First Installation: A-B-C
A
abbey - an abbey is a monastery ruled by an abbot or a convent
ruled by an abbess. When an English property has “Abbey”
in its name, (as in Lord Byron’s home, Newstead Abbey) it
means that there used to be an abbey there in medieval times. When
Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church, he confiscated most
of the abbeys, evicted the monks and nuns, and gave the land to
his top supporters. This historical event was known as “The
Dissolution of the Abbeys.” Some of the new owners knocked
down the structures and built on them anew, but others converted
the abbeys into private homes, but the word oftentimes remains in
the name.
abigail - another term for a lady’s maid.
accomplishments - in keeping with the ornamental status of
upper class women, an “accomplished” young lady was
expected to have cultivated talents such as playing the pianoforte,
painting watercolors, speaking French, fancy sewing, etc.
accoucheur - an obstetrician. These were male physicians,
and it was considered more prestigious to have an accoucheur attend
one’s childbirth rather than the traditional midwife. Accoucheurs
were the first to use forceps to extract babies from the womb.
Adams style - Robert Adams, along with his slightly less
influential brother, James, were late-Georgian architects better
known as innovators in interior design. Though they had both died
by 1794, they had spread their influence far and wide. The Adams
style is light, delicate, graceful, and airy—a toned-down
rococo. According to John Morley in Regency Style (Abrams, 1993)
the Adams brothers prided themselves on having brought back a sense
of “movement” into the frozen grandeur of Palladianism,
and increasing the variety of room shapes (such as octagonal rooms).
(p. 106)
Almack's - assembly rooms in King Street, London, where
the most exclusive private subscription balls of the ton were held
each Wednesday night of the Season. To be found worthy of the privilege
of buying a subscription to the Wednesday night balls, (a ticket
known as a “voucher”) you had to be personally known
to one of the seven powerful Society hostesses who organized it.
These ladies were the so-called Patronesses of Almack’s, and
fashionable society lived in fear of getting on the bad side of
any of them. Only the creme de la creme of Society were permitted
to come.
ape-leade - derogatory term for an unmarried woman. Her
“failure” to produce children was thought to result
in the punishment after death of leading apes around in Hell.
apoplexy or apoplectic fit - a stroke.
apothecary - health practitioner who specialized in herbal
(and often quack) remedies.
Ascot - England’s most prestigious horse-racing track.
assembly rooms – ballrooms that could be rented for private
gatherings or subscriptions balls.
B
bam - to fool or trick someone.
Banbury story - you could bam someone by telling them a Banbury
story, an unbelievable tall tale. The English equivalent of “blarney.”
Otherwise known as a cock-and-bull tale.
banns - public announcement in church of a proposed marriage.
The banns were supposed to be read aloud during church for three
Sundays in a row in the parish/parishes where the engaged people
lived, so that anyone who might know a reason why they should not
be wed could come forward.
barouche - a fancy carriage with a folding hood that seated
four. Two, four, or six horses could be used to pull it. Like a
convertible today, the hood could be put down for the passengers
to enjoy nice weather. It was an elegant but not a particularly
manly carriage.
Bath - city in the western county of Somerset, England, which
became wildly popular in the mid-1700's for the healing properties
of its natural hot springs and mineral waters. (Thus the name!)
Given the craze for classical antiquity, the archeological discovery
of an ancient Roman bath in the center of the city kicked off a
huge fad for going to Bath “to take the waters.” Supervised
by medical experts, people went there hoping to be cured of everything
from gout to infertility. As England’s first true planned
city established during an architectural golden age, Bath is a World
Heritage site and a must-see destination for tourists today! The
city and its genteel social life are featured in many of Jane Austen’s
novels. By the Regency, it had lost popularity among the younger
set due to the rise of Brighton on the southern coast. Instead of
taking the spa waters, the hot new health craze that replaced it
was sea-bathing. Bath came to be associated with sickly, elderly
people.
beaver hat - black top hat, made of beaver-skin because it
was waterproof.
blue ruin - gin. (It had reputation similar to street drugs
like crack in today’s world.)
bluestocking - an educated female with opinions on intellectual
matters with which demure young ladies were not supposed to worry
their pretty heads!
blunt - slang term for money.
Boney - Napoleon Bonaparte.
bottom - courage, pluck.
Bow Street - location of the justice offices where the London
detectives known as the Bow Street Runners were based.
Brighton - seaside town about forty-five miles away from
London, where people went to improve their health in the craze for
sea-bathing—and to party! Brighton had a festive reputation,
which was why it loved Prinny and Prinny loved it. It was here in
his favorite getaway spot that he built his fantastic Pavilion.
Brighton was annually the next stop on the social whirl for high
society following the Season in London.
Brooke's - top gentlemen’s club of the Whigs
in St. James’s Street, London.
butler - more than merely answered doors, the butler was
responsible for directing the male portion of the indoor household
staff (except those under direct authority of the male chef, if
the house had one). The butler had extensive duties, including overseeing
the correct service of meals, protecting the (pure silver) silverware
from thieves, and being in charge of household security.
C
cabriolet - a light, two-wheeled
carriage for one horse. It seated two, was usually driven by the
gentleman himself, and had a folding leather hood. There was a perch
in the back for the “tiger.”
canals - before trains, cargo was moved through England on
narrow-boats that traversed quaint man-made canals. A vast network
of canals crisscrossed England. (This was a common mode of transportation
in Europe and America, too.) The narrow-boat would be hitched by
ropes to a horse that walked alongside the canal on the “tow-path.”
An attendant would walk the horse up the path while the animal towed
the narrow-boat quietly along the canal. Many investors made great
fortunes building canals during the Regency, but the trains soon
made them obsolete. Today many narrow-boats have been turned into
passenger vessels and offer tourists a relaxing way to view the
English countryside.
cavaliere serviente - literally, “servant knight.”
There came from a tradition dating back to medieval times, when
a gallant young knight might dedicate himself to a married woman
in supposedly chaste idolatry. He would serve as her escort when
her usually powerful husband was too busy to bother with her. In
the Georgian era, when arranged marriages based on power and property
abounded, too much fraternization between husbands and wives was
considered vulgar, unsophisticated. Adultery was something of a
national sport among the upper classes. The lords had their mistresses
and ladies had their cavalieres servientes. Supposedly, these attachments
were as chaste as their medieval counterparts. I’m sure the
husbands liked to think so. As long as the wife had produced the
heir and the spare, and was reasonably discreet, usually no one
complained. (Marriage based on love was a dangerous new-fangled
idea in the Regency!)
chaperon - a respectable female in charge of an unmarried
young lady in public, especially responsible for making sure she
behaves herself around the opposite sex.
cheroot or cigarillo - a small, thin cigar. Smoking was not
as popular as the use of snuff. Most Englishmen who smoked picked
up the habit in Spain while fighting the Peninsular War.
chinoiserie - decoration “in the Chinese style.”
You could have chinoiserie furniture or wall-paper, for instance,
with an exotic bird or bamboo motif. Plates depicting Chinese scenes
and figurines of Chinese people were also wildly popular. People
also built miniature “pagodas” as garden follies. Of
course, the port of Canton was closed to foreigners at this time,
so the designers using these patterns knew almost nothing about
China. As a result, most chinoiserie bears no resemblance to real
Chinese people or culture, but having some around made you look
sophisticated and fashionable. (Regency people were crazy about
all sorts of exotic lands and cultures.)
chocolate - usually refers to the drink, hot chocolate, though
cocoa was also used in desserts. Awful to imagine, but chocolate
bars/candy had not yet been invented!
clerk or “clark” – a male secretary.
coach - a large, sturdy, four-wheeled closed carriage pulled
by four to six horses. It seated four, and might have the family’s
coat of arms painted on the door. The coach was driven by the coachman
who sat on the elevated, exterior “driver’s box”
at the front of the vehicle, perhaps with a groom by his side and
a pair of liveried footmen stationed in the back.
coaching inn - a hotel/pub/restaurant posted along major
roadways that serviced the stagecoaches. All those hungry travelers
had to sleep somewhere! At a coaching inn, you could have a meal,
rent fresh horses for the next leg of your journey, or stay overnight.
coffee houses - though tea may be the quintessential British
beverage, coffee preceded it in popularity by several decades and
later became eclipsed by it.
coffeehouses - from the 1700's, men went to their Regency
Starbucks to drink coffee, read the newspapers, and enter into lively
debates over things like art and politics. Also served food.
confinement - in the latter stages of pregnancy, women withdrew
from the social scene, entering, as it was discreetly called, their
“confinement.”
console table - a table designed to fit against a wall, sometimes
anchored into the wall.
corn - refers to all the major cereal crops produced in England,
such as wheat, rye, oats, and barley, but NOT corn-on-the-cob, which
was known as maize.
corset - the French (and therefore “fancier” term)
for “stays,” a body-shaping garment for women intended
to hold in the waist and lift the bosom, tightened by laces in the
back.
costermonger - street vendor of fruits and vegetables.
country house - mansion in the countryside. The more ostentatious
you could make it, the bigger the status symbol. Country houses
are associated with huge landscape gardens.
country house party - guests would be invited to stay for
weeks at a time. A favorite venue for eligible bachelors and bachelorettes
to get to know each other, with the proper chaperonage, of course!
Covent Garden - an Italian-style piazza built in the early
1600's by Inigo Jones, overlooked by a church, Covent Garden offered
fashionable housing to the rich for a while, but when they moved
away, drifting towards Mayfair, it became the main fruit and vegetable
market of London by day; at night it became what we’d call
a “red light district,” the most reliable place to pick
up prostitutes. Today it is part of London’s theatre district.
cravat - gentleman’s neckcloth, the correct starching
and tying of which was crucial to the wearer’s fashionable
appearance.
crim-con - when adultery had taken place, the wronged husband
could sue the man who had seduced his wife for in a civil (not criminal)
suit, and could be awarded financial damages. The legal term for
the charges that would be brought against the seducer were “criminal
conversation.” For rakes and roues of the Regency, “crim-con”
charges were a real danger!
curricle - two-wheeled carriage for two horses. Seat in back
for the tiger or groom. Like the cabriolet (which came a few years
after the curricle) it was an expensive gentleman’s toy, like
the modern sports-car.
cut - a social snub. To look straight at someone and then
coldly look away without acknowledging him or her was considered
giving that person “the cut direct.”
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