Kristi here, wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day from Regency Reflections!

It is all too easy to write off Valentine’s Day as a “Hallmark Holiday” filled with flowers, chocolate, and unrelenting torment for single people, but the truth of Valentine’s Day is so much more than those cheesy trappings.

Check out some of these Reflections postings about Valentine’s Day, then reach out and tell the people closest to you that you love them, whether friend, family, or someone hovering somewhere in between.

Reflections on Valentine’s Day  ~ Valentine’s Day trappings from the Regency period including the lost art of the language of flowers.

Be My Valentine: The Art of the Handmade Card ~ Exchanging cards on Valentine’s Day existed long before elementary school kids stuck construction paper hearts on shoeboxes. Before the printed cards of the Victorian era, though, they had to be made by hand.

Love VS Love ~ A devotional look at the various meanings and usages of the word love. Tired of the cupids and roses? Take the time to remember and celebrate the love of friends, family, and our Savior.

And if you’re like me and enjoy the trite trappings and over-romanticism of Valentine’s Day, what better way to celebrate than with a fabulously romantic story. We’ve got you covered there, too. You can check out our serial story, A Suitable Match, or the first of our third year short stories, Saving Miss Caulfield. In the mood for something a bit longer? Read the latest from one of our recently highlighted authors, Jennifer Hudson Taylor or Julie Klassen, or one of the many books available from our Regency Reflections authors or our Recommended Reading posts.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Originally posted 2014-02-14 10:00:00.

Laurie Alice here,

Since this is January, I wanted to write something that happened in that month during the Regency. Although I know many things did, I ran across something I could not resist writing about, though it takes place twenty-two years earlier than the Regency that has given rise t so many novels and films.

In 1788, George III’s illness manifested itself so severely, many believed he would not recover. Pitt the Younger, prime minister at the time, considered a Regency for the simple fact that it was that or lose his power. Charles Fox, after all, was firmly in the Prince of Wales’ camp and had too great a shot to gain power and depose Pitt without a Regency bill.

Yes, politics has always been about power.

So, during January of 1789,  Pitt set a Regency bill into motion and it was passed by the House of Commons. This bill kept the Prince of Wales under firm control of Parliament with such provisions as how the Prince must keep the King’s present government and he could not manage the king’s real or personal estate without Parliamentary approval. In short, Prinny would be nothing more than a figurehead monarch.

Precedent for the future?

The bill never reached the House of Lords, for the King

recovered by March, but the seeds were planted for the all-important Regency era that made it’s debut in 1811.

For a little extra, here is a poem about the almost Regency, written by Robert Burns, that great Scottish poet whose birthday is celebrated on January 24.

Ode to the departed Regency bill 1789

Daughter of Chaos’ doting years,

Nurse of ten thousand hopes and fears;

Whether thy airy, insubstantial shade

(The rights of sepulture now duly paid)

Spread abroad its hideous form

On the roaring Civil Storm,

Deafening din and warring rage

Factions wild with factions wage;

Or underground, deep-sunk, profound,

Among the demons of the earth,

With groans that make the mountains shake, Thou mourn thy ill-starr’d, blighted birth; Or in the uncreated Void, Where seeds of future-being fight, With lightened step thou wander wide, To greet thy Mother – Ancient Night, And as each jarring, monster mass is past, Fond recollect what once thou wast:

In manner due, beneath this sacred oak,

Hear, Spirit hear! thy presence I invoke!

By a Monarch’s heaven-struck fate!

By a disunited State!

By a generous Prince’s wrongs!

By a Senate’s strife of tongues!

By a Premier’s sullen pride,

Louring on the changing tide!

By dread Thurlow’s powers to awe,

Rhetoric, blasphemy and law!

By the turbulent ocean,

A Nation’s commotion!

By the harlot-caresses

Of borough addresses!

By days few and evil!

Thy portion, poor devil!

By Power, Wealth, Show! The gods by men adored!

By nameless Poverty! their hell abhorred!

By all they hope! By all they fear!

Hear!!! And appear!!!

Stare not on me, thou ghastly Power;

Nor grim with chained defiance lour:

No Babel-structure would I build

Where, Order exiled from his native sway, Confusion may the regent-sceptre wield, While all would rule and none obey:

Go, to the world of Man relate

The story of thy sad, eventful fate;

And call Presumptuous Hope to hear,

And bid him check his blind career;

And tell the sore-prest Sons of Care,

Never, never to despair.

 

Paint Charles’s speed on wings of fire,

The object of his fond desire,

Beyond his boldest hopes, at hand:

Paint all the triumph of the Portland Band:

Mark how they lift the joy-exulting voice; And how their numerous Creditors rejoice:

But just as hopes to warm enjoyment rise, Cry, Convalescence! and the vision flies.

Then next pourtray a darkening twilight gloom Eclipsing, sad, a gay, rejoicing morn, While proud Ambition to th’ untimely tomb By gnashing, grim, despairing fiends is borne:

Paint ruin, in the shape of high Dundas

Gaping with giddy terror o’er the brow;

In vain he struggles, the Fates behind him press, And clamorous hell yawns for her prey below:

How fallen That, whose pride late scaled the skies!

And This, like Lucifer, no more to rise!

Again pronounce the powerful word;

See Day, triumphant from the night, restored.

Then know this truth, ye Sons of Men!

(Thus ends thy moral tale,)

Your darkest terrors may be vain,

Your brightest hopes may fail.

Originally posted 2014-01-16 10:00:00.

Vanessa here,

Happy New Year everyone.

We here at Regency Reflections wishes each of you a safe and happy 2014.  I’m very proud of my colleagues. We’ve got some exciting Regency books releasing this year. New projects to crow about, but I thought today, I’d let you in on a secret, but don’t tell anyone.

Some of our authors are multi-talented.

Naomi Rawlings has her second book coming out, The Wyoming Heir. Since its by Naomi, their must be memorable kisses: The Wyoming Heir:

Given a choice, Luke Hayes wouldn’t ever leave his Wyoming ranch. Yet when his estranged grandfather dies, leaving him everything, he’ll travel to Valley Falls, New York—but only to collect his sister and his inheritance. He won’t be roped into saving a floundering girls’ school, no matter what mathematics teacher Elizabeth Wells says.

Elizabeth has defied social convention and her own family for the sake of her beloved Hayes Academy. Luke is pure rancher, from the tip of his Stetson to the scuff on his boots, yet he’s also becoming her unlikely ally. Only he can help save her job and school…but how much will she lose when the time comes for him to leave?

For more information about Naomi and her novels, visit her website at www.NaomiRawlings.com.

Now, its not a Regency, so don’t tell anyone you learned about it from me.

Laurie Alice Eakes, has her twenty-first, or hundredth book coming out. She writes so many I’ve lost track.  The Professor’s Heart:

Originally posted 2014-01-06 15:07:10.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and readers in the United States!

Kristi here. Thanksgiving is not a traditional holiday in England, but being thankful for a bountiful harvest is hardly a new concept.

From medieval days, harvesters celebrated Lammas Day on August 1 where they brought loaves of bread made from the first harvested wheat were brought to the church. This was called the Loaf Mass, though some writings indicate that prior to offering loaves, parishioners offered lambs, making it a lamb mass and giving it the name.

When Henry VIII broke from the Catholic church, the celebration shifted to the end of the harvest, marking the successful completion of the gathering.

Some aspects of the harvest festivals include the tradition of the corn dolly, a large feast, and a sort of mini-parade with the horse pulling the final load of crops being decorated with garlands and flowers.

Harvest festivals were frequently held at the time of the Harvest moon. Occasionally this put the festival in October, but more frequently it landed in September, in close proximity to the mop fairs.

Churches were no longer a large part of the festival in Regency days, though by 1850 they were once more integral to the celebration. The connection with the church continues today, though it frequently includes a focus on those less fortunate and suffering from hunger and famine.

Whether you are feasting with family today or just grabbing a ham and turkey sandwich on your way home from work, take the time to be thankful.

Have a wonderful day.

Originally posted 2013-11-28 10:00:00.