The Essence of a Georgian Gentleman

Rochdale Antiques Society welcomed Dr David Allen to speak about ‘The Essence of a Georgian Gentleman’ this month (February).

The middle classes grew during the Georgian period of 1714 onwards and a gentleman of the period was definitively middle class, i.e. rich but not ‘old money’ wealthy or aristocratic.

A prime example was Mr Custance of Weston House, Norfolk. He went to Eton then Cambridge and married a wealthy lady of 18 when he was 30. He had a large family of eight children and a large house in which to show off his possessions. The portraits in the house were designed to demonstrate his wealth and his being a 'providing' husband and father. In fact, all was to show off his affluence and position in society.

He would carry a snuff box made of silver or gold; a vinaigrette to wave under his nose to hide the smell of other people – clothes were very heavy and ornate and would not be washed, so to assist in removing stains and body odour servants would put talc or fullers earth on the items and leave them overnight, brushing the powder off in the morning in the hope that smells and stains would disappear; patch boxes would be given as presents to ladies to enable them to hide the marks of syphilis, which was common, or to use as a beauty spot; tooth pick boxes were taken to dinners and the upper echelons of Georgian society had tooth brushes made from badger hair and set in ivory with a silver handle.

The estate grounds may have had temples or small summer houses to which he would take his guests for light food and they may have had their own tiny cutlery cases for this purpose. Fruit, which was expensive to grow, such as strawberries, raspberries and melons, would be served, but not apples, as they were thought to be dirty due to falling to the ground. The same applied to vegetables, only those which grew above the ground, such as peas, beans, artichokes and asparagus would be served, the servants or lower orders would eat turnips, carrots, etc.

As they only associated with their peers, life in a quiet part of the country such as Norfolk could be very boring so a lot of their time was taken up with eating. They would start dinner at 3pm with, for example, two chickens, a tongue, lamb, two ducks, tarts, blancmange and jellies plus wine all for the first course. Pheasants, oysters, puddings, tarts, hare stew and duck for the second course. All the dishes for each course, both savoury and sweet, were put out on the table at the same time and in specific table settings which everyone there would be familiar with. Hot dishes such as roasts would be placed on a sideboard for guests to help themselves.

The servants didn’t serve these dishes as the Georgians didn’t want them listening to their conversations so the diners served themselves using specially-designed long-handled spoons as the plates weren’t moved once placed. Meals would last four or five hours so they would relax between courses, even withdrawing to a separate room while the servants cleared the dishes and set out the new ones.

This notion of serving sweet and savoury together at each course was called dining “a la Francais”. We dine “a la Russe” i.e. starter, main course (savoury), dessert course, which was introduced by the Victorians. Port wine was drunk with the meal. Fortunately, the glasses were very small because the wine was drunk in one when you took wine with someone at the table or made a toast. They also had white wine, called mountain wine, which was thick and very sweet. Tea was served as well and this would be taken in the best porcelain money could buy, possibly a tea bowl rather than a cup. The sugar bowl, milk jug and tea urn would be of the most elaborate silver – one of the greatest silversmiths was Mr Olefant of Manchester, but as Manchester didn’t have an assay office, all his products had to be assayed in London. This meant scratching a small square on the item to place the assay mark, hence the saying of an item being 'up to scratch'.

The next meeting of the Society will be Wednesday 11 March at 7.30 at St Vincent’s Hall, Caldershaw Road, Norden, Rochdale OL12 7QL. The speaker will be Barry Corbett on Pilkington Lancastrian Tiles and Pottery.