The earliest published Christmas menu dates from 1660, the year of Charles II’s restoration to the throne. The Accomplisht Cook was written by Robert May, an English chef who trained in France and cooked for nobility throughout his life. This remarkable document includes a section titled “A bill of fare for Christmas...
According to history, in Roquemaure, a small town in southern France, at the end of the year 1843, the parish church organ had been renovated. To celebrate the event, the priest asked town wine merchant and poet Placide Cappeau to write a Christmas poem, even though the latter never showed an interest...
In 1741 George Frideric Handel wrote Messiah, his greatest musical creation, at the age of 56 in a single wild writing jag lasting 24 days. According to Newman Flower’s George Frideric Handel: His Personality and His Times: “He (Handel) completed the first part in seven days, the second part in...
The insertion of an X into the word CHRISTMAS (in place of the word “Christ”) has long been a controversial topic. Most folks presume that the change is a sacrilegious gesture, the common saying “taking Christ out of Christmas” familiar to all of us. Until my own research into historical facts,...
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” ~Micah 5:2 Phillip Brooks (1835-1893) was a preacher of excellence within the Episcopal Church. He...
Howdy y’all! I have greatly ignored my poor blog these past several months and can honestly offer no excuse. Many other distractions have taken over my life, including my sweet puppy Olivia Marjo, who was the subject of my last blog post. In January! Yikes!! Indeed, we have had a...
I am often asked about the portraits chosen by Sourcebooks as Darcy and Elizabeth on the covers of The Darcy Saga Sequel Series. Who are they really? Who painted them? I uncovered the identities of the gorgeous woman and handsome man who represent Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy, and am...
This Regency individual intrigued me early on and those of you so fortunate as to have read my novels know that I included this notorious woman a couple of times. Before I get into a dissertation about her, let me just say that one aspect of the fun in writing...
Automaton (plural: automata or automatons) is a self-operating machine, or a machine or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a predetermined sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers in mechanical clocks, are designed to give the illusion to the casual observer that they are operating under their own power. The history of...
Lakes and rivers are plentiful in Kentucky (thanks to the plentiful rain), and I am fairly sure the moving van wasn’t out of sight before my husband announced his desire to buy a boat for fishing. I suspect I rolled my eyes, as I did the subsequent million times he brought...
I’ve written six posts which covered, in detail, the men and women who maintained the interior domains of an estate manor house. Now, with this post today, I have four blogs detailing the duties of those men and women who worked to maintain and beautify the exterior aspects of the...
As an adjunct to the recent blog Gamekeepers: Wardens of the Estate’s Wildlife, a fascinating extra tidbit is that these men were directly responsible for the creation of many breeds of dogs. Breeding and care of the dogs used to aid in the hunt and to guard the estate were...
Six separate blogs were necessary to cover everyone who worked inside the walls of a grand country manor house or upper-class London townhouse. All the posts I’ve written regarding the management of a Regency Era estate are listed in the Pemberley Library, or can be found by a website search from...
Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high flutter. The park was very large, and contained great variety of ground. They entered it in one of...
Six separate blogs were necessary to cover everyone who worked inside the walls of a grand country manor house or upper-class London townhouse. All the posts I’ve written regarding the management of a Regency Era estate are listed in the Pemberley Library, or can be found by a website search...
