Jane Austen on March 7, 1814, from London to Cassandra in Chawton:
Monday. Here’s a day! – The Ground covered with snow! What is to become of us? – We were to have walked out early to near Shops, & had the Carriage for the more distant. – Mr. Richard Snow* is dreadfuly fond of us. I dare say he has stretched himself out at Chawton too.
Ltr. 98, 5-8 March 1814, p. 259 [Le Faye]
*Le Faye notes Austen’s use of the mythical personifications of winter weather: Jack Frost and Dick Snow [perhaps another reason she does not like the name “Richard”?]
The Brighton Mail, Sunday, December 25th 1836 (R. Havell)
Here’s my own take on the “Ground covered in snow! – What is to become of us?” indeed!”
Picnic anyone?
Image: F. Gordon Roe, Sporting Prints of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries. NY: Payson & Clarke, 1927.
Copyright @2011, Deb Barnum, of Jane Austen in Vermont
Now on to the specific types of coaches of the Regency era, the great coaching age of travel, pre-steam, pre-railroad, an age where the roads saw improvement, carriages became more comfortable [slightly, that is!], and the higher classes traveled more easily from place to place – it is good to remember that the majority of people still traveled by foot. Austen knew her carriages and is often very specific in what type of carriage a character has – as stated before, we know in just learning a little about the costs of carriages, the cost of horses and their upkeep, that Willoughby in Sense & Sensibility is living far beyond his means by owning a curricle, that his giving a horse [Queen Mab] to Marianne is outrageous, not only in its impropriety but also its lack of fiscal responsibility. Austen does this throughout her works, and even if she does not specifically tell us the type of carriage or the exact income, we understand, as the readers of her day would have understood, another piece of the puzzle about any given character.
The last post ended with the generic term “Coach” – so now some specific types:
The Stage Coach:
very colorful
four passengers inside, up to eight outside
stopped at various pre-appointed stages, usually every 10 miles to pick up / drop-off passengers and to change horses
Stage Coach
The Royal Mail Coach: [after 1784] – there were 50 mail coaches in 1784, 700 in 1835
set paint color: red wheels, maroon doors and lower body; black upper body; royal arms on each door
speed and excellence of Royal Mail service, usually six horses – faster because there were no tolls
held four inside passengers, and up to eight outside
Guard – a 3′ tin horn
cost about 1 penny / mile more than the stage coach but safer for passengers because of the guards
Royal Mail Coach
Private Coaches:
simple color schemes with coat of arms on doors and boot
a fine carriage with owner livery, postilions, etc
expense: coachman, postilions, under coachman, stable boys, footmen
not common because of the expense: taxes on carriages and horses; even the wealthy often borrowed carriages and rented horses
cost in 1796 @ 130 pounds
in Sense & Sensibility: Elinor and Mrs. Jennings visit Kensington Gardens by carriage, where Elinor connects with Miss Steele: Miss Steele to Elinor: “Mrs. Richardson was come in her coach to take one of us to Kensington Gardens”; and “He [Mr. Richardson] makes a monstrous deal of money, and they keep their own coach.”
who else: the Bennet’s, the Musgroves [both large families]
Town Coach
Chaise:
an enclosed 4-wheel carriage, almost 1/2 the size of a full coach, seating up to three people, making this very tight, with one forward-facing seat, and often with a pull-out seat to add 2 more people
no coach box, driven by a postilion [rider mounted on one of the horses, the rear or left horse], usually two horses
cost @ 93 pounds in 1801
InSense & Sensibility: Mrs. Jennings, the John Dashwoods; Robert Ferrars
a note on Mrs. Jennings’s carriages: she has a chaise and a chariot, but did she have two carriages or as Chapman suggests, was Austen being uncharacteristically forgetful?
“It will only be sending Betty by the coach and I hope I can afford that, we three will be able to go very well in my chaise.”
Narrator: Thomas seeing Mr. Ferrars and Lucy Steele ~“They was stopping in a chaise at the door of the New London Inn.”
who else?: Mr. Bingley [ chaise & four]; General Tilney [a chaise & four]; Lady Catherine; Lady Bertram; Sir William Lucas; and Mr. Gardiner
The Post Chaise= a chaise used with rented horses; always yellow; overlap with “hack-chaise”;
often a larger chaise with four horses with postilions on both lead horses and left near horse; you had more control over your trip rather than on the Stage Coach
a traveler who owned a carriage and horses would travel the first stage with them and then send them home with servants and rent horses the rest of the way
In Sense & Sensibility: when Mrs. Jennings asks the Miss Steeles on their arrival in London: “Well my dear, how did you travel?” Miss Steele to Mrs. Jennings: “Not on the stage I assure you,” replied Miss Steele with quick exultation; “we came by post all the way and had a very smart beau to attend us. Mr. Davies was coming to town, and we thought we would join him in a post chaise; and he behaved very genteelly, and paid ten or twelve shillings more than we did.”
Post Chaise
Chariot – has the same body as the chaise, the difference is the addition of a coach-box and driver.
driver’s box, with four horses, four passengers, two seats facing forward like an automobile
a classy vehicle, lighter than a coach, comfortable, speedy
In Sense & Sensibility: Mrs. Jennings, John Dashwoods: Narrator on Fanny Dashwood: …the great inconvenience of sending her carriage for the Miss Dashwoods [we know that the John Dashwoods have a chariot]
who else?: Mrs. Rushworth
Barouche:
member of the coach family, a medium-sized, heavy 4-wheeled coach with two seats facing each other for four people with a folding top that covers only the rear seat
four horses with a driver box on outside for two people
aristocratic vehicle, for dress occasions, mainly used in town
In Sense & Sensibility: Palmers [her second carriage], though the narrator on Fanny about Edward: It would have quieted her ambition to see him driving a barouche. But Edward had no turn for great men or barouches.
others: Lady Dalrymple, Henry Crawford
Barouche
Landau [coach family]:
a four-wheeled light carriage, two seats facing each other
two or four horses
high driver’s seat
two soft folding tops that close and lock in the middle [often made of leather], a low door
expensive to build and maintain: cost @ 185 pounds, but it was popular due to its versatility in all weathers
In Sense & Sensibility: no one
Landau
Landaulette:
landau for two passengers only; cost @ 156 pounds
In Sense & Sensibility: no one
who else? Anne Elliot Wentworth in Persuasion
Landaulette
Barouche-Landau: “approach in awe”!
features of both, but not very popular
a high driving seat
a rumble for two servants
in Austen: the only specific carriage named in Emma – Mrs. Elton’s sister, Mrs. Suckling
Chapman in the 1954 edition of Minor Works finally supplies the illusive illustration [from Beau Monde, 1806]
Barouche-Landau
Up next: the sports cars of the Regency Period… [i.e Willoughby and friends!]
Copyright @2011, Deb Barnum, Jane Austen in Vermont
Maria Grazia at My Jane Austen Book Clubis hosting a year-long celebration of the 200 year anniversary of the publication of Sense & Sensibility. Maria has invited twelve other Austen bloggers [including yours truly] to each post an article on Austen’s first published work. Here is Maria’s invitation and the schedule:
October 2011 will mark the bicentenary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. This is why ‘My Jane Austen Book Club’ wants to dedicate a special space to the celebration and discussion of Austen’s first achievement as a published writer. I have invited some expert Janeites to contribute to the discussion and they have kindly and generously accepted . Katherine at November’s Autumn and Gaskell Blog contributed the cute button on the left. Each month one of them will deal with a theme, a character, a topic somehow linked to Sense and Sensibility. The discussion will be open to you all with your comments, questions and suggestions. There will be a monthly giveaway and you will have the chance to win a book or DVD connected to our celebration. Here’s the schedule of our virtual meetings. Take notes.
8. August – “Settling for the Compromise Marriage” by Regina Jeffers
9. September – “The Origins of S&S: Richardson, Jane Austen, Elinor & Mariannne” by Lynn Shepherd
10. October – “Sense & Sensibility Fanfiction” by Meredith of Austenesque Reviews
11. November – “Minor Characters in Sense & Sensibility” by Vic of Jane Austen’s World
12. December – “Marianne Dashwood: A Passion for Dead Leaves & Other Sensibilities” by Laurel Ann of Austenprose
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A year chock full of S&S insights! – so check back to read these sure-to-be-interesting posts on S&S and a chance each month to win the latest giveaway.
There are also other Sense & Sensibility celebrations and blog tours – I will post on these another day – in the meantime, check out Jennifer Becton’s post on “Marriage & Money in Sense & Sensibility” at My Jane Austen Book Club. With hearty thanks to Maria for setting this up!
Copyright @ 2011, Deb Barnum at Jane Austen in Vermont.
On my TBO* list: with a release date of January 16, 2011 [as per Amazon; publisher release date is February 2011]
Thomas Rowlandson: Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England, by Patricia Phagan; essays by Vic Gatrell and Amelia Rauser. Published by D Giles LTD in association with the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2011.
This illustrated volume which presents 72 watercolors, drawings, prints and illustrated books to reassess the legacy of this renowned 18th-century satirist. Accompanies the first major exhibition of Rowlandson’s work in North America for twenty years, showing at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, Jan 14, 2011 – March 13, 2011 and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, April 8, 2011 – June 11, 2011 [Click here for information on the exhibit]
Thomas Rowlandson - Pages 110-11
[Click on to enlarge]
About the authors:
Patricia Phagan is Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center and the co-author of ‘The American Scene and the South: Paintings and Works on Paper, 1930-1946’ (1996) and ‘Images of Women in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art: Domesticity and the Representation of the Peasant’ (1996).
Vic Gatrell is Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and the author of ‘City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London’ (2006) [fabulous book!] and ‘The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People 1770-1868‘ (1994).
Amelia Rauser is Associate Professor of Art History at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and author of ‘Caricature Unmasked: Irony, Authenticity and Individualism in Eighteenth-Century English Prints’ (2008). [from Amazon]
Auction News: see the upcoming Bonham’s Gentleman’s Library Sale, January 19, 2011, New Bond St in London, for all manner of library furniture, desk sets, globes, cabinets, and portraits and paintings that may have been housed in the libraries of the Gentlemen of the Victorian and earlier periods. The online catalogue is available for viewing and bidding!
A Gentleman's Tromp L'oeil - Bonham's Lot 183
or I love this one – “The Proposal” with Mom listening in and clasping her hands in prayer in the doorway!
'The Proposal' (Circle of Philippe Mercier) - Bonham's Lot 230
Lots more in the catalogue – take a look if you can!
And see this article at Victoriana Magazine for more information on the Victorian Library.
[Images from the Bonham’s Gentleman’s Library Sale, No. 18544]
Copyright @ 2011 Deb Barnum, at Jane Austen in Vermont
I made a promise to myself back in August 2010 to finally read Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa, this promise made after reading Laurel Ann’s Austenprose interview with Lynn Shepherd. Shepherd is the author of the Austen-inspired mystery Murder at Mansfield Park, but also a Samuel Richardson scholar and author of Clarissa’s Painter: Portraiture, Illustration, and Representation in the Novels of Samuel Richardson (Oxford University Press, 2009].
I have had Clarissa sitting on my bedside table for years – a friend gave it to me as a joke, daring me to read the thing – I was tempted to tear it into nine parts [an easy thing to do!] and have each of my book group buddies read their piece of the book and report on it – an easy way to lessen the pain of reading this rather large tome – my copy [the Penguin edition of 1985 with introduction and notes by Angus Ross] measures 9 x 6 x 2.75″ with a total of 1534 pages, a heady feast of endless words in very small print! But alas! I could not go the book destruction route, it’s not in my genetic makeup, and so have just stared at this thing for years, dusting it occasionally, contemplating its use as a doorstop or such [it weighs 2 lbs, 11oz!], but somewhat guilty all the while… an English major who cleverly avoided this book or any Richardson for that matter because everything is just so long and not to mention depressing! And despite Richardson being Jane Austen’s favorite author, and that she read and re-read his works and was greatly influenced by him, I just haven’t done it… until now…
So when I read Lynn Shepherd’s post and saw the brilliant suggestion to read Clarissa in ‘real time’, starting on January 10th, and finishing on December 18th, I thought this was a perfect solution, nearly a whole year to finish the thing, not much time to be spent on a daily basis – how bad can it possibly be? So, Dear Readers, I have begun – January 10th, with already a welcome reprieve as the next letter is not until January 13th…
When I told my gifting friend that I was finally going to read the thing – she wondered how I would be able to put it down and not read ahead – I told her I did not think that would be a problem in this case – and indeed it seems not to be so far!
I welcome anyone else who would like to join me in this – there have been group reads of Clarissa on other listservs – I am not going to post about the book, just periodic updates of my reading progress. My only concern is I am already looking forlornly at Richardson’s other book on my shelf, Pamela, a much shorter and happier exercise in reading what Jane Austen read… – so wish me luck and join me if you can!
Article on Richardson and Austen: “The Source of “dramatized consciousness”: Richardson, Austen, and Stylistic Influence ” by Joe Bray, Style, Spring, 2001.
Sense and Sensibility was first published in October 1811, hence all manner of this 200 year anniversary celebration will be literally taking over the world, or at least the blog-sphere world, for this entire year! [See the JASNA site for information on the next AGM in October in Fort Worth]
There are already a number of blog events in place [I will be posting on these shortly], but I hope this year at Jane Austen in Vermont to do a number of posts on S&S, starting with its very interesting publishing history. So today, Part I – a compilation of what Jane Austen wrote in her letters about her first published work – there is not as much as on Pride & Prejudice or Mansfield Park and Emma, but she did make a number of comments that are worth noting. The upcoming Part II will outline the details of its publication and how it was received by her contemporaries. [You can also re-visit my previous posts on “Travel in S&S” – Part I, Part II, and Part III, and more to come regarding the types of carriages in use during Austen’s time.]
Note that all references in the letters are to: Deirdre Le Faye, ed. Jane Austen’s Letters. 3rd Edition. NY: Oxford, 1997, c1995.
Jane Austen on Sense & Sensibility:
Ltr. 71. 25 April 1811, to Cassandra, from Sloane St, London
No indeed, I am never too busy to think of S&S. I can no more forget it, than a mother can forget her suckling child; & I am much obliged to you for your enquiries. I have had two sheets to correct, but the last only brings us to W.s [Willoughby] first appearance. Mrs. K [Mrs. Knight, Edward’s adoptive aunt] regrets in the most flattering manner that she must wait till May, but I have scarcely a hope of its being out in June. – Henry does not neglect it; he has hurried the Printer, & says he will see him again today. – It will not stand still during his absence, it will be sent to Eliza. – The Incomes remain as they were, but I will get them altered if I can. – I am very much gratified by Mrs. K.s interest in it; & whatever may be the event of it as to my credit with her, sincerely wish her curiosity could be satisfied sooner than is now probable. I think she will like my Elinor, but cannot build on anything else.
[Note: S&S was actually not published until 23 October 1811]
Ltr. 79. 29 Jan 1813, to Cassandra, from Chawton
[Talking about P&P after its publication] – I have lopt & cropt so successfully however that I imagine it must be rather shorter than S&S altogether. – Now I will try to write of something else…
Ltr. 86. 3-6 July 1813, to Francis Austen, from Chawton
You will be glad to hear that every Copy of S&S is sold & that is has brought me £140 – besides the Copyright, if that should ever be of any value.* – I have now therefore written myself into £250. – which only makes me long for more. – I have something in hand – which I hope on the credit of P&P will sell well, tho’ not half so entertaining. [i.e. Mansfield Park]
*My note: this is the world’s most perfect example of understatement!
Ltr. 87. 15-16 Sept 1813, to Cassandra, from Henrietta St, London
Nothing has been done as to S&S. The Books came to hand too late for him to have time for it, before he went. [i.e send the books to Warren Hastings]
Ltr. 90. 25 Sept 1813, to Francis Austen, from Godmersham Park
[On the secret of her authorship]
I was previously aware of what I should be laying myself open to – but the truth is that the Secret has spread so far as to be scarcely the Shadow of a secret now – & that I believe whenever the 3rd appears, I shall not even attempt to tell Lies about it. – I shall rather try to make all the Money than all the Mystery I can of it. – People shall pay for their Knowledge if I can make them. – Henry heard P&P warmly praised in Scotland, by Lady Robt Kerr & another Lady; – and what does he do in the warmth of his Brotherly vanity & Love, but immediately tell them who wrote it! – A Thing once set going in that way – one knows how it spreads! – and he, dear Creature, has set it going so much more than once. I know if is all done from affection & partiality – but at the same time, let me here again express to you & Mary my sense of the superior kindness which you have shewn on the occasion, in doing what I wished. – I am trying to harden myself. – After all, what a trifle it is in all its Bearings, to the really important points of one’s existence even in this World!
[postscript] There is to be a 2d Edition of S&S. Egerton advises it.
[Note: the 2nd edition was published 29 October1813]
Henry Austen
Ltr. 91. 11-12 Oct 1813, to Cassandra, from Godmerhsam Park
I dined upon Goose yesterday – which I hope will secure a good Sale of my 2d Edition.
[Note: Le Faye cites a poem from 1708: Old Michaelmas Day was October 11]
“That who eats Goose on Michael’s Day
Shan’t money lack, his Debts to pay.”
Ltr. 95. 3 Nov 1813, to Cassandra in London from Godmersham Park.
Your tidings of S&S give me pleasure. I have never seen it advertised. …
…I suppose in the meantime I shall owe dear Henry a great deal of Money for Printing, etc. – I hope Mrs. Fletcher will indulge herself with S&S.
[Note: Mrs. Fletcher was the wife of William Fletcher, of Trinity College Dublin – Austen notes that” Mrs. Fletcher, the wife of a Judge, an old Lady & very good & very clever, who is all curiosity to know about me…”. The 2nd edition of S&S, advertized on 29 October 1813, was published at the author’s expense, thus Henry likely paid for it]
Ltr. 96. 6-7 Nov 1813, to Cassandra in London, from Godmersham Park
Since I wrote last, my 2d Edit. has stared me in the face. – Mary tells me that Eliza [Mrs. Fowle] means to buy it. I wish she may. It can hardly depend upon any more Fyfield Estates [sale of Fowle property] – I cannot help hoping that many will feel themselves obliged to buy it. I shall not mind imagining it a disagreeable Duty to them, so as they do it. Mary heard before she left home, that it was very much admired at Cheltenham, & that it was given to Miss Hamilton [the writer Elizabeth Hamilton]. It is pleasant to have such a respectable Writer named. I cannot tire you I am sure on this subject, or I would apologise.
Elizabeth Hamilton - Wikipedia
Ltr. 100 21 Mar 1814, to Francis Austen, from London
Perhaps before the end of April, Mansfield Park by the author of S&S – P&P may be in the world. Keep the name to yourself. I should not like to have it known beforehand. [i.e. about MP]
Ltr. 121. 17-18 Oct 1815, to Cassandra, from Hans Place in London
Mr. Murray’s Letter is come; he is a Rogue of course, but a civil one. He offers £450 – but wants to have the Copyright of MP & S&S included. It will end in my publishing for myself I dare say. – He sends more praise however than I expected. It is an amusing Letter. You shall see it.
John Murray II
Ltr. 122(A)(D). 20-21 Oct 1815, draft of letter from Henry Austen to John Murray, in London
On the subject of the expence & profit of publishing, you must be better informed than I am; – but Documents in my possession appear to prove that the Sum offered by you for the Copyright of Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park & Emma, is not equal to the Money which my Sister has actually cleared by one very moderate Edition of Mansfield Park – (You Yourself expressed astonishment that so small an Edit. of such a work should have been sent into the World) & a still smaller one of Sense & Sensibility.- …
[Note: the 1st edition of S&S was 750 or 1000 copies; MP was probably 1,250, and Emma was 2,000 copies.]
Ltr. 154. 13 Mar 1817, to Caroline Austen, from Chawton
I have just recd nearly twenty pounds myself on the 2d Edit: of S&S* – which gives me this fine flow of Literary Ardour.
* Sense and Sensibility [footnoted by Austen in pencil]
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Isn’t it such a delight to hear Austen’s very own words on her writing! Stay tuned for Part II on how it all came to be…
Anyone who reads Georgette Heyer or other Regency-era historical fiction is surely familiar with the phrase “outside of enough” – one of those “cant” phrases that is self-explanatory, doesn’t need a lexicon or such to figure out its meaning. It is a great turn of words, isn’t it? and so much more effective that “that’s enough” or “enough is enough” or “I’ve had enough” or “more than enough”, or “this is too much” or “enough already”!
But where did it come from? When was it first used? I don’t currently have access to the OED and it does not show up in the phrase reference sources I have or in online sources. Joanna Waugh on her website says it came into use around 1887. It now seems overly used – certainly in every historical romance novel, but also in political writings, general conversation [just ‘google’ it!]. I am reminded of the phrase “gone missing”- a term I first heard in England years ago and needed to have it explained to me! – I later heard it on Canadian news programs, but now I hear it everywhere, read it in the newspapers, definitely a British turn of phrase adopted here in the US.
But back to “outside of enough” – I have assumed this was a term that Heyer perhaps had made up – she did do that with some of her Regency cant phrases so prevalent in her dialogue. So I was quite surprised and delighted to discover this dialogue between Lucy Steele and Elinor in a recent re-read of Sense and Sensibility:
[Lucy Steele] : “And what a charming little family they have! I never saw such fine children in my life. I declare I quite doat upon them already, and indeed I am always distractedly fond of children.”
“I should guess so,” said Elinor with a smile, “from what I have witnessed this morning.”
“I have a notion,” said Lucy, “you think the little Middletons rather too much indulged; perhaps they may be the outside of enough; but it is so natural in Lady Middleton; and for my part, I love to see children full of life and spirits; I cannot bear them if they are tame and quiet.”
“I confess,” replied Elinor, “that while I am at Barton Park, I never think of tame and quiet children with any abhorrence.”
[S&S, Vol. 1, Ch. xxi ]
Two Brock illustrations of “sweet” Lucy…
Fig. 1 "We have been engaged these four years"
Fig. 2 "She could have no doubt of its being Edward's face"
So we might think that Austen was the first writer to use the phrase, albeit putting it into the mouth of one of her more vulgar characters. But a quick search of Google Books brings up the following sources:
1. Algernon Sidney. Of the Use and Abuse of Parliaments: In Two Historical Discourses. 1744 – a reference is made to “outside of enough” as somewhere expressed by Shakespeare. [I did search the Shakespeare Concordance and the term “outside” comes up 14 times in Shakespeare’s texts, but alas! all lacking the necessary “of enough”]
2. Colley Cibber. The Dramatic Works of Colley Cibber. 1777. “…I’ll have everything on the outside of enough today.”
3. Joseph Gwilt, et al. An Encyclopaedia of Architecture. 1842. re: “premising, that if the caution whereof we speak be taken, the thickness resulting from the following investigations will be much more than the outside of enough.” [p. 410]
4. Henry C. K. Wyld. A History of Modern Colloquial Idiom. 1920. Wyld cites the above Austen passage as “largely the way of speech of the better society of an earlier age, which has come down in the world, and survives among a pretentious provincial bourgeoisie.” [p. 376] [which seems to indicate the term was used in an earlier period and Austen would have been familiar with that…]
So, I must carry on and dig deeper and find a better reference – if anyone has any thoughts, please comment – but shan’t we at least credit Austen (via Heyer I would think) with what appears to be the source for the excessive use of the term today? – I do feel the need to nearly scream, “all right, all right, the constant use of this phrase is really the outside of enough”!
Two books I have wanted found their way under my Christmas tree by way of Santa and his sleigh. These are books to savor, perhaps even drool over on these cold dark winter nights! Here is just a quick summary:
Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Fashion in Detail, by Avril Hart and Susan North. Photographs by Richard Davis; Drawings by Leonie Davis. London: V&A Publishing, 2009. [First published by V&A in 1998 as Historical Fashion in Detail from the 17th and 18th Centuries]. ISBN 978 185177 567 5
From the introduction:
These remarkable photographs of the V&A’s collection of historical dress capture the essence of each stylish garment, opening up new perspectives on high fashion between 1600 and 1800. Offering a lively survey of fashionable patterns, fabrics and colours, the images depict a wide variety of styles and effects, from the minimalism of mid-18th-century white-work to the flamboyant excesses of high Baroque flowered silks…
Each chapter offers close-up photographs showing the varied details of dress, accompanied by line drawings and a full description of each piece. I give as an example the description of “long sleeves” in the chapter on “Collars, Cuffs and Pockets”:
Long sleeves in women’s dress became fashionable in the 1780s, and with them, new ways of fastening and decoration at the wrists. In this very simple cotton gown from the late 1790s, the sleeve is closed with a narrow band of fabric, edged with piping, which fastens with hook and eye.
While the pattern of the fabric is similar to that of the jacket on the left, the crispness and precision of the English printed cotton seen contrasts with the loose, flowing execution of the Indian printed fabric. Block-printing on cotton began in England in the 1750s, imitating designs of imported Indian fabrics. The pattern of floral trails seen here exhibits a blend of influences from Indian-painted and printed textiles, and rococo woven silks, a style which remained popular until the end of the century. [Pictured is a woman’s gown of printed cotton, English, 1795-1799, followed by sleeve detail] [p. 94-95]
Austen of course was concerned about her longs sleeves: “I wear my gauze gown today, long sleeves & all; I shall see how they succeed, but as yet I have no reason to suppose long sleeves are allowable … [and later] … Mrs. Tilson has long sleeves too, & assured me that they are worn in the evening by many. I was glad to hear this.– ” [Ltr. 99, 9 March 1814]
Chapters included:
Stitching, Seams, Quilting and Cording
Gathers, Pleats and Looped Drapery
Collars, Cuffs and Pockets
Buttons
Trimmings
Applied Decoration
Slashing, Pinking and Stamping
Knitting, Lace and Openwork
Stomachers
Gloves and Shoes
Glossary and Select Bibliography
****************
The great overlap of the 18th and 19th centuries meant that Santa had to do double duty and also leave the Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail, by Lucy Johnston, with Marion Kite and Helen Persson. Photographs by Richard Davis; Drawings by Leonie Davis. London: V&A Publishing, 2009 [first published, 2005]. ISBN: 978 18177 572 9.
Many of the Influences, innovations and stylistic changes that shaped nineteenth-century fashion are brought to life by the garments illustrated in this book. The delicate embroidery on neo-classical gowns, elegant tailoring on men’s coats, vibrant colours of artificial dyes and profusion of ornate trimmings reveal some of the details which make this period so rich. They also show how a woman’s silhouette was transformed during this era through whalebone corsets, cage crinolines, bustles and skilful garment construction…. [Introduction, p. 7]
Again, each piece of clothing is presented with a photograph, a line drawing, and a full description . Chapters included:
The Male Image
Historicism
Romantic Styles
Exoticism
Innovations
Construction Details
The Natural World
Glossary and Select Bibliography
Two quite amazing books, filled with sumptuous detail, lovely patterns and fabrics, showing the clothing of the fashion-conscious middle and upper class men and women of these times. If you have any interest in fashion, these definitely need to be added to your collection! Thank you Santa for paying attention and seeing how much I needed these! Makes one want to drag out the sewing machine…
P.S. There is another book in this series, titled, Underwear Fashion in Detail – [V&A Publishing, 2010] perhaps Santa was too embarrassed to bring this one?
Illustrations from the V&A website. Books are available at the V&A online Shop, and also available at other booksellers.
It is a rare date that Austen mentions in her works, but one of them is today, December 24: Christmas Eve, “(for it was a very great event that Mr. Woodhouse should dine out, on the 24th of December)” [Emma Vol. I, Ch. xiii]
While we usually associate Mr. Woodhouse with often curmudgeonly weather-obsessed behavior, here he is most eager to get all wrapped up and head over to Randalls:
Mr. Woodhouse had so completely made up his mind to the visit, that in spite of the increasing coldness, he seemed to have no idea of shrinking from it, and set forward at last most punctually with his eldest daughter in his own carriage, with less apparent consciousness of the weather than either of the others; too full of the wonder of his own going, and the pleasure it was to afford at Randalls to see that it was cold, and too well wrapt up to feel it. [E, Vol. I, Ch. xiii]
Fig. 2
So it is not dear Mr. Woodhouse who is Scrooge this Christmas Eve, but Austen is adept at creating one, and long before Dickens ever did:
‘A man,” said he, ‘must have a very good opinion of himself when he asks people to leave their own fireside, and encounter such a day as this, for the sake of coming to see him. He must think himself a most agreeable fellow; I could not do such a thing. It is the greatest absurdity — Actually snowing at this moment! The folly of not allowing people to be comfortable at home, and the folly of people’s not staying comfortably at home when they can! If we were obliged to go out such an evening as this, by any call of duty or business, what a hardship we should deem it; — and here are we, probably with rather thinner clothing than usual, setting forward voluntarily, without excuse, in defiance of the voice of nature, which tells man, in every thing given to his view or his feelings, to stay at home himself, and keep all under shelter that he can; — here are we setting forward to spend five dull hours in another man’s house, with nothing to say or to hear that was not said and heard yesterday, and may not be said and heard again to-morrow. Going in dismal weather, to return probably in worse; — four horses and four servants taken out for nothing but to convey five idle, shivering creatures into colder rooms and worse company than they might have had at home.” [E, Vol. I, Ch. xiii]
Well, “Bah! Humbug!” to you too, John Knightley! – he is our Scrooge this Christmas Eve [indeed, I believe that Isabella has married her father!] and his ill humor continues throughout the evening – ending of course with his gloomy and overblown report of the worsening weather that sets off three full pages of discussion on the risks of setting out, on the possibility of being snowed-in, on the cold, on the danger to the horses and the servants – “‘What is to be done, my dear Emma? – what is to be done?’ was Mr. Woodhouse’s first exclamation…” and it all is finally “settled in a few brief sentences” by Mr. Knightley and Emma, certainly foreshadowing their success as a companionable couple.
Fig. 3 'Christmas Weather'
And this leads to one of Austen’s most comic scenes – the proposal of Mr. Elton, Emma trapped in the carriage alone with him believing that “he had been drinking too much of Mr. Weston’s good wine, and felt sure that he would want to be talking nonsense…” – which of course he does…
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, with much snow on the ground (but not enough to trouble your carriage), some song and wine (but not enough to induce unwanted and overbearing offers of love and marriage), and the pleasure of good company (with hopefully no Scrooge-like visitors to whom you must either “comply” or be “quarrelsome” or like Emma, have your “heroism reach only to silence.” )
P.S. – And tonight pull your Emma off the shelf and read through these chapters in volume I [ch, 13-15] for a good chuckle! – this of course before your annual reading of A Christmas Carol.
Jane Austen in Vermont 