Georgette Heyer's Regency World (14 page)

The Bow-window Set

So famous was the bow-window at White’s club that Sophy Stanton-Lacy in
The Grand Sophy
dared to drive down the exclusive male precinct of St James’s Street in her high-perch phaeton in the hopes of seeing it. The bow-window came into existence in the first year of the Regency. For the club, 1811 was a year of change with the entrance fee doubled from ten to twenty guineas and subscriptions raised to eleven guineas. It was at this time, too, that the original front entrance was moved from the centre of the front façade to its present position nearer to the southern end of the building, with a new entrance created by converting the second window into a door. Where the old entrance had stood, a bow-window was built above the original steps into the club and this and the old entrance hall together served to enlarge the morning room. A new Master of the House, in the person of the efficient Mr Raggett, took over in 1812 and it was at about this time that George Bryan ‘Beau’ Brummell made the window his domain. In company with three of the noted dandies of the day, Lord Alvanley, Sir Henry Mildmay and Henry Pierrepoint, he would sit in the window where, as the leader of the ‘Unique Four’, he would freely discuss those passing by. The Earl of Worth, hero of
Regency Buck
, belonged to Brummell’s set and was one of those who famously adhered to the Beau’s rule that no one sitting in the bow-window should ever acknowledge a greeting from the street. So great was Brummell’s influence that no ordinary member of White’s would ever have dared to sit in the Holy of Holies!

Vauxhall Gardens

First opened as the ‘New Spring Gardens’ in 1660 on a twelve-acre site near Lambeth on the south side of the Thames, Vauxhall Gardens was originally a landscaped public garden with an orchard, long walks, arbours and hedges. Referred to by the great diarist Samuel Pepys as ‘Fox Hall’, the site had originally been that of a house built in the reign of King John known as Vauke’s Hall—hence Vauxhall. In 1728, Jonathan Tyers leased the old Spring Garden and completely redesigned the site, establishing tree-lined promenades and putting in gravel paths, fountains, artificial ruins, illuminated transparencies, statues, platforms for musicians, and lighting the whole with a thousand lanterns. A pavilion, a rotunda and supper-boxes provided places to sit and eat, to dance, watch the passers-by or listen to the orchestra.

Visitors could reach Vauxhall either by crossing the Thames in a boat and passing through the water entrance, as Mr Beaumaris’s guests did in
Arabella
, or by way of Westminster Bridge and Kennington Road and there to the lane that gave access to the land entrance. The gardens were enormously popular and open to all classes of society, but between April and June they became the particular pleasure haunt of the upper class. It cost three shillings to enter Vauxhall where visitors could marvel at the many thousands of lamps illuminating the gardens, hanging in festoons from the trees and between the cast-iron pillars of the vaulted colonnade. They could wander the walkways, watch the fireworks or the mechanical Cascade which so delighted Arabella, dance, or even sing along with one of the bands placed around the gardens. Pandean minstrels entertained the guests and an orchestra gave a two-part concert in the rotunda each evening at eight o’clock. Masquerades,
ridottos
, performances by famous singers and gala nights continued at Vauxhall throughout the Regency. It was a favourite haunt of the Prince Regent and in 1813 he was host at a grand fête to celebrate the Battle of Vittoria. The gala event drew such vast numbers that many of them did not get into the gardens at all due to the press of people and carriages outside. In 1814 a naumachia or sea-battle enactment was presented in the gardens and, in 1816, the famous Parisienne acrobat Madame Saqui, adorned with spangles and feathers, enthralled her audience with her rope dancing and tightrope walking. Vauxhall was also famous for its wafer-thin slices of ham and its intoxicating arrack-punch which could be bought for eight shillings a quart but which was notoriously potent. In
Friday’s Child
Lord Sheringham took his new bride to Vauxhall for the evening soon after their wedding, and the young couple thoroughly enjoyed the dancing, fireworks and the famous supper. More than a hundred supper-boxes were available for hire, many of them still decorated with eighteenth-century paintings by William Hogarth and Francis Hayman, and each holding six or eight guests. Waiters attended the boxes and guests could order chicken or ham, mix their own salads, sip on burnt-wine or blend their own brew of arrack-punch. The Regency witnessed the last great phase of Vauxhall’s popularity and the gardens eventually closed in 1859.

Ladies of the Night, Brothels and Gambling Hells

As in every age, prostitution was rife during the Regency. From the high-class courtesan to the streetwalker, women were available to satisfy the lusts of even the most amorous, debauched or hedonistic man. Although they could be found across the city, one of the best-known areas for prostitutes was that comprising the streets and lanes around Covent Garden, also known as the ‘stews’. Here, certain inns and taverns were notorious for their sexual offerings and were known to be visited by fashionable women as well as men. The theatres, too, were popular with the Cyprians who could be seen parading their wares in the foyers and the green rooms of Covent Garden and Drury Lane. A box at the Royal Opera House was a favoured venue for those courtesans wanting to display their attributes or throw out a lure to a possible paramour. In
Friday’s Child
, the incorrigible Lord Sheringham took his wife to a Covent Garden masquerade where he enjoyed pursuing a masked female or ‘bit of muslin’ who he was sure was an old paramour known as Flyaway Nancy. For those among the ‘Fashionable Impures’ who won the favour of an affluent gentleman it meant a life of wealth, luxury and indulgence for as long as they held his favour. To win carte blanche from a lover was the ultimate aim but the harsh reality for many of the women and girls selling themselves on the street was that it was about survival more than luxury or comfort.

Brothels operated across the city and some former courtesans went into business for themselves, running high-class bordellos in elegantly decorated houses and using their wiles, or even a little blackmail, to draw former lovers to their rooms. In
Black Sheep
, Miles Calverleigh sought out an old acquaintance who had risen from the ranks of the Cyprians to become the proprietor of a high-class brothel. Dolly (once known as ‘the Dasher’), having been funded by a rich lover, drove a stylish barouche in Hyde Park and carried herself like one of the aristocracy—although she was always willing to oblige an old friend. One of the most famous brothels of the Regency was the White House in Soho Square, formerly an aristocratic mansion before its conversion into a house of ill-repute. It was a large, square building of many rooms, each of which was individually decorated and named according to its style, including the Grotto, the Coal Hole, the Skeleton Room, the Painted Chamber and the Gold, Silver and Bronze Rooms. The house was splendidly decorated with mirrors embedded in the walls and an array of accessories—both mechanical and manual—to gratify the most lascivious visitor. Elegant brothels existed throughout Mayfair and the West End, often standing cheek by jowl with the homes of London’s most respectable citizens. Many brothels, though, were simply squalid rooms where pimps and procuresses sold the services of those enslaved to them, and every kind of sexual desire could be gratified for a price.

The other great temptation for men and women drawn to the seamier side of Regency life were the gambling hells. These were often run as ‘clubs’ and were open to anyone with money to bet on the roll of the dice or the turn of a card. They were especially popular with those gentlemen refused admittance to the more reputable clubs of St James’s such as White’s, Brooks’s and Boodle’s, and many of the hells were set up in the St James’s and Pall Mall area. By 1820 more than two dozen gambling hells were operating in this part of London with houses in Jermyn, King, Bury and Bennett Streets as well as at 4 Pickering Place (Peregrine Taverner in
Regency Buck
gambled at a hell at number 5), 12 Park Place, 3 Cleveland Row and at numbers 6, 32, 55, 58 and 71 Pall Mall among the best-known. The gambling hell in Bennett Street was also known as ‘the Dandy House’ and was popular among officers of the Guards and the fashionable men of the day who enjoyed the elegant suppers and high play. The stakes in most hells usually ranged from 5s. to £100, but almost any amount could be covered if a player was confident, or desperate, enough. Many of the hells were notorious for drawing in young, inexperienced players and letting them win before turning the luck in favour of the bank, by which time the gambler was usually caught up by the excitement of winning or, later, the need to recover from his losses. Bertram Tallant in
Arabella
was delighted by the amazing run of luck which he enjoyed on his first night at a ‘discreet house in Pall Mall’ and felt sure his friend Felix Scunthorpe’s dire warnings about sharps and loaded dice had been quite wrong. The elegant surroundings of the gambling hells of St James’s and Pall Mall were often a cover for the ruthless play and unfair practices of the houses, which were frequented not only by the rich and fashionable, the clergy and the nobility, but also by cheats and swindlers known as ‘black-legs’, ‘Captain Sharps’ or ‘ivory-turners’.

Ivory-turners were so-called because of their ability to make the dice (ivories) ‘turn’ to the numbers they needed to win the game. Dice cheats generally used loaded or ‘cogged’ dice—known during the Regency as ‘fulhams’ from the town of Fulham where they were originally made (it also sounded appropriately like ‘fool ’em’). Loaded dice were specially made to roll in favour of particular numbers, with those rolling towards the high numbers known as ‘uphills’ and those rolling to the lower numbers called ‘downhills’. Some false dice had only three numbers instead of the usual six, with two sides each with four, five and six pips. These were known as ‘dispatchers’ for their ability to dispatch a man’s money from his pocket with great efficiency. Gambling cheats were known also as sharks, sharps and sometimes as ‘Greeks’, but the beautiful Olivia Broughty in
Cotillion
assured Kitty Charing that in the best gaming houses Greeking methods were only used as a last resort and loaded dice never! Card-sharps usually cheated by changing the pack (known as fuzzing the cards), marking cards or hiding winning cards or hands up their sleeves or on their person. Sharps and ivory-turners mostly operated in the gambling dens and hells around Pall Mall and St James’s, although they sometimes arranged private games with unsuspecting or gullible men (known as ‘flats’) whose trusting and naive demeanour made them easy to dupe.

Convivial Evenings

For those sports enthusiasts in pursuit of an evening of merriment, sporting conversation and serious drinking, there was no better place to be than the Daffy Club at the Castle Tavern, Holborn. Owned by Tom Belcher, himself a respected pugilist and brother of the great boxer Jem Belcher, the Castle Tavern was the ideal venue for the sporting man. Here he could rub shoulders with the champions, take a glass of daffy with the patrons of the sport or try and get the inside running on a likely contender in a forthcoming match. Ferdy Fakenham in
Friday’s Child
was an enthusiastic patron of the Daffy Club and enjoyed getting drunk there. Belcher became landlord in 1814 and under his patronage the well-known boxing aficionado, referee and stakeholder, James Soares, set up the Daffy Club with the support of the Regency journalist and writer, Pierce Egan. Those admitted to the club met in a long room, decorated with pictures of famous fighters and other sporting subjects, and sat at a long table known as the ‘ring’. Every kind of sport was discussed by the ‘Daffies’ and although there were no written rules or formal meetings, high spirits were essential and drinking was the order of the day. The best time to go to the Daffy Club was the night before a big fight when Tom Belcher played host to a great party of enthusiasts and many famous retired fighters could be seen. This was the place to get the whisper on where the next day’s match was to be held and to get a look at the contenders. Every aspect of the match would be discussed, bets laid, odds shortened or lengthened and arrangements made for transport to the bout.

A great many boxers became innkeepers after their retirement, setting up ‘sporting houses’ throughout London and its environs, but the most famous of them all was Tom Cribb, the Champion of England in 1809, and renowned for his stunning defeats of the great American boxer, Tom Molyneux, in 1810 and 1811. Cribb’s first tavern was the Golden Lion in the Borough, but he soon moved to the King’s Arms on the corner of King and Duke Streets, St James’s. Here he established ‘Cribb’s Parlour’, a congenial gathering place for pugilists and the fancy alike, in which they could talk, smoke, drink and admire the Champion’s magnificent silver cup. Only those approved by the great Cribb himself could gain admittance to the Parlour and it was the aspiration of many a sporting buck to win the Champion’s approval. It was to Cribb’s Parlour that Charles Rivenhall was going when he met his sister Cecilia in
The Grand Sophy
and she teased him about what he would do there. Another popular destination with sporting young men, pets of the fancy and their noble patrons was Limmer’s Hotel on the corner of Conduit Street in Hanover Square. This was a more fashionable venue than either Cribb’s Parlour or the Castle Tavern and the hotel’s famous coffee-room still retained something of the atmosphere of the eighteenth-century coffee-house. It was at Limmer’s that Bertram Tallant went with his friend Mr Scunthorpe to meet and mingle with the Corinthians and the pets of the fancy, and where he met Mr Beaumaris and found himself telling the Nonpareil about his experiences and ambitions. Limmer’s was the place for pugilistic patrons and their stakeholders to meet, plan fights and discuss and organise the workings of the Fives Court. Here the names of promising young novices were put forward with requests for training by a retired champion or boxer of renown, and bets were laid on the likely outcome of a bout between an experienced pugilist and an up-and-coming challenger with little experience but plenty of ‘bottom’.