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For five days during the month of July, a census is conducted of the mute swans on the River Thames. The flotilla plies the river to count swans and tag cygnets. July is the chosen time for "swan upping" because adult swans are in molt and cygnets are too young to fly, making the birds easier to "drive up" or catch.
The Queen's swan warden oversees this operation. When the birds are spotted, the cry "All up!" is given and rowboats surround the birds. Gradually the swans are nudged toward the riverbank where boatmen jump out and catch them. Each bird is examined for signs of injury or sickness, weighed, measured and tagged, then released back to the river.
History Mute swans are believed to have been brought to England in the 12th Century. The first written record of royal ownership is 1186 A.D. At that time, swans were a gastronomic delicacy. In 1251, Henry III's Christmas banquet required one hundred twenty five of them.
The first royal swan master was appointed in 1361 A.D. The Act of Swan in 1482 A.D. allowed certain landowners to own them as well, but required each owner pay five marks for the privilege. The landowner cut a unique mark in the bill of his swans. (Click on swan mark image for larger view.) At the height of swan popularity in the 16th Century, nine hundred people were granted "swan marks."
If convicted of illegal possession or killing of a swan, a person was sentenced to seven years hard labor, or transported.
Only three entities currently are allowed to own mute swans -- the Worshipful Company of Vintners, the Worshipful Company of Dyers, and Queen Elizabeth II. These Livery Companies were granted royal charters in the 15th Century. Vintners used to mark their swans with a nick on each side of the beak. The Dyers applied only one nick. Unmarked birds were the property of the Crown. Today, the birds' legs are tagged with identification bands -- the Vintners place a band on each leg, while the Dyers place a band on one leg. The Queen's birds are left untagged.
Livery Companies There are currently one hundred eight Livery Companies registered in the City of London. Formed as guilds, each regulated wages and labor conditions of their particular trade, much as unions do now. Some continue to do so, but most have evolved into charitable organizations.
Like so much in Britain, there's an order of precedence among the Livery Companies. The two involved in swan upping are the Worshipful Company of Vintners (11th in order of precedence and wearing scarlet shirts during the upping) and the Worshipful Company of Dyers (13th in precedence and wearing navy blue shirts during the upping.) Both Livery Companies date from the 12th Century.
Bell-Ringing Swans
Built in the early 13th Century, the moat around Bishop's Palace in Wells, Somerset sports mute swans taught to pull a bell string for food. (Click on the picture to see a YouTube video of the bell-ringing swans.)
Tomorrow is Mothering Sunday in Britain, the equivalent of Mother’s Day in the US.
Until the mid-17th century, the fourth Sunday in Lent was known as Refreshment Sunday or Laetare Sunday. (Roughly translated, laetare means "delight" or "joyful.") For that one day, the Church relaxed its Lenten fasting rules in honor of the biblical story about the Feeding of the Five Thousand (Miracle of the Five Loaves and Fishes).
During the Middles Ages, the Church required that, at least once a year, people returned to their local or "mother" churches -- the one in which they were baptized. The fourth Sunday in Lent became the date upon which this was commonly done and the pilgrimage was referred to as going "a-mothering."
Gradually, the secular habit of honoring mothers was grafted onto the religious observance. It began as a region custom in the western counties, and slowly spread to the rest of Britain.
The first known reference to Mothering Sunday is found in the 1644 diary of Richard Symonds:
"Every mid-Lent Sunday is a great day in Worcester, when all the children and god-children meet at the head and chief of the family and have a feast. They call it the Mothering-day."
Mothering Sunday became the one day a year that people "in service" were allowed to return home for a visit. Children would bring their mothers small gifts, flowers, and a simnel cake.
According to Rebecca Edridge in 1822 --
“…members of the same family go to visit the oldest female of their line…The venerable matron on that day sits enthroned, the Queen of the festival.”
Old family stories were told and games played before the cowslip wine and cake were passed out.
Simnel Cakes
Simnellus was a kind of fine wheaten bread the Romans ate during their spring fertility rites. Since at least the time of Edward the Confessor, bakery goods were made on specially occasions from simnel. It was so highly prized that the canon, David de Aqua, willed land in Hertfordshire for its cultivation when he died in the late 12th century.
There are several legends about the origins of simnel cakes. According to one, a married couple -- Simon and Nell -- argued about whether to boil or bake the cake. (They did both.) In another, it was said the cake was invented by Henry VII's baker, Lambert Simnel. The later story is unlikely because Robert Herrick mentions simnel cake in his 1648 poem, To Dianeme: A Ceremony at Gloucester:
I'll to thee a simnel bring 'Gainst thou go'st a mothering So that, when she blesseth thee, Half that blessing thou'lt give to me.
Interesting how the mothering term changed through the years. I love reading posts like this and will now bookmark you so I remember to keep coming back. :-)
The following is a repost from my 2010 archives. Happy Valentine's Day!
In 1819, the poet Charles Lamb wrote of February 14th:
"T]his is the day upon which those charming little missives, ycleped Valentines, cross and intercross each other at every street and turning. The weary and all for-spent twopenny postman sinks beneath a load of delicate embarrassments, not his own. It is scarcely credible to what an extent this ephemeral courtship is carried on...to the great enrichment of porters, and detriment of knockers and bell-wires."
Lamb was speaking of a custom that dates to at least the 15th century. The oldest known valentine written in English was discovered among the Paston Letters in the British Library. Margery Brews penned it to her fiancé John Paston in 1477:
"Right reverent and worshipful and my right well-beloved valentine, I recommend me unto you full heartedly, desiring to hear of your welfare, which I beseech Almighty God long for to preserve unto his pleasure and your hearts desire."
Prior to that discovery, the oldest valentines in British possession were those of Charles, Duke of Orleans. The Duke wrote more than sixty to his wife in France over the course of his twenty-five year incarceration in the Tower of London following the Battle of Agincourt in 1415:
"Wilt thou be mine? dear Love, reply-- Sweetly consent or else deny. Whisper softly, none shall know, Wilt thou be mine, Love?--aye or no?"
Many examples of Victorian valentines have survived, but what did the earlier ones look like?
Usually homemade, they were hand-painted and decorated with lacy paper, ribbons, gold leaf, satins, silks and exotic feathers. Enterprising publishers took advantage of the craze by printing chapbooks of verses. Publications like The New English Valentine Writer by J. Turner (1784), and Every Ladies Own Valentine Writer by J. Roach (1797) addressed all levels of intimacy and even provided responses to their own poems.
1790 puzzle purse valentine
According to Mr. Lamb: "In these little visual interpretations, no emblem is so common as the heart—that little three-cornered exponent of all our hopes and fears…it is twisted and tortured into more allegories and affectations than an opera hat." Some were on the"finest gilt paper with borders--full not of common hearts and heartless allegory, but all the prettiest stories of love from Ovid and older poets..."
In 1667, Dr. Samuel Pepys wrote: "This morning, came up to my wife's bedside, I being up dressing myself, little Will Mercer to be her Valentine; and brought her name writ upon blue paper in gold letters..."Two days later, Pepys visited Mrs. Pearse and was given a valentine by her little girl. "But here I do first observe," he wrote, "the fashion of drawing mottos as well as names, so that Pearse, who drew my wife, did draw also a motto...'Most courteous and fair'..."
In her article for Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1901, Millicent Olmsted provides a glimpse at a particular style with which we all are familiar--the cut paper valentine. According to Ms. Olmsted, they were "foldedand delicately cut with saw-tooth edges, then opened and filled in with written sentiments. The one shown here is very old, ragged, yellow and limp. It was sent to Permillia Wainright in New Jersey, and bears on the back of it her initials and the date, 1783. During the decades, the valentine has fallen to tatters and has lost a narrow outer ring that bore the inscription: "Round is the ring that has no end. So is my love to you, my friend." (Olmsted goes on to describe a puzzle purse valentine from 1790. To see what it looked like, click onNancy's Puzzle Purse Valentine. The one Ms. Rosin shows from 1816 fits Olmsted's description. To read the verses, click the Boston Evening Transcript link to Come Be My Valentine, or refer to Olmsted's Cosmopolitan article.)
Other popular valentine designs: acrostic -- first letter of each verse spells a vertical word pinprick -- holes were pricked in a pattern with a needle or pin stencil rebus -- pictures drawn to convey a word, like an eye for the word "I" loveknots
It seems odd that, in all Jane Austen's letters and stories, she never refers to Valentine's Day. Most Janeites believe Frank Churchill's gift of a pianoforte to Jane Fairfax in Emma occurred on February 14th, but Austen doesn't say so. Perhaps her opinion of valentines more closely resembled that of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice:
"I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!" "I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love," said Darcy. "Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away."
The Christmas Cracker was invented by a London confectioner named Tom Smith around 1847. Mr. Smith had fallen in love with the French Bon-Bon, a sugared almond candy twisted in waxed paper. He brought the idea back to England and toyed around with ever more elaborate models for several years.
Eventually he settled on a cardboard tube wrapped in paper with a twist of saltpeter on each end. When pulled apart, it created a spark and a loud bang. People called them cosaques after the sound of a Russian Cossack whip makes. We know them today as crackers.
Gingerbread
The word gingerbread is a corruption of the Old French word gingebras which means "preserved ginger." The spice was introduced into Europe in the 11th Century by Crusaders. But like so many Eastern spices, only the wealthy could afford it.
During the Middles Ages in Germany, only members of the gingerbread bakers guild -- Lebkucher -- were allowed to make it. The City of Nuremberg became known as the gingerbread capitol of the world. Ladies gave gingerbread cakes to their favorites knights. Queen Elizabeth I gave gingerbread made in the image of the recipient as Christmas gifts.
The Grimm Brothers' tales about Hanzel and Gretel popularizzed gingerbread in the 19th Century.
On this date in 1805, the inimitable Admiral Lord Nelson signaled from his ship the Victory those famous words, "England expects that every man will do his duty," then proceeded to annihilate the combined French and Spanish fleet off Spain's Cape Trafalgar. Click here to watch an animated video of the battle.
By the 13th Century, London's population of forty thousand was crammed behind the city walls on the north side of the Thames River. Residents relied on natural wells, streams and rivers for their daily water. In the year 1237, the City decided to build a piping system that became knows as the Great Conduit. Water wheels were constructed beneath London Bridge and a reservoir was built at Tyburn from which Thames water was gravity fed to cisterns in the city. Pipes buried in the center of London's streets carried the water to private buildings.
While the poor continued to draw from the river, public cisterns and fountains, the wealthy paid a fee for the privilege of tapping into The Great Conduit. Wardens were appointed to prevent illegal usage and to maintain the system. But the reliance on elm and lead pipes was a major disadvantage. While elm wood didn't decay once soaked (London Bridge's pilings were made of elm) wood and lead pipes were no match for the Great Fire of 1666. (Click here to see what these wood pipes looked like, and here for a views of the lead ones.)
By the middle of the 16th Century, iron pipes had replaced the wood and lead ones. Before the turn of the century, Mr. Watt patented his steam engine. Steam power quickly replaced horsepower to lift water from the Thames and its tributaries.
Typical of the water companies of the time was Chelsea Waterworks. Established in 1723, it pumped water from the Thames north of what later became Victoria Station to supply the City of Westminster and Kensington Palace.
In 1725, two ponds in Green Park served as Chelsea Waterworks reservoirs. (Click here to view people promenading around one Green Park reservoir and fountain in 1824, and here for a view of Chelsea Waterworks from the reservoir.) Another was built in the circle of Walnut Tree Walk in Hyde Park. Another was construction in the park opposite Mount Street. (Click on the map to see location.) The Dolphin Foundation is said to sit on an old reservoir site.
The Abbey of Westminster once owned sole rights to the water of the springs and rivers of Hyde Park through a charter signed by Edward the Confessor. In 1830, Queen Caroline ordered the Westbourne River dammed to create the Serpentine. Chelsea Waterworks was paid hefty compensation for the loss of it water rights.
The following is a guest post by Charae on the topic of Michaelmas. Charae and her sisters, Lynnae, Leisel and Kayleen blog about Regency and Victorian life at The Crossroad of Time.
Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week. ~Pride and Prejudice~
The Crofts were to have possession at Michaelmas; and as Sir Walter proposed removing to Bath in the course of the preceding month, there was no time to be lost in making every dependent arrangement. ~Persuasion ~
Michaelmas was a day of celebration and religious observance which also served to mark the onset of a new season. When Michaelmas arrived the warm days of summer were already giving place to the cooler breezes of autumn and the sun was setting at an earlier hour every evening. The English year was conveniently divided into quarters each of which marked the change from one season to the next and was celebrated by a feast day. Christmas on December 25 marked the onset of winter, Lady Day on March 25 celebrated the coming of spring, the Feast of St. John on June 24 heralded the arrival of summer, and Michaelmas on September 29 announced the coming of autumn.
Michaelmas (along with the other three feast days) was originally a religious event. It served to commemorate the archangel Michael, who was seen as the great warrior angel of heaven, and it celebrated the day on which Michael threw Satan out of heaven. Legendary St. George and his slaying of the dragon were also commemorated upon this day for it was said that St. George was granted his heroic power from the archangel Michael. Reenactments of this brave feat were an enjoyable past time for young men.
As with many English holidays, Michaelmas was accompanied by its own special superstitions and traditions. A popular superstition was that, when the devil fell from heaven, he landed in a blackberry bush. Getting up from the thorny branches, he turned and cursed the prickly fruit and, as a result, the English refrained from picking any more blackberries after Michaelmas. Perhaps the fact the berries are already past their prime and usually sour by then served as a stronger deterrent than belief in an ancient superstition. During that season of the year the Michaelmas Daisy comes into bloom. Its light blue, pink, or white petals added a splash of color to the gardens which were becoming barren in the colder weather; the delicate flowers proved a pretty farewell to the warmer months. No doubt many young lovesick lads or lasses sat alone and secretly plucked the petals repeating the age old refrain "S/He loves me, S/He loves me not."
Another tradition associated with the day was the eating of a goose. The proverb associated with this tradition was “If you eat goose on Michaelmas Day, you will not be short of money all year round.” The origin of the tradition of eating goose is uncertain. One common explanation was that Queen Elizabeth was feasting on goose when she received the news of the glorious victory of England over the Spanish Armada. As a result she proclaimed that geese should henceforth be eaten on that day. The theory, however, seems to fall apart when you compare dates and realize that the Armada was actually defeated on August 8 and it is unlikely that Elizabeth would have heard such blessed tiding almost two months after the fact on September 29. I know that news traveled slowly in those days, but for good news such as that to take so long the messenger would have had to set out on hands and knees and crawled to England.
Since Michaelmas was the day when rents became due, often the tenants of an estate would gather for a feast at the home of their landlord. Tradition for some was to bring a goose fattened on stubble hay which some perceived as a bribe to discourage the landlord from raising the rent (after all, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach). This was also the day set apart for townsfolk to elect magistrates, for children to begin a new school year, and for tenants to lease properties.
Mr. Bingley takes possession of Netherfield at Michaelmas, the traditional time of year for securing a lease. The Crofts also take possession of Kellynch by Michaelmas. No doubt the desire to get settled in a place before the onset of winter contributed to the popularity of settling in by this particular date.
The feast days, therefore, not only proved a handy way of dividing up a long year but also gave the English, who need no excuse to celebrate, several days of feasting and fellowship rich in tradition and old fashioned fun. What better way is there to celebrate the coming of a new season and bid farewell to another?
Sources:
Hillman, Michael. "September 29th." Chambers' Book of Days. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jun 2012
"Michaelmas." Historic UK. Historic UK , 2012. Web. 19 Jun 2012
Broomfield, Andrea. Food and Cooking in Victorian England: A History. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007.
a poem by Henry Erskine The rule of the road is a paradox quite,
If you drive with whip or a thong,
If you go to the left
you are sure to be right,
If you go to the right you are wrong.
In 1300 A.D. Pope Boniface VII issued the first traffic ordinance when he instructed pilgrims on the way to Rome to keep to the left side of the road. By then, the custom of riding on the left was well established in Europe. (Old Roman roads excavated in England are rutted on the left.)
Most men were right-handed and wore their swords on the left hip. Riding on the left side of the road allowed them to respond more efficiently to threats from passersby. And with a scabbard bouncing on the left hip, the most comfortable way to mount and dismount was on the horse's left side. Furthermore, if a rider had to dismount on the road, doing so away from traffic was safest.
Caption (for larger view click here: In going out to dinner (already too late) your carriage delayed by a jam of coaches--which choke up the whole street and allow you at last an hour or more than your require to sharpen your wits for table talk--"Breast against breast with ruinous assault and deafening shock they come."
By 1771, one thousand hackney coaches traversed the narrow streets of London. By 1815, one and a half million people called that city home--most of them pedestrians. As the population and street traffic grew, accidents became the norm. Something had to be done to regulate the chaos.
Parliament passed a law in 1756 directing traffic on London Bridge to keep left. In 1771-72, it applied the rule to Scotland and added a fine of 20 shillings for disobedience. Lancashire passed a law on August 6, 1795 stipulating that carriages keep left.
Meanwhile, across the pond, Americans were also driving on the left side of the road. That changed with the Revolution. In 1792, Pennsylvania passed a law directing traffic on its turnpike to keep right. New York followed in 1804 and New Jersey in 1813. Canada was a mix of right and left hand driving according to province until the 1920s.
In 1794, France changed from left to right hand travel. Until then, the carriages of aristocrats bore left, while peasant foot traffic kept to the right. After the Bastille, that changed. Napoleon imposed the right hand rule on every country he conquered.
As for Britain, Parliament codified the "keep left" rule in 1835 and applied to all its colonies. Many of them--like India and Australia--still drive on the left side of the road.
The calling card was an essential social tool during the Regency. As soon as a lady arrived in town, or prepared to leave it, she dropped off a card at the homes of her acquaintances to let them know. Cards were placed on a silver salver and presented to the mistress of the house who then decided whether she was "at home" to the caller.
Lady's calling card with corner turned down
A turned down corner indicated the card had been delivered in person. Sometimes abbreviated messages were penciled on them in French. For example, "p.f." meant congratulations (pour feliciter) "p.r." (pour remercier) was a thank you and "p.p.c" (pour prendre conge) notified the recipient that the caller was leaving town. Or the card holder had each corner on the reverse side printed with the words visite, felicitation, affaires and adieu. The pertinent corner was then turned down on the front side to let the recipient know the purpose of the call.
1770s calling card for a "Mr. Chase"
A lady's calling card was roughly 2 x 3 inches, smaller than a gentleman's. It was carried in a card case like the one below.
Historical and classical motifs were popular on calling cards in the 18th century (see Mr. Chase's card). But by the 19th century plain cards with just the sender's name and title were popular. However, special attention was given to typeface.
In the first decade of the Georgian Era, bell-shaped skirts were all the rage. This silhouette was accomplished with hoops of whalebone or wood that were tied together in a cage around the waist. By mid-18th Century oblong or fan hoops called panniers (French for basket) spread a lady's skirts out at the sides. Proponents claimed this style made for ease of walking and kept importunate gentlemen at a distance. As always, however, such fashion came at a price; women were forced to turn sideways when they passed through doorways, and climbing into a coach was logistical nightmare. So in the last quarter of the century, the emphasis shifted from the hips to the rump.
Pads filled with fabric or cork were tied at the waist and draped over the derrière, poofing the skirt in the back. Cartoonists were quick to lambast this new "bum roll" or "cork rump" trend. (See the above 1787 print by S.F. Fores called A Milliner's Shop. A bum roll is hanging on the wall to the right of the mirror.) Typical of the ridicule was this print by Matthew Darly from 1777 entitled Chloe’s Cushion or The Cork Rump. (Notice the puppy perched on the back!)
Satirists like Peter Pindar composed poems about the style. In 1815 he published The Cork Rump, or Queen and Maids of Honour.He’d already offered a backhanded criticism of the fashion when he extolled the virtues of the common maid in his 1794 poem, The Louisad:
“With Nature’s hips, she sighs not for cork rumps,
“And scorns the pride of pinching stays and jumps;
“But, pleas’d from whalebone prisons to escape,
“She trusts to simple nature for a shape…”
Cork rumps were a popular subject in newspapers and broadsheets as well. One gentleman observed in the December 16, 1776 issue of The WeeklyMiscellany:
“A most ingenious author has made it a question, whether a man marrying a woman…may not lawfully sue for divorce on the grounds that she is not the same person? What with the enormous false head-dress—painting—and this newfangled cork substitute—it would be almost impossible for a man to know his bride the morning of his nuptials. If the ladies look on this invention as an ornament to their symmetry, I will engage they shall be excelled by almost any Dutch market-woman or fat landlady in this kingdom.”
There is an account in History of the Westminster Election of a riot on May 10, 1784 in Covent Garden between proponents of the three candidates standing for Parliament. The Guards were called and subsequently fired upon the crowd. Two ladies lost portions of their wigs, several were “deprived of their eye-brows” and one woman had her cork rump shot off.
But perhaps no story was more outrageous than the one which appeared on October 4, 1785 in The Morning Post. A lady reportedly fell into the Thames and was saved from drowning by—you guessed it—her cork rump. (You can read the entire article at Prinny's Taylor.)
Eventually, the cork rump faded in popularity, replaced by the Grecian silhouette and empire gowns of the Regency. (Check out Two Nerdy History Girls for their blog about Those Bumless Beauties, 1788.)
But as the saying goes, you can’t keep a good thing down. The exaggerated tush returned mid-19th Century in the form of the Victorian bustle.
Anne Gracie's blog Snow for Sale!on Word Wenches has prompted me to repost an old factoid about ice houses.
Prior to the advent of mechanical refrigeration, preservation of food was difficult, especially during the summer. The practice of building ice houses/wells is said to have come to England from France. One of the first was build in 1619 in Greenwich for James I (see above drawing by Hieronymus Grimm in 1772), and another was constructed in 1660 at Green Park (click here for more about this one.)
By the 18th Century, ice houses/wells were common on estates. The larger the estate, the more ice houses. An ice house stood on the southwest corner of the grounds of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. Rufford Abbey in Nottinghamshire had five. Sizes varied. The ice house at Petworth has three pits.
Ice wells/houses were built close to a lake or pond that was often created specifically to supply the ice. The structures were made of brick with a domed roof for air circulation, and lined with straw. The floor sloped to a runoff drain. Ice houses often had more than one entrance, or possessed dogleg passages to further insulate them. (Click on image for larger view of how an ice house was constructed.)
In the winter, once the lake or pond froze over, blocks of ice were cut and stacked inside with sawdust and straw in between. In 1980, an experiment was conduction at Levens Hall (Cumbria) where ice was maintained this way for thirteen months.
By 1820, iceberg ice was being imported from Greenland and Scandinavia.
The advent of mechanical refrigeration spelled the demise of the ice house, although many remained in use well into the 20th Century. William Cullen demonstrated the first known artificial refrigeration at the University of Glasgow in 1748. The first practical refrigeration machine was built in 1834 by American Inventory, Jacob Perkins.
Over 2500 ice wells/houses still exist in Britain.
It's that time of year again! To celebrate, I've gathered all my articles about Regency Christmas. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I've enjoyed researching and writing them over the years.
For five days during the month of July, a census is conducted of the mute swans on the River Thames. The flotilla plies the river to count swans and tag cygnets. July is the chosen time for "swan upping" because adult swans are in molt and cygnets are too young to fly, making the birds easier to "drive up" or catch.
The Queen's swan warden oversees this operation. When the birds are spotted, the cry "All up!" is given and rowboats surround the birds. Gradually the swans are nudged toward the riverbank where boatmen jump out and catch them. Each bird is examined for signs of injury or sickness, weighed, measured and tagged, then released back to the river.
History Mute swans are believed to have been brought to England in the 12th Century. The first written record of royal ownership is 1186 A.D. At that time, swans were a gastronomic delicacy. In 1251, Henry III's Christmas banquet required one hundred twenty five of them.
The first royal swan master was appointed in 1361 A.D. The Act of Swan in 1482 A.D. allowed certain landowners to own them as well, but required each owner pay five marks for the privilege. The landowner cut a unique mark in the bill of his swans. (Click on swan mark image for larger view.) At the height of swan popularity in the 16th Century, nine hundred people were granted "swan marks."
If convicted of illegal possession or killing of a swan, a person was sentenced to seven years hard labor, or transported.
Only three entities currently are allowed to own mute swans -- the Worshipful Company of Vintners, the Worshipful Company of Dyers, and Queen Elizabeth II. These Livery Companies were granted royal charters in the 15th Century. Vintners used to mark their swans with a nick on each side of the beak. The Dyers applied only one nick. Unmarked birds were the property of the Crown. Today, the birds' legs are tagged with identification bands -- the Vintners place a band on each leg, while the Dyers place a band on one leg. The Queen's birds are left untagged.
Livery Companies There are currently one hundred eight Livery Companies registered in the City of London. Formed as guilds, each regulated wages and labor conditions of their particular trade, much as unions do now. Some continue to do so, but most have evolved into charitable organizations.
Like so much in Britain, there's an order of precedence among the Livery Companies. The two involved in swan upping are the Worshipful Company of Vintners (11th in order of precedence and wearing scarlet shirts during the upping) and the Worshipful Company of Dyers (13th in precedence and wearing navy blue shirts during the upping.) Both Livery Companies date from the 12th Century.
Bell-Ringing Swans
Built in the early 13th Century, the moat around Bishop's Palace in Wells, Somerset sports mute swans taught to pull a bell string for food. (Click on the picture to see a YouTube video of the bell-ringing swans.)
Once Easter was over, it was time for the ton to begin straggling back to London from their estates. But not until the royal family returned did the Season officially begin. And the highlight for any young lady was her presentation at court. After she made her curtsy to the king and queen, she was considered "out" in society.
George III is said to have inaugurated this custom in 1780 when he threw a ball to celebrate Queen Charlotte's birthday. In her book, Old Court Customs and Modern Court Rules, the Hon. Mrs. Armytage wrote:
"It was a point of etiquette that the ladies and gentlemen who meant to attend the court on a birth-day should be presented to their Majesties at a previous levee; a day was settled in the week for that purpose, and several foreigners of distinction, besides young-persons of fashion of both sexes, were presented..."
According to George III: His Court and His Family, presentation at court, "was then most particularly considered the sole introduction to high life..." The Queen "had a powerful weapon to wield; and she wielded it to good purpose, by once proscribing from her society all females of bankrupt or even of ambiguous character--demireps as they were called; never admitting to her public or private parties any lady, however high in rank, if she had on the slightest degree forfeited her claims to general respect." The young lady being presented required a sponsor, a woman of rank who had already made her curtsy to the king and queen. Virginal white was the proscribed dress color, or pale tones on a white background. The gown itself could be of popular design, but no matter what style of dress, hoops and a feather in her headdress were de rigueur.
"Yesterday was the day appointed for the celebration of her Majesty's last birthday, and a drawing room was held accordingly...At one o'clock there was a salute of artillery in the Park and the Tower...An immense multitude of spectators were collected together in spite of the rain and cold. The court visitors were also very numerous; they began to arrive at one o'clock, and continued setting down till past three."
Queen Charlotte's Birthday Ball quickly became an annual event to benefit the Lying-In Hospital at Bayswater. The hospital served pregnant women regardless of marital status. (Until then, maternity hospitals catered only to married women.) As the mother of fifteen, this was a cause close to the queen's heart. The hospital came under her patronage around 1790-1810 and was renamed in her honor in 1813. Until her death, Queen Charlotte's birthday ball was held in January or February. Eventually, it moved to May--her actual birthday month--but it's unclear when. Certainly by the early 20th Century. In 1958, Queen Elizabeth II ended the custom of debutantes making their curtsy to the queen because, as Princess Margret succinctly put it, "Every tart in London was getting in." That year, 1400 girls were presented over three days. (Factoid: the term debut was used to describe this event during George III's reign, but referring to the young lady being presented as a debutante didn't come into vogue until 1837.) Queen Charlotte's Ball was abandoned in 1976 because of drug use and "louchness" -- improper dress and a lack of personal hygiene among attendees. It was revived in 2009.
Technically, this story falls outside the Regency period, but I found it too irresistible!)
On February 9, 1855, folks in villages throughout south Devon awoke to find strange hoof prints in the snow. The prints were said to resemble those of a donkey, and they wandered single-file through the countryside for about a hundred miles. This was no ordinary trail, however. The marks leaped walls, stopped dead on one side of a haystack only to resume on the other side (the hay was undisturbed). They crossed roofs, appeared to enter and exit a drain pipe, and disappeared abruptly through small holes in hedges. But what most frightened people from Topsham to Dawlish was evidence the prints approached the front doors of many homes.
In a Feb 16th article, The London Times claimed locals believed they were the hoof prints of Satan.
Villagers tried to follow the trail or trails, but after a few miles gave up. So the source or end never was identified. Tracings of the prints were sent to the naturalist, Richard Owen, who responded in a March 4, 1855 Illustrated London News (Vol 26, p. 214) article. He claimed they’d been created by a badger. (See "Document 11" of Mike Dash's The Devil's Hoofmarks.)
Over the following weeks and months, other creatures were blamed for the mysterious trail. Nevertheless, the conviction persisted that the Devil walked in Devon.
And it appears he returned one hundred fifty four years later, almost to the day.
On March 5, 2009, seventy-six year old Jill Wade found prints in her back garden in Woolsery, Devon. They seem to match the description of those discovered in 1855. Zoologists investigated, but other than postulating they’d been created by a hare hopping on its hind legs, nothing definitive has been determined.
Introduction of the German Christmas tree to the English court is generally attributed to Queen Victoria. But it was around from at least the early 1700s. In a footnote on p.75 of The Loseley Manuscripts, the editor wrote:
We remember a German of the household of the late Queen Caroline, making what he termed a Christmas tree for the juvenile party at that festive season. The tree was a branch of some evergreen fastened on a board. Its boughs bent under the weight of gilt oranges, almonds, &c. and under it was a neat model of a farmhouse, surrounded by figures of animals, &c. and all due accompaniments. The forming Christmas trees is, we believe, a common custom in Germany: evidently a remain of the pageants constructed at that season in ancient days.
Note: The Queen Caroline referred to here is likely Caroline of Ansbach, wife of George II and queen from 1727-1737. Caroline of Brunswick was married to the Prince of Wales in 1795 (George IV) and was queen from January 1820 until her death in August, 1821. However, she was estranged from her husband and lived abroad from 1814 until she died.
Charlotte Papendiek, assistant wardrobe keeper and reader to Queen Charlotte (George III) observed in her 1789 journal:
This Christmas Mr. Papendiek proposed an illuminated tree, according to the German Fashion, but...I objected to it. Our eldest daughter, Charlotte, being only six the 30th of this November, I thought our children too young to be amused at so much expense and trouble. Mr. Papendiek was vexed--yet I do hope and trust the children were made happy.
In his Memoirs of Her Most Excellent Majesty, Sophia-Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain, John Watkins observed that at the beginning of October,1800:
...the royal family left the coast for Windsor, where Her Majesty kept the Christmas-day following in a very pleasing manner. Sixty poor families had a substantial dinner given them; and in the evening the children of the principal families in the neighbourhood were invited to an entertainment at the Lodge. Here, among other amusing objects for the gratification of the juvenile visitors, in the middle of the room stood an immense tub with a yew-tree place in it, from the branches of which hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds, and raisins, in papers, fruits, and toys, most tastefully arranged, and the whole illuminated by small wax candles. After the company had walked around and admired the tree, each child obtained a portion of the sweets which it bore, together with a toy, and then all returned home quite delighted.
Amelia Murray wrote in her recollections of her mother, Lady Anne Murray (lady-in-waiting to Queen Charlotte, and later, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria):
Christmas-trees are now common. In the early part of this century they were seldom seen, but Queen Charlotte always had one dressed up in the room of Madame Berkendorff her German attendant; it was hung with presents for the children, who were invited to see it, and I well remember the pleasure it was to hunt for one's own name, which was sure to be attached to one or more of the pretty gifts.
Georgina Townsend, housekeeper at Windsor Castle for 35 years (she died in 1835 at the age of 75) wrote that Queen Charlotte:
The Queen entertained the children here, Christmas Evening, in German fashion, A fir tree, about as high as any of us, lighted all over with small tapers, several little wax dolls among the branches in different places, and strings of walnuts and raisins alternately tied from one to the other, with skipping ropes for the boys, and each bigger girl had muslin for a frock, a muslin handkerchief, a fan, and a sash, all prettily done up in the handkerchief, and a pretty necklace and earrings besides. As soon as all the things were delivered by the Queen and Princesses, the candles on the tree were put out, and the children set to work to help themselves.
Years before she married her beloved Prince Albert, 13-year old Princess Victoria wrote in her diary on Christmas Eve, 1832:
After dinner we went upstairs. I then saw Flora, the dog which Sir John was going to give Mamma. Aunt Sophia came also. We then went into the drawing-room near the dining-room. After Mamma had rung a bell three times we went in. There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the tree. I had one table for myself and the Conroy family had the other.
October 18th is St. Luke’s Day. Legend has it that, on this date sometime during the 12th century, King John passed through the village of Charlton near Greenwich while hunting. He stopped at a mill to rest and was captivated by the absent miller's beautiful wife. When the husband returned unexpectedly and caught the two dallying, he threatened to kill them. King John made a bargain: in exchange for their lives, he granted the man ownership of the land between Charlton and the bend in the Thames at Rotherhithe. With it came the right to hold a fair at Charlton every St. Luke’s Day.
So how did the festival become associated with horns?
St. Luke is represented by the horned ox. (See: Symbols of the Four Evangelists.) Furthermore, from the mid-15th century onward, horns had a sexual connotation, most likely a reference to stags in rut. For a man “to wear the horns” meant to be cuckolded. (The word cuckold derives from the Old French word for the cuckoo, cucu. Cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds’ nests.)
The bend in the river at Rotherhithe was known as Cuckold's Point. A pole with ram's horns atop it stood there until at least the late 17th century. On St. Luke's Day, revelers sporting antlers and blowing on ram's horns would gather at the Point and riotously make their way to Charlton.
Daniel Defoe described the Horn Fair as a yearly collection of mad people. “[T]he mob…take all kinds of liberties, and the women are eminently impudent…as if it were a time that justified the giving themselves a loose to all manner of indecency without any reproach…”
Harper's New Magazine reported in 1888: "While Horn Fair is not so famous in literature as is Mayfair or the Fair of St. Bartholomew, it is worthy of a place in profane history on account of its noise, drunkenness, ribaldry, and riot. Nothing was sold at Horn Fair but horns and things made of horn, unless it were gingerbread as tough as horn, and the worst strong drink that was ever brewed or distilled, or ever quailed from horn. It was frequented by a most motley crew; rabble from tho East End of London and from the City proper; men and women in smock-frocks and new white caps from the country round about, who came to drink the lusty, lusty horn, and to dance and gape and brawl and fight; with a liberal smattering of belles and gallants from Westminster, who had a passion in those days for riot, no matter how rough and unrefined it might be."
Many believe the festival actually is rooted in Celtic tradition. Whatever its lascivious origins, the event was stopped by the Greenwich Council in 1873. One hundred years later, it was revived as a family event that is now held in June.
One of the more unusual customs I’ve run across is the placing of worn shoes in the walls of buildings when they are constructed. Concealed shoes have been found in churches, cottages, manor houses, public buildings and castles. The Romans likely brought the custom to Britain. Food and drink sacrifices (and sometimes more gruesome offerings) were buried in the foundations of their own buildings.
In Britain, worn shoes have been discovered walled up over windows, doors, or in chimneys, but also in staircases and under floorboards. The oldest known concealed shoe was found in the wall of Winchester Cathedral’s choirstalls. It was put there in 1308. Recently a cache of shoes from the 17th-19th century was discovered in the walls of Liedberg Castle in Germany.
Shoes are a symbols of good luck. (Think of the old bridal poem, “something old, something new…and a silver six pence in her shoe.”) To put them near windows and doors indicates they were meant to prevent evil from coming inside.
concealed shoes from Pershore, Worcestershire
The notion of shoes as protectors dates to the 14th century when John Schorn, rector of North Marston, Buckinghamshire is purported to have cast the devil into a boot.
Curse of the Slippers of Papillion Hall
In the early 18th century, David Papillon kept his Spanish mistress a virtual prisoner in the east attic of Papillon Hall in Leicestershire. She died mysteriously, and her date of death and place of burial went unrecorded.
In 1903, during a renovation of the attic, the skeleton of a woman was found in the walls. Believed to be the bones of that long ago Spanish mistress, the story goes that her former lover murdered her because she was a witch but that, before she died, she evoked a curse. If her slippers ever were removed from the property, ill fortune would befall the owner.
Each time the Hall was sold, the lady's slippers were given to the new owner. There were a few times, however, when this custom wasn't followed--with disastrous results. (To read more about the curse, and to learn the whereabouts of the slippers today, click on the link below.)
This story dovetails with the commonly held belief that bad luck will follow if a concealed shoe is removed from its resting place during renovations. Homeowners should either place them back when repairs are completed, or substitute another shoe.
March 14th is Mothering Sunday in Britain, the equivalent of Mother’s Day in the US.
Until the mid-17th century, the fourth Sunday in Lent was known as Refreshment Sunday or Laetare Sunday. (Roughly translated, laetare means "delight" or "joyful.") For that one day, the Church relaxed its Lenten fasting rules in honor of the biblical story about the Feeding of the Five Thousand (Miracle of the Five Loaves and Fishes).
During the Middles Ages, the Church required that, at least once a year, people returned to their local or "mother" churches -- the one in which they were baptized. The fourth Sunday in Lent became the date upon which this was commonly done and the pilgrimage was referred to as going "a-mothering."
Gradually, the secular habit of honoring mothers was grafted onto the religious observance. It began as a region custom in the western counties, and slowly spread to the rest of Britain.
The first known reference to Mothering Sunday is found in the 1644 diary of Richard Symonds:
"Every mid-Lent Sunday is a great day in Worcester, when all the children and god-children meet at the head and chief of the family and have a feast. They call it the Mothering-day."
Mothering Sunday became the one day a year that people "in service" were allowed to return home for a visit. Children would bring their mothers small gifts, flowers, and a simnel cake.
According to Rebecca Edridge in 1822 --
“…members of the same family go to visit the oldest female of their line…The venerable matron on that day sits enthroned, the Queen of the festival.”
Old family stories were told and games played before the cowslip wine and cake were passed out.
Simnel Cakes
Simnellus was a kind of fine wheaten bread the Romans ate during their spring fertility rites. Since at least the time of Edward the Confessor, bakery goods were made on specially occasions from simnel. It was so highly prized that the canon, David de Aqua, willed land in Hertfordshire for its cultivation when he died in the late 12th century.
There are several legends about the origins of simnel cakes. According to one, a married couple -- Simon and Nell -- argued about whether to boil or bake the cake. (They did both.) In another, it was said the cake was invented by Henry VII's baker, Lambert Simnel. The later story is unlikely because Robert Herrick mentions simnel cake in his 1648 poem, To Dianeme: A Ceremony at Gloucester:
I'll to thee a simnel bring 'Gainst thou go'st a mothering So that, when she blesseth thee, Half that blessing thou'lt give to me.
In 1819, the poet Charles Lamb wrote of February 14th: [T]his is the day upon which those charming little missives, ycleped Valentines, cross and intercross each other at every street and turning. The weary and all for-spent twopenny postman sinks beneath a load of delicate embarrassments, not his own. It is scarcely credible to what an extent this ephemeral courtship is carried on…to the great enrichment of porters, and detriment of knockers and bell-wires.
Lamb was speaking of a custom that dates to at least the 15th century. The oldest known valentine written in English was discovered among the Paston Letters in the British Library. Margery Brews penned it to her fiancé John Paston in 1477:
Right reverent and worshipful and my right well-beloved valentine, I recommend me unto you full heartedly, desiring to hear of your welfare, which I beseech Almighty God long for to preserve unto his pleasure and your hearts desire.
Prior to that discovery, the oldest valentines in British possession were those of Charles, Duke of Orleans. Orleans wrote more than sixty to his wife in France over the course of his twenty-five year incarceration in the Tower of London following the Battle of Agincourt in 1415:
Wilt thou be mine? dear Love, reply-- Sweetly consent or else deny. Whisper softly, none shall know, Wilt thou be mine, Love?--aye or no?
Many examples of Victorian valentines have survived, but what did the earlier ones look like?
You did a lot of research...I didn't know Valentine's Day had such a long history...figured the card companies came up with the idea to make money! Nice post!
Commercially produced cards started to appear in the early 1800s. They really became popular around the mid-19th century. But the exchange of love tokens dates back to the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia. Like so many pagan holidays, the church co-opted this one and imposed a holy day over the top -- St. Valentine's Day.
I've always been intrigued why the British say "Happy Christmas" and we in the US say "Merry Christmas." An internet search revealed that, prior to the 1830s, “Merry Christmas” was the more popular salutation. The term “Merry Christmas” dates to at least 1565, when it appeared in The Hereford Municipal Manuscript:
And thus I comytt you to god, who send you a mery Christmas...
The phrase “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” appeared in a 1699 letter from Admiral Frances Hosier to Robert Smith, a storekeeper at the Deptford dockyards in Woolrich, England. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol solidified the phrase in 1843 when, at the end of the story, Ebenezer Scrooge wished Cratchet, “A merry Christmas, Bob!”
In terms of oral tradition, “Merry Christmas” was around in the 16th century West Country carol, “We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”
A little tougher to track is “Happy Christmas.”It isn’t an entirely British phrase, however.In 1823, New Yorker Clement Clark Moore wrote the classic Christmas poem, A Visit From St. Nick/Twas the Night Before Christmas which concludes with:
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
(It is interesting to note that, in some later editions, the phrase was changed to “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”For what reason, no one is sure.)
4 Comments on Merry Christmas verses Happy Christmas, last added: 12/27/2009
In Britain, the harvest cycle that began on Lammas Day (August 1st) ends at the autumnal equinox in late September. Like Thanksgiving in America, this time of year is associated with the celebration of bounty, and has been since the 6th century.
The term harvest comes from the Anglo-Saxon word haerfest, which means autumn. Harvest Home is held near the first full (harvest) moon in September. The first full moon after that is known as the hunters moon because the fields are bare and easier for hunters to navigate.
Like Thanksgiving in America, Harvest Home is marked by religious services, the gathering of family, and food. The Feast of St. Michael—Michaelmas—occurs this time of year. The goose is associated with Harvest Home because Queen Elizabeth I is said to have been eating one on Michaelmas in 1588 when she received word her fleet had defeated the Spanish Armada. She vowed always to eat goose on Michaelmas thereafter and instructed her subjects to do so as well.
Corn Dollies
Of the many British harvest customs, “corn dollies” are the most interesting. The last of the harvested corn stalks were gathered and tied together in fanciful shapes believed to embody the living spirit of the corn. Often they looked like human women, and are thought to be the image of the Roman goddess of agriculture and grain, Ceres. Corn dollies were kept until the following spring and plowed under during the planting to ensure a bountiful crop.
Sometimes a horse was shaped from the stalks of the first field harvested in an English community. The farmer then passed this “mare” on to his neighbor who worked hard to finish his own field. Once done, that fellow then tossed it into the field of another with the accompanying call “Mare! Mare!” The last farmer to bring in his harvest had to keep the “mare” on display in his home until spring.
In Cornwall, a similar tradition is practiced today. Known as Crying the Neck, the last handful of grain harvested is held high and everyone shouts in celebration.
Thanksgiving in other English-speaking countries
Thanksgiving in Canada is the second Monday in October. Australians celebrate a National Day of Thanksgiving that has more to do with being thankful for life’s blessings than a bountiful harvest. Until 1863, every US president designated one day a year as a general day of thanksgiving. Not always were these associated with bountiful harvests, and often they occurred in December. Lincoln established the last Thursday in November as a permanent holiday to give thanks for fruitfulness. In 1939, however, there were five Thursdays in November. President Roosevelt declared that, henceforth, Thanksgiving would be the fourth Thursday and so it has remained.
Halloween is a collection of traditions that have come down from pagan harvest festivals with a layer of Christian icing spread over the top. The secular aspects of the holiday often are overlooked. Perhaps the most important is the Gunpowder Plot.
When Elizabeth I took the throne in 1533, England was wracked with religious upheaval. Her successor and sister, Mary, had attempted to reimpose Catholicism on their subjects. Elizabeth restored the Church of England but religious unrest continued to simmer for seventy years. It boiled over in 1605 when a dozen Catholic revolutionaries attempted to blow up King James I and his entire government.
Gunpowder Treason and Plot
The plan was simple—pack an abandoned coal cellar beneath Westminster with thirty-six barrels of gunpowder the opening day of Parliament, November 5, 1605. It was enough to level nearby Westminster Abbey and most of the buildings in the OldPalace complex. Everyone was scheduled to attend that day, including James I and members of the royal family. His children, however, would not be there. The conspirators planned to kidnap them and set up nine year old Princess Elizabeth as their puppet queen.
The man chosen to lay the charges and light the fuse was an explosives expert from York, Guy Fawkes. Fawkes had spent ten years fighting for the Catholic cause in the Dutch Revolt.
On November 4th he took to the cellar beneath Westminster and patiently awaited the dawn of what he believed would be a glorious Catholic coup.
Alerted to the plot by an anonymous letter, government officials searched Westminster and the buildings around it. They found Fawkes in the cellar guarding what looked like a pile of iron bars, stones and timber. When questioned, he claimed to be the servant of the man in whose name the cellar had been rented.
The officials went on with their search but came up empty-handed. Around midnight, they returned to Fawkes and discovered he had in his possession a tinder-box and a dark signal lantern. When they dug beneath the pile he guarded, they found the barrels of gunpowder.
Fawkes was taken to the Tower of London where a confession was tortured out of him. He eventually named his co-conspirators. They all were tried and executed in January, 1606.
Parliament subsequently decreed that parish churches conduct a thanksgiving service every November 5th. (The tradition lasted until 1859.) Given the association with gunpowder, as well as the closeness to the pagan fire festival of Samhain on November 1st, Guy Fawkes Night was soon marked with bonfires and fireworks.
During the week leading up to Bonfire Night, children constructed effigies of Guy Fawkes out of old straw-stuffed clothing. The effigies were then burned on the bonfire. Before the event, the children went around the community begging “a penny for the guy.” Money collected was spent on fireworks.
And what celebration could be complete without food? Bonfire Parkin—a cake made of oatmeal, molasses and ginger, and Bonfire/Plot Toffee became popular Guy Fawkes Night treats. But no Fireworks Night party was complete without the Englishman’s favorite—bangers (sausages) and potatoes roasted in the bonfire.
Today, every opening session of Parliament is preceded by a symbolic search of the basement by the Yeoman of the Guard. In 1834, fire damaged the actual cellar in which the gunpowder was discovered. The cellar was totally destroyed when Westminster was rebuild in 1840.
Please remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy, guy, guy
Poke him in the eye
Put him on the bonfire
And there let him die.
0 Comments on Bonfire Bangers on Guy Fawkes Night as of 10/30/2009 8:47:00 AM
Today is St. Swithin’s day, the patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. He was bishop there at the time of his death in 862 A.D. Swithin was dedicated to the building of churches and bridges and spent much of his time on construction sites, visiting with the workers and local residents. On his deathbed, he requested burial in the churchyard rather than a cathedral crypt so that his body “might be subject to the feet of passers-by and to the raindrops pouring from on high.”
St. Swithin earned his reputation as a weather saint when his body was moved to a shrine inside the Cathedral on July 15, 971 A.D. This “translation” is said to have been delayed by rain which continued for forty days, giving rise to the saying:
St. Swithin’s day if thou does rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin’s day if thou be fair
For forty days will rain no more
Swithin is also the patron saint of apple growers.Rain on St. Swithin’s Day is said to be a blessing on the crop.Tradition states no apples should be picked or eaten before July 15th.
Winchester Cathedral
Many early Saxon kings and clergymen are buried in Winchester Cathedral.The Viking conqueror Canute and his wife Emma are there, along with William I, son of William the Conqueror.Izaak Walton lies in the Fishermen’s Chapel.But by far the most well-known is Jane Austen.
In May,1817, Ms. Austen was so ill she took up residence at No. 8 College Street in the city of Winchester so she could be near her doctor.She died in her sister Cassandra’s arms in the early hours of July 18, 1817.Her body was interred in the Cathedral’s north aisle just before prayers on July 24th.Austen’s stone reads:
In Memory of JANE AUSTEN, youngest daughter of the late Revd GEORGE AUSTEN, formerly Rector of Steventon in this County
She departed this Life on the 18th of July1817,
aged 41, after a long illness supported with
the patience and hopes of a Christian.
The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind
obtained the regard of all who knew her and
the warmest love of her intimate connections.
Their grief is in proportion to their affection
they know their loss to be irreparable, but in their deepest affliction they are consoled
by a firm though humble hope that her charity,
devotion, faith and purity have rendered her soul acceptable in the sight of her
REDEEMER.
Adjacent to her grave is a brass memorial plaque erected by her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, from the proceeds of his Memoir of Jane Austen. The Jane Austen Society sees to it fresh flowers are place there every week.
Jane Austen
known to many by her
writings, endeared to
her family by the
varied charms of her
Character, and ennobled
by Christian Faith
and Piety, was born
at Steventon in the
county of Hants, Dec.
xvi mdcclxxv and buried
in this Cathedral
July xxiv mdcccxvii
“She openth her
mouth with wisdom
and in hertongue is
the law of kindness.”
Prob xxxi xxvi
There is much speculation about why Ms. Austen wasn’t buried in Steventon or her beloved Chawton, but in Winchester Cathedral--an honor afforded only the most important personages.Clearly, from the wording of her headstone, she'd not yet achieved notoriety as the great author we know her to be today.In a February 22, 2003 article for the Jane Austen Society of Australia (Jane Austen and Winchester Cathedral), Paul Henningham postulates she was interred there because anyone who died within the Cathedral Close had a right to be.(The “close” is the buildings attached or appended to a church.In this case, the Winchester Cathedral precinct wall ran along the north side of College Street.) Ms. Austen’s brotherHenry had recently undergone his ordination exam and likely petitioned the Bishop.In addition, Jane’s friend Elizabeth Heathcote, (widow of the Rev. William Heathcote, a Cathedral Canon) also lobbied to have her buried there.Ms. Austen was the last person interred in the Cathedral due to a rising water table.
1 Comments on Jane Austen: Sleeping with the Saints, last added: 7/16/2009
To read more about the mysterious connection between Jane Austen and St. Swithin, click on my link to Jane Austen in Vermont and read Deb's article "Austen on St. Swithin Day."
Today I am deviating from my normal posts about British customs and holidays to welcome romantic fiction writer, Sandra Sookoo. Sandi stopped by for a visit and I am thrilled, not only because she is a fellow historical author and Classic Romance Revival member, but also a Hoosier!
Sandra’s portfolio includes historical, contemporary, and paranormal romances. She has recently embarked on writing mysteries. Just like the heroines in her books, she uses sarcastic wit and humor to make people laugh.
When not immersed in creating new worlds and interesting characters, Sandra likes to read and travel. Her favorite place to spend vacation hours is Walt Disney World. It’s where dreams come true and that suits her just fine. Writing is her ultimate dream job.
Welcome, Sandi!
Thank you so much for taking the time out of your own busy schedule to interview me. I appreciate it.
Your book, Winner Takes All (Desert Breeze Publishing) is set in Indianapolis during the early 1900s:
Lily Henderson’s greatest passion is knowledge. Christopher Farnsworth thrives on order and decorum. But Lily’s penchant for Suffragette rallies and logical reasoning soon clash with Christopher’s quiet, controlled ex-military lifestyle over a bowl of potato soup.
The two agree to a wager and love is the intended outcome. The premise? A suitable match by Easter. If he loses, he’ll attend Easter church services dressed in one of his aunt’s outrageously colored and beaded gowns. If she loses, she’ll ride, Lady Godiva-style, around the heart of Indianapolis.
The problem is neither Christopher nor Lily can find matches as good as themselves. Romantic sabotage is the order of the day. The original wager is forgotten when the only thing the pair gamble with is their hearts.
What was your inspiration for Winner Takes All? How did you come up with the idea?
My inspiration for the book was the product of watching too many romantic comedies. I love the idea of a couple being thrown together under trying circumstances and having to relate to each other even though the initial meeting is less than ideal. The idea came to me during the Halloween season last year as I wracked my brain for something to write about for the NaNo project in November. The opening scene with the missing engagement ring originally belonged to Lily but at the last moment as the book took shape, I changed it to her best friend.
What kind of research did you have to do?
I'm always careful about doing research before a project, even if that project is not a historical novel. I do alot of pre-lim research online and in books. If I'm still uncertain about an event or place, I lean on the great people at the Indiana Historical Society. I can email them with my question, and they get back with me in a few days with all sorts of information. I'm really grateful for their help.
What did you learn during that research?
One of the most fascinating things I dug up was that the city of Indianapolis had segregated hotels, even though African-Americans were allowed to fight for their country in the military. I wanted to be sure and make one of my supporting characters, Hodgins, a strong, self-confident person in his own right even though he faced huge odds during that time in history. The rest of my characters may be taking great literary liberties with how accepting of him they are, but I firmly believe that throughout history, there were people who flaunted the rules and used their brains to form opinions for themselves.
Did you research change your initial ideas about the book?
No, but it did solidify my love of the Indianapolis area. Rich in history, the residents of the early 20th century were really movers and shakers that formed a strong groundwork for the city I now call home. Touring the city's historical landmarks makes me appreciate those who came before to inspire me and give me a great backdrop for my stories.
Did you base Christopher and Lily on real people?
Christopher and Lily are not based on real people. I try not to do that if I can get around it. Why? Because it complicates my already complicated life and I don't like to have a fixed image of what a character might look like since the image is not who the character is. I've only done it one time in the history of my writing, and really, I doubt if I'll do it again. I may base a certain gesture or speech pattern, but that's about it.
What are you working on now?
I'm currently working on another historical novel, and yes it's set in Indianapolis in 1900. However, this one will have a bit of a paranormal twist, and no, you can't have a hint. Don't want to give too much away up front.
“I’d be willing to wager I can find you a suitable husband by Easter.”
She spun around so quickly her skirt twisted about her legs. “I beg your pardon?”
The man stood and made certain all eyes were on him before he continued. “I’d be willing to take any wager that says I can match you with the perfect man by the Easter holiday, six weeks from now.” He downed the last of his wine then rested the empty glass on the table. “I just assumed your problem regarding men is the simple fact you can’t find one good enough, but now I realize the problem also rests in your attitude.” He shrugged, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Why not let me take that anxiety from you and do the dirty work.”
She frowned. “What does that mean?” She didn’t like the intense way his eyes held hers. It made her insides warm and faint tremors dance through her stomach, and reminded her of when she was a child and would swing on a rope from a tree limb in their yard. She glanced at Samantha, but from the amused half-smile on her friend’s lips, Lily knew she wouldn’t get much help in that quarter.
Christopher flicked an invisible piece of lint from his immaculate black suit coat. “Let me interview a few men, find their strengths and weaknesses, their likes and dislikes. I’ll put them through a screening process and once they pass the test, you can have a few outings with them.” He flashed a confident smile to her parents. “By Easter, I’m certain one of them will be to your liking.”
She lifted a brow. “You must have a high opinion of yourself to think I’d accept any man you endorsed. And I might remind you I’m not looking for a mate.”
Great interview Joanna and Sandra - always interesting to get to learn more about other authors. 'Winner Takes All' certainly sounds an interesting and entertaining read!
Great interview--I didn't know you could e-mail questions to the historical society--that's a great service. You could set a romance in Disneyworld...they could meet waiting in line for a ride...three hours later--engaged ;)
At the height of swan popularity in the 16th Century, nine hundred people were granted "swan marks."
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Interesting how the mothering term changed through the years. I love reading posts like this and will now bookmark you so I remember to keep coming back. :-)