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.