The English country house - Lyme Park

One of the things I love most about living in England is visiting magnificent country houses. England has many such houses, built by wealthy landowners in previous centuries, and they demonstrate the best of English architecture and taste over a millennium.

One of my favourites is Lyme Park , on the border of Cheshire and Derbyshire. Lyme Park is one of the most famous, and beautiful, houses in England. It's probably most well known for its appearance as Pemberley in the 1995 BBC mini-series of  Pride and Prejudice. It's immediately recognisable because of the mirror lake in front of the house, which, on a clear day, perfectly reflects the house. Nowadays, visitors approach the house from the other side but in its heyday, the drive led up to the side by the lake.

The estate was granted to Sir Thomas Danyers in 1346 and passed to the Legh family in 1388. The house itself was built in the late sixteenth century, with alterations being made in the 1720s showing the influence of Baroque and Palladian styles. It was passed to the National Trust in 1946 and is now held in trust for the nation. The National Trust owns many of England's historic houses, since most of them are too expensive for individual families to maintain.




The houses are open to the public and I've spent many a happy hour wandering through perfectly preserved rooms, examining architecture, enjoying the gardens, learning about the history or just soaking up the atmosphere. I'm also lucky enough to do frequent book signings at Lyme Park, where Mr Darcy's Diary proves very popular in the shop. They often have exhibitions linked to Pride and Prejudice. My favourite was probably the costume exhibition, which featured the famous white shirt which became the famous wet shirt! Here I am, standing next to it (although, alas, Mr Darcy was not wearing it at the time). As you can see, I dressed for the occasion!





If you're looking for a quintessentially English day out, I can thoroughly recommend Lyme Park. It's a beautiful house with interesting rooms, glorious gardens, a deer park and a folly. It has a wide variety of displays and exhibitions, which vary from season to season, and it has an excellent shop full of Pride and Prejudice inspired items. It's one of my favourite places and I hope it becomes one of your favourite places, too.

Amanda Grange

What Makes a Gentleman? - A historical post

Class has always been a hot topic in English society and I’m wondering a little at my audacity – or even foolishness – in dipping a toe in the waters of it here. When did the “gentry” first emerge as a social class? Was belonging to the gentry synonymous with being a “gentleman”? What did the term mean in the Georgian and Regency period and what makes a gentleman these days? These are big questions but perhaps we can look at a few elements of them.

In 1583 Sir Thomas Smith wrote: “One who can live idly and without manual labour and will bear the port (deportment) and countenance of a gentleman, he shall be taken for a gentleman.” The luxury goods and extravagant clothing of late 16^th and 17^th century London were an avenue to social mobility. Sumptuary legislation - the laws that governed the types of clothes that the different social classes were entitled to wear - had lapsed and a consumer revolution was taking over. Eighty years after Smith was writing, the diarist John Evelyn complained: “How many times have I saluted the fine man for the master, and stood with my hat off to the gay feather, when I found the bird to be all this while but a daw.” In other words, in the 17^th century smart clothes and an appearance of wealth made the gentleman. Or perhaps gave the appearance of a gentleman.

Sir William Craven was one such man who made good at the turn of the 17^th century. He was the son

of an agricultural worker from Yorkshire who was apprenticed into the cloth trade in London. He worked hard, built up his business, married well, acted as moneylender to the court of Elizabeth I, bought himself a knighthood from James I, and was Lord Mayor of London. By the time of his death he had amassed a fortune of billions in today’s terms and had moved firmly from the lower labouring classes to the upper echelons of the Middle Class. His sons were both given titles and moved into the aristocracy. Phenomenal social mobility and all through the acquisition of a fortune! But did this make them gentlemen or is the definition of such a term more nebulous?

The original dictionary definition of the word gentleman was strict: A well-educated man of good family. It was also used to refer to a man whose income derived from property as opposed to a man who worked for a living. It was only in the eighteenth century that it came also to mean a man who was cultured, courteous and well-educated with a code of honour and high standards of proper behaviour.

By the time of Jane Austen, the gentleman had come to be defined by his personal qualities as much as by his status as a member of the landed gentry. He was not a member of the nobility but was an “esquire” at the top of the pile of untitled landowners. (Knights and baronets also do not belong to the peerage but are still a cut above an esquire by virtue of holding a title, and of course Jane Austen emphasises beautifully the superiority of Sir Walter Eliott, for example, a baronet, over Lady Russell the widow of a mere knight!) Even so, a gentleman such as Mr Darcy, untitled but well-connected, with a beautiful house and a very good income, was not to be sneezed at.

Further down the social scale was the “lesser gentry” constituting those in the military, attornies, doctors, clerics; the professional elite. Of course some of these, especially in the military and the church, might be younger sons of the nobility, just to confuse the issue. But these professions also offered opportunities for fortune and social advancement. The wealthiest of merchants and manufacturers were at the bottom of this “gentry pile”. As a group the gentry described themselves as genteel, polite and civil. They did not pretend to be members of “the Quality” although a connection to the Ton was highly prized (illustrated again by Sir Walter and his kow-towing to Lady Dalrymple!) There was in fact a profound cultural gulf separating the lesser gentry from the landed aristocracy.

It is the gentleman of the Georgian period who is the precursor to the gentleman of the Victorian period in that he establishes a code of conduct based on the three Rs: Restraint, Refinement and Religion. During the reign of George III, the British begin, by their reserve and emotional control, to distinguish themselves from the peoples of southern Europe whom they considered to have a more hot-headed temperament. This is where the move to define the gentleman by his manners rather than his birth or fortune begins.

By 1897 when Mrs Humphrey published her book “Manners for Men” the concept of the gentleman

was still being hotly debated. She wrote: “ Gentleness and moral strength combined must be the salient characteristics of the gentleman, together with that polish that is acquired… through the influence of education and refinement. He must be thoughtful for others, kind to women and children and all helpless things… but never foolishly weak. There are few such men but they do exist. Reliable as rocks, judicious in every action, dependable… full of mercy and kindness.” A total paragon, in fact! Her comments on the “ill-bred young man,” the reverse of the gentleman, are very funny. He is unkempt in his personal appearance, is so untidy that he creates extra work for the maids, late for meals, irritable and rude. Those who use strong language in front of ladies are held up for particular criticism.

Mrs Humphrey then issues some extremely helpful instructions to those aspiring to be a gentleman. It is important for a gentleman to walk on the outside of a lady on the pavement so that he gets splashed by the traffic (and the contents of chamber pots raining down) and she does not. I remember that my grandfather, another self-made gentleman, was a stickler for this although the habit has somewhat died out now along with a close encounter with chamber pots, fortunately. The gentleman, of course, always offers his seat to a lady. Interestingly I noted that a lady should never ask for a seat; this is not ladylike. All Mrs Humphrey’s advice relates to manners and behaviour, the implication being that even a man without good birth or fortune can become a gentleman. In fact she notes that if he comes from a poor home and still turns out well that is even more laudable.

So in our modern age, do you think it is still important for a man to be a gentleman? What do you think are the qualities we look for in a gentleman? Are these different from the ones that we require in the heroes of our Regency fiction? Who is your favourite gentleman, real or fictional?

Nicola Cornick

Elizabeth Hawksley: Writing Tips #8

Today, Elizabeth Hawksley is giving us some of her favourite writing tips in the eighth part of our series.

Tip for Getting a Character Unstuck

I discovered this trick quite by chance. For some reason, I just couldn’t sort out an important scene between my hero and heroine. I knew sparks were supposed to fly but it wasn’t working; it was more damp squib than fireworks.

In desperation, I decided just as an exercise to write my heroine’s diary for the same scene. Perhaps a first person viewpoint would help to free the block. At first, a stream of waffle poured out. Doggedly, I went on writing. Then, suddenly, an unexpected nugget popped up. I continued writing.

After about forty minutes of continuous writing I realized, to my surprise, that I now knew several important things about my heroine that I hadn’t known before. I’d no idea where they’d come from but, once they’d appeared, not only did they make sense, new possibilities for the scene emerged. The block was unravelling. I stopped writing, took myself off for a ‘thinking’ walk and, by the time I got home, I’d sorted it.  

Note: it’s important to write in stream of consciousness mode without trying to shape it. Eventually, your heroine herself will give you the answer.

P.S. This also works for heroes.

Elizabeth Hawksley

Looking for more writing tips? Click on "writing tips" in the label below to find more in the series.

Why I love Regency romance

I first discovered Regency romance in my early teens with Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer and I was hooked. Of course, Jane Austen wasn't really writing Regency romance, she was writing contemporary novels, but she set the template for a whole genre with Pride and Prejudice. Georgette Heyer picked up the baton in the twentieth century and made the Regency romance her own.

So what do I love about it? I love the chance to escape to an elegant age where courtesy was the order of the day; where witty conversations took place in crowded ballrooms or gracious drawing-rooms; where men and women danced and rode and took tea as they gradually fell in love. Many Regencies are comedies of manners about impoverished ladies who meet rich, handsome and arrogant gentlemen, causing the sparks to fly. Or sometimes it's the reverse, with heiresses meeting their match in impoverished gentlemen,

The language is another thing I particularly love about the genre. Georgette Heyer introduced a lot of wonderful phrases to the genre, which came from her detailed research. Characters are not poor in Heyer's novels; instead, they don't have a feather to fly with or they have pockets to let. They aren't drunk, they are a trifle disguised. There's a fantastic list of Heyer slang here This kind of rich and exuberant language peppers the pages of Regency romance and provides a unique and very entertaining read.

Regencies also offer a chance to delve into history and find out more about how our ancestors used to live. Some Regencies focus on the day-to-day life of the characters in small country villages. Others highlight historical events and place their characters in the turbulence of the Napoleonic wars or other similar events. I love reading and writing smuggling stories similar to Poldark, or stories about highwaymen or daring rescue attempts from the shores of revolutionary France, as well as elegant comedies of manners. Most of my own Regency romances have some kind of adventure as well as a romance. There is so much choice in the genre, it offers something for everyone, which is why I suppose it is still so popular, over 200 years after the first publication of Pride and Prejudice.

Amanda Grange

GETTING TO KNOW YOU – Melinda Hammond

Hi, I am Melinda Hammond, but if you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I also write as Sarah Mallory, so first of all let me answer a question I have been asked many times… why do I use two names?

I started writing my romances many years ago as Melinda Hammond but when I began to write for Harlequin Mills & Boon I needed another name, a separate brand, if you like, for the fast-paced passionate historical romances I write for Harlequin. As Melinda Hammond I have published a much more varied selection, from the sweet traditional Regencies such as the award-winning DANCE FOR A DIAMOND to my WWII time-slip AND THE STARS SHINE DOWN and dual time novels like MOONSHADOWS and CASTING SAMSON (an e-book that is best described as Ivanhoe meets the Vicar of Dibley!)

As a child I used to make up stories and by the time I went to secondary school I was telling stories to my friends in the playground and beginning to write down the odd tale. My very first "commercial" success was when I was about ten. We had a visit from the Cadbury's educational team telling us how chocolate was made and there was a competition to write an essay about it. I won and the prize was several bars of chocolate. Unfortunately I have never been paid in chocolate since!

Georgette Heyer

I scribbled away, writing short stories, adventures, anything and everything, but inthose early days I never considered that I might get published, but it must have been there, deep down, because one of the reasons I went into secretarial work was for the typing skills, I knew they would be very useful for my writing!  I continued to write, and gradually found my direction - I had discovered Georgette Heyer's novels when I was a teenager and I don't think there has ever been anyone to match her for the mixture of story-telling, historical detail and witty light comedy.  She virtually invented the Regency novel and when she died in 1974 I was bereft – what was I going to read now?  It seemed logical to try and write my own. So that was when I began to write Regency romance.

However, although I had always read a lot I knew nothing of the publishing world and it was not until I gave up a full time job to have my first child that I even considered sending something to a publisher. In blissful ignorance I bought a Teach Yourself to Write book, typed up my manuscript and posted it off. I was incredibly lucky – the third publisher I approached actually made me an offer. I wrote two more books in quick succession but then the birth of my twin boys put an end to any spare time. This was coupled with a downturn in the publishing world, my publisher was not taking so many historical novels and although I kept on scribbling, my growing family were taking up most of my time and I decided that the writing would have to take a back seat. I didn't have anything else published for several years.

Then in 2000 I had a stroke of luck (!) – I stepped off a kerb, broke one ankle, badly sprained the other and was confined to a sofa for 12 weeks.  I was soon very, very bored. I decided to use the time to dig out an unfinished manuscript and have another go at it. By the time I was back on my feet the book was revised, I sent it off to the publisher and was thrilled when it was accepted. That was MAID OF HONOUR and since then I have never looked back.  I have now published over a dozen books as Melinda Hammond and June this year saw the publication of my 20^th book for Harlequin Mills & Boon.

The Chaperon's Seduction, my 20th book for Harlequin Historical

I love writing historical novels, but I also like my books to have an element of adventure. I grew up in a street full of boys, with three older brothers and no sisters, so I was a bit of a tomboy.  My dad was a reader, and I read the books that were in his bookcase, The Three Musketeers, The Scarlet Pimpernel plus all the Jeffrey Farnol novels, which were historical romances. Oh, and I fell in love with Biggles, so much so that for my birthday a couple of years ago my family bought me a flight in a  1940'sTiger Moth – complete with WWII flying jacket, helmet and goggles!

As a writer of historical fiction, and especially writing about the Regency era, I couldn't miss out on the bicenennary events to mark the Battle of Waterloo so in June I joined a small party of enthusiasts to visit Waterloo.  We have the most fantastic time, so many re-enactors living under canvas for the duration, it was living history!  There isn't room here to tell you all about it, but you can read it on my own blog here  One Belle's Strategy

So that's it, a brief introduction, which I hope you have enjoyed. Now, with the family grown up, I am back to writing full time and I love it. There are so many stories I still want to write and as soon as one if finished I can't wait to get on to the next!

Happy reading!

Melinda Hammond / Sarah Mallory

www.melindahammond.com

Afternoon Tea - an English tradition.

I cannot think of anything more English than afternoon tea. This started when well-to-do ladies made morning calls (in the afternoons) and were served biscuits and tea. Over the years this became a ritual that is now a traditional afternoon tea. Afternoon tea is different from high tea or a cream tea.

Afternoon tea should be served on tiered cake stands and should include a dainty assortment of sandwiches, freshly baked scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, as well as an assortment of small cakes. Tea must be provided in pretty porcelain cups and a china teapot. Nowadays you can also drink bucks fizz or champagne with your tea.

I have eaten afternoon tea in several places but the best is when it's served at home with friends and family. I bought an old-fashioned mixer in order to be able to bake an afternoon tea. I also have five glass and china cake stands as well as five beautiful cardboard stands and I use pretty flower decorated plates. I had an afternoon tea party for my last birthday and as well as tea and coffee I served Pimms - much more refreshing than champagne in my opinion.

A cream tea is slightly different to an afternoon tea. This will only include freshly baked scones, either with sultanas or without, clotted cream and strawberry conserve. In Devon they put cream on first and then the jam and in Cornwall the other way round – cream tea can also be served in a Devonshire split - a sweet bap (a kind of soft roll) instead of scones. Then we come to High Tea. This would be served at the table using plates and cutlery; traditionally it would be ham, cheese, pickles, possibly tomatoes and served with real bread, freshly sliced. There would also be a centre piece of a large cake on a suitably impressive stand, and possibly scones as well. This is a big meal rather than an extra meal slipped in between lunch and supper.

Eating together with friends and family is always a time for celebration and never more so than when eaten at a beautifully decorated table, with stunning cake stands and served in an English country garden.


Fenella Miller

Fenella's latest book is Lady Emma's Revenge. Lady Emma Stanton is determined to discover who killed her husband even if it means enlisting the assistance of a Bow Street Runner. Sam Ross is not a gentleman, has rough manners and little time for etiquette, but he is brave and resourceful and Emma comes to rely on him - perhaps a little too much?

Available from all Amazons including UK  US

Historical Costume: 19th Century Underwear Revealed

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of watching historical costume expert, Mireille Weller, demonstrate what a Victorian lady in 1875 would have worn, from the shift up. As I watched her getting dressed, I realized that it was not that different from Regency times, so I thought a post on  19th century underwear might be interesting.  

The defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo signalled not just a change in the map of Europe, but also a change in fashion. After twenty-five years of war, people were desperate for something new. As the waist slowly descended to normal levels, the base of the skirt, held in place by a wadded hem, began to bell out. Stays had always been worn but now they became stiffened with whale bone and extra-tight lacing came in to emphasize the waist. By 1818, fashion dictated that a small bustle (known colloquially as a ‘bum-roll’) be tied as high up as possible under the back of the skirt to create the fashionable ‘Grecian bend’. In fact, according to The Handbook of English Costume in the 19^th Century, a miniature version of this was in evidence even earlier before 1810.  

And, we must not forget that the formal dress of the 18^th century, with huge hooped skirts for the ladies, was the correct court wear until 1820. Our heroines would have had to cope with hoops and corsets, if they were to be presented to the Queen. So how did they manage?

Stage 1: the shift and stockings

Mireille, our guide, appeared in her shift and stockings. Her shift was a loose cotton (linen in the Regency) garment with short sleeves and a scooped neckline which fell to just below the knee. It was ubiquitous throughout the 19^th century, being cheap and easily washable. Her cotton stockings were held up by garters above the knee. Our Regency heroine’s stockings were held up by garters below the knee and, thus, occasionally visible.

This could lead to some embarrassment as the following poem from The Oracle of 1800 shows:

Why blush, dear girl, pray tell me why?

You need not, I can prove it;
For tho’ your garter met my eye
My thoughts were far above it.

Stage 2: the open-crotch drawers

Mireille then put on her open-crotch drawers, tying the strings at the back. Then she pulled the shift out so that only the legs of the drawers showed.

Stage 3: boots

So, what came next? The answer was unexpected. Boots. Mireille had learnt from experience that once she’d got her corset on, it was impossible to bend down enough to put on her boots, so they had to come first.

Stage 4: the corset. This was fastened at the front and tightened at the back.

Then came the hooped petticoat plus the bustle at the back to give the right silhouette. And our Regency heroine would have attached the bum roll at this point.

Stage 5: the crinoline and bustle

Next came the corset. This fastened at the front with wire hooks and eyelets but there was also lacing at the back which Mireille could tighten herself. She invited me to measure her waist before and after. Her waist was one and a half inches smaller after she’d tightened the laces and, doubtless, a determined maid could have lost another inch or so. 

Interestingly, tightly-laced stays were worn throughout the early Regency period. As The Ipswich Journal put it in 1807: ‘long stays are adapted to give the wearer the true Grecian form’. And in 1813, a garment described as an ‘Apollo’ was, according to The British Press, ‘a sort of under-dress or coat of mail worn by ladies to make their waists looks slender and genteel.’ It sounds excessively uncomfortable!

Stage 6: the first petticoat goes on over the head.

Next came the petticoats – two of them. She put them on over her head as she couldn’t bend enough to step into them. The second petticoat was more decorated than the first and they were both there to hide any evidence of the crinoline or bum roll ‘scaffolding’. In winter, a Victorian lady would have also worn a scarlet flannel petticoat for warmth. Since Medieval times, the colour scarlet was thought of as being, literally, warming; the early 17^th century portrait of the Cholmondeley sisters in the Tate Britain gallery, each holding a baby swaddled in scarlet, is a good example. And we know that ‘The Princes of Wales wore a very large red shawl at the theatre’ in 1808. Presumably this, too, was for warmth.

Stage 7: the second, more decorated petticoat

Of course, having two or more petticoats, each one more elaborately decorated than the one underneath, allowed a lady to lift her skirt a fraction to display a froth of lace.

Stage 8: the skirt

Then came the skirt which also had to go on over the head – and you can see from the photograph how awkward it was to arrange properly. In reality, Mireille would probably have had a maid to help her. The skirt fastened at the back.

Stage 9: the decorative over skirt

After that, she put on the overskirt. This was purely decorative.

Stage 10: the bodice

Lastly, Mireille eased herself into her bodice and showed us the false curls which would enable her to put up her hair in a fashionable chignon with ringlets hanging down. The hair-style is not too dissimilar to the antique Roman style fashionable in 1812. Plus ça change…

You can see that with so many separate garments, even the simple act of sitting down could be a problem. This was why, Mireille explained, a gentleman pulled out a lady’s chair in the dining-room. His job was to give her the space to manoeuvre all her petticoats, crinoline and skirt into position so that she could sit down; and for that she needed both hands. The gentleman then gently pushed the chair forward so that she could sit safely – without, we hope, landing her on the floor.

It was a fascinating demonstration and Mireille’s explanations were equally interesting. All the same, I found myself thinking: thank goodness I live in the 21^st century.

All photographs by Elizabeth Hawksley

Elizabeth Hawksley

Writing Tips #7

Today we're looking at characters again. Your characters are the most important part of your book because they are the way into the book for your reader. This handy checklist will help you to create satisfying characters.

Make sure your characters learn something by the end of the book.

Make sure the reader is rooting for them.

Make sure they have something at stake in the book - a new business they want to succeed, a character trait they want to overcome, an ambition they want to achieve etc.

Make sure they have pasts and futures, talking or thinking about hopes, fears, dreams. Make sure they do things throughout the book to help them achieve their goals.

Make sure thehero and heroine are likeable. This doesn't mean they have to be perfect, but the reader has to care about them. Make sure they have have flaws, but make them understandable flaws and also basically likeable flaws. Self pity isn't a likeable flaw, for example. Rashness is.

Make sure they react in believable ways.

Make sure you would like your hero and heroine in real life.

Make sure they try to solve their problems rather than just moaning.

Make sure we see them in a range of situations so we see a range of emotions.

Make sure they're not Too Stupid To Live. A heroine who takes her cheating boyfriend back time after time is too stupid to live, for example.

Make sure you don't have too many minor characters and make sure you don't let them run away with the book.

Make sure your hero and heroine are together in most scenes and have meaningful interactions that engage their emotions.

Amanda Grange

Lace, Stays and Powerful thighs: How could I resist?

Today, Elizabeth Bailey shares her reasons for loving reading and writing Regency romance.

Huge picture hats and charming straw bonnets; lashings of lace and tulle; yards of gathered floating muslin and bosoms upthrust by tightly boned stays.  Powerful thighs encased in close-fitting breeches; elegant colourful tailcoats with flowing hair brushing the collar; white starched cravats and tasselled polished boots.  Horses and carriages, vast estates and mansions filled with treasure.  It’s a world of privilege and slowed down time, far from the rush and bustle of the twenty-first century.

Although the fictional Regency and Georgian worlds are necessarily a romanticised version, they hark back to an era of endless fascination.  We know that the sharp class divisions and the inequities in life were unfair, that those who worked had to toil for hours to produce articles that would now be cut out in minutes by machine.  We know life was harsh, that odours we would consider offensive were legion, that disease was rife and often incurable.  But somehow the harshness adds to the piquancy of the period, pointing up the glamour enjoyed by the rich.

For the novelist, it’s an era riddled with possibilities.  Where your modern author struggles to find legitimate obstacles to put in the way of achieving goals, the historical writer has them readily to hand.  Communication can take days instead of being instantaneous; rules forbid women access to male dominated areas; travel is long and arduous; clothing is restrictive; food and drink can be inaccessible; and it is all too easy to become lost in a maze of dangerous alleyways or vast acres of uninhabited countryside.

But restrictive clothing adds spice to the hero's hunting instincts. Long coach journeys provide opportunities both for scintillating dialogue and hands-on getting to know you. Heroines found in the wrong place provoke heroes to gallant deeds of rescue. And getting lost together is almost certain to end in dalliance. As for food and drink, remember that outrageously sexy meal in the film Tom Jones?

The period element offers an endless variety of situations to tickle an author's imagination. That's why I love working in this Regency and Georgian world.

My own fictional world may be similar to that of other historical authors, but each is unique, reflecting the writer’s personal enjoyment of that past time. What I love most about writing in this period is that I can invite readers into my particular world, which is close to the real one but belongs exclusively to me.

Journey into my world with Friday Dreaming:

Bookish Friday Edborough’s secret dream looks set to come true when childhood friend, the gorgeous Nicolas Weare, proposes—if only he was behaving like a man in love. All too soon, Friday’s worst fears are confirmed when she finds Nick has been forced into the betrothal to stop him marrying the beautiful but ineligible Hermione.

Caught between love and loyalty, Friday ends the engagement, leaving Nick to realise the value of what he’s lost just as he discovers Hermione’s true worth. But with the lines joining love and hate beginning to blur, has Nick’s change of heart come too late?

Elizabeth Bailey