Posted by Allan_Lang on October 25, 2003 at 05:06:27 from 202.61.171.25 user Allan_Lang.
In Reply to: Re: BBC bashing was Friday : Dog's Home, Rio & Houseboat posted by Peter H on October 24, 2003 at 23:25:46:
"reports of Victorian pianos with fabric wrapped round the legs 'for modesty'"
Conflicting reports on this
On One Hand, It never happenned
On the Other Hand, it happened, but the real purpose was to protect the piano legs from being kicked by Victorian sprogs at piano practice
The Gripping Hand may be the contemporary report of Captain Francis Marriot who said he saw this during his travels in the United States.
Now Marriot may have been funning, but there is a farly consistent pattern of English and Continental travellers observing that upper-middle class American society was considerably more prudish than that on the other side of the pond.
trivia fact: For some reason Louisa May Alcott's father Bronson Allcock changed the family name early in his life.
Personally I feel that an earthy Hanoverian queen has been somewhat misrepresented by having the term "Victorian Morality" ascribed to something that began in America before she came to the throne, and continued there long after she died.