Now I have your attention, where were you last meeting? It was a great night! We saw the return of the fascinating speaker Sarah Slater, last time she regaled us with stories of the ghosts of Hampton Court Palace, but this time she was talking about all things rude and saucy which took place at the Royal Courts between 1660 and 1890. And my goodness what a raunchy lot they were those rich, privileged degenerates who ruled our country back then. Perhaps some would point out not much has changed since those times given our current Prince of Wales famously took a mistress during his marriage to Princess Diana. That mistress is now The Duchess of Cornwall who interestingly is descended from a whole line of royal mistresses, most famously her great grand mother Alice Keppel who was mistress to Edward VII.
Sarah explained that it was positively expected of a King to take numerous mistresses, but not for women: our fair sex had to remain chaste at all times, such double standards exist now, men 'sow wild oats' whilst women are branded sluts, so some things never change!
So Victorians are prudes are they? Well apparently not! They only got that dour and uptight reputation because sex was so dangerous that the government needed to do something to put everybody off! Childbirth frequently ended in fatality of both mother and infant, and sex with multiple partners caused deadly infections such as Gonorrhoea and Syphilis. This was an age before antibiotics and contraception and so a cunning plan to dissuade promiscuity was hatched in the shape of Queen Victoria and despite the fact that she loved sex and had 9 children with Prince Albert, she ruled her people with an iron chastity belt! Old habits die hard though but our morals were most definitely sharpened.
Pre Victorians nothing could be further from the truth though... prostitution was indeed the oldest profession and in 1700's the ladies of the night had their own version of the Yellow Pages, called The Ham's List. It was a record of all of the prostitutes in Covent Garden and in 1789 it sold 8,000 copies! As you can imagine it was very advantageous to get your name and address in such a publication in order to increase business and improve your standard of living. Things are of course very different today because prostitution is illegal, but not everything is so different: the good old sex toy was definitely around in those days although usually made of wood or leather and definitely no batteries!
Sarah was so interesting and as usual presented her talk wearing period costume. Our next speaker will have a hard job to follow her! But I have high hopes as we will (if restrictions are lifted in June) be able to meet at the hall for the first time in many months. On Tuesday June 29th we will be welcoming Kathy who will be giving us a talk called "Colour Me Beautiful", Kathy is a colourist and can give you great advice on what colours you should be wearing. Colour can have a huge impact on how we look, feel and how others perceive us... who knew?
If you are not a member, but would like to come to this meeting you would be very welcome to join us. Your first meeting is free, for more information email our President, Rowena on bbhwi1951@gmail.com.
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