Hello it's Ruby and today I will be following a Victorian Evening Routine.
This evening routine starts in the late afternoon, at about 4:30pm, when a woman might be coming
back from a day out. She might have been visiting friends and leaving calling cards, taking
tea, or shopping.
One day a week, however, a lady would stay at home so she could receive visitors. These
visitations would be announced by a calling card, last just thirty minutes and bonnets
and shawls would stay on the entire time!
Once back home, she would take off her bonnet and outerwear. Victorian women would change
multiple times a day, into tea dresses, morning dresses, Sunday best, summer dresses. Cynthia
Asquith wrote that “a large fraction of our time was spent in changing our clothes”.
Magazines like *Myra’s Journal of Dress and Fashion* advised women on what to wear
to dinner parties and public occasions; however, there is surprisingly little advice on what
to wear for dinner at home. So she might have changed or just stayed in her day dress.
She would also change into slippers when walking around the house. I don't have beautiful embroidered
slippers like the one on the screen, but these are the ones X has...
Dinner was really quite early — 5pm for "fashionable middle and upper class families"
according to Ruth Goodman. I decided to go all out and put together a typical middle
class dinner this evening, and it was actually such hard work. I can't believe how much went
into just one meal.
There would be three courses, and the table would be set with candlesticks, fresh flowers
and salt and pepper shakers. I set up the dishes as Goodman describes but without bread
rolls, I'm afraid, which would usually have been placed on the napkins.
They would start with soup of course. I followed a pea soup recipe from Mrs Beeton (see below)
and the woman of the house would be the one to fill the soup plates from the bowl on the
table. An attendant would hand these out to the rest of the family (though we didn't have
an attendant so my mum just handed these out).
When they were finished eating, they would ring a bell on the table so the plates could
be taken away. But of course, again, we didn't actually do this!
Next, it's main course which would be meat, potatoes and a vegetable. I made a nut roast
instead of meat because I'm vegan — and my dad cut and served this since the man of
the house would cut the meat.
The potatoes and vegetables would be served in turreens. As you can see, the table is
also set in the A La Francious style, meaning everything (apart from dessert) is laid out
on the table at once.
Then, for dessert, we had pancakes which was a classic dessert according to Mrs Beeton.
These were traditionally served with jam or lemon and sugar and rolled up.
After dinner, it is time for family leisure. The men of the house might join, but it was
often just the women. This was an important part of the day, especially if you had children.
Mrs Beeton writes that "Where there are young people forming a part of the evening circle,
interesting and agreeable pastime should especially be promoted because "if they do not find pleasure
there [at home], they will seek it elsewhere". She said that a mother should "make her children
feel that home is the happiest place in the world".
Mrs Beeton recommends women doing needlework or chess/backgammon. Reading was also popular.
She says that "nothing is more delightful to the feminine members of a family, than
the reading aloud of some good standard work or amusing publication". One woman might read
aloud from a novel to the rest of the party. They would also be expected to pause and explain
parts of what they had just read and reflect on "the wisdom and beauties it may contain".
I actually really like this. It's so much more sociable than just watching a film and
I can imagine it would really bring a family together if they were, say, reading the weekly
instalments of a Dickens novel together as they came out.
After retiring for bed, an attendant might help the woman undress and get ready for bed.
The clothes would be left out to be put away by the lady's maid in the morning. I took
my hair down from a bun (which was a fashionable style for much of the period — whether low,
high or middle) and spent five minutes brushing my hair. This was actually quite relaxing
but overkill, I would say. They would brush their hair for a long time because it was
thought that it would spread the natural oils around the hair and keep it clean.
I didn't follow Victorian skincare treatment for obvious reasons but I wanted to tell you
about it anyway [show clip of me putting on face cream]. To keep the face fresh, she advises
coating the face with opium overnight, followed by a brisk wash of ammonia in the morning.
For the woman with sparse eyebrows and eyelashes, mercury was often recommended as a nightly
eye treatment, eradicating the need to use heavy makeup. “The look of the consumptive
was very desirable: the woman with the watery eyes and pale skin, which of course was from
the cadaver in the throes of death,” says Karl.
You also probably know that many women would curl their hair with rags and I tried to do
this but failed miserably. I think I need to work on this a little bit. I couldn't get
the rags to stay in place and some of them snapped. I might have to film a video another
time about this once I've actually cracked it, because I love the idea of doing this
every night.
Once ready, she would get into bed and go to sleep. Pretend my hair is tied in rags
here, by the way. The candlestick or oil lamp would be put out and the window would be left
open to improve ventilation because Dr Henry Chavesse said it was "madness to sleep in
a room without ventilation" because of Dr Arnott's concerns about carbon dioxide building
up when spaces weren't ventilated.