The Weird Rules Regency Girls Had to Follow to Find a Husband | History to Fall Asleep To

Tonight we go husband hunting in Regency London, in the spring of eighteen sixteen. No music, no sudden noises, nothing that jumps. Just a voice and a long quiet night. It sounds like an evening of dancing and it is in fact a three month audit of your entire family, conducted in public, with music playing. Not the version with the ribbons and the carriage and the handsome man turning round at the top of the stairs. The real one. The one with an entrance fee, a waiting list, a dress code enforced at the door on a duke, and six women who between them decided, without appeal and without explanation, which girls in England were allowed to be looked at that year. We go through one whole spring slowly and in order: the year of lessons before it, the rented house and what it cost, the hooped court dress that had been out of fashion since before you were born, the slip of paper you could not buy, the weak tea and thin bread and butter served at the most exclusive room in London, the two dances and no more, the waltz that was permitted for the first time that year, the settlement the solicitors drew up, and the drive home at two in the morning. Two hours and twenty-four minutes, and it is meant to be left running. You are not supposed to reach the end. If it helps you sleep, the like and the subscribe are what bring it back to you on the next night you're awake at three. New quiet history two or three times a week. #historytofallasleepto #sleephistory #regencyhistory #bedtimehistory