back of The Wakes, Gilbert White’s House, Selborne, Hampshire. By kind permission of Gilbert White’s House and Garden.

See Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round

The varied valley, and the mountain ground,

Wildly majestic! what is all the pride

Of flats, with loads of ornament supply’d?

Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expense,

Compar’d with nature’s rude magnificence.

Arise, my stranger, to these wild scenes haste …

(Opening lines from Gilbert White’s poem, The Invitation to Selborne)

Prof. Bell’s library, on the ground floor of The Wakes. Prof. Thomas Bell (1792-1880) was a zoologist who much admired White’s work. He retired, aged seventy, to Selborne and died at The Wakes in 1880. He published an edition of The Natural History of Selborne in 1877, as well as making a number of additions to the property including a billiard room, which is currently the Museum gift shop. The former library is now home to a number of interactive exhibits exploring Gilbert White’s life and work.

INTRODUCTION

A few miles south of Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) cottage in the pretty village of Chawton is the equally picturesque village of Selborne. It is here that the parson naturalist, ecologist and author of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne in the County of Southampton (1789) the Revd Gilbert White (1720-1793) lived. Selborne is a haven of peace and tranquillity in the heart of East Hampshire where time appears to have stood still; the village doesn’t have any street lighting, even in 2013. It is extraordinary to think that in this rural idyll there once lived a quiet, unassuming gentleman who wrote what was to become the fourth most published book in English, after The Bible, The Complete Works of Shakespeare and John Bunyan’s (1628-1688) The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678). Since its first publication in 1789, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne would have been found on the book shelves of every respectable gentleman’s library from the late Georgian period onwards, and it has remained continually in print.

Gilbert White’s original manuscript of The Natural History  and Antiquities of Selborne (1789). By kind permission of Gilbert White’s House and Garden. To hear a reading of the above letter, please click on the Podcast below.

Letter LXI to Daines Barrington from Gilbert White 

(Read by Emma, Editor, Come Step Back in Time)

Jane Austen moved from Southampton to the cottage at Chawton in 1809. In the film Becoming Jane (2007), writers Kevin Hood and Sarah Williams weave White’s observations on the mating rituals of the swift into the screenplay’s narrative. If you watch the library scene from the film in which the object of Jane’s (Anne Hathaway) affections, Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy) reads an extract from White’s publication, you will notice that Tom uses the subtext of the quote as a means of engaging in an intellectual flirtation with Jane. To view this short scene (2 minutes 45 seconds), CLICK HERE. Comparison with the original text reveals that the screenwriters have exercised a certain degree of poetic licence in their use of White’s observations. Below is White’s original text for you to compare:

As the swift or black-martin is the largest of the British hirundines, so is it undoubtedly the latest comer. For I remember but one instance of its appearing before the last week in April: and in some of our late frosty, harsh springs, it has not been seen till the beginning of May. This species usually arrives in pairs…. If any person would watch these birds of a fine morning in May, as they are sailing round at a great height from the ground, he would see, every now and then, one drop on the back of another, and both of them sink down together for many fathoms with a loud piercing shriek. This I take to be the juncture when the business of generation is carrying on.

(Letter XXI to Barrington, September 28th, 1774, The Natural History of Selborne (1974), published by Oxford University Press)

Jane loved to walk through the countryside and it is likely that she would have made the round-trip to Selborne on a number of occasions during her time living at Chawton. In Becoming Jane there are several scenes representing the woodlands close by to The Wakes. She certainly would have read White’s seminal work and there is evidence amongst her letters to suggest that the Austens were on visiting terms with the family of one of his nephews, Dr John White, who for a short time was Jane Austen’s physician. Known as ‘Gibraltar Jack’, he was the son of Gilbert White’s brother the Revd John White, who had been chaplain to the garrison at Gibraltar, and when he was young stayed for several years with his uncle at The Wakes.

Built in 1610, The Wakes was originally a much smaller property than can be seen today. The name of the house is a nod to the family called Wake who had previously lived there. Gilbert White had lived at The Wakes for the majority of his life but only inherited the property in 1763 upon the death of his uncle, the Revd Charles White of Bradley. The house is now a museum dedicated to the life and work of Gilbert White, and it also houses The Oates Collection. This Collection consists of two permanent exhibitions celebrating the life of soldier and Antarctic explorer Captain Lawrence Oates (1880-1912) and his uncle, African explorer Francis [Frank] Oates (1840-1875). In 1954 the property was bought by public subscription, augmented by a large donation from Robert Washington Oates (a cousin of Lawrence), and opened as The Oates Memorial Library and Museum and The Gilbert White Museum in 1955. Separate articles on The Oates Collection will follow shortly.

The life and work of Gilbert White is a thoroughly absorbing area to research. It is possible to gain a good insight into what life must have been like for a rural parson and scholar in eighteenth-century England due to the wealth of written material, both published and unpublished, that has survived to the present day. His body of writing is extensive and includes correspondences with family members as well as the leading scholars from the Age of Enlightenment.

Some of the scholars that White corresponded with include: George Montagu (1753-1815), author of The Ornithological Dictionary (1802); Robert Marsham (1708-1797); Thomas Pennant(1726-1798) and Daines Barrington (1727-1800), both leading naturalists and Fellows of the Royal Society, to whom Gilbert White wrote the letters that form the basis of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne; John Mulso (1721-1791), a contemporary at Oriel College, Oxford, who corresponded with White between 1744 and 1790 and remained a lifelong friend and literary companion; and Thomas Barker (1722-1809) of Lyndon Hall, Rutland, a meteorologist, vegetarian and also White’s brother-in-law. White also met botanist Joseph Banks (1743-1820) and naturalist Dr Daniel Solander (1733-1782) in 1767, one year before they both joined Captain James Cook (1728-1779) for his first voyage to the Pacific Ocean aboard Endeavour.

Thomas Barker is a particularly important to White’s development as a meteorologist. The day after his sister Anne’s wedding to Thomas, which took place on 6th January 1751 at St Mary’s parish church in Selborne, White began his new record book, The Garden Kalendar. In this book he kept a daily record of all his activities in the garden at The Wakes, including climate variations, rainfall and seasonal fluctuations. He continued to record these data, each year, for more than forty years.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is also known to have read White’s observations on the usefulness of earthworms as well as birds, about which he remarked: ‘From reading White’s Selborne, I remember wondering why every gentleman did not become an ornithologist.’ Darwin’s The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms was the last book he published on 10th October 1881. White, himself, said of the earthworm:

Earth-worms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of Nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm. For, to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass.

(Letter XXXV to Barrington, May 20th, 1777, The Natural History of Selborne (1974), published by Oxford University Press)

View from Gilbert’s bedroom window of the garden.

White’s journals contain detailed notes and records of life at The Wakes coupled with observations of
the nature and wildlife that were to be found in the countryside surrounding Selborne. An openness to the pursuit of scientific enquiry coupled with a vigorous intellect saw White become one of the leading naturalists of his time as well as being one of the first known ecologists. He was also one of the first naturalists to recognise a connection between the weather and its impact upon the behaviour of plants and wildlife. He was even an early exponent of the relatively modern model of self-sufficiency and sustainability. In the garden at The Wakes, he grew a wide variety of fruit, vegetables and flowers. He even brewed his own wine and beer in the purpose-built brewhouse, which still exists today.

In his biography of Gilbert White, Richard Mabey writes:

He grew more than forty different varieties [of vegetable], including artichokes, endives, mustard and cress, white broccoli, skirret and scorzonera, marrowfat peas, ‘a remarkable long leek’, squashes, cucumbers, all manner of lettuces, and ‘a small crop of onions … for picklers’ … more experimental vegetables, too, including maize, wild rice and potatoes…. In the borders close to the house were planted crown imperials, crocuses and pinks. Vines and roses … tulips, wallflowers and columbines.

(Gilbert White: A Biography of the Naturalist and Author of The Natural History of Selborne, by Richard Mabey, published by J. M. Dent, 1993, p. 56)

Because White kept detailed planting records for The Wakes in his journals, correspondence, household account books and predominantly his Garden Kalendar, it has been possible today to restore the gardens back to their eighteenth-century origins. The gardens still contain a wine-pipe seat, two hahas, a herb garden, a kitchen garden, brewhouse, cut-out statue of Hercules and a hermitage complete with a thatched roof.

View from Gilbert’s bedroom window of the gardens at The Wakes. The haha at the boundary ensures a seamless view of lawn and surrounding land.

Hahas are large ditches at the boundary of a lawn and were popular devices used by eighteenth-century garden designers which served two purposes. Firstly, they are practical, stopping livestock from grazing or entering onto your manicured lawns, thus also avoiding the unpleasant business of animal waste being stepped in by the lady and gentleman of the house. Secondly, they provide an uninterrupted and seamless view of the lawn and surrounding countryside, allowing landowners to survey the extent of their grounds.

Garden at The Wakes.

David Standing has been the Head Gardener at The Wakes since 1979 and has worked tirelessly, together with a band of volunteers (there are approximately one hundred volunteers who work at the Museum every year) to restore the original layout of the garden using White’s writings. The project is now largely complete. There are twenty acres of ancient parkland surrounding the property, some of which is now owned and managed by The National Trust (Selborne Common, the Zig-Zag path leading to The Hanger, The Hanger, Church Meadow, Long and Short Lythes).

Book cabinet that houses Ronald’s historic editions of Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selborne.

RONALD DAVIDSON-HOUSTON

A LIFELONG PASSION FOR GILBERT WHITE’S WRITINGS AND WORK

I had the privilege of being shown around Gilbert White’s House and Garden by Ronald Davidson-Houston. Mr Davidson-Houston has spent many years studying White’s writings and his biographical knowledge of the family is extensive. I asked him when he first became interested in White’s work: ‘I first read The Natural History of Selborne as a child but it was my career as a publisher that brought me back to the study of his writings. In 1981, I published [Exeter: Webb & Bower] the first edition of The Natural History of Selborne illustrated with contemporary eighteenth-century colour plates. It was a collaboration between The Gilbert White Museum and myself, with an introduction by the then curator, Dr June E. Chatfield. [The Illustrated Natural History of Selborne is still in print, now published as a paperback by Thames & Hudson.] During the course of my research, I asked the question, why has this book been published in so many different ways, languages and editions? It was then that I began to collect various editions of the book.’

The Illustrated Natural History of Selborne (2004), published by Thames & Hudson with an introduction by Dr June E. Chatfield.

The Natural History of Selborne, compiled and translated by Izawa-Koichi and illustrated by Kuroda-Machiko (2008).

Ronald has collected more than a thousand copies of the book, many of which are extremely rare editions and a number are in foreign languages, including Chinese and Japanese. Two years ago he donated his treasured collection to the Museum and it is now housed in a purpose-built display cabinet located in Gilbert White’s Great Parlour. Ronald explained further about the publishing history of the book: ‘The first edition, dated 1789, was actually printed in late 1788 and some early copies were sent to a number of friends and relations in November and December of that year. However, 1789 is the official publication date. The price was one guinea ‘in boards’ (i.e., not leather-bound). It was printed on laid paper, which is hand-made and has watermarks. There are six engravings chosen from twelve watercolours by the Swiss artist Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-1794), who, according to White, “stayed with me 27 days; 24 of which he worked very hard”. White’s brother, Benjamin White (1725-1794), was a bookseller and his firm, B. White and Son, published the first edition. The brothers’ niece, Mary (Molly) White (born 1759), undertook the copy editing. The first cheap edition did not appear until 1829. The original manuscript of the book was bought by the Museum in 1980 from a private collection in America.’

Mary (Molly) White. By kind permission of Gilbert White’s House and Garden.

A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON EARLY REVIEWS OF

THE NATURAL HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE

‘Sagacity of observation runs through the work’

The Gentleman’s Magazine, January 1789

‘A more delightful, or more original work than Mr. White’s History of Selborne has seldom been published’

The Topographer, April 1789

‘This elegant and pleasing … work abounds with information’

The Monthly Review, July 1789

(Reprinted in The Selborne Association Newsletter, No. 47, December 2005, pp. 22-31, by R. Davidson-Houston)

Ronald has studied the first reviews of White’s publication and writes:

Along with a number of other close friends and relations of the author, Thomas White (who had given his brother Gilbert unfailing encouragement throughout the book’s long gestation and had also helped with correcting the proofs) received an advance copy in late November or early December 1788, enabling the first instalment of his review to appear in the January 1789 issue of The Gentleman’s Magazine.

(Ibid. pp. 22-23)

Interestingly, in these early years of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, Thomas White’s review begins by putting forward the argument that the landed gentry, who were abandoning country living for a better life in the towns and cities, left behind them an economic void, and advocates that his brother’s work should not be devalued because it is a study of rural life in a time when it was not fashionable to write about such things. In Thomas White’s opinion:

It is with pleasure, therefore, we observe that so rational an employment of leisure time as the study of nature and antiquities promises to become popular…. But we agree with Mr. White in his idea of parochial history, which, he thinks, ought to consist of natural productions and occurrences, as well as antiquities…. A person with this writer’s patient observation would have made many remarks highly valuable. Men of intelligence like him are wanted, to promote an intimacy between the library and the plough.

(Ibid. p. 23 and p. 25)

Gilbert’s father, John White. By kind permission of Gilbert White’s House and Garden.

GILBERT WHITE’S EARLY LIFE

White was born on 18th July, 1720, the eldest son of John White (1688-1758), a barrister, and Anne White (née Holt, 1693-1739), a rector’s daughter. Gilbert was one of eleven children and, although he never married, did enjoy the company of his many nephews and nieces who often came to stay at The Wakes. By January 1793, including spouses, his family circle had increased to sixty-two young relations. Ronald tells me Gilbert enjoyed socialising and it was not unusual for family parties to go on until 3 am, he also told me Gilbert ‘was five foot three inches tall and a thin, prim, upright man.’

Gilbert’s grandfather, also called Gilbert White. By kind permission of Gilbert White’s House and Garden.

Gilbert’s grandfather, also called Gilbert White (1650-1728) had been the vicar at Selborne from 1681. In 1728, John White, his family and widowed mother moved to Selborne. In 1741, Gilbert’s father began landscaping the gardens at The Wakes including laying out seven acres of the estate and creating walks and hedges. White inherited his father’s love of nature at a very early age and to celebrate his tenth birthday planted an oak and ash tree in the garden there. It wasn’t until 1750-1 that he planted further trees, including an elm, fir and beech.

Gilbert’s education consisted of a thorough grounding in the classics, as well as literature, at Basingstoke Grammar School. He made his first observations of nature in 1736, which he wrote in a notebook following a visit to stay with his aunt at Whitwell, Rutland. It is no surprise to learn that this clever young man was admitted to Oriel College, Oxford, in April 1740. Gilbert worked hard and played hard, enjoying all manner of extra-curricular activities on offer to a young Oxbridge undergraduate. He visited coffee houses, drank wine, played cards, attended concerts and visited many of England’s great houses. He also had an interest in shooting, but this quickly turned from the thrill of the kill to hunting for the purposes of obtaining specimens for identification and dissection. He graduated BA in June 1743 and MA in October 1746.

CAREER AS A CURATE

White was ordained as a Deacon in the Anglican Church on 27th April 1747 at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. His first post was at Swarraton, Hampshire, as curate to his uncle, the Revd Charles White of Bradley. Unfortunately, he contracted smallpox in 1748. It is thought that one of the reasons why no portrait of White exists, other than two small pen-and-ink sketches, may be due to the fact his face had been badly scarred as a result of this disfiguring disease. His old nursemaid, ‘Goody Marshall’ helped care for him during his convalescence. White’s lifelong fascination with melons is also thought to have begun whilst he was recovering from smallpox, realising the health properties of this exotic fruit. He grew melons in the garden of The Wakes and he used to have ‘cantaloupe feasts’ with his youngest brother Henry (1733-1788) who was rector and schoolmaster at Fyfield, near Andover. In the poem ‘Metamorphosis’ by his friend Dr John Scrope, White’s melon obsession (‘The swelling melon was his favourite fruit’) and his scarring due to smallpox (‘his roughen’d face’) are both alluded to.

Corycius long admired (a curious swain!)

The wealth and beauties of Pomona’s reign;

The vegetable world engrossed his heart,

His garden lingering nature help’d by art;

Where in the smoking beds high heap’d appear

Salads and mushrooms thro’ the various year.

But of each species sprung from seed or root,

The swelling melon was his favourite fruit;

Other productions kindled some delight

In his fond soul, but here he doted quite.

When others wisely to the grot retreat,

And seek a friendly shelter from the heat,

Anxious and stooping o’er his treasure, low

Poring he kneels, and thinks he sees it grow.

One day when Phoebus scorch’d the gaping plain,

Striving to rise at length he strove in vain,

Fix’d to the spot, exchang’d his shape and name,

A melon turned and what he view’d became.

Ovid would tell you how his roughen’d face

Retains the network and the fretty grace;

His skin and bones compose the tougher rind;

His flesh compressed retains its name and kind;

Shrunk are his veins, and empty’d of their blood,

Which in the centre forms a plenteous flood.

(Reprinted in Gilbert White: A Biography of the Naturalist and Author of The Natural History of Selborne,

by Richard Mabey, published by J. M. Dent, 1993, p. 58)

White was fully ordained priest in 1749. In 1751, he was made curate-in-charge at Selborne, a post that he returned to again in 1756, 1758 and finally in 1784 when he continued in the role until his death in 1793. Whilst curate at Selborne, he was also able to continue with his academic duties as a fellow at Oriel College. He also took on an additional parish, Moreton Pinkney, Northamptonshire, which he could do the administration for from his home in Selborne. In 1761, he accepted the curacy of another parish, Faringdon (now spelt Farringdon), nearby to Selborne and continued as their curate for twenty years.

Ronald as Gilbert White with Timothy the tortoise. By kind permission of Gilbert White’s House and Garden.

HIS LOVE OF ANIMALS

White loved animals, there is no doubt about that. He had a pony (Mouse), dogs (Rover, Fyfield and a spaniel Fairey Queen) and, best-known of all, his beloved tortoise, Timothy. White often rode Mouse to church when he had to take the services and also enjoyed riding in the Hampshire countryside. He suffered from coach sickness so preferred travelling by horse whenever possible.

White inherited Timothy from his aunt, Rebecca Snooke, in March 1780. It is believed that his uncle, Henry Snooke, bought the tortoise from a sailor in Chichester for 2/6d in the 1740s. Observations and a number of scientific experiments were carried out on Timothy. White’s fascination and fondness for these hardy Testudine is evident in his writings. The following letter, from White to Daines Barrington, was written whilst he was staying at Delves House, Ringmer, near Lewes where Timothy lived prior to joining him at The Wakes:

A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a little walled court belonging to the house where I now am visiting, retires under ground about the middle of November, and comes forth again about the middle of April. When it first appears in the spring it discovers very little inclination towards food; but in the height of summer grows voracious: and then as the summer declines its appetite declines; so that for the last six weeks in autumn it hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sowthistles, are its favourite dish. In a neighbouring village one was kept till by tradition it was supposed to be an hundred years old. An instance of vast longevity in such a poor reptile!

(Letter VII to Barrington, October 8th, 1770, The Natural History of Selborne (1974), published by Oxford University Press)

No part of it’s behaviour ever struck me more than the extreme timidity it always expresses with regard to rain; for though it has a shell that would secure it against the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it discover as much solicitude about rain as a lady dressed in all her best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and running it’s head up in a corner. If attended to, it becomes an excellent weather-glass; for as sure as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestness in a morning, so sure will it rain before night. It is totally a diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir after it becomes dark. The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an arbitrary stomach as well as lungs; and can refrain from eating as well as breathing for a great part of the year…. P.S. In about three days after I left Sussex the tortoise retired into the ground under the hepatica.

(Letter XIII to Barrington,  April 12th, 1772, The Natural History of Selborne (1974), published by Oxford University Press)

Timothy the tortoise has been missing for more than a week. He got out of the garden at the wicket, we suppose; & may be in the fields among the grass. Timothy found in the little bean-field short of the pound-field. The nightingale, fern-owl, cuckow, & grass-hopper lark may be heard at the same time in my outlet. Gryllo-talpa churs in moist meadows.

(Gilbert White’s Naturalist’s Journal, May 28th, 1784)

Display in the Great Parlour at Gilbert White’s House, showing a copy of The Natural History of Selborne and a model of Timothy the tortoise.

For more examples of White’s musings on Timothy and tortoises in general, visit the website, The Natural History of Selborne – Journals of Gilbert White. CLICK HERE. Dr Verlyn Klinkenborg’s delightful Timothy, or Notes of an Abject Reptile (2007) published by Random House, is another recommended read if you would like to learn more about White’s beloved Timothy. This was first published in hardback in 2006 by Alfred A. Knopf. The British edition, with the title Timothy’s Book: Notes of an English Country Tortoise, was published by Portobello Books in hardback (2006) and paperback (2007).

Following Timothy’s death, it was discovered that the tortoise was in a fact female and her shell is now preserved in the Natural History Museum, London.

LIFE AT THE WAKES

Gilbert White’s study at The Wakes. The desk shown may have been the original one owned by Gilbert.

The Wakes officially passed to Gilbert White in 1763 upon the death of his uncle Charles. It would be a mistake for anyone to think that White’s parochial life stifled his scientific and scholastic output. Far from it. His location and lifestyle offered him the opportunity to completely immerse himself in his observational writing and experiments. He did not have the distractions that living in a city, such as London, would have presented him with. He also never married and bachelorhood seemed to suit him, devoting his life to his studies and the church.

 Extract from Letter XXIV Gilbert White to Thomas Pennant – Ring-ousels

(Read by Emma, Editor, Come Step Back in Time)

In her essay, ‘The Baffling Swallow: Gilbert White, Charlotte Smith and the Limits of Natural History’, Anne Mellor writes of White’s possible conflicting motivations that he would have had to face as a result of his resolve to serve God, as well as commit himself to lifelong study of the taxonomy of nature:

Throughout, White wrestled with conflicting motivations. On the one hand, he was a product of Enlightenment thought, convinced that God had created one great system which man might eventually come to understand. Everywhere he sought to organize and classify his observations of plants and animals into coherent taxonomies, closely following the lead of Buffon and Linnaeus. On the other hand, he was convinced that one could approach truth only through the precise empirical description of natural events and creatures, minute particulars that he scrupulously recorded day by day in his “Naturalist’s Journal.”

(Mellor, A. K., Vol. 31, No. 4, Dec. 2009, pp. 299-309, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, p. 301, published by Routledge)

Letter XXVII from Gilbert White to Thomas Pennant – Hedgehogs

(Read by Emma, Editor, Come Step Back in Time)

 Extract from Letter XI Gilbert White to Thomas Pennant – Bats

(Read by Emma, Editor, Come Step Back in Time)

It really is extraordinary when you consider some of the historic world events that were happening during White’s lifetime:

• 1741 – Handel’s ‘Messiah’
• 1746 – Battle of Culloden
• 1760 – Kew Gardens founded
• 1768 – Cook’s first voyage
• 1773 – Boston Tea Party
• 1776 – American Independence
• 1780 – Gordon Riots
• 1789 – French Revolution
• 1793 – Louis XVI Executed

Even tucked away in rural Hampshire, White witnessed a number of historic events of his own, for example a balloon flight by Jean-Pierre Blanchard (1753-1809) in 1784. Earlier in the same year (2nd March) Blanchard had made the first successful balloon flight in Paris. According to White, in October of 1784, the whole village turned out to watch the spectacle of a further balloon flight by Blanchard. The event is documented in detail in a letter he wrote from Selborne, on 19th October, to his sister, Mrs [Anne] Barker:

Dear Sister, from the fineness of the weather, and the steadiness of the wind to the N.E. I began to be possessed with a notion last Friday that we should see Mr. Blanchard in his balloon the day following: and therefore I called on many of my neighbours in the street, and told them my suspicions. The next day proving also bright, and the wind continuing as before, I became more sanguine than ever; and issuing forth in the morning exhorted all those that had any curiosity to look sharp from about one o’ the clock to three towards London, as they would stand a good chance of being entertained with a very extraordinary sight.

(The Life and Letters of Gilbert White of Selborne, Vol. II, Written and Edited by Rashleigh Holt-White, published by John Murray, 1901, pp. 134-5)

Life at The Wakes was never dull; the house was often full with members of his own family visiting and at other times he had a small retinue of staff who also provided him with rich material for his journals. There were two members of staff who feature both in White’s everyday life and consequently within the text of his writings, Goody Hampton and Thomas Hoar. Goody Hampton was not exactly a permanent fixture at The Wakes; she lived in the village and worked for White on a casual basis. Richard Mabey, in his biography of White, writes of White’s impression of Goody:

Goody Hampton was employed as a ‘weeding woman’ in the summer months. She appears to have been a doughty worker, ‘and indeed, excepting that she wears petticoats and now and then has a child, you would think her a man.’

(Gilbert White: A Biography of the Naturalist and Author of The Natural History of Selborne, by Richard Mabey, published by J. M. Dent, 1993, p. 57)

On the subject of Thomas Hoar, Mabey writes:

… presiding over them all was Gilbert’s loyal retainer Thomas Hoar, who acted as his groom, gardener, scientific assistant and general handyman for forty years. He was a bachelor and slept at The Wakes, and would keep the journals up and write letters about events in Selborne when Gilbert was away. In the garden and in his treatment of plants and animals Thomas showed a delicacy and concern that is more than just a reflection of his employer’s own sensitivity.

(Ibid, p. 57)

Ronald also told me that girls from the village would regularly come and help at The Wakes. There is a kitchen on display at the house, but this is not the original that would have been in use during White’s residence. White was also interested in matters related to the management of a household and kept a close eye on things at The Wakes. One of his famous treatises is on the economics of the use of rush lighting as opposed to candles for those in straightened circumstances: ‘The careful wife of an industrious Hampshire labourer obtains all her fat for nothing; for she saves the scummings of her bacon-pot for this use; and, if the grease abounds with salt, she causes the salt to precipitate to the bottom, by setting the scummings in a warm oven.’ (Letter XXVI to Barrington, November 1st, 1775).

Letter XXVI from Gilbert White to Daines Barrington – Economy of Rush Lights and Besom Brooms

(Read by Emma, Editor, Come Step Back in Time)

According to Ronald, the ever-prudent White, not wishing to waste a single resource whether animal, vegetable or mineral even saved the hair that moulted or was combed from his dogs so that it could be used to reinforce the plaster on the walls of his Great Parlour.

Gilbert White’s bedroom at The Wakes.

Embroidered detail of the curtains around Gilbert’s bed. His aunt embroidered the bed hangings.

Mrs [Barbara] White, the widow of Gilbert’s brother John, came to live at The Wakes in 1781 and pretty much took over the running of her brother-in-law’s household. This arrival stimulated White’s interest in cooking and pushed forward apace his plans to expand the vegetable and herb gardens.

White died on Wednesday 26th June 1793 and is buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s, Selborne. His headstone is not, as one might expect for such an important gentleman of the Enlightenment, pretentious. It simply reads: ‘G.W. 26th June 1793′ and is located among other family graves near the north wall of the chancel.

• Gilbert White’s House & Garden and The Oates Collection is located at The Wakes, High Street, Selborne, Hampshire. For details of opening times and admission charges for 2013, CLICK HERE.
• Literary Walks in East Hampshire. Self-guided walking tours of the attractive countryside in East Hampshire. This well-written tour of Selborne, gives you the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the Revd Gilbert White. Don’t forget your wellies or walking boots though. CLICK HERE.

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An Invitation To A Regency Ball – 200th Anniversary of Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen’s writing-table at her cottage in Chawton, Hampshire. By kind permission of Jane Austen’s House Museum.

If there had not been a Netherfield ball to prepare for and talk of, the
younger Miss Bennets would have been in a very pitiable state at this time, for
from the day of the invitation, to the day of the ball, there was such a
succession of rain as prevented their walking to Meryton once. No aunt, no
officers, no news could be sought after—the very shoe-roses for Netherfield
were got by proxy. Even Elizabeth might have found some trial of her patience
in weather which totally suspended the improvement of her acquaintance with Mr.
Wickham; and nothing less than a dance on Tuesday, could have made such a
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday endurable to Kitty and Lydia.

(Austen, J., Pride and Prejudice, 1813, Chapter 17)

When the dancing recommenced, however, and Darcy approached to claim her hand, Charlotte could not help cautioning her in a whisper, not to be a simpleton, and allow her fancy for Wickham to make her appear unpleasant in the eyes of a man ten times his consequence. Elizabeth made no answer, and took her place in the set, amazed at the dignity to which she was arrived in being allowed to stand opposite to Mr. Darcy, and reading in her neighbours’ looks, their equal amazement in beholding it. They stood for some time without speaking a word; and she began to imagine that their silence was to last through the two dances, and at first was resolved not to break it; till suddenly fancying that it would be the greater punishment to her partner to oblige him to talk, she made some slight observation on the dance. He replied, and was again silent. After a pause of some minutes, she addressed him a second time with:—”It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some sort of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.”

He smiled, and assured her that whatever she wished him to say should be said.

“Very well. That reply will do for the present. Perhaps by and by I may observe that private balls are much pleasanter than public ones. But now we may be silent.”

“Do you talk by rule, then, while you are dancing?”

“Sometimes. One must speak a little, you know. It would look odd to be entirely silent for half an hour together; and yet for the advantage of some, conversation ought to be so arranged, as that they may have the trouble of saying as little as possible.”

(Austen, J., Pride and Prejudice, 1813, Chapter 18)

On 28th January, 1813, Pride and Prejudice, by Hampshire writer Jane Austen (1775-1817), was published in three hardback volumes by Thomas Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, priced 18s. The novel had originally been titled, First Impressions and was written by Jane between October 1796 and August 1797.  On 1st November in the year of its completion, Jane’s father, Rev. George Austen (1731-1805), took the unusual step (for a Regency patriarch anyway) of writing to London publisher Thomas Cadell asking whether he would be interested in reading his daughter’s manuscript. Mr Cadell declined Rev. Austen’s offer, by return of post.

It was some years later before Jane returned to the manuscript. Between 1811 and 1812, she embarked upon many revisions of First Impressions, including a title change to Pride and Prejudice. She described the completed work as her “own darling child”. Copyright for Pride and Prejudice was sold to publisher  Thomas Egerton for the sum of £110 (Jane had wanted £150). T. Egerton published one thousand five hundred copies of the first edition, all of which sold-out straightaway. A 2nd edition was published in November 1813 and a 3rd edition in 1817.  It is estimated that this much-loved novel about marriage, love and class in Regency society, now sells approximately fifty thousand copies each year in the UK alone.

In this bicentenary year there will be many events happening worldwide to celebrate the first publication of Pride and Prejudice (for a round-up of some of the UK events, see the end of this article).  For an interesting article on how Jane Austen’s army of literary fans are celebrating the bicentenary, see ‘Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen Fans Celebrating Novel’s 200th Anniversary’ by Tim Masters, Entertainment and Arts Correspondent, BBC News (25th January 2013). CLICK HERE.

Chawton House, the country seat of Edward Austen-Knight, Chawton, Hampshire.

Filming recently took place at Chawton House, Hampshire, the former country seat of Jane Austen’s brother, Edward Austen Knight (1768-1852), for a ninety minute documentary Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball (w/t). Chawton House is an Elizabethan manor house built by John Knight’s grandson, also called John. Building began c.1583 and continuing until the mid 1660s.Chawton House passed, by inheritance, to Jane Austen’s brother, Edward, on the death of their childless cousin, Thomas Knight (1735-1794). It was Edward who offered Jane, her mother and her sister the cottage in Chawton village which became their home and from where all her novels were published. Today the cottage is Jane Austen’s House Museum.

The documentary, will be shown on BBC Two in the Spring, was commissioned by Janice Hadlow, controller at BBC Two and Mark Bell, Commissioning Editor, Arts. The Commissioning Executive is Greg Sanderson, and the Executive for Optomen is Jon Swain.  Mark Bell, said: “With the enduring popularity of the novel and its many television and film adaptations, this special programme for BBC Two offers a fresh perspective, exploring with depth and detail of one Regency Britain’s most crucial functions.”

Across ninety minutes, a team of experts will weave together the planning and rehearsal of a typical early nineteenth century ball, look back at first-hand testimony of ball-goers of the time, and end with a stunning, authentic recreation based on Austen’s Netherfield Ball, a turning point in the romance between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. The ball takes place in the Great Hall at Chawton House, a room where members of the Austen family danced and enjoyed evening entertainments.

The team of experts who will play a key role in the recreation include: food historian Ivan Day; Professor Jeanice Brooks and Dr Wiebke Thormahlen from the University of Southampton, who will advise on the music and orchestral elements, and Hilary Davidson, curator of fashion and decorative art at the Museum of London, who will ensure an authentic recreation of Regency dress. Stuart Marsden and Dr Anne Daye will choreograph the dancing and literary expert John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London, will be on hand to ensure the ball’s accuracy and authenticity to Austen’s work. The programme’s main presenters will be Professor Amanda Vickery (The Many Lovers of Jane Austen) and Alastair Sooke (Modern Masters).

Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball will take an intelligent look at the social history of Austen’s world and explore how, as well as drinking, dancing and jollity, balls had an important purpose – to help women find a husband. Playing an important role in Austen’s novels, the pomp and excitement of a lively ball would drive forward the plot, explore and reveal character and shine a light on the society of the day.

BBC Learning has contributed to the funding of the project and commissioned a range of additional supporting material, including Regency recipes devised by Ivan Day for the BBC Food website. There will also be a curated Regency art feature for the Your Paintings website, period fashion and dance resources for the BBC History site and additional materials by the presenters for adult reading groups.

Chief Executive of Chawton House Library, Stephen Lawrence, said: “Working and living at Chawton House often feels like being part of a film set. This weekend it truly will be! We are delighted to be part of this authentic recreation of an important element of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. She knew Chawton House very well and it seems fitting then this tribute to her work should be undertaken here.”

Now a research library, Chawton House Library, has a unique collection of over twenty-one thousand volumes focusing on women’s writing in English from 1600 to 1830. Novels, poetry and drama are all included, as well as autobiographical writing, published letters and a range of factual material from this period. In addition the Knight family library, one known to Jane, is held here on deposit. The Library is open to readers, free of charge by appointment from Monday to Friday, 9.30am-5pm. The house and grounds are available for venue hire, group tour bookings and special events. Details of tours as well as the many different events can be found on the website, CLICK HERE.

The Regency Ball in Context

‘Our ball was rather more amusing than I expected…you will not expect to hear that I was asked to dance – but I was!’

(Jane Austen, letter to Cassandra, 9th December, 1808)

‘We were very well entertained.. the Misses Lance have partners, Capt. Dauvernes’ friend appeared in regimentals, Caroline Maitland had an officer to flirt with and Mr John Harrison was deputed by Capt. Smith.. to ask me to dance.’

(Jane Austen, letter to Cassandra, January, 1809)

View of the ballroom (2012 – now called the Jane Austen Suite) at The Dolphin Hotel, Southampton, where Jane is said to have danced to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. It has of course been modernised but many of the original Georgian and Regency architectural features still survive.

One of the two bay windows in the ballroom at The Dolphin Hotel, Southampton. If Jane had indeed spent her eighteenth birthday dancing the night away here, she may well have glanced out of the window between dances.

One of two original fireplaces in the former ballroom (now The Jane Austen Suite) of The Dolphin Hotel, Southampton.

I will let you into a little secret, my mother named me after Jane Austen’s heroine Emma. Throughout my life I have been told that I possess a number of qualities similar to Jane’s leading lady but to what degree is for my friends and family to comment upon and not myself. However, although I have always enjoyed reading and re-reading Pride and Prejudice, it is the novel Emma (1815) that I prefer the most. My favourite adaptation by far is the BBC‘s four-part version written by Sandy Welch which aired in 2009 and starred Romola Garai as Emma and Jonny Lee Miller as Mr Knightly. Their on-screen chemistry perfectly captured the spirit of Jane’s original novel. Here is a short clip of the ball and supper at The Crown Inn which Emma and Mr Knightly both attend and share a dance together. CLICK HERE.

The Regency began in the spring of 1811 when the Prince of Wales was first appointed Prince Regent and terminated in 1820 on his accession to the throne as George IV (1762-1830). There is no doubt that Jane loved to attend a Ball, she wrote about them in many of her letters to family and friends. In 1793, her first dance is thought to have been on her eighteenth birthday at the Dolphin Hotel, Southampton. Jane was visiting the Butler-Harrison’s who lived at St. Mary’s near to the town and whose first child she had been appointed godmother to.

Interior architecture of The Dolphin Hotel.

Detail of main staircase. The Dolphin Hotel.

View looking-up at the main staircase. The Dolphin Hotel.

Architectural detail at The Dolphin Hotel.

In 1806, Jane, Cassandra and their mother joined brother Frank and his new wife Mary in Southampton, first living in lodgings and eventually moving to a rented house at No. 2 Castle Square in January 1807.

Martha Lloyd (1765-1843), Jane’s lifelong friend who was the Austen ladies housekeeper, cook and confidante. In 1828, Martha married Jane’s brother Sir Francis Austen (1774-1865) following the death of his first wife. Martha was no blushing bride, she was 62 and became Lady Austen. Jane Austen’s House and Museum.

Also joining them in Southampton was Martha Lloyd, lifelong friend of Jane, Jenny the cook, Molly the maid and another servant, Phoebe, who was a “maid of all work”. The Austens remained in Southampton until they moved to Chawton Cottage in 1809.

Jane Austen’s House Museum, Chawton, Hampshire. By kind permission thereof.

Glasses and case belonging to Jane Austen’s mother. On display at Lyme Regis Museum.

The donkey cart that the Austen ladies used whilst living at Chawton. Jane Austen’s House and Museum.

Don’t be fooled into thinking Jane’s recording of her ball-going experiences were all about head-turning fashions and heart-stopping moments. She loved to observe fellow guests and was not always kindly in her remarks, this can be seen in many examples of Jane’s private correspondences. She often demonstrates a considerable degree of acerbic wit about her subjects.

In 1884, Jane’s great-nephew, Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen (1st Baron Brabourne, 1829-1893), edited a collection of her letters which were subsequently published by Richard Benley & Son: London, New Burlington Street (Letters of Jane Austen edited with an Introduction and Critical Remarks by Edward, Lord Brabourne). Lord Brabourne’s mother, Lady Knatchbull (née Fanny Catherine Knight – 1793-1882), was Jane’s niece and the two hundred letters were found in a box of her papers. The letters contain a hundred detailed descriptions, by Jane, of visits to country balls. Here are few of my favourites and watch-out for Miss Austen’s sharp tongue:

It was a pleasant ball, and still more good than pleasant, for there were nearly sixty people, and sometimes we had seventeen couple [s]. The Portsmouths, Dorchesters, Boltons, Portals, and Clerks were there, and all the meaner and more usual &c., &c.’s. There was a scarcity of men in general, and a still greater scarcity of any that were good for much. I danced nine dances out of ten — five with Stephen Terry, T. Chute, and James Digweed, and four with Catherine. There was commonly a couple of ladies standing up together, but not often any so amiable as ourselves.

(Jane Austen to sister Cassandra, November 1800)

It was a pleasant evening; Charles found it remarkably so, but I cannot tell why, unless the absence of Miss Terry, towards whom his conscience reproaches him with being now perfectly indifferent, was a relief to him. There were only twelve dances, of which I danced nine, and was merely prevented from dancing the rest by the want of a partner. We began at ten, supped at one, and were at Deane before five.  There were but fifty people in the room; very few families, indeed, from our side of the county, and not many more from the other. My partners were the two St. Johns, Hooper, Holder, and very prodigious Mr Mathew, with whom I called the last, and who I liked the best of my little stock.

There were very few beauties, and such as there were not very handsome. Miss Iremonger did not look well, and Mrs. Blount was the only one much admired. She appeared exactly as she did in September, with the same broad face, diamond bandeau, white shoes, pink husband, and fat neck. The two Miss Coxes were there: I traced in one the remains of the vulgar, broad-featured girl who danced at Enham eight years ago; the other is refined into a nice, composed-looking girl, like Catherine Bigg. I looked at Sir Thomas Champneys and thought of poor Rosalie; I looked at his daughter, and thought her a queer animal with a white neck. Mrs. Warren, I was constrained to think, a very fine young woman, which I much regret.

She has got rid of some part of her child, and danced away with great activity looking by no means very large. Her husband is ugly enough, uglier even than his cousin John; but he does not look so very old. The Miss Maitlands are both prettyish, very like Anne, with brown skins, large dark eyes, and a good deal of nose. The General has got the gout, and Mrs. Maitland the jaundice. Miss Debary, Susan, and Sally, all in black, but without any stature, made their appearance, and I was as civil to them as circumstances ["their bad breath"] would allow me.

(Jane Austen to sister Cassandra, Thursday 20th November 1800)

Balls, private or public, city or country, were an important part of Regency society, occasions where potential husbands could be snared and the etiquette of dancing acted as a form of pre-marital courtship.  In Pride and Prejudice The Netherfield Ball acts as a device to drive the plot forward. In Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814), Maria Bertram and Mr Rushworth attend a number of balls, dancing together on each occasion and finally enter into an engagement. The ball is a socially acceptable forum where young, old, single and married can mix with relative freedom without fear of being reproached for breaching social protocols.

Unlike modern times where arrival at a ball is usually 7pm and carriages are called at midnight, Regency balls were an all night affair, requiring a degree of stamina. Unfortunately, there were many instances when guests succumbed to physical injuries as a result of over exertion. During the course of my research I read that Lord St. Asaph (1760-1830), the Earl of Ashburnham’s son, suffered a burst blood-vessel as a result of attending The Duchess of Dorset’s Grand Ball and Supper at Knole Park in 1813. The injury was brought on by dancing too vigorously.

We are sorry to add, that an accident happened to Lord St. Asaph, which his Lordship had an opportunity of concealing from the company. Lord St. Asaph, finding himself indisposed, apologized and retired. From over exertion in dancing, on retiring to bed, a blood-vessel gave way; and he was very much reduced in consequence. Medical assistance was sent for; and an express sent-off to his father, the Earl of Ashburnham at Ashburnham Castle, who arrived the next day when this amiable young Nobleman was declared to be out of danger.

(Grand Ball and Supper given by The Duchess of Dorset at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent Friday 8th January, 1813, reported in The Morning Post)

In many of the extracts from contemporary newspapers that I have quoted here, you will see a pattern of timings emerging for a typical Regency ball. Arrival was usually between 10pm and midnight, several hours of dancing followed as well as general socialising and mingling. Between 3am and 5am there would be a break for supper, which usually included: seasonal fayre; soups; water and cream ices; fruit; confectionary; coffee; tea and hot chocolate. Dancing then continued until dawn. The ball normally consisted of between nine and twelve dances, including reels and strathspeys.

The grander balls, given by the upper echelons of Regency society, often went one step further and spared no expense in creating a suitably decorated, lavish, interior. Mrs Dawson’s annual ball at Manchester Square, in 1812, saw the windows being removed and replaced with painted silk. The ballroom was also festooned with great quantities of laurel-leaves, which were a popular type of Regency decoration.

Society Balls in the Regency Era

There were 300 ‘Fashionables’. The principal drawing-room, and the secondary apartments, were rendered agreeably cool, by the removal of the window, and substituting transparencies painted on silk.  The principal designs, among these novelties, were – 1st – A rural landscape of enamelled meads, cottages, and sheep grazing – the village church in the background; 2nd – wood and water, with rocky cliffs and mountains the ruins of an ancient castle. The balcony was fancifully decorated with variegated lamps, intermixed among flowering shrubs. Chandeliers of chrystalline brilliancy illumined the ballroom, the splendour of which was considerably heightened by the aid of mirrors of a vast size being placed in such, direction, as to multiply every object ad infinitum. Great quantities of laurel-leaves were introduced to add to the tout-ensemble. The dancing commenced at eleven o’clock, and was kept-up with unusual spirit. An excellent collation was provided, consisting of soups, and all the delicacies of the season, of which the company partook at two o’clock. About five o’clock an elegant dejeune was served-up; then reels and strathspeys commenced, and continued until between the hours of six and seven.

(Mrs Dawson’s Ball and Supper at Manchester Square, London, as reported in The Morning Post, Monday 22nd June, 1812)

Dancing began at midnight with the Lady Matilda Bruce – a new reel. At half-past three o’clock the company sat down to a sumptuous banquet, the viands and wines being of the first description, with a desert of ices, strawberries, cherries, and grapes by Mr Gunter. Music was provided by Mr Gow’s Band.

(The Duchess of Bedford’s Ball and Supper at Bedford House in Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, Friday 31st May 1811)

There were 350 guests who arrived at 9.30pm. The Queen came in a new state chair, which has been made since the last ball and supper, in consequence of the weight of the chair the Queen then went in being so heavy then, that the Chairmen were obliged to rest in the Park. The new chair is made of paper of a similar manufacture the tea-trays are made of. The ornaments are extremely neat and elegant. It is lined with crimson velvet, the draperies crimson silk.

(The Prince Regent’s Ball and Supper at Carlton House mansion, London, reported in The Morning Post, May 13th, 1813)

Drinking tea was fashionable and popular across all classes in Regency society. The tea service shown here is Chamberlain’s Worcester porcelain, c.1810. The table is mahogany c. 1775. The tea-chest is burr wood, c.1825, it was made by Robert James of Bristol. The casket contains teas and a glass bowl in which the two could be blended. Until 1830, all tea came from China. Display from Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.

Regency Ball – Food

Soon after one in the morning the party supped; and about four o’clock they separated. The supper was a most sumptuous banquet, served on the most costly porcelain; the tables were abundantly supplied with the choicest viands, displayed with unique elegance, in a style which did great credit to ingenuity of the cooks and confectioners employed.

(Grand Ball and Supper given by The Duchess of Dorset at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent -Friday 8th January, 1813, reported in The Morning Post)

The Prince’s table was laid for 65, allowing 18 inches for each person, in the most superb and elegant manner. The Queen and Prince Regent sat the head. The princess Charlotte sat at the right of the Duke of York…When seated the tout ensemble presented a most magnificent scene. The desert, under the direction of Mr Bonuar, comprised every delicacy the season afforded, and was most excellent. The pages in their state uniforms, the yeomen of the guards, the servants in their state liveries, added much to the splendor of the effect.

(The Prince Regent’s Ball and Supper, Carlton House, London, Friday 5th February 1813)

11.30pm dancing commenced. A supper, the most abundant and excellent, with ices, fruits, and confectionary, provided by Mr Gunter, formed the repast, and of which the company partook about half-past two o’clock. Dancing was afterwards resumed, and kept-up with great spirit, under the able superintendence of the Noble Marquis (Lansdowne), who did not quit the “Merry Round” until long after the dawn of the day. To complete this unrivalled entertainment, a dejeune of tea, coffee, chocolate, was provided; it was served up about six o’clock, in a very superior way.

(Mrs Calvert’s Ball at Mansfield Street, Portland Place, London on Friday 10th May 1811, reported in The Morning Post, Monday 13th May, 1811)

At 2am the company then adjourned to the supper-tables. Here a most sumptuous display indeed was made, there were no less than six supper-rooms, all fitted-up in the most beautiful and appropriate manner. Each table was brilliantly ornamented with trophies of war and peace; emblems emblematic of the arts and sciences: the costume of all civilized nations of the earth, exemplified in waxen images, modelled for this fete expressly…the plate, and the china, displayed and the brilliancy of the lighting-up of the tables, the effect was grand in the extreme.  To render the coup l’oeil complete, about two hundred beautiful women (for the major part of the females were really beautiful) sat in such prominent situations as to be seen in every part without the least difficulty. The supper, we need not add, was most excellent; the wines abundant, and all of the rarest kinds. The dessert fruits, and confectionary, were equally deserving of panegyric: the Duke of Clarence spoke in raptures of them.

(Mrs Beaumont’s Grand Ball and Supper, reported in The Morning Post, Wednesday 14th April, 1813)

In 1799, confectioner extraordinaire James Gunter (1731-1819) took over sole proprietorship of the Pot and Pineapple confectionary shop from Italian cook Domenico Negri. The Pot and Pineapple was located at 7-8 Berkeley Square, London. Gunter changed the name to Gunter’s Tea Shop. Gunter’s son, Robert (1783-1852) studied confectionary in Paris and subsequently took control of the business in 1819, hiring his cousin John as a partner in 1837. The Tea Shop moved to Curzon Street in 1936-7 and closed in 1956. Gunter’s Tea Shop was a fashionable place for both ladies and gentlemen in the Regency era to visit.  The range of delicious toothsome treats was extensive, biscuits, cakes, sugar plums, creams, ices and sweet meats, to name but a few.  Gunter confectionary was a popular addition to the supper table at a Regency ball. Both Mrs Calvert and The Duchess of Bedford’s ball suppers, of 1811, showcased his confectionary.

Joseph Bell,  Marie Antonin Carême (1784-1833), Frederick Nutt, Mrs Rundell (1745-1828) and Mrs Mary Holland all played an important part in the development of Regency cookery.  Joseph Bell worked for the Prince Regent and Antonin Carême for Prince George. Even Jane and her family had their own trusty house-keeper and cook, Martha Lloyd (who was also Jane’s lifelong friend).

Historian, Kate Colquhoun, states: ‘Regency fancy was tempted as much by capillaire syrup (flavoured with dried maidenhair fern), Chartreuse and brandies as by the taste nougat, pistachio, maraschino, mint, aniseed and even – for the first time – caramel made from gently browned sugar and cream.’ (Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking, 2008, p.248).  According to Colquhoun, the Austen ladies loved their ices and in September 1804 Cassandra wrote from Weymouth to Jane, complaining about the lack of ice in the town to satisfy her cravings. (2008, p.249).

Create Your Own Regency Ball Supper

Below are selection of recipes from publications by some of the above cooks.  If you want to hold your own Regency ball supper, then ices, syllabubs, fruit, confectionary, biscuits, coffee, tea and hot chocolate should all be on the menu. In The Housekeeper’s Instructor or, Universal Family Cook (1809 edition) by William A. Henderson, includes a rather modest ‘Ball Supper for Twenty People’ which includes: millfeuille; fricandeaux; marangles; ham; jelly; lobster; cheesecakes; roast fowls; custards; prawns; blancmange; galanteens; raised pie; roast lamb; Savoy cake; raspberry ice; lemon ice; orange ice; grapes; peaches; nutt of veal; potatoes; French beans; boiled fowls; rabbits; Italian cream; harrico of mutton; turtle; Chartreuse; patties; mutton; stewed pigeon; custard; tongue; sweetbreads; peas and for breakfast at the end of the ball: boiled chickens; trifle; raspberry cream; ham; tartlets, sweetbread raised pie; custards; jellies; veal patties and cheesecakes.  Quite a list, it is a wonder that the young ladies retained their figures.

Orange Heart Biscuits (Frederick Nutt, The Complete Confectioner, 1819 – 8th edition)

Take three-quarters of a pound of powdered sugar, and put it in a pewter basin with thirty yolks of eggs, and take seven preserved orange peels, pound them in a mortar very fine, quite to a paste, then take a handful of sweet and half a handful of bitter almonds, pound them very fine, and mix them with a little orange flower water; then take four eggs, yolks and whites together, and put them in the basin with the sugar, eggs, and peel, mix them all well together with a wooden spoon in each hand, and beat them till you see the batter rise very much (though you can hardly beat them too light), till it turns quite white and puffs up in bladders; then put in half a pound of sifted flour, and mix it with the batter very lightly; then butter the hearts, fill them, and sift a little powdered sugar over the top of them, before you put them in the oven, which must be rather quick, but not too hot, otherwise they will not be light, and take them out of the tins while they are hot.

King’s Biscuits (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Take half a pound of butter and work it about in a basin with a wooden spoon, then take six eggs and whisk them well; put half a pound of powdered sugar in them, and whisk them about ten minutes; mix the eggs and sugar with the butter, then take six ounces of currants well washed, and put them with the eggs, and six ounces of flour, and mix it altogether; put three sheets of paper on the plate, take a tea-spoon and drop the paste on the paper about the size of a shilling; put them in a sharp oven, and cut them off while they are hot.

Lemon Wafers (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Take six lemons, and squeeze into an earthen pan; pound and sift some double-refined sugar and mix it with the lemon juice, put one white of an egg in with it, and mix it well up together with your wooden spoon, to make it of a fine thickness; take some sheets of wafer paper, and put one sheet of it on a pewter sheet, or tin plate, put a spoonful on, and cover the sheet of wafer paper all over with your knife; cut in twelve pieces, and put them across a stick in your hot stove, with that side the paste is on uppermost, and you will find they will curl; when they are half curled, take them off carefully and put them endways in a sieve, that they may stand up; let them be in the hot stove, and you will find they will be all curled, and then they are done.

Raspberry Jelly For Ices (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Put your raspberries in the preserving pan; wash them well with your spaddle, put them over the fire, stirring them all the time they are on; when they are ready to boil take them off, and pass them through a hair sieve into a pan, let no seed go through; put your jelly into another pan and set it on the fire, and let it boil twenty minutes before you put the sugar in it; stir it all the time or else it will burn at bottom; put fourteen ounces of sugar to every pound of jelly, let it boil twenty minutes, stir it all the time, when cold put it in a brown pan or pots, sift a little powdered sugar over it, let it stand one day and then cover it up: this jelly is good to make ice-cream with.

Everlasting Whip Syllabub To Put Into Glasses (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Take five half pints of thick cream, half a pint of Rhenish wine, half a pint of sack, and the juice of two large Seville oranges; rasp in the yellow rind of three lemons and pound of double refined sugar well pounded and sifted; mix all together with a spoonful of orange-flower water, beat it well together with a whisk half an hour, then with a spoon fill your glasses. This will keep above a week, it is much better being made the day before it is used.

Floating Island (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

A pretty dish for the middle of a table, at a second course, or for a supper.

Take a soup dish according to the size and quantity you would wish to make, but a deep glass dish is the best, put it on a china dish; first take a quart of the thickest cream you can get, make it sweet with fine powdered sugar; pour in a gill of fine mountain, and rasp the yellow rind of a lemon in; whisk your cream very strong as carefully as you can; pour the thin from the froth into a dish; take some Naples biscuits and cut them as thin as possible; lay a layer of them as light as possible on the cream, then a layer of currant jelly, again a layer of Naples biscuits, over that put your cream that you saved; put as much as you can make the dish, without running over, garnish outside with sweetmeats and what else you like.

Lemonade (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Rasp two lemons and squeeze six, put to them three gills of syrup and the rest water; taste it, and if it is not to your palate, alter it till it is right; then strain it through a lawn sieve, and put it in your glasses for use.

Fresh Raspberry Water (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Take one pint of fresh raspberries, and pass them through a sieve with a wooden spoon; put two large spoonfuls of powdered sugar in, squeeze one lemon in, and let the rest be water; make it palatable, and put a little cochineal in to colour it: pass it through a sieve, and it is fit for use.

How To Make Ice-Cream Using a Freezing Pot (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Put mixture into the freezing pot and cover it; put the freezing pot into a pail, and some ice all round the pot; throw a good deal of salt on the ice in the pail, turning the pot round for ten minutes, then open your pot, and scrape it from the sides, cover it up again, and keep turning it for some time, till your cream is like butter, and as thick; put it in your moulds, put them into a pail, and cover it with ice and salt for three-quarters of an hour, till you find the water is come to the top of the pail; do not be sparing of salt, for if you do not use enough it will not freeze: dip you mould into water, and turn it out on your plate to send to table.

Raspberry Ice Cream (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Take a large spoonful of raspberry jam, put it into a basin and squeeze one lemon in; add a pint of cream and a little cochineal to colour it; pass it through a sieve into a basin; put it into your freezing pot.

Apricot Ice Cream (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Take one spoonful of apricot jam, put it in a basin, and squeeze one lemon in; take a handful of bitter almonds pounded with a little powdered sugar, put them all to a pint of cream, and put it into your freezing pot.

Coffee Ice Cream (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Take one ounce of coffee whole, and put it in a stewpan with one pint of cream; put it over the fire, and let it simmer and boil ten minutes or a quarter of an hour; drain all the coffee from it; break four eggs into a pan, and add one gill and a half of syrup: beat them well up together, put the cream that comes from the coffee into it; give it a boil, stir it all the time, pass it through a sieve and freeze it.

Chocolate Ice Cream (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Take one ounce and a half of chocolate, and warm it over the fire; take six eggs, one gill of syrup, and one pint of cream; mix it over the fire till it begins to thicken; mix the chocolate in, pass it through a sieve, and freeze it.

Damson Water Ice (Frederick Nutt, 1819)

Take a quarter of a pound of preserved damsons, and break the stones, put them into a basin and squeeze in one lemon, add almost a pint of water and half a gill of syrup; pass it through a sieve, and freeze it rich.

Virtues of Coffee (Mrs Rundell, 1819)

Coffee accelerates digestion, corrects crudities, removes colic and flatulencies. It mitigates headaches, cherishes the animal spirits, takes away listlessness and languor, and is serviceable in all obstructions arising from languid circulation. It is a wonderful restorative to emaciated constitutions, and highly refreshing to the studious and sedentary. The habitual use of coffee would greatly promote sobriety, being in itself a cordial stimulant; it is a most powerful antidote to the temptation of spirituous liquors. It will be found a welcome beverage to the robust labourer, who would despise a lighter drink.

A coffee pot, Spode, C. 1805. Basaltware (a type of stoneware), hand-thrown then turned on a lathe to create the precise shape, smooth surface and tooled decoration. On display at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.

Regency Ball – Music and Dance

The preparations occupied the attention of upholders, cooks, and confectioners, for many days previous. The Duchess of York arrived at ten o’clock…the dancing was led-off by a Military Officer and the Hon. Smith….To aid to the general effect, the musicians attached to the regiment of dragoons, quartered in neighbourhood (we believe the 17th), appeared about 11 o’clock, richly habited in the most glittering attire we ever witnessed….A supper, the most sumptuous and abundant, was served-up on massy plate, with central ornaments, on a highly enriched plateaux. Three hundred guests, military in full uniforms. Her Highness of York wore a splendid Roman tunic and edged with beautiful white lace; her head-dress à-la-Grec with a profusion of diamonds. Ball ended at 3.30am.

(Duchess of York and her circle of friends host a Grand Ball at the Star and Garter in Richmond, reported in The Morning Post, Wednesday 11th December, 1811)

One name that crops-up time and again in contemporary accounts of Regency Balls is Mr Gow’s band. Neil Gow (1727-1807) was born at Inver, near Dunkeld, on March 22nd, 1727. He was a famous fiddler, composer and dance instructor who enjoyed a rapid rise to fame. Following his death, his four surviving sons, William, John, Andrew and Nathaniel – all composers of music – carried on the family tradition. Nathaniel (1763-1831) composed over one hundred and ninety-seven tunes, including Strathspeys, reels, jigs, quick steps, laments, waltzes, and slow airs. Andrew and John moved to London in 1780 and in addition to their profession as musicians the pair also sold music from 1788, when they occupied premises at 60 King Street, Golden Square. Andrew died in 1790 and John continued as a band leader. Mrs Dawson of Manchester Square favoured Mr Gow’s band at her annual grand Balls.

Evening dress for a summer ball, 1811.

Regency Ball – Fashion and Beauty

A robe and petticoat of white satin, with short sleeves, trimmed with green or yellow chenille; over which is worn a light green drapery of crape, fastened on the left shoulder with an amber or cornelian brooch: folded over the left side of the figure in front, nearly concealing the waist on that side, the hind part of the drapery is simply bound in at bottom of the waist and confined underneath the drapery in front, entirely ornamented round with yellow chenille.  With this dress is worn a Turkish turban of green crape, with trimming to correspond, small round curls, divided on the right side. The hair in small round curls, divided on the right side. Amber or cornelian necklace. Gloves of white kid. Shoes of green kind, or silk.

(The Morning Post, from La Belle Assemblé, Wednesday, May 1st, 1811)

A Ball or full dress. A Roman robe of pink crape, worn over white gossamer satin. A long Spanish slashed sleeve, with an antique cuff of fine net lace; horizontal stripe front, with a quilling of fine net round the bosom. The slashes of the sleeve filled with folds of white satin, and their terminations finished with silver filigree, or mother of pearl buttons. A cestus of white satin, with correspondent clasp and brooch. Hair in waved curls confined round the head with a wreath of Persian rose, separated in the centre of the forehead. Neck-chain and cross Peruvian gold; eardrops of the same. An occasional scarf of Paris net, starred with silver. White satin slippers ornamented with pink rosettes. White gloves of French kind, and fan of spangled grape.

General Observations. The hair is worn dressed in full flat curls over the face, twisted behind the ends brought forward and blended with the front of hair. The gloves are worn every short the fans are increasing in size; trains are more laid aside through convenience than fashion. The prevailing colours for the season are yellow, primrose, pink, lilac, straw, and blue celeste feathers in full-dress were never so universal.

(From Ackerman’s Repository of Arts and Fashion, 1811)

Fashion periodicals such as La Belle Assemblé, The Ladies Magazine and Ackerman’s Repository of Arts and Fashion, were influential in promoting the latest fashion trends and styles. By the end of the Regency, Paris correspondents were employed by these periodicals to respond to the growing consumer interest in French fashions.  The waistline in early Regency was situated under the bust and evening dresses were worn with short sleeves and long gloves. Popular fabrics for the Classical effect gown included muslin, cambric and fine cottons in a range of pastel shades. After 1814, skirts became fuller with plenty of trimmings of lace and ribbon. The width of the hem increased and by 1825 assumed a conical shape. Puffed sleeves were also a popular addition. The cloak, pelisse and spencer were worn as outer garments during the Regency.

Regency ‘stocking’ purse used for coins. On display at Lyme Regis Museum.

To Clean Silk Stockings (Family Receipt Book by Mrs Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell, 1819, 2nd American Edition)

Wash your stockings first in white soap liquor, lukewarm, take out the rough dirt; then rise them in fair water, and work them well in a fresh soap liquor.  Then make a thirdstone blue, wrapped in a flannel bag, till your liquor is blue enough, then wash your stockings well therein, and take them out and wring them. Then let them dried so that they remain a little moist; then stove them with brimstone, after which, put upon the wood leg two stockings, one upon the other, observing that the two fronts, or outsides, are face-to-face then polish them with a glass. NB. The two first soap liquors must be only lukewarm, the third soap liquor as hot as you can bear your hand in it. Blonds and gauzes are whitened in the same manner, only a little gum is put in the soap liquor before they are stoved.

The Useful Properties of Charcoal for Sweetening the Breath, Cleaning the Teeth (Mrs Rundell, 1819)

All sorts of glass vessels and other utensils may be purified from long retained smells of every kind, in the easiest and most perfect manner, by rinsing them out well with charcoal powder, after the grosser impurities have been scoured off with sand and potash. Rubbing the teeth, and washing out the mouth, with fine charcoal powder, will render the teeth beautifully white, and the breath perfectly sweet, where an offensive breath has been owing to a scorbutic disposition of the gums. Putrid water is immediately deprived of its offensive smell by charcoal.

The French dentist, Nicholas Dubois de Chemant (1753-1824) - print by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827). The woman has just had fitted Dubois de Chemant’s famous double row of mineral paste teeth and gums. Dubois de Chemant was a famous Parisian society dentist. They certainly had a sweet tooth in the Regency.

To Make Lip-Salve (Mrs Rundell, 1819)

Take an ounce of white wax and ox marrow, three ounces of white pomatum, and melt all in bath heat, add a dram of alkanet, and stir it till it acquire a reddish colour.

To Make Rose-Water (Mrs Rundell, 1819)

Gather roses on a dry day, when they are full-blown; pick of the leaves, and to a peck put a quart of water, then put them into a cold still, make a slow fire under it; the slower you distil it the better it will be; then bottle it, and in two or three days you may cork it.

To Make Jessamine Butter or Pomatum (Mrs Rundell, 1819)

Hog’s lard method, and well washed in fair water, laid an inch thick in a dish, and stewed over with jessamine flowers, will imbibe the scent, and make a very fragrant pomatum.

For Preserving The Nails (Mrs Rundell, 1819)

One ounce of oil of bitter almonds; one dram of oil of tartar per deliquium; one ounce of prepared crab’s-eyes. Mix-up with essence of lemon to send it. La Forest recommends rubbing the nails with lemon as a detergent.

Regency gentleman’s waistcoat. On display at Lyme Regis Museum.

Regency waistcoat detail. Lyme Regis Museum.

Selection of UK Events Celebrating The 200th Anniversary of Pride and Prejudice

• Music! It is of all subjects to my delight – Music at Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, Hampshire. Musician Anthony Noble will play an informal recital of Hadyn, Mozart and Beethoven on the Museum’s piano. Sundays, 2pm: 7th April; 5th May; 2nd June; 7th July and 4th August 2013. Entrance fee to Museum applies. CLICK HERE.
• Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, Hampshire. There are many events happening at Jane’s home in the pretty village of Chawton to mark the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice‘s publication. An exhibition, ‘The Story of Pride and Prejudice’ opens on Saturday 2nd February 2013. It will tell the story and history of the book, also on display will be a letter that Jane wrote to her sister Cassandra on first receiving her copy of the book. Another highlight will be a display of Hugh Thomson’s (1860-1920)illustrations that first appeared in an 1894 edition of Pride and Prejudice.  For more information about events at Jane Austen’s House, CLICK HERE. For details of the Museum’s opening times, CLICK HERE.
• Tea with Miss Austen – Winchester Cathedral. Sunday 16th March (Mothering Sunday), 3pm. Traditional afternoon tea followed by a spoken-word performance, ‘Jane Austen: A Women of Her Time – and ours?’ by Chapter & Verse. Costs £14.95 per person. CLICK HERE.
• The Jane Austen Story – Winchester Cathedral. A permanent exhibition that celebrates Jane’s life in Hampshire. Open 9-5pm when the Cathedral is open to the public. Entrance charges apply to the Cathedral. CLICK HERE.
• Jane Austen Tour and Cream Tea – Winchester Cathedral. Jane died in Winchester on 18th July 1817 and is buried in the north aisle of Winchester Cathedral. Accompanied by one of the Cathedral guides, the walking tour will explore Jane’s close links with Winchester and the Cathedral. The tour will include a visit to Inner Close and the house on College Street where Jane and Cassandra lodged during the last few weeks of Jane’s life. The tours take place on the first Saturday of every month between February and September 2013. The next tour takes place on Saturday 2nd February. Cost = £10. CLICK HERE. To read more about Jane’s brief time in Winchester, CLICK HERE.
• Evening Talk Simon Langton – Filming ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and Other Costume Dramas – Chawton House Library, Chawton, Hampshire. Thursday 18th April 2013. 6.30pm for 7pm talk, finishes 8.30pm. Director Simon Langton will discuss directing the iconic BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in 1995. Tickets: Adults £10; Students/Friends £7.50. For further information on this event, CLICK HERE.
• Regency Dancing – Hillier Gardens, Romsey, Hampshire. Sunday 5th May, 1-3pm. The Hampshire Regency Dancers will perform a selection of Regency dances in the stunning Hillier Gardens. After the performance why not take Regency High Tea in the restaurant. The Regency dance display is free and the afternoon tea is £12.50 per person. Normal admission charges to the garden also apply. For more information, CLICK HERE.
• Celebrating Pride and Prejudice – 4 Day residential/non-residential course exploring key characters in the 1995 BBC adaptation of the novel. Begins Monday 27th May (6pm) and ends Friday 31st May (2pm). Course tutor is Hazel Jones. Included will be visits to the various film locations used in the production.  The course takes place in the Cotswolds (Farncombe Estate, Worcestershire) and is run by Farncombe Courses. Cost ranges from £359-£520, depending on your choice of accommodation. Tel: 01386 854100. For further information, CLICK HERE. 
• Pride and Prejudice  – Open Air Production – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre – Regent’s Park, London. The production runs from 20th June 2013 until 20th July 2013, reduced price previews between the 20th and 24th June. For further information, CLICK HERE.
• 4th Jane Austen Festival Regency Costumed Summer Ball – the Banqueting Room at the Guildhall, Bath. Full details will be available soon, so keep an eye on the Jane Austen Centre in Bath’s website, CLICK HERE.
• Jane Austen Festival – Bath. This annual event is a must for all fans of Jane Austen and indeed visitors travel from all over the world to attend. Why not dust-off your Regency gowns that you wore to the Costumed Summer Ball at the Guildhall and immerse yourself in the life and times of Regency Bath. This year the Jane Austen Festival takes place between 13th September and 21st September. I visited the event a couple of years ago, Bath never looked so alive. For further information, CLICK HERE.
  

  Jane Austen Festival, Bath, 2011.

Jane Austen Festival, Bath, 2011.

Jane Austen Festival, Bath, 2011.

Jane Austen Inspired Books

• The Jane Austen Cookbook by Maggie Black and Deirdre Le Faye (2002). Published by McClelland & Stewart. The book contains many recipes from the Georgian and Regency era, updated for the modern cook, including a selection of Martha Lloyd’s recipes detailed in her “Household Book”. Martha recorded over one hundred recipes during her time as housekeeper and cook to the Austen ladies. Some of the recipes featured include Martha’s almond cheesecakes, pyramid creams, the famous white soup and salmagundy. CLICK HERE;
• The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne (Jan. 2013). Published by Harper Press Books. To watch a short film in which Paula talks more about her new book CLICK HERE. The filming, for this film, took place at Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, Hampshire;
• A Dance with Jane Austen: How a Novelist and her Characters Went to the Ball by Susannah Fullerton (2012). Published by Frances Lincoln. Susannah takes the reader through all the stages of a Regency Ball. CLICK HERE. 
• Happily Ever After: Celebrating Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice by Susannah Fullerton (Jan. 2013). Published by Frances Lincoln. CLICK HERE.

Walking In The Footsteps of Jane Austen

• Jane Austen Trail. Self-guided walking tours of Alton and Chawton. The tours are produced by Alton Chamber of Commerce and Industry. There is also an annual Jane Austen Regency Week, usually held in June. The dates for 2013 have yet to be announced but keep an eye on the Jane Austen Regency Week website. CLICK HERE. To download the comprehensive maps for the walking tours, CLICK HERE.  
• Literary Walks in East Hampshire. Self-guided walking tours of the attractive countryside in East Hampshire. The well-written tour also includes a walk around the village of Selborne, only five miles from Chawton, where the parson naturalist Rev. Gilbert White (1720-1793) lived at The Wakes which is now a Museum. He penned The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne in 1789 whilst living in Selborne. I am currently writing several feature articles on this Museum and its collection so do check back shortly. For further information on Gilbert White’s House and Garden and The Oates Collection which is also housed there, CLICK HERE. For a self-guided walking tour of Selborne, walking in the footsteps of Rev. Gilbert White, CLICK HERE.
  

  Exterior of Rev. Gilbert White’s House, The Wakes, Selborne, Hampshire.

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Dazzle – Art Deco Fashion From The Roaring Twenties – Gosport Gallery

Dazzle Exhibition (until Saturday 29th December). Gosport Gallery, Gosport, Hampshire.

Modernistic effects in furniture and architecture are being used with a vengeance by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Joan Crawford’s new picture.  Weird beds, almost on the floor, have little woodwork frame save foot-high boards which conceal the springs and do away without the conventional legs of a bed.  These are set against a wall whose only ornamenting is the shape of the doors.  Black statues set against gold papered panels from the ornamental note. The whole thing is being photographed under the huge new incandescent lights.

(Extract from a 1928 Studio Press Release for MGM’s Our Dancing Daughters)

Our Dancing Daughters was the first in a trilogy of films designed under the auspices of Head of Art Direction at MGM, Cedric Gibbons (1893-1960).  The other films in the trilogy being Our Blushing Brides (1928) and Our Modern Maidens (1929). His high style, Art Deco inspired, set designs were befitting to the telling of modern-day stories that celebrated the decadence and rise of flapperism in The Roaring Twenties.

In 1925, Gibbons along with one hundred other U.S. delegates, visited the Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, and it was here that Art Deco received one of its first major, official, public appearances. Art Deco made an impact upon the U.S. delegates, many of whom went on to introduce this style to American consumers and cinema audiences alike. During the Twenties, Art Deco was extremely popular in Europe and America, although only the rich and middle-classes could afford to consume the style in its undiluted form.  However, it is important to point-out here that ‘Art Deco’ was only defined as a design style in 1968, when Historian Bevis Hillier wrote his seminal work, Art Deco of the 20s and 30s. In the Twenties, Art Deco styling appeared everywhere, from building exteriors to fashion.

Dazzle Exhibition, Gosport Gallery, Hampshire.

Dazzle Exhibition, Gosport Gallery, Hampshire.

This was the decade when socialites, aristocrats and Bohemians hosted extravagant parties and wore stunning beaded ensembles that shimmered in the electric lights whilst they Charlestoned their way through the night to fast-paced, jazz music. If you want to experience this exciting ‘Jazz Age’ then take a moment to pause here and watch a short British Pathé film (2 minutes 40 seconds). The film is from 1929 and features the Covent Garden Band playing jazz tune, ‘Who Wouldn’t Be Jealous Of You’. A flapper boy and girl also dance the Charleston. CLICK HERE.

I have a passion for Twenties fashion and was delighted to accept an invitation to visit Gosport Gallery in Hampshire to view the exhibition Dazzle.  What an absolute treat Dazzle is and cleverly curated in the space by Gill Arnott, Keeper of the Arts for Hampshire Museums and Arts Service. Upon entry to the Gallery you are greeted with a central display of spectacular Art Deco beaded dresses and are instantly transported back in time by vibrant jazz music.  The exhibition, although a gem in its own right, is also a superb source of inspiration, for the fashion forward among you, for what will be the hottest trend in 2013, the Twenties. There are eighteen garments from Hampshire County Council’s Museums Service collection on display and it is a unique opportunity to see these amazing but fragile pieces displayed together for the first time.  The exhibition ends on Saturday 29th December. Free admission.

Light green chiffon dress, tabard style, with wide shallow scooped neckline. Decorated asymmetrically with a bold design of silver bugle beads. C.1925-27.Weight 406g.Dazzle Exhibition. BWM1963.161. Hampshire County Council Arts and Museums Service (HCC Arts & Museums).

Salmon pink and silver dress decorated in pink faceted rocailles, pale pink bugle beads and silver lozenge-shaped beads. The beaded fringe would have created movement when dancing. The dress is constructed in three layers, with the bottom layer forming the lining. C.1925-27. Weight 914g. Dazzle Exhibition. C.1996.116. HCC Arts & Museums.

Alongside this incredible selection of dresses are shoes, fans, hats, shawls and other exquisite accessories from the same collection.

Black crepe de chine shoes edged and trimmed in gold kid. Complex cross-over T-straps trimmed with green and red dyed lizard skin roundels ending in imitation tassels.  Red cut paste buttons. Very high Louis heel. C.1923-1925. Dazzle Exhibition. The secure T-strap meant this type of shoe was perfect for dancing the frenetic Charleston without fear that one’s shoes might come off and be flung across the dance floor. HCC Arts & Museums.

Art Deco style, beaded evening bag. C.1920-1930. Dazzle Exhibition. The fashion for wearing make-up meant that the bright young things needed somewhere to store their powder compacts and lipsticks. The beaded bag was the perfect solution.  HCC Arts & Museums.

The Twenties female silhouette is easily recognisable.  Dresses have loose-fitting, drop waists with knee-length skirts and often incorporate pleating, rosettes and brooches on a single shoulder.

Evening beaded dress in black silk with white and silver beads in peacock feathers style design. Dazzle Exhibition. C.2003.2.1. HCC Arts & Museums.

Evening dress in pale pink chiffon decorated with glass beads and silver thread. Rivis Collection. Purchased with the support of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund. Dazzle Exhibition. C.1976.31.417. HCC Arts & Museums.

Black, open weave dress decorated with silver and gold bugle beads and sequins. There is a striking narrow V to the neckline, with collar band reminiscent of Egyptian design. The beads are sewn on machine stitch using a tambour. Rivis Collection. C.1926-28. Weight 904g. Dazzle Exhibition. C.1976.31.418. HCC Arts & Museums.

This style of dress was perfect for dancing the night away and allowed for freedom of movement. Design influences were drawn from a wide range of countries and their cultures including the Far and Middle East, the Americas and most notably Egypt.  In 1922, the discovery by Howard Carter (1874-1939) of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings sparked an interest, particularly among fashion designers, for Egyptian motifs.

White satin shoe with oval diamante trim. High curved and waisted Louis heel covered in white plastic, painted with a design on an Egyptian theme in red, green and gold and inset with multi-coloured diamante. Printed label Debenham and Freebody. Wigmore St. C.1935. Dazzle Exhibition.C.1988.124. HCC Arts & Museums.

During the 1920s, Coco Chanel’s (1883-1971) iconic “little black dress” (LBD) also emerged, made from thin silk and crèpe de chine. Chanel was: ‘..known for her simple daytime garments, often made from materials such as wool jersey.  In 1926, she brought the little black dress to the fashion world and created the essential fashion garment of every woman’s wardrobe.’ (2010, p. 2, Dazzle Exhibition, Hampshire Museums Service). At this time, Chanel also started a fashion for wearing long strings of pearls.

In 1922, beige seamed stockings became available. The fashion was for legs to appear as naked as possible, a daring change from the modesty of Edwardian ankle-length gowns. Gradually, other stocking shades appeared such as grey and flesh tones. Artificial silk (Celanese acetate) was also invented during the Twenties.  The word “Celanese” was first introduced as a trade name in 1925, a combination of the words “cellulose” and “ease”.

Surviving examples of dresses from this period are very rare, which is one of the reasons why this exhibition is so special. The dresses on display at Gosport Gallery would have more than likely been made by hand and cost a great deal of money at the time to purchase. Curator, Gill Arnott, tells me: ‘The average cost of one of these dresses was between £3.10 shillings and £6. 10 shillings. That was approximately one tenth of a working girl’s annual salary.’

Some of the luxury fabrics used are of a very delicate nature, such as silk chiffon, silk georgette, silk satin, ninon and voile.  The evening dresses are heavily beaded which means that each garment can weigh anything from 450g to several kilos. The average weight of a satin party dress nowadays is 250g. ‘The best beaders were in Paris and La Maison Lallement were considered one of the finest establishments. Some of the heavily beaded dresses could have taken a single person up to three weeks to bead.’ (2010, p. 5, Dazzle Exhibition, Hampshire Museums Service).

Close-up detail of the exquisite beadwork. Dazzle Exhibition. HCC Arts & Museums.

‘The weight of the dresses helped them to fall into the straight tubular fashion but also caused them to tear and rip, which explains why so few have survived in good condition.  The sequins, or paillettes could also cause problems as they were generally made out of wax which clumped together or melted when the wearer got too hot or when a partner rested their clammy hands on the dresses!’ (Ibid. p.8).

I asked Gill to tell me about some of the challenges faced by her team in displaying and conserving these precious dresses: ‘All the mannequins in the exhibition were bespoke, made in-house, to fit each dress exactly. Every mannequin has an accession number marked inside so that we can match them up again in the future should we re-exhibit.  The dresses are different weights and shapes so it is important that they are supported on a tailor-made structure to avoid any deterioration whilst out on display.  It took a team of three to get each dress onto a mannequin and we have to wear gloves to handle all the items in the collection. Firstly, a sheet was placed on the floor to catch any falling beads or sequins. Then, one person held the mannequin while the other two fitted the garment on it. The first person then eased down the hem. We had to work together as a team and I am very proud to say that with Dazzle, so far we have only lost one bead!’

I asked Gill if there were any plans to re-exhibit Dazzle in 2013? ‘Yes. We are hoping to re-exhibit a version of the collection at the Willis Museum in Basingstoke  during the summer next year. Displaying the dresses at that time of year will present my team with additional conservation challenges.  The gelatine-based sequins do not respond well to warm temperatures, heat from our gloved hands could melt them. We will have to wear extra gloves and try not to over-handle the dresses.’

Women in the Twenties began to wear heavy make-up and many followed the fashion of the day by having their hair cut into short bobs (1924). Another popular hairstyle, appearing for the first time in 1923, was an even shorter cut, the shingle. ‘Developed in France by a Parisian hairdresser, it was a method of cutting the hair by means of tapering which, in the hands of a skilled operator, could be adapted to suit any shape of head.  The early form of shingle was short and exposed the hair-line at the back of the neck. By 1925 it was fairly common, the hair being cut to follow the shape of the head with perhaps a slight fringe and soft waves at the sides…Bandeaux of every description were fashionable, especially for evening wear, including narrow ones of diamanté or broad ones of beadwork, silver lace or silver thread embroidery.  Some, known as shingle bands, were artfully designed to cover the shorn back of the head.’ (De Courtais D., 1988, p.150, Women’s Headdress and Hairstyles: In England From AD 600 to the Present Day). In 1926, the boyish cut known as the Eton crop was another popular hairstyle.

Shawl, feathers and cap of bronze mesh with gold sequins. C.1928. Dazzle Exhibition. HCC Arts & Museums.

Once the hair had been cut into a preferred style, permanent waving, such as that offered by Messrs. Marcel’s Ltd, was also a popular and practical fashionable flourish.  I found an advertisement from 1923, by Marcel’s Ltd, for permanent waving in which the benefits of this new hairdressing technique were promoted:

..this modern method of waving and curling the hair so that it “lasts in” for six to eight months is most bountifully time-saving.  Bobbed hair or long hair, scanty hair or thick – it is all the same to the clever assistants at this famous house for permanent waving, 353 Oxford Street, W1 and the charge is always the same, five shillings each per curler or waver….Tropical heat, hot shampoos, or sea bathing have no effect on permanent waves.

Young lady with “Marcel Waves in her hair”, from the firm’s 1923 advertisement.

Interest in Twenties fashion and lifestyle is growing apace and I predict this trend will continue throughout 2013.  I asked Gill Arnott (Curator of Dazzle) for her thoughts on this: ‘I definitely have seen more beaded garments on the High Street in 2012. Miss Selfridge produced a range of beaded dresses earlier in the year. I also think that younger people are asking more questions of their older relatives about fashions worn by them in their day. The family photo album is now inspiring conversations between younger and older generations about fashion trends from bygone eras.’

There are also several high-profile productions, set in the Twenties, due for release in 2013. One being series three of Downton Abbey premiering on Masterpiece Classic in the US on January 6th. and the long-awaited release of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, on May 10th.  Gill and I are not alone in our observations for a Twenties revival, according to a recent MailOnline article: ‘..it appears that we are so fixated with the upstairs/downstairs lives of the 1920s characters that we are even starting to copy their wardrobes.  Sales of retro styles, including flapper dresses and demure ruffled blouses, are on the rise…. Figures from Littlewoods show that since the third series [Downton Abbey] started sales of flapper style dresses have increased by 40%, traditional ruffle blouses shot-up by 109% and even men are buying in to the trend with tweed and cord blazer sales rising a massive 146%.’ (Daily Mail – MailOnline ‘Return of Downton Abbey Sends Sales of 1920s Fashion Soaring’ – 3rd October 2012)

Fashion journalists also predict that sales of Twenties inspired velvet jackets will continue to be a menswear trend in 2013: ‘With the eagerly awaited movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby set for release in 2013, styles of the 1920s have become one of the biggest trends in womenswear this year.  But thanks to the velvet jacketed stars of The Great Gatsby, the Twenties are taking menswear by storm as well….A huge catwalk trend, the trend has hit the high street too, with M&S reporting a 42% increase in sales compared to this time last year.’ (Ruth Styles, Daily Mail – MailOnline ’Great Gatsby Chic The Velvet Jacket is this Season’s Biggest Partywear Trend for Men as Great Gatsby Chic Sweeps the Nation’ – 13th December 2012)

I thoroughly recommend the Dazzle exhibition at Gosport Gallery, a visit will put you in the mood for the forthcoming Christmas party season as well as give you ideas for the hottest fashion trend around.  The exhibition continues until Saturday 29th December 2012 and admission is free. The Gosport Gallery is located just across from the Discovery Centre, Walpole Road, Gosport, Hampshire, PO12 1NS and is open Monday to Saturday 10am – 4pm (closed Sunday and 24th, 25th and 26th December).  For more information visit http://www3.hants.gov.uk/gosport-gallery.htm or call 0845 603 5631.

Further Resources

• The Victoria and Albert Museum, London have a brilliant section on their website with many articles and information about Art Deco. CLICK HERE;
• Fashion bible Vogue have a Great Gatsby fashion on-line gallery. CLICK HERE.;
• Glamour Magazine have compiled a selection of 1920s inspired vintage dresses that are currently available. CLICK HERE;
• For a brilliant article on fashion and lifestyle in 1920s Berlin, have a look at the recently published: Bohème Sauvage: back to Berlin 1920s style by Carolyn Hair at Culture Darling. There are some great images to inspire you as well. CLICK HERE.
• Finally, there are some gorgeous 1920s style dresses on www.rockmyvintage.co.uk . They have gathered a collection of vintage 1920s dresses and Twenties style dresses ‘…to tempt you into a classic Charleston look with a modern twist’.  CLICK HERE.

Shapewear advertisement from 1923. Girdles for young ladies were lightly boned with elasticated panels. If you were well-endowed, bandeaus or cupless brassieres were worn to flatten the breasts, this also allowed the dress to hang smoothly from the shoulders. This was the decade when dieting become fashionable and counting calories normal among the bright young things.

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The Magic of Christmas Past – UK Events 2012

Carol singers at Blists Hill Victorian Town, Telford, Shropshire.

If you have been looking for a festive activity with a heritage twist, then search no more, I have done all the hard work for you.  Here are my recommendations for the best nostalgia events taking place, throughout the UK, over the next few weeks. All you have to do is choose an era then allow yourself to be transported back in time to celebrate the magic of Christmas past. There are events here to suit all ages and interests.

For information on each event, simply click on the relevant property address.

MEDIEVAL

• Medieval Christmas Market. Lincoln Medieval Bishops’ Palace, Minster Yard, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Saturday 8th December (10am-9.30pm) and Sunday 9th December (10am-7pm). £1 entry charge for the market.

• Caerphilly Medieval Christmas Fayre. Caerphilly town centre, South Wales. Saturday 8th December (10am-5pm) and Sunday 9th December (10am-4pm). Apart from fifty market stalls there will be a hog roast, mulled wine, Medieval magician, dragon puppeteers, Jack the jester, dragon stilt walker. Father Christmas will be arriving on a horse and cart and travelling through the town centre to Caerphilly Castle.  Free (town centre only).

• The Medieval Christmas. Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Belsay, Nr Morpeth, Northumberland. Saturday 8th December and Sunday 9th December. Christmas gifts will be on sale and children can dress-up in Medieval costumes.  Re-enactors, Heuristics, will be giving lively presentations containing facts about Christmas during Medieval times. Presentations each day will take place at 11.15am, 12.30pm, 1.45 and 3pm. Charges apply but English Heritage members are free.

ELIZABETHAN

• Elizabethan Christmas. Plas Mawr, Conwy, Wales. Saturday 8th December (11am- 4pm) and Sunday 9th December (11am-4pm). Plas Mawr is a stunning Elizabethan house built between 1576 and 1585 for wealthy merchant Robert Wynn.  There will be mince pies, mulled wine, music and a range of other activities, plus a visit from a green Father Christmas! Charges apply.

REGENCY

• Jane Austen’s festive birthday. Jane Austen’s House Museum, Chawton, Alton, Hampshire. Come and celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday on Sunday 16th December (10.30am-4.30pm) in the pretty village of Chawton, rural Hampshire. Jane lived in Chawton, with her family, from 1809 until a shortly before her death in 1817. This atmospheric, 17th century house, is the perfect choice if you prefer a quieter slice of Christmas nostalgia.  On the day, visitors can enjoy a complimentary coffee and mince pie.  Free (for Sunday 16th December only).

VICTORIAN

• Victorian Christmas Weekends. Blists Hill Victorian Town,  Legges Way, Madeley, Telford, Shropshire. Saturday 8th December (10am-4pm), Sunday 9th December (10am-4pm), Saturday 15th December (10am-4pm) and Sunday 16th December (10am-4pm). If, like myself, you were riveted by the BBC series Victorian Pharmacy (2010) or simply have a passion for the Victorian era, then you will thoroughly enjoy celebrating Christmas in the atmospheric surroundings of Blists Hill Victorian Town.
  

  Blists Hill Victorian Town.  Christmas Grocers.

  Step back in time and be treated to an array of traditional celebrations from the 1800s, listen to stories of life more than one hundred years ago and do some Christmas present shopping. Gifts on offer around the town will include traditionally made cast-iron paperweights and doorstops, handmade plaster decorations and even rocking horses, all produced in the Gorge by skilled craftsmen and women. There will also be a huge range of unusual items in the museum gift shop.

  

  Victorian Christmas celebrations at Blists Hill Victorian Town. Duke of Sutherland Cottage.

  Mr Morton’s Christmas Celebrations will once again see the magnificent Iron Rolling Mill transformed into a place for a ‘workers Christmas party’. Here visitors will be able to enjoy festive food and a wide variety of seasonal entertainment, such as Christmas songs, Punch and Judy and even a magic show. You can also sing-a-long with carol singers and listen to brass bands around the town, which will be festooned with traditional Christmas decorations as the townsfolk prepare seasonal goodies and make traditional Victorian presents.Families will have the option of visiting Father Christmas (extra charge in addition to entrance fee). Across on The Green, they will also be able to see and pet Father Christmas’ reindeer before their mammoth journey around the world on Christmas Eve. Charges apply.

  

  Blists Hill Victorian Town. Pet a reindeer at one of this year’s Victorian Christmas Weekends.

• A Victorian Christmas. Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner, London. Saturday 8th December (11am-4pm) and Sunday 9th December (11am-4pm). Home to the Duke of Wellington after his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo, located near to Hyde Park and Wellington Arch. See how the dinner table would have been laid for a Victorian Christmas feast and get into the festive spirit with traditional music and dance from the period. Charges apply but English Heritage members are free.

• A Very Victorian Christmas. Tudor House and Garden, Southampton, Hampshire. Saturday 15th December (10am-5pm) and Sunday 16th December (10am-5pm). On both days, in two separate sessions (10.30am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm), there will be Christmas crafts family workshops where you can make a Victorian-inspired peg doll angel or a reindeer spoon puppet. You can also meet Father Christmas and his helpers in the grotto. Charges apply but if you download a special voucher one child (6-16) goes free when accompanied by a full paying adult.
  

  Osborne House, Isle of Wight.

• Festive Guided Tours – Queen Victoria’s royal retreat. Osborne House, York Avenue, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. Osborne House will be beautifully decorated throughout the Christmas period and festive guided tours are available Wednesdays to Sundays (except 26th December) until Sunday 6th January 2013. The expert guide will tell you how Christmas was celebrated at Osborne when Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their nine children were in residence. It is essential to pre-book your place on the tour by calling 01983 200022 or their bookings mobile 0777 526 5278 (standard mobile rates apply). The House is open at 10am and closes at 4pm, the last tour is at 2.30pm.  Charges apply but English Heritage members are free. Even if you are an English Heritage member you must still book pre-book your place on a tour.

WORLD WAR TWO

• Evacuee Christmas Party. St. Barbe Museum, Lymington, Hampshire. Saturday 22nd December (10.30am-3.30pm). Experience Christmas through the eyes of an Evacuee. There will be free children’s activities and traditional music and games in a community air-raid shelter. After all that excitement there will be an afternoon tea of traditional party food. If you come dressed as an Evacuee you will get free entry to the museum otherwise, normal charges apply.

CHRISTMAS – MULTI-PERIOD

• The Museum at Christmas. Weald & Downland Museum, Chichester, West Sussex. Wednesday 26th December until Tuesday 1st January 2013 (10.30am-4pm).  If you cannot decide on one particular era and have not got time to fit a heritage event in before Christmas Day, then this annual event at Weald & Downland Open Air Museum is the perfect choice.  Experience the traditions of Christmas past and discover how our forebears enjoyed the festive season. The Museum has fifty rescued buildings covering the time period, c.1300 to c.1910 all set in the beautiful Lavant Valley. Many of the houses will be traditionally decorated and have crackling log fires. Charges apply.

Father Christmas reading letters and Christmas lists at Milestones.

THE TRADITIONAL FATHER CHRISTMAS EXPERIENCE

• This year, Milestones, a Living History Museum near Basingstoke, Hampshire is bringing back the traditional Father Christmas experience. Not a hint of commercialisation, just lovely, old-fashioned charm where children can meet Farther Christmas in a magical setting.
  

  Father Christmas in his grotto at Milestones.

  

  Following her visit to his grotto, a delighted little girl receives her gift from Father Christmas. Milestones.

  His grotto will be located in the heart of this superb Museum, surrounded by buildings and shops from the Victorian era through to the 1940s. After meeting Father Christmas, you can take a family stroll through the full size, cobbled streets and make a visit to the 1940s sweetshop where you can exchange your penny for 2 0zs of sweets, this was the weekly ration allowed during World War Two. The sweetshop is open from 1pm-3pm weekdays and 12noon-4pm at Weekends, Bank Holidays and during the school holidays. There are also friendly costumed interpreters who will delight and enchant you with tales of days gone by.

  

  Milestones. The 1940s living-room decorated for Christmas.

  

  Milestones Living History Museum, Basingstoke.

  Pre-booking to meet Father Christmas is essential – Telephone: 01256 477766. Each child will receive a gift from Father Christmas.  It costs £3 per child, aged 0-15, to visit Father Christmas plus the normal entry charges. He visits Milestones on the following dates:

Saturday 8 December
Sunday 9 December
Saturday 15 December
Sunday 16 December
Saturday 22 December
Sunday 23 December

Details of opening times at Milestones over the Christmas period can be found here.

Chesil Street Station decorated for Christmas. Milestones Living History Museum.

I wonder who the Christmas parcels are for? Milestones Living History Museum.

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