Jane Austen For Dummies (21 page)

Austen's novels are set in a period of ladies' fashion known as the Regency period (or in France, the Empire period). England borrowed the style from the French, ever the fashion leaders. Dresses were straight, sometimes called tube-shaped or columnar (like a column on a building) — but full enough to accommodate dancing. The waistline was high — known as the Empire waist (again, the French influence) — coming just under the bosom, and the neckline was low. When the 1995 television special
Pride and Prejudice
appeared, the joke going around regarding the young actresses' Regency gowns was that the production had bought all the push-up bras in England! Modest young women shy about revealing cleavage could tuck gauze into the neckline — really the bosom line.

The favorite material for making these gowns was muslin, a fine cotton fabric, sometimes beautifully embroidered with floral designs. This was especially true when England was at war with France (relative to Austen's novels, 1793–1815): silk, a former favorite fabric, came from France, but the English mills could produce cotton.
Northanger Abbey
's Henry Tilney, having a sister, teasingly shows off his knowledge of muslins in a conversation with Catherine Morland and her chaperone, Mrs. Allen, saying he “‘understands muslins,'” “‘Particularly well . . . and my sister has often trusted me in the choice of a gown'” (NA 1:3). White was a favorite color for muslin gowns for two main reasons: It looked very classical, as seen in the marble statues from ancient Greece and Rome, which were in vogue; and it indicated that the wearer was wealthy enough to have maids to keep the gowns clean. Henry Tilney's sister Elinor “‘always wears white'” (NA 1:12), while
Mansfield Park
's Aunt Norris compliments the housekeeper at Sotherton for turning “‘away two housemaids for wearing white gowns,'” which is dressing above their class (MP 1:10). Other favorite colors were pale yellow, pink, and blue. Sleeves were short.

Because muslin is a flimsy, sheer material, the young lady wore at least one petticoat under the gown, as well as long underpants called “drawers,” which were long. The petticoat, which had a decorative binding at the bottom, sometimes extended a bit below the gown's hemline. Over the petticoat sometimes went the chemise, a long linen or cotton short-sleeved shirt. But risqué young women wore their muslin gowns with neither petticoat, nor chemise, nor drawers — obviously providing quite an eyeful! I am relieved to report to my readers that Elizabeth Bennet definitely wore a petticoat: Recall that when she walks across the wet fields to Netherfield, Mrs. Hurst criticizes “‘her petticoat, six inches deep in mud . . . and the gown, which had been let down to hide it, not doing its office'” (PP 1:8). Undoubtedly, the moral Elizabeth Bennet wore a chemise and drawers, too!

The big, tall hair look for women of the 1770s and 1780s had thankfully been replaced in the 1790s by simpler styles, also imported from France and influenced by classical statuary. No longer sporting the ridiculously high, pomaded (covered with ointment) and powdered hair that was pulled over padding and ornamented with ribbons, miniature boats, and birds, women now wore their hair short in the front with curls framing the face and relatively short in the back. With shorter hair, women were no longer walking around with creepy, crawly things in their hair. But their hair still needed to be curled and arranged. A simple ribbon and/or a feather ornamented the hair. In
Northanger Abbey,
the well-dressed Eleanor Tilney wears “‘white beads round her head'” at a ball (NA 1:8).

To top off her ball gown, the young lady would put on a paisley shawl and some simple jewelry. When Fanny Price attends the ball in her honor at Mansfield Park, she wears a white gown with a simple gold chain to hold her amber cross around her neck, as well as a more ornate gold necklace (though less to her taste), in order not to embarrass the latter's giver, Mary (really Henry!) Crawford (MP 2:9).

The young lady also carried a delicate fan, good for both flirting and keeping oneself cool! (Country dances could be quite lively, and with the heat of all the people in the room, the dancers became hot.) Ladies' gloves went up to the elbow and could be sheer. Both men and women wore gloves while dancing.

Public balls (or assemblies) were open to anyone who could afford a ticket — though I've come across no stories of a very poor soul who scrimped and saved for a ticket to a ball! While this sounds certainly snobby today, in Austen's time, people knew and accepted their place in society. A season's worth of tickets for public balls might cost anywhere between one pound in the country and around ten guineas (London) — the value of which is difficult to calculate today because the buying power has changed dramatically. But let's give it a try! A British pound (£) contained 20 shillings, and 1 guinea was 21 shillings, or 1 shilling over a pound. In the year 2004, it took $1.84 to buy £1. And in 2004, £1 from 1810 had the purchasing power of £49 (or $90.16). So this will give you an idea of the purchasing power of a season ticket in 1810 in today's money. A pound in 1810 was worth a lot. But remember, the ball ticket also included supper! A season's worth of balls could run for just three or four months in the country. In London, the social season ran from about February to June and September to pre-Christmas.

Most public balls such as the Basingstoke Assemblies, which Austen attended quite regularly, were held monthly to coincide with a full moon. This isn't because the planners assumed that the dancers were more likely to fall in love under moonlight. Instead, a full moon made it easier and safer for attendees to travel. In fact, whether scheduling a private ball or an assembly, the organizers always checked their almanacs to see when a full moon would be visible. In a time when country roads were rough and the only artificial light came from the candle-lit lamps in front of the carriage, it was important for everyone's safety and comfort to be sure that dance attendees could travel when the natural light was at its brightest at night. Of course, this travel was
to
the ball. With country balls, especially private balls, sometimes lasting until 5:00 or 6:00 a.m., people could travel safely in their carriages, driven by their coachmen, at the dawn's early light.

The ticket price for the ball was usually worth it because assemblies attracted dancers from beyond one's immediate neighborhood, and attending these events enabled you to see new faces and increased your chances of meeting a mate. But you couldn't always count on a big crowd of new faces. In the country, gentry families who normally attended the assemblies in the nearest market town might have gone to Bath or London for the social season, which ran February to June and September to December prior to Christmas, to attend even more glamorous balls.

In fact, Austen attended a country assembly in Basingstoke on Thursday evening, November 22, 1798, that had “but seven couples, and only twenty-seven in the room” (Letter, November 25, 1798). Notice that the date of the ball falls within the social season, when many wealthy people from the country went to London or Bath. So even the best laid plans for attending a public ball, hoping to meet new and old friends, could be disappointing. In fact, on January 8, 1801, Austen wrote that the “Basingstoke Balls are certainly on the decline.” Five months later, on May 12, 1801, after attending an assembly in Bath, Austen wrote to her sister that even with a “shockingly” thin crowd in Bath's Upper Rooms' ballroom, “there were people enough . . . to have made five or six very pretty Basingstoke assemblies.” When the Austens moved to Bath in 1805, Jane and Cassandra, aged 25 and 28, respectively, were unmarried and hitting the social scene pretty hard, but unfortunately, Jane's existing letters reveal no romantic prospects for either, larger assemblies notwithstanding. And they even lived there when the season was full.

But one of Austen's fictional couples did meet in Bath. Austen's heroine, Catherine Morland, of
Northanger Abbey,
is simply introduced to Mr. Henry Tilney by the Master of Ceremonies in the Lower Rooms, and the rest is history.

As with private balls, whole families attended assemblies. Whether in country towns like Basingstoke or busy cities like Bath, parents accompanied their sons and daughters to these public balls. And when a parent wasn't available, an older woman serving as chaperone accompanied the group of youngsters (see the “Having fun under a watchful chaperone's eye” section later in this chapter). Parents wanted to have fun too, but they (and the chaperones) attended the assemblies mainly to keep an eye on their daughters who were of marrying age (at least 16 years old) or “out” — see Chapter 6 for details. While no young lady (including Austen) could attend an assembly on her own, a gentleman could go solo. But with the young lady's chaperone or parents keeping an eye on her, his behavior was always that of a gentleman!

Unlike private balls, assemblies or public balls didn't serve suppers; tea was served about halfway through the night instead. Similar to the tradition at formal private balls, where the gentleman sat at supper with the young lady with whom he danced just before the supper, so at public balls the gentleman sat with the lady with whom he danced just before the tea service. Thus, Henry Tilney sits with his dancing partner, Catherine Morland, for tea during the dancing recess at the Lower Rooms (NA 1:3). This, of course, gave the couple additional time to talk, flirt, or do whatever else a couple can do sitting at a table with her chaperone or parents and surrounded by hundreds of other tea drinkers.

With assemblies lasting until the wee hours of the morning, Austen and others would frequently stay overnight at a friend's family home after the ball. This wasn't only because of weather concerns, but also because traveling without a male escort was considered improper for young ladies. So Austen would have to wait until a brother or someone from a friends' family, like the father, could take her home. Another reason for her spending the night with friends is that the Austens didn't keep a carriage after 1798. This, too, meant that Austen needed to rely on her host's family, her own brother, or even her older sister or sister-in-law to drive her home. But like her most athletic heroine, Elizabeth Bennet in
Pride and Prejudice,
the young Austen could also spend the night with friends and then walk home to Steventon through the fields the next day — something she would not do, of course, at 3:00 a.m. when the ball ended.