Georgians At Home

Richard has stayed out late and his father is worried. Richard likes to play games that risk him losing lots of money. Richard thinks they will always have lots of money and that the slave trade will go on forever, his father is worried that it won’t. His father is not feeling well, he has decided that he is going to go to the baths tomorrow, the hot waters help him feel better.

Jane Austen

In the time of Jane Austen, men held all of the power and women relied on them for safety and to provide everything they needed. In Jane Austen’s book called ‘Sense and Sensibility’ one young girl called Eliza left her family to marry a man that she trusted. He ended up leaving her on her own and she was completely abandoned. In Austen’s time, the man would have been forgiven for this and been able to continue with his life as normal, but for Eliza, gossip and rumours would have made her life very difficult. How does this make you feel?

Explore an Object: The Bed

This is a copy of a bed from 1794. Beds with curtains like this were very popular because they gave you some privacy from your servants, who would often come into the bedroom at night-time to empty the chamber pots! The mattress would have been made of straw, wool or horsehair, then you would have slept between linen sheets and woollen blankets to keep warm. Duvets were not used in England yet.

Find this object. What was this object used for?

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