Victorian Slang of the Week

Adam’s Ale—drinking water.  As early as the 18th century, probably used through the Victorian period.  “Walked miles without so much as a sip of ‘Adam’s Ale’

Victorian Slang of the Week

Adam—often used to express a very long time ago as in, “hasn’t been a thing like it since Adam was in leading strings”.  1839.

Victorian Slang of the Week

Action: gambling activity, as in “now that’s my kind of ‘action’”.  Used in 1887 but appears to be used mostly in the 20th century.  As always, this is for writing.  In actual speech, especially at a gaming table or among gamblers, it may have been used for often.

Victorian Slang of the Week

Ace–the best one, or a thing held in high esteem.  First used 1840, in The ‘Spirit of the Times’.   Contrary to what one might think, however, this word does not appear to be in widespread use, at least in written word, until the 20th century.  That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t used in spoken word, [...]

Victorian slang of the week

Several years back my husband found me a book called the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume 1, letters A-G, by J.E. Lighter.  It’s huge, full of all sorts of wonderful words, and is one of my most prized of all my research books.  I’ve been asked by a few people how I [...]

The Adelphi Hotel, Saratoga Springs, Part I

I’ve written blogs about Saratoga Springs, New York before as one of the 19th century hot spots.  It was where the rich and famous spent thier time from mid-century on.  It wasn’t until fairly late in the period, the 1880’s and 90’s, before Newport RI became the place to go, and that for the most [...]

And the winner is. . .

For our Birthday basket, Angie Cameron!  Hey Angie, if you can send me your snail mail address at victorianromance@comcast.net I’ll send it on out to you!
Thanks everyone for coming to visit.  Hope you all will keep stopping in from time to time!

The Aristocratic Philadelphians–part one of a few

As I mentioned in an early post, I’ve moved my research into the American Victorian aristocracy into Philadelphia.  Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t find books on it that are quite as easy to read and get easy information as I found with San Francisco and Boston, and to some extent New York.  As I type [...]

Victorian American Aristocracy

I’ve done a couple guest blogs(  Novel Thoughts and Yankee Romance Reviewers),  in the last couple months, and both times I ended up talking about  the 19th century American Aristocracy.  I think I’ve glossed over it from time to time at Slip into Something Victorian, most notably a posting about Ward McAllister’s famous 400, but I [...]

What an icestorm taught me about the Victorians

I love writing historical romance partly because the idea of flickering fires and lamp light or gas light sounds so romantic.  It’s in pretty much every book I write: a scene where the sound of the crackling fire fills the room.  I know it’s cliché; I can’t help it.  I think a crackling fire sets [...]