Author: Kristine Hughes

As you may know, I’ve posted before about my Coronation Street addiction. Thanks to Auntie Corrie on YouTube, I’ve been able to start watching Coronation Street from 1976 on. I’m now up to the later part of 1988 and Auntie Corrie’s playlists are done – help! Of course, I could go on to the many websites that play later episodes – 2000 to present, say, but that’s the whole of the 90’s missed. Aaarrgggh.

And I’ve got to say, I’ve had too much to deal with already without missing out on an entire decade of Corrie.

And there’s more – Ivy’s nuts! Gail’s with Martin! Mavis is married to Derek! Mike Baldwin’s still a cad!

All this may go some way to show why I’m dragging Victoria off to the wilds of Manchester whilst we’re in England for the Duke of Wellington Tour so that I can visit the tour of the Coronation Street set.

Is anyone else a Corrie fan? If so, please leave a comment here and let me know which decade of Corrie is your favorite.

Gorron, you know you’re a Corrie fan.

What are ya?

During the summer of 1814, the Prince of Wales, as Prince Regent, planned a series of celebrations in London to mark the victory of the Allies over Napoleon — a temporary victory it turned out to be, but nonetheless, after so many years of war, everyone was eager to celebrate.  Napoleon had surrendered and was sent off to exile in Elba. The Prince Regent invited the heads of the Allied governments to London, but it did not turn out exactly as he wished. The guests often had ideas of their own for entertainment and some of the great fireworks displays turned into conflagrations, though the crowds viewing the extravaganzas did not seem to mind.

Czar Alexander of Russia came with his sister, the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, who was rather obstreperous to say the least.; Prussian Field Marshal Blücher and Austrian Chancellor Prince Metternich, among others came to town and were feted by the Prince Regent and many, many others. 

Not only were there great celebrations in London. many eager tourists flocked across the Channel to enjoy the sights of Paris after the twenty years of war with France.  It needs no spoiler alert to point out that the Peace did not last until Napoleon escaped from Elba, had his Hundred Days, and lost at the Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815, a year later.  The second time, the Allies sent him farther away, to St.Helena.

Peace Breaks Out! London and Paris in the Summer of 1814

Their website can be found here.

The museum describes their exhibition:  “In the summer of 1814 celebrations were held in London and across Britain on the occasion of the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 30 May. The treaty saw peace return to Europe after some twenty years of conflict with the exile of the Emperor Napoleon to Elba and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. The various events staged across the United Kingdom were the first such nation-wide celebration to mark a significant event – such as the Treaty.”

Here is further information from Dr Jerzy J. Kierkuć-Bieliński, Exhibitions Curator at Sir John Soane’s Museum:  “The Peace of 1814 and the subsequent congress of Vienna in 1815, after the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, laid the geo-political framework of the European Empires that would dominate the Continent and much of the globe up to the outbreak of the First World War. The Allies who celebrated the signing of the Treaty as guests of the Prince Regent in London, would, almost exactly one hundred years later face each on the battlefields of Europe – this time as enemies. In many ways, to understand the origins of the First World War, one has to look at the events of 1814 and the false promise of lasting peace that it offered”

I am looking forward to visiting the exhibition this summer.  You can follow Sir John Soane’s Museum on Facebook here.

Victoria  here.  Long-time followers of this blog (we love you!) might recall an early post on Horace Walpole and his invention of the word SERENDIPITY.  Here it is again, if you are so inclined.

I have had occasion lately to study up on the London Season, as it is portrayed in accounts of the Georgian and Victorian eras, perhaps even before and after those several centuries.  When I finally got around to reading recent issues of Britain: The Official Magazine of Visit Britain, and British Heritage, two of my favorite publications, I found articles on The London Season. Serendipity again!

Britain (click here for their website), in an article by Josephine Price, writes  “…the aristocracy and members of the ruling classes tended to reside in London at the same time as the Royal Family. The summer season from April to July was peak time to be in London as it was before the start of shooting season…so a programme of social events was established in the 18th century to keep everyone entertained”.

Today of course, the once-essential debutante balls and presentation to the monarch is no longer an official part of the Season, though debutante balls can still be found.  Perhaps even more so as new residents try to revive old traditions.

However, many old traditions are as lively as ever, many associated with sports, such as the races at Royal Ascot and Goodwood, Wimbledon Tennis, Gold Cup Polo, and yachting at Cowes.  .

Other popular cultural events take place during the Season, such as the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall. The article in British Heritage, by Sandra Lawrence, adds Opera at Glyndebourne, the Royal Academy Summer exhibition of paintings, the Chelsea Flower Show and the Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival, among other events.

As a fan of Georgette Heyer and other authors who plumb the depths of our knowledge of the Regency period, and as a writer who has penned a few Regencies of her own, I have followed the many discussions on various internet forums of the precise dates, activities, persons, and events that constitute the Season, with a capital S, in London in the spring and early summer, exact dates up for discussion, but mostly based on the meetings of Parliament.

According to popular lore, the Season — and for that matter, many of the other social activities of the gentry and aristocracy back in the day — had to do with introducing young ladies and gentlemen to one another in the hopes of making effective matches — or what is often called The Marriage Mart. 

The most fortunate of the young ladies would be presented to the King and/or Queen at a Royal Drawing Room.  Balls, Assemblies, Concerts, and many other events went on until the “first families” left the hot and smelly city to return to their country seats for harvest, the shooting seasons, fox hunting, and so forth until Christmas.  And by Easter, it would  begin all over once more.

How the world has changed.  We might look on the old ways, perhaps as represented in Downton Abbey, as very appealing. However, they were reserved for only a special few. Today, most of the activities named are public and limited only by your ability to pay for your participation.  But if  magazine pictures of the fashionable hats and swanky dresses of the current day’s participants is any measure of the feminine effort to charm, the Season still has some of the trappings of the Marriage Mart — just a few!

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