Isabella Byron: the ale-drinking, toyboy-chasing 18th-century countess

Emily Brand invites you to meet the poetic Isabella Byron – great-aunt of the poet – who spent her life dancing in moonlit meadows & "racketing about" Europe in pursuit of true love

William, the ‘Wicked Lord’ Byron – actress abducter & cowardly killer?

Dearest readers, A new video is UP! See below for a quick intro to the angry, dissipated career of William, 5th Lord Byron – known to history as 'the Wicked Lord' or 'Devil Byron'/ Features actress abduction, a wolf, & a bit of heavy stabbing  (..... also Jasper, obviously) #HouseofByron  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwGGcYl5Kzo   *The Fall of...

Podcast: C18th chat-up lines, with Dan Snow

Happy Valentine's Day! To celebrate, a look back at my chat with Dan Snow about love, romance and sex in the 18th century, including some of my favourite historical chat-up lines & a bit of a swoon over Sharpe and/or Mr Darcy. Podcast link below: History Hit Valentine's Day Special: Emily Brand on Love &...

Dating disasters of the Regency era

Confession: First Dates is my televisual jam. (For the uninitiated, in brief: strangers are set up on dates at a London restaurant by a suave Frenchman called Fred {above}, said date is filmed, & they are then subjected to having their dating style reviewed. It’s hugely high-brow.) From teenagers looking for their first love to...

Exhibition: Love Bites – Caricatures by James Gillray

To mark 200 years since satirist James Gillray's death, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is currently holding an exhibition in his honour. During his lifetime he created over 1000 prints, and here on display is a group of 60 examples ostensibly held together by heartstrings – they explore the artist's often scathing view of love, sex. marriage, friendship...

The tale of Elizabeth Smith (and her second husband’s first wife’s first husband), 1766

Sometimes, when trawling through historical records, a researcher comes across personal stories that seem destined for Hollywood. Take this dramatic tale of romance triumphing against all the odds, featuring sexually-charged teenage servants, illegimate pregnancy, forced separation, triple bigamy, a few deaths, and a gouty clergyman in a sedan chair. All in that world-renowned town of passion and enchantment... Bicester. Before...

Don’t shake your noddle! How to keep her interested, 1680

So, you have finally found yourself a girlfriend. Congratulations! After the faintly traumatic experience of courtship - the dodgy chat up lines, the dangers of womanly wiles, the endless sighing - you might be forgiven for thinking that you are allowed a little bit of a rest. Oh, dear reader - It Is Not So....

8 Bad Reasons for Getting Married, 1792

What would you say makes the most solid foundation for a marriage? Trust? Financial security? The sort of profound and death-defying passion that would make Jack & Rose weep with envy? [let's face it, they are the modern-day Romeo & Juliet, and I'm only moderately ashamed to admit it.] It was in the latter half of the...

Learning the Language of Love, 1777

Who hasn't made some embarrassing error in the realm of love? Misinterpreting a potential lover's intentions can be humiliating, painful – even fatal. Published in 1777, one DIctionary of Love aimed to set the record straight once and for all, amidst concern at the recent enthusiasm for 'stabbing, poisoning one's self, and the like' in the name of love. No...

‘Hey Girl, your face looks like a giant plate’: Seduction tips from 1799

I just wanted to share my latest blog for the Washington Post, revealing the secrets of seduction to be found in a late-c18th American publication (plus a really brilliant pic of 1808). Enjoy! [you can find the original article here] *** It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a gaggle of girls on a night out...

The Mighty Power of a Sigh, 1676

Let us take a moment to consider an important but lost art of love – the sigh. Nowadays, very few languishing lovers will attempt to seduce a lady by looking her square in the eyes and forcefully expelling the air from his lungs. In the late seventeenth century, however, this was considered a crucial tool in...

Dealing with an unwanted Valentine, c18th style

I have to say, this was not a problem I ever had to deal with in my tender youth (weep, woe, &c). Oh no, I was far too busy watching Hornblower and/or wishing I was Lizzy Bennet to have much to do with boys. Presuming that most normal humans are less likely to shun The...

The Voyage of Matrimony, from the Volcano of Passions to Misery Town (1826)

And lo, you find yourself embarking upon your first love affair. Egads!, I hear you cry, how am I to navigate this unknown terrain, such uncontrollable bliss, such exquisite ecstasy? Never fear, gentle reader, you merely have to consult this late-Georgian map. Your mindless optimism will be shot in no time. This 'Study for Youth' charts...

Some familiar c18th New Year’s Resolutions

Struggling to come up with some New Year's Resolutions? Here is some eighteenth-century inspiration (and some of them seem terribly familiar...) 1. To sort out your love life (whatever form that may take) Resolv'd to be Married!!                                    ...

A Romp Loving Miss Under the Mistletoe (1796)

Ah, Christmas. For centuries it has been the season of love, giving, and sentimental sickliness of all persuasions. But, let's face it, it has also provided the perfect opportunity for countless lusty young couples to indulge in a bit of festive fornication under the mistletoe. The print below gives a peep at four couples engaged in...

How to bag a handsome man – some c18th advice

As the season of love and festivity is upon us, I thought I might offer a little c18th advice on how to bag the man of your dreams – even if you can't impress him with your inexhaustible fortune. "Good News for Maidens: Or, now or never for handsome Husbands, and the surest methods they...

If Georgian England’s single ladies were in charge… (1800)

Knowing how consumed most single ladies were with the mission of securing a husband, just imagine what harassment England's bachelors might have been subjected to if the women were given charge of romantic proceedings. The Leap Year tradition of allowing women to make their own amorous advances clearly played on the mind of one print-maker...

Stuck-up sweetheart? How to bring her down a peg or two

Many a hopeful suitor has been disappointed because he falls short of his beloved's ridiculously high expectations. For anyone who has experienced such a heart-breaking rebuff, why not follow this seventeenth-century advice for how to bring her down a peg or two? 1) Tell her she is not as attractive as she thinks. 2) Cast...

What is revealed by the size of a man’s moustache?

And lo, Movember is upon us. As gents around the nation compete to cultivate the most fabulous whiskers, the question is, ladies: the moustachioed man, yea or nay? Between the meticulously sculpted facial decoration of the Restoration era and the bushy luxuriance of the nineteenth-century sideburn combo, facial hair was rather out of fashion. Contravening...

An c18th night out – the dreaded ‘before’ & ‘after’ pics

In the eighteenth century, one of the favoured methods of catching a potential suitor's eye was to head to a fashionable ball and astound the opposite sex with your sparkling wit and effortless mastery of the dancefloor [consider, if you will, the modern nightclub as the preferred venue for going out 'on the pull']. The anticipation...