Lydia Bennet's Story A sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Regency Brighton-Entertainment

Brighton in the Regency era was a pleasure resort where fashionable society flocked to bathe in the sea for its health giving properties. The popularity of the town owed much to the presence of George, Prince of Wales, son of George 3rd. He bought a house, modifying and enlarging it over time and spent many summers in his Marine Pavilion. The social round of events at Brighton was a major attraction for visitors. As an important pleasure resort Brighton boasted two sets of Assembly Rooms, which were based at the Castle Inn and the Old Ship Inn. Balls were held on Mondays and Thursdays respectively, card assemblies on Wednesdays and Fridays, a Promenade and Public tea on Sundays. The ballrooms were designed in Adam style, the Castle being considered the more elegant with its plaster mouldings, classical columns and friezes of Dawn and Night.

Captain Wade officiated for some time as master of ceremonies. Bath was mainly a winter resort and Brighton a summer one, so he was able to preside over both until he made himself unpopular at Bath. Apparently, he openly ridiculed an admirer’s love letters and as a result became unpopular, leaving Bath for good in 1770 to make his home in Brighton.

The circulating libraries provided entertainment in the day time. Not only could books be borrowed or bought, but trinkets, music, sketching materials and subscription tickets for the balls could also be purchased. Donaldson’s library was a timber-boarded building, painted white with an arched verandah under which ladies could sit and gossip. As it fronted the Steine, which was a popular place for parading, one can imagine there was plenty to talk about! Sometimes a band performed in the Rotunda, a wooden octagonal building, so gossip and music went hand in hand. Shops of all kinds along the Steyne tempted the passers by. China, tea, lace, muslins and without doubt, Lydia’s favourite, millinery and ribbons, had ladies parting easily with the contents of their pockets. St. James’s Street was compared to London’s Bond Street for its quality of shopping and variety.

Perhaps one of the most popular activities was the evening stroll upon the Steine within the sight of the sea –

Though in pleasing excursions you spend the long day,

And to Lewes or Shoreham, or Rottingdean stray;

Or to drink tea at Preston, to vary the scene,

At eve with new raptures you’ll fly to the Steine.

The print shows the Pavilion and Steine in 1806, Donaldson’s library is on the far right, facing the Castle Inn on the opposite corner. The Pavilion in its early form can be seen further along with a central dome. The Prince of Wales is on horseback just in front of the library.

Donkey riding was a very fashionable pursuit at this time and most popular with ladies; tours in a donkey cart could be taken out to the village of Rottingdean. This fad did not last long, the donkeys were soon replaced by ponies, which the ladies preferred.

Sea bathing was also popular as might be expected and was recommended as a health giving exercise. Ladies and gentlemen bathed in designated areas, firstly entering a bathing machine to change into a flannel gown before descending the steps to be ‘dipped’ in the water by the ‘dipper’.

There’s plenty of dippers and jokers,

And salt-water rigs for your fun,

The King of them all is ‘Old Smoaker’

The Queen of ’em “Old Martha Gunn”.

The ladies walk out in the morn,

To taste of the salt-water breeze;

They ask if the water is warm,

Says Martha, “Yes, Ma’am, if you please.”

Old Brighton rhyme.

Here is an extract from the ‘Morning Herald’ August 28th 1806.The beach this morning was thronged with ladies, all anxious to make interest for a dip. The machines, of course, were in very great request, though none could be run into the ocean in consequence of the heavy swell, but remained stationary at the water’s edge, from which Martha Gunn and her robust female assistants took their fair charges, closely enveloped in their partly coloured dresses, and gently held them to the breakers, which not quite so gently passed over them. The greatest novelty, however,….was in a Gentleman undressing himself on the beach, for the purpose of a ducking, in front of the town, attended by his lady, who sans diffidence, supplied him with napkins, and even assisted him in wiping the humid effects of his exercise from his brawny limbs, as he returned from the water to dress.

It is very typical of Lydia that she makes this comment on the view from her room at the Ship Inn where she is staying with her friend Harriet Forster.

'How wonderful is the sight of the sea, its sound so delicious on the ear and its vast waters swimming with gentleman bathers! We have rooms overlooking the water; which provide the most excellent looking post! It is heaven, indeed!'

From Lydia Bennet's Story by Jane Odiwe

Jane Austen and Easter

by Vic

This Easter weekend is a perfect time to reflect on Jane Austen and Easter. Hats and bonnets were prevalent, of course, and so were Easter Fairs and eating hot cross buns.

In her book, Jane Austen and the Clergy, Irene Collins writes: Clergymen in Jane Austen’s day were not expected to write original sermons every Sunday. “Henry Crawford, assessing Edmund Bertram’s commitments at Thornton Lacey, judged that ‘a sermon at Christmas and Easter ‘would be’ the sum total of the sacrifice.” Mr. Collins produced only two sermons between his ordination at Easter and his visit to Longbourn in November of the same year.- p. 96.

Jane Austen herself mentions Easter, most notably in Pride and Prejudice:

In this quiet way, the first fortnight of her visit soon passed away. Easter was approaching, and the week preceding it was to bring an addition to the family at Rosings, which in so small a circle must be important. Elizabeth had heard, soon after her arrival, that Mr. Darcy was expected there in the course of a few weeks, and though there were not many of her acquaintance whom she did not prefer, his coming would furnish one comparatively new to look at in their Rosings parties, and she might be amused in seeing how hopeless Miss Bingley’s designs on him were, by his behaviour to his cousin, for whom he was evidently destined by Lady Catherine; who talked of his coming with the greatest satisfaction, spoke of him in terms of the highest admiration, and seemed almost angry to find that he had already been frequently seen by Miss Lucas and herself.

Colonel Fitzwilliam’s manners were very much admired at the parsonage, and the ladies all felt that he must add considerably to the pleasure of their engagements at Rosings. It was some days, however, before they received any invitation thither, for while there were visitors in the house they could not be necessary; and it was not till Easter-day, almost a week after the gentlemen’s arrival, that they were honoured by such an attention, and then they were merely asked on leaving church to come there in the evening. For the last week they had seen ver little of either Lady Catherine or her daughter. Colonel Fitzwilliam had called at the parsonage more than once during the time, but Mr. Darcy they had only seen at church.

The invitation was accepted of course, and at a proper hour they joined the party in Lady Catherine’s drawing room. Her ladyship received them civilly, but it was plain that their company was by no means so acceptable as when she could get nobody else; and she was, in fact, almost engrossed by her nephews, speaking to them, especially to Darcy, much more than to any other person in the room.

Ellen Moody noted that dating Sense and Sensibility presented a problem. It was revised several times and as a result the chronology remains inconsistent. Towards the book’s end, Easter is mentioned as occurring on March 31. This would have fallen in 1793, when the first draft of the novel was written. But, there is another reference to Easter in early April, which would have placed the novel in 1798 (the most likely), 1801, 1803, and 1809.