In the series, we see Penelope hiding her stacks of cash beneath the floorboards of her bedroom [19A]
Instead of Penelope paying the printer, the printer kept track of the proceeds from the street sales. He deducted his own expenses (ink, paper, distribution) and held Penelope’s profits in cash for her inside his safe [20]
And since Lady Whistledown was very succesful, she could trust the printer and he her, because they needed each other….[20A]
LADY WHISTLEDOWN’S SERVANTS ARMY
SELECTION AND PAYMENT
HOW SHE PAID THE SERVANTS
I already mentioned, that Penelope intensely listened to the servant’s gossip, at balls, on visits to other Families [like the Bridgertons, since she befriended Eloise or at least pretended to] [21], and of course at her own home, [22] and used it to her advantage.
But at a certain moment she needed servants to spy for her, just as she needed the street urchins of London.
In order to succeed she had to select them and of course, pay them.
HOW DID SHE MANAGE?
At first the Selection
That was very interesting:
As we’ve seen, Penelope was a very clever girl, who was an expert observer.
So first she must have used psychology, pretending to be kind to them to win their trust:
AND she would of course have sounded them out to see if they were open to spying or not.
When she ensured the route was safe [and of course she already had selected a lady’s maid or a housekeeper who was clever and heard a great deal],
she also must have searched for someone was desperate for money (for instance, to support family in the countryside) [23]
The transaction:
She could not just openly hand over money to a servant from another household, that would be too risky.
Therefore she will have utilized stealthy encounters in the corridors or left the money behind in designated drops (such as a loose brick in the garden at an appointed place) [24]
IV
PENELOPE’S NIGHTLY ADVENTURES
HER NIGHTLY VISITS TO THE PRINTER, HER LADY WHISTLEDOW MILITARY GENERAL!
TAKE UP ARMS!
FIRST:
In the series, Penelope personally visited the printer, who was located deep within London’s working-class neighborhoods. [25]
While this might have been possible at a later stage, once the success of Lady Whistledown had given her a certain confidence to visit the printer herself whether or not accompanied by trusted servants, it is historically highly unlikely that a lady of the ton [which she was, after all] would have gone to the printer herself initially, since all the risks and dangers she would have faced nightly as a wealthy Ton Lady, visiting a crowded poor neighbourhood [26]
Historically speaking, a trusted servant—naturally with the necessary financial guarantees—would have made the initial contact [27]
But since our Penelope DID visit that printer all on her own in the series, and because it heightens the tension for the story, I will show you, folks, what her outing would have looked like and why it was psychologically likely that she wasn’t missed at her Feathering Home.
THE PSYCHOLOGY
Unlikely as it may be, Penelope was not missed during her nightly escapades.
The psychological reason is obvious.
In the first place, of course, no one—neither her mother nor any other Regency Era mother at the time—expected her daughter to sneak out of the house at night for a nocturnal rendezvous.
Not only were these girls very closely watched, but what girl would be foolish enough to ruin her reputation forever in an era when the fear of ‘social death’ was near-hysterical?
But Penelope’s rather tragic situation made it easier.
Unfortunately, she was emotionally neglected at home; her mother and sisters were nasty to her, and on top of that, her mother felt immense frustration that Penelope was unpopular and laughed at during balls, meaning her chances of marriage (the hysterical obsession of Regency mothers for their daughters) were slim.
And just as she was ignored at balls—which allowed her to overhear the gossip that revealed the precious secrets of certain arrogant Lords (as one particular Lord will find out to his detriment in the course of this story, without having any idea who was behind it…)—she was also ignored at home. As a result, no one paid attention to what she was doing, which, as strange as it sounds, made nightly escapes easier… [28]
THE NIGHTLY ADVENTURES OF OUR ”LADY WHISTLEDOWN”
TRAVELS UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS……
O FOLKS IT IS SOOOOOO EXCITING TO WRITE ABOUT THIS
ENJOY WITH ME
[And admit, no matter what people think of this Lady, she has a lot to tell to her grandchildren later/HAHAHA
We’ve already seen, that due to the emotional neglect by her nasty mother Portia, Penelope managed to escape at night unnoticed [29]
But how did she travel and managed to reach a crowded, poor working class London neighborhood?
Well, at first I assure you this:
She did not travel in her expensive Society Dresses, which would have made her a likely target for robbers and bandits.
Instead, she was smart enough to wear a heavy, dark traveling cloak with a deep hood (a hooded cloak) and of course simple and old clothes.
So the clothes were fine for her thrilling adventure.
But how did she travel?
I will tell you:
Penelope slipped out through the back door or the servants’ entrance of the house and walked to a busy street to hail a hackney carriage (the Regency equivalent of an anonymous street taxi).
These coachmen asked no questions as long as they were paid [30]
And the hackney carriage coachman brought her to the place where she needed to be.
The printer…….
AN ADVENTURE UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS
And that directly supports MY theory that Penelope must have had help from trusted servants [like per personal maid] at the start of her gossip empire [31]. After all, Penelope was a girl of the Ton who was completely unfamiliar with working-class neighborhoods and had been raised sheltered, whereas the servants came from the working class and knew the ins, outs, and dangers of such neighborhoods after dark inside out. They must therefore have either gone with her the first time or established contact with the printer, which was understandably omitted from the series to heighten the suspense.
Of course later, when our Penelope got used to those Nightly Travels and knew the printer better, she was smart and courageous AND motivated enough to face those Nightly Travels on her own……
After all, she was SOME LADY OF ARMS…….
B
HER METHODS REVEALED!
HOW SHE CAUGHT ANTHONY BRIDGERTON I
HIS DEAREST SECRET REVEALED……
As you know, FOLKS, this post is not only about our Penelope and how she built her gossip empire ”Lady Whistledown”, but also about a handsome, somewhat arrogant Lord with ONE vulnerable spot, namely his secret, deep love……
His vulnerability was his love for an operasinger, a woman below his station [32], which was so great that he could not bear to be separated from her during the Off-Season and visited her anyway. And that was the trap that brought him straight to the attention of Lady Whistledown….
You already know his name:
Anthony Bridgerton, the eldest brother of Penelope’s ‘best friend’ Eloise [whom that piece of work Penelope would later betray as well, by the way…] [33] , one of the aristocrats who looked right past her at balls and whom she therefore took the greatest pleasure in dealing a heavy blow to his soul.
BUT ANYWAY, HOW DID SHE ‘GET’ HIM?
Revealed in a moment……….
We have already seen how our Pen managed, under the cover of her ‘social invisibility and exclusion’, to eavesdrop on the conversations of Ton ladies and gentlemen at balls and other social occasions [34], as well as to overhear servants, later winning them over and bribing them to obtain ‘exciting’ and ‘scandalous’ information [35].
And what was particularly important to her was establishing contact with her printer and, through him, forming her secret ‘army’—the famous London street urchins. Socially invisible and despised as they were, they were able to go anywhere, overhearing conversations at gentlemen’s clubs like White’s, listening in on hackney carriage drivers, and secretly tailing Lords who had their hidden rendezvous, romances, and affairs in the bowels of London, thinking themselves unobserved because it was already dark anyway….[36]
We already saw some examples in my Post:
Penelope, overhearing a spicy chat between the servants about a young Lord coming home and reeking of the heavy perfume of the theatrical world.
Penelope receiving word from her printer about one of his street urchins spotting a young Lord, visiting a house in Covent Garden [the theatrical neigborhood], in the deepest dark…..
AND SO PEN GATHERED HER INFORMATION…….
HOW SHE CAUGHT ANTHONY BRIDGERTON II
GOTCHA!/YOU’RE IN, MYLORD!
“The North has its masters, the East has its kings, but London society has its rakes. Specifically, Lord Bridgerton, who shows every sign of being a rake of the highest order. He has spent the off-season avoiding his responsibilities, preferring to dedicate his time elsewhere.” [37]
[By the way, he was NO rake [37A], being loyal to one woman only for years]
In her very first Column, she immediately targeted Anthony Bridgerton with those words, which he, of course, rather arrogantly brushed off as the ramblings of an anonymous gossip [38] , but deep down in his heart, he knew that his most cherished secret had been exposed.
And naturally, he was furious about it.
But how on earth could she have known?
Since the series begins at the moment the Family has returned from the Off Season—meaning he already visited her in London during that Off Season—the relationship must have been going on for quite some time.
After all, he missed her enough to seek her out even during the Off Season [39] when the family was at their country estate. This would have stood out anyway, as London was a ghost town then (devoid of any political, cultural, or social activities of note).
THEREFORE:
They were ALREADY together DURING THE PREVIOUS SOCIAL SEASON [40], and our Pen could have picked up the gossip at balls (or obtained it through her loyal network of street urchins).
But what was certain (according to her information) were his highly noticeable Off Season visits, for which he must have cooked up all sorts of excuses at home [41]/HAHAHA
PEN’S SOLDIERS AND THE IGNORANT ARROGANCE OF A VISCOUNT
Since Anthony loved his Siena dearly, of course he missed her a lot during those six months that he and his Family were at their countryside Estate and it is understandable he tried to see her as much as possible.
But because as Head of the Family he had his obligations at the countryside [42] he must have neglected them a bit, visiting London, although he could be replaced by his brother Benedict and his land steward [43], but to prevent it from looking suspicious, he had to come up with a plausible reason [the excuses I mentioned] and it couldn’t happen too often either, which must have led to frustration for him.
And since the travel distance between Aubrey Hall and London varied from 4 to 24 hours [dependable on the weather conditions] [44], the temptation to just go, see and visit Siena must have been unbearable.
WHAT BETRAYED HIM?
But the problem remained that traveling to London during the off-season stood out, because the entire social, cultural, and political life was at a standstill, and any aristocrat who left their estate to go to London anyway, caught everyone’s eye.
People talked about it—not so much the nobles, most of whom were absent anyway, but the drivers of hackney carriages, who unexpectedly received a generous tip from a mysterious Lord wanting to be dropped off near Covent Garden, or a street urchin who had spotted that fancy Lord again, who had also been in London just last month [street urchins were keen observers, and nobody paid attention to them].
And that was how she likely obtained information, while the Lord in question, namely Anthony, who naturally paid no mind to street urchins and coachmen [to him, they were merely means to an end, nothing more], had absolutely no idea
HOW PENELOPE KNEW ABOUT ANTHONY’S OFF SEASON TRAVELS TO LONDON, BEING HERSELF OUTSIDE LONDON FOR THE OFF SEASON?
Penelope’s printer, a general in the Penelope Army, heard these stories about a young, recurring Lord from his street urchin soldiers. He sent his smartest boys after the Lord to find out more. They might have spied on him, overhearing the few remaining aristocrats at White’s club talking about the Off-Season adventures of the deeply infatuated Lord. His name was dropped, and… the printer realized he was holding gold. He informed Penelope through their secret network. [45]
And that was how Penelope learned about Anthony’s adventures, without ever having to be in London herself..
THE RETURN OF PENELOPE WISTLEDOWN [SORRY, FEATHERINGTON/HAHAHA]
Penelope may have obtained intimate information about Anthony [and others] through the network she had established with her printer [46], but in any case, she was ‘briefed’ by him upon her visit to him after her return to London from the Off-Season.
So all the information the printer had gathered through his street urchins—who had spotted Anthony Bridgerton on his way to Covent Garden—the conversations about the arrogant Anthony overheard by his boys at White’s club, claiming he couldn’t live without Siena, his opera singer, the gossip among coachmen and servants [47] ; he had carefully documented and stored it all in code, ready to share it with our Pen, to then have it printed in her Society gossip Paper…….
PENELOPE/PENELOPE…….
This is an overview of all the methods, ruses, and ploys Penelope Featherington used to obtain intimate, incriminating information about the Ton, which ultimately found its way into Lady Whistledown.
For one of her first targets, Anthony Bridgerton this was a bitter pill to swallow.
He believed his most cherished secret was well-protected, only to receive the shock of his life during an ordinary family breakfast when his mother confronted him with the exposure of his love life in a vulgar Society gossip rag. [48]
And the worst part of all was that he had absolutely no idea the instigator was that insignificant and plain girl he had thoughtlessly and arrogantly overlooked at balls …
WHAT PENELOPE DID NOT KNOW……..
That this confrontation at breakfast would ultimately lead to an even more suffocating confrontation in the study—where the utterance of his mother’s dehumanizing words”a certain soprano” [49]directed at the woman Anthony loved would result in a permanent estrangement between them, despite her later selective apologies—[50] was something not even Penelope could have suspected…
BUT THAT’S FOR ANOTHER STORY…..
ASTRID ESSED
NOTES
NOTES 1 T/M 10
NOTES 11 T/M 20A
NOTES 21 T/M 31
NOTES 32 T/M 40
NOTES 41 T/M 50