A Season Lost

by Sophie Turner

Gothick

  Not to be confused with the more standard Gothic and Neo-Gothic (the latter highly popular in the Victorian era), this was a specific style of architecture popular during the Regency. It featured the use of heavy crenellation.

  Watercress

  William Bradbery began commercial cultivation of watercress along the River Ebbsfleet in 1808. The idea that it might have been used as a crop for water-logged fields during this time is entirely conjecture, and thus while Bradbery’s directions for its planting are accurate, the indication that he charged quite a lot for it is fictional conjecture.

  Scarlet Fever

  It is strange to think of someone dying from a disease I actually had as a child, and one that stems from a fairly common malady these days: strep throat. Scarlet fever is an infection that a small number of people with throat infections from the streptococcus bacteria experience; it can also stem from a streptococcus skin infection, which is what Mr. Collins would have had (they are awful-looking, and only to be googled by those with stout constitutions).

  In this pre-antibiotics world, scarlet fever could easily prove fatal. Unbeknownst to the Darcys, however, it’s uncommon under two years of age because babies get some immunity from their mothers, which means the twins were likely more at risk from having a surgeon decide to lance their gums (which was done at that time for teething) than from scarlet fever.

  As to the Darcys’s self-established quarantine, the novel Frankenstein, conceived during this Year Without a Summer and published in 1818, indicates a clear understanding among the characters that scarlet fever can be caught from close proximity to someone suffering from it.

  Quack

  Referring to someone as a quack physician may sound anachronistic, but it is a word Jane Austen used herself in letters.

  Blue Mass

  Blue mass or blue pill was commonly prescribed at the time, which is unfortunate, as mercury was one of the primary ingredients. Anne de Bourgh, therefore, has been suffering under the long-term effects of mercury poisoning, which comes with a wide range of symptoms including muscle weakness, memory loss, and difficulty hearing, seeing, and speaking. And therefore what may or may not have begun as legitimate illness for Anne has resulted in extended ill health because the “cure” was poisoning her. There was no such thing as chelation therapy at the time, but simply halting taking the pill would have begun to bring improvements.

  As to whether Anne could have taken the pill for such an extended period of time without dying or permanent damage, the most famous person known to take blue mass was Abraham Lincoln, who accomplished quite a lot in spite of it. And, of course, blue mass was not what killed him.

  The Rosings Inheritance

  The original novel is vague about who inherits Rosings, and I believe because of the command she holds over the place, many have chosen to interpret that it was Lady Catherine who inherited the estate, to pass it on to her daughter. However, it would have been exceedingly abnormal for this to be the case. In some instances, widows were granted a life interest in a property, but this was usually when there were no children of a union; after the life interest was extinguished by the death of the widow, a distant relation would then inherit.

  In this case, however, Sir Lewis de Bourgh did have a child, and it is most likely that she would have inherited the estate immediately upon his death, with her mother granted some sort of jointure (an annual income from the estate’s returns set aside for the widow). Lady Catherine’s apparent running of the house, therefore, is due to her domineering personality, which takes over in lieu of her sickly daughter; she has insinuated herself into control of what is in truth her daughter’s property.

  Margate and Matlock

  As I found an excellent source in John Feltham’s Guide to all the Watering and Sea-bathing Places, details of Margate, including the York Hotel and the cost of Anne’s baths, were accurate as I could make them based on Feltham’s details.

  Details of Matlock have been similarly based on Feltham’s and other historical sources, including Miss Millns’s Repository and Circulating Library. A consortium of local gentry did own the hotels there, and I have inserted Darcy among them.

  Women Aboard Naval Ships

  It was not common for naval captains’ wives to live aboard ship, but it did happen, and there was an example within Jane Austen’s family: her brother, Charles, had his family living with him on board his ship (Jane wrote of worry about her niece’s seasickness). The captain in question would have to get permission either from the Admiralty or his Admiral, which we may presume Captain Stanton did.

  Warrant officers like Mr. Travis commonly had their wives living with them on board ship, while seamen had to get their captains’ permission to bring a woman on a voyage (many, like Captain Stanton, required them to be some sort of relation). Seamen bringing a woman on a voyage would have to share their space (their cot) and their rations with her, so it was no small undertaking for Daniel McClare to bring his new wife with him. Presumably the McClares purchased some supplemental rations on shore, when possible.

  Many ships had a seawater still like the one Clerkwell uses to produce water for the ladies; it was not enough to produce fresh water for an entire ship’s company, but was often used for invalids. This means the ladies on the Caroline had access to some of the cleanest water available in that era, as opposed to that coming from the ship’s iron tanks, which would have had a propensity towards foulness (but was still far better than the old wooden casks, which were beginning to be replaced by iron tanks at this time).

  Georgiana’s pianoforte would certainly have suffered in the salt and dampness it was exposed to, but pianofortes were commonly shipped to the farthest reaches of the British empire, and exposed to such elements while in transit as well as oft-humid climes once there.

  Embassy to China

  The embassy to China was a real mission, in which Lord Amherst did refuse to kow-tow (for this, the period spelling of ko-tou is used), and Murray Maxwell, the captain of the Alceste, engaged Chinese ships and forts in the Pearl River. After leaving China, the frigate wrecked on shoals in the Gaspar Strait and was lost. My deviations from history, then, have largely been to wreck the Alceste much sooner, leaving the Caroline to take over her mission. The action on the Pearl River is generally taken as it truly happened, although Captain Stanton’s actions are less hot-headed than Maxwell’s were. Maxwell threatened to hang the Chinese mandarin who came on his ship from the yardarm, and took him into custody, cutting his boat adrift; Maxwell also went on shore immediately after his trail of destruction, while Captain Stanton stays with his ship; and Maxwell met the embassy on land as they returned. I would be remiss in noting that this action was an early step in one of the darker marks on British imperial history, in its relations with China regarding the opium trade. This is one reason why I have kept close to the historical record; this history happened, and its alteration might result in more substantial repercussions than I am able to comprehend or write. Yet I think it also shows that sometimes good people can do things for good reasons, without understanding what these things may be precursors to.

  The embassy was supposed to go to Bombay after China, but following the shipwreck they proceeded home on an Indiaman and did indeed stop at St. Helena and have an interview with Napoleon (Matthew’s description comes from a first-hand account of that meeting). The shipwreck itself is compelling history, but I shall leave readers to investigate themselves or to read Patrick O’Brian’s fictionalised version in The Nutmeg of Consolation. And yes, as the O’Brian reference indicates, I am not the first to dip my pen into this ink, which is another reason why I have sailed close to the historical record; in this series, the embassy serves more as a backdrop for the Stantons’s storyline, rather than a driver of the plot.

  I was fortunate that both Sir Henry Ellis and John McLeod (the surgeon of the Alceste) published first-hand accounts of the voyage, and I have taken from them liberally where applicable. Clarke Abel and Basil
Hall also published accounts, but as such accounts are quite dense, I spared myself of reading those as well. As the name Ellis indicates (much later in life, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath), I have, for simplicity’s sake, retained the names of most of the embassy, as their roles are minor and benign. The real Mr. Abel, however, has been replaced by Mr. Akers, as his role is less benign when it comes to Georgiana’s birth. Additionally, although neither account indicates the page, The Honourable Jeffrey Amherst, is Lord Amherst’s son, I have presumed he could be no one else (he seems to have been a first son but died, as Amherst’s only surviving and second son, William, was who succeeded him in his title, by then an earldom).

  Commodore in the Royal Navy was a temporary rank at the time, given to a man of the rank of captain who had command of a squadron. Although modern references list Captain Sir Murray Maxwell by this title (Maxwell was knighted following the embassy), McLeod’s account refers to a commodore, and this could only have been Maxwell, so I have done the same for Captain Stanton in his command of the little squadron.

  Embassador, rather than Ambassador, was the spelling used in historic accounts, and I have decided to keep the period word; presumably at some later time the spelling deviated from “embassy.” Similarly, I have used period spellings for Corea rather than Korea; Wampoa rather than Whampoa; cocoanut rather than coconut. And other places have used their British names at the time rather than their current names, the most notable example of which is Bombay rather than Mumbai.

  Grand Lewchew is what is now known as Okinawa. Georgiana’s experiences on Lewchew are based on those of the boatswain’s wife of the Alceste, who travelled on the voyage and was one of, if not the first, European women to see the Great Wall in China. They have, however, been adjusted in places to suit the needs of fiction.

  Bombay/Mumbai in this time was comprised of a series of islands, of which Parel was one. After the governor moved his mansion there, it became one of the more affluent areas of the city. It remains a neighbourhood in the present city.

  Captain Maxwell was knighted for his efforts both on the Pearl River and in the subsequent shipwreck. Given Captain Sir Matthew Stanton has already earned a baronetcy and must retain a degree of popularity for such, I thought the Order of the Bath an appropriate reward.

  The first-hand accounts I used are Journal Of The Proceedings Of The Late Embassy To China; Comprising A Correct Narrative Of The Public Transactions Of The Embassy, Of The Voyage To And From China, And Of The Journey From The Mouth Of The Pei Ho To The Return To Canton by Henry Ellis and Narrative of a Voyage, in His Majesty’s Late Ship Alceste, to the Yellow Sea, Along the Coast of Corea and Through its Numerous Hitherto Undiscovered Islands, to the Island of Lewchew; with an Account of Her Shipwreck in the Straits of Gaspar by John McLeod.

  The Slave Trade and Racism

  Enforcement of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain (passed in 1807) began as soon as 1808, but once at peace with France, Britain was able to turn more attention and resources to stopping the slave trade, although the Caroline’s part in this is due to a chance encounter rather than an assigned mission. As Captain Stanton notes, slave ships would have been one of few lawful prizes left upon the ocean, although the saving of those on board was obviously of greater moral importance.

  Those bound for slavery were treated heartlessly in even the best of conditions, and the slave ship’s “starting” (dumping overboard so as to lighten the ship and increase their speed) their water was in keeping with the horrific reality of the time. J.M.W. Turner’s “The Slave Ship,” originally titled “Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon coming on,” captures this poignantly.

  Freetown, in Sierra Leone, served as the headquarters for the Royal Navy’s West African Squadron at this time, and slaves from ships captured by the navy were released there. Thus, the governor would have been used to prize crews bringing in slaves to be freed, although I must presume most did not come with funds to aid in their reestablishment.

  As an author’s confession, I debated keeping the slave ship’s capture within the story. It does little to advance the plot beyond providing a convenient way to lose Lieutenant Holmes; and a more substantial naval action in terms of firepower comes on the Pearl River. Georgiana is not in a position to do anything about the horrors she observes through the course of the story, save provide aid to those who are rescued. And yet it seemed wrong to have the Caroline journey around the world without at least touching on slavery, even if it could be but a minor subplot within a very long novel.

  Similarly, while modern readers can surely recognise and loathe the racism inherent in Harold Stanton’s statement about “little brown ‘uns,” I felt it in keeping with the time and important to show the casual racism inherent then. Harold Stanton is well aware of the scandal it would cause for mixed race children of a union with a wife who was moreover illegitimate to come in line for the earldom.

  Also a word that would be considered a slur today, but would have been common at the time is the use of “Papist” to refer to a Catholic.

  Books I found useful in gaining more background on slavery during this time are Consuming Anxieties: Consumer Protest, Gender & British Slavery, 1713-1833 by Charlotte Sussman and The Slave Trade, by Nigel Sadler.

  Other Naval Matters

  In this era of the growing global British empire, coin needed to be transported to its outposts, and this was done by naval ships, which would have been the best method to do so securely. This is what Captain Stanton means in the reference to his assignment to carry coin.

  Admiral Penrose and Captain Bazeley were real people, who were in these positions at Gibraltar during this time.

  The reference to the situation in Algiers refers to the bombardment of Algiers, an attempt by Britain and the Netherlands to end the Dey of Algiers’s slavery practises.

  Midshipmen and master’s mates like Mr. Grant were generally at the mercy of captains agreeing to take them on, not centrally assigned by the Admiralty. In Grant’s case because he has passed for lieutenant, the Admiralty could have promoted him to that position and then assigned him (lieutenants, commanders, captains, and admirals did have their assignments set by that body), but although he has passed the test he has not been given the rank, and therefore is still at the lower rank. This need of “interest” in their favour explains why the Royal Navy was not entirely merit-based, in terms of promotion. Less worthy men with political connexions could be promoted, and although sometimes very skilled seamen could cross over to become midshipmen and therefore work their way up to become captains, this had become less common by this time. Young men were expected to “pass for gentlemen” as well as for lieutenant. This explains why Captain Stanton was able to work his way up the ranks more quickly than Grant, Campbell, or even Captain Ramsey, because he has a strong political connection in his uncle.

  Readers may or may not recall from the first novel that carronades were shorter, fatter guns that threw a heavier weight of shot than the traditional long guns. While deadlier at short range, they were not as accurate.

  The Royal Marines served as a sort of amphibious assault force when the navy had action ashore. During a sea-based battle they would fire swivel guns and muskets at the enemy ship. On a daily basis, they served as a sort of police force for the captain, guarding his cabin and assisting in matters such as those shown in the story.

  Bilboes were iron cuffs for the legs attached to a bar that would have been fixed to the ship’s deck. They were used for confining men before punishment.

  The bulkheads that made up the captain’s cabins were not fixed, as the cabins were part of the gun-deck and would have housed guns. When the ship cleared for action as is described, then, the bulkheads would be removed, and all of the furniture taken down to the hold so that the ship had a “clean sweep, fore and aft,” and all of the guns could be worked in battle.

  Ship’s carpenters were warrant officers and were permanently assigned
to one ship as long as that ship remained in the navy. In a time of war, Taylor might have had good expectation of achieving a warrant to remain as carpenter of HMS Caroline, but during peacetime more ships would have been sold out of the service, leaving existing carpenters with warrants in need of new ships.

  HMS Victory was, at this time, serving as a prison ship in Portsmouth Harbour, which Matthew just manages to leave out; most of the rest of her active life following 1812 was for some manner of harbour duty, but she just escaped being scrapped or sinking at her moorings several times until restoration work began in 1922 as part of a “Save the Victory” campaign.

  Portsmouth Point was also known as “Spice Island,” and was a popular destination for sailors on leave, filled with taverns and brothels. The “Spice Island woman” Georgiana refers to would have worked in the latter, if she was tied to an establishment at all.

  Books I found useful in recreating shipboard life and writing about other naval matters include: Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail, by Suzanne J. Stark; Hen Frigates, by Joan Druett; Jack Tar: The Extraordinary Lives of Ordinary Seamen in Nelson’s Navy, by Roy A. Adkins; Broke of the Shannon and the War of 1812 by Tim Voelcker; and Broke And The Shannon, by Peter Padfield.

  Georgiana’s Taking Part in Shooting

  While not necessarily commonplace, women of a high enough standing did shoot, albeit presumably more often as part of hunting parties. Irene Collins writes that Jane Austen herself participated at the occasional shooting party and was a bad shot.