Georgette Heyer's Regency World (3 page)

The Bottom of the Ladder

The largest of all social classes during the Regency, the labouring poor, were those who struggled on a daily basis to survive, from labourers to pedlars, chimney sweeps and climbing boys, ordinary soldiers and naval men, vagrants, paupers and those too old, too sick or too unlucky to find work. Although some found employment as itinerant or seasonal workers many among the labouring poor were driven to crime, prostitution or an early grave. Young Ben Breane, the gatekeeper’s son in
The Toll-Gate
, having found himself without relatives to care for him, was terrified of being thrown on the parish or sent to work in the foundries in Sheffield; while the urchin rescued by Patience Chartley in
The Nonesuch
was one of many who eked out an existence among the dyeing-houses and manufactories in the back-slums of Leeds.

Climbing the Social Ladder

The quickest way up the social ladder was through marriage and, failing that, by the accumulation of great wealth, a landed estate, and the acquisition of a title. In
Frederica
it was the heroine’s great ambition to see her beautiful sister, Charis, successfully launched into the
ton
in the hope that she might contract a good marriage—for with only their brother’s small estate to support them this was the best hope for seeing Charis and her younger siblings comfortably and independently established for the rest of their lives. In the middle and lower classes—where hierarchy was not distinguished by title, and birth and money were often merely indicators rather than deciding factors in determining an individual’s position on the social scale—knowing one’s exact place depended on a number of things. In
A Civil Contract
a potential feud between the housekeeper, Mrs Dawes, and her mistress’s personal maid, Miss Pinhoe, was averted once it was discovered that the two women were from the same county and the social pecking order was made clear from Mrs Dawes’s superior standing as the daughter of a prosperous farmer. The myriad of levels within each degree of class and the subtle distinctions that pushed one person ahead of another constantly shifted as people jostled for a better social position, and overt signs of superiority such as clothing, manners, speech, dwelling, income, personal property and numbers of servants (if any) became increasingly available to a growing number of people. In general, however, most people knew their place and, accordingly, showed deference or a marked superiority in their dealings with others. For those already titled, gaining a higher title was the most obvious means of social advancement.

For some families, scaling the social heights was a climb which could take several generations. A man might make his way in the world of trade or commerce, gain financial independence, buy an estate and earn himself a baronetcy or a seat in the House of Commons. From there he could aspire to the lowest rank of the peerage (baron) or marry his daughter (or, less likely, his son) to a member of the nobility. If he could not himself rise through the ranks, his children, grandchildren or even great-grandchildren might well achieve such honour through marriage, increased wealth, political influence or great service to the State. Although the aristocracy could be ruthless in excluding from its ranks those new entrants deemed to be of inferior birth, the passage of time was an effective panacea and it usually took, at most, two generations before the descendant of a commoner became an accepted member of the upper class.

At Home in Town and Country

Mayfair

Mayfair, that fashionable district in the West End of London that housed most of Georgette Heyer’s London characters, was bounded by Park Lane to the west, Piccadilly to the south, Bond Street to the east and Oxford Street to the north. The original May Fair, for which the area was named, began in 1689 and was an annual fête, hugely popular but so riotous that, by 1720, land developers had started planning the construction of ‘a large square and several fine streets and houses’. Grosvenor Square was the centrepiece of a planned eight-acre estate with Brook Street and Grosvenor Street as the two main east–west arteries. Green Street, Duke Street, South Audley Street and Mount Street, among others, were all part of the development with many fine houses and mews (stables) constructed there in the first half of the eighteenth century. Throughout the 1700s other streets and squares were also built in the increasingly exclusive area as more and more of the upper classes sought to rent or buy impressive residences west of the City, away from the fumes and foul air of the ‘easterly pile’, and closer to Hyde Park, Westminster and the Court of St James. By the time of the Regency many of the newly constructed mansions, classically inspired villas and rows of tall, elegant town houses in such desirable locations as Berkeley Square, Half Moon Street and Curzon Street had become home to the titled, rich and fashionable. Mayfair was for ever established as the place to live in London.

The London House

Although upper-class houses varied in architecture, size and style, they shared several common elements which offered their wealthy owners or leaseholders grand, spacious living in elegantly appointed, well-lit rooms and as many of the modern conveniences as possible—depending on the age and design of the house. Most quality London houses of the Georgian period were made of stone and during the Regency were often rendered with stucco and painted. The majority of these houses were constructed with at least four floors plus a basement, cellars and an attic. On finding the grand family mansion in Grosvenor Square too large and dreary for their taste, the newly married Lord and Lady Sheringham in
Friday’s Child
decided they needed a ‘snug little house’ in Mayfair and eventually found a suitable town house in Half Moon Street. In the early nineteenth century, increased prosperity enabled many among the wealthy classes to extend and enlarge their London houses or build entirely new ones with five, and sometimes six, storeys.

Whether a house was old or new, the layout was fairly uniform, with the main living areas on the ground and first floors, the bedrooms, schoolroom and nursery on the two floors above that, the kitchen, scullery, housekeeper’s and butler’s rooms and a sleeping area for the footman in the basement, the housemaids’ quarters in the attic and the wine and coal in the cellars. The living areas usually included, on the ground floor, an entrance hall, saloon, dining room and possibly a library or book-room. It was the Marquis of Alverstoke’s book-room rather than the saloon or drawing-room to which Frederica was escorted when she arrived at his town mansion in Berkeley Square in the company of two park-keepers and a shrill, ‘hatchet-faced’ woman. The drawing-room was on the first floor and was often a double room or adjoined by a saloon with double doors which could be opened to create one large room. On the next floor were the (usually separate) bedchambers used by the master and mistress of the house and, in more progressive households, possibly a bathroom like the lavish one installed by Jenny Chawleigh’s father in
A Civil Contract
. A dressing room adjoined each bedroom (although a man might sometimes have his dressing room located rather inconveniently on a separate floor) and ladies sometimes used their dressing room as a small daytime sitting room. Children’s bedrooms, the nursery and schoolroom were on the floor above and older boys and girls often had separate rooms. Very large houses sometimes had a ballroom on the ground floor at the back of the house which could accommodate several hundred people. Lord and Lady Ombersley of
The Grand Sophy
were hosts at a grand ball for five hundred invited guests which was held in the ballroom of their house in Berkeley Square. Lit by a magnificent candle-filled chandelier and decorated with flowers, the Ombersley ball was one of the great successes of the Season.

The living areas of most London town houses were furnished with large and small tables, various kinds of chairs, couches, footstools, chandeliers, candelabra, carpets, curtains, paintings, tapestries,
objets d’art
and the other accoutrements that enhanced the occupants’ comfort and were a way of subtly (or not so subtly) demonstrating degrees of wealth and status to one’s guests. Bedrooms were generally well-appointed suites, though more sparsely furnished than the living rooms with just a bed, wardrobe, chair, dressing table or washstand, a floor rug and a free-standing mirror. In
April Lady
Nell Cardross’s husband had her bedroom transformed into a romantic boudoir with rose-silk curtains around a magnificent tent bed and the adjoining dressing room hung with blue and silver brocade. Ladies sometimes had a
secretaire
or writing desk in their bedroom or small sitting room and a couch or daybed there as well for the occasional daytime repose.

Every bedroom had its chamber-pot (placed discreetly under the bed for easy access during the night), and water-closets were becoming increasingly popular in upper- and wealthy middle-class houses. It had taken centuries to develop an efficient, workable toilet but in 1778 Joseph Bramah had patented his valve-operated water-closet and by 1797 had reportedly sold some 6,000 of them. In 1813 the Earl of Moira’s country house in Leicestershire boasted two bathrooms and six water-closets and his wife even had her own elegantly appointed personal bathroom and WC adjoining her dressing room. Jonathan Chawleigh’s passion for new inventions in
A Civil Contract
caused him to have the latest Bramah water-closet installed under a staircase in Adam and Jenny’s Grosvenor Street house. In houses without the modern conveniences, use of the chamber-pot (emptied out the window) or privy (a seat over a hole in the ground and located out the back of the house) continued to be used.

Lighting was gradually improved during the Regency and from the early 1800s many upper-class houses used oil-lamps in addition to the traditional tallow and wax candles by which most homes were lit. Chandeliers and candelabra of all sizes used hundreds of candles to light ballrooms, drawing-rooms and dining rooms, while a single candle in a holder might be enough to light a bedroom. Gas lighting was introduced during the period and, although in 1821 the Prince Regent had gas installed at the Brighton Pavilion in order to light the decorative glass windows at night it was to be many years before the system was refined enough for widespread domestic use. Peregrine Taverner in
Regency Buck
was awestruck by the magnificent central chandelier above the dining table when he was one of several guests invited to the Pavilion for one of the Regent’s famous bachelor dinner parties.

Keeping warm, even in the grandest houses, could be challenging. Most rooms had a fireplace and fires were usually lit in the early morning in the bedrooms and after breakfast or, as required, in the main living rooms. Coal was the main form of fuel in the cities but fires were a most inefficient form of heating as much of the heat went straight up the chimney. In some houses fires were kept burning throughout the day only in the winter months and then only in the main living rooms of the house. In
Cotillion
miserly Mr Penicuik allowed only the smallest fires to be lit in the main rooms at Arnside even in the coldest weather which caused his ward, Kitty Charing, to be especially grateful for the unexpected luxury of a fire in her bedroom when she visited London. Winter temperatures often extended into autumn and spring and it was not uncommon in wealthy (and less penny-pinching) households for fires to be lit nine months of the year. In houses with several main rooms, chimneys had to be swept at least every three months and the narrow flues (about a foot in diameter) meant that small boys, known as climbing-boys, were often sent into the chimneys to clear out the accumulated soot. When a climbing-boy fell down the chimney in
Arabella
the heroine was horrified to discover the exact nature of the abuses endured by the seven-year-old Jemmy. An appalling practice, this form of chimney-sweeping saw many children under the age of eight abused, injured and killed, and from 1817 humanitarians intensified their efforts to make the use of climbing-boys illegal and have the custom abolished.

On the Fringe: Hans Town and Russell Square

Although in the eighteenth century Mayfair had still been home to builders, tradespeople and shopkeepers as well as the upper class they serviced, by the time of the Regency the area was felt by many to be the exclusive preserve of the acknowledged leaders of fashionable society and members of the aristocracy. For those families with fortunes made in commerce, trade or one of the professions and possessed by a burning ambition to enter polite society, the next best thing to a house in Mayfair was an address in one of the districts adjacent to that exclusive quarter. Upper Wimpole and Harley Streets to the north, Russell Square in Bloomsbury to the north-east and Sloane Street and Hans Town to the south were often chosen as suitable residential areas by those on the social fringe. Such a move could also be slightly problematic, however, as the Merrivilles discovered in
Frederica
, for in upper-class circles the revelation that a person had an address in Upper Wimpole Street, or one of these new estates—Russell Square and Hans Town were often stigmatised as new rich—could lead to social exclusion.