Regency Bathroom Breaks
You've overdone the punch at Lady Insufferable's rout. You need a bathroom break, but it's 1811. Is a bourdaloue really the only option? Engraving 1801. British Museum In the first decades of the 19th century the average English family used some kind of outdoor privy, rather like the one shown in the 1801 caricature (left) of an 'old maid' ousted by her squabbling cats. The "water closet" (as a flush toilet was known) was considered a prestigious luxury. Indoor plumbing barely existed, making the first toilets costly and impractical to install. [...]
The Indispensable Bourdaloue
When Georgian and Regency era women HAD to go and there were no public toilets, the bourdaloue was a small boat-shaped chamber pot designed to be used standing up. Since most women did not wear knickers, a hassle-free bathroom break could happen virtually anywhere, without having to touch icky facilities used by hundreds of others. For those who did not have their own maid to manage the process, the bourdaloue contents could be tipped into the bushes or the nearest alley and the portable lady-potty rinsed next time water was available. The bourdaloue was indispensable during [...]
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Outsiders Within – Romani in the Regency
By the time 'Gypsies' appeared on the pages of Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth, Romani people had been in England for centuries. Sidebar: Believing the copper-skinned migrants to hail from Egypt, the Europeans had coined the term "Gypsies" for these migrants. Some consider [...]
