Travel

Hi, Jo here. I'm going to be nerdy today, because I have to share some tid-bits from a wonderful book I stumbled across in a clearance catalogue. LONDON OBSERVED: A Polish Philosopher at Large, 1820-24.

You can get your own copy quite cheaply on line. This link will take you to Amazon in the US.

1820-24 a little after my current books, which are set in 1817, but close enough to enrich my knowledge base because Krystyn Lach-Szyrma is the sort of traveler who loves to record details of his travel. I'm simply going to share some. I never take one source as gospel, and I have questions about some bits. He might not always be accurate, and I'm reading in translation, but here it is.

Crossing the Channel. "The ships that are used to cross the sea are called packet boats.... They have quite a spacious cabin which is illuminated by window in the deck. On the sides of the cabin, in two rows one above the other, there are frame-like compartments allotted for bunks. The bedclothes are clean and white, as Englishmen will not use any other. Screen curtains for the beds are green or red.... The charge for the crossing is one guinea a person."

Nice to know that English people are fastidious. Later he describes taking a steam ship from Scotland to London, and the accomodations were similar. Before steam such a sea voyage was quite dangerous and most people preferred land travel, but clearly by the early 1820s steam was the more comfortable option.

Dover to London. "A journey from Dover to London lasts one day. It would be more, but a perfect road, flat as a table top, makes an overnight stop unnecessary.... Frequently we were passing carriages and stagecoaches; the latter were quite new to us. All of them were beautifully oil-painted and on every one was written, in gold letters, its name, place of departure and destination. Many men and women of different ages and status were sitting on top and inside them.... we were told that at least sixty such vehicles run daily between Dover and London.... I counted, and on and inside a few of the coaches as many as fourteen to seventeen people!"

This does seem a lot, but I get the impressione there were some over-sized coaches. Louis Simond, another traveler, talks of ones with a number of compartments. I've never seen a picture of one, however.

On the beef served in Rochester. "We expected the equivalent of Polish roast beef, but it was not similar to it at all. It was a huge and beautiful chunk of fatty beef, not roasted but only scalded. When you cut it with a knife blood oozed out. Therefore, though it may have been faithfully prepared according to a London recipe, we were disgusted and had no appetite for it."

He then suggested that travelers  choose from "delicious hams, tongues, fish, butter and cheeses. You will find them in the entrance halls (of the inns) displayed behind glass in the most beautiful way."

This is a detail I hadn't come across before, but it makes sense in a large inn catering for a lot of travelers. Eating places in London usually had such displays from which customers could choose.

About a hotel -- specifically, the Clarendon in London. There's a lot of description, but I'll just pick out this bit. "Bedrooms are usually situated on the second floor and a drawing room on the first. You entertain your guests there as in England no one of a good social position sits or is paid a visit in a bedroom. It is a private place, where no one apart from the owner is allowed to enter..... Beds are large; two or three people could sleep in them. People in England, especially within one family, do not flinch at this.... Bed linen is changed in the presence of the guest. No one here travels with their own bedding."

It's not clear here if he mean second floor in the usual British sense, which would be third from the ground. There's no mention here of a private parlor, but this is a hotel, not an inn.

After talking about drawing the bed curtains, he writes, "There are pockets for money, a watch, and scents at the top of the bed. A thick rope made of cotton or silk, with a wide tassel at the end, is attached to the bottom part to help you get up when you are in bed. Two other ropes hang from the sides of the be to call the servants."

I really can't fathom the rope to help people get up. Any ideas?

Breakfast in the hotel. "no one eats breakfast or dinner in their bedroom unless they are ill." "We found a table laden with breakfast dishes. There was coffee and tea and boiling water in a large samovar on the table. Next to them... were toast, bread, butter, soft-boiled eggs, cold roast beef, roast pork and ham. Preserves and ice cream were served later."

Ice cream? I have to wonder if this is a mis-translation of cream, but why would cream be served later if it was for the coffee or tea?

On houses and addresses. "Despite the fact that London is a great city, it is easy to find anyone you are looking for: all you need is to know the street and the number of the house. Every house has not only a number, but also a brass plate attached to the door with the name of the owner or occupant. This way of marking is common, and is used even in small English towns."

Street numbering had been introduced in London in the mid 18th century, but I didn't know about the names on the door. I doubt the poorer dwellings had brass plates, but perhaps they had simpler signs? It would be interesting to know as it could affect the plot of some books.

 On places to stay. He describes a foreigner's choices. Hotels are expensive. Some who travel with a family rent a house, or a traveler alone can rent furnished lodgings. "These vary enormously in price. The landlord or landlady remains in charge of the kitchen and other amenities. They respond to the tenant's wishes and collect the rent weekly or monthly." However, he prefers a boarding house, because it will provide company. "Information about such boarding houses can be obtained from signboards exposed in windows, or nailed to doors, or else from the notices at the Royal Exchange." He paid 7 pounds a month for his boarding house, but servants, drink and desserts were extra, which he reckoned came to about 2 pounds a month.

More about boarding houses. "Every tenant has a single bedroom with a carpet. The room has all the necessary furniture and bedding and sheets are changed every week.... At nine o1clock in the morning there is breakfast. It is served in the dining room where everyone gathers." The food served is much like that in the hotel, which is clearly the norm in England. "Around one o'clock there is lunch, which consists of some cold meat, cheese, and bread, but is rarely attended..... Lunch is served in the drawing room. The dinner commences at five.... The dinner, a typically English one, is without delicacies but healthy and composed of five dishes. ... The fish that we had each day was especially delicious. The dinner ended with cheese. Desserts and drinks, other than beer, were the responsibility of the boarders."

Apart from the charges for drinks and desserts, this is much like the boarding house that I grew up in. By then the common dining table had become smaller ones, but not great differences. He writes of the convivial evenings with music and cards played for small stakes. That was my world! I didn't know it existed quite like that then, but it makes sense.

He then gives some prices typical in inns and eating houses.

Coffee or tea at breakfast. 1/6 to 3s (1/6 means 1s and 6d)

Dinner, 3/ to 14/

A bed 2/6 to 5s (It seems odd to me that a bed is only twice coffee!)

A bottle of port or sherry 5 - 5s

Madeira 8 - 10s

Claret or burgundy, 13-14s (I didn't know claret was more expensive than port. Have to check that.)

I hope you found this as interesting as I did. I may share more at some point, or you might want to buy the book yourself. It's at a great price. Please share any comments or observations, and tweet this blog if you're a twitterer.

My characters in A Shattered Rose travel the length of England in very different ways, but the good news is that it's available again, this time as an e-book. This is a gritty medieval that always gets a mixed reception. You can read an excerpt here.

Cheers,

Jo

Comments

[Sonya Heaney]

The details people might have thought were tedious in the past are the most interesting today... I think I'll track down a copy of that one, provided they can ship here.

It's so odd to read other people's accounts of somewhere you live - especially so if they're recent! I've read guidebooks for where I live and I wonder why they picked the dullest, worst places to mention!

"No one here travels with their own bedding."

Imagine trying to fit that into a suitcase with luggage weight restrictions these days!

[HJ]

Fascinating, thank you! I agree that "ice cream" probably should be cream -- maybe the thicker cream which one can eat on a scone (or similar) with jam?

I've always been surprised when authors have their Regency characters putting cream into tea. When tea was first drunk nothing was added, but as black tea became more popular at the end of the eighteenth century people began adding milk. I've never known anyone English to add cream to tea, and I've never seen it in any contemporary English source. I don't know about coffee, but I think the same is true (milk rather than cream, if anything) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

[Lil]

This is precisely the sort of thing that is so absolutely fascinating about doing research. Forget the treaties and political shenanigans. What did people actually have for breakfast? That's what is fascinating.

[Jobev]

True about bedding, Sonya.But a couple of generations earlier it was common for wealthier people to travel with their own bedding. From the comment in the book it seems it was still that way in Poland.

[Jobev]

HJ, I've read Georgian sources where people are described as adding a tiny bit of cream to tea, so I think patterns changed. I agree. No one now would put cream in tea in England.

Clotted cream for scones? Possibly, but it just sounds odd, doesn't it?

[Jobev]

I agree, Lil!

[DMac]

This is fascinating! The rope at the foot of the bed to help you get up...that does sound bizarre. Maybe the beds were very soft and the person would kind of sink into the middle of it and then could haul on the rope to pull themselves out? It seems strange that it would be such a common issue that the rope would be a normal part of a hotel bed!
BTW, I don't know anyone on this side of the pond who would put *cream* in tea. Milk or lemon, but not cream. :-)
Thanks for sharing, Jo!

[Vicki W.]

I was thinking the same thing DMac was, that the beds were so soft and squishy that it would become difficult to get sit up in.

The next thought I had was, maybe it was for older people? A young person usually has enough body strength to get up but an older person not so much.

Not that I'm that old but there are certain chairs at my sister-in-law's that I prefer not to sit in as they are very hard for a short person to get back out of.

Or if you were sleep befuddled and couldn't remember where the steps were that you used to climb in the bed, you could just hold on to the rope when you slid out of the bed.

Fascinating......

I can't remember which books I've read it in before, probably Georgette Heyer, but I think I do remember mentions of name plates on the doors before. Another bit of fascinating triva to ponder.

[Laurie A]

Beds in better places were feather beds, which tend to sink down and people may have needed help to get out. What I thought was interesting was the pockets in the headboard or the curtains. I guess they didn't trust them to be left out in the open.

[Louisa Cornell]

I LOVE resources like this! These bits and bobs you have posted are fascinating. And it is interesting the sorts of things travelers over the ages have in common. I did travel with my own sheets when I was touring Europe with the opera company. A young baritone in the troupe, son of an Austrian baron, warned us that many hotels in Eastern Europe tend to be damp. And there is nothing worse than crawling between damp sheets at 3 in the morning after singing for four hours, knowing you have to get on a train for the next gig in the morning. He was right and I am SO glad I brought my own sheets!

[Lil]

I had a thought about the expensive claret. Maybe it came in much larger bottles. (This post was so interesting that I've ordered the book. You're right. Not terribly expensive.)

[Jobev]

The rope is odd, isn't it? You might have an idea about the soft beds. Down mattresses are very easy to wallow in, but I've never come across the idea before.

[Jobev]

Yes, perhaps it was because the beds were so high off the ground. You couldn't just roll off. Oh, to reach through a book and ask what he meant!

[Jobev]

Correct about the pockets. I've seen mentions of those before. But not for scent. Because scent was expensive, or you scented the bed?

[Jobev]

Fascinating, Louisa.

[Jobev]

That's possible, Lil. Or it might be because it wouldn't keep as well as the fortified wine?

You'll enjoy the book. So many interesting details.

[Shannon]

I love discovering books filled with details like this; it's like discovering a new star. Our Friends of the Library had a book sale last weekend. I arrived when it opened Sunday morning where they were handing out paper grocery bags with handles, saying $5 for a full bag. I hit the arts and architecture table and filled the bag quickly because I had to go pick someone up. The books are still in my trunk; I hope, just hope, that one of those is a keeper.

As for the rope at the foot of the bed, I had an odd notion of seeing as a "loop". Was it designed so you slipped your feet underneath and then could roll up, much like an old-fashioned sit-up?

[Laura Boon]

Hi Jo, I have a different theory on the rope for pulling yourself up. In Sydney, I did a tour of a grand old house in Vaucluse owned by one Charles William Wentworth during thee 1800s. His was an interesting story but the point at which it intersects with Krysten's may well be the bed. Our guide explained that those grand old four-posters were built very high so that the servants were never looking down on their 'superiors' when they brought in the morning cuppa. The house in Vaucluse had a little three step staircase which those of shorter stature could use to climb into bed. Maybe the Clarendon thought a rope would suffice?

An interesting footnote is that the middle and top step of the staircase were hollow. The middle step was an indoor potty for middle-of-the-night emergencies and the top step was filled with feathers which were used for ... well, I am sure I don't need to explicate that!

[Mary M.]

Feathers! I love it!

[Mary M.]

Mais non! Ice cream (or, more rightly, iced cream) migrated from France to England in the 1600s, with the first published English recipe, supposedly by Queen Anne's confectioner, dating to 1718. See: http://www.historicfood.com/Georgian%20Ices.htm, which includes yummy pictures. Iced creams in Georgian and Regency times were mostly restricted to the wealthy and the titled, but if your guy was frequenting top-tier hotels it stands to reason they'd take pride in offering this culinary treat.

[Jobev]

"As for the rope at the foot of the bed, I had an odd notion of seeing as a "loop". Was it designed so you slipped your feet underneath and then could roll up, much like an old-fashioned sit-up?"

That's intriguing, Shannon. I was wondering what use a rope at the bottom of the bed was for pulling up, but anchoring the feet....

It's still odd, though.

[Jobev]

LOL, on the feathers, Laura.

Yes, those old beds were usually high and had steps. That's where we get "climbing out of bed" from. I'm pretty sure the hotel would have had steps, though, so it's hard to see how a rope at the end would help with "climbing out of bed."

Begins to sound a bit like mountaineering, though!

[Sonya Heaney]

My family is Ukrainian with some Polish thrown in (borders kept changing!). My grandparents went to Polish schools. I should probably ask Baba some questions (she's in her nineties now!).

[Laura Boon]

Maybe you need the rope to help you negotiate the stairs after you had imbibed too much port?

[Jan]

I'm not sure if I have recommended this book before but if you want to check on what foods were available for a particular period of time. How they were served and cooked the book for you is "Taste, the story of Britain through it's Cooking" buy Kate Colquhoun. Also available on Amazon.ca Not cheap but an investment.
Blessings from the Prairies in Canada.

[Jobev]

LOL, Laura!

[Jobev]

Interesting one, Jan. Thanks!