The Secrets of Bloxley Bottom, Episode 19: "Le Thé"


Prudence Newton wore her very best dress to take tea at the Dower House. It was one Lady Louisa had given her and, without doubt, had once belonged to one of that Lady’s granddaughters.  Prudence had discovered long ago that it was no good refusing the Bloxley girls’ cast offs, as otherwise her own mother would never rouse herself enough to arrange for anything near as fine for Prudence to wear. Ever practical, Prudence had also learned early on that it was no good cutting off one’s nose in order to spite one’s face. However, spite did still enter into the matter, as both Valeria and Daphne never lost the opportunity to comment upon the fact that an ensemble worn by Prudence had once been worn by themselves. Although, to be fair, Valeria, the eldest sister, was by far more spiteful than Daphne, who occasionally surprised Prudence with a kind word.
The dress that Prudence wore today was a lovely shade of rose and made Prudence feel quite fashionable, despite the fact that she had disliked it upon first inspection, for it had had a flouncy lace collar and trim down the front of it and had looked for all the world like something an old woman might wear. Prudence had no doubt that the Bloxley sisters had been glad to see the back of it. Her mother had carefully removed the lace trimming and collar, saving it for something else, perhaps her own Sunday gown.  However, altering the dress any further was far beyond her mother’s skill or energy. Prudence had then taken the gown to Mrs. Wilson, a widow who lived in the almshouses and who had, in her younger days, been apprenticed to quite a fine dressmaker in Dover. Mrs. Wilson welcomed Prudence’s commissions, as the work kept her occupied and helped her to feel as if she was yet of some use to someone. In return, Prudence supplied Mrs. Wilson with eggs and other odds and ends so that both women were happy with the arrangement. As usual, Prudence had also brought along some of the magazines that Lady Louisa kept her supplied with for educational purposes. These contained fashion plates and descriptions of the latest mode of trim and embellishments and allowed Prudence and Mrs. Wilson to come to an education decision as to how the dress should be altered. Some deeper rose cording was added to cover the removed stitches, and once re-trimmed, Prudence thought the dress much prettier. With its wide sleeves and tiny ivory buttons, it looked very good on her, indeed.
As always when she visited Lady Louisa and Miss Anne Humphrey, Prudence was expected to be upon her very best social behaviour. After all, these ladies had made it their missions for the past few years to school her in manner, speech and deportment, amongst other things. Conversation was paramount with Lady Louisa, who typically broached subjects that would have been contained in the magazines she had give Prudence the week prior.  Today, after the tea had been poured, Lady Louisa asked, “Tell me, Prudence, did you read the biographical sketch on Queen Adelaide in La Belle Assemblee?” Prudence smiled. She had read the entire piece on the German princess who married King William IV years ago. And had almost fallen asleep. “I did, Lady Louisa. I found it quite interesting.” Lady Louisa raised a brow. “Really? I wonder what you found most interesting about it?”
“Well, actually I wondered how it was that she learned to speak English?” Prudence asked.

Lady Louisa grimaced. “Do try not to begin a sentence with the word well, my dear. As to Adelaide, what I always wonder is why those silly little German fiefdoms are more suitable than our own counties as breeding grounds for the wives of English princes?  They are several generations removed from living in Hanover…”

As Lady Louisa went on in this vein, Prudence glanced about the drawing room, which to her young mind was the height of elegance. To sit here among the portraits, china statues and jewel-tone carpets, the mellow tables laden with little statues and bowls of roses…this indeed was a life Prudence wished she could aspire to…

“… but they must marry some preposterous title from a miserable little principality,” Lady Louisa went on. “There ar
e hundreds of alleged princesses. What could it possibly mean to be a German princess?  Certainly nothing as significant as it is to be an English lady.”

Prudence was trying to think of a suitable response to this when the butler opened the door and announced Miss Bloxley and Miss Valeria Bloxley. 
This sisters both kissed their grandmothers’ cheek and greeted Anne before bestowing the merest of nods in Prudence’s direction. Tea was offered and poured and then Lady Louisa said, “I’m surprised that you called today. You know very well it’s Prudence’s day for lessons.”
“Are we not welcome, Grandmama? Do you wish us to leave in order that you may devote your full attention to Miss Newton?” Valerie asked.

 

Lady Louisa was well aware of her granddaughters’ dislike for the rector’s daughter. No doubt it was based on some bit of adolescent jealousy or some other female nonsense, but it did not sit well with Lady Louisa, who said, “Nonsense.”
“We have been cooped up all morning sitting for our portrait,” Daphne explained, “so I suggested that we take the air and walk over to see you.”
“And how are your sittings with Monsieur Tournell progressing?” Lady Louisa asked.
“They are quite dull, Grandmama,” Daphne said.
“Yes,” Valeria agreed with a sniff. “Monsieur Tournell may be a fine painter, according to Papa, but his conversational skills are greatly lacking.”
“Other than greeting us when we first come into the studio, Monsieur Tournell says nary a word to either of us during the entire session.” Daphne added.
Prudence covered a bubble of laughter with a cough. Oh, but it was laughable to hear Monsieur Tournell spoken of so. She and Tournell always found interesting topics to discuss whenever they met and Prudence found him to be very entertaining and most willing to speak to her on any subject she broached to him. In addition, he was a very kind man. After learning that she wanted very much to learn to speak French, Monsieur Tournell had written out a few words for her to learn and to then use conversationally. He had written them out both in their French spelling and also in English, as they were spoken. Monsieur Tournell had explained to Prudence that she would learn the words phonetically. Another new word for Prudence’s ever evolving vocabulary.
“Have you had any more sittings with Monsieur Tournell, Prudence?” Anne asked.
Valeria’s eyes widened, “You? You are having your portrait done by Tournell?”
Prudence smiled, “Not a portrait, no. As you are aware, my family could never afford that. But Monsieur Tournell was kind enough to agree to do a few sketches of me so that I may give one to Mama for her birthday.”
“Well, at least he’s charitable, if not talkative,” Daphne allowed. Like so many of Daphne’s comments, this one left Prudence to speculate as to whether it was meant to be kind. Or not. Valeria, on the other hand, left no doubt as to her intentions.
“That’s a lovely dress you are wearing, Miss Newton,” she said now.
“Why thank you. It needed but a few alterations to bring it into fashion.”
“Oh, it is more than that,” Daphne said. “It never looked so well on Valeria.” Valeria, as one may expect, turned a death glare upon her sister, who seemed to take no notice. “You have a much fuller figure, Miss Newton, and it does justice to the gown.”
“Thank you,” Prudence said simply as she stood. “I will make my farewells, Lady Louisa, Miss Bloxley, Miss Valeria.  And Miss Humphrey.  I must…”
“Deliver your eggs?” Valeria asked sweetly. 
Prudence kept her smile as gracious as possible.  “No, I have something else to attend to today.”
“Pray, do not let us detain you.”
Prudence said her goodbyes to Lady Louisa and Anne, thanking them for having her to tea, and she bade goodbye to Daphne before heading to the door.
“Good day, Miss Newton!” Valerie called out, acknowledging the cut.
Over her shoulder, Prudence called back, “Au revoir, mademoiselle!”

 

The Lewis Walpole Library

 
Horace Walpole, by Sir  Joshua Reynolds, 1756, NPG
Victoria, here, always fascinated by Horace Walpole (1717-1797) — aren’t you?   I first blogged about him here about him here in 2010.
It was that year I attended an exhibition at the V and A in London feautring items from the collections of Horace Walpole — long ago dispersed by sale and auction.  Many of them had been acquired by the Lewis Walpole Collection in Farmington, Connecticut, which is part of the Yale University Library system.  In 2011, I visited Strawberry Hill, Walpole’s restored villa in Twickenham.  See my post here.
 

Library, Strawberry Hill, 2011
Recently, I discovered the wonderful blog that the Lewis Walpole Collection publishes, with pictures from their acquisitions of 18th C. letters, diaries, books, pictures, caricatures, and other objects.  Be careful or you will lose HOURS enjoying their blog and their website.
 
 
You can also enjoy their Facebook page and receive frequent updates. 
W.S. and Annie Burr Lewis, ca. 1928
 
 
The Library was founded by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (1895-1979) and his wife Annie Burr Lewis (1902-1959).  It began with W. S. Lewis’s collections of Walpole’s correspondence and continued as a lifetime activity, among many others, of the couple.
 
 
One of their caricatures, posted on Facebook when a snowstorm required the library to close temporarily; I love this sense of humor!

Here, FYI, is a brief description, from their website:
“The Lewis Walpole Library, a department of the Yale University Library since 1980, is an internationally recognized research collection in the field of British eighteenth-century studies. Its unrivalled collection of Walpoliana includes half the traceable volumes from Horace Walpole’s famous library at Strawberry Hill and many letters and other manuscripts by him. The Library’s book and manuscript collections, numbering over 32,000 volumes, cover all aspects of eighteenth-century British culture.”
 
barn, recently built

“The Library is also home to the largest and finest collection of eighteenth-century British graphic art outside the British Museum; its 35,000 satirical prints, portraits, and topographical views are an incomparable resource for visual material on many facets of English life of the period.
Located in Farmington, Connecticut, forty miles north of New Haven and within easy distance of Boston and New York, the Lewis Walpole Library’s collections also include drawings, paintings, and furniture, all housed on a 14-acre campus with four historically important structures and extensive grounds. The Library runs an active fellowship program and sponsors conferences, lectures, and exhibitions in cooperation with other Yale libraries and departments.”
I will be off to Europe in a couple of weeks, during which visit I intend to visit Houghton Hall, the home of Horace’s father, Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), England’s first Prime Minister.  After his death, his collection of Old Master paintings was also dispersed by heirs, mostly sold to Catherine the Great of Russia.  The website is here.
I will report further in the coming months.

A Couple In England – Day 7 – Part Three

After touring the Fashion Museum, I went upstairs to visit the Assembly Rooms, which were designed by John Wood the Younger in 1769 and completed in 1771.  The Rooms are primarily made up of three main, public rooms – the first being the Ball Room, where balls were held twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays.

 
Here is a plan of the Rooms
 
 
 
 
The plan, as well as an excellent article on English Assembly Rooms can be found on that most excellent blog, Austenonly.
 
 
The yellow Octagon Room was used for card play until the Card Room was added in 1777.
And the Tea Room was, naturally, where the fashionable went to take tea. Here is Rowlandson’s print of the Room –
 

 
It is remarkable that the Assembly Rooms exist today at all. During WWII, the historically important English cities of Exeter, Bath, Norwich and York were targeted by the Germans in a series of targeted attacks known as the Baedeker raids.
 
From Wikipedia: The Baedeker raids were conducted by the German Luftwaffe’s Luftflotte 3 in two periods between April and June 1942. They targeted strategically relatively unimportant but picturesque cities in England. The cities were reputedly selected from the German Baedeker Tourist Guide to Britain, meeting the criterion of having been awarded three stars (for their historical significance), hence the English name for the raids.
 
“Over the weekend of 25-27 April 1942, Bath suffered three horrifying reprisal raids, from 80 Luftwaffe planes which took off from Nazi occupied northern France. As the city sirens wailed few people took cover, even when the first pathfinder flares fell the people of Bath still believed the attack was destined for nearby Bristol. During the previous four months Bristol had been hit almost every night, and so the people of Bath did not expect the bombs to fall on them.
 
“The first raid struck just before 11 pm on the Saturday night and lasted until 1 am. The enemy aircraft then returned to France; refuelled, rearmed and returned at 4.35 am. Bath was still ablaze from the first raid, making it easier for the German bombers to pick out their targets. The third raid, which only lasted two hours but caused extensive damage, arrived in the early hours of Monday morning. The bombers flew low to drop their high explosives and incendiaries and then returned to rain the streets with machine-gun fire. 417 people were killed, another 1,000 injured. Over 19,000 buildings were affected, of which 1,100 were seriously damaged or destroyed including 218 of architectural or historic interest.  Houses in the Royal Crescent, Circus and Paragon were destroyed and the Assembly Rooms burnt out.“
 
This is how the Tea Room looked after the Baedeker raids, or Bath Blitz, in April 1942.
 
 

 
 
And this what they look like today.
 
 
 
It is of interest to note that all of the rooms are today lit by their original 18th-century chandeliers, which had thankfully been taken down and placed in storage at the start of the war. For more on the history of the chandeliers and their preservation, visit author Lesley-Anne McLeod’s site here.

For further contemporary information about Regency Bath and the Assembly Rooms, read Pierce Egan’s Walks Through Bath: Describing Every Thing Worthy of Interest, published in 1819. It contains lots of detailed 1819 travel information.

And because so much of what we know and have seen of the Assembly Rooms and, indeed Bath itself, has come to us via films, especially those based upon the novels of Miss Jane Austen, you can download the Bath Movie Map here and use it as a guide to film locations throughout the City.
 

Part Four Coming Soon!

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