Wickham's 'Blue Coat'

 

Merino sheep produced short-staple wool suitable for cloth.

My latest feature for the March/April issue of Jane Austen's Regency World is on the increasing mechanization of the woollen industry.

Wool was such a ubiquitous material that 'cloth' was synonymous with woollen fabric. 

 Despite cotton's increasing popularity, woollen cloth was still essential for warmth in Britain's unpredictable climate. Fashionable gentleman like George Wickham in Pride and Prejudice wore blue cloth coats.

A wool-carding machine.

Short-staple (short-fibre) wool was used for cloth, and a fleece required a great deal of cleaning and processing before it could be spun into thread and woven into cloth.

It was primarily the processing of the yarn which moved into the factories during late Georgian times; 'carding', 'scribbling', 'slubbing', and spinning on machines like James Hargreaves' spinning-jenny. 

A slubbing-machine or 'billy'. 

I'll be covering the innovations in the worsted industry in the May/June issue. 

Letting Off Steam

 My latest feature for Jane Austen's Regency World (January/February issue) is on the progress of steam-boats during Austen's lifetime. 

The Charlotte Dundas, financed by Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, and powered by a William Symington-designed engine, was trialled on Dalswinton Loch on 14 October 1788. 

Images: 

Left: ‘The first steamboat’, by Alexander Nasymth. Smiles, Samuel (ed.), James Nasymth Engineer; An Autobiography, John Murray, London, 1883. 

Right: Henry Bell's Comet, 1812. This was Britain's first successful passenger steam-boat. 

 The British Merchant Service, Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Fetter Lane, London, 1898. Nigel Wilkes collection. 

Happy Christmas Everyone!

 

Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. 

Image: A lady in evening dress - perhaps in mourning. Ackermann's Repository, December 1818. Courtesy New York Public Library. 

Jane Austen 250: Happy Birthday Jane!

 

Willoughby asks Elinor to stay.

Today is Jane Austen's 250th birthday! Pop over to my Jane Austen blog so see my highlights of her bicentenary year. 

Illustration by Charles Brock for Sense and Sensibility. Willoughby asks Elinor to stay. 

A Visit To Thiepval

 

Thiepval Memorial. 

Over ten years ago, we paid a visit to Loos Memorial so that I could pay my respects to my great-uncles Harry and Herbert Dickman, who died in 1916. This year, I was lucky enough to visit Thiepval Memorial, where one of my 'cousins', John William Dickman, is commemorated, and to pay my respects.

 

J W Dickman, Thiepval. 

John was the son of John and Mary Dickman, of 38, Kay St., Lower Openshaw, Manchester, and he served in the 8th Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment. He was only 24 years old when he died on 15 July 1916 - just two weeks before my great-uncle Harry was killed. (Herbert died earlier that year). 

What a terrible year that was for my family. 

Photos copyright Sue and Nigel Wilkes. 

'Scarlet Sin'

 My latest feature for Jane Austen's Regency World magazine (Nov/Dec issue) is on the ancient craft of dyeing. 

In 1814, Jane Austen wrote to Cassandra to complain about the local dyer: ‘My poor old muslin has never been dyed yet. It has been promised to be done several times. What wicked people dyers are! They begin with dipping their own souls in scarlet sin’.

Dyes were used for many different fabrics: wool, worsted, linen, cotton, and silk. 

The secret of Turkey-Red dyeing (from the Far East), was much sought after in Britain, but it was not until the 1780s that it was successfully accomplished in Britain, in Manchester and the Glasgow area. 

The late eighteenth century also saw the introduction of new dyes from metals, like 'iron buff' and orange from antimony. 

Image from the author's collection: Costume Parisien, Journal des Dames et des Modes, 1803. A ‘Robe de Mousseline Turque’ [Turkey muslin]. 

8 College Street, Winchester.

No 8, College Street, Winchester. 

 A few weeks ago, I was very privileged to see inside No 8, College Street, Winchester, the house where Jane Austen spent her last few weeks. 

Her family hoped that a town doctor, Dr Lydford, might be able to effect a cure for her illness (the cause of which is still not known for certain). 

Jane wrote to her nephew James Edward Austen, 'Our lodgings are very comfortable. We have a neat little drawing room with a bow window overlooking Dr Gabell’s Garden'. 

The bow-window at 8 College Street. 

The left image is the current view through the bow window on the first floor; on the right is the view of the same room from the far end. 

Below you can see how the room looks at the far end; there's a fireplace at both ends of the room.

Jane was still writing almost until the end; her last composition was a comic verse on Winchester horse races. 

She died on 18 July 1817. 

I was very moved to finally see inside the house; I have often seen it from the outside over the years. Of course, I was more sad than excited. How young Jane was! She was still only 41 years old. 

After Jane's death, her sister Cassandra wrote mournfully to their niece Fanny Knight: 'I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed. She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow; I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself'.

Winchester College has renovated the interior, and carefully matched the paint on the walls to traces found during the restoration. The house is currently open to visitors until the end of August (although you may have to wait for a cancellation).