Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

In my January post I mentioned the possibility of following up with more Regency era trivia. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go any further, but I have to confess that some of the things I’ve found are begging me to share them with you. Here, in no special order, are more bits of fact, and a little bit of fancy. As before, this information can be found at https://www.thevintagenews.com/2022/06/30/regency-era-facts/

• Caricatures were popular, the wackier the better.

“The Prince Regent” cartoon, Published by T. Tegg, circa 1816. (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain).

Unlike the Victorian age which followed, the people living in the Regency didn’t take themselves all that seriously. A look at the cartoons and caricatures from the period reveals a certain eccentricity toward political affairs. Caricatures from the period often showed royalty, the nobility and politicians in hilarious, crude, and always unflattering situations drawn to get a laugh. It seems that not much has changed in the two hundred or so years since the Regency ended.

• Opium use was common.

A view of opium poppy growing in a field in Kashmir, India. (Photo Credit: Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Drug use was common, among both the upper and lower classes. Opium was especially popular at the time, as it was claimed to help you relax or inhibit creativity. It was often sold to the elite in the form of gold-coated pills or as a powder mixed with expensive spices.

If you didn’t favor opium, you had the choice of other popular powders like snuff – smokeless, finely ground tobacco – which royalty and commoners alike used.

• The Prince Regent was an obese alcoholic.

Regency Era cartoon depicts George IV and his wife Caroline as “two green bags”. (Photo Credit: George Cruikshank/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)

As a young man, the Prince Regent George IV was the most desirable bachelor in the country, but that didn’t last. Overindulgent eating patterns took control of his life, leading to a long list of ailments, and ever widening waistline. He supposedly began each day with two pigeons, three steaks, three parts of a bottle of white wine, a glass of dry champagne, two glasses of port, and a glass of brandy to wash it all down. If nothing else, the man had a healthy appetite.

It was rumored to take three hours to squeeze him into a girdle and whalebone corset. His gluttony led to gout and blindness and his death in 1830 at 67 years old. He reigned a short ten years as the official King of England. He died weighing more than 300 pounds, and workers lined the walls of the palace with wood panels in case the weight of his coffin caused to pallbearers to drop it and damage the valuable architecture of the palace.

• Anyone care for Parmesan ice cream?

Parmesan cheese ice cream was popular in the Regency Era. (Photo Credit: Art Images via Getty Images)

Ice cream was very popular, with flavors like hazelnut, lemon, burnt sugar, lavender, elderflower, rum, and – I swear this is true – Parmesan cheese. I have no idea how, or why, anyone would create a flavor like this, but I can honestly say I have no curiosity about its taste.

I think that is enough trivia, at least for this year. But who knows, maybe I’ll yield to temptation in another three or four months and regale you with more salacious or revolting facts about this era. Or maybe not.