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English Country Life 1780-1830
Learn about English Country Life between 1780 and 1830.
- GenresResearch
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1962
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 14, 2015
E. W. Bovill’s English Country Life 1780–1830 has a title that is a bit larger than its contents. As the author himself warns in the preface, it is not so much a comprehensive study as a series of snapshots—elaborations of specific topics selected according to the author’s whim. This is not a criticism, merely a heads-up about what to expect.
The great strength of this 1962 collection of essays is its heavy use of primary sources. Diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays of the period are heavily quoted. For those of us who have limited time to read the original nonfiction of the Georgian era, this is tremendously valuable. Like many British works of history, however, Bovill’s is light on dates, which can sometimes make it frustrating to contextualize the quoted material—a problem made worse by the inadequacies of the bibliographic apparatus. Like many studies of English rural life that I have read, he also uses a certain amount of unfamiliar terminology: sentences like “Partridges . . . could not be shot over dogs after the first two or three weeks of September, even in the long stubbies [sic] of those days, in spite of the use of paper kites to make them lie” are comprehensible to me, but only after a certain amount of puzzling out.
Nevertheless, this book was a gold mine of intriguing data—about prices for agricultural products and rural economics in general; about hunting and shooting and their implications for farmers; about what constituted a good squire, and what a bad one; about travel and transport; and more. I recommend it for anyone seeking to write historical fiction set in this era, as it will correct many errors that are common in such works.
The great strength of this 1962 collection of essays is its heavy use of primary sources. Diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays of the period are heavily quoted. For those of us who have limited time to read the original nonfiction of the Georgian era, this is tremendously valuable. Like many British works of history, however, Bovill’s is light on dates, which can sometimes make it frustrating to contextualize the quoted material—a problem made worse by the inadequacies of the bibliographic apparatus. Like many studies of English rural life that I have read, he also uses a certain amount of unfamiliar terminology: sentences like “Partridges . . . could not be shot over dogs after the first two or three weeks of September, even in the long stubbies [sic] of those days, in spite of the use of paper kites to make them lie” are comprehensible to me, but only after a certain amount of puzzling out.
Nevertheless, this book was a gold mine of intriguing data—about prices for agricultural products and rural economics in general; about hunting and shooting and their implications for farmers; about what constituted a good squire, and what a bad one; about travel and transport; and more. I recommend it for anyone seeking to write historical fiction set in this era, as it will correct many errors that are common in such works.
April 8, 2015
This is one of the best books I've read for research: a well-organized study told in clear, succinct prose, with a heavy reliance on primary sources. Bovill digs deep into the subject matter and answered a number of things that have been glossed over in more contemporary accounts (e.g. how did servants travel?)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews