Comfort, Consumption and Women in the Eighteenth-Century English Country House

This project will investigate the development of 'comfort' in terms of its links to the history of consumption of luxury goods, and whether this notion acted as a motivating force behind increased spending on commodities and luxuries by elite women in the North West during the eighteenth century. Though today comfort almost always implies bodily ease, during the eighteenth-century this term had a variety of meanings that changed over time. As the cultural value of comfort that we now recognise began to develop, its application influenced both the domestic space and the commercial activity of elite families. Yet the real impact this had on the physical comfort of the lived environment is questionable, particularly for women. This project will explore how the gendered physical, social and psychological restrictions placed on elite women culturally were affected by a domestic pursuit of comfort, and whether a preoccupation with this notion tangibly affected and benefitted their lived environments, both materially, emotionally and commercially. Ultimately, this project will seek to answer the following questions; what did comfort mean for elites in the eighteenth century? How did the pursuit of comfort affect domestic spaces in English country houses? Was comfort an arbitrary guise under which extravagant spending was sanctioned among elites who were free from the controversy surrounding luxury consumption?

This project will investigate the impact of comfort in the country houses of North West England, most specifically Dunham Massey, Lyme Park and Tatton Park and will do so by focussing on the two main contributing factors associated with comfort; the physical and the emotional. The 'physical' will examine the consumption of material culture of the home, looking at furniture, interior design and other household miscellany and consider the way these items were interacted with, noting contemporary bodily restrictions such as clothing and social performance. It will also investigate the consumption of luxury items that would have affected the sensory experience of comfort in the home, for example perfume, food and sanitary items.

The 'emotional' will explore aspects of psychological ease, such as access to one's privacy, the development of personal relationships and the ability to pursue one's interests, examining the manner by which women were permitted these freedoms and comforts in their home.

This project will contribute to this scholarship by utilising and engaging with many of the debates posed and applying them specifically to an investigation of the consumption of women in elite circles in the North West of England. Crowley's study focuses specifically on architecture, household warmth and light and splits its attention between Britain and America, meaning a thorough investigation of his concept in all areas of material culture and human experience is somewhat lacking. Equally, while Amanda Vickery's work spans social classes, it largely centres on the middling sort rather than the elite, whose spending motivations differ greatly from those of the rising classes. Furthermore, sensory examinations of the lived environment are sparse, particularly in research relating to the country house. This project therefore promises to weave together a number of disparate fields, and to produce a genuinely novel view of eighteenth-century life.