Color of the Day - Settled Grief

Settled Grief – “You wish to inspect some half-mourning, Madam? the second stage of distress? As such, allow me to recommend this satin – intended for grief when it has subsided; alleviated, you see, Ma’am, from a dead black to a dull lead color. It is a Parisian novelty, Ma’am, called ‘Settled Grief,’ and is very much worn by ladies of a certain age,”
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, January 1853

excerpt from:
Elephant's Breath and London Smoke
edited by Deb Salisbury
Available at www.Mantua-Maker.com

Color of the Day - Cinder

Cinder, 1668 – And if you will die your wooll of a Cinder colour, which is a very good colour, you fhall put your Red wooll into your puke Liquor; and then it will fail lefs to be of a Cinder colour.
A VVay to Get Wealth, 1668

excerpt from:
Elephant's Breath and London Smoke
edited by Deb Salisbury
Available at www.Mantua-Maker.com

Color of the Day - Sanguine

Sanguine, 1380 – The chief reds were scarlet, named by the Wife of Bath, &c.; sanguine, or crimson, and grain, imported from Portugal – i.e., “vermus or vermilion” – in fact cochineal, a red so fast and permanent that the word “ingrained” had become in the fourteenth century, and still remains, a general term for a fast colour of any kind.
Contemporary Review, September 1883

excerpt from:
Elephant's Breath and London Smoke
edited by Deb Salisbury
Available at www.Mantua-Maker.com

Color of the Day - Grass green

Grass green, 1872 – There are some bright greens which are becoming to the face, but only a few shades. I say bright in contradistinction to sage. A dull grass-green with a slight yellow tinge in it is a picturesque color, and often proves a success in a woollen day-dress, – some material, that is to say, without gloss. In silks or satins it is nearly as coarse and unpleasant as a pure bright green, innocent of any hint of blue or yellow; and when worn, as hundreds of women persist in wearing it, with a mass of scarlet, is so horrible as to give positive pain to a sensitive eye. In any concert-room or large assemblage a scarlet opera-cloak usually covers a green dress, and is capped by a green bow in the hair. One may count these unmakes by the dozen; and they arise from the generally-diffused milliners’ creed, that scarlet and emerald must go hand in hand, because green and red are complementaries. The vulgarity and disagreeableness of this mixture ought to be apparent to anybody with the very rudiments of artistic feeling.
Every Saturday, November 16, 1872

excerpt from:
Elephant's Breath and London Smoke
edited by Deb Salisbury
Available at www.Mantua-Maker.com

Color of the Day - Porreye

Porreye, 1350 – Fr. Probably, leek-green colour, in cloth. In the Nominale of the 15th Cent. leeks are rendered ‘porray’. Stowe in his Survey mentions ‘medley brune and porre colour;’ which latter, however, he translates ‘purple.’ Lincoln, Kendal, Ghent, and Douai, were noted for their green cloths in the Middle Ages.
Liber Custumarum, 1860

excerpt from:
Elephant's Breath and London Smoke
edited by Deb Salisbury
Available at www.Mantua-Maker.com

Color of the Day - Absinthe

Absinthe, 1885 – The three new shades of green – cresson, chartreuse, and absinthe – have all a yellowish tint, and are consequently very trying to any complexions except those “whose red and white Nature’s own hand hath cunningly laid on.” These shades are mostly confined to millinery as yet, few being brave enough to appear in gowns of such trying hues.
Once a Month, September 15, 1885

excerpt from:
Elephant's Breath and London Smoke
edited by Deb Salisbury
www.Mantua-Maker.com

A review of "Shadow Song"

"Shadow Song" by Lorina Stephens is a beautiful novel of historical fiction, very much in the British tradition.

The novel begins in 1830's England, but quickly moves to the wilds of Canada, and you can feel the author's love of this wild country and its native inhabitants.

The protagonist, Danielle Fleming, moves from an affluent life in England through trials which prepare her to withstand the harsh life in colonial Canada, and which open her to the beauties and the magic of the untamed forest. This is a story about growing up, in years as well as in wisdom. I don't want to say too much, as I don't want to give away any of the story. It is quite worth going on this journey for yourself.

This was a fascinating read. I couldn't put the novel down.

You can buy this novel at http://www.5rivers.org/, or at almost any online bookseller.