Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England

367 Pages·2009·2.13 MB·English

Praise for
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
‘In history … the study of homes and home life has undergone a revolution in
the past few decades. One of the leading figures in that revolution is Amanda
Vickery. Who can resist a book that describes one diarist as a confirmed
grumbletonian. One would have to be a confirmed grumbletonian indeed not to
find enlightenment – and pleasure – on every page of this book.’
Judith Flanders, Sunday Telegraph

‘Vickery's prose is a model of its kind: as elegant and as bracing as a brisk rub-
down in a gilt bath with carbolic soap. Some of the considerable achievements of
this important book are Vickery's sheer mastery of the sources, the originality of
her materials and methodology, and the provocations contained in her seductive
prose.’
Helen Berry, University of Newcastle, Institute of Historical Research, Reviews
in History

‘Vickery's great skill lies in combining a sharp forensic eye with the ability to
spot and tell stories, moving between different scales so smoothly that you can't
see the joins. And then there is the wit of the thing. Few academic historians
manage to be so funny without compromising the seriousness of their work. She
did it 10 years ago in The Gentleman's Daughter and she has done it again here.
It was worth the wait.’
Kathryn Hughes, Guardian

‘Men and women were both under the illusion that they were in charge of the
Georgian home. Amanda Vickery makes a delightful study of these roles and
homes and draws from a huge range of period sources as she delves into the
lives both of the rich and of the everyday Georgian.’
Nicola Sanders, House and Garden

‘[Vickery] describes Enlightenment domesticity and the growth of elegant taste
with wonderful aplomb and infectious enthusiasm … [Behind Closed Doors] is
especially gorgeous in unusual and telling illustrations.’
Christina Hardyment, History Today

‘What Vickery illuminates, often brilliantly, always entertainingly and through a
myriad of examples from many different people, are the ways in which family
and gender relations were played out in Georgian England.’
Stella Tillyard, Times Literary Supplement

‘Professor Vickery is a thorough and disciplined academic who has trawled
through many often obscure archives and tapped unusual or long neglected
reservoirs of information. But not for a moment is she overwhelmed by the
mighty volume of her research. She weaves it all into a compelling narrative
packed with anecdote, strange characters and all manner of weird and wonderful
details about Georgian home life.’
Dan Cruickshank, Country Life

‘Comparison between Vickery and Jane Austen is irresistible. In a sense, this is
history on the scale of the famous square of ivory on which Austen claimed the
ideal novel should be created: graceful, delicate, sparkling with sprezzatura.
As with Austen's novels, though, Vickery's research into the landscapes of
Georgian domestic politics reveals a great deal more than embroidery going on
in the drawing-room. … This book is almost too pleasurable, in that Vickery's
style and delicious nosiness conceal some seriously weighty scholarship.'
Lisa Hilton, Independent
‘[Vickery] opens resolutely shut doors and peeps into the private lives of
servants, aristocrats and the “polite and middling sorts” … Ms. Vickery's
greatest achievement is to upend the notion that the home was divided into
separate spheres in which men were responsible for brick and stone while
women ruled over domestic life … Few writers have such a talent for
transforming the driest historical source into a gripping narrative.’
Andrea Wulf, International Herald Tribune

‘In supple, elegant prose [Vickery] repeatedly shows that domestic routines and
choices were intertwined with political and public participation. Home life could
be content or cruel, run smoothly or lurch through disasters, but it was the
perennial obsession of every Georgian man and woman. A book full of
fascinating discoveries – and radically important conclusions.’
Kate Williams, ‘Historians' Favourites’, History Today

For Hester, Rosamond and Dinah
PUBLISHED WITH ASSISTANCE FROM THE
ANNIE BURR LEWIS FUND

Copyright © 2009 by Amanda Vickery
6 8 10 9 7
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by
Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without
written permission from the publishers.

Designed by Sarah Faulks
Printed in Great Britain
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vickery, Amanda.
Behind closed doors: At home in Georgian England / Amanda Vickery. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-15453-5 (cl: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-300-16896-9 (pbk) 1. Households–England–History–
18th century. 2. Great Britain–History–1714–1837. 3. Social status–England–History–18th century. 4. Sex
role–England–History–18th century. 5. Social contro–England–History–18th century. 6. Material culture–
Great Britain–History–18th century. 7. England–Social conditions–18th century. I. Title.

HQ615.v53 2009
306.810942'09033–dc22
2009018592

A catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library
CONTENTS
Praise
Title Page
Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction
1 Thresholds and Boundaries at Home
2 Men Alone
3 Setting up Home
4 His and Hers
5 Rooms at the Top
6 Wallpaper and Taste
7 The Trials of Domestic Dependence
8 A Nest of Comforts
9 What Women Made
10 A Sex in Things?
Conclusion

Notes
Manuscript Collections
Select Bibliography
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would simply not have been possible without the miraculous
generosity of the Leverhulme Trust. Before I tore open the award letter in 2003, I
would never have imagined a historian could be so grateful for the invention of
Sunlight soap. The Leverhulme Research Readership, 2004–7, gave me the time
to take a large project from scratch to completion, and the travel expenses to
truffle about in more than sixty archives, comparing the full English breakfasts
of the great British Bed and Breakfast.
I conceived this project under the umbrella of the AHRC Centre for the Study
of the Domestic Interior, which ran between 2001 and 2006, of which I was an
assistant director. The Centre was a collaboration between three partner
institutions in London – Royal Holloway, University of London, the Royal
College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Its aim was to develop new
histories of the home, its contents and its depiction, staging seventeen
international conferences, symposia and events, the V&A exhibition The
Renaissance at Home, the collection Gender, Taste and Material Culture in
Britain and North America (Yale, 2006) and a free online database,
www.rca.ac.uk/csdi/didb/, an analytical survey of the ways in which the interior
has been represented in text and image since the Renaissance in Europe and
North America. The interdisciplinary encounter that the centre was built on and
pursued in all its activities was a constant challenge to my training in social and
economic history. I certainly had to fight for recognition of the Georgians,
wedged between the glories of Renaissance and the frisson of ‘Modernity’. My
hearty thanks to all the fellows and associates: Marta Ajmar, Jeremy Aynsley,
Helen Clifford, Quintin Colville, Flora Dennis, Jane Hamlett, Karen Harvey,
Ann Matchette, Liz Miller, Giorgio Riello, Carolyn Sargeantson and John Styles.
I am especially grateful to Jane Hamlett who surveyed the advertisements in
Yorkshire newspapers for me, and to Karen Harvey who reviewed a run of the
Ladies Magazine.
I owe most, however, to Hannah Greig. Her intellectual energy, fiendish
competence and (let's be honest) beautiful manners underpinned all the
conferences with which I was involved. But do not be taken in by her company
demeanour; she is a steely critic. It took me twenty-four hours to recover from
her verdict on the first draft of my Introduction: ‘I just don't care for it, Amanda.’
Amidst an array of commitments at the CSDI, she offered me crucial research
assistance, re-connoitring provincial archives in Aylesbury, Bedford,
Birmingham, Chelmsford, Colchester, Doncaster, Hull, Keele and Matlock,
ploughing through inventories in the Borthwick at York and Poor Law records in
Leeds and Wakefield. We have snickered side by side in many a record office
and debriefed over triumphs and disappointments: over sandwiches on stations,
salads in LA and martinis in Manhattan – there have to be some perks, after all.
A supreme pleasure of the Centre and this project has been the hands-on
encounter with museum objects. Although the material turn in historical studies
is gaining popularity, meaningful research depends upon access and the
generosity of curators swamped under their own timetables. Treve Rosomon
took me through English Heritage's wallpaper archive in a garret in Kenwood;
Sarah Medlam squirrelled out ladies' fancy work and shellwork in the V&A
stores; while Lucy Wood unlocked the secrets of English cabinetwork. The great
closets of the textile store at the V&A were opened for me and my students by
Susan North and Clare Browne. Edwina Ehrman has been the soul of intellectual
generosity, both at the Museum of London and now as a curator of textiles and
dress at the V&A.
I must also acknowledge the exemplary service I have received from an army
of archivists in the record offices of England, Wales and Scotland. I have lapped
up the suggestions and research leads of Frances Harris at the British Library,
Elisabeth Fairman at the Yale Center for British Art, Mary Robertson at the
Huntington Library and Maggie Powell at the Lewis Walpole Library. And my
thanks to the trustees of the Bowood Collection for allowing me to quote from
Lady Shelburne's diaries. I am especially grateful to Andrea Wulf for allowing
me access to the Grimes account book.
The work I have done in international archives was made possible by a Helen
Bing Fellowship at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, in 2003
and a fellowship at the Yale Center for British Art in 2008. My heartfelt thanks
to Robert Ritchie of the Huntington and Amy Myers of the British Art Center for
their public support of my projects and the warmth of their hospitality.
Earlier, briefer versions of chapters 1, 4 and 6 have already appeared in print: