Basic Etiquette
1. In riding horseback or walking along the street, the lady always has the wall.
2. Meeting a lady in the street or in the park whom you know only slightly, you wait for her acknowledging bow-then and only then may you tip your hat to her, which is done using the hand farthest away from her to raise the hat. You do not speak to her-or to any other lady-unless she speaks to you first.
3. If you meet a lady who is a good friend and who signifies that she wishes to talk to you, you turn and walk her if you wish to converse. It is not "done" to make a lady stand talking in a street.
4. In going up a flight of stairs, you precede the lady (running according to one authority); in going down, you follow.
5. In a carriage, a gentlemen takes the seat facing backward. If he is alone in a carriage with a lady, he does not sit next to her unless he is her husband, brother, father, or son. He alights from the carriage first so he may hand her down. He takes care not to step on her dress.
6. At a public exhibition or concert, if accompanied by a lady, he goes in first in order to find her a seat. If he enters such an exhibition alone and there are ladies or older gentlemen present he removes his hat.
7. A gentleman is always introduced to a lady-never the other way around. It is presumed to be an honor for the gentleman to meet her. Likewise (and it is the more general rule of which this is only a specific example), a social inferior is always introduced to a superior-and only with the latter's acquiescence.
8. A gentleman never smokes in the presence of ladies.
Her rules of conduct are perhaps simpler.
1. If unmarried and under thirty, she is never to be in the company of a man without a chaperone. Except for a walk to church or a park in the early morning, she may not walk alone but should always be accompanied by another lady, a man, or a servant. An even more restrictive view is that "if she cannot walk with her young sisters and their governess, or the maid cannot be spared to walk with her, she had better stay at home of confine herself to the square garden."
2. Under no circumstances may a lady call on a gentleman alone unless she is consulting that gentleman on a professional or business matter
3. A lady does not wear pearls or diamonds in the morning.
4. A lady never dances more than three dances with the same partner.
5. A lady should never "cut" someone, that is to say, fail to acknowledge their presence after encountering them socially, unless it is absolutely necessary.
Taken from the book: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
Fashions in the 1800's
bustle: a crescent-shaped, wool-stuffed pad or a tier of stiff frills, worn in the back of a dress to plump out the rump.
chemise: a very long shirt, worn with knee-length stockings, under dresses and petticoats. Also commonly worn as a nightshirt throughout the century.
chemisette: white edging around the top of a low-necked bodice. Also known as a tucker.
chesterfield: a large overcoat or topcoat with a velvet collar and several pockets; widely popular men's fashion from 1840s on.
crinoline: a dome, funnel or pyramidal-shaped understructure made of whalebone or spring hoops used to distend or widen skirts to as large as 18 feet in circumference. Also, the skirt itself, which was often hitched up to show a scarlet petticoat beneath. Also, a stiff horsehair fabric used to stiffen or line skirts. The crinoline, also known as the hoop skirt, was widely popular from midcentury on but gradually shrank in size until it faded from fashion in the 1870s.
jacket bodice: a full-sleeved, form-fitting jacket spreading out over the waist, popular with women from about 1847 on.
princess dress: a dress having a tuniclike bodice extending down to serve as an oberskirt, popular in the 1870s.
sack suit: a long, loose-fitting, boxy coat worn with loose pants and waistcoat. The waistcoat could be striped satin, flowered brocade, paisley or plain and matching.
From 1859 on
shawls: widely popular forms included Indian, paisley, embroidered, etc., of silk, wool, cotton, lace or chiffon. Worn throughout the century.
beaver tail: a broad, flat loop of hair hung over the nape of the neck, from 1865.
chignon: a knot or roll of hair worn at the back of the head and sometimes ornamented with lace, ribbons or flowers or taken up in a gold or silver net, very popular throughout the 1860s, but worn throughout the century.
marion bandelette: a waved front of hair, with pincurls on either side of the head, in vogue in the early 1880s.
Mens Hairstyles in 1865-1890: side and middle parts with shorter hair than in the previous period. The parts extended all the way from the front of the head to the nape of the neck during the 1870s, to the crown only during the 1880s. Pompadours were worn by some men. Muttonchops and beards under the chin were in vogue. Moustaches were frequently worn with beards during the 1880s, but a long, drooping moustache sans beard was also popular at this time. Clean-shaven faces started a comeback in 1889.
Womens Hairstyles in 1865-1890: bun or chignon moved up on head, front hair carried back without parts. In the 1870s, hair in back was allowed to cascade down long and full, sometimes in ringlets, sometimes in huge loops. Pompadours were worn at the end of the 1880s. Hair ornaments were used throughout the period.
Health and medicine
consumption: (what Jeremy's mother has) the commonly used name for the lung-destroying disease of tuberculosis, one of the most frequent causes of death throughout the century. Entire families sometimes succumbed to it after unknowingly passing the disease among themselves. It was apread through the air or by spitting or by a break in the skin. It could incubate for long periods of time and then errupt into weakness, fatigue, and the "wasting away" that characterized true consumption. The latter stages of the disease were often accompanied by a sudden burst of energy, glittering eyes, and a mania that sometimes produced a frenzied outpouring of creative work. The true nature of the disease was unknown until Robert Koch discovered the tubercle bacillus in 1882.
morphine: first used extensively during the Civil War to control the pain of the wounded. Morphine was also found in Winslow's Baby Syrup and Kopp's Baby Friend, medicins used to lull a child to sleep, with addictive side effects that sometimes lasted a lifetime.
opium: used to help control mild pain through much of the century. It was abused as a recreational drug from as early as 1840. In 1868, it was estimated that at least 100,000 people from all stations of life were addidicted to the drug, which was openly sold in drugstores in pill form or as is.
Amusements
burlesque: heralded in by the Broadway production of The Black Crook, which featured fifty skimpily-clad dancing girls in 1866. The show ran for 474 performances and was followed by British Blondes, which played around the country for twenty years.
chuck-a-luck: a game in which players bet on which numbers would come up on three thrown dice.
croquet: introduced to the United States from England in 1860 and gaining wide popularity among men and women after the Civil War.
drinking: widely indulged in at home when entertaining, at frolics, at huskings, taverns, dances and weddings. Hard cider was the favorite drink of the North for the first half of the century, while corn liquir and other forms of alcohol reigned in the South. Although both sexes indulged, drunkenness was considered shameful for a woman but not for a man. Consequently, the taverns and saloons were always dominated by men. Temperance movements managed to reduce consumption of alcohol somewhat at various periods throughout the century.
gambling halls: hugely popular in cities and towns throughtout America.1876: There are a great variety of games; roulette, faro, poker, and keno are most popular. There are extravagently decorated salons furnished with every luxury, and low filthy dives. The former make a pleasant impression - nothing unsavory on the surface that might frighten away the high-strung pleasure-seekers. There are rooms furnished with every comfort; thick carpets, marble tables, alabaster figurines, gilded mirrors, soft chairs, and velvet drapes...embellish the first-class playing rooms. The buffet is amply equipped; a drink of brandy or claret costs as little as the food. Some of these places are not public, but charge an admission fee for which food and liquor are supplied. In most of the better-class establishments there is a secret device for opening the door, but it is not to difficult to gain an entree. (E.O. Hopp, excerpted in This Was America)
horse racing: popular throughout the century.
saloons, taverns, grog shops: widely attended, especially by men, for drinking, gambling, socializing, etc. Early in the century Rochester, NY had a population of only eight thousand yet it boasted having an astonsihing one hundred drinking establishments.
sex: premarital sex, although taboo, was widely practiced from early in the century on. Records show, in fact, that one third of New England brides in the 1790s were already with child when they married - this despite New England's civil statutes against fornication. (Prenuptial pregnancy rates fell from the 1840s on, due to a stronger community focus on chasity and more widespread knowledge of birth control.)
two-step: a lively dance in vogue from 1880 on.
waltz: adopted in the United States from Paris in the 1820s. It was orginally called the valse.
Courtship
coming to call: calling on or visiting one's lover. A variation was keeping company.
give him the mitten: a common, euphemistic phrase meaning to dump or discard one's boyfriend, used throughout much of the century.
Crime
fanning: a pickpocket's term for feeling a mark's clothing for a wallet or pocketbook.
hook: in a picketpocketing scheme with one or more accomplices, the one who does the actual stealing.
kick: code word used by pickpockets to communicate which pocket a wallet or money is in.
Horses
appaloosa: a distinct breed noted for its spotted rump.
breaking age: between 3 1/2 and 4 years.
bridle: a sudden whiplashing or raising of the head. Also, the harness fitted around the head.
bridle wise: used to describe a horse that can be prompted to change direction when the rider lays the reins on the side of the neck the rider wishes to go.
caste: a state in which a horse is lying down in its stall and is unable to get up.
curry: to groom a horse with a currycomb.
currycomb: metal-toothed comb for grooming horses.
filly: a young female horse.
foal: a newborn.
gallop: a full run; a three-beat gait, faster than a canter.
gee: traditional command to a horse to turn right or go foward.
haw: traditional horse command to turn left.
livery: boarding and care of horses for pay.
livery man: one who stables and cares for horses for pay.
livery stable: where horses are boarded and tended for a fee.
spooky: said of a nervous horse.
This information is taken from the books: Everyday Life in the 1800's & What Jane Austen Ate & Charles Dickens Knew.
