As I was thinking about my “Three Disgraces” I decided I wanted each of them to have some specific talent. Lady Catherine plays the piano and Penelope sketches.

When I read what the author of “The Mirror of Graces” (1811) wrote about young ladies taking ballet-lessons, I knew what I wanted to do with Juliana. I do realize I’ve stretched the bounds of believability by having Juliana masquerade as an opera-dancer. I can only make the excuse that the story is a romp, it was fun to write, and I hope that readers will enjoy it, too!

The picture above is a waltzing scene from La Belle Assemblee, February 1, 1817 which I think clearly shows the influence of opera-dancing on social dances.

Here is what the author of “The Mirror of Graces” (a “Lady of Distinction”) writes in her chapter on “Dancing and Other Accomplishments”:

“Extraordinary as it may seem, at a period when dancing is so entirely neglected by men in general, women appear to be taking the most pains to acquire the art. Our female youth are now not satisfied with what used to be considered a good dancing-master; that is, one who made teaching his sole profession; but now our girls must be taught by the leading dancers at the Opera-house.

“The consequence is, when a young lady rises to dance, we no longer see the graceful, easy step of the gentlewoman, but the laboured, and often indelicate exhibitions of the posture-mistress. - Dances from ballets are introduced; and instead of the jocund and beautifully-organized movements of hilarity in concord, we are shocked by the most extravagant theatrical imitations. The chaste minuet is banished; and, in place of dignity and ease, we behold strange wheelings on one leg; stretching out the other till our eye meets the garter; and a variety of endless contortions, fitter for the zenana of an eastern satrap, or the gardens of Mahomet, than the ball-room of an Englishwoman of quality and virtue.

“These ballet dances are, we now see, generally attempted. I say attempted, for not one young woman in five hundred can, from the very nature of the thing, after all her study, perform them better than could be done any day by the commonest figurante on the stage. We all know, that, to be a fine opera-dancer, requires unremitting practice, and a certain disciplining of the limbs, which hardly any private gentlewoman would consent to undergo. Hence, ladies can never hope to arrive at any comparison with even the poorest public professor of the art; and therefore, to attempt the extravagancies of it, is as absurd as it is indelicate.”

Oh dear, I suppose Juliana is rather indelicate. Sigh...

Here is a depiction of the Green Room at the King’s Theater, showing dancers practising their steps and rakish gentlemen ogling them!

After the masquerade is ended, the hero, Marcus Redwyck, the Earl of Amberley, takes Juliana to his home in the Cotswolds. Below are a few scenes from this very picturesque region of England.

Cottage-row in Bibury, perhaps the most-photographed village in England. And rightly so!

Bluebells in the Forest of Dean. They smell rather like hyacinths - enchanting!

Snowdrops growing near the River Churn.