Saturday, August 24, 2019

Travel in the Regency Era


Our Round Robin blog for August is to post an excerpt from one of my books dealing with travel or vacation.  

In the Regency era most people did not go on vacation as we know it today. Young men might be sent on a Grand Tour of Europe for them to gain a bit of sophistication and polish in much the same way as young ladies were sent off to finishing school in more recent history. Once Parliament closed for the summer recess, London was almost deserted as families headed out to their country estates or prepared for a round of house parties.

This socializing caused a great deal of stress for the host as it was not only their guests that had to be entertained and housed but their servants, too. It could also be an expensive time for the guests, as they would want to show off their finery which might require as many as six changes of outfits in a day.

My character, Emmaline, in His Dark Enchantress, had done her fair share of travelling for a variety of reasons, but one of her trips was to get home to her grandfather as fast as she could. The place names in the narrative were all coaching stops on what was known as The Trafalgar Way.

This was the route taken by Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotiere of HMS Pickle, who carried dispatches containing the news of Lord Nelson’s victory and death in the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October 1805. Lapenotiere began his journey on 4th November 1805 and covered the 271-mile route in 38 hours with 21 changes of horses. Emmaline didn’t have to make her trip at that speed and broke her journey at Dorchester to make her way home from there. Here is the excerpt:

Emmaline rested her head against the window frame, thankful for the corner seat she had managed to claim in the crowded stagecoach. Dressed in her shabbiest clothes, her cheeks dirtied a little and a wide-brimmed bonnet pulled down as much as possible to hide her face, no one paid much attention to her.
Pressed on her left by a large farmer, she sank further into her corner and remained mostly unseen by her fellow passengers. The gentleman sitting opposite her tried to draw her into a conversation but, after being subjected to her mute nods and one-syllable answers soon left her alone.
If not for her thoughts of Baymoor House, her grandfather and Lucius, Emmaline would possibly have slept a little. Baymoor itself would not have changed, its grey stone walls withstanding all winds and weather as it had done for a century and more. Her grandfather, she knew, had been in decline for some time before he’d insisted that she go to London. How much worse might his condition be now? And then there was Lucius. Did he have any regrets? Might he miss her just a little? Her heart weighed heavy just thinking of him.
She remained awake through Staines, Bagshot, and Hertford-bridge. Basingstoke, Overton, Andover all slipped by in a blur. At each stop, with passengers clambering in and out of the coach, Emmaline avoided being jostled by sitting firmly in her seat. But, with the unsavoury smell of unwashed bodies and stale clothing, the constant noise of clattering hooves and rumbling wheels, she was almost comatose with fatigue.
She endured the changes at Salisbury, Woodyates and Blandford, but at Dorchester she knew she must stop and rest. She had not eaten since she and Noble had racked up at the inn at Epsom. Then she had barely managed a small piece of cheese and a crust of bread and the tea she had drunk in Juliana’s room was a distant memory to her parched throat.

Now let’s take a look at at what these fine authors have to say.



15 comments:

  1. Travelers today have no appreciation for the comfort we have. We complain about delays in flights and forget that we will eventually get where we are going in a fraction of the time it took in the 1800s and in far greater comfort.

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    1. Yes, I agree. Even the best carriages were not always comfortable because, even with the best springs, the jolting caused by uneven road surfaces could bring on a bout of travel sickness.

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  2. As you excerpt shows, Skye's right. Enjoyed your information on the upper class's summer sojourns. I did not know about Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotiere journey. He must have been both devoted to duty and exhausted.

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    1. The full route was to Admiralty House, London from Falmouth, Cornwall, which is historic in its own right at Henry VIII built Pendennis Castle there.

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  3. I loved the way you describe the coach trip... I must say that I would have hated travelling in a stage coach. It must have been extremely uncomfortable!

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    1. Thank you, Marie. For sure travelling by coach was not for the faint hearted!

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  4. Thanks for the interesting post and the trip back in time. You brought the boredom and discomfort of those journeys to life. It must have been such a miserable experience!

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  5. It must have been even worse for those travelling on the outside of the coach!

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  6. Thank you for the short history of life a few hundred years ago.I had no idea about the life of the wealthy back then - and six changes a day! And the stage coach ride really brought the challenges and discomfort to life.
    Beverley

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  7. Thanks, Beverley. The London season began with the opening of Parliament after Christmas and ran through until June or early July. By then London stank so much that everyone who could, left town. The rich, of course, had their country estates. The poor had to suffer through it. The rounds of social niceties, whether in town or out of it, must have been very tedious!

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  8. A really great excerpt, Victoria. I've read a fair bit about the coaching routes and none of it fills me with confidence. I'm such a poor traveller, I would certainly have been sick. Liked the way you contrasted the solidity of his house with the frailty of Emmaline's grandfather's health. anne stenhouse

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    1. Thanks for the comment, Anne. Coaching was quite the business, too. In the early 1900s one company was reputed to own 7,000 horses. The costs must have been astronomical!

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  9. Ohhh! You've created suspense right away. Why is she dressing down and even with a smudged face. No sprightly chatter. A mystery. More suspense! What will happen when she finally gets off for a bite of food. Do the coahes come along as regularly as buses, or will she have to spend a night? And I want to know more about the man she misses. Great suspense in few words.

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  10. Forgot to tell you: I like the naming of all the coach stops, too. Makes the author sound very knowledgeable.

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  11. Thank you, Judy! Yes, the stops on the Trafalgar Way were well documented. I also have timetables and rate sheets from the era, but although the devil is in the details, too much detail can detract from the story.

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