Reading the Regency

A Glossary of Property Terms - part 1

Billiard Room - This room would contain a large billiard table, (a similar size and design to the modern snooker table) where gentlemen played billiards. It would have enough space for the players to walk around the table and a few chairs and tables for spectators. Jane Austen certainly appreciated her brother's billiard table when she wrote:

"The comfort of the billiard-table here is very great; it draws all the gentlemen to it whenever they are within, especially after dinner, so that my brother, Fanny, and I have the library to ourselves in delightful quiet."
[Letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra, written from Godmersham Park, 14th October 1813]

Boudoir - a private room where the lady of the house could sit alone or welcome her closest friends for a cosy chat. It could sometimes double as an office, where she answered her correspondence. In some cases, it might have been used as a dressing room.

Breakfast Parlour - mentioned in one of Jane Austen's letters when she was writing from her brother's house at Godmersham. A multi-purpose room. Outside of breakfast, the parlour would have been used for entertaining visitors and offering them tea. The table in a breakfast parlour would have been smaller than that found in a dining room.

Breakfast Room - In the largest houses, a breakfast room was a smaller, less formal dining room. It was usually located on the east-facing side of the house, to take advantage of the early morning sun. Only the larger houses would be able to keep a separate room for breakfast without using it at other times of the day for different purposes.

Butler's Pantry - As the Butler was responsible for all the silver plate, he would often have his office inside the Butler's Pantry, where the silver and other valuable items were stored. In some houses, the Butler may even have slept there.

"There was a little cabinet beyond her bedchamber, which Lady Delacour called her boudoir, to which there was an entrance by a back staircase; but no one ever entered there but Marriott."
[Chapter 2, Belinda, by Maria Edgeworth]

Cabinet - In older houses a Cabinet was originally a small room, for keeping treasure or valuable items, or for holding private meetings. Later occupants might use it as a dressing room or a boudoir, depending on their needs.

Chamber - an older word for a room. By the Regency period, it was most frequently seen used in bedchamber, sick chamber or ante-chamber. Sometimes used to refer to a single gentleman's rented rooms or apartment, where he would describe himself as living in Chambers:

"The law was allowed to be genteel enough: many young men, who had chambers in the Temple, made a very good appearance in the first circles, and drove about town in very knowing gigs."
[Chapter 19, Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen]

Chapel - In large country houses, there might be a small room used as a chapel, for services and private prayer. However, it would only be attended by the family and their servants, and could not be used for weddings without a Special Licence. Sometimes, instead of being inside the house, the chapel would be a small detached building in the garden.

Closet - Originally this meant a small private room for study or prayer, by the Regency period it was sometimes a small room used for privacy and storage. Closets in older houses might have later been converted into dressing rooms or were used as Linen closets for storing bed linen, or china closets for storing the family's dinner service. As time has passed, the closet is now thought of as synonymous with a cupboard.

Colonnade - A covered walkway linking two parts of a house, or linking the house with the garden. A colonnade was either half-open, with columns holding up the roof on one side and a solid wall on the other, or with columns on both sides. Depending on the design of the house a colonnade could be straight or curved.