Welcome Austen in August Readers!

Austen Variations is joining The Book Rat for a month-long celebration of all things Austen!  Join me a looking at one of the less examined aspects of Austen’s life, how might she have had fun?

What did the gentlemen and ladies of the Regency Era do for fun? With the leisure time the gentry class enjoying, pleasant pastimes were necessary–so without cable tv or streaming media, what did they do?

Often they played games.  Card games are well documented, but outdoor games were enjoyed as well, among them, Battledore and Shuttlecock, a game thought to be an ancestor to modern badminton.

Played with two rackets and a feathered ‘bird’, this game has been traced back to ancient Greek drawings. Versions of the game appear in China, Japan, India and Thailand as well as throughout Europe through the centuries.

During Jane Austen’s day, the battledores (rackets) were made of parchment or rows of gut laced over wooden frames. The shuttlecocks were crafted out of cork and trimmed with feathers, often from pigeon’s wings.

Though often considered a children’s game, adults could and did participate as well. Played without a net, battledore and shuttlecock could be played indoors or outdoors—I rather cringe at the thought of it inside though.

According to A Girl’s Own Book the rules were not complicated:

SHUTTLECOCK AND BATTLEDOOR.

This game is too well known to need much description. The shuttlecock, sometimes called the bird, is a little ball stuck full of feathers: the battledoors are covered with parchment; and the object of the players is to keep the bird constantly passing and re-passing in the air, by means of striking it with the battledoors. Some people become so expert at it, that they can keep it up more than a thousand times, without once allowing it to fall. Little girls should not be afraid of being well tired: that will do them good; but excessive fatigue should be avoided, especially where it is quite unnecessary.

The same text offered this variant:

CORONELLA.

This is similar to Shuttlecock and Battledoor, but more difficult. Instead of striking the bird with a battledoor, two players throw it and catch it with wooden cups made for the purpose.

Jane Austen played the game with her nephews. In an 1808 letter to her sister, Cassandra, she wrote:

“Yesterday was a very quiet day with us; my noisiest efforts were writing to Frank, and playing at battledore and shuttlecock with William; he and I have practised together two mornings, and improve a little; we have frequently kept it up three times, and once or twice six.”

I think this officially makes her the ‘fun aunt,’ don’t you?

Child, Lydia Maria. The Girl’s Own Book. New York: Clark Austin &, 3 Park Row & 3 Ann-St., 1833.

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