Georgette Heyer's Regency World (33 page)

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832):
A poet in his early years, Scott enjoyed great popularity with his Scottish border ballads and long narrative poems such as
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
(1805) and
Marmion
(1808). The rise of Byron in 1812 saw Scott turn to novel writing and, drawing on his deep love of Scotland, its history and people, he produced the landmark historical romance
Waverley
. Over the next decade Scott anonymously published a series of best-selling books including
Guy Mannering
(1815),
Rob
Roy
(1817),
The
Heart
of
Midlothian
(1818) and
Ivanhoe
(1819) but did not acknowledge authorship until 1827.

Robert Southey (1774–1843):
A prolific writer, Southey was a popular poet and biographer who became Poet Laureate in 1813. Best remembered for his biographical works including his
Life of Nelson
(1813) and
Life of Wesley
(1820), in his day he was admired by the likes of Scott and Byron, and his epic poem
The Curse of Kehama
(1810) was enormously popular. One of the ‘Lake Poets’, Southey had studied at Oxford where he became good friends with Coleridge with whom he had been a pantisocrat with plans to establish an equitable community on the banks of the Susquehanna. Instead he married Edith Fricker, the sister of Coleridge’s wife Sara, and spent much of his life writing.

The Beau and the Dandies

George Bryan ‘Beau’ Brummell (1778–1840):
The subject of countless anecdotes and credited with many famous sayings (such as asking, ‘Who’s your fat friend?’ in reference to the Prince Regent), for many years Beau Brummell stood at the centre of the fashionable world. Born into the middle class, Brummell entered elite circles by way of Eton—where his wit and elegance earned him the nickname ‘Beau’—and Oxford. After a short stay at the university he was gazetted a cornet in the Prince of Wales’s regiment, the 10th Hussars, and the two became friends. Brummell sold out of the army on his regiment being ordered to Manchester and moved to London where he soon established himself as arbiter elegantiarum, remaining the acknowledged leader of fashion and close friend of the Prince of Wales for more than a decade. Brummell’s neat, plain style of dress, his mannerisms and his social decrees were everywhere adhered to and slavishly copied. In dress he insisted upon personal cleanliness, freshly laundered shirts, a perfectly tied neckcloth and a simplicity of attire that did not draw attention to the wearer. It was Brummell who began the fashion for perfectly cut, dark-coloured coats for evening wear (which continues today in the form of the dinner jacket). Brummell was a leader of society in more than mere clothes, however; he was also admired for his wit and social grace and feared for his satire and insolence. It was said that the Beau could make a man’s reputation merely by giving him his arm for the length of the street and could just as easily (it was supposed) blight a person’s social career by the lifting of an eyebrow. He exercised a remarkable hold over fashionable society for nearly twenty years, even after falling out with the Regent in 1813. Possessed of a large fortune in his twenties, he had gambled it away by his forties and in 1816 his massive debts forced him into exile in France where he died in an asylum in Caen in 1840.

William, 2nd Baron Alvanley (1789–1849):
Universally liked and admired for his handsome demeanour, kindness and lightning repartee, Lord Alvanley was also a noted dresser and one of the leading dandies of his day. The possessor of an immense fortune, he indulged in all the pleasures of the table—both dining and gaming—and thought nothing of paying £200 for a lunch hamper from Gunter’s or producing the most expensive dish (a fricassee using thirteen different birds) for a special dinner at White’s. He never used cash but lived on credit and famously said of a friend that he had ‘muddled away his fortune in paying tradesmen’s bills’. Of average height, but well-built, he excelled at sports, was a first-rate huntsman and had seen active service in the Coldstream Guards, attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel before resigning his commission. Intelligent, well-read and always good-humoured, Alvanley had spent time in many of the European courts and was a popular guest, despite his habit of snuffing his candle with his pillow and requesting that an apricot tart be served to him at dinner every day. Less well-off in his later years, he remained a kind and considerate friend to many until the end of his life.

Charles Stanhope, Lord Petersham, 4th Earl of Harrington (1780–1851):
A popular member of the dandy set, Petersham was an elegant dresser with a penchant for inventing clothes. His best-known legacy to the world of fashion was the briefly fashionable Petersham trousers: a loose-fitting form of Cossack pant with wide legs that could be drawn in at the ankle (and thought all the crack by Viscount Desford’s younger brother, Simon, in
Charity Girl
). Petersham was also known for eccentric habits such as his refusal to venture out before 6 p.m., his predilection for the colour brown (manifested in his equipage of brown carriage, harness, horses and footmen in brown livery), his passion for all kinds of tea and snuff and his collection of snuff-boxes, reputed to be the finest in England.

The Honourable Frederick Gerald ‘Poodle’ Byng (died 1871):
Allegedly nicknamed ‘Poodle’ by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Lady Bath because of his thick curly hair, Frederick Byng was a serious, somewhat platitudinous young man. He did, in fact, own a French poodle which sat up beside him when he drove his curricle in the park and he endured many jokes on account of his unfortunate sobriquet. In
Arabella
, he took the appearance of Mr Beaumaris’s mongrel dog Ulysses in his master’s carriage as a direct insult. Byng spent several years in the Foreign Office, as a result of which he developed the habit of imparting rather tedious bits of trivia to those around him. Although he never gained total acceptance by society’s elite inner circle, Byng was present at the marriage of George, Prince of Wales, to Caroline of Brunswick.

Edward Hughes Ball Hughes, ‘Golden Ball’ (died 1863):
The son of Captain Ball, of the Royal Navy, Hughes inherited his vast fortune (£40,000 a year) from his stepfather, Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, whose name he added to his own. Despite being handsome, well-built and always exquisitely dressed, Hughes was never recognised as one of the great dandies nor admitted to the elite inner circle. He irritated some with his peculiar, mincing walk (which made Arabella wonder if he was in pain) and affected lisp, but his cardinal sin was to be judged a
follower
of fashion—one who kept a box at the opera and a stable of hunters, dabbled at sports and went to the races simply to keep up appearances and not because he genuinely enjoyed such pastimes. In fact, Hughes enjoyed a variety of sports and was a great gambler, playing whist for £5 points and often staying up all night to gamble.

A Glossary of Cant and Common Regency Phrases

Cant

During the Regency it became the fashion for upper-class men to integrate into their everyday speech the language of certain of the lower classes. Mainly as a result of the rising interest in sport and the predominance of the horse in this period, many well-born males used boxing cant, racing cant and the vocabulary of the stable hand and the coachman as part of their daily talk. In addition, forays by bored young men into the seedier parts of town saw the inclusion of phrases culled from the extraordinary and colourful slang used in London’s underworld. The famous Regency writer and journalist, Pierce Egan, was undoubtedly one of the foremost exponents of sporting cant during the period, and Georgette Heyer enjoyed and made great use of the language in his lively tale of Jerry Hawthorn and his friend Corinthian Tom in Egan’s book
Life in London
.

Boxing

a bit of the home-brewed:
punching or hitting done by an untrained boxer

bone box:
mouth

bottom:
courage, guts, stability—in pugilism one who can endure a beating

a bruiser:
a boxer

claret:
blood

displays to advantage:
boxes well, looks good in the ring or in a fight

to draw his cork:
to make him bleed—particularly by punching him in the nose

fib him:
to beat or hit someone

a mill:
a fight, usually a boxing match or fist-fight

a milling cove:
a pugilist or boxer

milling a canister:
break someone’s head

plant a facer:
punch someone in the face

Horses

beautiful stepper:
a good horse with a fine easy gait

blood cattle:
well-bred horses, thoroughbreds

bone-setters:
ill-bred horses, inferior horses

bottom:
a strong horse with good temperament and endurance

cattle:
horses

hunt the squirrel:
the often dangerous sport of following closely behind a carriage and then passing it so closely as to brush the wheel. Considered an amusing pastime by stagecoachmen and some sporting gentlemen, the practice often resulted in the victim’s carriage being overturned.

neck-or-nothing:
a rider who will try anything, a bold daring sportsman or sportswoman

part company:
to fall off a horse

prime bits of blood:
top quality horses

a screw:
a very poor quality horse

a sweetgoer:
a horse with an easy action

throwing out a splint:
become lame as a result of swelling in the ligament next to the splint bone

Drinking

a ball of fire:
a glass of brandy

blood and thunder:
a mixture of port wine and brandy

blue ruin:
gin

boosey:
drunk

boozing-ken:
a tavern or alehouse

bosky:
drunk

a bumper:
a full glass

daffy:
gin

dipping too deep:
drinking too much

disguised:
drunk

drunk as a wheelbarrow:
inebriated

eaten Hull cheese:
drunk

an elbow-crooker:
a drinker

a flash of lightning:
strong spirits, a glass of gin

foxed:
intoxicated

fuddled:
drunk

half-sprung:
tipsy, mellow with drink

heavy wet:
porter or stout, malt liquor

in his altitudes:
drunk

in your cups:
drunk

jug-bitten:
tipsy

making indentures:
drinking

on the cut:
to go on a spree; to get drunk

shoot the cat:
to vomit

to cast up one’s accounts:
to vomit

too ripe and ready:
drunk

top-heavy:
drunk

Feelings and Behaviour

a bear-garden jaw:
rude, vulgar language; a real talking to

be on the high ropes:
to stand on one’s dignity; to become very angry; to be excited

blue as megrim:
depressed, sad, unhappy

break-teeth words:
difficult words, hard to pronounce

buffle-headed:
confused, stupid, foolish

corky:
lively, merry, playful, restless

cry rope:
to cry out a warning

cut one’s eye teeth:
to become knowing, to understand the world

dicked in the nob:
silly, crazy

done to a cow’s thumb:
exhausted

fagged to death:
exhausted

fit of the blue-devils:
sad, miserable, depressed, in low spirits

fly up into the boughs:
fly into a passion, lose one’s temper

Friday-faced:
a sad or miserable countenance—derived from the tradition of Friday abstinence which prohibited publicans from dressing dinners on Fridays

high in the instep:
arrogant, haughty, proud

a honey-fall:
good fortune

in a dudgeon:
angry, in a bad mood

in high ropes:
ecstatic, elated, in high spirits

kick over the traces:
to go the pace; kick up larks; behave in a headstrong or disobedient manner

knocked-up:
exhausted

make a mull of it:
to mismanage a situation; to fail; to make a muddle of something

mawkish:
falsely sentimental, insipid or nauseating

more than seven:
to be knowing or wide-awake, experienced in the ways of the world

mutton-headed:
stupid

napping her bib:
to cry; to get one’s way by weeping

ring a peal over one:
to admonish or scold someone

set up one’s bristles:
to irritate or annoy; to offend or make someone angry

spleen:
anger

to catch cold:
advice to cease or desist; a suggestion that one should cease making threats

to pull caps with someone:
to argue

to swallow one’s spleen:
to curb one’s temper

within ames-ace:
nearly, or very near

Lying

bag of moonshine:
nonsense, a lot of nothing

bamboozle:
to deceive, hoax or make a fool of a person; to humbug or impose on someone

Banbury stories:
a long-winded nonsense tale, a cock-and-bull story

bouncer:
a big lie

Canterbury Tales:
a long, tedious story

a clanker:
a huge lie

cut a sham:
to deliberately trick, cheat or deceive

cut a wheedle:
to deliberately lead astray or decoy by flattery and insinuation

doing it much too brown:
to go over the top in telling a lie; to lie or cheat thoroughly

faradiddles:
a petty lie; originally ‘taradiddle’

flummery:
false compliments

fudge:
nonsense

fustian or fustian nonsense:
pompous rubbish

gammon:
nonsense, lies; to pretend, lie or deceive

gulled:
duped, fooled, tricked

a hum:
a falsehood, a deceit, a made-up story

pitching the gammon:
to talk plausibly; to hoax someone; to flatter without restraint; to tell grand stories; to deceive merrily

plumper:
an arrant lie—possibly from the false cheeks worn in previous centuries

shamming it:
to pretend or make things up

slum:
to speak cant or talk nonsense

to offer Spanish coin:
to flatter with fair words and compliments

toad-eat:
to pay compliments or to flatter in the hope of winning a person’s favour or approval

whiskers:
lies

Money

at a stand or a standstill:
run out of money and in financial difficulty

blunt:
money

brass:
money

brought to point non plus:
backed into a financial corner with few options for recovery

cheeseparing:
miserly, niggardly, mean with money

dibs not in tune:
not enough money; in a parlous financial state

dished:
financially ruined

drawing the bustle:
spending too much money

a dun:
a persistent creditor

flush in the pocket or flush with funds:
having plenty of ready money

full of juice:
wealthy

gingerbread:
money

grease someone in the fist:
to put money into a person’s hand; to bribe someone or give them a monetary incentive

gullgropers:
a professional moneylender, especially one who does business with gamblers

hang on someone’s sleeve:
to rely on someone financially

haven’t a sixpence to scratch with:
flat broke

high water with him:
wealthy; he has lots of money

in deep:
in serious debt

in dun territory:
in debt

in the basket:
to be in financial difficulty—from the practice of putting those who could not pay their gambling debts at a cock-fight into a basket suspended above the pit. The term also relates to those purse-pinched stagecoach travellers who could only afford to travel in the boot—originally a large basket strapped to the back of the carriage.

low ebb or at ebb-water:
a lack of money

low water:
lack of money

nip-cheese or nip-farthing:
a miser

not a feather to fly with:
no money, dead broke

note of hand:
an IOU

on the rocks:
financially ruined, bankrupt

outrun the constable:
to overspend; to live beyond one’s means

plump in the pocket:
to have plenty of ready cash

pockets to let:
no money, penniless

purse-pinched:
short of money

raise the wind:
borrow money

the ready:
money, particularly money in hand

recruits:
money, often money that is expected

the rhino:
money

the River Tick:
standing debts

rolled-up:
no money and in serious financial trouble

run off one’s legs:
to have spent all one’s money

run on tick:
to buy on credit

swallow a spider:
to go bankrupt

swimming in lard:
very wealthy

tip over the dibs:
to lend or give money to someone

to bleed:
to extort money either openly or in an underhand way

to fleece:
to swindle

to frank someone:
to pay their way

to stand huff:
to pay the bill in a tavern; to pay for everyone

under the hatches:
in debt

vowels:
IOUs

well-breeched:
having plenty of money in your pockets—a prime target for robbery

well-inlaid:
plenty of money

Not the Thing

a bridle cull:
a highwayman

a cursed rum touch:
a strange person; an odd or eccentric man who is also annoying

a flat:
an honest man; a fool, one who is easily tricked; a greenhorn

fulhams:
loaded dice

half flash and half foolish:
having a small knowledge of cant and a limited experience of the world

an ivory-turner:
one who cheats in dice games

a peep-o-day boy:
an unsteady young man always involved in pranks or larks

a rattle:
one who talks too much

a rum ’un:
a strange person, an odd or eccentric man

a sharp:
a cheat who lives by his skill at manipulating the cards or dice

smoky:
suspicious, curious

uphills:
loaded dice; false dice made to roll to the higher or upper numbers—as opposed to downhills which fall to the lower numbers

People

all the crack:
in the mode, the height of fashion

an ape leader:
a woman beyond marriageable age; an old maid—so-called because of a proverb that says their failure to increase and multiply dooms them to lead apes in hell. Also used by Shakespeare in
Much Ado About Nothing
II.i.41 and
The Taming of the Shrew
II.i.34

awake on every suit:
knowing what’s going on, understanding the business

a bang-up cove:
a dashing man who spends money easily; a good-natured splendid fellow

bang up to the knocker:
first-rate; well dressed, turned out in prime style

bang up to the mark:
first-rate

bird-witted:
thoughtless, brainless, easily imposed upon, gullible, inconsiderate

a bit of muslin:
a girl; an attractive female—though usually one who is ready to be seduced or taken as a mistress