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This Jane Austen blog brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive through food, dress, social customs, and other 19th C. historical details related to this topic.

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« Calling Cards in Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion
Seen Over the Ether: A Room With A View »

Traveling at Night in the 18th Century

April 12, 2008 by Vic

They would see, [Sir john] said, only one gentleman there besides himself; a particular friend who was staying at the park, but who was neither very young nor very gay. He hoped they would all excuse the smallness of the party, and could assure them it should never happen so again. He had been to several families that morning in hopes of procuring some addition to their number, but it was moonlight and every body was full of engagements. – Sir John Middleton, Chapter 7, Sense and Sensibility

In his reference to moonlight, Sir John was speaking about the habit in the Regency Era of arranging evening visits and social events during the full moon. Although 400,000 times less bright than the noon sun, a full moon would still light the landscape enough for riding or walking. In war time, generals refrained from moving their troops under such a bright night sky, preferring the cloak of complete darkness under a lesser moon.

Of course no amount of planning could predict a cloudy sky. For such an event, the carriages were outfitted with carriage lamps. Before street lighting became prevalent, footmen (for the wealthy) or link-boys (for hire), carrying lit tapers or torches would run in front of the carriage or accompany a pedestrian to illuminate the road or sidewalk. (Georgian Index) According to Samuel Pepys, “links were torches of tow or pitch to light the way.” Toward mid-century, such torches would be discarded, and night travelers would be accompanied by an escort who would hold a lantern aloft on a pole.

In many old towns—London, Bath, York, Edinboro’, &c.,—“link-boy-slabs” and “extinguishers” may be seen in position, but I have searched in vain for such a relic in Nottingham. They must have been fairly plentiful at one time, for there are numerous references in the Borough Records to “link-boys” who carried torches, to light the way for the “chairmen who carried passengers in sedan-chairs —a mode of conveyance in vogue throughout the 18th century, and still lingering in use within the recollection of some of our older members. (According to Deering Hackney sedans were used for hire to carry persons who are taken sick from home, and ancient ladies to church and visiting, as also young ones in rainy weather.”) – Nottingham in the 18th Century

In the Sir Joshua Reynolds painting above of Cupid as a Link boy (1773, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo), one art historian conjectured that, due to his sad, vapid expression, the young model was an actual link boy.

I see Inigo Jones’s great arches
in my mind’s eye, his water-inky clouds,
the paraphernalia of a royal masque;
dung and detritus in the crazy streets,
the big coaches bellying in their skirts
pothole to pothole, and the men of fire,
the link-boys slouching and the rainy wind.

-Geoffrey Hill, Treatise of Power

By 1750, oil lamps were prevalent in the streets of London and by 1807 gas lights were introduced in that crowded metropolis. Click here for my other post about lighting during the Regency Era, Lighting the Darkness.

Third image from the Georgian Index

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Related

Posted in Bath, jane austen, Regency World, Servants | Tagged Footmen, illumination at night, lighting in the Regency Era, Link boys, torches | 4 Comments

4 Responses

  1. on April 12, 2008 at 20:55 Lighting the darkness « Jane Austen’s World

    […] Click here to read my other post, Traveling at Night in Jane Austen’s Time […]


  2. on May 11, 2008 at 07:18 Light in Cranford and Sense and Sensibility « Jane Austen’s World

    […] Traveling by Night […]


  3. on June 20, 2009 at 13:59 Lighting Georgian and Regency London « Jane Austen’s World

    […] on June 20, 2009 at 1:53 pm | Reply Traveling at Night in the 18th Century « Jane Austen’s World […]


  4. on December 1, 2011 at 03:57 Warm December Lights | Austen Authors

    […] more information on period lighting, here are two wonderful articles, Traveling at Night in the 18th Century, and Lighting the Darkness, both on Jane Austen’s World, so I am not going to go into detail […]



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