In my post I mention what it is like to be trying to write, research and train Rochester all at the same time! He is a full on commitment but like all puppies he does sleep a lot so I do get plenty of time to work. I’ve also found it very relaxing sitting on the floor reading with a warm puppy happily sleeping on my knee. For more on Rochester, check out his blog Puppy with a Purpose!

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

Interest in “big cats” in the UK has been sparked again by the case of  “the wild cat of Woodchester,” a big black cat thought to be the size of a puma which is reported to be attacking deer on the National Trust estate of Woodchester Park in the Cotswolds. (Woodchester Mansion is fabulous for a visit – here is the website and there is a photo below.) The result of DNA tests due this week should prove if this is a cat attack or not. Big cat incidents have been reported for years in the UK and divide opinion. Our last native big cat was the lynx, which died out in medieval times. This is borne out by pieces of linguist evidence; a 7th century lullaby lists the animals killed by a hunter and one of these is the “llewyn,” which is thought to be translated as lynx. A medieval Welsh poem, Pa Gwr, recorded in the Black Book of Carmarthen, also mentions  “cath Palug”, a big cat.

Jump to the 1960s and 1970s and it was both legal and fashionable to keep exotic big cats as pets. However in 1976 the government introduced the Dangerous Wild Animals Act amidst growing concern for public safety and also for the welfare of the animals. Owners were required to get a licence and ensure that the pets were kept in suitable conditions. As a result some big cat owners donated their pets to zoos. Others set them free to fend for themselves in the wild. It is therefore perfectly logical that subsequent reports of big cat activity in the UK could result from these releases. But what about the centuries in between the extinction of the lynx and the appearance of this new wave of big cats and their descendants? How can one explain big cat sightings from this period? Did the aristocrats who brought back antiquities from their travels abroad also return with exotic animals for their menageries which subsequently escaped or were released? Did the travelling circuses lose some of their exotic animals?

In the 1760s the author William Cobbett wrote in his Rural Rides that as a boy he had seen a cat the size of a medium-sized Spaniel dog climb into a hollow elm tree in the grounds of Waverley Abbey in Surrey (website here, another fabulous place to visit). A medium-sized spaniel isn’t very big but Cobbett was later in Canada and saw a lynx there, which he commented was exactly like the cat he had seen at Waverley. Nor was he alone in his sighting. Newspaper reports from the 18th and 19th century also record reports of big cats. One in The Times from 1827 reported that a lynx had been seen in the UK. Another in 1927 reported a lynx trapped by a Scottish farmer. These reports raise the tantalising possiblity that the lynx never completely died out in Britain.

Another mythological explanation is given for the belief in big cats. For centuries there has existed the myth of the Black Dog, so famously explored in Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. This ghostly creature is said to haunt wild moorland and other remote places. Perhaps big cats are the modern successor to the myth of the ghostly black dog. As someone who has seen a big cat myself, many years ago in rural Somerset, I am awaiting the results of the tests from the Wild cat of Woodchester with a great deal of interest. What do you think? Do these “mythical” beasts, whether they are big cats, yetis, the Loch Ness Monster or other mysterious creatures really exist?

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

Dr Johnson himself owned a cat, Hodge (the name is derived from Roger), of whom he was very fond. His biographer Boswell wrote: “I will never forget the indulgence with which Dr Johnson treated his cat, Hodge, for whom he himself used to go out and buy oysters lest the servants, having the trouble, should take a dislike to the poor creature.” Boswell unfortunately had an antipathy towards cats and so had a very unhappy time when he was visiting Johnson and the cat was also in the room. Cats so often spot the person who is uncomfortable with them and then deliberately approach them!

There is a memorial to Hodge, whom Johnson called “a very fine cat indeed” in Gough Square, where Johnson lived for 11 years.

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

The mansion and flower garden at Nuneham Courtenay, eight miles south east of Oxford, was created by the 1^st Earl Harcourt, (1714 – 1777) and his son the 2nd Earl Harcourt (1736 – 1809). There is some very interesting history about the building of the house here. The 2nd Earl was a friend of the French philosopher Rousseau and quite a political radical. He removed the coronets from his coaches and gave away the ancestral paintings. He also employed Capability Brown to enhance the landscape around his house. Between 1778 and 1781 the park was turned into an idealised landscape with a hanging wood, lush meadows and a country view. It was visible from the River Thames and one of the best ways to view the gardens was by boat. The Nuneham Park Fair, which the family established in the gardens during the 1770s was a very popular local event.

The 2^nd Earl’s revolutionary inclinations mellowed into a benign paternalism over the years and he decided to be more egalitarian by opening up his parkland and flower gardens to the public. Two thatched cottages beside a lock on the river at Nuneham Dingle provided refreshments for visitors, including cold meats, tarts, cake and fruit with port, sherry, champagne and bitter ale to drink.

The gardens were open from May to September, much as many stately homes are now, and they proved a popular place to visit. A Visitors’ Book from 1815 – 1825 records the impressions of a number of people. Unfortunately, just as in the present, not all reviewers were kind. There were quite a few students and academics who would make the trip out from Oxford, get “drunk as lords” at the refreshment cottage and then write rude comments or naughty rhymes in the book. One commenter calling himself “David Doggerel” wrote in 1817:

“Well does the dinner and the day agree, the dishes are all cold and so are we.”

Lord and Lady Harcourt did not hold back in responding. Not for them the gracious reply or a discreet ignoring of critical remarks! Offending comments were either erased, torn out of the book, or the Harcourts would retaliate with sarcasm. On one occasion they wrote:

“All ladies and gentlemen who are ambitious to perpetuate their names by inserting them in the book should first learn how to spell them and if possible write legibly so that Lord and Lady Harcourt may at least have the felicity of knowing whom they accommodate.”

There were of course more august visitors as well as the common crowd; In 1780 King George III visited Nuneham, as did the Archduke of Austria. In 1815 Warren Hastings, one time Governor General of India,  visited. So did the Governor of Oxford Castle. These were treated as very special visitors, given a private tour and accommodated at the house. Lord Harcourt still had a respect for rank and consequence!

According to the Visitors’ Book most tourists were fairly local and all arrived by boat from Abingdon and Oxford. As early as 1815, Nuneham was the focus of several “works outings.” An Oxford company, Wyatt’s, arranged a trip for their employees that year. In 1817 the employees of Speakman and Fisher, a tailoring company, came out on a day trip and in 1824 Coles’ Coachmakers paid a call. In 1818 the Berkshire Yeomanry day trip ended in acrimony when the soldiers became very drunk. Other visitors disapprovingly referred to them in the book as “drunken dogs.”

Other entertainment on offer included rowing and fishing on the Thames and in hot summers men would apparently bathe naked in the river! Some visitors commented unfavourably on the gardeners and greenkeepers who, on one occasion, threatened to shoot the ladies for walking on the grass before it had been cut. All in all it sounds as though Nuneham was a very entertaining day out!

Later the landscape park featured in several of the Alice in Wonderland stories by Lewis Carroll.

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

Meanwhile I am blogging at the Word Wenches about a few of my favourite things from the Edwardian era. I’d be thrilled if you dropped by!

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

There is a new contest here on the website with a copy of Lord Greville’s Captive and a cute book of Edwardian paper dolls to be won!

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

The Edwardian period has become very popular again as a result of the success of Downton Abbey. It’s a fascinating period to write about; it has strong parallels with the Regency era but was also a time of huge social, political and economic change. The suffragette movement was claiming headlines with its demand for votes for women. The London underground was being built. Motor cars were first seen on the roads and the advent of the First World War hastened social change with more women taking jobs in order to help the war effort. The introduction of electricity into grand houses made a huge difference to lighting and to the way in which space was used.

The Edwardian style was particularly interesting, both above and below stairs. As in the Victorian era, the footmen were still chosen for their good looks and height and their livery was a mark of the status of the family they served. Housemaids had different uniforms for the morning and the afternoon. Ladies would change their clothes up to five times a day and even aristocratic men had a vast wardrobe of formal and informal clothing and, of course, sporting attire. Fashion was celebrated and fabrics were extremely rich and opulent. Underneath the gown was a lady’s corset, which was designed to draw attention to the bosom, make the waist as small as possible and then push out at the rear. Add in lots of petticoats and it is no wonder that movement was restricted. A new design of corset came in during the period and this was more flexible but still trussed up a woman in laces and hooks.

Many married and titled ladies would take breakfast in bed and follow this with a long and luxurious bath and indulgence in various beauty treatments (always with products from the London shops of course!) Once the underwear had been fastened into place the long process of choosing a suitable gown would begin. The lady’s maid had an important role in helping her mistress choose the appropriate gown for any occasion. Jewellery was seldom worn in the mornings other than plain silver or gold and rings. Interestingly this is a “fashion rule” that I learned from my grandmother who was born in the Edwardian period.

In Dauntsey Park I have my heroine Sally wear designs by Paul Poiret, a French fashion designer whose clothes were considered very cutting edge in the pre-First World War period. Sally is the daughter of a gentleman but because she was left no money and works for a living she is considered “fast.” She is even more scandalous because she runs a night club and she was separated from her husband when he died. When she goes to Dauntsey Park she expects Lady Ottoline, the matriarch of the Kestrel family, very much to disapprove of her.

Jack Kestrel, in contrast, is descended from the ancestral line of the Dukes of Kestrel with an aristocratic lineage going back hundreds of years. But society is changing in the Edwardian period; it is no longer unheard of for the middle classes or even foreigners to marry into the English nobility (there were many American heiresses who entered society at the time) and the First World War also increased social mobility. Jack himself is progressive in his views and is involved in the fledgling aviation industry.

If you would like to read more about the late Victorian/early Edwardian period I have posts on the Ashdown House blog on the role of the servants at Ashdown – here – and on Cornelia Martin, the American heiress who married into the Craven family – here.

To celebrate the launch of Dauntsey Park: the Last Rake in London, I am offering a copy of the book to two commenters on the blog! Just let me know whether you like books set in the Edwardian era.

For the chance to WIN the first three books in the Bluestocking Brides series go to my website contest – there’s also an Amazon voucher on offer because you can never have too many books! Both contests end on Friday 6th and I’ll announce the winners here on the blog!

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

At midnight on New Years Eve the twelve bells ring out to welcome the New Year.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

 Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year!

©2012 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.