Hunting/Shooting Parties

[Rapunzel247]

You know in those shows like Upstairs Downstairs there are these parties where a whole group of people go to a house in the English countryside for a few days to shoot birds or what have you? I cannot find a single piece of information about them on the Internet.

Any tibits will be much appreciated even if it's just a suggestion what words to Google.

Cheers,
R.

[Tundra]

what really? no information?
that's crazy. I know some things about it, but probably not enough to tell you about it... What do you need to know? I might have some books talking about it as well.

Try looking up Warrick Castle, it's in England. when I was there, they had quite a large amount of information about them, the victorian part of the castle was set up as if they were having one. Maybe they'll have some information about it online somewhere.

[Tundra]

I asked mum. She thinks they're called "House Parties" rather than "hunting parties".

I did a quick search, came up with this. It's not really a source, but it might help a little bit. This one is for a *very* formal one- there were some that were not quite this upmarket.

http://www.likesbooks.com/houseparty.html


Warrick Castle called theirs a "Victorian Weekend Party", so it wasn't quite as upmarket as the one above, which went for a week. Theirs was more like a big sleepover haha

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0750918497/104-0715667-3635128?v=glance&n=283155

there's this book about them... maybe you can find it in a library somewhere, or some reviews which give some information.

[merrihart]

House parties, yup. And not sure it's really something you'd find alot of info on, since basically the hostess would decide "Dear, let's have a house party!" and Hubby would be all like "Oh, what, and have a bunch of strangers in the house?"

and she'd say something along the lines of "But it is necessary to host parties like this in order to maintain good relations with the upper crust and so our offspring can have a chance to marry into a higher rank."

And then she'd invite at least 3 other married women and her current lover. :lol:

But, if you want a good idea of how those house parties went, rent Gosford Park. Excellent rendition of what it was like.

[Tundra]

yeah but Gosford Park isn't Victorian.

But... yeah. You're right. People would make their own rules about how it should be done.

[merrihart]

Era is different, yes, so costumes would be slightly different. But the idea is still the same. The manners and the traditions would still have been retained.

You wouldn't have as acurate a rifle, but you'd have the same method for flushing game.

The servants' hall would operate in pretty much the same manner, except maybe the lower serverants would still share rooms and there'd be a couple more scullery maids to tend to the fires in the kitchen and things like that.

Except maybe the women wouldn't go shooting? I dont think they did in Gosford Park anyway.

[Tundra]

The thing is though, it wasn't *just* shooting. There were dances as well, and picnics (I think you saw one in Gosford Park) and berry picking and entertaining each other and so on. But it was all very up to the tastes of the people invited.

[Rapunzel247]

Thank you for the pointers! The book you suggested sounds like exactly the kind of thing I need. I shall see if I can get my hands on a copy.

I forgot completely about this thread until last night. I'd almost stopped my project because of lack of information. lol.

Because I'm in plotting stage, the main questions are what kind of people hosted and attended these parties and what time of year they were usually held. But I also need to know things like what kind of game was hunted.

R.

[Tundra]

what kind of people? Rich people. People who had a country estate. Landed Gentry. *possibly* very rich victorian merchants, since there was some blurring of the classlines in victorian times. But they'd still have to be landed. And possibly the gentry around them wouldn't particularly like that they had a houseparty.

time of year... hmn, i *think* they could be held any time of year.
What kind of game... I think birds were the main thing.

[Rapunzel247]

Thanks again. I'm sure I'll have a few more specific questions as the plot develops.

R.

[merrihart]

Also, the village itself might not like the house parties very much. Especially if the land owners didn't buy things for the manor in the village. Some land owners tried to make their village thrive, but others bought goods at the nearest big city, or had them purchased in London and delivered.

Gentlemen werent too careful about who's skirts they chased either, so a local girl could run afoul of a nasty rake.

[Rapunzel247]

Oh my! Merrihart, I'll love you forever! You just gave me a couple of brilliant ideas for my project. It's a murder mystery and I wanted there to be lots of suspects. Now I have more motives! *huggles before dancing about excitedly*

R.