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Moments in History...

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Contraception in the Regency - Guest Elizabeth Rolls

9/25/2015

 
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I am delighted to welcome one of my BFFs to the blog this week, multi award winning Regency writer, ELIZABETH ROLLS.

Elizabeth lives in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia with her husband, two teenage sons and a menagerie of three dogs, two cats and several chickens. She spends more time than she cares to contemplate on the local junior soccer competition, has what most people consider too many books, and nurses a well-known passion for tea, coffee and chocolate. Since she lives surrounded by apple orchards she considers it lucky that she likes apples almost as much as she likes chocolate biscuits.



Connect with Elizabeth through her website... click HERE

Secret Women's Business

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME...  if you are interested in this subject or tempted to try any herbal remedy for any reason whatsoever, do get professional advice. Many herbs can kill.
We tend to think of effective birth control as something that happened in the 1960’s with the advent of the Pill. In fact women in various walks of life have been tiptoeing around the issue of contraception for centuries. Many cultures have or had taboos on the subject. During the 18th and 19th centuries there were laws in Britain that made women and children essentially the property of a man. While condoms were available, they were mainly used by men with prostitutes to avoid disease. Nice, well-brought up young ladies would have had no idea that such a thing was even possible and a married woman had no right to regulate her own reproduction.

Mid-wives certainly knew which herbs would prevent a pregnancy or end one. Queen Anne’s Lace, Pennyroyal, Tansy and Rue among others, all work. All have been known for centuries and the knowledge was right there in the pharmacopoeias under such phrases as “to regulate the menses.”

Apart from midwives it seems likely that women who made their living as courtesans, or at least had a less rarefied up-bringing than your average Regency miss, probably knew how to avoid conceiving. Very few of the well-known courtesans of the 18th and 19th centuries had children. Harriette Wilson, Elizabeth Armistead, Cora Pearl and Catherine Walters, to name a few. One exception was Wilson’s one-time friend Julia Johnstone who had a dozen children by her lover, Colonel Cotton. Tellingly, before her fall from grace, Julia was a well-brought up young lady.

John Riddle’s book, Eve’s Herbs (Harvard University Press, 1997) is a fascinating account of herbal contraception through the ages and he points out that this was very much women’s knowledge and was passed on orally from woman to woman, right up to the mid-twentieth century when the Pill arrived.

Faced with the prospect of becoming mistress to an Earl with whom she is rapidly falling in love, Lucy worries about the risk bringing an innocent child into the disaster of her life. In the following scene she is given some very practical advice by her landlady. I went with Queen Anne’s Lace because after checking out a number of works on herbal remedies it seemed the easiest to use.


Read an excerpt from Elizabeth's January 2016 Release... IN DEBT TO THE EARL

The stairs creaked and heavy footsteps came across the landing. A very perfunctory knock heralded her landlady with a bucket of coal.

‘Mrs Beattie. Good evening.’ She blinked at the coal. ‘Um, I haven’t paid the rent yet.’ And didn’t know how she was going to find the money anyway.

Mrs Beattie came over and put the bucket down by the fire. ‘Your man did that.’

‘What?’ Lucy’s stomach knotted. Every feminine instinct screamed a warning.

‘Coal, too, he said.’

How could she refuse him if he’d paid the rent?

Mrs Beattie set her hands on her hips. ‘Thought I’d bring some up while he was out.’ The lady’s mouth was a flat line. ‘Got something to say that he don’ need to hear. Ain’t my business, but I’m going to say it.’

Realising she’d have more chance of stopping a runaway coach, Lucy nodded dazedly.

‘Mr Wynn’s got the right of it…’ Mrs Beattie began.

‘Mr Wynn?’

‘Aye. Took one look at your fancy man just now and said you’d done right well for yourself.’ Mrs Beattie looked around. ‘Can’t blame him for not wantin’ to do it here. Dessay it ain’t quite what he’s used to. Dine off gold plate, that sort.’

Didn’t want to do what here? Lucy had no idea what that was about, although she thought gold plate an exaggeration, but Mrs Beattie hadn’t finished.

‘Thing is, I reckon you don’t know what’s what,’ she said. ‘Maybe you believe he’s just lookin’ for yer pa, maybe you don’t—’

‘Mrs Beattie—’

‘No.’ She waved Lucy to silence. ‘I’ll say me piece. Thing is, he reckons he ain’t out to take you for a ride. Dunno who he’s trying to fool. Me, you, maybe himself, but take it from me, a man don’t pay a girl’s rent less he wants something, and you—’ she pointed at Lucy ‘—need to know what’s what, or you will get took for a ride.’

Lucy swallowed. If Lord Cambourne had paid the rent she wouldn’t be on the street tomorrow, but she knew what he expected in return.

Mrs Beattie continued. ‘Lord knows men don’t worry about these things.’ Her lip curled. ‘Sweet as pie, when they’re getting what they want from a girl, but God help her once he’s got it an’ she’s got his brat planted in her belly.’

Lucy blushed and Mrs Beattie nodded. ‘That’s right. Now, you know what happens, what goes where? All very well to worry about the chicken an’ the egg, but it’s what goes on with the rooster getting’ the egg into the chicken you got to think about now.’

Wondering if she could actually be any more embarrassed, Lucy nodded weakly. She had grown up in the country and knew how the fields got populated with lambs and calves each year, but speech was beyond her.

‘Right. What you won’t know is that there’s ways of not catching.’ Mrs Beattie drew a canister from a pocket in her apron and opened it. ‘These here is Queen Anne’s Lace seeds. You chew a spoonful, with water, straight after, or as straight after as you can.’

‘Straight after—? Oh.’

Understanding crashed over Lucy and with it, shame. All this time she had thought of Mrs Beattie as the foe, even disliked her. And here she was, offering practical advice and help in the best way she could. Maybe she did have a fairy godmother…

She stared at the seeds. ‘Mrs Beattie, you’re very kind, but—’

‘Don’t say you don’t need ’em, missy.’ Mrs Beattie’s scowl was thunderous. ‘Maybe you will, maybe you won’t. But it’s better to have `em when you don’t need ’em, than not have `em when you do.’ She put the lid back on and smacked the jar down on the table. ‘No need for anyone else to know what they are. Just a tonic for when you’re feeling poorly is all a man needs to know. Don’t like it when a girl takes precautions, do they?’ She snorted. ‘Like they’re the one as has to birth the brat an’ nurse it, an’ have everyone lookin’ sideways at ’em like you ain’t good enough to sweep a dirty crossing!’

She crossed her arms and glared at Lucy as if challenging her to dispute this blistering view of the world’s hypocrisy.

‘Do they really work?’

Mrs Beattie nodded. ‘Like a charm. I near died when the baby came. Me neighbour told me about these.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Reckoned it was just an old wives’ tale, I did. But I tried ’em, an’ I never caught again. Never told my man, neither. What a man don’t know can’t hurt you.’

IN DEBT TO THE EARL (coming in Jan 16)

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In his quest for revenge against a disreputable card sharp, James, Earl of Cambourne, discovers the man's innocent daughter. While her surroundings are impoverished, her dignity and refinement are unmistakable, and James faces an unsettling question—what will be her fate if he brings her father to justice? 

Although yearning for love and comfort, Lucy resists the earl's surprising offer of protection. That is until a price is made on her virginity, and James is the only man who can save her

From Pegleg to Prosthetics - Becky Lower

9/20/2015

 

Firstly welcome to the new look blog home for Ms. Stuart Requests! I am delighted to welcome Becky Lower as my first guest in the new pad.

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Becky loves to write about two people finding each other and falling in love, amid the backdrop of a great setting, be it present day middle America or on a covered wagon headed west in the 1850s. She has a degree is in English and Journalism and lives in an eclectic college town in Ohio with a puppy-mill rescue dog, Mary.

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FROM PEGLEG TO PROSTHETICS!

I had the opportunity to learn about prosthetic devices while doing research for A Widow’s Salvation, which is a story about how the (American) Civil War affected the everyday person. While we’ve all heard stories about Pegleg Pete and Captain Hook and their prosthetics, I had no idea such devices had been uncovered as far back at 950 BC! Obviously, these were crude devices at best. It wasn’t until the Civil War in the 1860s that advances in prosthetics began to emerge. 

The huge number of amputations that were being done to save lives of the soldiers forced America to focus on the betterment of prosthetic devices for their soldiers. James Hanger was one of the first amputees of this war and took it upon himself to fashion a limb from whittled barrel staves. This crude device was transformed and advancements in the way prosthetics fit and worked happened in rapid succession due to the Civil War. 

When I see the men and women who have lost legs due to war or other tragedy using today’s high-tech computerized prosthetics to run marathons, I am in awe of how far this industry has come. 

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Oscar Pistorius 'blade runner'
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A WIDOW'S SALVATION

In 1862 America, the Civil War has raged for twelve months. Pepper Fitzpatrick Brown’s heart was broken when her husband died with the first volley at Manassas. Now she’s a widow raising three young boys and plans to honor his sacrifice by volunteering at the army hospital.

When Colonel Elijah Williams can grab a few minutes to nap between his duties as head surgeon at MacDougall Army Hospital in the Bronx, his sleep is invaded with nightmares of the atrocities he’s seen. His life has narrowed to nothing but the bloody war … until he meets Pepper Brown. But her father is concerned Elijah doesn’t have the best intentions, and Pepper is fearful of loving and losing again.

It’s hard to find happiness in a war-torn United States, but these two stand a fighting chance—if they can save what’s left of their hearts.

TO BUY click HERE


Read an excerpt:  
“Good afternoon, Daniel.” Pepper pasted a bright smile on her face as she took a seat beside the young man and smoothed her pink-and-white striped dress. 

She placed her papers containing Parr’s drawing of the prosthetic device on the floor. It had been a number of weeks since Daniel’s amputation, and according to Elijah, the stump was healing well. Yet Daniel showed no interest in getting out of bed, or using the crutches, which were propped up beside it. Instead, his body was gaunt, his skin slightly gray, and his lovely dark hair had lost its luster. Pepper realized he was having trouble adjusting to his new body, and she wanted to help change his outlook on life. She hoped she hadn’t been wrong, that he had some interest in trying the prosthetic device. But she’d never know unless she broached the subject with him.

“What’s so good about the afternoon, lass? From where I’m lying, it’s the same as yesterday. I made a mistake, allowing the doctor to saw off me leg. I should have just been left to die from me injuries. At least that would have been better.”

“Such nonsense you’re talking.”

He stared at her for a long minute, then jerked the covers from over his body, and stared at his stump. “’Tis not nonsense. I’m a farmer who can’t stand on me own two feet, since I don’t have two feet anymore. How can I grow enough food to even feed meself, much less a wife and children? Not that any woman would come close to me now.” His gaze moved back to her.

“I’m close to you, am I not?” She brushed his black hair from his eyes. “Let me prop you up into a sitting position, since I have something to share with you.”

She placed pillows behind him and then helped him scoot his body up so he could sit. “What would it take to change your outlook on life a bit?”


“Can you reattach me leg?”


Pepper smiled again, and this time she didn’t have to force it. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”



She showed him the drawing of the prosthesis and explained how it worked.
“And you can get this contraption for me?”


“Yes, I’ll have my brother-in-law make it, and we’ll see how you do with it. There have been prosthetic devices in existence for a number of years, but they are fairly clumsy affairs. I showed a couple pictures of them to Parr, and he came up with his own design, which I’ve already shared with Colonel Williams. He thinks it’s worth a try. It may not work, so I don’t want you to get your hopes up yet, but it might be exactly the device we need to help you stand again.”

Daniel stared at the papers for a long second, and his finger ran over the drawing. “Why me, though? There have been many men who’ve lost a leg.”


“Because I have a feeling, even with all the padding and wool Parr can build into the

device, it’s going to cause you excruciating pain when you first stand. Not many men could endure it, so I chose the one I thought would be the strongest. The one who has so much to gain by again standing.”

Daniel smiled at her, and Pepper drew in a breath. It was the first smile Daniel had given her since his operation. It might have been a small step, but she’d take it.



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