ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

Jane Austen's brother Edward owned the large estate of Chawton in Hampshire including this Tudor manor house which Jane called the Great House. He was fortunate enough to have been adopted by its previous owners, the Knight family. Something rather similar happens to Frank Churchill in Emma . The Knights were  distant relatives of the Austens, and had no child or heir of their own. They could have adopted any one of the Austen children, but they were only interested in a boy. It was an early lesson for Jane about how girls were less valued. When he grew up, Edward rarely lived at Chawton House as he acquired an even grander mansion, Godmersham Park in Kent, which became his by marriage.  When he was at Chawton, and his mother and sisters were installed in the cottage, they were frequently invited to visit him at the Great House. It was only a short walk from their home along a country lane and then up the drive.  Tall trees create a splendid avenue (just like the one at S...

How did Georgians wash their hair? Did they wash it at all? Didn't they just wear wigs, which were full of revolting powder? Well, it wasn't quite as bad as that. In Culpeper's English Physician; and Complete Herbal, one of the most frequently reprinted herbals of the period, we find this observation: "The hair washed with the lye made of the ashes of the [barberry] tree, and water, will make it turn yellow. " Elsewhere he claims that infusions of the herbs wall-rue and maiden-hair can be used to prevent hair falling out, and also observes of the Southernwood tree that its ashes will, if mixed with old salad-oil and used to wash the hair or scalp, cure baldness. [1] Whether or not any of these plants will have any effect on hair growth, the recommendation proves that people must have been using herbal infusions as well as lye mixed with ashes to wash their hair, in the absence of anything better. Why would anyone use ashes to wash their hair? Because the...

 "A French Dentist Shewing a Specimen of His Artificial Teeth and False Palates", drawing by Thomas Rowlandson, 1811. Did Georgians clean their teeth at all? The answer is yes... well at any rate they tried to. People were already aware that keeping teeth clean made them look and feel better and slowed down the onset of decay. Doctors recommended doing so and books and magazines offered advice. People who could afford it resorted to all sorts of methods to avoid toothache, early tooth loss, and dental misery. Toothpicks and mouth-washes were widely used in polite society and we also find references to tooth-brushes at quite an early date. In 1746, Medicina Brittanica by Thomas Short M.D. offered this advice: "Wash the Mouth often with a Decoction of Mouse-ear in small Beer; often snuff up the Nose Vinegar, wherein Primrose roots were infused ... To fasten the Teeth, chew often Roots of Brook-lime ; or rinse the Mouth often with a Decoction of Wild Tan...