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George Bryan "Beau" Brummell

2/23/2018

    Beau Brummell is known for the style of clothing he wore and his wit. But in a time when daily bathing wasn't necessarily the thing to do, particularly in warm water, Brummell was ahead of his time.
    He may have made his place in Regency history due to his fashion sense, but without the hygiene, I doubt it would have mattered what he wore.
    Unable to sustain the lifestyle that he so loved, Beau spent time in a debtor's prison, and his later years were plagued with illness. I wish life had been kinder to him, and he had been kinder to others.
    Perhaps his perfect clothing and his criticisms of others helped him gain popularity, but his insults of others and his expenditures led to his downfall.
    But Regency history wouldn't be the same to me without the thought of clean cravats, warm water and elegant clothing.

Dust Bins

2/17/2018

In my original manuscript, I used the words "dust bin." I thought it sounded more glamorous than a simple trash can. But then someone corrected me, and I paused when I realized she was right.

In the Regency, they had a bone and rag collector, but no need for dust bins.

Without the manufactured substances we have today, remnants from daily life could be burned in the household stove.

Comparatively, as far as history is concerned, dust bins are a modern invention. And recycling—it's probably as old as humanity.

Marriages: One Needed. One Too Many

2/10/2018

Court records of the past can raise more questions than they answer, but imagination can fill in the blanks.

In March of 1840, William Henry Fowler was indicted for fraud. Apparently he had added a wedding in the vicar's marriage register between another Fowler, George, and a Hannah Bassett.  But the forgery listed the marriage as taking place 114 years earlier. In 1726.

He pleaded guilty and judgment was respited.

Since judgment was lenient, I can't think the judge saw malicious intent in the case. William Fowler, age 42, in my romantic view, just wanted his grandparents or great grandparents to have been married, and perhaps he did it to show a relative that, yes, of course a marriage had taken place.

Another man had one too many marriages on record.

Thomas Phelps was charged with bigamy in 1848. But he seemed to hint that it could have been another Thomas Phelps who married the first time. The witness, who had also been present at the first wedding said that he remembered seeing the face of Phelps before, but it had been twenty years since he'd seen him, and it was hard to be certain it was the same man.

The second woman admitted she had married Phelps, but she'd thought him a man named John Tanner.

Phelps sealed his own fate when he admitted that he hadn't seen or heard from his first wife in six years and wasn't sure if she was alive or dead.

The sentence—guilty and nine months in jail. He would have been more convincing if he hadn't changed his name.

Claws: More Than a Bird's Fashion Statement

2/4/2018

A Dark-eyed Junco watching the bird feeder, easily perching with its claws.

The turkey vulture supposedly has weak feet, and the lack of feathers on its head is thought to reduce transmission of disease from the carrion (Yuk!) it feeds on.
This one was sitting in a dead tree waiting to get a whiff of anything already beyond help. At certain times of the year, they're very common in my area. Perhaps it does consider its claws a fashion statement.

Some days, it doesn't feel like the birds have left the dinosaur world so far behind.

A female Red-bellied Woodpecker

Author's Note: I've used some of these photos of birds from my yard in other posts.

Real Fake Clergy

2/1/2018

    Sometimes it's just too tempting.
   Most people respect clergy, and for some, it's just too much of a temptation not to pretend to be one.
    In September of 2017, a 19-year-old dressed as a clergyman to gain access to Milan's cathedral. His clothing didn't match the religion he claimed, so there's something to be learned. If you're going to pretend to be someone ecclesiastical, you might want to go where less pious people congregate instead of a cathedral.
    Another man sat outside a church in New York and pretended to be a priest in 1995. He had more success at convincing people he was spiritual, even listening to a few confessions. The problem was that he tended to overstep his bounds by promising to perform a wedding, a baptism and an investment of a widow's savings.
    It's more common to think of a man who is impersonating a clergyman as a con artist. Most research on the subject tends to end in a story of taking money from people that the fake clergy pretended to help.  In reality, the impersonation tends to end in arrest.
    In novels, including mine, they're usually redeemed at the end.

George Bryan "Beau" Brummell

Dust Bins

Marriages: One Needed. One Too Many

Claws: More Than a Bird's Fashion Statement

Real Fake Clergy

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