Happy Birthday Lady Mary Shepherd!

Today, December 31^st 2017, marks the 240^th anniversary of the birth of Lady Mary Shepherd (nee Mary Primrose). She was born into a Scottish aristocratic family who lived at Barnbougle Castle, near Edinburgh[i]. I have named my philosophy circle blog about her after the intellectual salons she hosted. So, I’ll be exploring what Shepherd’s salons may have been like.

So what would have been on the menu?

I’ve chosen a few possible dishes that might have been served at Shepherd’s salon[ii]:

First courses:

Brocoli &c

Sweet Breads Ala Royal

Sheep Rumps & Kidneys in Rice

Larded Oysters

Ducks Alamode

Florendine of Rabbits

Hare Soup

Second courses:

Pheasant

Marbl’d Veal

Pea Chick with Asparagus

Roast Woodcocks

Stew’d Mushroomd

Macaroni

Roasted Hare

Burnt Cream (maybe a creme brulée?)

Floating Island (oeuf a la neige)

It was customary to serve the food before the guests were seated and then they would informally serve themselves rather than waiting to be served. Men and women sat together and socialised with each other throughout the evening. It was commonplace to decorate the table with flowers, arranged side dishes of vegetables such as olives and to set the table much as today with beautifully arranged napkins and wineglasses[iii].

Who would have attended her salons?

Through her family and marriage shepherd enjoyed a wide range of contacts and friendships which included intellectuals from various professions such as philosophers, literary figures, politicians, economists, mathematicians, publishers and scientists. Among the likely guests were the philosophers Dugald Stewart and James Mill, the female mathematician and science writer Mary Somerville, economist David Ricardo as well as literary greats such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth[iv].

Although these are illustrious names, it was an important feature and social principle of salons during this period both in the UK and abroad that gatherings were egalitarian and not elitist. People from different classes and social backgrounds mixed together and gender roles were less demarcated and Shepherd’s salon was no exception to this. It was very common for the host of a salon to be a woman and the hostess would often run it and set the rules, tone, manners which would govern the salon’s social gatherings for both sexes! The hostess was often regarded as highly influential and many tried to stay on the right side of her! It was a highly skilled role which required a combination of a great intellect with quick thinking, a sense of humour and complex social skills. Shepherd was incredibly good at this[v]: 

“Lady Mary Shepherd was remembered, through her brother and her nephew, as a hostess of unusually sharp wit and logical ability:

I should like to hear more about the gifted Lady Mary Shepherd — and her ‘Salon,’ which my mother has often assured me was a very interesting and agreeable one. My father seems to have been often there, and Lady Mary’s humour seems to have been as well-known as her logical powers, and occasional causticity [Brandreth, 1888, p. 4].”

What was the purpose of salons?

An important feature of salons was that everyone felt free to express and debate their views, to disagree with each other and to mix with people from opposing views e.g. radicals and conservatives. Nevertheless, the tone of the conversation remained respectful and non-confrontational whilst retaining a quick-witted and candid approach. Salons developed into an effective social space for thinkers d were a hotbed for thinkers whois post. to freely exchange and develop their controversial, creative ideas, ranging from inventions to ideas for positive social change.

I’ll go into greater detail in my next post.

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[i] Jennifer McRobert, “Mary Shepherd and the Causal Relation” February 2002, revised 2014 https://philpapers.org/archive/MCRMSA.pdf. 18

[ii] Geerte de Jong, “A Menu from the Early 19th Century,” Wordpress, The Victorian Era (blog), August 11, 2012, https://19thct.com/2012/08/11/a-menu-from-the-early-19th-century/.

This is a fascinating blog about the Victorian era and it is well worth taking a look at the full menu of ideas gathered together in this post.

[iii] Geerte de Jong, “American, Old English or a La Russe: Dinner Styles in the 19th Century,” Wordpress, The Victorian Era (blog), December 26, 2012, https://19thct.com/2012/12/26/american-old-english-or-a-la-russe-dinner-styles-in-the-19th-century/. Information and citations for this post on the blog ‘The Victorian Era’  are from “A la Russe, à la Pell-Mell, or à la Practical: Ideology and Compromise at the Late Nineteenth-Century Dinner Table” by Michael T. Lucas, which appeared in Historical Archaeology, Vol. 28, No. 4, 1994.  

[iv] McRobert, “Mary Shepherd and the Causal Relation,” 49–53.

[v] McRobert, 48–49.