Mary here. When considering my post for April, I wanted to follow our theme of fashion. We ladies do like to buy a new frock, new shoes, and to those of the most brave among us, a hat, each Easter Season. My colleague, Susan Karsten, just did an excellent post on the use of shawls in Regency fashion, but when I tried to narrow down a single item of women’s fashion in the ton, it left my head spinning. But then a thought came to me; what of men’s fashion? It was no contest – it could be about none other than Beau Brummel!

I learned so much about Mr. Brummel in my search that I might have to make a Part II on my next blog to discuss much more on his life, but today, we will stick to his fashion sense.

George Bryan Brummel (1778-1840), though not related personally to the aristocracy, was the son of the private secretary to Lord North, the Prime Minister under King George III. His exposure to that part of Society may have allowed his rise to more elevated circles later in life.

He was fastidious even as a young boy at Eton, and he was nicknamed Buck Brummel, a similar title as prestigious as Beau.

At 16 years of age, he met, and impressed, the Prince Regent with his style and wit. Brummel left Oxford and the Regent gave him a commission into his own personal regiment. Four years later he inherited £30,000, resigned his commission and set himself up in a bachelor establishment in Mayfair. Now, a close friend of George IV, he christened him the arbiter elegante, his Prime Minister of Fashion!

Brummel sought to create a new definition for his understated, but elegant, mode of style. The fop wore bright colors, ill-fitting jackets, knee breeches and high heels. The Beau with his new distinction created the . . . dandy!

Watch the below excerpt from Beau Brummel – This Charming Man:

(If the video does not load for you, please click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Trousers, perfectly cut coats, made in black or dark blue against a white shirt and exquisitely tied cravat became the trademark of the beau and were quickly copied by men in the highest social circles of London, and men of superior rank sought his professional opinion on their dress. His fastidiousness in bathing, clean teeth and shaving every day was a pleasing addition adopted in the upper echelons of polite Society.

He is almost as famous today as he was in his own time and his name still represents the epitome of fashion. Should you look up dandy in the dictionary, Beau Brummel’s name is linked to the definition. There is a high-end European men’s store in Soho, NY that bears his name. And he has been immortalized by a LeCoultre watch designed with no numbers and a small modern face.

A dandy by any other name . . . Beau Brummel!

Originally posted 2013-04-19 10:00:00.

I can’t wait for spring!  It is still pretty chilly in the Midwest, but I know the sunny, warm days will be here very soon.

Can you imagine what it would be like if spring never came? That is what happened one year during the Regency period. In fact, 1816 is often referred to as the “Year Without a Summer,” and during this time extreme weather dramatically effected England’s cultural and economic landscape. Let’s take a quick look:

In April 1815, the volcano Mount Tambora erupted on the island of Sumbara in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia).  The force of the blast launched ash, dust and debris into the atmosphere. The impact was so significant that temperatures lowered globally and the sun’s rays were blocked, making the days appear darker. The altered atmosphereic conditions affected weather and agriculture worldwide, especially in Canada, northeastern United States, and northern Europe.

As a result, 1816 ranks as one of England’s coldest winters on record.  The snow fell as late as May in London, and in the Lake District, snow was still on the highest peaks at the end of July. The excessive precipitation and unseasonably cold temperatures devastated crops. Consequently, food shortages were rampant. To make matters worse, farm laborers were not working, and with thousands of soldiers returning from foreign wars, unemployment was a major problem. Rioting looting broke out all over the country.   Malnutrition and cold, wet conditions led to a rise in disease.

But even during this time of darkness, the artists and poets of the day found beauty in the midst of the shadows. The gloomy, bitter weather inspired Byron’s haunting poem Darkness. Byron said he “wrote it… at Geneva, when there was a celebrated dark day, on which the fowls went to roost at noon, and the candles were lighted as at midnight.”  And in the world of art, J. M. W. Turner is said to have been inspired by the spectacular sunsets that resulted from the high levels of debris and ash in the atmosphere.

Curious about what else was going on in England at this time? To give you a frame of reference, here is a quick snapshot of England’s literary scene during the cold, raw months of 1816:

— Jane Austen’s Emma published. (actually published in December 1815, but the title page says 1816)
–Lord Byron’s poem Darkness, The Siege of Corinth, and Prometheyus are published.
–Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Kahn is published.
–Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Alastor: Or, The Spirit of Solitude is published.
–John Keat’s O Solitude and On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer are published .
—Charlotte Bronte is born on April 21^st.

Thanks for stopping by Regency Reflections.  Enjoy the spring and summer months ahead!

Originally posted 2013-03-29 10:00:00.

Today we welcome guest blogger Susanne Dietze. Learn more about Susanne at the end of the article. 

Perhaps the only way a Regency-era tourist might ever see an exotic animal—alive—was by visiting the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London. A visit to the Royal Menagerie was a popular outing, and proved an entertaining day out.

By the Regency era, animals had been on display at the Tower for six hundred years, since the reign of King John. The first animals to arrive at the Tower were gifts from Europe and Africa: lions, an elephant, and a polar bear which was fortunate enough to experience “outings,” attached by a leash so he could fish in the Thames.

In the 18^th century, it cost three half-pence or the supply of a cat or dog to be fed to the lions to visit (according to author Wilfred Blunt). After paying the fee (or providing a small pet), the public was welcome to view animals such as baboons, macaws, mongoose, ocelot, and cheetahs.  After 1816, the Regency visitor would have no doubt wished to view Martin, a Grizzly bear given to George III by the Hudson Bay Company.

The conditions endured by the animals are cringe-worthy by today’s standards. If they survived the voyage to London—cramped in confinement over land and sea—the animals were doomed to an unnatural life. Locked in small cages, they received no exercise, nor did many have the pleasure of eating food that was part of their natural diet (the zebra grew quite fond of ale, ostriches were fed nails by visitors, and the elephant’s rations included a gallon of wine per day). James I and his court enjoyed watching the lions maul other animals in organized matches. Needless to say, many animals did not live long in the Royal Menagerie.

Interaction between the visitors and the animals would also astonish most of us, accustomed as we are to zoo exhibits designed to educate visitors while protecting both animal and human. At the Royal Menagerie, however, visitors could feed, touch, provoke, or abuse the animals—often to their own detriment.

In 1698, Mary Jenkinson stroked a lion’s paw, no doubt with good intent. Nevertheless, the lion caught her arm “with his Claws and mouth, and most miserably tore her Flesh from the Bone”. Her arm was amputated, but sadly, poor Mary passed away.

Likewise, the 1810 guidebook recounts that “formerly several monkies were kept, but one of them having torn a boy’s leg in a dangerous manner they were removed”—presumably from the furnished room where they had been living since the 1780’s, where visitors could engage the monkeys.

Remarkably, people still got too close to the animals. Many parasols and umbrellas were destroyed by a leopard. Then, too, animals escaped (such as the wolf who ate a keeper’s terrier), or were accidentally introduced to one another—the most famous perhaps being an 1830 incident when two tigresses were let into the lion’s cage by an under-keeper. After half an hour, the keepers were able to separate the fighting trio, but the lion succumbed to his wounds.

In 1831, many of the 280 animals housed at the Menagerie began to be transferred to the Zoological Society of London at Regent’s Park, and the Tower Menagerie was closed in 1835.

As for Martin the Grizzly Bear, such a popular attraction during the Regency? He died in 1838, although some say his ghost haunts the Tower.

Susanne Dietze began writing love stories in high school, casting her friends in the starring roles. Today, she writes in the hope that her historical romances will encourage and entertain others to the glory of God. Married to a pastor and the mom of two, Susanne loves fancy-schmancy tea parties, travel, and curling up on the couch with a costume drama and a plate of nachos. She won first place in the Historical category of the 2011-2012 Phoenix Rattler, and her work has finaled in the Genesis, Gotcha!, and Touched By Love Contests. Susanne is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency. You can visit her on her website, www.susannedietze.com.

Originally posted 2013-03-27 10:00:00.