Inquiring readers, It’s such a delight to receive first-hand information from a friend who lives in the U.K. Frequent contributor, Tony Grant, writes about his impressions of seeing the BBC2 special last Sunday entitled Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball. The scenes were filmed in Chawton House wherein a Regency ball was reconstructed in a way that Jane Austen’s contemporaries knew well, but whose meanings in many instances have been lost to us. I had the privilege of watching the show as well and have interspersed my comments as if Tony and I were engaged in a dialogue. (Italics represent my comments.) Let’s hope this special will be available soon the world over.
Amanda Vickery and Alistair Sooke. Image courtesy of BBC2
It is Winter, 1813.
Amanda Vickery and Alaister Sooke, the art critic for The Daily Telegraph and who also presents art history programmes for the BBC, present this amazing programme. It is one and a half hours long and, being a BBC production, there are no breaks or intermissions.
The programme is a tribute to the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice. The producers have taken the Netherfield Ball as their focus. They did not choose the Merryton Assembly ball, which was a public ball where everybody from the butcher, baker and candlestick maker was eligible to attend. The Netherfield Ball was a more intimate and select affair and by invitation only. One would be assured to rub shoulders with only the best families in the community.
Jane and her sister and mother lived in Chawton Cottage, where Pride and Prejudice was prepared for publication. It was a time when courtship was a serious business. “A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing and drawing,” Jane wrote, and a man had to marry well if he was to secure his dynasty.
Research into costumes, food, dance, music, carriages, conversation and so on focussed on the year 1813.
Filming at night on Chawton House grounds. Image courtesy of Chawton House
The writers and producers consulted and interviewed professors and experts about the minutiae of Georgian life. One professor, Jeanice Brooks at Southampton University, showed Alexander Sooke the very music manuscripts that Jane Austen wrote out by her hand with little cartoon doodlings in the margin.
Jane Austen’s doodle in her music manuscript. Image @BBC2
That was one of the many wow moments for this viewer. (For me too, Tony!)
Popular music was widely collected at the time and summarized for the piano. Jane Austen must have spent hours copying music in her neat hand, for there are quite a number of her music manuscripts still in existence.
Ivan day, historic food expert. Image @BBC2
The food was researched to the minutest degree. Ivan Day and his kitchen staff used Georgian cooking implements, although the Georgian cooking range at Chawton House was not in working order, so they used modern ovens. The recipes were authentic and came from Martha Lloyd’s cook book and other original Georgian documents.
Martha Lloyd’s recipe for white soup, a common dish served at supper dances.
Food denoted status. Game shot on a gentleman’s land was turned into a partridge pie, a symbol of upper class dining. At the Netherfield Ball, Mr. Bingley would be sure to provide only the most excellent food, such as fresh grapes, nectarines and peaches in winter, which would have been expensive to import or grow indoors in hot houses. The grand spectacle of the supper table, with its silver platters, silver dishes, and silver tureens, gave an overall impression of austentation [sic] and of the host’s status.
Ivan Day’s recreation of Solomon’s Temple, a very difficult flummery (Georgian jelly) to recreate. Image @BBC2
Stuart Marsden, an expert in Georgian dances and a former ballet dancer, assembled students from the dance department of Surrey University at Guildford, about twenty miles north of Chawton, to dance at the ball. Although these young dancers were fit and professional, in their Georgian costumes and in the full glare of hundreds of candles, they suffered from heat and encroaching exhaustion as the evening went on.
This fan served to cool the dancer and as a crib sheet, in which the steps of intricate dances were written down. Usually made of paper, few of these fans have survived. As all fans of the Regency know, they also served as the perfect tool for flirtation. Image @BBC2
During the course of the evening, the dancers were supplied with Portugese wine and fortified negus punch. Punch a la Romaine, or Roman punch, was a mixture of rum or brandy with lemon water, lemon meringue and a very hot syrup. It was a sort of creamy iced drink that was 30 or 40 percent alcohol, a Georgian equivalent of a cold Coca Cola that cooled the dancers down between dances.
Punch a la Romaine. By the end of the night the dancers were a little tipsy, shall we say. The spoons used in the production belonged to the Prince Regent and came from Brighton Pavilion. Image @BBC.
Although Chawton House is large, the room where the dance was held seemed rather crowded once all the dancers were assembled. Candles blazed everywhere. The men wore stiff jackets, waistcoats, and neck high cravats. The ladies, whose bosoms were exposed, also wore many layers. They had donned swaths of petticoats under their skirts, and wore long stockings and long gloves. One can imagine that with the press of bodies, heat from the candles, constant exertion in long dance sets, and frequent imbibing of alcohol that the assembly quickly felt heated.
One can see from this image how crowded the ball room was, and how the blaze from 300 candles and hours of exertion might have heated the dancers. I was amazed at the lack of evident sweat.
It was interesting to find out that everybody knew how a long a dance would last from the length and quality of the candles. There were four-hour candles and six-hour candles. For this production eight-hour candles were used.
The finest, most expensive and clean burning candles were made of beeswax. Up to 300 might be used for a ball – quite an expense, for the cost was around £15, or a year’s wages for a manservant. Less expensive (and smokier and stinkier) were tallow candles, which were purchased by the less wealthy. The very poor had to make do with rush sticks, which didn’t last very long.
Peoples’ wealth and position in the upper and gentry classes were evident from the outset. Hierarchy pervaded all strata of Regency society. Social signifiers included the materials used for clothes, their style and the embellishments they had personally chosen for their costumes, the cut of the material and garment, the very buttons they had on their costumes, and so on. These details would reveal not only their status but their personalities too.
Professor Hillary Davidson explains the personal involvement that people had in their clothes, which were hand made and reflected personal taste and input. In addition, the outfits “reflected the range of social rank and social division by cut, color, and texture.” Appearance meant everything at a ball. Many refashioned their frocks from hand-me-downs from an older sister or cousin, creating “hybrid” fashions, for the value of these outfits lay in the material, not the design of the dress. Individual details and features were immediately evident to Jane Austen’s contemporaries, for fashion and jewelry represented a public display of one’s assets. Image @BBC2
Silk would be worn by Miss Bingley, for it was a rich and expensive fabric. Miss Bingley and Miss Hurst would have worn the latest fashions from London, which is quite evident in the film costumes of Pride and Prejudice 1995. Lydia Bennet would have chosen a fine gown, for she was fashion forward for a country girl (and her mama’s favorite), whereas Mrs. Bennet would have worn a print gown with a frilly but modest matronly cap that denoted her status as a woman with some authority. The Bingley sisters would have sneered at the simply styled hybrid dress that the Bennet sisters might have refashioned from a combination of old clothes and newer fabrics. If you were a good needlewoman, such a gown might have been embellished with embroidery, lace, or ribbons.
Simple hybrid dress, much as Elizabeth Bennet might have worn. Notice the coral necklace.
Shoes were changed in the cloak room, for some people walked quite a distance to get to the ball, and even soldiers exchanged their Hessian boots for dancing slippers. Over the course of the evening, delicate dance slippers might be worn down to a thread.
These are Sally Pointer’s historical makeup and rouge pots for rosy cheeks (even for the redcoats, like Wickham). Apply too much color and a lady might be labeled a trollop. Image @BBC2
Everything – one’s clothes, actions, and relationships – how you arrived at the ball – could be read and interpreted. This was one of the main points made by the programme.
It’s not so different today, really, is it Tony? At a glance we can tell who is fashion forward, who is a frump. Whose jewelry reeks of Tiffany’s and who shopped at Walmart. We know from each others speech, friends and business associations, educational background, and other social signifiers who belongs in our social strata and who does not. My mother especially had a keen sense of which of my suitors suited and who did not. Her primary social signifiers were persons of moral character and compassion. It was who that person was inside that mattered, not what they wore or what possessions they had acquired. I suspect that during the Regency such distinctions were also important. Jane Austen was a genius at distinguishing wheat from chaff, and ferreting out the foibles of her contemporaries.
Walking to the ball carrying lanterns. The hooded cloaks reminded me of the medieval era and monks. Image@BBC2
I noticed how most of the actors in the production walked to the ball holding lanterns. Carriages were expensive. If possible, those who had carriages would arrange to pick others up and bring them. If not, the guests walked to the ball. A similar scene was shown in Becoming Jane, where guests arrived on foot and walked along a lane strung with lanterns. Back in those days balls were planned to coincide with a full moon for maximum light at night and for a bit of safety from bandits and robbers. One wonders about such well-laid plans in rainy England, where a blanket of storm clouds would block the moonlight and rain would soil the hems of delicate ball gowns.
The most interesting thing I found from the programme was the meaning of the dance. This Darcy quote, “every savage can dance,” is used to highlight that the dance alludes to something primal. Elizabeth and Darcy have their most unguarded conversation during a dance. Interestingly, the Savage Dance was a craze in 1813 and taken from a song and dance routine from a musical based on Robinson Crusoe.
Balls, to quote Amanda Vickery, were sexual arenas of social interaction. In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy and Elizabeth dance around their sexual attraction for each other. The truth is that in those days single men and well-protected young and unmarried ladies could not spend one moment in private with each other before they were officially engaged. But at a dance they could touch each other (through gloved hands) and flirt and talk at length without a chaperon breathing down their necks. The long dance sets were strenuous and required stamina, however. To quote Amanda Vickery, “The entire ball is hard work, with physical, social, and emotional investment and cost.” The cost being one of expenditure (looking one’s best) and exertion (maintaining one’s stamina.)
Dancing the cotillion. Image @BBC2
Young ladies and young gentlemen practiced and prepared for the balls from childhood on. They had to be good and graceful at dancing to be admired and looked at. This was necessary for their futures, for they were actually dancing for their lives. You were likely to dance with a person from the same rank and expertise: they endured these dances for a very long time with one partner. There were moments of physical contact and movement. Aristocratic young men like Darcy sought strong and accomplished women to be the mother of their children for the sake of inheritance and future generations of their families. Young women needed to attract a good catch for their happiness and futures too. So much effort and hope was invested in the “ball,” for a girl’s future could be sealed at a dance.
No wonder the excitable Lydia Bennet went ballistic when the Netherfield Ball was announced! She was not only man crazy, but she had a competitive streak in her, frequently pitting herself against her older sisters. I was also struck by how much dancing masters could make per person from dance lessons. Every young boy and girl from a respectable family was expected to practice dance steps. It was quite a telling detail for Jane Austen’s contemporary readers that Mr. Collins is a poor dancer and that Mr. Elton exhibited such ungentlemanly conduct towards Miss Smith at the Crown Inn ball, where Mr. Knightley (a true knight in shining armour) came to her rescue and saved her from public humiliation. Mr. Elton’s reaction towards Miss Smith pointed out how much Emma misjudged Miss Smith’s tenuous connection to the gentry, for Mr. Elton thinks too highly of himself and his own social standing to ally himself to the bastard daughter of a gentleman.
Alaister Sooke makes the comment that for all its finery and sophistication the ball (it was decorous and tightly controlled) was also primeval, with the subconscious very much in play. The way the dancers were dressed, with women revealing lots of cleavage and the men revealing their groins in tight-fitting trousers, was totally sexual in nature.
The dancers get fitted for their breeches, which revealed quite a bit of the male anatomy, especially the groin area. Image @BBC2.
You are so right, Tony. Let’s take the case of menswear ca. 1813. Although the colors were muted, the silhoutte was quite athletic. The front of a man’s coat was cut high so that his body was fully revealed in front from the waist down. Men tucked their long shirt tails between their legs, which served as underwear. Because their calves were exposed, it was important for men to dance well, since all their steps were in full view. Women’s legs were hidden by their skirts and they could make a mistake or two without much notice. I was struck by how much the modern dancers enjoyed the evening and how much their costumes and the setting affected them.
The ladies in the series wore authentic underwear. Underneath the muslins and silks they wore undergarments consisting of a chemise and petticoat. There was actually a lot going on below the skirt, but the ladies generally went knickerless. Even when women wore underdrawers, the crotch area remained open and they remained so until the late 19th c. or early 20th century. Crotchless knickers were the norm! Image @BBC2
A courting couple made sure to reserve the supper dance for each other (or the dance just before the evening meal), for this meant that they could extend the time they spent together to include the meal, which was generally served at midnight. In the series, Ivan Day and his staff slaved to make the dishes, for they were served à la française (in the French style), or all at once. Preparing dishes for such a service required a great deal of skill and Herculean effort, for hot meals needed to be served hot, while delicate ices needed to remain frozen until they were consumed. At the dinner table in this special, a mild scene of chaos ensued, with servants bringing platters from one end of the table to the other, guests handing platters around, and others reaching across the table to sample a tidbit. Ragout of Veal, one of Jane Austen’s favorite dishes, was served. This dish was frequently mentioned by her, particularly in Pride and Prejudice. As an aside, one could readily discern at the supper ball which guests had manners and those who did not.
The ragout of veal at the supper dance was associated with high living. Image @BBC2
More on the topic:
- Party Like It’s 1813
- Ivan Day’s commentary about his contributions to the show: Some background on the ball supper
- Music Academics Help BBC Recreate a Jane Austen Regency Ball
Jane Austen's World 
Very interesting post, Vic. Just wondering why they used the Lloyd cookbook since it wouldn’t have been the type of cuisine for showing off.
I think her recipe was used because the ball seeks to make a connection with Pride and Prejudice and Martha Lloyd was a family friend who lived with the Austen women. In addition, white soup was as common back then as chicken noodle soup is today. Since Martha had a recipe for white soup and since white soup was routinely served at supper dances, I think it makes sense to use Martha’s recipe. Ivan Day also consulted other cookbooks of the day, and many of his dishes would have been too expensive and elaborate for Jane’s family, except for Edward, of course.
Hi Patty as this was a reenactment of the Netherton Ball, financed by Fitzwilliam, he would have wanted to show off his wealth by providing the most expensive dishes he could afford but he also wanted to provide things his guests would have been familair with too. Certain things are popularand traditional np matter what financial bracket. Bill Gates drinks Coca Cola I am sure and so do I. See what i mean?
At the midnight suppers, did they have several tables or did everyone help their plates and stand about eating as we do at modern day cocktail parties? I am just wondering about the logistics of feeding 300 people….
Hi Susan, there were 300 candles, and quite a lot of people. In this instance the dishes were placed on a long table in the diningroom, where everyone was seated. There looked to be around 40-50 guests. But in Pride and Prejudice 1995, people sat at a number of tables and seemed to come and go in and out of the dining area.
Reblogged this on Hayden Thorne and commented:
Lots of fun stuff here (hello, fiction resource!). I hope I could watch this somewhere (online) for a better understanding of certain Regency practices and for possible story ideas.
Reblogged this on Hayden Thorne and commented:
Lots of fun stuff here (hello, fiction resource!). I hope I could watch this somewhere (online) for a better understanding of certain Regency practices and for possible story ideas.
The DVD of ‘Pride & Prejudice: Having a Ball’ is being released in the UK on 10th June. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pride-Prejudice-Having-Ball-DVD/dp/B00CIWS5UK/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1368807320&sr=1-1&keywords=having+a+ball
This is fascinating…I can’t wait to see the programme! I’m so interested in comparing this image you have given of 1813 to the material I’m reading about the Shelley/Godwin/Wollstonecraft family of the same period. This description really allows me to contemplate how Mary Godwin Shelley’s family would have been viewed by the bulk of polite society. Particularly at such a public function as a dance. I am reminded again of how challenging (and unusual) these social interactions would have been for the Godwin girls…as much as they might have wanted to fit in for just a few hours. Thanks for such an interesting and ‘full’ post.
“The grand spectacle of the supper table, with its silver platters, silver dishes, and silver tureens, gave an overall impression of austentation and of the host’s status.”
Hmmm…. “austentation”—simple slip-up, or were you going for a pun there? Heh, heh, heh….
This sounds fascinating. I am sorry I missed the May 10th showing! Will there be a rebroadcast soon?
Yes, I’d love to see it as well! I wonder if this will be broadcast in America….
Joan, if you live in Britain it is on i-player. If you live in the States, have a look at Youtube.(Not sure if that is a legal source), The programme is an hour and a half long. On the BBC it is shown without a break. (We have long concentration spans over here. ha! ha!) An American TV company would have to edit it for all your commercials.
I knew the spelling was suspect and decided to let the slip stay.
Vic. I thought it was a great joke. Jane would have approved of your creativity!!!
This was an absolutely enthralling programme. Because it covered all aspects of a Regency ball it was tremendously informative, and really brought Jane Austen’s world to life. One aspect which was interesting was how very physical the dances were – no gentle gliding and mincing steps, but leaps and jumps. Each dance also went on for some time, and there was a lot of contact between the dancers and a good opportunity to look at others as well as your partner.
I can’t recommend this too highly. I think that quite a bit of it is on Youtube.
Helen, the dances went on forever. The professional dancers used in the making of this programme were exhausted wearing Regency costume. Three hundred candles lit the room too.The dances we see the film adaptations of Janes novels are hybrids of the original dances.They are created for the film. This programme portrays dances that would actually have been danced. They were more akin to energetic country dancing. There were indeed lots of leeping and energetic bouncing involved.
There was one moment which was absolutely hilarious…
Alastair Sooke was discussing the physical aspects of the dances with the dancers themselves. They were talking about the intricacies of the steps and the energy needed. Some of the dancers commented on the energy and strength needed to dance for hours on end and that they were sweating buckets. ( Sweating buckets,: an English phrase which creates an image don’t you think?). Alaister Sooke , turned to camera and said,
“In Pride and Prejudice,, Lydia is described as dancing every dance. That girl must have had some heft.”
You could have heard every household throughout Britain laugh out loud.
You have to understand, Alaister Sooke is a very upper middle class Southerner and that ,”heft,,” is very Northern mill towns. A Lancashire working class word. Just for your information, Amanada Vickery, is a Lancashire lass from a northern mill town. Amanda MUST have put Alaister up to it!!!
if you want to know what ,,”heft,” means I’ll leave that up to you to explore and discover!!! ha! ha!
Please help out the benighted American who can’t find any definition in the slang resources that is any ruder than ‘overweight’?
Julian, I will ask Tony, but I think in this instance the inference is rugged and powerful, as opposed to dainty and feminine. Her vigorous exertions are out of place. She had some heft. Tony will correct me if I am wrong!
OED offers:
‘heft, n.1 Etym: A late derivative of heave v.; . . compare weave , weft , thieve , theft , etc., . . In sense 1, there was perhaps immediate association with heavy.
I. 1. a. Weight, heaviness, ponderousness. dial. and U.S.
. . 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk., Heft,..a heavy weight. A dead heft is a weight that cannot be moved.
1966 H. Roth Button, Button (1967) iv. 84 He was more on the lean side than supplied with heft . . ‘
Chris, the point is, that the phrase, “some heft,” applies to the brute strength of Mike Tyson or perhaps George Forman. Imagining Lydia being like them just seemed rather amusing. The following comments that I made flowed from that.. I was being ,”tongue in cheek.” perhaps a little flippant and certainly not serious. It was all a joke!!!!!
Actually, I think we have hit on a very important point.
If Lydia did indeed have a bit of ,,”heft,,” then the relationship between her and Wykham takes on a very different light. Maybe we should be concerned about Wykhams situation here. And,what is more,the type of actress that plays Lydia in future should be recast. The consequences that flow from this documentary are legion.. In future the aftermath of every ball should include a period of recovery from exhaustion and a minute dissection of the consequences for the rest of everybody’s lives that follow.
Indeed this programme will result in a rereading and analysis of Pride and Prejudice.
Tony
[…] Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball at Chawton House. […]
I have to find a way to watch this show. Thank you so much for posting. I loved it and tweeted.
Hi, I am the dancing master who arranged the choreography and trained the dancers for ‘Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball’ To have worked on the project and observed how the dancers behaved at the ball. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. The ballroom had been out of bounds, the dancers had not heard the musicians, and the whole event was filmed in candle light in one take- just as it would have been. What was missed was the original perfume!
Hello, Stuart. Oh, how I wish I had been one of the onlookers on the sidelines. The dancers were wonderful and your choreography and direction gave us such a different and livelier view of the dances, which many of us had thought were slower and statelier. Thank you for your hard work. Vic
Yes, the dancing was the highlight of the programme and the costumes, naturally, enhanced the dancing.
Stuart, thanks for your comment. You were quite a star of the programme. Yours and the dancers hard work was evident. An excellent programme. I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.
Tony
I watched the programme and found it an interesting take on the Netherfield Ball but disagree with the presenters’ notion that the lively dancing was a source of sexual tension. Quite the reverse, I imagine. Anyone who has engaged in country and barn dancing, the direct descendants of the dances danced at Netherfield, will know that the almost athletic activity of the dance leaves no energy for sexual tensions. I imagine the sexual tensions happened off the dance floor, if the young ladies managed to escape their chaperones. I should have liked to hear the view of the actual dancers on the programme on the issue.
A further gripe, did Alistair Sooke really need to tell us a harpsichord is a “seventeenth century piano”? A case of very inaccurate dumbing down.
Rossnowlagh Surf, Alistatiar Sooke did get it wrong to describe the harpsichord as a sort of piano however I have been trying to think how else he could have got over a description of a harpsichord in a couple of seconds to somebody who didn’t know what one was. He probably got close enough with his description for the uninitiated,
By the way it was a bit more than just sexual tension; the point being made was that these people were dancing for their lives. Desperation might be a better word than tension.In the 18th century they would have been trying to make an impression the whole of the ball. The dancers in the reenactment were not in reality dancing for their lives so maybe they did not feel those sort of feelings,or, maybe they did,, just between themselves,. I wouldn’t ask somebody about what level of sexual tension they were feeling. I might get slapped.
Hello, I’m the music person who worked on this film. I didn’t hear Alistair talk about the harpsichord (how did I miss that?) but just for the record, the instrument on the film is a 1796 Broadwood grand piano that belongs to my department at the University of Southampton. Glad so many of you liked the show! I wish they’d been able to include more about the dance band, as the stuff they were doing was fascinating, and had a real effect on what happened on the dance floor.
Jeanice, thank you for your reply. I must admit I don’t remember a harpsichord being mentioned. I was giving ,”Rossnowlagh,” the benefit of the doubt. Great to see Southampton University being featured in the programme.. What a great place. I was born and brought up in Southampton. ha! ha!
Thank you for this very enjoyable commentary. I can’t wait to get my hands on the DVD.
This was indeed a most interesting and entertaining programme.
The strength of Roman Punch may be estimated to be c. 15 % from this all-metric recipe:
5 cl Triple Sec
1 1/2 liters Champagne
50 cl Dark Rum
20 cl Lemon Juice
700 g Sugar
60 cl Orange Juice
3 (beaten) Egg White
http://www.drinkswap.com/roman-punch.htm#.UZifvCtUPpC
No doubt it was quite strong enough to get the young ladies into a very merry mood.
so interesting! I want to see this now, fantastic!
Loved your post on the program – I watched it myself on iPlayer, and really enjoyed it. I noticed, though, that you described the Roman punch this way:
Punch a la Romaine, or Roman punch, was a mixture of rum or brandy with lemon water, lemon meringue and a very hot syrup.
I’ve worked as a pastry chef, and while you’re listing the ingredients accurately, you’ve missed a bit on how they go together.
What happens is that the sugar syrup is poured into the egg whites as they’re being beaten, when they’ve reached the soft peak stage: this creates what’s called an Italian meringue, which has a fairly stable structure, more stable than if plain sugar is beaten in, because the hot syrup cooks the egg whites, setting them. But it’s still soft – soft enough to fold in the rum and brandy and lemon juice. (If you wanted a crisp meringue, you’d still have to bake it after.) Then they freeze the entire mixture (it looks like they used an ice cream mixing dasher, to keep the texture light) and what you get at the end is Roman punch, which would be something like a lemon sorbet with a kick to it.
I’m very tempted to try it myself!
So am I, Julian. This sounds delicious. Vic
I am Ivan Day, the food historian who cooked the food for the ball supper.Patty is absolutely right to be puzzled why recipes from Martha Lloyd’s receipt book were used in an upper class ball supper. The truth is that the only two that were used were for white soup and haricot of mutton. These were included, not because they were necessarily representative of the kind of dishes served at these events, but because they are dishes frequently mentioned by Austen. The other 60 items we prepared from high status recipe collections. White soup however, was popular at ball suppers. The recipe I used for this was actually a fusion of three recipes – one from Martha Lloyd, another from the Knight family manuscript at Chawton and one from William Henderson’ s very popular printed cookery text.
Chawton itself was chosen as the location, not for its similarity to Netherfield, which was certainly much grander, but because it also had strong links with the family.
There is much more on the food on my blog – see the link at the end of this post.
Ivan, thank you for your response.The food looked wonderful and the programme was indeed unique.
Has anyone seen the Lizzie Bennett Diaries on Youtube? They are great fun and Lizzie, Jane, Lydia Bennett and Charlotte Lu are really interesting interpretations of the characters. It is one I don’t know how long, I am up to about ep 20.
Thanks Tony, Vic, Amanda and Alistair and all who made the Chawton House ball possible. Can’t wait to view it… how did they maintain the ices for so long in the hot ball room? Just in wooden containers? With sawdust packing? Or how? They must have been in short supply too.. can anyone answer me?
Other than a little bit about the parmesan ice cream and a piece about the punch à la romaine, very little of the ice cream making that was actually filmed appeared in the final edit. All of the ices – there was bergamot water ice, strawberry ice cream, pineapple ice cream, punch à la romaine, negus water ice and tamarind ice – were all made using eighteenth century equipment. Once frozen, they were kept in their sorbetieres in freezing pails of ice and salt. Once it was time to serve dessert, some like the pineapple and strawberry ices were moulded in pewter mouldsand un-moulded directly onto porcelain dishes. Others were stored in original Georgian seaux à glade and kept cold over ice and salt. towards the end of the programme, you can see a young woman looking into a seau of parmesan ice cream. If this still is a bit opaque, I suggest you go to this page on my website, where you can see how Georgian ices were made and stored for the table –
http://www.historicfood.com/Georgian%20Ices.htm
Really enjoyed this article and the learned replies. I’ll be back to see if Nilakshi Roy’s question on the ices receives a reply! I saw an article on the Daily Mail concerning the show when it first aired, and have been hoping for more information since. I’ll check out Youtube today – it has become a life-saver for us Americans who love history. (Don’t get me started on “The HIstory Channel”!)
All grand houses had ice houses. These were often close to the estate’s lake. An ice house was tunneled into a hillside and lined with bricks. Ice gathered from the lake during Winter was packed into the ice house and would keep things fresh for a long time.However, how the iced drinks were kept cold; a visit to Ivan Day’s website might help. He was the food historian on the programme. Here is a link to his amazing site. The dance at Netherfield did happen in the Winter, so that might have been a factor.
http://www.historicfood.com/portal.htm
All the best,
Tony
Just found this link on Ivan’s site about Georgian ices.
Kathy and Nilakshi, I hope this helps.
http://www.historicfood.com/Georgian%20Ices.htm