Free Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester Page B

playing the harp and singing for them as part of the evening’s entertainment (although there were some who wished she hadn’t). Children of both sexes participated in physical games with friends or siblings, but young women were expected to become less boisterous as they approached adolescence and confine their main physical activities to walking or riding.
    Circulating libraries such as Hookham’s in London, Donaldson’s in
Brighton and Duffield’s and Meyler’s in Bath were especially popular
with young ladies during the Regency.
    Although many well-bred young women were educated at home, during the Regency it was not uncommon for the daughters of gentlemen to attend a ladies’ seminary as either a boarder or a day student. Cherry Steane in Charity Girl was a student at Miss Fletching’s school in Bath where she spent several happy years before being sent to live with her Aunt Bugle in Hampshire. Such institutions were often established in a private home by an impoverished gentlewoman with enough capital to set up a small school, or by one of a handful of progressive female educators with a vision of women as being something more than purely ornamental. Most seminaries offered what was described as ‘a comprehensive education’ which included languages, the womanly arts, music and acceptable outdoor leisure activities. Correct posture and deportment (with use of the backboard) were also taught, as were manners, etiquette and the kind of elegancy of mind considered essential to a prettily behaved girl. As the rise of industry saw a corresponding increase in the wealthy merchant class, the desire to see his daughters creditably established (preferably wed to a member of the aristocracy) led more than one ambitious and affluent tradesman to send them to one of London’s or Bath’s more exclusive seminaries in the hope that they might establish advantageous connections with the daughters of the upper class. In A Civil Contract , wealthy merchant Jonathan Chawleigh sent his daughter Jenny to Miss Satterleigh’s Seminary for the Daughters of Gentlemen in Kensington for precisely that reason.
    In addition to knowing how to behave it was also vital for a debutante to demonstrate her prowess in at least one of the accepted female accomplishments. Singing, watercolour painting, fine embroidery, dancing, sketching and the ability to play an instrument, such as the harp or the pianoforte, were considered essential skills for the young lady about to make her come-out. Grace, elegance, poise and good posture were deemed evidence of good breeding, and simplicity of presentation—without affectation, simpering or false modesty—when singing, reciting poetry or playing an instrument was applauded as entirely becoming to a virtuous young woman. Judith Taverner won approval for her unaffected performance on the piano during her week-long stay with the Duke and Duchess of Rutland at Belvoir Castle in Regency Buck , and Charis Merriville in Frederica was judged to have a simplicity of manner which only enhanced her beauty. In addition to practical skills, books and magazine articles encouraged well-bred women to cultivate a manner which was charming yet simple, amiable though reserved, sensitive but not overmuch and expressive yet refined. Thoughts and opinions (on appropriate subjects) were expected to be elegantly expressed in a well-modulated voice and with just the right amount of deference to one’s social superiors and the exact modicum of condescension to lesser mortals. In The Spanish Bride , Juana’s limited English made communication with her new sister-in-law difficult, but Mrs Sargant’s uncertainty about her brother’s young wife was somewhat allayed by Juana’s low, musical voice and evident good breeding. During the Regency the art of conversation gradually became more valued as a womanly accomplishment among the upper class, as arranged marriages became less common and women came to be seen more as companions