Women's activities During the Regency era and well into the succeeding Victorian era, society women were discouraged from exertion although many did take the opportunity to pursue activities such as dancing, riding and walking that were recreational rather than competitive. Depending on a lady's rank, she may be expected to be proficient in reading and writing, mathematics, dancing, music, sewing, and embroidery. In
Pride and Prejudice, the Bennet sisters are frequently out walking and it is at a
ball where
Elizabeth meets
Mr Darcy. There was a contemporary belief that people had limited energy levels; women, as the "weaker sex", being most at risk of over-exertion because their menstruation cycles caused periodic energy reductions.
Balls One of the most common activities among the upper class was attending and hosting balls, house parties, and more. These often included dancing, food, and gossip. The food generally served included items such as white soup made with veal stock, almonds and cream, cold meats, and salads. Boxing was in fact illegal but local authorities, who were often involved on the gambling side of the sport, would turn a blind eye. In any case, the huge crowds that attended championship bouts were almost impossible to police. Like
cricket and
horse racing, boxing attracted
gamblers. The sport needed the investment provided by gambling, but there was a seamier side in that many fights were fixed. Gully went on to become a successful
racehorse owner and, representing the
Pontefract constituency, a
Member of the first
post-Reform Parliament from December 1832 to July 1837. Cribb was the first fighter to be acclaimed world champion after he twice defeated the American
Tom Molineaux in 1811.
Cricket Marylebone Cricket Club, widely known as MCC, was founded in 1787 and became
cricket's governing body. In 1788, the club drafted and published a revised version of the sport's rules. MCC had considerable influence throughout the Regency era and its ground,
Lord's, became cricket's premier venue. There were in fact three Lord's grounds. The first, opened in 1787 when the club was formed, was on the site of
Dorset Square in
Marylebone, hence the name of the club. The lease was terminated in 1811 because of a rental dispute and the club took temporary lease of a second ground in
St John's Wood.
Lord Byron played for
Harrow School in the first
Eton v Harrow match at Lord's in 1805. The match became an annual event in the social calendar. Lord's staged the first
Gentlemen v Players match in 1806. This fixture provides another illustration of the class divide in Regency society as it matched a team of well-to-do amateurs (Gentlemen) against a team of
working-class professionals (Players). The first match featured
Billy Beldham and
William Lambert, who have been recognised as the outstanding professionals of the period, and
Lord Frederick Beauclerk as the outstanding amateur player. The 1821 match ended prematurely after the Gentlemen team, well behind in the contest, conceded defeat. This had been billed as the "Coronation Match" because it celebrated the accession of the Prince Regent as King George IV and the outcome was described by the sports historian
Sir Derek Birley as "a suitably murky affair".
Football Football in Great Britain had long been a no-holds-barred pastime with an unlimited number of players on opposing teams which might comprise whole parishes or villages. The playing area was an undefined stretch of land between the two places. The
ball, as such, was often a pig's
bladder that had been inflated and the object of the exercise was to move the ball by any means possible to a distant target such as a church in the opposing village. The contests were typically arranged to take place on feast days like
Shrove Tuesday. By the beginning of the 19th century, efforts were being made in the English
public schools to transform this
mob football into an organised team sport. The earliest-known versions of football code rules were written at
Eton College (1815) and
Aldenham School (1825).
Horse racing Horse racing had been very popular since the years after the
Restoration when
Charles II was a frequent visitor to
Newmarket Racecourse. In the Regency era, the
five classic races had all been inaugurated and have been run annually since 1814. These races are the
St Leger Stakes (first run in 1776),
The Oaks (1779), the
Epsom Derby (1780), the
2,000 Guineas Stakes (1809) and the
1,000 Guineas Stakes (1814).
National Hunt racing began in 18th century Ireland and developed in England through the Regency era. There are tentative references to races held between 1792 and 1810. The first definitely recorded
hurdle race took place on
Durdham Down, near
Bristol, in 1821. The first officially recognised
steeplechase was over a cross-country route in Bedfordshire on 8 March 1830.
Aintree Racecourse held its first meeting on 7 July 1829. On 29 February 1836, a race called the
Grand Liverpool Steeplechase was held. One of its organisers was Captain
Martin Becher who rode
The Duke to victory. The infamous sixth fence at Aintree is called
Becher's Brook. The 1836 race, which became an annual event, is recognised by some as the first
Grand National, but there are historical uncertainties about the three races between 1836 and 1838 so they are officially regarded as precursors to the Grand National. Some sources insist they were held on Old Racecourse Farm in nearby
Maghull but this is impossible as that course closed in 1835. The first official Grand National was the
1839 race.
Rowing and sailing Rowing and
sailing had become popular pastimes among the wealthier citizens.
The Boat Race, a rowing event between the
Cambridge University Boat Club and the
Oxford University Boat Club, was first held in 1829 at the instigation of
Charles Merivale and
Charles Wordsworth, who were students at Cambridge and Oxford, respectively. Wordsworth was a nephew of
William Wordsworth. The first race was at
Henley-on-Thames and the contest later became an annual event on the
River Thames in London. In sailing, the first
Cowes Week regatta was held on the
Solent in August 1826.
Track and field athletics Track and field competitions in the modern sense were first recorded in the early 19th century. They are known to have been held by schools, colleges, army and navy bases, social clubs and the like, often as a challenge to a rival establishment. In the public schools, athletics competitions were conceived as human equivalents of horse racing or
fox hunting with runners known as "hounds" and named as if they were racehorses. The
Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt, established in 1819, is the world's oldest running club. The school organised
paper chase races in which the hounds followed a trail of paper shreds left by two "foxes". The oldest running race of the modern era is Shrewsbury's Annual
Steeplechase (cross-country), first definitely recorded in 1834. == Events ==