This is the time of year when London heat drove anyone who could leave out of London. Even players from the theaters might want to tour the provinces. The phrase “dog days” dates far back in time, for this is the time of year when Sirius, the ‘Dog Star’ rises with the sun. The Romans called it dies caniculares or ‘days of the dog star’, but the Greeks were already using that same idea, and it shows up in England at least by the 1500s (but probably earlier since the Romans were there).

In England, summers can bring thunderstorms to break the heat, and late August is the traditional start of harvest time for grain (called ‘corn’ in England) crops. August also brings ‘The Glorious Twelfth’ or the start of shooting season.

The Sportsman’s Directory: or Park and Game-keeper’s Companion (1817) by John Mayer, game-keeper, details all a game-keeper might do, including: “…containing Breeding, Choice, and Training of Dogs; Coursing and Shooting; Management of a Deer Park and Fisheries; Preserving Game; Hunting the Hare, Fox, Stag, &c.; Breeding Pheasants, Partridges, Pigeons, Rabbits, &c. &c. &c.”

It offers, “A Description of All Kinds of Poaching; how to detect Poachers, and how to Destroy their Works,” and covers “forty-one valuable Recipes” (which are related to the care of dogs and guns) and an “Abstract of the New Game Act”. The summary of the Game Act 1817 in the book is a bit complicated, but boils down to punishment of seven years transportation if caught and convicted of someone entering, “…forest, chase, park, wood, plantation, close, or open or inclosed ground, with the intent to destroy, take, or kill game or rabbits…” (A ‘chase’ is common land used for hunting.) That person has to be found at night, defined as, “…between six in the evening and seven in the morning from 1st October to 1st February; between seven in the evening and five in the morning from 1st February to 1stof April; and between nine in the evening and four in the morning for the rest of the year…” These are the hours a game-keeper might be looking for poachers. The person skulking around can’t be carrying, “…any gun, cross-bow, fire arms, bludgeon, or any other offensive weapon….”

Summer was an excellent time to go fishing, with skates, haddock, soles (best in mid-Summer), plaice, thornback, sturgeon, turbot, whitings, and mullets available. Mackerel was available in July and August. For shellfish, one could have crayfish, crab, prawns, and shrimp. Prawns are different from shrimp, and some folks think they are sweeter and so prefer them.

John Loudon’s 1822 book An Encylopaedia of Gardening has the following tasks, fruits, and vegetables available in Regency England for August (the extra brewing noted would be ale as a perk for the workers bringing in the harvest):

Harvests, The Glorious Twelfth, Lambs to Market, Extra Brewing

Culinary Vegetables from the open Garden or Garden Stores.

Cabbages, cauliflowers, brocoli. Peas, beans, sugar-pea, kidney bean. Potatoes, turnips, carrots, radishes, Jerusalem artichoke, red-beet. Spinach, white beet-chard, orache, sorrel. Onions, bulb or small, shallots, garlic, and rocambole, from the garden. Artichoke, cardoon, rampion. Small salads; lettuce, endive, radishes, &c. Parsley, purslane, Indian cress, marigold, borage, fennel, &c. Thyme, sage, mint, balm, and all the others, green or dried. New seeds of carraway, anise, &c.; new hyssop, chamomile, and other herbs; gourds. Love apple, egg-plant, capsicum, Indian-cress, radish-tops, kidney-bean, and pickling cucumbers. Most of the pot-herbs and salads of June; the roots of arrow-head, silver-weed, ficaria, and earth-nut roots; heath-tops and cow-parsnip. Mushrooms and champignons from pastures, and the open garden; truffle. All the sorts of fuci in their greatest perfection for the table or pickling.

Hardy Fruits from the open Garden, Orchard, and Fruit-room.

Apples, pears, Peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, cherries. Gooseberries, currants, strawberries, raspberries. Nuts, if desired from the fruit-cellar; almonds, and some wallnuts and filberts from the trees towards the end of the month. Tree-currants, roan-berries.

Culinary Productions and Fruits from the forcing Department.

Mushrooms. Pines, grapes, peaches, figs, melons, cucumbers. Indian figs, strawberry pears. Aligator, granadillas, guavas,
pears. New yams, and Spanish potatoes.

Plants less familiar to modern grocery stores include:

• Orache – sometimes called French spinach since it is similar.
• Rocambole – another name for a shallot, which can still be found in many modern markets.
• Cardoon – also called artichoke thistle has an artichoke-like flavor as well as medicinal properties (it has antibacterial properties).
• Purslane – a succulent with a lemony flavor and can be eaten raw or used in soups and stews.
• Love apples – a period name for tomatoes.
• Capsicum – the name for flowering plants in the nightshade family producing bell peppers, sweet peppers, or chili peppers.
• Indian cress – also called monk’s cress or nasturtiums, so edible flowers with a peppery taste.
• Arrowhead roots – underground tubers (corms) of the arrowhead plant, also known as duck potato, are edible and taste similar to potatoes.
• Silver Weed – a plant with a high tannin content that can be used as herbal tea to soothe stomach aches, ease diarrhea, and relieve muscle cramps.
• Ficaria – the roots are used to make saloop, a creamy, hot beverage usually made from wild orchid roots ground up, but ficaria–also called fig buttercup–which had similar tubers in the roots could be used instead.
• Heath Tops – the flowering part of wild plants on the heath used like hops as a ‘poor man’s beer or ale.
• Cow parsnip – traditionally the root would be grated and put into poultices to apply as a pain reliever for aching joints, sore muscles, and swollen legs.
• Roan Berries – also spelled rowenberries, a bright red or orange fruit of Rowan trees, and known for a bitter taste, but can be cooked for jam or served with venison.
• Pines – another name for pineapples.
• Alligator – most likely refers to avocados, which were often called alligator pears.
• Granadillas – passion fruit.

Napoleon’s arrive aboard the ‘Bellerophon’, which sailed into Plymouth Sound on July 26, created quite the event. Contemporary accounts note he posed for those who came out to catch a glimpse of him. Napoleon is barely visible midship, dressed in a green coat with red collar and cuffs and gold epaulettes.