Flora and Fauna of Regency Britain -February


I thought we might start with the naturlists description of February.

...all Nature is wrapped in a robe of dazzling whiteness; and the ‘bitter-biting cold’ showers of sleet, and sudden gusts of wind, drive us to our homes for shelter, against the inclemency of the season. They sudden thaws, also, which take place in February, --the return of frost and snow—and the change again to rain and sleet, contribute to render this month particularly unfavourable to the pedestrian and the lover of out-of-door exercise and amusements.


If you are researching weather in a particular period/month, you might find the this link helpful. What I learned for a variety of February's in this period was that the norm of temperature was about -2C that snow was an occurrence, but heavy snow was always an even worthy of note and that tempteratures fluctuated above and below the norm. I think that frost was much more common that snow. Heavy snow was anything more than a sprinkle.

It must also be remembered that houses were heated with wood or coal burning fires, so your front would be warm and your back cold, that frost would build up on the windowpanes. My husband can remember waking up as a child in the days before central heating with frost on his pillow. There were no down jackets or waterproof boots. You will see something else in the picture of the carter. Wind. England tends to have high winds in Fall and Winter. Gales are often mentioned.

So although it wasn't much colder in England than it is today, it was more difficult to keep warm. Chilblains were a problem for sure. The further north you went, the more snow and of course the colder it became. But nothing like the freezing temperatures here in the North of North America, which of course begs the question about how the pioneers lived. Lots of furs, I suspect.

Okay, so that is the weather, and what about flora and fauna I hear you muttering. Well not much is going on in the natural world, but February is the start of Spring in England. Snowdrops appear, because it really isn't that cold. I had to do a recheck on that because Wiki said something about soldiers in the Crimea, but snowdrops are listed by our Naturlist as something one would find in 1826, so we are safe. whew. I really liked this picture which shows birds and a beloved favorite of childhood the catkin, the flower of the hazel tree, which later produces hazelnuts (like a filbert). Catkins are also known as lambs tails.

The other thing one might see is February, during our time were lambs. Lambing did indeed start in February.

My final entry is
About the beginning of the month, the woodlark, one of our earliest and sweetest songsters, renews his note.

Their habitat was heathland. The male has one of the finest bird songs in Britain, a liquid, flute-like descending song.


Well, I could probably ramble on, but I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into February, and will join me again as we continue our ramble through Bath, and whatever else takes my fancy over the next little while.

And since my new anthology is out, Satin and Snakeskin in Brides of the West, though not a regency, it is a historical, I am going to offer a free copy to one of my blogreaders. Just in time for Valentine's day. Be daring, leave a comment, and I will draw from a hat.

Until next time, Happy Rambles.

Regency Bath Part IV - Assembly Rooms


First I want to announce that Brides of the West is now available through Amazon. I have lots of work to do to update the links, but you can find it here. Even more exciting!! One of my co-authors has produced a book trailer, which you can see on the sidebar of this blog. Now how cool is that.

As you know, my Mother passed away on Christmas Eve and she and I visited Bath earlier in December. It has taken me a while to go back to my planned blog on that city. Then I decided that since it was a wonderful Mother/Daughter visit and a very happy memory I would continue with the series.

So I hope you will join me as I continue my tour of Jane Austen's Bath.

After the circus, the next place on our itinerary was the Assembly Rooms on Bennett Street, just east of the circus. Designed by John Wood the Younger in 1769. Known as the Upper Rooms they opened in 1771. I was pleased with this picture, because it shows the columned entrance in beautiful bath stone and to the right the outside of "the rooms" themselves. Hallowed halls. Actual rooms where Jane Austen danced. I took some very nice pictures inside too. the first is of the board which shows the layout. Not great quality, but should give you a sense of the organization.





I took a series of pictures of the octagonal card room, just outside the ballroom, but here I show only one. I asked about the chandeliers in the building and they are all originals, except one that had to be replaced, because it fell. I thought this shot, with the chandelier and the balcony above gave a good impression of this room. In this view you can see two window frames, but they are dark. However on each of the sides there are
windows, which do let in daylight, since they have external exposure. And of course you will notice the fireplaces. Essential, to have several for such a large room.

The Assembly Rooms are still used for functions, even though the building is National Trust. I expect it helps with the upkeep. And I should mention that the people looking after it were incredibly friendly and quite happy for me to take all of these pictures.

This picture of the ballroom I took from the web, because it is a lovely professional picture. The columned end of the room would have served a couple of purposes, first the orchestra would have been located on the balcony. Second, the serving rooms were hidden behind the columns on the main floor. My picture is of a peak through that door. Not that I assume that anything behind it is as original, but the space certainly was.
I also took a picture along the side wall and guess what, more fireplaces and more windows. I thought you might like to see it.


Turning back to look at the door through which we entered I discovered yet another balcony. would a young Prince have stood here watching the company? One can only imagine.

I discover that while I have more to show you, I have run out of room for today's blog and so we will have to ramble through more of the Assembly Rooms next time.
Until then, Happy Rambles.

Flora and Fauna of Regency Britain - January

I have to admit, the winter months are always a challenge with respect to this series. After all, winter is a time when animals hibernate, birds fly south, flowers disappear and trees are bare. As usual I have persevered.

Rosemary is one of the few shrubs that does flower in January. It is a poignant bush, named for rememberance by lovers and appears so in Shakespeare's Hamlet as spoken by Ophelia. "There's Rosemary for remembrance." Indeed interestingly enough there are also some studies that indicate that Rosemary can actually aid the memory.

The Naturlists diary notes that; "the titmouse pulls straw out of the thatch, in search of insects; and linnets congregate."

Who can resist the word titmouse, I just had to look him up and get a picture of him. I discover that it is generice for a variety of forms of tit (meaning bird in old English), combined with a German word meaning small which was changed to mouse along the way. Since there are several varieties, I give you my favorite resident of England, the blue tit. Something that caught my eye when perusing White's Natural History of Selborne which I might add is not organized by month, is that in winter, buntings about in the bushes on the downs near Andover. I did not see any buntings, this past month, but nor was I looking. But wouldn't you know it, it turns out that bunting is also a generic term for a type of sparrow and includes the yellowhammer pictured here. It occurs to me that in writing about the flora and fauna of this era, we must be careful not to use names that were not common in their time, even if they are less specific.

The other thing I noticed when reading both the diary and White's, they were very concerned about turnips. They seemed to worry about the birds and insects eating their tops when their was no snow and whether they would survive thecold weather, which means they must have been left in the ground during the winter. Exciting stuff!

In January, leaves start to appear on the honeysuckle according to Mr. Stillingfleet’s tracts.

In Gibert White’s The Natural History of Selbourne, he writes that one could anticipate a winter thaw from the sudden activity of mole’s heaving up mole hills. I can certainly confirm this having just come back from England in mild weather and saw the work of moles anywhere there was green grass. And here is my own picture of molehills - note, this picture is from June, but molehills are molehills.

There is more, but I think this will do for this year! Until Next time, Happy Rambles.

Regency Fashion For January and News

You can't believe how happy I am to be back on line. It has been a difficult four weeks for me and my family. My mother passed away on Christmas Eve, and it has been a very sad holiday season. It is hard to believe that a little over a month ago, she and I were touring Bath. She enjoyed herself enormously, was vibrant and interested and ready to point out all kinds of interesting things. And that is the way I will always remember her.

I arrived back from England to some interesting news. It is strange how life feels like a roller coaster. My unpublished historical novel, "Gus Landen, the Price of Justice", is a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. Oh my. You can find the excerpt at Amazon. You can write a review if you wish, or simply click yes for the reviews that are there to show you found them helpful (or no if you did not).

No Regrets seems to be doing well, listed at number 25 on Amazon in Regencies. Not sure what that means exactly, but I am feeling pretty good about it.

The Anthology Brides of the West from Highland Press is now in proof form from the publisher and we hope to see it ready for purchase around Valentines Day. So I will be running a contest nearer that date. However, this is not a Regency, it is a Western and Victorian. A departure for me, but a fun one.

Well that is all of my writing news for now, but here is the promised fashion for January.

Isn't this just so sweet and to me so very Regency in style. But look how slender this model is. Is it any wonder my heroine in "No Regrets" had self-image problems because she wasn't as thin as a pin!

This plate is from Ackermann's Repository. Don't you love that name. So formal and flowing. The Magazine description goes something like this. "A round robe of Cambric muslin, with long full sleeves, and simple short collar, confined in the center of the throat with a stud or broach; the same fastening at the wrist. A robe pelisse of bright morone velvet formed quite plain, simply meeting in the front, with rounded collar; trimmed entirely round with spotted ermine, and confined at the bottom of the waist with a ribband of corresponding shades, tied in front. A Flora cap, ornamented with ribband and small flower on the left side. A village hat of morone velvet, with open edge of black chenille; a flower similar to that which ornaments the cap, placed on the opposite side, and tied under the chin with the same ribband. Half-boots of morone velvet, or kid. Gloves of pale tan or amber kid. Ridicule of morone velvet, embroidered with gold."

Morone is a peony red, rather than a type of velvet and I find it interesting that her boots are of the same fabric as well as the village hat. One really must wonder how good velvet boots would be in rain and the odd snow fall, 'though they also mention kid as an alternative. I love this ensemble although I suppose the ermine trim is probably not feasible today and the thought of wearing both a cap and a hat makes my scalp itch. lol

My next plate is evening wear from earlier, 1806. The classical influence is very obvious in these two gowns. And I mention, just for interest though I expect most of you know this, that dresses were often plain white because they thought the ancient romans wore white robes based on the statues, when in fact it was simply that in many cases, the color had worn off over time. The description from the Cabinet of Fashion is as follows: The Walking Dress. A Scarlet Kerseymere Cloak. A Bonnet of the same, trimmed round with White Swansdown and dress of White Cambric, richly worked round the Bottom. Buff Gloves. Not much detail, but enough. By the way Kerseymere is a fine woolen cloth with a fancy twill weave.

The full dress or evening dress is marvellously simple and effective. It is described as a: White Sarsnet Dress, ornamented with embroidery. A clear Leno Apron, trimmed with a plain Gold Cord. Hair fashionably dressed, with a Wreath. White Kid Gloves and Shoes. The term Leno refers to an open weave fabric, which of course would allow the dress to show through, and I assume it is termed an apron because it looks as if the sides are open,or maybe it refers to the bib front. A lovely fashion for a young slip of a thing.

I know I am late, but I do wish you all a Healthy and Happy New Year and look forward to sharing more Regency rambles with you over the coming months.

Michele Ann Young