Gentle readers,
I am in the throes of moving – packing, mover transportation, closings, mortgage payments and the like – all within the next 3 weeks. And so I am unable to complete the themes I’ve researched. Still, I’d like to offer a post during this wintery time of year, which, in my area, has been changing from cold to warm-ish in unpredictable ways and confusing the wildlife.
This week the weather has been cold, and I thought of early posts on this blog that featured Regency winters and ways to keep warm. Many new readers might not have read these articles before. Enjoy!
…what did our Regency ancestors do when there was a heavy snowfall? They did not, like many of us today, rush out to shovel it from the walkways and roadways in their vicinity. Many of them simply ignored it, stayed in their homes and waited for it to melt. Particularly in rural areas, people had already laid in most of the supplies they would need for the winter. – Snow in the Regency, Regency Redingote, Kathryn Kane, 25th November, 2011 (Blog was – sadly – retired.)
While rural communities in Great Britain waited for the snow to recede, many took the opportunity to amuse themselves on icy ponds, as in this image from Wikipedia.
Julius Caesar Ibbetson: Winter Amusement: A View in Hyde Park from the Moated House, 1787, Wikimedia Commons
As the men played outdoors during these cold dark months, I imagine the women sitting by a cozy fireside preparing vegetables for thick stews and soups, sewing and knitting for the poor baskets, mending shirts and clothing for the family, and enjoying local gossip.
Please click on these four posts to address those winter moments in times past. You will find methods still used today when storms and events cut off our electrical grids.
- Snow Sports and Transportation in the Regency Era https://janeaustensworld.com/2010/12/27/snow-sports-and-transportation-in-the-regency-era/
- Keeping Warm in the Regency Era: Part One https://janeaustensworld.com/2009/01/21/keeping-warm-in-the-regency-era-part-one/
- Ways to Keep Warm in the Regency Era: Part Two https://janeaustensworld.com/2009/02/03/ways-to-keep-warm-n-the-regency-era-part-2/
- 1814 Frost Fair https://janeaustensworld.com/2007/12/03/1814-frost-fair/
Jane Austen's World 
