Romantic relationships 1660–1837
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
An introduction to historian Emily Brand's new book 'The Fall of the House of Byron'
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... Continue Reading →
... Or, what not to read on a packed bus. I don't often harp on here about things written recently (or, you know, since the Crimean War), but I SO enjoyed this romp of a book that I thought I'd give a little sneak peek at it. It was published to accompany an exhibition on the... Continue Reading →
From Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language Ah, those heady days of blossoming love. Here we have two couples at either end of the 'honey-moon' period, giving some hints of how a relationship changes in its early season - and perhaps some signs of foreboding for the future too. According to the OED, the origin of... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
Alcohol has long been accountable for the peaks and troughs of many romantic relationships, from bleary-eyed beginnings to booze-fuelled disputes and divorces. It has been at the centre of social life for thousands of years, providing endless amusement for onlookers as well as excuses and encouragement for amorous behaviour – in The Art of Love (1st-century AD), Ovid recommended... Continue Reading →
Selecting a wife is a tricky business. The main concern of a merry young bachelor was often that, if he chose badly, he could end up chained to a woman intent on wearing the breeches. And let's face it, there could be little more embarrassing for our seventeenth-century gent than being ruled over by a woman (especially... Continue Reading →
This charming epistle on the horror that is a woman choosing to better herself through education comes from The Modern World Disrob'd (1708), by satirical writer Ned Ward. I'm particularly taken with the idea that the more languages a lady speaks, the more varied the opportunities for scolding her husband with them. Her poor unfortunate husband will... Continue Reading →
Five Things a Man don't like in a Wife - A Woman who will cuckold her Husband - She who carries false Tales from one to another - She who will be drunk before her Husband - She who runs her Husband in Debt without his Knowledge - She who pretends to love her Husband,... Continue Reading →
As is perhaps inevitable for someone so interested in social history, I am also a keen genealogist – and so I was very excited last month when I was given exclusive access to the brand new 'British in India' collection over at findmypast.co.uk. Naturally I busied myself primarily with the marriage records, and over a... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
And so, as we draw towards the end of the year, it seems only fitting to mark the occasion with a peek at a year in the life of a decidedly unsuccessful Georgian marriage. After marrying on New Year's Day, our happy couple spend the next twelve months swinging wildly from love to loathing (probably... Continue Reading →
Are you plagued by a nagging wife? Driven to distraction by a drunken sot of a husband? If an extreme solution is required, look no further than this eighteenth-century relationship advice. The answer, of course, is gin. Just give them a gallon (or two) of the stuff first thing in the morning, and a peaceful existence... Continue Reading →
Just a note to announce the publication of a lovely little gift-book compiled by yours truly, 'How to be Happy Though Married: Matrimonial Strife Through The Ages'. It collects together some of the best (and worst) marriage quotations and advice – including coping with a bad match and some rather questionable sex tips – from... Continue Reading →
The tendency of women to gossip about their sex lives with their friends has set men a-fretting for centuries. Far from being a phenomenon of the 'Sex & the City' era, women of the seventeenth century were just as likely to have intimate discussions about their man's skills and equipment, past experiences, how to keep... Continue Reading →
Weddings today seem such a stressful, complicated affair. If you have cast off the misery of a single life and plunged into all the misery of someone in pursuit of the perfect day, why not follow this eighteenth-century model of the Broomstick Marriage? a) Get married with a number of other couples, ensuring reduced expense... Continue Reading →
Ah, Birmingham. In the eighteenth century, the city seems to have yielded a fair crop of men unable to behave in a gentlemanlike manner. It is by no means rare to come across 'Runaway Husband' advertisements in contemporary newspapers, usually in the form of a plea from the local parish authorities who have suddenly found... Continue Reading →
Detail from 'The Elopement' (1828) In the late eighteenth century, if you were under the age of 21 then you were generally considered too young to be trusted with your own heart. The Marriage Act of 1753 had decreed that no wedding conducted on English soil would be considered valid unless there was a formal church... Continue Reading →
Possibly my favourite possession in the world is my little collection of eighteenth-century newspaper scraps, apparently compiled by a Georgian gent with a particular interest in matrimonial adverts (fascinating) and buying horses (not so fascinating). Frustratingly I have no idea who he was, although his few helpful scribblings suggest that he was busying himself with... Continue Reading →
I have fallen in love with a broadside song of 1690, entitled 'Advice to Young Gentlemen... to the tune of The Ladies of London.' It reads: "All Jolly Blades that Inhabit the Town, And with the fair Sex are contriving, From the Gay Fop, to the honest bred Clown, be advis'd to resolve against Wiving;... Continue Reading →
To Georgian Edinburgh, where in the summer of 1738 an almost-centenarian wed a nervous "undefiled" lady of about seventy. My interest was caught by the idea that her primary reason for pursuing marriage at such an advanced age was a fear of the "old maid's curse" – presumably the already well-established saying that old maids... Continue Reading →
Unbridled passions! Sibling rivalry! Threatened suicide! Wife selling! A party down the pub! What more could you want from this news report of 1787? Not only does it give a lively insight into love and marriage in the eighteenth century, but it proves once and for all that Bristol is a city where romance never... Continue Reading →
The c18th print below serves as a reminder that indulging in too much gin can cause mischief. A grim-faced husband trudges and sighs his way along the street, regretting that he has (once again) allowed his merry wife to be to free with the Strip-and-go-naked. ‘A Poor Man Loaded with Mischief, or Matrimony… drawn by Experience,... Continue Reading →
The History of Love 