Art Fund Visit: Mellerstain House

This past weekend was beautiful in Scotland which meant everyone had to take advantage of the sun and go outside.  I ventured to one of the lesser-known stately homes in Britain, Mellerstain, which despite not having the fame of a house like Chatsworth or Goodwood, is absolutely gorgeous and well-worth a visit.

This was the first time I got to put my Art Pass to use which I must gush about because it is such a glorious thing for artsy-fartsy types, history nuts, and everyone in between.  It is put out by the Art Fund, a charity that helps UK museums acquire works of art to add to their collection.  When you get an Art Fund card, you're not only helping a good cause but you are getting into a lot of museum exhibitions and stately homes for free or discounted rates.  So for those connoisseurs of art and history living in the UK, this card saves you a good amount of money and its accompanying guidebook is great for keeping you in-the-know of places and events that you can pop in with the Art Pass - next on my list is an eighteenth-century brewery, I'll keep you updated!

So through the Art pass guide, I was alerted to Mellerstain, which I was unfamiliar with and decided to check out because of its portrait collection and Robert Adam interiors.  Mellerstain is the seat of the Earls of Haddington, and as you walk thought the gorgeous rooms you'll see photographs of the children of the current earl as well as the magazines the family has been reading (I love when you can tell that people still live in these homes).  Almost every room had breathtaking Adam interiors in the neoclassical style and the family portraits by the likes of Allan Ramsay and Thomas Gainsborough are on view.  The top story displays the family's personal items such as Adam's designs for the house,  fans, clothing, toys, and letters from the 18-19th centuries.  One of the best bits of my visit was that all the Mellerstain employees were so incredibly nice and informative; you could tell they loved working in this beautiful house.

But I'll let the pictures speak for me:

The library

Drawing Room ceiling

One of the first bathrooms

Original clothing on display

Back of the house and gardens

The Music Room

 Mellerstain is in the Borders of Scotland.  See here or here for opening times and further information.

Georgian Pleasures Conference, Bath

For anyone whose pocket book has some clear dates free from 12-13 of September, I must encourage you to make way to Bath at all costs.  Why you ask (although, do we ever need an excuse to venture to Bath?), well the Georgian Pleasures Conference will be held on those days and it sounds like it isn't your run-of-the-mill conference.  I'll give you three good reasons why it's not to missed.

Firstly, this conference is interdisciplinary- not just academically, but in terms of it hosting speakers from all walks of life such as dancers and reenactors.  Secondly, it's called 'Georgian Pleasures' which means it's a celebration of all the scandalous bits of the eighteenth century that we love, such as Mary Toft, prossies, and pleasure gardens. Finally, the conference ends with a big party- Georgian style.  The Holburne Museum gardens will transform into an eighteenth-century pleasure garden so bring your best mantua, no really bring it, costumes are welcome!  If you can't make it to the conference, do make a fashionably late appearance at the soiree.  I hope to see you all there!

For more information check out the conference website.

Winner of How to Create the Perfect Wife

Congratulations......

EmSpeaks!

You won a copy of Wendy Moore's How to Create the Perfect Wife.  You know the deal, send me an email (GeorgianaGossip@gmail.com) with your address!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway and do check out How to Create the Perfect Wife which is available in the US and UK.

Book Givaway: How to Create the Perfect Wife

I hope you are feeling lucky because it is time for a long-awaited book giveaway, and what a fabulous giveaway it is!

Wendy Moore, author of The Knife Man, and one of my personal recommended reads, Wedlock, the biography of Mary Eleanor Bowes has just finished her newest book, How to Create the Perfect Wife:

This is the story of how Thomas Day, a young man of means, decided he could never marry a woman with brains, spirit or fortune. Instead, he adopted two orphan girls from a Foundling Hospital, and set about educating them to become the meek, docile women he considered marriage material.
Unsurprisingly, Day's marriage plans did not run smoothly. Having returned one orphan early on, his girl of choice, Sabrina Sidney, would also fall foul of the experiment. From then on, she led a difficult life, inhabiting a curious half-world - an ex-orphan, and not quite a ward; a governess, and not quite a fiancée. But Sabrina also ended up figuring in the life of scientists and luminaries as disparate as Erasmus Darwin and Joseph Priestley, as well as that pioneering generation of women writers who included Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth and Anna Seward.

In HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT WIFE, Wendy has found a story that echoes her concerns about women's historic powerlessness, and captures a moment when ideas of human development and childraising underwent radical change.

That Thomas Day sounds like a real catch, doesn't he?
Anyone who would like a chance to win a hardcover copy of How to Create the Perfect Wife only needs to leave a comment on this post by May 8.  Winners shall be announced the following day.  Good luck!

The Small(ish) Print:
This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses in North America and Europe. The winner will be drawn at random and is responsible for emailing me back within the week with their mailing address so don't forget to check back!

Lady Hamilton's Attitudes

During the height of Emma Hamilton's celebrity, English visitors touring Italy would make sure to stop at the Hamilton homestead to check out her 'attitudes.'  Emma would pose in the classical positions (or attitudes) found on Greek vases, much to the delight of all who saw.  These were witnessed and drawn by many great artists of the time.  One particularly enterprising artist, Fredrich Rehberg, drew Emma's attitudes and made them into a collection of prints so that the poor souls who couldn't afford to see this tourist draw could relive it every day in book form.  Rehberg called this book, Drawings faithfully copied from nature at Naples : and with permission dedicated to the Right Honourable Sir William Hamilton, His Britannic Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at the court of Naples / by his most humble servant Frederick Rehberg, historical painter in His Prussian Majesty’s service at Rome.  What a mouthful.

However, poor Emma, like many celebrities today, struggled with weight issues (among other things).   Unlike celebrities today, there was no strict workout regime for Emma to undergo to maintain her slim figure.  Emma grew bigger, but that didn't stop her from receiving visitors and displaying her attitudes.   It wasn't long before this caught the eye of satirical artists back in London.  In 1807 a new version of the book came out under the title, A new edition considerably enlarged, of Attitudes faithfully copied from nature : and humbly dedicated to all admirers of the grand and sublime.  Although a characterization, the satirical artist's (probably Gillray) prints were fairly accurate: Emma was obese by 1807 due to years of food and alcohol abuse.  But with that said, I must say that I much prefer the satirical version of Emma's attitudes!

The New Phaeton

As women's hair grew bigger and bigger in the the 1770s, many satires honed in on the comedy of these women actually getting to their fashionable events that required such sartorial extravagance.  The New Fashioned Phaeton (1776) was one print which had a suggestion for how society could accommodate such fabulosity.

On the Duchess of Gordon

'She looks as fierce as a dragon and contents herself with spending her breath upon politics, and ringing a daily peal in the ears of her poor husband, with whom, Lord William says, she squabbles more than ever.'

-Lady Louisa Stuart