Top British Authors’ Homes (of the past)

On her last trip to the United Kingdom, Cheryl Bolen wandered through the lovely grounds at Wordsworth’s Rydal Mount in the English District.

Those of us who love the Regency era would probably select Jane Austen’s house in Chawton as our favorite literary site in Great Britain. While it did make the cut in the recent 90 Places You Must See in Britain published by British Heritage, some of the choices are surprising.

Abbotsford is Sir Walter’s Scott’s newly refurbished home in — where else? Scotland.

The British Heritage booklet is sort of a top 10 compilation. There are the top 10 gardens, top 10 castles, top 10 stately homes, etc.  British Heritage claims these must-see sites are selected by their editors. Anglophiles may take issue with some of their picks.

Though I don’t consider myself an expert on literary sites in Great Britain, I was surprised that the top pick under literary sites was D.H. Lawrence’s Birthplace in Eastwood, a Nottingham suburb. Because I have never visited Lawrence’s Birthplace, nor ever heard much about it, I cannot claim the expertise to pass judgment. But. . .

What about Stratford-upon-Avon, for pity’s sake? The city Shakespeare put on the map comes in at paltry sixth on the list.

For many years I’ve made it a point to visit authors’ homes when I travel in England. Of course I made the pilgrimage to the Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage in the Lake District, which fills the number 4 spot on the Literary Sites list. Outside of Stratford-upon-Avon (where I visited the bard’s birthplace as well as Anne Hathaway’s Cottage), the only other author residence on the top 10 list that I had visited was the Dickens House Museum in London’s Bloomsbury, which was the ninth pick.

Thomas Hardy’s Cottage is one of the Top 10 Literary Sites in Great Britain, as selected by the editors of British Heritage.

Two more homes that made list are high on my list of wanna-sees. They are Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford (5) and Rudyard Kipling’s Bateman’s in Sussex (7), both purchased after these two enormously successful authors made their fortunes writing.

The other sites rounding out the British Heritage list were Thomas Hardy’s Cottage in Dorchester, Dylan Thomas’s Boathouse in Laugharne, Wales, and the Writers Museum in Lady Stair’s former Edinburgh home. That museum honors Scotland’s three most noteworthy authors: Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Conspicuously absent from the list was the Bronte Parsonage in the West Yorkshire moors – which has always been high on my want-to-see list.

I am chomping at the bit to see one of the latest literary houses to open to the public: Agatha Christie’s Greenway near the South Devon coast. It just opened to the public in 2009. I will see it on my upcoming trip to Great Britain.

Greenway – Agatha Christie’s home near the South Devon coast is now open to the public.

Authors’ places I’ve enjoyed include Thomas Carlyle’s home in London’s Chelsea, Ruskins’ Museum in the Lake District as well as Wordsworth’s Rydal Mount, also in the Lake District, and Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top Farm, also in the Lake District.

I spent a fascinating couple of hours at Keats’ House in Hampstead. That wasn’t really Keats’ house since he was a boarder there, but the home is now used as a museum to honor the poet. He was engaged to marry the daughter of the house before he was claimed by tuberculosis at age 25.

I have also visited Dr. Johnson’s house in London’s old City and Churchill’s Chartwell in Kent, where he penned his bestselling non-fiction.

Discussing Britain’s literary associations is a whole other topic, which would fill a book. In fact, I possess that book. I highly recommend the The Oxford Literary Guide to the British Isles, touted as an A-Z of literary Britain. I got my copy at an Oxford University Press book store in the U.K. Mine is a 1980 paperback containing 413 encyclopedia-style pages, listed by locale rather than the author. In addition, it offers a map appendix.

Here is just one little sampling in the voluminous section on London:

St. George’s Church, Hanover Square is an early 18^th-c. church where the following were married: Shelley and Harriet Westbrook in 1814 after a ceremony in Scotland following their elopement, Disraeli to Mrs. Wyndham Lewis in 1839, Marian Evans (George Eliot) to John Cross in 1880, and John Galsworthy to Ada Galsworthy in 1904.

If my home were in flames and I could save just one book from my extensive library, The Oxford Literary Guide would be that one book. – Cheryl Bolen, whose lighthearted romantic mystery Falling for Frederick (Book 1 in the Stately Homes Murders) is now available in print – and is available internationally for the first time

Culpeper’s Complete Herbal

As one who haunts used book sales and old book stores, I’ve amassed a wonderful library of research books, but the one volume I’ve used the most since I sold my first historical novel in 1997 is Culpeper’s Complete Herbal.

In fact, I have two editions. The first one I purchased was a paperback, and I’ve marked it up excessively. Later, I found a hardback with illustrations, but I can’t part with the first one because I’ve highlighted passages with references to what ailments could be treated with a particular herb. Lots of hours of research went into all that highlighting.

Originally published by Nicholas Culpeper in 1653, the herbal is an impressive work. My original Wordsworth edition (1995) has 603 pages and combines the herbal with The English Physitian, both written by Culpeper. (Note: Culpeper’s original spelling of physitian has been retained.) My British hardback has 430 pages.

The latter book claims to be “a comprehensive description of nearly all herbs, with their medicinal properties, and instructions for making up the herbal remedies.”

The English Physitian, originally published in 1652, has been in continuous publication since its first printing and is the most successful non-religious English book ever published.

The Herbal catalogues most every plant that grows in Great Britain, giving descriptions of the plant, what time it needs to be harvested for medicinal purposes, and which physical complaints a concoction of it will help to alleviate.

The Physitian is a primer for physicians and apothecaries. It includes information on how to make decoctions, syrups, purging electuraries (like laxatives), pills, oils, ointments, and plaisters for a wide variety of ailments.

Since the information in this text was widely in use during the Regency, I’ve used these works as a resource for almost every book I’ve published.

Here are some examples of Culpeper’s delightful work:

My son was taken with the same disease (the body flux), and the excoriation of his bowels was exceedingly great; myself being in the country, was sent for up, with only I gave him, was Mallow bruised and boiled both in milk and drink, in two days (the blessing of God being upon it) it cured it.

On ground pine, which grows low, Culpeper has this to say: It is utterly forbidden for women with child for it will cause abortion or delivery before time.

On mint, he writes: Simeon Sethi saith it helps a cold liver, strengthens the belly, causes digestion, stays vomits and hiccough; it is good against the gnawing of the heart, provokes appetite, takes away obstruction of the liver, and stirs up bodily lust, but therefore too much must not be taken.

He says dill “is a gallant expeller of wind.”

So if you need to know what your characters would take if they are suffering from gout, sore throat, headache, tooth ache, to expectorate phlegm, treat asthma, or any infirmity you can devise, check out Culpeper.

The Grand Tour

The eighteenth century was the golden age of the requisite Grand Tour wealthy young Englishmen took to finish their education. These weren’t tours as we know them today. They often covered several years and employed a small army of private tutors to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and proficiency in European languages. These young men would also take valets and fencing masters.

 

Thomas Coke, 1^st Earl of Leicester, 5^th creation (1697-1759) took a six-year Grand Tour, returning to England in 1718 at age 21. At a time when a servant earned £6 a year, the 15-year-old Coke left England with a dispersal income of £10,000 for each of the six years he was gone.

 

His contemporary, Richard Boyle, 3^rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753) toured the Lowlands and Italy in 1714 at age 20, returning with 878 caskets of art, clocks, and musical instruments. After the English publication of Andrea Pallidio’s architectural works, Burlington (the Architect Earl) was keen to follow in Pallidio’s footsteps as well as Inigo Jones’ and returned to Italy in 1718 and 1719.

 

Still another of their contemporaries, Philip Dormer Stanhope (1694-1730), the bastard only child of the 3^rd Earl of Chesterfield, spent just under six years on the Continent to acquire the attributes his father deemed necessary for him to take a position in Society and in the diplomatic corp. He left England at age 14, accompanied by another young aristocrat and his own master. In each country he visited, his father demanded his valet be a native speaker so Philip could become more proficient in each language. He spent time in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. At age 18, he took up residence in Paris, no longer obligated to study with his various tutors. At this time his father wanted him to learn the manly pursuits in Society: low-stakes gambling, attending salons, and operas. Also at 18, he received his own carriage, footman, a valet de chamber, and a valet de place.

 

A few decades later, Whig Statesman Charles James Fox (1749-1806), a grandson of the Duke of Lennox, was taken from Eton by his father so he could gain some “polish” on the Continent. In Spa at age 14, urged on by his father, he lost his virginity at the same time he embarked on his disastrous association with high-stakes gambling.

 

The Grand Tour was not just the privilege of the aristocracy. William Beckford (1760-1844), the once-wealthiest commoner in England, embarked on his Grand Tour at age 18. No expense was spared. It was said that because his entourage consisting of three carriages, outriders and relays of spare horses was so large, he was mistakenly taken for the Austrian emperor. Beckford’s Grand Tour journal was published, and a paperback edition edited by Elizabeth Mavor was published by Penguin in 1986. Those looking for an accounting of great excesses will be disappointed. As one whose greatest passions were directed at young boys and nature, Beckford’s observations are not very enlightening to today’s readers.

 

The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars affected Englishmen’s Grand Tours, and the advent of rail travel a few decades later made the progression through the Continent available to the middle classes.—By Cheryl Bolen

Cheryl Bolen’s latest novel, Falling for Frederick, a contemporary romantic suspense set in England, is a Kindle Serial in nine installments. “Aided by lord of the manor, lovely graduate student archivist seeks priceless medieval artifact—just steps ahead of those who’ve already killed to get it.”

George Romney: portraitist to rich and famous

Take a look at Regency books and chances are several of the covers will feature paintings of Emma Hamilton done by George Romney (1734-1802) well over 200 years ago. In the period from 1782 to 1785, he painted some 60 different portraits of the beauty, who was at that time going by the name Emma Hart.

Romney—who is related to the former Illinois governor of the same name as well as his son, presidential candidate Mitt Romney—actually changed the family’s spelling of the name, which was formerly Rumney.

At the age of 21, Romney was apprenticed for four years to a portrait painter. The apprenticeship (paid for by Romney’s cabinetmaker father) was to have lasted longer, but George Romney was able to buy himself out of the servitude and strike out on his own. In those early days when he was painting in the provinces, he charged six guineas for a whole-length portrait and two for a three-quarter figure.

In 1762 Romney came to London to make his fortune, leaving behind his wife and son. His wife, who was of a lower social class than he, never came to live with her husband in London during the nearly 40 years he was away. He provided generously for her—as well as helping out many of his ten siblings.

In London, he raised his prices to 8 guineas for a three-quarter portrait and began to receive many commissions from members of the legal profession, then from those in the theatre.

Ten years later he was making an exceedingly comfortable income of over £1,000 a year and was therefore finally able to travel to Italy to really study his art. He stayed abroad for two years.

Upon his return, he boldly took the large house and studio located at No. 32 Cavendish Square, an aristocratic neighborhood. One of his first patrons there was the Duke of Richmond, who commissioned him to paint his portrait—along with several copies of it, as was the custom in that day—and Romney also did portraits of various members of the duke’s family.

A long procession of aristocrats began to patronize him. This included Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (whose portrait was never finished due to her unreliability); her best friend Bess, who succeeded her as Duchess of Devonshire by marrying the 5^th Duke; the Duchess of Gordon; the actress Mary Robinson as Perdita; and Mrs. Fitzherbert, illegal wife of George IV when he was Prince of Wales. Soon Romney’s income grew to a lavish £3,000 a year.

It was in the summer of 1782 that Romney came under the spell of Emma Hart, when her “protector” Charles Greville (nephew to her eventual husband, Sir William Hamilton) requested that Romney paint the exquisite creature.

The 48-year-old painter was smitten. Most believe his relationship with Emma was purely platonic, more like that of a father toward a daughter. The age gap between them was 22 years.

In Emma, he had found the perfect model for his mythological works. The Prince of Wales, too, was enchanted. He purchased two of Romney’s paintings of her, one as Calypso and the other as Magdalen, paying the staggering sum of £100 for each of them.

Romney and Emma were genuinely fond of one another. When Emma returned to England in 1800 and inquired about Romney, who had chosen to spend the last two year of his life in the country with his wife, Romney said, “The pleasure I should receive from the sight of the amiable Lady Hamilton would be as salutary as great, yet I fear, except I should enjoy more health and better spirits, I shall never be able to see London again.”

Discoveries in Letters and Diaries

I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago for the Historical Hussies blog.

Through reading diaries of those who lived in Georgian England one can glean any number of interesting things, things Georgians easily understood but which have passed almost into obscurity after two centuries of disuse.

For example, did you know that black wax was used to seal letters bearing news of one’s death? I learned this in a letter in which the writer apologized thusly, “I have sealed my letter with black wax for too good a reason, so don’t be alarmed. I have no red.”

There’s another factoid: letters were normally sealed with red wax. (This was verified by images on the internet.)

In the same book of letters, an aristocratic child wrote, “My mama writes in the carriage. She has a little table in it.” Of course, I had to steal that to use in one of my books!

That same child, in another letter, references the real wood fires they only had at their country home. That casual comment alerted me to the fact they did not have wood fires at the town house in London. Of course, they used coal in the city! Had I erred in an earlier book? I certainly know better now than to have wood fires in London.

Some of the more interesting of those little-known occurrences of two centuries ago revolve around travel. Englishmen traveling in Italy during the summer slept in the daytime and traveled in their coaches only at night because the heat in the carriages could be too oppressive.

Perhaps the most interesting travel tidbit is how the wealthy Englishmen crossed the mountains. Their entire carriages had to be disassembled and carried over the passes by crews hired for this purpose. Crews also carried the aristocratic passengers along these treacherous areas by sedan chair. Once the passes were cleared, the carriages were assembled.

I’m currently reading the Grand Tour journal written by England’s once-wealthiest commoner, William Beckford, and will share its enlightening facts in the next blog.

Cheryl Bolen is the romance launch author for Montlake’s Amazon serial, Falling for Frederick, which is now available, with a new installment (no additional cost) every two weeks.

Chiswick House: quintessentially Georgian

Chiswick House (the Brits pronounce as Chiz-ick) is today located in suburban London, but when it was built in the Georgian era, it was a palatial estate alongside the River Thames in Richmond and was accessible from London by boat. It was one of many Thames-side villas that had begun to be constructed from the early seventeenth century onward.

Chiswick House
Lord Burlington’s perfectly symmetrical gem in suburban London. (Photos by Dr. John Bolen)

For me, Chiswick is perhaps the most quintessentially Georgian of all the fabulous homes built in the era–even though it is neither of grand proportions nor was it intended as a family home.

The immensely wealthy Third Earl of Burlington (1694-1853) was an arbitrator of taste and style. He had traveled extensively on the Continent and was one of the earliest disciples of Italian architect Andrea Palladio, who was the primary influence of the clean classic lines that characterize Georgian/Palladian architecture.

So fascinated was Burlington with Palladian architecture, he designed Chiswick himself—something the idle aristocrats simply did not do. Construction occurred from 1726-1729.

Another of the significant Georgian associations with the house is that Chiswick passed to Burlington’s grandson, the Fifth Duke of Devonshire, whose wife Georgiana was an arbitrator of fashion and leader of English society the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

Interiors of Chiswick House

And the last significant Georgian association, at least for me, is that charismatic Whig leader Charles James Fox died at Chiswick in 1806, the same year Georgiana died.

Lord Burlington intended Chiswick House to serve as a temple of the arts to display his most significant works of art.

The perfectly symmetrical, perfectly classical structure’s most memorable feature is the octagonal saloon at the center, which soars up to a domed roof that is lighted by dome-shaped windows. Huge canvases have hung in this chamber for almost three centuries.

One reason Chiswick was not designed as a family home was because Burlington had inherited his grandfather’s Jacobean house on the property, which he continued to use. His grandson had that demolished and added wings onto Chiswick. The wings were demolished in the 1950s to restore Chiswick to Burlington’s original vision.

Today, the house is in the care of English Heritage and can be toured for a fee. The surrounding grounds—significantly reduced from what they were in Georgian times—are free to the public and cared for by the Borough of Hounslow.

Parliament in Regency England

I wrote the following article for the October issue of The Regency Reader. (To get a free subscription, send a blank email to TheRegencyReader-subscribe@yahoogroups.com) The hero and heroine of my recently released Marriage of Inconvenience were both keenly interested in Parliament. Lord Aynsley served in the House of Lords, and his bride was keenly interested in reform.

The Houses of Parliament that we know today were constructed during Queen Victoria’s reign. Prior to the 1834 fire, the House of Commons met at St. Stephen’s Chapel within the Palace of Westminster, and the House of Lords met in the White Chamber of the Palace of Westminster, then in 1801moved to larger quarters at the former Court of Requests (still at the Palace of Westminster).

Prior to the Great Reform Bill of 1832, the legislative power of the kingdom rested with a handful of rich, aristocratic landowners. In the early 1800s, eight powerful peers controlled 51 seats in Commons. Of the 658 seats in Commons, about half were controlled by lords. In most cases, the eldest son of a peer—if not all the peer’s sons—stood for Parliament. (Note, the British do not “run” for office.) Standing for a seat in the House of Commons was costly because votes were actually paid for in those days before secret ballots, but it was an expense these aristocratic families incurred for the sake of participating in government.

It should be noted that while some viscounts sat in the House of Lords, those viscounts with courtesy titles and non-representative Irish peers had to stand for the House of Commons. In Regency times many viscounts who were sons of the nobility or Irish viscounts served in the House of Commons. Among the vast number of these were Viscount Palmerston (Irish peer), Viscount Duncannon (son of the Earl of Bessborough), Viscount Althorp (son of Earl Spencer), and Viscount Fordwich (son of Lord Cowper).

Because of the indolent lifestyle of the aristocrats in both houses, Parliament during the Regency did not begin until 4 p.m., with sessions often lasting until the wee hours of the morning.

Seldom can the title Prime Minister be found in old journals. Often the office we now know as Prime Minister was referred to as First Lord of the Treasury. More often than not, the First Lord would not be a “lord.” Always, though, upon leaving office, the Prime Minister would have a title bestowed upon him. (This still occurs. Margaret Thatcher became Lady Thatcher upon leaving office.) William Pitt the Elder became the 1^st Earl Chatham upon leaving office; Robert Walpole became the 1^st Earl of Orford; and Benjamin Disreali became the 1^st Earl of Beaconsfield, to name a few.

Some famous trials were held in Parliament, the most famous being the Trial of Queen Caroline (the Regent’s wife) in 1820. Warren Hastings’ impeachment trial covered seven years in the late eighteenth century, with his acquittal coming in 1795. Both of these held vast interest. It was something of a social coup to get to attend these. Fanny Burney visited Parliament to watch the Hastings trial and sat in the gallery with other women.

However, when Lady Caroline Lamb wanted to see her husband (William Lamb, later Prime Minister Viscount Melbourne) deliver his maiden speech in the House of Commons, she had to dress as a boy because by then women were barred from the galleries.

Lamb was a member of one of the prominent Whig families; Tories were in power during the actual Regency. Whigs were more liberal and opposed the king’s authority, thus were frequently referred to as the “opposition.”

The buildings may have changed since the Regency, as have the members, but one thing remains: the woolsack. This large, rectangular wool cushion with no back or arms has served as the seat of the Lord Chancellor (or, later, Lord Speaker) of the House of Lords for more than 600 years. Wool is the country’s traditional symbol of prosperity.

2 October Releases

I am so happy to have two new releases this month, both them set in Regency England. First up is my Marriage of Inconvenience, my first for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Historical line. It may be a new novel, but the heroine, Rebecca Peabody, made her first appearance in my now out-of-print Counterfeit Countess (2005). This can be purchased wherever books are sold. http://www.cherylbolen.com/inconvenience.htm

I’m also excited that my Christmas Brides: 3 Regency Novellas has also released (ebook only). This contains two brand new novellas, plus Christmas at Farley Manor, which was selected as Best Historical Novella of 2011. http://www.cherylbolen.com/christmas%20brides.htm

Both books are G-rated.

2nd Regent Mystery released

I thought this day would never come. Book 2 in my lighthearted Regent Mystery series, A MOST DISCREET INQUIRY, has finally been released. Book 1, WITH HIS LADY’S ASSISTANCE, was a finalist for Best Historical in the International Digital Awards for ebooks released in 2011. It was also was named to the 5 Star Hall of Fame at the Historical Romance Critic site. Learn more about the new release at http://www.cherylbolen.com/discreet.htm

Another contest at Fresh Fiction

To celebrate the October release of MARRIAGE OF INCONVENIENCE, I am offering an autographed copy of my out-of-print ONE GOLDEN RING which won the 2006 Holt Medallion for Best Historical but is no longer being published. In that Brazen Brides book and its prequel, COUNTERFEIT COUNTESS, the bookish Rebecca Peabody was introduced to readers who have since been clamoring for her to have her own book. Thanks to Love Inspired Historical, that story, MARRIAGE OF INCONVENIENCE, will be published in October, and preorders are now being taken for it at all online retail sites.

The Christmas story ONE GOLDEN RING is another Brazen Brides marriage-of-convenience romance. Here’s what the critics had to say about it:

PERFECT 10! Totally delightful, beautifully sensual, and endearingly romantic love story. Romance Designs

Cover Quote: “Who can resist a marriage of convenience between a couple who have nothing in common–but passion! ONE GOLDEN RING is an irresistible pleasure.” Eloisa James, NY Times Best-selling author

“This has got to be the most PERFECT RegencyRomance that I have read this year.” 5 STARS Huntress Reviews

 A marriage of convenience turns passionate in Bolen’s latest sinfully sexy Regency. Booklist

5 Stars. A golden romance. Harriet Klausner, The Best Reviews

Not just a warm, toasty holiday tale, this novel is an emotionally touching romance. 4 Stars. Romantic Times

ONE GOLDEN RING is a rare treat: a highly sensual novel with a solid emotional foundation. In Print

Enter the contest