Saturday, January 29, 2011

The language of the fan


The sixteenth century English writer, Joseph Addison, stated: “Men have the sword, women have the fan and the fan is probably as effective a weapon!”

The Language of the Fan demonstrates the hidden language of the fan, an art that has been lost, but was once widely followed. Click here for a fascinating explanation.The Language of the Fan.


In Georgian England, women wore fans as a fashion accessory with almost every outfit that they owned. “There were daytime fans, white satin bridal fans and even mourning fans painted with grisaille, i.e. black, white and grey. Classical fans, brought from Italy, replaced the luscious rococo of the French. As well as drawing attention to beautiful and perfectly manicured hands, these items played a big part in delicate flirtations.”

Madame Devaucy, J.A.D. Ingres, 1807


When one thinks of a fashionably attired Regency lady, one also thinks of the lovely fan she most likely carried. These graceful objects were first used for cooling, but during the 19th century they became an indispensable fashion accessory. Flirtations were carried on with fans, which hid blushing cheeks or communicated a specific message. (Click on ‘The Language of the Fan’ post below)

In the eighteenth century, wealthy Georgian ladies, especially English ones, waved [fans] at masquerade balls, and wore them as a fashion accessory with almost every outfit that they owned. There were daytime fans, white satin bridal fans and even mourning fans painted with grisaille, i.e. black, white and grey. Classical fans, brought from Italy, replaced the luscious rococo of the French. As well as drawing attention to beautiful and perfectly manicured hands, these items played a big part in delicate flirtations. In fact, a whole ‘language of the fan’ had developed in England in Tudor times which became especially popular for middle and upper-class Victorian women who were courting. A folded fan placed against a lady’s chin told a gentleman that she found him attractive, for example, while snapping a fan shut was a curt dismissal! No wonder that the sixteenth century English writer, Joseph Addison, stated: “Men have the sword, women have the fan and the fan is probably as effective a weapon!”- Life in Italy, Handheld Fans

The following passage was written in the U.S. in mid-nineteenth century America. It describes an oppressively hot day in church in which so many ladies were fanning themselves that they created a significant breeze for others. “One old lady must have been thinking of a dancing-tune to which her feet kept time in the days of her youth, as her fan kept time with a regular hop, skip and jump, not at all like any psalm-tune I ever heard.” The author goes on to describe fans made of red and yellow, or resembling a great palm-leaf, or made of a peacock’s tail or turkey feathers, their delicate ivory or sandalwood sticks and guards creating clicking sounds.

Those two young ladies who sit where side glances cross very conveniently from the crimson-cushioned pew occupied by a single gentleman, have consecrated theirs to the most effectual display of their ruby lips and laughing dimples, and I am kind enough to hope it will not be “all in vain,” and, as I have hinted, really think fans are often put to a worse use. No insignificant thing is the little flutterer, whatever may be its form or fashion – how many smiles and frowns and titters it hides, to say nothing of the blushes that take shelter behind its graceful folds. Many an ague fit have they given me; yet on the whole, I am not sure that I would banish them; were they the authors of ten times as much mischief, for I think it would cause a flutter among ladies, that would be more deleterious.

Into what a consternation they would be thrown if suddenly deprived of this relief in all embarrassments; and it is a curious fact, that in all heathen as well as all Christian nations, it is a favorite shield of the gentle sex. In all histories of queens and courts and festivals, the fan is conspicuous, whether it be among the Princes of Christendom, in India or China, or in the Islands of the seas. The true reason is that it is so graceful an appendage, and so kind a helpmeet in a moment of timidity or an hour of idleness.” -Minnie Myrtle, The Ladies and Their Fans, New York Times, June 30, 1854

A Regency Lady gets Dressed

Progress of the Toilet, a series of engravings created in 1810 by James Gillray, a renowned and prolific British caricaturist, show three illustrations that depict a young lady being dressed by her maid. The details in these prints from an extensive print collection at the Yale University Library are striking and informative.

In the first plate, The Stays, Gillray depicts a young lady in her undergarments and wearing a cap, stockings, and slippers. On the floor sit a bowl and pitcher with water. Toiletries, pins, and jewelry are scattered on top of her dressing table. She inserts a busk between her breasts as her maid tightens her stays. Find a more detailed explanation about regency undergarments and regency fashions by clicking on the bolded words.


Elaborate powdered wigs of the previous century gave way to simpler hair styles, some cut quite short. In the illustration entitled The Wig, the maid prepares to place a short curly wig on her mistress’ head. Note that the mirror is now full length and that the side table looks different. Our young lady sits in a simple muslin day gown, with neck and arms covered, reading a book as her maid prepares her. A bonnet and an open robe or pelise (on chair) will complete her toilette. Find more regency hairstyles on this site.

In the third engraving, Dress Completed, we observe our young lady dressed for the evening and putting on evening gloves, which, typical of the day, are loose at the top. Her maid holds a shawl and fan, and her reticule hangs on a hook on the wall. The side table is no longer visible; her fashion plate book/magazine lies discarded on the floor. Our young lady’s slippers probably looked like this pair below. For a comprehensive view of footwear during this era, click here.

In The Mirror of Graces, 1811, a Lady of Distinction write, “Perhaps it is necessary to remind my readers that custom regulates the veiling or unveling the figure, according to different periods in the day. In the morning the arms and bosom must be completely covered to the throat and wrists. From the dinner-hour to the termination of the day, the arms, to a graceful height above the elbow, may be bare; and the neck and shoulders unveiled as far as delicacy will allow.”

Fashionable London adresses

Grosvenor Street, near Park Lane (right)

Grosvenor Square (Left)

“One’s address was a symbol of status. Maria obtained ‘one of the best houses in Wimpole Street’; the Johan Dashwoods (Sense and Sensibility) were well situated in Harley Street; while the Bingleys (Pride and Prejudice) found equally upper-crust accommodations in Mr. Hurst’s house in Grosvenor Street. By contrast, the Gardiners, who were in trade, lived in Gracechurch Street, in the commercial district of London and within sight of Mr. Gardiner’s warehouse.” From: Jane Austen’s Town and Country Style by Susan Watkins.Wimpole Street

“The Georgian period in London coincided very neatly with the Palladian Revival in architecture and art. Lord Burlington, in his 1715 design of Burlington House in Piccadilly, played a major role in popularizing this classical style which became the norm for much of the century. A few years later, in 1725, Lord Burlington was at it again, with his remodeling of Chiswick House, then a country retreat but now part of the greater London sprawl.

At the same time Grosvenor Square was laid out in Mayfair, part of the Grosvenor family’s development of that aristocratic district. More London squares followed, notably at Berkeley Square (design by William Kent). Kent was also responsible for building the Treasury Building(1733), and the Horse Guards (1745).”

Cred

The London Fog

Just wanted to note that apparently there was a constant fog lingering over London in the winters of the Regency Era, a result of fossil coals as fuel.

Mr. Simond’s, an American in Regency London, writes, March 5 1810:

“The inhabitants of London, such as they are seen in the streets, have, as well as the outside of their houses a sort of dingy, smoky look; not dirty absolutely–for you generally perceive clean linen–but the outside garments are of a dull, dark cast, and harmonize with mud and smoke. Prepossessed with a high opinion of English corpulency.”

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Early 19th Century London

“The huge size of London meant that is was also the largest single market for basic consumer goods, which stimulated the production of shoes, clothing, furniture, bread, beer and the other necessities of life. London breweries were amongst the most capital intensive concerns in the land. The cattle driven to the market at Smithfield supplied hides for the tanners at Bermondsley who produced leather to be used in shoes, saddles, coaches, book bindings.” P. 35, London – World City, 1800-1840, Edited by Celina Fox, 1992, Yale University Press, New haven & London, in Association with The Museum of London.By the turn of the nineteenth century London had almost ten thousand acres of market gardens serving the hungry metropolis. The gardens were richly fertilized with the dung from the streets and stables from London – each acre had sixty cartloads of manure spread over and dug into it each year. This contrasts with regular farming land about London which, during this period, was only manured once every three or four years. (During September to October.) As well as dung, the market gardeners made copious use of marl, dug up from Enfield chase to the north of the city. A by-product of marl production were thousands of fossilised dinosaur bones, to be sent down to the newly developed British Museum (although many, no doubt, were crushed for the market gardens as well). Manure and/or marl was ploughed in by a clumsy swing plough, and harrowed once ploughed over. Working the gardens began soon after Christmas. Once the weather was favourable, the market gardeners began by sowing the borders with radishes, spinach, onions as well many seed crops.” In An American in Regency England, 1810-1811, Louis Simond writes: “The streets have all common sewers, which drain the filth of every house. The drains preclude the awkward process by which necessaries are emptied at Paris, poisoning the air of whole streets during the night, with effluvia, hurtful and sometimes fatal to the inhabitants. Rich houses have what are called water-closets; a cistern in the upper story, filled with rain-water, communicates by a pipe and cock to a vessel of earthenware, which it constantly washes.”

A dance: Cotillion

In The Mirror of Graces (1811), A Lady of Distinction writes

“The utmost in dancing to which a gentlewoman ought to aspire, is an agile and graceful movement of her feet, an harmonious motion with her arms, and a corresponding easy carriage of her whole body. But, when she has gained this proficiency, should she find herself so unusually mistress of the art as to be able, in any way, to rival her professors by whom she has been taught, she must ever hold in mind, that the same style of dancing is not equally proper for all kinds of dances.

For instance, the English country-dance and the French cotillion require totally different movements.”

TheEncyclopedia Britannica describes the cotillion as:

late 18th-century and 19th-century French court dance, popular also in England. A precursor of the quadrille, the cotillion was danced by four couples standing in a square set. The first and third, then the second and fourth, couples executed various series of geometric figures.”

In The Gentleman & Lady’s Companion, Printed by J. Trumbull, 1798, the author describes the cotillion as thus:

“Balance all eight, then half round, the same back again, 1st and 2d couple (opposite) take your partners with both hands, chasse with her to your side with five steps, back again to your places, balance with the opposite couples, then cross hands half round, back again with four hands round, a gentleman with a lady opposite balance in the middle, and set, the other gentleman with the opposite lady do the same, right and left quite round until to your places. The 3d and 4th couples do the same figures.”

Maps of London


The maps are links.

Christmas Traditions

All you need to know about a Regency Christmas, from food to decorating the tree: link

The Dandy

Author Venetia Murray quotes an excerpt from An Exquisite’s Dairy, from The Hermit in London, 1819:

Took four hours to dress; and then it rained; ordered the tilbury and my umbrella, and drove to the fives’ court; next to my tailors; put him off after two years tick; no bad fellow that Weston…broke three stay-laces and a buckle, tore the quarter of a pair of shoes, made so thin by O’Shaughnessy, in St. James’s Street, that they were light as brown paper; what a pity they were lined with pink satin, and were quite the go; put on a pair of Hoby’s; over-did it in perfuming my handkerchief, and had to recommence de novo; could not please myself in tying my cravat; lost three quarters of an hour by that, tore two pairs of kid gloves in putting them hastily on; was obliged to go gently to work with the third; lost another quarter of an hour by this; drove off furiously in my chariot but had to return for my splendid snuff-box, as I knew that I should eclipse the circle by it.

A Regency Meal

Louis Simond, An American in Regency England, describes a meal with his host and hostess as thus:

“The master and mistress of the house sit at each end of the table–narrower and longer than the French tables–the mistress at the upper end–and the places near her are the places of honour. There are commonly two courses and a dessert. I shall venture to give a sketch of a moderate dinner for ten or twelve persons. Although contemporary readers may laugh, I flatter myself it may prove interesting in future ages.”

First course (not in order)
Oyster Sauce, Fish, Fowls, Soup, Vegetables, Roasted or Boiled Beef, Spinage, Bacon, Vegetables

Second Course (not in order)
Creams, Ragout a la Francoise, Pastry, Cream, Cauliflowers, Game, Celery, Macaroni, Pastry.

Dessert (not in order)
Walnuts, Raisins and Almonds, Apples, Cakes, Pears, Raisins and Almonds, Oranges

“Soon after dinner the ladies retire, the mistress of the house rising first, while the men remain standing. left alone, they resume their seats, evidently more at ease, and the conversation takes a different turn–less reserved–and either graver, or more licentious.”

Regency Shopping

Shopping has always been a popular pastime, particularly among the affluent and the Regency was no different. Living at the dawn of the industrial era, the selection of goods available was larger than at any other time before in history. The large department stores of the Victorian era was yet to come but companies such as Debenhams, Fortnum & Mason and Harvey Nichols started out in Georgian times as haberdashers, grocers and linen drapers that soon expanded their line of goods to attract a wider range of customers. Shopping centers on the other hand are nothing new, as the different exchanges, arcades and bazaars of the Regency can testify to. Let's go shopping!

Streets to shop: Jermyn Street. Burlington Arcade. Bond Street. Oxford Street. Saville Row. Floris.

Good page on shopping in Regency England


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Who am I?

Before I go to bed I just though I'd put down some information just in case someone against all odds read these words.
I am a "hope-to-be-writer" who always have had a passion for all times but our own. Ancient Rome and Regency have grown to be my favorites and since I've always loved to write I decided to try putting some ink on paper (although not so literally, we live after all in the 21st century weather I want it or not). But writing stories about people from different times requiers a lot of information and I started this blog as a way to collect all that information. So if some posts make no sense, don't worry, you're probably not the confused one, I am. Okay, now I'm gonna try getting some sleep despite the snow blizzard that's hammering against all New Yorker's windows tonight!

Regency Money in Perspective

To put some of these sums into perspective, the average annual income for an English laborer or farmer in 1800 was around 15-20 pounds. To live comfortably, an English gentleman like Mr. Bennet, would require around 300 pounds per year per individual, or over fifteen times the amount for a working man who supported his family. As you can see from the figures, as long as Mr. Bennet lived, his family was comfortably off. But the situation would change drastically the moment he died. After that unhappy event, Mrs. Bennet would be expected to live off the 4% interest of her £5,000 marriage settlement, or £200 per year. No wonder she became shrill every time she thought of her unmarried daughters, for Mr. Bennet’s entire yearly £2,000 income and his house were entailed to Mr. Collins. After Mrs. Bennet’s death, Lizzy would receive just 1/5 of her mother’s marriage portion, and she would bring to her marriage only 40 pounds per year.

Today it is hard to accurately determine the spending power of these sums (see the different estimates of Mr. Bingley’s income in the example below). Factors that influence spending power are war, inflation, cost of goods, housing and the geographic area in which the dwellings were located. In any event, Mr. Darcy’s and Mr. Bingley’s incomes would still be regarded as exceedingly fine. In fact, Mr. Darcy’s 10,000 per year represents only 4% interest of his vast fortune. And Mr. Bingley, though he receives only 4,000 per year, inherited almost 3.4 million pounds from his tradesman father in today’s terms.

…the income would normally come from agricultural profits on land or from other property and investments (in Bingley’s case it turns out the be the latter). It is not easy to translate incomes of the time into today’s money. By some calculations, the effects of inflation mean that a pound in Jane Austen’s time has the same value as almost forty pounds today; if so, Bingley’s income would be the equivalent of 150,000 to 200,000 a year in today’s pounds (or around $250,000-$300,000 in current U.S. money). Altered economic condition, however, make estimates like this tricky: for example, goods tended to be much dearer at that time, in relative terms, while labor tended to be much cheaper. In addition, average incomes in this period, even when adjusted for inflation, were much lower than today, so Bingley’s income represents a far sharper deviation from the prevailing norm than its current equivalent would be.” – Shapard, Annotated Pride and Prejudice, P 5

One can now understand why in Sense and Sensibility Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters were forced to economize. When John Dashwood, under his wife’s influence, reneged on his promise to his dying father to contribute substantial sums of money to his step family, the women were forced to live on 500 pounds per year. This paltry sum would have barely covered their living expenses had it not been for Sir John Middleton’s generosity in inviting his cousin to live in a cottage on his estate.

Like the Dashwood women, Jane Austen, her mother, and sister also experienced chronic money worry. However, through the sale of her books Jane was able to earn a much needed supplemental income. While the £140 she earned from the sales ofSense and Sensibility does not sound like much, it represents close to $9,800 in today’s U.S. sums. In fact, the proceeds from the sale of her four books netted her over 23,000 pounds or around 46,000 dollars towards the end of her life. After her brother Henry’s financial reversals, this money must have been a welcome boon indeed.

Now that you’ve gained some understanding of what these sums of money mean, please read the following statement made by Mrs. Bennet in Volume 3 of Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 17:

Dear, dear Lizzy. A house in town! Every thing that is charming! Three daughters married! Ten thousand a year! Oh, Lord! What will become of me. I shall go distracted.

Money in Regency England

[Jane+Austen+Income+Chart.JPG]
I found a very helpful chart to translate sums with, something I have been wondering about for a very long time! Thanks again, Jane Austen's World!

Vauxhall Gardens

A reminder to myself to look up Vauxhall Gardens. They do seem beautiful!

A Dandy's clothing

In The Corinthian, Georgette Heyer describes Sir Richard in her inimitable fashion:

“He was a very notable Corinthian. From his Wind-swept hair (most difficult of all styles to achieve), to the toes of his gleaming Hessians, he might have posed as an advertisement for the Man of Fashion. His fine shoulders set off a coat of superfine cloth to perfection; his cravat, which had excited George’s admiration, had been arranged by the hands of a master; his waistcoat was chosen with a nice eye; his biscuit-coloured pantaloons showed not one crease; and his Hessians with their jaunty gold tassels, had not only been made for him by Hoby, but were polished, George suspected, with a blacking mixed with champagne. A quizzing-glass on a black ribbon hung around his neck; a fob at his waist; and in one hand he carried a Sevres snuff-box. His air proclaimed unutterable boredom, but no tailoring, no amount of studied nonchalance, could conceal the muscle in his thighs, or the strength of his shoulders. Above the starched points of his shirt-collar, a weary, handsome face showed its owner’s disillusionment.”

In High Society: A Social History of the Regency Period, 1788-1830, Venetia Murray writes:

“…admirers of dandyism have taken the view that it is a sociological phenomenon, the result of a society in a state of transition or revolt. Barbey d’Aurevilly, one of the leading French dandies at the end of the nineteenth century, explained: Some have imagined that dandyism is primarily a specialisation in the art of dressing oneself with daring and elegance. It is that, but much else as well. It is a state of mind made up of many shades, a state of mind produced in old and civilised societies where gaiety has become infrequent or where conventions rule at the price of their subject’s boredom…it is the direct result of the endless warfare between respectability and boredom.


In Regency London dandyism was a revolt against a different kind of tradition, an expression of distaste for the extravagance and ostentation of the previous generation, and of sympathy with the new mood of democracy.
Beau Brummel

Excellent page on men's Regency fashion: link

Keeping warm

The houses in Regency England were warmed up with firewood, coal or dried dung depending on what the family could afford and what was avalible.

The Hearth:

For most households, the kitchen with its large open hearth and constantly burning stoves became the focal point for both family and servants in the evening. It was not unusual for master and mistress of the house to sit in the kitchen with the servants – the women sewing and the men reading – as they sat by the only source of heat and light at night.

18th century Dutch kitchen interior

18th century Dutch kitchen interior

The above illustration of a Dutch interior in a small house is reminiscent of family scenes all over Northern Europe, with the family gathered in one room, along with the family’s pets. The two gentleman in the Cruikshank illustrations below seem to live in rented rooms. One has placed his table/desk near the fireplace, in which a boiling kettle is steaming (no doubt to add to Cruickhank’s satire on jealousy). The sick man sits in front of an open grate in a high-backed chair, which kept the heat from escaping. Coal fires were common in the city, where soot and smoke helped to create the pollution and fogs for which London was so famously known during the industrial revolution.

The wealthy could afford to have rooms heated when and where they liked, and whether it was cold outside or not. As the 18th century progressed, fireplaces became more efficient. Rumford fireplaces, common from 1796 – 1850, were designed to carry away more smoke and reflect more heat. In Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland was disappointed to note the brand-new Rumford stove that General Tilney had installed along with other modern improvements.


Mid 18th century Wing Back Chair, England

Mid 18th century Wing Back Chair, England

Wing chairs

Arranged in a circle around a cozy fire, wing chairs served a dual purpose, conserving heat and protecting the sitter from draughts. English homes were notorious for chill draughts entering under doors and through ill fitting window frames. The highs backs of these chairs and wings, sometimes known as cheeks, prevented cold air from swirling around the head and upper body, and at the same time prevented heat from escaping past the sitter. High backed wood settees served a similar purpose but were not quite so comfortable.

Room screens

Also known as draught screens, room screens have been used since medieval times as a protection against draughts. Thought of as a necessity, they partitioned off long halls and kept draughts from entering too close to the heated portion of the room. They could also serve as protection against too much sun in the summer in a room that faced west.

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- Family Physician A Manual of Domestic Medicine, 1886

Draught Screen 1744

Draught Screen 1744

Of the tribe of fire screens and draught screens there are so many varieties that it is impossible to mention more than a tithe. The purpose of the former is so apparent as to need little commendation. So long as we are scorched baked or fried at one side of the room and frozen at the other so long shall we require at times a screen between the fire and those nearest it. This screen may take the form of transparent glass or tinted cathedral glass in leaded squares. It may have its panels of brocade, or old leather of rare needlework by skilful fingers, or of painting on panel in oils or in water colour. – The Furniture Gazette1881

pole-screenPole screens

A beautiful addition to any room, decorative pole screens served an important function in the 18th century: The tall thin screens shielded people’s faces from the direct heat of the fire. In the 17th and 18th centuries both men and women wore makeup to hide blemishes. (It was said that before he turned fifty the Prince Regent’s face had turned waxen and copper colored from make up.) The cosmetic preparation worn to hide small pox was thick, and made up of wax and white lead. The lead was toxic, especially when warmed, and the heat from a fire could be life threatening. A pole screen protected the face from intense heat and prevented the wax from melting and the cosmetics from interacting with the skin. Pole screens were fitted with sliding panels that could be enlarged or diminished as needed. The earliest panels were made of wicker, but these were replaced with beautiful needlework or embroidered panels that came in many shapes and sizes – oval, heart-shaped, rectangular, etc. By the late 18th century, skin disfiguration caused by plagues was no longer as prevalent as before, and smaller polescreens became more fashionable.

The Bedroom

The bedroom remained a primary focus for staying warm. Privacy was a luxury only the rich or rising middle classes could afford. Most poor and working class families shared rooms (or lived in a one-room hovel), and children often shared a bed and huddled together. For the privileged, life was vastly different. A half hour before the family retired, a servant would enter the bedrooms and start a fire in each room. They would also warm the bed sheets with bed warmers.

antique-brass-bed-warmer

Bed warmers

Brass bed warmer open

Brass bed warmer open

Bed warmers like the one depicted in the image above were made of brass tin or lined copper, and had long wood handles. The round metal pan was hinged so that it could be easily filled with hot coals. The pan would then be moved gently back and forth between the sheets to warm the beds on cold evenings. These bed warmers gradually fell into disuse in the 19th century after hot water bottles made of rubber became affordable and widespread.

Four poster beds

The thick hangings that surrounded a four poster or tester bed kept cold draughts out and body heat in. Popular since before the Elizabethan age, their design changed with the times: ornate in the 16th century, plain in the 18th century, and a rich but restrained neoclassical style in the 19th century. The bed and bedding materials varied according to wealth. Luxurious hanging made of velvet or brocade were often worth more than the wood bed frame, and in times past the rich would take the hangings with them as they traveled, leaving the wood bed behind. As improvements in insulation and draught exclusion were made, the four poster bed became more decorative than functional.

Four poster bed

Four poster bed

Night caps (also known as jelly-bags in the 19th century).

Knitted wool or silk stocking caps provided warmth while sleeping. This distinctive cap was also used other than for sleeping. From the 14th-19th century it was known as a skullcap and worn indoors by men when they removed their wigs. Women wore a more ornate mob cap during the day, to bed, and outdoors under their hats.

Nightcaps are no protection against snoring

Nightcaps are no protection against snoring

Foot warmers

18th-cent-foot-warmerFoot warmers were small, practical and transportable. Most foot warmers were simple wood, tin, or brass boxes with metal trays that held hot coals. The sides were poked with holes in a patterned design, and a rope or metal handle allowed for easy portability. Women and children would carry footwarmers to church or inside a carriage. They were used in a cold room as well. Women’s long skirts would hang over the warmer, providentially holding the heat around their feet. By the end of the 19th century, footwarmers were primarily used in sleighs and carriages until the advent of the automobile


High-sided Church Pews:

For about 54 shillings a year a family could rent a high sided pew whose tall wooden walls protected worshipers from winter drafts. Family members would sit close together and share the heat from a foot warmer. The pews were often individualized by family members who brought in their own pillows or fabrics, and even furniture. Pews in the galleries were for parishioners who could not afford to rent a box downstairs.

Family Pew, Tichborne

Family Pew, Tichborne