A Marchioness Below Stairs
Page 20
The Quaker Elizabeth Heyrick wrote leaflets and lobbied, and her actions pushed mainstream abolitionists into a more radical strategy.
Women, who at the time did not have the vote or political power of any kind, decided, instead, to write, and they adopted lobbying tactics which mobilised public opinion. They organised boycotts of slave-grown sugar, arranged visits to shops and households, and organised mass petitions.
Before the slave trade became illegal in Britain, British slave traders exported millions of African slaves in the Triangular Trade between Africa, the New World and Europe.
Sources:
http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery_113.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/slavery-how-womens-key-role-in-abolition-has-yet-to-receive-the-attention-it-deserves-10467431.html
Indian food and the First Indian Take-aways in Regency London
The first appearance of curry on a menu was at the Norris Street Coffee House, Haymarket, London, in 1773. By 1784 curry and rice had become house specialties in some of the most fashionable restaurants in London’s Piccadilly.
The Hindoostane Coffee house was Britain’s first dedicated Indian restaurant, opened by an Indian migrant by the name of Sake Dean Mahomed.
Mr Mahomed served “Indianised” British foods which would appeal to the Indian aristocracy in London, and to the British who had returned from India.
His restaurant also had a home-delivery service, as outlined in the following advertorial:
Sake Dean Mahomed, manufacturer of the real currie powder, takes the earliest opportunity to inform the nobility and gentry, that he has, under the patronage of the first men of quality who have resided in India, established at his house, 34 George Street, Portman-Square, the Hindoostane Dinner and Hooka Smoking Club. Apartments are fitted up for their entertainment in the Eastern style, where dinners, composed of genuine Hindoostane dishes, are served up at the shortest notice.
Such ladies and gentlemen as may be desirous of having India Dinners dressed and sent to their own houses will be punctually attended to by giving previous notice.
According to the Muslim Museum Initiative website, there were other restaurants serving Indian food before Mr Mahomed’s Hindoostane Coffee House, but his was the first to be run by an Indian. However, within three years, Mr Mahomed applied for bankruptcy. The restaurant carried on until 1833, under the management of Mr Mahomed’s former partner John Spencer.
Sources:
Star of India: The Spicy Adventures of Curry by Jo Monroe
https://londonist.com/2016/06/the-story-of-london-s-first-indian-restaurant
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4290124.stm
http://coldnoon.com/sake-dean-mahomeds-first-indian-home-delivery-and-takeaway-restaurant-in-britain/
The Frost Fair of 1814
The Frost Fair of 1814 began in London on 1st February, and lasted four days. An elephant was led across the river below Blackfriars Bridge. George Davis, a printer, published a 124-page book called Frostiana; or a History of the River Thames in a Frozen State. The entire book was type-set and printed in Davis’s printing stall, which had been set up on the frozen Thames. This was the last of the famous Frost Fairs which took place during the Little Ice Age, roughly between 1350 -1850.
As the climate grew milder, the replacement of the old London Bridge in 1831 with a new bridge with wider arches, allowed the tide to flow more freely, and the embanking of stages of the river in the 19th century prevented the river from freezing over again as it did in 1814.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Thames_frost_fairs
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25862141
Readers who have read Lord Fenmore’s Wager, the prequel to A Marchioness Below Stairs.
Credits
Editor: Romy Sommer
Cover Designer: Melody Simmons
About the Author
Alissa Baxter wrote her first Regency romance, The Dashing Debutante, during her long university holidays. After traveling the world, she settled down to write her second Regency romance, Lord Fenmore’s Wager, which was inspired by her time living on a country estate in England. Also the author of two contemporary romances, Send and Receive and The Blog Affair, Alissa currently lives in Johannesburg with her husband and two sons. To find out more about Alissa’s books, sign up for her newsletter at www.alissabaxter.com.
Copyright © 2017 by Alissa Baxter
Electronically published in 2017 by Belgrave House
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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.