And why should you care? Well, it was everywhere during the Regency, and the word actually referred to more than one material, each of which could be put to a different purpose, though all were somewhat similar in appearance. The uses for shagreen ranged from carpentry to scientific instruments to high fashion.

Those living in the Regency would have known the difference, and I thought perhaps those of us who like to slip back to that decade through novels set during that time would like to share that knowledge. To avoid chagrin, or perhaps, to embrace it?

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The ubiquitous wooden stick with a mineral core, now often painted yellow, is something that we all take for granted today. But this writing implement, which did not require ink, had only just begun to be manufactured in significant numbers at the beginning of the Regency. And the best pencils were made in England because England controlled the very best graphite, much to Napoleon's chagrin.

Graphite. Just pencil "lead?" Oh, no! More precious than gold, mined in secret, protected by armed guards, it was considered a critical military resource. The story of the pencil in the Regency ...

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Condiments, that is. With a castar, a castor, or a caster. All spellings were current and acceptable during the decade of the Regency. However, today the name of this useful item of table furniture is most commonly spelled "caster." Though it had originated on the tables of royalty and the nobility in the late sixteenth century, the caster eventually became an item commonly used in most well-to-do households by the late eighteenth century.

By the Regency, the caster had joined forces with other condiments containers and together they held high court on most formal dining tables from the vantage point of the epergne.

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Which is not to say that there were not many walls in many buildings throughout the Regency which were not covered with decorative paper. But not one scrap of that paper was called "wallpaper" during the Regency for the simple reason that the word "wallpaper" did not come into use until 1827, long after the Regent had become King George IV.

What were these papers called, who made them, how were they made, how were they used and where were they sold?

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The stories of The Scarlet Pimpernel take place during the French Revolution, more than a score of years before the beginning of the English Regency. And yet, without the work of Baroness Orczy, we might not have all those delightful Regency novels written by Georgette Heyer.

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