HAPPY NEW YEAR MAY 2017 BE HEALTHY AND FULL OF JOY!!!!!!!

Regency Fashion - December 1816

Interesting, but a little bland for my taste.  What do you think?

Carriage Dress, 1816 Ackermann's

The description is as follows:

A gown of pale faun-colour cloth, made a walking length, and trimmed round the bottom with four rows of rich blue silk trimming. The body, which is cut very low, is ornamented in such a manner as to have a novel appearance, with a similar trimming, but very narrow. 

The back, which  is cut down on each side, is finished at the bottom of the waist by bows and long ends, trimmed to correspond. 

A very tasteful half sleeve over a plain long sleeve, made tight at the wrist, and bound with blue trimming; it is finished by a narrow ruffle composed of three falls of tulle; fichu of tulle, with a ruff to correspond. 

When worn as a carriage dress, the head-dress is a bonnet, the crown composed of white satin at top, and the middle and front of Leghorn; it is lined with white satin, and ornamented only by a white satin band and strings. 

An India shawl is also indispensable to it as a carriage dress, for which hit is elegantly appropriate. Shoes and gloves of pale faun colour.

Our dresses this month are both French; but, as our readers will perceive from our prints, they are in the best style of Parisian costume. We have been favoured with them by a lady who has just returned from Paris.

Now I thought Leghorn was a style, here it is used to describe a material. 

Until Next Time...............

Regency Fashion

December 1816
Promenade Dress

'Tis the Season.

The richness of this gown in the December Ackermann's makes me think of Christmas and warmth.

Here is the description:

A HIGH  dress of cambric muslin trimmed at the bottom with a single flounce of work. 

The body, which is composed entirely of work, fits the shape without any fullness. A plain long sleeve, finished by a triple fall of narrow lace. 

Over this dress is worn the Angouleme pelisse, composed of crimson velvet, lined with white sarsnet, and trimmed with a single welt of crimson satin, a shade lighter than the pelisse. 

The body is made exactly to the shape; the back is of course a moderate breadth, and without fullness: for the form of the front we refer our readers to our print; it is confined at the waist, which is very short, by a narrow velvet band, edged to correspond. A small collar, of a novel and pretty shape, stands up and supports a rich lace ruff, which is worn open in front of the throat. 

The sleeve has very little fullness, and that little is confined at the wrist by three narrow bands of puckered satin. 

Bonnet a la Royale, composed of white satin very tastefully intermixed with a large bunch of fancy flowers, and tied under the chin by a white satin ribbon, which is brought in a bow to the left side; a full quilling of tulle finishes the front. 

Black silk ridicule, exquisitely worked in imitation of the ends of an India shawl, and trimmed with black silk fringe. White kid gloves and black walking shoes.

I was intrigued by the ridicule, because of it's embroidery (described as work) and as you know that is my "thing". We see little of the dress itself, just a peek through the opening in the pelisse.

Until next time.....

Hall Place in Kent

Hall Place is perhaps one of the most unusual places we have been in search of the Regency. It is situated in Bexley in Kent.  During the time I grew up theren the house was not open to the public, but it was a well-known local land mark.

Hall place dates back to before Henry VIII's reformation and around that time fell into the hands of one of London's Lord Mayors, Sir John Champney a self-made man who died of the plague in 1556.

This is a view of the Tudor courtyard built for Champney with its stunning pattern of grey and white stone.  A mark of his wealth and importance. Originally it would have had only one large oriel window looking into the courtyard, as all the other windows also would have done.

Over time, the house was added to and altered by succeeding owners and in 1772, the era in which we are interested it passed into the hands of Sir Francis Dashwood, later Baron Le Despenser.  Apparently there really were Dashwoods around in Jane Austen's time.

The red brick extension, with its two wings and front facing outwards now, was added to what would have been the back of  Tudor buildings as seen here. The extension formed a central enclosed courtyard between the new front and the old tudor great hall, and provided a corridor between the wings.

A view along the side shows where the new was added to the old.  I must say I found it rather odd from this angle, but I cannot contain my respect for those who decided to keep the old Tudor part in tact.



A bell tower was added within the new courtyard with a fashionable prospect room at the top for watching the hunt and for entertaining.  What and interesting looking tower it is.  The rectangular windows follow the ascending stairs to form an unusual asymmetric pattern.  The courtyard at this time would have been the hub of the household. Water was fetched from the pump and arrivals and departures would be observed from the upstairs windows. The archways around the courtyard lead to the new architectural development --- corridors.  It enabled privacy, one room no longer leading directly into the next

At the time Sir Francis inherited the property it was rented out to a Richard Calvert Esquire and then to the Reverend Richard Jeffreys in 1798 who set it up as a School for young gentlemen. And so it remained until the 1860's.

What a wonderful place for boys to go to school. At the time there were coach houses, stables, outhouses, office buildings, boat yards, orchard gardens, shrubberies, a pleasure ground and appurtenances thereto.

What a great setting for a story.


Hall Place today is a mix of original Tudor, Commonwealth and Restoration.

Next time will will take a peek around the interior.  Until then.....

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