In this exciting interdisciplinary volume, researchers, archivists, curators and social scientists offer a fresh exploration of the concept of well-being in Britain throughout history and in the present day.Well-being Past and Present examines the various ways well-being has been invoked as a concept or term throughout historical periods, attending to its multifarious meanings and its significance on the way we live our lives. Focusing on the interactions ...

This study explores the consumption practices of the landed aristocracy of Georgian England. Focussing on three families and drawing on detailed analysis of account books, receipted bills, household inventories, diaries and correspondence, Consumption and the Country House charts the spending patterns of this elite group during the so-called consumer revolution of the eighteenth century. Generally examined through the lens of middling families, homes and motivations, this book exp...

What was it like to live in a Victorian Household? What time did the servants have to get up? What was the food like and who cooked it? How did the clothing differ for the different types of servants? How much did the servants get paid? This book shows you what it was really like to live in Victorian times, for those both above and below stairs.

Country houses were reliant on an intricate hierarchy of servants, each of whom provided an essential skill. Up and Down Stairs brings to life this hierarchy and shows how large numbers of people lived together under strict segregation and how sometimes this segregation was broken, as with the famous marriage of a squire to his dairymaid at Uppark. Jeremy Musson captures the voices of the servants who ran these vast houses, and made them work. From unpublished memoirs to letters, wages, ne...

In 1931 domestic service remained the largest female occupation in Britain. We view it today as an undesirable job, owing to the class divide it has come to represent, and this is reflected in the portrayals of mistresses and servants in books and on the screen. However, it was seen as the perfect way to equip young women with the skills necessary to become good wives and mothers, and continues to be a career taken up by many today. But what do we really know about how girls felt when taki...

From the award-winning author of The Gentleman's Daughter,a witty and academic illumination of daily domestic life in Georgian England.In this brilliant work, Amanda Vickery unlocks the homes of Georgian England to examine the lives of the people who lived there. Writing with her customary wit and verve, she introduces us to men and women from all walks of life: gentlewoman Anne Dormer in her stately Oxfordshire mansion, bachelor clerk and future novelist ...

Second edition of The Pocket Guide to Edwardian England, newly revised and expanded. The Edwardian Era simplified, organized, and easy to reference. Aimed towards writers of historical fiction, though genealogists, Downton Abbey fans, and the curious alike will find this an excellent starting point for their own research. Compiled from lectures and blog posts on Edwardian Promenade, as well as 70% more original content, Edwardian England: A Guide to Eve...

Between 1550 and 1750 London became the greatest city in Europe and one of the most vibrant economic and cultural centres in the world. This book is a history of London during this crucial period of its rise to world-wide prominence, during which it dominated the economic, political, social and cultural life of the British Isles, as never before nor since. London incorporates the best recent work in urban history, contemporary accounts from Londoners and tourists, and fictional works featu...

Caricatured for extravagance, vanity, glamorous celebrity and, all too often, embroiled in scandal and gossip, 18th-century London's fashionable society had a well-deserved reputation for frivolity. But to be fashionable in 1700s London meant more than simply being well dressed. Fashion denoted membership of a new type of society - the beau monde, a world where status was no longer determined by coronets and countryseats alone but by the more nebulous qualification of metropolitan 'fashion...

A hundred years ago sevants underpinned middle- and upper-class life in Ireland, and domestic service was the major source of employment for women before social conditions changed utterly after the First World War and labour-saving appliances took their place. Two generations on, the domestic servant is an almost extinct species. This book examines an area of life which has never been adequately reflected in Irish literature, labour or social history. The author of this pioneering study ba...

Discover the links between characters in Jane Austen novels and real-life celebrities of the time.Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRLIn Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity, Janine Barchasmakes the bold assertion that Jane Austen’s novels allude to actual high-profile politicians and contemporary celebrities as well as to famous historical figures and landed estates. Barchas is the first sc...

Humphry Repton (1752–1818) ambitiously styled himself Capability Brown's successor: the century's next great improver of landed property. With his rare combinations of skills – he was a talented topographical sketcher with an excellent knowledge of farming – over thirty years Repton amassed an incredible four hundred commissions, ingratiating himself with the aristocracy and raising the status of his adopted profession. His famous Red Books, illustrated to help clients visualize the potent...