What competition could a lady in Regency England participate in?

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rosehips

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I've done a bit of googling but I'm not coming up with a lot.

My main character is a young lady living in London in the early 1800s. I want to give her something she's passionate about, that could be tied to organized competitions. I had a vague idea it might be gardening competitions, where someone is judging people's roses and the like, but I can't find any evidence that such things existed. Cooking competitions seems unlikely for a lady. I searched music competitions but couldn't find a whole lot and I get the impression that music societies weren't open to women at the time. Sports wouldn't fit this character.

Were competitions just not a thing for young ladies in the Regency period?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
 

frimble3

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I think young 'ladies' were defined by not 'doing' much of anything, therefore little scope for competition, outside, say, of infighting for status and husbands among their own circles. Possibly needlework? But more for exhibition than competition. Much as 'gentlemen' might have interests and hobbies, but not actual jobs.
 

Marian Perera

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My main character is a young lady living in London in the early 1800s. I want to give her something she's passionate about, that could be tied to organized competitions.

I know there were some ladies who were recognized for their photography during the 1800s, but that didn't really begin until about 1840, which is well past the Regency era. Maybe there were competitions for painting or other kinds of artwork?

I had a vague idea it might be gardening competitions, where someone is judging people's roses and the like, but I can't find any evidence that such things existed.

Is it necessary for the competition to have existed, or could you make up a plausible one?
 

rosehips

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My reply function is glitching. Anyway, yes, Marian, I think I'm going to have to make something up. Maybe there's a group of ladies who have decided to have a little competition for fun.

frimble, yes, you're right. It's hard for me to imagine how boring life was for ladies back then. I'm going to take some artistic liberties, I think, and play with it a bit. :)
 

ULTRAGOTHA

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There's always playing cards for money. Slightly frowned upon unless one loses a lot and then much frowned upon.
 
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lonestarlibrarian

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The Regency period was 1790-1820. I was thinking rabbit-breeding, but it seems there weren't any actual rabbit shows until the mid-1820's, which is later than your period. The first poultry show wasn't until 1845, and was developed as an alternative competition to cockfighting (banned 1849). The first international chess tournament in England wasn't until 1851.

Fox hunting didn't become popular with women until the mid-19th c, although I suppose an adventurous woman of sufficiently high wealth and social status could participate in your period. More practical hunts would be pheasant or rabbits-- population control plus food. Pheasants had a season (after Oct. 1st, presuming it wasn't a Sunday); I'd have to check about the rabbits, but Michaelmas to Candlemas (11/11-2/2) are pretty safe.

I think one of the problems is that, as anyone who's ever competed in anything knows, having a competition usually involves having some degree of easy and efficient long-distance travel. Otherwise, you're just competing against whatever socially-acceptable locals are in your immediate area, and it's hard to be competitive when it's just the same four people over and over again. :p So you don't get the first modern railroad until 1830, and that keeps things pretty close to your immediate circle.

So looking at it from that perspective, it limits things--- but then, it also widens them, because you're not limited by the idea of what makes a competition a competition. The competition might be who can memorize and perform the most Ignaz Pleyel sonatinas for pianoforte, or it might be who can submit the most articles for inclusion in their favorite magazine, or it might be who can write the most sonnets, or it might be who can train their dog to do the most adorable tricks, or it might be who can be the best portraits in watercolors, or it might be taking turns translating racy Latin poetry or French novels, or it might be they're collectors of x, and they compete to have the best collection of whatever x is.
 

rosehips

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Hi Lonestar and ULTRA, thanks for the replies.

Lonestar, I like the idea of breeding rabbits, so maybe I can fudge the dates a bit. Especially if what my character is involved in is more informal among a group of ladies. She's in London, so I imagine the transportation problem and having too few participants is a little mitigated by the fact she's in a large city. I like the idea of everyone very focused on thiese fuzzy little fluff balls, and there being some (relatively) nasty competition over which is cutest. :D
 

benbenberi

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I think, in the Regency era, young ladies would have engaged in a fair amount of informal competition with others in their social circle, in any area of common interest or wherever direct comparison & relative status could be shown. People always find ways to establish dominance and reputation among those whose opinion matters to them.

But formal, organized competition? Not genteel. Rather the opposite, in fact. You don't find those things as a socially permissible outlet for ladies till some decades later.
 

lonestarlibrarian

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Sure thing.

Spanish/Iberian rabbits were introduced to Britain by the Romans, so those are the common brown wild rabbits you think of.

By the time you get to Gervase Markham in the Elizabethan period, you have Silver rabbits, which I believe had originated somewhere near Siam. They're usually black, with silvered hairs, and your other silver rabbits come from them. (ie, your future Silver Fox, Champagne d'Argente, Silver Marten.) But they also come in blue, brown, and fawn-- all with the silvering, but it's not as visible because the contrast isn't as good. (Those are the American names--- double check for your British names.)

I can find a mention of an 1822 "lop-eared smut rabbit". (I think smuts are spots on the side of the nose, similar to butterflies.)

There's an 18th c French breed called the "Lapin de Nicard", which was a precursor to a lot of the cute little dwarf breeds, and what we now call the Flemish Giant was once called the Ghent Giant, and was raised outside of Ghent, Belgium since the 16th c.

Angora (from Turkey) made it to Bordeaux in France by 1723.

I see a cite for Dutch rabbits (carrying the Vienna gene) making it to England by 1835.

So, if she has access to sailors/shipping/merchant vessels, it would be plausible for her to have obtained some sort of rare breeding stock that she's working with, even if it doesn't necessarily match the original date of the first "real" importation.

Whitman's "Domestic Rabbits & Their Histories" (ISBN 978-1585972753) is probably the most comprehensive book about the development of different breeds. I don't have a copy, but if you could get your hands on one, you could probably find some useful information. In general, a rabbit breeder usually has some sort of goal in mind. Since your period is prior to the standards of a lot of the normal fancy breeds, she needs to have something in her mind's eye that she's working towards. It might be trying to duplicate a more expensive fur to be imitated by rabbit; it might be trying to create something economical and productive for poor people to successfully raise under challenging conditions; it might be trying to create something with a swift growth rate; it might be trying to create a carcass with more meat and less bone. Any rabbit is going to be darling-cute, especially sometime after the first week through the first month or two. She might be trying to make something that stays adorable--- but whatever drives her towards her goal is is going to be a reflection on her personality, whether she's profit-minded (fur), or practical (meaty/growth), or charitable (a sturdy rabbit for the impoverished), or sentimental.
 
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frimble3

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Competition among a group of friends or, at least, acquaintances? My mind goes to costumes? How popular were costume parties in your era, among your class?
I doubt Hallowe'en was a thing, in England, in that period. But there seems to be an interest in 'fancy dress' in later times, and earlier (Tudor masques).
Could be a simple 'who has the best costume', or the trickier 'who can stay in disguise all evening - or at least, be the last discovered?'.
This might be a competition among the friends, and a simple society amusement among the other guests.
Possibly with a 'no using your dressmaker, all your own work' rule?
 

aruna

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I'm thinking along creative lines. Poetry, painting, sewing, crocheting, knitting? You might have to make it a private thing within a group of friends, as others have said. Good luck!
 

ULTRAGOTHA

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Ladies participated in private competitions. But not public ones. So yes, at a house party with an archery range, they certainly would have competed. But AFAIK there were no formally arranged archery competitions. Also OP's MC lives in London (which would not preclude doing archery at a private house in Surrey or Kent or some other close by place.)
 
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