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
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