* What exactly is an entail, and how does it work?
* What was the social standing of women at the time? Could they own property, or did it have to be controlled by a male relative?
* Why, why, why do they do this "He was born in --------shire"? *it drives me nuts!*

The operation of the statute soon produced innumerable evils : " children, it is said, grew disobedient when they knew they could not be set aside ; farmers were deprived of their leases; creditors were defrauded of their debts; innumerable latent entails were produced to deprive purchasers of the land they had fairly bought; treasons also were encouraged, as estates tail were not liable to forfeiture longer than for the tenant's life " (Williams, Real Property). On the other hand, by limiting inheritance to the eldest son, the other issue were forced to seek employment elsewhere, thus, it has been argued, preventing the growth of a landed caste. The professions of the church, the army and the law were constantly recruited from the younger sons of landed families, preventing the gap between nobility and the rest.

Which brings me to my next question, what was the political, social, and economic standing of women? Why would the original entailer choose to disqualify female heirs?

"He was born in --------shire" is used because it was common for authors at the time to create a sense of realism by "masking" the exact name of a place to suggest that they were referring to a real place but wanting to protect the identity and privacy of the real people there.

I've got another question. This was an era with strict conservative rules of tbehavior. How much of the body was considered acceptable? I know women's fashions were all based on classical Greek ideals, but that doesn't seem to fit my idea of the social customs. I mean, men and women were only allowed to touch under very specific circumstances, yet, I've seen some quite low necklines. And, while you would never give your friend's wife a foot massage, these period dramas give me the impression that these toga-like gowns were often very revealing. This could be inaccurate, though.

Do we have any experts out there?

Entails were usually set up to pass property to the eldest son, although there were other ways to do it, probably to ensure that property, and any inherited titles, stayed within the family name.

Titles - hmm, this is huge. This is a site with a lot of info about British nobility, far too much to copy and paste here, so I think the best thing would be to give the link here, this page in particular gives the lists of precedence for men and women, again its much too long to copy and paste (for instances there are seven different types of Knight). Bear in mind that these were titles in use in 1818.

More questions...

What exactly does it mean to "purchase a living" or be "given a living"? I am under the impression that men could "buy" into the church like a franchise or something (no disrespect intended, I couldn't think of a better way to describe my thinking).

What about the regiments of soldiers moving around all the time? It seems like this was one stationed, on duty in this small town, then they all up and moved to a lovely vacation resort.

I have a question for you cultural gurus out there.

When we first hear of Mr Collins's letter to Mr Bennet, he says: 'About a month ago I received this letter; and about a fortnight ago I answered it, for I thought it a case of some delicacy, and requiring early attention.'

More questions...

It seems like the world hasn't changed much, as it appears transportation was as much of a status symbol in Austen's time as it is in ours. I was wondering, I read different descriptions of carriages, barouches, etc. and I wonder what the difference is between them. Also, I assume going "post" is riding in a carriage with the mail or something. I wonder if it is considered a "lower class" way to go, as Lady Catherine seemed concerned that the ladies might be going alone.

I also wonder what the London "season" is. Much seems to be made about being "in town" for this season, when exactly is that and what was the purpose? I gather that it is a round of parties, dances, and meals...but why is it more important to be there at a specific time of year?

What is involved with "coming out"?

One important rule of protocol of the period is that a correspondence between two unmarried and marriageable unrelated young people of the opposite sex is a sign that the two are engaged. So Elinor Dashwood in Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility, when she sees a letter from Edward Ferrars to Lucy Steele, thinks "a correspondence between them by letter could subsist only under a positive engagement, could be authorised by nothing else", and, when she is unsure whether or not Willoughby and Marianne are engaged, says "If we find they correspond, every fear of mine will be removed". Similarly, Captain Wentworth says to Anne Elliot in Persuasion: "...if I had then written to you, would you have answered my letter? would you, in short, have renewed the engagement then?" (i.e., she likely would have answered the letter only if she had also decided to renew the engagement). And since Mary Crawford and Edmund Bertram in Mansfield Park could not legitimately correspond, the correspondence between Fanny Price and Mary Crawford is used as a conduit between them.

This rule isn't so rigid as to prevent Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility from starting to write a one-off letter to Edward Ferrars (which was to be more a business than a social letter, to someone who could be considered a relative of hers by marriage); however, for a continuing correspondence to be carried on in the absence of an engagement is a breach of propriety (a significant point in Marianne's conduct in Sense and Sensibility -- though Jane Austen dismisses the topic more lightly at the end of Northanger Abbey). This is why Darcy thinks it advisable to hand-deliver his famous letter to Elizabeth (since it would be awkward if anyone at Rosings or Hunsford Parsonage were to see a letter addressed from him to Elizabeth); and it is an important reason why Elizabeth doesn't answer the letter.

In researching the carriage stuff, I stumbled across this interesting site, which has all kinds of interesting tidbits of cultural information.

Post: Traveling by changing horses at posting stations (inns) along the way (rather than using one's own horses), for greater speed.

Gentlemen would be educated at home by a governess or tutor until they were old enough to attend a public school. The curriculum was heavily weighted towards the classics - the languages and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome. After that, they would attend Oxford or Cambridge. Here they might also study mathematics, law, philosophy, and modern history. Oxford tended to produce more Members of Parliament and government officials, while Cambridge leaned more towards the sciences and produced more acclaimed scholars. It was not compulsory, either legally or socially, for a gentleman to attend school at all. He could, just as easily, be taught entirely at home. However, public school and University were the great staging grounds for public life, where you made your friends and developed the connections that would aid you later in life.

Omitting to pay proper respect to company, on entering or leaving a room; or paying it only to one person, when more are present.
Entering a room with the hat on, and leaving it in the same manner.
Setting still on the entrance of your instructor, strangers, or parents.
Omitting the proper attention, when waited on by superiors.
Passing between the fire and persons sitting at it.
Whispering, or pointing in company, and staniding between the light and any person wanting it.
Contradicting your parents or strangers who are any way engaged in conversations.
Laughing loudly, when in company, and drumming with feet or hands.
Swinging the arms, and all other aukward gestures, especially in the street, and in company.
All actions that have the most remote tendency to indelicacy.
Leaning on the shoulder, or chair of another person, and overlooking persons who are writing or reading.
Throwing things instead of handing them, and crowding others in a passinge, or running against their elbows.
Contempt in looks, words, or actions, for a partner in dancing, or other persons.
All instances of that ill judged familiaritywhich breeds contempt.
Lolling on a chair when speaking or when spoken to, and looking persons earnestly in the face without any apparent cause.
Surliness of all kinds, especially on receiving a compliment
Distortion of countenance, and mimicry.
Ridicule of every kind, vice or folly
A constant smile or settled frown on the countenance.

The yearly salary for a governess ranged from fifteen to one hundred pounds, the latter figure reflecting the wages of a very well-educated woman working for an extremely wealthy family. The average wage was generally considered low—between twenty to forty pounds per year, at a time when the typical agricultural wage hovered was thirty pounds per year.

So I have a question about medicine and doctors. I was just watching Mesmer again (the fact that Alan Rickman stars as Franz Anton Mesmer is purely coincidental reallyreally) and I dont know how true to the real life of Doctor Mesmer it is but, I think it's set in a similar period to Jane Austen's writing. This is one of the few *period dramas* I've seen that focus so much on medicine, in fact the story is centered around physicians and medicine. I've seen in other movies (please dont throw things at me for watching the movie versions of books) where they bleed patients that are sick. Why was this considered helpful, and how was it supposed to cure anything?
It irritates me that Mesmer was opposed to bleeding and used magnet therapy (which is now hugely popular) and actually listened to people's problems & understood how trauma affects the mind which in turn affects the body, yet his colleagues labeled him a fraud and a charlatan despite the fact he cured a young woman's blindness, & they exiled him because he dared to question the accepted treatment, which seemed to be exclusively bleeding, like whether a person was sick or blind or having epileptic seizures, it was bleeding that was prescribed. Were there other therapies? I so would not have liked to live back then and gotten ill

Medical Treatments--or tortures

*Bleeding--was a staple remedy for doctors in Georgian times. There was almost no understanding of the true cause and nature of disease. Bleeding was thought to purge the body of vile humors that caused the illness. One account of the treatment of an injury in a carriage accident, preserved in contemporary letters, leaves one wondering how the young man survived. His mother writes to her friend that after being injured when his phaeton overturned and loosing considerable amounts of blood, the doctor bled him repeatedly over the next 3 months and forbade all beef. The poor misguided mother seemed to have had absolute faith in the doctor. The young man must have had a strong constitution. He survived the 'medical' treatments.
*Blistering--was when a physician deliberately gave the patient a second degree burn and then lanced and drained the resulting blister. It was believed that the liquid in the blister contained the toxins that were causing the sickness and that the pain of blistering caused the patient's mind to focus on the new pain slowing the progress of the disease. These practices were thought to fight diseases, but, as we now know, these medical practices amounted to the needless torture of an already sick person.
*The Brunonian system--devised by Edinburgh physician John Brown rested on the supposition that disease was caused by weakness or inadequate stimulation of the organism and that stimulation should be increased through treatment with irritants.
*Fumigation -- The practice of having the patient breath the smoke or gases from a heated substance in the belief it would cure a disease. Substances used included: opium, deadly nightshade, iodine, sugar of lead, belladonna, digitalis, hellebore, aconite, dog-bane, tobacco, arsenic, antimony, niter, lobelia, and cinebar. Opium of course did offer the patient some relief from pain until it wore off. Of course it did nothing to fight the disease. It was considered a great cure all.
*Ointments--containing mercury were used on patients with venereal diseases. Sulfur was used from ancient times to treat skin problems.
*Plastering --Plasters were a paste-like mixtures, made from a variety of ingredients including such substances as cow manure, which were thought to draw the toxins causing a disease from the body. To make maters worse these filthy mixtures were often applied to the raw spots left from blistering.
*Poulticing --Poultices were made from a mixture of bread and milk, to which other ingredients were sometimes added including: potatoes, onions, herbs, and linseed oil. Poultices were applied to cuts, wounds, bites, and boils.
*Puking -- was a medical practice in which the physician dosed a patient with emetics resulting in vomiting. Puking was thought to relieve tension on arteries and to expel poisons from the body.
*Purging--was a treatment that involved the patient ingesting a powerful laxative to induce the emptying of the patient's bowels or intestines. Purging was thought to cleanse the body of toxins. Unfortunately the most widely used purgative was calomel, a highly poisonous form of mercuric chloride.
*Sweating--was a treatment where in patients were wrapped in a hot wet sheet and numerous blankets and thus made to sweat out the poisons that caused their disease. This treatment was more harmless than most, but could have fatal results if used on a person with high blood pressure or a weak heart.

Have you seen Sense and Sensibility with Alan Rickman? *sigh*