Jennifer Kloester Read online

  As the less difficult country-dances gradually made way for the cotillions and quadrilles, dancing masters or ‘caper-merchants’ were frequently employed to teach the steps and sequences in private homes, prior to the lady or gentleman attempting them in public. Some of the great ladies of the day, such as the Duchess of Devonshire, organised morning classes in their homes where several young women could learn the dances together. It was the Duchess’s example that convinced Mrs Chartley, the rector’s wife in The Nonesuch, to grant permission for her carefully brought up daughter Patience to participate in the planned morning dances at Staples where the young ladies would learn the waltz and practise the other fashionable dances. After its introduction at Almack’s, the waltz had become generally popular by 1815 and was danced in most English ballrooms, despite the disapproval of some who held it to be too intimate and strenuous a dance for delicate debutantes. The enormous change from dances performed in sets to one danced by a mere couple, and in such close proximity to each other, meant that many young women only danced the waltz at private balls or at assemblies when they had been formally introduced to a ‘suitable’ partner.

  THE THEATRE

  The theatre was enormously popular during the Regency and most large towns had at least one playhouse. In London, the two great theatres of the period were Covent Garden and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, both of which held a monopoly on the production of straight plays as a result of a royal patent granted by Charles II in 1660. Most theatres only opened for six months of the year and, apart from Drury Lane and Covent Garden, were restricted by their licences to presenting pantomimes, musicals and farces. This did not prevent them from drawing large crowds, however, and the attraction of continually changing programmes and new and enticing ‘spectaculars’ saw as many as twenty thousand people attending the various theatres each night during the Season. Tickets for the pit at the Haymarket theatre sold for 10s. 6d. while a hired box could cost as much as £2,500 for the Season. Members of the upper class frequently rented a box, to which they could invite friends or family, promote a suitable match for a son or daughter, or simply take the opportunity to show off their jewels and other costly attire while enjoying an evening’s entertainment.

  Theatre-going was remarkably informal and it was perfectly acceptable to arrive part of the way through a performance, to talk loudly throughout or to leave at any point as Edward Yardley’s evening party chose to do in Venetia after Mrs Hendred was distressed by unexpected events. The pit was a favourite venue among the dandy set as a place to meet with friends, converse, show off the latest fashion, take snuff and ogle the ladies, both on stage and in the audience. It was quite normal for members of the audience to express loudly their disapproval of any aspect of a performance and they would call out, stamp their feet or throw things at the actors if they were unhappy. Opera was very popular during the Regency—although Bertram Tallant in Arabella confessed that he wanted to go to a night at the opera not for the music but for the fun of strolling in Fops’ Alley. One of the most notable evenings at the opera was 11 June 1814 when the Prince Regent, Tsar Alexander, his sister the Grand Duchess Catherine of Oldenburg, and King Frederick of Prussia attended Covent Garden theatre as part of the Peace Celebrations. The defiant arrival of the Regent’s estranged wife, Princess Caroline, during the singing of ‘God Save the King’ was especially satisfying to the many lovers of real drama present in the theatre and was the highlight of the evening for Lydia Deveril of A Civil Contract, who was at the theatre that night attending her first public function as a debutante. Both Covent Garden and Drury Lane staged operas and ballets, though less often than the more traditional theatre programme, which usually consisted of a straight drama followed by a farce. Evenings at the theatre could take as long as five hours and often did not end before midnight. The farce was generally the most popular part of the evening and so compelled patrons to stay to the end.

  Many of the great names of the theatre performed for Regency audiences. Mrs Siddons came out of retirement to perform briefly in 1812, her brothers Charles and John Kemble were major theatrical figures and the brilliant, but difficult, Edmund Kean became a huge hit after his London debut at Drury Lane in 1814 where he appeared as Shylock. He was probably most famous for his Hamlet, a performance to which Freddy Standen of Cotillion had once escorted his mother and which had Lydia Deveril in A Civil Contract in raptures. The great clown Grimaldi, whose costume, make-up and comic style created a tradition (and whose performance was fondly remembered by the Duke of Sale in The Foundling); the ‘bewitching debutante’ Vestris with her ‘divine legs’, her wit and her singing; and the opera singers Catalani and Naldi, all drew huge crowds and the favours and attention of the nobility.

  IN THE PARKS

  Hyde Park was a favourite destination for people from every walk of life during the Regency. Beginning at the western end of Piccadilly, with three hundred and fifty acres of green lawns, groves of shady trees, meandering pathways and the Serpentine river, it was a delightful place to promenade and play. For the men and women of the ton it was the place to be seen during the Season between the hours of 5.00 and 6.00 in the afternoon. Ladies often walked with a friend or female companion, wearing the latest style of walking costume or promenade dress and their most fetching hat or bonnet, all the while hoping to catch the eye of some eligible bachelor. The dandies loved to promenade or ‘go on the strut’, ogling the ladies and observing other bucks and beaus to ensure that they too were wearing the very latest in fashionable attire. This was the place for lovers to meet and for those of the demi-monde—fair Cyprians and richly dressed courtesans—to make assignations with interested gentlemen. Hyde Park was the great crossroads at which all classes of Regency society arrived and jostled, admired, ignored, mimicked, mocked and avoided each other.

  Hyde Park was originally the site of the ancient manor house of Hyde, owned by the monastery of St Peter’s, Westminster, but which was taken over by Henry VIII in 1536. At the end of the seventeenth century, when King William III moved his court to nearby Kensington Palace, he regularly had to make his way through Hyde Park from the Palace to St James’s. Finding it to be dark and dangerous, the King ordered the way to be lit. Three hundred oil lamps lined the highway which was known for a time as the ‘Route de Roi’ (Way of the King) but which eventually came to be known more familiarly as ‘Rotten Row’. Just inside the perimeter of Hyde Park, Rotten Row was a broad roadway that ringed the entire park and on which visitors were able to walk, ride a horse or drive a carriage. During the Regency, riding and driving were the exclusive domain of the upper classes and those with the means to aspire to membership in it. Young Lady Cardross in April Lady could often be seen driving around Rotten Row in the stylish barouche drawn by a pair of perfectly matched greys and given to her by her husband on the occasion of their marriage. Only those who could afford to wear the correct attire and keep a horse in London (with all the attendant expenses) or hire a hack from one of the large commercial stables could afford to ride in Rotten Row. People from every section of society would throng to Hyde Park during the hour of the promenade to watch the well-heeled of society dash past on a magnificent thoroughbred or showy hack or drive by in a high-perch phaeton, a stylish barouche or a smart sporting curricle.

  It was considered the height of fashion to be seen riding in Rotten Row,

  and men and women often agreed to meet there and ride together.

  The Prince Regent was a regular visitor to the park. A keen rider throughout his life, his growing corpulence saw him less on horseback and more frequently tooling a phaeton, tilbury or curricle drawn by one or more pairs of beautiful high-stepping horses. The Prince was well known as a skilful whip and had been acknowledged since his youth as a top sawyer and for his ability to drive a carriage-and-six (a feat matched by few men of the day). Men and women frequently rode together on Rotten Row, the women riding side-saddle and wearing the latest thing in elegant riding habits, and the men in leather breeches,