A Write-Up by Chapter Membership Secretary, Jim Nagle

From now on, St. Valentine's Day and Rats are inextricably joined in my mind!!! In a brilliant example of what network executives call "counter-programming," the topic for the February meeting was "Ratting: A Regency Necessity and Sport". The result was an entertaining and enlightening exploration of a side of Regency and Jane's life that is normally ignored. Because Jane's novels dwell on middle and lower aristocratic classes and the films made from those novels focus on liveried servants and formal balls, it is easy to forget that, in early nineteenth century England, rats were endemic.

The speaker, Jack Laney, husband of programs co-chair Mary Hafner-Laney, was extremely well prepared and even came with visual aids, all stuffed — a terrier for catching/killing the rats, a ferret for chasing the rats out of their holes, and 4 stuffed rats including one in a typical cage of the day. Dressed in the part, Mr. Laney explained that rat catching was an essential and respectable occupation especially for those with no education or training. Rats had to be dispatched not only because they spread disease but they destroyed food , clothes, and material. So home and business owner desperately needed the ratter. What was most surprising was the fact that often rats were caught alive in order to avail the ratter of a secondary market — selling the rats to sportsmen! Coursing was a Regency sport in which people would bet on which dog would get the rat first. (Jane mentions it in Persuasion.) Other sporting events were contests to see how many rats a dog could kill in a prescribed time — records were kept!!!

As he talked with obvious expertise and enthusiasm, I assumed Mr. Laney headed an extermination company. It turns out that he and Mary have terriers and that spurred his interest. Actually he hates rats and does not even like to look at them!

To complete the motif, Mary had prepared chocolate rats (she has a mold) and Agnes Gawne had prepared chocolate mice with sliced almonds as ears. That and the rest of the food (chocolate abounded) were excellent and abundant.

Marian's first meeting as RC was certainly memorable!!!