Today I’m turning the blog over to Alina K. Field, author of Bella’s Band and the award-winning novella, Rosalyn’s Ring, with a fascinating article about hunting in the Regency period. Bella’s Band is currently on sale for 99 cents at Amazon through March 2. Welcome, Alina.
In my quest for authenticity in my Regency stories, I’ve been reading English Country Life, 1780-1830, by E. W. Bovill.
Wild game is a wonderful source of grass-fed, locally-sourced, organic food. Hunting in the United States is regulated for ecological and safety reasons, but it is open to anyone with the inclination and the funds to buy equipment and licenses, and the willingness to follow the rules.
Not so much in the Regency and expanded Georgian period. Here are 10 interesting facts about hunting in England during this era:
Grouse Shooting, John Ferneley
1. The right to hunt was limited to owners of land worth one hundred pounds a year, lessees of land worth one hundred-fifty pounds a year, the eldest sons of squires or persons of “higher degree”, and the “owners of franchises”.
2. Due to a loophole in the way the law was written, a squire might lack the necessary land to hunt legally, but his eldest son still had the right to hunt.
3. Owners of small plots could not shoot the game that nested in their hedgerows and came out to destroy their crops.
4. With some exceptions, game could not be sold. Rabbits, for example, could be sold, and as Bovill said could be killed by the “occupier of land, but not the more destructive hares”. Only those entitled few mentioned above could hunt hares. (Yes, there are differences!)
5. Those not qualified to hunt were not allowed to own sporting dogs.
6. The end of the Napoleonic Wars resulted in an economic depression with many farmworkers out of work and unable to feed their families. Poaching was widespread and very profitable, much like bootlegging during Prohibition. In 1817, the Ellenborough Act increased the penalty for poaching to transportation to Australia, and as in the Prohibition era, the violence surrounding poaching ramped up.
7. However, those legally qualified to hunt, the gentry and above, could hunt game on other people’s lands with virtual impunity.
8. The invention of the flint-lock made guns lighter and increased the popularity of shooting.
9. But firearms could still be very dangerous. The famous Whig politician, Charles James Fox, was injured when his double-barreled shotgun exploded.
Deer Stalking in Scotland
10. Sir Walter Scott’s novels popularized Scotland for touring and for hunting, especially grouse-shooting and deer-stalking.
I haven’t worked any of these facts into one of my stories, yet. I believe author Tessa Dare has a subplot about poaching in one of her Regency stories. Can you think of any others?
Bella’s Band
by Alina K. Field
Bullets, blades, and incendiary bombs—Major Steven Beauverde, the latest Earl of Hackwell, belongs in that world, and is determined to get back to it. His brother’s murder has forced Steven out of the army and into the title, but he has no interest in being the Earl, and worse, no idea how to salvage the depleted estate. A rumor that his brother had a son by a woman who may be a) the murderer, and b) his brother’s wife, sets Steven on a mission to find her, the boy, and—Steven ardently hopes—proof of a secret marriage that will set Steven free.
Annabelle Harris is a country heiress and a confirmed spinster resettled in London to find her sister, the mistress to the Earl of Hackwell. While she searches, she fills her home with orphans and street urchins. When the Earl is murdered, Annabelle’s sister thrusts the Earl’s illegitimate child into Annabelle’s care and disappears. Now, with suspicion pointing at her sister, Annabelle has begun a new quest—to find her sibling and clear her name.
When their paths converge, the reluctant Earl and the determined spinster find themselves rethinking their goals, and stepping up to fight back when the real murderer shows up.
On Sale at Amazon for only 99 cents through March 2! It’s a delightful book that Regency fans will enjoy.
Award winning author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature, but she found her true passion in reading and writing romance. Though her roots are in the Midwest, after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California and hasn’t looked back. She shares a midcentury home with her husband and a blue-eyed cat who conned his way in for dinner one day and decided the food was too good to leave.
She is the author of the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best winner in the novella category, Rosalyn’s Ring, a Regency novella; and the novel-length sequel Bella’s Band, both Soul Mate Publishing releases.
Visit her at:
Website: http://alinakfield.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alinakfield
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlinaKField
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7173518.Alina_K_Field
References: English Country Life, by E. W. Bovill
Illustrations and photos: Wikimedia