| Fortunate for posterity that when the | | | | hostess, and then stand (never sit) in rooms |
| American Mr. Louis Simond made a trip to | | | | crowded with elegant people, jostling and |
| Regency London in 1809, he not only stayed | | | | moving about to find one's friends, with no |
| in the fashionable West End of the city, but | | | | entertainments offered and apparently no |
| kept notes on what he saw there. He recorded | | | | refreshments. He mentions the lack of cards, |
| details about the general tide of life for | | | | music, and even conversation. Supposedly, the |
| the residents who lived, loved and | | | | aim was to get there, be seen, and to see |
| | | | whomever else had |
| played there. His are not the only | | | | |
| eye-witness notes we have of the period, but | | | | braved the crowded streets to attend.When |
| they are revealing.Simond was amused to | | | | ready to leave, waiting for one's carriage |
| notice that, firstly, no one "stirred" | | | | was the next trial, after which it was on to |
| earlier than 10am. At that time, shops became | | | | another "at home" (what we would call an |
| | | | "open house"party today). One can imagine |
| | | | the sheer exhaustion of attending just one or |
| sleepily awake, and the Horse Guards were on | | | | two of these in a week! And yet they were |
| the move in a noisy parade, their daily march | | | | constantly being hosted, and the greater your |
| from the barracks to Hyde Park. But what of | | | | popularity and consequence, the more |
| the ton, the inner circle of fashionable | | | | invitations you would receive.Entire evenings |
| society?These lofty souls did not appear | | | | could be spent attending such things, and, as |
| until nigh three or four o'clock, when, in a | | | | the grid-lock and flux of carriages in the |
| great racket, they would begin making their | | | | |
| "morning" calls, or go shopping or | | | | street and their accompanying flambeaux gave |
| promenading, or grace an assembly room with | | | | away the location of these affairs, they were |
| their presence. Why was the beginning of | | | | virtually public knowledge--and therefore |
| their day so late in the afternoon? Because | | | | heavily attended.So much for the painstaking |
| it went on until early next morning, or even | | | | work of ordering and sending little gilded |
| 'til dawn.Simond says there was gaslight on | | | | invitations to an elite list of recipients, |
| the streets, and this, in 1809 (earlier than | | | | weeks in advance. As Mrs. Bentley notes (in |
| most of us thought); but the lights were not | | | | "Before the Season Ends,"**) "a hostess |
| effective, and after being lit at dusk, did | | | | always prefers a crush to its opposite! But |
| little to illumine one's way ( but made | | | | important members of the ton must not be made |
| "little brightish dots" in a line going down | | | | to suffer!" Alas for Mrs. Bentley, it was |
| the street).*There was a lull of activity | | | | seemingly unavoidable at times.Interestingly, |
| around this time, and then, from six o'clock | | | | a picture of a "rout" occurs in the BBC |
| to about eight, after people had dressed for | | | | "Sense and Sensibility" with Emma Thompson |
| dinner and evening entertainments, the racket | | | | and Kate Winslet. The scene where Marianne |
| and street traffic started up again. Another | | | | spots her mysteriously absent sometime suitor |
| lull would follow, and then near ten o'clock | | | | and cries out (quite unfashionably) |
| the crush of carriages was back with all its | | | | "Willoughby!" Some people are shown with a |
| ensuing noises: The thunderous hoof-beats, | | | | glass in their hand, and there are, I |
| whinnying, whips cracking, people laughing, | | | | believe, servants making the rounds with |
| wheels turning, churning, and lumbering along | | | | trays. A generous host, no doubt, but this |
| the cobbled roads. It was an awful din that | | | | was apparently not always the case.Either |
| rarely subsided before midnight.In the book, | | | | way, I must still say, the Regency? You've |
| Our Tempestous Day, Carolly Erickson says | | | | got to love it!c 2006 Linore Rose |
| that, according to Simond, "At one o'clock it | | | | BurkardAcknowledgement goes to Carolly |
| was still difficult to sleep for all the | | | | Erickson's "Our |
| commotion. Gradually, though, the number of | | | | |
| carriages diminshed until, as the sky began | | | | Tempestuous Day: A History |
| to grow light, only a single carriage was | | | | |
| heard now and then | | | | of Regency England," in which she discusses |
| | | | Simond's visit.Linore Rose Burkard writes |
| at a great distance. The fashionable world | | | | Inspirational Regency Romance as well as |
| went to sleep, not to be roused until long | | | | articles on Regency Life, Homeschooling, and |
| after noon." *The next day, it would start | | | | Self-Improvement. She publishes a monthly |
| all over again, and the endless whirl of | | | | eZine "Upon My Word!" which you can receive |
| activity called the "season" would | | | | for FREE by signing up at her website |
| continue.Simond also detailed what it was | | | | quickly and easily.Ms. Burkard graduated from |
| like attending a party (or, "rout") of the | | | | the City University of New York with a Magna |
| fashionable. After waiting in long | | | | Cum Laude degree in English Literature, and |
| | | | now lives in Ohio with her husband and five |
| carriage lines along the street to gain | | | | children. |
| entrance, one would greet the host or | | | | |