REGENCY ESCAPADES: REGENCY HOUSE PARTY

Being single in the Regency was no joke and probably much worse than today. Although many people love reading about this era because of its elegance, glamour, romance and sophistication, rigid constraints governed society, class and behaviour. Life was easy for those with money but tough for those with limited resources. Money and class played important roles in choosing one's marriage prospects. This was especially true for impoverished women, as Jane Austen's novels make quite clear, but men with little money were not often regarded as good 'husband material' either.

Channel Four recently had the interesting idea of holding a Regency House Party for a selection of today's young singles. Nothing seems to go right at this party - one young man has an affair with a chaperone, one of the young ladies swears at the hostess, another breaks her 'engagement' because she likes the hermit and one young man can't stand it and actually leaves. Partly because of these antics and partly because of the snippets of history included, this series is fascinating to watch.

The programme involved six 'Mr. Darcy's' and six 'Miss Bennet's' (and their chaperones) traveling back in time to a house party on a grand estate. As even wealthy women didn't inherit their father's estate usually their chances of financial success depended on a good marriage. The main way of finding a husband was during the Season with its balls, dances and horse races. Here, however, the chaperone's duty is to get their charges 'married off'. Surprisingly the hostess has to also try to see that the host, the aristocratic and wealthy Mr. Gorell Barnes becomes engaged as well.

Mrs. Rogers, a rather stern chaperone, appears to be almost the only one who takes correct Regency behaviour seriously. She admonishes the men sternly when they refuse to act like proper gentlemen and no wonder. They do an excellent job of playing 'Regency rakes' by spending three hours at their after-dinner coffee and cigars before joining the ladies; forming their own 'Hell-fire club'; flirting with the maids and generally treating the poor young ladies badly. Of course, life was much more fun for single young men of the Regency who enjoyed drinking, gambling and worse.

Women were expected to be very sedate and demure although they could 'play up' once they were married apparently. One made the remark that the party was like living in a 'fairytale' and she would really miss it, but on the whole they found the rigid standards of behaviour expected of them very difficult.

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