“How to be happy, though married”, just one of the titles of articles containing advice given to young ladies, with which our speaker Yvonne Bell kept us amused throughout her talk entitled “How times change”. Her passion for things Edwardian was extended to include books from the Victorian era when she chanced upon a copy of the “Quiver”, a compilation edition of a weekly magazine. Published in 1888 this provided Sunday reading for “nice families” as at this time it was not deemed respectable to read novels on the Lord's Day.
Yvonne had subsequently collected other such books together with some aimed at children (The Little Folks Magazine) and boys (Boys Own Paper) which in 1895 cost 1d for one magazine issue.
Those produced for middle class women contained features which may still be found in women's magazines today, such as fashion, short stories and recipes (take 6lbs of best beef and 1lb of oysters!) as well as letters and the “problem page”. Guess work was needed here as the questions were not given but we were assured several times of the efficacy of cold baths!
The books were full of moral advice to young women and no doubt acceptable at the time but the cause of much hilarity when read by the modern woman, containing such gems as
“women spend their time making nets to catch husbands rather than cages to keep them in”,
“within the home no temptation can exist unless the wife permits it” and the supremely chauvinistic “my wife and I are one and I am he”!!
However there seemed to be an advantage to being a woman in the following, “when gardening, put on a wide brimmed hat and gloves, take a little trowel in your hand and tell the man where to dig”!
However as always women had the last word. The tale was told of two women, supposedly in Scotland around the time of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897. One asked the other, “what’s a jubilee?” The second replied, “25 year’s a silver. 50 year’s a golden and a jubilee is when he dies”!
Social time rounded off an hilarious evening with Corena's rendering of two of Pam Ayres poems causing even more merriment.
The photo shows President Teresa Hemms at Woodlands Castle where a Birthday Party was held to celebrate 95 years of the Somerset Federation of WIs.
Yvonne had subsequently collected other such books together with some aimed at children (The Little Folks Magazine) and boys (Boys Own Paper) which in 1895 cost 1d for one magazine issue.
Those produced for middle class women contained features which may still be found in women's magazines today, such as fashion, short stories and recipes (take 6lbs of best beef and 1lb of oysters!) as well as letters and the “problem page”. Guess work was needed here as the questions were not given but we were assured several times of the efficacy of cold baths!
The books were full of moral advice to young women and no doubt acceptable at the time but the cause of much hilarity when read by the modern woman, containing such gems as
“women spend their time making nets to catch husbands rather than cages to keep them in”,
“within the home no temptation can exist unless the wife permits it” and the supremely chauvinistic “my wife and I are one and I am he”!!
However there seemed to be an advantage to being a woman in the following, “when gardening, put on a wide brimmed hat and gloves, take a little trowel in your hand and tell the man where to dig”!
However as always women had the last word. The tale was told of two women, supposedly in Scotland around the time of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897. One asked the other, “what’s a jubilee?” The second replied, “25 year’s a silver. 50 year’s a golden and a jubilee is when he dies”!
Social time rounded off an hilarious evening with Corena's rendering of two of Pam Ayres poems causing even more merriment.
The photo shows President Teresa Hemms at Woodlands Castle where a Birthday Party was held to celebrate 95 years of the Somerset Federation of WIs.