#governesses

[bethanydelleman]

sorry if this is a stupid question, but I was starting to write a story taking place in the regency era, and wanted to do a sort of cliche governess marries the widowed father of her charge. But I wasn't sure how old I should make the girl. My understanding was that a governess would only be needed until the girl debuted which could be as early as 15. as of now, I made the girl 14, as, due to her father being over protective he wouldn't allow her to debut until she was older anyways, but I wasn't sure how common it was to get a governess that would only be there for a few years. the governess is sort of desperate for a job, so even if its a bad deal, its okay. I also wasn't sure if the girls hadn't debuted if they could go to parties, or if she didn't debut she would still be considered a child and not allowed (including smaller family/friends get togethers). For this last one I'm trying to remember how the youngest sister is treated in sense and sensibility, but cannot recall.

Thirdly, I was curious how odd it would be for a governess to teach horseback riding. From what I was able to understand, it wasn't improper for ladies to learn sidesaddle, but I wasn't sure who would teach them, or how common it was.

sorry to use you as like, a focused google search, but I was having a heck of a time finding anything about the specifics of governesses. Usually it was all vague terms like "Until the daughters came of age"

Happy to help! Keep in mind that most of my help comes from novels from the time period.

If this is set in the Regency, not all girls "came out" at 15, it depended on a number of factors including if they had elder sisters. Jane Austen's heroines are never out before 17, Catherine Morland and Marianne Dashwood being the two youngest. It also depended on a girl's maturity, as everyone thinks the immature Lydia Bennet should not be out (she is 15). I believe Maria and Julia Bertram (Mansfield Park) aren't out until they are 20 and 19 respectively, and Maria says she'll learn from her governess until 17.

As for how long you would employ a governess, in Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë, Agnes is hired by a family with pretty old girls, the eldest being 16 and very near to coming out and the younger 14, but the family both wants and keeps a governess. This was similar to what happened in Anne's real life, by the way. Agnes is not dismissed from that position even after the elder sister marries, she leaves because her father is dying.

Also, if the father is widowed, he might keep the governess for longer if he could afford it. Miss Taylor, Emma's governess in Emma stayed until Emma was 21 and only left because she married. As Emma was the only daughter at home, Miss Taylor transitioned into being her companion and would probably have served as a sort of chaperone despite being unmarried. Men and women did a lot of activities separately, so having a paid "friend" around for your daughter wouldn't be unusual.

As for gatherings, it's likely that daughters are attending small gatherings once they are mature enough to be quiet. Margaret Dashwood is invited to dine at the park, she is 13, in Sense & Sensibility, but she is not invited to London, which would involve large parties. Fanny Price dines at the parsonage in Mansfield Park, which would count as a close friend, but Mary Crawford remains unsure if she is "out". Even the young Middleton children come out after dessert to greet the guests in Sense & Sensibility, though some of the company dislikes this suggesting it's either not common or the children were expected to behave better (they are 8 and under).

I know nothing about who taught horse riding to women. The only lessons in Jane Austen are an uncle for his niece (Fanny Price) and a guy teaching the girl he's attracted to (Edmund Bertram/Mary Crawford). Fanny muses that Mary's brother could have taught her.

Last consideration, I would consider the skills of your governess. If one is being hired for an older girl, she would need more advanced accomplishments. Can she play, draw, and do fancy work? Does she have good references? Is she old enough that it isn't crazy for her to be in charge of a teenager? (Like is she at least 20?)

Here is what Agnes's employer wants:

For the girls she seemed anxious only to render them as superficially attractive and showily accomplished as they could possibly be made, without present trouble or discomfort to themselves; and I was to act accordingly—to study and strive to amuse and oblige, instruct, refine, and polish, with the least possible exertion on their part, and no exercise of authority on mine. With regard to the two boys, it was much the same; only instead of accomplishments, I was to get the greatest possible quantity of Latin grammar and Valpy’s Delectus into their heads, in order to fit them for school—the greatest possible quantity at least without trouble to themselves. John might be a “little high-spirited,” and Charles might be a little “nervous and tedious—”

Agnes Grey, Ch 7

#question response #governesses #If anyone knows more about horseback riding please add on #agnes grey #anne brontë #writing

[faintingheroine]

I wonder where you would would put Mlle de Courton in the downtrodden governess scale? Her foreignness, Westernness (in a Westernized household) and noble blood gives her a distinction from the rest of the household and makes her a completely respectable figure. She is incomparable to a servant, she is not a Jane Eyre.

“At that time it was rather too late for Mlle de Courton to marry, and she was forced to choose one of two recourses, either fall upon the Paris streets in a life that would stain the good name of her family, or to find a place to shelter with her kinfolk in the provinces and live the rest of her life as a poor but noble girl. She chose the latter. She had even, in order not to seem entirely like a helpless wretch and to earn the bread she ate at the table, taken on the instruction and disciplining of the children of the household. This changed the course of her life. One day, after a small disagreement, and a small opportunity that came close upon the disagreement, this poor, noble girl had gone all the way from one corner of France to be the governess of an eminent Greek family in Beyoğlu. Here she stayed for many years without knowing anywhere other than the streets and shores from Beyoğlu to Şişli, from the Bridge to Büyükdere. Adnan Bey’s yalı was the second, and perhaps the last stage of her life.

Nihal was only four years old. Adnan Bey felt the need for a governess. He had received dozens of creatures from among those who are first offered to people seeking governesses; those who claimed to have just arrived from France, but who never admitted that they were found redundant in one – and finally two – places, who tried to drown their deficient French, learned in convent orphanages or as seamstress’s apprentices, in the ornamentation of a fake accent. Not one was chanced upon who could be victorious over Adnan Bey’s fastidiousness. For two years there was a procession of every variety, from those who were let go with some excuse on the second day, to those who were suffered to stay for two months. Adnan Bey had become so frightened of these governesses – who one day claimed that they were German and the next day were understood to be of the Sofia Jews, who gave the impression of being the widow of an Italian when they arrived but were so forgetful in their lies as to blurt out the very next week that they had never been married – that he had begun to think of other solutions for his daughter.

A stroke of luck – in Istanbul one can only rely on luck for governesses – helped Adnan Bey discover the undiscoverable: Mlle de Courton.”

(Chapter 3)

In France Mademoiselle de Courton works to not feel as a burden, even if she had gotten a real job as a governess in France she would have been replaceable. In Adnan Bey’s house she is truly needed, her Western culture and nobility is needed for this family’s children to acquire.

But she is also made fun of for her spinsterhood by Behlül and is at the end in effect fired because the new attractive mistress doesn’t want her there. I guess her flaw is that she wanted more than what her job was and viewed herself as a mother figure to her charges?

“She had a tenacious need to love. The old chastity of this weary heart, who had not been able to know her mother, not been able to love her father, not been able to feel in her bosom any tie to anyone, and who writhed in the absence of love, always looked for some way to expend itself. She would befriend the children around her, the servants of the house in which she lived, her cat, her parrot, and would spill out to them the hidden treasure of her heart. But one day, she would suddenly discover a hollowness opening up in these things that were spoken, and seeing, with bitter clarity, upon what a barren, sandy desert the fountain of her affection flowed, she would become an enemy to the children, the servants, the cats, and the parrots that five minutes earlier had been her friends.”

(Chapter 3)

#aşk ı memnu #aşk-ı memnu #mademoiselle de courton #governesses

[pippapassed]

The Virtue of Scandal

Richard Redgrave The Governess oil painting, 1844. Detail.  Victoria and Albert Museum, London “You’re a governess?” To save her younger brother from poverty and her country from invasion, Simone must sound like anything but an English governess. The audiobook version of Barbara Metzger’s Regency Romance THE SCANDALOUS LIFE OF A TRUE LADY is now available on Audible UK, Audible US, Amazon and…

View On WordPress

#acting process #Audible #audiobooks #Barbara Metzger #cat #cats #comedy #Fantasy #feminism in Regency Romance #fiction #governesses #narration #Oscar Wilde #Regency Romance #Richard Redgrave #Romance #Romantic Comedy #The Scandalous Life of a True Lady #The truth is rarely pure and never simple #truth-telling #Voice #working women

[frenchublog]

#tsom #the sound of music #captain von trapp #georg von trapp #maria von trapp #georg x maria #captain and the governess #pinecone/whistle #my art #please don't repost #i will eat my shirts #this is the last i promise #edelweiss #what if they consumed me #discuss #proportions ? hands ? i don't know them #that wedding dress is the best dress that ever dressed

[themadcapmathematician]

I hate government programs in the US bc conservatives are always trying to dismantle them so the lefty byline is always like "these programs are vital and lifesaving and keep so many people from starving and being homeless, they're Very Good and you have a moral obligation to protect and defend them!" and the program is question is something called the National Anti Hunger Initiative or NAHI and it only applies to people who have $527 or less a month in Net Perforated Index-Subnet Income (NPISI) before taxes and housing costs and the program gives you a $99 a month voucher that reloads every 1/80th waxing moon that is only good for buying specific brands of gruel BUT you only get to take 200 breaths a day when you're on the program and for every breath over 200 you take they subtract one dollar from the vouchers you receive and you have to count and report your own breaths bc they don't have the funding to do that and if you misrepresent the amount of breaths you take that's Breath Fraud and there's a hotline you can call to report someone's Breath Fraud and you can be denied gruel vouchers for the rest of your life if youre accused of Breath Fraud. And you're just like. Not allowed to complain abt this bc apparently the only alternative to this is no one ever gets gruel vouchers

#madcap rants #anti capitalism #actually disabled #goverment programs

[fiction-quotes]

“This afternoon,” said Nurse Matilda when lunch was over, “we shall go for a walk – and do arithmetic.”

“Oh, lor'!” said the children, losing heart. (Fancy a walk! And arithmetic!)

But Nurse Matilda's arithmetic was very different from the governesses' arithmetic. Nurse Matilda made them pretend that they had only so many arms and legs between them, not enough to go round. Some of them had to hop and some of them, who had no legs at all, had to be carried (fortunately these were mostly the smaller ones), and the armless ones had to walk along looking very stiff and stout with their coats buttoned right over their real arms, which were pinned down to their bodies by the buttoned-up coats, and their sleeves hanging empty. So then they began to re-divide the arms and legs, to try and even things out; and in this way the Little Ones learnt adding and taking away – “take away one leg from Justin, who has two, and give it to poor Dominic, who has none. Arabella and Joanna and Susannah have four arms between them; give them one each, and that'll be three and one over...” And the Bigger Ones learnt money sums by making prices for an arm or a leg; and those who had too few; bargained with those who had enough – or, as soon happened if you were good at bargaining, too many.

Tora, who was terribly bad at arithmetic, ended up just a sort of pillow, poor thing, with – officially – no arms and legs at all; while Antony, who was always very good at money – perhaps because when he was little he had swallowed a penny and became rather a hero with his brothers and sisters – had four arms and three legs and somehow managed to be one and tuppence richer as well. However, he was a very kind boy and he went back and sold Tora a leg for her last tuppence, so at least she was able to hop; and he held her up, because of course, having no arms, she couldn't hang on to him. Otherwise, as she was one of the Big Ones – too big to be carried – she'd have had to stay planted by the wayside, till they picked her up on the way back and lent her a leg, just to get home with.

  —  Nurse Matilda (Christianna Brand)

#book quotes #children's fiction #christianna brand #nurse matilda series #nurse matilda #education #learning #mathematics #governesses #children

[sgkpjyc0l]

I love to tease the little dog with my beautiful feet wrapped in stockings Girl Next Door Crazy Hot Twerking Aurora Winters hot brunette enjoy sex with mall cop Naked beauty screams with man fucking her like a bull Brutal Anal For Little Sister Caught bathing girl Olivia Austin gets her pussy penetrated Good Girl Cums On My Big Strap On Desi navel mania Straight teen gay sex Straight man goes gay for cash he needs

#industrious #vicissitudinous #porphyratin #nasilabial #Bambuba #hyperviscosity #downcourt #Lilibell #scalled #fleece-vine #bergs #overloath #guerrillaship #governesses #daechwita #copasetic #filibegs #rdr2 #madwheeler #unconquest

[flamingpudding]

Message to the past

Was one nice family dinner in the Wayne Family really possible? Jason was starting to think it wasn't. The evening started out so well, for once he did not have any sort of beef with Bruce for the moment. He got to spend time with Alfred preparing the dinner. Neither Demon Brat nor Pretender were at each other's throats because of a case yet and there was no argument about to happen with Dickie either and he didn't feel like avoiding Bruce. Did he mention he didn't feel like leaving the Manor at the first sight of his old man?

Everything felt like it was gearing up to be a nice and well deserved family dinner with all his siblings being in one space for once.

That was until a Lazarus Green portal opened and a fucking silver green tin can smack dab hit him square in the face. Causing him to fall backwards in his chair and hitting his head painfully on the floor. Why didn't they have carpet in the dinner room again? Oh right, someone -one of his siblings- got mud all over it after patrol and Alfred decided the dinner room didn't need it anymore.

Once the first shock of what had just happened passed. They got to inspect the tin can and found a letter inside it.

Dear future Dad,

Gramps Clockwork spoilered that there is a mess up in the timeline because of the speedsters and I can fix it like this, which is why I am writing this. Please pick me up in the attached location marked on the map. My current self is in need of saving and I honestly would like to spare myself at least a little of the trauma that's about to happen.

Also please bring some explosives. You always regretted not blowing up a corupted govermental facility, so here is your chance of doing so! Be proud, though. I blew up a bunch of them in the future, with supervision, of course, from my uncles and aunts, so great grandpa wouldn't worry.

Please pick me up? Thanks if you do!

Your future adopted son.

PS: please ignore any complains my current self might have. I was in server need of a real parental figure and as you like to say as stubborn as grandpa.

PSS: also please stop antagonizing grandpa about my adoption. It's bad enough that you had to fight him over it in the first place.

PSSS: please bring great grandpa's cookies, I beg you please! I swear I will do all my schoolwork and be a straight A student if you do!

The girls of the family started to pout while the boys exchanged glances. Jason narrowed his eyes at his brothers. There was a silent argument happening and Bruce was watching them all also.

But if there was one thing Jason was sure about. It was that the tin can smacked him in the face. Which meant the letter was his and the time shenanigans arson kid with sass was going to be his kid. His brothers AND Bruce can fight him over that.

Like the kid has said in his letter.

#dp x dc #danny fenton #jason todd #bruce wayne #dick grayson #damian wayne #duke thomas #cassandra cain #tim drake #danny phantom #dpxdc #crossover #dcxdp #fanfic #danny wrote a letter to the past #asking his future dad to come save him #jason is set on getting the arson kid #he will fight bruce over it #a kid thats willing enough to mess with time and blows up corrupt goverment buildings? #that just screams red hood junior #tho some of his brothers might fight him over it #maybe cass will too anyway #just because the letter was adressed to a dad didnt mean she couldn't fight for the kid too #let the adoption battle begin #clockwork got the popcorn ready to watch the chaos unfold #can be kind of crackish i think...

[bluemoontarot]

I have found that the biggest deterrent to assholes is asking "why?" Over and over.

"We can't have universal healthcare!"

Why?

"Because I don't wanna pay for a strangers health!"

Why?

"Because if they can't afford their own health care that isn't my problem!"

Why?

And so on and so on. Keep making them dig. Keep making them explain until they can't anymore and are faced with nothing but the ugly mask of bias and prejudice. Only then can they truly see that taking it off is an option. Whether they do or not is up to them. And that choice tells you whether they deserve more of your energy or not.

Trans kids can't be trans. Why? Why not? Why?

Free food is bad for ppl. Why? Why? Why? Why is feeding ppl bad?

Why?

Why is helping one another bad?

Why is doing what humans are genetically designed to do, to help and care for one another to ensure survival, bad?

#money aside #just think about it #then realize we HAVE the money #we have the money to fund all of this #through laundering in goverments and billionares who refuse to share wealth for the bettermemt of mankind #then get angry #and be radicalized #helping your fellow man through kindness is the biggest fuck you to capitalism #anti capitalism #politics #democratic socialism #socialism #eat the rich #and do this to yourself when you have bias #why did you think that way or do that action? #why was this your first response difference? #dig until you cant...and take off the mask

[strawdool]

i wanna f- goverment hookeeerr

(au and designs are from @xmajordumps )

#i think ur cool *throws you a hot narinder* #i was playing lovegame and goverment hooker nonstop while drawing this #narinder #cotl narinder #narilamb #cult of the lamb #cotl lamb #my art #cotl

[intersectionalpraxis]

#feminist #social justice #free palestine #palestine #freepalastine🇵🇸 #current events #us imperialism #us goverment #genocide #palestine will be free #war on gaza #oscars 2024 #oscars #academy awards #mark ruffalo #solidarity #hollywood

[oliviaasks]

I have a very strict governess. She has an ebony paddle that she uses on my bottom when I misbehave. She’s very loving, but very firm. By bottom has bruises today, and I’m shifting in my seat.

#spankee #spankher #spanko #bare bottom #domestic discipline #woodenpaddle #panty pics #governess

[tatck]

hell yeah i'm back on my bullshit

#sonic the hedgehog #stvh #stvh!spoiler #sonic fancomic #Sonic will go up against redfur #eggman the goverment the irs #aliens. don't test him #i am aiming to get one more decently sized part out then i'll break again #clip studio now shows me how long i work on things now and i am now realizing i am not very good with time #it takes me a lot longer to draw than i thought

[owob]

bloodweave for oomf on twt

#my farts #gale dekarios #astarion ancunin #thagts his last name . right. whole legal name and everything #its so weird to call him by his full naem its like goverment naming a queen. its wrong. #bloodweave #bg3 #baldur's gate 3

[frenchublog]

#sound of music #the sound of music #maria von trapp #captain von trapp #georg von trapp #georg x maria #what do you call them i need to know #captain and the governess #christopher plummer #julie andrews #i slept on christopher i slept on them i slept on this movie i have so many regrets #special thanks to fanfiction writers i have been feasting for a week #tsom #my art #please don't repost

[nelkcats]

Monster (or not?)

It was a normal day for the Justice League, nothing special had happened, but Batman seemed to have a bad feeling. So when the alarm went off, he was prepared for almost anything.

Unfortunately, not much can prepare you for a 10-foot ice-covered, invincible Eldritch in the middle of Gotham. As much as the League tried, they didn't seem to do any damage to it (Jason was the first to notice that the creature wasn't attacking, just defending itself; he frowned at the observation).

From there, many strange things began to happen. First: A group of people dressed in white (which, frankly, they had never seen before in their lives) fanned out around the League, giving them weapons capable of harming the "creature" and pointing out to them that it was a "ghost", giving information about it.

Second, a pair of colorful scientists stood at the center of all the agents in white, though they seemed to be arguing with each other. One looked murderous, while the other looked... tired, almost guilty.

Third and last, a group of students kept trying to get closer. Jason thought they were suicidal until he heard the girl in purple tell them to leave "Danny" alone. She seemed to be silenced quickly, but the detail stuck in his head.

With a bad feeling, Jason turned to the college kids. A red-haired girl stood in the center of them, holding a chunk of ice? and watching the creature at the center of it all. While the League dealt with the agents in white, Jason decided to listen to them.

"He's my brother," the redhead said as soon as she saw him, "he's not a monster, they broke his core, please, you need to understand"

Jason looked at the creature again, although its body was mostly black, he could see ice covering a crystal in the center, it looked broken, he suspected that was his "core". At the same moment, Bruce finished talking to the men in white and accepted the weapons.

Danny was frightened and panicked. His form changed when his core broke in the middle of a fight, the GIW had shot him, and he didn't know how to retreat to his original form. His words came out only in Ghost speak, and the heroes around him looked ready to kill him, which didn't help his ice control.

#dpxdc #Basically the GIW broke Danny's core #and that thrilled his ghost side #which transformed into an Eldritch as a defense mechanism #Jack feels guilty #Phantom is a ghost yes but he helped them a lot of times #it doesn't feel correct to hunt him #Jason released the situation was not what it seemed at first #dp x dc #dc x dp #Martian manhunter is confused #he feels the creature in panic #but Danny's toughs are on ghost speak too #The GIW is a secret goverment organization #they usually avoid the heroes #because they know the heroes could stop their operations #Amity is isolated from the rest of the world #so the heroes doesn't know what happens there #Sadly Danny's battle happened in Gotham #he was chasing Skulker who found another “halfa” #he defeated Skulker but his parents grabbed him off guard #Skulker was chasing Jason signal btw #His friends and sister found the piece of his core and released what happened #eldritch danny