What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew

by Daniel Pool

  lodge—A house by the gate at the entrance to an estate, often inhabited by someone like a gardener or gamekeeper, who would unlock the gate to let in expected visitors. Depending on the size of the estate, these lodges could be quite a distance from the actual house; in Mansfield Park, we are told the lodge gate is a mile from the house at Sotherton. In addition, lodges for shooting were often built in the woods for people to stay in while they were out pursuing small animals.

  long clothes—The baby clothes with an extraordinary long skirt or train that infants were subjected to during parts of the nineteenth century.

  loo—A card game that could theoretically be played by any number, but five to seven was supposedly best. The idea was to win each trick with the high card or highest trump one could play out of the hand of three one was dealt.

  lord—A member of the peerage. It was also a form of address, e.g., the earl of Derby was addressed as “Lord Derby.” The title was also a “courtesy title” given to eldest sons in the peerage, as if they were real peers, e.g., “Lord Granby,” and to younger sons in the peerage, but only with their Christian names and surnames added, e.g., “Lord George Ridley.”

  lord chancellor—The most powerful member of the legal profession. He had precedence of everyone in the country—including the peerage—except the royal family and the archbishop of Canterbury. He was the chief judge of the Chancery Court, a member of the cabinet, and nominally presided over the House of Lords from his woolsack. His position was originally that of secretary to the king and he remained keeper of the great seal. Sir Thomas More and Cardinal Wolsey, from the era when churchmen still held the post, were perhaps the most famous lord chancellors. Chancellors, like other cabinet members, lost their job when administrations changed; they were usually made peers when they became lord chancellor.

  lozenge—The shape a coat of arms was required to assume on the carriage of a spinster or widow, who could not use a coat of arms in the shape of a shield, as a male heir could.

  lord lieutenant—Historically the lord high sheriff and the earl were the king’s men in each county. In the 1600s, however, a lord lieutenant was designated to command the county’s fighting force for the Crown. His powers dwindled thereafter but he remained a significant power within the militia until the 1870s, and he was the man who told the Crown whom in the county it should appoint as justices of the peace. The post was apparently held usually by high-ranking members of the peerage, e.g., the duke of Omnium, Plantagenet Palliser. The marquis of Steyne in Vanity Fair is also a lord lieutenant.

  Low Church—People like the Evangelicals who didn’t believe in ceremony, ritual, hierarchy, and elaborate dress for the clergy in the Church of England.

  lucifer matches—An intermediate form in the history of matchdom that succeeded the first “Promethean” matches, circa 1805, which necessitated dipping a treated match into a bottle filled with asbestos and sulfuric acid, which would cause it to ignite, probably rather dramatically. The lucifer match came along around 1830 and was handy because it lit simply by friction. It was followed by the safety match twenty years later which one couldn’t ignite unless one had the box, too.

  lumbago—Rheumatism of the back.

  lumber room—Basically, a place to store old furniture and other similar disused items. Not a repository for lumber in the sense of boards and planks.

  lych-gate—A covered gateway at the entrance to a churchyard where people at a funeral rested the coffin while waiting for the minister.

  M.C.—See master of the ceremonies.

  M.F.H.—Master of fox hounds.

  M.P.—A member of Parliament.

  macaw—A cheerfully colored member of the parrot family.

  macintosh—Rubberized waterproof clothing invented by one Charles Macintosh in the 1820s. It was slow to catch on, in part because it originally smelled bad. In the latter part of the century coachmen wore white ones at night so oncoming vehicles could see them and avoid a collision.

  madeira—A sweet white wine sometimes prescribed for medicinal purposes. It came from the island of the same name some four hundred miles northwest of the African coast.

  magic lantern—Like a slide projector. One lit an oil lamp or candle and placed a mirror behind it so the light would be reflected toward a wall and then passed colored glass slides in front of it to obtain a magnified picture. The slides were supposed to be displayed in sequence to tell a story. To get movement—a twinkling star was one effect—one turned a handle to move the slide; to show wild animals moving through the jungle one pushed a lever to illuminate one slide through another.

  magistrate—Another term for a justice of the peace, who was addressed as “Your Worship” by the humble, except that justices were usually only unsalaried county gentry, while magistrates included stipendiary or police magistrates as well, that is, justices of the peace who had been put on salary, usually in big cities, in order to cope with a volume of crime greater than that of rural districts.

  maid-of-all-work—She washed the dishes, cooked, swept the floor, emptied the grates, kept the lamps clean, hauled coal, looked after the children, did needlework, made the beds, etc., in those households which could afford only one servant. Usually only young girls were hired for the post. A maid-of-all-work was the maid that the poorest of upwardly mobile families would have when they couldn’t afford a real housemaid but needed that one mark of gentility that came from having a servant.

  mail coach—Until the railroads, the fastest regularly scheduled transportation in England. The mail coach in 1784 replaced the notoriously inefficient postboys who wandered along, sometimes on horseback, delivering the mail in their own good time. The mail coaches carried not just mail but a limited number of passengers; they were a faster and classier means of transportation than a regular stagecoach and were so good at meeting their schedules that people quite literally set their watches by them in rural areas. The railroads ultimately snatched away all their business.

  major—The rank in the army immediately underneath that of lieutenant colonel and superior to that of captain.

  major general—Just above a brigadier general and just below a lieutenant general.

  malt—Barley put in water (so that it would sprout) and then heated up, to be used in making beer.

  mangel-wurzel—Also called the mangold. A root crop popularized in the 1800s as a source of winter fodder for livestock. The crop produced more edible matter per acre than turnips or swedes did but was difficult to grow in areas colder than southern England.

  mangle—The hand-operated clothes presser of the nineteenth century. One put a piece of clothing between two cylinders placed on top of each other and then turned the crank, which drew the garment in between them, and the mangle flattened it.

  man-of-war—A ship, particularly a big one, that was built or used for warfare.

  manor—Certain land after the Norman invasion was granted by the king to men, “lords of the manor,” to be farmed by their tenants, the local villagers.

  man-traps—They were steel traps like those used for catching animals, except these were big—some weighed up to eighty pounds—and were used by landowners with game on their property to catch poachers, which they often did, sometimes (some traps had steel teeth) inflicting considerable injury in the process. They were outlawed in 1827.

  mantua-maker—A term for a dressmaker based on the name of an old-fashioned type of gown. By the middle of the century a somewhat archaic usage.

  marchioness—The name given to the wife or widow of a marquis or to a woman granted the status of marchioness in her own right.

  marines—The Royal Marines. They were soldiers who kept order aboard naval vessels and participated in the hand-to-hand shipboard fighting in naval battles.

  marine store shop—Not unlike a rag-and-bone shop except it tended to trade more in marine goods, often having customers, e.g., sailors, in waterfront areas.

  market day—The day on which markets were held in a localit
y, i.e., when people might go into town to sell their pigs and stock up on what they needed, especially in rural areas where stores were few and far between.

  market town—Any town that regularly held a market.

  marl—A type of soil that contained clay and could be used as fertilizer.

  marquis—The second highest rank in the peerage, coming just below a duke. One was known as the “marquis of——” and addressed formally as “Lord——.” The plural could be either “marquises” or “marquesses.”

  Martin’s Day—Martinmas, November 11. Martin’s summer was the term used for a period of terrific weather in late autumn, corresponding to the American Indian summer.

  master—A term with several meanings. First, a master was a skilled craftsman who had passed the journeyman stage and consequently worked for no one but himself and was entitled to train apprentices and hire journeymen. Second, the term referred to a teacher at a school. Third, until 1814 the rank of commander in the Royal Navy was known as master and commander. Fourth, master was the title given to the heads of certain colleges at Oxford and Cambridge. Finally, the man who ran the workhouse was called its master.

  master of fox hounds—Also called master of hounds. The man who organized and oversaw the fox hunting of a particular pack. To be distinguished from the huntsman.

  master of the ceremonies—The man at public balls and assemblies in charge of organizing the dances, introducing people to one another, and in general supervising the goings-on. Sometimes abbreviated M.C. The most celebrated M.C. was probably Beau Nash at Bath.

  mastiff—A great big watchdog with floppy ears and a big head.

  May Day—May 1. The day on which to go out in the woods just before dawn with one’s sweetheart and, supposedly, pick branches and garlands with which to decorate the maypole tree that graced the village green for the occasion. One then danced around the maypole.

  Mayfair—The fanciest residential area of London, about a half a mile square in size. It was located in the West End and bounded by Oxford Street on the north, Bond Street on the east, Piccadilly on the south, and Hyde Park on the west. Within it were located, inter alia, Pall Mall and Grosvenor and Berkeley Squares. The district was so named because of an annual fair held there at one time each May.

  mayor—The senior official in a town, e.g., Casterbridge, frequently selected from among the aldermen or councilors. He served for a year and generally acted as a magistrate as well. It is presumably in recognition of his having so served as magistrate that ex-mayor Henchard is pressed into service to hear the case of the old woman whose tale of his wife-selling proves his undoing.

  mead—A drink made by putting yeast into a mix of honey and water.

  mechanic—Any skilled craftsman who worked with his hands.

  meet—The gathering at the beginning of a day’s fox hunting of the hunters and hounds.

  meeting house—Church of England services were always held in a church or a cathedral. Religious meetings of Dissenters customarily occurred in a “chapel” or a “meeting house.”

  member—A member of Parliament.

  merchantman—A nonmilitary ship.

  merino—A superior kind of wool derived from a sheep brought from Spain to England in the 1700s.

  Methodism—A popular, lower-middle-class nonconformist Protestant sect that was a product of the teachings of John Wesley. It stressed Bible reading, large, open-air meetings, and hymn singing (from whence the latter custom worked its way into Church of England services) and forbade drinking, gambling and similar wicked activities.

  mews—Mew comes from the Latin mutare, meaning “to change,” and the mews were the place in London where the king’s hawks were at one time confined while they molted or “changed.” The royal stables then replaced the hawks’ lair and thereafter any lane or open area where a group of stables was situated was referred to as a mews.

  mezzotint—A way of scraping steel or copper plates to make them rough. Parts were then scraped to provide what would be the light parts in the finished print.

  Michaelmas—The feast of St. Michael, a leader of the angels and their army. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon” (Rev. xii). This feast was held on September 29 and was one of the quarter days. Michaelmas term was a law term and also a term at Oxford and at Cambridge.

  Middlesex—The name of the county in which London north of the Thames was located. (South lay the county of Surrey.)

  Middle Temple—See Inns of Court.

  midshipman—The lowest rung of the ladder in the officer class of the British navy. A midshipman was a boy between the ages of eleven and fifteen who was taken on board a vessel, usually through his family’s knowing the captain or through the exertion of some other kind of influence. The boy was then set to learn the ways of the navy for the next six years. At the end of that time he was eligible to take the exam for lieutenant. Those who failed could—and often did—remain midshipman literally for decades. Naturally, the position was not very impressive to the girls; in Mansfield Park Fanny Price’s brother laments in this connection, “One might as well be nothing as a midshipman.”

  Midsummer Day—It fell on June 24, which was also the feast of John the Baptist. It was a quarter day, too. The wild, magical atmosphere we associate with it from A Midsummer Night’s Dream probably has as much if not more to do with the practices and customs of May Day.

  militia—An organization that had its roots in the obligation of all citizens in feudal days to come to the military aid of their sovereign. By the early 1800s it was a defensive force that was selected by lottery from the men in each parish (one could buy one’s way out by hiring a substitute, though). It trained for twenty-eight days a year and was “embodied,” or called up, when there was a threat of invasion, something that seemed a real possibility during the war with Napoleon. After Napoleon’s defeat, the militia were quiescent until a brief movement to reactivate them in the fifties was made when Napoleon III unnerved the English in a similar fashion. The militia could not be sent out of England to fight without their consent and the consent of Parliament.

  milliner—A maker of women’s hats and sometimes other items of dress.

  milch cow—One that was giving milk.

  ministry—The ministry of a given “government” was composed of the cabinet plus another thirty-five or so men who occupied positions of responsibility in the chief executive departments, such as junior lords of the treasury.

  minor canon—One who helped conduct the choir at a cathedral. Unlike other canons, he did not belong to the cathedral chapter.

  minute—A memorandum from a government department ordering something to be done.

  miss—When used with only the surname in talking about one of several sisters, it meant the eldest.

  mister—Used of a medical man, it generally meant a surgeon or apothecary. A physician was usually “Dr.”

  mittens—These were popular items for ladies. Unlike contemporary mittens for cold days outdoors, these were cut off part way along the fingers, leaving the tips bare, and extended up the arm toward the elbow. They seem to have been made frequently of lace or net.

  mizzle—A word meaning to depart. It also meant to drizzle.

  mobcap—An ugly piece of indoor headgear for women that was standard, at least in the earlier part of the century. “I mean a cap, much more common than now,” says David Copperfield in describing his aunt’s dress, “with sidepieces fastening under the chin.”

  mock turtle—Turtle soup and flesh became very popular in England at the beginning of the century. So popular that those who couldn’t afford it decided they wanted at least an imitation—hence “mock turtle” was born. It was usually made out of a calf’s head.

  monitor—Under certain systems of elementary education, particularly in the national schools, a monitor was appointed by the teacher to keep order and—in addition—teach the younger pupils. This supposedly freed the teacher up for other dut
ies in what was billed as a tremendous economy—under one version of the system, one teacher would thus purportedly be able to instruct 500 students.

  Monument—The Monument was a 200-foot high tower located in London just south of London Bridge, designed by Christopher Wren in commemoration of the Great Fire of 1666 and the subsequent rebuilding of London.

  moor—A wild, rather desolate area like the part of Yorkshire where Wuthering Heights is set. Frequently covered with heather or heath and, in fact, not terribly different from the heath that turns up in Thomas Hardy’s novels, except that “moor” was a term more likely to be used in the north of England or with reference to boggy or marshy areas. A moor was also an area kept specifically for shooting game like grouse, generally found in northern England or Scotland.

  morning—A term that in Jane Austen’s day often meant the period of time between breakfast and dinner, a meal which was often not consumed until three or four in the afternoon. The usage survived in the term “morning calls,” those ceremonial visits paid by the genteel to ladies “at home” in their drawing rooms between 3 P.M. and 5 P.M.

  Morning Post—The London paper that chronicled the goings-on of the fashionable world and the court.

  morning room—A place used by a family as a sitting room in the morning.

  morocco—Goatskin, used in the 1800s to cover books. It was often prepared with dog excrement or “pure” that was collected off the London streets daily by the very poor. Sometimes imitation leather made from sheep was also called morocco.

  Most Reverend—Form of address to an archbishop.

  muck—To us, the term generally designates some kind of heavy, unpleasantly clinging mud. Actually, muck was sheep or cattle dung, a mainstay, of course, of farming in the days before artificial fertilizer.

  Mudie’s—The famous circulating library of the mid-century. One paid a sum to belong and then could borrow best sellers rather than having to buy them.