Georgette Heyer's Regency World (15 page)

Another evening pleasure haunt favoured by the
ton
was the Royal Saloon located in Piccadilly. With its Turkish-style exterior and famous suppers of lobster and
bucellas
(Portuguese white wine) the Saloon drew large crowds from midnight till dawn. Here, members of the upper class ate in one of the booths or cavorted with the Cyprians and demireps against a painted backdrop of palm trees and eastern architecture. A popular haunt with gamblers, the Royal Saloon was lively, colourful and dissipated and the ideal place to meet with friends or to enjoy supper after an evening at the theatre or opera. Sherry in
Friday’s Child
was the life and soul of many a party at the Royal Saloon but was shocked when he found his young wife Hero there enjoying supper with several of his more outrageous friends.

Around the Town

In addition to the more adult entertainments available in the great metropolis, Regency London boasted a range of attractions to tempt visitors of all ages. One of the most popular of these was Bullock’s Museum located in Piccadilly and often referred to as the Egyptian Hall because of its striking architecture. William Bullock opened his museum in the spring of 1812, attracting large crowds to view the exhibits which included preserved elephants, rhinos and giraffes as well as other exotic animals, birds and fish, weapons, costumes, artefacts, shells and fossils. Kitty Charing in
Cotillion
visited the Egyptian Hall when Napoleon’s specially designed bulletproof travelling carriage (seized after the Battle of Waterloo) was put on display there, although neither she nor her distracted fiancé, Freddy Standen, were especially interested in the famous exhibit. In deference to Kitty’s fervent desire to see some of London’s most famous monuments, Freddy had already escorted her to several historic sites, of which only the Tower of London had really engaged his attention. Originally built by William the Conqueror in 1078 as part of the defence of the city, by the time of the Regency the Tower was a much larger edifice and offered visitors the chance to see Traitors’ Gate and the Bloody Tower, the crown jewels, the Horse Armoury and the record office with its vast collection of documents dating from the reign of King John. Kitty and Freddy particularly enjoyed the menagerie in the Lion Tower originally built by Edward IV. Visitors paid a shilling to enter the yard and were shown round by the keeper who could tell them about the caged beasts housed there. In 1805 these included several lions and lionesses, tigers, leopards, a panther, a wolf, raccoons and a hyena, many of which lived well into the Regency.

One of London’s most popular attractions during the Regency was Astley’s Amphitheatre, founded in 1767 by Philip Astley, a former sergeant-major of dragoons. Astley was a superb equestrian, with a flair for the dramatic and exciting, and his horsemanship and acrobatic riding led him to establish one of the early modern circuses. Spectacular shows such as
Make Way for Liberty
or the
Flight of the Saracens
drew large crowds to the amphitheatre near Westminster Bridge in Lambeth, and members of the upper class often took their children there. Sir Gareth Ludlow’s young nieces and nephews in
Sprig Muslin
thought him the best of uncles for taking them to Astley’s to see the troops of horses re-enacting scenes of war, the daring equestriennes performing extraordinary acrobatic feats on horseback and the famous equestrian ballet.

An equally popular though somewhat more refined attraction enjoyed by the upper class was the annual exhibition of paintings at Somerset House. Completed in 1801, Somerset House was a magnificent building on the Strand with its front facing the river Thames. It was home to the Royal Academy of Arts, and each year in May the
ton
flocked to Somerset House for the Academy’s annual art exhibition in which nearly a thousand paintings were hung from floor to ceiling in the grand exhibition room. It was here that in
Arabella
, Lady Bridlington deliberately left Arabella alone with Mr Beaumaris on the pretext of finding and admiring Sir Thomas Lawrence’s latest painting.

A less genteel pastime favoured by many in Regency society—and young men in particular—were the travelling peep-shows. These usually consisted of a perspective box in which were placed painted and artistically arranged figures set against a painted background. Using mirrors and artificial lighting they offered the viewer the novelty of peering through a small peep-hole in one corner of the box to see images of people in exotic locations or pastoral scenes. Wandering showmen carried them from town to town, setting up the boxes at local fairs or on a busy street and charging a penny per view. In
Arabella
, the heroine’s brother Bertram was delighted by the peep-show he had seen in Coventry Street. Peep-shows were also a popular attraction at Bartholomew Fair, the centuries-old carnival famous for its theatricals, sideshows, booths, gin stalls and fairings. Founded in 1133 during the reign of Henry I, the fair opened on St Bartholomew’s Day (24 August) and was held at Smithfield on the site of what eventually became the famous Smithfield meat market. It ran for three days and by the time of the Regency was enormously popular with the masses, although generally avoided by the well-bred and aristocratic who were well aware of the seamier side of what was sometimes referred to as the ‘British Saturnalia’.

In
Friday’s Child
, Sherry was horrified to discover that his innocent young wife, Hero, had gone off to Bartholomew Fair with several of the more notorious members of the upper class. Well aware of the social stigma attached to being seen in such surroundings he rushed off to rescue her but then decided that it would be quite acceptable for
him
to escort Hero around the fair. Bartholomew Fair offered visitors a wide range of attractions including puppets, musicians, wire walkers, theatricals, prizefights, acrobats, wild animals, swings, roundabouts and even an early form of Ferris wheel. One of the most famous characters at the fair was the great theatrical showman, Richardson, whose fairground theatre was known as ‘Richardson’s Great Booth’. Sherry and Hero attended his production of the hair-raising melodrama
The Hall of Death
or
Who’s the Murderer
, with the renowned Mrs Carey in the lead role of Ducheza Rosanna Vinsenza. Besides theatricals, some of the most thrilling attractions at the fair were the sideshows which advertised all manner of strange and unusual exhibits and displays. Sherry and Hero, along with many other Regency visitors, were fascinated by the extraordinary Fireproof Lady, also known as Madame Giradelli, who could dip her limbs in boiling oil, boiling lead and nitric acid, bite on melted lead and touch red-hot iron to various parts of her body, all without any apparent ill effect. Patrons also flocked to see the Living Skeleton, Simon Paap the famous Dutch Dwarf (only 28 inches tall) and Toby, the learned pig who could count, tell time and answer questions put to him by members of the audience. Such was Bartholomew Fair’s reputation, however, that Sherry forbade his wife from telling anyone of their visit.

The Peerless Pond was another destination generally disdained by the upper class although it was often favoured by adventurous young men such as Jessamy and Felix Merriville in
Frederica
. Originally known as the ‘Perilous Pond’ because of the large number of drownings, the pool was a natural swimming hole which had been converted into England’s first open-air swimming pool in 1743. It was located on Old Street in Moorfields, and visitors could enjoy the spacious pool and its shady, sylvan setting, with all the amenities of dressing boxes, bowling green and library. Although it was not considered a genteel location, the pool was extremely popular with young men of all classes and casual swimmers could use the facilities for a shilling a time.

The Fashionable Resorts

Brighton

George, Prince of Wales, first visited the seaside town of Brighthelmstone in 1783 when he was just twenty-one. Originally a fishing village, Brighton, as it came to be called, had been transformed into a fashionable resort in the mid-eighteenth century as a result of the work of Dr Richard Russell who had developed the ‘sea-water cure’ and created a vogue for swimming in and drinking the brine. In the late eighteenth century Brighton offered the Prince plenty of opportunity for merrymaking and, as he told Judith Taverner in
Regency Buck,
the town caught his fancy and he began making annual visits there to enjoy rides on the downs, shooting, gambling, the theatre, races and the company of his rakish uncle, the Duke of Cumberland. With a pair of fast horses, a racing curricle or phaeton and rapid changes en route, an accomplished driver such as the Prince could make the fifty-mile journey in less than five hours.

The Prince leased a farmhouse some 600 yards from the sea and in 1787 he commissioned the architect Henry Holland to convert it into a pavilion suitable as a summer residence. Because the Prince was renowned for his love of pleasure and high living, society naturally followed him to Brighton and discovered for themselves the delights of sea air and sea bathing. From the early nineteenth century onwards the
haut ton
rented houses along the newly built streets and squares of the town and dedicated themselves to the continual round of balls, card parties, assemblies and soirées held there during the Brighton season.

From its inception the Brighton Pavilion took up much of the Prince of Wales’s (later the Prince Regent’s) time and money, and what had begun as a simple transformation into a fairly modest domed house in 1787 had, by the end of Regency, turned into the fulfilment of John Nash’s vision of a kind of oriental palace. The final Pavilion boasted several main rooms on its ground floor, each of them magnificently decorated with a strong oriental influence. The Prince’s famous dinner parties and musical evenings brought the cream of society to his seaside palace and he entertained them lavishly in the five main rooms which ran along the eastern side of the building. The Music Room and the Yellow Drawing Room (now known as the Music Room Gallery) made up the northern wing, with the oval-shaped Saloon in the centre, and the Blue Drawing Room (originally the Green Drawing Room and now known as the Banqueting Room Gallery) and the Banqueting Room comprised the south wing, with the Great Kitchen built adjoining it, and a Pages’ or Table Deckers’ Room in between. It was to the Yellow Drawing Room that the Prince Regent invited Miss Taverner to give her a Petitot snuff-box in
Regency Buck
and it was there that he tried to kiss her.

Entry to the Pavilion was from the west side, through the Octagon Hall which led directly into the Entrance Hall—a square room decorated with serpents and dragons on pale green walls where Judith Taverner and her chaperone Mrs Scattergood left their shawls. From there guests could move into the Red Drawing Room on the south side of the Hall or straight ahead into the Long Gallery with its painted-glass ceiling and beautiful Chinese fretwork and decorations. The Long Gallery led directly into the Music Room at the southern end of the house or to the Banqueting Room at the northern end. The Prince Regent entered his private apartments, in the northwest corner of the Pavilion, from either the Entrance Hall or from the Long Gallery.

The Best Address and Other Accommodations

Brighton was not a large town—even after the Prince Regent made it fashionable. For those of the upper class who usually took a house for the summer season or, like Sir Bonamy Ripple in
False Colours
, maintained a permanent residence there, the best address was Marine Parade, a broad boulevard running parallel to the sea. There, elegant houses lined the northern side of the street and, being built on land high above the water, commanded unencumbered views of the sea and beach. It was not uncommon for the male members of the upper class to set up a telescope in a first-floor window of their hired house as Perry did in
Regency Buck
and spend part of their leisure time ogling the women on the beach going in and out of the bathing boxes lined up beside the water. At the eastern end of the Parade stood Royal Crescent with its row of bow-fronted town houses built, in the early nineteenth century, by Mr Otto, an Indian nabob who had also seen fit to erect an oversize plaster statue of the Prince of Wales in the centre of the Crescent. For those who could not get a house on Marine Parade (or who preferred being at the centre of things like Evelyn Fancot in
False Colours
) the next best location was the Steine with its elegant promenade and close proximity to the shops and lending libraries. Although it could be noisy, the Steine was in the centre of town and had a view of the Pavilion. The most fashionable address in Brighton was of course the Pavilion, and the Regent often had friends to stay—although usually only for a few days and never for longer than a week.

Brighton’s two leading hotels, the Old Ship and the Castle Inn, were well established by the middle of the eighteenth century, but the advent of Dr Russell with his ‘miracle’ cure of sea bathing served to make them even more popular. As the main Brighton coaching terminus, the Old Ship was the final stop for visitors arriving in the town and was within easy walking distance of the main street and the Pavilion. During the Regency it was customary for the Prince to be informed, on a daily basis, of new arrivals at the Old Ship so that those deemed suitable could be added to the list of guests to be invited to the Pavilion. In
Friday’s Child
, Gil Ringwood suggested that Sherry and Hero take their honeymoon in Brighton because Hero would enjoy the balls at the Castle Inn and going to the Pavilion to meet the Regent. The Castle Inn was located on the north-east corner of Castle Square between the Pavilion and the Steine. As the Pavilion grew, so did the need for land, and both the Castle Inn’s land and the building itself were eventually absorbed into the Pavilion site; the inn was torn down in 1823 and the old assembly room was converted into a private chapel for the King.

On the Promenade and Other Entertainments

By the early nineteenth century Brighton had become well known as the Prince’s town. Each summer the generally quiet fishing village was transformed into a popular destination for the rich and fashionable. While the Pavilion stood at the centre of Brighton’s social life there were also other entertainments and activities for the well-heeled and well-connected. By 1806, George Raggett, who owned the famous White’s club in London, had established Raggett’s club on the Steine and it was to Raggett’s that the gentlemen of the
ton
would repair during the season to enjoy an excellent dinner or indulge in high play over a hand of cards or the roll of the dice. Hester Theale’s father, Lord Brancaster, in
Sprig Muslin
was a member of the Prince Regent’s set and spent most summers in Brighton playing whist at the Pavilion with the Prince and his brother the Duke of York, and engaging in every other hedonistic pastime put in his way. Across the road from Raggett’s, also on the Steine, was Donaldson’s Library, an elegant, spacious building where visitors could read the papers, exchange books, meet friends or attend one of the regular evening card parties or musical soirées. Evenings could also be spent promenading along the Steine just before sunset (at the fashionable hour of nine o’clock), exchanging nods and bows and perhaps receiving a gracious acknowledgement from the Prince Regent himself or, on one of her two visits to Brighton in 1814 and 1815, from his ageing mother, Queen Charlotte. It was while strolling along the Steine during the promenade hour that Captain Audley met Bernard Taverner in
Regency Buck
and the two men walked together to the Castle Inn where they shared a bottle of wine.

As the town grew, a second library, Fisher’s, was opened on Marine Parade between Charles and Manchester Streets. With views across the sea, it was a comfortable venue for talking or reading, with all the major London newspapers delivered each evening by coach. The
Brighton Herald
, established in 1806 and with immediate access to the regular packet from Dieppe, often scooped the London papers in reporting foreign events and in 1814 was the first English paper to report Napoleon’s escape from Elba. As well as the libraries, Brighton had a good theatre in New Road, just west of the Pavilion, and an established programme of balls and card assemblies held at the Castle Inn and the Old Ship on alternate evenings. Race meetings were held at the course on the Downs just outside of town and were extremely popular with both male and female visitors. Brighton did not appeal to everyone, however: Lady Ombersley in
The Grand Sophy
, when asked where she would prefer to spend the summer months, declared that the town was not good for her constitution and her daughter Cecilia was adamant in judging the Regent’s parties at the Pavilion as ‘stupid’!

Sea bathing became increasingly popular during the Regency as visitors travelled to Brighton to bathe in the sea and drink its water. Sea bathing was often referred to as ‘a cold medicated bath’ with a strict ritual to be followed by anyone wishing to gain full benefit from the activity. In
Sprig Muslin
, Lady Hester’s sister felt that a course of sea bathing might prove beneficial to her small, rather sickly son. Patients were required to prepare for bathing by regularly drinking sea water, and bathing was to be done in cold weather when the pores were ‘safely’ closed. It was considered dangerous to bathe after exercise, or in warmer weather, as this was thought to increase the risk of contracting a chill or worse. For some, however, sea bathing had become a pleasure and they would brave the waters even in the summer, undressing in the dressing machines and swimming naked or donning the more modest linen or flannel shift and stepping into the water from their horse-drawn wheeled box after it had been pulled into the sea. Ladies and gentlemen were usually separated, and for the uninitiated or less confident there were paid helpers (known as dippers) on hand to assist bathers.

Bath