GARTERS at WEDDINGS

There was formerly a custom in the North of England which will be thought to have bordered very closely upon Indecency, and strongly marks the grossness of Manners that prevailed among our Ancestors: it was for the young men present at a Wedding to strive immediately after the Ceremony, who could first pluck off the Bride’s Garters from her legs.

This was done before the very Altar. The Bride was generally gartered with Ribbons for the occasion. Whoever were so fortunate as to be Victors in this singular species of Contest, during which the Bride was often obliged to scream out, and was very frequently thrown down, bore them about the Church in triumph. These Garters, it should seem, were antiently worn as Trophies in the Hats.

-Observations on popular antiquities:
chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar customs, ceremonies and superstitions, Volume 2, by Geeraert Brandt & Henry Ellis

Nice!
And if this author considers his ancestors’ manners gross, do you think he’s turning over in his grave now?

So it meant research. And it meant thinking about the characters from A HINT OF WICKED, A TOUCH OF SCANDAL, and A SEASON OF SEDUCTION and thinking about how they would think of seduction. Ultimately, I was able to find enough seduction tips for the 12 days prior to the release of A SEASON OF SEDUCTION, as well as a few more, besides! Some of it is common sense (and I realize I’ve been doing it all along with my husband, blush!) and some of it was brand new for me, but here are the 12 days of seduction:

Do you have any seduction tips of your own to share? Post one here, and I’ll be giving away a copy of A SEASON OF SEDUCTION, plus an extra seductive bonus from Slumber Parties: Body Dew Strawberry Champagne After Bath Oil to one poster on October 10!

Enjoy…here’s wishing for lots of love and wonderful holidays for all of us!

(Oh, and P.S., don’t forget to check out my contest and freebies pages for even more goodies!)

-From the London Magazine, Vol VII, 1827

Yellow?!?!?! Really?! I mean, I know old, ugly woman jokes are in existence even now, but still…sigh.

Light blue embroidered gloves:

some young men have appeared at balls with blue dress gloves embroidered with white…

and silk cloaks:

…cloaks of the gentlemen lined with plush silk of celestial blue…

and hankies with embroidered corners:

…at balls our young exquisites sport pocket handkerchiefs of fine lawn with a hem as broad as their thumbs the corners only are embroidered.

and flowery shoes:

…shoes tied with a small rosette.

and stylishly curled coiffures:

…a young gentleman now suffers his hair to grow has it curled and parted on the left side of the forehead.

(these examples are all from The Mirror of literature, amusement, and instruction, Volume 13 By Reuben Percy, John Timbs, 1829)

Worst of all, corsets were in style for men. Here’s a caricature of the styles for 1827. Look how tightly those poor men are cinched up! (Also look at the poor ladies’ hats–but that’s a whole ‘nother post!)

© Bodleian Library, University of Oxford: John Johnson Collection

I suppose the Gentleman’s Magazine of Fashion (1827) said it best:

…they say that a tall, thin man with his waist pinched in, and if he is withal very full, looks like grasshopper in an asthma.

Sigh. Maybe I should stop researching and go directly to the Pride and Prejudice movies. Of course, these movies represented a time several years earlier than the settings of my books… Nevertheless, with some variations the basic idea is there: shirts, cravats, tailcoats…

So I’ll just think of Mr. Darcy.

Better yet, Mr. Darcy just after a swim…

CARRIAGE DRESS: A pelisse of rich gros de Naples of a beautiful stone colour with a deep border of the same on the bias headed by narrow vandykes.
-From the Lady’s Monthly Museum, Vol. 26

Hmm…it takes some sleuthing, but I can ultimately figure it out. The above is the beginning of the description of the carriage dress shown here on the left.

I might just put Lady Rebecca in this dress at some point in A SEASON OF SEDUCTION… Though I really love the evening dress on the right…sigh. I wonder how it would be received at my husband’s company Christmas party if I wore it…

On Thursday, I’m going to be talking about my continuing challenge to find interesting (and masculine!) variations in men’s fashions of the time!

He goes on to recommend not eating fruit at breakfast (you might feel “heavyish” all day!) and eggs–yuck! He doesn’t want to have pullet-sperm in his stomach all day!

But cold pig’s face? YUM!!! (He recommends eating it with French mustard and shallot vinegar.)

Okay, I’ve got to get back to my revisions. Just had to share. LOL.

(this is from “The Maxims of Sir Morgan O’Doherty, Bart.”, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol 16, 1824)

I’ve been doing a lot of research and learning a lot about the medicine of the time (remember, pus is a good thing! They wanted to see lots of nice, healthy pus! LOL!). Once I have a moment, I can’t wait to post some of the other wild and crazy stuff I’m reading on the blog!

Until then, wish me luck. Must…finish…book……….

London persons breakfast at nine, ten, eleven, and even twelve o’clock and dine at eight or nine. Between these meals comes the luncheon composed generally of cold meats such as pates, fowls, pheasants, partridges, ham, beef, veal, brawn, and generally whatever is left fit to be introduced, part of which is to be placed on a side table. On the table is to be served a little hashed fowl and some mutton cutlets broiled plainly with mashed potatoes. The repast itself is insignificant…

Insignificant? LOL! I love it…

But, you see, real men don’t eat lunch! The true purpose of lunch is to give the ladies something to eat so that they’re not so hungry at dinner they make piggies of themselves:

[Luncheon] is only taken by certain young ladies who wish to preserve the elegance of their figures, the beauty of their complexions, and above all the becoming manners of good society which interdict as vulgar eating at table like gluttons. For unless frequent meals are taken too much must be eaten at once.

So there you go. Lunch was invented so ladies could pretend to eat like birds and hence carry forth the image of being elegant and beautiful (basically, so that nobody would see them truly eat with a healthy appetite…).

Sigh.

FROM: THE FRENCH COOK, A SYSTEM OF FASHIONABLE AND ECONOMICAL COOKERY ADAPTED TO THE USE OF ENGLISH FAMILIES By Louis Eustache Ude, 1829

Matilda is a fine woman of good breeding, great sense, and much religion. She has three daughters that are educated by herself. She will not trust them with any one else.

Gee, so far Matilda sounds like the kind of mom I am. So I read on:

Matilda never was meanly dressed in her life; and nothing pleases her in dress but that which is very rich and beautiful to the eye.

Okay, I’ll admit to being attracted to nice clothes. In fact, just today I bought my daughter a very cute outfit at Gap Kids…

I continue reading on:

She stints them in their meals and is very scrupulous of what they eat and drink and tells them how many fine shapes she has seen spoiled in her time for want of such care. If a pimple rises in their faces she is in a great fright and they themselves are as afraid to see her with it as if they had committed some great sin.

Oh dear! My kids aren’t at pimple age yet, but I sure hope if they ever get pimples, I’ll not blame *them* for it! Now I’m beginning to worry about this Matilda…

It goes on to say that if the girls begin to look flushed, she calls in a doctor to keep their complexion from becoming too “coarse and ruddy.”

Uh. Okay.

By this means they are poor, pale, sickly, infirm creatures vapoured through want of spirits, crying at the smallest accidents, swooning away at anything that frights them, and hardly able to bear the weight of their best clothes.

This is seriously beginning to depress me. And then I read this:

The eldest daughter lived as long as she could under this discipline and died in the twentieth year of her age. When her body was opened it appeared that her ribs had grown into her liver and that her other entrails were much hurt by being crushed together with her stays which her mother had ordered to be twitched so strait that it often brought tears into her eyes whilst the maid was dressing her.

Wow. Just wow.

From A serious call to a devout and holy life: adapted to the state and condition
by William Law – Religion – 1821 – 346 pages

The good colonel spends some time extolling the virtues of women, but then turns to their more despicable qualities. Then he says he’s set up some “rules and regulations” for women that he intends to get passed as an act of parliament. For women who break these rules, he suggests a “female court martial” made up of “gentlewomen of tried candour.”

What are the proposed rules, you ask? Well, here they are. I have to chuckle when I relate this to the writing community/blogs/etc. Most of us would be in big trouble!

ARTICLE 1st:

RULE: All ladies must diligently attend holy services.

PUNISHMENT: If a lady goes to church and behaves improperly, if married, she will be brought before the court martial to be “publicly and severely reprimanded.” If she’s not married, she must forfeit twelve pence.

ARTICLE 2nd:

RULE: Ladies must never speak in a disrespectful manner towards their superiors.

PUNISHMENT: Any lady to use “treacherous or disrespectful” words against her superior in rank or reputation must be rejected by her own society and “put to the bottom of the list.”

ARTICLE 3rd:

RULE: A lady can’t be mean to anyone who’s prettier or more accomplished than her, and she can’t hurt their feelings or dishonor them.

PUNISHMENT: “Any married unmarried or widow lady who shall behave herself contemptuously or spitefully towards her superior in beauty or accomplishment or shall speak words tending to her hurt or dishonour shall be punished accordingto the nature of her offence by the judgment of a female court martial.”

(Yep, I hurt your feelings, so I must PAY!!!!)

ARTICLE 4th:

RULE: No lady can cause or join in any scandal.

PUNISHMENT: If a lady is found guilty, she must “suffer silence, or such other punishment as by a female court martial shall be awarded.”

(Yeah, “silence” was italicized. What is “silence,” I wonder? She’s not allowed to talk at all?)

ARTICLE 5th:

RULE: Any lady present at a scandal must immediately “impart the information to her husband, father, brother, or other commanding officer.”

PUNISHMENT: Those who break this rule shall suffer the same punishment as article 4th.

(‘Cause, you know, the guys MUST know all the gossip, too….)

Here is the lecture (from Ackerman’s Repository) in full from Google books:


Sometimes, we’ve just got to appreciate the fact that we don’t live in the 19th century!

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