Kristian Mercer

Researching the Romance: Antiquities in Regency England

I was fortunate enough to meet Karen Hawkins at RWA Nationals and to receive autographed copies of two books in her wonderful "Talisman Ring" series. If you haven't had a chance to enjoy this series, run right over to your local library (or your friendly independent bookseller) and check out all five.

My favorite book in the series was the concluding volume, Lady in Red. The heroine, Honoria Baker-Sneed, unexpectedly comes into possession of the St. John talisman ring. Marcus St. John, the hero, must salvage his family pride by retrieving the ring - by any means possible. Mischief (and romance) ensues, ensuring that Marcus and Honoria discover the magic of finding a true partner in love and life.

One of Lady in Red's pivotal scenes occurs when Marcus and Honoria encounter one another at the Elgin marbles. Marcus likens Honoria to the goddess Diana, a conceit which is carried throughout the book (although I must add here that - in strict accuracy - she should have been compared to Athena, since the Elgin marbles are Greek in origin).

I was intrigued enough by this reference to delve into Mistress of the Elgin Marbles, Susan Nagel's biography of Mary, Countess of Elgin. Recently here's been a discussion of this book on the Beau Monde loop. The focus has largely been on the scandalous (Mary and her husband divorced) and the shocking (she dosed her children with mercury), but what I found more fascinating was Mary's sense of daring and adventure. She even dressed as a man to infiltrate the court at Constantinople! I came away from this biography with the understanding that Mary was a true child of the Romantic era, a woman with a passionate will and a strong sense of self.

To learn more about British antiquities, I turned to Stuart Piggott's Ancient Britons and the Antiquarian Imagination: Ideas from the Renaissance to the Regency. I confess, there's a lot to digest in this book and I haven't yet managed to read it all. So far I've encountered Hermes Trismegistus (of alchemical fame), Geoffrey of Monmouth (a medieval cleric who wrote about Merlin and King Arthur), and the pre-geologic Biblical means of dating the earth. I'm looking forward to the chapter on Georgian and Regency antiquarianism. The author has promised druids, so I'm hopeful.

And in between chapters, I can always re-read Jo Beverley's Malloren series. The main characters were named for figures from Anglo-Saxon history, after all!