The Regency Rides Again!

I understand from Jane Austen that folks used to sit in their parlors at leisure, working at some needlework, entertaining the family and house guests with music, perhaps playing a game of whist with friends, or sitting idly with a book in hand. How quaint. How pastoral. How early nineteenth century. And yet, as I reclined with my book in hand this past weekend, I noticed that the lady of the manor was working at thread and needle, crafting an Easter decoration, and our charge was improving herself at the piano, practicing for an upcoming lesson. It was strange to recognize behaviors we take for granted as being relics of the past living pretty much unchanged in the present.