*sigh*

[fenderlove]

I had a rather off night last night what with realizing that I have completely misplaced a fanfic file... Still can't find it nor any of my notes on paper about it... and, apparently, I never saved any of my research links, and now that I've gone looking for them again, I can't find any of them. Christ on an effin' bike.

So, Victorian-lovin' friends of mine, does anyone know of any material about common occupations for middle class/upper middle class Victorians in London (or any of Middlesex's surrounding counties) between 1800-1880? Yes, most upwardly mobile Victorians didn't want to do any kind of labour, but some did. I'm specifically looking for educators (of the fancier public variety for younger children and college-level professors-- their credentials, their own educational background, social standing, etc.) and bankers. The only resources I have at my deposal at the moment are Tom Brown's School Days and Mary Poppins, and I've exhausted VictorianLondon.org and Victoriana.com.

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Have you tried this link? http://www.victorianweb.org/history/sochistov.html


Gabrielle

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

That was one of the links that I couldn't find! Thank you! *hugs*

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

I dearly love being helpful. I am so glad I was able to give you a link you really needed.


Gabrielle

[gillo]

Why not have a look at a few specific names? Ruskin, the various Butlers, the major commercial houses like Liberty. For bankers, look up people like the Coutts family.

College-level professors in that specific period were mostly clergymen, except for those at UCL, which was founded in the early 1830s as a "godless institution on Gower Street". You could look up individuals like Lewis Carroll or any of the vast Darwin/Galton/Wedgwood/Raverat/Huxley clan who pretty much dominated Cambridge intellectual life of the period and intermarried most confusingly.

You could also explore fictional characters and families - Dickens has a fair number of the right sort of family, if rather exaggerated; Thackeray has some and there are a few in the non-Barsetshire Trollopes. You could reasonably assume a lot of younger sons of country gentry made their way to London, finding "openings" in the big commercial houses which dealt in the ever-growing trade within and outside the Empire.

Hope this is of use. If you want anything more narrowed-down, give me a yell. It's one of the periods I seem to have specialised in.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It is definitely of use. I hadn't gotten very far in my banking research. I feel so foolish losing that file. I can't imagine where it's gone. It's just like *poof* out of my fanfic folder.

I had a lot of information about the King's College School, but I think I'll just have to scrounge up the materials again on that (some of it on Dante Gabriel Rosetti). Someone's edited the Wikipedia entry for KCS and has taken out some of the links I had used before when I first started researching.

[gillo]

KCS in its pre-Wimbledon days, I assume? The Wikipedia page is a reasonable start. City of London School or Westminster might be viable alternatives. This was very much the period of the expansion of the public schools in the mode of Dr Arnold of Rugby - lots of relatively modest places like Repton and Haileybury really took off around then.

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Yes, pre-Wimbledon. Dr. Arnold gets mentioned quite a bit in Tom Brown, I think. Thanks for the info; this really is going to be a big help! :D

I've been writing Spike's personal history (my fanon version of it at any rate), and I had developed background information on his father's side of the family- declining landed gentry with a military background (a couple of Sir So-and-Sos of no major acclaim or distinction) leading towards Spike's father (a bit of a foppish literary type who starts out as a lecturer bachelor out of Oxford and later becomes a junior classics master for a public school before moving onto a post back at Oxford)... which may be a little bit too modern (and too American) of an idea to really fit the period or the social level Spike's family might have been at. I've been slowly dissecting all the objects in the family parlor plus William's dialogue with his mother in LMPTM to try and suss out details (details that probably never occurred to the writers or the prop people). We all know how fun that can be. XD

[gillo]

You might be amused to note that the first Headmaster of City of London School was a Mr Giles.

Lecturers at Oxford at the period were known as Dons (still are, actually) and were required to be clergymen and celibate. It wasn't until late in the Victorian period that any College permitted married dons.

If I might suggest, you could put Spike's father into King's or University, both Colleges of London University technically but actually separate universities. Both started in the early 1830s, so would have been going strong by the time William's father was an undergraduate. He might well have secured a job teaching Classics at Westminster or one of the day schools (St Paul's, KCS or CLS for example) then secure a post at one of the London Colleges, which were new and lacked the social cachet of Oxford or Cambridge; that would make him, however affluent, socially slightly less secure.

Assuming William was born in about 1852, his father would have been a student in the 1840s or thereabouts. He might have dies in one of the cholera outbreaks which hit London mid-century.

Yes, I over-think this stuff way too much. *g*

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

You might be amused to note that the first Headmaster of City of London School was a Mr Giles.
Hee! XD

Lecturers at Oxford at the period were known as Dons (still are, actually) and were required to be clergymen and celibate. It wasn't until late in the Victorian period that any College permitted married dons.
That is very good to know. :D

one of the day schools (St Paul's, KCS or CLS for example) then secure a post at one of the London Colleges
I did write him at one point at KCS, so I feel better about my research skills on that one.

Yes, I over-think this stuff way too much. *g*
Don't worry, so do I. I've started posting my epic still-in-progress BtVS/Ats timeline (http://fenderlove.livejournal.com/387974.html), including my own not-quite-the-best-researched fanon material.

I'm getting my M.A. in history, and while I would love to do the Victorian Era as my first area of study, I am engaged to the French Revolution... but I keep being drawn back to 19th century London, particularly. It's endlessly fascinating.

[gillo]

I've been very tempted by a cross-disciplinary MA in Victorian Studies, though my first love is literature. However, I did History until the year before my final year at university and have read hugely in that period since - it's one of my favourites, though I can well understand the draw of the French Revolution. In my last year at school I did a research project on St-Just. Fascinating and repellent young man. I wonder of Angelus vamped him? I feel sure he and Darla were in Paris during the Terror, don't you?

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I can imagine that Angelus probably would have vamped him! Nothing like adding "the Angel of Death" to the family! Darla and Angelus would have loved the Terror. All that blood in the streets, the chaos, sticking it to the real Aristocrats...

The Tales of the Slayers comic actually did have an English vampire named St. Just (http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Saint_Just) rather than Saint-Just. XD

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I need to reread Bleak House, definitely. XD

I hope I find it too! :D