Vanessa here,

I am all a twitter, (not the recently IPO’d kind) but excited about planning a baby shower for a dear friend. As I become steeped in color choices and decorations, the need to play games or not to play games, I begin to think about childbirth or the expectation of childbirth during the Regency.

Sadly, I couldn’t find any corollaries to anything we know today as a baby shower. No cards, or nappy cakes, no diaper genies unless you count the wealthy woman’s servants.

No one seemed to plan any kind of celebration for the expectant mother. What we now call baby showers have their roots in Victorian times.

Why No Regency Celebration?

Let’s face facts. It might be a little hard to plan a tea or invite friends and family over to celebrate an event that had a 20% or greater chance of killing you. Poor hygiene, lack of knowledge of difficult pregnancies, unsanitary practitioners, bloodletting, the discouragement of using midwives (ladies versed in how save women, turn babies coming breach) etc. all played a role in the not so great outcomes for pregnant women during the Regency.

Moreover, the pressure to have a male child could be daunting. Knowing the dire need to produce an heir to protect your husband’s entailed property (and your future comfort upon the death of said husband ) had to decrease the need for pre-birth celebrations.

Though Aristotle (384BC to 322BC) tried to clear things up with his theory of men determining the child’s sex, it was still easier to blame the woman for the child-rearing failings. Good thing science cleared that matter up. Just in case you are new to the world of scientific discovery, the male’s X (female) or Y (male) chromosome determines the sex.

Yet, I did find celebrations or at least acknowledgements of surviving childbirth. People would gather and offer support. They brought food to the mother. During the Renaissance and still practiced during the Regency, visitors (the gossips -Middle Ages term for women and family who gather during the birth) gave painted trays with words of encouragement for the women. Some trays were so pretty, they were hung along the walls to surround the mother during her confinement . With confinement potentially lasting up to 40 days, seeing these kind words and beautiful images had to lift the new mother’s spirits.

As baby shower details are finalized, I will be looking to add a few Regency touches. I’m sure my friend will enjoy these little sentiments to make her prenatal and postnatal time encouraging.

What are some encouraging words or gifts that you would offer to a first time mother?

Originally posted 2013-11-18 10:00:00.

I drive. A lot.

In a given week it’s not unheard of for me to put 300 miles on my minivan. That’s a lot for a stay at home mom that lives in a suburban area. Somehow over the years my life ended up that spread out.

My family drives 25 miles each way to get to church. My daughter has to go to a special type of eye doctor. The closest one is 44 miles away. My other daughter sees a different type of specialist three times a year. That one is 37 miles in the opposite direction.

Seriously, I spend a lot of time in my car. Sadly it looks like I live in it, but that’s beside the point. One of the things I frequently find myself thanking God for is a vehicle that makes this constant driving possible. Yes it is unpleasant to drive for two and a half hours round trip for a simple trip to the doctor, but the fact that I can get to a specialist that far away is incredible.

For our Regency friends the thought of traveling so far would have been a daunting task. It’s a common debate among Regency authors: how far people could travel in a day and how long it took them to do so.

45 miles in an hour and a half is never considered. Our heroines are still 100 years away from Henry Ford’s assembly line constructed Model T. The groundwork for the automobile was already underway, though.

Self-propelled vehicles actually existed for 40 years before Prinny was installed as Prince Regent. They weren’t very impressive and would have moved considerably slower than the ubiquitous horse and carriage, but they existed. They were used to haul heavy artillery across the French countryside.

In 1801, Richard Trevithick drove the first people carrying, self-propelled conveyance on England’s roads. The short Christmas Eve journey was a fun novelty, but he never managed to perfect the road-going vehicle. The Puffing Devil, as the vehicle was known, worked it’s way into the history of the steam engine trains that were soon to be working their way across England’s landscapes.

Steam powered vehicles pop up in Regency stories with enough frequency that the idea of the Puffing Devil isn’t very far fetched.

But what about a fuel powered vehicle? Several countries and a Napoleonic war away, Francois Isaac de Rivaz was inventing the first internal combustion engine in 1807 Switzerland. In 1813 he attempted to turn his electric ignition motor into a vehicle.

He was, for all intents and purposes, unsuccessful, though he did create something that moved.

In 1824 London, though, a steam powered vehicle converted to a gasoline engine managed a brief trip up Shooter’s Hill.

Even the electric car, considered such a modern day advancement, has it’s roots at the fringes of the Regency era.  Robert Anderson, a Scotsman, built the first electric car in the 1830s. The batteries weren’t rechargeable and, just like other self-propelled vehicles of the era, the trip was exceptionally short.

While it was far from conceivable that your favorite Regency hero could tool down to Brighton in his Bugatti, the idea of the car as we know it today was much closer than you might have thought.

For more information about methods of transportation people in the Regency actually used when they wanted to travel reliably and more than a few dozen feet, check out this previous Regency Reflections article on carriages.

What was your first car? Have you ever imagined how different historic eras would be if they had the modern conveniences we take for granted?

Originally posted 2013-11-07 10:00:00.

Our world today is filled with cartoons and satires of just about everything, and the blooming of social media has only seemed to grow the number of caricatures. Whether it be a joke about coffee, politics, or haggard mothers, everywhere you turn someone’s using a picture and a few words to make a sarcastic comment.

Did you know Regency England had its own caricaturists? Obviously those caricatures looked a little different than today’s versions. They were oftentimes done in etched or done in other techniques we’d now consider antiquated.

James Gillray was one of the most famous caricaturists of the Georgian and Regency Eras, and much like today, he made satirical cartoons of everything from the commoners, to the royal family, to the Napoleonic Wars. Take a look at some of his work:

This caricature, Tales of Wonder, mocks the popularity of Gothic novels.

This one, The Cow Pock, mocks the new smallpox vaccination.

This caricature paints a rather unflattering picture of Prince George, who was know for being obese and gluttonous. It’s called A Voluptuary in the Throws of Indigestion.

This one, is called Plumb Pudding in Danger. It’s one of my favorites, featuring Pitt and Napoleon each carving up the world to their own liking. It has been dubbed the best know political print every published.

So what do you think of these caricatures? Do they seem different from modern caricatures, or not so much? Do you have a favorite caricature from the Regency Era? 

Originally posted 2013-11-04 10:00:38.

At Regency Reflections, we love stories as much as you do. We asked our authors what books they were currently reading.

Vanessa Riley

I read in spurts. So the most recent was Reluctant Courtship. An Heiress at Heart, and 128 Bible stories.

Naomi Rawlings

A Bride for Keeps by Melissa Jagears and A Reluctant Courtship by Laurie Alice Eakes. 🙂

Susan Karsten

I just read “The Aftermath”, and am now reading “The Outcasts” — both ABA. The first was about post WWII Hamburg, Germany, the latter is a western which feels a lot like the movie remake of True Grit. Both are good reads, but as usual, gratuitous, unnecessary sexual references are sprinkled amidst great characterization and plot. So un-needed.

Camy Tang

Trouble in Store by Carol Cox. It’s the book of the month reading at Christian Fiction Devourers on Goodreads. Super cute story so far!

Laurie Alice Eakes

I just finished reading Poetic Justice, a traditional Regency by Alicia Rasley. Well-written and clever.Now I’m reading a cozy mystery I just started and honestly don’t recall the name of.

Kristi Ann Hunter

I’m in the middle of Laurie Alice’s Reluctant Courtship. (Yea! Can’t wait to share more about that in a the coming weeks.) I recently finished Rich In Love by Lindi Peterson, a fun contemporary Christian romance.

What are you reading right now?

Originally posted 2013-10-07 10:00:00.

Congratulations to Nancy! She won last week’s prize of the Jane Austen notecards. Nancy, check your inbox for instructions on receiving your prize. 

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is such a popular novel, largely due to the fascinating cast of characters found on its pages. As we take a look at some of those characters this week, we thought we’d ask our Regency Reflections authors who their favorite characters were. There seemed to be a bit of a pattern…

Ruth Axtell 

Lizzie.
She, in my opinion, is one of the best heroines of all time, with just the right amount of spunk, wit, compassion, intelligence, and unconventionality.

Vanessa Riley

My favorite would be Elizabeth. Her love for her sisters, particularly Jane is touching. In the book, Austen shows us more of Darcy’s struggles and how he’s falling for Elizabeth, more so than what the movies do, but who can’t love Collin Firth.

Susan Karsten

It’s been years since I read those books, even thought Pride & Prejudice is on my all-tome favorites list. I have to say that the patience, virtue and purity exemplified by Elizabeth Bennet makes her my favorite Austen character.

Naomi Rawlings

Well, my absolute favorite character has to be Elizabeth. I love a woman who can face a man that’s supposedly her superior and treat him as an equal instead. However another character I love is Elizabeth’s mother. Well, I don’t actually love Mrs. Bennet; it’s more of a love-to-hate relationship. That woman is so obnoxious she makes me squirm in horror at times, yet she embodies the ambition of every well-intentioned, marriage-minded mother who’s ever lived. Her scheming adds a wonderful layer suchto the story. Jane Austen did a great job when she created Mrs. Bennet, however horrifyingly obnoxious the she might seem at times.

Kristi Ann Hunter

So hard to choose. The cast is built in such a way that they all add richness and depth to the story. It would lose something were any of them to disappear. While I love Elizabeth – it’s hard to like the book if you don’t! – I really like Darcy. While I’d like to think I’m more, um, personable than he is, I identify with the awkwardness and strong opinions being misinterpreted and having to patch things up once those opinions change.

Who is your favorite character? Wednesday we’ll be taking a closer look at the men of Pride and Prejudice. Friday will be the Ladies’ turn.

This week we’re giving away a lovely copy of Pride and Prejudice. The book is hard cover with a ribbon book mark. The pages are rough cut to simulate the cut edges an original print would have had after binding. All comments on this week’s posts will be entered in the drawing. Must have a United States mailing address in order to win. Winner will be announced August 19, 2013.

Originally posted 2013-08-12 10:00:00.