ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the conflicting regional and metropolitan influences that affected the choice of furnishings for provincial homes. This chapter shows how traditional rural homemaking that was coming under threat in the early-nineteenth century was portrayed in a fictional account while purporting to be reality. In a minority of cases, provincial tradespeople made goods to London standards, usually where there was aristocratic patronage. For many urban dwellers their provincial taste was part of their cultural identity that distinguished them from London ideas and from rural traditions. Expressing cultural identity through the choice of home furnishings was not something to be apologetic about. To understand provincial taste during this period of transition, it is crucial to evaluate provincial production and consumption in home furnishings rather than judge it by London standards. Many provincial consumers who had access to the shops and tradespeople of London avoided the extremes of metropolitan fashions. Provincial taste was a hybrid and separate version of London taste.
