Regency Trivia – Ruining a Gentleman

I’ve gone back to the list of question many of you had earlier this year. Many of them I have already answered, but there are still some left. Such as how one could ruin a gentleman like a lady could be ruined, basically forever. On one hand, it wasn’t easy. On the other hand, there was a scale of sorts. A gentleman might be accepted by some on the fringes of Polite Society, but never be received by high sticklers. If a gentleman had a reputation of playing fast and loose with young ladies mothers would probably not allow introductions to be made to their daughters, but he might be invited everywhere. A gentleman could be temporarily ruined by bankruptcy, but if he made his fortune or married one, he’d be accepted again. Remember that peers could not be sent to debtors prison.

A gentlemen could be ruined by being convicted of murder or some other heinous crime such as treason. Bear in mind that if one was a peer he’d be tried in the House of Lords, and that was very rare.

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Regency Trivia – Writing Desks

Writing was such an important task that desks were specifically designed for the task. Heaven forefend one was reduced to writing at one’s toilet table or on something else. As with most everything else at the time, writing tables were bespoke. Although, I imagine many of the ones used at the time had been around for years.

Here are some that would have been used during the Regency.

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The Regency Post — A Pity We’ve Lost Letters

Please enjoy this very through post on sending Regency mail. Ella

Shannon Donnelly's Fresh Ink

From an article published in The Beau Monde’s Quizzing Glass newsletter…

Posting a letter in Regency England was not as simple as walking down to the local post office and dropping off a stamped letter.  Prior to January 10, 1840, stamps did not exist.  Inked hand stamps applied to the letter indicated such information as whether it had been sent POSTPAID, UNPAID, PAID AT (city), PENNY POST, TOOLATE, 1dDUE or FREE, or what post office had collected the letter and what mileage it would cover.  The ‘letter box’ itself only came into use after 1794, and did not become compulsory until after 1811.  (The box consisted of a slit in the wall of the receiving house, which opened into a locked box.  Private boxes could be hired in some towns for as little as 1/2d per letter to 4d per letter.)

The letter itself differed from its modern form.  The…

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