Good Morning My Friends,
I trust your accommodations last night were agreeable. Without much ado, let us begin our 1st day of experiencing 19th century England. First we will partake in a traditional English breakfast.
During Jane Austen's era you'll begin to notice that economic status of each individual played a big role in everything a person would do, from relationships all the way down to the very hour a person would rise in the morning would depend on their income! In a typical manor home, servants would be the first to rise every morning to prepare breakfast, heat water, milk cows, sweep, etc.; Gentlemen would be the next to arise in the morning and would carryout their buisness, like letter writing and town visiting; The higher up the social class the later you tended to sleep in the morning. Sometimes 1pm in the afternoon was considered morning still! Since we have lots of things to do today I have not allowed us the luxury of sleeping in that late. Now on to breakfast. The morning meal, among all social classes, was usually taken at 9am and prepared buffet style. For a middle class family tea and biscuits were commonly found at the breakfast table, but it wasn't unusual to have bacon, eggs, porridge, or even chocolate for breakfast! Imagine a society where it was socially acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast!!! Well, the chocolate that they ate back then was probably not the sweet, sugar-laden chocolate morsels of today. It was probably a very dark chocolate that had little to no sweetener and since chocolate was hard to come by, it was probably only seen at a very rich families morning table. So today we shall be partaking in a simple breakfast of tea with biscuits and jam. Then as soon as we have finish we'll move on to the next course. If your not quite satisfied yet with breakfast you can fill up on some more "good eats" by visiting these two links( http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/breakfast-in-the-regency-era-and-their-definition-of-morning/ and http://www.georgianindex.net/breakfast/breakfast.html), but for those of us who are full and ready to move on, let's keep going. (the others will catch up with us later)
Once breakfast was completed the servants would typically clean up the dishes, and depending on what the dinner would be, they may have already started preparations for the evening meal. But for the family they could be found reading. walking, ridding horses, writing a letter, going into town, or carrying out business of the day. Lunch was never really a significant meal and usually consisted of a quick snack because tea would be served not too long afterwards, which in my opinion, is a much more exciting meal! So we will just skim quickly over lunch and right into tea time.
Tea time was, and still, is a very important part of English society (which is why I want to spend most of our time on it). Tea is what makes England tick, it's always been a big part of English history. So around 4 o'clock everyday, you'll find society taking a moment to enjoy a good cup of tea. There are two kinds of tea times that can be served, either high tea or low tea. I know it doesn't sound very original but you'll see why they are named such in just a moment. Low Tea was the typical 4 o'clock tea time which was usually just tea served with a few simple dessert like items. High tea on the other hand was a much more regal event. It would usually combine afternoon tea and dinner together and it was usually only served when company was visiting. During this type of tea one would find dainty finger foods like cucumber sandwiches, small petit fours, or biscuits and jam. Both high tea and low tea, also called afternoon tea, could either be taken in the home or weather permitting in the garden. For more info on tea time you can go to these links http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/HighTeaHistory.htm. or http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/information/history-of-afternoon-tea/
or if you want to see a timeline of tea in England check out this link
http://www.foodtimeline.org/teatime.html
So you are now very well educated on 19th Century English food and drink and have enjoyed quite a few treats let us conclude today by taking a stroll in the garden and then retiring to our rooms for night. Sleep well my friends, I bid you adieu.
Your Loyal and Friendly Guide,
Georgiana Pemberton
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Friday, February 21, 2014
Welcome to the Adventure!
Good Morning my friends,
Welcome! My blog is about to take you on the most exciting adventure you've ever experienced, So get ready to fasten your seat belts, or bonnets in this case, for the most exciting journey to date!
Where are we going, you may ask?
Would you be so kind as to step into my time machine.....
I am setting the date...
...1800....
now I am imputing the place....
....London, England.....
....and TAKE US THERE!!!!!!!
(Strange mechanical sounds then a whirring noise. Everything goes black for a few seconds and then....)
...VOILA!...
We've arrived at our destination!.... How do I know this?......Well....
Take a moment to catch your breath. That's right breath deeply in and slowly breath out. Now I want you to look around you. I am sure you will be familiar with the trees and cobblestone streets of England thus far, but I want you to take a closer look and tell me what you don't see.
....Yes! That is exactly right! You see absolutely no cars, cell phones, people wearing jeans or any modern technology what-so-ever! In fact, you see buggies, women in long gowns, men in tall hats, and you hear the clip-clop of horses' hove's walking on the streets as they pass you by. Now before you get too carried away, I want you to take look at your own clothes for a moment...
I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of programming my machine to dress you all in period attire and I took it upon myself to collect all your phones and modern accessories before we left my laboratory just moments ago. Don't worry, when we return home everything will be returned back to your person and all will be as it was, but for now we have no use for those things so let us continue on. The other observation you will notice is that I have given you all a small purse containing all of the essentials that you will need during our journey. Go ahead and take a moment to open it up and see what is inside. It should contain the following items:
... Gloves....
.... A Handkerchief...
.... A Journal....
...... Ink and a quill pen...
..... A letter from Me, that you will have a chance to read later....
....A Bonnet.....
......and a Pound...(which is about roughly equal to 80 US dollars in today's economy, I get this number from http://www.uwyo.edu/numimage/currency.htm by imputting 1800 to 2014 conversion) If you want to find out more about 19th Century English currency visit this link: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Coinage.jsp#coinage.
That should be all that you will need for this stretch, but I have also left room in your handbags for items that we will acquire along the way. Let us continue on our journey.
Before we plunge too deeply into this era we must first carefully immerse ourselves into character. I have done the exterior look by giving you clothes and items appropriate for this period, but I have left the interior of your character entirely up to you. You must leave your modern lives behind and recreate for yourselves a convincing Victorian back-round. I will of course help you along as you build your 19th century English person, but most of the choice work will be upon you. Now let us begin.
...A good first name.. most of us do not have names that were commonly used in the Jane Austen era so we must change them to be more alike. You have several choices for this.
1. You keep your name by using a variation used back in that century.(this could take some time on your part, depending on the given name you have.)
2. You can chose from a list of names I have for that period.
Use this link here: Jane Austen Period Names, I recommend this choice the most, for time's sake.
3. Or you can completely go off on your own and research a name you want to use, but it MUST be from the 19th Century English time period.
..... I'll give you a few moments while you create your first name.....
....you have one?....
....Splendid!.....
Now for a good last name...You have the same choices really for the last name as you did for the first, but I am also going to provide you a link for English surnames, the list is quite extensive: List of English Surnames. However you can also use the boys names in the link I gave you for the first names to help you decide on a last as well.
So, you now look like an Austen character, you are named like a Austen character, let's prove your are indeed a true Austen Character with a back-round story of your character's life. Now the most important thing in that time period was how much money you made. It was what determined your place in society. Most of Jane Austen's main characters were quite well off. Take Mr Darcy and his earnings of 10,000 per anum, which in today's currency had him making well past a millon per year. Making him a very desirable match for anyone, much less any of the Bennet sisters who had really no inheritance at all. But non-the-less the Bennet sisters were fairly well off due to their father's nothing-to-sneeze-at-income of 2,000 pounds per anum.
Since we are a group of young individuals going on an adventure let us come to the agreement that all of our characters are fairly well off making about 1,000 pounds a year, that's about $80,000 per year in today's currency. Now let us decide where our characters homes are located. I Georgiana Pemberton of Cambridge am from Wimpole Estate. I live there with my Uncle the Earl of Hardwicke and my dear Aunt Elizabeth, the Mistress of Wimpole. They are very kind to me and I have lived there since I was one and twenty (21 years old).
Now you are probably wondering how I created such a fantasy. And believe it or not, much of it is not fantasy, except for the insertion of my character into history.
1. Simply follow this link first http://www.jasna.org/info/maps.html and it will take you to all the places Jane Austen used for her books, you can choose a real place or one Jane Austen made up in one of her novels.
2. Once you have decided on a place for your character to live, simply follow this link http://www.britainsfinest.co.uk/historichouses/search_results.cfm/searchtown/Cambridge/searchclasscode/25 and type in the city you've chosen for your character to find historical homes for them to live in (This step will not work if you have chosen an imaginary location, in that case just chose a home from Jane Austen's novels.
3. After I searched under Cambridge I found Wimpole Estate and just did a little more research to find out which resident was living there in 1800 and there you have it! A perfectly convincing back-round!
Congratulations! You've done a capital job of creating your character and now it is time for us to end our first day here in 19th century England. We shall have tea and retire to our bed and breakfast for the night. You may freely write about your new character on the first page of your journal so that you shan't forget who you are as we continue our travels through England. We'll reconvene at dawn, but until then good morrow to you all.
Your Loyal and Friendly Guide,
Georgiana Pemberton
Welcome! My blog is about to take you on the most exciting adventure you've ever experienced, So get ready to fasten your seat belts, or bonnets in this case, for the most exciting journey to date!
Where are we going, you may ask?
Would you be so kind as to step into my time machine.....
I am setting the date...
...1800....
now I am imputing the place....
....London, England.....
....and TAKE US THERE!!!!!!!
(Strange mechanical sounds then a whirring noise. Everything goes black for a few seconds and then....)
...VOILA!...
We've arrived at our destination!.... How do I know this?......Well....
Take a moment to catch your breath. That's right breath deeply in and slowly breath out. Now I want you to look around you. I am sure you will be familiar with the trees and cobblestone streets of England thus far, but I want you to take a closer look and tell me what you don't see.
....Yes! That is exactly right! You see absolutely no cars, cell phones, people wearing jeans or any modern technology what-so-ever! In fact, you see buggies, women in long gowns, men in tall hats, and you hear the clip-clop of horses' hove's walking on the streets as they pass you by. Now before you get too carried away, I want you to take look at your own clothes for a moment...
I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of programming my machine to dress you all in period attire and I took it upon myself to collect all your phones and modern accessories before we left my laboratory just moments ago. Don't worry, when we return home everything will be returned back to your person and all will be as it was, but for now we have no use for those things so let us continue on. The other observation you will notice is that I have given you all a small purse containing all of the essentials that you will need during our journey. Go ahead and take a moment to open it up and see what is inside. It should contain the following items:
... Gloves....
.... A Handkerchief...
.... A Journal....
...... Ink and a quill pen...
..... A letter from Me, that you will have a chance to read later....
....A Bonnet.....
......and a Pound...(which is about roughly equal to 80 US dollars in today's economy, I get this number from http://www.uwyo.edu/numimage/currency.htm by imputting 1800 to 2014 conversion) If you want to find out more about 19th Century English currency visit this link: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Coinage.jsp#coinage.
That should be all that you will need for this stretch, but I have also left room in your handbags for items that we will acquire along the way. Let us continue on our journey.
Before we plunge too deeply into this era we must first carefully immerse ourselves into character. I have done the exterior look by giving you clothes and items appropriate for this period, but I have left the interior of your character entirely up to you. You must leave your modern lives behind and recreate for yourselves a convincing Victorian back-round. I will of course help you along as you build your 19th century English person, but most of the choice work will be upon you. Now let us begin.
...A good first name.. most of us do not have names that were commonly used in the Jane Austen era so we must change them to be more alike. You have several choices for this.
1. You keep your name by using a variation used back in that century.(this could take some time on your part, depending on the given name you have.)
2. You can chose from a list of names I have for that period.
Use this link here: Jane Austen Period Names, I recommend this choice the most, for time's sake.
3. Or you can completely go off on your own and research a name you want to use, but it MUST be from the 19th Century English time period.
..... I'll give you a few moments while you create your first name.....
....you have one?....
....Splendid!.....
Now for a good last name...You have the same choices really for the last name as you did for the first, but I am also going to provide you a link for English surnames, the list is quite extensive: List of English Surnames. However you can also use the boys names in the link I gave you for the first names to help you decide on a last as well.
So, you now look like an Austen character, you are named like a Austen character, let's prove your are indeed a true Austen Character with a back-round story of your character's life. Now the most important thing in that time period was how much money you made. It was what determined your place in society. Most of Jane Austen's main characters were quite well off. Take Mr Darcy and his earnings of 10,000 per anum, which in today's currency had him making well past a millon per year. Making him a very desirable match for anyone, much less any of the Bennet sisters who had really no inheritance at all. But non-the-less the Bennet sisters were fairly well off due to their father's nothing-to-sneeze-at-income of 2,000 pounds per anum.
Since we are a group of young individuals going on an adventure let us come to the agreement that all of our characters are fairly well off making about 1,000 pounds a year, that's about $80,000 per year in today's currency. Now let us decide where our characters homes are located. I Georgiana Pemberton of Cambridge am from Wimpole Estate. I live there with my Uncle the Earl of Hardwicke and my dear Aunt Elizabeth, the Mistress of Wimpole. They are very kind to me and I have lived there since I was one and twenty (21 years old).
Now you are probably wondering how I created such a fantasy. And believe it or not, much of it is not fantasy, except for the insertion of my character into history.
1. Simply follow this link first http://www.jasna.org/info/maps.html and it will take you to all the places Jane Austen used for her books, you can choose a real place or one Jane Austen made up in one of her novels.
2. Once you have decided on a place for your character to live, simply follow this link http://www.britainsfinest.co.uk/historichouses/search_results.cfm/searchtown/Cambridge/searchclasscode/25 and type in the city you've chosen for your character to find historical homes for them to live in (This step will not work if you have chosen an imaginary location, in that case just chose a home from Jane Austen's novels.
3. After I searched under Cambridge I found Wimpole Estate and just did a little more research to find out which resident was living there in 1800 and there you have it! A perfectly convincing back-round!
Congratulations! You've done a capital job of creating your character and now it is time for us to end our first day here in 19th century England. We shall have tea and retire to our bed and breakfast for the night. You may freely write about your new character on the first page of your journal so that you shan't forget who you are as we continue our travels through England. We'll reconvene at dawn, but until then good morrow to you all.
Your Loyal and Friendly Guide,
Georgiana Pemberton
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