Browse content similar to Regency Life: 3 Lives in 1 Day. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Pride And Prejudice is one of the best-loved books of all time | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
and, 200 years on, Jane Austen's novel sees no signs of fading. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
I'm roughly the same age as Jane Bennet, | 0:00:09 | 0:00:11 | |
the eldest sister in the novel, but I've had opportunities | 0:00:11 | 0:00:14 | |
that didn't even exist in her day, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:16 | |
like going to university to study English, | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
or appearing on television in shows like Fresh Meat. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
I'm going to be looking at the world she grew up in | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
and exploring what life was really like in Regency England | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
for a middle-class girl, a servant and a rich gentleman - | 0:00:28 | 0:00:33 | |
the types of characters who would grace the pages of her novels. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Pride And Prejudice, | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
is 20 years old - a young woman on the cusp of life. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
Unlike Mr Darcy, she has no estate to inherit, | 0:00:50 | 0:00:54 | |
but she's still part of the gentry, a small middle class. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:57 | |
For most young women of Elizabeth's age, | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
the future was all about who they married, simple as that. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:03 | |
So finding a suitable husband was at the top of their to-do list. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:07 | |
At 7am, as the sun shines through her window, | 0:01:10 | 0:01:12 | |
the young lady of Regency England is woken. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
A yawn, a stretch, then first order of the day - make-up! | 0:01:15 | 0:01:19 | |
Lead and rose powder for the face, charcoal for the eyebrows, | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
bear fat - that's right, fat from a bear - | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
is used as wax to smooth her hair, then it's time to get dressed. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:33 | |
Petticoat, corset, underdress, | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
day dress and that's just for the first outfit of the day. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:40 | |
By breakfast, I've just about managed to jump in the shower | 0:01:40 | 0:01:44 | |
and brush my teeth. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:45 | |
But a young woman in Regency England was expected to be a lot more active | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
first thing in the morning. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:51 | |
She would have taken a trip to the local library or, | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
in Jane Austen's case, practised the piano for an hour. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
With all that early morning activity, | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
by ten o'clock you would have worked up quite an appetite, | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
so you'd need more than a quick bowl of cereal or a snack bar | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
as you're leaving the house. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
There's tea, plum cake and hot rolls to fill you up and, unlike nowadays, | 0:02:10 | 0:02:15 | |
breakfast for a Regency lady lasted for a leisurely hour. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:19 | |
After breakfast, it's straight to work. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
But in the Regency era, | 0:02:21 | 0:02:23 | |
work didn't mean going into a shop or an office to earn money. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
For a middle-class girl, it meant needlework. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
Like Jane Austen's piano playing, needlework was among a whole range | 0:02:29 | 0:02:34 | |
of activities that went into creating a "rounded woman". | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
Today, a girl of Elizabeth Bennet's age might be at university | 0:02:37 | 0:02:42 | |
or trying to hold down a good job, | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
but in the Regency era she was training in accomplishments - | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
a range of activities that were designed to improve | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
a woman's social standing. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, Mr Darcy's friend, Mr Bingley, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
discusses women's accomplishments: | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
"They all paint tables, cover screens and net purses. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
"I scarcely know anyone who cannot do all this, | 0:03:03 | 0:03:05 | |
"and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time | 0:03:05 | 0:03:10 | |
"without being informed that she was very well accomplished." | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
Painting, reading, dancing | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
and the modern languages were all seen in the same light, | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
giving a woman culture and a social advantage in the world. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
Men would learn science and maths, | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
but women were never taught these things. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
It was all about self-improvement. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
In the marriage market, these accomplishments | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
would have been all-important, | 0:03:36 | 0:03:37 | |
and a girl from a rich family would have had a governess | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
to make sure she had accomplishments coming out of her ears. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, Mr Darcy's aunt, Catherine de Bourgh, is | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
shocked to realise that the Bennet sisters have grown up without one. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
"No governess! How was that possible? | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
"Five daughters brought up at home without a governess! | 0:03:53 | 0:03:58 | |
"I never heard of such a thing." | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
After a while, you'd need a break from all these self-improvement activities. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
Whilst a middle-class girl today might go to meet her friend | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
for a cappuccino in a local coffee shop, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
in Regency England, you'd go and pay your friend a morning visit. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
And morning, would mean anything up until three or four o'clock. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
Lunch was a movable feast - if you were in town, it might just be | 0:04:18 | 0:04:22 | |
a pastry or a cake, like picking up a sandwich on the move today. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:27 | |
After lunch, a middle-class girl would test her intellect | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
with puzzles and word games | 0:04:30 | 0:04:31 | |
and take inspiration from the fashion magazines of the day. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
The Gallery Of Fashion - the first fashion magazine - was published | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
in April 1774, and contained all the latest trends of the day. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:44 | |
But reading about clothes was not enough. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
Next on the agenda: shopping! | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, Kitty and Elizabeth Bennet | 0:04:49 | 0:04:53 | |
take regular trips to a hat shop in the neighbouring village. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
"The village of Longbourn was only one mile from Meryton - | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
"a most convenient distance for the young ladies, | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
"who were usually tempted thither three or four times a week, to pay | 0:05:02 | 0:05:06 | |
"their duties to their aunt, and to a milliner's shop just over the way." | 0:05:06 | 0:05:11 | |
Although the Bennet girls were far less rich | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
than the likes of Mr Darcy, a girl in their situation - | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
living at home with their parents - would have money to spend. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
Over the course of the 18th century, | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
the amount of money spent on goods quadrupled. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
Tea, coffee, chocolate and spices were becoming affordable | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
to the middle classes, and could be found in shops all over town. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:37 | |
Novelty items were really popular, like little gold anchors | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
to celebrate Nelson's victory in the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
They were the equivalent of Kate and William merchandise today. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
Everyone wanted a piece of this historic event. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
And in Pride And Prejudice, | 0:05:52 | 0:05:53 | |
shopping is the only activity that can distract Elizabeth's sisters, | 0:05:53 | 0:05:58 | |
Kitty and Lydia, from flirting with the visiting soldiers! | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
"Their eyes were immediately wandering up in the street | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
"in quest of the officers, and nothing less than a very smart bonnet | 0:06:04 | 0:06:08 | |
"indeed, or a really new muslin in a shop window, could recall them." | 0:06:08 | 0:06:12 | |
Back home, and time to prepare for the evening's social engagements, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
one of a girl's few opportunities to flirt with a man. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
Nowadays if you fancy someone, you could just send them a text | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
or find them on a social media site, | 0:06:26 | 0:06:28 | |
but you couldn't be anywhere near as direct as this in the Regency era. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
It must have been impossible! | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
You weren't allowed to write a letter to a man | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
unless you had a formal engagement. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
You weren't to be alone with a man without a chaperone. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
And you weren't really supposed to kiss a man unless you were married! | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is a strong-minded woman, | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
concerned about things beyond matters of the heart, | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
but she's continually let down by her sisters. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
Lydia, her younger sister, follows the first flutter of her heart | 0:07:00 | 0:07:04 | |
and runs off with a soldier, when she's not even engaged! | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
And you would think it was the end of the world. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:10 | |
Even Elizabeth says to Darcy: | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
"She is lost for ever." | 0:07:13 | 0:07:14 | |
In some of her letters, Jane Austen writes about her own cousin, | 0:07:14 | 0:07:18 | |
Fanny Austen: | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
"I am sorry she has behaved so ill. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
"There is some comfort to us in her misconduct, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
"that we do not have a congratulatory letter to write." | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
It seems that her cousin has hooked up with a man | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
and she's relieved that she hasn't got herself pregnant. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
The rules of the day were set down in conduct books, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
which were really popular at the time. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
They were like an agony aunt column in a magazine, | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
except the advice was much stricter! | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
"Wit is the most dangerous talent you can possess. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:50 | |
"It must be guarded against with great discretion and good nature, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
"otherwise it will create you many enemies." | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
So a girl was supposed to hide her intelligence from a man! | 0:07:58 | 0:08:03 | |
Reading some of this advice today makes you shudder. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
Your eldest brother would inherit your parents' house | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
and you couldn't earn your own money by entering a profession | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
or even working in a shop. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:15 | |
You were just expected to land a rich husband. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, Elizabeth's friend, Charlotte Lucas, | 0:08:18 | 0:08:22 | |
marries Mr Collins, a really repulsive man, and we learn: | 0:08:22 | 0:08:27 | |
"Marriage had always been her object. It was the only honourable provision | 0:08:27 | 0:08:33 | |
"for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain | 0:08:33 | 0:08:37 | |
"of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want." | 0:08:37 | 0:08:42 | |
Nowhere could you attract a husband better than at a ball! | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
A middle-class girl announced herself on the marriage market | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
by what they called "coming out". It meant she could finally dance | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
at balls and could be approached by a man with marriage in mind. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
In polite society, | 0:09:00 | 0:09:01 | |
the point at which you came out was considered extremely important. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
Mr Darcy's aunt, is concerned about the Bennet sisters: | 0:09:08 | 0:09:12 | |
"Are any of your younger sisters out, Miss Bennet?" | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
"Yes, ma'am - all." | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
"All? What, all five out at once? Very odd." | 0:09:17 | 0:09:23 | |
It's shocking that 15-year-old Lydia Bennet is "out", | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
and looking for a husband. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
For its time, a ball was a very racy affair. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
Thin, muslin dresses could be revealing | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
in the hot and sweaty atmosphere of a ball. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
With the heat of an open fire, | 0:09:40 | 0:09:41 | |
a ball was much warmer than a nightclub today. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
A single dance could last up to half an hour | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
and would really tire you out. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
But, as with all other aspects of life, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
there were rules and conventions about how to dress. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:56 | |
"Her arms, and part of her neck and bosom may be unveiled, | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
"but only part." | 0:10:00 | 0:10:01 | |
Now was the time to make your accomplishments count, and between | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
dances you could talk to a man away from the prying eyes of a chaperone. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
In case you hadn't caught a man's attention in the raucous | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
atmosphere of the ball, there was one more chance to catch his eye. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:19 | |
Singing, or playing the piano, a girl would have a captive audience. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
While we might listen to a friend's playlist, | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
in Regency England, you'd gather to listen to them sing. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:32 | |
Karaoke skills were seriously put to the test. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
Having done her best to impress the most eligible bachelor, | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
a woman would go home, not knowing what the future held. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
Has a more accomplished woman caught his eye? Will he write? | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
Will her father even agree to a proposal? | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
It must have been very hard for a woman growing up in Regency society. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:03 | |
There were so many rules and conventions governing | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
every aspect of her life, and men seemed to get all the perks. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:10 | |
Life nowadays is very different for women, | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
but it was the Elizabeth Bennets of this world who showed, | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
in books and in life, that women couldn't | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
and shouldn't be forced to hide their intelligence from the world. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
Mr Darcy, the hero of Pride And Prejudice, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
was very much at the top of his social ladder. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
He had a vast estate, which made him landed gentry, and earned | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
£10,000 a year - that's about £500,000 to you and me. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:45 | |
A man like Mr Darcy would have lived at a level of luxury | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
unimaginable today. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
At 8am, while most of his servants have been up for hours, | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
a gentleman in Regency England is just starting his day. | 0:11:56 | 0:12:00 | |
His valet has prepared him a steaming tub of water, | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
and his daily grooming ritual is about to begin. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:05 | |
With the precision of a top stylist, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
his valet combs, flattens and trims his hair till it's just right. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:13 | |
Then out comes the cut-throat razor for that clean-cut look. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
A little powered parsley seed to prevent baldness. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
And if that wasn't enough, now comes his make-up - | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
Dr Withering's Cosmetic Lotion. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
It's a bizarre mix of soured milk and horseradish | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
and, applied to a gentleman's face, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
it should hide all signs of too much port drunk the night before! | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
In Jane Austen's time, unlike today, | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
men spent just as much time as women on their appearance. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
Mr Darcy didn't look that good, straight out of bed! | 0:12:43 | 0:12:45 | |
It took a lot of effort. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:47 | |
In the Regency era, a gentleman would have sported a superhero look. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:53 | |
Stomach in, shoulders out, | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
tight breeches giving you calves like bowling pins. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:59 | |
It's a skinny jeans, fitted shirt look. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
Legend has it that Regency dandy Beau Brummell | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
spent five hours on his morning grooming routine! | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
A man like Mr Darcy would have been a celebrity of his day. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
We're talking here about a man with virtually unlimited spending power. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
Today, he'd be talked about in newspapers and magazines | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
and known all over town. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:24 | |
Officially, he was part of the gentry - today's middle class - | 0:13:24 | 0:13:28 | |
but he earned more than many lords and knights of Regency England. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:34 | |
In this era, everybody boasted about their income | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
and you knew what everyone else was worth. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
it doesn't take long for Mr Darcy to get noticed! | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
"He soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, | 0:13:45 | 0:13:50 | |
"handsome features, noble mien | 0:13:50 | 0:13:52 | |
"and the report that was in general circulation within five minutes | 0:13:52 | 0:13:57 | |
"after his entrance of his having 10,000 a year." | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
But this income didn't come from nowhere. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
Before breakfast, a landowner would tend to the running of a huge estate | 0:14:07 | 0:14:12 | |
and that wasn't a walk in the park! | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
It was like a small town, with acres of farmland. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
He might be involved in politics, | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
and would even act as a judge in local court cases, | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
passing sentence on people who had committed crimes on his land! | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
In the novel, the heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
underestimates Mr Darcy at first, | 0:14:31 | 0:14:34 | |
but later realises that there's more to him than meets the eye. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
"As a brother, a landlord, a master, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
"she considered how many people's happiness were in his guardianship." | 0:14:40 | 0:14:44 | |
The Regency gentleman was expected to look beyond his estate, | 0:14:44 | 0:14:48 | |
of course, so he would spend part of his morning | 0:14:48 | 0:14:50 | |
reading histories or biographies or early printed newspapers. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:55 | |
Novels were left only for women, so a man like Mr Darcy | 0:14:55 | 0:14:59 | |
might never have read a book like Pride And Prejudice. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
In the novel, to impress Mr Darcy, Miss Bingley declares: | 0:15:02 | 0:15:06 | |
"There is no enjoyment like reading! | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
"How much sooner one tires of anything than a book!" | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
But he's not remotely impressed. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
She's just telling him exactly what he wants to hear. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
The estate in order, it's 10am and time for breakfast. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:24 | |
A private chef has prepared brioche and spiced cakes, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
to be washed down with some coffee or hot chocolate. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
A man like Mr Darcy would have kept an expensive French chef. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
This was a mark of status, | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
like eating out in a Michelin-starred restaurant today. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
As well as the latest tastes in food, | 0:15:41 | 0:15:43 | |
he would have been bang up to date with the latest trends in fashion. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
If you didn't look the part, then you would be frowned upon | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
by rich society and that would have been a big deal. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
Even more so than today, the way you decorated your house, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
the clothes you wore - all these things affected your standing. | 0:15:56 | 0:16:00 | |
A lot of time and money was spent on home decoration, | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
but for a gentleman, furnishing your house | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
was less about swag and more about style. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
Leaving the house, today's wealthy businessman puts on | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
his suit and tie, boards a packed train and travels to the City, | 0:16:13 | 0:16:17 | |
briefcase in hand. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:18 | |
He might scan the stocks and shares in the paper, | 0:16:18 | 0:16:22 | |
or check his emails on a smartphone. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:24 | |
The Regency gent however, heads into the countryside. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:28 | |
With a footman as a bodyguard, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:29 | |
he boards his chauffeur-driven carriage and leaves the estate. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
In Jane Austen's novels, we learn very little about | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
what the male characters do when they are away from the heroine. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
This is definitely true of Pride And Prejudice. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
Anyone adapting the novel for the screen | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
has to resort to their imagination. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
In the BBC's classic version, | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
the most famous scene features Mr Darcy plunging into a lake. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
He doesn't go near a lake in the novel, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:55 | |
but this is exactly the kind of physical activity | 0:16:55 | 0:16:57 | |
he would have been doing if you read between the lines. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
A Regency gentleman would be constantly on the move - | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
shooting, hunting, fishing. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
These manly pursuits were the obsession of the day. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
After all that exercise, a bite to eat. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
When Elizabeth Bennet visits Mr Darcy's estate, servants enter | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
with "cold meat, cake, and a variety of all the finest fruits in season". | 0:17:19 | 0:17:24 | |
A man like Mr Darcy had unlimited access to a horse and carriage | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
and would often travel to a second home in London. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
There, part of his day was spent in theatres, | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
galleries and opera houses, which flourished alongside | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
the brothels, Turkish baths and fruit market of Covent Garden. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
But it wasn't all about culture. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
Gentlemen had time on their hands, and liked to have fun. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
Young "sparks", as they were called, would try and impress the ladies | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
with the Regency equivalent of a sports car, | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
riding around town at high speeds on two-wheeled carriages. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:57 | |
Essentially they were joyriding but we're talking, like, | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
eight to ten miles per hour! | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
Women, fast cars - well fast-ish - sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? | 0:18:02 | 0:18:08 | |
Mr Darcy doesn't gamble in Pride And Prejudice, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
but many men of his standing would spend time in the so-called | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
"hells" of Pall Mall - the casinos of their day. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
There was no roulette or blackjack. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:22 | |
Instead, money would exchange hands on card games such as loo, faro | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
and whist, or the dice game, hazard. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
For good luck, men would turn their coats inside out. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
And to keep gamers there for longer, clubs would serve sandwiches | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
direct to your table, as they still do today. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
But a gentleman had to have his wits about him | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
as some clubs would give away free drinks and then trick a man - | 0:18:45 | 0:18:49 | |
who after a few glasses of port may not be as alert - | 0:18:49 | 0:18:53 | |
into playing card cheats, known as "ivory turners". | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, the charming rogue, Mr Wickham, | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
runs up gambling debts all around town. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
In May and June - known as the Season - | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
there were endless balls and dinner parties. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
Traditionally, the country gentleman sat down to eat at five o'clock, | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
but copying fashionable Londoners, dinnertime got later and later | 0:19:14 | 0:19:19 | |
and might be served as late as seven o'clock. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:21 | |
It would show off your income, as later meals would have to be | 0:19:21 | 0:19:25 | |
lit by candles, an expensive product in this age. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
And food was getting more and more elaborate. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
The Regency period is perhaps the most complex | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
in British food history. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
We think of Heston Blumenthal's style as being very complicated, | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
but the skill levels were just as high in the Regency era. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
You'd be amazed at some of the dishes being served up | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
for the wealthy at this time - parmesan ice cream, crayfish jelly | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
and all sorts of weird and wonderful combinations. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:55 | |
Mrs Bennet is nervous about cooking for Mr Darcy. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
"She did not think anything less than two courses could be | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
"good enough for a man, on whom she had such anxious designs, | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
"or satisfy the appetite and pride of one who had 10,000 a year." | 0:20:06 | 0:20:11 | |
Two courses doesn't seem much, but just the first course would include | 0:20:12 | 0:20:17 | |
several joints of meat, a roasted fowl, a bowl of soup, | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
and fish, pies and cutlets - quite a spread! | 0:20:20 | 0:20:25 | |
And just as you thought it was all over, out come more cold joints, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:30 | |
and sweet dishes like blancmange and stewed fruit. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
I can't believe how much they ate! | 0:20:34 | 0:20:36 | |
It seems incredible that they would be able to find room for all that food! | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
After dinner, the ladies would leave the table, and the gentleman | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
would enjoy a glass of port or two, over a game of cards. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:50 | |
And amazingly, after all that port, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
the men would have worked up an appetite for supper. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
Cold meats, rolls, and a negus - a drink made from, wine, spices, | 0:20:56 | 0:21:01 | |
lemon and calves foot jelly. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:03 | |
It was like raiding the fridge after a night out. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
I think all that hard work running a large estate was more than rewarded! | 0:21:05 | 0:21:10 | |
It doesn't sound like a bad life, does it? | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
The servants are the poorest characters in every period drama, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
but they're not to be ignored! | 0:21:25 | 0:21:27 | |
In Regency England, they had a vital part to play. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
In the Regency era, servants were responsible for every aspect | 0:21:30 | 0:21:35 | |
of their masters' and mistresses' daily life, and none of the grand | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
feasts and balls of this period could have happened without them. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:42 | |
There would have been around seven servants at Longbourn, | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
where the Bennet sisters live, | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
and as many as 20 in Mr Darcy's household, Pemberley. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:50 | |
But in Pride And Prejudice, we hardly ever see them. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:54 | |
Of Mr Darcy's many servants, only the housekeeper says a word. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
You really have to read between the lines to work out | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
what any of them did. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:02 | |
But books from the time can help us to fill in the gaps. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
In 1825, Samuel and Sarah Adams, a butler and a housekeeper, | 0:22:06 | 0:22:10 | |
published a guide to a servant's duties. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:12 | |
It tells us a lot about how servants would have lived | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
their day-to-day lives in Jane Austen's time. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
At 5am, for a housemaid in Regency England, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
there's no time to snooze in bed. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
On come the cottons for the working day ahead - | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
gown, cap, neck handkerchief. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
Then into the drawing room. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
Clear away the port glasses, candlesticks and other mess | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
left by the master the night before, and brush down the surfaces. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:41 | |
The embers still burning from last night | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
will need to be brought back to life and new firewood put in place. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
Many of the processes we take for granted today | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
had to be tended to by hand. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
The central heating, hot water, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
and electric lighting of a modern home are all absent. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
Without a vacuum cleaner, the maid would spread the carpet with | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
damp tea-leaves, to remove the dust, | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
then sweep them up and start all over again in the next room. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
At 6am, with the house clear, there's lots to prepare for the day. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:15 | |
A large estate was like a big department store - | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
but one where everything had to be made on site. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
The servants had to mix their own scents, make their own jams, | 0:23:22 | 0:23:26 | |
sew their own clothes and even prepare their own cosmetics. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
And they made primitive forms of teeth whiteners, | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
with honey and charcoal. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
Charcoal, on your teeth - | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
it doesn't sound like a brilliant plan for whitening to me! | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
You were born into your position in life, | 0:23:42 | 0:23:44 | |
falling into a natural order whether you liked it or not! | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
At 7am, having already been up for two hours, | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
it's time to raise the mistress from her slumber. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
It wasn't just a case of knocking on her door. | 0:23:57 | 0:23:59 | |
The maid had to dress her lady, and even prepare lotions for her | 0:23:59 | 0:24:03 | |
sometimes disgusting skin conditions - | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
worm pimples, small red pimples, | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
and even some sort of mega-spot called the Barolph pimple. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
Judging by the number of names they had for different spots | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
and pimples, skincare must have been a huge problem! | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
And worse than all of these spots combined | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
was the "livid buttony pimple". | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
"In its most severe form, this eruption nearly covers the face, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
"breast, shoulders, and top of the back." | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
Mmm... That sounds disgusting! | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
Downstairs, things were much grubbier - | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
they didn't have access to these kinds of lotions | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
and would often have to wear the same clothes for much, much longer. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:45 | |
And at the bottom of the servant pecking order, | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
there were some pretty horrible jobs to do, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
like emptying the chamber pot of your master and mistress. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:54 | |
And you could be on call, day and night. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
It sounds absolutely exhausting! | 0:24:56 | 0:24:58 | |
Though their conditions were tough, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
we shouldn't think of servants as slaves. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
They are the poorest characters that we read about in Jane Austen's | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
novels, but they earned much more than people farming the land. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:10 | |
And there was no need to pay rent or buy food, | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
so you could save almost all of your earnings. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:15 | |
Many servants served the same families for most of their lives, | 0:25:15 | 0:25:19 | |
and there were opportunities to move up the ladder and have a reasonable life. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
Servants would prepare breakfast for their masters and mistresses, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:30 | |
but they weren't to hang around for too long after the meal. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
Part of the reason servants are largely missing | 0:25:33 | 0:25:35 | |
from Pride And Prejudice is that in this era, | 0:25:35 | 0:25:38 | |
the ladies and gentleman of the house expected privacy. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:40 | |
Too much contact would lead servants to chatter about their superiors. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
But rules get broken | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
and we know from Jane Austen that servants loved to gossip! | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
When Elizabeth Bennet's sister Lydia runs off with a soldier, | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
their mother doesn't have "prudence enough to hold her tongue before the servants". | 0:25:56 | 0:26:01 | |
Soon everyone will know! | 0:26:01 | 0:26:03 | |
And it wasn't just gossiping that was against the rules. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
No swearing was allowed at the table. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
Gambling was prohibited. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
And drunkenness, forbidden. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
Servants were to be seen and not heard - | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
they had to keep noise to an absolute minimum. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
And male and female servants were to sleep at opposite ends of the house, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:24 | |
as when they had the opportunity, they could get up to all sorts. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:28 | |
A little bit of slap and tickle was an everyday occurrence. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:33 | |
But for a woman, pregnancy out of wedlock was a serious thing. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:37 | |
It meant instant dismissal. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:38 | |
At one o'clock, the family have a light lunch, | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
while the servants sit down for their main meal of the day. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
But even amongst the servants, there were strict hierarchies. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:50 | |
Senior servants took their meals separately, | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
sitting down to roast beef and wine, | 0:26:53 | 0:26:55 | |
while in the servants' hall, | 0:26:55 | 0:26:56 | |
they had to settle for boiled meat and beer. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
Apart from Sunday afternoon church, | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
servants had few opportunities to go out. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
And in many houses, maids weren't even allowed out, | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
except for the odd local fair. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
So the servants would have no balls, parties or feasts to attend, | 0:27:10 | 0:27:15 | |
but they'd make them happen for their superiors. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, we hear little of servants at Netherfield, | 0:27:18 | 0:27:21 | |
where Mr Bingley holds a ball, | 0:27:21 | 0:27:23 | |
but they would have had their work cut out. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
Coachmen drive the guests to the ball. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
The way they dressed and the way they spoke reflected the status | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
of the families who employed them. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
Whatever the conditions outside, footmen would stand | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
carrying torches, coated in flaming tar, to guide guests to the party, | 0:27:37 | 0:27:41 | |
and they'd announce their visitors' arrival. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:45 | |
The ball was a time of fun, frivolity and excess, | 0:27:45 | 0:27:48 | |
but not for the servants. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:50 | |
The silver has to be laid, the candles lit | 0:27:52 | 0:27:56 | |
and hours spent in the kitchen. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
There were no extractor fans, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
so preparing for dinner could be an uncomfortable process. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
Heat, smoke and lack of ventilation were common perils. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
Expensive cuts of meat are prepared to impress | 0:28:07 | 0:28:10 | |
the guests at the party, and elaborate garnishes are added. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:14 | |
There were no freezers, so ices are prepared outside. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:18 | |
The mountains of food are placed in silver dishes, | 0:28:18 | 0:28:20 | |
and finally the feast is served. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
Occasionally, it could be as late as midnight before the butler | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
gave the servants leave to go to bed. | 0:28:29 | 0:28:31 | |
The footman might sleep in the butler's pantry | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
to stop people from stealing the silver. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:37 | |
And as for the housemaid, after what could have been a 19-hour day, | 0:28:37 | 0:28:42 | |
upstairs for a well-earned rest. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
Life for a servant in Regency England | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
sounds absolutely exhausting, but not without its fun. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:52 | |
In Pride And Prejudice, we only see them through the eyes of their | 0:28:52 | 0:28:56 | |
masters and mistresses, but they played a vital role in Regency life. | 0:28:56 | 0:29:00 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:29:07 | 0:29:11 |