A Regency Christmas Quiz

Anne here, celebrating the onset of the Festive Season with a Regency Christmas Quiz.

As usual, you will need a pen and paper to jot down your choices, then at the end, click on the link to check your answers. Don't forget to come back and tell us how you went.

1) Wassailing means:
    a) to play a dirge or lament to hasten the end of winter
    b) to drink to the health of a fruit tree
    c) to hunt a sparrow
    d) to play a game with a feathered ball

2) A roasted capon was a dish commonly served at Christmas. A capon is:
    a) a stuffed, rolled slice of belly pork
    b) a kind of duck
    c) a castrated cockerel
    d) a pudding made of fruit and nuts

3) Frumenty was often served at Christmas. Frumenty is:
    a) a dish made with grains, dried fruit, nuts and sugar
    b) a hot spiced alcoholic drink
    c) a sweet custard made with apples and cream
    d) an oat biscuit studded with nuts

4) Bullet pudding was:
    a) a game often played at Christmas
    b) slang for a man sentenced to die by firing squad
    c) a shooting competition where the winner won a pudding
    d) a pudding containing a lucky silver bullet

5) Which of these foods was NOT eaten at a Regency Christmas feast?
    a) plum pudding
    b) mince pies
    c) ham
    d) chocolates  

6) Which of these was thought to bring bad luck
    a) dancing inside during the twelve days of Christmas
     b) dropping an uncooked potato on Christmas Day
    c) decorating with greenery before Christmas Eve
    d) hanging out green or blue stockings

7) The first member of the English royal family to display a Christmas tree was
    a) Queen Adelaide in 1820
    b) Queen Charlotte in 1800
    c) Queen Victoria in 1848
    d) Queen Caroline in 1825

The picture on the right is of Fairfax House in York and is from the Austen only site

8) Under Oliver Cromwell's rule (1649-53 -- and yes, I know this is well before the Regency, but it's interesting, I think)
    a) Christmas celebrations were compulsory
    b) Christmas carols were first sung in the street
    c) Alcohol was banned for the twelve days of Christmas
    d) Christmas celebrations were outlawed.

9) Mince pies in the Regency contained:
    a) ground nuts
    b) dried fruit and meat
    c) minced steak
    d) chicken and other kinds of poultry

10) Which traditional Christmas game involved snatching raisins with your bare fingers from a flaming bowl of brandy?
    a) snapdragon
    b) lickpenny
    c) pinchfinger
    d) sizzlesnap

11) When is Twelfth Night?
    a) 6th December
    b) 1st January
    c) Christmas Day
    d) 5th January

12) What was a traditional aristocratic activity for Boxing Day (26th December)
    a) fox-hunting
    b) fasting
    c) making a bonfire of the Christmas greenery
    d) playing cricket on the village green

Now that you have jotted down your answers, click on this link and check how many you got right. Then come back and tell us how you went —and which questions tripped you up.

And all the very best from me (and the wenches) for Christmas and the festive season.

Comments

[Janice]

8 for 12. I know nothing. I'm going to go sit in the corner and grinch :(

[Anne Gracie]

Janice, 8 out of 12 is pretty darn good IMO. Some of those questions were pretty tricky -- and I do enjoy coming up with cunning choices, so. . . :)
And Im glad its not too easy — my two regency slang quizzes were aced by so may people, I felt they needed to be a bit harder.

Thanks for being the first!
Merry Christmas

[sue p]

8 of 12 correct... not too bad

[Anne Gracie]

Pretty good, Sue. Thanks for joining in.

[Beebs]

8 out of 12, need to Swot up :)

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Beebs — 8 out of 12 is pretty good -- heres some obscure info in there.
And Im actually quite pleased that its not quite as easy as the Regency Slang quizzes.
Thanks for joining in.

[nancy]

I got them all except bullet pudding. That one was unknown to me.

[Virginia]

I missed 4 and 6.

[Lillian Marek]

Fourteen right. I got bullet pudding but only as a guess, and I had #7 wrong. I figured it wasn't Queen Victoria because that would have been too easy, but I didn't know it was as early at Queen Charlotte.

[Vicki W.]

9 of 12. I missed 1, 2 & 4. Funnily enough, each of the right answers was one of the 2 I had narrowed it down to. But I chose incorrectly in the final guess. I've never heard of bullet pudding.

#7 I had to think back...1820 was towards the end of the Regency period. So it had to be 1800 but that still felt wrong. I knew it wasn't 1825 or 1845 because that was too late since that was out of the Regency period.

Luckily I had just reread A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas to refresh my memory about when Christmas trees started being more common in Regency households.

That was a much harder quiz. I enjoyed it.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Thanks to all of you for writing all these wonderful posts. I've enjoyed learning all kinds of interesting tidbits and facts.

[Peter Granzeau]

Well, I got Twelfth Night correct.

[Cathy Davis Hammond]

What a delightful quiz! I missed "bullet pudding", a game which has surely fallen out of favour and deservedly so. Have a wonderful holiday, my dears. I hope I get lots of your books for Christmas.

[Beverly Abney]

I also missed "bullet pudding". I should have guessed Charlotte but didn't about the tree, and greenery about the luck. Regency has always been my favorite historical period, so I should have known.

[Cindy A.]

8 out if 12,

[Claire]

I got all 14, I do LOVE my Regency (and Edwardian) romances! Especially the Christmas stories. It's fun to see how our traditions have evolved over the years.

[Carol]

I got 9 out of 12- failed on 4,6 & 7. Must do better! :-)

[Sue W. McCormick]

7 out of 12; it would have been 8, but I botched the choice between Victoria and Charlotte.
A truly fun quiz.

[Melanie Friedman]

OMG!
I so need to read more regency!
Got only FOUR out of TWELVE?!!!
[shaking head]
Wishing you all a very merry and a very happy!
HUGS to all of you!
Mel

[Samantha]

11 out of 12....I think I must be more British than American *g*

[Make Kay]

10 out of 12, so I'm pretty excited!
Now I'm off to google bullet pudding

[Jo Manning]

Got 'em all! YAY! And Happy Holidays to all the wenches :-)

[Debbe]

8 out of 12. I guess I don't read much Regency Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!

[Jo Banks]

10 out of 12 not too bad never heard of frumentary or bullet pudding !Got Queen Charlotte right because it was in the paper this week !!Another great quiz thankyou.
Merry Christmas to you all.

[Anne Gracie]

Well done, Nancy — thats an excellent result.
Thanks for playing.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Virginia. Bullet pudding seems to have tricked quite a few people.
Thanks for participating in the fun.

[Anne Gracie]

Hi Lillian, you did very well on the quizzes, but not fourteen right Im afraid. There are only twelve questions -- for the 12 days of Christmas. So general historical knowledge, excellent, arithmetic, not so much . *g*

[Anne Gracie]

Vicki thanks so much. Im glad you enjoyed it. Bullet pudding was one of the trickier questions, it seems, but just think how you can impress people with it from now on. *g*
Merry Christmas to you and your family, and thanks for being a wenchly reader. One of the things we wenches love most about this blog is the wenchly readership. We so often have good conversations in the comment stream.

[Anne Gracie]

Thats great Peter — and now, knowing all these other obscure Regency Christmas facts you can impress people at your various festive gatherings. *g*
Thanks for joining in.

[Anne Gracie]

Thank you, Cathy. Bullet pudding has stumped a lot of people. Wishing you the all the best for Christmas. Books are always the perfect gift as far as Im concerned, and I really have to rack my brains when I come across someone I need to buy a gift for and they dont read. What do they doooo? *g*

[Anne Gracie]

Beverley Id always assumed the first royal tree was Victoria and Albert, but no. And some of the regency Christmas games were new to me as well — Jo Beverley lists some on her site that I hadnt heard of, though she doesnt list bullet pudding. But it sounded the most fun for a devious multiple choice question.

[Anne Gracie]

Well done, Cindy. That seems to be a fairly typical score for the well-read regency reader. Thanks for joining in.

[Anne Gracie]

Hi Claire — fabulous score, only you didnt get 14 -- there are only 12 questions. *g*
But thanks for joining in.

[Anne Gracie]

Carol, thats an excellent score. I think 4, 6 and 7 are the trickiest questions in the quiz. If I hadnt just done a stack of research on Regency Christmas for a short novella Im writing at the moment, I probably would have missed those too. Thanks for joining in the fun.

[Anne Gracie]

Im so glad you enjoyed it, Sue. Yes, that one about the royals mislead a lot of people. Thanks for joining in.

[Anne Gracie]

Mel, you know Im a devious and tricky question-setter, so dont beat yourself up. I really enjoy coming up with plausible-sounding alternatives.
All the best for the festive season and thanks for all you do for romance and romance writers.

[Anne Gracie]

Samantha, well done, and yes, have you done your family tree lately? It might be a Christmas one. *g*

[Anne Gracie]

Theres a couple of illustrations on bullet pudding on the web, Make Kay, as well as a few descriptions, so you should find it interesting. Its an odd and messy-sounding game.

[Anne Gracie]

Fabulous Jo -- well done. All the very best for the festive season and may 2015 bring us all good times.

[Anne Gracie]

Debbe, even some of the hardest core regency readers didnt make a perfect score — some of the questions were hard, and the multiple choices tricky. You did very well.

[Anne Gracie]

Well done —a reward for reading the newspaper! *g* Im glad you enjoyed it, Jo. Thanks for joining in the fun. And all the best for the festive season to you.

[Shannon]

I'm a little below the average--seven out of twelve. This was much more difficult than past quizzes. I just guessed on three of them. Thanks for the fun, and have a happy holiday season.

[Anne Gracie]

Glad you enjoyed it, Shannon. And yes it was tougher than some of the ones in the past — though I think my Charles Dickens quiz was probably the toughest.
Still, Ive always found that a quiz is a fun way of picking up new facts.
All the best for the festive season.

[Amy J]

It appears I'm another for the 8 out of 12 club.

[Anne Gracie]

Its a very exclusive and fabulous club, Amy *g*
Thanks for having a go.

[Pam P]

Only got half of them right. Feel really dumb!

[Anne Gracie]

Pam, dont feel dumb -- this quiz was meant to be a bit tough, because some of my others were a bit too easy.
The whole purpose of the exercise is to have fun, and come away knowing a few things you didnt otherwise know.
Thanks for joining in.

[Robin Greene]

I missed 4 and 12.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Robin — #4 seems to be one a lot of people missed.

[Mary McCoy]

12 for 12..... I admit I was guessing on the bullet pudding, vaguely remembered it from a story.

[Anne Gracie]

Fabulous, Mary — well done.

[Anne]

Fun quiz - but isn't it frumenty?

[Anne Gracie]

Whoops, Anne, youre so right -- sorry everyone. Typo alert. Ill go in and fix it now. Thanks for spotting it.

[Amy Hi]

Only 2 wrong!

[Anne Gracie]

Fab, Amy -- well done!

[Mary M.]

11/12, had to make the most logical (to me) choice on bullet pudding, but missed #12 (picked burning the greenery)--I thought the Uppers were busy that day handing out stuff to the Lowers. Guess that didn't take all day after all. What a great quiz! Thank you thank you thank you, made my (holi)day!

[Cate]

11 out of 12.... I got shot in the foot by the Bullet Pudding :)

[Susan Wearsch]

I missed one! Thanks to well researched novels, and extra reading!

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Mary, Im so glad you enjoyed it.Thanks for dropping by.

[Anne Gracie]

Bullet pudding brought down quite a few people, Cate, so well done.

[Anne Gracie]

Thats fab, Susan -- yes, all those people who said reading romance novels was a waste of time -- phooey to them! *g*

[Elizabeth Bailey]

I got 9. Should have known them all! Great quiz... Thanks.

[Suzanne Dye]

Only got six right. Sob.
Suzanne

[HJ]

10 out of 12!! I tripped up on questions 2 and 4. I've never heard of bullet pudding!

[HJ]

Yes, Pam, it was difficult but I found it more enjoyable for that reason. You just have to read more Regency books and you'll know this stuff too!

[Karin]

That was a pretty tough quiz, but I only missed 3. I had no idea what bullet pudding was, I thought Victoria was the first to have a tree, and I thought capon was a duck. However my score would have been worse if I hadn't been on a Christmas novella reading binge for last couple of weeks!

[Claire]

Oops, my bad! I tend to be detail oriented, and love the amount of background provided in the regencies I read. They make the past come alive to me. The amount of research that goes into each book is astounding. Thank you all for sharing your stories with me and the rest of the world. That being said, now it is time for me to teach myself how to count. Merry Christmas to all the "Wenches", and a Happy New Year!

[Cathy Peper]

I got 10 out of 12.

[SusannahC]

Perfect score, but I made an educated guess to answer the frumenty question. I knew two of the answers were wrong, and I was fairly (but not absolutely) certain I knew the right answer.

If I had not been reading Christmas novellas for the past month, I would not have known what bullet pudding was. I encountered it for the first time a few weeks ago, in a Christmas novella I had not read before.

[Jenny]

9 out of 12. And I never can remember when 12th night is. I need to put it up in neon lights, and then forget it for 12 months.

Merry Christmas to all the Wenches.

[Anne Gracie]

Good work, Jenny. Twelfth night is easy if you count from Christmas Day onward — counting Christmas Day as #1, the twelfth day of Christmas falls on 5th of January.

[Anne Gracie]

Glad you enjoyed it, Elizabeth.

[Anne Gracie]

Thats still a pass, Suzanne, but in any case this is just for fun. So have a mince pie and a drink of something yummy. :)

[Anne Gracie]

I only discovered it fairly recently, Helena, and its taken most of the quiz-takers by surprise as well. If I hadnt just done a pile of regency Christmas research for a novella, I wouldnt have known it either.

[Anne Gracie]

Karin, I so enjoy the Christmas novellas. Im writing one at the moment (for 2015) and I really think its the perfect time of year to write a Christmas story -- even though here in Australia its hot. My people are getting snowed on and in my head its winter, so its quite a shock to look outside and see blazing sunshine and chittering parrots.

[Anne Gracie]

LOL Claire -- thanks for your good wishes and appreciation. Have a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2015.

[Anne Gracie]

Yay Cathy -- thanks for playing.

[Anne Gracie]

Ah, Susannah the value of reading Christmas novellas comes home to roost! Well done on the educated guessing. Thanks for playing.

[Mary Jo]

I guessed bullet pudding but did get #6 wrong. I think that's pretty good!
Merry Christmas!

[Anne Gracie]

Its a fab score, Mary Jo. Well done.

[Laura Boon]

Oh dear Anne, I was hopeless! Only 3 right. I salvaged some pride by doing better at your other quizzes, averaging 7/10. Ten Lords 'a Leaping was a delightful discovery as it makes a fabulous Regency reading list :)

[Anne Gracie]

Laura, Im so pleased you enjoyed them. I have fun making them up, too.
Thanks for all you do for romance writers in Australia.

[Sharon Farrell]

12/12 - but I have several books in my Christmas collection on the customs of Christmas, including Washington Irving's account.

[Anne Gracie]

Well done, Sharon. Sounds like you have a wonderful collection of Christmas books there.

[Heather]

I got 10 out of 12 I'm wicked smart. I missed # 7 and 8

[Anne Gracie]

LOL -- well done, Heather. Wicked smart indeed!

[Lynne Connolly]

I got 10. Missed on the bullet pudding and Queen Charlotte (I said Queen Adelaide - should have known that one!)

[Cyn Kirk]

I got 11. Missed the Christmas tree one. I thought it was Victoria.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks for playing, Lynne. All the best for Christmas and the new year.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Cyn — yes, I would have said Victoria if I hadnt done the research recently. Victoria and Albert made the Christmas tree fashionable.

[Rhonda Jones]

Horrible 4/12 I need to pay more attention

[Anne Gracie]

Nah, stop giving yourself teacherly reports cards — this is just for fun. *g* Thanks for playing, Rhonda.

[Charlotte Eyraud]

7 of 12.
(but I think the question about the twelth night was a tricky night and many must have answered the 6th of January a bit too quickly, as I did ^^)

[Anne Gracie]

Youre right, Charlotte —it was a trickily phrased choice. Well done on a fire score, and thanks for joining in.

[A. Marina Fournier]

If Twelfth Night is the 5th, why is it always celebrated on the 6th?

I'd never heard of bullet pudding, and I forgot about HRM Charlotte's introduction. But 12th Night has always been on the 6th when I've celebrated it.

[Kantu]

Got 9 answers correct. Some of the choices were tricky.

[Anne Gracie]

Hi Marina -- heres the quote re 12th night: It is defined by theShorter Oxford English Dictionaryas the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking.
Thanks for joining in the fun.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks Kantu -- yes, the choices were a bit tricky. Thanks for playing.

[Sophia Rose]

I got 10 of 12.

[Anne Gracie]

Well done Sophia. Its now Christmas Eve in Australia, so Im wishing everyone a happy Christmas.